Rijkvv

I've designed one as well: link But to be honest, I don't know if it works well. But you can see the building instructions and give it a try.

I think the extension tube is the best. I don't really see what makes the other parts great, but that may have something to do with my lack of interest in the studless system (maybe combined with my lack of experience in TECHNIC building). Well, the extension tube would be most welcome for driving suspended axles, but I'm sure there will be many more possibilities. Something like this can be created with a worm gear, but that's not very compact, make it limited in it's usage. Well, not entirely TECHNIC related but I think Barman's design for Minifig-scale vehicle steering is great as well.

At Brickshelf, I've found a picture that shows even more attachment points: Link. I think the green dots are exact, in other words they can be connected with a 1 x 1 plate. The blue ones have a half plate offset, so you can use jumper plates for them. The red ones can be attached with the previous noted turntable.

Besides of that, these were all released in the second half. And I haven't seen pictures of the second half yet. @Blakbird: maybe it depends on the person what is recognizable. I was only a few years old when I saw a sideloader (and saw it for many times) and didn't see a telehandler before I was 12. But I have to admit, this would be more suitable as an AFOL moc subject, than recognizable for the average kid. Well, from 2005 until now every uneven year there was a big TECHNIC set, studded and studless combined. I'll cross my fingers and hope they will continue this...

How about a sideloader? It's something we never saw before in LEGO, and I think it could be an interesting set. But... please add at least some studs. A combination of studless and studded, like 8265, 8275 and 8421. Those 100% studless sets don't look like LEGO to me. Oh, and I love if it is full remote controlled of course.

In my childhood I always wanted this set. It had cool minifigs and cool colours. Now I realize this has to be the weakest of the three Monorail sets. But still I think this set is not thát bad. It's just not as good as 6990 (or 6399, but that's another theme). I've never heard of Unitron until after my Dark Ages. At least in the Dutch catalogs, the name Unitron was never called. This set was displayed most times on the same pages as Spyrius. While the latter had the name and logo above the sets, the monorail was displayed without any theme information. I don't really care about the other sets, I think the monorail is the best of the theme, but it was interesting to find out other sets do exist.

Well, I already made a top 10, but I forgot... Western! I'll have to change the top 10. Aquazone is out, but I'm not sure where to place Western Cowboys. The indians are not that great. Well, the minifigs are, but the sets... They lack the cool buildings the cowboys have. I know it's more realistic this way, but maybe that's why I prefer cowboys. Hm,I didn't even include Classic Pirates in my top 10. Another great theme, and it seems I'll change my top 10 every hour.

