Hardest Technic set to build?

[M_longer]

42043 and its outriggers.

[dr_spock]

I don't find any Technic sets particularly hard to build following the instructions.  Having numbered bags can help too. 

 

[LucyCol]

I don't find any of them difficult to build, but like others here I find the build instructions over simplistic and much prefer the old style instructions from the 'studded' era.  I tend to bulid slowly making sure everything works as it should before moving on to the next stage.

Most pleasurable builds 8480 & 8880.

[The_Icestorm]

If by hard you mean the longest time to build, definitely the 42055 BWE. Took me nearly 5 hours total to build!

[Siegfried]

13 hours ago, Saberwing40k said:

I nominate 8455, or 8868. So many pneumatic hoses, and they don't quite do what you want. But, that's not really hard, and, in my opinion, if you have trouble assembling sets, you might not be ready for Technic. I have zero trouble no matter the set, but I may be an odd case since I built a UCS Star Wars set when I was like 8. See, Lego sets are designed to be okay to build. And, honestly, with all the simplification of the instructions, and color coding, no adult should have any problem. Now, building a MOC of your own is different, or even building one with instructions, which range in quality from almost official to borderline unuseable.

100% agree. I've read so many complaints about 8455, but the issue is that people cut the tubes wrong and blamed TLG. I had spare.

[Lipko]

I don't think that older sets were really harder to assemble. They required bigger attention and to search where you have to add parts, but for me that's being more exhausting than more complicated. And for that reason I like the new simple instructions better since I look for casual and experience during building. If I want challenge I design my own models.

[Nazgarot]

I agree with most here that there are no hard official builds now a days as long as you know the techniques to make things run smooth, due to over simplified instructions...

The hardest builds I've ever done must have been 8865 and 8868.

8865 was hard do toe the large amount of parts on every step, and me only being 8 years at the time... I still find this hard as you actually have to analyse the build as you go to find where to place all the parts.

8868 also had a lot of parts per instruction, but was also hard due to some unique techniques as well as a bucket load of pneumatic hoses. I still have the original build, and have never tried to rebuild it. I was about 10 when I built it, and I can still remember having my father holding the superstructure of the crane while I fixed a problem. I relied something had gone wrong with the turning mechanism after I was done, and struggled a long time to find out what was going on. It was such a tight fit the all the hoses had to be placed just so in order for it to operate smoothly. I had to modify the length of a couple of the hoses post build because they interrupted the turning mechanism, They where only about a cm to long, and in accordance with the instruction, but needed to be cut and put back in for it to operate smoothly. The more I think of it, the more certain I am that this is the hardest official build I've ever encountered. The 42043 had some of the same challenges, but not nearly as much, and there was a lot more room...

The longest time I've ever used on any set was the 10179 UCS Millenium Falcon. This took me 23 hours from start to finish, but it was not particularly hard...

 

-ED-

[ctx1769]

@M_longer totally agree with you there, I had to built them twice and fingers crossed they worked (they did)

[Blakbird]

13 hours ago, Saberwing40k said:

Actually, I really nominate 8002.

Agreed!  This model is actually very tricky.  Every single part is at a weird angle and it is not at all obvious what anything is supposed to do until you are done.

[kolbjha]

I wouldn't use the word "hard" for any of the official Technic sets, but I think i find those with a lot of pneumatics (like 8868, 8455, 42043) more challenging, because of all the routing of hoses.

[teos]

5 hours ago, The_Icestorm said:

If by hard you mean the longest time to build, definitely the 42055 BWE. Took me nearly 5 hours total to build!

Not to derail the topic much.

Did you forget a 10 on that for 15 hrs?  Otherwise you must be crazy fast, because that's placing a piece every 4.5 seconds.  I believe 42053 took me around 4 hrs and 42054 probably 6-8.  

[Nebulaire]

Teos, I don't think that Kolbjha is that particulary fast. I think you are particulary slow...

Placing a piece every 4,5 seconds is a normal thing, think about the speed you place all the pin's...

I built the 42055 while watching  movies and it took me 6 hours ...

[Gabi_BC]

14 hours ago, Nazgarot said:

The longest time I've ever used on any set was the 10179 UCS Millenium Falcon. This took me 23 hours from start to finish, but it was not particularly hard...

 

Just sayin'

[kolbjha]

8 hours ago, Nebulaire said:

Teos, I don't think that Kolbjha is that particulary fast. I think you are particulary slow...

Nebulaire, I guess you intended to refer to The_Icestorm, not me . For the 42055, I guess it took me like 12 hours (spread over a few days). I am definitely not a fast builder!

