LEGO 8640 Update

In 1986, LEGO came out with one of my favorite little sets; set 8640. It is still one of my favorites, and instead of buying a 30ish year old set, I decided to update it.

You may found instructions here.

The build stared with a little variable pitch rotor design that I used previously in my executive helicopter, but since I was never really happy with this design, I kept it close on the shelf. After playing around with some panels, I found a shape that looked like the pontoons for the 8640 helicopter, and I was off.

Once the pontoons were set, the scale was clear, and I started placing some of the hard points for the mechanics. I wanted to have space for two technic figures, so the helicopter is a little wider than 8640, but otherwise the same size (length and height). The rotors and HOG crank are connected using a couple of bevel gears, and the swashplate is connected behind the two seats to a collective lever on the left of the helicopter. The swashplate moves up and down about one stud, which is enough.

I tried to keep the design language close to 8640, so I kept the main white and yellow, with red and light blueish grey highlights. I wanted to have a cleaner mount for both the skis and poles for both Technic figures, but the solution I came up with works fine. The tail is a little different to match the studies build, and I added a horizontal stabilizer.

Everything worked well on this little helicopter, and I was pleased with how well it harkened back to 1986. I hope you enjoy.