Evening News

We don't have a charming commentator, but plenty of videos about upcoming evening products. Let's start with Technic, there are already a number of reviews of the 2H sets:

42008 Service Truck (via Techlug.fr):

42009 Mobile Crane Mk2 (via Techlug.fr):

42004 Mini Backhoe (via TechnicBRICKs):

For the fans of the Architecture series there is a largish set. After the small version the considerably larger version of the Sydney Opera House is coming (via Eurobricks):

Last but not least LEGO has announced that the fifth official Cuusoo set is going to be the Curiosity rover:

Super cars

Super cars have always occupied a prime spot in the Technic lineup (see our history coverage: part I, part II, part III) No wonder there are many custom creations on the web in this category.

Francisco Hartley has built this excellent Lamborghini Aventador. I was not able to find a video about it but the images speak for themselves. In my opinion it is one of the best LEGO Lamborghini builds yet. There are many functions too: 12 cylinders, gearbox, and suspension and others. I am sure we are going to hear more from Francisco in the future. (via The Lego Car blog)

Nico71 has build a classic rallye car. This one does not follow the classic super car recipe very strictly: it is slightly smaller and does not contain any cylinders or gearbox. It does contain a suspension and a full drivetrain though, driven by PF motors. Everything can be controlled from the remote, making it one of the smallest remote-controllable Technic cars. (via SETechnic)

Last but not least a very unique creation from Egor Karshiev: The BOSS. As it can be seen on the video this is a trial track with serious climbing capabilities. Like the rallye car above it can be fully remote controlled too. 

But the real special thing about it is that you will be able to buy one too: this is the winning contestant of the LEGO Design Challenge. As TechnicBRICKs posted, production has already begun! There is no word on the price yet, but we are looking forward to it.

News Saturday

There was so much going on in the past few weeks that for today we transform ourselves into a news portal and give you an update about recent happenings.

Competitions:

• As in recent years, the Lego Military Build Competition has started. This years categories do not favor aircraft so much as during the past years, but for sure we will see lots of excellent creations. The first submissions are on the way, the deadline is July 10th.

LEGO products:

• The Architecture line has a new member, the 21018 United Nations Headquarters. Eurobricks has already posted a few hi-res images.
• TechnicBRICKs has covered the full Technic line up for 2H with the B models too. The biggest news is the 42008 Service Truck that stands out from the other sets with its color.

MOCs:

• Mad Physicist continues his coverage of the eighties, this time he built Knight Ridert.
• bobalexander has built this classic light blue Porsche 917 in Gulf livery (via the Lego Car Blog).
• Norton74 is the builder of this Scania truck. (via legozz)
• Sheepo's newest model is a Lotus Sevennel (via the Lego Car Blog).

I am into LEGO again. What next?

I have several friends who have started buying and playing LEGO recently. Assume you are one of them: you have bought a few sets, built them, built the B-Models too and you find it cool. The obvious question is: what next? You can buy more and do the same. Apart from financials, there are other bottlenecks: you will have to store them somewhere. And unless you are one of those LEGO Investors, this is going to become a problem.

So besides buying more, what other options do you have? Let's take a look. Some of the options is biased towards Technic, but I hope non-Technic fans can also get some starting points.

First, I would recommend watching the hilarious keynote by Hillel Cooperman from BrickCon 2012. It's 25 minutes, but worth it. (Not for your kids though.)

Ok, now that you have realized where you are on your path, let me show you some pointers. (Just in case you are wondering: AFOL = Adult Fan Of Lego, MOC = My Own Creation.)

Most importantly I recommend you try to build things yourself. Some of these places may give you inspiration:

Rebrickable. This is a site for people to share their creations. While it is not necessarily easy to navigate, the best thing about this site is that all creations have building instructions available, so this is a great way to get started. (Yes, some instructions cost money, but many don't.) For many creations you are able to download an LXF file that allows you to investigate a virtual model in Lego Digital Designer.

It may be helpful to look at what others have created. There are several sites specializing in this:

• The good old Brickshelf is probably the oldest site doing that.
• Mocpages is a bit more modern, but has good content too.
• Finally, the most vibrant place is certainly Flickr. Yes, I know, Flickr sounds a bid oldschool in todays Web many-dot-o world, but that's how things are. A good way to start is picking an interesting community and browse around. For example LUGNuts is all about cars, or this group is mostly about aircraft.

