Lego Technic
Shares rank 3 of 5 construction toys by recommenders
Recommended as a fun build-it-yourself kit that ends in working models. Critics say newer sets have less mechanical function, cost more, and carry heavy car-brand tie-ins.
Recommended as a fun build-it-yourself kit that ends in working models. Critics say newer sets have less mechanical function, cost more, and carry heavy car-brand tie-ins.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 59%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fun to build, satisfying final models
“which was fun, and then the final result was also cool”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Karpathy: A few random notes from Claude coding quite a bit last few weeks” “I built a lot of fun things with that”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Toys with the highest play-time and lowest clean-up-time”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Less mechanical function in new sets
“technics sets used to be really awesome function wise, then came mindstorms and it kept getting better, then all of that seemingly vanished for new sets and cosmetic sets instead.”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Lego announces Smart Brick, the 'most significant evolution' in 50 years, no AI” “Not just NX but technics basically was a build things that do stuff mechanically and now isn't that seemingly at all.”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Lego's 0.002 mm Specification and Its Implications for Manufacturing (2025)” “Even their line of Technic stuff is super watered-down.”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Lego announces Smart Brick, the 'most significant evolution' in 50 years, no AI” Heavy car-brand branding tie-ins
“Technics itself mostly seems to have been downgraded to the automotive brands advertising department”
Comment from 11 Mar 2026 in “Lego's 0.002 mm Specification and Its Implications for Manufacturing (2025)” “The Lego sets are much more expensive and almost all of them have obnoxious branding tie-ins.”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “Lego collaboration with Daft Punk”
Other construction toys people recommend
The four most recommended other construction toys, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lego | 82 | 34 | 71% | 10 | 40 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Magna-Tiles | 25 | 6 | 81% | 2 | 1 mo4 owners | — |
| Lego TechnicThis page | 10 | 7 | 59% | 5 | — | — |
| LEGO Duplo | 10 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| LEGO Classic | 6 | 2 | 75% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
15 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The Lego sets are much more expensive and almost all of them have obnoxious branding tie-ins.”
“selling kits (Meccano, Technics) would be the better approach”
“Technics itself mostly seems to have been downgraded to the automotive brands advertising department”
“I don't see what technic/mindstorm offers over digital”
“there was no natural 'up' direction any more”
“Not just NX but technics basically was a build things that do stuff mechanically and now isn't that seemingly at all.”
“There's so little support for anything but representative models of specific cars”
“which was fun, and then the final result was also cool”
“I’ve been bringing in bins of my own Technic parts”
“technics sets used to be really awesome function wise, then came mindstorms and it kept getting better, then all of that seemingly vanished for new sets and cosmetic sets instead.”
“Even their line of Technic stuff is super watered-down.”
“they did away with the studded beams in Technic and everything is smooth beams now with axles and pins”
“this is the way, especially with Technic sets”
“Expensive plastic, still a toy. Legos can be OK toys, one of the few rare exceptions.”
“I built a lot of fun things with that”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.