mostlytechnic

Thanks for the nice review. My son's been asking for this set to add to his Mario collection... the price tag made me hesitant, but I'm glad to see there's so much cool action to this set. It might have to make an appearance at our house some time...

Cute little freebie set. I feel like the umbrella on the side table is too small, and how many bikes do we need?

Have to agree with you a lot on this review - it's not a set I'd buy for myself, but it looks great for what it is and I suspect it'll be a hit with kids who like the movie

I don't think the old set was bad - it's certainly instantly recognizable - but this one is so much bigger. And the trees are way better. I'm not a big architecture line fan, but I do love seeing the creative part usage. The 1x2 plate with bars to make the pillars along the outside walkways is pretty well done here. Nice review too BTW - always fun to read yours!

Sounds great - Always love checking out the EB reviews and having a big variety dished out over the whole month? That's like Thanksgiving dinner spread over all of November. Yum.

When I heard the rumors of this set and the size, I wasn't really interested... no room to display it, and not a big interest in the subject. However, your review (and of course others I've checked out) have swayed me... So congratulations Lego, your marketing through review sets is working and you can count me as a future buyer due to it Nice review - one of the things I like about seeing multiple reviews online is the details that different people point out. Those tiny benches look great! Any estimate on how long it took to build? I know that building for reviews goes at a different pace than normal building (build faster, but then have to stop and take photos and such), but ballpark guess?

Thanks! I'll definitely be taking a read through this

Thanks for the well-done review! I still have my NES set unopened since I've been building other things, but I will be picking this up to go with it. Oddly, I was never a big Nintendo fan as a kid (I had an Atari 2600 and then jumped to computer games - the next console I got was a Wii!) but I played Mario enough at friends houses and stuff to love the games. I never played Mario 64 though, so I actually just started playing it so this set would make more sense to me :)

Does no one remember 42008 Service Truck? Reviews keep comparing this to 8285, but not a single one I've seen has mentioned 42008 which I think is a better comparison set. It had pneumatics AND LAs, lots of functions, and dense construction like this one. And a lot of stickers It was just a smaller scale and Euro-style. For some reason there was a lot of hate for this truck, even when I reviewed it As for the stickers... the ones on 42008 look at least reasonable to me. The ones on 42128 look like garbage. And I say that as an American who sees these trucks in real life, where they often DO have lots of decoration on them like this one with some serious copyright infringement One other lacking detail I see in this set from reality - most of the trucks that actually have a rotating crane on them have a second set of side outriggers at the back. Lego'd have to extend the truck at least another 3-4 studs to do that though, and I prefer to see both side and rear outriggers like they did here. In the real world they'd be separately controlled, but that's really getting nitpicky, and some might say Lego making them work together is interesting and clever design on a toy set.

I know why - you were actually recoiling from the POWER TOW stickers all over it. Can't wait to get one of these for myself. This is right up my alley, as you said. Lots of functions, good mechanical design, etc. Cosmetically, I love the overall look. I think the front end looks great. I am not a fan though of how high the main boom is mounted. I wish the pivot point for that was several studs lower. But alas... I've owned the 8285 Tow truck, which looked fantastic but didn't do a ton (man were big vehicles hollow back in the day!). I've also owned the 42008 Service Truck, which also has pneumatics and a good amount of functions. I loved that truck when I reviewed it, and I think this one looks like a solid step up in size and features.

I feel like the packaging is a bit deceiving - on the front of the box, the truck has motion-blurred wheels like it's flying along at high speed. And not a fan of the sticker vomit. That said, I like that it's got some decent climbing ability. I remember being a bit disappointed with older RC trucks from Lego (the orange 9398 crawler - which also had too small of wheels) and that they didn't have the torque or traction to climb. From videos though, it needs to shed a lot of weight on that cab to become less front-heavy.