There are also some really good books around building that may give you more inspiration. My favorites:

• The unoffical LEGO Technic Builder's Guide from Sariel explains you how to do suspensions, gearboxes and all sorts of LEGO Technic magic.
• If you are wondering about non-Technic magic, The Unofficial LEGO Advanced Building Techniques Guide is a free download that sheds light on some of the magic.

There are some pretty cool magazines too:

• Hispabrick is a free magazine that is available in English, with really good content.
• Railbricks is all about LEGO trains. Premium content too.
• BrickJournal is something you have to pay for. But it's only a few bucks and really worth it.

TechnicBRICKs is a blog you may be interested in. It is mostly about LEGO Company products and specacular Technic creations. On the other hand Technicopedia is the encylopedia of our childhood's favorite Technic sets.

There are probably 1000 others that I have left out, but I am sure these will get you started.

Red arrow

Valentine's day is just over, so let us take a look at something red. Not so long ago I was lucky enough to build a 9394 Technic airplane. This model has appeared in the Technic line last year. It is quite special in the lineup: it is only the second largish Technic plane ever, the previous one being the 8855 that hit the sleves 25 years ago. If that would not be enough, this plane is the first jet ever. Let us have a mini-review.

I started the build with high expectations. The first surprise is the sheer size: it does not have so many bricks (around 500) but the final plane is pretty big: it is longer and wider than any of my Technic cars.

I have been looking forward to all the functions. Let us take a look:

• The plane has a variable-sweep wing that can be adjusted by turning the jet exhaust. The whole mechanism occupies the aft part of the fuselage, but that is ok as there is no room needed for a real het engine.
• The landing gear is retractable. When extended it has to support the entire weight of the aircraft so it has to be very robust. It has Technic knob wheels that bear the load and a worm gears prevents the wheels from retracting by themselves. Real variable-sweep aircraft do tend to have different support mechanisms but this is not a serious problem.
• The controls also work albeit in only one dimension. This is cool even if it is not as sophisticated as the controls of the 8855 or my training plane which both can be moved in two dimensions.
• The cockpit can also be opened or closed by turning a knob. This looks great as it opens a thick frame around the actual cockpit as well.

All in all I think it is a cool set especially considering its price. At $49.90 it is not too expensive but pretty big (in Europe it's around EUR 40). It contains lots of red panels. I did not try to build anything else from it yet but others have managed pretty good things like this helicopter.

More photos in the Picasaweb album.

Best of MOC

We have seen many excellent builds on the web during the past few weeks, let us take a look at some of them.

_lichtblau_ has been covered on the blog earlier. His latest creations are a black Pontiac with a Plymouth highway patrol, they both have an incredible seventies feel. Although both are minifig scale they both have very car-like proportions. The most interesting detail is the front and back of the police car - the fenders built from bricks laying sideways fit this vehicle very well.

henningb's steam train is at least as professional. My favorite detail is the tracks. Now that I see it it seems very straightforward! The smoke built of ice cream is also quite cool.

Let's see something different. George G has build Middle Earth, more precisely Helm's Deep. It is fantastic how the different pieces form a the details together: the Technic bricks, the ones with brick pattern and the rest. I suspect in a factory set we would never see them together like this, yet here they fit together perfectly.

Like this blog, thirdwigg has high stakes in planes as well as the world of Technic. When you put the two worlds together you get this huge Spitfire fighter from the Battle of Britain:

It is worth watching the video until the end. It has all the features of a real plane except for flying: variable-pitch propellers, 12 pistons, retractable landing gear. Of course it includes full controls as well. It cannot be seen on the video but it has adjustable flaps too. And if that would not be enough it is fully covered and looks like a real plane and not like a skeleton like a typical Technic set.

If you have your eyes wide open you have probably realized that next week we will cover microscale planes... see you then!

News sets and parts for 2013

We rarely cover news on the blog but there are so many recent developments that it is worth covering the most important ones.

The biggest LEGO news of the week is the announcement of the new Mindstorms that is called EV3. It brings many-many new features starting with Android and iOS integration and also including 3D building instructions on an iPad. The biggest news however is simplification: the new EV3 brick can be programmed without connecting a computer. The goal of LEGO is that anyone should be able to build a working robot in 20 minutes after opening the box. You will be able to get it from stores in the second half of 2013 around $349.

First half 2013 sets are in stores already but we already have bits and pieces about the second half. You can see the full Technic range here but there are also many interesting new sets in the Creator line as well. Our favorites are the 42000 Grand Prix Racer and the 31004 Firece Flyer. By the way: starting from 2013 all sets have a five-digit number.

