Blakbird

It would have to be pretty worthy. And what could be more worthy than me?

This is one of my favorite sets. In the "Great LEGO Purge of 2008" when I had to get rid of many of my sets, this was the only Model Team set that survived. Actually, just today I finished converting mine into Grazi's Tow Truck model. Makes a good thing even better. Sorry, I haven't taken any photos yet, but here's a render.

I accept your challenge. Some black treads are on the way. I have a couple of thousand treads now and I think my fingers hurt too much to get many more.

That is indeed an intriguing question. Well, I just got one post closer.

Trick question. There is no such thing as too many.

Sweet! Naturally, I would be buying all the new Technic sets even if they were only models of a lamp post, but I really like these. A few thoughts are below: 8063 - This tractor does look nearly identical to 8284, but I've been fooled before. For instance, when I first saw the pictures of 8674 I thought it was nearly identical to the 8458 Silver Champion. But when I built it I found that the construction was quite different. I see that the trailer has 4 of the nice tires from sets 8421, 8479. These are my favorite Technic tires so I am glad to have more of them. Sadly, the slightly larger ones used in the 5571 Black Cat have never appeared in Technic. The panels in the trailer look like an unusual green like in the 3450 Statue of Liberty. If so, this is the first time this color has appeared in Technic. 8258 - Beautiful! Looks like a cross between 8436 and 8292. 8 more of my favorite tires. I can't tell from the picture if both of the front axles are steerable. With only one M motor, it is possible that many functions are controlled by it which means perhaps a 4 way transmission. The front and rear outriggers have different mechanisms, so it will be interesting to see how they are synchronized. Comparing the wheelbase to 8421, which also had 8 wheels, this is a VERY large model. It could indeed be 1800 pieces. Sadly, the XL motors have still only appeared in one place. Surely there are more uses for them! 8263 - I like this very much, in no small part because LEGO has never done one before. More new big treads, new parts for the plow blade, and what appear to be new idler sprockets. The drive sprockets must also be new since the existing variety would not fit. Incidentally, Sariel just made a new Pisten Bully. His awesomeness makes me feel dumb. Some day maybe I will compliment him enough that he will allow me to build a replica of one of his models!! 8265 - This is also a very large model. From the side view, it certainly appears to be articulated. Can't tell if it all wheel drive or not (can't see U-Joints at the articulation axis). I actually find this use of linear actuators a bit odd. The one to tip the bucket looks out of place with the long swing arm on top. With no motor, that's going to be a lot of cranking like the Telescopic Handler. Still loads of good parts and it will look great next to 8459. Plus, this picture is clearly too empty!

It is definitely a new tire. See my review for more information. The tread is different. I just looked closer and found something else. The box art and the photo supplied by LEGO (which you posted) do not use the tire that is actually in the set. I think the box art is computer generated and they used the old tire, but the set uses a new tire. Look at the photos I took in my review and you can see that the tread has a solid ring around the center.

Sadly, I can't recall for certain which sets they were in. It may be that they were packaged differently in Technic sets than they were in Model Team sets.

Most of the Model Team wheels and tires which I got MISB did not come pre-attached. I had to put them together. I'm guessing the reason for the change is that the center hole of a Model Team wheel was round and not a cross, so you couldn't lock it to the axle (it spun freely). There were ways to attach it using the wedge belt wheel and some 1/2 pins, but I think they were moving away from that. Then just mail the model to me and I will build the MLCAD file for you!

Thanks for the information. The Model Team wheels have been around for a long time (in Technic as well), and I will miss them, but I miss all of Model Team. 5571 is hard to beat. I never found any problem with the design of these wheels, so I wonder what the problem was. Speaking of Model Team and you, I wanted to mention that your Coca Cola truck MOC is absolutely beautiful, both aesthetically and technically. Models like this exemplify why I love LEGO. If for some reason you ever find yourself unemployed and have a lot of free time, I would love to have enough information to replicate it. In fact, I'd feature on Technicopedia if I could.

