VROOOM!!!

This isn't it, but it certainly looks similar to my first Technic set. You know, because yellow Technic bricks tend to make rather boxy things with wheels.

The year they got rid of the black and yellow stripes on the sides of the manual which were present since the beginning. Sniff.

Also not a huge fan of the blue background to try and imitate blueprints, but it had a figure and a B model so hey, still had a lot of play value.

These came years after the arctic themed sets and surprised me at the time. I have the beach buggy from this series, 8840, but what I really wanted was 8830 because the 6x6 action. Oh well, can't have them all.

Also one of the first sets with these engine pieces I think?

And it has a Technic fig!

As a kid I never understood the geometry of those angles on the front. Great set though!

I hope all those people from the 10th who complained about the lack of seat are happy; look, a seat and a driver!

I have this thanks to a Lego UK promotion - cut out the barcodes from Technic sets you bought, send them in and get a model free. I think they had actually run out of the advertised model so I received 8850 instead.

Yes the engine parts were new this year, no more brick built cylinder blocks with square pistons as seen in 8865 etc. That whip aerial was also new at the time.

The high price is for the figure more than the set which is fairly easy to replicate. Seats were quite cool as well appearing from 1986 to 2004, although red was fairly common.At the time there was no trapezium block to hold the engine blocks so each side just supported by 2 pins. Instructions show how it could be motorised with 8720 which made more interesting.

Actually, that set can be considered part of a 3-set mini sub-theme ("Rallye"), which can be seen as the successor of 1986's Technic Arctic.

The next distinct Technic figure sub-theme would probably be Competition/Cyber Slam.

@raven_za said:
"Visible and functional mechanisms: THIS is what I call Technic :-) "

It seems to have HOG steering and moving pistons in the engine. So a staple in every technic car released every year. That's not very technic imo.

@Lego_lord said:
"These came years after the arctic themed sets and surprised me at the time. I have the beach buggy from this series, 8840, but what I really wanted was 8830 because the 6x6 action. Oh well, can't have them all."

That is so funny! I have the 8830 but really wanted the 8840 as a kid, because it looked like my RC car. Together we can have them all :)

I wanted this set. Never bought it, but really there's no stopping me from building this from bricks I own. Some bricks would be different - wheels, differential. Maybe colors would vary.

The second thing - I have this idea, that LEGO could release this set (or any other classic Technic set) as a GWP. Technic bricks are still in production. Would love to see that. And a classic navy box with blueprints. Yeah!

It would be so nice if LEGO did one set a year for those old folks like me, who would like more challenging build with more than 2 parts per step, with those yellow and black stripes, parts needed for step on those "technical" blue millimeter grid, model presented on blue background, B model, and yes - visible mechanisms, or at least an option to have them easily visible.

Technic seemed to kind of stagnate a bit in the late 80s and 90s up to about 1996. But that's not a bad thing. Instead of creating a new part to solve every single design problem under the sun they really made the most out of the parts that were there. The result is that sets like this were able to be made for a longer span of time. Which is great!

@Mestari:
A more challenging build? This thing? The first step could just tell you to figure half of it out from the box art, because there’s nothing particularly complex about the design. I’m starting to get the distinct impression that all this boilerplate rant about modern sets being too simple is people wanting complex instructions for simple models, rather than simple instructions for complex models.

This set was so nice for me. I was in love with the Technic Action figures. So, after the Arctic in 1986, I was happy to see these 3 Rally sets. Finally I have all of them, twice. So I built all the second models, and created a real desert competition.

These models were really poor in technic functions, but the new engine parts were so fascinating, when I was 15. After that, I never stopped to create cars for my technic figures and using this engine https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=108649

I have it, a very cool set. For more than thirty years, it's still cool.

That poor thing's been shot full of holes. Except the tires, that must have been how he got away. Too bad about his legs, though. He'll never walk again.

This was my first Technics set, my big Christmas present aged 7. Still have it. Around the same time my older brothers had the red technic super car, and the yellow technic seaplane. Happy memories!