Blakbird

Real engine speed is limited by heat, but more importantly but the forces and stresses generated by accelerating the mass of the pistons and connecting rods. The LEGO pistons are very light, so they do not have much inertia. I have connected a V6 to an old 9V motor which turns about 4000 rpm with no problems. It is fun to watch.

No, it is not legal. Scanning and posting the instructions would be copyright infringement. LEGO usually allows websites such as Peeron to post instructions once the model is no longer sold by the company, usually 3 years after introduction. The good news is that LEGO usually posts the instructions on their website within a month or two. So far, the 8081 instructions are not available.

That's actually a very good question. Because of Newton's 3rd law (simplified: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) when the main rotor turns one direction, the helicopter itself wants to turn the opposite direction. In a conventional helicopter, a tail rotor faces to the side and counteracts this torque. On a coaxial helicopter (only a few exist in real life, mostly Russian), two main rotors on the same axis turn in opposite directions, balancing the torque. Because there is no tail rotor, these coaxial rotors need to be synchronized to turn with the same speed (or more specifically torque, or even more specifically angular momentum) so the helicopter can remain pointed in the same direction. Something like collective, which changes the pitch of the rotor blades, must also be balanced, therefore both rotors need collective. Squeezing in a pair of coaxial swashplates along with cyclic is quite an engineering feat which is one of the reasons there are so few of them. On this picture of a coaxial helicopter, you can clearly see the collective mechanism on both rotors. Incidentally, there are a lot of R/C coaxial helicopters (I have a couple of them), but most of them do not have collective pitch; rather they only have cyclic. They control power by increasing the speed of the motor. Since they use only cyclic, usually only the lower rotor head has a swashplate. That model is the only official Technic model with a swashplate of any kind, and is ironically the most realistic helicopter despite being the oldest.

The noise of the PF medium motor comes primarily from the integrated 2 stage epicyclic gear set rather than from the motor itself. Reducing the speed will not do a lot to change the noise output. If you want to reduce the noise, the only obvious way is to open the motor casing and apply some thin grease. This will work, but you risk damaging the motor since they are not easy to open. Regarding the speed, the simplest way to reduce the speed is simply to reduce the input voltage. For example, use 3AA batteries in series instead of 6 and you'll approximately halve the speed. You can do this by leaving 3 batteries out of the case and replacing them with paper clips. Otherwise, as others have suggested, you can change the gear ratio externally. If you want a quieter motor, the 43362 is very quiet and is also geared. If you slow it down a LOT, then it gets quite quiet. On the V-8 I displayed at Brickcon, I used a train regulator to slow a PF-medium motor down to about 1/10th speed and I could hardly hear it at all.

Beautiful job with the instructions! I'm glad you got all the bugs figured out with LPub. Thank you very much for supplying this to the community.

Personally, I have always opened and built all of my sets from sealed boxes, even when they are decades old. I don't place any particular value on a sealed box, except as a historian. If I ever got to live my ultimate dream and open a Technic museum which displayed every Technic set ever, then it would suddenly become important to me. I would ideally have: One copy on display with the main model One copy on display with the alternate model One unopened box for eternal historical reference The box would serve the purpose of Maintaining what the box and packaging looked like Maintaining everything included in the box including polybags, inserts, and catalogs for reference Including period accurate versions of all the parts which may have been changed over the years All of those would only matter to me after I'd already built a copy of all the sets though, and even then only if I had a museum. My web site is as close as I can get to a museum for now, and it would be cool to include pictures of all the original packaging some day.

In a new LEGO set, you would have to break the seals to see how things are bagged because there is no access to the interior of the box. In fact, many newer boxes have to be destroyed just to be opened. However, in many older boxes such as this one, there is a top panel which flips open revealing a transparent window into the interior. From here, you can see how things are packaged without opening anything. I once had a MISB of this set, but I long ago opened it, built it, displayed it for years, and eventually sold it.

