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Subject: 
Re: 8421 first impressions
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Sat, 2 Jul 2005 22:16:18 GMT
Viewed: 
3358 times
  
In lugnet.technic, Thomas D. Fulk, Jr. wrote:
    My 8421 crane arrived today and I'm going to give my first impressions.

I received mine Monday after ordering from Amazon.com.
(Peeron RSS feeds rock!)  I just completed it, and I
pretty much agree with others' impressions here.

The box is cool and huge, but I also didn't like having
to tear it to open it.  Like other recent huge Technic
sets, the sequential bags helped a lot during
construction.  The inventory is nifty; I'm interested
to see if it agrees with a verified Peeron inventory.

My Lego brain is still wired for bricks, but I got a lot
of experience doing liftarm/peg construction with this
set.

I was really impressed by how small the steering turning
radius is.  For a vehicle this big, it turns on a dime.
And I'm cool with steering from the back.  And the tires
are awesome.  I did have a sticky "Technic Axle Joiner
Perpendicular 3L with 4 Pins" (48989), which I swapped
with another to make the steering move smoothly.

The stabilizer arms are a little quirky to me, they like
to stay locked down until enough tension is built up to
pop them up (this may be a feature).

I like how the engine drive shaft snakes down to the
drive wheels, but at least in the base, this set isn't
nearly as dense as the Space Shuttle or the Airtech
Claw Rig.

I hadn't seen the newer Technic turntable before, it's
obviously much better suited to liftarm vs. brick
construction.

I discovered it was important to vertially align the
shaft attaches the lever for the transmission changeover
catch, requiring some re-building.  I also managed to
put in the string spool shaft backwards at first, but
it was a little late at night when I did that.  :^)

I agree with others that the pneumatic release is bad.
Like others, I fudge this by slowly releasing the air at
the switch.

The RC motor is way overkill for payload lifting, but
maybe not for extending the boom.  The boom extends
smoothly, but it does have significant mass.

And my "oh, wow!" moment on this model was when I
realized the boom had dual extension action.  The boom
is the obvious centerpiece of this model, with a
fantastic combination of brick, tile, and liftarm
techniques.

For transporting, I'm using two "Technic Pin Long with
Stop Bush" (32054) to temporarily connect the boom to
the 5-long liftarms that extend out of the cab.
Connected this way, you can pick up the model by the
boom if you care to.

I think I still prefer the Space Shuttle and the Airtech
Claw Rig to this set, but it's easily the best Technic
set Lego has produced in a long time.  I hope they keep
it up.



Message is in Reply To:
  8421 first impressions
 
My 8421 crane arrived today and I'm going to give my first impressions. I did a quickie pen and paper inventory that I may try to later key in and submit to peeron (Honestly i've never done an inventory and I'm a bit intimidated by the size of this (...) (19 years ago, 17-Jun-05, to lugnet.technic)

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