Random set of the day: Dump Truck
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7344 Dump Truck, released in 2005. It's one of 46 City sets produced that year. It contains 187 pieces and 1 minifig, and its retail price was US$30/£12.49.
It's owned by 1934 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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26 comments on this article
Well, that's certainly a very large truck.
THAT for £12.49 (~£20 now)! That’s a steal!!!
@SpoonTree said:
"THAT for £12.49 (~£20 now)! That’s a steal!!!"
Well, with the currency, it's more like 30 pounds now. And 40 in USD.
This set only has 184 parts.
The SINGLE PIECE that makes up the back is why.
Why Lego sometimes decides to create a singular piece to equate for around half of the set has always baffled me.
Now THAT is a POOP (Part that could/should have been made out Of Other Parts).
That is a Beautiful Bucket.
@Isabella_and_Lego_Liker said:
" @SpoonTree said:
"THAT for £12.49 (~£20 now)! That’s a steal!!!"
Well, with the currency, it's more like 30 pounds now. And 40 in USD."
Im sorry but I don’t really understand what you’re saying??? £12.49 in 2005 is around £20 - £25 now....
We need a properly scaled dump truck again. We haven't had one since 2017's Juniors 10734 (which looks perfect btw, I love Juniors sets). 60220 almost counts but it's orange and not a dump truck. I'm having second thoughts about 60252 because I'm really not a fan of that smaller piece, even though I like the set as a whole.
@Unusual_User_Name said:
"This set only has 184 parts.
The SINGLE PIECE that makes up the back is why.
Why Lego sometimes decides to create a singular piece to equate for around half of the set has always baffled me."
I sure as heck wouldn't have wanted to build that massive dump bed completely from the ground up at that age. I suppose it could've at least been made from a handful of smaller larger pieces. But then again, I just find this oversized in general and feel like it was made primarily to compete with the likes of Tonka.
This really has the shape (and colors) of a Caterpilar 797F which is over 15 meters long, 9.5 meters wide and 6.5 meters high, and the Belaz 75710 is even larger.
But I'd say the 2012 Mining Truck is a better LEGO set , a bit smaller as well but fully brick-built.
@TeriXeri said:
"This really has the shape (and colors) of a Caterpilar 797F which is over 15 meters long, 9.5 meters wide and 6.5 meters high, and the Belaz 75710 is even larger."
As someone who drove and worked as near as you usually are allowed (and in one coal mine with lax safety standards, much closer than we should have had; we weren't super aware either back then) to those 797 beasts - including self-driving ones in the oilsands - I'd say the tires are a bit off.
But then, tires always seem off on most City vehicles...
But I agree, the 2012 truck is a little better (And it looks decently like a 777).
I'll pass. It sure is big but it doesn't feel like Lego with that huge bucket.
'05 had some massive Construction equipment . I have one out of box just because I liked it.
"We need a properly scaled dump truck again. We haven't had one since 2017's Juniors 10734 (which looks perfect btw, I love Juniors sets). 60220 almost counts but it's orange and not a dump truck. I'm having second thoughts about 60252 because I'm really not a fan of that smaller piece, even though I like the set as a whole."
Man all of those sets referenced shows (IMO) how shoddy much of the design work has been lately for LEGO, especially compared to 7631 and the aforementioned Mining truck ( 4202 ).
The only one of the the 2005 City sets to have a 73xx number rather than 72xx.
I bought this set on Bricklink a few years ago and love the giant scale of it. Yeah, that's one BIG piece in the. back, but man, this thing is a true monster!
@madforLEGO said:
"Man all of those sets referenced shows (IMO) how shoddy much of the design work has been lately for LEGO, especially compared to 7631 and the aforementioned Mining truck ( 4202 )."
