CP5670

The tubes on the undersides of plates were originally filled in the 80s and were changed to be hollow around 1993. I'm not sure what the purpose of the change was, but it may have been done simply to use less plastic and reduce costs. TLG briefly went back to filled tubes again around 2006 when they started outsourcing brick production, and now seem to have reverted to hollow tubes once more.

Yes, I think 8258 has a better and more balanced selection of parts, especially considering that it's $50 cheaper (in the US). They still come up on ebay every now and then. I think the last one I saw went for $350, which is decent by the standards of these MISB sets. The flagship sets like 8868 will always be like this, but I think the prices of old Technic sets in general have actually dropped in the last few years. I have gotten some unopened ones lately for less than the original prices.

I think 8043 is definitely the better model, but 8258 is a better deal and gives you more for your money. If you want both eventually, get 8258 now, as it probably won't be easily available for much longer. There used to be a time when the flagship Technic models were still available for 3 or 4 years after release, but these days they can be discontinued in less than a year, depending on the country.

The leg mechanisms on this are fantastic. The multiple degrees of movement and nonlinear speeds give them a very natural look as they move.

For cleaning dust, Swiffer dusters are by far the best product I have used. Anything else either takes too long (requires disassembling the model) or does not do a clean job. Although even these aren't that good at cleaning dust inside hollow studs (such as those on Technic bricks), for which I've never found a good solution.

That small LA looks very useful. It probably only handles minimal loads, but I can think of many uses for it in small models or within transmissions. I'll probably get that set just for these parts too.

I love all the chrome this guy uses. It gives the models a very polished look.

They do that to avoid the ebay fees, which only cover the base price and not the shipping price last I checked. The charge is actually for "shipping and handling," and handling can basically cost whatever the seller wants. I don't really have a problem with this as long as it's advertised up-front, but you should always look at the final price with shipping when deciding to buy something.

Yes, around 2003-04 many sets had an upper limit of 99 prominently shown on the boxes. The UCS and modular building sets are presumably meant for an AFOL audience and don't have any upper limits, only a lower limit of 16. In the early 90s, I also recall that the Model Team sets were advertised in the catalogs as being "ages 9 and up" while all the other themes (even Technic) had upper limits.

Has anyone actually used Lego motors above 9V on a longer term basis? Many small, off-the-shelf DC motors are designed for 12V operation, and I wouldn't be surprised if the actual motor cores TLG uses are like this. TLG may have kept the voltage of the whole system down in order to meet toy safety regulations. I recall that the 12V train system was not available in the US for this reason. The receivers are of course a different matter and should be kept down to 9V.

The new solar panel is in the 9688 renewable energy set, which is available from Lego Education. That set costs $100 though and the new panel will probably still be way too weak for the excavator, where the motors struggle a bit already.

I generally like color schemes that produce sharp contrast with only a few colors. As far as sci-fi models go, I prefer this to anything that looks realistic, i.e. neutral colors with trans-black/clear windshields. One of my favorite color schemes in recent times is that of the Mars Mission aliens, although the actual models were pretty mediocre. I'm not a fan of the Power Miners colors though. There are too many different bright colors used at the same time. Lime green, orange or blue on their own would have been great, but the combined effect lacks the contrasted look that I like to see.

This is especially a problem with the older, pre-1995 flex connectors. I try to carefully wiggle the cables in or out of the slots instead of pulling them suddenly. I've had one break from an 8839 set when I pulled it out (the set was only recently opened at the time), and it was unfortunately a rare 7-length kind, although my other cables are all in good shape. The newer flex connectors with tabs are much easier to work with. That sounds bad. I guess they are more sensitive to sunlight than normal bricks, much like the old stickers that crack up in sunlight.