Well, let's see. Town is the theme I always had the most LEGO of, but the sets still miss the quality of design the pre-juniorization sets had. Then I could easily say Classic Town, but the first sets are not detailed at all (although there are exceptions in both early sets and recent sets). Still, I think Classic Town is my favourite. There are some wonderful subthemes released. Extreme Team has some great sets (although as a theme I think there should be more 'survival sets' like the biggest set, 6584). Divers is great, but the best subtheme ever is Res-Q (the reason why I wrote that article). I still own only one set, 6445, but the fun I had with the playability... incredible. Arctic could have been great, but unfortunately it suffered too much from the juniorization. Space Port was way inferior to the great 1995 Launch Command sets. Trains and Ships officially were different themes in the '90s Dutch catalogs, but they can be combined without problems. I always wanted a castle, but never got it until after my Dark Age. The old sets don't bother me, the new sets have weak designs (but the new Kingdom theme looks interesting, soon I'm going to read the reviews) and KK2 is ugly. I prefer the sets released from 1990 till 1995, with the probable exception of Dragon Masters. Royal Knights seems to be not that popular, but still it's one of my favourites, and the only faction I have a castle of. Pirates never really took my interest. The first line had great figs and sets, the second line only had the 10210 exclusive in my opinion. Islanders is a great subtheme, and would be even better if the canoes were printed (the other first line sets got no stickers at all). TECHNIC was great from mid '80s until around 1997. In 1998 the designs became futuristic, in 1999 ugly panels were released and later even the studs disappeared. Why it is still called LEGO? I have no idea. Some great combi-sets, like 8421 and 8275. I've heard you need a motor if you want to have fun with the 8265 Loader. Arctic Action looks fun, but I think the designs could be better (Sno-cat, Snowscooters and BandVagns perhaps?). Space has some great sets as well. Ice Planet 2002 had a few great sets I've always wanted, but it was until a year later I really got interest in Space, with Spyrius and the 6991 monorail (since the other Unitron sets are US Only, I don't take them into my consideration). Blacktron 2 don't look that fearsome, Space Police always lacked a base (SP1 base: see Unitron) and engines or weapons (depending if it's SP1 or SP2), but still awesome ships and vehicles. I've heard about Explorien stickers peeling off. UFO has great minifigs, but the Saucer-parts make the ships look <insert that tiresome argument>. However I think this was the last theme of Space affordable to buy or even collect. Insectoids and everything thereafter seemed weak. I recently discovered the greatness of Futuron, better looking than Classic Space while still look retro and that's positive. There are a few other themes that got my interest. Aquazone is one of them (the first series), which can be counted as two more Space factions (Aquanauts and Aquasharks). If you count it like that, I believe it's the last Space theme without any stickers. Model Team looks great, detailed and I still think much better than the current Creator sets. Adventurers had some great sets too, but the subject of the theme didn't do it for me. Conclusion: still hard to choose for me, but here's my Top 10: 1. Classic Town 2. Studded TECHNIC 3. Dragon Knights 4. Crusaders 5. Futuron 6. Royal Knights 7. Model Team 8. Spyrius 9. Wolfpack 10. Aquazone

Wow, this is really great. Han has brought me in an even bigger dilemma about my LEGO budget. Spend more money in collecting sets, spend it to one of multiple WIP's (from which the designs aren't finished yet) or spend it to collect the parts and build this beauty... The last option looks the best at the moment.

You already mentioned the Code Pilot was vulnerable. I think the Mini-motor included in that set suffers from breakdowns as well. I could get mine going with pliers, but after some years of not using it I had the same problem. When I was able to get it in motion again, it's performance was very weak, almost useless in 8479. I tried it with a normal battery box, but it didn't move at all. After this the inside smelled very bad. On the internet I've read more people suffered problems with this motor. My own barcode truck was from 1997, so maybe only the first year(s) there were problems, According to Philo's site, a new motor with the same shape was released in 2002, which was different in the inside, so maybe this new version didn't have any problems

Why don't you use the standard 9V wire between the power connectors and the speed regulator? Then you have an easy to use 100% LEGO solution. The way of creating big loops with only straights is impossible for me cause of lack of space, but the version with curved pieces might work. Thanks!

You could also use the bogie featured in Railbricks magazine number 6. I currently use this in an extended version in my NS 1200 WIP.

Crowkillers has shared the instructions for free. Maybe that someone only buys the parts to make his own copy, but if he sells the kit, he makes money with Crowkillers' work. That is not only unfair, but can prevent Crowkillers (and others) from sharing instructions for free in the future.

Well, seeing the picture of the Austrian 1020, I do think the set is based on this model. Sure, the colours are different, but remember this was not a special release like the BNSF. Remember that the TEE loc has different pantographs than the real Br 103 (and I think new style pantographs would be possible even back then). It was not ment to be a replica, but a nice looking engine. And it seems to me the designers were inspired by the 1020. I think an important problem of 4551 was it's (lack of) performance. I don't own it, but reading reviews and comments on the internet, the Crocodile Engine is infamous for it's derailments. I think this was caused by the light leading sections. One of them was a little bit too high, because it was connected to the 9V motor.

