Carefree_Dude

I tell you what, you provide the mobile cranes, and I'll show you what I can do!

I bet I could turn those mobile cranes into excavators!

It's funny, I found that same picture after seeing this thread. With al lthose yellow things side by side it's hard to tell what's what. Also it looks like there was a huge size jump between the two mobile cranes.

He can't build on his own yet but if I tell him to stick a pin in a hole, or attach a liftarm In a certain way, he's able to figure it out eventually. Him and I built the arocs recently and he did the entire "dumping" assembly by me showing him where to put parts. He can is the controls to make the crane arm move on it, but hasn't figured out what does what. He has also figures out how steering works on it. He likes to push it around and make the suspension bounce and put random toys in the bed of it. I still can't get him to walk though or say dada

Is it weird that I'm not a huge fan of the 41999 Bugatti? I think it's a beautiful model and was a blast to build, but I feel like once it's done, you can't really do much with it. My 1 year old son and I built it (seriously, I showed him where to put pieces and he was able to do it. i'm really proud of him for that) and now it really just hangs on the wall. Sure you can shift gears, but you really can't see what it does or really any impact to the model itself, and the suspension is so soft you really can't "push" it on the floor without the bottom scraping. My son really enjoyed making the spoiler go up and down though and opening and closing the doors.

What is the scope of everything you can do with Mindstorm? Professionally I'm a software engineer, and would love to make smart creations. For instance, could I create an excavator with a claw arm that goes around, picking up red objects and putting them into a red bucket, blue objects into a blue bucket, etc? Make it so if an object is too heavy, or if it can't grip said object, then it will ignore it in move on?

I too am trying to hunt down sets before prices skyrocket as well. I was lucky to find the Arocs at MSRP still at walmart.com. I was able to get the old RC Volvo loader used for about 170 as well. I think if i can get the old RC excavator, Heavy lift copter and mobile crane MII as well, I'll be good for older sets. Then I can move onto the mac anthem, 6x6 tow truck, AT Crane

Man, I've wanted that excavator for such a long time. At this point though I think i'm waiting for a newer one to come out.

Oh, I know you weren't trying to build a scale replica, I'm just curious as far as the scale of the creation. I'm just imagining really really tiny people on that thing

I'm curious, what is the scale of this MOC and the original BWE? based on the tiny chair in the dump truck, and the two tiny chairs in the control room of the BWE, it looks like a "person" would be roughly 2 studs high? Although the ladder to get to higher parts of the excavator is far too large for something 2 studs high? It's all so confusing.

Man, that B model is going to look so tiny compared to the other two.

Oh wow, I really look forward to this! Is the third one the B model from the excavator?

Any chance you could do a comparison of the two volvo loaders? I'd love to see the RC one and the "Automated one" (which should be RC or at least have pnematics) side by side.

I really appreciate these comparisons

This is a truly amazing creation! I too would love to see it next to the original set

What silicone tubing did you use?

I gotta say, it's crazy how much reviews impact my opinions of sets. I watch Sariel's review, and think "Wow, this is a really nice truck! I'd love to have it" and now I read this review and think it's still a nice truck, but isn't nearly as great as I previously though.

I don't actually have both, I only have the BWE. this is just a pic I found online

It's not a true comparison pic, but you can see them both in the same picture

That makes a lot of sense. AH well. I look forward to seeing what you produce in the future!

Are you going to do any more classic lego review like the 8868 you did?

I'm a nerd, but I'd try to make a sword out of all those. I'd make a long chain of them 2 panels thick, line the the entire edge with technic plates, and then put cheese slopes up and down the whole thing to make an edge.

I used to think I was a huge fan of massive technic sets, but then I got the porche and the bugatti; both of these sets are enormous, and they technically have functions, but the functions don't really do anything noticeable. Building them was a good experience with all the gears and everything, but once it's complete all you have is a pretty car to look at. I'd much rather have something like the volvo excavator or the Claas tractor which are significantly smaller, but do all sorts of things.

I think it's safe to say that it's not the size that matters, but how it functions

I really enjoy sets that are 1000+ parts. the level of detail in most of them is amazing. Also my wife's reaction to walking in and seeing the bucket arm subassembly of the BWE sitting on my lap was priceless. That said though, I'm not sure how I feel when a set seems to have huge part counts just for the sake of having huge part counts. The most recent All terrain crane for instance feels like it could have 1000 fewer parts but still get pretty much the same model