It’s a few weeks before Christmas
And all through LEGO’s HQ
TLCB Elves have been sneaking
Finding sets to preview.

Yes it’s that time of year once again, when a crack team of ‘volunteer’ Elves are thrown over the LEGO Company’s perimeter wall to uncover next year’s new Technic sets. This is the complete H1 2025 Technic line-up!

42197 Backhoe Loader

We kick off the 2025 Technic range with this, the new 42197 Backhoe Loader. A neat counterpart to last year’s 42163 Heavy-Duty Bulldozer, 42197 includes a raising front bucket via a worm gear and a roof mounted cog, a posable backhoe, and deployable stabilisers. Just 104 pieces are needed, it’s aimed at ages 7+, and it fulfils the starter-set brief beautifully.

42198 Bush Plane

Trebling the piece-count is the 42198 Bush Plane, a welcome and too-rare foray into fixed wing aircraft.

Aimed at ages 8+, 42198 includes a flat-4 piston engine linked to the propellor and powered – we think – by an intriguing push-beam mechanism that simultaneously operates working ailerons (flaps) that flip in opposing directions to make turns.

Besides the rather clunky-looking landing gear, 42198 looks like an excellent small-scale set, with zebra-stripe stickerage and some good parts too, including propellor blades, new white beams, and a surprising number of gears. We like.

42199 Monster Jam DIGatron & 42200 Monster Jam ThunderROARus

After a short break away from Monster Jam for the Pull-Backs, LEGO is returning to the partnership for 2025. And that’s no bad thing, as these sets are really only designed for one purpose; being launched down a hallway and over a ramp made of books and a cereal box.

42199 Monster Jam DIGatron and 42200 Monster Jam ThunderROARus will no doubt perform said task admirably, and – outfitted with both stickers and teeth – they’re perfect for their 7+ target.

42201 Deep-Sea Research Submarine

On to one of 2025’s most unusual Technic sets, the 413-piece 42201 Deep-Sea Research Submarine. Reminiscent of the largely forgotten 1997 Divers sub-theme, 42201 looks rather un-Technic-y, despite being constructed almost exclusively from Technic pieces. A selection of cogs operate the pitch of the propellors and the grab-arm, and you’ll be able to scoop up the remnants of the Ocean Gate Titan when 42201 dives into stores from January 2025.

42202 Ducati Panigale V4 S Motorcycle

Wait, haven’t we done this already? Almost.

The 42202 Ducati Panigale V4 S moves one letter down the alphabet from 2020’s 42107 Ducati Panigale V4 R, and in doing so ups the piece-count by a thousand, the target age by eight, and the price by $100.

Measuring over 40cm long, the new 1,600-piece Ducati will arrive with a foot-operated three-speed (plus neutral) gearbox, a V4 engine chain-linked to the rear wheel, functioning steering, and working suspension, plus some spectacular looking bodywork.

Joining LEGO’s previous 1:5 scale Technic motorcycles (the 42159 Yamaha MT-10 SP and 42130 BMW M 1000 RR), the new 42202 Ducati Panigale V4 S is expected to cost around £170/$200 when it arrives next year, and whilst it does look to somewhat repeat its smaller 42017 brother, there have been dozens of red Ferrari sets to date, so a second (and much larger) Ducati is fine by us.

42203 Tipping Dump Truck

We complete* the new 2025 Technic line-up with a neat mid-size truck of the type LEGO has built for decades. The new 462-piece 42203 Tipping Dump Truck features ‘HOG’ steering, and hand-cranked tipper, and, um… that’s it. Perhaps for £45 we’d have hoped for some basic oscillating suspension or something, but we’re in the minority. LEGO know it’s aesthetics that sell their products today, even Technic ones, and thus 42203 likely loses that extra feature in favour of decals and visual detail. And on those counts it scores rather well.

Aimed at ages 9+, the new 42203 Tipping Dump Truck will join the rest of the new Technic range in stores from early next year, with a few of the new sets (including this one) available to pre-order via the official LEGO website from now.

*Plus of course the 42204 Fast & Furious Toyota Supra Mk4, 42205 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray and 42206 Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 F1 car sets already revealed here at The Lego Car Blog, and the enormous new LEGO Formula 1 line-up of which the latter is part.