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What's all this about booms falling too fast with pneumatics, that's an easy fix, just limit the amout of travel the valve has in the downwards postion, or you can always just not move it down all the way. Simple really isn't it. As for the speed issue, there is no issue, excavators do move surprisingly fast in real life, the 8043 looks like an excavator working in super slow motion even with the new LAs. The smooth, not so slow motion and the priciples behind pneumatics are much more life like. And the fact that it has an unbilicle cord does not mean that it is not remote controlled in any way. Even with IR you still need line of sight witch does not always work in some light conditions and if the reciever is blocked by anything including the model itself. With an umbilicle you never lose control plus you have propertional control. You can move the pneumatics as fast or as slow as you like just by altering how far you move the valve, just like in real life. I'm sorry but when it comes down to any kind of machinery like an excavator or backhoe, pneumatics are what technic is all about. They are as authentic as you can get without using oil and you can have loads, or very little complexity, allowing you to have more complexity else where giving you even more functionality. Pneumatics make good technic models and amazing toys, LAs just make good toys and boring technic models.

An excavator does not need to be THAT precise, pneumatics are more than precise enought, it's not performing surgery, and yes it is fully remote controlled, just not radio or IR controlled, which is fine by me.

Well lets keep it child friendly I'm into music too and I'd like to see your video! It isn't really lego or music related, I don't think I should post it here, just type "7 second monkey" into youtube and click on the monkey with the word "help" behind it. WARNING, BAD LANGUAGE FROM THE START!

Well i'm a guitarist who plays in a rock band, sex, drums and rock and roll and all that stuff and like making videos like this: On second thoughts, i'de better not link to that video here I don't consider myself a nerd, so if a non-nerd enjoys Lego, does that in itself make Lego not nerdy? Besides, I really couldn't give a damb if it was.

Ah fooey! Pneumatics are usually way more powerful and much faster than this, problem is hear is that the compressor is very much underpowered and inefficient. You might as well fart down the tube! Take a look at this one designed and built by Jennifer Clark, it blows the socks off the 8043 in every way possible and is one of the best excavators i've seen: it's compressor isn't even that big. I just hope the 8110 Unimog has a decent compressor that works half as well as the one in Jennifers excavator.

Build an LA!!!!! NEVER!!!!!! unless i'm making a CNC machine Is this what you meant?: (sorry if i'm going off topic guys) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kMpVfnE4Rs These are really long, ideally twice (or twice and a bit!) the length of a standard cylinder would be great.

I find that being a purist can sometimes help creativity by forcing you to solve a problem using only what Lego provides. I am a 100% purist but then I am so tempted to make some longer pneumatic cylinders and some gearbox parts right now!

Thankyou for the kind comments. Monkeys can be trained to do most things, doesn't mean that they should , and a bit of prodigy is never a bad thing!

Looks like a good camera for still images. Thanks.

It's a Canon HG10. Not long had it.

Thanks, happy new year everyone, and another blissful year of reading TechnicBRICKS!

Just for fun, I thought I would share this very brief video clip. Nothing new technic wise here, looks good in 1080p tho! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrFERbXFJqg

Even tho I really don't like the 8043 (personally I think it's boring), if you like it's appearance I would suggest you go for that if you wan't lots of PF, it has 4 motors, 2 transmitters, 2 recievers and a battery box plus lots of gears and tracks. It isn't really that big of a display piece tho, especially for the money. And make sure you get one with the new, revised LAs otherwise you may encounter problems with it not working. Otherwise I would tell you to wait for the unimog however it won't be out until August, and I can't wait that long for what is gonna be a truely awesome set. It doesn't have that much PF but it does have some, plus pneumatics and likely to have a compressor, so that the pneumatics are PF enabled!

Well to compare sets of a similar price you could use the fairly recent dirt bike from 2008: And the much older universal set from 1994: Now, given how many years separate these sets, they are both of similar piece count (the bike has slightly more) and similar price to the 8067. In fact the crane has way more pieces than either of these two, for a similar price. Not counting the massive wheels of the dirt bike, the sizes of all these sets seem to be roughly the same. The crane does have a surprising number of functions for it's size, steering, outriggers, boom raise/lower and winch (I know it has a telescopic boom but it's not really a feature in this case is it). So I guess it sounds good so far, It looks good I think and it's bigger than it looks. However it's functions are over simplified for my liking. Given the number of functions there is hardly any mechanics to operate them, I really don't like this current trend of having a knob wheel connected directly to the function it operates. I want some mechanics between the two. However this set is not aimed at those like me, it's aimed at youngsters who are new to technic. So I guess it's irrelevant but then, I still haven't quite figured out how adding a little complexity in the design of the set makes it more difficult for youngsters (or an adult wearing heavy gloves ) to assemble. What makes putting a gear on a shaft, and a gear rack on two pins harder than assembling any part of this model? I'm going off topic now so i'll just give it a 3 out of 5.

You can find them all at technicBRICKS.

Cool, glad it worked for ya.

You could try something like this, and support the 12 long axle at either end. You sould be able to get rid of all the current bacing you have doing that (the black beam and the axle connectors and so on), enableing you to move the LAs back. However, with your current design and with all the mods mentioned you might encounter a problem with there being too much load on the 12l axle for it to turn freely. In any case, good luck with it!

It might look a bit too ugly for ya (and you probably already thought of it haha) but here's an idea anyway:

Happy new year to everyone here and on eurobricks, you make it (and TBs of course) the friendliest place on the net. Oh and lets hope we all get a Unimog too!

Great MOC with nice, controllable performance tackleing tough terrain. Two medium motors should provide more than enough power for something like this, it's no speed demon after all.

That's really cool, using the worm gear as a spline shaft is very clever!

Nice one, i'm gonna be following this topic as the results should be pretty awesome from the sounds of it.

I'm the same as buckshot! And i'm so with you Omicron, well said sir! They ask if it's for me and i'm like, yes.....yes it is, got a problem with that! I told my girlfriend about it on my first date, and told her about all the cool MOCs i make. She seemed to find it quite endearing, there have been many birthdays and christmasses with lego sets from my childhood (thank God for brinklink) wrapped up from her. Love you Carrie! I generally find peoples reaction quite positive, they find it sweet at times, afterall there are many worse things aldults do to occupy themselves.

You know I was very tempted to suggest pneumatics (deffinately the way I would go) but sometimes wonder if people are bored of me banging on about them!

If it was armish wouldn't there be a horse in front of it