Blakbird

Very well done! I always love it when lots of functions are hidden inside a great looking MOC. The plow is especially inspired.

Some things I noticed: Container Truck: Doesn't seem to actually have a container with full sides. More of a flatbed instead. Still, it looks like it can be unloaded. Blue panels, woohoo! I wish it had some of the big 1x5x11 panels in blue. though. I think Han's truck would look great in blue. Curved 11x3 panels in light gray. Red axle on the left side seems to be a clear gear (function) selector. Motorcycle: Black and red panels. New wheels. Still can't tell if the tires are from 8420, but I don't think so. 40 tooth gear for rear sprocket. Interesting exposed crankshaft. Excavator: LOTS of yellow panels. 4 linear actuators, 4 M-motors, 2 IR receivers, 2 controllers. I am surprised the treads are dark gray rather than black. The U-joint going to the linear actuator for the bucket (the one furthest out the arm) is operating at an extreme angle, almost 45 degrees. This will make it pretty inefficient but I assume LEGO has done the testing to make sure it won't bind. The output speed will be non-linear (jerky), but if it is slow enough you may not notice. The use of U-joints to send torque up the arm from motors in the chassis rather than having smaller motors located at the point of load means that there will be LOTS of U-joints. Every articulation point of the arm has to have a corresponding U-joint for each function passing that axis. I don't like the dark tan color of the new 3L axles with stop. Nothing else is that color so it doesn't fit. I guess I am getting used to tan on the pins long without friction and the axle pins without friction. I see more of the new idler (clutch) gears driving the main linear actuators. The red gear (function) selector looks manual, but the red lever on the controller suggests that it is used as a motorized function switcher. It may be that the red part on the model is just an indicator of the selected function. The angle of the sticker is a bit too oblique in the image to be able to tell which functions are switched, but I think it switches between the dipper and the bucket (two outer linear actuators). If so, this will make it hard to "dig" realistically since you need to operate both at once. The image is too dark around the treads to see much about the drive system. I like the operator's cabin. Crane: Definately considerably smaller than 8421. Several more yellow panels and some good old yellow studded Technic beams. Appears to have 6 wheel steering controlled from the rear. Worm gears at each outrigger foot means they won't backdrive like they did in 8258. I don't see any type of engine. Red function selector on left changes from boom luffing to winch. Looks like another function selector on the right but I can't tell what it does. One function is telescoping. I don't see an obvious place to add a motor or battery box, but I'm sure you can. Do the outriggers deploy via a gear system or manually? It would be an awfuly long moment arm for a plastic axle to deploy. When the boom is down and the crane is rigged for transport, does to whole boom move aft? Naturally, I will be buying all of them. I pretty excited about it. Go Technic! Any work or images of the alternate models?

If you download the LDraw file (which he has posted on Brickshelf) and open it in LDView, you can export a parts list which has the names and pictures of all the parts. Alternatively, use Brickstore to generate a wanted list for Bricklink.

Hmmm, when I put PDF files on Brickshelf I just upload them the same as any other file. I have never had a problem. The biggest file I have uploaded is 65 Mb. I have looked through your instructions and they are very, very well done. Kudos again on your work. By the way, I couldn't resist....

Thank you very much for putting in all this effort. I will certainly be building it. If you are interested, I would be happy to make a PDF of the instructions for you.

Sigh. This is going to cost me a lot money.

Is that intended to be one of the vehicles from the Avatar movie? Sure looks like one.

There isn't any set which has a large majority of these parts. I got my parts through individual Bricklink orders. Probably about 15 all together. The 8275 Bulldozer has all the Power Functions components. The simple fact is that building such a model is a major investment in time just to get the parts.

I'm sure it is bad form to comment on this 3 year old post, but I just wanted to let you know that your Snow Groomer model is absolutely fantastic. Just as a piece of sculpture the model is beautiful and it looks just like the equipment it is supposed to be. On top of that, the way you packed in 4 motors, 2 receivers, and a battery box is ingenious. The adjustable height suspension, hidden pump, and hidden V-6 make it even better. This is one of the best Mocs I have ever seen and I am proud to say that I have built it and have it on display as part of my collection. Thank you for sharing this wonderful model and thank you especially for the huge amount of work you put into making the excellent instructions. I've done instructions for large Technic models and I know how much work it is. By the way, I am in the process of building your new dump truck now! Another work of art. Keep up the good work and I'll keep building them.

It seems likely to me that it is simply the on/off switch for the battery box. It may be difficult to access the switch without this extension.

A few thoughts: The excavator is smaller than I was expecting. It doesn't really look any bigger than 8294, yet they have managed to pack several motors into it. I will be interested to see how they packaged the functions. I'm also glad to have a bunch of the new panels in yellow. The wheels on the motorcycle look new. Are they the same tires as 8420? It's been a long time since we had anything in blue. The skip loader truck looks almost identical to 8292 in layout. The loading mechanism should be fun. The crane has a lot of pieces!! The other thing I noticed is that it clearly has a bunch of the old studded technic bricks in yellow. These are quite welcome since they are getting pretty hard to find. I guess we get more pieces for our money than the excavator since it has no motors. Given the linear actuators though, I'm sure you can add a motor. Any box views that show the alternate models?

Those sites are riddled with disclaimers. Google "LEGO Fair Play Policy" to see the legal requirements associated with posting such things. It isn't hugely complicated, but I'd rather just not deal with any legal stuff. Thanks for the offer. I have considered adding a way to do such a thing (donate) but haven't had time to come up with the details and haven't decided if I think I would get enough response to be worth the effort. After the bashing I took for trying to sell the Gallardo instructions I made, it seems that most people think everything Lego community related should be free. That almost put me off of updating the site any more at all, but I've received enough positive comments from people who really like the site that I decided to keep going.

