Previous Year
Next Year
New Sets for 2006
New Parts for 2006

2006 - Tow Truck

2006 saw Technic on the road to recovery with the release of 9 new sets of which two were in the Racers line. Among these were the highly sought after 8288 Crawler Crane and the enormous 8285 Tow Truck, the physically largest technic set ever at that time and with nearly as many parts (~1900) as the flagship 8421 Mobile Crane from the previous year. The Tow Truck in particular highlighted a wide range of Technic parts and features with gears, linkages, pneumatics, and dampers and well as 10 tires, the most of any single Technic vehicle ever. The 8284 model was a bit of an oddity. While it has always been common for models to be marketed differently in different countries, in this case the alternate model (the dune buggy) was actually put on the cover of the box as the main model in North America while the rest of the world had the tractor on the cover.

While there were very few new parts this year, the color lime green appeared in Technic for the first time.

Sets
8281 Mini Tractor	8282 Quad Bike
8283 Telehandler	8284 Tractor
8285 Tow Truck	8288 Crawler Crane
8289 Fire Truck	8674 Ferrari F1 Racer 1:8
8682 Nitro Intimidator

Parts

Rubber Connector
A very unusual new part this year was a 2L liftarm made from rubber with two axle holes. This part can be used to attach parts which must be allowed a certain amount of flexibility. Within 8288, it was used to support a ratchet pawl. It also has use in suspensions, as an impact absorbing stop, or even as a high friction tread in fan models.

Wheels and Tires
This year saw the release of the largest non-Power Puller balloon tire, the 94.8 x 44 R. It uses the same large Technic wheel as the flat bottomed 68.8 x 36 R. Only a handful of sets have been large enough to require such a tire.

Contact me with comments on this page.

2006 - Tow Truck

Sets

Parts