CP5670

This totally wins the thread. I can just imagine a 1980s Lego city full of the classic smiley figures and this one evil guy unexpectedly showing up among them. It's certainly a misprint.

Great thread. I'm like the type 2 differential: Specialized, yet very functional and versatile. It has quite a few uses that cannot be easily recreated with other pieces, some that are quite different from what it was originally designed for.

I have seen tree parts there in the past (like a year ago) but don't know what they currently stock. They change the selection every few months. If you want something specific, the best thing is to just call them and ask.

It was never actually fixed and has always been there. I think people have just gotten used to it now and no longer take note of it.

Has anyone else had this happen? I was a bit worried about this earlier. ABS is often treated with a protective coating to make it more resistant to UV, and the oxidizing process that removes the thin, discolored layer from a brick may also be wiping out the coating. There were some particular batches of white bricks in the early 90s that will discolor due to oxygen exposure regardless of sunlight, even if you keep them in the dark. I have several pieces from that period that are yellowed. Except for those pieces, you can prevent the discoloring by keeping any UV out.

It's good to see that people still have these instructions saved. I think I built that racer model a long time ago, when I first got the set. It looks familiar.

I remember having many of the same parts left over too. They're probably used in the alternate model.

You always take some risk with a used set. It could be missing pieces, have scratched/worn pieces or a variety of other issues. It all depends on how tolerant you are about such things. Recent used sets are less likely to have problems than vintage 80s/90s ones, although there also tends to be less of a price discrepancy between used and new copies of them.

I think 8421 is a better set, but you can't really compare the prices of new and used sets. As others said, it might make more sense to buy 8258 while it's still available new. 8421's pneumatics are easily strong enough for keeping the boom up though.

You might be right. Either TLG's marketing department is hopelessly out of touch with how the internet works, or they see the benefits in these pictures going viral and have noticed that people's interest in them increases when they are not "supposed" to be seen. In any case, it's utterly trivial to find them. It took me less than 10 seconds (two Google searches) to find them after I first saw this thread.

Yes, it's probably just a change in the instructions. It looks a bit like the minimalist style they used in the 80s. Even when they make changes to parts, the updates are often not reflected in the instructions until new sets come out.

I like this set a lot too but it falls just short of being truly outstanding. I haven't had any problems with the steering (in fact, it's remarkably smooth for a 6 wheel setup), although the control knob's placement is not the best. The boom extension is finicky though. It used to work fine when I first got the set, but now the clutch gear slips all the time. I looked into it extensively but couldn't find any place where it's encountering friction, so I finally just replaced the clutch gear with a regular gear. The cable also extends at a different speed than the boom and they get out of sync easily. I added the missing connections on the pneumatic pistons and it doesn't have much of an effect. You still have to open the valve very gradually or the boom comes crashing down.

There were quite a few other motorized helicopters in the past. Several universal sets had them, and many others like 8412 could be motorized using the addon motor sets. They used ungeared motors back then and typically had belts somewhere in the geartrain, which would automatically slip if the rotors got stuck, but that can also be done with the usual clutch gears.

9396 looks like the more interesting model to me. I don't see any arrows indicating blade pitch functions, but the assembly there seems too elaborate for just a simple axle leading up to the rotor. If it does this and has new swashplate parts, it would be a must have for me, but I will probably pass it up otherwise. 9398 seems too similar to the Unimog and has fewer functions aside from the motors. If the M motors are used for the drivetrain, that would be a little odd considering that such sets in the past had XL-based drivetrains. I'm guessing the manual will indicate that you should not take it outside, like 8043's did. The 4 wheel steering looks nice though. We haven't seen that on a large vehicle in quite some time.

My favorite is the cyborg (the human looking one). I have a bunch of them driving my models. I also like the 80s guy with the Technic logo and gear and the orange guy (covered up by a vest in that picture). Most of the newer figures only appeared in the 8200/8300 sets, many of which were pretty forgettable apart from the figure. These guys actually had names in the S@H catalogs. Sam Cyborg and Nick Stryker.

I think 8466 is a much better model. 8458 is big and looks great but is pretty weak on functionality. I remember buying it as a kid expecting a super car that improved on 8448, and being very disappointed for the price, while 8466 turned out to be just what I wanted. The suspension is fun to build, but doesn't work that well since the shocks are not stiff enough to hold up the model. Although 8466 has that issue too.

A nonstop video would be annoying and pointless. Animations on each step showing how the pieces go on would make more sense. I recall a few sets in the late 90s actually had this, but electronic instructions in general were too far ahead of their time back then and many people only had desktop computers, which are usually too unwieldy to build from. It might be more practical today with tablets becoming mainstream now.

I don't particularly like licensed themes but don't mind them either and can see their benefits. There have always been Lego themes and product lines that I never had any interest in, so I largely just ignore them. The licensed themes still give us excellent parts that find their way onto Bricklink (although there is no need to buy the entire sets just for those) and they do occasionally throw up a standout set, even if you look at them purely as Lego sets and ignore the fact that they represent something from the license. We also get plenty of non-licensed sets these days, more than we did in the 80s and 90s before any licensed sets existed.

I build on the floor (which is carpeted). I've thought about having a desk several times but can't find anything that would work well. I have a bedroom dedicated for my Lego building area. There are various city and monorail layouts on the floor but no furniture, so I have lots of room to spread things out. I always use up increasingly large amounts of space when building MOCs. I often take pieces out of my storage bins, find them unsuitable for what I wanted to do, but keep them in sight since I think I might use them later on the MOC. Eventually, my immediate work area gets cluttered and I move back to give myself more room. After repeating this a few times, I have taken up far more space than any desk would provide. I do use my dining table for building sets though, where the space is less of an issue.

I tend to buy a lot of stuff during Lego event sales, including all my big set purchases (at Brickfair for example, they give 30% discounts if you buy $250 or more). The S@H clearance page also has good stuff every now and then. All of these are good ideas. Some other ways I've gotten good deals in the past include mislabeled items (no or wrong set number in the title), sellers not taking Paypal and yearly periods of low demand (right after the new year, for example). Sniping no longer works as well as it once did though, due to the real-time ebay timer and the fact that everyone has faster internet connections now. Also, buy it now items are usually bad deals and should be avoided.

I generally like the new figures better. I think the old and new styles aren't that far apart though (unlike flesh or Exo-force) and go fine together. My layouts are filled with both types of minifigs. I can see your point that the genericity of the old minifigs is a good thing when you have large groups of them. This doesn't matter so much in space, police or fire themes, where it makes sense for everyone to be wearing the same uniforms, but becomes an issue in other situations. It's more noticeable on head prints in any theme. There have often been slight variations in the minifig head prints, which is actually a good thing since they give a bit of variety to otherwise identical minifigs.

I often listen to music (on headphones), usually computer game soundtracks.

I love how this model goes over high obstacles so easily, especially the other Technic model in the video. The planetary gearing seems to work well and gives the wheels a lot of torque without stressing axles. You can get standalone packs of those wheels in different colors for $60-70. Look for "dirt crusher wheels" in Bricklink. They still aren't cheap by any means, but it's better than buying one of the RC sets just for the wheels.

I got one back then, but I wish I had bought additional copies. It was not only chock full of pneumatic elements but was priced extremely low by today's standards, at just $100.

I think that term actually came from TLG themselves. That's how they were labeled on the boxes and catalogs when they first appeared in 2008.