It's a good thing that building instructions are finally made for this wonderful model. Unfortunately, I would say they come too late because most of the technic parts used in your model are 'out of date'. It still remains a very great lego excavator but it will be expensive for someone like me who only have studless parts, new motors, new pneumatics cylinders,...to build it ! I would really like to see you built something with new lego parts !

And I'm very happy to see you there !

This year I started to buy some TECHNIC instructions from various people, but most were of the modern kind. As a fan of the good old studded approach, I had to buy this. The instructions themselves look very professional, and the background information make it even better.

This makes the spending for my LEGO budget even harder: another way to spend my budget, and I don't have enough to build all those fantastic MOCs...

Many thanks and compliments Jennifer and Eric!

Very intricate excavator, beats the 8043 hands-down, about as realistic as I've ever seen...would love to build it and would gladly pay the $20 for the instructions on Crowkillers website, but as others have said, its the old school Technic parts and motors and such that are hard to get nowadays. Somehow I would imagine after seeing this, BL sellers are loaded with orders for the studded and motor parts...

Jennifer Clark...where do I know her name from...Lugnet? Peeron? I know I've seen her name before...

Very intricate excavator, beats the 8043 hands-down, about as realistic as I've ever seen...would love to build it and would gladly pay the $20 for the instructions on Crowkillers website, but as others have said, its the old school Technic parts and motors and such that are hard to get nowadays. Somehow I would imagine after seeing this, BL sellers are loaded with orders for the studded and motor parts...

I'm not sure what the problem is. There are still plenty of these parts on Bricklink. The model is mostly reglular plates and bricks which are quite common. The motors and pneumatics are still available in quantity.

So all of the parts are easily obtainable?

Would it be possible to post a part infantry free of charge?

Would it be possible to post a part infantry free of charge?

If you follow the link to Crowkillers' website on the first post and go the 'buy instructions' tab, there's a Brickstore file available free of charge.

Richard.

If you follow the link to Crowkillers' website on the first post and go the 'buy instructions' tab, there's a Brickstore file available free of charge.

Richard.

Thanks,using brick store the rough estimate for parts is £380 uk pounds.

I have seem most of the parts required.

*Please be aware that the rigid hose is missing along from the pneumatic hose from the part list.

*Please be aware that the rigid hose is missing along from the pneumatic hose from the part list.

That's true. The pictorial parts list in the instructions shows the flexible parts and approximately how much you need. They weren't put in the Brickstore file because Brickstore makes you specify which lengths you want, but there are a wide variety of lengths you could acquire that would work. I actually used quite a bit of aftermarket tubing for the umbilical since it is nearly impossible to get that much LEGO tubing. And of course, you can make the umbilical as long as you like as long as you also have wires that long. I've attached a sample from the pictorial parts list that shows some of the flexible parts needed. This is for the excavator. Some more tubing is needed for the controller. I think the Brickstore file does have all the right wire lengths listed.

I'm not sure what the problem is. There are still plenty of these parts on Bricklink. The model is mostly reglular plates and bricks which are quite common. The motors and pneumatics are still available in quantity.

@Blakbird- to the God of the instructions for this awesome model -

I guess its just that you would have to order from multiple sellers just to get all the parts you need, kind of pain on BL especially with the holiday holdups and such...might look into it after the holidays...just too bad I tossed out a lot of my old motor sets and wiring, sold all the models I had that used the these parts, also sold a whole Lot of my old plates, bricks, etc at a yard sale in 2005, stupid mistake...I was into the studless sets then and their sleekness, now I wish I had kept them...

Edited December 25, 201212 yr by TechnicFreak

I guess its just that you would have to order from multiple sellers just to get all the parts you need, kind of pain on BL especially with the holiday holdups and such...

Yes there is no doubt that collecting the parts for a moc from scratch is a pain and I share your wish that there was a better way. There has never been a MOC I reproduced that took less than 10 Bricklink orders to complete. This one was no exception. I don't recall it being any more difficult than any of the other models though.

If you have a large collection of new sets, then it is true that they won't be of much use in building this particular model. But in terms of acquiring the parts from scratch, it is about the same difficulty as other models. By way of comparison, I had much more trouble getting the parts for Jurgen's excavator because of some of the rare orange parts.

Yes there is no doubt that collecting the parts for a moc from scratch is a pain and I share your wish that there was a better way. There has never been a MOC I reproduced that took less than 10 Bricklink orders to complete. This one was no exception. I don't recall it being any more difficult than any of the other models though.

If you have a large collection of new sets, then it is true that they won't be of much use in building this particular model. But in terms of acquiring the parts from scratch, it is about the same difficulty as other models. By way of comparison, I had much more trouble getting the parts for Jurgen's excavator because of some of the rare orange parts.

I found it quite easy to build Jurgen's excavator,I ordered most of the parts from scratch.

Edited December 25, 201212 yr by Alasdair Ryan

I found it quite easy to build Jurgen's excavator,I ordered most of the parts from scratch.

