Your Top 5 LEGO Technic Sets Of All Time

[Paul B Technic]

Have we ever done a post of our top 5 LEGO Technic sets of all time and why? If not, lets do it:

1. Limited to sets you have owned / built.
2. Any format you like, video, photos, just a list.
3. Discussions on what sets you like and why is encouraged :)

Mine: 

 

[Zerobricks]

Here's a few topics on that theme:

 

[SNIPE]

42110

42128

42043

42083/42115

42009 just barely wins out over 8258

Edited May 19 by SNIPE

[recovering_from_dark_ages]

I think there are a few threads on this already (such as this one, this one, this one on Reddit, and others), but I'll bite since I hadn't yet discovered MOC alt builds on Rebrickable when I replied to a few of those threads. Here's my subjective overall ranking, accounting for each set's official Lego builds as well as its quality and quantity of alternate builds on Rebrickable that require no extra parts:

1. 42100 Liebherr R 9800: this giant remote controlled excavator is the Technic set with the most ever pieces (4108), motors (7), and remote controlled functions (7). In addition, the set is programmable in two ways. You can program and replay sequences of excavator movements in the official model via the set's default Control+ interface. Additionally, you can build arbitrary remote control interfaces for any set of your imagination using the Powered Up app. Although there are Technic sets with a higher quantity of MOC alt builds with 500+ likes on Rebrickable, 42100 yields a large and incredibly diverse range of remote controlled MOCs such as its Johnny 5, R2-D2, bulldozer, snow groomer, combine harvester, backhoe, and Wall-E alt builds. 42100 is the modern (and imo superior) successor to programmable sets like the Lego Mindstorms series and the 8485 and 8479 Technic sets. It's the first and most full-functioned Lego set to ever combine programmability with remote control. And not only that - afaik it's the first Lego set to ever be programmable in Python, thanks to PyBricks.
2. 42043 Mercedes Arocs 3245: this dump truck with crane replica has the most functions of any official Technic set ever. Combining motorized and pneumatic functions (including a motorized pump) with 4WD, 4-wheel steering, suspension, doors, a tilting cab, double rear tires, and a gearbox in an authentic replica of a real Mercedes truck is fantastic. This set is the superior successor to the legendary 8868 Air Tech Claw Rig and 8110 Unimog sets in every way, and has more functions than both.
3. 8480 Space Shuttle: Lego Technic's epic space shuttle set features a function distribution gearbox and two motors, plus fiber optics (featured in only two Technic sets ever). You get Lego Technic's best ever official spacecraft/aircraft build as the A model and its best ever official marine build as the B model, if "best" means "highest number of functions".
4. 42082 Rough Terrain Crane: this motorized crane has the second-most parts (4056) of any Technic set ever. While 42110 and 42098 both have a greater number of popular MOC's, 42082 is imo the only set that is comparable to 42100 in the quality and diversity of its MOC alt builds. In addition to its official crane build that is roughly tied with 42009 as the top-rated of many Lego Technic crane sets, you get a submarine that easily tops any Lego Technic official watercraft build including the 8480 B-model. And you get an improved version of the official Lego Technic 42054 CLAAS Xerion 5000 tractor set, featuring many attachments compatible with that original set. You also get a truck that is similar to 42043's A-model but has even more functions, plus arguably the best ever Technic forklift. With some additional parts, you can also build an improved and fully remote controlled version of the A-model, featuring 42054's three steering modes selectable via Technic's non-programmable Power Functions remote control setup; no other Power Functions remote control build has more functions afaik.
5. 8455 Back-Hoe: this backhoe is the highest-rated Technic set of all time on brickset and it's the Technic set with the most-ever pneumatic functions and the most functions per piece, of all Technic sets ever. It's a marvel of Technic engineering, packing 10 functions into a dense build of just 704 pieces. I very nearly listed a supercar here instead of 8455, given the popularity of Technic's many supercars over the years. The 42115 Lamborghini Sian from 2020 is my personal favorite because it has the most functions of all Technic supercars. Meanwhile, of all Technic supercars, the beloved 8880 "Super Car" set from 1994 has the highest average rating on Brickset and the most functions per piece, while the 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS is best for MOC alt builds. 42115 and 42056 are part of Lego's series of five replica supercars, the first four of which amusingly all have the wrong number of gears and paddle shifters that shift in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, 8880 lacks a reverse gear or openable side doors, and has just 4 speeds. Lego Technic's many Formula 1 cars (e.g. 8674, 8461, 42171, and 42207) have even fewer features than the supercars, lacking proper gearboxes. In light of those engineering flaws, I listed 8455 here instead of any supercar. 8043 could easily take 8455's place here (see below).

