As a kid I always wanted the 8860 set: <a href="http://www.technicopedia.com/8860.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.technicopedia.com/8860.html</a>. It was well beyond the means of my family at time, and I had almost forgotten it existed until I discovered my wife's family had it in their Lego stash and thus I had a chance to live out my childhood again.<p>Building the 8860 made me realise how much Lego instructions have improved, as every step is basically a game of spot-the-difference trying to work out what pieces have been added. Not so bad for a small build, but in these complex builds it's a long process, especially when all the parts have been mixed into a larger collection of bits.
Super cool, I didn't know this existed and would have loved building it in the 90s. At least I had access to Erector sets, Capsela, and hobby-level RC cars though.<p>Such models are a great way to learn how such machines work on a high level, but it's still missing some significant details. In hindsight I kind of wish someone left a busted small displacement sportbike engine in my parents' garage once I learned how to turn a wrench. It's an incredibly compact package containing a high-strung DOHC engine, multi-disc clutch, and multi-speed constant-mesh gearbox w/shifter. Just remember to drain the oil before conveniently forgetting about it in a dark corner for your inquisitive kid to discover.
I was more into computers than into Legos when the 8880 came out, but I liked this one: <a href="http://www.technicopedia.com/8865.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.technicopedia.com/8865.html</a> ... which I never actually had, but I had enough pieces from other sets to build one from the pictures in catalogs.
So many fond memories with this set. I mustve assembled and disassembled it dozens of times from elementary school to college.<p>But most of all it fed my own inventions and experimentation with parts. I knew them almost all by heart.<p>I think the coolest build it fed were the 6 or 7 generations of crash test cars I built to “study” how car crashes work and how to build a car that’s safe. The satisfaction you get from building a crash car to the latest design from memory then smash it into the wall from across the living room. Man that was fun.<p>One day I tried a rollover test and the custom wheel hub pieces broke. Now I can never rebuild the 8880 set again … sad<p>I wonder if the new Bugatti build comes close to the awesomeness of the 8880? Been thinking of getting that to relive some fond memories
I remember always looking at this one in the stores as a kid, I could never have it because it was too expensive according to my parents. Over 20 years later I saw it on Marktplaats (Dutch eBay) and I immediately bought it, I haven't touched Lego in 20 years but this was the holy grail that I could never have as a child.
Site stopped updating models after 2016 (hope blakbird is alright), had to pop on wiki to find relief that technic line is still ongoing. Great memories. Donated my collection worth $$$$ to an orphanage after graduating, still a decision that I guiltily regret to this day.
I just completed the Bugatti Chiron 42083 set which has a lot of similarities to this set.<p><a href="https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/bugatti-chiron-42083" rel="nofollow">https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/bugatti-chiron-42083</a>
Nostalgia! This was my first (and only) technic set I got when I was a kid. The most impressive here is the actual functional mechanical systems, all wheel steering, all wheel drive, differentials, gearbox, suspension, etc.
One past thread:<p><i>Technicopedia: 8880 – Super Car</i> - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16788407" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16788407</a> - April 2018 (14 comments)
For those looking for something similar, someone designed something called "Attika's 8880 EVO Tribute" which is on Rebrickable with some design updates and using currently available lego parts (as many of the 8880 are no longer produced), and you can either part it out or have some other party produce it using nockoff parts such as Vondado.
I thought this was pretty technically advanced in 1980.<p><a href="http://www.technicopedia.com/8860.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.technicopedia.com/8860.html</a>
I had the 8440 as a kid[1]. I loved that set.<p>[1]<a href="http://www.technicopedia.com/8440.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.technicopedia.com/8440.html</a>
I had a lot of other big technic sets at the time. I remember this one, and I also remember my parents telling me it was too expensive.<p>They were not joking.<p>Not too long ago I wanted to gift a technic set and I was shocked at the prices. The fact that most modern sets also use a lot of custom parts was also something that goes against the lego mindset IMHO.<p>It would still be something that I would totally buy for my children, but not as a gift for somebody else.
