DLuders

Legoist/ yamsemaj posted this of his Lego Technic TGB Racing Car. As described on his website, "Finally, after several weeks of development frequently interrupted by all sorts of distractions, the TGB is finished. This is the largest Technic car I have built so far. Though not intended as a replica of a real-world car, its component layout and some proportions are very loosely based around the legendary Ferrari 288 GTO ― and hence its name: "TGB" is "GTO" scrambled through ROT-13. Length: 66 studs Width: 29 studs (34 including mirrors) Height: 16.5 studs (bodywork only: 15 studs) Weight: 2.38 kg Suspension: Full independent, with front toe-in Power: PF, 2x Battery pack Drive: 1x PF XL motor (remote), RWD Steering: 1x PF M motor (remote) with working steering wheel, Ackermann "Features: * V12 mid-mounted engine * 6-speed synchronized gearbox * Pneumatically liftable nose (with motorized pump) * Handbrake * Remotely operable headlights * Remotely moveable rear wing * Openable spring-loaded bonnet * Toolbox "Obviously, instead of forming the entire bodywork with panels, I've rather opted for the old-school rough contoured approach using beams and a couple of soft-axles. The model is built completely with studless parts, with sole exception being the rear lights that rely on studded transparent cylinders. The engine and gearbox consist of standard Technic parts for the purpose: cylinder blocks, pistons and cranks in the engine, and three dog-rings (for six gears) moveable with a stick in the familiar H-pattern for the gearbox. At the final stage there is a standard Technic differential. The car is driven by a single PF XL motor connected to the engine crankshaft, but due to large car weight and many transmission components that introduce significant torque, it isn't blindingly fast. "Independent suspension and its rear half-axles are based on parts from the 8070 Super Car, though with "artificially" extended arms to comply to the desired total chassis width and allow the larger moving extents. Height of the front suspension is determined by two parallel pneumatic cylinders that control the total height of the chassis at the front, but due to the compressibility of air, front wheels can still move with a degree of independency ― and the pneumatic cylinders even provide some damping and elasticity. To raise the car nose, the air is pumped into the cylinders with an onboard motorized pump controlled by the levers in the cockpit. Only the compression is required; when the switch is flicked in the opposite direction, the weight of the car lowers the chassis (compresses the cylinders) itself. The rear suspension is rather standard, with only two soft (light grey) springs per wheel. That is intentional: it lets the car sink approximately 3/4 of total spring extents, for a more realistic and low-laid sporty look." There are many more details and pictures on his website.

@ fitzi: Welcome to Eurobricks! On ruialmeida's Brickshelf gallery, there is this picture of the just-opened 8053 set box: Also, sives1 has individual pictures of each unopened cellophane bag on his Brickshelf gallery.

On his Flickr photoset, tripletschiee posted this picture of "...an Airtank, because the performance of the crane is much better. The place of the Airtank is not the best, but just to prove the concept it is OK."

Welcome to Eurobricks! It is best to consolidate all of your questions about a single project (your Unimog) on a single post, instead of making multiple posts. Regarding the Lego 8110 Unimog U400's wheels, I too got some black wheels to make it more realistic. One can buy them on Bricklink.com ("The Unofficial Lego Marketplace"). Use its "Catalog" function to find the 8110 set, and then click on the (Inv) (Inventory) hyperlink to find the wheel's part number. From this 8110 Inventory page, one can see that the wheels are Bricklink Part Number 44772. If you click on the "Price Guide Info" on the Black color option, you can pick from several Bricklink sellers that offer the 44772 "Black Wheel 56mm D. x 34mm Technic Racing Medium" in black. This is the "direct link" you are looking for. Alternatively, you can buy the black wheels from Lego Customer Service (also known as "Lego Direct"). Here is the procedure used to get the newly-released parts that only appear in the Unimog 8110 set. Note that the BRICKLINK Part Number (44772) won't mean anything to The Lego Group -- they need the Lego Element ID (which is 4262086 in this case). These "Element IDs" appear on the official Lego Building Instructions in the parts inventory pages (usually at the back of the booklets).

