Review: 42052 Heavy Lift Helicopter
Posted by FlagsNZ,
Helicopters have formed one of the signature Technic sub-themes starting with the first sets released in 1977.
There has been a new Technic helicopter released, on average, every two or three years with 852 Helicopter being the first; 42052 Heavy Lift Helicopter is the tenth Technic helicopter but the first to feature coaxial contra-rotating rotors.
The distinguishing feature of this set is the overall accurate appearance of the fuselage created with clever use of Technic panels.
With 1042-parts, it is comparable in size to the 9396 Helicopter released in 2012 but its principal advantage is that it is the first Technic helicopter to have Power Functions included in the set.
Box/Instructions
This set comes in a standard big box.
The front of the box shows the Heavy Lift Helicopter flying over an alpine forest with the Bricks & Beams Ltd cargo slung from the winch wire. The Power Function features are shown along with a plan view showing the set's dimensions.
The rear of the box shows an open cargo ramp with the Bricks & Beams Ltd cargo ready for loading. It explains more of the play features: moving elevator and tail rudder, motorised cargo doors and working winch, motorised loading ramp and motorised contra-rotating rotors.
The rear of the box also shows the B model and related play features.
The B model has been described as a flying guinea pig and I agree with this description.
The instructions are printed in one bound book of 188-pages.
There is a large sticker sheet which comes protected in the same plastic bag as the instructions.
Parts
The parts come in eleven un-numbered bags.
Loose in the box are the Power Functions battery box with an M motor, six rotor blades and two black 19L soft axles.
The special parts in this set are:
- The six 31L Technic rotor blades; this part has only been seen before in 9396 Helicopter.
- The two black 19 L soft axles; this part has only been seen in 8450 The Mission. There are two parts included but only one is used in the A and B models, the other one is spare.
- The yellow Cross Axle 5M which has been seen in six sets in 2016.
- The red Cross Axle 6M which has been seen in five sets in 2016.
- Two blue curved Technic panels.
- Technic beam with cross axle.
- Two white shells with worm (concrete mixer barrels). This is the first Technic set to use this part in any colour and only the second set to use this part in white.
The yellow cross axle 5M, blue curved Technic panels and Technic beam with cross axle are new in 2016.
There have been several red cross axles over the years including a 6M version but I am unaware of any other cross axle in yellow. I suspect that the use of yellow and red colours for these two cross axles may be a design change introduced this year: there is no reason to use a distinctive colour other than ease of identification given the increasing choice of cross axles used in Technic sets.
There are several orange Technic parts in this set that have appeared in five or less sets.
The build
By step 46 (page 32) the fuselage has been constructed. This makes a change from most Technic sets as usually sets are built starting with the gear box or drive train.
By step 114 (page 60) the gear box, winch and cargo door mechanism has been assembled.
The two white double-angular beams have been used as a display stand and are not part of the gear box.
The coaxial contra-rotating rotors are enabled through two 28-tooth small turntables.
By step 139 (page 70) the coaxial contra-rotating gearing is completed.
The 24-tooth gear is driving two 12-tooth double bevel gears. The upper rotor will eventually be driven by an axle connected to the 3M gear shift connector threaded through the upper 28-tooth turntable. Any misalignment of this part increases the friction of the total system.
Step 141 (page 71) merges the gearbox with the rotor drive and adds the M Motor.
Step 142 merges the drive train with the fuselage.
By step 179 (page 97) the cargo bay, cargo doors, rear undercarriage and battery box have been assembled. There is plenty of room in the cargo bay.
By step 238 (page 137) the tail, elevator and twin rudders have been assembled.
The Heavy Lift Helicopter has a registration OK-MLX. This acknowledges Milan Reindl as the LEGO designer for this set: OK is the aeronautical country code for Czech Republic, Milan's nationality.
Milan Reindl is known in the LEGO community as Grohl and he has been fortunate to convert his passion for LEGO into a full time job at The LEGO Group as a Technic designer.
The twin rudders use two white panels with angle 5x11. This part first appeared in 42040 Fire Plane; another set designed by Milan Reindl. That plane has the registration OK-1980: OK for Czech Republic, 1980 is the year Milan was born.
Step 240 (page 139) merges the main fuselage with the tail.
