Review: Creator Expert 10269 Harley-Davidson

[mostlytechnic]

Creator Expert Harley-Davidson

Thanks to Lego and EB for this review set - it's a new entry in the line of Creator licensed vehicles (Mini, VW Beetle, Mustang, etc) and I was excited to check it out. I've admired those sets but never owned any of them. More importantly, when it comes to this HD set, I had not seen any images online or had any ideas about it before it arrived - I literally only knew that it was a Harley in the Creator Expert line. 

Name: Harley-Davidson

Set Number: 10269

Pieces: 1023

Price: unknown as of review date (July 9, 2019) but I'm guessing $100-ish (edit: confirmed to be $99.99 US, $139.99 CAD, 84.99 GBP)

Minifigs: 0

Theme: Creator Expert

The Box Front

When I opened the shipping box and got my first look at this set, I couldn't do anything but think WOW. At a glance, this set could easily pass for a model rather than a Lego set. There's so much detail packed into this and it just looks right.

The Real Thing

Before we move on, here's the real 2019 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy from their online gallery. Like I said, Lego appears to have nailed the design. The dual exhausts with their taper in the middle... the solid wheels... and of course the V of the engine. (and oddly, the photo Lego used inside the manual of the real bike isn't in the "Wicked Red" color. It's "Industrial Grey Denim" instead which looks too bland on the page IMHO.)

The Box Back

Wait a minute - this thing has functional pistons like a Technic set? I like! And it looks good from this side too. It feels a little more Lego-ish from this side for some reason, but it's still very good looking. 

The Scale

This will be a pretty good-sized model. It's over a foot long. And apparently they liked the 107 logo for the 1:1 image, but were afraid people couldn't put that in context, so they added the engine as well. 

The New Parts

The only new molds that I saw are for the wheels. The front tire is the existing "Racing Tread" motorcycle tire that's been used since 2010 in Technic, Hero Factory, and Ninjago sets. The wide rear tire is new though, as are the solid wheels. And in a clever design to save on mold costs, the read tire just uses 2 of the rims instead of needing another custom part. Molds are expensive, especially for large parts like these, and since these rims are such an iconic trademark of the Fat Boy bike, I suspect Lego won't be allowed to reuse them elsewhere. It is a bit of a cheat though. The real bike doesn't have a rear tire twice as wide as the front (they're 160mm wide fronts and 240mm wide rears), and the real rear rim has a deeper recess. 

The Age

Designing a set takes a long time. Both new molds are copyrighted 2018, even though the set isn't being released until mid-2019.

The Stickers

The set has some printed pieces and one small sticker sheet. It's a very chrome sheet so that the "mirror" circles are reflective. The rest of the stickers have the usual Lego hidden meanings in them. 107 is the engine size (and really printed on the real bikes). WGDLN1990 stands for Willie G Davidson and Louie Netz, who designed the Fat Boy in 1990. 41 is the highway number that runs through Milwaukee, WI, where HD is headquartered. The 1974 on the odometer is the year that Bill Davis started designing the softail style frame. (thanks to the friendly people over at /r/harley for the help getting my facts right on these!)

The Build, part 1

The parts for this set come in bags numbered 1-4. Stage 1 begins with building this frame that will become the bottom of the bike. They're already using some "advanced" build techniques - that black perpendicular connector (which, believe it or not, is a new color for that part!) is not connected to an axle like it's designed for. It's connected onto an arm so that it can swing outwards to become the kickstand.

The Build, part 2

I'm not doing a ton of build photos - this set is a joy to assemble and I don't want to spoil too much. The build process is very modular. There's surprisingly little building directly onto the bike. It's mostly assembling a module and then attaching it as a chunk. Here is the engine. I paused partway through to show that yes, there are pistons inside there and they really do move. It's a fun piece of building, even though it's hidden completely in the finished model. 

