Review: 42157 John Deere 948L II Skidder
Posted by Huw,
Technic sets featuring pneumatics are often the highlight of the annual assortment: there's something wonderfully tactile and satisfying about operating them that is sorely lacking from those controlled by an app.
I have therefore been looking forward to reviewing 42157 John Deere 948L II Skidder, which is the second of the American plant manufacturer's machines to be modelled in Technic and the fourth licensed set to feature the compressed air system.
Read on to find out if nothing runs like a Deere...
Summary
42157 John Deere 948L-II Skidder, 1,492 pieces.
£169.99 / $199.99 / €189.99 | 11.4p / 13.4c / 12.7c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A superb realistic Technic set that works well and is fun to play with
- Looks fantastic
- Excellent green Technic parts pack
- Pneumatic tubes are difficult to route tidily and they interfere with the controls slightly
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
The prototype
Not being a lumberjack, I was not aware of what the term skidder meant, so I am indebted to Wikipedia for this explanation: "A skidder is any type of heavy vehicle used in a logging operation for pulling cut trees out of a forest in a process called skidding."
The John Deere 948L, which has a maximum grapple capacity of 2 m² and an operating weight of 22 tonnes, looks to be a very capable machine. If you need one to clear your back garden you can buy one for around $200k.
Images from salfamaquinaria.cl.
Packaging, stickers and parts
Despite LEGO announcing its intention to change to paper bags inside boxes two years ago the transition has been frustratingly slow. In this set the pneumatic tubes are packed in one but everything else is in plastic bags.
There's a modest sticker sheet with around 20 decals, most of which provide details and branding for the engine cowling and labels for the controls.
There are a couple of new parts and a large number of pieces appearing in green for the first time, including these relatively new 3x19 frames. Green is the least used of the primary colours in Technic sets so an expansion of the palette of parts available in that colour is always welcome.
These gripper claws have been developed specially for this set.
This frame is appearing here for the first time, but I have a feeling that it was designed for 42146 Liebherr LR13000 which was originally slated for release last year.
The completed model
The vehicle looks excellent in the manufacturer's signature colour scheme of green and yellow. It's a lot bigger than I expected, over 50cm long and about 20cm wide.
It's articulated in the middle, facilitated by the use of two large turntables. Steering is accomplished using the gear on the top of the cab and when turning it the operator's seat inside rotates slightly, just like on the real machine.
The axles are 'floating' allowing it to keep all wheels on the ground over rough terrain, such as this plastic sorting tray :-)
The turntables between the two halves of the chassis can be seen from below. You can also observe the floating axles, mounted using the smaller Technic turntables, and the differentials that utilise the new sturdier bevel gears.
On the whole it looks very accurate to the source material. The pneumatic pump, which doubles as the exhaust pipe, is not quite in the right place but other than that it's hard to fault.
Operation and functions
The rear arm and claw are operated via three sets of pneumatic cylinders which are controlled by switches behind the cab.
Motion is achieved by setting the switches as required then plunging the pump up and down. There is no air reservoir, although a small amount gets stored in the system, so several movements can often be made in succession after vigorous pumping.
A pair of cylinders tilt the entire arm assembly while another pair move the second part of it up and down.
The range of motion is perhaps a little too extreme as it's possible to extend the claws below ground level.
A single cylinder at the top of the yellow claw opens and closes it. The claw can also be rotated by hand, although the tubes restrict its motion.
In addition to the pneumatics and aforementioned steering, other functions include opening cab and engine doors, and a dozer blade at the front that can be raised and lowered using a wheel on the right of the cab, via small linear actuators.
A pretend 6-cylinder engine is housed under the cowling which is connected to the drive shaft, so the pistons move up and down as the machine is pushed along. This can just about be seen by peeping through an opened engine cowling door!
Construction
Parts are divided into four numbered bags and construction begins with the chassis and front of the machine. It is not until part way through bag four that the pneumatics at the back are added and that's when it becomes a bit fiddly. There are a lot of tubes to manipulate in a small space, and care must be taken to ensure that they are all fully connected to the switches otherwise they have a tendency to pop off. This makes it a more challenging build than many Technic sets.
