Blakbird

I would say it is about the same size, but not the same scale. A real Backhoe (depending on model) should be considerably larger than a Unimog.

I will try to remember to show you the exact page and step when I get home from work tonight. All my CAD work is with LDraw tools. The editor is MLCAD. Wires and synthesized with LSynth. In this case, Jurgen built the model and synthesized the wires himself. All I did was render the result so he gets the credit. Sure, which flagship did you have in mind? Let me know what you want and I'll take a picture.

What model?

The gearbox instructions are available separately for free, but I'm sure Jurgen has no objection to sending him money. I'll be reviewing this model in a couple of days. The gearbox is awesome, no doubt about it.

Jurgen Krooshoop's backhoe has been on my build list ever since he first published it in 2012. My main excuse for not building it earlier is simply expense. This is a huge model with lots of Power Functions and plenty of rare parts as well. However, whenever there was a lull in my schedule my mind returned to this beauty, and finally I could not resist any more. It took a considerable amount of time to acquire the necessary parts, with things like the Power Puller wheels being a particular problem. The renders below show the inside and outside of the model. Every model starts as a pile of parts, and this is quite a pile. We have nearly 2000 parts here which, by itself, it not vastly greater than many Technic MOCs. But the list of Power Functions components is what really sets it apart. 1 rechargeable battery 3 set of LED lights 7 M motors 1 XL motor 4 IR receivers 2 PF extensions 9 Linear actuators You will immediately notice the 8 motors, but this model actually has 9 motorized functions which is accomplished in a clever way. Neither the L motor nor the servo existed at the time this model was made. In retrospect, both of them could have been useful. Rare parts include the flex axles, Power Puller wheels, and 10x18 bucket. Next I'll show a bunch of pictures of the build process. As is usual for Jurgen, his instructions are excellent with lots of arrows and even show most of the wire routing. Following the instructions was no problem at all. The model is very durable and well braced, at least as much as possible for something this heavy. I did find one error in the instructions in which a 12 tooth double bevel gear was missing. By the time I realized it, I had to tear apart about 50 steps worth of structure to get to it. It is possible that I have a pre-release version of the instructions. Here is the main chassis with gearbox functions and motors. As you can see, there is a LOT going on here. Here is the completed main body without the front or rear attachments. I really like the curved fenders and the way the battery box is hidden under the hood but still easily accessible. Here is the front loader assembly. When building the rear excavator, I took apart the turntable and lubricated it with silicon spray prior to installing it. I was glad I did because the boom is very heavy and it worked super smooth this way. Here is the completed model. I'll run you through the functions and my thoughts on each of them: The front axle is pendular. The torque tube parts did not exist yet, so that means the weight of the model is resting on the steering axle. Notionally this is a problem but the model does not seem to suffer for it. The front wheels steer with a rack and pinion system driven through a clutch gear. Sometimes if you try to steer when stopped the clutch gear will slip. The steering is geared to be very fast which is a bit of a problem for control because it is very difficult to get the wheels to stop in the straight ahead position. This is where the servo would be really helpful, and could probably be easily retrofit given that the motor is just hanging off the side and easily accessible. The rear wheels are driven by an XL motor through a differential. The drive train is pretty direct and VERY fast. In fact, it is so fast that you can't really drive it without the proportional train remote. With that one, it drives very nicely. I was a bit surprised how well it works with only 1 XL motor given the weight. The loader boom raises with a pair of linear actuators. The power and speed are reasonable, however the actuators don't retract far enough to let the bucket reach the ground, so you can't really scoop up anything off the ground with it. The bucket tips with a pair of linear actuators which have plenty of power. The use of linear actuator brackets in the gear train which are not paired with actuators was new to me. The bucket has enough power to lift the front wheels off the ground if the bucket is tipped while the boom is down. There are outriggers in the rear. These are just vertical linear actuators driving directly. They can lift up the rear of the model which is impressive given the weight of the excavator. A clever system is used to keep the rod end from rotating while extending. The excavator boom slews 180 degrees (not 360 like Jurgen says in the video) using a worm gear driving the ring gear of the turntable. There is a clutch gear on this system to protect to motor when end of travel is reached. The excavator boom raises with a single linear actuator. This is the weakest part of the model. It only uses an M motor so the actuator needed to be installed with a significant mechanical advantage to have the necessary power. This means that the motion is slow and the range of motion is small. The UP position of the boom is very scale accurate, but the DOWN position of the boom is not low enough to reach below grade so you can't "dig". It works acceptably given the constraints. I think it would be much improved with an L motor that would allow a different actuator position. Note that this function is driven from inside the loader so the drive axle passes through the turntable. The dipper is driven by an M motor inside the boom and a linear acuator. The drive is nearly direct (1:1) and works very well. The bucket is driven by an M motor inside the dipper and a linear actuator. The bucket is really too big for a backhoe, but there is not a great alternative. Range of motion of the bucket is very good. Finally, there is a two position gearbox in the chassis driven by a final M motor. Unlike 8043, the motor has no trouble switching the gearbox under any circumstances the model encountered. Most functions are available all the time, but you can switch between operating the front or rear boom and bucket. To give you an idea of how big this model is, here it is next to some other backhoes. As you can see, it is enormous. I'd certainly recommend this model to anyone who can come up with the required parts. It was a lot of fun to build and use. The only real complication is the wiring, which is nearly always true of a model with so much PF. There is quite a pile of wires inside the cabin by the time you are done, and stowing it all without interfering with any gears can be tricky. If I was doing it all over again, I might omit the lights from the roof because those were the hardest to route and stow. Thanks to Jurgen for making this available to the community. It is a great model. (Bigger versions of all pictures at my Bricksafe.)

