Review 42181 VTOL Heavy Cargo Spaceship LT81

This looks to be an amazing set! Great review!

This set is awesome. It's cool to see Technic doing something different for a change.

When I was young, I used to hold ships from the bottom to fly around the house. I guess I was doing it wrong!

Not the Osprey we wanted, but the Osprey we deserve. (I mean they are both fixed-wing VTOL aircraft, right?)

That's where Huw was - halfway across the galaxy on planet Technic, test flying their very first spaceship. Glad to have you back, Huw.

The city line could need one of those, similar to 7692 maybe ;)

Cool model, decent price. Only those stickers....this feels like another model where the designers seemed to think every single panel needed to be covered in a sticker. Honestly, I feel most seem very much optional, I'd love to see the thing without any stickers but have a feeling it would look just as nice.

The style & colours remind me a bit of Mars Mission.

Warm up for a Thunderbirds set….?

@WizardOfOss said:
" @MisterBrickster said:
" @iamtomparrott said:
"Warm up for a Thunderbirds set….?"

Someone outside the UK knows what Thunderbirds is? But now you mention it, this is quite a Gerry Anderson sort of craft... "
I'd say Thunderbirds is pretty well known all over Europe, and also quite a bit beyond. I mean, look what I found last your in a (pretty bizarre museum in Japan: https://maps.app.goo.gl/SFXvK1F1VsxC7Lqd7

"

Not to spoil the global reach of Thunderbirds, but I’m from the UK…just on holiday in Costa Rica!

@WizardOfOss said:
"Cool model, decent price. Only those stickers....this feels like another model where the designers seemed to think every single panel needed to be covered in a sticker. Honestly, I feel most seem very much optional, I'd love to see the thing without any stickers but have a feeling it would look just as nice."

U dont have to put the stickers on. Thats whats good about them if you want it to be more detailed you can put them on, and if you cant handle them then just leave them.

Its not based off a real spaceship so leaving them off does not destroy the accuracy of the model or anything.

Around 1978, Lego introduced 'Space' but also 'Technic'. I was a big fan of both. I used to create Technic spaceships (multi-colours) and hook them up on the clothesline and operate them from a distance with a fishing line to drop missiles/bomb on unsuspecting distant cities.

I 'read' the building instructions of this set as soon as they were available online. I am so getting this set (42181) and also the smaller one (42178). Finally, a decent looking Technic spacecraft!

I guess we will get the review of 42179 very soon- the building process does not seem spectacular but we'll see how the final model 'behave' (it is apparently quite accurate).

How does this scale with a minifig?

Its a quite nice looking set, and the wooosh factor is off the charts. I used to do that with the collector tie factor, but this one beats that.

However, this set is begging for some modding with system parts for extra detail and a crew.

@legoluver777 said:
" @WizardOfOss said:
"Cool model, decent price. Only those stickers....this feels like another model where the designers seemed to think every single panel needed to be covered in a sticker. Honestly, I feel most seem very much optional, I'd love to see the thing without any stickers but have a feeling it would look just as nice."

U dont have to put the stickers on. Thats whats good about them if you want it to be more detailed you can put them on, and if you cant handle them then just leave them."

Yeah, for that reason alone I'd say these are much less egregious than, say, with the BMW M1000 or the flex-Ferrari, that both really relied on the stickers and would look pretty terrible without. That doesn't seem the case here.

This model looks amazing, this year Technic line finally have something unique and exciting apart from the usual cars and construction vehicles. And that price is just sweet !

I am just happy Technic finally makes something different than licenced cars.

@tmtomh said:
"Does anyone who's ever used that cockpit piece in-person have an educated guess as to whether the cockpit of this could fit a minifigure inside it?"

According to The Brothers Brick, it does indeed accommodate minifigures :)

@Huw said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" @Huw said:
" @Zink said:
"It is insane to me, that this model is not compatible with the segments from the City sets. Like that is supposed to be the whole gimmick of the line, right?!"

The cargo container is."
It is, but aren't these connectors supposed to be airlocks? If so then why have a connection that let's your astronaut walk right into the wall of a cargo container? "

Ah but there's a door on the container, represented by a sticker :)
"
Ah, that would explain it. I never apply stickers. I'd rather walk into a wall ;-)

"A spectacular satisfyingly swooshable spaceship"
Awesome alliterative appellation!

@lordofdragonss said:
"I am just happy Technic finally makes something different than licenced cars."
Hey now, don't be unnecessarily reductive. Technic also has licensed helicopters and motorcycles, too!

@Huw said:
" @Feroz said:
" @_Callie_ said:
" @tmtomh said:
"Does anyone who's ever used that cockpit piece in-person have an educated guess as to whether the cockpit of this could fit a minifigure inside it?"

According to The Brothers Brick, it does indeed accommodate minifigures :)"

Their picture of the cockpit shows it more clearly, but why hasn't anyone actually added two figures to show how it looks? :-)"

They may well fit on the seats but would fall off too easily for it to be fun to do so."

At step 327 and 328: discard the parts 4206482/43093 and instead use parts 6015356/11214. Then, after step 332 add two parts 28809 on the protruding pins. You can then attach one foot of the minifig in the cockpit and it won't slip all over the place.