The Build, part 3

At the end of bag 1 the finished engine mounts onto the frame. Thankfully, the two stickered discs are mounted onto pins, so they can be rotated freely to be level. There are also interesting part choices that make little sense. You can see the ends of blue 3L pins there. Below them are grey 3L pin with 1L axles... but why? There was no need. There are some locations where they chose the ones with axles because they didn't want blue showing, but there are other places where there was no need for the axle version. The set also has the 2 stud Technic axles in both red and black. There's nowhere that the red is needed visually.

The Build, part 4

When you reach the end of bag 2, it now looks much more like a motorcycle. Perhaps the one tedious part of the build is connecting those 43 chain links. And then you have to feed them through the frame and around the gears. I found picking the whole thing up in the air and letting gravity do most of the work was the easiest method. Again though, there's a few odd part choices. I wonder if they are trying to model something on the real bike that isn't visible - for example, there is a spot on the side that uses a 1x1x1 corner panel that is completely hidden. It's the only one of that part in the whole set, and it could easily have been replaced by a standard 1x1 brick (which are already in the set) with no visible change. Likewise, the set has a couple white Technic 2/3L Pin Connectors, but they're buried inside. It already uses black and light grey ones, so why complicate the production process that way? 

The Build, part 5

At the end of bag 3, a lot more of the detail has been added. Be careful putting on the speedometer sticker - its disc is attached to an axle, so the angle is fixed. Mine will now forever be slightly crooked.... Also of note is the dark red of the gas tank. In real life it doesn't look as unevenly colored as this photo. The actual color is close, but the curved pieces are glossy while the slope in the middle is a matte texture. That difference stands out in certain lighting. 

The exhausts have a great part usage - they use aircraft engines to form both the taper between sizes and an attachment point to the body of the bike. 

On the other hand, you can see the most annoying piece of the set in this photo. Just behind the engine, there's a black cone with a 1x1 round grey tile on top (it represents the suspension adjustment knob on the real bike). I find that's right where my thumb hits when I pick the bike up from above, so I've knocked that cone off so many times making this review. And once the second exhaust pipe is in the way, it's a bit of pain to reinstall. 

The Build, part 6

And it's complete. Bag 4 adds the second exhaust and the front wheel and fork assembly (and a simple grey stand). I personally think the front fork is the one area that feels badly out of proportion. The real bike is beefy there, but not quite this thick. Unfortunately, Lego doesn't have any 1.5x1.5 round parts. I also think the front fender is a little too short.

The Front

IMHO, this is the weakest angle on the set. Granted, the headlight/fork/handlebar assembly is complex and difficult to recreate, but I still think the headlight is too big and the forks too thick. I wonder if a 3x3 dish would have made a better headlight. I'm betting they went with the 4x4 though because there's no 3x3 plate to put behind the dish. I do appreciate that the handlebars attach with clips, so they're simple to pop back off if you need to store the set in a box. 

The Comparison

Here is the Harley next to 2010's Technic 8051 set (which uses the same tires as 10269's front tire, so it's theoretically around the same scale). I built it as the B model which is closer in proportions to the Fat Boy. 8051 was a $40 set with 467 pieces, and the B model uses only about 350 parts. You can clearly see what a difference 1000 vs 350 parts makes! 

The Big Brother

I stopped by a large Harley Davidson dealer to get their thoughts. The staff there were blown away by how good the set looked and were amazed that it actually had functional pistons and chain drive (even though the real bike is a belt drive). They couldn't point out anything that looked wrong - sure, there's minor details (no side reflectors on the front fork or at the rear, the shallow dish of the rear wheel, etc) but overall they loved it. The number of little details are what caught their attention. For a small model, it has lights, hand controls, shift and brake pedals, etc. 

The Size Comparison

The Lego set fits nicely on the footrest of a real 2019 Fat Boy. It does show the one visual drawback to the Lego version - its not all chromed . How long until we see some custom chromed versions showing up? I think they'd look fantastic!

