Technic motorized excavator

By now a lot of details are available about the new sets for the second half of the year. We will have a new motorbike (8051), a container truck (8052), a new crane (8053), but the biggest thing of the year will be certainly the motorized excavator (8043) ígérkezik.

Recently the French site setechnic.com published a detailed review (Google Translate is our friend). But even without any French knowledge one can figure out what Lés photos" and "La video" means.

There are four motors, all of them in the superstructure.

The motors drive the functions through a gearbox-like transmission in six different ways: the whole excavator can move forward and backward, steer left or right, the superstructure can be rotated and the arm can be moved in three different ways.

It is interesting how the motors located in the superstructure can drive the threads. Like this:

The gear at the bottom is familiar from 8880 - it rotates around the axle.

You should certainly look at the photos ("Les photos"), they even have a couple of shots showing the list of all parts.

Finally, a video:

Keep it in good condition

Over the weekend I have visited the German Legoland with my family. Their brick store was as good as usual (I think it is the second best after Bricklink). 100 grams cost 8 Euros and they have many special parts too.

Since a good owner cares about his vehicles I used the opportunity to get some new parts for the set that deserves it most. I have already replaced many parts on my 8422 racing bike but the yellowish wheels were still original.

Fortunately the Lego brick store had just the part I needed so it looks as good as new now:

More photos in the album.

More steam!

If you cannot decide between model railroads and Lego, then you are in a lucky situation. Why? Because you can do both. Lego bricks can be used to build almost anything - including locomotives. (And since the fall of the GDR it may be cheaper, too.)

Reinhard Beneke has come to the same conclusion and started building the most famous locomotives of Germany. Baureihe 23 is only one of the many great locomotives he has built. But this one is very special because one of his fans has created full building instructions.

If you read the 67 pages you will find out how the driver's position looks from the inside and also how the wheels turn.

This is the full documentation:

• Brickshelf gallery
• LDraw model
• List of all parts

The full instructions can be downloaded from the download page of Railbricks (11.5M).