9396 | The Lego Car Blog

Advertisements

The 2012 Technic Flagship; 4×4 Crawler

Back in March we fired up our highly complex supercomputer and attempted to calculate the prices of the three Summer 2012 Technic releases. These new Technic models are now on sale at the Lego Shop, and we’re pleased to say our supercomputer was a) fairly accurate, and b) the small variance is a positive one; all three LEGO sets are exactly £10 less than our March estimates – how’s that for consistency!

9393 Tractor

Our estimate: £34.99 – £39.99

Actual price: £24.99

…

9396 Helicopter

Our estimate: £79.99 – £89.99

Actual price: £69.99

…

9398 Rock Crawler

Our estimate: £149.99 – £159.99

Actual price: £139.99

…

So what are you waiting for? Head on over to Lego.com and get your hands on LEGO’s latest, all with £10 off!

Advertisements

There is some discussion on the internet estimating the prices for the three as-yet-unreleased Technic sets of 2012.

We thought we’d weigh in with our predictions, following our previews of all three sets earlier in the year (type ‘preview’ into our search feature at the bottom of the page to read the reports). We were deliberately vague with our pricing information until now, which probably hasn’t helped those of you trying to work out how much to save!

We’re basing our estimations on three factors:

The piece count and piece type of the new model
Lego’s ‘build to a price’ approach
Model predecessors

Inputting this information into our enormous and very complex super-computer gives us the following results. Drumroll…

9393 Tractor: £34.99 – £39.99,

9396 Helicopter: £79.99 – £89.99,

9398 Rock Crawler: £149.99 – £159.99

So there you have it – some completely unofficial and possibly inaccurate prices.

Have we got it right? – Add your views in the comments.

…

Advertisements

Lego Technic 9393

In the words of the late Etta James; At Last.

After a long search The Lego Car Blog Elves have scooped the final unrevealed Technic set of 2012. Alongside the previously revealed 9398 Rock Crawler and 9396 Rescue Helicopter, 9393 looks somewhat less impressive, due in most part to the fact it is, well, less impressive.

But that’s not to say it isn’t a good Technic set. 9393 is probably the smallest ‘proper’ Technic set to be released in 2012, holding that position jointly with the Quad Bike that’s already in shops (we can’t really say the mini-crane and mini-Unimog are proper Technic sets whatever The Lego Company labels the boxes).

Anyhow, this tractor looks a strong starter set, bringing back proper functionality after some shaky efforts over the past few years. It appears to feature hand-of-God steering and a working rear implement, presumably operating as a power take-off from the rear wheels. What we’re less keen on is the laziness of Lego’s designers, as this is the third green Technic tractor in about 5 years. Still, if it’s a popular format then we can understand Lego’s reluctance to break with a winning idea.

The 2012 Tractor will reach stores towards the end of Summer 2012 (or August if you’re reading this and wondering what the seasonal timings are at The Lego Car Blog Towers), and should be priced at about one third of the flagships’ RRP.

Advertisements

Lego Technic 9396

Those sneaky Elves have done it again. What with them being small and underfed, they can get into all sorts of places. Whilst this causes all manner of problems in The Lego Car Blog office, it does mean we can get some useful spy-shots for you.

9396 is Lego’s other large Technic release for summer 2012 (the first being the awesome 9398 Rock Crawler we featured earlier in the week). As you can see from the grainy image to the left, this large rescue helicopter includes a few new pieces and some slightly ‘older’ building techniques we thought had been phased out.

Technical functions are controlled through a single input; we can reveal that 9396 uses a gearbox (as on the 2011 Technic Unimog and almost all Lego’s ‘Supercars’) to vary the output, which includes a working winch, retractible landing gear, opening ramp and simultaneously turning main and tail rotors.

To allow the price to be below the flagship models in Lego’s 2012 range the set will not come with Power Functions motors, however it is designed to easily accept them as an add-on. We can also assume the main rotor is fully controllable from the cabin as a swash plate is visible.

9396 should reach us towards the end of summer. The Technic renaissance continues!

The Lego Car Blog

The Best LEGO Cars on the Web! | LEGO News, Reviews & MOCs | Cars, Trucks, Sci-Fi, Aircraft & More

Tag Archives: 9396

2012 Technic Sets – On Sale Now

2012 Technic Prices

Lego Technic 9393 Tractor Preview

Lego Technic 9396 Rescue Helicopter Preview

Like this? Share it!

Like this? Share it!

Like this? Share it!

Like this? Share it!