The End

This is a well-designed set and truly a joy to build. I LOVED the build process on this. It blends Technic and System magnificently both visually and in build techniques. Mike Psiaki had a tough challenge, translating the angles and curves of a modern motorcycle into Lego, but he met it. Even the staff at an HD dealer said they were looking forward to picking the set up! If you don't have around twenty thousand bucks to drop on the real thing, get the Lego version for about half a percent of the price.

[lightningtiger]

Thanks for the awesome review of this awesome set........even better than the Mustang I must say.

 

[Anio]

When I look at the final Lego model, this is what comes to my mind.

 

[Ecclesiastes]

I ride myself, so this is a must have and it being a good model helps as well Great review, I love that you went to the dealer to compare the model. I'm not a fan of the odd rims, but it is like the original.

[mostlytechnic]

I just watched Sariel's video and seems like we agree on just about everything. He did a great job going through every part and finding all the new colors - lots of the dark red parts are new in that color, and a surprising amount of new light grey parts appear too! And then there's a pair of tan inverted curves slopes... I'm assuming some other new sets will be using them, since there's no need for that color in this set. 

When I talked to the Harley shop staff, one thing they wished for was color options like the real bike has. Being Lego, it's probably possible to make some other colored versions, but that assumes the parts are available. The one piece that wouldn't be available is the printed tiles on each side. Those would have been nice to be stickers on clear backgrounds so people could make other color schemes. 

[Jim]

1 hour ago, mostlytechnic said:

I stopped by a large Harley Davidson dealer to get their thoughts. The staff there were blown away by how good the set looked and were amazed that it actually had functional pistons and chain drive (even though the real bike is a belt drive). They couldn't point out anything that looked wrong - sure, there's minor details (no side reflectors on the front fork or at the rear, the shallow dish of the rear wheel, etc) but overall they loved it. The number of little details are what caught their attention. For a small model, it has lights, hand controls, shift and brake pedals, etc. 

I really love that you did this! Awesome.

And a great review for a great set!

[incognito]

Interesting size comparison:

 

I have all Creator Expert Cars, so i thought I would have to buy this too, but I guess I can give it a pass ;)

It just doesn't fit in.

 

Edited July 9, 2019 by incognito

[Trance89]

The front doesn't really appeal to me, since it's all to thick. I think this model also would've looked better if the light bluish grey parts were metallic colored instead. (like some of parts the Aston Martin) The rest looks very good though.

I'll pass on this one anyway, since I'm not really into motorcycles.

Anyways, good review. Maybe you even helped Lego selling some extra of these, now that the people from the Harley dealer know this set.

 

 

[coinoperator]

3 hours ago, mostlytechnic said:

color options

I'm really disappointed that they didn't use chrome parts for the wheels, motor and exhaust.
grey grey and more grey.

Nice model anyway.

Hmmmm
Maybe a drip of leaked oil underneath it on the ground to make it look a more realistic Harley

Edited July 9, 2019 by coinoperator

[rodiziorobs]

Excellent review! I love that you went out and talked to people about it, it seems like such a nobly nerdy thing to do.

I'm not much into motorcycles, but when this hit my inbox this morning I was excited. I was worried it would be end up costing $$$$$, but at $100 it seems attainable.

My biggest issue is, like the review said, the front fork is too chunky and wide. But the rest of it really matches the look and angles of the real thing. Despite my having no connection to the source material, I really like this model. Time to set a new ebay search I guess.

[paul_delahaye]

I'm not seeing the love for this set, maybe I'm not a bike fan, but all I see is grey barrels, and square front forks.  The lack of chrome parts is what is really missing.  I think this was clearly built to a budget, by a new designer, or a licence fee to Harley stripped the final appearance to shape and not cosmetic looks.  but hey. some will like it.

[SNIPE]

I wonder if we can use those rear tires and rims to make a technic supercar that is built at an even larger scale than 1:8.

Anyhow, thanks for the review of this excellant set.

Edited July 9, 2019 by SNIPE

[incognito]

8 hours ago, SNIPE said:

I wonder if we can use those rear tires and rims to make a technic supercar that is built at an even larger scale than 1:8.

