Review: 42209 Volvo L120 Electric Wheel Loader
Posted by Huw,
Nowadays the Technic theme seems to consist of a never-ending stream of licenced cars which are all much the same.
Every so often, though, a real gem is delivered that looks great and packs in enough functionality to satisfy even the most discerning Technic fan.
42209 Volvo L120 Electric Wheel Loader looks like it could be such a model...
Summary
42209 Volvo L120 Electric Wheel Loader, 973 pieces.
£89.99 / $119.99 / €99.99 | 9.2p/12.3c/10.3c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A proper Technic set with flawless functionality
- Fun to play with
- High parts density
- Clever linkage between controls and bucket lifting mechanism
- Warning light on roof moves too easily
- Care needed when picking up to avoid cowling opening inadvertently
- Very expensive in North America
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
New parts and stickers
The range of flip-flop beams continues to expand, as might be expected, with the introduction of a 9-long one in this set. It has now been made in 7, 9, 11 and 15 lengths, plus the 3x5 'L' beam. That part, design number 2477, appears in yellow for the first time in this set, as does the 7-long flip-flop beam.
A sticker sheet is a given in any licenced set but thankfully the decals are not too numerous in this one.
Construction
The vehicle is centrally articulated and construction begins with the joint. Three axles, connected with universal joints, pass through it to link the controls at the back to the bucket tipping mechanism at the front.
The dark grey cylinders on the left of the second picture below represent the electric motors.
As you can see, every square cm of space has been used inside the bodywork to cram in the mechanisms.
The completed model
At 40cm or so in length, it's not a large model by any means, but I think that's a good thing: it's compact to handle, easily played with, and won't take up too much room on your shelf. In fact, I'd argue it's the perfect size for a Technic model.
Comparing the wheelbase of the real thing with that of the model (3200mm/130mm) gives a scale of about 1:24.
The loader is equipped with articulated steering which basically means that it's hinged in the middle. The rear axle is floating but with a vertical movement of only around 5mm its utility is negligible.
Three linear actuators are utilised to move the bucket: two at the sides to lift, and one in the middle to tip.
The bulbous rear section houses the 600v 282kWh battery pack on the real vehicle and forms a counterweight to prevent tipping when the bucket is loaded.
Being an electric vehicle, there is no tedious-to-build piston engine inside. Instead, as mentioned above, its electric motors are represented by three dark grey cylinders which can be viewed by lifting the rear cowling. They are linked to the wheels via differentials, and rotate when the vehicle is pushed.
The hinged section incorporates the rear wheel mudguards (fenders), which are a convenient place to grip the model when picking it up. Unfortunately, doing so causes the cowling to open inadvertently. It's extremely annoying, but it can be resolved by using a couple of 2l axles to affix the mudguards to the bodywork, which stops it opening at all.
When the cowling is up, a couple of flaps on the sides can be opened to reveal electrical equipment.
Being an electric vehicle, it has a charging connector, which is accessed behind a flap at the back.
The new 'heavy-duty' differential parts have been used in the model, arguably unnecessarily given the model is not powered.
Operation
The vehicle is controlled using three gear wheels at the back. The one behind the cab is used for steering, while the two further back raise and lower, and tip the bucket.
The dirty great blue gear that's part of the steering linkage sticks out like a sore thumb from this angle!
The bucket can be raised and tipped realistically and a good range of movement is possible, to both pick up material and discharge it. Thanks to clever linkage, the bucket stays at the same angle when the arm is raised and lowered, thus not spilling the load.
Verdict
In my opinion this is pretty much a perfect Technic set, incorporating mechanisms that work well and are fun to play with, and it's aesthetically pleasing and accurate too.
The cowling opening inadvertently when picking it up is a minor annoyance, but easily fixed. The only other thing that annoys me is the way the orange light on the roof has been attached, using a clip hinge. It has a tendency to get in the way when steering, and gets knocked out of alignment when you do so, as you may notice in some of my photos.
As for the price, it does not seem too unreasonable in Europe, at £89.99, €99.99 for 973 pieces. However, as is often the case with Technic sets, it is priced higher than you would expect in the USA, at $119.99. In other product ranges, the dollar figure is usually the same as the Euro one, but here the price has been calculated using the actual $:€ exchange rate for a change.
Nevertheless, this is a set for the discerning Technic fan looking for a model that does more than just look pretty.
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31 comments on this article
>Set has Electric in name
>Is not Electric but costs as it would be.
????
