Random set of the day: Control Centre
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 8094 Control Centre, released in 1990. It's one of 7 Technic sets produced that year. It contains 546 pieces.
It's owned by 1817 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
Help me come to life! If you like the set I've chosen for you today, please pledge your support for me on LEGO Ideas so I have a chance of becoming an official LEGO set!
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31 comments on this article
Nice use of the classic Homemaker baseplate. That's actually really clever.
Ah the evasive lego paper piece...
What people don't know is, in the early drafts of the Terminator scripts, this is how Skynet started. True story.
This is amazing! I didn't even know this type of technology existed in LEGO in 2021, let only 1990. I wish LEGO would remake this set with more advanced technology in the future.
Very interesting Technic set! I wish current Technic focused less on vehicles.
@sideswinger said:
"This is amazing! I didn't even know this type of technology existed in LEGO in 2021, let only 1990. I wish LEGO would remake this set with more advanced technology in the future."
Recently, Lego had a survey asking what people would like to see in the Technic range (lengthy discussion on this subject on Brickset). It appears many people wanted stuff like this (or 8485) or GBC type of apparatus - basically stuff that is somewhat complicated but where you can SEE what is going on. Let's just hope they will listen (they don't have a good track record on that though)
@Your_Future_President said:
"Ah the evasive lego paper piece..."
I have it and the pen. Are they valuable???
@lippidp said:
" @Your_Future_President said:
"Ah the evasive lego paper piece..."
I have it and the pen. Are they valuable???"
Genuine LEGO part and card stock are considered true LEGO parts and command high prices on the aftermarket. You're not considered a true fan in some AFOL circles until you've acquired at least two pieces of LEGO paper from this set. The pen is equally valuable, though that is due in part to the storied legends LEGO itself cooked up around it in ancillary material (released only in limited markets like Switzerland and Argentina). Some lore experts considered the Pen chronicles a progenitor to the BIONICLE mythos of a decade later, and even today, fierce debates rage among fans of a certain vintage whether or not Pen was mightier than his arch nemesis, Sword. Obviously, Sword was never manufactured in the same scale as Pen due to obvious safety hazards posed to children. That perhaps explained why the storyline never really caught on with most LEGO fans in the 1990s. That or perhaps the fact I made up all of the preceding drivel entirely!
@Lego_Lord_Mayorca
That’s some of your best lore yet, sir.
Fabricated or otherwise.
Nice!
I recall being at AppleFest Boston in the late 1980s and seeing a Dacta setup similar to this that plugged into Apple II computers. You could program the drawing pen using the computer.
It's unfortunate that if they made this today it would not have the control center with buttons and would rely entirely on a smartphone app that would stop working in 5 years and render the entire thing useless.
Interesting that the paper and pen REALLY ARE listed as parts in this set!
The only set to use the inverted baseplate?
This is brilliant, but imagine how cool this could be if it were a Lego Technic CNC router or laser cutter. It would actually make the 18+ designation mean something!
Saw the name and thought it would be a Space set, was not expecting a fancy Lego etch-a-sketch
The Technic Set that I REALLY enjoyed getting back-in-the-day! It's box was so big that it still houses my Technic collection (albeit up in the attic as I haven't built Technic in a long time...).
I just loved the whole idea of it (I was 11 at the time), and it made using LOGO to create "Turtles" in School all the more fun. Yes it was "bettered" with the later Control Centres/Mindstorms etc, but it was the first time a kid/enthusiast could obtain and program motors to do fun things, whilst making cool builds like the robotic arm, turtle, plotter etc. An awesome set!
Man, this set was quite ahead of its time... Even today we don't get sets like this. If it were to be released nowdays, think this would make for a perfect set for the Mindstorms theme.
I hope sets like this explain why I always say that Technic nowadays doesn't even deserve the name any longer.
Back in the day, Technic sets really showed and explained what tech was and how it worked.
Nowadays, practically everything Technic offers is Creator-wannabe display models of vehicles (preferably licenced too).
