[HELP] Which Technic Set Should I Buy?

[Yonnix]

My friend owns one of these. They are very hard to get nowadays, the price really skyrocketed. I think I will start with current stuff and try not to miss the classics from now on :) The sets where I am very sad that they are hard to get now are 42043 and 42054. I would have bought them for sure at their MSRP, but not for 200/300€.

[Yevhen]

34 minutes ago, Yonnix said:

My friend owns one of these. They are very hard to get nowadays, the price really skyrocketed. I think I will start with current stuff and try not to miss the classics from now on :) The sets where I am very sad that they are hard to get now are 42043 and 42054. I would have bought them for sure at their MSRP, but not for 200/300€.

42054 is a two years old set only!

I bought it for €127 a week ago (in my country though).

Also a couple of old sets I found in toy stores in my city (those have no internet sites). The sellers had no idea what nice sets they had sitting on shelves! Furthermore, they discounted prices in order to get rid of the outdated sets!

Edited July 31, 2018 by Yevhen

[BabaGanoosh]

Hello guys!

I have just become interested in lego again after stumbling across some youtube vids. What are some good starter sets? I am a mechanical engineering student, so i thought it would be a good idea to use lego technic to experiment with gears and stuff.

[Jim]

Hi BabaGanoosh (love your name hehe),

If budget is not an issue I would think about getting the new 42082 - Rough Terrain Crane (my review will be published tomorrow). But of course there are other great sets which will retire before that one.

The 42054 - Claas Xerion if you can still get it.

Also depends on your budget and what you like or dislike.

[Vectormatic]

If you mainly want a parts pack to screw around with gears etc.. id recommend that whatever set you buy, you hit up bricklink for some extra gears, generally speaking the amount of gears per parts is relatively low, and unless you buy something monstrous (and even then), no set will have all available gear types, never mind in significantly amounts. If you want to build sophisticated gearboxes for instance, there are some new parts exclusive to the chiron which are pretty much essential.

[BabaGanoosh]

Im considering the 42057 Ultralight since its cheap and i like things that fly.

[Vectormatic]

9 minutes ago, BabaGanoosh said:

Im considering the 42057 Ultralight since its cheap and i like things that fly.

I can recommend that set, it looks nice and the play action is quite good (even if it is inaccurate for both an autogyro and a helicopter), i modded mine to have a boxer engine rather then a 2-inline, but im pretty sure i used extra parts.

two other cool small sets in my opionion are 42048 (a go kart with 1 cilinder engine and 2 speed gearbox) and 42075 (first responder truck, rear suspension, 2 cyl boxer engine, diff in the driveline)

[Bartybum]

@BabaGanoosh Considering you're an engineering student I'd really recommend something highly technical like the 42043 Mercedes Benz Arocs 8x4. It's easily Lego's best set in the past 5-10 years. It has solid axle suspension on all 4 axles, an openable cab, an i6 engine, a tipper, outriggers and a pneumatic knuckle boom crane powered by a motorised compressor.

Most of the good aircraft sets are discontinued.

There's the 42066 air race jet. It looks a bit wonky but it has steerable and retractable landing gear, a ducted fan that opens behind the cockpit, a VTOL function on the rear thruster, and joystick control surfaces. It's like a small version of an F-35. There's a user here called Efferman, who modified the set's wings to actually make it look like an F-35 too.

There's also the 42052 heavy lift helicopter, which had coaxial rotors and a belly winch. Not much other than a cool looking set.

There's the 42025 cargo plane, which had an opening cargo bay, joystick control surfaces, flaps, retractable landing gear and moving propellers.

There was also the 9396 helicopter, which had pitching rotors like a real helicopter.

Like I said these are all dicontinued sets, so you can't find them in store any more other than probably 42066. You should be able to find the rest for a decent price on BrickLink.

[conceitedguy]

6 hours ago, BabaGanoosh said:

Im considering the 42057 Ultralight since its cheap and i like things that fly.

I think that's my favorite small recent set. It comes with a good number of gears, links, and panels and packs some fun simple functions into a tight space. I'd recommend it. I'd also second the 42048 Go Kart. I think those are great cheap entry points that both include interesting specialized parts.

[siddparkar]

10 hours ago, BabaGanoosh said:

Hello guys!

I have just become interested in lego again after stumbling across some youtube vids. What are some good starter sets? I am a mechanical engineering student, so i thought it would be a good idea to use lego technic to experiment with gears and stuff.

Among the currently available set, if recommend the Light Helicopter, The racing Yatch and the Hook Loader. These are my favorites. I also have 42066 and 42043 which I'm yet to build! I've heard good things about them.

[siddparkar]

Hey guys, so now that these 4 new technic sets are out, there would be no other new big ones for the rest of the year right? So as I have said here before, I have decided to get one big technic set for every month of the year. I already have 42066 for August, 42043 for September. Among the sets available in US for decent price right now I will definitely get the 42055 and 42078 in Black Friday sale in November. 
 

This leaves October and only one other sub $150 set, the 42054. I don't know if its just me, but this set just does not visually attract me. This is available for $150 in the US and I am sure its going to go off the shelves soon. My question is, should I buy this?

Why is this set so highly regarded? I am not a reseller and I am not into MOC(at least as of yet).

What would be a compelling reason for me to spend $150 on this? 

 

I don't like 42069 at all, so I wouldn't buy it for $120 either. Also I don't foresee prices for 42070, Porsche or the Chiron drop -ever.

 

$150 for this or for something interesting like the Old Fishing Store?

