Siegfried

...er... yes. As others have said, that's the origin of the blue bucket... and yes he is dead.

Set: 812 Gears, Axels & Bricks Year: 1974 This is a set that I have long tried to find for a good price, and recently I bought a near-perfect copy on eBay for around $20 AUD! (Currently around $15 USD.) As a kid I had a copy of Ideas Book 222, and the last few pages featured models using parts from this set. (You can find the whole Idea Book on Peeron.) These gears were one of LEGOs first attempts of adding advanced function to models and I at last know first hand that they are actually quite good. In many ways the parts in this set are superior to the latter gears. Anyway, on to the review! Part 1 : Parts It's interesting to look at this photo; it's not very well taken by todays standards. It is however great to see the real part rather than a drawing. This box is great for presentation, but horrid in use; the axels keep sliding under the foam. I'll be moving this to another container soon. The complete set. In mine I had a few extras, but I'm not sure if they come with it so I didn't show them. These are the small gears. The set came with six. Aside from gears, they have another purpose... ...the hub of the old large wheels. (Not included in this set, or this purchase. Oddly I bought those with another eBay lot that had no gears...) The idea seems weird to me... ...but once you get them in they look good. You wouldn't have much hub slippage with these! The rest of the gears. This is all you get from the set... and all I have. The yellow gear has some usable studs on top, but the ones on the blue are only good for 2x2 pieces without the central tube. The holes are the same size as standard axels, but are not good for pins as they are about 20% too short. Thus half pins don't lock, and full pins wobble. One of the special features that these gears have is a thin piece of metal that locks the gear onto the axel. It was hard for me to show this in a photo, but after many attempts here it is! Each axel has a small notch at the end that aligns with this... ...making brushes at the end of gears less necessary. There were no beams at this stage, all LEGO offered was this Multipurpose Holy Block. This set also featured the first LEGO universal joint... ...as well as the first tracks. Oddly, this set also has metal motor->gear pieces. I would have thought it would make more sense to include these in the motor sets... but I'm not complaining! Part 2 : Applications First off, I made a ride, similar to what's shown in Ideas Book 222 on page 78 and 79. This model uses most of the parts, including the universal joints. I have a 12V transformer (cost me $10 AUD on eBay!) so I plugged it in and wound it up to full power! Wheee! I connected the motor via the metal pieces as the plans ask. It was a lot stiffer than I expected but it worked well. Even so, sliding the plastic brushes down the metal shaft made me cringe, and not in a good way. (If that sentence excites anyone then I suggest you get out more...) Next, I made a helicopter, similar to what's shown in Ideas Book 222 on page 78 and 79. This model also uses the wheels. (The rubber bands are official but not included.) This model was highly fragile during assembly. Once together it holds OK, but pressing it together was a dangerous experience... The gear train highlights the flexibility of the pieces. Like the newer bevelled gears, these can be used at a 90 degree angle. However, due to their longer teeth, these don't slip and you don't need to be so precise in the positions. How far you can push this I don't know; I'm not prepared to do destructive testing to determine the gear strength! Due to the re-enforced hubs I would expect the teeth to break first. The tail connection relies on the inverse stud shape of the brushing; this technique seems to have fallen out of favour at LEGO... The universal joints are used here, but only as joiners. Note the rear axel is elevated to prevent it running away! I made a video of this model and you can find it here. Last up, I made a simple track demonstration. To avoid cringing I used plastic axels not the metal pieces. Assembling this was a lot harder than I expected. Due to the long teeth you need to position the tracks more accurately than you need to with later types. Thus it took me a while to find what size I needed to make what. For this reason the design is just a strong block. The tracks have two studs and thus are too wide to sit flush. The track is has good grip and much quieter than I expected. I made a video of this one as well, and you can find it here. Overall thoughts Well, my normal ranking system makes little sense with this set, so I'll give it a miss. But I will say that this is a great set, and I'll be sure to try to find more parts like this. It's a shame that the gears are so colourful as it does limit their use somewhat, and their relative rarity will make me reluctant to use them in any way that could damage them. I give this set 10/10!

Just the front page. When I first came here I found it odd too. I might look into adding a link to it under the banner.