No, The Lego Group never created a functional Lego Air Horn in one of its official sets, but NXDave posted his "Air Horn Module" on the official Lego Mindstorms website. He used some common household materials to supplement his Lego parts.

@ snowman007_22: Have you seen Nico71's "TTools"? "TTools is a simple web software which calculates some usefull data for TruckTrial and Lego vehicles." You can toggle between the original French text (below) and the English text by clicking on the French or British flag at the top-right corner of the webpage.

Here are the 16 Lego Technic Challenge 2011 AFOL finalists (for side-by-side comparisons, and to record them for posterity). I corrected some typographical errors and misspellings in the descriptions: "Tajima's SX4 hillclimb special" by Prince_Ipactif -- "Model of the car with which Tajima broke the Pikes Peak record in 2011. It is remote controlled with a RC Buggy motor to drive and a M motor to steer. It is submitted as fastest Lego RC car": "Stingray D-2" by grohl -- "48cm long RC model of a luxury speedboat weighing only 594g. Powered by 2 M motors that give it enough power for good speed and excellent maneuverability": "Mean Mr. Mustard" by tamasfrank -- "An amazing V40 engine (5 x V8) - motorized suspension to adjust ground clearance - hydraulic gull-wing doors for easy access - adjustable pneumatic side wings to control air flow - opening hatch - metal rear hook for heavy towing - wheelie bars to prevent flipping over during the launch phase": "Classic crane" by FIN-R2-D2 -- "This PF-ready crane is powered by NXT (in small building). Height 1.34m, lifting height 0.96m, working area (donut) with 200g load 1.34 m2 (car 500g). Manually-adjusted counter weight. Cabin turns down; ladders are in tower. It may bend, but it has never broken or crashed!" "LegendaryStorm T4 Cabriolet'11" by Sheepo86 -- "Based on a very famous real car, this MOC has around 3500 parts, AWD and, as outstanding features controlled by PF: working 7+R speeds, dual clutch gearbox with friction clutches, disc brakes with rear lights, folding roof and spoiler, progressive accelerator, working steering wheel, handbrake and much more...." "Sampson and Goliath" by Woolgie -- "A tribute to the largest cranes in the world - Sampson and Goliath at Belfast Ship Building Port. Each crane has two-motor independent lateral and longitudinal movement by remote IR control": "Helipak" by vmln8 -- "Lightweight single-seat helicopter. It features a single motor, which drives a pair of contra-rotating, concentric propellers. It uses only parts from Technic sets": "Beach Buggy" by Nimdian -- "This is a beach buggy. Fully RC. Features RWD, full independent suspension, functional steering wheel, opening bonnet and hood, V8 engine at the back. 2 XL motors for driving an M motor for steering. Drives at 1:1 gear ratio. For those who feels the freedom of summer. /peace": "UNIMOG 416 U100" by tomaszajac1 -- "The model has: all-wheel drive with PF XL motor, working realistic suspension, 2-speed gearbox, portal axles with a reduction. Truck is remote control: drive, gearbox and steering. The vehicle is very efficient in difficult terrain. Obstacles are no problem for him - the same as for real UNIMOG!" "Unimog 1600" by greasmonkiskid -- "This RC Unimog 1600 has Unimog axles, 4x4, and remote steering. It also has a remote working winch. The winch can go on the front or back of the vehicle. The V-plow is controlled by remote. It has three-link suspension with 4" travel up and down. The truck is 24" long and 9 1/2" tall": "Flight Simulator" by jovel1974 -- "This flight simulator uses three mini LA's which enable the plane to tilt and lift in all three directions": "Yellow Storm" by fmartinezsanta6 -- "This helicopter has two small front propellers and back jet engine. It is based on the 8046 Technic kit with several other pieces. The propellers are manually operated through a gearbox": "crane" by karfo135 -- "Both truss booms and hook are operated by one of 3 winches. Each winch is connected to motor by 2-step gearbox and worm gear acting like brake. Hook and main boom lifting mechanism use pulleys to lower tension in ropes": "Unimog Mower" by ledfss -- "The length of this model is 40 unit,and the width of it is 17 uints,two motors and one Remote Control and 3 differential.With these parts, I create a real 4×4 truck. Many ppliances can be used by it": "Ford GT 40 Mk. IV" by grohl -- "Model of a famous racing car from 1967 with opening doors and bonnet, independent suspension, one M motor for steering and two XLs for movement, detailed engine and cockpit, adjustable seat, working front and rear lights": "trailer" by simcer -- "Trailer combines linear functions with pneumatics. For lowering container it is horizontally moved by a linear movement over half of the length. Then the pneumatic system automatically starts and lowers the container. Can be switched to a tipper function (two linear actuators). All remote controlled":

