DLuders

@ Grohl: Your Stingray D2 boat seems to be a modern version of a sleek, all-mahogany wooden boat:

By studying chronological order of the Technic theme sets in Brickset, it seems that the Year 2001 marked the first all-studless Technic sets. The 8466 4x4 Off Roader set was the Technic "flagship" for that year:

Over on TechnicBRICKS, Nathanael Kuipers (NK - "Industrialdesigner" on Bricklink) wrote an article about BUILDING INSTRUCTIONS made for his Lego Technic Concept Car. Joshua Delahunty spent 3-1/2 years developing PDF Building Instructions; there are several "teaser" images on that TechnicBRICKS post. Be sure to leave NK some feedback THERE (not here) by commenting on his proposal.

Studless Technic Liftarms allow for easier 3-dimensional building, and since they have less plastic material, the cost of the Technic sets is lower.

According to Wikipedia, "strain" is defined as "a geometrical measure of deformation representing the relative displacement between particles in a material body...." The red Technic Brick (pictured below) has less "strain" (deformation) in bending than the Pearl Gray Technic Liftarm, because the Technic Brick has more "meat" (plastic). Since the old-style Technic Bricks come in even-stud lengths and the new-style Technic Liftarms come in odd-stud lengths, I don't know if one could compare "apples with apples". The Technic Bricks are 1.2 studs high x 1 stud wide, while the Technic Liftarms have a 1 x 1 cross-section. Structures usually fail at the CONNECTIONS, not in the material itself. Since studless Technic pieces can be connected in three-dimensional frames, they make stronger structures. However, they may DISPLACE a bit more than Technic Bricks would.

If you don't mind a TETHERED Technic vehicle, you may enjoy building 1hengeresVmotor/ mbmc137's Gaz66 Mini Trial Truck. Here are the and the photo-sequence Building Instructions in his Brickshelf folder.

So that's where all the Technic Figures have gone! This is a nice creation.

@ I_Got_The_Last_Set: There is no "special" version of the Lego Unimog 8110 set, other than the standard licensed version that EVERYBODY can buy from Shop.Lego.com, Toy-R-Us, Mercedes-Benz dealers, etc. worldwide. The large sets are already very expensive to produce. Mercedes-Benz employees can buy the same set as everybody else.

You did a great job with the RC modification of the Tow Truck! I'm going to study your 12 big Brickshelf pictures so that, when the 8109 is available where I live, I can try the same thing.

Yes, this yellow Lego car could be a (1970?) Dodge Challenger:

Many Lego Technic AFOLs have been anticipating Paul Boratko's newest Lego Technic Supercar Deluxe 2. On his Crowkillers.com website, there is a new of his "V10 all Wheel Drive with 4 Speed Transmission that has the front drive axle running between the center of the driving rings and the other end to the center differential box eliminating the need to re-route the front drive axle around the transmission. Everything runs in one straight line.Full independent suspension. Hand of God [HoG] steering with working in car steering wheel. Doors can be opened and closed by rolling a bevel gears on the rear deck lid. Rolling them forward opens each door and rolling them backwards closes the respective door. The spoiler can also be raised or lowered by rolling a small bevel gear between the seats. Forward raises it and backwards lowers it. Transmission Ratios are as follows: 1st Gear 1 : 1 2nd Gear .60 : 1 3rd Gear .33 : 1 4th Gear .20 : 1 Wheels were Professionally Chrome Plated by Don Pierre of http://www.coatofchrome.com ." See all 25 pictures of the Supercar Deluxe 2 on his webpage. :thumbup:

I recommend looking at Nico71's "TTools v2.0" -- an online "simple web software which calculates some usefull data for TruckTrial and Lego vehicles." Nico71 describes it in this BrickTruckTrial.com article: "Features This web-software allows you to calculate some usefull data which are : • -Linear speed (max and in charge) • -Torque (in charge and max) • -Mechanical power (on motor, on wheels) • -Electrical power • -Lost power (mechanical and electrical) • -Efficiency (motors and drivetrain) • -General efficiency of the vehicule • -Autonomy (normal use and in charge) • -Usefull angles (approach, departure and clearance) Instructions For Use To calculate this data, it’s very simple : • -Choose your motor(s) and the number of motor(s) • -Choose your battery (9V or 7V) and capacity • -Choose your gears • -Enter dimensions of your vehicule (wheels base, wheels diameter...) • -Press "Calculate the data" It’s a web-software, then just click and try ! -TTools V2.0 About TTools V2.0 - Calculation • Linear Speed : functions of type of motors, battery , gear reductions and wheel diameter. • Torque : functions of type of motors, number and gear reductions. • Electrical power : functions of type of motor(s) and number. • Mechanical power : functions of type of motors, number and drivetrain • Efficiency of drivetrain : functions of gears (worm, knob, spur, bevel) • General efficiency : functions of motor(s) and drivetrain efficiency. •Lost mechanical power : functions of drivetrain : Worm screw and Knob gears reduce the efficiency. The software detects worm gears, knob gears and spur gears automaticaly. • Clearing Abilities : functions of dimensions of your vehicule. It’s based on trigonometrical functions. Normally, the software doesn’t bug if you try absurd values. By the way, if you have bugs, please leave a comment to inform me. Also, this software is under development so if you need other usefull calculated data, please ask me ;) Note regarding the climbing abilities : At the moment, it’s too complicate to calculate the climbing abilities angle, causes lot of complicated values (wheel, grip, weight distribution, type of constructions, bearing systems friction and roll friction)."

