1. A Star Wars X-wingThe world record holder for the largest Lego model goes to the builders behind this recently unveiled scale model of the dogfighting spaceship from Star Wars. The LEGO Model Shop in Kladno, Czech Republic, took more than 17,000 man hours and 32 builders to put together this massive model. It consists of more than 5 million bricks and weighs approximately 23 tons. 2. A mecha robotThe X-wing project took the record away from the LEGO Store in Minnesota's Mall of America. There, a massive "mecha robot" called the "Herobot 9000" consists of more than 2.8 million LEGO bricks, and towers over customers at a height of more than 34 feet. 3. A two-story houseTop Gear host and toy enthusiast James May took on a series of insane toy challenges for a BBC special. That included building a livable, two-story house entirely from LEGO bricks. The final structure consisted of 3.2 million bricks, and wasn't just a giant box with LEGO walls. May's team also put together an entire set of LEGO furniture, furnishings, housewares, and even bathroom fixtures — including a working shower and toilet.
Sadly, the house was eventually demolished. 4. A 2004 Volvo XC60The folks at the model shop of California's Legoland amusement park decided to use their uncanny building powers to pull off one of the most impressive office pranks you'll see in your lifetime. General manager Peter Ronchetti discovered that his car had been towed out of his usual parking space and replaced with a perfect LEGO replica. It was made with exactly 201,076 bricks and weighed more than a ton. Sadly, it wasn't a working model, so Ronchetti probably had to bum a ride from someone in the office. 5. A harpsichordPiano enthusiast and LEGO sculptor Henry Lim combined his two greatest passions to create a working LEGO harpsichord that plays real music. The 150-pound LEGO instrument took two years to design and build, and consists of more than 100,000 bricks. It can play a range of 61 notes with five octaves on a single manual keyboard. (Watch a video here) 6. A jet engineRolls-Royce turned to LEGO to make a replica of its Trent 1000 turbofan engine — the same one found in Boeing's 787 Dreamliner.
The model wasn't just built to look like Rolls-Royce's engine. The 150,000-plus brick model also contained several moving parts that replicated the engine's movements and functions. Of course, it was purely for show, since the LEGO version wasn't strong enough to keep a plane in the air. 7. A Nintendo controllerThanks to some innovative builders, you can actually buy a giant working replica of the Nintendo Entertainment System controller. Baron von Brunk decided to build his own five-foot-wide controller from LEGOs. He constructed the controller's housing, components, and buttons entirely from the toy bricks and wired them to a USB plug that could play NES games on a computer emulator.The 42053 Volvo EW 160E is one of the three new Technic sets being released in the second half of 2016. It is also based on the pneumatic system v2 which don't come along too often.There have not been too many pneumatic sets released, and this is only the third one I've owned. It is an interesting system and very different from all the other LEGO mechanics.
The recent sets 42043 Mercedes Benz Arocs and 42008 Service Truck both came with Power Functions in addition to the Pneumatics. The 42053 Volvo however leaves out the Power Functions as an optional extra, although it does have comprehensive instructions for how to integrate them.The box measures 37.5 cm x 35 cm x 9 cm.As is becoming standard, the instructions are bound into a single booklet which holds up well during the build. There was an error in the bill of materials at the end of the instructions which indicate only two 4697b T-Bar parts are required when there is actually three (plus one spare).There are 1163 parts in the set (plus 17 spares). There are 2 new parts in this set - the 26280 Pneumatic Hand Pump with 1 x 3 Liftarm on the bottom and the 32L pneumatic hose. I believe the pump is the third iteration of the hand pump to be released. Previous pumps were 4701c01 (1984 to 1987) and more recently 2797c02 (1991 to 2010).The other pneumatic parts included in this set are:The small and large cylinders are the same parts that were in the 42043 Mercedes Benz Arocs from last year.
I found the switches quite hard to move, and the extra levers that are added during the build are necessary. I supposed that is necessary to prevent air leakage.Note: there are only 3 of the 99021 Hose Connector parts, I just didn't notice the other 2 until after taking the first photo and using the parts :(There are also some parts appearing in new colors:Also of interest were the plentiful use of Yellow 5L and 9L axles, and Red 4L and 12L axles, rather than the more normal Black/Gray ones. The Yellow axles in particular helped keep the colors of the set matching nicely.The full inventory can be found here.The build starts with the front axle and creates the base of the truck.The first pneumatic hose connection is easy.The instructions make it very clear what is requiredThe main pneumatic switch-board is built next, and it starts to look a bit messy once the hoses are all connected.Next up is the main grappler arm.The pneumatic hose connections for this starts to get a lot messier on steps 188 to 193.
The instructions try to help with color coded dots on the hoses, and close-ups of where they are supposed to be threaded. I didn't make any mistakes here, but it might have made things easier to introduce a Dark Bluish Gray hose so the different sizes are easier to distinguish.I like the way the hoses are threaded through holes in the Technic connector parts, to help keep things a bit more organised.Some of the paneling is added which starts to cover up the spaghetti mess inside.Yes I know this is wrong, I missed the 3rd wheel here. I wondered briefly why there was a piston-looking contraption that didn't actually work. I realised my mistake when I have an extra wheel spare... 200 steps later :( NOT easy to fix on a completed model. However, this whole contraption is actually only used if you enable the Power Functions.The bucket and last part of the arm is built next. The 2 halves of the bucket scooper move symmetrically.Next up, we start to build the cabin and the mechanism that raises/lowers it.
Like everything else in this set, it is modeled quite accurately on the real Volvo vehicle.One of the new curved panels are used to make a nice looking seat!The cabin is mounted and more panels added.Finally, the Orange safety bars and mirrors are added, which help make it look more authentic.You've probably noticed I didn't add any stickers. Well, except the one that indicates what each of the switches do. I think most Technic builders dislike stickers as it makes the parts harder to reuse. For this set, there are a lot of stickers that just contain the word Volvo. I don't think the lack of them makes the set any worse looking, but of course judge for yourself.I like the use of a hand pump to drive the functions in this set. It reminds me of my old 8851 Excavator, but it feels far more solid to use. To operate it, move a switch to the left or right position and push down on the pump a few times. I found it doesn't tend to respond immediately as the air pressure needs to overcome the cylinder friction and weight of the LEGO parts being lifted.
Also, when moving the arm down it would initially drop by itself due to the weight. However, it manages to hold it's position when the switches are in the central locked position - so there was no air leakage that I noticed. MAXIMUM ARM EXTENSIONIf you pull the arm in fully, it actually presses into the ground and can raise the vehicle into the air (or cause the bucket to snap up into the front fender).There are an additional 30 steps of comprehensive instructions for adding the Power Functions if you so desire. They include removing a number of easily accessible parts and inserting a motor, battery pack and lights.The use of PF here replaces the need for the hand pump. Instead, the motor drives the previously unused piston to pump air around automatically. Personally, I prefer to use the hand pump and keep electronics out of it. But it does add some decent technical play-ability to the set.As usual, the B-Model instructions can only be found online. However, since the set has not been released yet (1st August I believe), I can't access them.