Build:

The build is pretty straight forward. It is broken into three seperate books with no bag numbering, so some sorting will need to be done.

Book one covers the front of the chassis and working to the gear box, then to the rear of the chassis. Then finished with some boom parts.

Book two continues the boom and finishes most of the chassis.

Book three completes the body and finishing steps.

There are exactly 100 steps in the build.

The set features Power Functions; with battery box, one motor, and three cylinders. It also uses pneumatic elements, with a pump, and two cylinders.

The finished model presents well. There are a lot of detail parts. It has 4-wheel HOG front steering, with a larger gap between the front wheels, akin to the later released AROCS. Doors open/close. The cab is adequately detailed. There are just enough decals to add a nice touch, without going overboard.

Switching on the battery box, there are red and green arrows to determine whether your going forward or reverse with the specified function. The PF controls are hidden under panels. They select outrigger up (green arrow) / down (red arrow), winch up (red arrow only), boom up (red arrow) / down (green arrow), and then switching the air pump on (red or green arrow).

The pneumatic switches are located kind of behind the light bar. The left controls raising and lowering of the wheel bar, and the right controls the extension retraction of the boom extender.

The model is fun to operate. It looks well thought out and finished (180° apart from the sparse looking 42070 6X6 Tow Truck).

To give one up and one down:

Pro: Motor and Pnumatics together

Con: Rear axle detail is poor

I found this set in the clearance bin for 75% off, and on a whim, (and payday) I bought it after a years of not even thinking about anything Lego. It awoke me from the dark ages.

Unlike current sets, the manual comes in 3 thin stapled booklets, and the box opens at the front as opposed to the ends.

The build is an even pace, instructions are relatively straightforward with no traps for young players, providing you're in good light and not at the end of an 8 hour building binge.

There is no simulated motor, but I don't miss that at all, everything technic seems to have that these days. There is one M size motor driving a 4 way gearbox that will drive two functions at the same time. It has one large actuator, two small actuators and a power driven pnumatic system with two small cylinders.

Playability wise I believe this is 10/10, all the features work well and by far this is a household favourite. My 2yr old used this as a 'ride on' with nothing falling off, and the 6yr old drives it round towing anything it can lift.

My only disappointment is the lack of similar scale Lego vehicles for it to tow, city vehicles are too small and most other technic trucks are much larger.

In all I believe the feature density of this set is up there with much more expensive sets, and the playability is far superior.

I've had this set sat waiting to be built for a few months, and have been eagerly waiting to build it

Parts

The mix of parts in this set is fantastic. It has it all; Pneumatics, power functions & linear actuators, and this set aims to fuse them all together.

The build

This model is fun to build - nothing too complex, though a couple of times unclear when setting up the pneumatics - but nothing you can't figure out by flicking forward a few pages. There is a good gear-box setup to control the variety of functions. What I loved about this set (and it's the first I've built where I've seen this) is that the pneumatics are powered via the motor - a great & interesting way to build the set.

The completed model

The overall model looks great, although I feel the wheels look a bit too small for the set. There is a lot to control / play with - but found the mix of electronics & pneumatics - and with the controls sited in four different places (with a driving ring change over on each side under the black panels, then 2 pneumatic switches at the top) made it just a little awkward to play with.

Overall opinion

This is a fun build, mixing various element types into on kit. A little odd to play with, but that doesn't detract from the build enjoyment, and if you see it on a good deal (recently saw it on Amazon for £55!), I would recommend to snap it up.