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LEGO® TECHNIC® Extreme Off Roader

By Mike "TXJEEPER" Cohn

LEGO Extreme Off RoaderSo you wish you could have the baddest custom-built off roader around? Or maybe you want to get your mits on the Ford EX concept, perhaps? If you want to build the first one, stop reading now and go get out your welder. We'll see you in a few months. If you want the EX, well, good luck, because only one exists and Ford's not giving it up. So what's a four wheeler to do? Buy toys, that's what!

LEGO TECHNIC Extreme Off Roader
The Off Roader has some nice flex!

LEGO TECHNIC Extreme Off Roader
The suspension on this kit will make your favorite fabricator jealous.

LEGO TECHNIC Extreme Off Roader
Big rubber wheels stick like glue to the rocks.

LEGO TECHNIC Extreme Off Roader
Yup! That's a real winch! Pull the lever to free the line. Release it and it locks in place. If only it would actually reel itself back in...

LEGO TECHNIC Extreme Off Roader
When you're done in the backyard, get online and play 4x4 Extreme Rally.

We got our hands on one of the new LEGO® TECHNIC® Extreme Off Roader kits and boy is it cool! I grew up playing with LEGO toys and to this day I still enjoy building things with them. When I saw that the new LEGO TECHNIC lineup included a 4x4, I knew I just had to have one.

Founded in 1934 by Ole Kirk, LEGO is a contraction of the two Danish words "leg" and "godt," which means "play well." By coincidence, in Latin, "LEGO" means "I put together." In 1958, LEGO introduced a plastic brick with tubes underneath and studs on top. These basic bricks would essentially stay the same for years to come. In fact, all LEGO elements are fully compatible, whether they were produced in 1958 or today! LEGO pieces are so precisely made that only 18 parts for every one million produced do not pass the standard, which is precision within five thousands of a millimeter!

Today's LEGO toys are a far cry from the square or rectangle only bricks of my youth. Nowadays, LEGO bricks come in many shapes and sizes and many are made specifically to build certain toys. The LEGO TECHNIC Extreme Off Roader is a perfect example of this. The kit contains 364 pieces! Those 364 pieces can be put together to build two different vehicles.

We chose to build the one you see here in the photos. The manual for this kit is a whopping 136 pages! 57 pages showed us in detail how we'd spend nearly two full hours building our off roader. That's right - two hours! The kit is intended for anyone over 9 years of age and the instructions are wonderful. However, even I had to back-step a few times when I didn't follow them to a T. With so many parts, you really need to pay attention to what you are doing. In addition, an engineering degree or perhaps an ASE Certification would help.

What's so fascinating about the LEGO TECHNIC Extreme Off Roader is its suspension. This is a genuine, working, suspension. The 4 wheel independent suspension is amazing. It even has a steering stabilizer and rear stabilizer to help keep the wheels on the ground. There is a wheel behind the driver seat that you can spin, which will, in turn, steer the real rubber wheels left and right. This thing has more flex than many of the real-world rigs you see on our pages.

If bone-stock isn't your bag, you can beef up your off roader with some really cool accessories from LEGO. Try adding on pneumatics, real motors, styling pieces, or new wheels to make your off roader even cooler.

When you're done playing in the dirt in your backyard, you can get online and go to the LEGO website, where you can play 4x4 Extreme Rally. This video game loads in your browser using the free Macromedia Flash plugin. Race your LEGO TECHNIC Extreme Off Roader through this virtual world for tons of fun. Anyone can play the game, whether or not they own the real LEGO toys.

The kit we got was selling for about $39.99 online at the time of writing. Every kid is sure to love this LEGO set, whether they are 9 years of age or 39 so go out and get you one! We don't give any higher recommendations than this!

 

RESOURCE
LEGO Systems Inc.
www.lego.com
555 Taylor Road
Enfield, CT 06082
(860) 763-6731

 

 

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