Keep in mind that LEGO is shipped all over the world in metal shipping containers that can get VERY hot when in the sun for long periods of time. If this doesn't damage the parts, I don't think any temperature a user will even expose them to will be a problem. If you search this forum, you will find a thread in which a user intentionally melted some bricks in the oven to make a certain kind of sculpture. I don't remember what temp he used.

That is correct, however keep in mind that Jurgen's Ultimate 42009 is not the same model that has been discussed in the last few pages of this thread. That model is the Grove GMK 6400 and instructions are not yet available for that one.

I don't think there is any relevant minimum temperature. You'd be dead before the temp would bother your LEGO. As for maximum, the melting point of ABS is ~105 C, so obviously you want to stay well under that. Even in the arid desert where it can be 50 C you should be fine.

I recently got an extra copy of 42009 and 9396 on sale at Toys R Us with the intent to use them for parts. I figured that before I parted them out I may as well build and enjoy the B-models first. I took a few pictures and will present a very brief review. I can hardly hope to improve upon Sariel's excellent video review. A reach stacker is a topic that has never been tackled before in an official Technic set, but it is something I see regularly at my nearby port. This seems like a natural model for Technic given the intrinsic mechanical functions. I admit I was underwhelmed by the pictures of the reach stacker and truck on the back of the box, perhaps because the styling was a bit sparse. Having now built them though, I can say that this is one of the best alternate models ever. Super fun to use and well designed. When you open ALL the numbered bags from 42009, you get a pile of parts that is pretty daunting to behold. Some presorting was a necessity. The second image shows how many parts were left over after the build. Nearly all of the beams were used, but a great many gears remain. The shipping container is not particularly impressive, but the open design was necessary not just because of the limited number of parts available but also to make the container light enough to be lifted by the stacker. The diagonal braces are essential to the box remaining square. The truck is not very impressive visually, but performs its function well. To start with there is 4 wheel steering actuated by a HOG control. The only other function is a grapple which locks the container to the truck once in place. The grapple has a hook at either end of the truck, geared together and driven by small linear actuators. Come 3x5 ellipses are used to guide the container into place and lock it laterally. Obviously the reach stacker itself is the highlight of the build, and I admit that even after watching Sariel's video I didn't fully appreciate just how much went into the design of this and how clever it is. For example, the 3 position gearbox is pretty complex. In this case both the gearbox and battery are actually installed in the boom, not on the carrier. In fact, the battery box is used as a counterweight and the arm is installed with a pivot well ahead of the battery for balance. This was required since the boom can barely lift the container at full extension. I build the model out of order and made the boom first. The functions are: Boom lift: accomplished by a pair of large linear actuators mounted upside down (rod end down). Boom telescope: accomplished by a rack gear running the length of the inner boom arm. Grapple open/close: accomplished by small linear actuators at either end of the grapple Grapple rotate: manual function driven by a worm gear through the turntable. The way the grapple works is awesome. Linear actuators at either end drive the end plates using 13L gear racks. 2L axles act as pins to engage the ends of the container. At the sides of the grapple, some 3L beams are used as cranks which rotate inward and guide the container so that it will always be aligned with the pins. The way the pins engage the container is quite similar to how it works in real life. The base has a couple of other features. The rear wheels steer, the V8 engine moves, and the operator cabin can be elevated using a wheel on the front of the body. Just remember to lower it before you lower the boom or they collide! Once it is all done, this thing is a lot of fun to operate. I am highly tempted NOT to part it out and instead keep a second copy just for this model. The model has very few weaknesses. Did I mention it is HUGE? I forgot to photograph it next to anything else, but the reach stacker is well larger than any other forkift made by TLG and even larger than the 8295 telehandler. In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller, "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up."

