Technic has never done blind boxes before. On 1 August LEGO put out 42233 Mighty Machines: eight little construction vehicles at £4.49 each, sealed so you do not know which one you are getting, with a game card in every box. Road Roller, Wheel Loader, Dump Truck, Cement Truck, Wrecking Ball Crane, Excavator, Mobile Crane and Bulldozer, between 38 and 60 pieces apiece, 356 across the set.
I have not built them yet. They are a long way from what we do, so this is my read of what the people who have built them are saying, and where I think it goes.
They are proper Technic, just small
Every one has a working function, and not a token one. Rambling Brick’s build-through has the Wheel Loader lifting its bucket on a worm gear, the Cement Truck turning its drum on another worm gear, the Excavator with two separate controls for boom reach and bucket scoop, the Dump Truck with steering and a tipping bed, the Road Roller with steering, the Wrecking Ball Crane spinning its ball, the Mobile Crane raising and lowering its arm, and the Bulldozer lifting its blade. At 40-odd pieces you are not getting a gearbox, but you are getting pins, liftarms and a mechanism that does something, which is more than most pocket-money LEGO manages.
New Elementary picked out the parts: a new 1×3 thin beam with a trapezoid frame that turns up in most of the eight, left and right shovel panels, and a yellow 3×3 cone that has not been seen since 2015. Small sets are where LEGO tries new elements, and these have a few.
The Mobile Crane at 60 pieces is the pick of the eight on paper.
The blind box is the bit I mind
If you want the bulldozer you can buy eight boxes and still not have it. That is how the format works and LEGO knows exactly what it is doing. The reviews do not agree on whether you can tell what is inside: Rambling Brick says the QR code on the box identifies the model, New Elementary found no way to tell. If it matters to you, scan the code in the shop before you pay, or buy the complete set of eight from a reseller and skip the lottery.
The game card is the other oddity. The rules are not in the box, only behind a QR code, and at launch nobody could find them. It looks like a domino-style track game where each vehicle can cross certain terrain. Fine for a child. Nobody is buying these for the card.
Why it matters for the library
It does not, directly. A £4.49 set is a long way under the £100 floor and always will be. But it is the first sign of LEGO treating Technic as a collectable rather than only a big-box build, and Series 2 (42243) is already rumoured for January with 48-piece models. If that lands, expect Technic on the till point at the supermarket for the first time.
If you have a child who watches you build the big kits, this is a two-quid-a-piece way to give them a real Technic mechanism of their own. Beyond that, treat it as a curiosity.
Have you opened any? Which one did you want and which one did you get? Drop a comment on Facebook or Instagram. I read everything.
Source check
Prices, piece counts and the model list were checked against Brickset and LEGO’s UK site on 27 September 2026. Build detail is from the New Elementary review (Tom Loftus, 5 August 2026) and the Rambling Brick review (14 July 2026). Series 2 is a Brick Fanatics rumour, not confirmed by LEGO.
The big kits are what we do
Technic Fan gives you up to 6 kits a year. Master Builder gives you up to 12 kits a year. Every kit in the library is over £100 at retail, and both plans include free delivery both ways and the prepaid return label in the box.
Browse the library View subscriptions