tohan

I initially didn't plan to acquire the Ultra-Light Helicopter (it turns out to be quite good) or the BMW R 1200 GS Adventure (after seeing that BMW actually built the B-Model I was sold - so for the first time I actually built the B-Model first...) but I'm really glad I did. The Telehandler is fun and I liked the direction system (a nod to the kind of poor mechanism of 8295 ?). The 40 Years Car Chassis is great to build and looks really cool. I had just built the original 8860 set not two months ago and it's still as fun! If anybody's interested, I've tried to list the parts of the 40 Years Car Chassis here (please forgive / notify me of any mistakes) and I've made it into a Bricklink XML file that can be uploaded into a wanted list. Given that this 40 Years Car Chassis instructions were made available by Lego under the name 42063_40Years, can we expect a 42067 set ?

Looking back a few years, it becomes clear that 42070 is indeed the largest RC set to date at 1862 pcs. So it looks like I have to withdraw my previous comments that we could hope for a bigger surprise. Personally, I am not a huge fan of PF and even less so of RC models - I only own 41999 and 42030 and I have to admit the Crawler is a lot of fun to play with. For the same money, however, I'd much rather get the extra 600~2500 pcs. 2007: 8275 - 1384 pcs w/ PF-RC 2008: 8297 - 1097 pcs w/ PF 2009: 8258 - 1877 pcs w/ PF 2010: 8043 - 1123 pcs w/ PF-RC 2011: 8110 - 2048 pcs w/ PF 2012: 9398 - 1327 pcs w/ PF-RC 2013: 42009 - 2606 pcs w/ PF (41999 - 1585 pcs w/ PF-RC) 2014: 42030 - 1636 pcs w/ PF-RC 2015: 42043 - 2795 pcs w/ PF 2016: 42055 - 3927 pcs w/ PF 2017: 42070 - 1862 pcs w/ PF-RC

True indeed, but I stand by my statement(s)... what's been announced so far for 2017 seems sub-par compared to 2016 and I am having a hard time believing that's all there is to it, especially considering that 2017 is somewhat a special year. It maybe just that 2016 was really impressive (42054, 55 and 56 are setting the bar quite high). That's very true indeed. Still, I'll probably get these 42069 and 42070 sets as it's been a long while since anybody bought them for me... :-)

That's an interesting take on it. But then why make the 40 year Technic anniversary a 'tick' year ? Does that make sense ? I'd be disappointed if it was so. I would not like to settle for anything less impressive than the 2016 line up for 2017.

I am not familiar with Lego's sets release strategy but does it make sense that they get 10 sets on H1 and only 2 on H2 ? 42067 is not a set and 42068 was just pushed back from 2016 (so it has not been designed on the 2017 budget), that leaves only 42069 and 42070 as genuinely new H2 sets for 2017. Correct me if I'm wrong, but 2015 had 4 sets (42040, 41, 42 and 43) on H2 and 2016 had also 4 sets (42053, 54, 55 and 56), so even if I know the number of sets are not the same every year, I would still expect no less than 4 sets and frankly, I would expect that the 40 years anniversary would warrant some extra budget to make that product line shine a tad more than usual (and I really hope that extra was not all spent on the 3L anniversary liftarm!) so 5 sets wouldn't be surprising. So I'd say there is definitely room for at least 2 more sets: a real flagship (with pcs count > 2,500) and a second set in the Ultimate serie ?

Whilst I do not dislike the set, I completely agree with you - as I remarked a few pages ago - that it certainly does not look the part as the 2017 flagship. I remain certain (or should I say wishfully optimistic) that Lego has more up their sleeve. I just cannot believe the 40 year anniversary flagship will be a 1862 pcs set. No way. As for 42067, I really like the idea of the tribute to 8860. We need more of these (I hope there are more in store) and I wouldn't be against a fully updated tribute as well. I would love to see a full scale modern version of 8860, 8865, 8868, 8880. 8480...

I am not sure Lego has enough staff on the Technic product line to attend all toy fairs. Furthermore, it may seem like high treason to a hardcore fan but I think 90% if not more of customers are casual consumers and I think most won't care for a misplaced/missing element on a model (that may come from hundreds of careless manipulations by eager fans on the stand). They may also elect to display beta stage sets so as to give us enough sense of what's coming and still keep the juiciest details hidden from prying eyes. As for showing the functions, I for one, am also happy to keep a little bit of surprise for when I might build the actual model. Seeing too much of the details and the functions kills the joy of discovering them as you build it - which is what is so fun about Lego Technic in the first place for me.

Nicely spotted! They are mounted backwards indeed, but that's easy to fix! The teddy bear on the other hand looks much less badass without the eyepatch it has on the box cover and that's a shame...

I totally second this! I am biased here as I own the 8860 and it remains one of my favorite sets just because it was beyond amazing at the time I got it and it still is fun to build and play with... It is a really nice gesture and a very much appreciated nod to older fans to bring it back somehow. I also wish they did more of the models combos, that is a very nice way to give new breathing life to smaller sets. Personally, I was only going to buy the 42061 Telehandler but now that I've seen this, I am totally going for 42057 and 42063 as well! Nice move Lego! And rest assured you will also get my money if you release a fully updated remake of the 8860! So don't be shy. As for the rest, I am surprised at the color scheme of 42069 but it already grew on me since I first saw it (that was yesterday). I didn't want to buy 42038 as it didn't feel interesting to me but then I somehow did and I must admit I found the build surprisingly fun and interesting and the model does look good. So I wouldn't discount 42069 already. I think 42070 makes a (very) nice set as well but I somehow doubt that this will be the definitive flagship for 2017. Not at 1862 pcs. Not after 42054, 42055 and 42056! There has to be more in store... and I certainly wish the "Ultimate" series was only getting started last year.