Random set of the day: XXL Mobile Crane
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7249 XXL Mobile Crane, released during 2005. It's one of 46 City sets produced that year. It contains 524 pieces and 2 minifigs, and its retail price was US$69.99/£34.99.
It's owned by 4,066 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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41 comments on this article
For half a second, before the photo loaded, I thought the article was talking about *this* year's over-sized mobile crane, and I was just like, what?
That must be one heck of a beam to need to be lifted by this massive machinery. Must be the toughest and heaviest plastic in the business.
The only non-Rock Raiders set to use the Rock Raiders chassis.
There you go, all you 4-wide fans. Two 4-wide vehicles in one vehicle!
This is an amazing looking set.
I'm just looking at those prices. The exchange rate's changed a bit, eh?
@PurpleDave said:
"There you go, all you 4-wide fans. Two 4-wide vehicles in one vehicle!"
Assuming you mean the front cabins, they're 6 wide.
The obesity epidemic is out of control. Cut out sugary sodas and all the high-fat processed foods and this would be a L Mobile Crane.
I remember when this came out back in the first year of LEGO City. I never got this specific set, but my brother did, and the next year I got the accompanying bridge transport, 7900 (I never built the actual truck, but I did keep the bridge together to this day. As for his XXL Mobile Crane, it didn't last a year before being destroyed for parts.) Makes me long for the HEY-days of yesteryear...
Now that's a LEGO set.
Would you believe there hasn't been a full construction sub-theme since 2009 (aside from Demolition in 2015)?
@CarolinaOnMyMind said:
"The obesity epidemic is out of control. Cut out sugary sodas and all the high-fat processed foods and this would be a L Mobile Crane. "
"The population of LEGO CITY has gotten fat and lazy! We need the Gymnasium to get everyone in shape! HEY! Build the gym! Construct the exercise equipment! And save LEGO CITY from the obesity epidemic!
New from Healthy Living collection from LEGO CITY!"
I didn't buy this because I'm an XL, not an XXL.
@Murdoch17 said:
" @CarolinaOnMyMind said:
"The obesity epidemic is out of control. Cut out sugary sodas and all the high-fat processed foods and this would be a L Mobile Crane. "
"The population of LEGO CITY has gotten fat and lazy! We need the Gymnasium to get everyone in shape! HEY! Build the gym! Construct the exercise equipment! And save LEGO CITY from the obesity epidemic!
New from Healthy Living collection from LEGO CITY!""
In the future, LEGO will make this in a partnership with the corporation in WALL-E
@TheOtherMike said:
"I'm just looking at those prices. The exchange rate's changed a bit, eh?"
it was a $50 set when it came out in 2005, then it went to $70 for 2007.
@AndyB1:
Are they? Guess it’s a sensible vehicle after all.
One of the early City sets I am still seeking. Love the construction theme.
This is a serious classic and a set with extreme play value! We desperately need a proper construction theme again. Its been over 10 years since the last one.
Is this the biggest City vehicle ever made? This thing was absolutely gargantuan. Between this, 7905, and 7344, 2005–2006 was the apex of the construction sets. It was a good time to be into City!
I remember looking at this set at a local toy store and thinking how absurd it will look in my small "Town". This is definetly a "City" set. Thankfully I had 6361 for my towns people's needs.
a horror set for every fan of 4 wide cars like me
Before we got the XXL Hulkbuster, we got this.
Seriously, I think it would really complement the name!
@AllenSmith:
I don’t know about official sets, but I did recently read about an insane super-rig that was used to haul a decommissioned storage tank from a nuclear plant to a place where it could be safely recycled, and I was thinking it might be interesting to MOC. If I got the count right, it had 110 wheels, and the article said it took up two full lanes.
My family was too poor to buy me such big sets at that time, but my friend in school brought this one the other day and I remember I was in awe at how big this thing was.
I Like how it reused the Rock Raiders Chassis piece.
Must be one of the best sets of this "poor" 2005-era. This one looks really fun!
My favourite Speed Champion!
It started a new City era.
It's big! It's long! It's strong!
It's XXL!
Once you've experienced it, all others feel too small in comparison! Even the latest!
You'll be 'hooked' on it!
The XXL crane from 2005 is such a classic early City set. Whilst others like the firefighter headquarters still have some remnants of pre -City building (in that case it has some Town Jr styling with the huge bricks as floors), this one is just its own beast.
