CP5670

This is really not the case anymore. It is more accurate to say that TLG has understood that a slightly lower level of quality is imperceptible to the vast majority of consumers. The opacity problem is very widespread and has been ongoing for well over 3 years now. It involves these minifigs but is by no means limited to them, and it came about due to a switch to a cheaper production material. If you honestly believe that TLG is still trying to fix this issue, I have a bridge to sell to you. However, you're right about the square marks, etc., not being actual problems, and I certainly don't think that the Chinese factory is itself at fault. In fact, as I have said before, I find it a little strange that many people have complained about these collectible minifigs but apparently don't notice some of the exact same issues in the bricks in regular sets. And conversely, I also find it amusing that many people who claim not to notice any of these issues in Lego are also the first to rag on clone brands for the same problems. (I'm not necessarily referring to you here)

Well, I think it could well be worthless for the same reason I mentioned earlier. Although it's true that the consumer knows that risk before buying. I actually consider the "real" price of any specific minifig to be its Bricklink price, not the $2 that TLG sells it for. If you want it at the "discounted" $2 price, you accept the tradeoff of randomness and a chance of getting something worth $0 to you.

They have made a color change late in development at least once before. 8454 was originally green in the pre-release pictures, while the final version of the set was red. Many people who saw that actually think that the green one looked better. But you're right, they probably chose red to minimize the costs, and they wouldn't change it in that case.

This is one reason I've avoided the collectible minifigs, aside from the quality and blind purchasing issues. I never understood why so many people want to collect them all. You can certainly make up uses for them, but having to think like that seems to defeat the point in spending so much effort and money to get them. To me, any Lego piece that I have a specific use for is much more valuable than a random piece that I could potentially use. But I guess I'm just not a huge minifig person in general. I don't build MOCs around minifigs, but instead build the MOC first and then add in whatever minifigs it needs. If I really needed some for a specific purpose, there is always Bricklink.

If you can't see any color problem with the minifigs, try holding one up to a light source alongside a normal minifig. At least for certain colors, you should notice the translucency right away (this isn't actually necessary to see the difference, but it accentuates it). The plastic also seems rougher in some way and lacks the shine and reflectivity that regular Lego parts have. I think this is what people mean when they say that the minifigs are low quality.

Yes, the City Corner is a good place to start. It has a bit of everything and the price is reasonable.

This would be more interesting to try at a smaller scale with the Power Miners wheels. Planetary gears bring lots of possibilities to Technic, but the hailfire droid wheel is too large to be used in an actual model.

I'm like this too. If I wanted any of these minifigs, I would just get them from Bricklink. The higher prices there are offset by the time savings and lack of any hassle in getting what you want. The process of collecting and trading in itself has no appeal to me, and I would much rather be actually building.

This looks like a nice set, but I wouldn't say that it is a super car in the same vein as the previous ones. The scale is smaller than that of previous super cars, going by the wheels it uses. If it has a transmission for changing functions, it's very unlikely that there will be another one for the drivetrain. Still, the functions are unusual and I like how they are trying something new with it. Some of the function concepts are a bit odd (like the motorized hood) but they should result in some interesting mechanisms.

8431 is a re-release of the 1995 set 8460, and the instructions are unchanged from the earlier set. So this is actually the mid 90s style of instructions, which I think was ideal. That's the thing. The kids back then like us managed just fine with such instructions. It's only TLG's perception of kids' intelligence that has changed, not the kids themselves.

That was my first thought too, but the backhoe bucket has no other means of operation. If all those functions are "fake" ones, the set would be a big ripoff even at 50 euros. I doubt TLG would release something that lousy for such a price. You can also see a 20t bevel gear on the front LA, suggesting that it does something.

The backhoe actually looks better than I thought. It's not fully featured like the earlier backhoes (only two degrees of freedom on the rear bucket), but for the price it packs in a lot of functions. The small LAs look very nice, and the set includes at least 4 of them too.

