Random set of the day: Barcode Multi-Set
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8479 Barcode Multi-Set, released in 1997. It's one of 15 Technic sets produced that year. It contains 1280 pieces, and its retail price was US$164.
It's owned by 1993 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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30 comments on this article
VROOM.
That's a big truck.
I'm really curious about that barcode scanner thing. How does it work? What does it do?
Time for some research!
Just after the Technic poll, conveniently enough
Oooh, white Technic chairs!
Never wanted this set, but at the time, when I saw in the LEGO.com catalogs, I couldn't help but be intrigued. This was the year before Mindstorms was released, so there hadn't been an official LEGO robot set yet. Technic had been dabbling in simple programming via a control panel device, but this one was a weird departure from that. Now, the "code" was in a sheet of barcodes. The scanner included with the set would be used to scan the barcodes and then the truck would act out whatever the barcodes told it to do. Therefore, you could make "programs" out of a series of barcodes that could get the truck to (for example) drive forward, stop, deploy the grabber arm, grab a tire, lift it up, and release the tire into the bed in the back. With it also using the 9V motors and touch sensor that would be integral to Mindstorms in the following year, this set was perhaps a "teaser" for what was coming. I remember reading a retro review of it some time ago, not on Brickset, that went into detail as to what came in the box to enhance the play and programming of the set, but I forget where to find it now.
Sadly, this would be a one-off. With the advent of Mindstorms in 1998, this set quickly became a relic, and its high price kept it out of most kids' hands at the time. Imagine an alternate universe, though, where barcode programming becomes all the rage with late 90s kids, so much so that LEGO keeps releasing "Code Pilot" sets and expansions. It could've filled the gap for young kids interested in programming that the Robotics Discovery Set later tried to fill (and that BOOST is currently doing).
Hmmm, I bet what kids really wanted was a physical remote control to drive the lorry around!
How times have changed...
What a clever idea. With this set TLG was providing an imaginative play experience with a genuine LEGO toy while at the same time training children to become grocery store cashiers.
Now that’s what I call fun AND educational. Ingenious!
Ahhh, Barrkod Mooltisat, my favorit Bionicle character from the Tekknikk Sa— OK, not gonna do this joke again, promise.
I have built this set and it is pretty awesome! Sadly some of its functions don't work due to the tech not being up to date.
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca:
That sounds kinda like wishing punchcards hadn’t been more widely adopted, don’t you think?
While more affordable intermediary sets are a good thing, previous attempts have had one constant failing. They were pretty much always stand-alone systems that didn’t really prepare you for the next step (and may have even discouraged you from taking it).
Consider the Droid Developer Kit. I’m not familiar enough with the Scout to know if it was a legit starter RCX, but the Micro Scout had a fixed set of pre-programmed functions, and could not interface with additional accessories like motors or sensors. The Spybotics module had pretty much the same problem.
@Spartan_Ghost
I still have my CueCat. As my username suggests, I am a librarian and did some consulting for some small libraries with limited budgets back in the early 2000's. I deployed lots of those things as free barcode scanners. I always thought it was cute to have a cat to go with your mouse.
Why is there a point in the "M" of "VROOM"?
This looks like a cool set even without the barcode thing.
This reminds me of the time when we had a Panasonic VCR that could be programmed using the supplied barcode sheet and handheld scanner device. Felt like the future back then.
That $164 adjusted for inflation is about $270 now. That's a big chunk of change, but it's about in line with what Powered Up / Control+ flagships like the Rock Crawler or the Volvo Dump Truck cost, and about $40 more than the Power Functions Arocs cost in 2015.
Aah, yes... The days when all the kids were getting excited about...*checks notes*... BAR CODES!
@Yooha said:
"Why is there a point in the "M" of "VROOM"?"
Don't you know? That's in the font that all computers from the early days used. (Not really, but people who didn't use computers seemed to associate that font with them.)
Parts Tracker
One unique: 4111975 white gear thing x1
Five rare: 4107789 white rim x6
4107781 green axle connector No. 3 x4
4107780 green axle connector No. 5 x4
4112283 green angle beam x4
4111999 green angle beam x8
@MrBob said:
"I'm really curious about that barcode scanner thing. How does it work? What does it do?
