LEGO Technic 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV review

29/07/202430/07/2024 Rachael Davies 317 Views 0 Comments

LEGO Technic 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV attempts a lot, and perhaps too much to achieve everything it wants to.

At nearly 2,000 pieces, 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV includes every conceivable tool or piece of equipment you would need to complete moonwalks and gather lunar samples, in exquisite detail and made out of LEGO. It’s one of the most practical sets to be released in 2024, the year of LEGO space, so how does it shape up on closer inspection?

Release: August 1, 2024 Price: £189.99 / $219.99 / €219.99 Pieces: 1,913 Minifigures: 0 LEGO: Order now

A build that just keeps on giving

From the very start of the build, 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV introduces at least one new feature at the end of every bag. Where some LEGO Technic sets involve building various distinct parts and fitting them together, you can see the rover taking shape the more you put it together. It peters out slightly by ending with the fairly tame construction of the two black stands – one for equipment, one for the rover – but these also serve as a welcome reminder of every individual object you’ve built throughout the lengthy process. There sure are a lot of them – but more on that later.

For anyone who wants to feel even a small percentage of the complexity that surely goes into the real thing, this is the space build for you. The entire structure centres around a Technic construction in the middle; get that wrong and it’ll throw off the rest of the build. Once built correctly, though, it serves as the beating heart of the set, helping to give a sense of what’s to come, even when you’re in the depths of creating a seemingly disconnected part of the LRV.

Impressive from a distance – just don’t try to move it

While journeying through the peaks and troughs of building 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV, the model does feel increasingly fragile. That’s not something new to many LEGO sets; you often need to trust the process and the integrity comes as you complete the build.

Unfortunately, with 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV, that integrity improves but doesn’t quite reach what we would call stable. Even when fully built, picking up the rover feels as though it’s bending around your hand. There are clips to flip down to secure the wheels in position but they keep sliding out of place, meaning a wheel will randomly tuck under the body and send the rover pitching to the side. If this happens when it’s fully outfitted with the various accessories, it sometimes causes a brick-built avalanche of moon tools – and that’s not quite as fun as it sounds.

Don’t pick up the rover and the integrity is pretty impressive, both with all its tools and without. The stands are a nice extra touch to offer a space for all the accessories to go if you want to send the rover out on to the ‘moon’ without all the gear. Thinking of 10317 Land Rover Classic Defender 90 for example, if you don’t want to display the car in its full adventure mode, you’re left with a pile of brick-built accessories with no home.

Too many features spoil the rover

42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV certainly includes a lot. There’s a seemingly never-ending stream of space accessories, including (deep breath) a model battery pack with heating and cooling elements, a TV camera with antennae, a communications unit, a shovel and drill, and even a brick-built moon rock. We’ve not named all of them there but thankfully the stickered information plaques will remind you of what you’ve built when you’re done.

We would never have thought we would be criticising a LEGO Technic set for doing too much – but that’s unfortunately the case here. You can see the vision: 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV includes everything you could possibly need to recreate a moon landing. However, it’s so much that when you actually get stuck into it, the set is too busy to really try out the features to their fullest. What’s more, none of them are fully clipped into the set, instead being perched somewhat unstably on one of the many arms of the rover.

This contributes to why 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV feels so delicate even when fully built. From afar, it certainly looks impressive. The nougat wheel covers and gold accents on many of the tools deliver a polished look. It’s only when you try to actually engage with the LEGO Technic set that its flaws are revealed.

It leaves us wondering whether 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV wouldn’t have been better served with fewer features and accessories, done smoothly in a way that didn’t end up feeling overwhelming rather than exciting.

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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Our honest opinion: There’s a lot to discover in this rover, but you might find yourself feeling more frustrated than fascinated.

How long does it take to build LEGO Technic 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV?

With a lot of moving parts to remember, set aside around five hours to build and perfect 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV.

How many pieces are in LEGO Technic 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV?

42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV has just shy of 2,000 pieces, at 1,913 LEGO elements to be exact.

How big is LEGO Technic 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV?

The main rover build in LEGO Technic 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV measures 14cm, 38cm long, and 25cm wide.

How much does LEGO Technic 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV cost?

You can pre-order LEGO Technic 42182 NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle – LRV for £189.99 in the UK, $219.99 in the US, and €219.99 in Europe.

Author Profile

Rachael Davies

I write about all the very best fandoms – and that means LEGO, of course. Spending so much time looking at and talking about LEGO sets is dangerous for my bank balance, but the LEGO shelves are thriving. You win some, you lose some.