Got my Typewriter and built it over the last few days. My thoughts, for what they're worth... It's a beautifully designed set. The sand green looks great - although the typewriter I used as a kid in the early 80s was black, not vintage green. Ours also didn't have the dual-color ribbon, so the red/black was a new "feature" to me. But this is one of the best "desk decoration" sets Lego has made yet - right up there with the bonsai tree. It's definitely needing the 18+ rating - moreso than most of the sets that get it. There's definitely some tricky parts to put together and get all aligned to make it work right. Yes, the key mech parts are pretty repetitive, but they're in the beginning and that's about the end of repetitive building. Plus I just built the Daily Bugle, so my tolerance for repetition is pretty high right now :) I LOVE that the typing sound is there. The strike of the key is a little dull, but when it snaps back it gives you that "typing clack" sound. Nice job in the design to make it hit right to do that! I wish the space bar worked. But that'd complicate things, needing it to move the paper without making a letter stroke. Oddly, I'm taking the opposite conclusion from Jim. I'm normally a Technic fan who wants MORE POWAA FUNCTIONS and is annoyed by how many parts are wasted on the cosmetics. However, in this case, the typing function works SO WELL and the looks are so great that I'm very forgiving that the color lever doesn't do anything, there's no bell, the space bar doesn't work, the shift keys do nothing, etc. And I really appreciate the inclusion of the letters to put in the machine. Since it's scaled slightly smaller than reality and can't take a normal sheet of paper (either US letter or Euro A4), having those in the correct size really helps complete the design.

Sorry Jim, I'm not reading your review. Yet. I have my typewriter already ordered and I don't wanna spoil it. I'll be back later to read and see if I missed anything or have comments, but first, I need to get and build mine.

I'm coming at this from a different perspective - I haven't seen/read HP, and I don't really care about that part of it. I'm looking at the buildings, and so I LIKE that the honeyduke's details are stickers. I'm considering getting the set, selling the figs, and not applying the pink Honeyduke stickers. I'd still put the window grates on, but not the name. Then these would be nice looking little snowy scene. I think the buildings look GREAT as is, and they're pretty nicely designed for sure.

There are hard limits to how much anyone can do that. I'm in a very different manufacturing industry, but I can tell you that we have literally millions of dollars of product sitting in our warehouse, ready to ship around the world, and we simply cannot get trucks and shipping containers to haul it. The products are literally on skids just waiting for the truck. We use thousands of plastic bottles and metal cans for some of our products - we cannot get them. We're ordering ANY bottle the correct size that we can get, no matter what color or shape, just to try and fill orders. When Texas had the freeze last month, that screwed up some of the solvents we buy. We have contracts for buying tank trucks of solvent monthly, but they're not able to fill them because the refineries in Texas were shut down. That means we don't get solvent, which means our customers don't get the product they ordered, and that means their customers won't get THEIR orders. It's a ripple that takes months to travel down the supply chain. The entire global supply chain is massively disrupted for MANY reasons and will be for a year to come. Believe me, Lego and any other company ARE moving heaven and earth to sell products.

Heh, I see it. The stickered fenders on each side of the digging arm look like they could fold out into legs or something.

B Models!!!! Thanks again to Lego and EB for these review sets. I've already reviewed the main models of these sets (Heavy-Duty Excavator and Rescue Hovercraft). Now that they're officially released, the B-model instructions are finally available. Here's a quick look at those, since the back-of-box artwork made them look VERY attractive. The Sets Here are the two B models. The excavator turns into, um, a different excavator I guess? And the hovercraft becomes a small plane. At a quick glance, these look great. Both are clearly obvious, pretty well designed, and even incorporate the stickers into the design. In fact, the instructions show you putting the stickers on the pieces, so even if you build the B-model first, you have the parts correctly stickered. In a coupe spots in the excavator, the sticker is applied and then the part added upside down, so the sticker is not visible. It's a GREAT way to handle the stickered pieces. Additionally, all the stickers are "added" right as you put the part on. There's no times when you add a piece and come back 10 steps later to sticker it. It's obvious when you need the stickered part. The Other Side There's quite a bit of function on both sets. For the excavator, you have control of the arm in 2 places. There's an opening hood and 4-cylinder "engine" underneath. The pistons move when you roll the excavator along. It pivots in the center for steering, but there's no knob to control that. The plane has landing gear that collapses (it's half-folded in this photo, so it tucks up tight to the fuselage or locks in the down position). The propellers are driven by those wheels, so they spin as you roll it along. There are flaps on the wings (the grey panels) that are controlled by a lever in the cockpit. Finally, there's a knob on top that moves both the rudders and the rear wheel for steering. Here's the sets with the functions in different positions. The Leftovers There are fairly few parts left. Almost everything is used on the excavator. Note that both bags here also include all the usual spare parts. Overall, I think these are some of the better B-models for this size set. And that's refreshing, after so many of the recent sets that haven't had them (from what I've personally built, that'd be the Ferrari 488, the Jeep, the 42108 Crane, Top Gear Rally Car, Cement Mixer, and the massive 42100 Excavator). The excavator builds a different type of excavator, and it's almost good enough to be a main model. There's very few issues with it - yes, there's a few spots where different pins are used than would be on a main model. I think the exhaust is a little odd. The controls are very minimal - both linear actuators are controlled directly. In a main model, they'd have run axles through the model to have knobs somewhere at the back. In this case, there were no more axles to use for that. And they even used most of the 1x2 liftarms provided as "stuff to dig" in the B-model. I honestly might leave this set this way, and I'll put it with the other excavator sets as something different. For the airplane, it's not quite as close to being a main model, but it's a very solid B model. The stickering is a little weird - not likely to see a rescue plane labeled like this, and the danger stickers on the tail are out of place. The orange wings/grey flaps are a bit odd. Well, the whole color scheme is odd. Lime wheels, orange wings, grey underside, black roof, and red splashed around. The flap controls (being in the cockpit) are hard to reach with adult fingers. But it's nicely swooshable, solid, and playable. The mechanisms are well built, and the set as a whole is worth your time to try out. I'll be rebuilding this back to the hovercraft, but I'm glad I checked out the plane.

