Lego 42136 – John Deere 9620R 4WD Tractor Review

Another licensed set, this time an articulated tractor from John Deere, 9620R 4WD. This tractor and its lego model articulate (bend) in the middle when steering. We don’t see this tractor much in Turkey. But it is prevalent in the US. Although the lego model has 4 tiers, when I’m investigating the real John Deere 9620R, I have seen that these tractors are mostly equipped with 8 or 12 tiers in real life. I personally don’t think that the addition of an extra set of tiers will add too much value to this set. The model’s proportions are generally good and people that know the actual tractor also like the Lego model of it.

Build

It comes in 4 bags, 3 bags for the tractor part, and 1 bag for the trailer part. There are two booklets, one for the tractor and one for the trailer. You first build the tractor using the first 3 bags and then build the trailer using the 4th bag. After that, you connect them using a hitch mechanism. Stickers are used for the front grill, ladders, side panels of the tractor, and putting the “John Deere” brand on the trail. Although the Lego system has a ladder in black color, the style of it doesn’t match the ladder style in the real tractor, so I can understand the decision to go with a sticker.

Stage 1

You start building the articulation mechanism of the tractor for steering and you build the chassis of the tractor. The tractor has the hand of god steering using black gear. Usually, when the steering, the front axle turns to the left or right, but in this set and the real tractor, the whole front section turns to the left or right. To do this, it bends in the middle. This mechanism is implemented using a small turntable and a few gears. The turn radius of the steering is limited though.

Stage 2

In this stage, you add side panels, driver cabin, exhaust, and steering nob on top of the chassis. There isn’t any mechanism to build in this stage. One problem with the driver cabin is that it is not mini-figure compatible. You can easily remove the top of the driver’s cabin, but if you put a mini-figure in it, you will not be able to close the top.

The real version of this tractor has a satellite receiver antenna on the cabin’s top and a screen in the cabin. StarFire satellite receiver is implemented with a yellow circle on the sticker of the driver’s cabin top but the screen part is completely omitted in the lego model.

Stage 3

Using flat and curved plates, we built the trailer. One flat and five curved plates are used. The back of the trailer is open, there is no tailgate. It is only closed from 3 sides. 4 small wheels are attached to the rear of the trailer, two on each side. Each side has articulation.

The most exciting feature of the trailer is dumping. Using a lever, you can tilt it. If you turn the lever enough, it locks in the raised position, and the weight on the trailer doesn’t cause it to drop by itself.

The trailer is attached to the tractor using a very simple hitch implemented using a short axle, a few pins, and axle and pin connector. The hitch mechanism also has some articulation.

Although the trailer is not 100% sealed you can put quite small parts in it. Due to the holes, you can’t put sand in it, but “Lego Dots” and other small lego parts will not drop from it.

Play Features

Since this is a small set, it doesn’t contain many features. The main technical features of this set are;

• Articulated steering
• Raising and lowering the trailer
• Articulated rear wheels of the trailer

It would be good if this set come with a farmer mini-figure and a few hay bales. Unfortunately, you can’t also put one of your mini-figures inside the driver’s cabin of this model. Although the top of the cabin can easily be detached and attached again, the height between the seat and the top is not high enough to accommodate the mini-figure.