Random set of the day: Mobile Crane
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 855 Mobile Crane, released during 1978. It's one of 9 Technic sets produced that year. It contains 512 pieces.
It's owned by 971 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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23 comments on this article
Can't wait for the (Hashtag)RealTechnic comments.
But it does look pretty neat.
That’s two 1978 sets in a row. Huh.
Amazing how far things have come 42009. '78 is a good year, fine by me!
^And even that will be a RSOTD -eligible set next year!
Isn't there a City-scale version of this, in blue, available this year?
Combined with Vintage Set we've been getting a lot of true oldies this week. I always loved the vivid red, blue, and yellow on these things. Makes 'em pop!
@Zordboy:
I thought this looked City-scale, but after realizing it’s a crazy 14-wide thing, now all I can think of is a Technic fig scrunched in the operator compartment with his legs hanging out the front.
To me, one of the best Technic set ever for the simple reason that the designer(s) managed to pack a lot of functions in a rather small model with very limited specialised parts. The way they simulated the pneumatic cylinders is pretty neat - no linear actuator back then! Like most Lego crane, not very solid but still lots of functions. Also as a part pack, this is/was a formidable set.
The new/modern version of this is 42082 .
Unlike todays Technic sets with 1 or 2 parts added per step, sets of this era made you look and think what parts go where. The instructions are only 20 pages including front and back, which means about 28 parts added per page. And, not to mention at least 2 alternate builds illustrated
As a kid I always dreamed about building the version with front cab when combining this set with the 850 forklift set and the 871 and 877 gear packs, but never managed to get there. A few years ago I decided to make my childhood dream come true and bought myself this set and the forklift to finally put the four axle beauty together. I absolutely love it!
@Zordboy said:
"Isn't there a City-scale version of this, in blue, available this year?"
Kinda, are you thinking of 60324?
This set is simply wholesome in every way. Like, effortlessly wholesome.
I like the newer Technic sets , but I understood the older sets. I can build oldschool mechanism with my older parts, where as I cannot figure a single function with todays parts. I know it's on me, yet it is what it is.
Damn that thing is chunky! Got that proper heavyweight look of real industrial machinery
One of my great childhood building pleasures was reverse-engineering this from the photographs in the instructions from other technical sets in the range. They showed ways to combine multiple technical sets together to create even bigger models. Impossible to source those black shutter doors though at the time. Too bad there was no Bricklink in the 70s and 80s. They didn’t look so bad in red though. Cracking set which I finally got hold of a few years ago. As has been said - the designer managed to build in a lot of functions in a small space using what by today’s standards is a limited array of parts. I don’t do hashtags but if I did I might be tempted to say this is a real technic set ;-)
Wow, i had to check the date because I was sure we got a third vintage RSotD in a row! But it's literally the start of the 'modern' pool because this was the year of the first (articulated) minifigs.
@Hollandsglorie said:
"As a kid I always dreamed about building the version with front cab when combining this set with the 850 forklift set and the 871 and 877 gear packs, but never managed to get there. A few years ago I decided to make my childhood dream come true and bought myself this set and the forklift to finally put the four axle beauty together. I absolutely love it!"
Where did you get that version from? Is it shown in the gear packs?
Another great set from a great year! And even alternate builds on the front of the box......how crazy is that now that B-models are almost gone...
I still have my set, in the box with all the well-aged (and yellowed) plastic inserts. A lot of functionality packed into 512 pieces, and building the alternate models was always the best and challenging part.
@Binnekamp Try this for a photo of the relevant page from the instructions - https://bricksafe.com/pages/MichiB/cranetruck
Instructions used to aspire to inspire. In my own case I think they worked.
@Binnekamp said:
Where did you get that version from? Is it shown in the gear packs?
I hope you'll be checking in here again to see my response to your question. I honestly don't know where I got it from, since I didn't own any of the 4 sets that combine into the version with cab as a kid. Maybe the pages that I still have since then came with 854 Go-Kart, which is the oldest Technic set I did own originally. Anyway, I found it here, the last 3 pictures show the pages I'm referring to:
https://bricksafe.com/pages/MichiB/cranetruck
To expand a little bit more on my fascination for mobile cranes, it was 8421 that got me out of my Dark Ages and of course I also own 42009, which I upgraded to fully remote controlled following Jurgen's instructions:
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-72302/JurgenKrooshoop/ultimate-42009-rc-motorized-mobile-crane/ details
Wow, and I just bought a bulk lot with this manual in it. In fact, it cane with two of the same manual. Hopefully will make a good YT video!
I didn't have this set, but my friend did and I had 856 bulldozer. We traded just for building and not to keep . So we got to build a different set.
@Hollandsglorie said:
" @Binnekamp said:
Where did you get that version from? Is it shown in the gear packs?
I hope you'll be checking in here again to see my response to your question. I honestly don't know where I got it from, since I didn't own any of the 4 sets that combine into the version with cab as a kid. Maybe the pages that I still have since then came with 854 Go-Kart, which is the oldest Technic set I did own originally. Anyway, I found it here, the last 3 pictures show the pages I'm referring to:
https://bricksafe.com/pages/MichiB/cranetruck
To expand a little bit more on my fascination for mobile cranes, it was 8421 that got me out of my Dark Ages and of course I also own 42009, which I upgraded to fully remote controlled following Jurgen's instructions:
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-72302/JurgenKrooshoop/ultimate-42009-rc-motorized-mobile-crane/ details
"
Thank you! Interesting to see the text from Finland and the text in Dutch in the bottom.