The Old Lady is ready

I have finally completed it! Not only I have managed to assemble my Christmas present completely, I also have taken photos so there is nothing that stops me blogging about it.

So what is it? The most aged member of the Big Car series, the "Auto Chassis" from 1977. It was missing some parts but the seller was so kind that he sent all of them to me. By the way I am very happy with it. It feels like new, I did not find any broken or yellowish parts. My old Technic playing sets from the 80s are in a much worse shape by now.

After putting it all together I found comparison against the other Big Cars natural. Some numbers to start with:

• this is the oldest of all, sold from 1979
• this has the fewest pieces, 610

This is also the one to contain the fewest special parts. For example the front suspension is made of bricks and rotating plates. There are no springs but there are nonetheless interesting details. For example the suspension has a hole in the middle to accommodate the power train from above. The gear rack moves only sideways, not back and forth with steering. Unlike most other Technic models from the age it has an intermediate arm that makes this possible. Another interesting property of the steering is that it is impossible to fit the gears together such a way that the steering wheel is completely horizontal when the wheels are parallel to the chassis.

The power train makes a very massive impression, the four big cylinders after each other would be enough to drive a boat. The gearbox has two gears, in first gear the pistons literally "fly" - I am not sure that this lasts long under heavy playing. In the rear there is no differential. Instead, there is an universal joint keeping the two sides together. I think this can be really easily broken by the torque of the large wheels.

Besides the relatively simple basics there are a couple of interesting details. The first seats can be adjusted forward or rearward with a rack mechanism. The middle part of the rear seat can act as an arm support or can be hidden.

Until I saw it from photos only I did not realize that the engine is shifted one stud right from the centerline - I believe this gave more room to the exhaust and the gearbox. The proportions of the car are also somewhat surprising, it is not wide but very long, probably longer than any of the sportier subsequent models.

One more thing: the assembly instructions come on both sides of a single foldable sheet in 10 main and 27 secondary steps. For comparison, the instructions for the 8448 have more than 150 steps (and pages).



Now if only I would get an 8860... More photos in the album as usual.

Always behind

There is so much happening that I never manage to catch up. First of all, 2010 is now here, Happy New Year to all our readers! I could summarize what happened in 2009 but I am a bit lazy, do not want to make anything appear bigger than it is and it is anyway too late for it. Perhaps in 2011.

Meanwhile some hints about what to expect in 2010 and the near future:

• First, I still owe you the review of the 853 Very Old Big Technic Car that I got for Christmas. Of course it is completely done by now, the only reason I have not blogged about it yet is because I did not have time to make photos showing the complete state (photos about the almost complete state are here if you are interested).

• The Lead Sled project has made some progress too, I have ordered the bricks on Bricklink today. I have spent an awful lot of time with loading the list into Bricklink, checking that I have everything and ordering it from shops actually having it. In short: 700 parts from 130 kinds from New Zealand, the UK, the Netherlands and France, for about 80 bucks.

• I also have some spare sets like this excellent old 8422 race bike and an 8435 4WD.

• Meanwhile we got a Tantive IV-es Corelian Corvette at work, that will take some too.

Until I manage to get along with all this I would like to recommend some reading. The first offer is Sariel's summary of his year 2009 creations with baggers, tanks and other vehicles, the pictures speak for themselves. Those interested in even more details should definitely read Sariels' scaling tutorial as well.

Finally for the fans of mini models this Unimog is a real gem. Like a real Unimog it has a lot of ground clearance and on the photo with the internals you can grab all the tricks used to make it happen.

Stay tuned for more.