Time for some research!"
it is a very popular technology of the 80s and 90s I had a VHS VCR for these codes too. I've always dreamed of having this set and haven't lived to see it yet
The thing does make nice truck sounds. Picked it up at the time when it was on sale in 2002, worth the buy.
I bought this set with a big discount from my local toyshop called Intertoys, somewhere in 1998/1999.
Because it was such an expensive set at the time of release, the shop had thought it wise to only put the empty box on the shelf and keep the contents somewhere in a back room, waiting for the set to be sold so they could refill the box upon checkout. Probably for fear of theft.
Somewhere in this process (in itself already a collector's nightmare!) the instructionbook got lost, so when I got home and wanted to start building it wasn't possible. There was no internet to look up the instructionbook and the shop employees could not locate it when I went back to complain.
I remember staring at the unpacked bags for about two weeks, waiting for Lego customer service to send the instructions by post. Which in those times, they did!
This is a great set with instructions for 4 (!) very different imaginative models.
Although the price is high there is a lot going on with 2 touch sensors, drive, steer, dumping and lifting of tyres automatically through the code pilot. The gearing and flex rods to achieve this is shown in full details at http://www.technicopedia.com/8479.html, but really needed another motor otherwise have to keep switching functions. I never knew there was also a space car, dune buggy and robot as alternative builds.
@PDelahanty said:
"Aah, yes... The days when all the kids were getting excited about...*checks notes*... BAR CODES!"
In general, the barcode (and its younger siblings) is one of the greatest and most important inventions in the history of (wo)man.
NOT kidding.
I got this last year from my in-laws, to build for the kids. It was previously owned by my brother-i-l; he had no more interest in the thing. I put it all together - it was complete, helas the motor is broken and the reader thing has corroded battery terminals. Tried to fix them up but to no avail (the rot had reached the internals as well) - replacements are hard to come by on BL (.. for a reasonable price and working, that is).
Nevertheless, thing does look cool - might try and convert to manual operation so the little ones can use it that way.
To me one of the best set ever (still own it in mint condition) - along with 8868, 8480, 8448, 8455, 8043 and 42043. The programming of the computer with bar code was not the easiest thing to understand but when completed properly, it was very neat. There was a mechanism inside to switch between front and rear functions which would also press a button to tell the computer that the sound sequence would change - very neat! And I SO miss the flex cables - I pray every year that they would come back - the possibilities with cables are so wide. (in 20 years, I never broke any; I wonder why they were discontinued...)
@PDelahanty:
I suspect the font either came from a movie/tv show, a product logo, or hand-drawn depictions of computer screens (e.g. Radio Shack used to commission a comic book series where school kids would assist Superman by using TRaSh-80’s to conduct research on what passed for the internet in those days).
@iriz:
I have no idea where it falls in the history of the barcode, but sometime last year I looked up the format for the UPC barcode because the subject came up in discussion with my dad. I’m sure it was designed for simplicity and speed, but it definitely wasn’t designed with future applications in mind. There are 21 or 22 “characters” that are defined, and that’s it. There’s one to indicate the ends of the barcode. Either that, or a second one, is used to mark the center of the barcode. And then the numbers each have two characters which are photo negatives of each other. One set of numbers is used for the first half of the number, and the second set is used for the second half of the number, so the scanner can determine which end is the start or finish. But this uses up twice as many characters as they need to. If they programmed in dedication “start” and “stop” codes, there wouldn’t be a need to assign two characters to each number. Even if they determined that they needed to expand the UPC codes to include A-F for hexadecimal, I don’t think there are enough characters in the UPC barcode format to accommodate them.
So, I’m curious why they did it this way. Was it because they didn’t have any prior experience with designing barcodes and didn’t think anyone would want to make barcode characters for the Roman alphabet? Was it because they purposefully restricted the UPC format so it could only be used for UPC barcodes? Was it because the scanner technology at the time wasn’t as powerful so they needed to make the barcode design as robust as possible just to make it work? Or was it because they needed to demonstrate to the corporate decision-makers that there was no way this system could read the wrong number because of a bad scan?
