We’re great fans of free labour here at TLCB. It’s why we employ unpaid mythical creatures to scour the internet for the best Lego creations, and it’s also part of the reason for the The Lego Car Blog’s Set Review Competition! Yup, we want your opinions on some of the official LEGO sets not yet part of the Set Review Library! – Only not enough to pay you for them.

Anyhow, previous bloggee Nils O has decided that the lack of pay won’t stop him, and thus he joins us here at TLCB Towers to review something a little older than the sets we usually feature. Over to Nils…

The 8845 Dune Buggy was not one of the big Supercar sets, but for me in 1981 it was one of the coolest. It had “only” 174 parts, so with a few weeks of saving the pocket money it was even affordable for us kids. After the first more or less “brick built” Technic sets it was part of the 2nd generation which included some extremely cool parts.

8845 contained a completely new and more compact steering mechanism, a roll cage with new “ratchet” connectors, and – yes! – suspension struts for the rear suspension. The car was so cool with all those functions, I played with it for weeks.

As usual there were also instructions for an alternate model, in this case a more or less strange Dragster. Yes, it had a long wheelbase, a steering and a roll cage, but it had no suspension and was quite ugly, so the main model was rebuilt quite quickly. There were also instructions to motorise the main model, but also without rear suspension, so I didn’t build that version.

The best way for me to have fun was modifying the set. A HOG steering, for example, was easy to add. With a longer steering column, a second Cardan joint, an axle and a spare tire on the rear end it was done. Today I would add a third 16 teeth gear in the front to add a second, more or less hidden, steering column, but back in 1981 the two (then new) 16 teeth gears from the set were the only ones I had.

Later I added more stuff to the model, like side panels and laser guns (everything needed laser guns back in the 1980s). I even drew instructions for some of the modifications. So it was a lot of fun then and it even is today.

A few years ago I bought another set of the 8845 Dune Buggy at Nick Barrett‘s Bricklink shop for a “revival” of the old passion. I didn’t know if I would find all the needed parts in my old Lego boxes, so I decided to buy a “new” one. I still have a lot of fun with it, and now my 3 year old son has started playing with it too!

I’ve also built a 4-wide miniature version and a 6-wide mini-fig compatible version of it and I’ve also converted it into a studless model with LDD, so there are still possibilities for much fun and creativity with the 8845 Dune Buggy. If you are able to get hold of a complete set somewhere, go for it!

A big thank you to Nils for joining us here at TLCB with a top-quality Review to help us increase the Set Review Library‘s stock. If you’d like to write a Set Review for TLCB as Nils has, either for a set you love or for one you hate, then get in touch! At the time of writing there are even prizes available for the best reviewer too!