As a builder I am also interested in new parts. These have been discovered by my colleagues at the LEGO Military Group:

      

I like the second one quite a bit: an inverted tile that can be attached to the bottom of bricks. I hope an inverted slope is also on the works. I could also make use more colors - I probably have more wishes than I can afford. In any case, we look forward towards an exciting 2013.

LEGO for Christmas

Christmas is still two months away, but planning ahead may save you some $$$.

I tell you what to do: if you plan to buy Technic and live in Europe, you should go to Amazon.de. Almost all sets are on sale, delivery is mostly free (2-5 days International).

For example:

• 9394 Jet plane:
  amazon.de: 31.99 EUR ($41.60)
  shop.lego.com (USA): $49.99 + sales tax

• 9395 Pick up tow truck:
  amazon.de: 47.99 EUR ($62.30)
  shop.lego.com (USA): $69.99 + sales tax

Just sayin'. For other sets it may be different, but Amazon.de is mostly competitive.

(If you happen to live in der Schweiz like me: you don't have to pay the 19% Mehrwertsteuer either.)

Super Car history from Eric Albrecht

We have covered the history of Technic cars a long time ago (see part I, part II and part III).

Now Eric Albrecht (also known as Blakbird, author of Technicopedia) did the same on the in the guest post of the official LEGO Technic blog:

The history of LEGO "Super Cars" is even longer than the Technic line itself, beginning in 1977 and running right up to the present day. There is no official definition of Super Car and therefore different fans might include different models on their own list. Most fans consider a Super Car to be one of the large scale automotive models which attempt to maximize realistic function as much as possible. Over the years, the models got more and more functionally realistic, and the complexity peaked in about 1994. Since then, subsequent supercars have become more realistically styled without adding a lot of complexity.

Read more...

New year, new set: 8853 Excavator

And 2011 begun, so Happy New Year. But let's go on to something interesting: today we take a look at an excavator from 1988, more specifically a front loader. I have to admit that even though I was a big Technic fan around that time, I could easily walk past this set. If I deep dive into my memories, I cannot really find anything even though Technicopedia thinks that this set has really existed..

But now I had a chance to learn it much better. I was in a second hand toy fair when I found it for a bit more than 10 USD. I have quickly realized that it has most important parts and all of them are in a good shape, despite coming from the most fragile era of Technic history with toothed connectors and toothed Technic plates. So I decided to grab it.

Datasheet:

• Number: 8853
• Theme: Technic, construction
• Year introduced: 1988
• Parts: 332 (Peeron)
• Price: from 30 USD (Bricklink)

Let's take a look at the set. There are no pistons and there is no engine. (Maybe this is why I did not really pay attention around that time). But there is lots of mechanics that can be operated in various ways. The light on the top can steer the rear wheels, like on any normal excavator.

But the really big thing is the bucket operation mechanism that can be moved using the two large steering wheels on the rear. The rearmost wheel lifts the whole bucket mechanism and the bucket while the other one dumps the content of the bucket. It operates with a fairly complicated mechanism with gears and all sorts of arms. The interesting thing is that the two wheels move the bucket independently: the bucket will stay at the same angle unless we operate the dumping wheel.

You have to as really careful with the operation though. The mechanism contains many fragile parts and it clearly feels that if there is any tension in will break very easily (like my own similar aged other sets).

All in all, I think it is a fairly good set. It contains interesting functions and can be played well. For this amount of money I certainly think it was a good buy.

More images in the gallery as usual. If you would like to understand how the mechanisms work the Technicopedia article is very detailed.

Technicopedia: 1995

The awesomest site on the internet is Technicopedia. So far it contained models only between 1977-1994, but now it got a whole new year 1995:

Some of the finest:

• 8280 fire engine with a boom that can be raised.
• The 8422 motorbike was already covered on this blog.
• 8412 helicopter with a fully tiltable rotor.
• 8460 pneumatic crane truck.
• But coolest is the 8485 Control Center where we can control a helicopter, a dinosaur or a boat.

There is also a new section named Technic Fundamentals that contains excellent animations about gears, differentials, adjustable rotors and similar stuff.

| via TechnicBRICKs |

Review: 854 Go-kart

When I read RÁJEN's blog post (in Hungarian) about his 854 Technic gokart I became nostalgic. Just like him it was my first ever Technic set and unlike I him I still have the majority of the parts. So I have decided to put it together.

