Blakbird

I keep ALL of my Technic sets (~200,000 pieces) assembled at all times. I have never yet suffered any damage as a result of this other than some dust. Structural failure of a part due to a static load over a long period of time is called "creep". In general, you need a pretty big sustained load for this to happen. Just sitting there isn't going to do it, but if something is under a lot of stress it could happen. For instance, if you wound up a worm gear system into a stop and then left it, you might experience degradation over time.

I've heard tales of these motors failing on people, but I've never had any trouble with the dozen or so that I've used. It seems unlikely that 3 different sellers would give you non-functioning motors. I'd be more suspicious of the wiring and terminals. They get oxidized over time and don't make a good connection. The micro motor has a lot of internal gear reduction and requires a lot of startup torque, so you need full voltage. I'd check the terminals with a voltage tester or just use a wire brush to clean up the terminals on the wire, the motor, and the battery box. If all that fails, it never hurts to bang it on a table.

They're not quite gone. After the "official" Universal Sets, there were a couple of other sets which fit the bill like the Control Center (8485), the Code Pilot (8479), the Giant Model Set (8277) and the Fiber Optic Multi Set (8456). More recently, the >2 models per set concept seems to be gone from Technic but is still present in Creator. The Creator walking dinosaur (4958), for instance, is basically a Technic set and has instructions for 3 models.

Personally, no way. In most cases, I don't find that the addition of motors to a Technic set makes it any better. For me Technic is about realistic reproduction of functions, and the addition of motors usually replaces these functions. The exception to this is models with linear actuators which are not much fun to use with a motor to do the cranking for you. Vehicles with motorized drive systems are the least interesting to me.

I can't submit it because it is not my MOC, but my favorite off road MOC is this one by grazi: Big Foot

Let me guess, you are building the Little Devil? These are really rare wheels that only appeared in 3 sets in 1998. 8417/8430 Motorcycle 8428/8432 Buggy 8462 Tow Truck Those are all excellent sets, by the way. There were also a couple of expansion packs where you could get them, and there were a pair of them in white in a Star Wars set. Happy hunting!

I've always been interested to know what one of the LEGO Technic designers would come up with if they were given completely free reign to do whatever they wanted. Obviously, they have access to parts and resources considerably greater than even the wealthiest MOCer. Understanding that such a model would never actually be offered for sale, I'd still like to see what kind of models would pop out of those minds. My guess is that the designers can and do create such models as concepts but that the public never see them. If I ever toured the facility in Billund, this is one of the things I'd most want to see. You may recall that when the 8275 Bulldozer came out, there was a video interview with the designer Markus Kossman. As part of that interview, we got a peek of some of the other prototype models that ended up resulting in the final product. Some of them were considerably bigger and more complicated. I want them.

Good questions. I know I'd buy it! But you don't have to live very long as me to realize that there are very few people on Earth who are anything like me. Most of those who exist are right here on this forum!

It is hard for us to fathom the amount that corporate development costs. How many kits has Paul actually sold? My guess is that LEGO would need to sell hundreds if not thousands of copies to even make up the money required to design the packaging, much less the instructions, the focus testing, legal, etc. I'm sure that LEGO knows about how many copies they need to sell to make money, and they know about how much they can charge and still sell. These are smart people. I guarantee that they have already run this trade study and concluded that the business case is not there. I don't know how many AFOL Technic fans there are in the world with the money to buy one of these sets, but I guess it is not enough. If we really wanted to provide a compelling case to produce such a set, the best data to collect would be hard numbers of AFOLs willing to spend the money.

This from the man who designed the Annihilator?

Interesting choice. I just surfed on over to your Brickshelf folder and looked at the mods you made to 8284. I really like the extra implements you made for it! I'd like to be able to add them to my own copy. You certainly seem to have an interest in farm equipment and have built an impressive array of tractors and other related stuff. My favorites are the Case IH-STX, the John Deere 2140, and the Bulldog D-1706. Nice work! You should consider starting a thread on this forum to show off some of your creations.

