[HELP] Which Technic Set Should I Buy?

[GBTechnic]

On 9/15/2016 at 3:16 PM, Huaojozu said:

My question, can I reliably expect all 2015 sets to still be available in 2017? If not, what are the 42030s of 2015 (i.e. buy before the price skyrockets)? I am assuming the Arocs?

Aside from 42039 which you already own, I think that these three will become valuable over time:

42042 - crawler crane

42043 - Arocs 

42040 - Fire Plane

The Arocs because it's the flagship model and it is a great parts pack for newer AFOL folks who don't want to pay high prices for the Unimog.  I have been into Lego Technic for almost a year and I would strongly recommend the fire plane and crawler crane as the two to get aside from the Arocs and 24 hour racer.  Cranes are extremely popular and blue parts are rarer but it is also a very excellent build and is a ton of fun to modify/improve.  i now own about 23 sets and the fire plane is easily a top 3 model for me.  It's an ingenious build, very playable, has a lot of panels to give it a great finished look and it's probably the best bargain of all the 2015 sets aside from the Crawler Crane.

 

 

On 9/23/2016 at 6:45 AM, Ardy said:

A big thanks to the people who brought the 42042 to my attention! In the end I couldn't help myself and bought the 42042 as well. I even received the 42042 before the 42030 arrived. And I must say, although the 42030 looks impressive in terms of box size, motor count, fully RC and so forth, I will most definitely build the 42042 first. It surprised me.

To be honest, I did jump on the train and bought the 42030 as it's the older model, but having physically seen the 42043 in a brick-and-mortar store again, I do wonder if I hadn't been better off with the 42043; more parts, suspension, pneumatics and PF (though less) and both got RC. Got a few days left to decide whether to return itt or not. Some doubt.

But anyway, I am a very happy 42042 owner :-)

I think 42042, 42030 and 42043 are the perfect starter trio of sets that are not yet retired.  One is full RC (Volvo), one is an excellent parts pack and has pneumatics (Arocs) & plays well with the Volvo, and the third is the most ingenious and fun to play with.  Now you just need to add 42039 (king of C models) and 42040 (fire plane) and the essential 2015 sets will all be yours.

[GBTechnic]

For what it's worth these are some sets that I have bought since they were relatively cheap which I would NOT buy again if I could make the decisions over again:

42035 - mining truck

42048 - Go Kart

For a small set the mining truck is nothing special and is extremely boring as it isn't "cool" to me nor my seven year old son.  I don't regret the purchase but I would willingly give it away or take it apart and never build it again.  The worst set I own and the only set I regret puchasing was the Go Kart.  It's scale is oddly too big and it's functions are too few for its price.  Add I the weird color scheme and the A model is terrible.  The b model is far more interesting, "cool" and playable to my son and I.  Skip both sets and you won't regret it.

[Ardy]

35 minutes ago, GBTechnic said:

I think 42042, 42030 and 42043 are the perfect starter trio of sets that are not yet retired.  One is full RC (Volvo), one is an excellent parts pack and has pneumatics (Arocs) & plays well with the Volvo, and the third is the most ingenious and fun to play with.  Now you just need to add 42039 (king of C models) and 42040 (fire plane) and the essential 2015 sets will all be yours.

Thanks for your reply. I ended up returning 42030 and getting 42043 instead; similar price. I like the Volvo truly a lot, but I can't stretch my budget that much. Got more parts now and I got the impression that 42042 and 42043 give a more interesting and challenging build. 42040 (fire plane) looks very nice BTW!

[Kmuffin]

I've been thinking and decided on buying 42038 as for Sets below 90 USD

Spoiler

 

 

Edited October 5, 2016 by Kmuffin

[Salman]

I had a small technic when I was a kid. I just found it in my stuff while shifting homes and its sparked my lost love for technic :) 

I am about to order the 42030 42055 42043 42039 42042. Is that a good selection?  I want different types of sets with good functionality. I really love the 42009 but seems unreasonably expensive. 

[Kmuffin]

My brother had a 42009 set which he bought back when it was released. He's in college so he still has it. I'm still beginning technic so I only have 3 sets. He also had a unimog but now those sets are very rare and the one's that are avalible a expensive

Edited October 20, 2016 by Kmuffin

[letsbuild]

I want to make my lego go fast, but I don't want to buy a Buwizz. What should I do? Is Sbrick better than Buwizz?

[JJ2]

56 minutes ago, letsbuild said:

I want to make my lego go fast, but I don't want to buy a Buwizz. What should I do? Is Sbrick better than Buwizz?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136426592@N04/albums/72157668474889890

Thats what I do.

[letsbuild]

3 hours ago, JJ2 said:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136426592@N04/albums/72157668474889890

Thats what I do.

Okay... but I don't want to physically modify my pieces.

[GBTechnic]

On 10/19/2016 at 1:17 PM, Salman said:

I am about to order the 42030 42055 42043 42039 42042. Is that a good selection?  I want different types of sets with good functionality. I really love the 42009 but seems unreasonably expensive. 

That's a good mix but unless you want a ton of parts the 42055 set doesn't appeal to me. For the price I would rather get the 42009 MKII Crane Truck or 8043 (motorized excavator). Both are retired sets and cost more than they should but they are awesome and I wish I had them both... but make no mistake 8043 is the best of the two.

Edited October 23, 2016 by GBTechnic

[Salman]

2 hours ago, GBTechnic said:

That's a good mix but unless you want a ton of parts the 42055 set doesn't appeal to me. For the price I would rather get the 42009 MKII Crane Truck or 8043 (motorized excavator). Both are retired sets and cost more than they should but they are awesome and I wish I had them both... but make no mistake 8043 is the best of the two.

The 8043 is great but its £500+ and i got the 42055 for £150.. i am trying to convince myself that i dont need the 8043 because i have a similar base in the 42042 and similar functionality in the 42030 :p

[Gnac]

Eh, just buy a used 8043. I got one for £150 and it was fine except for wonky stickers (which I don't apply anyway, so I peeled 'em off)

[GBTechnic]

7 hours ago, Gnac said:

Eh, just buy a used 8043.

Absolutely... buy a used one on Bricklink from a seller with a lot of positive reviews.  I bought a 41999 used and while the stickers were already added and the pieces were packaged in zip lock bags, the experience was great.  8043 and 41009 (in that order) are the two retired used sets that are on my list to buy next.  42055 will be out for a while and it'll get cheaper over time... so I would follow one of the rules I have seen listed elsewhere on this site... buy the older sets first, especially if they'll be retired soon.  You'll save on the older sets, buy a retired one used and then at a later date pick up a current set for a discount (hopefully) once it has been around for a year or so.  Following this rule, I got 42030 30% off and 42043 35% off.

[GBTechnic]

11 hours ago, Salman said:

i am trying to convince myself that i dont need the 8043 because i have a similar base in the 42042 and similar functionality in the 42030 :p

If you use Rebrickable.com to inventory all the parts you own from your current sets, particularly 42030 and 42042 you'll see that these two alone provide 75-77% of the missing pieces to build 8043.  However, buying the missing pieces costs roughly $230 USD which is essentially the same cost as buying the whole 8043 set used.  Unless the other sets you own have enough parts to drive down this cost, I would simply buy the 8043 set used for a similar price and have fun playing with the 8043, 42030 and 42042 sets all at the same time.  I have the 42042 and 42030 sets and will still be buying the 8043 set when my wife let's me!  For some reason she thinks that buying 23 sets in less than a year is excessive.

[eliminator]

Keep an eye out for some of the recently retired sets. Recently, I've been able to find 42008, 42009, and 42024 MISB for MSRP or less. 

[Salman]

On 10/24/2016 at 4:34 AM, eliminator said:

Keep an eye out for some of the recently retired sets. Recently, I've been able to find 42008, 42009, and 42024 MISB for MSRP or less. 

will do.. which sites did u see it for lower than MSRP? 

On 10/23/2016 at 10:40 PM, GBTechnic said:

If you use Rebrickable.com to inventory all the parts you own from your current sets, particularly 42030 and 42042 you'll see that these two alone provide 75-77% of the missing pieces to build 8043.  However, buying the missing pieces costs roughly $230 USD which is essentially the same cost as buying the whole 8043 set used.  Unless the other sets you own have enough parts to drive down this cost, I would simply buy the 8043 set used for a similar price and have fun playing with the 8043, 42030 and 42042 sets all at the same time.  I have the 42042 and 42030 sets and will still be buying the 8043 set when my wife let's me!  For some reason she thinks that buying 23 sets in less than a year is excessive.

well my wife thought ordering 5 all at once was excessive lol.. but now I'm craving for the 42009 and 8043 even before those have been delivered! 

[GBTechnic]

1 hour ago, Salman said:

well my wife thought ordering 5 all at once was excessive lol.. but now I'm craving for the 42009 and 8043 even before those have been delivered! 

Cravings are unpredictable lol.  With family life what it is during the school year I haven't had much time to build all of the sets I own.  I'm still waiting to build 42039 (and all it's C models), 42043, 42054 and 42042.  When I received 42039 for Father's Day I couldn't be distracted by any other sets... but here we are four months later and 42039 is one of four unbuilt sets but 42042 will be my next build.  All the mods, adding a Jib & other improvements I've seen here and on YouTube and it's high playable factor are irresistible.  

Lastly, when I caught onto the Lego Technic world late last year, all I cared about was RC and power function models.  Now a year later I am still a RC/power functions fan but I am more impressed these days by complicated models that are achieved (mostly) without motors like the Porsche and 42009.

[eliminator]

3 hours ago, Salman said:

will do.. which sites did u see it for lower than MSRP?

Of the three retired MISB sets I've picked within the last week:

-42008: small local high end toy shop

-42009: from a local Lego collector/re-seller

-42024: bricklink

2 hours ago, GBTechnic said:

Cravings are unpredictable lol.  With family life what it is during the school year I haven't had much time to build all of the sets I own.  I'm still waiting to build 42039 (and all it's C models), 42043, 42054 and 42042.  When I received 42039 for Father's Day I couldn't be distracted by any other sets... but here we are four months later and 42039 is one of four unbuilt sets but 42042 will be my next build.  All the mods, adding a Jib & other improvements I've seen here and on YouTube and it's high playable factor are irresistible.  

Lastly, when I caught onto the Lego Technic world late last year, all I cared about was RC and power function models.  Now a year later I am still a RC/power functions fan but I am more impressed these days by complicated models that are achieved (mostly) without motors like the Porsche and 42009.

I've been into Lego for the better part of 25 years, but never bought a technic set.

42039 was my first technic set I built and was hooked! I now have three technic sets (including the Porsche) in the mail expected to arrive by the end of the week. When it rains, it pours!!!!

Edited October 25, 2016 by eliminator

[WvG_853]

I would also recommend looking in your local small toy store for any forgotten packages. I have been able to find last year the sets 8258 and 8043 for their at the time official Lego price.

Alternatively, look for online small adds sites. I have bought most of my Lego Technic sets used from the Netherlands from a site called Marktplaats.nl. It is not as safe as ebay, because there are no ratings. I see that the prices of the 42009 are increasing. The 8043 is one of the most sought for sets and that is unfortunately reflected in the price.

Good luck!

[Troopospo]

Hi guys I'm a technic newbie. I recently won an lego technic go cart (i guess its 42038 in set number) in a small contest in my neighborhood. I have owned Lego sets but not technic. I was quite impressed with that small set because I used to thought lego technic wasn't that good. I have browsed a lot of these sets and I feel like buying some more sets. I like the artic truck and want to buy it. With that I want to buy something else some interesting sets I found were the formula off roader and mine loader. Pls tell me what's good.  

Btw I found this topic by searching what set should I buy and as soon as I saw this I made a account.

[teos]

7 hours ago, Troopospo said:

Hi guys I'm a technic newbie. I recently won an lego technic go cart (i guess its 42038 in set number) in a small contest in my neighborhood. I have owned Lego sets but not technic. I was quite impressed with that small set because I used to thought lego technic wasn't that good. I have browsed a lot of these sets and I feel like buying some more sets. I like the artic truck and want to buy it. With that I want to buy something else some interesting sets I found were the formula off roader and mine loader. Pls tell me what's good.  

The best bang for your buck, if you live in the USA would probably be the 42054 Tractor from Amazon for $130 or maybe the 42042 Crawler Crane for $116 (walmart or amazon?).  I personally didn't find the arctic truck all that exciting and I haven't purchased the other 2 on your list.

 

[GBTechnic]

10 hours ago, Troopospo said:

With that I want to buy something else some interesting sets I found were the formula off roader and mine loader. Pls tell me what's good.  

I would stick with medium sized sets or a large one.  My suggestions of what a new Technic lover should buy to determine if they want to go all in and buy the big stuff (Amazon has the best deals, but Toys"R"Us will price match them if you want a local pickup in the U.S.):

1. 42037 - Formula Off Roader "buggy" - $40

2. 42040 - Fire Plane - $39

and if you want to go bigger but stay close to $100...

3. 42039 - 24 hour race car - $102

4. 42042 - Crawler Crane - $116

Prices are from Amazon.com (to find them simply type Lego + model #)

 

Last thought:

The artic truck and mine loader are both heavily discounted on Amazon compared to MSRP.  In my opinion this is because the mine loader is boring compared to other sets you could buy for a similar cost and the artic truck's tracks only work on carpet.  However if you buy the Off Roader, you can take off the tires and add it to the truck and have a cooler vehicle.  I've only considered these two sets as parts packs AFTER I bought almost 20 other sets first.

Edited November 5, 2016 by GBTechnic

[Jonfensu]

9 hours ago, Troopospo said:

Hi guys I'm a technic newbie. I recently won an lego technic go cart (i guess its 42038 in set number) in a small contest in my neighborhood. I have owned Lego sets but not technic. I was quite impressed with that small set because I used to thought lego technic wasn't that good. I have browsed a lot of these sets and I feel like buying some more sets. I like the artic truck and want to buy it. With that I want to buy something else some interesting sets I found were the formula off roader and mine loader. Pls tell me what's good.  

Btw I found this topic by searching what set should I buy and as soon as I saw this I made a account.

Really depends on where are you living and what do you want to build. Since you are getting into Technic,  you have two options:

- Go for a medium-big model (900-1400 pieces) to understand the building techniques, concepts (like gearboxes, suspension setups etc)and get many useful pieces.There you can find interesting models like 42039,42029, 42052, 42025, 9397 or 42042. Many of these provides useful pieces, even PF. In this range you could find the 42038 and 42053, great models BTW,  but without a great quantity of usefull pieces and limited playability (though the 42053 is the  exception) 

- Go for flagship models (+ 1500 pieces) to get the best experience of Technic with a much better variety of pieces,  playability and B models . Here really depends on what do you want. The most balanced model is the 42043 (PF, Pneumatics,  suspension parts etc). In the other hand there is the 42030 with a complete PF pack, complete playability  but not complex build,  or the 42054 with an amazing look, interesting building techniques,  and great playability due steering mods and attachments. (Avoid the Porsche if you really want to get the best price per piece,  complexity and functions) 

Since you already have a small - medium set,  personally I would not go for another medium set, especially I would avoid the 2016 ones (42049, 42050) because they are way simple and overpriced compared to the 2015 (42037, 42040) and those medium sets won't add so much to your Technic experience . if you don't want to spend so much money,  go for the first option.  As you can see I've included some not so recent models like 9397 , but those are really awesome and can be find for a good prize in used condition. And don't forget an important rule (that I've learn thanks to the forum): Get older sets first, otherwise get the ones with a better parts pack and complexity. if you are not sure about that, watch some speed building videos.

[Samer]

11 hours ago, Troopospo said:

Hi guys I'm a technic newbie. I recently won an lego technic go cart (i guess its 42038 in set number) in a small contest in my neighborhood. I have owned Lego sets but not technic. I was quite impressed with that small set because I used to thought lego technic wasn't that good. I have browsed a lot of these sets and I feel like buying some more sets. I like the artic truck and want to buy it. With that I want to buy something else some interesting sets I found were the formula off roader and mine loader. Pls tell me what's good.  

Btw I found this topic by searching what set should I buy and as soon as I saw this I made a account.

It depends what do you want to start with? Cars? Formula off roader 42037 is in my opinion the best starter for learning car suspension and steering. Its simple and advanced at the same time and gives you useful parts and nice colors. It is also so easy to motorize if you later decide you want to make it RC. If your interest is in displaying sets my choice would be 42040 which is one of the best sellers for its great  look and also useful parts but you won't get car stuff ( wheels, suspension, steering...etc). If you want costruction vehicles 42053 is great, 1100 parts with pneumatics and its heavily discounted. Finally, if you are ready to pay for a big set I suggest you immediately capture a 42030 before it retires and get so expensive. This set will give you all power functions motors + double remotes + actuators and a ton of parts. I hope this helps.

Edited November 5, 2016 by Samer
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[GBTechnic]

On 11/4/2016 at 7:33 PM, Jonfensu said:

If you are not sure about that, watch some speed building videos.

It's pretty obvious to me based on all the recent recommendations that three things are good rules to follow as a newbie to Lego Technic (one is cited above):

1. If you love multiple sets and have limited dollars buy the oldest set* that is sold in stores first.  The model numbers  reflect how new a model is (smaller number = older). 

2. Buy medium to larger sets for AFOL folks.  The small sets (roughly 350-400 pieces or less) are geared for kids (6-12 or so).  The medium and large models are more interesting (imo) because the incorporate more functions, take longer to build and require more advanced building techniques, attention to detail and patience.

3. If the other two rules don't help you to determine which set(s) to buy, look at some speed builds/set reviews on YouTube. There are a number of good folks who do these speed builds, but my personal favorite is "Sariel's Lego Workshop" not because of the speed build sections of his videos but because he provides really good details of how the functions work at the end and he uses a rating system AND Pros and Cons about why you might like or hate the set.  I personally have come to love sets that I never had an initial interest in because of Sariel's reviews (like 42042 which is awesome!).

*Retired sets can be purchased used or new from private source like BrickLink.com.  Used models of recently retired sets can be quite reasonable or not, depending on popularity.  "New in box" models of sets no longer sold in stores can be ridiculously overpriced so beware.

Edited November 6, 2016 by GBTechnic
added sample speed build video from Sariel