starstreak

That works.

There was many an argument if stickers should be used. Being that I have both versions (actually I have all versions) of the M.Falcon that can share parts, I thought I would show you what the 7778 would look like with a sticker for the side hatch (or whatever that round cap is). Like most of my reviews, all photos are clickable for the full size photos. First some shots of the two together. For those that don't know, the 7778 is the larger one that was just released. The 4488 came out a few years ago. Front view of both. I wish the cockpit on the 4488 has some sort of print for it. Looks wierd. And I wish the sticker for the 7778 cockpit matched better to the more detailed nose of the cockpit piece, which is also a sticker. Rear shot of the two Millenium Falcons Side profile. Hey no comment about one of the air vents being sideways on the 7778. :) This is the view you want to pay attention to. Notice how the 7778 is 2x BIGGER than the 4488. Yet, uses the same size hatch. Haha. Just by sticking the hatch into that tube on the 7778 made it look much larger than it really is. Here are the two pieces. The one on the left is a sticker, the one on the right is a print. Notice more detail on the print. Not to mention, its straight. The sticker is stright, but the "cut" wasn't off so it's off center. I tried to correct as much as I could. Original hatch on the 7778. Not too bad. And here is the old printed hatch on the 7778. Looks cleaner. I wish the front hatch holes on the 7778 was printed like the rear vents. Same thing happened. The cutouts was crooked, so some of the front hatch holes look off. So... why do you think Lego went with the stickers? Just cheaper to make? If so, I'm amazed how much printed parts they used on the 4488. And I think that was a smaller run than this new 7778.

I dunno. The promos looks out of place. I mean, they could make it but it seems so quickly made up that maybe someone at Lego was just fooling around with some PS.

Oh here's a link to a HD version of the ANIMATION. Well I can still hope they make this:

Yup alternate is nice. If I wasn't so busy building the Seperatist Shuttle/Snow Groomer sets, I might consider doing the alternate.

Now you got me wondering. It would be neat to see a supercar.

Alternate build does look nice. :) Btw, you might want to upload 800x600 pictures. Those are pretty large.

I can see the Tie Defender looking for minifig play than realism which is sad. I hope they do a good job on it. I bet since it won't "stand" well, they are going to cut corners to make sure it's stable. What I mean is it'll loose some some of it's looks in order to make it "swooshable". Oh wait wait! Make a Midi-Tie Defender! Don't have to worry about minifigs and it'll probably look good because of that.

Hmm. I didn't do a piece count, I got that from box itself or someplace like bricklink.

I always wanted the 8466. But never found a good deal for it. Join the reviewers academy and do a review on it. :) Many people like the 10185. But I was never a house type builder. Except I do want "Waterfall" but can't bring myself to pay $140 for it.

I'm sure you'll like it. Just take your time when you get to the gear box for the crane. If you put something in backwards, you'll spend time later taking the whole thing apart to fix it.

Eww- I got one point on my "review sucks big time". IF that's a joke, I do take it seriously. If it's that bad, if you want to offer how I can improve, I would be happy to hear from you. I know my writing isn't 100% perfect. :)

I found 3 pictures that I thought I lost. It's some of the outdoor shots. I added it to the review already, and for those who read the review, here are the photos just so you know.

K. That set would be coming out from nowhere. I would rather see a Tie-Defender being made. But unless you were around when when the video game came out, I guess you wouldn't know what that was too I guess.

Thanks! Knowing people like the review and for some, helps them deside on getting it, makes me feel good that the work I put behind it is well used.

I saw youre picture and clicked on it. Considering this is all made up, I think this is a 5/5 job. Love it. I don't think I could do that. Or maybe it's the part about dismantling so much other sets to make it. :)

Oh I see what you meant. Yes. That would be way more cost effective.

I was guessing at the price. But I could see the set as a whole being that much more just because its the only set to have that one motor. Lego would have to make up the cost untill they make more sets that use the smaller motor.

Thanks for the comments on the review. It's really a nice set to look at. For those wanting a better view of the gearbox, remember the slideshow? All photos are on my flickr site. Just click on the link at the bottom of the review. It'll take you there and you can view bigger pictures of all the photos in the slideshow. ILikePi- Yup. It's slow. But I guess you really wouldn't want it whipping the arm up and down. It would make it hard to control. Puddlegum- a micro motor? Hmm.. That would've been neat. But I guess with a large and small motor already, Lego probably doesn't want to make something smaller unless they had a whole lineup to use that. Either that, or it would've added $20-30 more to this set. And that would've really put people off on buying it. Considering it comes with power functions, the $140+ price isn't too bad.