Fernando Correia (Conchas) over at TechnicBricks is the current Technic Ambassador. I think the Ambassador program is the correct avenue to use to pursue your request. I hope it works! I disagree completely. While there are certainly plenty of MOCs out there that are inferior to the official offerings, there are also plenty which can easily compete with the best that TLG has to offer. Spend some time perusing this group and you will see some of them.

Fair enough. But we are talking about AFOL Technic "dream sets" here. If you review the Mocs in this thread, for example, I think many of them would be in the $500 range. In fact, I've built several of them and I know that they are! Some of these are sets with 4000+ pieces and 4 or more motors. If we're talking about a set aimed squarely at AFOLS, this is what I would be looking for. I agree, Anio. Nico71's models are great. I have built a couple of them and I would gladly buy them if they were offered for sale by LEGO. Another example of MOCs which I would gladly buy from LEGO are those from Designer Han. If you put these two things together, then you've really got something!

Firstly, I only contribute a few articles to the LEGO Technic blog. I am not a LEGO employee and I don't have any special insight into their design process or decisions. My insight comes only from my observations of their public behavior and my own deductions of business and market forces, like everyone else. With that being said, I think the reasons for the lack of the kind of official sets mentioned above are pretty clear, and some of them have already been mentioned by other posters. First and foremost, the reason is that LEGO, even the Technic line, is and always has been a children's toy. Like it or not, children pay the bills for the company which produces the excellent products that we adults love. Market forces dictate that LEGO can only afford to produce and market a set that will sell enough copies to make it worth their while. While I have no doubt that a large number of children would LOVE to own such a set (i.e. Gallardo or Little Devil), realistically these sets would be $500 or more and very, very few children could afford them. For that matter, very few adults could afford them. I'm not sure what the sales figures are for the UCS Millenium Falcon, but these sets would be similar in cost but would not have the additional market backing of the massive Lucasfilm license. Secondly, I think it is a mistake to conclude that builders like Jurgen and Crowkillers (as great as they are) are any better than the official LEGO designers just because the models you see are bigger and more complicated. I'd be willing to bet that if you were granted a glimpse of the building area of Markus Kossman or Uwe Wabra you would find creations every bit as complicated as the Mocs you see posted on Eurobricks and Brickshelf. However, these creations must pass through their technical lead, focus testing with children, instructions making department, art department, marketing, legal, and I'm sure many others that most of us can't even imagine. Sooner or later, someone has to make the business call as to which of these fine creations get the green light for production. Now that I've thrown all that cold water on the idea, I'd also like to add that personally, I think it is a fantastic idea for LEGO to create a HUGE Technic set aimed at AFOLs!!! There is no question at all that I would buy it and that it would put a huge smile on my face for weeks, and probably years. I don't know if they'd make any money on it, but I'd be perfectly willing to accept something direct marketed via the web site for no retail markup, or even with no printed instructions if that's what it took to make it possible. Here's hoping.

Apparently Brickshelf deleted the file.

The math doesn't quite work that way. One battery is 2,450 mAH at 1.5 Volts. 6 batteries is 2,450 mAH at 9V. You don't get more capacity by adding more batteries unless they are in parallel. When you are putting them in series (like in LEGO battery boxes) the total capacity is based on the capacity of each individual cell. Now if you are measuring power (in Watts, for instance), then you can add them together. The things I learn from my other hobby (R/C).......

I noticed the same thing when I tried again yesterday. Brickshelf does not appear to be accepting PDF files any more, although the old PDF files are still there. Weird.

I had the pleasure of seeing this thing in person at Brickcon this year and talking about it for a bit with the builder. It is truly a marvelous creation and hard to appreciate the scale without seeing it. There are a few pictures of it on my Brickshelf account: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=4147661

You can't import the Brickstore file directly into Bricklink. Go into the Brickstore application and choose "File - Export - Bricklink Wanted List XML to Clipboard. This will put the whole thing in your clipboard in the right format and it will run your browser with a Bricklink wanted list open. Make sure you are logged in, then just hit "paste" to put in the whole list. You will get a confirmation screen to confirm it is all right. One word of caution. If you have prices in your Brickstore file for the parts, these prices will be input as maximums on your Bricklink wanted list. This means that any parts which cost more than this won't show up. If you are willing to pay more than "average" (which is the default), make sure to set your Brickstore prices higher before you export. I just set mine to maximum and then am vigilant with the prices when I actually order the parts.

