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thomol

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  1. thomol
    Any info on this beast?
  2. thomol
    3199 Swedish krona, that's approximately 327.50 € with current exchange rate. And about 68% more than I gave for the Arocs at webhallen.se. Hopefully they will get it in August; with their usual pricing I will probably save around 60 € compared to official Lego channels.
  3. thomol
    I've been away from Lego (both physically and digitally) for quite some time due to moving into a new home, so it took a while to discover this thread. Thanks for the credits for the 8848 style front bucket! If you're still thinking about changing the front axle to a better one you should try the one made by Nicjasno featuring good caster angle and better pivot points (see ). It makes huge improvements on the steering and is fun to buiild!
  4. thomol
    Yes, I believe it was an interview with a (technic) lego designer quoted here or at Technicbricks and as I remember it he said that it was difficult to know which set that was referred when he talked to afols about 'this years flagship' because he and/or his colleagues had just been finishing next years flagship. Im essence, to him the Arocs should count as the flagship of 2014 when it was constructed, not 2015 when it was released...
  5. thomol
    Some thoughts. I got my copy August 1st, and after letting it ripen on a shelf for a couple of days I built it during five building sessions and a total of 8.5 hours. It was a fun build, especially the front and rear axle assemblies, and the resulting model looks good on the shelf (with one exception, see below). All functions work fine, I haven't experienced any problems with the pneumatics, they work fine even if there is a tight fit with 8 tubes going through the turntable. And contrary to what I thought beforehand there is no need to fit a PF switch to operate the motor; the redesigned switch on the battery box is super easy to operate compared to it's predecessors. Oh, and I like the weight of the whole thing, heavy models are more impressive than lighter ones, regardless their functions and aesthetics. All in all its a must have, no doubt about it! What's not so good then? In my eyes the crane is totally out of proportion compared to the rest of the truck. I see people complain on the placement of the wheel arches on the second axle and the wheel size, asking for the old 68.something tires to return, but those issues are nothing compared to the crane proportions. First of all the crane is to tall even in its lowest position. In real life it would rip down every traffic sign portal it would pass, even with the bed lowered... Secondly its much to bulky, not counting the tubing it has a width of about 30% of the width of the truck. If it was a heavy lifting crane like the one on 8258 I could understand its size, but the Arocs has a clamshell and really doesn't need a big crane. What I would like on a model of this size is a crane arm with a maximum width of 3 studs, inluding tubing, using only 1xN pneumatic cylinders. I understand that such a solution would make the model less playable, with decreased actual lifting power and such, but oh how much better it would look. And as I don't play with my Lego models, I only pose them, I wouldn't care. If I find the time and inspiration I'll try to mod the crane, taking it to the slim club, and post it in the modding thread.
  6. thomol
    10243, Parisian restaurant, has bags numbered 1-4 and almost 2500 pieces, so obviously part count has nothing to do with bag numbering. Instead it seems like age range, theme, use of sub models and such determines the numbering.
  7. thomol
    Availability differs between countries. For example it's available at shop@home for customers in Sweden and Germany but not for US customers.
  8. thomol
    I haven't seen it in technic, but 10225, UCS R2-D2, had bags numbered 1-10. That's the most I've encountered!
  9. thomol
    Now I've tried with soft springs on 1st axle, and while the suspension works fine there is a noticeable bend in the chassis between the front and middle modules. The springs on the 1st axle compresses a couple of millimeters while the 2nd axle don't seem to compress at all, and this creates the bend where the chassis has its weakest point. Maybe medium springs work better, but I'm out of those so I'll let that part be for now. However there should be room to add some diagonal support between front and middle modules which might solve the bending.
  10. thomol
    I'll try that. You did use soft, not medium on the first axle?
  11. thomol
    For fun I tried switching front and rear and the whole truck leaned forward. Then I tried soft shocks at the rear to get some balance but it only made the truck unstable while still leaning forward. So no, the advice is to follow instructions and leave the suspension as intended.
