Set Review ➟ LEGO® TECHNIC 42149 & 42150
Today I bring you my opinion about the 42149 Monster Jam Dragon and 42150 Monster Jam Monster Mutt Dalmatian sets that LEGO has been kind enough to send to HispaBrick Magazine.
I'm not a Technic specialist but I'm not a total novice either and I also think that these type of sets is a step below what I really understand by Technic. It is true that most of the parts are the typical ones that appear in Technic sets, pins, panels, Technic beams, ..., but the truth is that if we discount the pull-back engine that it equips, these vehicles lack any Technic function. Even the smallest sets in this line usually have some small function powered by gears or some other type of actuator. However, these vehicles even lack suspension, something that in my opinion any vehicle that tries to imitate a monster truck should have.
Moving on to the construction part, the two models have a similar assembly process, first the chassis built around the engine and then it is covered with panels and stickers (many stickers) to give them the final finish. Both are scale models of real monster trucks and here LEGO scores a point as the look is very well done for the scale at which they are designed, with very clever use of the variety of panels included. The build is simple, the only difficulty may be trying to place some long Technic beams that need to be aligned with several different pins at once, which is always quite a chore. Also some of the pins (the dark bluish gray ones) seem to be made from a slightly bigger mold or a little less flexible plastic and you have to center them very well and exert a lot of pressure to make them fit. The sets come with a multitude of stickers that are used to reproduce the complicated decorations that these types of vehicles have to make them more striking and aggressive. Personally, without stickers you can play just the same and for me they don't lose appeal, but I belong to the anti-sticker league, so my opinion in this case is not very objective. I have to admit that the idea of someone using a dragon as inspiration for a monster truck seems normal to me, but using a Dalmatian as inspiration... I don't know what kind of Dalmatians you have in the USA, but they must have very bad tempers to be useful inspiration for one of these wheeled monsters.
The pull back motor runs smoothly and moves vehicles with speed and fluidity. A pity that the absence of suspension does not encourage jumping and other stunts. For me it is the main drawback of these sets.
Even with the absence of the suspension my opinion about the sets is very good. They are good models at an aesthetic and gameplay level. His alternate models are just as beautiful as the main set, another win for the model designers and I think any Technic fan should have at least one such model if only for a bit of fun between projects.
We thank LEGO for sending this set for review in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are ours alone, and LEGO does not endorse or support them in any way.
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