I recently got an extra copy of 42009 and 9396 on sale at Toys R Us with the intent to use them for parts. I figured that before I parted them out I may as well build and enjoy the B-models first. I took a few pictures and will present a very brief review. The 9396 B-model is an intermeshing rotor helicopter - a very unusual configuration. I was pleased to see TLG choose such an obscure type of helicopter as a model. These types of choppers really do exist! A conventional heli needs a tail rotor to compensate for the torque generated by the main rotor. A few helicopters use two main rotors instead. A tandem rotor configuration uses one in front and one in back. A coaxial rotor uses one right on top of the other. An intermeshing rotor does just what it sounds like. The rotors are installed next to each other with axes tilted away and rotating in opposite directions. This helicopter drives the main rotors (and other functions) using the small prop on the tail as a crank. On real intermeshing helicopters, the main rotors have a cyclic which can be used to provide thrust in any direction, just like a normal helicopter. This model seems to use a prop for propulsion and rotors for lift, so it is more like a cross with a gryocopter. The main rotors do have collective pitch adjusted by a lever behind the pilot's seat. The mechanism doesn't work very well because it jams against the adjacent linear actuator 9 times out of 10. The collective mechanism is also not heavy enough to droop under its own weight when you release the lever. The heli features a two position gearbox under the engines. The second function is retractable main landing gear which tucks up flush with the body. This picture shows the left over parts, and as you can see the vast majority of the parts are used for the alternate model. This is also a really big model! Take a look next to the 42025 Cargo plane. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I like this model. I certainly think it is worth building if you own 9396. The big tail prop works really well as a crank so you can drive the main rotors very fast, and even generate a little wind if you pitch the rotors! No, it won't fly.

I want to emphasize how cool this gearbox is. It is NOT sequential. You can directly select any gear. That means you can go straight from 1st to 4th, or from 4th to 2nd at any time. And it works really well. The mechanisms which make it possible are ingenious.

I am using V1 receivers in mine and it is still the fastest LEGO model I have ever built. With V2 it should be even better, although not strictly necessary.

and 8223, and 8246......

I don't see why V2's would be required. I'm using all V1's in mine. I'll let you know how it works if I ever finish the base! One of the batteries runs 3 receivers which control all the excavating functions as well as the lights. The other battery runs only 1 receiver which controls driving through the subtractor. I think only that last receiver would benefit from being V2. Given that you are probably never driving and excavating at the same time, two batteries are probably not strictly necessary. However, they also act as counterweights. I am guessing your could save money by using only one battery and adding boat weights or coins to make up the difference.

I don't think the USA prices have been formally released, but your guess sounds about right.

Instructions should be available in a day or two. They are complete and just need to be posted.