It uses a mixof the latest parts developed for City and 2000s-specific parts. It uses a recolored Rock Raiders chassis two times, and each with the large fenders from the same theme. The cabin uses a helicopter windscreen and cockpit from the City Center theme (Town Jr 2000, basically). The boom and outrigger housing uses a then-new giant part only seen afterwards in 7709 Sentai Fortress. Which is also absolutely gigantic by the way.
Oh, and the wheels and turntable are from Technic.
Finally, this was an era where the set continued the design philosophy of Town Jr in that the set consisted of multiple subsections, each in their own bag denoted with a picture. But now the instructions were starting to be less fragmented. In Town Jr you would have a dozen strips of instructions. But now we would get more in one booklet. By 7905 it would be just two booklets, one for each group of sub-builds. And that's how we get to today.
It didn't have to go this hard, but it did! And that's why City 2005 succeeded. They were good sets. And there was a lot of range. In the same year you had police, fire and construction all with a small 5 euro, 10 euro and 20 euro price bracket and one or two larger sets. But you also had monsters like this giant vehicle or the giant (at the time) Police Station set.
And the builds were more involved again too. It was back to what made it great!
Juniorization was on the way out. Lego had reinvigorated itself. Knudstorp had turned the ship from complete disaster!
Ahhhhh...back in the good old days of LEGO City before it became stupid again. I remember this set so clearly - it's amazing. I was disappointed not to get the 7249, but considering how many other cranes I've got I'm not sure what I'd really do with it. Having 7905 Tower Crane, 7992 Container Stacker, 7994 LEGO City Harbour, 7633 Construction Site, Cargo Trains 7939, 60051, and 60098, 4204 The Mine, 60169 Container Terminal.......I guess I probably have enough. I still want 7632 Crawler Crane though.
Most of my LEGO is City from the 2005-2016 bracket, whilst my brother has about 2016-Present - in general we consider mine to be better, and we pick his sets very carefully. It's becoming increasingly difficult to find good quality sets without vast numbers of giant pieces.
AllenSmith - I fully agree. Construction and freight are my favourite subthemes to this day, but the glory days of that have passed. My collection is 2005 and 2009 construction, and none of those sets have been beaten.
This was one of the first sets I bought for my son. Good build and good play features. I give it an 'A'.
Who wants construction equipment when you can have a new police station and fire station every single year?
I do see some issues with this (awesome!) set and road plates....
Wish I had this set as a great selection of parts, with some fairly rare like the XXL mudguards only appeared in this set and an educational set, plus the yellow round columns 2X2X11 are only found in this set, then the crane drivers enclosed window cabin is only in a few sets. Finally, there are five of the hollow XXL bricks 4263583 used for the boom and stabilizers, which only appeared in this set and the later crane construction site set.
@WizardOfOss:
Nonsense! You just need to get out your regulation set of sidewalk spreaders. Or wait until 7888 rolls through first. If that’ll fit, I’m pretty sure you can shove an aircraft carrier through sideways.
I gave this set away to an Elementary school - not sure if I regret it or not, think I also gave 7647 Switch Fighter (I didn't want to keep a duplicate of that one.) But I've never sold or otherwise parted with any of my sets since.
@PurpleDave said:
"Nonsense! You just need to get out your regulation set of sidewalk spreaders. Or wait until 7888 rolls through first. If that’ll fit, I’m pretty sure you can shove an aircraft carrier through sideways."
Sounds like a lot of bonus points, Carmageddon style!
@Binnekamp said:
"The XXL crane from 2005 is such a classic early City set.…It was back to what made it great!
Juniorization was on the way out. Lego had reinvigorated itself. Knudstorp had turned the ship from complete disaster!"
Yes! That's why 7249 and 7905 are some of the few post-2000 regular-retail playsets I have preserved intact instead of parted out. (Several others are Fantasy-era Castle.) This was my favorite era of Lego after the glory days fizzled out around 1994. Everything felt new and exciting and fun and creative again.
Man, compared to a 90s Town car, this is like a Super Star Destroyer showing up in orbit, like the Avengers helicarrier at the outback airport. Measured in Enterprise lengths, this is a solid "2."
I love the disparity. I wish I'd had this back in the day. It's so monstrously out of scale with the Town sets I had, it would have been great.
@Murdoch17 said:
"...HEY-days of yesteryear..."
LOL! I see what you did there...