All of this talk among reviewers about Technic vs looks is missing the point: this could have easily been marketed as a licensed Technic set and nobody would bat an eye, but by including the minifigs they can tap into the Dune movie fan base who aren't necessarily Lego collectors, as well as the Icons collectors. I'd personally love if we could "normalize" these hybrid sets because it's obviously the future for quite a lot of more mechanical Lego designs.
@@grohl666same. Not a minifigure AFOL. I do mainly big stand alone builds, usually vehicles, be they technic or system or both. As is the case with this set and the Land Rover Defender! For me getting the minifigures was a good thing, if this had been a purely technic set it would’ve still been quite costly. But with the figures I can move them on and get a bit of a return on the set and still have an awesome build!
I bought this and I'm really impressed by the design. Mike Psiaki is one of my favorite designers. My only complaint is the 2x3 plate by the triggerr that flaps the wings. I replaced all the red hitch balls and 2L axles and the finish is much better. These were odd, but not a deal breakrer.
I love this set so much. I personally exchanged every blue, red and yellow pin and axle to a black one. It adds a bit more to the visuals. The black 3 stud long pins went up in price, damn :D
You know Lego could easily just manufacture the black 3L pins and include an extra bag for people who care about the looks of their display sets. Why this part is "color locked" and parts like gears can get recolored (e.g. yellow 28T gears for 42168) is beyond logic. The 2L axles in black are even included in this set and tow ball pins in black or grey bushes are also still in production. Since BL resellers and indirectly Lego takes advantage of the phased out black 3L pins, I wouldn't have any issues buying the black pins from the competitors at a fraction of the price of original LEGO. They even produce 4L pins, something that Lego doesn't even have, but would be very useful. Oh, and their axles and pins are kept in black, grey or tan only.
While I can (kind of) understand that the color coding of axles, pins etc. is not going away even if I wish very much for it I can't understand the usage of bright colored liftarms and other parts that are clearly visible from the outside. This is marketed as a 18+ set so everyone in the target audience should be able to build this thing without the color mess.
Lol! :) I still remember my first technic set (The great 8849 Tractor from 1986). 8 years old me was really struggling with the build, but I was so proud when I finally managed to complete it I still remember it today. 350 parts on only 14pages, those were the times of hardship! @@grohl666
Thanks for this informative review. Any chance Mike wants to join the Technic team? Can we make donations for bribery? ;) These are some next level Technic functions. I mean, I know he is the master of LEGO geometry in Creator Expert, but didn't think he can make even better Technic sets. And let's be real, if this hadn't have minifigures, it would be released under Technic. I see the trend is also going towards using more System pieces for detailing, probably starting with the Daytona. All in all an excellent set and the perfect synergy between the two worlds. But there are some things I really don't like about this set: 1. The lack of a set number on the instructions. This trend has to stop, as it makes managing large collections really difficult. It's also not consistent, most sets have it written, while a few sets from Icons don't for some unknown reason. It's bad enough that all the beautiful artwork got deleted making it even more difficult to find the right instruction from a pile. 2. The unicorn colored parts visible from the outside. I don't mind having these hidden in the inside to make the building process easier, but why are red, blue, yellow, tan, white parts still exposed like this in an all black and dark grey model? I'm surprised lime, azure, teal and pink were not used as well. And saying you can easily swap out these parts is not an argument, because that would mean spending even more money on a product that already has a premium price. 3. I see a stability issue with the rear landing leg that holds probably 60% of the models weight and those system pieces are stressed all the time. The lower wedge plate will come loose, I have seen it partially detached in other reviews already. A similar issue occurs in the UCS X-Wing with the 2x2 slopes. 4. Also a quality issue I see is because of the sheer length of these rotor blades, some come already pre-bent out of the package, while some seem to be fairly straight (visible even on the box art). Saw this in the other reviews too. Keeping the model on the shelf will make them bend even more, if not even develop stress marks at the attachment points. So customers will have to swap the blades out between L and R every year or so to let them bend back in the other direction.
All of this talk among reviewers about Technic vs looks is missing the point: this could have easily been marketed as a licensed Technic set and nobody would bat an eye, but by including the minifigs they can tap into the Dune movie fan base who aren't necessarily Lego collectors, as well as the Icons collectors. I'd personally love if we could "normalize" these hybrid sets because it's obviously the future for quite a lot of more mechanical Lego designs.
