DrJB

That would be very kind of you if you could do so ... a full database would provide a plethora of information.

That picture simply does not do the 8258 set justice. There is so much functionality in that set, it's way beyond the average technic. It is one of my all time favorites. I feel TLG could have done a better job in better advertising that set and the photos on the box. The crane part is ingenious, both with LAs and motorized rotation, and yet you see very little of it, as it is obscured by the square cab. Lastly, I got 3 such sets ... one open built, others still sealed, .... who knows, saved for the next generation.

1. The brick is technically the same, at least on the outside. It may have had some internal hardware upgrades put to my knowledge, it is the same performance, processor, ... etc. 2. Both bricks can be updated to the latest software (firmware), and it is free. You can download the latest firmware from the lego mindstorms site. 3. NXT is very picky about which dongle to use. There are many flavors of blue tooth out there, and only few dongles work with NXT, not all. 4. Parts list, both have decent assortments od parts, the most obvious for me was that NXT uses large balls, NXT 2.0 uses small bionicle balls. Some people do not like bionicle. If you want a ist of parts included in both sets, check the inventories on bricklink.com. 5. The programming windows software does work under windows 7, both 32 and 64 bit. 6. Upgrade is FREE, do not get fooled.. 7. From my recollection, the color sensor on NXT 2.0 is a bit better than the one in NXT 1.0. I think it detects MORE colors. My personal opinion, 100$ is a good value, as the brick alone retails for about that much, and you are getting all the parts for free. One BIG word of caution. Make sure the brick does not have any leaked battery damage ... otherwise you are throwing money away.

Hydraulics and Pneumatics are not the same. My recollection is that, one of the main differences between circuitry for the two is that, for hydraulics, one needs to provide a return path for the fluid. For air however, one simply vents air out.

hahaha ... That's what they told me at the hotel lobby too ... but could not get it to work ... and the auction ended at 3:00 AM, I was beyond REM sleep by then.

Ugly ??? .... tell that to the people who bought them ... but then again, I agree ... must be a mutt of ... don't even know where to start.

Thank You, I'll give it a try. As for the prowler, grazie for picking up an appropriate thread ...

Darn !!! ... been watching this new/openbox/sealed bags 8450 set on eBay for few days ... wanted to get it but auction ended in the middle of the night ... it sold for under $100!!! ... I am in Italy now and ... had I been home, I would for sure have won it :(

Sounds like a nice initiative .... but let me ask this. On EB's webpage there is very litte functionality, especially for searching. I'm on other forums (other hobbies) and one can easily search for specific keywords, one's own posts, ... and plenty other useful info. I cannot seem to find it on the technic subpage. That would make such 'combined' threads usable.

Thank you, that is exactly my point. I am sure the 3D 'matrix' I refer to above is readily available for data mining. Writing code to process such data and extract all sorts of statistics would be a real fun project. The still open question would be who has the largest and most accurate set inventories out there? Would be nice if such data was made public and in one place though, one could easily wrtite a script that goes through all of peeron's sets and build such 3D matrix ... Imagine, all the statistics one can build from such 3D matrix, I can get the set weight, the average price per part, or even back calculate or estimate the pricing structure TLG uses for their sets ... That would sure be a fun project.

Ok, was forunate to pick one 8675-1 off eBay at a reasonable price. Now, It did NOT come with a remote/controller and I was simply planning on using the one I have from 8376-1. I tried it but, it would not work. Anyone knows if such controllers are interchangeable or rather operate on different frequency bands? .... my son is eager to try it outside ... before the snow season rolls in.

What if, one of those non-open sets has License Plate 00001 of 20000? I bet a large fraction of those sets will remain sealed for a long long time ...

I'm one of those ... simply afraid to leave my fingerprints on the delicate parts ... and soil the set for ever. So, be brave, come forward and acknowledge it is on a shelf, protected from dust and light .... etc.

I did a search on google but there are only few not-so-successful attempts at modeling such car. Does anyone on here have a worthy MOC?

I appears Rebrickable might have the closest tool to what we're after. In effect, everytime you load a parts list, Rebrickable tells you about 'rare' parts i.e., those that showed up in fewer than five sets. Thinking of this further, one can easily build a three dimensional matrix. The three coordinates are Set #, part #, then color. That matrix would have as many rows as there are parts, as many columns as there are sets, and as many 'layers' as there are colors. It is then a very simple task to scan across any 'dimension' and obtain all relevant information. Each entry in such 3D matrix would be the number of parts of a given color in a very specific set. This would be a very sparse matrix (many zeros) except perhaps for the 'nails and bolts' columns discussed in a different thread. It should be very easy to code the whole thing in Matlab ... any takers?

Jennifer pushed the limits as to what can be accomplished with Lego ... albeit sometimes using custom parts. In my book, that crane DOES qualify!

In general I agree, but there have quite a few exceptions. I can name the 8448, the 8880 transmission lever, and several bionicle and starwars sets. Not sure what the motivation is to use molds fora single set only ... unless it is TLG's way to increase value of their sets. Nothing to be gained for them though, as they do not benefit directly from such value increase ... maybe only through image/brand recognition.

During my grad school years, I took a short course at MIT (early 90's) that included many yellow technic bricks, grey gears and a custom microprocessor. The idea back then was to build robots and have them compete for some specified tasks. Essentially this was the predecessor of the mindstorms brick and the FLLs taking place at many schools now. Little did I know, back then, that 10 years later, Lego would commercialize an updated brick, and bring me back to my school days ...

Of course I have ... and it's notarized too, by the queen herself. What, you think we're lawless savages?

Question is self explanatory ... Which set, made you realize Technic has undergone a radical transformation, and it was time for you to come back? For me, it was a combination Williams F1 Racer and Mindstorms RCX 2.0. I was in Hanover, Germany for a summer assignment back in 2003, visited one of their stores ... and there stood this blue and white F1 racer ... Did not recall Lego could build such large sets from 1x16 bricks (or 1x15 liftarms). The new curved panels and flex axles looked almost 'organic'. Next to the Williams, was a bundle of Mindstorms RCX 2.0 + Vision Command. It was rather expensive back then, but when I got back home to the US that fall, I ordered the RCX from Shop@Home. Somehow the F1 Racer was no longer available.

Over the years, there have been many sets with unique parts. The 8448 got quite a few (wheel, tire, rack, hub, ...). Of the many inventory tools out there (peeron, bricklink) none lists the parts that are unique to any given specific set. That would be, IMHO, a rather simple feature to implement. Any thoughts?

Not quite ... if you read through all the posts, the discussion went back and forth between the power puller and other favorite sets, the shuttle was one of them.

Just did it ... bought an 8480 off eBay ... decent price, only few missing common parts ... should make for a fun evening or two.

Here is what I have so far. Let us make this a team effort and have someone complete the LXF. ... I hope is ok to post. Madoka SUV Mk II.lxf

Thank you ... very much!