You're right! How could I forget that one? Oh well, I guess I have some correcting to do; I can't be perfect all the time. And yes, the motor does turn very fast. It is geared almost 9:1. On the other hand, I seem to remember someone else making a MOC with almost the same parts as 8868 which also has a motor that turns very fast....... The old 852 chassis was also 9:1 in 2nd gear.

I have now added the sets from 1992 to Technicopedia including 8826, 8828, 8836, 8837, 8839, and the great 8868. 8868 was a tremendous amount of work, but I hope you'll agree that it was worth it. I've also added lots more rendered revolving animations and even a bunch of full screen renders for those who really need to have Technic on their desktop!

That should work, but keep in mind that there is a limit to how tight you want the links. Any unsupported span is going to have some droop. You can minimize it with tension, but not eliminate it. If you make the tread tight, it will also cause friction and binding in the drive gears. A better solution is to either: Put in an idler gear to support the sagging area, or Spring load one or both drive gears to generate a constant (small) tension.

The reason for the size of the chain links goes back a very long time.... In the beginning, there was Expert Builder. And LEGO saw that it was good. On the second day they created 3 sizes of gears, 8 tooth, 24 tooth, and 40 tooth (which still exists to this day). The gears were not ashamed that they were gray, for they all meshed together perfectly. This was because all gears used the same tooth profile, and the diameters of the gears were designed both to allow for an integral number of teeth and to allow them to properly mesh when spaced out with Technic beam holes. And the evening and the morning (of 1977) were the second day. On the third day (of 1979) LEGO created chain links in both tread width and chain width. These were included on the 856 bulldozer and the 880 motorized expansion pack. The links had to be sized to lock securely over the already standard gear tooth size. This means they are not exactly an incremental size of a regular brick, but they do work with the gears. Even modern gears still use the same tooth size. The new treads like on the big bulldozer do not fit over gears, they fit over special spools. After the sixth day LEGO decided to rest and the evil MegaBloks appeared and stole their patent. But not to worry, the son (and grandson) unto the third and fourth generation of the LEGO founders would eventually come to crush the head of the dark one. All of this is well known and recorded in the sacred texts.

There's always a chance! But I wouldn't want to take too much time away from my critical project of modeling the 8868 pneumatic truck in MLCAD.

Probably because they were trying to make it match 8284. They seem to be carrying more matching themes from year to year these days.

If this is your first MOC, then I'd say you are doing very well indeed. I like the blending of older and newer parts. Looks as good as any Go Kart that Lego made. By the way, how can you have a V1 engine?

This lovely little tractor is one of the new 2009 sets. The packaging: 8260 has 104 pieces and comes in a small box. The secondary model is a motorcycle. The images below show the front and the back. For some reason, the main model comes in two booklets but the secondary model is in only one. I don't know why such a small model has two books. The new parts: The new parts include a new bucket. It is very similar to the one in 8418 but bigger. The wheels and tires are new. The rear seem to be a direct replacement for the Model Team wheels that have been in production forever. Not sure why they chose to replace them, but the new ones are very nice. The front wheels seem to be a replacement for some that have been around for 30+ years. The model: This little tractor looks pretty good. It is one of a very few light green parts, the same as the recent large tractor and combine. The features: The bucket raises using a worm gear driven from the rear. The bucket can tilt on click hinges. The verdict: This is a good model for it's size, and a good intro for anyone to Technic. It has quite a few parts. I like it a lot. It is extremely similar in size and style to 8281, but a different green.

If you want to see how it compares to other similar models, look here. I don't have many secondary models listed there yet and I have not built the 8858 alternate. Based on the tire size, I think they would be similar.

