2026 Technic Sets Discussion

[AVCampos]

Yeah, I can imagine buckets of those left ripped open in the supermarket. 

[Gumalca]

I'm a big fan of the Technic magazine extras. Among those that I have are the 412401 Wrecking Ball Crane and 412504 Wheeled Excavator, two types of machines that will also feature in this blind box series, so they will have to be compared. But the ones from the blind box series look less complex than the magazine ones. Also less refined than the Technic polybags we got in the last years. Therefore I'm not really sold on this new series.

Also why not more variety? The magazine extras feature everything from helicopters, harvesters, submarines, mars rovers, supercars to construction machinery, in all kinds of colors. Sure they can do multiple series, but if they don't bring out the best in the first series, chances are there will not be another.

Of course I'm holding back final judgement until the full release, but I really hope this won't be a similar let down like the F1 CMF series, where they released a much better F1 polybag a year before for the same price and then dumbed everything down for the CMFs.

[Jim]

2 hours ago, R0Sch said:

Tell that to the CMF adult collectors who used to feel the packages or now scan the Data-matrix codes in the stores. It's true that I am one of those, but that is not the point here. 

Lol true that. I scanned the F1 sets.....guilty 

[kbalage]

7 hours ago, R0Sch said:

Nah. Let them make something outstanding for the 50th anniversary instead of minikits and preferably excluding cars.

Don't worry, I'm sure everyone is busy designing 50 cars for the 50th anniversary :) 

[Auroralampinen]

6 minutes ago, kbalage said:

Don't worry, I'm sure everyone is busy designing 50 cars for the 50th anniversary :) 

Or "busy" designing 50 recolors for existing cars;). 

[AVCampos]

10 minutes ago, kbalage said:

Don't worry, I'm sure everyone is busy designing 50 cars for the 50th anniversary :) 

[dhc6twinotter]

I've cut back in my Technic purchases the last few years.  I think I purchased one set in 2024 and one in 2023.  Nothing last year.  Nothing really interests me anymore.  I don't have much interest in the cars unless a set has a bunch of panels in a color I want.  

I'd pay out the nose for a proper flagship backhoe or tow truck though.  Maybe a proper fire truck. 

[Maaboo the Witch]

Yeah, that mystery box thing is beyond scummy. I could go on, but I'll let this article sum it all up.

[Satisfied]

18 hours ago, dhc6twinotter said:

I've cut back in my Technic purchases the last few years.  I think I purchased one set in 2024 and one in 2023.  Nothing last year.  Nothing really interests me anymore.  I don't have much interest in the cars unless a set has a bunch of panels in a color I want.  

I'd pay out the nose for a proper flagship backhoe or tow truck though.  Maybe a proper fire truck. 

Most Technic builders in my country are into building cars these days, and construction machinery builds have become a rarity. A lot of the construction machinery enthusiasts have even quit the hobby entirely. All the brands keep churning out car sets, and I guess it’s just the trend of the times. Construction machinery simply doesn’t appeal to as many people, and its sales are nowhere near as good as those of car sets.

16 hours ago, Maaboo the Witch said:

Yeah, that mystery box thing is beyond scummy. I could go on, but I'll let this article sum it all up.

Various brick brands and manufacturers in my country have also been rolling out these ultra-mini sets, and they even feature a combiner mode. I never thought LEGO would jump on this bandwagon too.

[Jim]

7 minutes ago, Satisfied said:

Construction machinery simply doesn’t appeal to as many people, and its sales are nowhere near as good as those of car sets.

I'm sure you are right, otherwise TLG would not pursue this path, yet.....I would love to see the numbers.

[Satisfied]

23 minutes ago, Jim said:

I'm sure you are right, otherwise TLG would not pursue this path, yet.....I would love to see the numbers.

LEGO has actually been leading the way for all the domestic brick brands in my country—whatever LEGO releases, they follow suit. When LEGO rolled out motorcycle sets, they did the same; when LEGO kept churning out car sets, they cranked them out like crazy. In the end, the construction machinery building community has just shrunk further and further.

[Jim]

20 minutes ago, Satisfied said:

LEGO has actually been leading the way for all the domestic brick brands in my country—whatever LEGO releases, they follow suit. When LEGO rolled out motorcycle sets, they did the same; when LEGO kept churning out car sets, they cranked them out like crazy. In the end, the construction machinery building community has just shrunk further and further.

