DrJB

Any chance for some LDD instructions?

The GBCs are awesome ... and so are the soundtracks. Can you provide more info on the soundtracks? My son said he knows the song and I bet against him that he does not ... I lost ... he won. It's from Madagascar 2.

Of course not .... just thought I would follow along ... ;) You know what WV stands for?

Is that its official name? ... does it have WV plates as well?

Makes me want to rebuild the 8110 and find out ...

My first major set with them was 8466 ... I thought that set used too many of them. It was also my first set with green/silver and pearl light gray. On the 8448 though, the flex and ribbed hoses are used in a much 'elegant' way.

very nice indeed!

I guess there is no right or wrong about this hobby ... When I came back from my dark ages, lego started introducing more and more stud-less sets. At first, I thought the parts were totally useless, but then we started seeing commendable/respectable mocs and I got to appreciate the stud-less parts even more. It's liek anything else, once you learn how to use the new parts, no need to go back to the old way of doing things (unless nostalgia is involved). Some will tell you (I'm one of them) that some sets are 'classic' and if you have the funds, go and get them. However, such classic sets (e.g 8880/8448/8480) at once commended very high prices (over $300 second hand, few years ago). Now, if you follow eBay, you can get each for sometimes less then $150. The 8421 was a must-have set last year, with the 42009, I'm guessing the demand would drop, unless of course the special pneumatic brackets keep it up there. Of the old sets I consider must-have: Monorail 6991, and my personal Technic favorites: 8880/8448/8480/8275/8258/8455.

No, I am not aware of any use in official Lego sets, of such feature. This is kind-of-like the old differential cage. You have the ability to add a clutch to make a diff-lock, but it was never demonstrated in an official lego set. I guess that is where AFOL engineers (mechanical) step in. A bit more about #2 in my prior post. In the 8265 wheel loader, there are 3 cardans all aligned with the pivot point of the articulated chassis. Two of those were for the loader arm and bucket. The third was for connecting the front and rear differentials. In REAL wheel loaders, they do not put a cardan at the pivot point. Instead they put 2 CV joints one way behind the pivot, the other in front of it. The two CV joints are then connected with a telescopic drive-shaft. You can imagine that, as the chassis steers left/right, the distance between the two CV joints changes, hence the need for a telescopic connection of variable length. This is also better for the durability of the CV joints as they only turn through half of the steering angle of the chassis.

I think the reason it's long is so you can make a telescopic connection with a variable length. There are at least 2 instances where this could happen: 1. car suspension with non-vertical motion of the spindle. 2. Telescopic Connection between engine drive-shaft and front axle for articulated construction machines (wheel loaders) and large tractors (quad-tracks)

Stumbled upon this ... it seems TLG tried many ideas before finalizing the internal gear design on the power-miner sets. If only some of those were made available ... http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3947416

Yes ... there are inherent losses .... Else, would have neat to have a perpetual motion MOC ...

Not sure one can put a specific date for when the 'way-out' started .... as I said, the EV3 expansion set, which was released in 2013, still had them. Though, I cannot think of any other recent set that has them ... maybe in a different theme.

It seems that recent designs/offerings use less and less of the flex axles and ribbed hoses ... is such practice about to be phased-out by TLG? Such styling elements (along with earlier panels) had an 'organic' look to them, and it took me some time to get to like them. Though, recently, such design elements appear to be rare ... well ... except for the EV3 Expansion Set. Any thoughts?

Tempted to ask for your own moc for such bike ... As for the black/blue/silver combination, it reminds me of a set from 16 years ago ... 1998

I agree that some of those sets are no longer available at decent price. But, nonetheless, I thought I'd point you to some information which 'might' be useful. Would be worthwhile to define a bit better what kind of MOCs you're into. If, for example, you're into cars, then the 42000 is a must as it has unique tire/spindle parts. If you're after PF parts, then the rock crawler (still available) is your best bet ... if you want MANY yellow panels and plenty of gears, then the 42009 will do the trick.

looks like you have no choice then. ELse, those old motors sell on eBay for $10-20 a piece ... or even cheaper in 'lots'.

You can, but it'll be slower as the old 9V motor spins faster (no internal gear reduction). The other 'difficulty' is that the two motors are not 'drop-in' replacements of one-another .. and you'd need to adapt the construction to accept the newer 9V motor.

Might be even easier to get some O-rings from your local Home-Depot / Lowes or local hardware/plumbing store.

I started a similar thread few months back. Check it out http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=87935

go to the setechnic site ... that is where the french-speaking afols hang out. If you do, don't forget the Trocadero and Sacré-Coeur as well ...

True ... but what if you have few V1's and want to mod them? Surely, if there is a V2, this means TLG missed the boat on this one... correct?

hahaha ... not really, it's friday, been a long week. No offense meant :)

good catch ... well ... none of the mindstorms are listed either.

... and I bet you don't know why you're posting either ;)