Blakbird

Headed down to my local TRU at lunch time today and was pleasantly surprised to find 4 of the 6 new 1H2009 Technic sets, no naturally I had to pick them up. This one was $39.99 USD. I'll be writing reviews on all of them in the next couple of days. The packaging: 8262 has 308 pieces and comes in a sizable box. The images below show the front and the back. The instructions were in good shape. Full instructions are included for both the primary and secondary model, in separate booklets. I have not built the second model but it looks verey good. The new parts: This set includes one of the new bley 9L axles, and 4 of the new fenders. The rear fenders are symmetric (not handed), so both sides are the same parts. The front fenders are mirror images. This means there are really 3 new fender parts here. The new fenders do not seem to be ABS, but some sort of softer plastic. They are quite maleable. These may be some of the same Chinese made parts as the PF battery box. The tires are in the same family as those in the recent 8284 Tractor, 8274 Combine, 8295 Telehandler, and 8297 4x4, but are smaller. Taking a quick look through my collection, I don't see any others in this size (68.7x34). The tires have a 2008 copyright molded into them. Some older sets like the 8437 Future Car have the same size tire, but with a different tread pattern and made of the old rubber material instead of the newer plastic. The wheel style has been in use a long time but I'm not sure I've seen this diameter (34) before. Not sure why they make a new one when they have a 38 already. The model: Here are a couple of isometric shots of the completed model. It is quite good looking with a lot of attention to detail. Some of the aesthetic appeal comes from the stickers. LEGO stickers, especially in white, have been pretty poor quality over the years, so we'll see how these hold up. There is a huge amount of SNOT here. The only studs in the whole model are on the seat, and there are virtually no right angles. The features: These shots of the top and bottom show the basic layout. From the bottom you can see that one rear wheel is geared to the 2 cylinder engine. No 4WD here, despite the name. It would have been difficult to integrate into this bike, but it's possible, especially if yo didn't use a differential in front. Here you can see the front suspension which uses 4 A-arms with ball joints at the ends and independent shocks. Motion and spring rate are good. You can also see the front bumper and fairing which are only attached at the very bottom and cantilevered upward. I wouldn't recommend using the bumper to run into a rock. From this angle you can see the steering. The travel is very small since it is directly slaved to the handle bars and not geared. A 2L crank arm provides the motion through a pair of tie rods. The rear suspension uses a central monoshock with a (almost) trailing arm. The engine is actually attached to the lower rear frame and the whole thing pivots around the upper seat frame. The verdict: The final result is a very nice model, and a great source of those rare white Technic parts. The completed set is much larger than I expected, as you can see by comparison to a couple of the older quad bikes. "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up." The music: I constructed this model whilst listening to Metallica's "Master of Puppets". It allowed me the perfect blend of a zen-like vegetative state while at the same time preventing any chance of me falling asleep. It's possible that this could be built while listening to something else, but I wouldn't recommend it. Stick with what works. In conclusion, I'm pretty happy with LEGO's efforts on the models so far this year. This is a fine model which I'd recommend to anyone new to Technic, or a die-hard collector. I consider myself qualified to make such a determination since I have all of the other Technic sets! My only complaint would be that I'm not thrilled about the direction of going to larger and larger specialized parts like the fenders here and the panels in the new dump truck. This seems to have started with the panels in 8448. They look nice, but I'd rather see the effects built up from a larger number of smaller parts. Shows more versatility and creativity. But I'm sure there will be those who disagree.

I also have this set. I compared the red to the old excavator 8851 and there is very little difference. Hard to tell if the old one is just faded. But the new set seems to match the recent Ferrari sets. The front doesn't have sprung suspension, it is pendular like some of the tractors. The rear is a single trailing arm with one shock. It is a simple but good looking truck.

There are a couple of really long wires in 8094 and 8285, and the Power Puller has a long wire as well.

