[REVIEW] 42080 - Forest Machine

[Yevhen]

The set needs another pneumatic cylinder to move the grabber up and down.

[NotANumber]

On the sticking small cylinder: I see the same with the clamshell bucket on 42053 'Volvo EW160E', particularly when using the motorised pump. (With the hand pump it still takes a good few prods.) Maybe a limitation of the part (19475c01) when new or left stationary for a few days? I'll get a copy of the older version (x189c01) and see if it works any better -- although I seem to remember it could be tricky in 8868 'Air Tech Claw Rig' too,

Edited October 14, 2018 by NotANumber

[Bublehead]

Just finished this one. Seems this set was an attempt of giving us the same set as Volvo 42053 without giving us another 42053.  Somewhat interesting build, but pretty simple and just only big enough to hide the compressor and battery box inside.  I liked the steering mech., and the motion as it goes over rough terrain looks surprising realistic.  Would have liked a bigger scale for this machine, and more cutter head functionality.

[Ngoc Nguyen]

4 hours ago, Bublehead said:

an attempt of giving us the same set as Volvo 42053 without giving us another 42053

Cannot be better said!

[allanp]

So after having this model for a while and the excitement of the new valves has subsided (I still love them btw!) I feel I can have a more objective view of this set. And I still love it. It brings an excellent new part in a non flagship set, and the ratio of cool parts (like turn tables, pneumatics, motor and so on) to filler (like beams, axles and pins) is far better than most sets I've seen for a long time. The functions are great....it's just a great set all round IMO. It's a shame then that it's looks no where near as good as it really is. This doesn't bother me that much as I like functionality over looks but I can't help but wonder if the sales of this set may be unfairly low because of how it looks. The real life equivalent looks ugly too but it's like an ugly badass. The heavy duty looking bull bar and large pneumatics and their hoses of 42080 work well to give that badass look but it's spoilt by, you guessed it, kiddie colours! To be fair though it does look much better in real life than on the box, and I've kept this model built much longer than usual, as I normally take sets apart after a week or so, because it's fun to mess with. The way it moves and steers over rough terrain is great and it's fun to see what heavy things it can lift when placed on the boom arm without getting saw thumbs twiddling a knob!! So yeah, I still love it.

[NotANumber]

I just got this one because... pneumatics. Well it's longer than it appears when fully assembled. The grabby/choppy bit reminds me of The Predator for some reason.

Bits I like:

• How the rear end shakes when the pump is running.
• Light green -- white -- dark green colour scheme. A weird combination of sort-of-futuristic and arboreal.
• New flatter pneumatic valves with axle holes. Could come in handy. The 'knobs' make fine control easier.
• The steering wheels and front half turning together to give it a 'snaking' look.
• Whimsical touches like the flask, chainsaw and toolbox.

Not had any trouble with the pneumatics or the small cylinder sticking. Improvements I'd make:

• Somewhere on the vehicle to stow the sawhorse and chainsaw.
• Add a gear on a friction pin to stop the cabin and claw from swinging around so much.

Edited October 24, 2018 by NotANumber

[andythenorth]

My 7 year old got this for Christmas.  

Pros:

• looks awesome
• suspension + steering are good - driving is very playable
• nice details

Negatives

• harvesting function doesn't work at all, and isn't playable
• PF adds nothing

Net result is that he's ripped the batteries out and the model is in a cupboard.

The harvesting function is *really* bad as a play feature.  Problems include:

• grabs, clamshells, jaws with the small pneumatic pump *never* work, they're always gutless (all the way back to Air Tech Claw Rig)
• when rotated, the harvesting head impedes the movement of the small pump, and it sticks (it's the pneumatic tube pushing the pump out of line that does this, it is built correctly)
• the saw cut doesn't work, the log just falls out of the jaws
• the log is very hard to pick up and tends to just fall over

Shame, he was really excited to get this one, and had fun building it.

[Maaboo the Witch]

7 minutes ago, andythenorth said:

Shame, he was really excited to get this one, and had fun building it.

It's definitely one of those sets wherein the fun lies with the building process rather than the end result. The B-model looks like a great build as well, and at least that can carry out all its functions (no saw).