The Gimme LEGO Awards 2016

Welcome to the sixth annual Gimme LEGO Awards and my personal take on the LEGO highlights and lowlights of 2016. Those who have waded through my choices in previous years will be well aware that the majority are entirely subjective and it's therefore likely that you'll disagree with at least some of them; please therefore feel free to argue the case for alternatives in the comments below. Let's get started....

1. Best Theme

Last year's winner: LEGO City

2016 winner: Ninjago

Ninjago burst onto the scene back in 2011, and if you'd told me then that the theme would still be going strong five years later, and that I'd be choosing it as my LEGO theme of the year for 2016, there's an excellent chance that I'd have laughed you out of the room. And yet here we are....

In some ways it's not actually such a surprise that Ninjago gets the top spot this year - it merited an honourable mention last year in the 'Best Theme' category, and 70751 Temple of Airjitzu got the award for 'Best Non-Licensed Set', so the signs were there. The theme has reinvented itself year on year and has retained it's popularity, defying LEGO's attempts to kill it off in 2013 and eventually arriving in 2016 with an excellent and varied line up of quality sets to suit all tastes and budgets.

It could reasonably be argued that unlike the Temple of Airjitzu in 2015 there isn't a true stand-out set in the 2016 Ninjago line-up, but what eventually propelled Ninjago to the number one spot this year was the sheer volume of excellent offerings across all price points. Ninjago has also been astonishingly eclectic this year, continuing to provide fans with theme staples such as dragons while also including a selection of sets which embrace a distinctly Steam Punk-like aesthetic and even offering up a Ninjago-styled Batcave in the form of 70596 Samurai X Cave Chaos (below) which frankly gives the various official LEGO Batcaves a run for their money.

Aside from the way the sets look, most are also packed with play-features, a great example being 70595 Ultra Stealth Raider (below) which splits into sub-models each of which itself incorporates multiple mechanisms and moving parts. While the main focus of the Ninjago theme has always been one of 'play' rather than 'display', the designers have nevertheless managed to make the many of the builds look great, thus broadening the theme's appeal well beyond the 7-14 target audience.

It's testament to the fantastic Ninjago line-up this year that I found it genuinely difficult to decide which five sets to feature in the pictures above and below as there were so many great sets to choose from; in the end I had to leave out the likes of 70605 Misfortune's Keep, 70594 The Lighthouse Siege and 70602 Jay's Elemental Dragon but they could just as easily have featured. So well done to Ninjago - still going strong after five years!

Honourable mention: Architecture. Yes, really. When I reviewed 21029 Buckingham Palace (below) for Brickset earlier this year I felt duty-bound to admit that I was largely ambivalent about LEGO's Architecture theme which has at times felt like the epitome of style over substance. The early Architecture years featured a slew of grossly overpriced and frankly risible representations of world landmarks which only caught the eye thanks to their plush packaging and luxurious instruction booklets. The emperor's new clothes, basically.

Over the years the quality of the offerings has definitely improved, though, and 2016 has been a watershed for me with some really rather nice offerings such as Buckingham Palace rubbing shoulders with a new sub-theme of city Skylines which have taken the theme off on a promising new tangent. They're still overpriced, to be honest, but most of this year's Architecture sets look great and are definitely worth seeking out.

Honourable mention #2: Technic. My historical lack of enthusiasm for LEGO's Technic theme has been well-documented, so to some folks this honourable mention might be the biggest surprise of all in this year's Gimme LEGO Awards....

My historical downer on Technic can be traced back to two main factors, the principal one being the unsatisfying skeletal appearance of many older Technic sets, with the mind-numbing tedium and misery of deconstructing the builds sealing the deal. While the latter obviously remains, the increasing use of panels has greatly improved the appearance of official Technic builds, to my eyes at least. This year has seen the release of a number of Technic sets which have combined complex mechanisms with interesting subject matter and great looks; I'd go as far as to say that the summer 2016 Technic line-up was possibly the strongest of any theme, with 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS (above) possibly the pick of the bunch. Definitely Technic Temptation rather than Technic Torture....


