Next month, LEGO will be releasing some new flagship LEGO Technic sets and the first one I want to take a look at is the Heavy-Duty Tow Truck (42128). The set has 2,017 pieces and will retail for $149.99. I will preface this review by saying that I do not do Technic that much but I’ll try my best to cover the main parts of the set.
There are numbered bags to four as well as separate bags for some of the Technic beams and rubber tubes. For such a large amount of parts in the set, I’m surprised LEGO packed all the parts in only four sets of bags. Also included is one large instruction book as well as a decent sized sticker sheet.
Build
The first set of bags are used for the frame of the Tow Truck. Here, you’ll find the main gear mechanism for the various features in the set. It may look complicated to non-Technic folk like me but it’ll make sense as you continue building.
As we move to the second set of bags, we are focusing on the middle and back of the truck, mainly the wheel lift arm and the rotating boom. The lift arm uses a piston to move the arm up and down using the pump right behind the cab. You can lift the whole rig up by turning the front-left gear on the left side of the truck.
The base of the boom attaches to the gear mechanism that we’ve built in the first set of bags. You can turn it by using the back-right gear on the right side of the truck which we’ll talk about more later.
The longer set of tubes that connect to the wheel lift arm are also connected to the very intricate air pump system in the front that looks out of place but isn’t too distracting.
For the third set of bags, we’re focusing on the truck cabin and the engine. The cabin has two seats and has all the little details you would expect like the steering and dashboard which is a sticker. There’s also the shifter which is represented by a long pin.
The doors detailing has a sticker which shows the set number. The side mirrors are also stickers with some shine but it’s more of a matte shine rather than a reflective shine.
The top of the cab has a large sticker that says Power Tow that shows a muscle man picking up a van. You can get a better look at him with an additional 24-7 sign below him on the sides of the cabin.
The front of the truck has a 6-cylinder inline engine that has moving pistons which are connected to the back wheels. The engine isn’t as complicated as in the engines of other Technic sets but it’s a nice touch.
Moving to the middle of the truck, you’ll also put on the side panels for both sides. On the left side, there’s a lever to cap or open the air for the wheel lift arm. Heading towards the back, you also have labels for the gears which are on stickers.
On the right side, you have another lever to open or release the air for the crane. In addition, there’s another sticker for the gears of the other functions of the truck.
There are some steps and gas tanks on either side of the truck right below the cabin. These are securing using a Technic beam underneath the truck. Finally, there are some smoke stacks right behind the door.
For the last set of bags, we’ll be completing the set by building the hood as well as the boom and crane. The hood is on some L beams that allow it to fold forward to show the engine. It is decorated with some lightning stickers and the Power Tow signs.
The boom uses a pneumatic pump piece to raise and lower the crane. Again, this is all connected to the tubing system that goes through the large gear for the boom.
At the lower end of the crane, there are a couple of levers that allows you to release the gear to pull more of the string out. The teeth on the gears are not able to release on their own so the string won’t be falling by itself. You can turn the gears on the side to retract the string with ease. To turn the boom, you will use the back-right gear on the right side of the truck to turn it to either side.
The last two features of the tow truck are on the back-left and the front-right gears. The back-left gear allows you to move the lifting axle up and down to use the extra set of wheels if needed. The front-right gear extends the outriggers on the sides of the truck as well as the lifts in the back for more leverage.
Results
Overall, the LEGO Technic Heavy-Duty Tow Truck (42128) has lots of features similar to what the older Technic sets had. I will say that this was the most complicated Technic set that I’ve built. Even though I did build the Porsche 911 GT3 RS (42056) and the Bugatti Chiron (42083), they weren’t as detailed in terms of complexity of the gears on the tow truck. I will say that the instructions were are to see in various places and I did mess up but luckily I caught them before I was too invested. If you make a mistake, especially after the first set of bags, good luck trying to find it because the gear mechanisms won’t work properly if everything isn’t aligned correctly.
One thing that I didn’t really like about it wasn’t the truck itself, but the included stickers. I know LEGO is trying to appeal of various audiences but the stickers on the cabin and hood were a bit too much in terms of design. Not using the stickers on those area would’ve made the truck more realistic as a whole.
The features on it are very fun and they work really well. The pneumatic features requires a few pumps to get the air into the tubes but once you get it going, the way it works is satisfying.
The $149.99 price tag is pretty reasonable for what you get but there are a lot of pins that make up a good amount of the parts. The set will most likely go on sale as time goes by after its release in a few weeks so that’ll be a better time to pick it up.
Thank you to LEGO for sending in this set for me to review. The content above represents my own opinion and not the company. Review sets sent in does not guarantee a positive review.
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