I didn't feel like it was slow, compared to Technic sets I've built over the last 20 years. It felt pretty typical to me. And I agree, the rear knob being on the left would be easier to operate and more ergonomic, but I bet they didn't want to mess with the cosmetics on the left (vents, cabin, etc)

Both are close to minifig, but then, Technic is never minifig scale. There hasn't ever been a Technic set in minifig scale - as close as this is, it'd look WAY out of place in a Lego City scene.

I think a crane mod would be pretty easy indeed. You've already got the mini-LA to adjust the boom angle, and then use the second knob to drive a spool of string.

I agree on the rotating prop guards being a letdown. I was surprised by them - there's studs on the dish after all, but they covered them with a round tile! I think there just isn't a great way to connect the guard to the black bracket they're using for the right-angle gearing connection.

Technic Rescue Hovercraft Thanks to Lego and EB for this review set. Over the years, Lego has made multiple hovercrafts. After all, there's only so many cars, spaceships, and fire trucks that kids need. There have been police and fire hovercrafts, but Technic has had 3: 1993's 193 piece single-person hovercraft. 2013 had another single person hovercraft, again in the <200 piece range. 2018 brought a 1000 piece, much larger set, both in literal size and in the design of the hovercraft it's representing. Now, in 2021, there is an in-between set, both in design and part count. Name: Rescue Hovercraft Set Number: 42120 Pieces: 457 Price: $29.99 Minifigs: 0 Theme: Technic The Box Front The never-ending battle between the graphic designer and the lawyer... one wants a dynamic shot of the toy racing across the water. The other doesn't want to get sued when kids' toys sink in the bathtub. Ok, fine, no one is going to sue over a non-floating toy (probably). But on the other hand, customer service doesn't want to deal with calls about stickers peeling after getting wet. More importantly, what is that in the bottom corner? There's a strange logo that I'd almost forgotten about. 2 in 1? THERE'S A B-MODEL? Yes, there is. (unfortunately, the instructions aren't online or in the app yet, so I'll have to add that later) The Box Back I'll cover the functions later, so I want to focus on the B-model here. That is a good looking small airplane! And it looks loaded with functions. I see a gear on the wheels, so that's probably going to spin the props when you roll it. There's also a knob on top of the plane, so I'm assuming that will move the flaps on the wings. Even the stickers don't seem terribly out of place - although this looks pretty small to be a "rescue" aircraft. The Box Top Technic sets love to use a wheel for the 1:1 size reference. Here, they got as close as possible and used the fan on the deck. Also, the lawyers now speak a lot of languages The Contents Pretty typical fare for this size set - 3 numbered bags, a small manual, and a sticker sheet. There are a few of the newer parts, but nothing that stood out. Lots of orange panels though! Often Technic sets have a few panels of the "visible" color and the bulk of the parts are grey/black. Since this is smaller, the ratio of external to internal is higher and so there's a lot of orange in here. The Build, Part 1 Bag 1 builds the core of the mechanisms. There is a pair of tiny wheels up front that handle the steering via the red liftarm linkage. There are a pair of wedge belt wheels that transmit motion to the vertical axles at the back. And do you see what those are? Lime? There haven't been lime wedge belt wheels since around 2012. Surely they didn't produce these in lime just for this set where they're not even visible, so I'm assuming there's something else in the 2021 lineup that will make more obvious use of them. Anyone know what? Also, the front has a single lime 3L pin with pinhole in lime. Those were produced for the big Lambo set, and now we have one appearing in a much smaller set. Again, it's going to get completely hidden, so it's just a secret bit of inside color. The Build, Part 2 Bag #2 completed the base of the hovercraft. There's some fairly complex building to get the clear/red/green "lights" at the nose. Then it builds the deck with its 2 or 3 seats. Later, that's going to be a bit of a pain to attach. There's so many connection points - 8 pins around the perimeter, more in the middle, and gearing for the steering. The Build, Part 3 Bag 3 completes the build with more cosmetics, all the stickers, and the rear fans. There's the answer to how many seats - it's 3, with the steering in the center seat position. The handlebar there does not move with the steering; it's just cosmetic. However, the steering knob on top DOES move both the hidden wheels underneath and rotates the fan pods at the back. Rolling the hovercraft spins the fans at the rear (NOT the front fan) and makes the blue lights on the roof rotate. That's a nice extra touch. The stickers clearly add a lot to the vehicle. I didn't find them hard to put on; there's not much you have to align between pieces. There is one part I don't like. The black hull is vertical at the front and back, but curves inward along the side. That's due to the selection of panels, but I think I'd prefer for the sides to be straight vertical as well. Having two different profiles looks odd - and clearly the designers agree, since they hid the sides with fake water on the front of the box. The Underside Not a lot to see here - most of it was already visible in the earlier build photos. This angle is clearly not meant to ever be seen. The Driver? Technically, you can fit a minifig in the seats. However, it's not really minifig scale. Sorry. The Rear The fans and the grey guards both spin as the hovercraft rolls. That's not accurate, but understandable given the scale. I appreciate the addition of a few cosmetic details - the antennae and life preserver fill in an otherwise empty area of deck. The Ratings Design: 8 Build Experience: 6 Features: 9 Playability: 7 Parts/Value: 8 Overall: 8 I really like this little set. It feels like a good Lego value - 450 parts for $30? That's not bad! It's also pretty decent size - big enough to play with and feels big enough to be a $30 Lego set. The part count isn't too inflated with tiny pieces. It has the basic features - steering and fans - but makes them a little extra complex. Lego calls this set an 8+, and that seems ok. Kids may need some help with marrying the deck to the hull, but overall, it's not an overly difficult build. And I'm really looking forward to the B model instructions being released. That looks like a great alternate build. I took off a little on the build experience - it's a pretty symmetrical model, so there's a lot of duplicate building (either identical fan housings, or mirrored sections). The one step is also a little tricky. As a kids toy though, it's nicely swooshable and fits the hand nicely.