My parents bought me this set for my 13th(?) birthday. It cost a lot of money, maybe a third of the average monthly pay in my country.<p>It was gathering dust on some window sill for a long time and when I went to college, they donated the assembled car to some kid without my permission. He wasn't even poor and they didn't give him the box or assembly instructions.<p>I'm still angry about that. I never built the alternative F1 car.
I had this set and sadly never finished it. I ran into a lot of issues putting it together (I forget my age at the time) and then at a given point I found a manufacturing defect in a piece that halted my progress and never moved past that.<p>Today it's incredibly easy to order a replacement for a missing or defective piece online. I imagine if I had this set intact today, it would've been trivial to continue.
I _really_ enjoyed building and playing with LEGO as a kid but lost interest in it as I grew older. I remember having started but never finishing a kit from the technic series and whenever I see such a set I'm wondering what exactly is it (adult) LEGO enthusiasts are you getting out of building/owning such a set?
Below are some reasons I can think of, none of which I find personally convincing enough to start building such a kit, so I'm hoping someone can share their perspective on this matter<p>The challenge of completing a complex puzzle?
Building something that pleases you aesthetically?
The desire to find out how stuff works by rebuilding simplified mechanical toys?
Having a toy you can just play with?
Having a collectible item?
I'm a few years too young to have had this set, but I did have the Space Shuttle/submarine set (<a href="http://technicopedia.com/8480.html" rel="nofollow">http://technicopedia.com/8480.html</a>) and the red supercar with some flexible part (<a href="http://technicopedia.com/8448.html" rel="nofollow">http://technicopedia.com/8448.html</a>) and the pneumatic crane (<a href="http://technicopedia.com/8460.html" rel="nofollow">http://technicopedia.com/8460.html</a>). Was I spoiled? Sure sounds like it now.<p>I can only hope to give the same joy to my own kid some time i a few years
you know nintendo uncle? Well my mum was lego's first employee in Australia, she spent a summer holiday playing lego with kids at the Melbourne department store Myer. She had a cool lego enamel pin that as I a kid I was obsessed with to the point of losing finding, wearing everywhere all the time, breaking, losing traumatically forever. I ended up with not the 8880, but the 8860. It was mind blowing (the diff and the steering!) I'm still building stuff with the bits with my own kids 40 years later.
> For this reason, among others, I rate this as among my top 5 sets ever. The only reason I can't rate it #1 is that all 5 are so good.<p>I wonder which are the other 4 sets.
I have this car, get it on my 11th birthday.
It has indeed a lot of interesting items.
I build with lego from my 4th to around 18th almost everyday, and this was indeed one of the best i received.
I always build custom vehicles, cars, trucks, tractors, etc. and i used a lot of the parts of this car.
Now i see it again, i think i have to build it again, and hope i can find back all the parts in all my lego storage boxes :)
Despite the claim that the driven wheel hubs are only in 8880 they also show up in the Porsche 911 GT3 RS (42056) which is fascinating for the combination of technical detail (no rear-wheel steering, though, sadly; maybe speed-dependent direction is simply beyond Lego) and fairly accurate appearance.<p>What has always bugged me a bit is that the large car models are a bit too heavy for standard Lego motors to power them.
I got this when I was about 8 as one of my first Technic sets yet, what a great memory. Think I prefer the Formula 1 version of 8880 though :D (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/125424377@N04/23490561113/in/album-72157662777916914/" rel="nofollow">https://www.flickr.com/photos/125424377@N04/23490561113/in/a...</a>).
I had this set as a kid, and loved it. Unfortunately, it didn't survive moving houses, and my parents have already passed away. Nowadays, you'll need to pay a fortune online to get one of these.
Was given the 8880 Super Car as a kid. Pretty sure it's the only reason I survived a vacation on an island having, unexpectedly, no automatic transmission cars.