Siegfried

Number: 70707 Theme: Galaxy Squad Year: 2013 Parts:440 Figs: 2 Set Index: CLS-89 Eradicator Mech The bugs are pushing humanity back, it's time for Rico to get on the bounce... oh, wrong story. Very nice boxshot. I love the poses on the bottom corner that each set has. The rear of the box gives a good overview of the set, but does (deliberately?) omit shots of the rear when the mech is together. This left me a bit unsure how it all went together. So what do you get? Instructions with parts listing... ...three bags, another instruction booklet and a sticker sheet. The bags have a hidden bonus; they open! Let's do that... Bag one is pretty much the bugs and the figs, which is a nice way to have it "playable" from the start. The sorta-segmented pods are one of the highlights of this line. But now they're more egg-like... ...or you can mix and match and go for balls or classic! I do love the faceting... Interestingly TLG chose to keep both parts as anti-studs, I'm hoping that we see more of these in other sets! I also love this new-ish part. Oh the possibilities.... While still nice, the figs, Jack Fireblade and Robot Sidekick (robots don't deserve names it seems), aren't new. Even so it's really appreciated the subtle differences front... ...and back. The robot head looks so anime-ish to me. "Turn-A Gundam"? Haw, haw, haw. I'm a bit undecided on the backpacks though... ...especially how the wings attach. Even so, it's a good part for fig customising. Likewise the wings to me seem a bit odd. Why does the robot need wings anyway? Engines for hovering sure, but wings? Gliding? Why? Am I annoying? Yes? Move on? OK.... I think we'll be seeing this in Post Apoc MOCs for years! Shame the other side is so generic. Ready to stomp! This is the dregs from bag one. Not much you may think... ...but it's enough to get these guys fighting again. Honesty.... Onto bag 2! While nice part there's nothing really special there. I will however take the chance to say that I love these parts. They are so similar in concept to the classic hinge joints and, as this set highlights, they have other uses. (More on this later.)Bag two pretty much builds makes the main body... and these are the spares Bag three! IMHO nothing highly exciting, but good parts just the same. Bag 3 spares All spares ....and we're done! While they are just stickers, the bug splats are a "nice" touch. From the front I think it looks pretty good, in what I'd call the Mechwarrior style; weapon arms and no head. From the rear it looks a bit odd, with the cockpit on the side and all. So what can it do? Well for one the main cockpit is a flier... ...with classic light engine, underwing flick fires... ...and a nuke disc. Wow. These humans sure know the meaning of escalate. From what I'm heard though the only way to be sure is to do it from orbit. With the flier removed you get this, which folds down to make the secondary mech. But before you go there please note what I think is interesting; the hinge piece is actually used no as a hinge, but as a technic-to-plate adapter. A very interesting idea... With the auxiliary cockpit in place (plus the leg and arms re-aligned) you get the special feature of this set. The last thing many-a-bug sees I think. Speaking of the bugs here's the flying one... ..and the creeping one. While I do like both they do look like spare parts to me. A family gathering. Conclusions "Evergreen theme" is what TLG like to call Space and the other themes that aren't as cool. Sometimes I think "mech" should be a sub theme as they seem to turn up a lot; Life on Mars, Exo-Force, Power Miners (Life on Mars) even Ninjago (Fangpyre Mech)! Obviously they play test well. Jack tries to impress Ashlee... so was I impressed? Functions: The multi-mode gimmicks in this mech are a bit too gimmicky for me sorry to say. To me they are there for consistency with the rest of the theme and would be better off without them. But I don't really care; the mech is the real function and he is posable enough. Knee joints would have been nice though. 7/10 Parts: A few special parts and a good amount of useful parts for similar building, especially SNOT related. 8/10 Price: I'm not sure of the AUD price, but going by previous sets they have been very good value 10/10 Looks: I do think this suffers a bit due to the desire for a mode conversion (pointy cockpit, odd rear end) but I think it still looks good, 8/10 Fudge: Two bugs, one that can fly, one that can't, and a mech that has a ground mode as well as an air. Extra points for symmetry! 9/10 Overall: Buy! 9/10 Ready for anything! Higher res copies of all photos and more are on Flickr.