 

wouldn't that be way to narrow for a car, let alone a supercar?

[WhiteFang]

Excellent review! I enjoyed this very much and it will be a great treat for Harley Davidson fans. Furthermore, I love the additional mile you put in your visit to the official dealer for real comparison. Top marks for that.  

I am not very fond of the scale as compared with other vehicular models like VW van, Catherham, etc in my collection. However, this is a remarkable feat for TLG to embark an integrated design combo between System and Technic. 

Thanks mostlytechnic. 

[MECHALEX]

Like other posters, I love that you stopped by the official dealer. Reviews on other sites (and occasionally here too,) can be a little pompous, but yours is full of the joy of building and sharing this set with the people who know the inspiration. Loved it.

[Littleworlds]

Very good review! I could definitely sense your excitement for this set. The pictures of the human-sized original are a nice bonus. It doesn't tick any of my boxes sadly, being a bike and not minifig compatible, but it looks well designed. Only the fork seems a bit oversized in my opinion.

[BrickWild]

WIP of model on Stud.io!

Painstakingly following Sariel's time-lapse build!

[Tomahawker]

Excellent review as others have stated.  In addition to your visit to the Harley Davidson dealership, I'm impressed with your efforts to decode all the easter eggs in the stickers.

Well done!

[DoomedACE]

Thank you for the review - it was a pleasure to read. Lovely set, but clunky fork. Also missing a lot of chromed pieces.

Quick question: Is Milwaukee spelled correctly on your sticker? Its kind of hard to see in your picture, but I think one E is missing at the end...

Edit: Did look around the internet --> Yes, it really is spelled incorrectly...

Edited July 10, 2019 by DoomedACE

[KevinMD]

Is the front fork connected to the headlight area? It’s impossible to tell from the pics.  I’m trying to figure how they didn’t try using technic connectors instead of the chunky solution they came up with.

I know I shouldn’t expect it to be to scale with the creator expert cars but seeing the bike next to them is pretty jarring. I feel like this is a pretty easy pass for me.

[Kaanere]

After a quick research it seems that the 107 Fat Boy was released in 2018! Can this be a precedent for more modern vehicles on the Creator Expert vehicle series?

[SNIPE]

17 hours ago, incognito said:

wouldn't that be way to narrow for a car, let alone a supercar?

Maybe but I don't think so that much. and they will be covered up anyhow. I will try it anyhow by just buying the parts from bricklink.

On the upside, there can be even more functions and electronics put in place since its larger than 1:8 which means more advanced models.

Edited July 11, 2019 by SNIPE

[Digger of Bricks]

On 7/9/2019 at 8:03 AM, mostlytechnic said:

The only new molds that I saw are for the wheels. The front tire is the existing "Racing Tread" motorcycle tire that's been used since 2010 in Technic, Hero Factory, and Ninjago sets. The wide rear tire is new though, as are the solid wheels. And in a clever design to save on mold costs, the read tire just uses 2 of the rims instead of needing another custom part. Molds are expensive, especially for large parts like these, and since these rims are such an iconic trademark of the Fat Boy bike, I suspect Lego won't be allowed to reuse them elsewhere. It is a bit of a cheat though. The real bike doesn't have a rear tire twice as wide as the front (they're 160mm wide fronts and 240mm wide rears), and the real rear rim has a deeper recess. 

For me, this wheel mold is the best-looking new thing this set has introduced, so I'm really hoping it just won't be exclusively relegated to future Harley-related products, just to leave plenty of room for opportune additional recolors of the part beyond Light Bluish Grey. 

3 hours ago, Kaanere said:

After a quick research it seems that the 107 Fat Boy was released in 2018! Can this be a precedent for more modern vehicles on the Creator Expert vehicle series?

Huh, I hadn't even realized that until you mentioned it... 

[BrickWild]

You can also build it in White! Just substitute the Dark Red pieces! 

[mostlytechnic]

I like the look of the white a lot. Not a real HD color, but it looks nice.