CP5670

The RC motor is the best choice overall, but the M motor also works fine. I use this with a 1:3 gearing on the RC motor and it doesn't break a sweat up to 45psi or so, at which point the tubes pop off. You want to make the pumps go through the full stroke, and ideally have at least two of them in a double-acting configuration. The original 8868 compressor design is lousy (it was admittedly the first one they made), only going through half the stroke and running out of steam quickly.

I doubt it's so much that they "don't think so" as much as they merely "haven't noticed." There are a couple of people in the Technic forum who I think certainly deserve it, but the moderators don't go there that often and have probably just not seen their stuff. As Hinckley said though, it's not something I would take too seriously. It's all for fun anyway, and people who frequent that section already know who the experts are.

I do this frequently on Bricklink. All of my orders consist of at least some "odds and ends" pieces, and some orders have only such pieces. Some sellers don't like people buying too many things like this and have lot limits to prevent it, while other sellers have no problem with it and there are some that actually specialize in rare and old parts. You will still want to buy at least $10 or so worth of stuff though to make the shipping worthwhile.

I use "Lego" as a singular noun, referring to the Lego system as a whole. "Lego bricks" is too wordy and "LEGO" looks odd, as if it's an acronym for something. Most people I meet who aren't AFOLs say "Legos." At the end of the day, who cares? It's all referring to the same thing. TLG might get uptight over it, but I certainly don't.

Yes, I don't think the issue is so much that certain users' MOCs are favored, but that MOCs from certain themes and forum sections get it more often. This doesn't seem to be intentional and is just a result of the fact that the moderators are a lot more active in some parts of the forum than others. If you think something deserves a highlight, just send a PM to one of them and they will often put it up.

Good to see you here on EB. Like many others, I've always found your motor page to be a great resource. This E motor seems pretty lousy compared to the PF M though, except for its intended use as a generator. It's not as fast as I would think given the low torque. Although I do like faster motors in general since they put less stress on long geartrains and let you do the gear reduction yourself at the end.

I'm certainly a Futuron fan. It was quite a large theme, but still managed to have uniformly good sets across the whole theme. I have most of the larger sets but not that many of the smaller ones. The distinction between classic space and Futuron was pretty blurry. The initial Futuron sets weren't actually marketed as a separate theme, and the only real difference between them and the final wave of classic space sets was the minifigs. I've got an extra one of those too. I didn't really need it but found a good price at one point, and plan to use it to expand my existing monorail setup.

Yeah, the old boxes are much cooler than the modern ones. They just screamed "high quality product" whenever I saw them. Unfortunately, they changed the boxes around 2000 to cut costs.

Brasso works well for removing small, fine scratches. I've used it to polish many transparent pieces in the past. It doesn't do much for larger scratches though.

I have 6 or 7 packs of these that I've gotten over the years, spread along the walls in two bedrooms. I put white poster boards over them to cover up the holes. It's not a perfect solution, but I haven't seen anything else that gives you this much space for the price.

The adapter TLG used to include in the 9V sets was a 12V 700mA unit (included in both my 8485 and speed regulator). The control center's port says "9-12V" so it can presumably take anything in that range. You should be able to use any cheap 12V transformer with it though. I like the first set better too. Three of the four models are very unique, both the concepts and the mechanisms they use. The dinosaur in 8485 is fantastic, but the other two are not as impressive.

Great review. I won't get the whole set, but the rare parts in it should show up on Bricklink soon. The yellow hard hats are easily the highlight for me (I've never liked the red color for these), and I like the printed wrench sign too.

I tell anyone who is interested. I'm proud of the hobby. My friends and thesis advisor have all seen my collection and think it's awesome. I have even briefly mentioned it in my job applications (my website has links to my Brickshelf gallery and EB), as many places like to see unique interests such as this.

