Alternator

I think if it does interest you and it's within your means, do it, it's "your" hobby after all. I suspect quite a few AFOL's have what I will call pre-destined purchases which you could say is like collecting. i.e. My pre-destines are the flagship Technic models each year, City Street Modulars (Sadly I don't have the first two), and the Winter Village series (if I could've afforded it, I would have liked to get all the UCS level Star Wars sets coming out too). That's partly because I have a high confidence I will like all those sets, so I suppose that is the yard stick I use - I collect in the themes I have a high confidence I will continue to enjoy.

42000 - Grand Prix Racer: I just got this (so haven't built it), I'm not wowed by the function set it is boasting but it was a chance at a F1 model, so I think it looks nice and I am interested in it's suspension. 42001 - Mini Off Roader. Seems fine 42002 - Hovercraft: Nice to see a hovercraft, but I decided to skip this one since the other sets this size have the new pull back part, whereas this one seems more generic in function (although if you want black panels...) 42004 - Mini Backhoe Loader: I really liked the loader 8069 from a few years ago so was going to give this one a miss, in the end I picked it up for parts mainly 42005 - Monster Truck: Not really my thing, but if the price is right I could see myself picking it up 42006 - Excavator: The claw sold this one to me - not sure how the price stacks up but it seemed reasonably good too 42007 - Moto Cross Bike: I was going to skip this, but decided it could be worth having if only for the parts (I did like the previous bike, but generally it's not my kind of thing, although I would totally get a flagship level motor bike if they somehow came up with one) 42008 - Service Truck: I know little about this, but it looks quite interesting and I have a fondness of pneumatic sets since they don't put out heaps of them 42009 - Mobile Crane Mk II: For me 8421 came out during my dark ages, and for some reason no stores around me seemed to bring in 8053 and then it dissappeared relatively quickly from the online lego store (I live in New Zealand and postage is punishing), so I'm actually quite looking forward to getting this style of crane truck, I'm quite interested to see if it lives up to the description provided! 42010 - Off-road Racer & 42011 - Race Car: These seem like simple sets, but they're quite cheap and I'm interested in getting a couple of the Pull-Back parts, so should provide some fun I don't think there is a real standout model this year like there has been the last few years (42009 may address that if it meets that description posted on page 2), none the less I think the year is offering some solid choices and I actually think this will be the most technic sets that I've bought from one year. I'm with you on the bulldozer as well! I really liked the look of 8275 (also from my dark ages), although that might be unlikely given that the B model from 8043 a few years ago was a motorized bulldozer (albeit a smaller scale one).

On the weekend I picked up 10229 Winter Village Cottage And my technic order just arrived today 1 x LEGO Technic - Grand Prix Racer (42000) 1 x LEGO Technic - Excavator (42006) 1 x LEGO Technic - Moto Cross Bike (42007) 1 x LEGO Technic - Mini Backhoe Loader (42004) 1 x LEGO Technic - Off-road Racer (42010) 1 x LEGO Technic - Race Car (42011) I'll probably build one of the smaller sets first (I'm eager to check out the new technic pull-back part http://www.brickset.com/parts/?part=6024100).

I too missed that blimmin gear - I had to dissassemble quite a bit of the back and then gently pry a beam off to get the gear in place. I do have a few gripes with it which I'll mention: The winch has far too much friction in the standard design, but it seems there is a simple mod to fix this The landing gear doesn't 100% clear the base of the helicopter when retracted, but it does so enough that it can still be sat on it's base, except... The PF battery box sticks out below the belly so the landing gear must be down with PF installed As others have noted the pole reverser for PF is much desired (I've added mine similar to how JunkstyleGio has), I'm not too sure why they didn't include it in the instructions since you get that part in the PF kit so most people would likely have it I found the pins holding the battery box in place a pain to remove, so replaced them with a double prong that fastens using only 1 pin on each side. That said I really love this set: It looks great And has a substantial size, particularly for a non flagship set (it really grabs attention) Enough features for it to be quite interesting, the pitch control is my favorite It's B model looks very worthy (I haven't built it yet) Plenty of interesting technic pieces As a technic set I just found it a very compelling set from first seeing it I'm even teetering on buying a second set so I can have the B model assembled at the same time as it looks great too! (I'm torn between doing so or being just a little frugal, as I spent a fair bit on lego anyway )