Thursday, October 24, 2002

8204 Sky flyer I

This is a small Technic set that I got as a gift when I quitted my previous job. It sits unsorted on my monitor.

Pictures

No pictures yet

Great pieces

Red technic triangles...

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

8700 Expert builder power pack

Information

4,5V motor system. It provided a lot of play value for me, unfortunately have I lost the engine some where in my childhood :(

Year 1982, 26 pieces.

Pictures

No pictures yet

Great pieces

Motor :)

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

8720 Power pack

Information

A more powerful 9V motor (compared to the previous 4.5V model). It kept my dark ages away for some year but couldn't beat it... This is the first Technic 9V motor and has been replaced with the new geared down 9V that also has a fly wheel and is much more efficient.

Year 1991, 54 pieces.

Pictures

No pictures yet

Great pieces

Motor :)

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf (N/A)
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

8841 Desert racer

Information

This is my first Technic set. I don't consider it that much technic and therefor the 8020 Universal building set is my personal first technic set ,)

The buggy got steering and a working piston (the old 2x2 type). It's really nothing more to this set. Oh, wait. The chair has a pretty cool color scheme...

Year 1983, 178 pieces

Pictures

No pictures yet

Great pieces

Uhm.. The beams?

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

8843 Fork lift truck

Information

This is a pneumatic fork lift truck that's quite well done. It has one pneumatic cylinder to rise the load, steering and tilting of the forks. What else could a fork lift need?

Unfortunately the mounting of the 2x4 pneumatic pressure/suction divider is unfortunate. I broke it when I disassemble the set once. This shouldn't be a problem with today's pneumatics since the 2x4 brick is long gone ,)

I had a lot of fun with this set.

Year 1984, unknown number of pieces.

Pictures

No pictures yet

Great pieces

Old pneumatic system
Chain links and two tread links
Beams

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

8844 Helicopter

Information

Okay, so it's a helicopter. It has a main rotor and a tail rotor. It can raise/lower it's landing gears (very Helicoptrish I think ,).

This is a set that I either bought or traded in some deal with my brother before my dark ages. He's six years older then me and was much more interested in my money or a model sailplane I got as a gift from a neighbor that moved... Anyway..

Year 1981, 301 pieces.


Sorry for the quality on these images, I have to rebuild this one day to produce better images :)




Heli under construction.




Later...




And then...




Done! These landing gears are retractable. Now that's a common feature on heli's!



Chainlinks :)




Up we go...




Tail.




Alternative model #1




Close up.




This steering stick actually moves the rudder.




This rudder that is.




Alternative model #2.




Alternative model #3.




Seen Britney Spears video where she tries to look sexy with a chair? This is the very chair used.

Just kidding, they used a designer chair from France made out of stainless steel originally design to withstand the demands of the US Navy.

This is the alternative model #4





Alternative model #5

Britney Spears... nah.

This is a model of the retractable landing gears.



Great pieces

Chain links
Blue beams

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

8845 Dune buggy

Information

This set was in a deal I made with my six year older brother before my dark ages. I think he got a model sailplane and I got some of his toys...

This set kind of lacks what defines a technic set IMHO. All it got is steering and suspension on the rear wheels. But hey, it's an old set :)

Year 1981, 174 pieces.

Pictures

No pictures yet

Great pieces

Shocks
Beams

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

8851 Excavator

Information

This is a pneumatic excavator with three pneumatic cylinders. It uses the old style pneumatic that works with both pressure and vacuum, hence the pneumatic switches can never be crossed during operation (or the power of the system will be completely obsolete).

It's a cool set though, very realistic looking and fun to play with.

Year 1984, 358 pieces.

Pictures

No pictures yet

Great pieces

Pneumatic system
Lot's of technic tread links
Beams
Large gears (z40)
Threaded cross axles, though I broke mine when I twisted the nut to hard using the tips in the instruction booklet... :(

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

8853 Excavator

Information

This excavator has some realistic functions, tilt of bucket, raising/lowering the bucket and turning. It's also very rigid in it's construction and -this is always appealing to me- it's yellow!

It has a light on the roof that steers the wheels, a crank on the engine hood to control the scoop and another in the back of the engine. I can't remember witch crank does what.

The set also has some nice wheels which are made from solid rubber = can carry a lot of weight. Unfortunately the rims is completely flat so the tire tends to slip of :( BUT! The rims can make a great steam roller part... *thinks* Yep! Sure can!

Year 1988, 332 pieces.

Pictures

No pictures yet

Great pieces

Lot's of yellow parts :)
Wheels
Bucket

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

9731 Vision Command

Information

Expansion pack to Mindstorms. Contains a USB camera to hook to the computer and program image recognition stuff with. As you might tell I have yet to try this (I don't have the appropriate operating system installed currently). It's actually a Logitech web camera cased in a plastic shell with studs on it.

Year 2000, 141 pieces.

