Review: 42105 Catamaran
Posted by Huw,The Technic assortment for the first half 2020 is something of a mixed bag, from more-of-the-same pull-back motor vehicles at the lower end of the price range, to the outrageously expensive 42109 App-Controlled Top Gear Rally Car at the top.
However, somewhere in the middle there are two interesting sets that are likely to appeal to the adult Technic fan: 42108 Mobile Crane, and the subject of today's review, 42105 Catamaran.
There have been numerous ships and other vessels released throughout the history of Technic, but never a twin-hulled one, or one that doesn't sink as soon as it hits the water.
Let's find out if this one floats my boat...
Floating LEGO boats have been around since the 1970s and in all cases they require the use of specialist parts to make them buoyant. This one is no different. The hull pieces, new in this set, are about 28cm (11") long by 5cm (2") wide.
They split in two with the halves clipping together via a non-standard connection.
The sails are the only other new parts in the set. They are printed in flexible clear plastic sheet and are about 33cm tall.
The remainder of the 400-odd parts are in unnumbered bags. There's nothing much of note among them other than the 11-hole lime green beams which are making a welcome return after 11 years.
Construction begins with the centre part of the vessel, in which a number of mechanisms are contained to move the boom and the jib sail.
Parts are then added to the tops of the hulls, for both connecting them to the centre part and to operate the daggerboards (the bit sticking out the bottom), which are inserted into a hole through the hull and raised and lowered by a rack and pinion.
The 35cm tall mast and the rudders are added before attaching the sails to complete the model.
Operation
Five controls provide the means to move the boat's mechanisms.
Twisting the black gear at the back moves the rudders from side to side.
Moving the lever on the rear left and side back and forth causes the jib sail to rotate 20 degrees or so, although the way this is achieved is not prototypical.
The lever at the rear right moves the main boom from side to side.
Finally, the levers on the tops of the hulls raise and lower the daggerboards, as seen in the photo above.
The completed model
It's certainly colourful and, thanks to the large hull pieces, very distinctive and unlike any other Technic model. However, I don't think it's a particularly attractive model thanks mainly due to the ugly great rack gears sticking out the hulls and the associated mechanism. And, why the small wing panels on the hulls are black and not lime green, like others elsewhere on the model, is beyond me...
Unlike 42074 Racing Yacht, which had a mast that was far too short, the same cannot be said for this vessel. It looks to be in scale with the rest of the boat.
The daggerboards and rudders conspire to make it terrible display model, sticking out from the bottom of the boat as they do, preventing it from sitting on a flat surface. I had to remove them for the 'at sea' photos.
After it's been in the water it's likely that some will have entered the hulls, since they are not sealed, so the bottom part can be removed, by first removing the daggerboards, to empty them.
Verdict
I'm struggling to see the point of this set. It floats, which I guess is cool, but where exactly are you going to float it, given that once it's been 'launched' you have no control of it?
The sea? A lake? I suggest that the risk of losing it is too great for anyone to want to do so there. In the bath? Paddling pool? Fun for 3 minutes...
A swimming pool is about the only suitable place, where you can keep an eye on it and push it around, but here in northern Europe at least, not many of us have them in our back gardens.
Nevertheless, I suspect the set will sell simply because it floats -- something of a USP -- and because it's big and colourful.
I also suspect that most people will be disappointed with it due to the impracticality of actually floating it somewhere, and also because it doesn't look particularly good on display unless you remove enough parts to allow the hulls to sit flat, as I had to do for the photos of it 'at sea'.
Having said that, I guess LEGO should be credited for experimenting and bringing something new to Technic, even if it does ultimately seem to be a bit pointless.
Now, I wonder if it's possible to add a Control+ hub and a couple of motors to it. That would make it more fun!
It's now available (or soon will be) at LEGO.com, for £35.99 and $49.99, which seems reasonable in the UK but excessive in the USA.
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set for review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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30 comments on this article
I'm looking forward to some unorthodox constraction uses of the new hull piece.
That's the second catamaran worthy of attention in the last couple of years, both of them very well made.
However, I wonder why in both cases there's no acceptable length ratio between hulls and mast, the latter being way shorter than it actually should be if we were to look at real life boats. Cats have shorter masts than monohulls, but we're still way too short, imo.
Floating bricks, remote controls...
I know it’s a bad idea, you know it’s a bad idea, Lego certainly know it’s a bad idea, but you can’t fault them for giving the tools to try something new.
Goodness, the mess of Technic pieces completely detracts from the appearance of the model...
@Robot99 said:
"Goodness, the mess of Technic pieces completely detracts from the appearance of the model..."
Yes, don't they just, particularly on the top of the hulls.
Now I have loved Technics for years but this is surely the ugliest set I've ever seen. What a disappointment
Thanks for the review.
I think a simple stand would help this set a lot. Something to prop it up so it's functions could still be demonstrated. The B-model seems to have an advantage in this respect, without anything hanging down below the hulls.
I'm reminded of how the last few technic ships have had wheels- better for play, and in some cases allowing for a reasonably dynamic lean. I guess it's nice that this offers something different with the hulls, but what percentage will ever see significant use, or use at all? Particularly as a technic set, I get the use of the system hulls for bath and pool toys but doesn't technic skew towards an older audience?
