The Lego Technic Bulldozer used in the recent build articles is now available for sale, fully built.

The price is £120 including P&P and a set of batteries.

http://www.technic-scotland.co.uk/Shop.html#8275-Built

The Lego Technic Bulldozer was one of the most complicated and detailed Lego models I've built.  My last build was the Lego Technic Crawler Crane (set 8288) - (more on that sometime soon) which was relatively straight forward and uncomplicated.

The first part of the build (manual 1) dealt with the basic drive train.  This was very detailed and after 4 hours of building I'd nothing much to show for it.

The second part of the build (manual 2) took the basic drive train and added a few motors and all the body work.  This is an area Lego didn't really used to include in their models. This part of the build was less complicated from the first, but did still take time and I did make mistakes.  When completed I couldn't resist adding batteries to remote control and having a wee play.

The third part of the build ad’s on the front blade and rear ripper blades.  This bit was easy and enjoyable - mainly because after a short time I'd ended up with something substantial.

The Lego Remote Control

This is the first model I've seen with any kind of remote function.  At the beginning of the build I was unsure if it was a radio or infrared remote control.  Unfortunately it turned out to be infra red control.  This means that you have to be able to see the model in order to control it.  I'd intended to attach a small camera to the driver’s seat and to see it that way.  Full radio controls don't cost much these days and it would have been a much more advanced model with this.  The radio controls would also have been excellent to build in to other models. 

The infrared does work well though.  This model comes with 1 controller and two receivers.  The controller supports up to 4 receivers, changeable by a switch on the controller.  Just don’t change channels when operating one of the leavers as the motors will continue to run

The motors are either on or off though unlike a normal radio controlled model.

The Remote controller is part 8885 ans is currently available direct from Lego at £7.35.  The Remote Control Reciever is part 8884 and is currently £11.25 direct from Lego.

Tracks

The model uses 2 XL motors to drive each track.  Only the right hand track is connected to the V6 engine however, and this appears to make the bulldozer veer off to the right.  The right motor has more resistance than the left, so runs slower.  A more efficient way would have been to use an adder subtractor gear train method of arranging the tracks.  Using two differential joints, one motor controls forward and reverse, one motor controls left and right movement.  More information is available here - http://www.br-eng.info/my-lego-roscomenu-29/my-mocs-roscomenu-43/45-other/113-adder-subtractor

Front blade

I had expected the front blade to go lower and to lift the model up at the front.  The rear ripper manages to lift the back up however.

Front Blade Fully Down	Rear Ripper fully Down

Lights

As the model has power it would have been nice to have real lights on the front.  Small lights are available as part of the Power Functions Motor Set (8293)

Manuals

There's 3 separate manuals - this is obviously to keep the overall thickness down.  The manuals are well designed and accurate.  I particularly like the 1:1 drawings to make sure the gears are placed in the correct location on an axle.  Some bits could do with red arrows pointing exactly where a pin or axle should go, and where they show the length of the studless bricks, they don't show the studded bricks.

Alternative Model

The box shows an alternative model for the set, but I still haven't been able to locate instructions for it.

Conclusion

Overall it was an enjoyable build, with useful parts and interesting engineering.  I can’t wait to get my hand on the new Lego Technic Crane Truck!

The Lego Technic Motorized Bull Dozer Build

Introduction
Build Part 1
Build Part 2
Build Part 3
Build Review
Final built model available for sale

Welcome to the third and final part of the Technic Scotland build of the Lego Technic Bulldozer.

Manual 3 takes adds the front blade and rear ripper to the model, adding that extra realism.

Manual 3 is the slimmest of the manuals taking up only 37 pages (Manual 1 – 61, Manual 2 – 61).  This bit was one of the easiest parts of the build and also the most enjoyable.  After 20 mins I’d built something substantial.  The other sections you’d spend 2 hours building something and it would be reasonably small.

The front blade

The first part of manual 3 builds out the mounting for the front blade.  Nothing too difficult to build, although I did make a major mistake.  I mounted the blade riser bits on the wrong way around.  I only noticed when the blade wouldn’t raise correctly.