These competitions are a fun way to combine Lego with academics. I did a project like this in elementary school (it was not for Odyssey of the Mind but something similar), and another one in high school comparing various Technic pneumatic compressor designs. The latter got some award at the county level. I think I still have the poster board somewhere. We only had the 9V ungeared and geared motors back then, which usually stalled long before the air tanks were filled to their maximum pressure. The Lego manometer we have today would have been useful as well. I think I just used a tire pressure gauge back then. Lego is also used at the college undergrad level. Here is an example.

Those old axle connectors are indeed very fragile, even if you handle them carefully. I liked the teeth in general though. At one point, they were an important type of connection in the Technic system, and there were several other pieces with teeth as well, such as the 1-wide Technic plates in various lengths. TLG moved away from the teeth in 1997-98 and introduced new, non-toothed, versions of several parts. The only part still left with teeth today is the 16t idle gear. I'm actually surprised TLG has never done the same for it too.

Cool, I didn't know that. It was used in the game Command & Conquer as well, which is where I had heard it.

This looks fantastic. The antennas are stronger than I would have thought from the picture and push the rotor pretty reliably. Is there any reason why the rotors cannot spin in the opposite direction though? I also like the C&C music in the video. My thoughts as well. This would have taken me at least a couple of months to build.

There were a bunch of sets in the 1990s that used the flex system, but only a few of them used it in a truly essential way. The best example showing what it's capable of is easily the 8485 dinosaur, and some other good ones are 8856, 8412, 8479 and 8002. On the other hand, many early 90s sets used them as regular liftarms or structural supports, where the "flex" aspect wasn't needed at all. TLG was probably just trying to promote the system more back then. I think the last set to use flex cables was 8457 (used for steering, although its implementation is terrible and barely works), but the flex hoses have become widespread for other purposes.

Yes, the Wayback Machine is the best way to find old versions of the site. However, their crawlers don't pick up everything, especially images and flash files. This is actually the main reason I prefer TLG's old print catalogs over their internet advertising. The websites are not permanent and it's not easy to look at that content many years after the theme is gone. It's good we still at least have the S@H catalogs.

That's how it appears in the 1994 US catalogs too, and the box actually has the Spyrius blurb on it (the boxes back then had short theme-specific descriptions). TLG themselves didn't seem to know who exactly this faction was. The Unitron name was only used in the US from 1995 onward.

The clock in the 8888 idea book doesn't really work that well, as I described here. nico71's pendulum design looks a lot more reliable.

That is a clever idea, but in practice it may be difficult to ensure that both rings are never engaged at the same time (even partially). It seems like that could happen when the switching motor in certain positions. I think the most flexible approach for doing this is the "sliding axle" type of gearbox, as seen in 8865 (it works a lot better with double bevel gears though, which didn't exist back then). You can in principle have an unlimited number of functions from two motors this way. There are also many variations of that concept possible, such as the mechanism in 8082.

You're probably best off getting some modern pneumatics like the original set uses. The pre-1989 pneumatic system is pretty weak in general (the pistons seem to leak air more easily than the newer type), and would have a lot of trouble lifting something as heavy as the 8421 boom. As others have said, the load would probably be too much for LAs as well.

8851 has mostly been fine for me. The lowermost piston does bend over time, but that doesn't seem to affect its performance and I haven't had any leaks. As you say, there were a number of cases of stressed and easily broken parts in the 80s, but TLG's standards on that improved a lot in the 90s and we haven't had many situations like that recently (specific to Technic, anyway). Part of the problem with 8043 is its price relative to other recent sets, which makes these flaws harder to excuse. I wouldn't say 8043 is the most complex set TLG has ever made - some other flagships of the past were at least comparable - but it is still the best since 8421 or 8455.

It belonged to Unitron, but this was the only Unitron set that was released outside the US. From what you say, it sounds like TLG never introduced the Unitron name and branding at all in Europe. I like Unitron's color scheme, but this set was indeed pretty weak. I think the smaller Unitron base (1789) is much better designed, even though it lacks the coolness factor of a monorail.