By step 279 (page 166) the cockpit has been assembled. This is where the 19L soft axle is used. The two blue curved Technic panels are used as seats in the cockpit.
Both the pilot and co-pilot have a flight instrument panel. The gauges and artificial horizon is a sticker on a dark stone grey 2x2 tile. The 1x1 round tile gauge is a printed part.
Finally, by step 299 (page 186), the coaxial contra-rotating rotors are assembled. The white shells with worm (concrete mixer barrels) are used effectively as turbine engine covers.
The last few pages makes the Bricks & Beams Ltd cargo container.
The completed model
It looks fantastic. At about 53cm x 60cm x 23cm it's a large set.
The Heavy Lift Helicopter sets a record for the number of Technic panels: it has 51 panels, one more than 42025 Cargo Plane released in 2014. As a consequence, the whole fuselage is covered by panels which gives this set a very attractive real-world look to it.
Apart from the white panels with angle 5x11, all the other panels have been in the Technic system for many years. It just goes to show how clever design can create a great looking set.
The Power Functions are operated via the switch, camouflaged as the anti-collision red light, on the belly.
There are two separate gearing systems:
- The left gear lever operates the cargo doors and winch wire.
- The right gear lever operates the contra-rotating rotors and the loading ramp.
The gear levers are located just below the turbine engines.
The elevator is controlled manually by a lever under the tail while the twin rudders are linked together with a connecting axle but has no control system.
The cargo doors can be opened in flight and there is sufficient clearance to have these doors open when the helicopter is on the ground. The winch wire can raise or lower the cargo from the cargo bay.
The helicopter has its weight balanced centrally on the rotor disk.
The loading ramp opens up the large cargo bay and the winch wire can pull the cargo into the cargo bay.
This helicopter is 13cm shorter than 9396 Helicopter as helicopters with contra-rotating rotors do not have tail rotors.
The two helicopters have the same sized rotor disc dimension and share the same height: they are effectively built at the same scale.
The Heavy Lift Helicopter has fixed undercarriage; the nose wheel is on a caster and the rear wheels drop down while in flight.
The undercarriage is more substantially built than that on 9396 Helicopter. The earlier helicopter does not have a castor on the nose wheel.
With 1056 parts, 9396 Helicopter retailed for £69.99 / $119.99 / 89.99€ in 2012.
Today, 42052 Heavy Lift Helicopter retails at £99.99 / $139.99 / 119.99€ and comes with 1042 parts.
This represents very good value as this set comes with Power Functions included, a feature missing from the earlier set.
Overall opinion
This helicopter has an uncanny resemblance with the Russian Kamov Ka-32A11BC.
Heliswiss have used these helicopters to install digital TV antennas at Aarhus, just 100km from Billund which is perhaps where the design inspiration came from.
Contra-rotating coaxial rotors balance out the torque generated by the two rotors and therefore a tail rotor is unnecessary. They also have the advantage of increasing the payload for the same powered engine.
This 42052 Heavy Lift Helicopter does not have any collective control of the rotor blades: coaxial rotors have extremely complex control mechanisms which would be nearly impossible to replicate in Technic, particularly given the constraints imposed by using 28-tooth small turntables in the rotor mechanism.
I am disappointed that the elevator and twin rudders do not have a joystick control, particularly given that there is no collective: there is effectively no aeronautical controls found on this helicopter.
I was expecting a linkage arrangement, similar to that found on 42025 Cargo Plane or 42040 Fire Plane, to control the tail: most of the necessary linkages are there in the tail and the orange claw on the tail could have performed some control function.
Due to the placement of the 24-tooth Technic torque coupling just after the M Motor, there is a disconcerting tendency for the rotors to stall should the cargo doors, winch wire or loading ramp reach the end of their respective limits.
It would be better to have the rotors prioritised without the torque coupling in the rotor drive train. A friction pin system, similar to that found on 42025 Cargo Plane, could have allowed the rotors to slip as a child toy-safety device while enabling the rotors to continue to spin if any of the other three Power Functions reached their limits.
Regardless of these minor flaws, this set looks impressive with the two three-bladed contra rotating rotor discs in action.
As this set is used for heavy lifts - Kamov Ka-32A11BC can lift 5 tonnes (11000 pounds) - the cargo handling facilities are of prime interest.