2. Most Disappointing Theme

Last year's 'winner': Not awarded

2016 'winner': LEGO Classic

This is basically a ‘victory’ for quantity, and specifically the lack of it, rather than quality; for what it's worth I'm actually a fan of LEGO Classic sets, so I guess you could say that this is a relatively minor rebuke....

I’m sure that, like me, many of you have rolled your eyes at the oft-repeated mantra that LEGO "isn’t what it used to be", how creativity is being stifled by all the licensed sets, and how “in my day it was all basic bricks and we had to use our imaginations”. Like me you may have defended the LEGO company, making the point that it’s actually about choice, and that purchasers can still buy just basic bricks if they want. Except that when you think about it, getting hold of basic bricks in anything other than small quantities isn't actually as easy as it should be, is it?

Out of a total of 811 set releases during 2016, just three were LEGO Classic sets supposedly comprised of basic bricks. Furthermore, it turns out that those three Classic sets actually contain a fair few relatively specialised elements such as SNOT bricks. OK, so in-store and online Pick-a-Brick also offer a potential solution, but few LEGO fans have access to a Brand Store, and have you seen the price of a single 2 x 4 brick purchased direct from LEGO online? I strongly believe that LEGO should continue to provide the general public with ready access to basic elements, and I think the company is currently failing to do this sufficiently; a quick look at the 2017 release schedule suggests that the company will be releasing more Classic sets than it did in 2016, so maybe LEGO is already on the case - we shall see.


3. The "Medieval Market Village" award for Best Non-Licensed Set

Last year's winner : Set 70751 Temple of Airjitzu

2016 winner: 10251 Brick Bank

A Modular Building has won this award for two out of the last three years, so giving the nod to yet another Modular this year feels a bit lazy. Thing is, though, the alternative would be to somehow pretend that the Brick Bank isn't as good as it actually is, and that definitely wouldn't do, so the Brick Bank it is....

Designer Jamie Berard has picked up where he left off with previous Modulars and given us an attractive model which is packed with interesting architectural details on the outside, fun to build, and overflowing with detail on the inside. What's also impressive is the attention to detail, for example interior floors which are attractively tiled with interesting patterns and colours despite being barely visible, and intelligent use of the available internal space to accommodate as much interior decoration and furniture as possible.

Another treat is the ingenious usage of elements, examples of which include the inclusion of sand blue Nexo Knight shields in the ground floor tiling pattern, the use of light bluish grey ingots to tile the exterior of the buiding, and the inclusion of black animal tail elements to represent ironwork in the bench outside the bank. As well as including a host of interesting elements, the set also utilises relatively uncommon colours such as sand blue and sand green in the build, while the inclusion of a laundrette in one corner of the build means a whole different design and colour palette for this section which looks amazing.

Honestly, apart from feeling a tad small compared with other Modulars the Brick Bank is pretty much faultless, and it's a delight. There's a risk that we might become blase about Modulars and start to take them for granted; if that happens, and folks stop acknowledging how good they are, and worse still stop buying them, then LEGO might stop releasing them which would be a travesty. So Brick Bank deservedly, and unashamedly, gets my vote for 'Best Non-licensed Set", and I wouldn't bet against another Modular gettting the prize next year either....

Honourable Mention: 10253 Big Ben. I did a live build of this set over a weekend at Bricktastic in the summer of 2016 and Big Ben absolutely wowed the show attendees. The build employs some seriously clever element usage in order to approximate the real building's exterior detail, and the ability to simultaneously turn the clock hands on all four clock faces by turning a discretely-located knob is a real crowd pleaser.

As you'd expect there's inevitably a fair bit of repetition involved in the build - I certainly wouldn't recommend rushing it like I had to - but the spectacular end result is well worth the effort; Big Ben is one of the few models which my wife will allow to be prominently displayed in our house such is its allure. Incredible, and my runner up for 'Best Non-licensed Set' of 2016.

Other contenders: 31052 Vacation Getaways, 41180 Ragana's Magic Shadow Castle, 21029 Buckingham Palace, 31044 Park Animals. 


4. Best Licensed Set

Last year's winner: 75060 Slave I

2016 winner: 75827 Firehouse Headquarters

Given my love of the Ghostbusters movies I guess the winner really had to be the Firehouse Headquarters, didn't it? While 2016 has in my opinion been unusually strong for licensed sets, with some outstanding candidates to choose from, I knew from the moment that I first spied this set that it was going to take something truly extraordinary to shift it from top spot.

On account of the enduring popularity of the Ghostbusters franchise I suspect that any official LEGO version of the Ghostbusters HQ would probably have sold regardless of its quality, but the set we got thankfully turned out to be wonderful. The size and attention to detail is remarkable - a dream come true for Ghostbusters fans - but in truth there's a huge amount for non-fans to admire as well, both in terms of the exterior appearance, and in the interior furnishings and decoration. There's also an excellent selection of minifigures to populate the model, and just about enough room inside to accommodate the LEGO Ideas Ecto-1 set.

It isn't perfect, not least because dark orange would have been a more appropriate colour for the exterior than dark red, but overall it still looks wonderful both inside and out, and you don't need to be a Ghostbusters fan to enjoy and appreciate it either. A serious build, and an excellent display piece.

Honourable Mention: 71040: Disney Castle. Huge, spectacular, and only a whisker away from taking top spot in the Best 'Licensed Set' category, the Disney Castle impresses both inside and out. The back of the model is exposed, which facilitates play but ensures that for some the set will fall a little short as a display model compared with the Firehouse HQ, and the minifigure selection is perhaps a little disappointing, but it's otherwise hard to find fault.

Disney fans will be delighted by the frequent references to their favourite Disney movies, but you don't need to be a Disney fan to delight in the attention to detail, the thoroughly enjoyable building experience, and the beautiful completed model. Highly recommended.

Other contenders: 76057 Spider-Man: Web Warriors Ultimate Bridge Battle, 21307 Caterham Seven 620R, 21306 The Beatles Yellow Submarine, 42054 CLAAS XERION 5000 TRAC VC, 42056 Porsche 911 GT3 RS  


5. The "Phantom Menace" Award for Most Disappointing Set

Last year's winner:10249 Toy Shop

2016 winner: 75098 Assault on Hoth

If some of my 2016 Awards have come as a surprise then this one was about as nailed-on as they come. Honestly, what on earth were LEGO thinking when they decided to slap the revered UCS badge onto this sub-standard collection of Hoth-related System Scale sets?

Yes, I've heard all the arguments. AFOLs aren't LEGO's target market, they say. And this set allows younger Star Wars fans to get caught up with a number of older Hoth sets in one fell swoop. It's basically nonsense, though, because when it comes down to it UCS has always stood for quality, detail and fan service for older builders, and this just isn't it at all. And the thing is, even if you set aside the UCS thing it's still fundamentally an overpriced, mediocre set. I'm not going to waste any more of my time criticising the set here but I can recommend CapnRex101's exhaustive review in the event that you want to better understand why it's so bad. Thoroughly miserable.


6. Best Minifigure

Last year's winner: The Eleventh Doctor

2016 winners: Gizmo and Stripe 

With the ever-increasing quality of LEGO minifigures, not to mention the ever-growing number of minifigures being released, trying to pick a winner in this category was already a nightmare, and that was before LEGO added a bunch of Dimensions Fun Packs, Level Packs and Team packs to the mix. I've said it before, but the quality of minifigures is now so high that trying to make an even vaguely objective judgement is almost impossible, so I haven't bothered to even try this year and have instead just picked the minifigures that put the biggest smile on my face in 2016, Gizmo (below left) and Stripe (below right).

