LEGO and Volvo partner to create 6 cylinder wheel loader
Posted by Huw,
I know this isn't new news but I've just received this press release and hi-res photos of the latest flagship Technic model which is now available in Argos and will hit other UK retailers on Friday.
For the first time in history, toy giant LEGO and Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) have joined forces to create a motorised LEGO Technic L350F Volvo Wheel Loader.
Hitting shelves on 1st August 2014, the yellow remote controlled marvel in Volvo livery, not only drives, steers, lifts but also loads just like its real life high-tech 55 tonne equivalent. Fuelling your imagination further, the LEGO Technic Wheel Loader also converts into an equally impressive articulated A25F Volvo Hauler.
Retailing at £169.99 42030 LEGO Technic Wheel Loader will be the ideal toy to put aside for big and small fans alike this Christmas!
Comprising of over 1,600 intricate LEGO Technic parts and measuring 23cm in height and 59cm in length, the Wheel Loader is the latest flagship motorised model from the LEGO Technic line. Meticulously detailed and fully remote-controlled driving, digging and tipping functions, the LEGO model has all the features of Volvo’s largest real-life high-tech Wheel Loader.
Once built, activate the Wheel Loader power functions motors to get started, turn the articulated servo steering and watch the detailed six-cylinder engine pistons and fan move as you drive it into position. Then it’s time to put the industrial beast’s six cylinders to the test by lifting the motorised arm and tipping the giant bucket. The robust model’s loader arm can lift approximately 1KG and the attached bucket is the largest part ever engineered for a LEGO Technic model in its 37-year history.
Popular for its innovative and technically-advanced models, the LEGO Technic sets are supplemented with a wide variety of interconnecting plastic rods and parts, including gears, axles, pins, and beams, to create complex movable elements. As a result, the Wheel Loader is a highly sophisticated model that drives, steers, lifts and loads, even over difficult terrain. In addition, the filters can be removed, the radiator swings out, the pistons move and even the engine is painted green – just like a real Volvo L350F!
The LEGO Technic Volvo L350F Wheel Loader is aimed at children between 11 - 16, but will most likely also appeal to adults!
Each Wheel Loader set includes:
- Servo motor
- XL motor
- Large motor
- Medium motor
- Two infrared receivers
- Two remote controls
- Battery box
- 1, 636 LEGO Technic parts to build both Volvo models
This LEGO Technic Volvo model is the result of eight months collaboration between the LEGO Technic team and Volvo CE after a joint project, in which LEGO Technic elements had been used to create a production line concept demonstrator at Volvo. As a result a friendship struck up between Volvo engineer Johan Sahlström and LEGO engineer Anders Gaasedal Christensen. Thanks to their prompting, the idea of co-operating on an actual Volvo model was born, and the first L350F will roll out of the factory in Billund, Denmark this summer.
In order to capture a true likeness of the L350F Wheel Loader, the LEGO Technic designers studied the Volvo machines in great detail, taking the time to visit a construction site and even had a go at operating them.
“Like Volvo CE, our reputation has been built on yellow machines – and the Volvo L350F carries on that tradition in style, pushing the boundaries of creativity and functionality even further, Niels Henrik Horsted, Head of Marketing for LEGO Technic, concludes. “Not only will the Wheel Loader be our star machine for 2014 – it may even be our best seller ever.”
“Volvo CE and the LEGO Group together create a perfect match, both culturally and in what we try to achieve in our products.
We are extremely happy with the outcome, both from a functional and design point of view. LEGO Technic has captured the profile, expression and power of the machines in an incredible way, as well as including lots of cool features like a heavy lift boom and high dump height. The LEGO Group also shares our core value of safety, and these machines have been thoroughly tested,” says Mats Bredborg, Global Director of Brand Management for Volvo Construction Equipment.
The LEGO Technic Wheel Loader set is on sale in the UK from 1st August 2014 at all good toy retailers.
To see both Wheel Loaders in action check out this video on YouTube. More information is available on the Volvo Spirit Magazine site.
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This is definitely on my wish-list...
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29 comments on this article
I can dig it. ; )
Never been a Technic guy (aside from the very Technic-y old BIONICLE sets).
However, this one looks pretty good.
Yay, Now the Lego bricks can pick THEMSELVES off the floor!
This will be an awesome set tied with Mindstorms as it's very useful on its own... And that bucket for picking stuff up...
> I'm selling a lot of my old Technic to make room for it.
Huw, has anyone interviewed *you*, specifically about Lego, your collection and favourite themes/sets, starting and developing brickset and so on? Surely one of your trusty contributors could take care of that? I'd love to read about it.
