Phoxtane

I'll contest that point... sure, they may be boring when they're new, but when they get old, you're sure to find a surprise or two!

Oh my, that looks wonderful! I can't wait to see that video ;D

Well, of the eighteen I see on the Lego website, the 8070 Supercar, 8071 Bucket Truck, and the 9397 Logging Truck look the most interesting. I'd be happy to pick up a Unimog, but I have insufficient vespene gas monies to acquire it at this time Each set has its ups and downs, though... -The supercar has more engine parts, steering parts, and suspension parts, along with larger wheels and some Power Functions stuff, AND a huge amount of red pieces. -The Flatbed Truck has some of the coveted blue pieces and appears to be a good source of more yellow and red. It's also got some black 5x11 panels. It does not appear to have suspension pieces, so I'm assuming it has a rack-and-pinion beam used for steering, which I lack. -Lots of black pieces, six Unimog-like tires, Mini LAs, Power Functions pieces, and engine pieces. I may get one or two of the smaller sets depending on what kind of savings I get with Lego VIP as well. EDIT: Is it worth it to ask about boxes with scratch and dent damage? I know that Lego will sell sets with that at conventions for steep discounts, so I'm wondering if it may be possible to get some from the store for cheap!

Has anyone made a remake of this set with the newer Technic studless beams and body panels? I daresay that if it was motorized and well-built it could be on the same level as this venerable model.

Unless I'm mistaken, there'll be a small delay in transitioning from one direction of input to the other, since the worm gear has to slide along the axle and engage the other gear before it actually begins to turn.

I'm putting in my vote for the Koenigsmittywerbenjagermanjensthingy. I'd love to see the Honda Element, though. Why is is that nobody pays attention to the consumer cars, anyway?

Sometime during this trip, possibly within this week, we'll be heading to Washington Square to do a little shopping. I plan to head to the Lego store there and pick up some Technic sets! What I want to know is what you people recommend I should get, and if there's any deals I should know about. I hope to make this trip very fruitful. My inventory upon setting out includes a fair amount of cash and my Lego VIP card, along with one of the old paper Loyalty Cards with fifteen [!] stamps on it, which should translate into ~25 USD of VIP points. I'm hoping to try out making a set review or two depending on which ones I get.

You're not far off - there were 10 in a 2009 Crawler Crane set [ http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/7632-1 ] and eight in a 2010 Train Station set [ http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/7937-1 ]. The triangular bits at the end of the boom only came in the crawler crane set, and even then there were only four of them per set. On Bricklink, they're priced at ~50 US cents to one USD. Anything higher I personally consider as overpriced.

In general, the larger sets have numbered bags because they have enough parts to warrant building the model in phases. You should do just fine if you go small-to-large as recommended. Keep in mind though that not all surprises come in large packages...

Between this and the Unimog, I may just be all set to start "building with the big kids" as it were! The most valuable parts in this set are gonna be those new servo motors, believe me; we may just start seeing a small drop in the prices for those hockey springs that many people are currently using for return-to-center steering. They'll still hold dominance for very compact mechanisms IMO... Good thing I've got my first summer job as well, so I may be able to actually get both of those sets relatively close to each other instead of waiting six months for once. EDIT: Evidently I'm one of three people on the planet who likes the black-orange-white color scheme. Throwing some blue in there wouldn't hurt either, if it replaced the black.

Wow. That Tyrell P34 is quite the funky machine

Right, let's try this again: The .lxf file: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/84375076/Lite%20Diwheel/Lite%20Diwheel.lxf The readme file: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/84375076/Lite%20Diwheel/README.txt You're right about the other programs having those parts; however, I've already tried those in the past and found them much too confusing for me to want to get started. LDD works wonderfully for me, and just about anybody can run it and use it.

I went ahead and created a LDD file so you can build your own Lite Diwheel. Attached to this post and the OP is the .lxf file. A few word of advice: -LDD does not have the Hailfire wheels in its part selection, so those have been left out. You'll obviously need at least two of them. -To add the aforementioned wheels, slide them onto one of the wheel module halves before you connect the two halves with the light blue-grey 15L beams. The teeth lining the inside of the wheels should mesh with the 16 tooth gears, and the slot along the side should fit over the frictionless connector pegs and the standard-width bushings. This was going to be a README file bundled with the .lxf until I found out that you can't attach folders to your posts.

I tend to subscribe instead of liking There's a reason why the list of those who I'm subscribed to is in the triple digits...

I have the 8382 Hot Buster as well!

Try calling Lego directly or sending an e-mail to their support center. I once got a malformed piece in a boxed set. One quick e-mail and I had a replacement within the week!

It took me all of six minutes to reduce it to its constituent components. The video is currently on hold, since we have to pack everything into boxes and move them across town to the new place. Once there, I'll see about rebuilding it and filming

I built this diwheel a week or so ago, and I wanted to show it off before I disassemble it for moving: I managed to get my hands on a set of the 4481 Hailfire Droid wheels for a very good price, and hadn't done anything with them. I attempted to re-build the official Lego model, but realized that it was using up my 11 length beams at an alarming rate, and the wheel structure was mostly unneeded. The huge advantage this MOC has over 4481 is the low amount of parts needed to build it. I haven't counted, but I'd put my guesstimate around 200 pieces. I use a standard PF remote and a PF speed remote to control it, both linked to the same channel. The speed remote is mainly used for cruising, and the standard remote for stunt driving. The only stunt I can pull off with it is doing loops within the wheels. It has a very low center of gravity, making it very stable; the clearance between the driving surface and the three-length beam is about one half-width beam. I will take more pictures and possibly put together a video in about a week and a half once we finish moving.

That's an exotic piece. What are you planning to use it for?

I kind of doubt that. There was what, a six-year gap between the RCX and the NXT? I don't really expect them to break the trend until absolutely necessary.

I'd like to see a review of the HiTechnic IR Link sensor. I'm curious to see what other people think of it, since my experiences with it show it to be less than good.

I got the excavator myself. It's got great playability, a lot of motors, and a gearbox to run the various functions. I'd recommend keeping it, since you then get all the yellow beams and panels along with some other cool parts that'll come in handy later.

I just spent my afternoon in wonderful nostalgia. Who knew I had so many of the old "Jack Stone" sets? The total partcount didn't help to deflate my mood either

Please do. It's a treat, since I haven't even heard of these sets up till now

Unfortunately, 8466 costs nearly three times what it would take to get the tires themselves! Though the olive-green parts are nice, I don't think they're THAT nice IMO.