The building process is very straightforward since the instructions are split into so many tiny steps. You really can't screw it up and shouldn't even give it a second thought. As for mods, I recommend you form your own opinion. Build it per instructions first and see what you think. Try out the functions and look at the rear end and see if you think it needs changing. Then, if you still feel it should be changed, you can explore the options. Personally, I think changing from a motor to a crank would be a pretty good idea. You could then use a few extra panels to improve the look of the rear end.

This seems to be a trend with the "Limited Edition" sets. They seem to have somewhat less design rigor than the regular sets, perhaps due to their restricted market. I'm not sure I would call it laziness, rather I would say that the designer was likely given an aggressive cost target and no latitude to use parts which were not already in stock.

The Space Shuttle will be covered in the 1996 update to Technicopedia which is not too far away.

Depends on rarity, age, demand, and other factors. The most expensive sets I have ever bought on a price per part basis are 858 and 8847. Neither of them are particularly special, they are just hard to find. The most expensive Technic set when it was new was 8485 and still commands a very high price. On a strictly total cost basis, the most expensive are those that are in greatest demand including 8880, 8448, 8421, and even 8288. Some of the prices on Bricklink are not really meant to sell anything. I think some people list their collections thinking, "I don't really want to sell any of this, but if someone offers me $850 then I guess I will." Motivated sellers have much more reasonable prices. I've seen a single item on Bricklink listed at $30,000 once. The price of used (and MISB) Technic sets is nothing compared to Star Wars sets though. Up until 2008 I had every single Star Wars set and then I sold them all. If I had waited another 2 or 3 years I could have had 5 times the money. Technic does not have that kind of demand.

It's actually surprisingly powerful. Much of this is due to the balance of the model being so near the rear and the gearing. Even with only one motor and standard gearing, the model will easily lift the front wheels off the ground as the trailer comes to a halt. It is not fast by any means, but it does what a power puller should do. In my opinion, adding another motor and different gearing doesn't really buy you anything, because who cares how far it will actually pull the trailer. For kids though, it is an excellent visual example of what different gearing can do for you.

Very easy? That's not what Adobe would have you believe. There is no such thing as a cast-iron guarantee against piracy. A determined pirate can always defeat copy protection, no matter how much effort was put into it in the first place. That's why it makes no sense to me why companies spend so many millions on trying to do it. On the other hand, a little bit of protection is better than none. At least then the pirate has to consciously make the decision to do what the copyright owner obviously does not want them to. I think most AFOLs are honest and so this is enough for most of them. As far as eBay goes, I've seen people selling my instructions lots of times. eBay doesn't really care. I've never been able to stop one of the auctions, so it is not worth the effort.

Yes. Not only would I happily buy the instructions, I'd also likely end up making a CAD file for the model like I did with the Metal Grudge. This allows me to make a proper parts list and also to visualize the entire model and mechanisms before I build it. This is a special model because of its highly unusual subject matter and functionality.

If you have one of the old pumps, they are made to suck the air back out unless you use a distribution block. The newer pumps have a check valve.

To me "supercar" in the context of LEGO just means any large scale car with a significant number of working features. Usually this includes suspension and some form of gearbox. Beyond that, I think the choice of subject matter is subjective.

The operation of the internal clutch is not harmful to the linear actuator in short doses. However, if the clutch slips for a long time or frequently, the "teeth" that make up the clutch will wear away and the actuator will not work any more.

Probably for their high speed operation which makes the control of the simulator more rapid. You could do the same thing with PF but it would require gearing.

Yes.

I've also seen that "drilling rig" somewhere before. A 30% cheating rate among finalists would be pretty bad.

Believe it or not, it is part of the Site Guidelines for Eurobricks. It is not a huge deal to me, but I have considerable difficulty in understanding some of your posts because of the lack of punctuation.

I am imagining the smoke from the tires! Unfortunately, actually animating the smoke is far beyond my capability with POV-Ray. I'd love to have software that made this possible. Eventually I am going to write a tutorial on Technic Bricks about the process, but it is difficult to document so I don't know when I will get time to do it.