 

[BrickbyBrickTechnic]

On 7/31/2018 at 8:36 PM, Bartybum said:

Considering you're an engineering student I'd really recommend something highly technical

@BabaGanoosh, based on what this quote has to say, 42055 is also a really good choice, especially if you are interested in structural engineering. Because I am surprised that it even stays together. But it does, really well. and has lots of mechanism. It doesn't operate the best, but It's truly unique.

Edited August 2, 2018 by BrickbyBrickTechnic

[Jim]

42055 that is  

That is nice one to put together. Don’t expect too much of the functions though. I find them disappointing.

[BrickbyBrickTechnic]

5 hours ago, Jim said:

42055 that is  

Thanks for spotting that 

[Vectormatic]

11 hours ago, siddparkar said:

This leaves October and only one other sub $150 set, the 42054. I don't know if its just me, but this set just does not visually attract me. This is available for $150 in the US and I am sure its going to go off the shelves soon. My question is, should I buy this?

Why is this set so highly regarded? I am not a reseller and I am not into MOC(at least as of yet).

What would be a compelling reason for me to spend $150 on this? 

Im not a fan of the Claas either, i dont like farm equipment, doesnt do anything for me. That said, the Claas does have some interesting features, and apparently is a pretty cool build, the steering mode selection for instance should be an interesting mechanism

11 hours ago, siddparkar said:

I don't like 42069 at all, so I wouldn't buy it for $120 either. Also I don't foresee prices for 42070, Porsche or the Chiron drop -ever.

  

I agree on 42069 as it is, but i think it has decent modding potential, maybe its time to start looking into modification? If i compare the time i spend on modding to the time building the official set, it probably increases my value for money 10-fold on some sets.

As for the porsche/chiron, the porsche at least can be found at nicely reduced prices, prices are going up again, but amazon.de had it for €220 for a while (MSRP is €300), id expect the chiron to be available for a good chunk under MSRP as well

[Aventador2004]

12 hours ago, siddparkar said:

What would be a compelling reason for me to spend $150 on this?

Actually, a week ago it was 120 on Amazon. 

The set is highly regarded for the steering system, customizability, and endless attachment ideas. It also was not very expensive for 2000 parts.

[Yonnix]

On 7/31/2018 at 10:17 AM, Yonnix said:

Thank you very much, Jim! I am also excited about 42079, it looks very well rounded and can be used like a real forklift. I also like its colors and think that the light on the roof as a control is a Lego Technic classic. Just ordered it, I got it with a voucher for 34€ which seems to be very fair for a set that looks nice and functional enough despite being not the largest.

I like the BWE more for its parts, I think a lot of nice large parts are included. The functionality looks interesting but it is not nice that it doesn't work smooth. I will opt for the 42082, I think everybody needs a crane and having black and red parts is also very universal for the start.

Thanks once more for your replies and the great and informative reviews!

I will start to build the 42079 today. Just sorted all the parts in little bags so that we don't have to mess around with that many parts. I think that is much easier for my son.

Furthermore, I got a used but like new Xerion 42054 for 105€ from Ebay. I will take it apart and build it next. I am really excited about that, it is really a beautiful and interesting model.

[Yevhen]

42070 rough terrain truck is available for $178 (€156) in my city.

I personally like how its functions work (especially the outtriggers). Also I still don't own any RC sets.

What to do?

[Erik Leppen]

156 euro for ~1800 parts is not particularly bad, considering you get 6 large wheels, two PF motors and a few LAs. And, indeed, six motorized functions out of the box. The body is crude and I think it lacks detail, but from the motorized-functions perspective, I think it's a nice set. It has lots of gears, so the gearbox packs some nice complexity as well.

And I think it's good modding material, considering the cut corners in the suspension department ;)

Whether it's worth 156 euro is up to you, really. To answer that question, you could try comparing it to other sets with the same price tag.

[siddparkar]

1 hour ago, Yevhen said:

42070 rough terrain truck is available for $178 (€156) in my city.

I personally like how its functions work (especially the outtriggers). Also I still don't own any RC sets.

What to do?

I'd totally get it for $180. Sadly in US it never drops below $250

[WvG_853]

2 hours ago, Yevhen said:

42070 rough terrain truck is available for $178 (€156) in my city.

I personally like how its functions work (especially the outtriggers). Also I still don't own any RC sets.

What to do?

The price is good, I have not seen it lower, but the advice of @Erik Leppen makes sense: compare it to other sets and see if it is worth it for you. Maybe with 25 EUR more you can buy the 42082. If you are just interested in the remote function, 42065 could be interesting (currently 60 EUR at amazon.de).

In the end what counts is what YOU like. I myself have decided not to buy this set although I had found it for a similar price. The reason is simply because I don’t like it.

[Yevhen]

17 minutes ago, WvG_853 said:

The price is good, I have not seen it lower, but the advice of @Erik Leppen makes sense: compare it to other sets and see if it is worth it for you. Maybe with 25 EUR more you can buy the 42082. If you are just interested in the remote function, 42065 could be interesting (currently 60 EUR at amazon.de).

In the end what counts is what YOU like. I myself have decided not to buy this set although I had found it for a similar price. The reason is simply because I don’t like it.

I'm going to buy 42082 anyway.

But yes, I had better save some money and skip 42070.

[siddparkar]

I have a tough choice to make. Seems like both 42055 and 42056 would be retiring soon.

Wanted to know which is a more satisfying set of the two? There is a $70 gap between the two.

Were I to choose one of them, which should it be?

[Akbalder]

It depends of what you want to do with your set (display or build).

The BWE has a B model and its pieces are great to build other things.

The Porsche looks great and is fun to build.

You can play longer with the BWE.

 

[degenerate]

42056 if you want a model that looks good on your shelf once it's built.
For any other reason than that, go with 42055, it's a great parts pack and a very impressive model and nice build.