@PurpleDave said:
" @iriz:
I have no idea where it falls in the history of the barcode, but sometime last year I looked up the format for the UPC barcode because the subject came up in discussion with my dad. I’m sure it was designed for simplicity and speed, but it definitely wasn’t designed with future applications in mind. There are 21 or 22 “characters” that are defined, and that’s it. There’s one to indicate the ends of the barcode. Either that, or a second one, is used to mark the center of the barcode. And then the numbers each have two characters which are photo negatives of each other. One set of numbers is used for the first half of the number, and the second set is used for the second half of the number, so the scanner can determine which end is the start or finish. But this uses up twice as many characters as they need to. If they programmed in dedication “start” and “stop” codes, there wouldn’t be a need to assign two characters to each number. Even if they determined that they needed to expand the UPC codes to include A-F for hexadecimal, I don’t think there are enough characters in the UPC barcode format to accommodate them.
So, I’m curious why they did it this way. Was it because they didn’t have any prior experience with designing barcodes and didn’t think anyone would want to make barcode characters for the Roman alphabet? Was it because they purposefully restricted the UPC format so it could only be used for UPC barcodes? Was it because the scanner technology at the time wasn’t as powerful so they needed to make the barcode design as robust as possible just to make it work? Or was it because they needed to demonstrate to the corporate decision-makers that there was no way this system could read the wrong number because of a bad scan?"
From Wikipedia:
On 20 October 1949, Woodland and Silver filed a patent application for "Classifying Apparatus and Method", in which they described both the linear and bull's eye printing patterns, as well as the mechanical and electronic systems needed to read the code. The patent was issued on 7 October 1952 as US Patent 2,612,994.
In 1973, a group of trade associations from the grocery industry formed the Uniform Product Code Council (UPCC) which, with the help of consultants Larry Russell and Tom Wilson of McKinsey & Company, defined the numerical format that formed the basis of the Uniform Product Code.[5] Technology firms including Charegon, IBM, Litton-Zellweger, Pitney Bowes-Alpex, Plessey-Anker, RCA, Scanner Inc., Singer, and Dymo Industries/Data General, put forward alternative proposals for symbol representations to the council.[citation needed] The Symbol Selection Committee finally chose to implement the IBM proposal designed by George J. Laurer, but with a slight modification to the font in the human readable area.[citation needed]
The first UPC-marked item ever to be scanned at a retail checkout was a 10-pack (50 sticks) of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit chewing gum, purchased at the Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, at 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974.[6]
As you see, the UPC was designed by some VERY smart people. You can rest assured that for its purpose it was/is perfect.
The barcode is the kind of "before there was nothing" invention - together with inventions like the transistor, the IC, the LED (and don't tell me that e.g. before the transistor we had the tube - show me how to cram millions of tubes onto a mm2).
@iriz:
I’m just saying I’m curious if the UPC format was designed in a way that it only works for a UPC barcode by intent, or if it was simply due to not seeing potential future applications for scannable barcodes. You can get a printable linear barcode font for a word processing program that includes the full Roman alphabet, as well as some (all?) of the shift-number characters. Where I work, we’re even starting to use what’s called a “2D barcode”, which looks like a more streamlined QR code (it uses a smaller corner marker to establish the correct orientation, but the only instances I’ve seen have been 2-digit numbers, so it’s possible this is locked into a single string format like the UPC, where the barcode font can be used to print variable-length strings with mixed characters). The Series 1 & 2 CMFs had a second barcode besides the UPC, but even then I never found out if our equipment could scan them, because there are other barcode fonts out there. I’ve heard of systems being programmed to read up to three distinct formats. For all these barcodes, though, the concept of the UPC is the only thing that seems to have carried over because the design is too restrictive to be useful for other applications.
This is really a good idea. You have a limited amount of programmability with no external device needed. And, far simpler than that old gigantic crawling bug I had with a confusing keypad that I could never program.
And, as long as these were cared for and stored properly, they'll work, 24 years later. A set that's not really even a year younger than I. But, I bet within 5 years of whenever Control+ either flops, or is phased out in favor of a new system, sets that use the system, and the pricey programmable brick won't.
Ooh. What a cool truck. We need More technic sets for ther andom set of the day please.