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| My original 850 kit. |
Last week I ordered quite a few old technical Lego elements so that I could finally assemble a complete Lego 850 Fork Lift Truck set. With the arrival of the elements this weekend I set about rebuilding this classic kit.
I purchased this original kit when I was 10 years old for £7.50 which seemed quite a reasonable price over thirty years ago. Ironically, I nearly spent that much on all the spare parts to resurrect this set as quite a few pieces were broken or missing.
The 850 sports plans for three models: A fork lift truck, a road leveller/grader and a wheeled platform lift.
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| Fort lift truck with forks lowered |
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| ..and with the forks elevated |
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| Road leveller/grader |
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| Wheeled platform lift. |
All the kits make good use of the rack and pinion to convert rotatory movement into linear movement for the lifting mechanisms as well as for the steering.
All three models contain some rather fiddly steps; the forklift and the road leveller/grader need some special care to ensure the rack and pinion align on the 8 tooth cog to cover the full sweep of the steering. The wheeled platform lift required some careful placement of the small cogs and bushes that keep the lift vertically aligned.
The box also contains a few photos of some additional models that an inspiring Lego builder can construct - a rather neat looking dumper truck as well as a small truck with a articulated arm lift mechanism.
As kits go, this was probably my most used kit as it contained enough interesting pieces to make many different wheeled vehicles that could use working steering and some form of mechanical geared movement with the rack and pinion. So it worked out as excellent value for money!
