2018-02-23

Finally built my Lego 42043 Mercedes-Benz Arocs 3245 after more than 2 years

I have bought this lego technic set for a while since about 2015, and start to build this with my oldest daughter after that. But due to my busy schedule, I did not have time to work with her on this, and it seems too difficult for her at that time. She was about 6 years old at that time, and the beginning part of the set are about building the machine and gears part of the set. She was not able to do it by herself, and I did not have many time to play with her on this. Soon she loses interest on this and we put off the project.

About end of 2017 I started to have more time at my disposal, and continued from where we left off. It takes a while to figure out where we were, and to fix some mechanical mistake. I continued by myself until all the mechanical part and pneumatic part are completed. This set include some movement of the hand using air pressure, which is kind of cool. You can look many excellent review or YouTube video that shows you about this set.

Here is the first part.

Here is the second part

Here are the one with all the pneumatic part

When I almost finish the pneumatic part, my younger daughter show some interest in the set, so I recruit her to make a small part, thinking that this may be a good for her development. She was just 5 years old at that time and managed to complete the part assigned to her. Good job!

This part was done by second daughter.

Seeing that she was able to build this part, I continued to let her build the next parts with my supervision. I only help to attached it to the main part since it is clearly too big for her to handle by herself.

This part almost entirely done my second daughter.

This is after attaching to the main part by me.

 Finally she made the box or dump part and I helped to finalize it. Here is the completed Lego Mercedes-Benz Arocs 3245 with my daughter.

Personally, I like lego technic sets more than the regular lego. Maybe it is because of the mechanics, or building something that can move around instead of static one. This is my second big Lego Technic set (or the third if you consider Mindstorm EV3 as Lego technic as well).

Previously, I built my Lego 42042 Crawler Crane together with my eldest daughter when she was about 5 years old as well. Although the set are meant for 10 or 11 years old, but some part can be built by 5 years old with some guidance and help from adult.