For Technic AFOLs, here are some interesting statistics that Rebrickable.com has on Lego Technic sets. NUMBER OF SETS PER YEAR: PART TYPE DISTRIBUTION: AVERAGE PARTS PER SET PER YEAR: COLOR DISTRIBUTION: CONCLUSIONS: 1) The number of Lego Technic sets released each of the past few years has been holding steady at 10. 2) About two-thirds of the Lego Technic parts used are either black or grey.

Nice video! Mahjqa listed these MOCs seen: Digger - 2Legoornot2lego Centrifugal governor -- Barman Black wolf -- Zblj Cable Climber -- Mahjqa Zeppelin -- Kenneth Madsen & Lasse Lauesen Train and Winter scene -- Jason Railton Portal 2 scene -- Mahjqa RC monster -- Maico Arts Does anybody have any additional information about that fast 8-wheeled "RC Monster" that was thrown onto the floor?

From the Lego Technic Challenge webpage: "Take the Technic Challenge - Vote on the 2011 Adult Finalists "This is the LEGO® Technic Challenge AFOL FINALS! Since March, all of you talented Technic builders have submitted hundreds of wonderful creations for the monthly competitions, and YOU have selected the monthly winners. It's time now to pick the best of the best from our 2011 adult builder submissions! The winner will receive the full 2011 LEGO Technic product assortment. "Voting Selected adult entries from March through September are in the final voting round. You can vote NOW until the end of the month! - Hurry up and go! "Go Vote!" There are 16 AFOL finalists!

[bUMP] On his Flickr photostream, True Dimensions recently posted the picture shown below and a Flickr video of a motorized Lego Hoberman Sphere mechanism that opens and closes the assembly. Centrifugal force makes the sphere expand, then collapse under its own weight when it slows down. True Dimensions wrote, "Hoberman Sphere Spinner - Video Although the Hoberman sphere is pretty stable, it can't really take the repeated abuse of being handled by the public at a show. I built the spinner so that I didn't have to stand around and open and close it myself, or keep putting it back together. It works really well when connected to a programmable controller to repeatedly start and stop it." Here is the closed Hoberman sphere and open sphere:

@ KEvron: Welcome to Eurobricks! How many weeks/months/years did it take you to fine-tune your clock design? It's got to be the most accurate, long-running mechanical Lego clock design. Were you inspired by other Lego clock builders?

Have you seen Sariel's Gears Tutorial? How about Nico71's collection of Trial Trucks (many with Building Instructions)?

@ snowman007_22: Welcome to Eurobricks! Have you seen Zblj's detailed, 7-part Trial Truck Tips on BrickTrialTruck.com ?

@ Zblj: Are you thinking about making an LDD .lxf Building Instruction file for this wonderful MOC? @ Darth Dino: The 47349c04 "Wheel 72 x 34, with Lime Tire 72 x 34 Balloon Offset Tread" are pretty rare.

@ Lipko: Very nice MOC -- welcome to Eurobricks!