The model utilises very few System pieces, just here and there to add a few details, most notable the front grille.
It takes some trial and error to organise and route the tubes neatly. Unfortunately, I was not able to prevent some of them interfering with the switches when the mechanism is at one extreme of its motion.
Verdict
This is everything a Technic set should be. It offers an interesting and challenging build, it's realistic and accurate, and it has a myriad of functions which work well. It's fun to play with and when you've finished doing so, it makes a very imposing, eye-catching and attractive display model.
The icing on the cake, for me at least, is the colour scheme: green is woefully underused in Technic -- I guess because not many sports cars are green -- so the 200 or so Technic elements in that colour included among the 1,500 in this set make it an excellent parts pack.
My only complaint really concerns the routing of the pneumatic tubes: it takes a bit of fiddling about to get them looking neat and tidy, and they interfere with the controls when the arm is fully retracted.
Value-for-money wise, it's $199.99, £169.99, €189.99 for 1,494 pieces which is above average price-per-piece, but pneumatic sets always command a premium, so it's not too unreasonable.
On the whole Technic sets have been very good this year and this is definitely my favourite so far.
It will be available at LEGO.com from 1st June.
109 likes
45 comments on this article
Warning: disassembling this set and rebuilding without an authorized service provider, will void your John Deere warranty!
BANANA CLAWS
It looks fantastic! Great play features and functions, as you noted. I ultimately compare it to my last pneumatic function set purchase, the Heavy Duty Tow Truck 42128, which is one of my favorite sets ever produced. Price wise, I understand why this is higher, given the specialty forks made for it and the jumbo tires. But it's still a tad too high for me to go after right away. Hoping it gets a discount at some point.
That is 100% a banana-for-scale piece if I've ever seen one.
As someone who's been working in forestry for nearly 20 years, this is a great-looking skidder!
Oversized, boxy, and totally cool! Just like the real thing.
The price is a bit ugly when compared to 42054, though, considering that set includes PF, 500 more parts, and something this set is utterly lacking - a LOG.
Still, both sets would look great side-by-side.
I'm not into Technic and this really isn't my thing... but, my gosh, how I love these John Deere sets. If I were into Technic then this would definitely be on my Wanted list! :-)
Another great review! Would you personally recommend this set or 42144 for a first time pneumatic set?
@8lackmagic said:
"I'm not into Technic and this really isn't my thing... but, my gosh, how I love these John Deere sets. If I were into Technic then this would definitely be on my Wanted list! :-)"
You should get 42136 for definite, then. It's a great entry-level Technic build, and it looks cool.
@minicoop4 said:
"Another great review! Would you personally recommend this set or 42144 for a first time pneumatic set?"
Both are great sets but I think this one has the edge, if only because the material handler suffers from 'saggy arm' due to air leakage over time and gravity.
@xboxtravis7992 said:
"Warning: disassembling this set and rebuilding without an authorized service provider, will void your John Deere warranty! "
Perfect comment :D
The colour looks different to 42136 going by these photos?
@EtudeTheBadger said:
" @8lackmagic said:
"I'm not into Technic and this really isn't my thing... but, my gosh, how I love these John Deere sets. If I were into Technic then this would definitely be on my Wanted list! :-)"
You should get 42136 for definite, then. It's a great entry-level Technic build, and it looks cool."
Actually that's not a bad shout. Thanks for the recommendation! :-)
@burra said:
"The colour looks different to 42136 going by these photos? "
Both are 'classic' green.
That new beam piece is also gonna be used in the new Ninjago City modular
I've been looking forward to this one - far too many cars/bikes this year - and as Huw says, green is woefully underused in Technic! This looks great, although I'll be waiting for a discount - every set with the Xerion tyres has been overpriced (except, notably, the Xerion itself) and this follows that pattern.
I have to be a bit nitpicky though @Huw - this isn't the 3rd licensed set with pneumatics, there are at least three others that I can think of (the Unimog, the Arocs and the EW160E).
However - thanks for the review and I'll definitely be picking this one up at some point!