If you have very limited space and want to get a sampling of almost all Lego Technic functions ever created, the above sets (and their MOCs) nearly give you that. The only functions you'd be missing would be the Power Functions (PF) remote control interface and Power Functions lights. To get both of those with an off-the-shelf Lego set, you could replace 8455 with the remote controlled (slow) 41999 4x4 Crawler set, since all of 8455's functions are featured in other sets on this list. Alternatively, if you don't care about the PF lights, you could instead buy the 8043 Motorized Excavator, which has the most remote controlled functions of any official Power Functions build but partly duplicates 42100's excavator functionality. Or you could get the 42030 Volvo L350F Wheel Loader, which is the highest-rated of all remote controlled Power Functions sets on brickset and has an RC alt build that is quite possibly the best ever Technic telehandler. Arguably the best (but most expensive) choice would be to purchase the additional parts for the fully remote controlled version of 42082 and optionally add PF lights to it; you'd then have the remote controlled PF set with the most ever functions.

EDIT 2025/5/23: Consolidated this post and corrected it to rank 5 sets

Edited May 24 by recovering_from_dark_ages

[Erik Leppen]

I'm going to limit myself to sets I built (I have skipped quite a few sets that could be considered great, such as 42009...) and to studless sets (we all know the best sets from the studded era... 8880 supercar, 8480 space shuttle, 8868 air tech claw rig and my persional favorite set ever, 8460 mobile crane) and in no particular order:

• 8110 Unimog - was a super fun set to build, cool functions, interesting suspension system, one of the better studless models, cool parts (orange was rare back then), pneumatics.
• 8421 Mobile crane - I love cranes in general, nice array of functions, driven by motor that was part of the set (not optional), some interesting solutions, nice double-acting boom extension.
• 42054 Claas Xerion tractor - great looks and great functions. A raelly interesting steering mode selector, interesting to build.
• 8043 Excavator - LOTS of functions in a relatively small space, dense build, interesting to build, interesting switching setup, lots of gears, showed the use of linear actuators perfectly, and a decent size (not overly large)
• 8258 Crane Truck - Lots of gear-driven functions, large impressive truck, complex folding crane, super fun to build, and the set that best utilized the 5x7 and 5x11 frames which were then new.

Especially the Unimog and the crane were sets I was thrilled about when I finally bought them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 19 by Erik Leppen

[Amt0571]

1. 42043

2. 42082

3. 8880

4. 8043

5. 42054

[Stormyy]

From studded era:

1. 8868

2. 8865

3. 8860

4. 8485

5. 8094

Mixed era: 

1. 8448

2. 8466

Studless:

1. 8043

2. 42042

3. 8455

4. 42043

5. 42100

Bonus: big Cada Hummer

[recovering_from_dark_ages]

17 hours ago, Stormyy said:

From studded era:

1. 8868

2. 8865

3. 8860

4. 8485

5. 8094

Mixed era: 

1. 8448

2. 8466

Studless:

1. 8043

2. 42042

3. 8455

4. 42043

5. 42100

Bonus: big Cada Hummer

This is a great set of Lego sets. How would you rank the top 5 of them overall?

