Review: 5765 Transport Truck

[slovakiasteph]

This set was a departure for my usual City-obsessed self. The only builds I’d built since I returned from my Dark Ages this summer were City, Creator houses, Harry Potter, or Kingdoms. At Toys’R’Us’ recent buy 2, get 1 free sale, I decided to go for something different and picked up this set. Not sure why, exactly, but it fit my price point and I liked my other Creator sets, although buildings.

The first time I built Build 1 it took me about an hour—but I was in my tent, pieces on the sleeping bag, using a flashlight to either look at the directions, the pieces, or the model I was building, so probably longer than usual. :)

The instruction booklets

The pieces spread out… much easier to see here than in a dark tent.

I just had to include a shot of this first page… the first time I built a set out of my Dark Ages, I looked at this page and decided it meant to not build on the carpet. So, I built the first several sets on a table, as I was told. ;) Until I used my quilting cutting board on the floor.

Build 1

This was a great build with which to begin. The three parts work well together, but we begin with the helicopter.

It’s fairly straightforward, but has some lovely SNOT work on the sides.

Fairly polished altogether, and I like the bright yellow color.

Action shot! Yes, I had fun getting both the rotors spinning… and looking at the orange line around the edge from the orange 1x1 tiles.

Then, the truck. This is the best part of Build 1, hands down. It’s fun and I like the sleek look of the truck when it’s finished.

I love the “wings” (not sure what they’re called) on the side of the cab. Am I the only one who has to spin each and every wheel when I put it on? Just to make sure it works. :D

Finally, the trailer. A fairly straightforward build. However, the orange plate in the instruction booklet looks red. I have a problem distinguishing between the greys and black (dark bley looks black to me, light bley looks like dark bley…) in the booklets, but this orange definitely looks red. Also, the blue 2x4 tiles are held on basically by a 1x4 brick across the wider edge, which means if you press on one side, they’ll fall.

Finished trailer

Three parts… it’s more fun to have three parts to a build instead of just one!

Together at last.

Just a few bits and pieces left…

Build 2

Build 2 begins on p. 3 of the second instruction booklet. We build the little boat first, which bears at least some resemblance to a boat. I don’t think the colors work very well on this—the white, orange, and black seem like left-over pieces put together.

The jeep comes next, then the trailer. The jeep is my favorite part of this set; I like the way it looks, and the build was fun! Lots of plate layers to put together.

Left-over pieces… plenty! Was going to experiment with another build but decided to move on…

Build 3

Build 3, and my favorite! This one was the most fun.

It begins with the little orange car.

It looks great from this perspective, but from the side or front, at least partly recognizable as an orange sports car.

Then for the truck. I love everything about this: the cab, the roof, the color scheme. The front end looks beautiful with all that cheese.

Enough bits and bobs for an experiment later…

So, what do I think about the set overall?

Design: 8/10… Okay, so I’m not sure I’m adequately qualified to rate the design as I’m not very familiar with vehicles overall. I like the look of the vehicles, and everything seems to fit together well. The trucks are especially nice-looking, with the SNOT work and blue-and-orange color schemes.

Playability: 9/10… Lots you can do here! Even for me, who doesn’t “play” with vehicles. I did drive the trucks and car around a bit, put the car on the trailer, and had lots of fun spinning the helicopter rotors (as you can see from the photos).

Price: 10/10… The Creator sets always seem to be a good value to me. Three different builds for the price of one? Yes, please! This set seems to be a very good value to me, especially since each build has two or three components to it. In fact, while I wasn’t interested in the Creator vehicles, I picked up this set anyway just because it seemed to be a good value for the price and because of the versatility of the pieces: as I was building, I was already thinking about how useful the pieces would be for my usual Town MOCs.

Build: 9/10… The only reason this didn’t get a 10 was because there’s a lot of plate stacking, which can become repetitive. The bulk of each cab is built by stacking many plates. Other than that, each was a fun build. I would say Build 1 was the most interesting, then #3, with #2 coming in last. The little boat just didn’t offer much variety, but the 4x4 provided a nice build. Still, they were all fun and I would build each of them again.

Edited October 9, 2011 by Rufus
Indexed!

[prateek]

Nice review. This set is awesome. Great little models, with lots of cool pieces with a low price

[slovakiasteph]

Nice review. This set is awesome. Great little models, with lots of cool pieces with a low price

Thanks... my first EB review! I agree, it's a great set... next time, I'll have to review a set I don't like quite as much.

[treeboy]

Nice review and set and congratulations on 100 posts I feel a kindred spirit. How much was the set not on-sale? I like the parts selection I actually said "ooooohhh" when I saw the parts picture.

[slovakiasteph]

Nice review and set and congratulations on 100 posts I feel a kindred spirit. How much was the set not on-sale? I like the parts selection I actually said "ooooohhh" when I saw the parts picture.

I think I must be spending too much time on EB because I saw your 100th post earlier today! The set is typically priced at $20. I like the "ooohhh."

[horizon]

Hi,

nice review, my son has the set to. It is currently in the jeep + boat modus.

The left over bits are neat enough to create whacky fun stuff. Like baby lightning dragons...

The orange car is to me the least part of the set. A good thing is that the set offers enough pieces to build a Transformer out of it. I am looking at a possibility to create car which has place for minifig.

[Rufus]

Thanks for reviewing this, slovakiasteph! Saves me the bother

Nicely reviewed; perhaps just try to ensure all the pictures are in focus. If you want to improve your reviewing skills, might I recommend the Reviewers Academy?

[meyerc13]

These are on price rollback at Wal Mart, so I picked one up since you can't beat that many pieces for $15. So far I've only put together the first model, and I'm quite impressed. A very solid build and very heavy once completed due to the large number of plates. I bought this mostly for the parts, but now that it's together I think I may wait a while before disassembling it.