@Huw said:
" @minicoop4 said:
"Another great review! Would you personally recommend this set or 42144 for a first time pneumatic set?"
Both are great sets but I think this one has the edge, if only because the material handler suffers from 'saggy arm' due to air leakage over time and gravity."
I've noticed that the 42053 Volvo EW160E set suffers from this same 'saggy arm' issue as well.
I also noticed you mention that the claw on this set (42157) can be extended below ground level and that you therefore believe the range of motion is too extreme. I wonder if perhaps that is accurate to the actual vehicle though, where it may need to pull logs up out of trenches/ditches, therefore requiring the claw to be able to extend below the ground level the vehicle is sitting on.
I really wonder why LEGO doesn't want to reintroduce the reservoir piece, because it was such a useful addition to the pneumatics system. No wonder the part costs a small fortune on Bricklink or eBay.
@Loerwyn said:
" @xboxtravis7992 said:
"Warning: disassembling this set and rebuilding without an authorized service provider, will void your John Deere warranty! "
Perfect comment :D"
I have a professor who is a former John Deere engineer, so yeah I know it's a perfect rib to use!
Man, I still love those tires.
This seems quite a bit better than expected at first. Certainly bigger than I thought, overall nice functions and pneumatic is always a plus. I bet it would still look just as good without the stickers, and even the number of weird colors seems to be kept at a minimum. Except for the lack of a B-model this set ticks almost all of the boxes.
Only the price....I should have gotten used to it by now probably, but it does still feel rather overpriced. I mean, not that many years ago you could get the Arocs, which had almost twice the number of parts, and besides pneumatics also Power Functions, for a mere €10 more. Or to pick a more comparable vehicle, the big Claas with still many more parts, no pneumatics but instead PF, for €40 less. But then again, a more recent set like 42144 Material Handler makes this look a lot more reasonable...
Still happy to again see a pretty good set after a few less than stellar Technic years.
Great review of a great set!
@CHARIZORDO
@dimc
Using the "banana claws" to drag bananas around is a perfect use for this set :-D
Too spendy for me, but I can dream...
@EtudeTheBadger said:
"Oversized, boxy, and totally cool! Just like the real thing.
The price is a bit ugly when compared to 42054, though, considering that set includes PF, 500 more parts, and something this set is utterly lacking - a LOG.
Still, both sets would look great side-by-side."
I'll use the huge backLOG in LEGO sets.
@AustinPowers
And glad I bought a large lot of air tanks at BnP at the time. They should definitely reintroduce it. Preferably in yellow, grey and black.
@xboxtravis7992 said:
"Warning: disassembling this set and rebuilding without an authorized service provider, will void your John Deere warranty! "
Ironically, Deere engineering (should I say Deere reengineering of a Yanmar product) is why we're considering trading in a 2015 3038E on a Kubota. It is an absolute pain in the rear to work on, and it's a complex mess simply trying to pull out the dipstick to check oil levels, as it's between parts of the engine block and hard-to-remove panels below the hood. The tractor (which is used lightly and has barely 100 hours on it) blew two hydraulic hoses on the loader just from dry-rot--and they're like $200 EACH for two small, 18-inch hoses. In addition, the aluminum rear axle housing makes the rear-end very lightweight, to the point I either keep the rotary tiller on it 24/7 or risk tipping the tractor when I have something heavy on the loader (it got tippy from ONE old front tire off the larger 5400 even with the tiller on as counterweight).
In addition, about two years before we bought that one, the family-owned Deere dealer (which actually predated Ford as the first tractor dealership here) was sold to a TN businessman. The firm (Meade Tractor)bought virtually every family-owned (and even a few Deere-owned) dealers in Southern WV, SW VA, KY, and TN. Even with one of the former owners running the place, everything has gone downhill since. The Kubota/Bobcat dealer is still family-owned.
Compare that to the 1996 5400 (a bigger 70HP tractor). No OBD, no DEF, plenty of room to work on everything, and much stronger built. Granddad had originally planned to buy a Massey Ferguson 150, and arguably, that would've been MUCH less of a headache for maintenance.
Expensive, but pretty well done.
I'm hoping we get a feller-buncher to join it.
