2026 Technic Sets Discussion

[anomalocaris92]

On 5/5/2026 at 1:40 PM, Paul B Technic said:

The whole point of Technic is to be "technical", I much prefer the technical features of the late 1980s and early 1990s over the "looks good but lacks features" that we are getting now. 

The new Unimog gives me some hope.

Well, tbh most of the Technic sets from the late '80s to the mid-'90s had fewer technical features than a transporter gang car nowadays. Not to mention the late '90s/early 2000s, with those horrible slammer cars/robothings. I was revisiting some of my childhood sets, like 8248, 8235, and 8230, and they were honestly atrocious. Comparably priced sets available today, like 42198, 42167, and 42201, are way better.

The things that changed somewhat for the worse are the flagship sets: 8480, 8479, 8880, and 8868 were more "fun" and playable, and they had B-models (but tbh, even if modern sets appear less "rebuildable" at first glance, just take a look at Rebrickable...). It's like modern sets feel less like enjoyable toys and more like cold display pieces, and there's some truth in that, but I guess it's mostly due to nostalgia.

Another issue is the overpricing of some sets, like the 1:8 scale cars, 42215, and 42175 for example, but you can find them at prices comparable to the flagship ones of the '90s adjusted for inflation. Honestly, I would have loved modern sets as a child, and I don't think I would have had a dark age if I had received something like the 42179 instead of the 6617 as a Christmas present in 2000.

Edited May 19 by anomalocaris92

[SNIPE]

10 days to go and still no mention of the Konigsegg or the other 2 proposed sets

Also no early reviews yet :<(

If the Konigsegg and the 2 other sets are actually an August release, I hope they will all be big sets like in 2024 (McLaren P1, Mercedes G500, nasa rover, volvo FMX)

Edited May 20 by SNIPE

[Ngoc Nguyen]

3 minutes ago, SNIPE said:

10 days to go and still no mention of the Konigsegg or the other 2 proposed sets

I suspect that the Koenigsegg might be actually delayed til October or even next year.

[derekthetree]

Maybe someone realised brown (the Koeningsegg spear signature colour) would make for a really ugly flagship model!

[Timorzelorzworz]

Koenigsegg model was announced for July. Maybe it will be shown on June 1st. Certainly at a major event, just the way LEGO loves to celebrate itself.

Why the small Ducati model hasn't been shown yet remains a mystery.

Edited May 20 by Timorzelorzworz

[Ngoc Nguyen]

58 minutes ago, Timorzelorzworz said:

Why the small Ducati model hasn't been shown yet remains a mystery.

There's also supposed to be an Aston Martin F1 car as well. Given that the August sets in some other themes are not yet fully revealed (Pokemon for example), the remaining sets may get official arts later.

[howitzer]

Went to the local hypermarket on the other day in other business but decided to check out the Lego shelf in case they had any good discounts. And they did: all Ninjago and Technic 25% off. Too bad I'm not interested at all in Ninjago and every Technic set they had on shelf was either Kawasaki Ninja (not interesting) or a car set (also not interesting). So I guess I saved a bunch of money. My Bricklink order of loose bricks arrived on the other hand, so I can get on with my entry for a (non-Technic) contest held by my local LUG, which is nice.

[1nterstellar]

I picked a wrong year to become a lego technic fan. We have only 1 medium-to-big proper technic set - 42242. This is the lowest of all time (according to my quick analysis, also i excluded 1:8 cars).

[AVCampos]

You don't have to get sets from the current year to be a LEGO Technic fan: there's plenty of stuff from previous years.

[1nterstellar]

2 minutes ago, AVCampos said:

You don't have to get sets from the current year to be a LEGO Technic fan: there's plenty of stuff from previous years.

You're right, just did 42043 recently from parts that i had, set is crazy good.

[Jundis]

On 5/20/2026 at 8:11 AM, Timorzelorzworz said:

Why the small Ducati model hasn't been shown yet remains a mystery.

Next to the Unimog, this was the only model which might be a buy with discount. According to StoneWars, this model will release in August.

@Auroralampinen: Can you maybe edit the list on first page and add the release dates? I also think the 42230 and 42237 can be deleted, at least for this year.

[Ngoc Nguyen]

It's very strange that as June 1 gets closer, there is no video about any set from the June wave. Not just videos from reviewers, but also videos from retailers. Every wave, there will always be some retailers who get the sets early and make some videos about them since they are not bound by embargo dates for reviewers. There doesn't seem to be any for the next wave. Could it be that the whole wave is delayed?

[Auroralampinen]

5 minutes ago, Ngoc Nguyen said:

It's very strange that as June 1 gets closer, there is no video about any set from the June wave. Not just videos from reviewers, but also videos from retailers. Every wave, there will always be some retailers who get the sets early and make some videos about them since they are not bound by embargo dates for reviewers. There doesn't seem to be any for the next wave. Could it be that the whole wave is delayed?

Well, last year the first technic review camed 24.5.25 and it was the review for the 42210. Based on this fact. The reviews should start on sunday because that is 24 day:). 