It's hard to imagine any more features. The only thing I could think of would be remote launching of the projectiles, but that's minor. Since the image was supposed to be at night, I tried to stay away from lens effects. I would like the lights to appear a bit more "illuminated", but my efforts to make this happen were thwarted. I was quite happy with the yellow glow of all the other lights though. I've built mine with gray and it looks great. The white just looks out of place because there is no other white on the model. I saw the comment fields in the file about the wires, but the opposite ends' numbers didn't always seem to match. And surfing for wires to buy on Bricklink I found that there were far more lengths than I remembered. Something like 12. Yep, I've removed it that way.

Excellent point. Can't believe I forgot to include him. They are both great models. Mostly I just picked the GT car because he has and ldraw file for them but the Supercar is not complete.

As many of you may know, I am the author of Technicopedia and I own all of the officially released Technic sets from 1977 to present. Besides all the officially released sets, I find myself very interested in some of the fine work that my fellow AFOLs produce. I am thinking that maybe when my web site is complete, I will add a section to explain some of the best Technic MOCs out there. I've listed a few of my favorites below. This thread would be an excellent place for others to post information on any of their own Technic MOCs or others they have discovered. Annihilator military vehicle by CP5670, two motors, 6 motorized functions, 12 cyl engine Prinoth Leitwolf snow groomer by DJ Han, 4 PF motors, R/C, 4 motorized functions, V-6, drum winch Abrams M1A2 Tank by Sariel, 7 motors, shock absorbers, R/C, multiple speeds, adjustable turret. Sariel also has a large number of other fantastic MOCs. Pneumatic Engines by nicjasno, full pneumatic powered engines from 3 cylinder to V-8 which run at high rpm, now also for sale Case Tractor by cbp Technic Workshop. Has 4 independent tracked supports. Tow Truck by grazi, has many of the functions of 8285 but is based on the Black Cat Rig 5571. Many functions + pneumatics. Hexapod by Kevin Clague. Ridiculously cool and unique pneumatic walker. Not like anything else. GT Car by Nathanael Kuipers made from 8466 and 8458. Fantastic super car with gearbox, full independent suspension, engine, and gull wing doors. this guy is incredibly talented. Pneumatic Excavator by Jennifer Clark. Wonder of pneumatic design and compactness. Her other MOCs are great too. If I have my way, I will build all of these, although some of them do not have Ldraw files posted. What are your favorites?

I've just completed this model and I can say that it is a work of art both aesthetically and technically. I own every Technic set made, and I think this beats all of them. The sheer number of technical functions packed within it is amazing. It uses parts which span decades going back to original bushes, axles, and beams, and all the way to the present with liftarms. I think every kind of gear ever made by Lego is represented here (not counting Samsonite). There are the old 8, 16, 24 and 40 tooth spurs. The 24 tooth crown. The old 14 tooth bevels and the newer 12 tooth bevels. Both the old and new differentials (but not the brand new one). Worm gears and rack gears. The newer 12 and 20 tooth double bevel gears. The 24 tooth clutch gear and the 16 tooth transmission gear. It even has the obscure 20 tooth bevel gear! In all I count 125 gears in this model which is many more than you find in any release from Lego. It also has both generations of 9V motor, fiber optics, and a 12 cylinder engine. Honestly, I can't imagine how you could pack any more into it. It weighs a ton. CP5670, if this was your first MOC then you are a talented individual indeed. Thanks for sharing. My kids love this thing! They are eager to put an eye out as soon as possible. Regardling the Ldraw model, I'll be sending it to you via PM shortly. Here is a brief list of the changes which I remember making to it: Updated all unofficial parts to newest versions. Added LSynth flexible hoses and fiber optics cables. Added missing worm gear axle right next to rear motor to drive the clutch gear for the translating launcher. (I have no way of knowing if this is the way you did it, but this function doesn't work without it.) Moved 40 tooth gears for launcher lift back one hole (needed to engage mating pinions) Changed length of 4 axles which are used as pushrods to lift the launcher from 4 to 3. Launcher would not completely lower with length 4, and length 3 is what seems to be in your photos. Reversed the direction of the perpendicular axle joiners at the front of the flex hoses to make them line up properly. Changed wheels from white to gray to better match the vehicle. Changed all transparent neon green parts to transparent yellow. Note that the slope 45 2x2 does not actually exist in trans yellow. Changed pistons from dark gray to yellow. Changed most dark gray liftarms to light gray. Changed blue steering parts to black. Changed tire color to 256 (rubber). Changed seats from red to yellow. Changed blue marker lights to yellow. Moved all outriggers up 1L. The way the 4x2 liftarms were located in the model it was impossible for them to deploy. They now match the photos. Changed the transmission driving rings to red (these are a lot easier to buy these days). Changed the position on several parts of the canopy opening axle to match the photos. Changed the location of some of the rear bumper parts to match the photos. Changed the tips of the competition arrows to rubber. Added a few pieces inside the front wheel wells to make them look a bit more "rounded". Whew! I think that's it. Obviously, this is your MOC so you are free to reverse or modify anything I have changed. One thing still missing in the model is the electrical wiring. It took me a fair bit of time to decipher it, and I think I did some things differently than you. For example, I don't run the fiber optic wire all the way up to the front. I just put it on top of the rear motor which means the lights are on whenever the rear motor is running. If I had thought of it earlier, I might have been able to snake it through the inside of the platform. Thanks for sharing this great model. By the way, I've finally finished my render. So far, this is my magnum opus.

