Technic

Liebherr R 9800 Excavator

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

4.4/5

Set 42100 · 2019

Pieces4,108

Minifigsn/a

Year2019

Set number42100

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The verdict

If you love Technic and you've been waiting for the excuse to go big, this is the one.

It's a genuinely engaging 1,000-step build with seven motors and app control, and the finished machine is a monster on the shelf. Just know going in that it's app-only, it's pricey, and it's now retired, so you're paying collector money. For the right builder it's an easy yes.

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

The full review

What it is

Let me tell you about the LEGO® set that stood as the biggest Technic release ever made when it landed in 2019. The Liebherr R 9800 Excavator packs 4,108 pieces into a scale replica of one of the largest hydraulic mining shovels on the planet, and LEGO built it in an actual partnership with Liebherr, so the proportions and the working functions are the real deal. This isn't a shelf-filler 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 anything else in your Technic pile, and that first moment when you fire up the tracks and swing the cab around is the payoff you built the whole thing for.

The catch

Here's the honest part. This set lives and dies by the Control+ app. There are no manual functions to speak of, so if you don't have a compatible phone or tablet running the app, you've basically built a very handsome 800-tonne paperweight. When it launched, the app itself 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 got 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 dollar RRP new, which was 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

So who should grab it? 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 lot out of this. The build itself is one of the more rewarding big Technic sessions out there, and the finished excavator is a real centrepiece. Who should skip it? If you want a display model you can play with hands-on without a phone, or you're allergic to paying secondary-market prices, this one's a tough sell. 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 one is a marathon that rarely feels like a slog, and that's the nicest thing you 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. Reviewers consistently call out how little repetition there is for a set this size, which is rare when you're building something with 150 tread links. The gearing and cable routing keep you genuinely engaged rather than just repeating the same panel over and over.

On the parts front, the headline piece is a brand new Digger Bucket 10 x 19 in dark bluish grey, molded specifically for this model with four mounting points for the linkage. There's a solid haul of recolored 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 just 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 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.