Pick of the week: Dump Truck

 

  • Pick of the week: Dump Truck

    Posted by Huw, 24 Dec 2011 13:41. Filed under Pick of the week.

    4434 Dump Truck If you're a City fan you will no doubt be very excited about the City sets being released in 2012. There are some superb vehicles coming out, and even the Fire and Police sets are sufficiently different to make them interesting.

    My pick for this week is the new City set 4434 Dump Truck, which I picked up at the Brighton brand store yesterday and which has just appeared at shop.LEGO.com for the very reasonable price of £14.99 and US $19.99.

    It's actually surprisingly similar to a truck I made a while ago, even down to the colour scheme. One challenge I faced when building mine was getting the sides of the deck right. In the end I built it upside down to make best use of the brackets available.

    4434 Dump Truck4434 Dump TruckTo solve the problem on this model, LEGO has made two new parts, one for the ends and one for sides, which makes the model much more elegant. As well as these new parts, there's a new three-part hinge that replaces the ancient 2x4 plate hinge that's been around since the 1960's, and also a new wheelbarrow, which have been difficult to render at minifig scale in the past.

     

    4434 Dump Truck 4434 Dump Truck 4434 Dump Truck 4434 Dump Truck

    This an excellent, interesting and highly playable model at a great price. If all 2012 City sets are as good this then City fans have every right to get excited. I'm certainly looking forward to finding out if they are.

    If I've tempted you to add it to your collection, order today from shop.LEGO.com using these links: UK | USA | Canada


    12 comments, latest one posted 17 months ago. (Commenting has ended on this article)
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Comments

Posted by TooMuchLEGO in United States, 24 Dec 2011 14:17

For some reason I like this set. Want it. And nice MOC Huw!

Posted by Hobie819 in United States, 24 Dec 2011 14:19

I like this set - some of the other 2012 city sets though are a bit far fetched though. I mean, a chinook police helicopter? An all terain fire fighting vehicle built to look like a Russian BMP? *shrugs*

They do have some good 2012 sets though - hopefully looking forward to a few more nice sets later this year!

Posted by mikeyob in United States, 24 Dec 2011 14:22

Love the wheelbarrow!

Posted by dougts in United States, 24 Dec 2011 14:26

The vehicle sets thus far have all been really good, and all at that same price point: ambulance, car/camper, dump truck, motorcycle transport, and the garbage truck.

While the police and fire stuff is at least in a new setting, it's still police and fire. my city can't be inhabited by 75% policeman and bad guys, so I'll mostly be passing on those, other than picked up a couple of the smaller ones for the vehicles in them.

I saw the recycle transport at the LEGO store the other day, so I'll grab that at some point as well. The vehicle collection has been a home run in my opinion.

Posted by Hello_World! in United States, 24 Dec 2011 14:43

Pick of the week returns!! I really like this set, and hope to get it soon.

Posted by bluemoose in United Kingdom, 24 Dec 2011 15:13

I built this set earlier this evening; it's a really nice set, and the new elements definitely add something to the builder's palette. The basic design of the cab & truck bed isn't very different from other recent lorries/trucks, but it's such a good design there is no need to mess with it! Overall it's a great set & an excellent basis for building custom trucks/lorries.

Posted by madforLEGO in United States, 24 Dec 2011 15:59

Neat Huw, Thanks.
The one issue I have with it are the Wheelbarrow 'stands' that hold it up, they are the same height as the figs arms, meaning that the wheelbarrow looks like the little pegs would drag across the ground..
That being said it still is a nice piece and I want to get a few of those...

Posted by Thomson & Thompson in Canada, 24 Dec 2011 16:00

Looks like a great set. Love the wheelbarrow. Huw, are you going to do an annual report like you did last year?

Posted by YellowedWhitePieces in United States, 24 Dec 2011 16:30

As an AFOL, I think this is a nice-looking vehicle, however it's lacking one essential thing: A lifting piston! 4432 has the same problem. 7991 in 2007 had 2 of them! But unlike that other new set, I am pleased to see 4434 has doors.

Posted by Zrath in United States, 24 Dec 2011 17:02

I was really surprised when I opened this set to build it and found the new parts for making the sides and ends of the dumper. It allows to make a longer dumper if you have more parts, but not a wider one. There's probably a way around that though.
I had seen the revamped 2x4 hinge in the Garbage Truck earlier and had marvelled at the cleverness of the design. You can really do some interesting thing if you have several of the new hinges and you attach two tops or two bottoms together instead of just one top and one bottom.
The folks at my LUG meeting this month really liked the new hinge and want to get them in quantities. :D

So yeah, this is a really nice set, well-made and fun.

Posted by Thrund in United Kingdom, 24 Dec 2011 17:26

@madforlegos - the wheelbarrow is no doubt made that way for stability. When the minifigure's arms are in place, it looks as though he's just about to lift it, which works for most scenes.

Posted by af.riem in Netherlands, 25 Dec 2011 06:20

I like all the new city sets that are coming out, because it are not the usual sets (policestation and firehouse), but different ones. I especially like the new mine sets. The big set even has a mine-train.

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