LEGO Technic 4??4 X-treme Off

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I got this for my 2 kids, 9 yr old and 4 yr old. My son really just loves to look at cars and trucks so this was a no brainer. My daughter is super into legos and we started to work on this together. My son had fun putting on the sticker decals. Unfortunately, I had to finish the job but it was super fun for the kid in me too. I do think the recommended age is accurate as an older kid would probably want to spend more time with building it. But, being able to then use the app and control and drive it around made it so much fun. The motors are actually strong enough to go over small things which makes this "off road" toy actually work. The app was super easy to use even for my 4 year old, so he still gets to play with it. YAY! I immediately started looking for the other builds in this product line. This is a great toy!

As built, this is a challenging model with incredible structural strength. As built this is a 4x4 truck that can handle minor off-roading. As built, this is a fun truck! We had wet snow falling the day after I built it and I took it outside. In 1/4" (7mm) or less of heavy wet snow the truck did fine, but once you got in to deeper snow it would stall once the snow built up under the differential. Not very impressive. This is why this is a 4 star model. How to get to 5 star? Below are three changes you need to make, extremely easy if you built it this way outright, if you need to modify it look up on YouTube the 5-minute fix for the 42099 model. This little set of changes does two things, it cuts the speed in half, but it allows you to run in 1.5" (38mm) heavy wet snow and keep going. I drove around for over 20 minutes until I finally pushed my luck and high-centered. 5 Star truck! You just need to do the following three things! Halve you speed, double your power. Thanks to Youtuber: RacingBrick Step 78 - use the tan gear from step 82 not the black one Step 82 - use the black gear from step 78 not the tan one you already used Step 159- left side of the picture, there is a black and tan gear, carefully swap them. Have Fun! Remember, LEGO allows you to explore! Never forget that!