That would be nice if they still had these technic starter sets on shelves! Love the concept and opens up more creativity for building!

From yesterday, I echo similar comments. This gem of a set was great in its time, as long as you were able to gear down the motor speed to get it to work the way you wanted it. It was perfect when mated with the expert builder (technic of days gone by) sets. Mine still is in its original box and still works after 40 years.

Keep it simple stupid. Everything from this old 4.5V motor to Power Functions was analog and idiot proof. Didn't need RC--no problem. If you did, the accessories for it were add-on. Powered Up! won't exactly work right without Bluetooth control, either by a remote or a smartphone/tablet. Even in the kinda damp basement my Lego parts are stored in, my stuff's never failed. I'm sure Powered Up is going to be incredibly fragile, subsceptible to all kinds of environmental factors, and may become obsolete and unusable. With these old things, as long as some dummy didn't put it away with batteries inside and the wiring/contacts are in good shape, they should always work, despite being more than 40 years old.

now more technic

Again?

^This.

I feel like Huwbot is a broken record.

Nice! This, 961 from yesterday and 948 Go-Kart were for my brother and I our first three technic sets (and I think we received them all together Christmas of 1978, iirc). We mostly used the battery pack and motor from this set together with the Go-Kart to motorize it - a bit of a hassle tho with too short of a power cord you had to follow the kart around closely to keep from having too much tension between hand and ground, lest you end up lifting the kart off the floor.

Still in my collection and as others have attested to, motor and pack still operate perfectly. And the rubber band is just as good as the day we got it! LEGO certainly knew the right formula for manufacturing quality long-lasting rubber parts.

@phi13 That's the weirdest thing about this! Not only the same theme, but literally the very next set!

Oh no! Parts packs are the new Clickets! Huwbot's reign is returning!

Oh wow, have we ever stuck within the same theme like this?

Oh wow, have we ever stuck within the same theme like this?

^^ No, I remember the clikits phase, but I don't remember us ever going straight from clikits to more clikits, there was usually a brief gap between them. they were frequent, not successive

nice, i've got this one--but don't know where i put it! >.<

That's two technic sets. Clearly Huwbot is rigged.

Thoughts about 960:
On my set, I've had to replace the wires a few times. The wire inside the insulation wears out eventually and you have to disassemble the connectors, insert new wire, and screw them back together again.

The battery pack for this was *heavy*. Unbalanced several creations back in the day.

This motor was nothing like the PF motors we have today. It spun extremely fast, as in drill-speed fast. You pretty much had to gear it down no matter what the application. If you stuck a basic wheel-and-tire on it, the speed would separate the tire from the wheel, so that it would literally slide off!

Rocket-boosted power pack, he's a Lego maniac!