The model is rendering right now. I'll send you a PM when it is complete. Looks great so far. I got all of the mechanisms to work, so that is not a problem. There was one entire worm gear and axle missing from the ldraw file but once I figured that out I added it and everything works fine. I made a number of other corrections where things were just not in the right holes to get everything to line up. The only remaining discrepancies concern some of the structural changes you mentioned. I can see in your pictures that there are a few differences, but I can't tell for sure how to correct them. If you like, I can send you my updated ldraw file and you can start your update from that. I got the flex tubes in with Lsynth just fine. I also added all of the fiber optics which looked great, but Lsynth uses a HUGE number of primitives for fiber, so the ldraw file was over 40 Mb. Even with 4Gb of RAM, it would not render. So I went back and used pneumatic tubing instead and then just modified the diameter so it looks like fiber. Worked great and now the model is only 1 Mb. As far as the ring segments looking like disconnected bits, I have found that this is a function of seam width. For example, in LDView you can have it draw a seam between parts (which I usually do) but this makes the hoses look disconnected. Turn off this feature and they look fine. In terms of "instructions", there are a couple of steps in the model that cannot be performed in the order shown, but it was no big deal to work around it. One remaining question I have concerns the front "grille" made from axles and liftarms. It is only attached to the frame at the bottom, so the whole thing pivots down and just falls open a lot of the time. Is it supposed to be attached somewhere at the top? Finally, I can't figure out where you routed the wire for the fiber optics. I got them to work fine, but the wire does not seem to fit underneath the carriage like you seem to have it routed in the photo. Thanks for the help.

Don't bother updating it. I'm in the middle of building it right now and am updating the MPD file as I go. It's in pretty good shape, but there are a number of errors such that the mechanisms won't work as modeled. I've got most of them corrected already, mostly by squinting very intently at the pictures on your Brickshelf page. I've also updated a few colors just because (eliminated a few dark gray liftarms which didn't really seem to fit). If you have some time, I also have a couple of questions to ask you about it. I'm also updating the flexible parts like the ribbed hoses. I'm even going to add the fiber optics. My goal is to render it again with all of the transparent parts illuminated and the fiber optics glowing with no other light sources, then put a nice starry sky above it. If that works and I am feeling really ambitious, I might even animate a launch sequence!

Good point. I guess if someone wanted to download a big Technic file, they would download this.

A few people on Lugnet have commented that they would like to be able to control the 360 degree animation to be able to look at the model from all angles. This is not possible with the animated GIF that I use on the main page, but I have experimented with other formats to see what might work. The link below will take you to a Quicktime movie of 855 which is rendered at 800x600 and can be viewed frame by frame. What do you think? Is it worth making these and adding links to them? 855 Animation

Ah yes, I've seen that one before. I'll dig through my stuff and see if I can turn up a reference. In keeping with my policy of not posting any copyrighted LEGO material, I would either have to build it or build and Ldraw file of it to include it. I believe this is it.

