LEGOTECHNIC Power Functions Motor Set 8293 Building Kit

The grandparents gave this kit as an early birthday present for our son who is turning 7. He absolutely loves it! Since he received a Lego kit with a wind-up motor last Christmas (Toy Story 7590) he has been doing everything he can to animate his Lego creations, using the little wind-up motor to make everything from race cars to drills. Of course, once you get started in that direction, you want to do even greater things. So, he has been begging me to make an old Lego motor (from my childhood collection) work again. As you can imagine, when he opened this present he just about jumped to the ceiling with excitement! And this little motor has not disappointed. I have lost track of the hours he has spent during the last couple weeks putting it into motion. It also makes for great time together, because he constantly brings me in to give advice and help with details for connecting the gears correctly to harness the torque into the needed functions.I guess my only complaint would be the lack of directions. A simple diagram for how to connect the motor/switch/lights/battery pack would have been helpful. And the kit would have been a thousand times more accessible if it had come with a basic booklet giving examples of how it could be used in conjunction with the included gears/axels/joints. For a lone newbie into the world of simple mechanics and electronics, the kit's lack of instructions might be a serious limitation. But since my 7-year-old's Daddy is almost as excited as he is about Legos, the kit is exactly what was needed. :)The quality of the entire kit (motor, battery pack, connectors and accessories) is excellent--exactly as you would expect from Lego! We look forward to many years of play and learning!

The Power Functions kit #8293 is a must have for the 8294 Excavator. The kit transforms the excavator into a real scale functioning excavator (I own real heavy equipment myself), which can actually dig dry sand, sifted loam, and we attached a small jewelry chain to it and it can lift things like Transfomers Bumblebee and some surprisingly heavy objects just like a real excavator does! So dont hesitate to get one of these. The motor is tiny, but is surprisingly powerful and also this kit has a nice quality switch that replicates a real hydraulic lever and also comes with accessory LED lights which snap right on easily and look sano. The Design of the battery box and the excavator is well done, it mounts underneath the tracked undercarriage and it lowers the center of gravity of the excavator, which increases its stability. Expensive, but worth the dough.

Spent a pretty penny on this being that the kit is a legacy system. Wish that the lights and motor switch were separate, but kit works well.

This motor was one of the best add-on decisions to our sons Lego collection. It is easy to use and connect together. The only thing I Really wish it had is an option for a slower speed. It's pretty fast, which is great for so many things, but not so great for others.If the builder isn't careful, the cables can tangle pretty easily because of the power and they twist if not mounted or weighted down very well, resulting in the cables coming disconnected. Luckily, I have my tech-y husband that can put it back together. But it does need to be handled with care.Still wonderful to add so much creative ideas and allow to move past stationary creations. I'd recommend it. (=

There is a down side, my boys have broken 2 of these, the teeny gears inside can't withstand some of the things they do, BUT I'd still keep buying them, and have, because they inspire creative building of functional lego creations. totally worth purchasing one every year or two in my opinion. The things my boys do are not gentle, by the way, they have really high hopes for the torque these little engines can put up with. they'd have to be made of metal to withstand the abuse. Hey, lego, make these out of metal!

We have bought more than one of these kits! My son LOVES them and makes all kinds of lego creations from cranes to helicopters and more. Great set to take the legos to the next level and keep their imaginations soaring. Be sure to get a good set of lego gears to go with it, you'll be glad you did.

I prefer not to motorize my Lego sets, but in the case of the Lego linear actuators that come with a number of new Technic sets (e.g., the red excavator, the front-end loader), I think the Power Functions accessory set is a necessity. Without motors, the linear actuators require a lot of tiresome winding. You can also add this to the new Lego pneumatic log loader such that it turns one of the air pumps into a compressor.Please note, this is not the set of PF accessories that you would need to motorize a train. Please check my Amazon guide "So you want to buy a Lego train for your kids," to see which items you need and where to get them.