[Zimix]

From official set I own or could build with my parts collection, I could say none is hard.

That said, I remember having to struggle with a creation found on this forum, the Terex RH400 Mining Excavator from Sheo. You can easily end up having wires either to long or to short at some place and noway to pull or push them. So only way out, start to reverse build till you can adjust the wires.

 

[Nebulaire]

3 hours ago, kolbjha said:

Nebulaire, I guess you intended to refer to The_Icestorm, not me . For the 42055, I guess it took me like 12 hours (spread over a few days). I am definitely not a fast builder!

Yes, indeed. Sorry for the mistake.

[The_Icestorm]

On 29/03/2017 at 3:20 AM, teos said:

Not to derail the topic much.

Did you forget a 10 on that for 15 hrs?  Otherwise you must be crazy fast, because that's placing a piece every 4.5 seconds.  I believe 42053 took me around 4 hrs and 42054 probably 6-8.  

I'm pretty sure it was around 5 hours, maybe a bit closer to 6 hours. I probably would have spent maybe 30 mins total sorting out the pieces beforehand, which allowed me to find parts easily. And you have to remember that some pieces take shorter to place than others, such as black and blue connector pegs.

[Lakop]

I would say your first technic set is the hardest as its a whole new world (or was). 42053 was an intersting build as it was the first set i bought with pneumatics. I enjoyed the build, learnt a lot and would happily build it again. Your own creations are always much harder to figure out.

H

[Chilly]

Can't think of any that were hard to build, (love building 8880, and 8455).  With newer design instructions I gather all the parts for a page (or two) and then try to assemble just by looking at the final picture on the page, to make building harder.  Who wants easy?

Worse is un-building.  I bought a second hand 8053 Mobile Crane, and it came barely dissembled.  I had very sore fingers after taking it apart.

[evortigosa]

On 3/27/2017 at 6:16 PM, allanp said:

After hundreds of builds and as an adult none of them are hard, but in purely relative terms, looking at every Technic set ever made I would say 42009 is probably the hardest to build correctly because with 42009, more than any other set, it isn't just about following the instructions. You have to really make sure everything runs perfectly otherwise that motor just isn't powerful enough to operate all of it's functions (like the outriggers) reliably. I think 8480 and 8043 had the same issue to a much lesser extent. Most sets are pretty fool proof however. Just build it to the instructions and it'll work just fine.

I agree. 42009 was one of the most complex build, in my opinion. 

42009 has one gearbox in the superstructure, another one in the middle of the truck to change the outrigger functions, and another one for each outrigger system, which means 4 gearboxes in only one model. You need to pay a lot of attention when building those parts that are composed by many gears of different types. It's really tricky. 

At the same time, I also agree with @Andy D, 42009 complexity only added to my enjoyment.

Is one of my favorite Lego model, so far. 42009 is beautiful and very complex, two things that I like so much in Lego Technic.

Edited April 8, 2017 by evortigosa

[dellock6]

I finally got my hands on a 8851 as I'm trying to rebuild my old collection back in the days, and if by hard we also mean the issues we may face, well some of the latest axles that need to be inserted in the middle of the body, and even more the studs that we are supposed to use to lock that axles, it's damn hard to build. I had to rip apart a side of the body to properly mount them. I didn't remember it was so troublesome, or probably when I was 9 at the time of the release of the 8851 I had smaller fingers, that would have helped for sure :)

[Hay Ewe]

The Unimog. For me that was hard.

It was the first set that I built that was studless and SO many instructions - 5 books! I think it took me a week, an hour or so in the evenings, but work was full on at that time. Its also the onle set I havent dissmantled.

 

[DrJB]

On 3/28/2017 at 0:13 AM, Saberwing40k said:

Actually, I really nominate 8002.

Seriously, it is not easy, and if you do it wrong, it does not work. The really unfortunate part is the rubber bands, they're the kind that degrade. It does have some neat parts, which is why I'm glad I didn't get rid of it.

Yes, I just finished it in LDD and it was not fun. Primarily the colors, then few errors throughout the instructions, like in the top views on pages 9 and 14. 

[AFOLegofan66]

I have done quite a few and have had no problems

[GBTechnic]

On 3/30/2017 at 3:49 PM, Horace T said:

I would say your first technic set is the hardest as its a whole new world (or was). 42053 was an intersting build as it was the first set i bought with pneumatics. I enjoyed the build, learnt a lot and would happily build it again. Your own creations are always much harder to figure out.

H

Agreed but I'd modify this slightly and say your first big set.  My son had a small set that helped me catch the bug and it was very simple... but 41999 was my second set and it took almost 18 hours of build and rebuild to correct errors in all.