CP5670

Wow, that was a great find. I haven't seen much in the way of Technic pieces at all in PAB walls, much less functional parts like pneumatics.

I'll need to try building this when I get back home. I like this idea better than the clutch-based automatic transmissions I've seen on Brickshelf, which lock up easily and are not reliable enough to use in an actual model. I think the friction on the left may be too high though, just from looking at it. One or two rubber belts connecting those axles might work better.

Looks good. The extra track pieces you got are actually exactly the ones in 6921, with the addition of the switch. All you need are the black supports and 1x4 gray connecting plates. Post some pictures once you get a layout together.

Thanks. I would like to expand it further but the track packs are becoming increasingly expensive these days. I got my sets a few years ago and the 6921 and 6347 prices have gone up quite a bit since then. As for the sets, I think the 6990 and 6991 prices are still (relatively) reasonable on ebay. 6399, on the other hand, is considerably larger and goes for extremely high prices. Back Flap I didn't take these, but they were from the ebay auction where I got my second one. That set had some of the best box packaging ever, with multiple layers of trays showing off all the special parts.

The first two things are done by people all the time, and appreciated by many others for that matter. I like seeing things like that. Are you against collections or something? I have a (much smaller) monorail setup and this is the kind of layout I dream about having some day. I like the monorail system better than trains because of how you can easily spread out the track in all 3 dimensions. That opens up all sorts of cool possibilities, as seen in this video.

This setup is quite impressive for its sheer size. I'm not sure what all the hate is about. I like how the track climbs up all the way to the desk and window sill.

This was my favorite MM set too, and the only one in the theme that I bought. It does have a classic-style feel to it and packs in a lot of features for its size.

This looks quite nice as far as alternate models go. I like the appearance of the pickup, although the front wheel axles need to be shorter. The trailer kind of reminds me of the 8094 crane and would make a nice standalone model in itself. It's more sophisticated than the Cherry Picker's mechanism since it has two independent geartrains in there. The dark gray gears can be controlled separately from the central axle. A similar mechanism using the type 2 differential has been used by MOCers for many years, but this is the first official set to use it. Was that the last set to have it? It was common in the late 1990s to have working cab steering wheels, but I actually can't think of any recent sets that do it.

I actually tried out exactly this a few months ago, but it turns out that the new axle connectors are marginally thicker than the old ones were. The driving rings don't slide over them completely freely. If a piece like the usual gray bushing existed, but with the cross-shaped lip on both sides, that might do the job as well.

I'm going to be in Trondheim, Norway during the next week for an academic trip. I should still be able to post while I'm there. Anyone know of good places to buy Lego over there?

An automatic transmission is what I would really like to see, even though most sports cars use manual ones. The other functions would be great but they have all been done before in previous super cars or other sets, while an automatic gearbox would be something genuinely new for Technic. I think doing this properly would require introducing new parts (in particular, a driving ring without the "catches" on the inside). I've tried various fanmade gearboxes posted on Brickshelf and they are all somewhat unreliable. Sariel's two-speed box is probably the best of them, but even that is prone to locking up if not run at exactly the right speed.

Yeah, the main blade is a little flimsy. More than the blue pins, it's due to the weak plate grip during the 2007-08 timeframe when this set was produced. I know what you mean about the reversed controls, but there is no simple way to change that. One problem with the PF system is that the connectors only attach in one direction, and you can't reverse the polarity by just turning the connector around like you could with the 9V system. This is indeed an excellent set, and is very playable. I added some lights to mine as well, which are easy to put in. I like the mix of studded and studless parts too, but the studded parts are used only for external, decorative sections here. The internals that actually contain the mechanisms are still entirely studless. I would like to have it the other way around.

I got my pictures up: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=398636

You can already get most kinds of Technic parts from Lego Education. The LAs would be pretty expensive in large quantities though.

These are short but very cleverly designed. I got a Galactic Enforcer during Brickfair over the weekend and will build it soon.

I keep all such parts in a separate box and don't generally use them. I don't discard them altogether because I do occasionally find something useful in there, and I figure I can give them to someone eventually. I'm super picky about part quality and in some cases, a "damaged" piece to me would be a "very good condition" piece to many other people. I do that too, but they just stay in the boxes they came in, which I also keep.

Cool, I didn't know someone had made a browser-based controller for this. That would be a lot more convenient than the original DOS software. I'm guessing you're using an older computer with a serial port for this, right?

The XL cables don't seem that tight on mine. Make sure you position the motors so that the cables are facing inward. The cables are kind of visible around the seat, but can be tucked into the sides to some extent. They may touch an axle somewhere, but shouldn't interfere with it. The cabling was actually something I really liked about building this model. I think the last time we had something with intricate electric wiring was in the 90s, with sets like 8480 and 8479.

I would like to see more generic pieces like bricks and plates in various transparent colors (beyond just the small 1x1, 1x2, etc. sizes). Such pieces used to be fairly common in the 70s and 80s, but have rarely been seen since then. Some functional Technic pieces would also be good, although most of those can be purchased in bulk from Lego Education. LDD is really meant to be a way to design and place Factory orders, not as a general CAD tool. MLCad and SR3D are better suited for that.

I saw you but didn't recognize you. You're in one of my pictures and I see the nametag now. I met puddleglum at one point, and a few people from other forums. That was Bret (Starbeanie). I think he was there all the time during the public hours.

It's the "Silver sports car" pictured above. As you said, it uses the pieces from 8458 and is like an unofficial alternate model. I've seen the one built from 8466 at least in pictures, but not the GT.

I got back home earlier today. It was a fantastic event, and we got a lot more registrants and MOCs than last year. I got the Technic award for this (Alvin Brant's cranes were seemingly not eligible, maybe because he got it last year) and a 7738 helicopter in a random drawing related to the votes. I think SirNadroj also won in some other category and got a set. I settled for the 20% discount at the nearby Tysons Corner store. Some of the employees there had seen my models and recognized my name, which was pretty cool. From what others said, it seems that I didn't miss a lot with the damaged box event, as apparently a lot of things ran out quickly and not all the "tickets" had access to good items. The on-site vendor prices were quite high as I had expected, with the exception of custom parts and event exclusives. I picked up a few of the Brick Engraver printed pieces, which are excellent quality. I'll put up my pictures on Brickshelf in a few days. I took a couple hundred of them, so it will take me a while to go through them and remove the redundant ones. You might have seen me. I was intermittently standing around that model and showing off the pneumatics whenever a crowd gathered around it.

I have built mine into Nathanael's car for some years now. I like that model better than the stock one.

This model looks a little strange, but it includes a lot of features. I like how this entire theme revolved around the alien fossil detection and decoding. I would have liked the cab to be closed up on the bottom though. This set also came in an alternate version with a special box, numbered 1737. It's both. See the caption here.

I think the most interesting SW Technic set is the 8002 Destroyer Droid. The fold-out mechanism is quite complicated and only works properly on some surfaces, but is very impressive to watch in action.