Plus on brickset some peoples allready own the new sets so it doesn't seem to be delayed and main reason why no videos is maybe because of embargo date or reviewers have too much fun time playing with these new sets that they forgot to do reviews;). 

Edited May 22 by Auroralampinen

[kbalage]

1 hour ago, Auroralampinen said:

Plus on brickset some peoples allready own the new sets so it doesn't seem to be delayed and main reason why no videos is maybe because of embargo date or reviewers have too much fun time playing with these new sets that they forgot to do reviews;). 

Or the embargo is way closer this time to the street date and the sets aren't even at the reviewers yet. 

[AVCampos]

4 hours ago, Auroralampinen said:

Plus on brickset some peoples allready own the new sets

I noticed that, too. The thing is that nothing prevents you from marking any set, upcoming or not, as "owned".

[R0Sch]

9 hours ago, AVCampos said:

I noticed that, too. The thing is that nothing prevents you from marking any set, upcoming or not, as "owned".

But it's mostly the LAN members that mark them as owned because it's always roughly the same countries and only a handful before the official release.

[AVCampos]

It's still a voluntary, and therefore non-indicative, thing. For example, I only mark a review set as owned after the respective review comes out.

[CastAStone]

On 5/20/2026 at 12:05 PM, 1nterstellar said:

I picked a wrong year to become a lego technic fan. We have only 1 medium-to-big proper technic set - 42242. This is the lowest of all time (according to my quick analysis, also i excluded 1:8 cars).

42175, 42177, and 42179 are all still available, all have unusual features, and all are easy to mod.  

 

also the soon to retire 42160 might be your last chance to get a PU hub and motors bundle to use to power things like 42175.

Edited May 23 by CastAStone

[Ngoc Nguyen]

19 hours ago, kbalage said:

Or the embargo is way closer this time to the street date and the sets aren't even at the reviewers yet. 

Could it also be that some reviewers are busy with selecting assistant reviewers 

[CastAStone]

Do we have any idea if the smart battery box will ever be seen again after 42160 retires this summer? After that huge push a few years ago for app controlled stuff, there will be no RC anything on the market except trains and that integrated box. 

[Jim]

3 minutes ago, CastAStone said:

Do we have any idea if the smart battery box will ever be seen again after 42160 retires this summer? After that huge push a few years ago for app controlled stuff, there will be no RC anything on the market except trains and that integrated box. 

Good question. Was wondering the same thing myself.

[allanp]

17 hours ago, CastAStone said:

Do we have any idea if the smart battery box will ever be seen again after 42160 retires this summer? After that huge push a few years ago for app controlled stuff, there will be no RC anything on the market except trains and that integrated box. 

It's hard to say, TLG are so secretive. Things go away for a while and then come back years later, others go away and never return (like the flex system sadly). My general feeling (speculation) is that, at minimum, PU is being reworked to better meet fan expectations, but probably more likely it has been canned entirely, and if they're starting over totally from scratch then it'll take a few years before we see it. But I think there will be.... something. Technic, among other things, is meant to be "Lego that moves". Motorisation is too important to leave off the table entirely.

The question of RC is a bit more complicated. On the one hand, it does increase playability (if there's a physical remote). On the other hand, it increases costs and has mostly been used as a replacement to the mechanics that Technic was so prized for, rather than an addition, which to my mind removes the justification for the extra cost. Being a replacement also invites comparisons to other RC products that have far better performance for less money. I feel these comparisons wouldn't be made so much if the main focus was kept on the mechanics, where Technic has the potential to be impossible to beat. The current RC system is also app dependant which pulls it further away from feeling like a genuine Lego, screen time free experience.

In my opinion those issues aren't inherent to RC in general, only to TLGs chosen implementation of it. RC can be a great addition to an already great Technic set and there's solutions to all of the issues mentioned above. RC can and likely will return to larger Technic sets but probably not in the form of an app controlled smart battery box, and almost certainly not in 2026.

 

 

Edited May 25 by allanp

[CastAStone]

1 hour ago, allanp said:

Being a replacement also invites comparisons to other RC products that have far better performance for less money

This is certainly true for the cars; however I would wish at least the next flagship model (should we ever get one again) would be RC in the manner in which the Cat D11 or the Liebherr Excavator was RC,.

 

Thanks for the detailed reply.

[Auroralampinen]

Ok, only 6 days for june 1st and still no june wave reviews. But lego in this year has done this allready. The smart play system hasn't been reviewed by any "reputable" LAN member. But mostly by high payed "actors" so i think lego is trying to do the same with the june wave that they won't send any new june technic wave sets to reptutable LAN influencers. I personally think this is kind of scummy business practise that a reviewer can't review stuff because the company fears critisim. But hey "Only Best Is Good Enought" cant wait that sariel will be the first reviewer for summer wave again at last:).

Sorry again for being critical/harsh for lego:). 

[Davidz90]

First videos of 11380 road bike are appearing: