Technic

Airbus H175 Rescue Helicopter

A big, motorized rescue chopper that flies on old-school battery power, no app needed.

4.3/5

Set 42145 · 2022

Pieces2,001

Minifigsn/a

Year2022

Set number42145

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The verdict

If you love Technic mechanisms and a helicopter that actually does things, this one's a keeper.

It's got three motorized functions plus a hand-cranked swashplate, and it looks properly sharp finished. Just know it retired at the end of 2024, so prices are creeping up, and those big neon yellow panels split the room. Buy it if you want a functional showpiece and can live with the color scheme.

Best for: Technic fans who want a motorized model without the Control+ app faff

The full review

What it is

So you're eyeing the Airbus H175 Rescue Helicopter, and honestly, good instinct. This is the first officially licensed helicopter LEGO® ever put out, and instead of leaning on the Control+ app and a phone tether, this set keeps it refreshingly old-fashioned. You drop batteries in a plain hub, flip a switch, and things move. The main rotor spins with two speeds, the tail rotor turns, the landing gear retracts, and a winch on the side lowers and raises. There's even a manual swashplate so you can tilt the rotor blade pitch by hand. For a 2001-piece set, it packs a genuinely satisfying amount of function into one airframe.

The catch

Now the honest bit. This one launched at $209.99, and since it retired at the end of December 2024, you're now shopping the aftermarket, so expect to pay over RRP if you want a sealed box. It's also a long sit. Plenty of builders clocked 6 to 9 hours, well past the breezy afternoon some folks expect, so this is a weekend project, not a quick one. And then there's the color. Those big neon yellow panels are meant to read as a rescue livery, but a lot of people find them jarring against the otherwise clean red and grey body. If bright yellow slabs bug you, they'll bug you every time you look at the shelf. One more small gotcha: the battery box needs a screwdriver to open and the packaging never mentions it, so don't get caught out at the fun part.

Who it's for

Here's the take. If you're a Technic person who loves clever gearing and wants a model that actually performs its party tricks, grab this one. It sits in a sweet spot where the mechanisms are rich but you're not wrestling with an app or firmware, and the finished chopper is a proper display piece at nearly three feet long. If you're mostly after a looker and the yellow puts you off, or you want a fast casual build, this probably isn't your set. But for the right builder, it earns its 4.3 Brickset average and then some. A really likable, hands-on model.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

The build walks you through the helicopter in logical chunks, and the early going is all gearbox. You assemble the two-speed transmission and the drive lines before the body ever takes shape, which is the meatiest and most rewarding stretch because you can see the mechanisms come alive as you go. From there you cage it all in the fuselage, add the retractable gear and the side winch, then cap it with the long tail boom and the rotor assembly. It's a steady, engaging pace with almost no filler, and every section adds a function you can immediately test. The main gripe is length: this is a 6 to 9 hour affair, so treat it as a project rather than a quick fix.

On the parts front there's some good stuff for collectors. The rotor blades are a fresh variant of the 31L blade where the rubber tip is now yellow instead of black, safer and easier to spot on a fast-spinning rotor, and you get five of them in dark bluish grey. The set also brings the Dish 8 x 8 Inverted in red for the very first time since that mould debuted back in 1979, plus the Technic Panel 3 x 7 x 1 in a new red (two of those). At 2001 pieces for the $209.99 RRP, you're at roughly 10c a part, which is fair for Technic, and the value here is really in the working gearbox and functions rather than raw brick tonnage.

Fun facts

01This was the first officially licensed helicopter LEGO ever released, and it pulls off its motorized tricks without any Control+ app or smart hub.
02It's the first LEGO helicopter to feature a real two-speed transmission, so the rotor genuinely has fast and slow settings.
03The red Dish 8 x 8 Inverted included here is the first time that particular mould appeared in red since it was originally introduced in 1979.
04Finished, the model stretches about 72cm (28 inches) long, and the real Airbus H175 it's based on is a super-medium twin-engine helicopter used for offshore transport and search-and-rescue work.