Lol. I think you meant Starstreak. Hmm. That all depends. It could hold alot, but it would sag. All the parts for the crane has nothing that would "give" but would bend. Since the hook is on a line that you have to turn to raise or lower the hook, the motor wouldn't stress on lifting. I'll try and lift something with it. As for how high the 5th wheel is, I'll measure it once I bring in the set from the car. At the moment it's hiding from my son. :) I noticed that in the picture. It does look like suspension, but alas, nope. It just looks that way in the shot. The wheels don't have any suspension. Thanks. Doing the slideshow was something new. I figured more people would watch it than skim over all the thumbnails of a build this big. See, that whole thing you said about the gearbox went over my head. lol! I know what you said, but I doubt I could make and use it myself in my own project. hehe. Ah that is neat. Being able to put your own names as part of a sticker sheet. That's one way to say you helped create the set. Good for them.

From Lego.com on the Crane tuck: Set Name: 8258 Crane Truck Theme: Technic Released: 2009 Pieces: 1877 Price: $149.99/$106.35EUR/91.57GBP Here are some quicklinks Lego.com, Brickset Wanna see some pictures? Let's start with the normal box arts and manuals! Box art front While Bionicle boxes have great background, Technics have great visuals for the vehicles. This, I think is the largest Technic set for this year. Box art Back Many people like the alternate build. The truck actually looks very well done. Unlike other Technic sets, the truck actually has panels. The instructions are downloadable from a website. The four manuals are all for one build. Box art inside All my pictures normally have links to view larger versions. Click on it to see all the different things the Crane truck can do! Again, Lego likes to over-color the red. It's not as vibrant or glossy as i the pictures. Sticker sheet Many stickers. Looks like Lego went all out to help this Technic set have the "look" of the real thing. Instruction manuals Four books big. And it's ALL for this one build. All the covers look the same as the 1st. Bags of parts Now this is a proper Technic set. No numbered packages. Heh. This actually hindered me. Since I build at work, I have two plastic drawers I can put these in. Top drawer holds the smaller parts. I keep it on a "flat pillow" as to keep the noise down. The bottom drawer holds larger pieces but no "pillow" to keep the noise down. If you look carefully, you'll see a lot of the bags are dups. Like for the blue and black pins. And just the sheer number of small parts. It was hard in trying to determine what I should put into each drawer. Extras Here's whats left after I finished the build. I'm thinking maybe I have too much... Nah. The Build Ok. Four books. 1800+ pieces. Yes, I really took over a HUNDRED photos. I figured most people won't look at each photo on a contact sheet that big, so I decided to try my hand with doing a slideshow. It moves quick. About 1 second for each photo. Make sure the "HD" is red colored. Video is viewed best in "high-def", which can be view on the youtube site itself. Although not shown here in HD, it's still pretty sharp. Problem part See those two "Yellow Technic Engine Crankshaft" that attach to the extender arm? If you rotate it 180 deg, it's like not even 1/8 of an inch difference, but it's enough to stop the top arm from folding all the way closed. I guess since I saved a bunch of space in combining the photo-build, I'll upload a bunch of final photos for you to enjoy! All pictures are clickable to view in a larger photo too big for most monitors. Final build pictures Side view. Plain, but you get to see the profile. I wish I had something next to it to show you the size. It's pretty long. Front view. This is a nice clear shot to show you the front profile. Nice use of stickers. At first I thought I thought I would have issues with with the stickers because of curved surfaces. But it's fine. I do like how Lego used the blue pieces behind the lower fog lights. It gives it a modern look to it. The sticker has different yellow names that you can use. Not sure why. Maybe they had extra space on the sheet? Rear view. Not much to see here. There is a trailer hitch or whatever thats called, but so far no trailer set to hook up to it. :) V8 engine view. As you can see, the whole cab flips forward for viewing of the engine. Like other Technic sets, the pistons move up and down when the truck rolls. Closeup of the crane. Reminds me of those robotic arms you see at an assembly plant. This is the reason why I wanted this set. From this view, you can also see where the battery pack is stored. Where normally the crew cab storage area would be. Front top view. Here you can see the horns on the top of the cab. Not sure if those "radar" dishes was the best choice. It looks too flat and not like a horn. Also on the top, you can see the wind deflector. Did you know those wind deflectors on these big trucks can actually save 10-15% in