CP5670

I posted about this issue in the 2009 sets thread a while ago: Also, I don't know where you're getting those prices. Last I checked, you could buy two cylinders for $10 and five switches for $10 from Lego Education. The tubing is somewhat expensive (although not nearly as much as you say), but there is cheaper third party stuff out there that works equally well. I doubt TLG actually produces their own tubing anyway.

This is something odd I've noticed lately. A few years ago, ebay set prices were much cheaper than Bricklink, but it's often the other way around now. It seems like there has been a new influx of ebay collectors who don't know about BL. I have tons of old MISB sets, but I want to keep them for myself. I haven't built them yet only because of a lack of space.

This review was hilarious, especially the part about the bad cook. :laugh: And yes, I can definitely see in your pictures that this is the nice, rich Lego yellow of the past. It looks pretty crappy for what it's actually designed for though. I always find analog meters with a large parallax error like you described to be quite annoying.

The hub names are pretty inconsistent, and as you said Bricklink and Peeron often have different names for them. Most of the time, the hub is simply given the same numbers as its corresponding tire, but that causes confusion if there are multiple tires that fit the hub. In those cases, the hub either has a special name or uses the measurements for the hub only. I have no idea what the letter at the end means. I've seen S used for truck wheels, R for both racing wheels and off road wheels, ZR for racing wheels, and Q for off road wheels.

The first number is the diameter and the second is the depth, in millimeters. They actually used a different system for some old tires (up to 1990). I think the first number on those is the radius of the hub and the second is the radius of the tire, but I'm not sure about it.

The closest thing to what you're looking can be found in the 8146 set. All four wheels use the 68.8x36 hub, but the rear tires are larger than the front ones. Both types of tires are racing slicks. There are a handful of other large scale hubs that fit multiple tires, but at least one of them is an off road tire. Some that I can think of are the classical 20x30 hub (8868 and 8074), the 43.2x26 hub (8475 and 8455) and the 62x46 hub (8458 and 8466). The sets are just some examples I can remember which use the two types.

Option 2 was an easy choice for me. The monorail and its station are so obviously from the Airport Shuttle set. I don't know if anything will actually come of this though.

Yes, the Excavator is probably the best 2008 set and also benefits from the PF extension pack the most. If you're willing to spend somewhat more and want to really get into PF in a big way, grab an 8275 Bulldozer from ebay, which is far superior to any of those sets and includes a lot more in the way of PF components. It's out of production now but is still pretty common on ebay and can be found for around the original $150 price. As for the upcoming summer sets, the main attraction in that price range will probably be the front end loader, which should be a good candidate for motorization too.

Nice review, it's always good to see obscure sets like this covered. This set might have been Europe only and I am not sure if it was ever sold in North America. I never saw it in the US S@H catalogs or in any stores, and only learned about it a few years later. The Mindstorms RIS 1.0 came out later that year, so they probably also discontinued this set sooner than usual. The main model looks nice, but mechanically it's underwhelming compared to other Technic planes like 8425. It's more in line with Throwbots/Roboriders than conventional Technic and the functions seem to have been an afterthought, which doesn't fit a Mindstorms-like theme either. This basic concept would have made a good Space model, but it looks out of place in Technic. Yeah, I can see why TLG moved away from the CD programs/instructions after that year. A few other sets from that time period also used them and they are inconvenient if you don't have your computer in the same place as your Lego collection. As you said, they can also be hard to get working on modern computers. The other 1999 sets actually still had plastic trays. The trays were gone for good by the next year though. Can't argue with that at all.

I actually do at least 80% of my MOC building during the summer months. As a student, the summer is the main period when I have a lot of time for it. I don't like outdoor activities in general anyway, so the weather doesn't affect the things I do.

Most of the Bricklink sellers get their pieces from buying and sorting out sets rather than PAB, so they won't be affected by this as long as set prices are the same.

The new prices suck but it doesn't really change anything for me, since PAB was already more expensive than Bricklink on almost everything, even before this. I only buy occasional specialty pieces from there.

Man, I have a great idea for this, but I have no time to build and take pictures of the stuff today.

I've gotten this problem many times too. In fact, the instruction book is often crumpled as well, especially if it's big and heavy. There is an obvious solution to this problem: put the instructions and stickers in a shrinkwrapped casing. This has been an issue ever since they changed the box packaging design in 2000, and I'm surprised they still haven't done anything about it. This thread probably belongs in the general Lego forum though, as this issue affects every theme.

I also felt the same way as a kid. It wasn't just the appearance, but the whole idea of the train being powered remotely by electricity carried through the tracks was awesome, especially for a Technic head like me. I didn't get any 9V trains as a kid and wanted to start a collection some years ago, but then I heard that they were going to discontinue the system at some point. I only ever got the re-released Metroliner, its extension car and a few packs of track. Given the high costs and other disadvantages of the PF train system though, I'm not sure how much I will get into that either, although some of the elements like the speed remote will be very useful for Technic models. You could actually get the overpriced regulator for much less than that if you looked around a bit. I remember they were regularly going in the $10-15 range brand new on ebay some years ago, which is how I got mine. I don't expect to see the same thing with the PF battery box though. I think the idea was that they could include the cheaper plastic tracks with train sets, and keep the expensive PF parts separate. Although it does seem to have backfired given the cost of the battery. A better solution would have been to use detachable metal rails and sell them separately, which is similar to what they did in the 80s with the 12V system.

I guess you're right, the Bricklink prices are higher now than what I remember seeing. The 8466 was actually released at the same $120 price though, and they are of a similar size. This largely depends on whether you are willing to buy used sets. You're right that 90s Technic sets can be very expensive if you look for brand new ones, but sets in lightly used condition are more reasonable, especially on ebay. You may also be like me and prefer the studded or mixed studded/studless construction style of the older sets. As for the last few years, I think the 8275 Bulldozer has easily been the highlight and is arguably the best Technic set since the Backhoe in 2003. The ebay/BL prices are still not too far off from the original $150 price. The 8421 Mobile Crane is quite nice too, but the (new) ebay prices for that have started to go well beyond its original price.

That bulldozer is one of my favorite Technic sets among that size and scale. I got a couple of them for the treads too.

I agree with everything Blakbird said, except I would move 8297 to the latter category and buy the PF elements individually. It's not really in the same league as 8466. If you are willing to buy used, look into getting an 8880 Super Car instead off Bricklink or ebay. It fits your profile of a large black car, includes unique steering and suspension elements and is mostly made of studded parts. You'll need many of those if you are building a combined Technic/Model Team MOC, and most modern Technic sets hardly come with any of them.

I'm pretty sure this is referring to the round plates. Those are far more prone to developing cracks than the bricks.

This kind of door actually existed at one point, but it hasn't been produced since the early 70s. See this or this for example.

Yes, I notice the same thing on these. It only happens with the transparent colored ones (which are made of polycarbonate). However, it doesn't affect their gripping strength as far as I can see. These pieces have always been like this.

I liked this article as a piece of humor. I wasn't looking for a detailed analysis here. Oh, it's one of those fake antivirus ads. After seeing the screenshot, it's actually pretty obvious. No commercial program would contain a blatant mispelling of "average" like that.

One of the ads might contain something bad. I use an adblocker and didn't see anything flagged.

It's a combo pack of the Emerald Night and all the PF parts. See this.

You're right, I forgot that the RC track is compatible. However, the "Emerald Night collection" only includes the flexible track and nothing else, so does that mean it's intended to replace the straights and curves?