I. Data sheet

Neve: Go-kart
Number: 854, also known as 948 (they are the same set)
Theme: originally Expert Builder, later Technic
Year: 1978
Number of pieces: 206
Price: about 20 USD originally, now about the same on Bricklink
B-Models: Tire balancer, Trike

II. History


When the Expert Builder series was started in 1977 it introduced four new sets that were joined by two others in 1978. The top of the range was the 853 Big Car and the smaller set (by number of bricks) was this gokart - this was the entry set of Technic. I got mine approximately in 1985 from my parents, they have bought it in Turkey as getting Legos in the Eastern Block was somewhat difficult.

I think I did not put it together in the last 15 years or so. When I built it I tried to use the oldest parts available (especially with blue bricks the shade difference is obvious). I did not use the Technic connectors though as almost all of them broke or cracked during playing with them, and the same happened with the universal joint. To my surprise I managed to buy brand new connectors during one of my Legoland tours, now I have used those.

III. Instructions


I was not a particularly caring kid when dealing with Legos. It is a smaller miracle that I still have the original instructions. When I found it I was a bit surprised to see that it has a crane on its cover that I have not seen since as a set. The actual building instructions for the gokart start around the middle, the rest has generic tips and some unrelated building guides. My theory is that the Lego company emphasized that from Technic sets one can build anything.

IV. What is in the box?

Classic Technic parts from the same era as the 853, but here blue is the dominant color. There are two Technic bricks of length 16, some of size 8, 4 and 2. There are many plates, amongst them 6 rotating plates for the steering. There are also some black parts (seat, engine) as well as some yellow and white ones. There is three 24-tooth gear and two 8-tooth. The axles are kept in position by classic bushes and connectors, it also has a universal joint. There is a sticker and two flexible tubes that are in surprisingly good condition considering they are 25 years old. Oh, and there is the steering wheel.

V. Functions

As this is an entry-level set the list of functions is not very long. Steering works as one could expect and in the back we find a single-cylinder piston engine that is connected to the left rear wheel. The designers probably thought that connecting it to both wheels would cause too much tension for the gears - I also agree that this seems more durable than the joint on the 853.

VI. Design

The design is not overemphasized, functions are more important. Despite this it looks pretty gokart-like. It has a number plate (that looks quite ok even without the sticker) and two tubes connected to the engine. It also has a seat that can be tilted a bit.

One minor nit is that real gokarts tend to have the engine on the side rather than in the back, just like on the later 8842 gokart.

VII. Score

As a final score it gets 9/10, probably heavily influenced by personal memories. I think this was a really good starter set in its era and contains largely generic parts that can be used to build almost anything. When comparing it to the 2010 entry model Telehandler the gokart is quite a bit larger. It also contains almost twice as many parts (its price tag is also steeper). To summarize, a good starter set with universally usable parts.

See also:

• Photos in the album
• Technicopedia
• Brickset page
• Inventory on Peeron
• Instructions on Peeron
• Sets for sale on Bricklink
• Expert Builder ad from 1979

Review: 8045 Mini Telehandler

A Lego maniac like me cannot go on without getting random Lego sets from time to time, even if he buys enough stuff for himself :) I got this set as an anniversary surprise from my spouse, I was very happy.

I. Data sheet

Name: Mini Telehandler
Number: 8045
Theme: Technic
Year: 2010
Number of pieces: 117
Price: EUR 9.99 (Germany), USD 10.99

B-Model: Motorcycle

II. What is in the box?

This is a truly modern Technic set. We can hardly find any real bricks - only the lights and the pallet has some of those. The rest is made of beams, joints, axles and other similar pieces. Fortunately there are not many special pieces, it seems to be a good starter set for free building. The wheels are not typical Technic wheels, they rotate on axles so they cannot be used as driven wheels.

III. Functions

It is a small set having few pieces, so it concentrates on one main function: by rotating the knob at the back we can lower or rise the forks. It includes a pallet too, so there is no need to buy other sets to start playing. Raising the fork is easy but lowering it is not quite smooth. Because of the tension in the mechanism it starts to make small jumps, the pallet falls down quite easily.

The B-Model does not have any functions at all: we can build a motorcycle. At least it has a spare wheel that we can use to exchange the wheel on the sidecar.

IV. Design

Even though it has relatively few parts, it is obvious that the designer spent more time on the looks than on the functions. The loader has lights at the front and the back, even on the top. On the two sides of the chassis we find two boxes that have an aesthetic role only. On the right there is the engine compartment and on the left we find the driver's cabin. It is not large enough to hold a minifig but even so it is quite detailed - you can clearly see the seat.