Yeah, I appreciate 4202 for its brick-builtness but it's still somewhat out of scale even if not as absurdly as this set. I never liked 7631 for being a very visibly System-Technic hybrid — that dump bed just doesn't look like a dump bed. Also all the sets I referenced were juniorized, so they weren't exactly going to win any design awards in the first place :P Here's another juniorized dump truck I love very much: 6600-2
We just need a new wave of construction / road works vehicles…
Tonka Toys called - they want their truck back!
@Tupperfan said:
" @TeriXeri said:
"This really has the shape (and colors) of a Caterpilar 797F which is over 15 meters long, 9.5 meters wide and 6.5 meters high, and the Belaz 75710 is even larger."
As someone who drove and worked as near as you usually are allowed (and in one coal mine with lax safety standards, much closer than we should have had; we weren't super aware either back then) to those 797 beasts - including self-driving ones in the oilsands - I'd say the tires are a bit off.
But then, tires always seem off on most City vehicles...
But I agree, the 2012 truck is a little better (And it looks decently like a 777).
"
This is probably the race tuned version of the Caterpillar.
Rather a nice set actually. I even bought it new at the time, just because it stood out.
@LegoSonicBoy said: "Here's another juniorized dump truck I love very much: 6600-2 "
No love for 4434? I bought him, only recently, and absolutely adore him.
I was expecting EVERY comment to be bashing the bucket piece.
(I’m pleasantly surprised that they aren’t)
I remember James May moaning about it on one of his ‘toys’ programmes at the time, saying how terrible it was that Lego wasn’t bricks anymore... managing to completely ignore every other brick-built set on the toy shop’s shelves, where he was filming!
One of old good City set. A lot of people think, the model od truck is too big, but the real similar truck Caterpillar 797F is nearly 15 meters long.
Price is wrong. This was one of LEGO's 'Power Items'. It was originally sold in the UK at £24.99 for as short a time as possible before the law allowed a shop to discount it, then dropped to half that, which is where £12.49 comes from. This was so it could be plastered with 'Half Price' and 'Discount' stickers in the run-up to Christmas.
But only major high-volume retailers (supermarkets, Woolworths, Toys'R'Us) could buy it at a low enough price to be able to then sell it at the lower discount price and still make a profit (i.e. they were buying it at less than 50% RRP). Independent toyshops that ordered any in (paying around 70% RRP) were stuck with a set they couldn't afford to discount but certainly wasn't worth the official RRP of £24.99
See also 7998: Heavy Hauler (twin tippers) and certain boats like 7899 or 7287 (can't remember which). They all feature a huge moulded piece of plastic and very few other pieces. Not worth the originally RRP but good value at half price. But still get LEGO a bad rep for specialist sets you can't do anything else with.
@Joefish - I feel like remember that being the case with Bionicle's Karzahni set in 2007, too? It didn't have big exclusive pieces like this; but I do remember it officially retailed at £60 as a Woolworths exclusive, although I never saw it at more than half price in stores. I thought it was really wild, at the time, that they were so quick to discount that one; but from your explanation, I get it now... I guess the 'point' was to be able to draw attention to the 'half price bargain', all while that was actually the intended price for the set all along.
I suppose, as a marketing strategy, it makes some sense, but... I dunno that I like it much. Still, thanks for explaining that! ^^
My son had this set.
@Zordboy said:
" @LegoSonicBoy said: "Here's another juniorized dump truck I love very much: 6600-2 "
No love for 4434? I bought him, only recently, and absolutely adore him. "
Ah, I wasn't aware of that. Love the orange/grey scheme even though it's not traditional yellow. Actually a good brick-built bed. 2 minifigs. AND it's 6-8 wide. Seems to tick all the boxes for me... except the secondary market price :V
I have got three of this set. I bourght the first one for £12.49 at the Lego store in Bullring shopping centre Birmingham in October(or November) 2005. I really liked it, so I bought more, and another two were purchased on ebay in later years.
Now they are displayed in my cabinet. I often take them out and put the together for a mighty team! I like them very much.
Ps. 4202 is more smaller than 7344.