CP5670

I would certainly like to see it return, or to see Model Team-like sets in the Creator or UCS themes. Model Team was essentially a UCS line with realistic vehicles instead of Star Wars ships. A few of the Creator vehicles have actually been pretty comparable to Model Team, especially the smaller MT sets. Although you do sometimes get the feel that they cut back on some obvious things in the models in order to save costs. Well, 5580's successor was much better than it overall. I agree with you about 5590 though. Yeah, this would be the best thing. The original Creator line in 2003 had reasonably detailed vehicles with some Technic functionality, but TLG never built upon that in future Creator sets.

I would like to see the 1x1 printed letter tiles return. Those were really nice, but I think they were only available in some Lego Education service pack.

There is always some confusion over what that term means. I call the sets up to 1987/88 classic space, with the minifigs having the old style helmets, and refer to the later stuff as the space themes or space factions. To complicate the issue further, classic space (by my definition) spanned many years and had at least 4 distinct color schemes, and it seems like many people are only talking about the original Blue/Gray/TrYellow sets when they refer to classic space. The last wave of classic space sets were actually almost identical to Futuron, and were only distinguished by the minifigs.

That model is wonderful. It seems that the towing arm and platform actually work too. I see pneumatic pistons on them.

The concept looks similar to the steering made of flex system parts that a few sets used in the past. 8440 and 8457 come to mind, although the steering on those sets didn't work well and was too sensitive. This set seems to have a better implementation though.

I passed up this set when it was available, as I already had the old 8838 and 8422 motorcycles and this looked similar, but now I'm wishing I had gotten it. The wheels look quite a bit larger than the old bikes, and I believe that big shock absorber is adjustable. Maybe I'll try to find it on ebay. There was some discrepancy with the color of that shock absorber in this set. The pictures and inventory show it to be yellow, but most (although not all) people got dark blay ones in their sets from what I've heard. The one-sided front wheel attachment looks a bit out of place though. I don't know if there are any high end racing bikes like that in real life, which is obviously what this is.

All the Model Team sets had clear paper stickers fortunately. The clear ones are much more resistant to UV damage over time than the white paper ones. Yeah, it's a shame we didn't see any more of those wheels in sets. They are pretty close in size to the 62.4x20 wheels, but would be useful for models built at a slightly larger scale. The Bricklink prices for them are crazy today at about $40 for one wheel and tire, even a used one.

More colors, but that mainly applies to transparent colors. I would especially like to see more basic bricks and plates available in the 7 or 8 classic transparent colors.

Wow, I didn't think it would be up and running this quickly. You really are a hero.

Wow, a hello post after 2000 posts. That has to be some kind of record. You're more of a veteran here than most of us by now.

I never thought of it that way, but I don't think it's really a good thing to have that. That "suspension" comes from the pin connections flexing because they aren't strong and rigid enough. This is especially bad for Technic models since you want to make sure that axle holes in the model don't get misaligned and create friction in geartrains and other mechanisms.

I have had a crazy idea of building a fictional, all-in-one Technic construction vehicle for many years, maybe based around one of the old Space themes. It would use 8 or 10 of the huge 8457/8466 wheels and include multiple digging and lifting arms on the same chassis, sort of like a backhoe, crane, grappler and dump truck all combined. I have enough pieces to do this if I take apart a few of my built models and use Bricklink, but not nearly enough time these days. It's something I have in mind for the future though. Another one is a large table-size airport, built at a reasonable scale for minifigs unlike the official Lego airport sets. I was thinking of roughly modeling it around the Dulles airport building near Washington DC, as I especially like the odd look of that structure. This was another dream project of mine for a long time, but it became a reality last year.

Great news, I look forward to seeing it. Actually, I really like that blog and visit it often.

I use a mix of both building styles too, and would like to see that in official sets instead of the 100% studless style TLG has adopted these days. The strength and weight advantages of studless parts largely become negated if they are used exclusively, and not together with studded parts. 100% studless MOCs also tend to be harder and less intuitive to build, forcing you to spend more time thinking of structural issues instead of the mechanics, which is why most Technic MOCs even today are largely studded. I think they had the best balance when the studless style was first introduced in the late 90s, with sets like 8437 or 8446.

I have been saying for a long time now that we should have a Technic/Model Team forum (since a lot of MOCs fit into both categories) and a separate forum for Bionicle, but it doesn't seem like the admins have taken notice. We have gotten more interest in Technic over the last several months, enough to justify it now. As for those panels, I don't like them at all to be honest. They don't really do anything that can't already be done using existing pieces, and seem to be there just for TLG to save costs by including fewer studless beams. The best solution would be if they actually started making Technic sets with studs again, and built those sections with standard bricks. Of course, the panels won't be preventing me from buying sets that are otherwise great.

Maybe all it takes is to send a PM to Sinner. He's the one admin here who is into Technic.

Linking to other sites is fine. That large scale version of the crane is amazing. Technic Bricks has several interesting observations. I guess there is only one motor after all, although I don't know why they included a PF switch in that case. This may be the first time since the Space Shuttle that we have a single motor operating four functions, as the dual transmission switches seem to suggest. I can't really determine how the stabilizers work though. The end portions seem to be manually controlled, which is a bit of a bummer. I think they extend outwards automatically though.

Actually, the cutlery does look like quite a ripoff. The description indicates that the three things in the picture are what you get.

I say mock and a-fol. I actually used to say the former as M O C until last year, when I heard everyone saying mock at the Brickfair event and started doing so myself after a while.

Great model. Both the appearance and functions are very nicely designed. As the last poster said, for some reason it looks much smaller than it really is in that thumbnail. I only realized how big it was when I saw and recognized the wheels.

Nothing wrong with having another perspective, but it might make more sense to do a theme we don't have anything for, if you haven't gotten too far into it already. There is already an SP2 one here.

I would say the 80s and 90s space sets were pretty comparable overall. There are far better examples of 80s sets than that one. Space changed over time but not that dramatically, and it didn't really get better or worse when you look at the overall picture, at least not until the very end.

That set is awesome. I didn't know they ever had both types of figs in the same set. It really is a "minifig."

Great pieces, certainly. But you have to be pretty generous to call that great design.

Almost everything was printed back then. In fact, I can only think of a handful of different stickers among any of the space themes, some in the Explorien and UFO sets that were made of unusual materials (hologram, heat sensitive, magnetic).