Jetro

Very nice - I was just looking at these on your Flickr account. I suppose you use a special "tool" to operate the functions as the controls are really well hidden inside the model and don't look like you can actually turn them directly. Can you show us some pictures from the bottom of the MOC? I was thinking the same. Can you put one next to the crane to show the scale better? When you make the video for the Truck, see if you can do the same for this one!

Love it! Don't forget the video, please...

colour change is simply not going to happen. As for the rest, yeah, it is way too early, and if I actually knew anything I wouldn't be allowed to tell anyone

I wish I had more time on my hands, but honestly, it's "just" another hobby. Other people spend their time and money going to all the football matches of their favourite club, spend their weekends watching F1 or go bar hopping. While my wife doesn't really understand my fascination with LEGO she sure appreciates the fact that I spend most of my free time at home with my family. The real struggle is in making sure my kids understand what is their LEGO and what is mine. I take LEGO to work all the time and it makes for great classroom material (teaching English in companies) - most of the engineers love to play with the bits and pieces I bring in and they almost always spark great conversations. My friends and relatives know of my hobby (90% of what goes onto my FB wall is LEGO), but they are still positively surprised every time I show them a MOC.

Can you explain what you have seen¿ Which parts are most affected?

I agree with you. Especially if they sell things that are not yet available through standard channels. I remember a discussion mentioning LEGO seems to alternate big flagships with smaller ones, but I don't entirely agree. 2010 brought us the Excavator so then 2011 should have been smaller flagship, but we got the Unimog. Is this year's Flagship really smaller? Well, there are fewer pieces and the price is lower, but I wouldn't say the set was designed to be smaller. It feels like they tried to put as much into the set as possible within the budget and reasonable sales price (Think of it this way: if the Crawler had been at the same price point as the Unimog, what additional features should it have had to justify that price?)

Well, in this particular case that's true, but not in the way implied. Several people were given access to the set and given a date before which they were not supposed to mention they had it, and then the set appeared before the intended time. I'm convinced it was yet another unfortunate error at a sales point. The boxes were not supposed to have been put on sale, but once the mistake was made there was no turning back.

I'm having a really hard time understanding what you are trying to say. I can't really make any sense of it... :(

However, if you look at mechanical power at 9V you get L-Motor: 1.85W XL-Motor: 2.21W 2 x L-Motors = 2 x 1.85W = 3.7W (considerably more than one XL-Motor

I stand corrected. So the gear ratio calculator was indeed very close...

Read the review again after building mine slowly and I come across two minor errors As has been pointed out elsewhere, the servo motor doesn't have a through and through connection point (like the NXT motors) but a 1L deep connection point on either side with a 1L distance between them. I suppose that's more or less what you meant to say though... I calculated (20/12)+(28/20)+(20/12)+(20/12)=6.4:1 If you use Sariel's Gear Ratio Calculator you get 1:6.485 due to rounding error.

The highest solid obstacle I had handy was a 8,5cm thick dictionary and the crawler had no problem with it. As a matter of fact, it would have done something taller but for the bar at the front which reduces the attack angle. Driving backwards, the only reason it didn't scale the wall full on was lack of power (I used the rechargeable Li-Ion battery) and the fact that the wheels slipped on the floor.

Here you go, first with the grey rims: And then with the black ones: Front view just for the fun of it:

Kevin Clague wrote an excellent tutorial on Pneumatic Sequencing and I'm sure it holds the answer to your question. Unfortunately it is no longer on-line, but you can read the first part in Hispabrick Magazine 013 and we'll publish the second part in the next issue which will be out in August.

Sounds like something is not connected properly, although doing it twice is quite a coincidence. Do the other functions in the model work well? If it is just the turntable, is there any chance the turntable itself is not properly assembled (the top and bottom clicked together)?

I keep my parts sorted by type, and indeed I have overflowing bins with pins and short axles. In the end I keep several (zip) bags with those parts in a storage bin in the attic and hardly ever need to bring it out.

I fitted the Unimog tyres on mine :D

Wow, that's a lot more expensive than the other PF motors :(

It's hard to give an opinion in just a few words, but I'm quite excited about the set. I'm not particularly charmed by the colour scheme, but the power of the L-motors and possibilities of the proportional servo motor are very interesting. The design is very sturdy and it's a great set. You'll be able to read a more complete assessment in HispaBrick Magazine 014 in about a month.

I'm afraid not. Fernando tested his at night in a relatively small space with what appears to be walls that reflect the IR signal well. I tested mine during the day, in a large office with big windows and fluorescent lighting and got no response when the Crawler was upside down.

I very much doubt the V2 IR-Receiver has a better reception that the previous version. Reception depends largely on the strength of the signal (hence the "bad" results with the HiTechnic IR-Link sensor which broadcasts a very weak signal and so needs to be placed very near the receiver to work). I've had the very same bad reception with the new receiver as with the old one when using it in a room with fluorescent lighting or with big windows. I also doubt (but this needs to be confirmed - I'll ask and let you know when I get a response) that this receiver is in fact different from the latest ones we've had (including the ones from 2 years ago). Some time ago LEGO announced they had updated the receiver chip and I remember the only way to distinguish an "old" receiver from a "new" one was to check the blinking of the led at power up. The receiver that comes with this set also does the blink at power up. I strongly suspect LEGO has simply decided to mark this very same 2nd generation receiver V2. This might indicate that at some point in the not too distant future they may actually start using the function that didn't work on the first version...

The axle hole is not through and through. You can insert an axle 1L deep on either side

That depends on your definition of Technic set. If you want a set with lots of mechanisms and cool features, get something else (the Unimog, or maybe the 9396 helicopter). This set doesn't have any manual functions (if you don't count the opening doors to access the battery box and the way you can lift up the upper bodywork to get access to the battery), but it is certainly a Technic set as it uses gears and motors to make things move - and very well I might add. Was the 8275 bulldozer a Technic set? Well, there's your answer.

How did I miss this post?? Just a few more days to go. Want to know what to do with the base? Well, for starters, you could use it to test all those setups that you want to include in your MOC in an easy way, for example like this: I want mu MinuteBot Base :D :D There are some more ideas here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37801615/minutebot-base/posts/220536

A great alternative, and thank you again for your review and alternative model for HispaBrick Magazine!