Who told you that? I was told otherwise by Mark Stafford, but I don't rule out remembering wrong.

I can tell you that TLG doesn't write the stories; they just make the sets. To my knowledge (heard from a designer) they try to make the occasional set upon request but for the most part there is little to-and-fro-ing between the design and animation team.

Stunning stuff. I'm looking forward to your next one!

It's OK, I'll keep your suggestion in mind when I work on this next. (It's going to be part of a larger display... but I'm not sure if the Squirrel will get to keep it long term. )

Did you miss the part where I asked people to not pick on the tech aspects? But as it turns out, this was one of the tech aspects that I was happy with; he can actually see all the way around. Sure he can't see below the cockpit level, but for that yeah, he'd use a camera/radar/sensor. I have a large collection of those holders. I love them! As for the nuts.... er... he hid them in a tree? Actually I was planning on making a big scene but it was late already and my weekend was over. Excuses, excuses I know... Yeah! I'm a HO!

Updated! Thanks for the clean topic guys!

5. Duh-Nuh - madLEGOman - 1 point 15. Chicken Moonbase - vecchiasignoraceppo - 1 point 21. Frog Terraformer Project - legoalbert - 1 point 22. Pigs VS Cows - Ninja Nin - 1 point 63.Nutcracker Mech - Classicsmiley - 1 point

5. Freighter over Ice Planet Biodome - Lt. de Martinet - 1 point 8. Iron Giant - cmaddison26. Hitchhikers' Offices Hijacked! - Dan Church - 1 point 36. Deep Space Nine - Rook - 1 point 41.Deployment Island - commanderhawk - 1 point 42. Final Fantasy VII's Rocket Town - M153Ry - 1 point Wow, so many good entries!

Sadji Squirrel Could never get enough nuts, so he needed to get a job to let him get more of the good stuff. Thus he became a tug driver. For years he saved his nuts and at was able to buy one... and what could be a more appropriate name? One of his common jobs was hauling loose items... including nuts. (Sadly a story for a later date.) To make docking easier piloting facing backwards is possible, Docked! Yeah, I'm late. I had bigger plans but time was against me. This I threw together in an afternoon. I had no real plans and just made it as I went... so please don't pick on any technical aspects, such as the impracticality of a dump tray in space! Excellent work with the constests Si-MOCs!

Excellent review (and done really fast too I might note)! Harline is a disappointment but other than that it's all very desirable I might have to remove the Monster Mansion from my list and replace it with this...

As an obvious reminder, if any one PMed Copmike in the last day you probably should confirm that it's in your history as due to the server hiccup your message might have been lost....

...and so it begins. Go here for the calendar and discuss the raffle here.

Haven't we been using this colour combination for years?

Actually it's live now. Go here! It's automatically updated...

If you have a way to prove your identity then we can help but otherwise no. You don't have access to the signup EMail?

...and it's phool for teh win! Give me your address and it'll be on it's way! On a side note, I took the book to a local AFOL meet today, and everyone was impressed, including non-Technic builders.

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't disappointed, I just wanted more... or perhaps less of some and more of others. That's all. My apologies for being unclear. I meant wheeled/tracked vehicles when I said "vehicles". I have clarified the point. I'd rather not debate any further though as I think as the author you deserve the final word.

Is it worth putting on your LEGO book shelf? See what I think! See what DLuder thinks!