That's true. The balloon tires on 8074 are actually foam even though this same tire was released later in rubber. I don't suppose you happen to have this instruction booklet? If anyone has it, I would happy to include information about it. Yep, the dinosaur is really good. The helicopter cyclic is also a good use, as is the lift system in the Code Pilot dump truck. I would have like to see a large scale V8 engine in which the flex cables operated the throttle plate and choke. A working 4-barrel would be even better. I've never broken a wheel hub, but the wall of the toothed connectors are very thin and they break easily. I have replaced dozens of them over the years. The thin end of the 4L liftarms has the same problem. If you look at the back view of my 8856 pictures, you can see the this. The 8480 wheels are in double shear while the 8856 is cantilevered. I've used superglue (cyano-acrylate) with some success. The key is to also use accelerator to cure it. Even better, use toluene based model glue. It slightly "melts" the plastic and makes a very strong joint.

Good news everyone! I have now added the sets from 1991 to Technicopedia including 8074, 8810, 8815, 8820, 8838, and 8856. You'll notice some other changes as well. Firstly, I have a new logo which is now rendered in 3D. The logo on the title page is even animated. I didn't animate the logos on all the other pages to keep from making a distraction. The other thing I've added is the reason that this update has taken 2 months. I've been teaching myself rendering so, as practice, I have made 3D revolving animations of all of the sets which are part of Technicopedia and for which I actually have an Ldraw model. Have fun looking through all the old pages to see where they have been added! If people actually like the new animation feature, please feel free to contribute Ldraw files of any of the other models and I will add more revolving displays. When I get around to hosting an Ldraw model library, I'll be happy to include them there as well. Let me know what you think!

POV-Ray does have anti-aliasing, but I did it the way I did because Koyan recommended it and he is much better at it than me! Maybe I will try rendering it again with built-in anti-aliasing to compare the two.

If you don't already have it, go to ldraw.org and download the program LDView. This is a viewer for ldr or mpd files which does a good job of lighting and rotating, and it will output image files. You can use it to quickly make images like this: These images look much better than those which would come from a screenshot straight from MLCad.

In an effort to give myself something to do, I decided to start learning how to use POV-Ray to render Lego. Since I've never been someone who starts small, I decided to try to modify the 8458 Silver Champion colors to look like the McLaren MP-42 Formula One car. Here's what I did: I found the Ldraw model in Dlarian's Brickshelf folder. Thanks! I used Bricksmith to edit the file by changing various part colors to chrome, red, and black. I ran L3P on the file using L3P Launcher. This converted it into a POV file. When running L3P, I included the LGEO parts database which has upgraded part definitions. This wasn't easy because there is a brand new version of LGEO and L3P doesn't quite know what to do with it yet. I changed the standard Ldraw colors to the colors of Todd Lehman. I had to do this manually in the text file because I couldn't figure out the convoluted path L3P, LGEO, and POV-Ray use to assign the colors. This made a huge difference in realism. I tried to use Mesh Enhancer to improve the tesselation of some parts, especially the tires, but I couldn't get it to run on my POV file. Maybe this has something to do with the new LGEO parts. I read enough of the POV manual to figure out how to turn on reflectivity and diffusion for the floor. Have to be able to see the reflection of those exhaust pipes! I turned on radiosity to improve the lighting and removed the standard light sources. I added a High Dynamic Range spherical light probe to give the chrome something to reflect. Specifically, I used the Eucalyptus Grove probe from Paul Debevec. I chose this because it has standard outdoor lighting. POV-Ray doesn't support HDR lighting, so I had to switch to Mega-POV. I added an area light near and above the camera to provide some soft shadows for contrast. Finally, I rendered at 4000x3000 pixels and then used Graphic Converter to reduce and dither using bilinear interpolation to soften all of the edges. This is the result: It took about 5 hours to render. I'm open to thoughts, comments, criticism, or advice for improvement. Note that I made this on a Macintosh which uses a higher gamma than typical PCs, so it helps to turn up the brightness a bit if you are using a PC. Many thanks to Koyan for his excellent tutorial which pointed me in the right direction. Some day, I'd like to add Ldraw files and renders to Technicopedia for each Technic set. But I shouldn't get ahead of myself.

