Truck too big. Fork lift food.

Those old Technic manuals look so nostalgic...

@Maxbricks14 said:
"1984?

Technic didn't evolve much for a while there."

Yeah, I was surprised at that release year, too. Other than the Technic branding (which doesn't seem to have appeared until 1982), this could have been late Seventies. I thought it was, at first!

@MCLegoboy said:
"Truck too big. Fork lift food."

So, what, hot dogs, baguettes, and other stuff that's both skinny and long?

Yes! I've built it just last year with my spares (I had to say good by to 8680 due to missing parts). Great functions using chains and pneumatics. One of my favorite Technic sets.

@Atuin said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"Those old Technic manuals look so nostalgic...

@Maxbricks14 said:
"1984?

Technic didn't evolve much for a while there."

Yeah, I was surprised at that release year, too. Other than the Technic branding (which doesn't seem to have appeared until 1982), this could have been late Seventies. I thought it was, at first!"

Looked basically like that until the late 80s. Instruction design in general was very constant during that time. But it worked.

Also one of the first Pneumatic sets, featuring the old one-way cylinders."

I was talking more about the look of the model than the look of the manual.

1984 technic was all about pneumatics. This fork lift used the taller version of the pistons. The mechanisms were not bad, but because the air supply wasn’t regulated (you pumped the spring loaded piston to push air through the system) the movement tended to be very jerky. Later sets introduced a reservoir for the compressed air which solved this problem somewhat.

As a member of the target audience at the time, the development into pneumatics was exciting at first, but the novelty wore off rather quickly.

The ideas book contained a pneumatic car with gull wing doors, not unlike a deLorean. That was pretty cool at the time.

@jsutton said:
"The ideas book contained a pneumatic car with gull wing doors, not unlike a deLorean. That was pretty cool at the time."

The ideas book was a gold mine and I remember that car. The black truck was a true miracle.

It is still cool today because when was the last time we got pneumatic gull wing doors?
(8466 at least had spring dampers)

@jsutton said:
"1984 technic was all about pneumatics. This fork lift used the taller version of the pistons. The mechanisms were not bad, but because the air supply wasn’t regulated (you pumped the spring loaded piston to push air through the system) the movement tended to be very jerky. Later sets introduced a reservoir for the compressed air which solved this problem somewhat.

As a member of the target audience at the time, the development into pneumatics was exciting at first, but the novelty wore off rather quickly.

The ideas book contained a pneumatic car with gull wing doors, not unlike a deLorean. That was pretty cool at the time."

I built that gull-wing car and it was very cool. But the position of the pump was problematic and ultimately buckled some of the pieces, because of the stresses. I guess the quality control was lower with the Ideas books.

Classic set!

And I guess the big flaw of that early (one way) Pneumatic system won't be that much of an issue here, thanks to gravity.

As for the ideas bookes mentioned, loved those! So many cool builds! It always was a bit of a puzzle to recreate whatever was in there with the pieces I got, but hey, isn't that just part of the true Technic experience?

I must say, I thought it was Saturday again for a moment. And Ifeel this one does not look as charming as the more coherent 1977 line.

That said, it seems like a fun mechnical model.

Technicopedia about 1984 and the gen1 pneumatic system:
http://www.technicopedia.com/1984.html

About this set, with explanation of the functionality:
http://www.technicopedia.com/8843.html

@jsutton said:
"The mechanisms were not bad, but because the air supply wasn’t regulated (you pumped the spring loaded piston to push air through the system) the movement tended to be very jerky. Later sets introduced a reservoir for the compressed air which solved this problem somewhat."

Funny that you say that, because my first and only pneumatics set is 8436 Truck from 2004 and it had the same issue because by then air tanks were no longer around. I don't recall seeing one in a non-rerelease set since 1998. Things really went downhill after the rise for pneumatics.

Although in fairness, by 2003 there was the 3rd or 4th version of the pneumatics system, so maybe mine that uses metal rods was not as jerky as the old fully plastic kind.