Next the front blade.  Again nothing strenuous, big pieces, making up a big section.  The front blade is made up of 3 major bits – the bottom section, the main back piece and the top.  The back is made up of 3 square sections held together with black rivets.  On to that a few layers of plates are added making up the back.  The base is simply 2 layers of plates, as is the top section.

Joining the blade to the rest of the model was straight forward.

The rear ripper

On to the rear ripper.  I’ve still not worked out how it works; I just know it seems to work.

I then found out a major issue – one of the crucial parts was missing!  A small part, probably a few grams was missing – no sign of it.  Unfortunately this temporarily stopped the build until I could find a replacement part.

I eventually located a replacement part and continued with the build. 

The last part is to join the rear ripper on to the base model.  This requires very nimble fingers!  After a couple minutes it eventually went together.  A major tip would be to connect up the universal joint first, and everything else will line up.

Model finished. 

Time taken for 3rd part of the build – 20 minutes

360 degrees around the finished Lego Technic Bulldozer

The Lego Technic Motorized Bull Dozer Build

Introduction
Build Part 1
Build Part 2
Build Part 3
Build Review
Final built model available for sale

Welcome to the second part of the Technic Scotland build of the Lego Technic Bulldozer.

Manual 2 takes the model from the basic chassis to a functioning model – minus the front blade and the rear ripper.

Thankfully this manual didn’t seem so technical and only a few mistakes were made.  The first 26 pages deal with mainly body styling.  This seems to be a major change from Lego Technic models of a decade ago.  In the 1990’s Lego didn’t seem to bother too much about styling, but in the 21st centaury it seems they do. 

 

Throughout this section the right hand side of the model is built up.  There were a few steps where it was very difficult to tell exactly where a part should go.  In previous models a red arrow would show exactly where an axle would be threaded through.  In this model I sometimes had to jump forward a few steps to check.

On page 28 the two M size motors (set 8883) are added.  This is when it’s possible to see how the various gears fit together inside the model to actually make things work. 

Page 32 deals with the installation of the new Remote Control Modules (part 58123cx1).  Easy to install and connect up.  At the moment the  only other model to contain the Remote Control Receiver is the Lego Monster Dino (set 4958).

The next few pages build up the left hand side, in the same way as the right.

By Page 59 the base model is almost complete with the new style "Link Treads" (tracks) to add.  The new style tracks are a lot less fiddly to put together than the old smaller black tracks.  They’re also heavier making them much easier to handle.  I was suppressed though that were no spare track links.

Once the tracks were on that was the base model complete.  I couldn’t resist adding batteries to the controller and fired up the model for the first time. 

 As a guide to how large the model is, I compaired it by a standard 330ml can of Diet Irn-Bru (Scotland other national drink)

Some pictures by the end of the second manual

The Lego Technic Motorized Bull Dozer Build

Introduction
Build Part 1
Build Part 2
Build Part 3
Build Review
Final built model available for sale

The Lego Technic Motorized Bulldozer was one of the bigger sets for 2008 with 1,384 parts.  As such it would have needed a large manual.  Instead Lego devided it in 3.

Pages 10 to 15

Manual 1 covers the main structure and runs to 60 pages - Lego have slightly cheated as the step number on page 61 is only 31 - after each main section  they restart at 1!

The build starts off by building the back half of the bulldozer.  The first 10 pages of the manual are the most difficult and complicated Lego I've ever build.  The first 19 steps takes 30 minutes!

Pages 15 to 18

Build Manual 1 runs as follows

• Front of the bull dozer containing one of the XL motors which will drive the left hand track
• Rear of the bull dozer containing one of the XL motors which will drive the right hand track
• Joining the two halfs together
• Building the 6 cylinder engine block
• Building the bottom rollers for the tracks

Pages 10 to 23

On models I've build in the past the item is normally semetrical length ways.  This is the first models I've build thats semetrical across the middle.  The motors to drive the tracks are not side by side - one is at each end of the model.

So far it's taken about 4 hours to build, and I lost track of how many mistakes I made.  3 Times I had to go back more than 5 steps to find where I'd gone wrong.

The model at the end of manual 1

The Lego Technic Motorized Bull Dozer Build

Introduction
Build Part 1
Build Part 2
Build Part 3
Build Review
Final built model available for sale