Yes, I really own all those sets. I have enjoyed Lego since I was a little boy, but I have only been collecting Technic for about 8 years. Obviously, I've bought a lot of them in that time! In the future, I can envision many opportunities for others to contribute to Technicopedia. Here's a few of the things I hope to add: Finish all years up to present (Bernd Dad Brodt is helping bny contributing some LDraw models) Go back to the beginning and include all the alternate models. Go back and include the supplemental sets and expansion packs. Try to collect a complete LDraw file for each model and devleop a database to house them all. Include one or more rendered images of each set. Go back and include some digital video instead of just animations. I'm open to other ideas, but doing what is listed above may take a long time. The biggest area where I will need help is in contributing LDraw models. I'd like to give credit where credit is due, so I only want to post models whose authors have given me permission to do so. By the way, thanks for your well wishes on my personal issues. I'm hoping things will start getting better soon.

Don't forget the possibility of Snow Bars! I built this thing from Han's instructions and it is fantastic.

Yes, you can make a damper work with either hydraulics or pneumatics, but they work somewhat differently. In both cases, the output of the fluid (air or oil) is metered through an orifice. The smaller the orifice, the slower the fluid can escape, which controls the rate of the damper. Air is compressible so changes volume considerably under load. For this reason, only relatively small loads can be supported without a large displacement. Hydraulic oil is (mostly) incompressible so it can react very large loads immediately. This is what is used in an automobile shock absorber, or even one for a radio control car. The term "hydraulic" refers to using incompressible oil, so it really cannot apply to the Lego dampers. I think they just wanted a term to make sure people knew it was not the same old pneumatic system.

Go karts are supposed to look thrown together. That makes them realistic. If the suspension on the 4x4 can be as good as 8858, I'll be impressed. Don't forget these two. Looks like the dozer uses the old style tracks.

Go here to see it. He mentions where he got the wheels chromed.

Good point, I'll have to look into this further. The Peeron inventory shows pictures of red and blue belts for 8094, but then lists them as white. The belts in my copy of 8094 are indeed white, but they are the new round elastic material, not the old square section rubber bands. I'm aware of the Dacta pen, but since that set is not technically Technic, I didn't reference it. It was a tough call picking either the crane or the robotic arm as my favorite. I chose the robotic arm mostly because there are lots of other cranes but there are no other robotic arms.

At long last, I have completed the year 1990 and added it to Technicopedia. Sets 8064, 8094, 8825, 8830, 8840, and 8850 have been added. It has been 7 months since the last update. Those with a weak stomach should read no further. So why has it been so long since my last update when previously I was adding sets every few weeks? Well, it has been a very bad summer. In April my wife unexpectedly left me to move in with her boyfriend. Since then, she has returned to take my house, my children, and has been awarded 100% of my income. So I am currently homeless and have only my car, my computer, and my boxes and boxes of Technic. Have you heard how Richard Hammond of "Top Gear" said his life was saved by Lego? Well, I think the same thing is happening to me. Lego has kept me sane by giving me something to think about. If Technicopedia can mean even a fraction as much to someone else as it has meant to me, then I have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.

The two models are actually pretty different apart from the fact that both are made from the Silver Champion. The car posted by Parax was designed by Nathanael Kuipers using the parts from 8458. You can see a picture of it below and you can find the instructions here (20 Mb). Believe it or not, he managed to make these instructions without using MLCAD. He modeled all the parts in Solidworks himself. The "Street Sensation" (not to be confused with the 8448 Super Street Sensation) was an official 3rd model of 8458. The set came with instructions for the first model (the F-1 racer) and the second model (the truck), but not the 3rd. Instructions for the third model could be downloaded from Lego using their "LEGO BIT" (Building Instruction Tool) program. This program no longer exists so the instructions are not that easy to come by. Luckily, I have just posted them at my website here (2.6 Mb). It is fairly low resolution. I was able to find the original source files here. You can see a picture of this model below and see that it is distinct from Nathanael's model. It starts with the chassis from the standard 8458 and simply adds a different body.