Now let's add a review of the excellent alternate model. Let me start by staying that I don't often build alternate models. This is partially because I often don't find them interesting, but there is another reason. In days of yore, you could pull out the printed instruction manual for the alternate model and get started, but more recently TLG has been saving cost by not printing the alternate instructions. The downloadable PDFs have often been of such abysmal quality that building the alternate model was difficult at best. Various theories have been expounded on why this is so, chief among them being to save file size. However, I've always believed the low quality to be intentional to prevent easy copyright infringement. While I can understand this for the main instructions (legitimate buyers should have the printed copy anyway), it didn't make much sense for the alternate model since even legitimate buyers had download as the only option. 42025 would seem to corroborate my theory. The main instruction PDF is as terrible as we have come to expect, however the alternate PDF is excellent! Really sharp and clear. The fact that TLG used two totally different quality levels certainly implies this is intentional. Note that this is not unique to 42025; 42009 is the same way. The alternate model uses the majority of the parts from the main model. The image below shows the leftovers. One thing I really like about these instructions is that they clearly show you how to use the stickered parts from the main model. On many alternate models, the stickers from the main model are not used and look odd. Not so in this case. In fact, it is easier to build the alternate model than to rebuild the main model. The reason for this is that the stickers in the main model are not always applied in the same step as the part is added, so if you've already applied the stickers it is not obvious when to use those parts. The alternate model is apparently a hovercraft (or possibly hydrofoil). It could be a passenger ferry, an auto ferry, or some other sort of high speed cargo vessel. Watercraft are pretty rare in the history of Technic, so this was a welcome change. The functions are pretty limited but well implemented. The model sits on 4 hidden wheels under the side skirts. The rear wheel carriage pivots for steering. At the same time, the pusher propellers are turned in the opposite direction. The concept and implementation is very similar to how the 8839 ship works. The front cargo door is a fascinating mechanism. The ramp folds down at the same time as the upper portion of the forward deck lifts up. The motion is reminiscent of the front door on the 8480 alternate submarine. I've shown an image both open and closed, but this mechanism deserved an animated GIF as well. Inside the cargo bay is a rather leaky storage container. The cargo bay is large with a solid floor, so you could probably fit a substantial LEGO car inside up to 10 wide. The whole thing is controlled with a 4 position gearbox, but that's a bit of a misnomer. One of the 4 outputs is not connected to anything. Furthermore, another two of the outputs are for the engines which run in parallel, so there are really only two selectable positions. One is for engines and the other is for cargo door/ramp. There is a black lever on the side which operates the battery box switch remotely. This thing is pretty fun. As an alternate model built from a fixed palette, I would rate it highly. It is certainly worth building, though I haven't decided whether it is worth actually keeping an additional copy of the set just to display it.

Those of us in North America have been impatiently waiting for the 42025 Cargo Plane all year whilst the rest of world got to bask in its glory. Finally I could stand it no more so I ordered a copy from Amazon that was imported from Japan. The box showed up a bit damaged, but it was worth it to finally get my hands on this. As an aircraft fan, I'd been anticipating this one for a long time. The box was reasonably full on un-numbered bags.The instruction manuals, as is the new norm, came packed in a bag with a cardboard sheet for protection. Note that the manuals are in multiple volumes, so despite the fact that a couple of reviewers have found single large manuals in some new sets, this is apparently not the new standard. There were also two huge sticker sheets included. Virtually every panel (and there are a LOT of panels) gets a sticker. Let's take a look at the parts. Below you can see the overall sorted parts distribution and then some close-up views of panels, gears, and beams. It is tempting to think of this as a big ole' Power Functions set. It is surely big, but the PF content is actually minimal: just a battery box and an M-motor. The five small linear actuators are a nice addition to any collection. Although the model is blue and white (thanks LEGO!), there is remarkably little blue in it. Most of the blue comes from the stickers and the 3L pins! I am also pleased to report minimal color vomit. In this case, black was used as a contrasting color to make building easier instead of something more egregious. Although this is still not ideal from an AFOL perspective, the black does not stand out as objectionable. Interestingly, there are a number of 2L blue beams included which really should have been white. As I used the first of them I thought they were probably blue because somewhere else in the model they needed to be blue. But it turns out none of the uses within the model really needed to blue. So why blue? I don't know but it is nice to have those parts available. I wanted to point out this bit of the instructions which I found unusual. In this case TLG used a 3L lightsaber blade intead of a 3L axle to connect these parts. The apparent reason was to provide more clearance for a nearby linear actuator. Here we can see the first portions of the build. The linear actuator you see here will operate the nose gear. The next pair operate the main gear. I was surprised to see that in no portion of the instructions did it tell you to synchronize the position of the LA's. This means that the various gears can be way out of phase. Only after completing the model did I realize that the internal clutches in the actuators will automatically resynchronize once you reach the end of travel. Here you can see the battery pack dividing the forward and aft cargo bays. TLG actually opted to make the floor aft the aft bay solid (notice the beams filling in the gaps in the 5x7 bracket), presumably so that cargo could actually be placed there. Now we see the main gearbox being assembled. This will go above the battery box and switch between 4 motorized functions: forward cargo door, aft cargo door, engines, and landing gear. All are driven by a single centrally mounted M-motor. Next we'll mount the linear actuators for the forward and aft cargo doors. The nose door uses a single actuator powered through u-joints. The rear door also uses a single actuator, but this time the power is routed through a series of bevel gears supported by brackets. The core of the fuselage is now complete. At this point it doesn't look much like an airplane, but all the motorized functions are already completed. I really like the complex angles both within and outside the nose cargo door. It is obvious that a lot of design effort went into this, and it was certainly not trivial to make sure that no parts were stressed on installation. This picture shows the diagonal braces for the wings. Although a real plane of this type would have fully cantilevered wings, for the LEGO model the diagonal braces are essential for rigidity. Once the wings are on, you can hardly see them. Next come the skirts for the landing gear. I won't call these landing gear doors because they don't really enclose the gear, but they do shield the gear when either stowed or deployed. Interestingly, the position of the skirts is about the same at each extreme position. They just move out of the way for the gear to pass to retracting, then return to their former position. This is accomplished by slaving the motion to the gear motion with the 6L half liftarms. Time to build the aft of the fuselage and the empennage. At this point we install the stick that will operate the elevators and ailerons. The rudder does not move, however I'm pleased to report that there IS a rudder. The designer outlined the rudder with beams to make it distinct from the rest of the vertical stabilizer. Once installed on the fuselage, the tail totally changes the look of the model and you can now tell what it is going to be. I like the fact that the upper and lower surfaces of the rear fuselage are swept upward. On real planes, this is to avoid striking the tail on the ground during takeoff rotation or landing. In the case of this LEGO model, the taper starts in the wrong place (too far aft of the landing gear), so the body still strikes the ground when rotating. Here we see the main spar of the wing constructed and installed along with attachment of the diagonal braces. At this point, the wing is structurally complete. The rest is just for show! In the third image, you can see some of those mystery 2L blue beams. This shows the flaps and ailerons. I really like that the flaps are not just a simple hinge, but actually move with a bit of Fowler motion: moving aft and down at the same time. The flaps use a bit of friction to stay in place. Speaking of friction, look at how the engine clutch works. When I heard that the engines come with a clutch function to keep from hurting your fingers, I figured it utilized either a ratchet or the 24 tooth clutch gear. But you can see it actually sends the torque through a friction pin which allows slippage. Here are the parts that are left over. These seem to really be extra and not needed for the alternate model. And now the completed model. It looks pretty good! Some of these images show the nose door and the landing gear. If not for the battery box, the internal volume would be a continuous open space for cargo. In the top view, you can see another nice detail. The wings are actually slightly tapered! The leading edge is installed at a small angle which allows the root chord to be larger than the tip chord. There is no doubt that this thing is pretty fun to use. I was swooshing it all over my house right after I finished building it. The ability to leave the props running while flying is nice. I should also point out that that the black lever which attached to the battery box switch is much easier to use than the switch itself. This is good since it is normally so tricky to get the switch centered. It is hard to say that this is modeled after a real aircraft, but it is pretty similar to a C-123. The fact that is has 4 main landing gear wheels suggests a bigger plane like the C-130, but then it should have 4 engines. So how does this compare with some older planes? These final two images show you. Although the plane is very large, good old 8855 is almost as big. I enjoyed this model quite a bit and would certainly recommend it. As a play set it is lots of fun, and it is quite a good parts pack as well. The price is not bad for something of this size, and the alternate model is pretty cool too (I have built it and will review it later). Larger versions of all these pictures are available at my Bricksafe.