This goes on my wanted list now. Love that it's filled with gears and mechanisms, as Technic should be! By the usual pattern, especially Technic and around where I live, if it feels expensive to begin with (yes, at equivalent of €125) it usually shows up with a very decent discount eventually.
@lordofdragonss said:
">Set has Electric in name
>Is not Electric but costs as it would be.
????"
I really wish Lego would make some unbranded larger technic sets. I got the
42163 Heavy-Duty Bulldozer at the start of the year, and that felt very reasonably priced for 190 pieces at $13, but as the sets get larger, they get into actual real cars, where Lego has to pay the car manufacturer to produce them…
Nice, but I still prefer my 8459 better. Linear actuators have their place, but I prefer pneumatics for functions like this.
@lordofdragonss said:
">Set has Electric in name
>Is not Electric but costs as it would be.
????"
The real vehicle variant of the L120 is electric, just like 42167 Mack LR Electric Garbage Truck has it in the name but is not an electric/motorized set.
LEGO takes every chance they can get to promote Zero-emission or Hybrid vehicles. (see 42215 Volvo EC500 Hybrid)
Also the Bricklink Designer program has some rules regarding Fossil Fuels or Deforestation/Mining etc. So I wonder how that will affect future LEGO sets.
https://www.bricklink.com/v3/designer-program/guidelines.page
Love the new bucket part! Day one buy.
"Very expensive in North America"
So fair pricing for once. Every other set could have "Very expensive in Europe" in the summary.
Completely overpriced being non-motorized. This ist mostly cheap connectors and axles so the ppp should be around 5-7c. And the blue gear ist just ridiculous.
Seems to be a mini-me of 42030, which (IMHO) is a better set, despite it's steering flaws.
@Huw:
Two of my college friends have a son who exclusively builds Technic cars, so the shift in that direction was actually favorable to some Technic fans, who would view this set as nothing more than a pile of parts.
Just as a comparison, I am currently building the 42055 which is fully motorized and has a ppp of 5.9c.
@jh84007 said:
"Seems to be a mini-me of 42030, which (IMHO) is a better set, despite its steering flaws."
Seems more to me like a refined mini 8265, which was a wonderful set back in the day. Still on the fence about this one as I really like the aesthetics and design efficiency but it doesn’t seem to offer anything new if you already own 8265 and 42030.
I wonder how it looks on 42175 's trailer.
It really is a compact loader.
Any Technic sets that aren't massive always get overlooked, like this one.
Expensive? Will be 180$ next month :-)
Or do they have a factory in the us?
When I first saw the price I was like, oh it's electric that's fine!
Now THIS feels like a proper Technic set. It's full of functions and is about mechanisms over looks. And it does more than just standard car stuff. Good! I like it!
@IgelCampus said:
"Completely overpriced being non-motorized. This ist mostly cheap connectors and axles so the ppp should be around 5-7c. And the blue gear ist just ridiculous. "
Indeed. Sets like these used to be in the 50 to 70 Euro ballpark - of course without the licence, which, let's be honest, doesn't add anything to the set. Literally, since the only licenced things in the set are the stickers.
Remember the days when Technic used to be good value for money? The same days when there also was a B-model (including paper instructions) as a given.
I have stopped buying Technic long ago, and it's unlikely I will ever buy another one.
@DenDeze said:
"Expensive? Will be 180$ next month :-)
Or do they have a factory in the us?"
They're building one in (I believe) Virginia.
@strangeworld said:
""Very expensive in North America"
So fair pricing for once. Every other set could have "Very expensive in Europe" in the summary."
Remember that the US pricing does not include sales tax, which our European prices do. So it's never a completely fair comparison.
However, it's insane how much the prices vary just within Europe. The price for this in Sweden is equivalent to €125 (which is $141 by the way) and that's just crazy. I'm definitely not buying this directly from Lego at that price. I'm sure it will eventually be available with like a 40% discount on Amazon. Because they sell at roughly the same prize in all of Europe, the discount percentage looks crazy here as it's compared to our local RRP.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @DenDeze said:
"Expensive? Will be 180$ next month :-)
Or do they have a factory in the us?"
They're building one in (I believe) Virginia."
They are, but last I heard it won't be online until 2027, and we aren't going to be seeing (m)any paper bags in sets until that happens. That factory will be built to use them from the very start, but the Mexican plant can't afford the downtime it would take to switch things over, plus they probably won't want to sink that kind of money into it unless they plan to run it concurrently with the Virgina plant (and I don't think we've heard one way or the other on that subject).
