The MT-10 SP is LEGO's first Yamaha set, and is a fantastic example of how accurate LEGO Technicsets can be, impressing with its almost true-to-life features and, albeit challenging, build. The set comes with1,478 pieces and it took me a full weekend to complete the set at my own pace.
The set comes with quite a fair number of stickers, and I thought these could have also been easily be printed bricks by LEGO. But the stickers come with detailed visuals, nonetheless, such as the panels and fuel tank cap.
As a LEGO Technic set, the Yamaha MT-10 SP is actually one of the trickier set I've built so far. There have been more than a couple of times when I linked two bricks incorrectly until a few pages – from the instruction booklet – down, and requiring me to dismantle (quite painfully, I must add) pieces that require some effort to pry them apart. This is truly a set for young adults or experienced LEGO builders.
That said, the Yamaha MT-10 SP set is so ridiculously detailed that even for a non-motorbike aficionadolike me appreciated the amount of research and experiments that the LEGO designer must have gone through before finalising this build.
Just check out the insane details: from the hydraulic cables, to the disc brake rotor and the the suspensions.
Of course, there's a radiator element included in the set as well. But while the exterior comes with a lot of eye-catching details, it's the inside build that's really the best part of the building experience.
There are a couple of play elements in the set, such as the gear pedal above. Although it does not quite work as smoothly as I expected: I found that it often takes a few pushes of the pedal to get the gear to change.
What I particularly liked about the construction process was how modular it was. The frame is built first, much like the real bike I imagine, and as you saw from earlier photos the clever geometric techniques employed to create the angles. Then there's this incredible chainring that powers the rear wheel.
You can select the gear via the appropriate pedal and it’s easy to change between the gears. You can look for the small red pin as shown above, and the position it is currently in to tell which gear the motorcycle is in. There’s even resistance on the back wheel to differentiate between the gears.
The LEGO Yamaha MT-10 SP (42159) is now available at LEGO certified stores and LEGO's official store at Lazadafor $349.90. It took me approximately 10 hours (with breaks in between) to complete the build, which measures to 29cm in length (scaling it 1:5 against the real deal). Overall, the set is acomplex and sophisticated model that offers a rewarding building experience and looks great on display.