Technic Heavy Duty Excavator Thanks to Lego and EB for this review set. Over the years, Lego has made LOTS of excavators. Bricklink lists 25 of them. There's City excavators on trailers. There's Duplo excavators for the little kids. There's even a Lego Dimensions tiny excavator from the Lego Movie. What we care about here though are the 9 previous Technic excavators. They range from 1984's pneumatic excavator to the massive 4000 piece Bucket Wheel Excavator in 2016. The new Excavator fits into the middle of the range, and below, I'll compare it to two of the older versions. Name: Heavy Duty Excavator Set Number: 42121 Pieces: 569 Price: $39.99 Minifigs: 0 Theme: Technic The Box Front There's some decent construction graphics in the foreground and background, but what is this pose? The set photo is taken with a wide angle lens from close range, so it's MASSIVELY distorted. The bucket appears to be almost as big as the rest of the machine. The Box Back The functions appear to be quite standard - rotation, rolling, and control of the arm in 2 locations. Check out that B-model though! Like the Hovercraft, this set has a GREAT looking alternate build. Sure, the arm is a similar function, but the rest of the vehicle looks great and completely different. I'm looking forward to trying it out when the instructions are released. The Box Top Remember what I said about the distorted front image 4 seconds ago? They used the bucket for the 1:1 sample on the top of the box! That really makes it hard to judge size for anyone not familiar with Lego and Technic in particular. The Contents 4 sets of bags, and I like that the tread links are in separate bags of their own! There's a couple extra in each, so you do still have to count (or just see what fits) but it's still nicer than having them all mixed in. The sticker sheet is nice and small. Also, there's not much yellow, which makes sense when you realize how much of the part volume goes into the arm and treads. The Build, Part 1 In an unusual move for Lego tracked vehicles, bag 1 doesn't start with the chassis. It starts at the other end and builds the arm. That's a great way to start off with the "interesting" parts. I also REALLY liked that it reaches a nice, functional point here. You can turn the two grey axle connectors and make the the arm function. That's useful to verify that you did it all right, and it gives the builder a chance to see how things work one section at a time. There are two mini-LAs here to move the arm. There's also a fake hydraulic cylinder on the end of the arm. It's made from an axle and connector, so it's all in light grey. Which made me wonder... why did Lego design the mini-LAs with the colors that they did? The piston part should be light grey and the outer body should be darker. I'm sure they did it this way to match the regular LAs, which have light grey body and a metal piston, but I'd prefer the colors be reversed. The Build, Part 2 Bag #2 adds the body of the excavator. Here's the bulk of the yellow parts, and it makes a decent shape. There's not a ton being hidden underneath. This is directly controlled - the knob on the back and one on the right side each drive a segment of the arm. The Build, Part 3 That is a lot of non-color in bag 3. Since there's no motorization or connection between the tracks and the body of the excavator, these are pretty simple. The Build, part 4 Bag 4 adds a few cosmetic parts and provides the 1x2 liiftarms and cones. I have to say, why both with the arms? They're nearly impossible to scoop up with the excavator. On the other hand, the controls on this set are easy to use and work well. It takes a reasonable amount of turns on the knobs to move the arm, and it's plenty easy for kids to use. The Driver? This is way smaller than minifig scale, but just look at that cabin! It is so well done. A big windscreen for visibility... a nice red