Many of the Kamov Ka-32A11BC helicopters are used in a fire fighting role: they hold water in the cargo bay and dump the water by opening the cargo doors.
The cargo handling systems in this set are fantastic and this set has great play potential.
It's available now from shop.LEGO.com: USA | UK | Canada | Germany | France
34 likes
20 comments on this article
Wonderfully thorough review! And now that I have seen the guinea pig B model, it's ruined for me :P
Great review, thank you. I built mine over the weekend and I agree with you, it's an excellent set. The contra-rotating rotor mechanism is very clever and something that would not have been possible without the new small turntable introduced a few years ago.
Technic sets have traditionally had a 'unfinished' skeletal look, haven't they, so it's good that the introduction of the flat panel plus other useful shapes allows designers to provide proper body work these days.
I kinda miss the skeletal look, as I grew up with it. Being able to see 'through' the body panels into the inner workings is great, but let's face it, this chopper has one big ugly gearbox in its innards, so I guess it can be excused ^_^
Thanks for the review and the comparison to the 9396 set, is good.
Excellent review, thank you!
Thanks for a nice, thorough review, much appreciated! Thanks for the comparison against the 9396.
Very good review, and it really stands out against the gappy 2012 heli. I do think a $20 markup just for two PF parts isn't great, especially if one already has a bunch of them...
Anyway, this looks like a fun set, and will go great with my 42040. :D
I'm just curious though why there has never been a greater blend between Technic and normal LEGO? Advanced models use Technic to create a stable frame and advanced Technic models sometimes have smaller LEGO plates / tiles for lights or seats etc. But surely much more could be done to make a model that is awesome on the inside as on the outside? Think fully functioning Batman Tumbler like the D2C set that came out a couple of years ago...
@Huw, @PaNic, my thoughts exactly. Technic sets appear to be more detailed on the outside these days, so it goes in the right direction. But at the same time they could have been designed to look like Advanced Models! Why aren't they?
Anyway, I'm really excited for Bucket Wheel Excavator. It seems to be minifig scale (or close), it has a cool look and functions, and tons of parts. Everything one can expect from a Technic set, isn't it? I hope it's going to be a difficult build! Can't wait for August.
not bad
^^ Thanks, yes I had a look at the comments posted on my Arcos review and took them onboard.
I have failed to mention in this review that there is quite a lot of space in a cavity behind the cockpit. Sufficient room for a second M Motor dedicated to the rotor and/or a IR Receiver.
Nice review, looks like an interesting build with the rotation system.
one small point of comment on the set, the cargo container seems awefully small...
Build the B model. In my opinion, it is better.
There are 40 pieces left when you're done with it, which I think is amazing!
Thank you for an excellent review. You've successfully swayed me from writing off "another Technic helicopter" to realizing this is perhaps the best helicopter Lego has ever made. Definitely buying now during double points month.
@FlagsNZ, there have been a few sets with yellow axles of length 3 recently, most notably the Wall-E set: http://brickset.com/sets/containing-part-6130007
I'm still wavering about Technic body plates (like an earlier commenter, I enjoy being able to see the mechanism), but it's an awfully handsome and tempting model! Great, thorough review!
@ tkadauke, Thanks, I don't have any of those sets so was unaware of the other axles in yellow.
Mark J Stafford, Nabii, commented on having specific parts colour locked:
"There are many reasons to colour lock or limit a part, both to do with reducing the complexity of production and the logistics of storage/packing.
But in the case of the gears it is to keep the different sizes of gears easy to differentiate - even when mixed in with kids brick piles at home - it means it's still not too hard for a kid to rebuild his LEGO sets if he wants to." https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/29w5q7/exo_suit_side_by_side_original_submission_vs/ciprt9a?context=3
It's just that I can't see any aesthetic reason for the colour change, so I am wondering if this is a new standard colour for these parts.
Very nice set!
Out of curiosity, other than radio control toy models (such as the old Air Hogs helicopters) is there any actual helicopter with a rotor set up such as this? An online search yields that no real helicopter is even close to this.
^ The links are above in the review.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0e/Ka-32-installs-digital-tv-antenna-in-aarhus.jpg
http://www.russianhelicopters.aero/en/helicopters/civil/ka-32a11bc/photo.html
@cody6268 - Lots of helicopters have coaxial rotors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaxial_rotors
Great review, Thanks.