Blakbird

There has never been a wheeled Technic set which uses Power Functions for locomotion, and I don't think there ever will be. The primary reason is not cost, it is the limitations of part strength. The loads and torques associated with powering an entire (heavy) vehicle are too great to make it through LEGO's quality standards. While it is true that AFOLs have made powered MOCs (like trial trucks), they tend to break or bend a lot of axles and gears. For this reason, I can't imagine an official product would be offered unless a completely new set of parts were made available. The new portal axle housings are one possibility for a (slow) motorized set. The use of the XL motor at all has been pretty rare. Most PF sets (and there are a lot of them) use the M motor. Again, I don't think this is a matter of cost as much as the fact that the XL motor is capable of destroying LEGO parts and therefore has to be used carefully. Therefore you won't see it in a low age group (<10 years) set, and probably only in age 14+ sets. The Creator dinosaur may be one exception.

Right. There were only two sets ever to have those tires which is why they are so expensive. That and their size. There were 4 in 8466 but they had no writing. There were only 2 in the Power Puller which said "Power" on the side. Getting four of those isn't easy because the Power Puller wasn't very popular in the first place.

What you need to do is find a place to live that has either no gravity, no atmosphere, or both. That will totally take care of the problem. Otherwise your only options are to keep them put away or clean them periodically.

Hmm, I wonder why I would go to all the trouble of building a CAD model of this car? Could it be that there will be something available as a result of this effort in the future? I guess we'll find out. No, I haven't actually built it yet, but I am collecting parts for it now. Looks like about 1850 parts to complete this beauty. Paul sent me the actual physical car to use as reference when building the CAD file, and I can confirm that it is one of the most beautiful Technic cars I have ever seen. The functions are also phenomenally good.

I've bought 2 so I can built the plow and the crane at the same time. This leaves a lot of extra parts, but I can always use them for something!

Thanks David! I was about to inquire how long it might be until you prepared such a file. I think I might have to build this one. It is such an excellent alternate, and such an unusual topic.

I almost don't care what it is as long as it is not red or yellow. I want panels and beams in orange, blue, green, and white please. Oh, and flex axles too. Basically I want a large parts palette in colors I can use to build exotic cars. I've got plenty of red and yellow to last a lifetime. We've got a good start on the orange, now we just need to fill out the other parts. Technically this has been tried before. The old Cyber Slam sets were turquoise and purple. Those were indeed unusual colors, but maybe too unusual. And there were not very many parts to choose from. I am also in favor of servo motors and/or a PF valve for pneumatics. Finally, I've been asking for a planetary (epicyclic) gearbox for years. I think this is the only standard gear system not already represented in Technic. I can live without hypoid gears. OK, I admit it. Maybe I do care. Because I just thought of what I really want. I want a helicopter with a real cyclic and collective head.

Depends on what you like. I don't care at all about making it R/C. Plastic axles just don't make very good R/C vehicles. I'd much rather have maximum realism. That's why I like the was Nathanael Kuipers' Jeep Hurricane is motorized even though it doesn't really drive.

For those of you who are not from the United States, my "Mr. Plow" quote was from an episode of The Simpsons. The model of the plow took me about one afternoon to build. Actually, about the same length of time it took me to build the real thing! The render ran for about an hour.

Luckily, there is a new website which does exactly what you need. http://www.rebrickable.com

If you go through the history of Technic at Technicopedia, you will see that virtually every set ever made has wheels or tracks. There are only a handful that didn't. Even the ship (8839) and the Space Shuttle (8480) had wheels. Technic obviously is focused on vehicles. That's one of the reasons the plotter and robotic arm in 8094 are so fascinating.

"Mr. Plow, that's my name, that name again is Mr. Plow."

As always, the answer depends on what you like to do with your LEGO. The bulldozer is really big, looks good, and is fun to play with. So if you build to play with your sets, then its a keeper. On the other, Technic builders are often more interested in the mechanical aspects of a set rather than simply playing with it. From that point of view, the bulldozer is not very interesting. It doesn't have many gears and virtually no mechanisms. It is mechanically as simple as a small 100 part set. You'll find the same division among those who want Power Functions in every set versus those who don't. Personally, I couldn't care less if a set is motorized or R/C because I don't really want to play with it. I want to build it and understand it. From that standpoint, PF adds nothing but cost. If given the choice between PF R/C and more complexity, I'd choose the latter every time. I have to admit that the bulldozer is super fun to drive around though.

What you are suggesting is illegal and you could be prosecuted for it. The work is copyrighted and distributing it would be theft. Anyone planning such a thing should certainly not post anything about it on a public forum.

I too built my Unimog last week. Truly a marvelous model, and larger than you could reasonably expect. It doesn't fit on my shelving units with all the other Technic models. I was so inspired that I decided I had to also model it in MLCAD. It is coming along slowly.... Next step will be to buy another copy so I can add the snow plow at the time. As long as it doesn't fit on my shelf anyway, may as well be even bigger! I agree with some other posters about the fact that the red doesn't look too good with the orange. I may eventually change my color as well, but that will be especially easy to do in the CAD file! I intend to do a couple of different renders showing what the model looks like with the various attachment options. I'd be interested in modelling some of the "aftermarket" attachments as well. The loader, for instance, looks perfect. Seems like we also need a snow blower (with auger) and a mowing arm.

