Inflation has made everything from grocery shopping to home-owning more expensive, but it’s hitting Lego fans especially hard. The new 2,883-piece Liebherr Crawler Crane LR 13000 model is officially the most expensive Lego Technic set to date at $1,049.99, but it’s actually far from being the largest set ever in terms of piece count.
Way back in 2016, yours truly spent a gruelling 20 hours assembling Lego’s Bucket Wheel Excavator which was also part of the toymaker’s Technic line that leans more into complex functionality than appearances. Although nowhere near as tall as the new Liebherr Crawler Crane LR 13000 model, 2016’s Bucket Wheel Excavator was assembled from 3,929 pieces, making it over 1,000 pieces larger than Lego’s latest and greatest, but was priced at around $450 seven years ago. Even the 4,108-piece Liebherr R 9800 Excavator model, the largest Lego Technic set ever released by piece count (which included seven motors and two smart hub controllers) was around $800 when it was released in 2019.
Standing over 39-inches tall with the boom of its crane in its full upright position, the Liebherr Crawler Crane LR 13000 is also just $250 cheaper than the massive, 7,541-piece Lego Star Wars Ultimate Collectors Series Millennium Falcon, which is now the 5th largest Lego set of all time. So how is Lego justifying the price tag of this new behemoth?
For starters, as with most Technic models, the Liebherr Crawler Crane LR 13000 is packed with functionality. It rolls around on a pair of massive tank treads, while the entire upper structure can rotate 360 degrees. It’s also a fully-functional crane, with a huge articulated boom arm and a hook that raise and lower using a complex pulley system.
Lego doesn’t say how much weight the Liebherr Crawler Crane LR 13000 can actually lift, but does mention the model includes “load-sensing features” and comes with 24 counterweight elements, weighing in at over 1 kg to help prevent catastrophic topples. We’re betting that boom arm is going to break before the crane gets anywhere near falling over.
Part of the set’s price tag comes from its use of six large Lego electric motors that power all of its motorised features, as well as the two smart hubs that allow all of the motors to be controlled remotely over Bluetooth using a Lego app running on a smartphone. What’s not included are rechargeable batteries. Instead, you’ll have to feed this model a fresh set of a dozen AA batteries every so often, which is going to add to the cost if you plan to frequently play with it.
The Liebherr Crawler Crane LR 13000 won’t be available until August 1 giving you about a month to budget accordingly, but it is available for pre-order through the Lego website if you’re worried about it selling out at launch. However, we’re betting that the $1,049.99 price tag is going to be a tough sell even for devoted Lego Technic fans.