I find the modern instructions tedious too. I wouldn't even say that they make building any easier. There is so little happening on each step that you're always tempted to do at least 2 steps at once, and if you do get something wrong it's harder to find the point where you messed up. The Creator instructions are actually not as bad. We see this more in Technic than other themes. It started in Technic around 1999, and by 2003 the instructions had turned into their present state. I think TLG had the best balance on this in the mid to late 90s.

There have always been some pieces like this in all Lego themes. They exist in sets but are inexplicably rare. Still, I prefer that to the alternative. In recent years I think such limited-use pieces have become a lot less common, and are rarely seen except where they are really necessary. TLG either uses a piece in several different sets or not at all. Maybe we should count ourselves lucky that we have a yellow 6L half-beam at all.

You're getting pretty worked up over this. I remember describing to you one possible approach for the outriggers several months ago. This is a quite large model and I think it should be doable at this scale, although it would need a substantial redesign of the chassis. Alternatively, the model could have just used "swinging" outriggers like 8421 and other Technic sets, and those would be easy to fully motorize. I would have still liked that better than the existing outriggers. As for the winch, I wasn't saying that it should have been motorized, as that would need an extra motor.

This looks awesome. The conveyor mechanism works very smoothly, and the trailer frame must be pretty robust if it can hold up that much weight. It's also good to see that Dennis is still building stuff. His models were some of the best known Technic MOCs in the 90s and were a source of inspiration to many of us.

The crane extension can certainly be called a bonus, but I think the outriggers are an essential part of the model. The outriggers should automatically come down as they are extended, which could be done in a couple of different ways. The outriggers extend very nicely, but the lowering "function" is basically equivalent to what this does. It's a stretch to call that a function. I would have also liked the winch control to be more remotely located, like most previous Technic winches have been (just moving the winch knob down to the arm base would be an improvement, although a PF micromotor would have been ideal here).

This thread is about the worst sets, not the best ones. I agree that 8043 seems to be right up there with any of the old classics. I'm holding off on it until its problems are fixed though, and it's also a mediocre value if you take the price into account (at least in the US; it's apparently a better deal in Europe). 8258 was very good, but it had some obvious corners cut and half-finished functions. The outriggers, winch and crane extension are not "proper" Technic functions to me, as they don't involve any real mechanism.

This is a common problem with these switches. There are many lubricants that will fix the issue, as long as they aren't petroleum-based. It's actually a prototype of a set. There was some discussion about it a while ago. It uses several parts that never appeared in any actual set.

This model is not a MOC, but is from the 8891 idea book. It's quite funny to watch in action.

I can't see it on the box of my 735, but it did remind me of another place we used to see it everywhere. The System logo in the 90s had the brick on the T. TLG hasn't used the System branding in a long time though.

They can have discoloring or brick grip issues depending on the conditions they were stored in. See this and this for more details. This is more of a concern with sets you buy though, not sets stored in your own collection. The bricks in those should last indefinitely.

The exposed contacts on the studs have generally been fine for me, but it's fairly common for the internal connection between the actual wire and the contact brick to wear out over time. There are actually two kinds of 9V cables, a type with glossy insulation used from roughly 1990-1994 and a second kind with a rougher material used from 1995 onward. The glossy ones seem to hold up better over time. This is how the set is supposed to be built. If you don't have the button pressed down, that would certainly explain the problem.

I think even a purely geared backhoe would be too complex for a 50 euro set, if it has all the functions properly done. They might be the kind of half-baked functions we've seen on some recent sets, where the control knob is right next to the function and there is no real mechanism involved.

A backhoe for 50 euros doesn't seem like it would be fully featured. Backhoes need to have 7 different functions at a minimum, and more if you include outriggers or other things. The super car sounds more interesting though. We're long overdue for one of those now. However, if it has PF stuff at that price point, I'm not sure how large or mechanically-focused the design would be. It may be more like 8297 than the old super cars.