Carrera124

I am happy, because I expected TLG to release a police-train and a firefighter-train.

I prefer 8862, but imho it is "too much" yellow. A black chassis would have been a good idea. But either way, 8862 is the 1989 flagship set, so it is a must-have for all studded technic collectors Building is rather easy. And the B-model is really great.

I guess I am a Youngtimer, but I mainly collect older sets: Technic from '77 to ~2000, Model Team, and Classic Town from 1978 to ~1995. Modern sets don't appeal to me, except Mindstorms and Trains. I also bought some modern Technic sets, but I discovered that I don't like studless building. Lego = studs, imho.

Older boxes were designed for selling and storage at home. But if they were dumped, lot of waste was created: styrofoam with paper glued to it, plastic tray, plastic cover... During 1982, the boxes were redesigned without using styrofoam (afaik, 8090 was the last the set with a styrofoam box, while 8030 and 8050 only user paper-boxes). The bigger the sets, the higher the chance that the box was kept. You'll find lots of 8860 and 8859 sets with original box. But you'll find less 8845 and 8844 sets with original box. The current boxes are designed for selling, not for storage at home. If the modern boxes are dumped, less waste is created. But using them for storage, doesn't work very good.

I also miss these "old time" boxes, where storage was made easy. But on the other hand, I guess that more than 90% of the boxes are/were dumped. And in this case, especially regarding ecological aspects, it is better to use simple boxes. Of course, TLG could improve the modern boxes by reducing their size, instead of selling air. 41999 was a very good example how this could work, compared to 9398. But the 9398 box also needs to be an eye-catcher on the shelf, while the 41999 box doesn't as it was sold mainly via S@H.

Maybe, what year do 2014 sets (boxes, instructions) say that are already available now? 2013 or 2014?

For strange reasons, this site dates 8030 und 8050 to 1984 instead of 1982. While 8040 is dated to 1985 instead of 1984. Imho, this site doesn't offer reliable information. Maybe they copied wrong information from whereever, and no one ever checked it. @blakbird, any news regarding the 8846 mystery?

Have a look at Ebay. Some months ago, I bought a very good 8848 set with box in quite good condition, with plastic tray and cover, for less than 50€. Bricklink is great for parts, but not-so-great for older sets and special parts like transparent covers for the old boxes.

I use TT quite frequently. It would be a very good idea to use EB via TT.

But it would also make sense of 8846 has been released in 1982, because the buggy was already available then. Furthermore, my 8846 instructions show the motor set 8700, whic was also released in 1982. Instructions of 8845 show the older motor set 870. This is a VERY good hint, because the box types of the universal sets might help us to resolve this issue: All technic sets from 1981 came in styrofoam boxes, just like the very first sets from 1977. In 1982, the box types changed from styroform to cardboard boxes. More interestingly, my 8090 box is still made of styrofoam, what might indicate that 8090 could be the earliest technic set of 1982 and therefore was produced still using the old styrofoam style. 8030 and 8050 were made of cardboard boxes, which also applies to 8846, what might indicate that these sets were released later than 8090 and later than all 1981 sets.

Really? 8848 uses only 10 pins for the complete model, which is nearly half the amount of pins that 8846 uses (18b +3g). Although 8848 is quite bigger. 8859 has 51 gray pins, but only 10-15 are used for the chassis.

@1974, same here. But hey, there is a case where sets were announced twice as "new" in two subsequent years: 6450 and 6480 were listed as "new" both in 1985 and 1986 catalogs. I guess the reason was that the Light&Sound components were delayed for whatever reasons. So, there is a very very small chance for a 1981 edition of 8846. But I do not believe in this - because of two reasons: 1. The black pins with friction were introduced in 1981, i.e. one year earlier than known. Imho this is very unlikely. 2. The first edition of 8846 is built using the gray pins without friction. In this case, two versions of the building instruction should exist, one that shows gray pins and another one that shows black pins. Moreover, the building style of 8846 is different from 8848 and 8859. 8846 uses less classic plates and bricks for the chassis construction, which means that a great quota of it's stiffness is based on the black pins with friction. Maybe I'll try and build 8846 using gray pins only, I guess the car will feel notable different.

I looked around, but I cannot find a site that says "1981". The "big ones" Bricklink, Brickset, Lugnet and Peeron all say "1982".

A great set from the good old days... where vehicles still were 4w

+1 But I guess Blakbird is still digging through his 1981 catalogs and 8846 instructions

11: 5 14: 5

To complete my collection, I am missing 8054 and 8055 in MISB condition.

In this case, I'd like to see an evidence, because: - all online databases say 1982 - no online inventory lists 16 gray pins as alternate items - none of my 1981 catalogs (also international releases) shows set 8846 Maybe all these sources can be proven wrong, maybe they all copied wrong information from each other. so I really would like to see an 1981 catalog that shows 8846, and building instructions that show gray pins instead of black ones.

Found an error... set 8846 has been assigned to year 1981 in Technicopedia, but it has been released in 1982. Most obviously, 8846 comes with the black technic friction pins, and instructions, box, databases etc. say "1982".

1972 has also been released in Germany, as kind of "getting started with Lego Technic" campaign. Nevertheless, you can't find it as easy as other sets from that era.

Imho, I think that the following sets are a little bit rare: 1924, 1972, due to limited distribution 857, 8858-1 (motors), 8846 and 8054, due to rather short periods of availability. E.g. 8054 has been released during summer 1989 and was replaced by 8064 only one year later. 8846 was listed only 1982 and 1983, while 857 can be found only in 1979 and 1980 catalogs. Model Team sets don't seem to be rare to me. As long as money isn't a problem, BL and Ebay offer almost every MT set in whatever condition you like, even quite a number of MISB ones have survived so far. Ony 5563 and 5571 seem to be an exception of this rule. And I believe that many MT sets were built only once for static display purpose, which means that a large number of used sets are in nice condition: complete with extra parts, bricks never mixed up with other sets, and original box.

This set combines the best of both worlds - studded and studless building. It looks a little bit awkward, but building the SUV is great fun, and I really like the features.

2 days ago, I found a sealed 8460 at eBay, BIN 30€: http://www.ebay.de/itm/181261928772 As the box is heavily worn, I would call it rather "ISB" than "MISB". But I want to build it anyway, and all contents are sealed (the postman delivered it today )

Sorry, I don't know. My 8450 is still sealed in it's original polybags, so I did not even realize that the built model is different from model shown at the picture.

That's not correct. 8450 is listed twice at brickfactory.info. The first entry consists of 571 images. The first pages are the printed manual, you can find the complete building instructions, starting with image #6. The second entry consists of 32 images and shows the printed manual in different languages.