  12. thomol
    There are only six 7L red beams, all easy accessible. Two in the outriggers, two in the first crane section and two in the clamshell. Should be no problem to fix!
  13. thomol
    I think you need at least one pulley on the bottom of the central linkage. Let the cable go down, round the pulley and then up and connect it to the outer frame. When you pull the cable it will then pull the inner part upwards and the outer part downwards, closing the grapple. The closing force should be somewhat proportional to the weight of the outer frame, which is what's holding the grapple down to the ground. Hm, just realised you need to balance the claws to stay open when you release the grapple cable, otherwise it will be impossible to pick anything up... To bad I'm away from my Lego, I would like to test this myself.
  14. thomol
    I'm through with bags 1-3 and I haven't found anything yet that isn't on par with my expectations. Except for one thing, I had not expected the colour coding madness to have gone so far. I can accept it for axles and pins and their derivatives, but colour coding of liftarms and beams is nothing but crazy. Every single 2L beam is yellow, every single 2*4 liftarm is light gray and so on, no matter where they are placed in the model. I'm not sure when this started, my latest technic model was the 9398, and I don't recall it as being as colour coded as 42043. Since I don't MOC (where it is possible to choose your own colours), this takes out quite a bit of the fun in building and displaying technic Lego. That said, I still think the model is marvellous (especially at night when all colours fade to gray...)
  15. thomol
    Do you mean something like this? http://blug.es/eng/productos/tongs/pmb-300-pi10 Only problem I see is that the grapple is too light in respect to the friction in the pulleys. When pulling the grapple string the whole grapple will probably be lifted instead of closed. Maybe that can be solved using a weight brick.
  16. thomol
    I haven't started building my copy yet, but I'm guessing it's to prevent the outriggers to extend when the gear box isn't engaged. Sometimes the friction in the gearbox makes all outputs rotate even though they're not engaged, especially when the friction after the gear box is low.
  17. thomol
    They're shown used in the box art when the Arocs is working in "rough" terrain.
  18. thomol
    8860, around 1982 I think, with an average of 27 parts added on each page. 8851, with the tightest fit for pneumatic hoses ever. Or maybe 8466, first set after dark ages before color coding of pins and axles and before I revived my eye measure for beam and axle lengths. After that building official sets has become easier and easier each year, no matter the size of the set.
  19. thomol
    Nope, Barkarby it is!
  20. thomol
    Picking up my 42043 later today, pre-ordered at webhallen.com for SEK 1,779, which is 19% less than shop@home. Sadly I probably won't have time to build it for at least a couple of weeks... -- Is the smaller share of pins in 8421 compared to 42009, 8258 and 8285 depending on a higher share of studded beams? Studded building = less pins seems valid I think.
  21. thomol
    Sariel has already used them in his fire boat moc. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=112255#entry2278235
  22. thomol
    It looks nice, but I think it's a bit too large for 8043. I have fitted my 8043 with the bucket from 8851, and it looks quite well (and proportional). Your bucket must have twice the volume. For me an 8851 bucket with teeth and better geometry would be perfect.
  23. thomol
    A mechanical marvel! Now we just have to wait for an in depth review by Blakbird!
  24. thomol
    If you can rely solely on gravity to retract the cylinder (like on a crane arm, for example 8421) there is an easy trick. Connect the cylinder's (extraction) inlet to the center inlet of the valve and the pump to one of the valve's outlets. Then connect a hose to the other valve outlet and plug it with an antenna or something alike. Punch a hole in the plugged hose with a needle. Now, when you flip the switch to lower the crane arm the air will slowly seep out through the needle hole and the arm will slowly descent to it's low position.
  25. thomol
    The trick is to never let her see the box. Just blend the pieces into your collection and pretend you only have downloaded the instructions: "Look darling, I know we can't afford more Lego, so instead I'm building this crane from my leftover pieces!" You could also pretend you're building a moc...
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