LEGO Dimensions has turned out to be a massive boon for people like me who were teenagers in the 1980's or 1990's and therefore grew up with the likes of Ghostbusters, E.T., Gremlins and the multitude of other 'retro' film and television franchises currently being snapped up by LEGO and introduced into Dimensions. The various Dimensions expansion packs are a fantastic source of exclusive and beautifully designed minifigures, and it's within these packs that many of my favourite minifigures of 2016 can be found. Gizmo and Stripe ultimately get the award, but only just - the wonderful E.T. minifigure below came very close, and a bunch of others including the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and Cyberman weren't that far behind either. I'm now waiting with bated breath to see what old franchises LEGO revive next - Thunderbirds, anybody?

Other contenders: Maleficent, Mickey Mouse, Penguin Boy, Nate in hot dog suit.


7. The "Better than Expected" Award

Last year's winner: LEGO Dimensions

2016 winner: Elves

Dismissed by some seemingly by virtue of the inclusion of minidolls rather than minifigures, the Elves theme didn't really strike a chord with me in its first year but it has increasingly piqued my interest in 2016 thanks to some rather nice-looking sets.

I think the problem for me last year was that some of the early Elves sets such as 41071 Aira's Creative Workshop and 41072 Naida's Spa Secret with their brightly coloured, minidoll-populated cutesy builds felt a bit like they were a part of a covert, by-the-numbers Friends subtheme. It wasn't until the 2016 arrival of 41180 Ragana's Magic Shadow Castle (above), a set which I've been meaning to review on Gimme LEGO for some time now, that I really sat up and started to pay attention.

I wouldn't say I'm entirely won over as yet - there are aspects of the theme such as the goofy-looking dragons which really haven't impressed me - but I've seen enough so far to be genuinely interested to see where Elves goes in 2017 and beyond. Definitely a theme to watch, I think.


8. Most Welcome LEGO-Related Announcement

Last year's winner: Set 75827 Firehouse Headquarters

2016 Winner: London Leicester Square LEGO Brand Retail Store and pre-opening event

I'm well aware that folks in the UK have been somewhat spoiled when it comes to LEGO Brand Retail Stores; back in 2012 LEGO even opened a store a few miles from my house so I've been particularly fortunate. That having been said, the announcement back in May 2016 that LEGO would be opening the world's largest Brand Retail Store in London's Leicester Square was still met with considerable excitement in these parts.

The day before the grand opening of the new store LEGO hosted a pre-opening event at the store to which they invited over a hundred AFOLs from UK-based LEGO User Groups. Attendees got to explore the store and meet with LEGO staff including set designers Jamie Berard and Rok Kobe as well as being provided with drinks, nibbles and freebies courtesy of LEGO; you can read more about the pre-opening event here if you're interested.

There has been a suggestion over the past year or two that the LEGO Company is currently so flush with success that it's losing interest in AFOLs. This event, not to mention a number of superb AFOL-oriented set releases in 2016, thankfully provides some reassurance that the AFOL community is still viewed as being important to the company, and long may that continue.


9. Gimme LEGO Reader's Choice Award

Last year's winner: Set 70751 Temple of Airjitzu.

2016 winner: You tell me....

OK, so you've seen my choices and now it's your turn. At the top of the page on the right of the screen you'll see a selection of LEGO sets which I consider to be some of the best that 2016 had to offer. Please carefully peruse the list and vote for your favourite set of 2016; if your favourite isn't on the list then select 'None of the above' and leave a comment below or send me an e-mail via the contact button letting me know which set you think is the best of 2016. Cast your vote - one person, one vote - and at midnight on 14th January 2017 the poll will close and we'll have our winner.... If you're reading this on a device which isn't displaying the poll as described then click "view web version" at the bottom of the page in order to see the nominations and cast your vote. Thanks for participating!

*Voting has now closed - results coming soon!*

Previous Gimme LEGO Awards: 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011

Technic Temptation....

Since I started this blog, no posting has brought me more grief than the 'Technic Torture' piece I wrote back in 2010. There are clearly lots of LEGO Technic fans out there, and some of them evidently didn't appreciate my less-than-complimentary comments about their passion....

Since posting that article, it's only fair for me to confess that a few Technic sets old and new have caught my eye and have been added to my collection. These include the huge Set 8674 Ferrari F1 Racer 1:8 from 2006, which I picked up from eBay a few months back, and a couple of more recent examples, namely Set 8070 Super Car and Set 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog U 400. All are undoubtedly Technic, but they look sufficiently un-Technic-like to satisfy my aesthetic sensibilities. None had made it to the front of my build queue, however, and all thus remained unbuilt.

Set 8674 Ferrari F1 Racer 1:8

A little while back, Pawel Kmiec, a renowned LEGO Technic builder better known by his online name of Sariel, was kind enough to send me a copy of his latest book "The Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder's Guide". I have to admit that given my at times 'difficult' relationship with LEGO Technic I approached the book with a degree of trepidation, and it wasn't just the Technic angle that I was wary of - many LEGO-related books that I've read over the years have been written with a much younger reader in mind, making them pretty uninspiring for the average AFOL.

First up, I have to congratulate Sariel on an extremely impressive effort; his book weighs in at a substantial 334 pages, and it's very nicely presented - robustly bound, and containing lots of clear colour pictures and photographs. Furthermore, any pre-conceived notions I might have had about being spoken down to were very quickly dispelled - this is no lightweight piece of LEGO fluff, people, it's a veritable textbook of Technic and no mistake....

The book is broken into five parts. It kicks off with the basics - four potentially dull but in fact extremely useful chapters which define critical and often misunderstood concepts and terms such as torque, power, backlash and efficiency before going on to describe the common Technic elements and then contrast the geometry, pros and cons of studless vs. studded building techniques. Once the basics are covered the book moves on to deal with mechanics, albeit with a distinctive LEGO flavour - gears, levers, chains and pulleys, plus mechanical solutions such as differentials, and also LEGO's pneumatic system. Next the focus is on motors, including an inventory of LEGO motors past and present and a detailed review and discussion of LEGO's current Power Functions system. Then follows a section on advanced mechanics which outlines various types of steering, suspension (picture below - click to enlarge) and transmission systems, even including step by step instructions on how to build your own versions. The book wraps up with a discussion of some of the key design considerations for different types of Technic models including cars, trucks, tracked vehicles and aircraft, including but not limited to scaling and controlling your models remotely.

I'm pleased to report that the book is well written and seems very comprehensive; some sections are pretty dense and the going gets a little heavy at times, but it's hard to see how this could have been avoided without losing important details; furthermore, every effort is made to help the reader by way of copious colour diagrams and step-by-step building instructions. And Sariel isn't just an expert on the theory, either - the book is full of worked examples of the different concepts and systems, not to mention a liberal sprinkling of pictures some of his superb Technic MOCs (including the excellent GT40 below) which bring the theory to life and show what's possible once you have a decent grasp of the Technic building system.

Picture and model (c) Sariel

The Unofficial LEGO Technic Builder's Guide is published by No Starch Press and available from Amazon (UK/US - click to browse and buy) and elsewhere. If you're a fan of Technic then I can see it being a very useful reference work, and given Sariel's credentials I sincerely doubt that there are too many more knowledgeable Technic builders out there to learn from. If you need more convincing then check out his site here - there are some seriously impressive creations on there. Sariel's book might also be worth a look if, like me, you're somewhat on the fence so far as Technic's concerned. I say that because after reading the first hundred-or-so pages I felt sufficiently educated and inspired to crack open one of my thus-far unbuilt Technic sets.....

I did initially consider going all-in and building the biggest Technic Set that I own - the Unimog - but eventually decided to go for Set 8070 Super Car instead. It's less intimidating, frankly, and also smaller and hence easier to display than the monster that is the Unimog, but it still contains some Power Functions so there'd be some motorised mechanisms to impress my son with (!). The front of the box (above - click to enlarge) features a large picture of the finished model plus a pictorial summary of the various different motorised functions; the back of the box (below) shows an alternative build that can be assembled using the same parts. LEGO describe the alternative build as a Roadster; you need to download the instructions from www.Technic.LEGO.com, but at least they're free. The Roadster, which like the primary model features a bunch of motorised functions, looks pretty good IMHO, but I haven't tried to build it yet.

After cutting the seals I realised with some dismay that it's one of those stupid boxes where the top half is actually glued to the bottom half along the back and you're supposed to cut the the top of the box on either side near the rear 'hinge' to open it. Such vandalism is against my principles, so I was instead obliged to spend the next ten minutes carefully lifting up the front of the lid and squeezing out numerous bags of parts, instruction booklets, loose elements (wheels and tyres) etc. through the narrow gap between the top and bottom halves of the box one by one while trying not to tear the cardboard....

My set unfortunately pre-dates LEGO's recent welcome policy of bagging up the instruction booklets and sticker sheet with some cardboard to keep them flat. My instruction booklets were therefore less than pristine, and my sticker sheet was creased - irritating. There are 3 instruction booklets (below) which look identical save for the different booklet numbers; they're close to A4 size and have the same image of the primary model on the front cover as is printed on the front of the box. Booklets one and two are a mammoth 84 pages long; booklet 3 is only 56 pages long, and contains advertising for other Technic sets and various LEGO websites as well as the final building steps.

Having started to build the set while I was away from home I wasn't able to photograph or scan the sticker sheet, but if you're so inclined you can see a picture of it here. I'm sorry to report that it's a monster - lots of stickers, some of them huge - and just to make matters worse mine was as previously stated creased and a couple of the stickers were starting to peel off the backing. Thankfully the stickers themselves seem to be pretty robust - applying them neatly was challenging, and despite needing to peel off and reapply a couple of them they seemingly survived this without losing their adhesiveness or incurring any damage.

The bags of parts weren't numbered so I poured out all 1281 parts and sorted them into a couple of containers. The set contains almost no studded parts at all, instead featuring a preponderance of studless beams, axles, gears and panels in the build, not to mention an obscene number of pins and connectors of various types - you can find a full parts inventory here if you're curious.

The build itself took me a number of hours, mainly split over 3 leisurely days between Christmas and New Year's Eve. You start out by building the chassis, function select mechanism, rear axle and suspension, and installing a motor, at which point instruction booklet 1 is done. Instruction booklet 2 then walks you through construction of the front axle, suspension and steering rack, the engine block and pistons, and the car's interior. By the end of booklet 2 you've also built much of the retractable rear spoiler and bonnet, of which more later. Booklet 3 is largely concerned with the construction of a pair of scissor doors, wrapping a skin of sorts over the bare bones, tidying up and finishing off.

One of the reasons I've been slow to embrace Technic is that many of the completed models are just mechanisms wrapped in a framework of beams - often technically impressive, but purely functional and very ugly to my eyes. What initially attracted me to Set 8070 Super Car was that at least some effort had been made to pretty it up a bit. While the publicity shots looked good, I think it looks even better "in the flesh". First off it's bigger and more imposing than I expected; harder to display, therefore, but definitely more eye-catching too. The front (pictures above and below - click to enlarge) looks superb, and the long, sleek bonnet brings to mind a Dodge Viper; overall the lines are very pleasing - curvy thanks to the judicious use of panels and flexible hoses, but also stocky and low to the ground as a Super Car should be.

It's not all good, though - the rear of the vehicle (below) is spoiled by the presence of the battery box sticking out like a sore thumb aesthetically and indeed literally. It's a shame as there are some nice details to behold at the back of the vehicle - the rear lighting cluster, intakes and exhausts are nicely done, but the monstrous battery box dominates the view. More could and should have been done to hide it I think.

It's when you look under the skin that Technic models really come into their own, though, and the Super Car is no exception. While only one motor is included in the set, at any one time its power can be channelled through to any one of four functions; the bonnet opens and closes, each of the scissor doors independently opens and closes, and the spoiler is retractable. You can see all these features in the pictures below. The various mechanisms work well - I found them to be smooth and reliable. Honestly, between me and my son we've already worn out a full set of six batteries playing around with these motorised features and they've continued to work without a problem. The motor is switched on, and the selected mechanism activated, by flicking the orange switch on the battery box to the right or to the left depending on whether you want to open or close the bonnet, door etc.; when the orange switch is in the central position the motor is turned off.

Incidentally, if any fellow Technic novices out there are wondering what happens when one of the mechanisms reaches the maximum range of movement in one direction or the other, e.g. when the bonnet is fully open or closed, the answer can be found deep within the Super Car's innards where a special white gear lurks. This is actually a gear with a clutch; when a mechanism linked to this gear reaches its limits and resistance consequently increases, the clutch automatically starts to slip around the axle, thus disabling the mechanism and stopping it and indeed the motor from getting damaged. To a Technic noob like me that actually seems pretty clever !

As previously stated, there's only one motor; power must therefore channelled to the motorised function of choice via the switching mechanism which you can see in the picture below. The switch is located between the seats; simply click it into the desired position depending on which function you wish to select and power will be directed to that particular function while the others remain dormant. I have to admit that while I was building the switching mechanism I had real doubts that it'd be robust enough to survive a lot of switching back and forth. Like the functions themselves, however, it's worked faultlessly so far - rather impressive.

In addition to the mechanisms powered by the motor, there are also a few non-motorised functions. Under the bonnet you'll find a V8 engine, complete with yellow pistons (picture below); when the car is pushed forwards or backwards, the rotation of the back wheels is transmitted to the pistons which smoothly rise and fall within the engine block - neat ! Another feature involves the black gear sticking up from the rear of the car (picture below - click to enlarge) - rotating this gear steers the front wheels. Finally, all four wheels have independently-sprung suspension. Once again, all these mechanisms work beautifully and feel surprisingly robust.

OK, so here's the thing. I didn't enjoy the Super Car build as much as I've previously enjoyed building, say, a large modular building. I definitely derive more satisfaction, relaxation and enjoyment from building with standard LEGO bricks than I do meshing Technic gears and putting together complex mechanisms - it doesn't provide the same tactile pleasures, nor is it as relaxing. That having been said, gradually combining that cacophony of gears, axles, connectors and levers into a system of interconnected, working mechanisms was genuinely interesting and challenging, and there was a significant feeling of accomplishment when the model was finally finished and everything was working beautifully. Also, and importantly from my perspective, LEGO have made some significant strides with their Technic set designs from an aesthetic perspective - as well as being a cool and clever model, I actually think the Super Car looks good as well. Sure, it's far from perfect - there are still way too many gaping holes in the bodywork for my liking. I think, however, that I could probably remedy that quite easily; certainly it'd be pretty straightforward to mod the model so that the engine was largely enclosed. Same goes for giving the car a proper roof, and indeed covering over the back.

So overall the Super Car gets a big thumbs up from me, so much so that I've now got a bit of a taste for these big Technic sports cars - anyone got a boxed Technic Enzo (below) or Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano going cheap, by any chance....?!

Set 8070 Super Car was released in 2010 and is I'm afraid no longer available direct from LEGO, although in the UK and elsewhere in Europe it can nevertheless still be found at retail, e.g. Amazon.co.uk currently has the set available, and it's surprisingly still priced well below the £99.99 RRP as I type this - click here to buy. If you're U.S.-based then your best bet might be Bricklink, although if you're willing to pay for trans-Atlantic shipping then Amazon.co.uk will I think ship it to you in the U.S. - good luck ! 

Favourite Sets #6 : Tractor

I'm the kind of LEGO collector that doesn't throw anything LEGO-related away at all. Be it set boxes, the poly bags in which the pieces are packaged, random leaflets or whatever, none of it is discarded. It wasn't always this way, however. When I was a child, just about the only thing that didn't get binned was the pieces. Sets were built and then disassembled, with all the pieces being mixed together in a multicoloured plastic soup, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Set 851 Tractor is the one that escaped the destruction, however. For reasons I'm at a loss to explain, I kept the box, the inner parts tray and the instructions as well as all the pieces. It's the only set from my childhood that I still have the box for, and that makes it special. Critically, however, that's not the only reason why it's special - it's a fantastic set in its own right, which is why it waltzes into my personal hall of fame with consumate ease.

So, firstly the box. You can see a number of box shots below (click pics to enlarge). I don't normally lavish anything like this much time or attention on the box, but because people probably won't have seen this set before I think it merits more than a cursory glance on this occasion. Something that immediately strikes you is the sheer number of alternative build suggestions plastered over the box, some of which are also captured in the instruction booklet (although unfortunately not the rather neat steam-roller on the back of the box, nor the combine harvester on the inside of the box lid). The instruction booklet resides in a special compartment within the box lid when it isn't in use - very nice.

Poignantly, the box lid still carries the original price sticker - the set was originally bought for £11.55 from Mary Rose's Toyshop in Charter Place, Watford, U.K. in 1977, and I got it for Christmas that year. £11.55 sounds expensive to me, and according to an inflation calculator I found on the 'net, it's the equivalent of £61.22 in today's money which is indeed pricey for a 318 piece Technic set.

On to the instructions, then, and what an instruction booklet ! It's an A4, staple-bound beauty which at first seems like unbelievable overkill for a 318 piece set until you take a closer look and realise why it's so big. As well as containing instructions for the tractor and a variety of what I assume are farm implements (I'm a city boy, me) which attach to the back of it, the booklet also contains instructions for motorising the tractor, together with alternate build instructions for a another couple of mysterious motorised machines of uncertain function.....

The instruction booklet - front cover

If that wasn't enough, there are also pictures of a couple of models (below) which could be built by combining the parts from a number of different Technic sets. If of course you were fortunate enough to own them all. Which I regrettably wasn't. :-(

And so to the build itself. My love/hate relationship with LEGO Technic has already been well documented on these pages, but compared with the finger-twisting, gear-grinding monstrosity that is Set 8480 Technic Space Shuttle (review to follow one day if I ever get round to it....), this one's a breeze. I suspect however that it probably posed a truly worthy challenge in those days when my age could be measured in single digits...

One thing I noticed while I was reliving my childhood and building this baby was the number of 'proper' LEGO bricks in the set. Unlike most modern technic sets which to me are basically wire-frame models with working innards (albeit with a few fairings and panels bolted on in some cases), this set is a brick-built tractor which just so happens to skillfully integrate working features such as a steering rack and steerable front wheels, a mechanism for driving the various bits of farm machinery which bolt on to the back, and a system for raising and lowering said machinery which is controlled by a lever on the right side of the cockpit. And it does all this while still actually looking like a tractor - fancy that.

And up....

And down again....

Furthermore, the 'Technic' aspects work well. Mostly. The steering mechanism is solid and reliable, and moving the tractor backwards and forwards spins the 3 sets of yellow 'blades' which form part of the thresher attachment. Only the mechanism for raising and lowering the thresher caused me some strife - I couldn't get it to work properly without removing an 8L axle, but that's just me - I'm hopeless when it comes to Technic.... You can see animations of the (properly working....) lift mechanism and steering at Blakbird's Technicopedia site.

I love this set. Even aside from the happy memories that looking at it and building it evoke, I think it looks great and the Technic elements are beautifully integrated without being too obvious. For it's it's the perfect mix of LEGO System and LEGO Technic, and if LEGO made more sets like this these days, where technic was an important element  rather than the be-all and end-all, I would definitely dive in and never look back. It's Technic for Technic-haters, and one of my all-time favourites.