8448 was my first Technic supercar and my favorite Lego set as a kid. My friend got 8466 soon afterwards and then we switched to video games before 8455 came out. I was an adult by the time other Technic greats like 8043, 42043, and 42100 came out and fortunately I've rediscovered them now. As cool as it is, my controversial opinion is that 8043 has been mostly obsolete after 42100 came out, since you can program 42100 in Python and build much better MOCs with it. But 8043 has one of the all-time highest densities of functions per piece of any Technic set or MOC, along with 8455, 8868, and the 42100 snow groomer MOC, which all have even more functions per piece.

On 5/19/2025 at 4:27 PM, Erik Leppen said:

I'm going to limit myself to sets I built (I have skipped quite a few sets that could be considered great, such as 42009...) and to studless sets (we all know the best sets from the studded era... 8880 supercar, 8480 space shuttle, 8868 air tech claw rig and my persional favorite set ever, 8460 mobile crane) and in no particular order:

...

Why limit this to studless sets? What would be your all time top 5 Technic list if you included all Technic sets (and maybe Rebrickable MOCs, if you want)?

Edited May 24 by recovering_from_dark_ages

[allanp]

Best subjectively (including nostalgia, childhood excitement and consideration of what came before it) or objectively (trying to ignore nostalgia, innovation and all that)?

For example, I would subjectively rank the Bugatti Chiron higher that the Sian because the Bugatti had much more innovation, and personally I value innovation very highly. The Sian was kind of just a refinement of the Bugatti. However, objectively I'd rank the Sian higher than the Bugatti. While the Sian didn't represent the same leap forward in innovation, it was more refined and so objectively better.

Subjectively:

1) 8880 (considering that the auto chassis before it was the test car which I loved, 8880 was a huuuuuuuuuuge, nearly incomprehensible leap forward at the time)

2) AROCS!!!!

3) 8868

4) 8480 space shuttle 

5) Control center 2

Almost made the list 8455

Objectively:

1) AROCS!!! It really is objectively the best so far. Not content with having awesome pneumatics, it also had a host of other goodies such as two suspended and driven rear axles with dually tyres, two suspended and steered live axles at the front and a proper (not cam style) inline 6 engine at the front. There's still plenty of opportunities to make something better but as of 2025, the Arocs is still the king. 42100 would have been here or even the new Volvo demolition excavator if they was RC pneumatic with physical remote and not dependent on third party smart devices. 

2) 8455. 7 powerful and authentic pneumatic functions all controlled from the cab (no twiddling knobs right next to the function here), steering and working engine. More functionality and authenticity than the vast majority of sets with a part count way under 1000 pieces. Who said studless sets necessarily need to have more pieces than studded sets? It's pure concentrated goodness!

3) This one is hard, 8880 or the McLaren P1. Really? Yes! The P1 is arguably the latest and most advanced supercar yet with 7 real speeds (as in not 4 speeds multiplied by another 4 speeds giving 16 speeds but 8 are the same as another 8 so it's like an 8 speed gearbox but not really by going through 2 gearboxes like the Bugatti/Sian/Ferrari) and the most sizes of clutch gear to date using new gearbox parts and all that good stuff. However the steering is still poor and the steering wheel still points straight forward instead of angling up towards the driver and despite being handed all these lovely new gearbox parts, the designer still made the gearbox still way more overly complicated and incomprehensible. A real gearbox usually only has two main shafts, get it right! 8880 on the other hand had much better feeling steering with it's steering arms having Ackermann geometry and better leverage as they are longer. Also, it's 4 position H shifter is still by far the best gear change mechanism, as opposed to the modern paddle shifters that feel like they're going to break and doesn't let you know what gear you're in. However, 8880 does only have 4 speeds, and only 1 size of clutch gear, and unrealistically it uses 2 shocks per wheel, and the wheel hubs have a ton of friction, and the old 14t bevel gears used to break. So, as this is the purely objective list (where I have chosen to ignore personal feelings of nostalgia, innovation compared to past sets and so on), I'm actually going to choose the P1 over 8880! But just like with the Arocs, there's still many ways to make something even better by quite a ways yet.

