I never quite warmed up to Lego Technic. It's Lego, but it's not really Lego to me. It doesn't have that elegant simplicity of bricks but instead has complicated bars with connectors, which to me, is the opposite of elegant. But I do still appreciate its inherent genius.
I felt like diving back into this sort of thing after stumbling on a Youtube video about Lego. I chose the Mobile Crane kit because it's suitably complex and is also playable when done.
After the first hour, I felt that usual "Technic Confusion" already. It must take some kind of savant to realize a model from these mechanical innards. I didn't know where the instructions were taking me other than that I was building some kind of chassis. When I got to the point seen in the photo below, I finally saw that I was actually building the brackets for a steering column that would angle the 8 wheels.
Actually to be more accurate, it figured it out sooner and snapped that photo only after I started on the front cab. But the point is, the model up to then was more or less just a series of bars and with a few seemingly random gears.
To me, thrill of Lego Technic is seeing bits become assemblies, assemblies become parts, and so on. Then that moment you think, "ah! Now I can see how this is supposed to work."
So eventually I got to this...
At the end of "Bag 1" (which is actually a series of bags), we have what can easily be recognized as a vehicle. A large gear serves as a steering knob at the back while a smaller one swings the stabilizers open and closed. The little feet lower when you twist the black handles.
"Bag 2" is all the for the crane assembly.
The crane is where things get very alien to me. The red lever shift a clutch into place to catch a series of gears. Depending on the lever positions, you are raising the arm, or extending it, or lowering the grapple line.
Technic does something else that annoys me a bit: no drivers or pilots. Long ago, I recall some sets had "Technic people" but I'll settle for Little-Prime being able to sit in crane cab:
In fact, it bothers me even more than they made seats in the main cab, but there's no room for a passenger's legs. Why couldn't the design be just one or 2 "holes" longer. Even the cab doors open... but for what?
It also kind of bugs me that although the structure is about as stable as it will get, Lego plastic still has a certain amount of flex. Those stabilizers are cool but not truly functional. And I'm almost afraid to turn the knobs and gears when the fit is just a bit too tight. I expect it to snap at any time, even though it clearly shouldn't.
Still the whole point of this exercise is to make an outrageously large model and it does that just fine. The crane ends up being over half a meter long and just as high if the crane is fully extended and raised. I just wish it weren't so hard to take Technic bits apart because I'm eager to try building the harbour-crane model using the downloadable manual. Maybe I'll give it a few weeks rest. :)