What did you do spray paint them? No laugh, I've actually done that before for rare parts that we're only available from sellers outside the US...Krylon and another brand (the cans are in my garage, so can't recall the other brand paint, but it's a good one) to try and as closely match the color of what I was looking for...painted a lot of rims and spoiler assemblies in different colors for Lego race cars and such...those old gray rims just don't do some of the racers justice, luckily worked in an auto body shop long ago so I'm pretty good at knowing what I'm doing without completely screwing up a paint-job (sand, and that's the hardest part with all the shinyness and curves of parts, then prime, 2 light coats of paint, then clearcoat), sometimes it takes me 2 days or so start to finish but once if done carefully comes out pretty nicely...

Yes there is no doubt that collecting the parts for a moc from scratch is a pain and I share your wish that there was a better way. There has never been a MOC I reproduced that took less than 10 Bricklink orders to complete. This one was no exception. I don't recall it being any more difficult than any of the other models though.

If you have a large collection of new sets, then it is true that they won't be of much use in building this particular model. But in terms of acquiring the parts from scratch, it is about the same difficulty as other models. By way of comparison, I had much more trouble getting the parts for Jurgen's excavator because of some of the rare orange parts.

I think the toughest part with BL is locating the parts, then all the steps involved, and waiting to amass the parts. Yeah, I do have quite a few newer (2003-up) and also a fair assortment of vintage (mostly 90's) sets, but with dealing with overseas sellers, it can get pricey too, especially with minimum orders, customs, time, and such...but that excavator is more than worth it, much better than any I've ever seen and your instructions are exceptionally done, didn't order them yet, but did the preview...they rival TLG's instruction booklets in many ways...

Okay, I'm wondering something: Is this excavator that much bigger than, say, 8043? Any answer would help me in making an updated, fully remote control version.

Yes there is no doubt that collecting the parts for a moc from scratch is a pain and I share your wish that there was a better way. There has never been a MOC I reproduced that took less than 10 Bricklink orders to complete. This one was no exception. I don't recall it being any more difficult than any of the other models though.

If you have a large collection of new sets, then it is true that they won't be of much use in building this particular model. But in terms of acquiring the parts from scratch, it is about the same difficulty as other models. By way of comparison, I had much more trouble getting the parts for Jurgen's excavator because of some of the rare orange parts.

Go away for one weekend and this cat gets let out of the bag!

I can say that this is the ONE time where I didn't have to make a single order to build this model when I got the inventory. I am of course cheating since I was collecting the parts for this model for 2 years before I got my hands on the proper inventory. That being said, this model was the reason that I HAD to buy the 40 tooth black gears 2 years ago...and once I had the 8 I needed I thought I would stop buying them...I have over 80 now (NOT including the ones pulled out for this fantastic model) which in retrospect seems like overkill.

I've not built my 8043 yet, so can't say for sure, but I'd estimate my excavator is a similar size.

Jennifer

I've not built my 8043 yet, so can't say for sure, but I'd estimate my excavator is a similar size.

It looks very close from what I can tell, possibly a touch bigger. Maybe Blakbird will chime in with a photo comparison, or someone else who has both.

Jurgen's is just about the same size as the 8043 so I expect jennifer's to be the same.

It looks very close from what I can tell, possibly a touch bigger. Maybe Blakbird will chime in with a photo comparison, or someone else who has both.

Yes, they are the same size. You can see them near eachother in my LEGO room photos.

Yes, they are the same size. You can see them near eachother in my LEGO room photos.

I'll finally admit to the fear that I used to have about Jennifer Clark's Excavator -- even as I was seeing the model in Technic Angel of Retribution's actually in his Lego room I thought I could never build one. Thanks again to both of you for the model and the instructions, but especially you Jennifer have made it on a to-do list (uhmm I'll wait regarding price list!).

Conchas published Part 1 of a two-part TechnicBRICKS TechTalk interview with Jennifer Clark.

Well, the results are in and my long-time suspicions have been confirmed. People from the USA do not like Technic. So far, people from the following countries have purchased JS220 instructions. You will see that USA is not on the list. I knew it was less popular in the USA than elsewhere, but I expected at least one! My other big surprise was that I always thought Germany was the most popular place for Technic, but they are not on the list either. Maybe they don't read Eurobricks..... Can you guess which of the countries below had the most copies?

• Denmark
  
• France
  
• Netherlands
  
• Spain
  
• Switzerland
  
• UK
  

Can you guess which of the countries below had the most copies?

• Denmark
  
• France
  
• Netherlands
  
• Spain
  
• Switzerland
  
• UK
  

I am going to say France...

Based on the traffic over at MOCplans.com ....easily...and I mean easily ....Netherlands.

France has half as many page views.

Interestingly Italy actually has more than Netherlands but I suspect that has more to do with the pending release of Rosco's F1 cars.

Based on the traffic over at MOCplans.com ....easily...and I mean easily ....Netherlands.

Correct! Netherlands has more than twice as many sales as any other country.