I agree that the tiny bulldozer looks great, and I do not have that one yet (or the go kart). The little tractor is quite good for the size and the red off road truck is pretty good too. If I wasn't jaded by years of Technic collecting, I would probably like the 8464 Hauler very much. It is not a bad set at all. It just seems somehow lacking when compared with some of it's predecessors. 8455 didn't cost much more but has massively more functionality. To me it seems like a continuing symptom of TLG's decreasing opinion of the intelligence of children. The color coded gears, axles, and pins, the simple instructions with huge numbers of steps, the numbered bags. They seem to think that kids have a very short attention span these days and need their hands held. Therefore a simple direct drive motorized bed wins out over a gear system because it "looks cool". And I agree that it does look cool!! I like motorized functions. I'd just like some mechanics to go with it. Certainly beats 2004 though. Technic is getting better and better since then.

I don't have 4404, but these have the same "off road" tread as Technic balloon tires have for years. Same tread as these. Not the same as these which appear to be in 4404.

Here comes the second in a series of reviews of the new 2009 sets. The packaging: 8264 has 575 pieces and comes in a large hinged box. Like other recent sets, you have to destroy the edges of the box to open it.. The images below show the front and the back. The instructions come in two large booklets. The secondary model instructions are not included but can be downloaded. There's also a sticker sheet. The parts come in 4 large numbered bags, with the Power Functions elements separate. Each numbered bag corresponds to a discrete sub assembly of the model which can be assembled at the end. There are a fair number of extra parts. The new parts: The new parts include new large panels. The panels are 5x11 with 5 holes on the ends and 7 on the sides. There are 4 holes on the face at the corners. Like some of the other new parts, these seem not to be made of ABS but something softer. There are 6 of these parts included. There are also 4 of the new T shaped beams, which are very useful. They look exactly like you would expect them to. There is also one of the new 9L axles. If you look closely, you can see that the beams embedded in the side of the panels are slightly narrower than a standard beam. An inserted pin sticks all the way through. I'm not entirely sure why they did this. I later figured it out. The model: Here we can see the subassemblies and how they combine into the final model. The features: The hood opens and there is an "engine" inside. Unfortunately, it is made out of crappy bionicle parts and has no actual function. Too bad, because there was room for an engine in here. The chassis articulates in the middle at a turntable. The hand of god control at the top drives the outer ring gear of the turntable. This allows the model to turn quite sharply. The bed dumps very quickly. With the switch on the battery box having OFF in the middle, it is hard to shut it off at the end of travel. A polarity switch would have been nice. The M motor drives the linear actuator directly. Since there is no external clutch gear, the clutch in the actuator slips instead of stalling the motor. It makes a horrible sound when this happens. The verdict: The final result is pretty good. It is big, yet attractive, like my ex-wife. It is also not very functional and highly overpriced, like my ex-wife. It is an excellent looking model with great tires. However, it seems like we are paying for the Power Functions rather than traditional mechanical functions, as there really aren't any. There are virtually no gears. The raising bed works great, but that's really all it does. So it is a nice set with a lot of good parts, but I think I would have actually liked it better without the motor. Still, I recommend it if you have the money. How big is it? Let's look at it next to an older dump truck. It also fits in very well with all of the other recent studless construction vehicles. The music: I listened to "Permission to Land" by The Darkness during this build. It worked great since it kept me from concentrating too hard. This should be showing up everywhere in stores now, so here's your chance to get the biggest model of 1H2009!

They are kind of like rubber, but kind of not. They are the same material as the balloon tires on the other recent sets including the telescopic handler. Not rigid, but not as soft as the old balloon tires. I did indeed! I am building it right now.

I checked all my other sets pretty carefully and I can't see these tires anywhere else. So I guess they are new!

Well, I guess the only way to decide for sure which is better would be for me to build both of them!!! But neither have instructions or LDraw files so there's not much I can do. Nathanael has Ldraw files for some of his MOCs, but I don't think Crow has any. Can't say as I blame him since it would take forever, but I'd sure be thankful! As for that truck with the Coca-Cola mosaic, I'd probably pay that guy $100 for just a copy of an Ldraw file for that thing. It is glorious. Hoping for a Christmas miracle....