No Starch Press have been publishing LEGO related books from their early days, with “Getting Started with LEGO Trains” in 2003 and the essential “The Unofficial LEGO builders Guide” in 2005 (which I just noticed has a recently released new edition!), but Technic has been needing a general reference for some time. Indeed, the chapter on Technic in “The Unofficial LEGO builders Guide” says that “Technic is a system within a system”. Enter stage left our new champion; “The Unofficial LEGO Technic Builders Guide”! To me a good reference on a topic need to cover not just “what” and “how”, but also “why”, “why not” and “how else”, and I’m really impressed with how well it achieves those. In fact my first main disappointment with the book, and I’ll get it out of the way right now, is how it doesn’t cover the historical aspects of Technic. It’s mentioned in the preface that he omits this but I do think that some older elements/aspects, such as the Flex system and the 4.5/12 volt system, would have been worth at least a mention. Also for much the same reason it can’t be seen as a complete reference to Technic parts as some parts, such as the differentials, have all historical aspects covered, but others, such as motors and chains, have gaps. (It also doesn’t cover Mindstorms/NXT but I do agree in this case that the topic is already well covered.) Thus I don’t recommend this book as the ultimate reference to Technic in general (the closest is probably still Technicopedia ) but in all fairness it is called a “builders guide” so it can be argued to cover everything would be off topic. With that nit picking out of the way, I’m going to focus on the good parts! The book starts in Part I with the basics; pins, beams, alignment and a big discussion on studs vs studless models (referred to in the book as “studfull vs studless”; a new name for me!), an overview of axels and joints, then in Part II it covers power transmission using LEGO gears. Ratios, direction, efficiency… it’s all covered in a clear but not condescending way so it’s useful as a starting point or a refresher on the topic. Clear digital examples are shown throughout and it finishes with a breakdown of all (to my knowledge) of the basic gears. Chains, pulleys and levers are covered in much the same way. But its Chapter 8 where the book gets to the good part; “custom mechanical solutions”. For most I think this will be a major motivation for the purchase; the desire to tap into the experience of someone as skilled as Sariel. In this it won’t disappoint. Improvements to basic Technic parts such as differentials are covered, as are lesser known mechanics such as Oldham couplings. Similarly pneumatics is well covered, including details on compressor and valve designs, and pneumatic engines, and a section on model strength (while Technic focused) is applicable to all LEGO builders. Part III is dedicated to motors and the power functions system and has very good information and analysis of the current system (I learnt that there’s a new receiver module… that I didn’t get when I bought one recently), and Part IV (advanced mechanics) has 5 detailed chapters covering steering, suspension, tracked vehicles, transmissions followed by adders and subtractors… which brings me to the other major gripe I have with the book; its focus on wheeled/tracked (<---clarification added) vehicles. The steering topic is very detailed and I learnt a few new things, the suspension topic is just stunning with ten very good examples of how to build the most useful types, the tracked vehicles topic gave me loads of ideas which I want to try out ASAP, 9 varied examples of transmissions are given in that topic (I love the CVT!) and three subtractors examples are given…. But where’s the topic on linear actuator applications? Where’s that examples of transfer of power that was lightly touched on in Part 1? Where’s the section discussing extending booms, stabilisers and other stuff that crane obsessed people like me want? Nor is there any detailed example for motorcycles, aircraft or functions such as winches. Also in transmissions, distribution transmissions are given a page, but not a full example, even though this is how they are used in most Technic models. But I’ll return to this point later in the summary. The last part, Part V has three chapters on the more aesthetic of models, covering scale, proportions and details, and is full of good advice for all builders. (There is a useful index at the back as well as an afterword. A hamster as well.) Summary and Conclusion It’s a good book, a very good book, and it’s one which I think most Technic builders (and many non-Technic ones too!) would find useful. But, I did find the omissions disappointing. Perhaps I expected too much, but I do think that as a “Technic Builder’s Guide” it’s not complete. If this was called “The Unofficial LEGO Guide to building Technic Vehicles” then it would be a perfect book in my mind, but as it is it leaves me wanting more. Some of the omissions such as train motors, the engine blocks, crane design (I love cranes), as well as the previously mentioned flex and older parts... etc, just make it seem incomplete. Sure some of these are fringe interests, but so are pneumatic engines and three examples are given for those. Thus your personal satisfaction of this book will depend on what you want to make. The ultimate question I suppose is “Would I buy this book”? Sure I would. There is no comparable publication and this is an impressive resource that I’ll be finding useful for years to come. So run, don’t walk to No Starch Press and get yours now! For a second opinion and more photos be sure to read this review by DLuders. You’re still reading? OK well for your devotion I’m going to randomly offer a SINGLE copy of this book to anyone that No Starch can ship to (I'm assuming most of the world) that who posts in this topic more than 10 words and includes the phrase “Technic for teh win”. (That is one winner, one book.) Thanks for reading!

The image is there now. Thanks Shadows. Later on I'll look into Phes' ideas.

I can fix that one.

For now it's probably better to discuss this in the other topic.

There's already a topic for Series 9 and it's probably too early for 10.