I like the model, but I don't understand why it would be called "Extreme Cruiser". The "Extreme" nomenclature has been used originally with the 8465 "Extreme Off-Roader", a dune buggy, and again with 8297 "Extreme Off-Roader 2", a 4x4 truck. This one is another truck, but "cruiser"? Maybe this is a reference to the Toyota Land Cruiser.

Me like.

During the past year as I have been rebuilding my Technic collection I have also been building copies of many of the best Technic MOCs I have seen. In most cases, I have (or have made) CAD files of these and have also rendered them. Lately, I decided to make revolving animations of them like I do for official models on Technicopedia. And so, here I present a bunch of animations of worthy MOCs! Unless otherwise specified, I have really built all of these. In most cases, the CAD files are also posted at my Brickshelf account. If they are not posted, it is probably because the author has asked me not to. The first model is called the Annihilator by CP5670. It is an imaginary military vehicle with load of motorized functions and an 8 shot firing cannon. Next come a pair of models from Grazi, both fantastic. The first is a Big Foot monster truck with incredible suspension travel which uses the Power Puller tires. The second is an enormous pneumatic tow truck based upon the 5571 Black Cat rig. Next is the Black Dragon supercar by Jovel. This one has recently had its own thread here on Eurobricks, so I don't think I need to say more about it. He has also created the Nexus Trial Truck, though I have not built it yet. Here are a pair of supercars from Erik Leppen. The first is similar to a Bughatti EB 110 and features a fascinating "W-16" engine (which is really more like a Y). The second is a Pagani Zonda. I have not built either of these yet, but I plan to build the Zonda in the near future. Here is the Lamborghini Countach by Skyliner, discussed in this thread. Designer Han has offered a large number of very high quality MOCs with full instructions to the AFOL community, and I have built most of them. First shown here is the 10 x 4 pneumatic dump truck. Next is the equally good 8x4 truck. Both also have unique trailers, but I did not do animations of those. Finally, there is also the marvelous Prinoth Leitwolf snow groomer, fully remote controlled. An enigmatic builder named Five Star Brick created instructions for a pair of wonderful construction MOCs many years ago. Nobody knows who he is/was, but the models are very intricate. I have not built his wheel loader, but Anio has. I love the gear system. Crowkillers has blessed us with a myriad of car MOCs, but sadly most of them do not have CAD files. I have built CAD files for his Gallardo and Murcielago and offer the following animations. On request, I also produced an animation of the Murcielago doing a "doughnut", a spin around the front axle. It's hard to think of anyone who makes more Technic MOCs than Sariel. I made a CAD file of his Jeep Wrangler Rubicon which he built for a Truck Trial competition. It is R/C and 4WD and will go over anything. Jennifer Clark's models are the envy of every Technic fan due to their accuracy and functionality. I present her JCB JS220 tracked excavator and her LS160 wheel loader. Jurgen Krooshoop has also designed a lot of excellent MOCs, often with full instructions. Here are some of his models including the Little Devil R/C car. I have built that one, but not yet the other models including his Longnose american truck and his little red and yellow cars. Mahjqa recently built this Metal Grudge tank based on an omni-wheel concept. It does not drive sideways, but the spins it can execute are really cool. Nico71 has also done a lot of MOCs and maintains his own web page where he posts instructions. I built a CAD file for his wheel loader a few years ago. His was created before the 8265 existed. More recently he designed his red supercar roadster for which he is preparing instructions. Former LEGO Technic designer Nathanael Kuipers designed a set of legendary supercar MOCs based on the parts of the 8458 Silver Champion and the 8466 Extreme Off Roader. They are, in order, the Sport Car, the GT Car, and the Super Car. I have built all of them, but the last is by far the most complicated, and is also huge! One of my favorite truck builders is 2LEGOornot2LEGO, and I love the color scheme of his American Truck. It was a joy to build and a joy to look at. Last but not least is Barman's incredible working V-8 engine replica. You can't tell from the scale of the animation, but this is the biggest MOC of all of them. Well, that should take care of your available bandwidth for the month. I hope you enjoyed the show.