Subject:
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Review: 8446 '(Monster) Crane Truck'
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.reviews
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Date:
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Fri, 1 Oct 1999 13:36:42 GMT
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Viewed:
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1259 times
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Set: 8446 'Monster Crane Truck' (EUR/ASN) 'Crane Truck' (AMR)
Theme: Technic/Advanced
# Pieces: 573
MSRP: US$63/SEK599
Instructions: 155 pages.
Scale: Must have, very good, good, fair, poor
Overall rating: good
Decals: didn't count them (decals are evil!), but a fair bunch; 10 or
so. None appear to span multiple elements, though.
OVERALL:
A cool looking 'crane' truck with some interesting technical functions:
six wheels, of which four are steerable, a cabin that opens with the new
pneumatic element, and an interesting crane with functional grabber.
DETAILS:
Positive:
Many (to me) new elements. The wheels, the decorative plating and the
new pneumatic (?) cylinder are perhaps the most visible ones. There are
also various strange bits that I suspect come from Slizers/Throwbots, a
new, larger beveled gear, a new liftarm/bent beam, a double crossblock,
a five-length (?) axle with a stopper (?) near one end, flexible
'axles', a two-part holder for a worm gear, and perhaps some others.
Relatively many elements in dark grey, such as beams and triangles.
A turntable!
The truck looks quite good.
The grabber really works! There is a big black spring that forces the
two sides of the grabber together, and a little wheel that you turn to
open and close the grabber. The whole grabber/arm thing is strong enough
to lift and hold a big banana. :)
Some of the technical functions are relatively complex, such as the arm
and the steering.
The style of the instructions has changed since last year, I assume
that's the case for all new sets this year. This is mostly an
improvement. It certainly looks more modern, although we could've done
without the background pictures, perhaps. The little boxes listing the
elements needed for a certain step now look like (Mac?) windows, cool
now but for how long? The checkpoints are a good thing; when you've
finished implementing a certain technical function, there is a page
dedicated to testing it, so that if you made a mistake, you can go back
and fix it. Also, the individual steps seem smaller, but perhaps I've
been spoiled by the 8880 Super Car and the 8480 Space Shuttle.
Negative:
There is no worm gear involved in turning the arm, so that it turns too
easily when you bump into it.
The raising/lowering of the arm is somewhat strange; I think one more
joint would have been nice.
Also, when you raise the arm, the paneling around the arm is also
raised...
The paneling and other decorative elements are mostly attached using
axles and such, very few beams are involved in a structural way in the
body. The frame is better.
One small error in the instructions, in one of the checkpoints you are
instructed to turn the wrong axle to test if the arm will turn around.
Most of the body of the truck is suggested with various kinds of tubing,
flexible axles and the decorative paneling.
The flexible axles can not be used with gears.
EXTRA PIECES:
The usual assortment of small bits and pieces.
PLAYABILITY:
Very good. It's fun to drive around with its multiple steering wheels
and then you get to lift stuff and transport it with the claw, too. The
claw is quite strong and good at grabbing things.
ALTERNATE SETS:
The format for instructions for alternate models has also changed since
last year, over and above the changes listed above. They now give the
usual detailed instructions for building the basic functionality of an
alternative model, then give some idea sketches for adding to that. A
good way to stimulate creativity!
There are two alternate models provided:
- A heavy duty truck chassis, with three (four?) ideas of different
looks for the truck.
- A snowplow chassis, with two (four?) ideas of different looks.
There are also instructions for motorizing the snowplow.
I haven't actually built the alternative models (yet), so I can't really
say how good they are, but especially the heavy duty truck looks really
good.
CONCLUSION:
A good set with good technical functionality, reasonable finishing, very
good playability and inspiring secondary models. The selection of new
pieces is of course also a convincing argument for it.
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