I picked it up last week. I love it! Great building techniques, awesome playability, and awesome parts! Now I just hope that the Smartbrick Kickstarter gets funded so I can add that in to control it via smartphone...
no! I was at my local mastermind and i saw it on the highest shelve
Actually it surprised me Volvo does these things. Big yellow = USA = CAT for me, Europe is more subtle, and Japanese are the creme the la creme on small scale. Hope to see a really large compact excavator flagship model next year, Takeuchi branded, red/light grey, 6 actuators PF controlled including arm and bucket rotation. Or even better, double lenght pneumatic cylinders and PF variable valves. I think Akiyuki can help cram all this stuff into it. I have more than enough yellow, and this loader has no special parts. Just order the bucket and manual, and i'm set.
Having got the motorised bulldozer, which is an awesome set, this looks better still. High price, but there is a lot of PF stuff in it.
@omnium - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBc486r6_J4&list=UUkapkfGuO2LnDpIp8f_p7gA I happened to come across it just the other day, well worth watching.
I need to start saving now.
That's pretty powerful if it can lift two pounds.
Most of the Volvo CE I see are the six wheeled dump trucks. Everything else is CAT or Deere around here.
I'd rather have the dump truck as a completely separate model.
Why can't there be cheaper, minifig scale ones, though?
Does anyone else think the prices are getting a bit stupid? It's a nice model but I just don't see £170.
Maybe they need to consider selling these without the power functions parts for people who already have a ton of them.
Whoa on the model and price.
Haven`t bought/got a Technic-set/model since my 10th birthday back in 1989. THIS will be the first one in 25 years! This beauty will be cleaning up bricks from the floor after MOCing. :)
I saw it at a SoCal TRU yesterday and it looked really nice.
I might get one later for the actuators and Power Functions stuff.
Anyone else notice that the Argos page says its *radio* controlled?
That's because the people at Argos are OLD. :D
August is becoming such an expensive month. Patiently waiting for Exo Suit and Research Institute to be available from the Lego shop on-line (only way to get these sets in the antipodes).
Mini Cooper creator set.
Now this A25F Volvo Hauler. Another big yellow Technic set.
Add to that the additional temptation of Huw selling a lot of his old Technic.
I'll wait for local store specials on this the Volvo set.
Priorities priorities.
Lego sure knows how to eat a hole in a credit card!! ;-)
Looks awesome. Honestly I'm surprised they kept it under £200 giving current pricing.
However, I shall draw attention to this quote:
"Like Volvo CE, our reputation has been built on yellow machines..."
Right now LEGO, your reputation amongst AFOLs for producing consistently coloured yellow parts is pretty damn poor; it'll be interesting to see if you can make a set this big with all parts the same colour, but judging by what you've produced lately, I'm not holding my breath.
@CapnRex101 - thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for :-)
Great stuff.
Build mine yesterday. Made a few mistakes and had to go back to rectify them. All in all, took about 15 hours of building and correcting ;-) When it's completed, it's a beast.
FYI, Argos haven't got it yet - not yet listed on their website. Nothing new, for new items not to be available from the get go.
The link to the "Volvo Spirit Magazine site" at the end of your article is wrong.
Here the corrected one: http://www.volvospiritmagazine.com/modelteam/
In 25th July, Some Korean bounght 42030 in Mart. That price is 299,900won( about $295).
@darthdc My local argos has (well, had) one. It wasn't listed on the website or in the paper catalogue, and the in-store terminal thing required me to try a few different search strings before I hit on one that matched it, but I got there.
Awe-inspiring loader. And its nice for a change for a model to be designed using an actual real-life machine as the inspiration and also to be able to sticker it as Volvo. They need to make more models in Technic construction line that are exact replicas, like Deere, CAT, Komatsu, etc. Picked 1 up at a TRU last week and I was really surprised at the bulkiness of the box, its even bigger than the 42009 Mobile Crane from last summer. Not as many pcs by far than the 42009, but it abilities more than make up for that.
already on the shelves in munich pasing lego store last night :) its an expensive time to be an adult lego person.
I bought this the other week. managed to get 10% off too. It's awesome and great fun to play with!
I'm counting down the hours till it hits midnight, so I can buy one. Looking forward to building it on my vacation.
Bought this two days ago and have just finished building it. I love technic sets, especially large LEGO Technic sets :)
And this was HUGE and heavy! Fun build. No special building techniques but a few new parts I have not seen before.
I've already made the first modification: swap one of the remote controls with a train remote. And swap the channels around so forward/reverse and left/right is on the train remote control. That gives a much better and realistic control over this lovely machine!