I spent the weekend and today (Remembrance Day, Nov 11 in Canada) combing through old tubs of Lego for all the parts from a beloved set I had in the late 80s, early 90s. Only 3 parts missing though another dozen hours of searching might fix that - subbing for colour in the meantime.
Inspired by a video I came across where the subject is building a 5x scale version of the preceding set from 3D printed parts (here). I want to show my kids the power of patience and nostalgia; also I just want to see the set IRL again.
Should be pretty easy to guess which set this is.
Update: I got an 8860 from eBay for $70, and it's such a cool set. To be able to directly compare it to 8865 is makes both even more special, seeing the evolution and how they're related.
Brilliant.
I remember the gear shift stuck once, and I needed an adult to fix it for me. I still don’t know what happened!