Technic 8265 - My Thoughts

My Background:
I think before I talk about the 8265 it would be good to give some information on who I am and my experience with Lego which will influence what I expected from this set and the reasons I like or dislike various elements on this set. This post is not meant to be a full review of 8265 but more my thoughts on various elements and some ideas I have to change / improve it.

I have been a huge fan of Lego for almost my whole life, early on in my life my younger brother and myself used to build huge setups use the normal “City” theme Lego which would take up quite a bit of space in the house. We built whole cities with houses modelled on those of people we knew and we used to get quite a bit of detail in these. Around 1989 I started looking at the Technic range as I was looking for something which had more features and more closely worked like things did in real life. I was lucky enough to be given one of the early buggy / go-karts which I build quite quickly and I can still remember to this day the pride I felt once I had finished it. Once I had shown to my parents that I was able to build these types of models each Birthday and Christmas normally resulted in one or more new Technic models joining my collection. This last from 1989 until 1998 when I entered my “semi dark age” during which I purchased a few different sets but didn’t really class it as a hobby and they mostly sat on the shelf or broken down in storage crates. I would say I have had around 35 Technic models during my life and at the moment I would have about 30 still, either built and on display or broken down in my crate ready to build. I also spent quite a bit of my teenage years making MOC’s or various things mostly related to earth moving, trucks or cars. Mostly of my collection of pieces is of the “studded” type and this is where most of my experience is which also will affect how I view the newer “studless” type building methods.

Prior to buying and building 8265 the largest / most complex model I build would have been 8455 (Back hoe) which I owned for a few years until I sold it due to a lack of space to store / display it.

Thoughts on 8265:
After spending most of yesterday building 8265 I have a few thoughts and ideas on it and how to improve it.

Things I like:
- Value for money.
- Size (it is quite large and fits in well with the rest of my collection)
- Number of features.
- Use of “studless” bricks: I was never a huge fan of these when I first saw them being from the old school of “studded” bricks and building but after building this my thoughts have changed. It would not be possible to build something like this as easily with “studded” bricks.
- Model Team like details: (Mirrors, lights, stickers and covered frame) which make it look more lifelike. Being a fan of Model Team I appreciate the extra details that TLC have added to this model.
- Control layout (but I do have some ideas to improve this)
- 4WD.
- Engine setup and detail. This looks good and works well.

Things I don’t like / things I am going to try and change or fix:
- Use of Linear Actuator’s: I much prefer the use of Pneumatics and I find the Linear Actuator’s don’t work very well in this model. I have had issues with one side of the arm lifting or lowering at a different speed to the other and the model being “out of balance”. I also find it is slow. I know this model was designed to be powered with a motor but for people like me who don’t want to add a motor it is a bit of a letdown how slow the arm and bucket moves.
- Height the arm lifts to: I feel this is quite low and I am going to look at a way to improve this.
- Steering: I find this to be quite poorly designed and it is another thing I am going to be looking at trying to change / improve.
- The way you change which part is moved (bucket and arm) and how this works: Another area I think needs some work as while it is a clever way to switch what part is moved in real life on a frontend loader you can move both at the same time. I have some ideas on how to fix this which I am going to try.
- Control Knobs for steering and lifting action: I am going to replace the top gear which controls the steering with a flashing light and the rear control gear with a better control wheel like what is used on some of the other models.
- Lifting ability: I have tested this with something as small and light as a spare wheel off another model and as soon as it gets to about half way up it just stops and won’t lift any higher. I think this could be related to the Linear Actuator’s but I am unsure how to fix it.

Overall:
This model looks the part and has some good features which appear to be let down by the way in which some of them have been designed on this model. I have some plans to fix / change these and I hope this will improve the model quite a bit.

Now for the photos: