LEGO® Technic review: 42097 Compact Crawler Crane

Continuing our reviews of this summer's wave of LEGO® Technic sets, today Alexandre Campos and friend return to review 42097 Compact Crawler Crane, available from 1 August 2019.

Cranes have been a frequent presence in LEGO® Technic almost since the beginning, when in 1978 the 855 Mobile Crane was launched. It was also in this set that a very important part that is still a familiar sight to this day appeared: the Connector Peg/Cross Axle (Design ID 6562).

Yet, with all the cranes that have been pouring out during these last 41 years, the Technic team has managed to release one of a type never done before: the spider crane. Or, should we say the 42097 Compact Crawler Crane? Although the "CCC" abbreviation is tempting, "Spider Crane" sounds way cooler, so that's what I'll be calling it throughout this review. And, as you'll see in a while, I suspect I'm not the only one with this opinion.

21318 Treehouse: designer interview with César Soares

This week, the LEGO® Ideas set 21318 Treehouse was officially revealed. It has 3036 pieces and is coming out on 1 August for £179.99/ US$199.99/ €199.99, but LEGO VIPs can already order it now. Our review is coming soon but here is an exclusive interview we had with the set's designer César Soares, with Monica Pedersen from Marketing also present.

Wow! You kept it at a good size then.

César: Yes, this is actually very close to the fan submission size [by Kevin Feeser – Ed.]. I think his is a bit taller.

Was it the intention to stick as closely as possible to what had been voted for?

César: Yes, absolutely. We always try to stay as close as possible. We have to change some things. In this case, the base for instance. He had a square grey base and the whole thing is very organic so a square base would look a little bit odd. So we thought, why not make it more organic, make it green also to mimic the grass or plants, and a little stream. Another thing is the cabins; in the original submission they were all brown. And actually the first sketch model was all brown but then Sam [Johnson, the creative lead of LEGO Ideas] wrote me and said, “hey, they don’t pop out as much as we would like, so make them another colour.” That’s why they are medium dark flesh instead of brown, and the same thing with the roofs. They were dark tan and brown as well, so again we felt a little bit of colour might add something.

Plant or Animal? A closer look at Plant w/3.2 Shaft

Bright Bluish Green [TLG]/ Dark Turquoise [BL] Plant, W/3.2 Shaft, No. 2 (Element ID 6262134 | Design ID 49577), known as 'Plant Thallus, Seaweed' on BrickLink, appears in LEGO® Friends underwater themed sets released this month in Europe.  I initially thought this element was depicting coral rather than seaweed, but its official LEGO name suggests it is a plant, not an animal.

Either way, this interesting new element immediately caught our eye and we thought it would be fun to take a closer look.

New versions of shield and mermaid tail

Recently, David Gregory of IndyLUG got in touch with us about a couple of interesting finds at LEGO® retail stores.

If you’re familiar with the Build-A-Minifigure bins at LEGO® retail stores, then you’ll be aware that those bins can sometimes be a source of otherwise rare minifig parts and accessories.  In June in Illinois and Indiana, USA I came across two parts that are from known molds, but have new printings – or lack thereof.

The first part is an unprinted version of the mermaid tail in Dark Green [TLG name]/ Green [BrickLink name] and the second is a new print on the large escutcheon shield.

LEGO® Technic review: 42098 Car Transporter (part 2)

Yesterday, Alexandre Campos showed you the interesting parts in upcoming LEGO® Technic set 42098 Car Transporter along with the build process. In this, the second part of his review, he discusses the finished set and gives his verdict. 42098 Car Transporter has 2493 parts and will be available from 1 August 2019 priced €149.99/ £139.99/ US$179.99. 

The finished set is definitely a beast. The colour scheme chosen for the truck looks good and utilitarian, thankfully without any weird colours to make parts gathering for MOC construction harder (42039 24 Hours Race Car, 42050 Drag Racer, 42066 Air Race Jet, and 42069 Extreme Adventure: I'm looking at you all).

LEGO® Technic review: 42098 Car Transporter (part 1)

We have three of the upcoming LEGO® Technic sets to show you over the coming weeks. First up is 42098 Car Transporter which has 2493 parts and will be available from 1 August 2019 priced €149.99/ £139.99/ US$179.99. Our technically minded friend Alexandre Campos (Ambassador for PLUG, a Portuguese LEGO User Group) took a look at its parts and construction.

Amongst all the construction machines, trucks and sports cars released in the LEGO® Technic range, a car transporter is something almost unique: the only previous example is the B-model of the 8872 Forklift Transporter, from 1993.

The 42098 Car Transporter picks up this legacy. Let's see what 26 years of LEGO Technic evolution has brought.

LEGO® Overwatch: Designer interview with Woon Tze

In May we chatted with LEGO® Overwatch designer Woon Tze in Billund about the theme and its new elements. This was prior to the reveal of the upcoming wave of sets, which is why we didn't ask him about those!

How long have you worked at the LEGO Group?

I’ve been at the company three years now. I started off at Super Heroes, I moved on to Harry Potter and Jurassic World, and now Overwatch. I built D.Va & Reinhardt [75973, read our review here] and the exclusive Omnic Bastion [75987].

Were you an Overwatch fan already?

I was a fan of the artwork, and once I got added to the team, I started playing the game… quite a bit! Probably a bit too much, I would say. I’m also a family man with three young boys so I need to control that a little bit! So at the moment it is controlled, I would hope to play a little bit more.

LEGO® Creator Expert review: 10269 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy

Just announced, LEGO® Creator Expert 10269 Harley-Davidson® Fat Boy® will be available directly from LEGO exclusively for LEGO VIP members from 17 July 2019, with general availability beginning on 1 August. The price will be £84.99/ US$99.99/ CA$139.99/ DE€89.99/ FR€94.99/ 799DKK. We asked Ben Davies (ProfessorBrickkeeper) to take it for a spin to see what new and recoloured elements it includes.

Until now, the LEGO® Creator Expert vehicles subtheme has focused purely on four-wheeled vehicles. The newly announced 10269 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy marks a departure from this, by using bricks to depict the popular motorcycle.

LEGO® Overwatch: Weapon No. 20

The new gun introduced this year for LEGO® Overwatch sets is officially named "Weapon, No. 20" or "Minifigure, Weapon Gun, Blaster with Studs on Sides, Bottom, and Front" by BrickLink. It's a super interesting piece, so we asked Jonas Kramm to explore its geometry and capabilities.

For the Overwatch theme, The LEGO Group (TLG) introduced a new weapon mould (Design ID 44709). So far it comes in four colours:

• White (Element ID 6253694) in one set: 75970 Tracer vs. Widowmaker (2x)
• Dark Stone Grey [TLG]/ Dark Bluish Gray [BL] (Element ID 6255067) in two sets: 75972 Dorado Showdown (2x), 75975 Watchpoint: Gibraltar (2x)

• 
Black (Element ID 6253695) in one set: 75970 Tracer vs. Widowmaker (1x)

• Light Purple [TLG]/ Bright Pink [BL] (Element ID 6254789) in one set: 75973 D.Va & Reinhardt (2x)


LEGO® Overwatch: Bastion alternate model

Yesterday, Victor Pruvost gave us his detailed review of the build of LEGO® Overwatch set 75974 Bastion, but he wasn't done with just that! Given that Bastion comes with an alternate mode, how about an alternate model? Victor pulled the robot apart and pondered what to create using the same parts.

My friend Martin suggested I do a dragon and I quickly realised it was a brilliant idea considering Bastion’s inventory: the wings could be built out of Tan plates, there were plenty of parts to articulate the beast, and the light brick was a perfect way to represent the fire-breathing action!

LEGO® Overwatch review: 75974 Bastion

Over the next week or so we have a series of LEGO® Overwatch articles for you. Firstly, following on from our reviews of 75975 Watchpoint: Gibraltar and 75973 D.Va & Reinhardt a few months ago, we now have one more set review which we asked Victor Pruvost to check out.

In our third LEGO® Overwatch review, we’re going to examine 75974 Bastion. With 602 parts and  a RRP of £54,99 / US$49,99 / 59,99€, Bastion is the second-largest set of the January 2019 Overwatch wave.