To me, the main benefit of an LDraw file if you don't have the set it that you can look at the set in 3 dimensions. You can't do that with instructions. It also allows you to make renders if you are so inclined.

I think this has been discussed before. I have indeed dismantled them all and placed them back in their boxes and will be reassembling them. I do plan to add some features to the site when I do including some pictures of the build process and of the parts assortment. However I am hesitant to show any boxes or instructions because those are LEGO copyrights and I really don't want to stray into the "fair play" policy if I can help it. Too much work. At the moment every single thing on the site is my own work (or something donated). I also don't have all of the boxes so even if I was to add that feature it would be incomplete. By the way, the site is not exactly down, I have just exceeded my bandwidth limit for the month again. Maybe everyone is downloading all the LDraw files, I don't know. I can't really afford to get a server with more bandwidth so, for now, when this happens you'll just have to wait for the 1st of the next month. Not long now!

Aiiiighhhhh! Nooooooo! That proposed title actually sounds kind of dirty and is not appropriate for this site.

I don't have any plans to change the overall appearance. Quite a large number of images use a transparent background, so the page background really needs to be white for that to work. I guess I'll think about that when all the critical stuff is done, which will be quite a long time yet.

Wow, a MOC wheel loader so big that the Power Puller wheels look tiny. I never thought I would see such a thing! This is a fine piece of work. The front bucket is truly enormous. You could entire official Technic models in that thing with room to spare. The X-16 engine is really a nice, original touch. I imagine you spent a lot of time on this. I'd love to see some more images of the X-16 including the crankshaft arrangment so I can imagine how it would look in motion. It is interesting that you combined pneumatics and linear actuators not only in the same model, but used both on the main bucket controls. This should give you some good insight into comparisions. What do you feel are the relative strengths and weaknesses of these two options based on your use of them here? Thanks for sharing.

An Ahsoka "hair piece" for a hood ornament? Now that's creative parts use. Great job!

I really like the concept of adding a trailer to this model, and this is a very good looking and well designed trailer. To me though, it seems too small for scale. When I look at it attached to the truck, the trailer is no longer than the truck and I imagine a full size trailer being twice as long as the truck (maybe 52 feet?). This was probably just a constraint of the size wheels you had available.

To me, the challenge is LEGO car building is making the car immediately recognizable as the make and model it is supposed to be, and you have succeeded wildly in that regard. The visibility of studs or lack thereof is a personal preference, but there is no doubt that this is a Cougar. It helps that the Cougar is an incredibly distinctive car. I[m very impressed with how well you've captured it. I love the grill, the front bumper "cow catchers", and the integrated hood scoop. I can almost smell the rubber from the smoky burnout.

Well, weeks after writing this inspired post I've acquired about 300 more 2x2 round brown bricks. This is enough to fill the trailer to the top with logs. After doing so, do I think the model is improved as per my original comment? Turns out not. Fistly, the logs fall out of the trailer very easily because they are very smooth and there's almost no friction. Secondly, it turns out that the "claw" is very bad at actually picking up logs. It looks good, but it does not have the grip strength to hold the logs so they just fall out. The moral of the story: one log acceptable. Score: LEGO:1 Blakbird:0

This is a truly inspiring MOC and one that shows the world what can be done if LEGO, Technic, and Mindstorms are used to their full potential. Even if this were a static model it would be a fantastic sculpture of the A380. The cutaway adds a huge component of interest for the public. But the best part for me is not only the many technical functions but the touch screen interface. That's just brilliant work my friend. Thank you for making our whole community look good by displaying this marvelous work. I've looked over your Flickr photos. The part I find the most interesting, all the technical functions, are not really photographed much unless I am missing something. I would love to see all the mechanisms for the functions you've created. I've actually done the landing gear analysis myself for a ...... competing aircraft company, so I am very interested to see what you've done. I'm impressed with the accuracy of the way the cabin, passenger floors, and cargo bay are arranged. Did you just find a lot of reference material or do you actually work in the aviation industry? You even have the dishes behind the radome! Brilliant!

This is really, really lovely. It is a great example of just how smooth and accurate you can make a model look with Technic. The fact that it is also completely functional is remarkable. A beautiful model and a great piece of design work. My favorite part is that you used the low profile wheels from 8428 that almost no one uses.

I've just posted a new update to Technicopedia. This is an unusual update in that it does not add any new years of models (although I am working on 1995). Instead it makes a number of improvements to existing information. Reformatted some older pages to make them more readable and more consistent with the newer pages. Added computer renders and revolving animations to almost all existing pages. The big change is the addition of an LDraw model library. I've added LDraw files for most of the models from 1977-1987 which can be accessed from the respective model pages. These files come from a variety of original authors but have been scrubbed and formatted for consistency. All of them assume that you have the latest (2009-03) LDraw library installed. This is important because a number of parts (especially pneumatic parts) have had their origins changed in that release. I used official parts wherever possible but unofficial parts where necessary. Some models require the primitives from LSynth for synthesized parts. This update should allow you to view the models from 1977-1987 in 3D if you choose. Let me know what you think! Note that there are a few models in this date range which I don't have LDraw files for. Anyone wishing to contribute should let me know and I will credit you with preparation of the file on Technicopedia. Here's what I still need: Universal Sets8020 4 of 6 models 8030 All 5 models 8035 All 5 models 8040 4 of 5 models 8050 All 5 models 8055 All 6 models [*]Arctic Action 8620 8640 8660 8680 [*]8853 Wheel Loader

Great video! Thanks for sharing. There is now no doubt that I need to build that thing. It works amazingly well, especially considering the parts available when that thing was designed and how lousy this thing walks, by comparison.