allanp

Here's a thought (although I may be going a bit off topic now so be warned!) What would interest you more from TLG? A new set aimed at AFOLs or new parts aimed at AFOLs. Personnaly, i'de much prefer the new parts. Lego being Lego, I can build my own "set" that's sturdy, works great, looks great, has over 4000 elements, has multiple sections to it and so on. But I can't make (or wouldn't as i'm a purist) the many new parts I, and many other AFOLs would like. This option would help us make our MOCs bigger, better and more complicated whilst at the same time being a more cost effective way for TLG to cater more for AFOLs as these parts would be used to enhance their regular sets making them more appealing to kids and AFOLs alike.

Looking at the recent offical offerings from TLG (piece count, if motors are included, types of parts used etc) I reckon Crowkillers Guillardo could be sold as a racers set for around £90-£100. I would consider buying it for sure. My own Red Hawk Rescue helicopter could be sold for about the same price as a technic set. The only downside is that, even tho Crowkillers design work is DAMB nice and my MOC has functions (that work flawlessly) not seen in an official set before, neither MOC contains any new parts like most new official offerings do. My dream set is a 2500-3000 piece UCS backhoe like the 8455, but at least twice the size. It would include: An xl motor (with less gearing down for a higher output speed) Inline 4 engine Motor driven air compressor Motor driven 4 wheel drive and gearbox pneumatic steering and pendular front suspention Longer pneumatics Rear arm would have all the usual functions plus a pneumatically powered telescopic boom and lateral (side to side) sliding movement Stableizers Front bucket would have all the usual functions plus pneumatically powered opening/closing feature Basically the real thing, just smaller.

Hard to choose between 8868, 8880, 8480 and maybe the test car from 1988. Hmmmmm. They all introduced something new that was interesting. I think maybe 8480 because it was really complex and I loved all the white pieces, oh but then 8868 had lots of pneumatics with it's own compressor, but then the 8880 had a bagillion new parts for 4 wheel everything and the only gearbox to take less than an hour to change gear, but the test car had double wishbone suspention/steering parts.... Sorry. I really can't decide out of those 4 for my favorite set of all time. From the last ten years It's hard to pick between the 8258 crane truck (for a level of complexity not seen for a very long time, probably ever and some nice new parts) and the XXL mobile crane (for it's inclusion of both a buggy motor and at least some complexity and pneumatics, even if the pneumatics were poorly executed in terms of design). The biggest in terms of piececount I think is the XXL mobile crane from 2005. In terms of actual size tho there are some that are bigger and probably heavier too.

Ah I see....well same here. Good luck with your submission. What was your submission by the way?

I voted for the red cargo copter by jayko543. It's motorised with a selection between two functions and looks quite big. Impressive for a youngling! We jedi masters have much to teach them tho

I'm not sure about that. I love building, I build all the time. It is very rare i'll post pictures of my MOCs because, as you say, it kinda felt like "bragging" about them. (However, I love seeing MOCs, my first impression upon seeing a MOC is never that they are bragging about them, just that I am usally very impressed by them. I guess it's just a self-conscience thing when it comes to posting my own MOCs). So when I saw a competition in which I could possibly win Lego Technic sets just for doing what I already enjoy, of course i'm gonna enter . I might not stand much chance with my rushed entry (I have very little Lego building time in any given two weeks) but it's worth enjoying cobbling together a quick MOC to a deadline in order to enter a competition to win more technic surely.

Very nice, looks more efficient than many others i've seen.

The excavator is looking more complex than I had anticipated too. I'm so glad it's not like the bulldozer where it was all motors and no complexity. That is a relief. 3 motors controlling 6 functions via a gearbox switched by a fourth motor . But the price !!!!!! Although I've really changed my mind about the excavator, I'm sorry but I can't justify paying that much for what it is. If it was a little bit bigger and pneumatic (yes just like I constantly bang on about with pistons at least twice as long and with more efficient/effective motor compressor pump) and the second set of motor functions being used to operate the valves, then i'de buy at least two for the same (or even higher) price.

