Branko is back with another review. This time its the Technic 42167 MACK LR ELECTRIC GARBAGE TRUCK, part of the January 2024 Technic range. Interestingly, the scale appears just about right for some other play themes…
LEGO communities have been committed to cleanliness, garbage disposal and emission reduction, expressed historically with cleaning and garbage vehicles and, in recent times, with electric vehicles and even electric recycling trucks! Until now, most of these vehicles seem a bit undersized for serious garbage management until now; introducing 42167 Mack LR Electric Garbage Truck available for AUD 59.99/£29.99/US$32.99/€34.99 containing 503 pieces*. The arrival of this truck certainly caught the attention of Friends Emma and River, who felt that their own (albeit colourful) truck looked a bit underwhelming in comparison.
*Technic sets typically contain a lot of pins and connectors that I would not equate to a full ‘piece’. More on this below.
MACK Low Ride (LR) Electric is an electric variant of MACK’s heavy-duty series with a low cabin at the front of the truck. Spoiler alert: the LEGO model does NOT come with a bulldog hood ornament, like the real truck (pictured). If you can get over that initial disappointment, I encourage you to read on and see why this is a surprisingly rewarding addition to your collection, even as a vehicle for your LEGO or Heartlake cities.
Emma and River will join us to investigate how this medium-sized Technic representation may be able to help them clean up the world of LEGO.
Getting into garbage removal
This LR Electric truck comes in a modest box with a clear image of the truck that strongly resembles the real thing. In the spirit of ‘recycling’, I fully expected this box to contain paper bags; and I was not disappointed (initially). The sticker sheet did make my heart sink a bit; I fully expected them to be there because it is a common way to create detail in Technic sets but I always struggle with large stickers like this, so…*sigh*.
Opening the first bag, if we disregard the knolling technique of the new intern, shows us a typical ‘first-bag-for-a-Technic-set’ selection; about 1/3 are pins or various types and the rest mostly beams in various lengths. I’m delighted with the green and brown parts ❤️.
A few pieces stand out to me because I remember needing this kind of part in the past when they didn’t exist such as ‘BEAM 3 MODULE, W/ 4.85 BUSH, NO. 1‘ (new since 2023) and ‘SHELL 3X1X2, W/ CROSS HOLE, NO. 1‘ (rare since 2021).
To work, then! The first bag creates common patterns of ‘build a vehicle with Technic’. I am delighted with how compact the entire construction is. I have seen similar steering mechanisms in larger vehicles, but the elegance and simplicity of this size made me smile. Towards the end of the first bag, some mechanics start to appear on the back where you can guess what it will be but not quite how it will all fit together; this is typical enjoyment for me when building Technic. At the front two green seats appear and Emma could not hold back and had to give it a go, while being followed by the local trash-panda (named Brian if I’m not mistaken).
The second bag brings a few decorative pieces; some panels start to appear, as well as some ‘regular’ LEGO parts. In the photo, you can see how the requisite ‘small bits’ are held in smaller paper bags inside the larger bag.
Immediately, we start building the ‘decorations’ in the form of the front cabin, and Emma jumps in. You can see from the smile on her face that she approves wholeheartedly.
The next part builds a mechanism I could only summarize as ‘what? huh? how did they? so small! wow!‘, and I’m a mechanical engineer! I found it stunning how the collection of loose bits is put together and will eventually create the gripping and lifting movement of the bins all at once in such a small package! Delightful!
Bag 3 shocks by containing a plastic (!) bag for the small pieces. The parts lean heavily towards the outside bits: panels, wheels and plates. As expected, the receiver for emptying bins is being built while Emma has a party in the cabin.
The final bag (4) allows me to demonstrate why the piece count at the top of this page had an asterisk* next to it. The panels and beams can only be connected to other parts after a pin or some type has been connected, and quite a few ‘parts’ are used just for that purpose (see the red pins on the roof panel, for example).
This is also where the largest stickers need to be placed (*shudder*), not my idea of fun, but the end result does look good.
Once the truck is finished,Emma calls over River to inspect the vehicle, and he clearly shares her excitement. They are not exactly able to sit inside the cabin, but they can stand in it, which seems good enough. The MACK LR looks like a heavy duty garbage collecting truck and I suspect that once River and Emma have returned their own truck home they will keep using it to do their rounds. Compared with images of the real MACK truck, the models appear pretty close to the right scale for minidolls (and, by extension, minifigs), so it seems appropriate for it to join your Heartlake or LEGO city community.
Mike the Minifig also dropped by quickly to check out the seating arrangement and found he struggled a bit more to get in. He did enjoy the experience of sitting in a more significant vehicle. Raven (Goth girl) is not impressed at all; but then she isn’t impressed easily.
The finished truck has a hand-of-god steering gear on the top of the cabin that allows you to drive the truck around and practice your parallel parking skills with a truck. On the side is a small orange lever to tip the rear bin where the rear hatch automatically opens; it is very satisfying to drop some rubbish behind the truck. The neatest feature is controlled by the gear on the side; turning it will snap the arms on the other side around a bin (if present) and then lift the arms to tip the bin into the truck. This mechanism is so elegant and created in such a small section!
The pains of building Technic
It has been quite a while since I built a Technic set because arthritis in my hands tends to flare up when doing so. Technic building involves tight gripping of pins that are quite different from ‘regular’ LEGO building. In particular the SINGLE BUSH 2 MODULE, DIA. 4,9 annoyed me; it seems to be made of a different type of plastic and just fought my attempts at putting it into its described holes.
With that said, while building this truck, I found that it was small enough to provide the enjoyment of discovering mechanisms without annoying my hands too much. I think anyone new to Technic would get great enjoyment out of building this set.
The recycling sized elephant in the room
For several years, The LEGO Group has been searching for ways to make LEGO bricks from renewal sources; essentially turning renewable materials into non-biodegradable plastic. One promising avenue involved recycling PET bottles to make bricks so we have to applaud our LEGO inhabitants for their recycling efforts to support this work.
Unfortunately the company recently abandoned this project because the carbon emissions associated with these bricks would be higher than they are with current processes so they are still a way out of recycling into LEGO bricks. Let’s continue recycling for other purposes though; if LEGO minifigs and minidolls can do it; so can we.
Play fun, human powered, not electric
It would have been poetic if the model of the MACK LR electric truck was electrified with power functions but that would not be possible at this size and I think the (minifig) size of this set is one of its best features.
The truck has several great play features; you can drive it around, you can steer it with a hand-of-god (steering wheel on top), you can pick up a bin on the side of the truck and empty it into the truck, and the truck can tip its load. I found myself playing with this repeatedly already, and I am imagining how I could be distributing bins throughout a LEGO city to then drive past to collect them to dump the recycling at a recycling station.
Go on, have a play!
This set has delighted me by providing everything that is great (and a little annoying) about Technic building. It is an inspirational and a nice, robust, playable vehicle. I especially love that it is roughly minifigure-sized.
The value of this set is pretty much on the money; a fair price for a lot of fun to be had.
Anyone looking for something ‘a bit more difficult’ to build with LEGO, or wanting a bit more out of their vehicles, this is a great step towards the great world that are Technic vehicles.
Based on all this I give this set 4 out of 5 arbitrary praise units; more than I expected when I started building it.
The set comes with 503 parts and is aimed at an 8+ audience. It is priced at $AUD59.99/$USD32.99/£29.99/€34.99. Consider using our affiliate links, if you want to pick one up from LEGO.com: it costs you nothing, but we might be paid a small commission, which goes towards maintaining the cost of the blog.
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Until Next Time,
Play Well!
This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes. The Minidolls were not…. All opinions are those of the author.