8458 and spare parts
This week, I disassembled my 8458 to build Nathanael Kuipers Sportscar alternate model. After having alle the parts separated I cleaned them mostly of the little dust that had assembled.
I build the sportscar of course and found it to be a rather enjoyable build. I’ll do a separate review then. What I didn’t realize before is, that I was missing some parts. I assumed, that most parts that came with 8458 would have been used in the main model and only the usual spare parts would be left. But as I built the Sportscar I realized, that I was obviously missing some gears. That is no real problem, because I just used gears from my collection. I checked all the instructions and found, that the gears I was missing would be used in the B-model (racetruck). So much for that.
On the other hand, I somewhat assume that the seller cheated on me a little. Having had all the single parts before me and building the car, I realized I had 2 bent liftarms in dark bluish gray and the same two liftarms in black. The instructions needed 4 of those in black. I checked the partslist and the model should have had them. Strange. I then inspected the pins and found them to be different. The 2L black pins are not consistently the same. Older pins have a shinier look to them, whereas newer ones are somewhat dull. I guess this wasn’t a display model after all as it was described, but part of a collection as it will now be again. No real problem, but I somehow feel cheated.
Also, I cannot really complain. The model itself was complete except for a 8L gear-rack and simply the extra parts were missing, for which I can’t blame the seller. After all, it was used. And if you consider the age of the set, I am really lucky. The stickers are all still there and in excellent shape. Go buy the Williams F1 racer with good stickers and you’ll see.
The big question is, does anybody else have 8458 with some liftarms being the wrong color? I would guess not, but I’d like to know.
Posted on 2013/09/27, in Lego and tagged 8458, Nathanael Kuipers, Sportscar. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
Brickstastic 
I know the feeling of been cheated on a second hand set that is suppose to be complete. I recently bought a used 8295 Telescopic Handler to find the rear 61905 part was only used in the B model and so was missing. As well as two 7×1 lift arms were lime green rather then yellow. I guess there is a lessen to be learnt here 🙂 Fortunately I bought it mostly for the yellow lift-arms and large tires which have already been put into a off road truck.
In the end, I bought the set “as is”. If I had known about the spare parts for the B-model, I would have asked. And, the two bent liftarms in the wrong color where not visible, so it’s no real problem. In your case, it’s really mean, since lime instead of yellow is visible and that’s really no fair trade. Or if I had bought 8070 in used condition and hadn’t gotten the spare parts, I would have missed to 3×5 L beams for the B-model as well.
In the end, it’s now too late. I hold no grudge. And Nathanael Kuipers Supercar is on the shelf now anyway. So who cares 😀