The picture looks to have about 50-60% of the more common parts included in the set.

That's very good, I really like how precise it is. I bet your getting a 50x power gain or something like that.

That's really awesome, lots of functions there, it even has pneumatics! BTW i've added another picture of "BIG RED" http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/R...ehelicopter.jpg

Very nice, love the movements and colour shceme. Very creative indeed! Love it!

Thank you Wow that's huge! I'm guessing it has quite a lot of working functions!

You have given me some tough competition too, I saw Avatar for the first time yesterday and thought of your MOC.

That's interesting! In fact, when I think of medievil catapults that didn't use weights to store potential energy, they used lots of ropes that were twisted.

dooooooaaaaaawwwww shuks Thankyou! A four engine cargo plane sounds interesting. I've wanted TLG to release a multi-engined (as in actual engines, not props) plane for ages as I think it would be cool. I've not seen any MOCs of a multi-engined plane either.

I originally planned to motorise the winch and landing gear via the same motor through a gear box and also have the pitch of the tail rotor blades adjustable via peddals in the cockpit but I decided against it as I probably would not be able to finish it in time for the competition. Maybe I will make these changes in the future. Thankyou for your kind remarks (and for telling me how to deeplink the pictures )

Ah sorry. Hope these work for ya! http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/R...UE/dscf0142.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/R...UE/dscf0166.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/R...UE/dscf0167.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/R...UE/dscf0168.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/R...UE/dscf0164.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/R...UE/dscf0172.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/R...UE/dscf0170.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/R...UE/dscf0171.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/radbot/R...UE/dscf0174.jpg

I hope you like it! http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=420770 Features: 1 x M-Motor (which can spin the blades surprisingly fast!) Fully functional duel controls for pilot and co-pilot Joysticks tilt the rotor blades Control levers adjust the pitch angle of the rotor blades Upper knob wheel raises the stretcher Yellow handle releases ratchet to drop the stretcher Lower knob wheel raises and lowers the landing gear Over 80cm long Number of pieces, at a VERY rough guess ~1300 but I could be way off! Design/build/one or two minor bug fix time 40-60 hours

These are great i've built the dino, cable car and plane in the past and they were great. I loved all that gearing down in the plane, watching all those gears spin is kinda mezmorising to me, and you've made it even better!

It looks to be geared the same so I think it would spin at roughtly the same speed, if not just a tiny bit slower. If i'm honest tho, I think I prefere the look of the belt drive. Love the double back wheels tho. 8868 is among my all time favorite sets lego ever produced.

That's awesome, I hope to be uploading pics of my entry soon, 2 weeks really isn't that much time to make a decent MOC but you have done it. I'm pretty much finished with my rescue helicopter now just gotta borrow a camera!

That looks great. Lots of very nice and realistic details there. Well done. I guess you answered your own question! Tho it's probably not something i'de like to do, it seems to have worked very well. It would be difficult to find a better solution, and near impossible to do without spending lots of money on bricklink. You're welcome

These parts have holes orientated in 3 different directions and are ideal for housing the new 3 studs wide differencial. http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/64179 http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/64178 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=4288615 (posted by stang67)

I see what you mean about the piece count with all those pins but yes, sets have got bigger. The large increase in pins may also be offset by there no longer being hundreds of plates between the beams. The molds are expensive no matter the size of the part and they do wear out and have to be replaced by new ones. So, for example, when they have to replace the molds for the pneumatic cylinder, why not replace them with molds for longer cylinders? Yes, I know I can double up cylinders but it would be so much BETTER if they were a more useful and realistic looking length to begin with. They would be far from limited to flagships to. A small forklift with a single pneumatic that's at least twice as long as the current one would be great or a medium sized skip lorry for starters. As for flagships, imagine the back hoe or excavator you could make. Imagine doubling up every standard sized cylinder with all that tubing in a back hoe to get the same result. I'm not saying it should replace the current cylinder but if I could only have one length, it would be one with a stroke 2 or 3 times longer that the existing one. Yup indeedy, technic would be better just with that one part alone.