What is the hardest Lego set you have ever built?

[SharkMan]

Im just wondering so what? Whats the hardest lego set you've ever built?

[WesternOutlaw]

SharkMan: I think this topic is better suited in the General Discussion forum. Topic has been moved.

[Siegfried]

8455 backhoe. While not as hard as I heard it was, all the horror stories made me extra careful!

SharkMan: I think this topic is better suited in the General Discussion forum. Topic has been moved.

You beat me to it! LEGO Wargames and Mafia Games did seem a bit wrong...

[Commander Flash]

The motorized AT-AT. I myself am not a Technic guy by any means, so this was very difficult. Once completed, I thought: "Nice! Its done and I get to see it walk!" and i happily turned it on to the horrible crunching noise of bricks coming undone. I rebuilt, and it still doesn't walk. So much for that

[SharkMan]

The motorized AT-AT. I myself am not a Technic guy by any means, so this was very difficult. Once completed, I thought: "Nice! Its done and I get to see it walk!" and i happily turned it on to the horrible crunching noise of bricks coming undone. I rebuilt, and it still doesn't walk. So much for that

Yes, I heard its hard to build and sure sounds like a pain to move it around since it breaks into pieces like that... :(

[Tereglith]

4504 Millenium Falcon. Not only is this the biggest set that I have ever had (pitiful, isn't it?), I also got it when I was about eight. It took me forever to build it, especially since the rounded construction is connected through some rather precarious SNOT and the entire thing is on four relatively small (yet still butt-ugly) landing gear that are difficult to put on without breaking it again.

[UsernameMDM]

The large Christmas Tree in Winter Toy Shop was a pain in the butt to put together.

[Oky]

How in the world did you ever think this would belong into the war/mafia games forum?! Nice topic though.

For me it would have to be the Mindstorms Ultimate Builders Set plotter model. Man, that was some complicated stuff! Technic is always hard to build, partly due to the fact that most of the parts are just rods, pins, and beams. But this one used some pretty advanced techniques and pneumatic, and you had to cut the tubes to the right length and everything.

The UCS X-Wing was hard too since it had no numbered bags and so many small bits and pieces.

@ Tereglith: Yes, I pity you, fool! JK

Edited January 31, 2010 by Oky Wan Kenobi

[Piranha]

Batcave, by far, took me like 6hrs

Normally I'm fine with long builds but this was just frustrating.

Numbered bags anyone?

[MrTools]

Batcave, by far, took me like 6hrs

Normally I'm fine with long builds but this was just frustrating.

Numbered bags anyone?

Oh my gosh i remember when i opened the box and saw all those bags and no numbering! I had to use my dining room table and half the time was so frustrated finding parts i just went and got rhem out of my collection in the other room.

So now that i remember the batcave, I'm going to have to vote on it. (UCS Batmobile was pretty hard too)

[Darth Hawken]

I would have to say the first At-AT walker that took a while with no numbering on the bags and having to build four legs is exausting

Yet it was a great set for half off

[JCC1004]

Mine was probably 10198 Tantive IV. The main reason was probably it was about 10 o'clock at night and I was quite worn out. Also the repetition got boring and I didn't realize that some bags had the same parts and put the contents of one bag on the left side of my dining table and the other on the right side.

Edited January 31, 2010 by JCC1004

[Steel Dragon]

The large Christmas Tree in Winter Toy Shop was a pain in the butt to put together.

Agreed.

For me, the hardest set I've ever attempted was the Technic Darth Vader. At the time I had done exactly zero Technic builds, so you can see where I would have difficulty.

Hardest set I've ever completed? Probably... I remember the Insectoid falgship thing was pretty tough. I'll get bback to this once I've looked through all my old boxes.

[CP5670]

I would say the 8002 Destroyer Droid. The instructions are actually wrong in many places and the set came with a separate correction manual with about 12 pages. The mechanism is very unusual and several people on Brickset have had trouble building it, especially since it relies on the careful placement of many rubber bands. Unlike most Technic sets, you don't get a good feel for how it's supposed to work until the model is nearly finished.

