Are LEGO Pull-back Sets Worth It?

A general look at pull-back motor sets and a review of the LEGO Monster Jam™ Dragon™ set…

Do I have to state the obvious? LEGO is a premium brand, and it comes at a premium price. Regardless, the official LEGO shop here in Dublin is still packed every single day to such an extent that on the weekends there is just no way of getting in without a time-slotted arm-band. High prices or not, people are still buying LEGO sets even in a struggling economy with inflated prices. So, what do people get? Well, it’s fair to say that everything. Most sets sell well, and those under $25 even more so, and believe it or not, some of them are Technic sets! One such sub-theme is the Monster Jam™, of which The LEGO Group released another three sets in 2023.

In an attempt to answer the question whether pull-back sets are really worth their price-tag or not, I decided to purchase the cheapest one of them, the Monster Jam™ Dragon™, set #42149 for the price of about four large coffees. First, I’m going to try and objectively review this set, and in the second part of this article answer the question — are pull-back sets worth their money, or should you wait and spend your hard-earned cash on something bigger?

The Monster Jam™ Dragon™ review…

As previously eluded, you can get your hands on this set for 20 bucks, and for all that cash you get 217 pieces. No less, no more. These 217 pieces will allow you to build a monster truck type vehicle, but it being a 2-in-1 set, you can also rebuild it into a Crocodile Buggy as illustrated on LEGO’s official page. Which one you think looks better, I’ll leave it up to you. I, for one, think neither of them look particularly great, but can’t say they look bad either. In terms of looks, I’ll give both a semi-enthusiastic “meh”.

The main feature of the set, is that it incorporates a pull-back motor. These aren’t new and some iteration of them have been around for many years, but I never felt tempted to purchase any of these sets until now. Partly because of curiosity, and partly because I wanted an article out of it, and thought that many LEGO shoppers, especially those new to Technic or on a lower budget, might benefit from an objective review. The pull-back motor itself does exactly what it says on the tin, and I can’t see any major issues with it. It provides a long-enough range for the vehicle. Whether it has enough torque to climb steeper inclines, is a different story.

The pull-back motor’s torque can handle no more than a 30-degree angle. Beyond that, it’s just not powerful enough.

In terms of building experience, it’s pretty straight-forward, though it does come with a couple of more complex steps a young builder should pay attention to. The 217 pieces, while well-used, do feel like the absolute minimum LEGO could design this set with. Also, worth noting that this set has zero functions apart from the pull-back functionality. No steering, no suspension, no pistons, nothing really. The suspension is faked with flexible tubes, but at the back they just hang in the air, which I found to be quite weird. It does come however with a wide array of stickers, which in this particular instance, I must admit, do make the set more appealing. The spikes also improve the look quite a bit.

My final criticism is around the wheels and the front. If you look at the original vehicle this set is based on, you’ll find that they somehow don’t really match the reference model, in colour or depth. LEGO has fatter tires and should have been using those. Furthermore, why does the LEGO iteration have to be orange? Grey or black would have been more appropriate. Finally, while I get the purpose of the bumper in the LEGO version, a more elegant solution could have been applied.

Based on all the above, you might think this is a crap set, and you may as well avoid it entirely. You have to understand that I am reviewing it as an adult and I did that because I am an adult after all, but if you want to be truly fair to the set, you also have to look at it with the eyes of a 7-year-old child. The fact of the matter is, they will care very little if at all about the set’s fidelity to the original vehicle. Nor will they care that the 217 pieces are the bare minimum here. In fact, for most kids, that overly pronounced front bumper might actually come in handy as they play around with it, and the less than desirable torque of the pull-back motor will only occasionally frustrate them.

For 20 bucks, I can’t really think of a better LEGO Technic set for a young child.

Yay, or nay for pull-back?

I used to have a good few pull-back die-cast model cars back in the day. None of them LEGO, but I absolutely loved them. They all had opening doors though, so by default came with extra functions. Some were even convertible! Their pull-back motors were powerful as fuck. I remember doing 45 and even 60-degree angle inclines no problem. Some were so powerful, they did a wheel-spin on the floor before vrooming away across the room. And you can’t blame the weight, because those cars weren’t light, yet their pull-back motors were tiny compared to LEGO’s.

When it comes to a 1:1 comparison between pure pull-back functionality of die-cast and brick-built, I feel LEGO is lagging behind.

That being said, LEGO sets, even the pull-back ones, offer more than just the joy of play through pull-back functionality. These are after all, like all LEGO sets, entirely rebuildable into whatever else the child feels like rebuilding them into. That second model the digital instructions suggest, is a great start at nudging the child to make more out of the set than what The LEGO Group’s initial designers envisioned.

I think it’s also important to highlight that these sets are really meant to be played with, so lack of extra functionality is less of a concern. Sure, it would be nice, but it would also create extra frustration when some of it would break from all the racing and bumping against walls, doors and the neighbour kid’s own pull-back set.

For $20 you get enough LEGO and play value that pull-back sets are still worth their money.

However, at $50, like the Mustang or the Porsche sells for, it’s a lot less convincing of a proposition. For that kind of money, you’re much better off with the McLaren Senna or the Bugatti Bolide (review coming soon, so subscribe).

What’s your experience with pull-back toys in general? Good, bad or never really cared about them much?

Attila Vago — Software Engineer improving the world one line of code at a time. Cool nerd since forever, writer of codes and blogs. Web accessibility advocate, LEGO fan, vinyl record collector. Loves craft beer! Read my Hello story here! Subscribe and/or become a member for more stories about LEGO, tech, coding and accessibility! For my less regular readers, I also write about random bits and writing.