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Subject: 
Has anyone noticed this? Is it even important?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic, lugnet.general
Date: 
Sun, 11 Jul 2004 19:22:18 GMT
Viewed: 
123 times
  
In a recent discussion over at Classic-Castle about maces, something came to my attention.

The whole discussion is over this:



It’s a design for a minifig mace that I’ve been using for five years or so. I’ve never had a problem with it, but those who have never tried this style of mace before have complained that this design is flawed. For them, the 8 toothed technic gear does not stay on the rod, it slips. For me, I’ve actually seen these gears crack because the fit was so tight.

So I did some checking through Peeron. Only one version of the 8 toothed gear. Same with Bricklink, only one version.

But when I started digging through my collection, I noticed that there is, in fact, two different versions of the 8 toothed gear.



The older version (left) has much sharper edges than the newer version (right), which has rounded edges. These rounded edges on the newer versions means there is less plasic inside the technic hole, and thus less plastic to grip the rod for the mace design.

The teeth on the two gears also differ. The older style gear has thinner, longer teeth than this newer gear.

Another noticable difference is the newer gear has a lip around the technic hole. It seems that both gears have a sort of a lip around the hole on one side, where the ‘teeth’ in the technic hole are rounded to allow the technic axle an easier time of being pushed through the gear. However on the older gear, on the other side, the ‘teeth’ are flush with the edge of the gear, there is no lip there. With the newer gear’s opposite side, there’s a noticable lip where the ‘teeth’ don’t reach the edge of the gear. You can almost see this in the picture.

Also, though this is not very important, the light grey color on my newer, pre-2004 new style 8 toothed gears (the four or five I have) is a different shade than the older gears. Perhaps a different plastic was used? Or maybe a different temperature was used in making it? Maybe a whole new color onto itself? I don’t know, I’m not knowledgable in these things.

Is this something that needs to be addressed? Has this already been addressed? Should there be an official differentiation between the two designs? Does anyone even care? Or is this just something castle-heads need to worry about alone?

--Anthony



Message has 4 Replies:
  Re: Has anyone noticed this? Is it even important?
 
I looked at my two maces - one has the old gear and one the new. The new one grips better than the old, not worse, but neither slips. I don't feel like disassembling my flails to test the fit on the gears. I'll dig out more gears as I come across (...) (20 years ago, 11-Jul-04, to lugnet.technic, lugnet.general, FTX)
  Re: Has anyone noticed this? Is it even important?
 
(...) This depends on the axle and the gear and how much they have been used. Are your 8T gears very used? The plastic used seems malliable. I have to match gears and axles to get a good fit. Kevin (20 years ago, 11-Jul-04, to lugnet.technic, lugnet.general, FTX)
  Re: Has anyone noticed this? Is it even important?
 
(...) Hi Anthony and All, I definitely think that this is a different plastic. A softer (and slightly different colored) one. (Not unlike 1x1 lightgrey plate with clip when compared to regular 1x1 lightgrey plate.) I've noticed this change some (...) (20 years ago, 12-Jul-04, to lugnet.technic, lugnet.general, FTX)
  Re: Has anyone noticed this? Is it even important?
 
Another part that has been changed is the black friction pin. (URL) am not entirely sure which is old and which is new actually :) Has this been noticed before? (...) -- Peter ---...--- Only when you try to build with Mega Bloks or you try to make a (...) (20 years ago, 13-Jul-04, to lugnet.technic, lugnet.general)

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