gas? Here is a view with the crane arm extended. Those "Light Bluish Gray Technic Linear Actuator with Dark Bluish Gray Ends" that is used 2x to operate the crane arms is NOT pneumatic. On one end, a shaft is rotated and in turn slowly pushes the actuator pin in and out depending which way the end is being rotated. The top arm is all MANUAL. The black extender moves by rotating the black wheel on the back joint of that extender. Also the line is MANUAL to extend/retract the hook. I thought it was powered too when I bought it. Guess there would be no easy way to do that without making the crane ugly with gears. Here, you can see the crane fully raised up. Not that it could be used to lift like that since it's almost vertical. But you can see how high it really can go. Here is one of the control door opened. This side, you can see the switch for positive or negative power. The lever is pointing to the left. It's supposed to be pointing upwards, but I found it easier to keep it to the left. This is the other control panel open on the other side. Here, you can see that raising or lowering the TWO, three position switches, you can control the lower and upper crane arm with one switch. And the other switch controls the crane rotation and the stabilizer arms to go out or in. A close up view of the lower part of the crane. I was hoping you could see more of the gears but the only one you can see is the dark grey gear that rotates the base of the crane. Some outdoor shots Since this is a "Power Function" set, I thought I would make a few videos showing some of the features. A note about videos. They are HD. But to view in HD, you need to open it on the youtube site to see it. Truck stabilizer in action Lower crane arm in action Upper crane arm in action Crane closing to a compact state Comments This build was pretty easy considering the 1800 pieces, and that I had to dump them all into a drawer without sorting. There was a couple of this that I ran into. Some are problems, others are just things I didn't know. 1) The rotation of the crane. I'm not sure why, but it doesn't always rotate. 2) I pulled hairs trying to figure out why I couldn't make the crane fold into a compact state like in the final photo. It turned out that if you put these yellow pegs "Yellow Technic Engine Crankshaft" in wrong on the upper crane arm, it will actually stop it from folding completely. The instructions isn't too clear on the how the part is to be put on. See picture above. 3) I don't like the boxed in area for the crane. You can't 360 degree rotate the crane without bumping into the cage. 4) I mentioned before the crane line and final extension on the crane is manual. You need to use your hand to raise and lower the line and extend and retract the extender. 5) The stabilizers have manual legs on them. Once you extend the stabilizers, you need to lower the legs on each one by hand. My rating: Playability: 4/5. This set is very playable. A few minor bugs, but still fun. It won't lift anything heavy, but you can pretend. :) Design: 4/5. Being the biggest Technic set of the year, they did a good job. But a few minor problems like the crane not being able to rotate 360 degree when folded, bothered me. Then again, maybe the real rig you could only compact it and not rotate it to save space. Build experience: 5/5. Comparing it to other Technic sets, this is... harder. No bags are marked so everything is in one big pile. Just the way I like it. I want a challenge. But still, finding out that yellow piece was backwards was a pain. As I mentioned, it's not clear in the instructions. Overall: 4/5. This set was over $140. Price per part is a good deal when compared to lets say a Star Wars set. And this set is very playable. If you don't like Technic line then it may not be for you, but the overall rating is based on if you were actually looking for this set. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! All photos are click able for larger, bigger-than-life picture sizes! You can see all photos used here, including the larger build pictures: 8258 Crane Truck.

Thanks for the idea. now if I can just get that Mid-MF. btw, here it is. http://cgi.ebay.com/Lego-Star-Wars-7778-Mi...1QQcmdZViewItem Check the smaller pics. the rear thruster looks nice.

Where did you get yours, and can you tell how you edited it? Once I get mine, I'll do the same. It does look better. Btw, anybody saw that guy selling his midi-MF on ebay for $150+? He added LED lighting for the thrusters and front lights. Looked neat, but worth that much.

Ok thanks. I tried calling our store, and I think I threw off the person who answered. She didn't even know those sets and checked with someone who said it wasn't out on the floor. Being that the store only soft opened about a week, I guess its understandable. Either that or they are stocking stuff for the grand opening that's in two weeks.

Those items are supposed to be exclusive to Target/walmart. I didn't exspect lego store to get it. Hmm. Must call local lego store and see if they got it. :)