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LEGO 42108 Technic Mobile Crane Truck Toy, Construction Vehicles Building Set

£9.9£99Clearance
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The blue seats provide some welcome contrast to the body colour, as indeed they have in nearly every yellow crane released. But here is what actually makes things looking sad: while the rear outriggers can be activated by turning gears, it’s amazingly hard to pull out the front ones since there are no gears, handles, or hooks. Actually, there is one red pin with a joint ball inserted into each leg, but because of how tiny the pieces are, only kids will find it useful and playable.

LEGO® Technic™ pieces are tested to the extreme to create toy building sets that meet the highest global safety and quality standards. Great news if you're looking for the best gifts for a LEGO fan. Construction toys need to be tough. So, it's good to know LEGO® Technic™ sets meet the highest industry quality controls. That means building kits that connect easily every time. It looks great and does everything a model of a crane should. The functions work fairly well, with the exception of the front outriggers, which are a bit fiddly. It would have been nice to have them controlled from a single point but I concede that the model is not big enough to fit the required mechanism in.Mobile Crane is the latest. It's a mid-priced set that looks realistic but not overly-complicated. Let's find out if that's the case... Jib operation -- The three wheels poking out the side of the jib body operate the boom. The lone one on the left extends it, the front right one is geared to the linear actuator and raises and lowers it. The rear right one winds the string in and out to raise and lower the hook. It didn’t take us long to realize that we got a toy with very arguable playability and limited functions. This is absolutely not what we expect from a medium-priced product. Some will say that you can easily upgrade the model using your own pieces and turn it into a capable construction machine, but is it really what we expect from a LEGO toy? The sleek appearance is marred slightly by the ugly great control knobs protruding from the sides but they could be replaced with something more discreet should you wish. Open up a whole new world of building fun for LEGO® fans young and old with LEGO Technic™. With cool vehicle designs and awesome functions, the fun goes on long after the model is built.

There's plenty to learn about engineering and movement with this cool building toy. 8-wheel steering, 4 individually controlled outriggers, 2 cabins and super-high telescopic arm all add up to create an awesome crane! That, and the one to extend the boom have ratchets to prevent the string being pulled out and the boom from retracting on its own. The latter is totally superfluous: it just gets in the way and makes operation difficult, and the one on the string isn't really necessary either because there's enough friction there already. The mobile crane as a toy concept is an amazingly playable thing. It combines so many children’s favorite play features that it is almost impossible to play the wrong card releasing such a building set. Almost. Any child will be let down if anything doesn’t work right! Let’s put the model to the test and see whether it is up to the mark. Cranes provide plenty of scope for playability and functionality so it's no wonder that they have been a staple of the Technic assortment since the early years of the theme. Criticizing any part of my favorite hobby always makes me sad at heart, but another test reveals more flaws in terms of the set’s playability. Because of the model’s very modest size and weight, its lifting capacity leaves a lot to be desired. What is more ridiculous, the model carries a wonderfully designed extending boom, but it’s simply too heavy for the chassis; at certain angles, it can easily tip over the whole vehicle. This is when you discover that the outriggers are merely decorative, while the buildable pillar included in the set is the only cargo suitable for the mobile crane.

Playability

You don’t have to be a keen LEGO enthusiast to notice that every LEGO product eventually finds its audience. Although the new LEGO Technic 42108 Mobile Crane is definitely not the most playable toy of this year’s lineup, it doesn’t make it an entirely terrible product. As was mentioned above, this model will be a solid choice for any LEGO Technic beginner and is also full of excellent Technic elements. And even if young builders will be disappointed with the new model, at least they will learn how not to engineer mobile cranes.

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