V. Score

This is a perfect starter set for 7 year old boys. Assembling it is pretty quick, I could do it in less than an hour even though my daughters "helped" me. The function is simple but is entertaining. The parts are generic enough to build other things, although I have not tried that.

As a final score it gets 8/10. It has many nice aspects but it gets a small penalty because using this many parts it could have a bit more functionality. For example the 8259 Mini Bulldozer has not just an adjustable dozer-blade but also realistic treads.

See also:

• All photos
• 8045 page on lego.com
• Building instructions on lego.com
• Inventory on Peeron

Breaking news

I finally got it! I have the 8860, the last missing Big Car. So far only online but soon in real life too. It is 66CHF (47 EUR, 57 USD) even though it has a box too.

Technic motorized excavator

By now a lot of details are available about the new sets for the second half of the year. We will have a new motorbike (8051), a container truck (8052), a new crane (8053), but the biggest thing of the year will be certainly the motorized excavator (8043) ígérkezik.

Recently the French site setechnic.com published a detailed review (Google Translate is our friend). But even without any French knowledge one can figure out what Lés photos" and "La video" means.

There are four motors, all of them in the superstructure.

The motors drive the functions through a gearbox-like transmission in six different ways: the whole excavator can move forward and backward, steer left or right, the superstructure can be rotated and the arm can be moved in three different ways.

It is interesting how the motors located in the superstructure can drive the threads. Like this:

The gear at the bottom is familiar from 8880 - it rotates around the axle.

You should certainly look at the photos ("Les photos"), they even have a couple of shots showing the list of all parts.

Finally, a video:

Keep it in good condition

Over the weekend I have visited the German Legoland with my family. Their brick store was as good as usual (I think it is the second best after Bricklink). 100 grams cost 8 Euros and they have many special parts too.

Since a good owner cares about his vehicles I used the opportunity to get some new parts for the set that deserves it most. I have already replaced many parts on my 8422 racing bike but the yellowish wheels were still original.

Fortunately the Lego brick store had just the part I needed so it looks as good as new now:

More photos in the album.

Off road

Nice weather is coming, builders feel inspired to build something for outside - it is tempting to build new truck trial vehicles.

The first truck for today is the "TT10" from Nagy Abonyi Attila. He took a Kraz 255 as sample for his newest creation. It got so famous that even TechnicBRICKs has covered it. It uses 3 XL motors as well as working suspension and military camouflage. More images in the Brickshelf gallery of Attila and this video:

The second creation comes from Sariel who has built a double cab all wheel-drive Tatra T815 with one medium and two XL motors. As usual he has included a detailed description.

As the image shows there is a big emphasis to make the suspension like the original. More images on Brickshelf.

SR 3D Builder improvements

Sergio Reano has added new features to his  SR 3D Builder CAD program (see our earlier coverage). Version 0.4.58 is able to model complicated linked hinges as the video shows.

The program for Windows can be downloaded freely from the homepage of the author:
http://staff.polito.it/sergio.reano/

Lego Technic Challenge, round one

Round one of the Technic Challenge is now closed, you are free to vote on the flying machines!

From the perspective of the Lego company it is understandable but for others it was a small surprise that the ten finalists are exclusively from kids. According to the official statement the jury was surprised that they received so many submissions from AFOLs (Adult Fan Of Lego). In any case the copany has reacted quickly and announced that there will be separate voting for the best AFOL creations in September. On the Designer Blog they also show the best creations from adults.

The rules are a bit refined based on experience from the first round (see TechnicBRICKS):

• Submissions with URLs are being moderated out before the judges even see the models
  
• Submissions with e-mail and other contact information in the description are being moderated out before the judges even see the models
  
• The format the judges will be judging from is still photo; ie. no videos will be taken into consideration, and the judges will not see them
  
• Visuals that look like 3D renderings will not be taken into consideration as this is a building competition

Finally a video that was not mentioned on the official pages but is definitely worth attention:

The Old Lady flies again

It was almost a year ago when I completed the airplane with the radial engine. Luckily it is still in one piece and now that the Lego Technic Challenge was looking for flying things I got enthusiastic again and fixed a couple of small things that I have always wanted to fix.

First, the closing mechanism of the canopy was not robust enough, it opened very easily. The new version can be closed properly and stays like that. I have also changed the front part of the vertical fin so that it is more firmly attached to the tail.

The gears are now also attached in a more robust way.

Last but not least I have made new photos and a new video too, here it comes: