Technic Gearhead

Very nice work - love it! Great combination of Technic and system bricks and nice use of curved slopes and tiles for a smooth surface. Great color scheme also - looks like it could be an official set! Impressive functionality given the size of the model. Compact and tidy too!

Nothing too crazy - just a giant flagship road grader with 100 gears and long pneumatic cylinders.

Very nice model and interesting design! I like the original inspirational model a lot too - very unique. I think it would look even better if there was a way to eliminate the studded plates on the dumper but we are somewhat limited by parts. You could investigate a combination of 1x thickness Technic bricks, slopes and inverted slopes possibly although you have probably moved on to the next project by now. :) All in all very nicely done! I like your work a lot.

I think you're onto something with the all black with yellow accents! I don't mind the red frame with that combo either. We should have a 9398 re-coloring contest once everyone has had a chance to get one.

I would love to have some more of those brackets for future needs but shelling out twenty-spots per gets old in a hurry! I could get four 1x6 thin yellow 'Power Puller' liftarms for that!

Those color studies are interesting. I think orange and blue would be nice if there was enough pieces to make it work. I don't think yellow goes very well. Maybe we can have a solid orange one ten years from now - stay tuned!

Thanks for the comments. I thought the yellow 8264 wheels would help freshen it up a bit. I replaced just about all of the black pieces with dark bluish gray ones so I decided to do something different with the boom brace. It's only available in black or orange. I opted for orange to signify that modern PF parts are on board since they all have bits of orange. I fully intended to cover up the battery box with a combination of smooth panels similar to the 8053 but later decided the exposed battery box looked fine for now.

I'm currently building the 8275 right now. I didn't like all of the studded pieces that comprise the blade so I have replaced them with Technic parts. It is coming along nicely but I still have to work out a few more details elsewhere to complete the update. I have a sealed set but decided to piece this one together since I had planned on a few changes anyways. I'll post some images of the completed model soon. I just finished an updated version of the 8421 Mobile Crane. I'll start a separate thread explaining some of the minor changes in more detail but here is a link to some images for now. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=508139

It would be nice if you could opt out of the other offer to get the 20% - I would go for that myself!

That sounds pretty interesting! I have been looking at the XL version also but wanted to get the base one done first and go from there. I'll post up some pictures tonight and make a thread as soon as the folder is public. You can take a look at how I've implemented the PF parts and see if you like it or not. I remember seeing you mention the crane in another thread and meant to comment on it.

You could always toss it in the back of your Crawler for traction.

Even though it's a simple tractor that looks suspiciously close to an 8049, I still like it. And if that's what it takes to get the new Lime panels on the front, so be it. It could use a little more Lime perhaps but is a cute little bugger anyways.

I plan to document it pretty soon and make a thread describing everything I tweaked. I'm pleased with how it turned out but it needs a little more work here and there to be polished. The crane is kind of slow with the small PF motor, so it could use some revisions to the external gearing.

I have been using the new ones for everything I have been building lately. I think they look stronger but also prefer them aesthetically and they're newer so they must be better. I just finished a modernized re-make of the 8421 Mobile Crane and used these gears along with the other new ones, along with the newer axle connectors. I also used the newer PF parts vs. the old RC motor and battery box.

And who wouldn't be? Lol! I have a couple in mind for mine although there are limited options if you want a solid color. It seems like we are always a part or two away from opening up a lot more possibilities.

Excellent review - thanks for posting that! I'm really excited about this helicopter. I love the color scheme but wish it wasn't sticker dependent with that diagonal design although it looks nice with them applied. I love the Technic sets this size as much as the flagship sets, and probably more so this year.

I'm currently building a modernized PF 8421 and noticed I had a small gap on one side of the cab and not on the other. I saw this thread and knew right away that must be the problem and sure enough it was - I had one of each on the model. I'm building the set from my inventory, so that is why there was a mix-up. I have one MISB but couldn't bring myself to crack it open just yet.

Welcome back to Technic - your story sounds so familiar! I have been back for a couple of years now and so far I have been keeping my sets separate from my regular inventory. I purchased a couple of extra copies of sets I had to boost my non set inventory and have been adding pieces from Bricklink as needed. I color sort my inventory and so far that has been working pretty well. If my inventory starts getting out of hand, I just build something for display and that knocks it back down a bit. Have fun and enjoy catching back up. I'm close to your age and Technic has come a ways since the 856 days!

The Helicopter is the set that excites me the most so far. It looks much more interesting to me and the B model looks to be pretty cool as well.

Along with them, the remainder of the orange parts needed to make it whole!

I like the design - so compact and neat. The color scheme looks nice also and I like it with the 8264 Wheels. Nice work!

Good point but I like to keep track of how many I have of a specific color as well, and I'm OCD!

Color sort FTW! Then again by type, lol!

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to give us an early look. I'm still not taken by the sticker dependent color scheme but everything else looks very promising. It looks like fun!

You can't go wrong with any of those choices. I have an E46 330i myself and used to own an E92 M3. I love the E30 bodystyle although the Porsche might be more interesting. Sounds like a good idea.