We’ve been a bit lazy on the reviewing front here at The Lego Car Blog of late. We do have a large review coming, but in the meantime our pals over at, er… BrickPals, have joined us to add another LEGO set to our ever-expanding Set Review Library (which is now contains over 100 reviews!). Over to Jack from the BrickPals team….
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Hey guys, Jack here, and today I’ll be bringing you a review of LEGO’s 42065 Technic RC Tracked Racer, a set first released in 2017. Featuring some 370 pieces, 42065 retails for £74.99 in the UK, $99.99 in the US and 79.99€ in Europe and comes with a range of Power Functions parts; an IR receiver, a remote control, a battery box and 2 medium motors. With that in mind it seems like great value, but how good is the racer itself?
The Box
This is your pretty standard Technic box with the orange Power Functions strip on the side. Opening it up you’ll find three bags. Two have parts and smaller bags in them, and the other contains the Power Functions components. Interestingly, the battery box was not included in this bag and instead is loose inside the box.
The Build
You start off by building the base of the racer. This is very straightforward and provides no real interesting building techniques but a sturdy support for what’s to come.
Next, the battery box, receiver and two medium motors are added. I was a bit surprised that the receiver was mounted on top of the battery box, but this does not interfere with the removal/inserting of the battery pack.
After this, we start to build the outer layer of the racer. This is built separately from the existing build and uses white and green panels to achieve the desired shape. A few interesting techniques are used when constructing and angling the ‘bonnet’. Two clear pieces sit at the front and represent lights – I was impressed with how well the angles line up to the triangular green pieces. There are nine stickers to be applied to the racer, and these are all added on to this green shell. This is somewhat frustrating as it means many stickers applied one after the other, due to no stickers being placed on the chassis of the car.
The completed and be-stickered bodywork is then attached to the chassis of the car at the front, where it can hinge roughly 160 degrees at the point it sits above the battery box.
Playability
This was a very straightforward build, predominately for one reason – this set’s main purpose is to be a remote control car, unlike other Technic sets which attempt to replicate different functions of a vehicle.
So how does it drive? There is one medium motor which powers the left track and another medium motor powering the right. These are connected to the IR receiver which is connected to the battery box. The remote control communicates with the receiver.
There are two levers on the control, and they each control one motor. To go forwards, both levers must be held in the forward position. To go backwards, both leavers must be held in the backwards position. This is pretty simple, but what happens if you want to turn? Assuming the racer is driving away from you, only holding down the left control will make it turn right (so you’re essentially ‘dropping power’ on the side you want to turn). If the racer is coming towards you and you want to turn right, you hold down the right control. The opposite applies in both cases for turning left. Anyways, it takes a while to get used to the steering – especially for someone like myself who’s built RC cars where one motor does all the turning and the other powers the two back wheels.
How does 42065 perform on different surfaces? The racer works best on smooth surfaces but it also works well on carpet, being able to negotiate obstacles (or TLCB Elves, Ed.) and climb small inclines (or over TLCB Elves… Ed.). Continue reading