@ Bricksonwheels: Your "Autobot" model will be feared by the "Decepticons"! The truck's proportions are very close to the original's:

@ captainmib: Your Lego Ferrari 156 "Sharknose" looks good! Making a rounded, all-transparent windscreen is going to be tough to do with Lego. However, in regards to the too-wide wheels, you could look on Bricklink's "Tire On Wheel Relationships" webpage to see some options. From your pictures, I think you're using tire/wheel "Match 280" -- you could use a thinner tire/wheel combination "Match 279" instead. "Match 279" uses a 68.8 x 24 tire instead of your 68.8 x 36 ZR tire you are using now (from the 8070 Supercar set?). The different 32004b wheel looks closer to the real Ferrari's wire wheels:

@ bbqqq: You want 45.67 degrees in the bottom angle to match your real-world Lego triangle. The "right triangle" must then have the opposite (upper) angle be (90-45.67) degrees = 44.33 degrees. I tried inserting a new column in Superkalle's Excel spreadsheet and copied the imbedded formulas from the other nearby cells, but I'm confused....

On his Brickshelf gallery, gabfigo/ gabrisn77 posted 14 BIG pictures of his "LEGO garbage truck. It is my own creation, not an official set. Includes PF [Power Functions] driving, steering, lights, and some pneumatic action." His shows the garbage-compacting power in the back:

On his Flickr photoset, BricksOnWheels posted these 6 pictures of his Lego Optimus Prime 1:16-scale model. He wrote, "I have been asked by countless people when I was going to build 'Optimus Prime', the star from the Transformers movies. After watching the third episode with my kids I decided to go for it. It is PF driven, but it can't transform :-) ... well it probably will in time in about 3000 bricks... hope you like it!" "Optimus Prime happens to be a Peterbilt in real life, so that suited me :-) The flames were tough. I made them in Coreldraw! myself with the CMYK values of the Lego colors. They're definitely not an exact match, but I am pleased with the result anyway." "There is a lot of chrome on the real Optimus Prime, so that was a chance I had to take, being a chrome freak :-) A lot of retro-chromed Lego bricks have gone in here. The tower at the back on the chassis. I have not seen much on trucks before, but the original has it, so it is on this one too." "The IR sensor is in the roof of the bunker": "Two Power Functions motors -- one for the rear axles, and one for the steering system. It has a detailed engine too.... and a lot of blue lights :-) "

KEvronista posted YouTube video instructions to build this ACCURATE Lego Clock featuring an "Arnfield Escapement" mechanism. He wrote, "This is my version of an eight-legged arnfield regulator in Lego. It features a seconds pendulum with "knife edge" suspension, ratcheting cog wheels and an adjustment screw for the 12 oz. bob. The two 12 oz. weights drop at a rate of 2"/hr; with 60" chains, it'll run for 30 hours. It also features a gearless face; by using a tread hub (32007) and a 16t clutch gear (6542) as a flange, I've managed to put all of the hand movement gearing behind the face. Still photo details can be viewed here: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=480826 . Update (7/28/11): The clock has been running for 30 days now without a hitch...I've improved the coriolis effect/sympathetic vibration correction....In that time, the clock has lost what appears to be about half a minute...." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxAVy--IoBA Building Instruction Video 1 -- "This is the first of three videos detailing the constuction and tuning of my lego clock with Arnfield escapement ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxAVy--IoBA ). This video shows the construction of the housing" [in bright-colored bricks for ease of viewing]: "The second video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XEq3JlEtQA ) shows the construction of the arms, arbors, weights and pendulum. The third video ( coming soon ) will be a tutorial on tuning the escapement."

On his YouTube channel, xSergio74 recently posted several YouTube videos showing the animation capabilities of his SR 3D Builder software. Here are two of them:

Using Grohl's 754 photo instructions of his SAAB JA-37 Viggen aircraft, I compiled a single, 25.4-MB PDF file that can be downloaded from MegaUpload SkyDrive here. The 754 photos are numbered, plus I added a cover sheet with Grohl's description from his Brickshelf gallery. Thanks, Grohl, for sharing the MANY photos!

@ Sid Sidious: You can read more on the official Lego Mindstorms website and onMindstorms.