@jockos198 said:
"I wonder how it looks on 42175 's trailer."
Someone at Eurobricks made some images based on the digital models:
https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/forums/topic/202794-42209-volvo-l120-electric-wheel-loader/findComment-3769031
Thanks for the review. It does indeed look like a solid technic set - and is that one of the new 12-tooth clutch gears I can see in the pic with the hinged cowling up? Looks as though it contains a decent number of gears anyway and so C-models should be commonplace. The price though..
I'm principally a technic fan, it was technic that I loved as a kid, and technic that brought me out of my dark ages and I still have more technic than any other theme by miles. However, I'm tending to agree with the general consensus that it's been going downhill for a while now (realistically since 2018). This set looks decent - but it is overpriced, and I will be waiting for a discount. It's probably the only technic set I'll buy this year, which is a little depressing - although I daresay the missus will be very pleased!
I've got 42030 and 8459 so I don't need another loader. We'll see!
The licenseification of Lego continues. Technic now has more licensed sets than original sets. Based on the data that makes it a licensed theme. I broke down a lot of info on licensed sets in this document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PBbGVgc1fkIpsp5y4oH2O6H4SOZHF6MELOG-RVuW4pY
Before complaining about the price, it would be nice if people took off the nostalgia goggles. 8265 and 8459 are the two nearest comparable sets in size, and adjusted for inflation both were considerably more expensive at the time of release:
- 8265 was £75 in 2009, which comes to about £119 in 2025
- 8459 has no UK price data on Brickset, but was $82 in 1997... or $163 in 2025 (for less than 600 parts)
There are a lot of overpriced sets out there these days (the upcoming 42215 Volvo EC500 being a particularly egregious example), but 42209 does not feel like one of them to me. Once it's got its customary Amazon discount, I'll probably pick it up.
@Wiseman_2 said:
"Before complaining about the price, it would be nice if people took off the nostalgia goggles. 8265 and 8459 are the two nearest comparable sets in size, and adjusted for inflation both were considerably more expensive at the time of release:
- 8265 was £75 in 2009, which comes to about £119 in 2025
- 8459 has no UK price data on Brickset, but was $82 in 1997... or $163 in 2025 (for less than 600 parts)
There are a lot of overpriced sets out there these days (the upcoming 42215 Volvo EC500 being a particularly egregious example), but 42209 does not feel like one of them to me. Once it's got its customary Amazon discount, I'll probably pick it up."
I agree that Lego has always been expensive, and you do generally get quite significantly more parts per buck today than you did historically. But I disagree with the examples you gave here.
8265 must be considerably bigger than 42209. Just counting studs from a couple pictures, 8265 looks about 35% longer. If it's a similar difference in all three dimensions it would be 2.4 times the volume of 42209. Another way to see the difference is the use of large linear actuators as opposed to the tiny ones. I have a really hard time imagining those sets retailing at a similar price point if they were introduced in the same year.
8459 is more comparable in size. But it has pneumatics, with the large actuators. And, I believe, its air-tank system was an all new thing for that year making it more desirable. 42209 doesn't really have anything unique or revolutionary in that regard. 8459 was probably "more overpriced" in its day than 42209 is today though, I must say.
So, 42209 is not the most overpriced set of all time. But it is overpriced, especially in some markets. And that's only compared to other Lego sets. Compared to other things in general, at the price Lego is asking, this little front loader toy is horrendously expensive for what you get. I would love to get this set, but it will definitely have to wait for a substantial discount. This all gives me the right to question the price Lego choose to set for it, especially the difference in different countries which in some cases just makes no sense at all.
Love the set but Technic should cut all the licensed sets that increase the price. This could have been a regular wheelloader without a brand name.
When seeing the initial pictures, I was worried that the bucket would not be level when lifting the boom. Due to the linear actuators all on the same axis. But it seems like my geometrical analysis was wrong, which is good.
Then I think this is an awesome set, a good successor to 8459, which at the time was one of the best Technic sets.
It is hard to find any issues with this set. The wheels seem very functional and realistic. The articulation is done with linkages, which is more realistic than previous solutions.
The beefy differentials are a nice addition, and good to have more of those available.
Probably one of the most perfect Technic sets I have seen in a while.
I've got just over 20 Technic sets, of which only 5 larger models (>400 pcs), including 8459, so I'm not much of a Technic collector, but I might get this one if I get the chance. I really like it.
But how is 32 stickers "not too numerous"? I think that's a lot!
Overpriced in Poland as well.103€/117$/429.99 PLN
*439.99 PLN