8455 backhoe. While not as hard as I heard it was, all the horror stories made me extra careful!

I think 8868 is actually trickier despite having fewer pneumatics, since you have less space to route the tubes and need to set them up exactly right for them to reach the pistons and for the turntable to move smoothly.

8865 also deserves a mention because of how compressed its instructions are. Step 18 with its 144 pieces has been mentioned around here before.

Edited January 31, 2010 by CP5670

[legomaniac83]

For me, it was the 8421 Mobile Crane, and I think it was also my longest build at around 7 hours. I don't think it was that hard of a build, but it was my first pneumatic set, so took my time more than anything.

Cheers.

[ILikePi]

The most difficult LEGO set I've ever build has got to be the Technic Hailfire Droid. You build one section of the wheels, then you turn the page and it shows "2x"! Each wheel build very lengthy, so it's really frustrating that you have to make two exact copies of the same thing.

[Destroydacre]

I wouldn't say any Lego set that I've built (over 400) has ever been hard, but there were some that weren't very interesting. The UCS Star Destroyer and Death Star II were both fairly boring, although the completed models are wonderful to look at. I didn't think the walking AT-AT was too bad, but sometimes those axles don't want to slide into their slots. My thumbs get kind of sore after a little while pushing on them over and over. I thought I'd be the first to mention the Hailfire Droid, but Pi beat me to it. I do remember that one taking quite awhile for only a 600 piece set or whatever it was. I can't think of any other sets at the moment that were particularly difficult.

Edited January 31, 2010 by Destroydacre

[gladiator]

for me

the hardest lego set I have ever built was 8421.

It was the second technic set for me after nitro intimidator. I need almost 24 hours and failed built for the first time correctly.

[Legostein]

Hello!

As I don't have many sets, the choice iw quite easy. It's the huge 10030 UCS Star Destroyer for me. While not particularly difficult to build it was exhausting nonetheless because of the tremendously thick instruction booklet.

Cheers,

~ Christopher

[Sergiu]

For me the hardest LEGO set I have ever built was the 8421 Mobile Crane. It took me almost one and a half days to complete, but the build was great and it would have been even better if the bags weren't numbered.

[RileyC]

Mine was the Battle of Endor because I dislocated my shoulder so I was building it with My left arm (I'm right handed). I got through it in a few hours which I think was pretty good.

[CP5670]

For me the hardest LEGO set I have ever built was the 8421 Mobile Crane. It took me almost one and a half days to complete, but the build was great and it would have been even better if the bags weren't numbered.

I found 8421 tricky because my copy was defective. The string it came with was slightly too thick and wouldn't unwind smoothly, and I spent a couple of days trying to determine the problem. I only found the issue after comparing it with the strings in other Technic sets like 8460, and called TLG for a replacement.

[Sumendar]

It's not completed yet, but I'm building the 8880 from spare parts just to see it working, and I could swear that at some places the building order in the instructions is actually either impossible or would require twisting axles and other parts way past my comfort limit. Also had some "fun" time with 8860's gearbox, but I think that was because the gears were a REALLY tight fit on the axles, and thus really hard to move "just a bit". The old sets, even bigger ones like castles, where there's no part call-outs, just a huge game of "spot-the-difference", are not hard per se, but can get a bit tedious at times.

[no_skill]

I was about to agree with the 7191 UCS X-Wing (even after sorting the bricks it was difficult) until someone else brought up the 8002 Destroyer Droid...I think the Destroyer may be the winner in my book.

In 1975 when I was a kid, the 565 Moon Landing gave me fits. At the time it was the most complex build I had undertaken (I was 7 year old) and the old-school lego instructions were not very easy to read and follow.

[THE-FORCE]

The tree in the Medival Market, I was getting tired of that set just because the tree fell apart time after time.

But the second Boba's Slave 1 (the one with 5 figures) was hard because the bottom fell apart every time!

Nice topic by the way!