Someone has stolen my work. I'll have to ask Hinckley who this secret builder is so I can sue him/her.

I have no idea what you are talking about. This is the first time I have posted this MOC...

I voted for Mr. Mandalorian and his team.

As an attempt to teach an old dog new tricks I decided to try my hand at making a micro-sandcrawler. (That control stick is supposed to be a vaporator... )

Oh my this is great work. I'm not a fan of Episode III, but the Order 66 scene brings a tear to my eyes every time. I'll be looking out for your MOCs in the future.

Well, sorry to say, I don't like the idea. Why? Largley becasue as Erdbeereis1 said, we get enough people posting old news as they were in such a hurry to be "first". This would make it worse. People who post great news tend to be rewarded with titles anyway... (This was in the wrong forum too...)

The problem you are having is because you're trying to use the resultant link, not the starting link. The resultant link contains a SearchID that is connected to your account. You must be careful when posting these as people can use those to view any extra forums you may have access to... (Thus I deleted yours. ) These seachIDs expire after a while, thus your problem. Anyway, here's the link you want... http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?act=Search&CODE=getactive ...which is this.

They do allow you to add to orders; I've done it once. I just did a $611.96 order so I can't complain.

Jennifer Clark. Her work is stunning. She does use un-official parts, but it's still incredible work. Her site is here.

Shhh! I've passed on another batch of addresses, but I'm still missing a few. I'll send out a nag in the next few days... Thanks to the people who have passed on that they received their package. Enjoy!

You might have Java disabled. Is that possible?

You made a change. Read this topic.... (I'll merge this tomorrow. )

Thanks for the news! I just ordered; 10189 Taj Mahal (Stunning deal!) 10193 Medieval Market Village (I've been holding off the order for this set) 8956 Stone Chopper (I must have a rock monster!) 8886 Power Functions Extension Wire (I know, not very exciting) But on a negative note, most of the prices are horrid; the Power Miners included. The 10 cent per piece ratio has been ignored, and 20 cents seems the norm. Star Wars is off the scale; Count Dooku’s Solar Sailer $99.99 for 385 pieces? Ahsoka’s Starfighter & Droids $79.99 for 291 pieces? That's crazy talk! Technic is no better; Hauler $114.99 for 575 pieces? The only good prices seem to be Creator and Racers... and even these are not as good as last year. It's going to be a sale only year for me...

There were some delays as many people didn't PM as asked and he needs to work our whose payment belongs to what member.

...and Sinner said "Get this on the topic of Christmas and keep it that way or I'll close it" ...

Is that for my MOC or the set?

....and the final winner is Skipper 24! This brings our Advent Calendar 2008 to a close; congrats to the 72 members who received a prize. Pictures of all the prizes have been added to the first post of the Advent Calendar 2008 topic. The winners need to send to me ASAP their names and addresses. All up around $500 USD of LEGO (not including postage) has been given away this month by some generous EB members so I hope everyone enjoyed our way of helping you get into the spirit of the season!

....and the final winner is Skipper 24! This brings our Advent Calendar 2008 to a close; congrats to the 72 members who received a prize. Pictures of all the prizes have been added to the first post of the Advent Calendar 2008 topic. The winners need to send to me ASAP their names and addresses. All up around $500 USD of LEGO (not including postage) has been given away this month by some generous EB members so I hope everyone enjoyed our way of helping you get into the spirit of the season!

Thanks for sharing KimT! It seems a bit easy though...

Well I know first-hand how heartbreaking an unsuccessful project is, epecially if it was worked on for months with the expectation of profit. Thus I hope it's a success... ... but I hope they haven't bet the farm on this. That would make more sense.

I ran into this on eBay today... but in all honesty I think it's way overpriced. I don't like the design either... but I'll stop before I get too negative. I do wish them the best, but I'd be surprised if this went for anything more than $5000. If it was something like this it might be a different story... EDIT: I just read the story; $9000 on parts?! I'll have to give it a longer look later but I can't see how. For the most part, I find the 10:1 ratio is often true, even in Australia. Aside from the old road plates most of the parts looks standard and recent.

I don't have time, but I gave it a look anyway... ...but I can't help. Phred, Mr Tiber, SlyOwl, Bonaparte or Mister Phes are the experts on this index.