4)  Another tricky one so again I'm going to cheat by picking 2 similarly themed sets. Control centre 2 and the barcode truck. Not every Technic set has to be mechanically authentic. They can also be programmable and all that good stuff. Both control center 2 and the barcode truck represents this done right! No need for any dependency on smart devices and all the negative aspects that come with them (such as kids spending too much time looking at screens, smart devices becoming obsolete long before any Lego set that depends on them should become obsolete and a billion other things). Both of these sets can also be considered universal sets, with each set having instructions for multiple models.

5) 8064 universal set. All previous picks have been flagships, but 8064 is the very essence of what a smaller Technic set should be. Being a small set, you don't expect too much authenticity. What you do get is a simple ungeared motor and battery box, a bunch of different gears and belt drives, a bunch of studded Technic parts that's easier than studless to MOC with and instructions to build 4 different models showcasing a nice variety of gear/belt driven mechanisms. With no internal gearing in the motor, nothing is done for you. You get to build every last mechanism and every last bit of gear reduction yourself. As a small, inexpensive and studded universal set, I can think of no better first Technic set.

 

[TeamThrifty]

 

42043 Arocs.. Technic through and through. Zero faff, feels modular and makes sense as you build. Close to perfect.

Where's the love for 42055 BWE. Pure technic as it was meant to be. Massive, Majestic and full of functions. Sprockets and UJ and axles and gearboxes everywhere.. In many ways this Technics finest hour. Doesn't get the love it deserves. 

42131 Cat D11.. Another perfect technic building experience. No repetition, faff or fiddle.

8258 Crane truck, first set after the dark ages. 

8110 unimog, again, no faff or fiddle, solid technic build.

Honourable mention, 851.. Where it all started for me. 

Biggest disappointment, 42054 Claas. Endless faff and fiddle building meaningless section that were just random pieces. I'm a massive tractor fan and this failed on so many levels. One trick pony - steering. Such a shame.

Edited May 25 by TeamThrifty

[Jockos]

1 hour ago, TeamThrifty said:

 

42043 Arocs.. Technic through and through. Zero faff, feels modular and makes sense as you build. Close to perfect.

Where's the love for 42055 BWE. Pure technic as it was meant to be. Massive, Majestic and full of functions. Sprockets and UJ and axles and gearboxes everywhere.. In many ways this Technics finest hour. Doesn't get the love it deserves. 

42131 Cat D11.. Another perfect technic building experience. No repetition, faff or fiddle.

8258 Crane truck, first set after the dark ages. 

8110 unimog, again, no faff or fiddle, solid technic build.

Honourable mention, 851.. Where it all started for me. 

Biggest disappointment, 42054 Claas. Endless faff and fiddle building meaningless section that were just random pieces. I'm a massive tractor fan and this failed on so many levels. One trick pony - steering. Such a shame.

I can agree with your favourites. 4 of the first 5 sets you mentioned was designed by Markus who is unarguably one of the most talented Technic designers in my opinion.

My favourite Technic sets in no particular order are:

42043

42056

42100

8258

42009

(Yes, I like Uwe's models, too :) )

[TeamThrifty]

25 minutes ago, Jockos said:

4 of the first 5 sets you mentioned was designed by Markus

I didn't know that.. thats interesting! Hopefully he's got something for 2025, looks poor so far.

[ralphie]

8865 Test Car

42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle - LRV

8109 Flatbed Truck, the bed functions are just amazing

8832 Roadster, so basic, so good

42008 Service Truck, nice dense design

[thekoRngear]

42110

My first set after coming out of dark age. Bought another one and since then I have been modifying it

42145

Damn those rotor blade techniques

42043

My dream Technic set

8880

My childhood dream set. Finally grabbed it

8868

For its time it showed amazing performance

Bonus: 41999

It's one of its kind and I think it's high time Lego released another fan made one with strong collaboration (and I doubt it happen again)