I wonder if the other brick brands might be better off creating construction vehicles instead of copying TLG.

[Repkovsky]

1 hour ago, Jim said:

I'm sure you are right, otherwise TLG would not pursue this path, yet.....I would love to see the numbers.

While the numbers are far from exact, on https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Technic/  you can sort sets each year by the number of people who own (by their declaration) given set. Clearly in recent years cars are on the lead.

[Jim]

4 minutes ago, Repkovsky said:

While the numbers are far from exact, on https://brickset.com/sets/theme-Technic/  you can sort sets each year by the number of people who own (by their declaration) given set. Clearly in recent years cars are on the lead.

This is cause and effect. There are hardly any decent construction sets, so are these numbers representable? If TLG would release 90% construction sets instead of cars, the stats would probably be different.

[kbalage]

1 hour ago, Jim said:

This is cause and effect. There are hardly any decent construction sets, so are these numbers representable? If TLG would release 90% construction sets instead of cars, the stats would probably be different.

We cannot deny that branded cars probably sell the best. However, TLG could afford to maintain a healthier balance and offer more Technic-like Technic sets, rather than just a flood of cars, a few smaller sets in the "other" category, and the yearly large, expensive construction set that they also market as a display piece. This is similar to the decline of Powered Up. Once they changed Power Functions and made it less intuitive to use, with a companion app that felt like a guessing game, fewer people bought standalone parts, and sales of motorized sets likely declined as well. This probably became proof for them that overall interest in motorization had dropped, so they scaled down the lineup. As you said, cause and effect...

[Jim]

2 minutes ago, kbalage said:

We cannot deny that branded cars probably sell the best. 

Yeah absolutely. TLG will surely know the numbers. However, they are only making it worse by not releasing decent construction equipment anymore. And when they do it's like a $400+ Volvo Excavator with a single motor. 

[Auroralampinen]

7 minutes ago, Jim said:

And when they do it's like a $400+ Volvo Excavator with a single motor. 

And when they do it, it's painfully slow like the 400€ volvo Excavator;). 

[Jockos]

2 hours ago, Auroralampinen said:

And when they do it, it's painfully slow like the 400€ volvo Excavator;). 

Yes. The problem is not the idea but the implementation.

 

[Satisfied]

15 hours ago, Jim said:

I wonder if the other brick brands might be better off creating construction vehicles instead of copying TLG.

Mould King rolls out a range of its own original construction machinery building sets every year, and it’s essentially the only brand putting out all types of large-scale machinery kits. CaDA, meanwhile, has also been churning out various licensed car models non-stop lately.

[Auroralampinen]

7 minutes ago, Satisfied said:

Mould King rolls out a range of its own original construction machinery building sets every year, and it’s essentially the only brand putting out all types of large-scale machinery kits. CaDA, meanwhile, has also been churning out various licensed car models non-stop lately.

Yeah, but they are mostly stolen and the pneumatics quality is sh*t. In my case the top part of the metal cylinder brokes off always so i don't anymore support them. I have learned my lesson and will not buy any mk sets:). 

[Satisfied]

36 minutes ago, Auroralampinen said:

Yeah, but they are mostly stolen and the pneumatics quality is sh*t. In my case the top part of the metal cylinder brokes off always so i don't anymore support them. I have learned my lesson and will not buy any mk sets:). 

You’re absolutely right. Mould King has clearly plagiarized countless MOC designs and passed them off as their own original work, and I’ve always found this practice totally contemptible. That said, they’re still the only brand out there right now making large-scale machinery kits – they’ve got a whole range of these sets, like trucks and cranes, all with over 3,000 pieces each. Their build quality’s actually pretty decent compared to other off-brand brick makers, though; the rest are just way worse, haha.

[thurd]

So this will be another year with no interesting Lego Technic sets. My wallet is grateful to TLG. 

As a big fan of space I look forward to Artemis set but it's so small that I don't know if I will even bother...

I got back into the hobby a couple of years ago, bought good sets from previous years and a few current ones but they just stopped releasing anything. It's hard to stay invested in a hobby where nothing happens for 2-3 years...