The fact that everyone, even Huw, is talking about 42146 on every single article we can, shows how excited we all are with the upcoming Liebherr LR13000. It will be the set of the year.
@minicoop4 said:
"Another great review! Would you personally recommend this set or 42144 for a first time pneumatic set?"
42128
Superintendent Chalmers: SKIDDERRRRR!!!
Cool set, but why the license!? Could've been any other random Skidder and it would've been at least as cool as this one while being more reasonably priced.
Did you hear about the heartbroken tractor salesman? His girlfriend sent him a John Deere letter.
"I have therefore been looking forward to reviewing 42157 John Deere 948L II Skidder, which is the second of the American plant manufacturer's machines to be modelled in Technic and the fourth licensed set to feature the compressed air system."
"Plant manufacturer?" Is that a mistype or a difference between American and UK English I was unaware of? I'd always called John Deere a tractor company.
I wonder if that big claw piece will ever see another use.
@SithLord196 : That's sort of what I was wondering about the claw's reach.
At long last something new, although the reach and lift height seem a bit limited which is more of a fault of the real Skidder then this model. Although I can see this set having potential for lots of alternative builds like lifters and bulldozers so I will wait and see if these persuade me.
@TheOtherMike 'plant' in the UK refers to a wide variety of heavy mobile machinery such as vehicles like this, or constructions machines. It's never made a great deal of sense to me either..
@danishbricklayer: Thanks for the explanation. Does British English also have the meaning of "factory" for "plant?" In other words, does England have plant plants?
@TheOtherMike said:
" @danishbricklayer: Thanks for the explanation. Does British English also have the meaning of "factory" for "plant?" In other words, does England have plant plants?"
Wow, yes, British English does indeed! You're right; for example, the JCB factory is, in fact, a plant plant.
And if that factory were to use, for example, a Loadall on site, would that be plant plant plant...?
I like to use the word plant in this context because I know it confuses Americans :-)
Huw, how is the steering on this one: is it down-geared enough so that it does not take a lot of force from one’s fingers to steer?
Personally, I prefer if it would need more turning (multiple rotations) on the gear in order to steer, because it is smoother and closer to a real machine’s steering wheel.
The worst example of the Technic sets I own is the 42054 CLAAS XERION, which is very stiff to steer, because it has no gearing-down at all and is therefore not convenient to steer: It takes a lot of force to move these four huge tyres by only rotating the small gear wheel for ~45 deg. I wonder if it’s better on this set?
I guess the US doesn't have Plant Hire shops either.
"Hire a plant? Surely it just goes in the compost bin when it dies"!
@greenhorn said:
"Huw, how is the steering on this one: is it down-geared enough so that it does not take a lot of force from one’s fingers to steer?"
No it does not take much force to steer when the vehicle is moving.
@Huw said:
"I like to use the word plant in this context because I know it confuses Americans :-)"
I feel called out.
T-pieces in white. Why?
@AHYL88 said:
"Hmm, this is a nice functional set, and a lot bigger than it appears! "
It is much bigger than I expected, and you are right, before long it'll be 20-30% off at Amazon at which point I'll buy a couple for parts.
Too bad I don't collect Technic sets (by lack of space and money). This looks like a really wonderful set.
And I could have recycled the claws parts in Vic Viper prongs ^^
@xboxtravis7992 said:
" @Loerwyn said:
" @xboxtravis7992 said:
"Warning: disassembling this set and rebuilding without an authorized service provider, will void your John Deere warranty! "
Perfect comment :D"
I have a professor who is a former John Deere engineer, so yeah I know it's a perfect rib to use! "
It's interesting, some states are passing legislation that allows farmers to fix their own equipment. What a strange world we're living in.
@bananaworld said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" @danishbricklayer: Thanks for the explanation. Does British English also have the meaning of "factory" for "plant?" In other words, does England have plant plants?"
Wow, yes, British English does indeed! You're right; for example, the JCB factory is, in fact, a plant plant.
And if that factory were to use, for example, a Loadall on site, would that be plant plant plant...?"
What if they also produced foliage for wholesale?...
@crimson: Like they say, all parts are Space parts.