allanp

I like it very much, very well done! To the above comment it steers in the same way as a tank would steer.

1) No 2) Individual 3) A huge space shuttle, very detailed inside and out, with launch tower and moving platform. 4) A UCS PNEUMATIC TECHNIC BACK-HOE 5) Many of my wishes are new elements for Technic (particularly pneumatic). Not sure if direct has the capability to produce new parts but I would love to see: longer pneumatics cylinders (twice as long as the current ones, a range of lengths would be even better like a really long one used for telescopic booms and forklifts and such), new motor pump that could be stacked in a more efficient way (imagine being able to have 8 motor pumps in the same space as a technic v8 engine, and also looking like an engine!), more gearbox parts (synchromesh gears in a range of sizes and gear change elements allowing more durable, realistic and efficient gearboxes so that, when motorised, most of the energy from the motor is transmitted to the wheels and not wasted on overcoming high levels of friction in the gearbox), More powerful PF motors with much less internal gearing (there is no fun or challenge in having the gearing down done for you inside the motor), These and many more idea can be found here: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?...st&p=678328

About half the times it's from real life vehicles. Sometimes I see something, like a fully sequencial gearbox in a car and go "wow, that would function be interesting to replicate" and then build a bugatti veyron or something. Othertimes it's just stuff seen on TV/internet (anything from movie monsters and insects to trebuchets to themepark rides) or my imagination, like some crazy robot mech thing! And all from a pile of technic bricks. Gotta love Lego!

I would imagine short and sweet is the answer. They are probably going to be flooded with applications from all over and so they are not gonna be able to be bothered with reading a 20 page epic! You wanna be sure they know absolutely everything you want them to know about you quickly to avoid any chance of them getting bored reading it before they have to move on to the next application. Jazz it up with lots of nice background graphics to show off your handy work on the computer (some original concept art for a supercar would be a good way to demonstrate your understanding of how a few simple lines can combine to make a shape that envokes feelings of beauty and poweeeeeerrrrrrrrr!, or something completely wierd but fun looking like a flying, monkey navigated battle caravan to show off your imagination) and keep your writing concise and to the point and remember to include some separate pictures of your best MOCs. Good luck

I see what you mean, although I must admit, I feel the opposite way. I used to get sooooo exited when I was about to finally see the new technic sets for the year. However, apart from some rare exceptions , I haven't been so impressed in the most part of the last decade. So i'm not so excited any more. I just wanna work for them and say "look, this is where the technic line needs to go, and heres how i'de like to do it!", although they probably have there own plans for the next ten years already. My general style of MOC building is to build as if it were to be released as an actual set ie limiting the number of parts and expensive bits like motors and such and many other design aspects as I like the challenge. It would still feel like i'm building MOCs, the only difference is that they are actually going to be released, which would make it even more fun for me! But like I said I don't have the formal training in design (only 20 years of building technic MOCs ) and moving to Denmark is a big upheaval At least I still got sites like TechnicBRICKS where my ideas are listened to by the technic design team! Al.

WOW, I would love to do this, SERIOUSLY! I'de be happy to design in any theme but my love is Technic. I'm sure I have what it takes to design awesome sets and new elements that would greatly enhance the Technic range of parts but I don't have any formal training in graphic design . I am quite handy with LDRAW, LDD and truespace (a 3d modeling program) and there are a ton of tutorials on the net for using these and many other programs like photoshop and gimp. Do you think this would be enough?

From all time it's hard to pick between 8880, 8480 and 8868. 8868 was an amazing set with all those pneumatics and compressor. The 8455 was also great (had even more pneumatics) but was just too small for a flagship. Pneumatics are pure awesomeness, oozing with cool! . Like the bulldozer 8868 did lack mechanicle complexity but, unlike the bulldozer, it was a marvel of impressive machinery on a small scale, like a finely detailed model, steam powered traction engine to the bulldozers cheap remote controlled toy. If Lego wish to ever improve on this, improving the pneumatic range of parts is where to go from here I think. 8880 was true innovation, most importantly functionaly, but also in style. It looks amazing even today. Square beams make your eyes see rounded shapes and proper supercar styling. It had many new parts which allowed new functions never seen before like 4 wheel everything and a sychronised gearbox. It's only flaws are the high levels of friction in the 4 wheel drive train/gearbox and the inability of the gearbox to handle high levels of torque, both flaws have never been properly resolved to this day in newer sets IMHO. If Lego wishes to improve on this great set then these flaws must be addressed. This current gearbox format (with pairs of synchros, all of which are the same size, are placed side by side) is unrealistic and getting dated now. 8480 was for a very long time the benchmark in terms of complexity. It was a very long time before 2009's crane truck which has been the only thing to compete with it's complexity. 8480 was also mainly white obviously and on top of all that complexity you got two motors, two switches and fiber optics. And this was 14 years ago!!!!!! Looking forward, the crane truck mentioned earlier could have been a worthy successor to the shuttle. But while it was about the same complexity, it didn't beat it. Many of it's gears were used as knob wheels, many of it's funtions had no drive trains to power them. The bulk of the gearing down was done in the motor and the LA's leaving not much left to do yourself besides lots in 16t gears meshing with more 16t gears. 8258 was still arguably the best of the decade, but for these flaws, it wasn't quite as good as the smaller, cheaper 8480. As great as these sets were, i'de like to think there is still better to come. Wonder what 2011 will bring

Thankyou for this amazing review. I'm gonna pass on buying the excavator tho.