We don't call them "big American trucks". To us they are just regular trucks. Personally, I am very glad that TLG chose to use the older suspension arms. They were impossible to find on BL any more, so this will help the secondary market tremendously. I also think the older arms and newer arms compliment each other, so I don't consider the new one a replacement. There is a reason that control arms are "A" shaped. The extra width at the root provides much more support for acceleration and braking forces, and therefore is more appropriate for larger models. The new arms would have to be reinforced with another link (like Crowkillers did with his Muscle Car).

Hmmm, Time Machine is automatic, so you shouldn't have to remember to do anything. I haven't touched mine in years, but it has backups of everything going back all that time. Just set it to backup every hour (which is default). It will recycle space once your backup drive is full.

If you use Time Machine for backups then you should have a snapshot of your computer every hour and can just go back to a time before you hosed the file. If you don't do backups, you are in trouble.

That's a fantastic model and a great video as well. I'm pretty sure only EB members can be in the Hall of fame though.

Those pictures are just screen captures from LDView. I'll do the real renders after I have the base included. Thanks for pointing out that axle. I'll correct the file. If I remember right, your models makes use of a vertical worm gear to engage the ring gears of the differentials. If you switch to the new differentials, this won't work any more which means a totally new design. Personally, I can completely understand the compromises that are required to make such a large model ambulatory, so I don't object if it is only reliable on level smooth surfaces. Of course, it is your model so you can do as you like. I am just impatient to get started building!

Not quite zero. I'd say it made 4.7 units of sense.

Actually, I was the very first person to make a flying LEGO MOC.