LEGO Liebherr R 9800 Excavator (42100)

Name: LEGO Liebherr R 9800 Excavator
Brand: LEGO
SKU: 42100

The biggest Technic set of its day, and it still feels enormous.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 42100 · 2019

Pieces4,108

Minifigsn/a

Year2019

Set number42100

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The verdict

This one won me over the honest way, through the build itself.

It's a genuinely engaging thousand-step session with seven motors and app control, and the finished excavator is a monster that commands any shelf you put it on. What I have to flag is that it's app-only, it was pricey new, and it's now retired, so you're paying collector money. For the right builder, though, it's an easy yes and I'd happily be that builder.

Best for: Technic diehards who want the flagship build and the shelf presence

The full review

What it is

When this landed in 2019 it was the biggest Technic set LEGO had ever made, and it still feels that way in the room. The Liebherr R 9800 Excavator packs 4,108 pieces into a scale replica of one of the largest hydraulic mining shovels on the planet, built in an actual partnership with Liebherr, so the proportions and the working functions are the real deal rather than a guess. This isn't something you snap together in an afternoon. It's roughly a thousand steps of proper Technic engineering, split into the tracked undercarriage, the rotating superstructure, and that big articulated boom and bucket. When it's done it dwarfs pretty much everything else in your Technic pile, and that first moment when you fire up the tracks and swing the cab around is exactly the payoff you built the whole thing for.

The catch

Here's the part I want you to hear before you commit. This set lives and dies by the Control+ app. There are no manual functions to speak of, so without a compatible phone or tablet running the app you've essentially built a very handsome 800-tonne paperweight. And when it launched, the app was rough. Reviewers described the control system as rushed, with connection and pairing bugs where the hub would flicker between solid blue and blinking white while you tried to get it talking to your phone. Those issues smoothed out over time, but it's worth knowing the model's brains are software, not gears. Then there's the money. It carried a $449.99 RRP new, already a lot, and since it retired in December 2021 the price has climbed hard. Sealed copies now trade for roughly double the original, so this is firmly a collector purchase these days rather than an impulse buy.

Who it's for

If you're a Technic fan who wants the flagship experience, loves motorised functions, and has the shelf space plus the budget to chase a retired set, you'll get a great deal out of this. The build is one of the more rewarding big Technic sessions out there, and the finished excavator is a real centrepiece I'd be proud to display. If you'd rather have a model you can play with hands-on without a phone, or you flinch at secondary-market prices, this is a tougher sell and I'd steer you elsewhere. But if you've been eyeing it for years and finally have the excuse, it holds up beautifully and still commands attention in any collection.

The parts story

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

Building this is a marathon that rarely feels like a slog, which is the nicest thing I can say about a 4,108-piece set. It's organised into clear modules, so you always know whether you are deep in the undercarriage, the turntable, or the boom. You start with the substructure, which holds its own smart hub, two XL motors and an L motor across two mirrored track units plus the central rotation gear. From there you build up the superstructure with the second hub and the remaining motors, then cap it off with the long articulated boom and that oversized bucket. What kept me going was how little repetition there is for a set this size, which is rare when you're threading 150 tread links. The gearing and cable routing keep you genuinely engaged rather than repeating the same panel over and over.

On the parts front, the piece that got me is the brand-new Digger Bucket 10 x 19 in dark bluish grey, moulded specifically for this model with four mounting points for the linkage. There's a solid haul of recoloured Technic frames too, including the 3 x 19 beam frame in yellow (26 of them) and dark bluish grey, plus 16 support girders in grey. Part collectors love it for the bulk elements: 24 of the 1 x 16 Technic links in light grey and a record 150 of the reinforced wide tread links. Add in the seven Power Functions motors and two Control+ smart hubs, and the box-value story is really about that electronic hardware as much as the studs. It's not a cheap-per-piece set, but the motor and hub content is where a lot of that price quietly lives.

Fun facts

01The real Liebherr R 9800 tips the scales at around 800 tonnes and its bucket can shift roughly 86 tonnes of material in a single scoop, and LEGO developed this replica in an official partnership with Liebherr.
02At 4,108 pieces this was the largest LEGO Technic set ever made when it released in 2019, and it takes exactly 1,000 building steps to finish.
03It runs on seven motors and two Control+ smart hubs, with no manual functions at all, so the whole machine is driven entirely from the Control+ app on your phone.
04The set retired in December 2021 after about two years on shelves, and sealed copies now regularly sell for roughly double their original 449.99 dollar price.