To me, the Big Five (8868, 8880, 8485, 8480 and 8479) are the best TECHNIC sets ever made. But there are some great other sets. Functions are very important, as well as looks. There are a lot of mid-sized sets that never became as famous as the yearly flagship sets, but are great for their size. A good example is the supply ship (8839 if I'm right). It was released in 1992, so it never became too famous since it stood in the shadow of 8868. But the subject is unique, and the technics used are great. I don't have the motorized set released in 1993. But reading Technicopedia, the forklift sounds like a great model to me. And that's a modle you can't call big. A model which I do own is 8440. Although the functions are limited to Flex steering, a diff and a V6 engine, the looks are great, making this one of the best mid-sized models IMO. Too bad there are many stickers used, making it impossible to take the model apart if you want to keep the stickers. That brings me to another factor: stickers. Stickers that tend to fall off, can have a negative influence to my judgement of sets. Especially when they are neccesary for the overall looks of a model (the headlights for example).

I prefer the old instructions. True, sometimes you had to look where the parts should be placed. But that's something of the charm of LEGO (imo). Today's sets have more parts, but adding only a few parts (and sometimes only one) per step is very annoying, and consumes a lot of instruction pages. Even the most complicated models of the mid '90s sets used only one book for both the main model and alternate. I don't know why a single model nowadays needs three booklets, not even including the alternate. Simple counted that means a model needs six times the pages, while it's maybe doubled in pieces. I think a model could easily been described in one single book, while another one could be included for the alternate model.

Does this mean Technicopedia gets the 1996 update in the near future? Amazing rendering Eric. When I built mine, I made a mistake and placed an electric wire connector one stud wrong. Result: the inner gears were blocked, and to fix the problem I had to take half of the model apart. Well, that's why you need to check the moving parts during building, but it shows the complexity of this set. To create such a model, and to align all gears properly... respect.

My real first name is Rijk. In Dutch this means having a lot of money, so the English translation is rich. Well, I turned it in Richie, not realizing it was one of the most used nicknames on the internet. So, if you see a Richie at another site, perhaps LEGO-related, there's a big chance it's somebody else.

People say Creator sets are more detailed than MT sets. And in fact, the overall shape of Creator sets is maybe better, due to modern curved pieces that weren't available in the '80s and '90s. However, looking to the details, I think Creator can use a lot of improvement. The windshield wipers in MT sets still look better than anything that Creator sets have.

The new Toy Story theme features at least two 'western' sets. Although I think the designs are weak, they contain great parts. The train at least has some nice printed pieces.

8880, 8480, 8485, 8868, 8479. These are my top 5 sets, but it's hard to pick a favourite. 8855 and 8862 are great as well. 8440 looks good, maybe the best TECHNIC race car set made, but the stickers are annoying. The best recent set is 8275 in my opinion.

All official Model Team cars and trucks had working steering. For me, that's one of the most important things and advantages in comparison to Creator. The latter has the advantage of no stickers, and more specific no STAMPS. I prefer Model Team, however. To me it looks more detailed, but I have to say it can be pure nostalgia.

Divers, the 1997 Town sub-theme certainly is the most realistic theme, and one of my all-time favourites. But since this is in the Action themes forum, I choose both classic Aquazone themes: Aquanauts and Aquasharks. Well-designed, they look like Space sets from the same era. In fact, I always thought it was a Space subtheme.

@ Brickaroo, The Red Brick, Polish Guy & legotrainfan: -Classic Smile > Check. -Simple Design > Check. For me the same. These figs may not look too realistic, but look more lego-ish. It's the same thing I have with TNT: although the tile looks less realistic, I think it's better than the 'real' one. Strange comparison, isn't it? In the '80s, there were only classic smile faces in LEGO Town, Trains and Ships. In the early '90s, new faces came, but still the standard smile could be recognized, although it was fitted with sunglasses, a moustache or a headset. That's why I like that era. Classic smiles were easy to mix with the less classic ones (which happened in some sets as well). In the modern era, the classic smile and torso looks already aged (although there is a face that comes close to thre original smile). So, for me it's simplicity. The nineties for me, with the eighties a close second.

I think the colour scheme is the only link to Amtrak. EMU's are not as common in Amerika as they are in Europe. That being said, there are French EMU's that have a very similar colour scheme to the Metroliner set as well.