I had this set as a kid and I absolutely loved it! I remember driving it around the house for hours. Yes, the instructions were hard to follow and my dad had to build that set with me (he did most of the work lol). I remember this set very fondly. It is very good at teaching a kid the very basics of how a car transmission works.
This was the dream lego kit for me as a 10 year old, and I could only admire the box on the top shelf in the toy store, way out of reach. But to my amazement one christmas there was this familiar rattling from one big gift under the tree, which turned out to be this. I had never expected to get something this expensive (thanks mom!!). I just yesterday found my old Lego box on the attic, and thought I'd see if it was possible to build this. So I had a evening well spent, and to my surprise there was only three pieces missing (ordered now), even though the big box of unsorted random Lego bricks have been used by younger generations and followed me through several address changes. By the way, you placed the cooling fan assembly a bit wrong. It should be mounted with one stud offset to the passenger side of the car. See the small picture on step 21. Easy to miss, and I agree the instructions leaves many things to be figured out by yourself.
I also thought older sets like this were unobtainable when I was kid in the late 90s, and at least this set was half the age at the time! Of course we also didn't have nearly the same amount of infrastructure for peer to peer transactions back then, but I was still surprised at how affordable this was/is. Thanks for sharing, and good spot on the fan!
I still have mine on display on a coffee table just off from my loungeroom. Perfect condition :) . Did you ever manage to get the alternate build stock car working though?. I could never get the rear wheels to spin following supplied instructions. I figured there was something wrong with the way they had the gearing layed out.
although to our modern eyes, this set may seem at times primitive, but then if you got this set in your christmas stocking, you knew that you had a technic set that was worth buying and playing with, and it was one of the better sets that came out during the 80`s, but then if you got the gearbox wrong it did like making an annoying clicking sound, and despite the fact that at least these days you can buy many a technic car, that is practically a work of art on your shelf, when you make this set it actually looks like a car has had it`s bodywork removed so that you can see all it`s working parts, and for that alone it`s well worth having in your collection, and if i ever get my lego room, and no doubt there will be plenty of brand spanking new technic lego models on the shelf, i know in my heart what will be the star of the show, and it will not be the young puppies, but an old timer like this car chasis set, and over the years my love has only grown for a classic set that i used to built in my youth.
Yeah, some new sets are good in their own way, but they definitely don't make 'em like they used to. There was just more focus on the mechanical aspect of things rather than the aesthetics.
"Lots of parts per step... hard to follow".... yes.. that was the challenge! ;) Great review as always! This was one of the first sets that I bought, after coming out of my Dark Ages, and always wanting it as a child... I was extremely fortunate to get the version with the chrome tap pieces! Also, notice at around the 5:00 mark, when you're pointing out the weirdly drawn parts - notice they don't use the shock absorber part, but instead a 'hand-built' one... this is a design that uses seperate springs - similar to one in the ideas book of that era, that uses rubber bands.
Lots of parts per step were normal in the 80s and Lego didn't put that past 10-year-old children. Today, Lego believes that its customers are stupid. So, they include a lot of pieces in inappropriate colours and tome-like instructions with a maximum of three parts per step, so that even the biggest idiot is capable of building the set.
I had this model when I was a kid! If I recall correctly, the instructions also included a bit about how to connect a motor to this, which you could purchase separately
Just located mine…30 years since I last saw it…had to do a full valet and seat reconstruction, missing the exhaust and the band to turn the fan. I remember going on holiday in 1981 to Uk and bought it I think for £24. I was broke for years after😊
There's one thing that should be done with this car chassis model: someone should hold a competition for the best looking bodywork placed on this very model, all Technic eras permitted.
I can't hear anything unusual, but I wouldn't be that surprised. These older videos have a lot of weird audio artifacts that have been really hard to get rid of -_-
@@NonsenseWars at 4:44 you can clearly hear someone in the background saying: "right there five" there's a male and a female voice in the background. Your Video is cool, but just like I wrote, those voices in the background are a wee bit irritating, and they are not in my head. ;-)
Good review. I badly wanted this when I was a kid, but I had to make do with 854 Go-Kart. Anyway, I bought one off eBay the other day and it was great to finally build it. As you say, the instructions are frustrating and I was forever having to go back to see what I’d missed out. Then I had to dismantle half of it to adjust the gearbox spacings. I could assemble 854 in my sleep back then, but this would have been a real challenge.
Same here! I was desperate to get this set as a kid, but it proved a bit difficult to convince my parents. It was probably due to the fact that I was just 6 years old and it was already 1985, so probably set 8860 was long gone from any store by then 😁 Sets 8030 and 854 were very a good patch though. Then, last year I bought the 8860 set myself from eBay. Still feel thrilled every time I walk passed it
@@irTaeke I recall lusting over 8860 in the home shopping catalogues in the mid '80s, so it was probably still available until 8865 was launched in 1988. I got 854 in 1984 or 85, and it was released in 1978.
Hi, had this car as a little kid in Germany. Very complex to build as I remember. Esp. the gearbox. I also remember some design flaws, e.g. the braking chassis when you move the car and play with the suspension. Maybe it is related to a rolemodel vw buggy: flat 4 engine, rear suspension like in the old days and the overall setting: vw buggy for me :-) Just ordered a modern lego technic ford gt creator expert for relaxation. We (I) will see how lego developed with the ford gt technic see. thx for your nice video and time travelling for me ❤
The old Technic sets were definitely harder to assemble than contemporary ones. They had fewer, less clear steps, and many of the parts were physically harder to press together!
You don't notice it in the video, but the parts are definitely worse quality than contemporary bricks. Especially the basic bricks, they definitely feel more brittle and have less clutch!
It does in two areas as it uses an elastic band for the motor to spin the fan and for the seat controls. Don't do what i did and leave the elastic band on there for years as it was extremely hard to remove it lol.
@@NonsenseWars you are dealing with a very old used set so clutch power could have been lost over the years. I just bought this set, which had not been used much at all, and I had very few issues with the part quality. As for the instructions, they can be more complicated than current day, but it just makes you think more which has to be a good thing. Instructions these days are very dumbed down, to a point where you can be adding just one piece per step, which is just ridiculous.
Good review. I badly wanted this when I was a kid, but I had to make do with 854 Go-Kart. Anyway, I bought one off eBay the other day and it was great to finally build it. As you say, the instructions are frustrating and I was forever having to go back to see what I’d missed out. Then I had to dismantle half of it to adjust the gearbox spacings. I could assemble 854 in my sleep back then, but this would have been a real challenge.