TECHNIC. (specifically sets released between 1988-1996 with some recent exceptions like the crane truck from 2009) When I look at a standard lego set I think, yeah it looks nice, but it doesn't do much, is too easy to build (which is sometime theraputic, other times boring) and holds no mysteries. Technic has always been to me the flagship theme as it's the one you build up to for the older kids. Technic has all the best challenges and therefore the best rewards.

Even as a purist I really like the idea of chrome plating parts but you must consider that it adds a layer of chrome affectively changing the dimentions of the piece. If it's purely cosmetic then is fine but for things like gears and especially axles, it's not a good idea as they may no longer fit together.

One important thing to note about the time it takes to sort your lego. Yes, it takes a LONG time but the time you save by not having to rummage for ages to find the elements you want is immence. You should also find that the standard of your MOCs goes up as well as the colour co-ordination. It is very tedious I know but it is worth it so keep at it. I used those stanley storage trays with the individual boxes, they are great!

I would love a site like that, especially if it had lots of technic prototypes!

There is a NEW battery box coming in the new train sets. At first glance I thought it was the rechargable battery box (it looks almost identical in size). However, inside it houses 6 AAA batteries.

To be honest, 2.5 - 5Ncm is quite a large tolerance. Is it possible that the variations are all within that tolerance. I to would prefer a MUCH higher slipping tourqe. Never thought of having a 16t one. That would probably be more useful than the 24t one.

It's a nice way to commemorate the retiring of the shuttle and it looks very nice. Personnaly I won't be buying it. It is smaller than the discovery shuttle and I already have that. Would have prefered it much bigger with a detailed interior/cockpit but without the external tanks. Of course the ultimate would have been a 5000+ piece set with a hugh shuttle, external tanks, rockets, tracked platform and launch tower. On second thoughts better make it 10,000+ pieces

That cam would work well. This piece would also work well depending on the speed of vibration: http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/60483 You could use a short engine crank powered by a RC buggy motor to really vibrate the trays or a longer crank powered by a PF motor to shake them. Vibrating the trays side to side would be best I think.

Great review. For me the 6286 SES is the best, number one lego pirate ship of all time. I think the colour scheme is great (even the blue table!), the parts are great, the build is great and the anchor raising/lowering arrangment to be more interesting and realistic when compared to a winch. I love that the rudder atually works via the wheel and pretty much everything about it. Just wish I could get a decent one cheaper than they are currently going on bricklink like you did

That is a hughly difficult challenge, I think Blackbird is most qualified to answer this one so I would go with his answer but it would be interesting to see how fast a 100% technic vehicle could go. If you want to be completely pure then I would go for LOTS of RC buggy motors with one battery pack per two motors. The it's a mountain of trial and error to find out if you should gear up and how much by. Be very careful of breaking gears and wearing the plastic. If built pretty fast cars when I was younger and before I knew it I ruined gears, axles, beams, and so on. but if you don't mind using modified parts then you could go for the LPE engines (although these do really require non lego equipment to run). Good luck with your challenge.

As a technic man I'de like to see the flex system returned.

I suggest you call legos consumer services, i've always found them to be very helpful. They may have seen this fault before and know exactly which part is not working properly, at which point they will promply send you a free replacement.

This is so true, I have sorted everythiing now and I honestly can't recommend it enough. To find any part I want, even if I only have one among my +60,000 pieces takes NO time. My mocs are also not multicoloured anymore and it has help me raise the standard of my MOCs. It may be expensive and very time consuming to sort all your pieces but it is very worth it. It took me a LONG time to sort my parts but i've easily made that time up by not having to search for pieces anymore. So organise yourself people, sort ya pieces!

WOW, now this ladies and gentlemen is what technic is all about. Your MOC is very functional and complex showcasing new functions never seen before or that most people probably wasn't even aware existed on the real thing (like the sliding side to side movement of the back arm, did you know many of these arms also had telescopic booms?!) and also has great play value along with a WOW factor turned up to eleven. I love it I really do. I would much rather own this that the new remote controlled excavator that is coming out, even if it was more expensive. Just wish lego would release some longer pneumatics so we would'nt have to keep doubling them up, never-the-less in this instance, i'm so glad you chose pneumatics over LA's for the most part. This is a contender for my favorite MOC of any theme of all time! Hmmmmm, the front arms are much slower going up or down which are powered by LA's.

Oh by all means pursue it. I personally would not if it meant using non-lego parts but that's just my own choice.

Off-roading perhaps, or maybey even flying I like to speculate on what new topic dluders will start next . It's great that you think up new ones on such a regular basis to keep us all talking technic, love it!

Lego and guns will always be a strange combination to me but what the hell, they sure do look fun to play with. It's not like i'm one of those nutters that blame playing with toy guns or violent video games for turning children into thugs!