True, but the minifigs as I said are simply not a deal breaker for me. Nice to have but not crucial.
@@grohl666same. Not a minifigure AFOL. I do mainly big stand alone builds, usually vehicles, be they technic or system or both. As is the case with this set and the Land Rover Defender! For me getting the minifigures was a good thing, if this had been a purely technic set it would’ve still been quite costly. But with the figures I can move them on and get a bit of a return on the set and still have an awesome build!
I bought this and I'm really impressed by the design. Mike Psiaki is one of my favorite designers. My only complaint is the 2x3 plate by the triggerr that flaps the wings. I replaced all the red hitch balls and 2L axles and the finish is much better. These were odd, but not a deal breakrer.
Thank you for this great review ! For me it is the best lego technic set so far in 2024.
Noted 😀
I love this set so much. I personally exchanged every blue, red and yellow pin and axle to a black one. It adds a bit more to the visuals. The black 3 stud long pins went up in price, damn :D
By quite a lot unfortunately.
Wow, you can literally buy almost 1400 blue ones for the price of a black one.
I was lucky to have some "donor" sets for them. And people laugh when you freak out while vacuuming up a piece. 😀 This almost cost me 2 euros ma'am! 😀
You know Lego could easily just manufacture the black 3L pins and include an extra bag for people who care about the looks of their display sets. Why this part is "color locked" and parts like gears can get recolored (e.g. yellow 28T gears for 42168) is beyond logic. The 2L axles in black are even included in this set and tow ball pins in black or grey bushes are also still in production. Since BL resellers and indirectly Lego takes advantage of the phased out black 3L pins, I wouldn't have any issues buying the black pins from the competitors at a fraction of the price of original LEGO. They even produce 4L pins, something that Lego doesn't even have, but would be very useful. Oh, and their axles and pins are kept in black, grey or tan only.
@@MokiSenpai I have over 500 in my sets!
Mega!
Very nice piece! What size it is when folded ?
It occupies as much space as a larger glass bottle
While I can (kind of) understand that the color coding of axles, pins etc. is not going away even if I wish very much for it I can't understand the usage of bright colored liftarms and other parts that are clearly visible from the outside. This is marketed as a 18+ set so everyone in the target audience should be able to build this thing without the color mess.
And yet they Are not
Lol! :) I still remember my first technic set (The great 8849 Tractor from 1986). 8 years old me was really struggling with the build, but I was so proud when I finally managed to complete it I still remember it today. 350 parts on only 14pages, those were the times of hardship! @@grohl666
Thanks for this informative review. Any chance Mike wants to join the Technic team? Can we make donations for bribery? ;) These are some next level Technic functions. I mean, I know he is the master of LEGO geometry in Creator Expert, but didn't think he can make even better Technic sets. And let's be real, if this hadn't have minifigures, it would be released under Technic. I see the trend is also going towards using more System pieces for detailing, probably starting with the Daytona.
All in all an excellent set and the perfect synergy between the two worlds. But there are some things I really don't like about this set:
1. The lack of a set number on the instructions. This trend has to stop, as it makes managing large collections really difficult. It's also not consistent, most sets have it written, while a few sets from Icons don't for some unknown reason. It's bad enough that all the beautiful artwork got deleted making it even more difficult to find the right instruction from a pile.
2. The unicorn colored parts visible from the outside. I don't mind having these hidden in the inside to make the building process easier, but why are red, blue, yellow, tan, white parts still exposed like this in an all black and dark grey model? I'm surprised lime, azure, teal and pink were not used as well. And saying you can easily swap out these parts is not an argument, because that would mean spending even more money on a product that already has a premium price.
3. I see a stability issue with the rear landing leg that holds probably 60% of the models weight and those system pieces are stressed all the time. The lower wedge plate will come loose, I have seen it partially detached in other reviews already. A similar issue occurs in the UCS X-Wing with the 2x2 slopes.
4. Also a quality issue I see is because of the sheer length of these rotor blades, some come already pre-bent out of the package, while some seem to be fairly straight (visible even on the box art). Saw this in the other reviews too. Keeping the model on the shelf will make them bend even more, if not even develop stress marks at the attachment points. So customers will have to swap the blades out between L and R every year or so to let them bend back in the other direction.
Any ideas for an alt build?
I think I will leave this model as it is. I still have not touched 42157 which I have plans for.
@@grohl666 cool :)