This is a thing of great beauty. I gladly offer you either the left lobe of my liver or one of my kidneys if I can reproduce this masterpiece. There are so many details that make it just perfect. It's so smooth! I don't think there is a stud visible anywhere, and that must have taken some serious effort. There aren't even any studs inside the cabin. The wheelbase between the first and second axles is huge! How much flex is there in the frame? Do you feel that it is stiff enough for all that weight? I see you used a bunch of chrome parts including some 2x2 cylinders. Did you get those custom made at that ChromeBricks store? How did you make the lights flash? I like the custom stickers. I have not seen anyone use the old pneumatic cylinders in a long time, certainly not with Power Functions. Did you choose these just because they are red or did you also need the longer stroke versions? The old red cylinders are single acting. Does this mean you needed to use the old distribution block as well, or do you just let the pressure escape for lowering the boom? Are all the cylinders red, or did you use traditional yellow for the hidden functions? Do you have any counterweights on the turntable? If not, how well does it handle the imbalance? I like the driver's seat built with cheese slopes. What part did you use for the fan on the engine? Good use of the manometer to keep track of the pressure, and it is well hidden behind the side panels. Where is the air tank? The way the electrical and pneumatic switches are hidden is ingenious. I count 12 large pneumatic cylinders (4 red, 8 yellow?), one small (for the pressure switch) and two small cylinders for the pump. 6 pneumatic switches. You've hidden the pneumatic tubing very well. How much of it did you have to use? I count 2 XL motors (drive) and 5 M motors (steer, telescope, winch, outriggers, rotate). Also one R/C motor for the compressor. Where did you hide all of these things? I see 3 pole reverser switches, +1 for the pressure switch. 2 IR Receivers. 12 or 14 wheels. Does the lifting axle use tandem wheels? I assume these are not the super rare size from 5571. The black gear racks for the telescoping mechanism are pretty difficult to find. I like how the pneumatic tubing for the outriggers is hidden inside the boom. It appears that entire length of the chassis behind the sleeper is covered with 1x1 red cheese slopes. How many cheese slopes are on this thing? Do you accept credit cards? It would be difficult to find any MOC out there which is better, especially for those of us who love Technic and Model Team. Very well done indeed. One last thing: do you have any photos of the MOC "naked" (without skin)? I'd be very interested in seeing the positions of the motors and the way the mechanisms are set up.

Holt sh!+. That thing is beautiful. The motion of the wings and the pumping legs of the pilot look completely natural. The pull/pull cable system on the tail is wonderful as well. Combine that with the charming way you've chosen to present it in your "rustic" image and this is a real pleasure to see. I'm always drawn to a Technic subject I haven't seen before and this is certainly one. I must have one.

You can't buy the parts from Shop@home. They only have a very limited number of Technic parts available individually and they tend to be very expensive. Your options are parting out sets or using Bricklink. Bricklink part orders will be the cheapest, even with multiple sellers, because you will get exactly what you want. By the way, one other thing I noticed while doing the parts list concerns the colors. The car was obviously built using the light and dark bluish grays, not the old grays. However, one part in particular (Technic Rib 2744) does not exist in the new gray. If you look carefully at the photos, you can see that the gray on these parts does not match the engine. In my parts list, I changed these to black. YMMV.

It's pretty common for Brickstore to choke on some of the parts. Mostly there are parts which are unofficial, synthesized, or have different part numbers on Bricklink and in LDraw. I've made some updates to the MPD file to use the newer light and dark blue colors, and this is what you get from a Parts List export from LDView. You can see that the synthesized parts are wrong, but the rest of it is pretty good. I use this as a guide when I import into Brickstore so I can tell what the discrepant parts are supposed to be. Here is how my Brickstore file came out when I corrected it (in PDF form). For anyone who actually wants to order the parts for this model, I've posted the actual Brickstore file. You can use this file to upload directly to a Bricklink wanted list. I do it regularly and it works great.

That does indeed appear to be a new large L-shaped part! Good eye.

Yes and yes.