[REVIEW] 42116 Skid Steer Loader

[VBBN]

Set Name: 42116 Skid Steer Loader
Pieces: 140
Price: $9.99 | 9.99€
Year of Release: 1HY 2021

Hello and welcome to the review of 42116 Skid Steer Loader, one of the two smaller $10 sets from the 1HY 2021 range! A huge thank you to Lego for providing us these sets to take a look at, and as always, all opinions on this will be my own.

Once again, Lego takes a stab at giving us one of the smaller front-end loaders at a reasonable price range. This isn't the first time Lego has taken a shot at the small skid-steer design. On the smaller end of the spectrum we had 8418 at about $6 USD:

And slightly higher was 42032 at $20 USD:

 

Now, we move on to 42116, which sits closer to the middle at about $10. (Though with inflation I'd hazard a guess that 8418 would be $10 today as well.) Unlike 8418 though, we get significantly more pieces this time around- so how does this set stack up to it's competitors? Let's find out

The Box

I know, I know: you were surprised to see this set pictured in front of a construction site. I certainly was expecting it to be floating in water, or flying through space at the very least. Note that as always with our sponsored reviews, the boxes are the European variant, so there is generally less information (such as parts count) on the front of the box.

Box Rear

The rear primarily focuses on the B model, which in this case is a Hot Rod (although my first thought was a lawnmower, given the bucket hanging off the back). I generally like B models which diverge heavily from the theme of the A model, and this one looks to have some interesting change of function. 

Box Detail

A quick shot of the box edges, we can see the tire is used as the 1:1 ratio.

Contents

Content wise, we have the instructions, two bags of parts, and a few loose larger elements. No sticker sheet with this one.

Parts

Here's all of the parts laid out. I generally do my best to research the parts that come with each set to see what may be new/recolored, but I couldn't really find anything that was new here. There are some black 1x1 bushings in the upper right, those are still relatively rare and sparingly used. Always nice to get more of an element like that, will make purchasing them on the aftermarket cheaper, hopefully. Plus, that bucket piece has only been released in 3 sets so far, all of which are pretty expensive, so this is a nice way to get one in a much cheaper set. 

The Build

The build starts with the seating area as well as the function to raise and lower the loader arm. 

Body paneling

Flipping around, we start to add some of the siding to the vehicle. The gray piece is the lower limit marker, so that the loader arm dos not decrease beyond this point.

Cockpit and Rollcage

We flip the seat down, build up the rollcage/cockpit area, and add some liftarms for the actual boom.

Completed Set - Front

Here we have the completed build. There's a few differences with this loader compared to the previous two incarnations we saw previously; first, this one reverts back to the 4-wheel design rather than the tracked design, no doubt an easier feat at this scale to pull off. Second, this is the first Lego Skid Steer to feature a single boom design, rather than the traditional double arm model. I know JCB makes loaders in this style. Interestingly, from my research, a primary benefit of the single-boom design is that it allows side entry into the loader, rather than entry through the front. Yet, the size of this set does not allow us to actually see any doors, so that feature goes to waste a little.

Completed Set - Front

Given the single boom design, tis of course means it's asymmetrical. It's also a fairly narrow build from the front-on view. 

Completed Set - Side

From the side, we can see the two gears that will control the functionality. The gear seated at the top controls the boom, while the side mounted gear will tip the bucket. 

Completed Set - Rear

Well, if you like seeing functions work, you'll like the exposed gears here, but otherwise, it's pretty messy. 

Completed Set - Bucket

The bucket at the front works well with this set, it has a decent capacity overall and meshes well with the functions. We can see here that when the boom is lowered, you can get a slight tilt in the bucket to keep studs in. (You can tilt it up more when the arm is raised higher.) 

Completed Set - Bucket 

You need to raise the boom a bit in order to tilt the bucket down, but it works as intended. 

Completed Set - Boom Reach

The lifting arm can reach a decent height, definitely impressive and fairly realistic of the reach one of these loaders has. 

Function Video

Set Ratings (relative to other sets in this size class):

Visual Design: 7

Build Experience: 7

Features: 7

Playability: 7

Parts/Value: 7

Overall: 7

When I reviewed the 1HY 2020 sets, some people requested that I add some rating similar to many other Technic reviews; with these smaller sets, I find it's difficult to determine how to rate them, as comparing a $10 set to a $270 Sian on the same scale is tough. So, with that in mind, my above rating are as compared to other $10 Technic sets only.

I do honestly really enjoy this one- every once in a while a small $10 set is released that manages to capture some fun functions for a cheap price. Much like the Mini CLAAS Xerion I reviewed last year, the Skid Steer follows in that trend. 

It gets 7s across the board for me. It manages to take the small size of its early predecessor, yet combine it with some of the better functionality of its bigger brother. The single boom design can cause the function to be a little shaky, but other than that, it serves the set well. The build experience certainly isn’t quite as good as its larger brother, but I often enjoy unique builds like this, rather than more standard cars. The playability is good, I can imagine many kids scooping up parts with this- again, keeping in mind the target audience, this works. Parts/value is always a tough category for someone like me who is not as well versed in Technic as others, but I gave it a 7 here. Black bushings, a cheaper way to get this bucket, some gears- its got some harder to find parts, always appreciated. It's not a bad value for the amount of parts included, either. The main thing holding this set back is there isn’t anything new or recolored here at all, so it’s likely you could build this from your own collection. 

What is your opinion of this set?

[JintaiZ]

Nice review! I would score the value maybe up to 8.5 since the PPP is really good.

[Jim]

It is what it is 

[m00se]

Thanks for the review.

This set has by far the best function to parts ratio of the whole 2021/1 line-up ;-)

 

[Good old Lego builder]

Thanks! Nice review!

[Maaboo the Witch]

5 hours ago, Jim said:

It is what it is 

And what it is is pretty cool!

[makoy]

16 hours ago, VBBN said:

Visual Design: 7

Build Experience: 7

Features: 7

Playability: 7

Parts/Value: 7

Overall: 7

Best score.

14 hours ago, Jim said:

It is what it is 

Best review comment.

 

Pretty sums up the review.