I guess I will be among the few people who will like it as it is. I'm not a Technic specialist at all, and so I have a "simple"(let's say more objective, naive or neophyte?) point of view about it, just as a technic lego model which offers a rendition of an existing type of boat, with Lego build controls for the main functions of such a boat. I have read, during the past years, many Technic fans upset with the gears and main mechanisms of their sets hidden by always more panels added by the designers, avoiding us to appreciate and contemplate what's inside, which I think is the first and main goal, interest of the range. Here all those mechanisms are apparent and, if they for sure don't help this model to eventually look as good as it could be, at least it enables the basic amateur I am to see and understand how all these work. Still as I can't clearly understand on pictures I am going to search right after this comment some videos to see it in action. I can see why one won't like it, I perfectly agree and even understand the points of the review, but for my part I think it's cool. Good review and pics thank you this time again!
Well as a die-hard Technic fan, that - no pun intended - doesn't float my boat at all. Depending on the buoyancy of the hulls though, it could well, as someone else has pointed out, be the basis of some interesting MOCs.
But as a standalone set, it's a mess.
I think the simplest reason that the mechanisms are exposed is simply to reduce weight so that it can still float for as long as possible. Of course, the hulls should still be able to hold more weight, but I'd like to see someone try to cover up as much Technic as possible to make it look nice but also having the longest floating time before the hulls get full of water.
Also, this set is for 8+, and I wonder if kids 8+ take baths and play with bath toys. For older fans who live near a large body of water, perhaps you could tie a string onto it so that you don't lose it and let the wind take control of it.
As for Control+ and water, definitely not. The Customer Service team will get flooded (no pun intended), with replacement parts requests for Control+ pieces. There will be more Control+ components being given out for free for replacements than Control+ pieces sold in sets.
The technic pieces look tacked on. Nice concept though.
I have watched Sariel's video review. Good, and interesting as usual.
I see the 2 new bases, the sail...and some random colorful pieces between them. Don't cataramarans have some body or something?
Personally I see this being very popular among certain groups of AFOLs.
Every summer at BrickFair VA (one of the biggest Lego conventions in the United States), one of the morning events is a boat race across the nearby hotel's swimming pool. Many AFOLs contribute their own custom boats, but the options for floating hulls range from the small number of conventional hulls (common in the City theme) to more unorthodox solutions that use parts like Bionicle canisters or plastic storage bricks for ballast. Since Technic or Mindstorms are basically a necessity to properly motorize boats for this competition (unless you limit yourself to the specialized boat motor piece introduced many years ago now), a new set of boat hulls that are native to the Technic building system could be nothing short of revolutionary.
Maybe they were inspired by the movie "Waterworld".
Why isn’t this set listed on lego.com at least not on my turf
This is the most interesting Technic set since 4*4 car in my eyes.
I don't ke the hull pieces, they look weird
@merman said:
"Why isn’t this set listed on lego.com at least not on my turf"
I'm not sure, it's not listed in the UK either. It was before Christmas.
Bloody hell you're all a bunch of moaners, entitled to your opinion of course :) personally I love it and will be getting one (so long as I can seek permission whilst holding the box in my grubby little mitts).
This set does very little for me. Big, specialised pieces in the form of the hulls, linked by a jumbled mess of parts. Very little play value, and a high price. Technic seems to be more misses than hits, of late.
I just watched Sariel review. He is usually quite the hater but with this set he was full of compliments. I think it's a fantastic set, very big for its price point and despite what most of commenters say it's very well proportioned and exposed mechanisms are ultra-in-line with what a technic lego set should be in my opinion. I hope the day of RC boat from lego is near with such a good floating starting point.
The hulls look nice, but the rest is a mess of badly-chosen colours.
And the hulls seem to have pushed the price up for what is not a lot of Technic.
The hulls are like Set 7244 Speedboat which have been used in AFOL boats for the boat races at Brickworld Chicago. It is possible these new hulls will be used the same way. Would have been nice to get a REAL propeller instead of sails.
"Unlike 42074 Racing Yacht, which had a mast that was far too short"
Well, the Racing Yacht mast really couldn't have been made taller without adding a decent chunk to the price (as well as making it more top-heavy).
As someone who has actually made my own boat (11.5' sampan), I'll almost certainly end up buying this at some point.
@Lyichir:
Did they steal that from Brickworld in Chicago, or was it the other way around? Or did the same person start it at both conventions? The guy I most closely associate with the boat races (who once showed up with one of those display bins used to hold CMF packets in LEGO Stores, and a LEGO-branded squirt gun that he could feed from the pool with a length of pneumatic hose) is from PennLUG, and I haven't seen him there since they started doing a convention in their own neighborhood.
The tradition of wooden, rigged, but not controllable pond yachts was quite popular in the 40’s-60s. we We had a wooden yacht sailing around a dam for a couple of years on and off. I like the look of it, and will probably give it a go at some point.
Why is the entire conclusion mostly based on appearance, with no comments on functionality..? This is supposed to be Technic after all, not Creator (same goes for the article comments). No wonder Technic sets are getting less and less technical - the mecanisms seems to generate much less interest than the appearance and the displayability.
@olivierz:
Functionality was mentioned. There's the daggerboards, which are mechanized. On most small single-hull boats, a daggerboard would just be pushed into the trunk by hand, and locked in place. On a racing catamaran, I could see them being automated so they could be controlled from the helm. On a much larger boat, I'm guessing the final result isn't so clunky and ugly looking, being that there's a finite limit to how much you can shrink down the gearing on a LEGO set. There are multiple controls for trimming the sails, but at least one of them is criticized here.
What is the point of this set? Again, Congratulations to TLG for making another lego brand trophy. they make it and the people buy it to free advertising.