@Zordboy:
Ah, the sinister Control Sentry, which produces a super basic sketch of everyone who infiltrates the protected zone. Of course, one unexpected flaw is that it can’t change the sheet of paper, so all you have to do to defeat it is have dozens of people walk past it, until it has obliterated any drawings by adding another drawing over top of them. Rumor is, the inability to come to terms with this drawback is what led the Control Sentry to snap and start assembling killer robots. In fact, the Control Sentry...what’s that? Control Cent_ER_, not Control Sent_RY_? Well, no wonder it went all Skynet on you if you can’t even spell its name right!
@AustinPowers said:
"I hope sets like this explain why I always say that Technic nowadays doesn't even deserve the name any longer.
Back in the day, Technic sets really showed and explained what tech was and how it worked.
Nowadays, practically everything Technic offers is Creator-wannabe display models of vehicles (preferably licenced too). "
When I built Technic Lego back-in-the-day (when pneumatics were first introduced), the sets were made out of bricks and pins, not panels and umpteen numbers of lift-arms (it's one of many reasons I wouldn't buy a Technic set today).
See, this is how I print on paper all the time, definitely saves time and money, unlike a real printer.
I remember very well staring at this set in the catalog for 1990 and thinking this was some space rocket technology. It seemed to me as powerful as my c64 back then. But also it was super expensive and absolutely out range for my parents to buy me.
I bought this set in 2020 after reading this : http://www.technicopedia.com/8094.html.
I was introduced to Lego Technic at the age of 5 circa 1995, so I grew up with the 90's Technic models, which would get more and more motorized and complicated each year (to my immense pleasure).
So, of course I had to get this set, and boy was I not disappointed. All models are wonderful to look at while operating them, especially the sorting arm, which still mesmerizes me when moving up and down. True gold in Lego form !
Remindes me of a terrible holiday. I cut open my calf, my sister seriously banged her head and to finish it off someone crashed into our car... BUT one of the good things about this holiday was that I got this Lego set as a gift... Sadly I sold it when I became "too old for Lego" not actually knowing that my teenage years were not "too old" but just "in between two phases" -_-
One of the best technic sets I know and have owned. I wished for it for a long time and finally got it for Christmas. I think I must have been 9 or 10 years old. This is what technic should be about, in my opinion. Btw: this set somehow was the start of my engineering career, if I think about it now :)
This was an odd one for me. It was one of the sets I was most excited about, and probably the most expensive Christmas set I ever got. There was a long build up to Christmas, I was aware that family negotiations were ongoing about whether they could club together and buy it for me. A special order was put in at a small local toy shop. All very exciting.
But in the end...for reasons I must admit I don't fully recall, it seemed a bit of a let down. I think in my head I tricked myself into thinking it was more advanced than it was (more precision control over the motors, sensor feedback etc), even though I think I did kind of understand it wasn't.
To connect the above to the Apple II, BBC micro/master, Commodore 64, IBM PC you just needed the dacta 1455 interface (not included on Brickset?), which most senior schools/tech colleges had at the time. A great article is posted here with a similar pen drawer http://lukazi.blogspot.com/2014/07/lego-legos-first-programmable-product.html
The excitement was because the above home version was a very manual process; button to drop pen, press the correct direction button, press button to raise pen etc. , rather than running through code which 1455 allowed.
I remember this set, but I never realized it came with the pen and the paper. I figured you supplied your own. I guess I never noticed the "Technic" on the pen. Maybe the catalog image was too small to make it out.
Talk about your "white whales". This was one of mine. Always saw it in the catalogues, never on store shelves.
I’m one of the 1817 :-) . It is still partly assembled waiting to be resurrected. Must have been the most expensive set I ever owned pre dark ages.
I loved this set. I wish LEGO made more of this, rather an an endless stream or cars with complicated gearing you can't see and can't really do much with.
This was predated by Technic Control II 1092 from 1986. That one used a blue homemaker baseplate.