Blakbird

I have not had that problem. I added line breaks for you. If you would like to suggest a new topic title, I can change it for you.

You are likely to get much better help for this kind of question in the LEGO Digital Designer forum or the General Discussion forum instead of the Technic forum. Bricklink.com is the best way to go for ordering individual parts.

Sorry, I didn't make any sticker files for that set. Although those stickers are also degrading over time so I can imagine needing to make some eventually.

The tires were loose in the box. You can remove them from the wheels and turn them around to fix the tread problem. They fit very tight so it will be tricky. Early sets came with a yellow shock. Mine is yellow. Can't say why they changed it.

The very best one I know of is for Jennifer Clark's JS 220 excavator. Scroll down to the bottom of her page to see the controller description.

This is an awesome idea. LEGO should not just be entertainment, it can also have real utility! For ultimate cool points, forget about the fridge and have your LEGO robot fetch the beer directly from a turbine powered beer cooler.

I got as far as making a high quality vector image of the whole sticker sheet. Anyone with access to a good vinyl printer is welcome to use it.

Sounds like a hidden feature. Slewing of the superstructure is motorized after all!

There really aren't any new functions to the new crane as opposed to 8421, but they are implemented differently. Far more is motorized. For example, on 8421 only boom telescope and cable drum were motorized. Boom lift was pneumatic. Steering and outriggers were geared. Slew was manual. On the new crane all of the following functions are motorized: boom telescope, cable drum, outrigger deploy, outrigger lift, boom lift. Steering is still geared and slew is still manual. In both cases a single axle drives the engine. So the new model is bigger and uses newer parts but does not add any new features that didn't exist before. I think the dark blue 9398 car comes out August 1.

Anybody have the pictures so we can compare the original variant with the final variant?

Thanks! That was a very enjoyable video to watch. Fantastic model.

That was a crane model in the 8888 idea book. You can see a picture of it below. It is indeed a marvelous model. 4 motorized, programmable functions all with one little 4.5V motor and no electronics!

Interesting. I am eager to see if I agree when I get my copy. I think another way to look at it is that LEGO is trying to give us a little bit of everything in one model. We have large and small LAs, and pneumatics, and a motor. For someone with no Technic collection, this gives them an introduction to a lot of different things all in one model which is probably a good thing. Of course it also means that the model is not optimized for any of one of those things alone. I think 8285 was the same way. It had pneumatics, and a damper, and a mechanical boom lift. All of those things could have been pneumatic to be more consistent. But by mixing the techniques you get more variety. 8462 is an example of a tow truck with the same feature but which were all pneumatic. I'm still happy to get more green!

I have heard that, but I've had all the sets on display for many years and have never yet experienced a problem. I would guess that temperature and humidity play a role. I suppose the best solution is to get them out and play with them at least once a month!

Doh! I actually meant to list this one but then forgot about it when my list got long. You are absolutely right. Exactly right, I had the same reaction. I figure it would be a simple tilt function, but the "kneeling" was unexpected. The two stage deployment of the tow fork is also clever. Sorry, should have been 856. One more I forgot to mention is the 8052 container truck. I love the way you can switch between dumping and loading.

Interesting that none of the pictures show the boom in the telescoped position. I do like that they compared it with the prior 2 large mobile cranes. Looks like they have been reading Technicopedia!

The 8232 helicopter has a really cool ratcheting system to allow you to swoosh it and continually drive the rotors with one hand. Very well done. The way 8421 pays out the cable as the boom is being extended is really well done, especially since you can also decouple them and drive the cable drum separately as well. The linkages to lift the buckets of both 8292 and 8289 are fantastic. The way the forks on 8416 are cable driven to move twice the distance of the boom is really cool. The gripper on the front of 8479 is great. Using only a single rotating axle, it both grips the tire and then lifts it in sequence. If you have never looked at the suspension of 8428, you are missing out. It has two different ride heights which can be accessed by flipping a linkage over center. It both cases the linkage is locked and uses the same shocks. So cool. My favorite of all though, is the 856 bulldozer from 1979. The way it keeps the bucket level when raising but also automatically lifts it when lowering the boom using only rack gears is incredible. Hard to appreciate how awesome it is unless you try it.

You will notice in this picture of a real telehandler that the actuators have their best mechanical advantage when the boom is down, and the advantage decreases as you lift. This is exactly what you want (which is why they are designed that way). The Lego telehandler is the opposite and therefore is mechanically inefficient. At the time it was released, the mini linear actuators did not yet exist. You could attempt a modification which uses two of them as shown in the photo. The large versions won't work because their size and stroke don't match what you would need at that location. Given the limitations of being forced to use a single large LA, the LEGO designers did what they had to do which is center the actuator under the boom, and this forced them into the geometry they used. Note that the actuators in the photo are VERY close to the hinge line so they have to be very powerful to lift the boom. mLA's may not be able to handle it. Good luck with the modifications!

You are quite correct about this model. There is tremendous strain on the gear train when first starting to raise the boom. This is when the largest weight needs to be lifted and also when the actuator has its worst mechanical advantage. You are at the limits of LEGO parts here. "Gear dust" is a well known problem with loaded LEGO gears and there is not much you can do about it. If you were actually breaking gears, there is now a stronger version of the 16 tooth gear, but this won't help you with dust.

Beautiful display, but don't put the space shuttle in the window. It will turn yellow!

True, but most people are not Sheepo. If we were then the world would be a much different place.....

I've built hundreds of sets from new boxes. I'd say about 5% of the time I am convinced that the set has at least one missing part. A period of intense anger usually follows after which I go pull a similar part from some other model so I can keep building. However, it 100% of cases I've later found that the part was actually there after all. Either I just didn't see it or it was on the floor or it was still in a bag that I thought was empty or it was wedged inside the crevice of another part. This is followed by a period of feeling like an idiot. The point is, I've never actually been shorted a part in hindsight. Sounds like some of the other posters have though. On the other hand, my wife lost the stickers for my Palace Cinema so I've considered claiming that they were missing.....

Incredibly cool honor for an incredibly cool model. If you decide to make a new video that includes the stickers, may I make a suggestion? Please show each function for a little longer. I'd like to study how each function works but they are shown so briefly that it is somewhat difficult to follow what is happening, especially if (like me) you are not familiar with sugarbeet harvesters! i think this is the most realistic model of a piece of complex heavy equipment that i have ever seen, so I want to figure it out.

I have all the Technic sets on display. I can't bear to put them in boxes.

Thanks to everyone for the information. I also asked at my local Lego brand retail store and they indicated that both the Level 3 and Level 4 boxed sets will be available July 1.