I was lucky I was able to get hold of this beauty as soon as it became available. I do not own the king of all Technic Cranes 8421, so the next best set was none other than this year's mobile crane. It may look lackluster and small compared to its bigger brother, but boy was I in for a surprised.



Set Name: Mobile Crane
Set Number : 8053
Year Released : Summer 2010
Number of pieces : 1289


The box

The front of the box is simple picture of the mobile crane and a small detail at the bottom right showing its size. It does not come with any have any power functions parts hence it lacks the orange sidebar usually found on the right of the box.


At the back is the alternate model of the crane. What do you build using parts of a crane? Another crane of course! A harbour crane to be exact. Does this mean the return of a city theme harbor set?!@#



The box contents

The box opens up like the 8258 box. Mine came with the stickers bend. TLG, you have state of the art weighing machines but can never pack the stickers properly!!! To my great surprised it came with numbered bags 1 and 2.



Instructions

There are 3 instruction booklets, where the first book covers the bottom portion of the mobile crane. The bottom portion continues on into half of the second book and then proceed to the crane section itself. Book 3 covers the final parts of the crane and how to motorize it if you have the power functions pack. Also in the instructions book 3 is how to operate the crane using the levers.



The build: Bottom part of Crane

We start of with the bottom part of the crane where the driver's and wheels are located.



Completed part: Bottom part of Crane

After 2 hours the bottom part of the crane is complete. This section has a low profile to allow the top crane section to later swivel around. The driver's cab has 2 seats, a small steering wheel and openable doors on both side. There is a large bull-bar in front, signal, headlights and also warning lights at the top of the cab. If there is something missing, I would say that this set lacks a V8 or a V6 engine found in any large technic sets.



At the rear of the crane are 2 knobs. The smaller knob at the front is to control the outriggers while the bigger one below is to control the 8-wheel steering.


The combo pictures below shows how the outriggers work; By turning the knob at the back, it turns a set of gears at the front. This in turn, rotates the levers at the center of the crane to either push out or pull back the outriggers..


The second set of combo pictures below shows the position of all 8 wheels when the large knob at the rear is turned. Turning left, going straight and turning right.




The outriggers still need to be further deployed by turning the handle at the top. It is quite laborious to turn all 4 outriggers. IMHO it is better than the 8258 outriggers.



The build: The Upper crane portion

Moving on to bags 2, it becomes more exciting as we begin to see the construction of a gearbox, boom and hoist. We start off with the turn-table, gearbox, boom, telescopic boom, hoisting hook and operator's cabin.


A picture showing the gearbox where we can select which function we want to use. The clutch on the left controls the boom angle and hoisting rope while the one on the right controls the telescopic boom.




Completed part: The whole Crane

To complete the whole build, the top part of the crane is joined to the bottom part at the turn-table section. Once fully completed, it becomes a tall and very long machine!



Operating the boom

Operating the boom is a matter of flipping the switch to engage the clutch in the gearbox and turning the large black knob on either side of the crane. It may take a little effort to fully extend it all hence why there is an option to motorized it.



At maximum the height of the boom is similar to the length of a Green Grocer or motorized excavator box. As you can see it is larger than my mini studio can handle  


The crane can rotate 360 degrees with ease provided you have space to allow it to rotate.


A closer look at the fully extended linear actuator. The cab for the operator can lean back slightly like a real crane.



Comparison between other Technic sets

So how big is this set when compared to my other Technic sets? The crane is smaller than my 8258, 8448 and even the motorized bulldozer. To be fair the other 3 are all flagships sets and have a larger piece count compared to the mobile crane.




Conclusion

Design: 10/10 My initial first impression of this set weren't so great as there was not that many info about it when I first saw the front box art. However my impression of it changed when I build it and saw the features first hand.

Parts: 10/10 There's alot of parts you can get in this set; 8 rubber wheels with rims, a variety of technic beams, gears, clutches and many more. Too bad it comes with 1 linear actuator though.

Playability: 9/10 Although there is alot of features you can do, most of it requires a lot of turning the knobs to get it working.

Mod ability: 10/10 This set is just DYING to be motorized by a power function motor since its playability is affected if there is no motor

Price : 10/10 At RM 549.90, it is slightly more expensive than the wheel loader from last year. But it has 200 more parts and have a ton of features so it is worth it.

Conclusion : 10/10 GET IT!! It may be 8421's younger brother with less features but it is still a great set to own, especially if you do not own 8421.


Motorizing with Power Function features

Part 1 of 2 (with clutch)

Lego 8053 Technic Mobile Crane Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2 (without clutch)

Lego 8053 Technic Mobile Crane Part 2 of 2

Very detailed review, paanjang16! Thanks.

You shud, i was amazed wad technic can do with PF installed. Nice review Paanjang16, the outriggers are nice.

its ok jackson...this set will be available through toys r us till  the next 6 months....
huhuhu....relax

Thanks for the comments everyone 

I'm sure now there are some really poisoned would be Technic kaki out there. The box art does not do this set justice!!! It never show anything about a gearbox inside the model or 8 wheel steering or extend able outriggers.

I have also took some parts from my other sets to motorized it as per the included instructions. If you guys have the power function set then you can easily motorized it since there is space allocated for the battery box and motor. Can install without the clutch so that can extend and raise the boom at the same time but need extreme amount of attention otherwise you might burn a motor. With the clutch there is too much resistance to the clutch when raising and extending the boom hence the clutch will keep slipping.

Will see got time to record a video later.