seat... a couple control levers... and a decent panel. The Family I currently have the 42121 (2021, 569 pieces, $40), the 8294 (2008, 720 pieces, $60), and 8419 (2005, 286 pieces, $20). They all use essentially the same arm, with 2 movements (none of them have independent control of the bucket). The 42121 uses 2 knobs to directly control 2 mini-LAs. The 8294 has a single knob, run through a simple 2 position gearbox, to control two full-size LAs. 8491 uses two knobs on the rear, both driving worm gear setups, to move the arm via linkages instead of linear actuators. I find these a fascinating comparison. The first two are semi-close in part count, but 8294 is SO much bigger. I think that's due largely to simply using bigger pieces. It has fewer tread links, but it uses the large ones instead of the small ones. It has full-size LAs instead of mini. The liftarms making up the body and the arm are longer. The two yellow sets look so close in size from this angle, but are so different in part count and price. 42121 has a lot of parts used in cosmetics (the cab, a fully enclosed body, fake vents, etc). 8419 is old-school Technic. It's just an outline of the vehicle, not wasting pieces on decoration. It also used rubber tracks, saving 80+ pieces from the new version. The Reach From overhead, 42121 is clearly the mid-size of this group. It's also clearly a newer generation of Technic. Both the older sets are skeletal. The Ratings Design: 8 Build Experience: 9 Features: 7 Playability: 7 Parts/Value: 8 Overall: 8 As always, my ratings are based on the size and target market for the set. This is another nice 8+ Technic set. The build was easy but both looks and works well. This is a pretty good playable set, although I actually dinged it for including the 1x2 liftarms. They just don't work to scoop up. You have to hold them in place for the bucket to get them up. For some sets, having "material" makes sense - the cement mixer and the bucket excavator are great examples there. For these smaller sets, don't waste the piece count on that. If kids want to dig in Lego, they've probably got a box full of parts to dig in that'll work much better than a few pieces included here. Also, as usual, the tracks don't move if you're pushing it on a smooth surface (table, hard floor, etc). It needs to be on carpet for the tracks to work correctly. Despite those minor dings, I think this is a great set for its target market. This isn't meant to compete with the $100+ sets like the motorized 8043 or massive Bucket Wheel Excavator. This is a set kids will get and love. I particularly appreciate that the instructions start with building the arm and even call out to test the functionality before moving on to bag 2. That's a great user experience right there.

You shouldn't be at all embarrassed for selling instructions - Lego does it every day for much smaller sets :) And this packs in SO MUCH more detail than a similar size official set. Seriously, this is a fantastic little scene and extremely well executed.

Overall, I think the new road plates are great. I hope they come out with more add-on packs for bike lanes and sidewalks. And for kids, I think the road set including the streetlights, signs, etc is a big plus. That may be wasted parts for the AFOLs making huge layouts, but for the target market of kids, that's fantastic and doesn't add too much to the cost. On the city center, I'm not loving the overall look of the pizza/dojo building. I think the seeing-eye dog looks fantastic. I also love the mom/baby/bench/playground thing section. Again, cute, well made, and something different than the standard fire/police. On the skate park - overall, love it. I wish it didn't include the vehicle though. That seems like it doesn't fit and just increases the price. I'd rather not have it - there's TONS of similar vehicles out there. Not every set has to have a car!