On his Flickr photostream, hippotam posted 4 pages of photos taken at LUGPol's 2011 exhibition at the Gdansk Historical Museum in Poland. Here are some of the Lego Technic and Model Team-type creations spotted through the glass there -- are any of these owned by AFOLs on this Eurobricks forum?

On his Flickr photostream, Wiseman_2 posted 10 pictures of his Lego Technic Log Loader. He wrote that it is "...largely inspired by 8443 [Pneumatic Log Loader set]. Has articulated steering controlled by the black 20T DB [Double Bevel] gear on top of the cab; a V6 engine driven by a differential on the rear axle; and the arm itself. The arm is operated by the black 20T DB gear on the rear of the vehicle via the two gear switches in the cab. The switch on the right of the cab is for the claw itself, while the other toggles between the two arm sections."

Folks, please remember that Eurobricks is supposed to be "Uniting Lego Fans Around the World." There is too much "flaming" going on in this topic. Can't we all agree that there are MANY DIFFERENT ways of enjoying Lego Technic? This topic has been hijacked from being a simple question (about how to learn about studless building techniques) to a "Coke vs. Pepsi", "Chevy vs. Ford" type argument. @ Phantom59: Nazgarot's useful LDD template of Lego Technic parts (pictured below) can be downloaded from his Brickshelf gallery.

The 8049 Tractor with Log Loader set is good for kids to play with, as you noted. You can read the Brickset reviews of the 8052 Container Truck here. I own both sets, and recommend them. You can look at the current Lego Technic product lineup, then type the set number into Brickset search box to see the reviews. If you can wait a few weeks, the 2H2011 sets will be widely available.

On his Brickshelf gallery, Crowkillers (Paul Boratko) has "Wheels Professionally Chromed and Color Tinted by Don Pierre http://www.coatofchrome.com ." Instead of settling for the usual, limited color selection of Light Bluish Gray or flat-Black wheels, the chromed wheels make his creations look REALLY SHARP. I like his Lego Technic Lamborghini Gallardo Racer in gold wheels:

@ nullbyte: There was this related Eurobricks topic about computers crashing when loading large LDD files. Alienwar9 (who is building a HUGE cityscape in LDD) said this here: "What might be the real issue is memory, both RAM and cpu. Once again my technical knowledge is small, but my guess is that the giant calculations send data to the cpu to process, and it gets bottled up in the bus before the cpu can even handle everything, so even if you cranked up the processing speed of the cpu, too much data is sent at once. LDD uses huge amounts of memory when models get big, but I noticed that long before my memory gets capped out (LDD maxes out maybe at 75% of total RAM; including other processes) LDD will slow/crash/hurt. So I don't think RAM is the main issue, but its definitely indicative of what could be the problem, extremely large calculation sets. Also, I've had instances where I've made a move that has crashed LDD after longer successions of moves, that after a restart LDD had no problem with. LDD tends to build up its memory usage with further actions (another example, I've used the undo button and LDD has crashed)." Bojan Pavsic added this: "As you correctly found out, moving lots of parts really slows down, since the count of calculations goes up really fast. For example (without any optimization): if you have like 200 bricks with 1000 free connection points and you move 1 brick with like 10 connection points, that's about 10.000 checks (1000 x 10). On the other hand if you move 10 bricks with like 100 connection points, that's 100.000 checks (10x more -> 10x slower). With a "normal" refresh rate of like 25fps (and that's pretty low), that's 2.5 million checks (again... without optimization, with fictional numbers). And this is just for connection points. Then there's the geometry overlaps, which of each of the bricks has A LOT (thou probably the first check is overlapping the border boxes first, which is quite fast)." SO, there is a limit to the file size that LDD can handle. Recommend breaking up your LDD model into smaller "groups". At 30,000 bricks or more, you're probably going to crash LDD....

Sariel has detailed descriptions and many photos of his Lego RC Trimaran:

Did you read this "pinned" topic first? Do you have the LDD Enhanced Graphics option turned ON or OFF?

@ Tasmanian: If you have installed Lego Digital Designer (LDD), I recommend Zblj's Lego Technic Hypertruck/ Hyperbeast. He has modeled the Lego RC Motor (pictured below) in the two LDD .lxf Building Instruction files available there on his Brickshelf gallery. Even if you don't have the RC Buggy green wheels, you can use other wheels and still enjoy this vehicle.

As Conchas pointed out, there is additional information about the Lego Cuusoo program in this BrickJournal article by Joe Meno. The Cuusoo "Invitation Code" to join the Beta Test waiting list is "Brick Journal".

Thanks, JunkstyleGio, for alerting folks to the downloadable PDF Building Instructions for the 8109 Tow Truck set!

Thanks, JunkstyleGio, for alerting folks to the downloadable PDF Building Instructions for the 8071 Service Truck set!

Thanks, JunkstyleGio, for alerting folks to the downloadable PDF Building Instructions for the 8110 Unimog U400 set! Could those AFOLs who already own this set review these online Building Instructions, to confirm whether there are any redesigned parts (or new construction details) to correct the pneumatic compressor pump problem?