Pictures

No pictures yet

Great pieces

Gear boxes
Camera

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf (N/A)
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

9747 Robotics Invention System 1.5

Information

Well. What shall I say?

This set is what brought me back to LEGO after my dark ages so I owe this set big time! It contains a programmable brick called an RCX but you know all this. This is probably the most famous LEGO set of today. And if you don't know this set, take a look at this site.

Year 1999, 727 pieces.

Pictures

No pictures yet

Great pieces

RCX, programmable brick
Two geared down engines
Sensors (touch and light)
Large gears (z40)
Beams

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf (N/A)
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

Monday, October 21, 2002

3801 Ultimate accessory set

Accessory pack for LEGO Mindstorms.

Released in 2000
Contains 46 pieces

Pictures

No pictures yet

Great pieces

Remote control for the Mindstorms RCX brick.
Rotations sensor to measure the rotation of a cross axle
LEGO lamp

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf (N/A)
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

8852 Robot

Bought Spring 2002.

Year 1989, ? pieces

A transforming truck/robot. Pretty OK but nothing special. I have not built the alternative model yet.

Backside. The crank in the rear controls the up/down movement.




Bottom.




The yellow 2 x 2 round brick steers the front wheels.




In truck mode.




Top.


Great pieces

Yellow :)
1 x 4 gear racks.

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica

Saturday, October 19, 2002

Lynx Mk. III

I felt like doing another tank and as always I ended up building big. I had a lot of fun creating the "camouflage" on this one. I see it as a lesson in "greebling" as the spacers call it.

Mk III is easy to explain, I've already done Mk I and Mk II :)

The tank is not design to look like anything real, I just putted the bricks togheter in a way that "felt" right. I like building this way. I'm not patient enough to make big MOC's real looking :)

Facts

Radio controlled.
Four 9V motors, two for drive (controlled sperately to allow tank-steering) and two for the turret (left/right & up/down).



Here's what it looked like on 2002-10-12. A good view on how the frame is constructed. Basically the tank is a frame covered with plates. Nothing fancy.




2002-10-19, a week later it is finished. I did not build the whole week as you might imagine. The progress was quite fast, I just had other stuff to do. This is a view of the front. The neon 2 x 2 slope bricks are supposed to be head lights.




In retrospect I should have made a second go at that turret. The hoses are supposed to be some sort of smoking laying thingie to make the tank "disapear".




Notice the black minifig head used in the end of the gun.




The bright LEGO colors is not ideal for camouflage in Swedish autumn forest but overall I'm pleased how it turned out.




Front again.




Overall the tank worked like a charm. The major flaw was the 1 x 6 plates constantly popping off the chain links but I could live with it. Another issue is raising or lowering the barrel, when the motor shut off it would continue spinning a short while so you had to turn the engine off before the barrel was at the requested height.




I shot some video on it but I'm too lazy to edit, convert and upload that now :) Later.




This MOC ate all of my 1 x 6 plates in black, I had to "steal" some of them while building other stuff (not shown).




Camouflage is done in black, green, brown, tan and light/dk gray.




Action shot.




Don't go any further...





Surprise!




And a few indoor photos. I have since found the ISO setting on my camera so photos don't look grainy anymore, it's a brand new camera in these conditions. I don't know why I tell you since these are from the Auto ISO setting days, guess I just ran out of things to say. Blah!




::I'm quiet now, in case you did not notice::




*shhh* I'm trying to see how that camouflage is done!




Well, GEEE! I'm *so* SORRY! :-)

Readers that have been to LoTek before might ask what music is corrupting my brain this time, the horrid truth is that I don't play any at the moment! :-D


Saturday, October 5, 2002

1354 Dino Head Attack

Bought Autumn 2002.

Year 2001, 92 pieces


Dino head, baby dino, kitty and two minifigs.





Great pieces

Green parts, 1x1 Technic brick with hole.
Cat :)

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf (N/A)
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica (N/A)

1357 Cameraman

Bought Autumn 2002.

Year 2001, 20 pieces


Camera, light and minifig.






Great pieces

1 x 4 tile with stripe pattern.
Click hinges.

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf (N/A)
Inventory on Peeron
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica (N/A)

2157 Kabaya Promotional Set: Boat

Bought Autumn 2002.

Year 2000, ? pieces

Lugnet says this is a promotional set, but mine does appear to be normal sets. The store where I got 'em had a _bunch_ and was real cheap $0.5 US if my memory serves me.


The creation to the left is part that was unused after I build the bird to the right (box suggestion).




This set comes in a polybag and not in a box. It has a few building suggestions printed on the bag but no instructions or paper at all.


Great pieces

Clear 2 x 2 45 slope
Red 2 x 3 wedge L&R

Links

Building instruction on Brickshelf (N/A)
Inventory on Peeron (N/A)
Set reference on Lugnet
Jim Hughes Technica (N/A)