Taking photos is totally different than making professional instructions. Making the CAD file is only the first step in making instructions. Here's an idea. Before you can have an informed opinion on how much work it is to make professional instructions, you need to actually do it. So I recommend that you pick one of your largest MOCs (and I know you have a lot of good ones!), build an MLCAD file of it, use LPub to make instructions, then give it away for free. If you actually do all of this, then at least you will be in a good position to understand the work involved. If you have not done this, there is simply no way you can know how painful it is. It is interesting to note that among all of the people complaining about instructions not being free, none of those are the same people who have actually made instructions. Han, Jurgen, and Sariel give them away for free but seem to understand why not everyone does. Milan, I would personally like to build your JCB-JS115 excavator and your Zil-F15 truck. I'm really looking forward to the instructions!

Indeed. I had 12 of the large rare tires on my Bricklink store and they all sold today to one buyer. It's unlikely someone actually needs 12 of these, so I bet these will be resold at a higher price. I guess I should have asked for more money.... If anyone wants the tires bad enough, I have 4 of the Nitro Muscle sets that I might be willing to part out if I could get a good price for the tires. And here's a new picture I made due to inspiration:

There is nothing special about the crawler crane thread except the length. If you want to match the style, then get any length of LEGO string from any model to use an example. Take that to the store and use it to try to match and buy the right kind. I had to do the same thing. After my divorce I had to put all of my LEGO in storage on short notice and did not have time to pack it or take it apart. It was in a friend's garage. His cat chewed most of the strings off my models including the crawler crane, so I had to replace it all. It was easy to find some that matches though.

I don't think anyone is satisfying their own need for perfection, I think they are trying to make a project worthwhile. Building MOCs is fun. People do it because they enjoy it, and they do it for themselves. Sharing MOCs is fun too. It is fun to hear what comments your fellow fans might have on your creation, and may even be fun to take pictures of it. But what is the #1 comment you see written on any good MOC on Flickr, MOCpages, or Youtube? "Will you make instructions?", "Instructions please!", "plz, instctons, plz, thx", etc. And how many AFOLs answer this call by actually making instructions? Probably 1%. Why is this? Because making instructions is NOT fun. Making instructions is tedious and painful, especially for large Technic models which are very difficult to model in CAD. Believe me I know. Most AFOLs would much rather spend their time building than spend 100s of hours on instructions for nothing. So if someone is going to go to all that trouble not for themselves but just to answer the requests of others, it seems only reasonable that those people making the request should be willing to offer some nominal compensation. For these reasons, you are not going to see large numbers of high quality Technic instructions for free. There are a few very generous people out there doing it (including Jurgen Krooshoop and Designer Han), and I've made some instructions for free myself. But you won't see large numbers because it is unpleasant work. So if we as a community decide that charging for instructions is unacceptable, the result will simply be that there are hardly any instructions available. If, however, we decide to support fantastic MOCers and instructions makers with some reasonable fee when we like the product offered, then I predict we will see lots more people making instructions available in the community. In my opinion, this will help draw new people into the fold. Technic is especially difficult for newbies, and the more resources that are available to them, the more of them will get hooked the way we are. So I guess the question is: would you rather see a few instructions for free or lots of instructions for a small fee? I would choose the latter.

I didn't say it wasn't possible to make a set of square gears that mesh, I said there's a reason that gears are not square. I design and analyze gears for a living. A square gear set can ONLY work if both gears have the same number of teeth and they can ONLY mesh if they are clocked 45 degrees apart. This means you cannot change the gear ratio; it will always be 1:1. Also, the pressure angle of the gears is not constant, the pitch circle is not constant, and there is no involute. This means the gears will have massive wear, terrible efficiency, and the output gear will move at a non-constant speed. It isn't even a sine wave, so the constant acceleration will fatigue any bearings and axles in short order. So as a novelty, they are kind of neat, but they don't have a practical application.

There is a reason that gears are not square. Try building this and see what happens.....

If there's one thing we all know about Anio, it is that he is not afraid to say so when a model sucks! So when the review is highly positive, that means something. I've created a Brickstore file using the PDF inventory. I'd be happy to share it once the instructions are released.

I agree, but I don't think the flex system is ever coming back (at least without a significant redesign. It had two major flaws. First is that the cables were very fragile and broke easily. Second is that, like flexible axles, they only came in a small number of discrete sizes so it was often difficult to use for MOCs due to the lack of a proper fit. If only there was some way to make them adjustable..... A pull-pull system using pulleys and string would also be interesting, and is possible using current possible. Marius Postma's Twin Otter used such a system.

Yes, they are pretty rare, and 8855 is certainly the best of them. I'm also waiting for another. Only problem is they take up a lot of space on the shelf!

Why not both? Just don't take your LEGO with you. They are really uncomfortable in your pocket.