Lego Land Rover Defender Features a Working Transmission
New Land Rover Defender is the most advanced Lego kit ever, featuring working drivetrain bits.
The new Land Rover Defender is the latest vehicle to be immortalized in the world of Lego, but in recreating the legendary SUV in plastic blocks, the company has created their most advanced kit to date. Like many other vehicles in the Lego Technic lineup, the doors and hood of the new Defender open and the front wheels turn with the steering wheel, but with moving engine parts, a “working” transmission and a multi-speed transfer case system, but small scale Land Rover offers more mechanical detail than any kit before it.
Defender from Lego
The new Land Rover Defender is part of the Lego Technic series and it has item number 42110 on the toy maker’s website. When it is all snapped together, 2,573 blocks create an SUV that is 17 inches long, 9 inches tall and 8 inches wide, making it one of Lego’s larger vehicles.
Lego vehicles have come a long way over the past 20 years and as the kits have gotten larger, the various blocks can replicate the real world form of popular cars, trucks and SUVs. In the case of the Defender, the blocks do a great job of recreating the look perfectly, so even without any badging, most people who are familiar with the new Land Rover SUV would immediately recognize small scale version.
In addition to looking like the new Defender, this plastic SUV includes key features such as aggressive off-road tires, independent four-wheel suspension, a working winch up front and a rear-mounted spare tire that also serves as the knob to open the rear door. There is also a roof rack with an array of tools needed for a successful day of off-roading, as well as a knob that allows you to steer without reaching into the cabin. However, what makes the Lego Defender really special is on the inside.
Working Transmission and Differential
The key features of the Lego Land Rover Defender are the working transmission shifter and the multi-speed rear differential. Although the engine obviously doesn’t run, the transmission shifter moves through the gears while a knob near the shifter controls the drive ratio. Like, when you turn the knob, the differential switches from one speed to another, which you can watch through the rear-most door. No Lego kit in the past has offered this multi-speed differential system, so the Defender is more high tech than even the Bugatti Chiron Lego kit.
The video above from the Land Rover YouTube channel shows every aspect of the new Defender Lego kit in action, but as you might expect, this high tech toy is not cheap. The MSRP on the Lego website is $199.99, so it is quite a bit less expensive than the Lego Bugatti, but at nearly two Benjamins, this isn’t your average children’s toy.
However, if you are a fan of Lego kits or the new Defender, this is a small scale SUV that you will want to order before it sells out.