Yes, I think TLG puts a lot more into the set designs than they used to. Most sets of the past had a conservative feel in their design that we see much less of today. Things like the modular buildings would have had no chance of being produced 10 years ago, but even the regular, non-AFOL targeted sets have higher piece counts and considerably more detail than their old counterparts did. On the other hand, this has come at the expense of reduced brick quality, and it is clear that TLG's attitude towards that has changed over time. I think they have found that high quality set designs simply sell better than high quality parts. (in contrast, the early 2000s era of Town Jr. saw some of the worst sets but in many ways had the best parts ever) Some pieces seem much more sensitive to this than others. I have some 90s parts that have gotten some use but look perfect (such as Aquazone knives), and other parts (Model Team antennas) that have flaked off all over the place despite just sitting in a built model. I don't like the pearl colors at all though. The metallic gold and silver they used for a while were a lot better.

The box size definitely marks it out as the 2011 flagship. The model itself looks bigger than 8043, which was relatively small for a flagship. The concept is something TLG hasn't really done before, but at the same time it definitely looks like an 8868 successor in many ways. I'm almost certain that M motor is used for a compressor, and it might also power the turntable and/or outriggers. One issue I see with this set is the licensing though, which will probably make it very expensive. Someone said earlier that it would cost more than even 8043, which was already overpriced compared to other Technic flagships.

It's already sold out in the US. I would have gotten one in a heartbeat at that price.

The new tires on the Unimog look awesome. They are probably the first true successor to the old 24x43s for large-scale trucks. It's also good to see pneumatics being used again, despite what TLG said about that in the past. I see the claw arm has 3 pneumatic pistons and there should be at least one more piston for the dump bed. The single M motor in it is probably used to drive a compressor. It has outriggers in the back too, although I can't tell how those work. Yeah, the proportions of the cab are not right somehow. It may just look that way due to the angle the picture is taken at.

A few people here have reported seeing unusually widespread cracks in their bricks on built models. I don't know what caused it but cold temperatures are one thing that comes to mind. Heat on the other hand has definite consequences with the brick grip. There are some posts on it here. Short-term exposure (a few days) shouldn't have any effect in either case though. This is true today since the bags are airtight and sealed, but in the past they used to be perforated and let air in freely. I've had some cases of messed up bricks due to that.

I think this is a pretty nice model. Sure, it's no 8455, but for the $60 price it packs in a lot of functions, and includes a whole bunch of the small LAs. I do like the appearance of 8455 better though. The proportions here somehow seem off. The front wheels are a bit too large and the backhoe arm is too small given the size of the model.

This does seem to be a needless change, although I kind of like the look of the new gear. There have been reports of the older version of this gear having a weak grip on axles during the last year or so, which may have prompted the change. However, the gear had no problems before 2009, so the issue wasn't with the design itself. I think the worst example of this in recent times is the new differential. The small width makes it useful in some situations but it's overall far less versatile than the earlier one was.

The second generation control center is a lot more useful. The AC input lets you avoid a lot of hassle with batteries and get a consistent 9V output at all times, and it also has higher current limits. It works fine on all the PF models I've tried, although I don't know exactly how much current it can output. The first gen one has very strict current limits and can only run the two old types of 9V motors reliably, often cutting out on PF motors without any load. (although you can hook up a wall adapter to the battery contacts on it with some DIY work) There is a limit of 51 commands on the second gen one, with 41 in any single program. The first gen one is probably similar. They don't normally record the time between keystrokes, but you can do that using the pause button. They aren't actually that useful for programming compared to say, an NXT, but work well as manual control hubs, especially if powered off a wall outlet.

What an amazing model. It's the first sculpture-like model I've seen built out of studless Technic beams instead of bricks, and is full of functions too. As others have said, a video of the movements would be great to see.

This captures the game model very accurately. The VTOL section in Crysis was short but a lot of fun.

Good choice. This is an excellent set and contains several parts that are hard to come by today. I've had an extra unopened copy of this set for a long time (I actually got it for free due to a S@H shipping error many years ago). I was planning to sell it for a long time, but never got around to it and eventually decided to just keep it.

Their existing inventory may still have parts left over from those years, especially basic parts like plates that were produced in large quantities. It takes them a few years to flush these out of their system. I've seen both of types of plates recently too. I think the molds/blueprints that TLG gave Flextronics were somehow for the older, filled tube design, and TLG continued to produce those parts after they took over the Flextronics plants.