Review: 41707 Tree Planting Vehicle
Posted by MeganL,
There's been a bit of a trend in the last few years that one of the Friends sets in the first wave includes Olivia with some kind of vehicle. Many times they're environmentally focused, like last year's 41443 Olivia's Electric Car. This year it's 41707 Tree Planting Vehicle. At $29.99, it's a little more expensive, and weighty, than previous vehicles. Let's take a closer look.
Inside the box there are four numbered bags, two instruction booklets, and a small sticker sheet. Each instruction booklet builds a different part of the model; one provides instructions for the truck while the other gives instructions for the nursery.
Minidolls and animals
As is typical with the vehicles, Olivia is not alone in her tree planting efforts. She's joined by Daniel, Mia's older brother. Daniel has made two appearances in Friends sets over the years, the last time was in 41335 Mia's Tree House in 2018. He's dressed for the job in a pair of overalls and some very sturdy workboots.
Olivia, on the other hand, is clearly going to be doing some of the lighter duty work with her overalls just being shorts and wearing a pair of tennis shoes. It's nice to see that the printing on both minidolls continues onto the back. A squirrel is included with the set, undoubtedly to take residence in one of the trees.
The completed model
The truck is a pretty substantial vehicle, and has a blue and green colour scheme. I think that makes sense, considering the environmental aspect of the set. There's a cab that accommodates two minidolls, and a bed that has a crane that can be used to move trees about.
The tailgate of the truck is adorned with a sticker and has suitably environmental stickers on it (a sticker as part of a sticker. How meta), one is a sign of "I heart Trees" and the other of a bee. Bees seems to be a recurring theme in the sets this year.
Lowering the tailgate of the truck shows the spots for two trees to be loaded in the back, along with the controls for the crane.
Trees fit quite comfortably in the back.
It's a snug fit, but two minidolls fit in the cab. A sticker adorns the bonnet of the truck, showing the purpose of the truck. It's nice to see this is an electric vehicle, as indicated by the printed tile showing the plug-in connector at the front of the truck.
The truck needs a base of operation, and the set includes that as well. First is the main nursery, where there are blooming plants as well as an informative sign. I love that the pollinators are making an appearance with the bee and the butterflies.
I haven't seen the angled window piece in a while, and it's used effectively here for the top of the greenhouse.
Two flowering trees are included in large pots (stickers provide the details), and a mushroom and ladybug are close by.
Finally, there's a watering station, along with a little perch for our squirrel friend. A purple wheelbarrow rounds out the nursery equipment. But where's the squirrel?
Ah, someone else wanted to hang out.
Note: sloths are not included in this set.
All three portions of the nursery clip together to make a rather attractive scene.
Overall thoughts
This is a nice little set. Olivia has collected a pretty impressive set of vehicles over the years, though this tree planting truck has to be one of the largest. I really like how the designers have focused Olivia on environmental efforts (at least through her vehicles) over time, and this is a worthy addition. I really like the way the nursery portion of the set has been designed with three connected smaller scenes.
My first reaction was that the price (336 pieces, $29.99) was a little high, but you do get a pretty impressive scene that's quite versatile and a very solid vehicle, so the value is better than I originally thought. There's quite a bit of play value and story telling that can be done with this set, and would work well with several other sets in the Friends theme.
Many thanks to LEGO for providing a copy of this set for review. All opinions expressed are mine.
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19 comments on this article
Pretty nice looking truck and excellent scenery - especially the potted trees. And A+ for the sustainability references. Our family will look forward to picking this up. Thanks for the review!
I don't pay much attention to Friends sets, but I have two thoughts I wanted to share:
1) The truck and nursery could easily be repurposed for a City scene, I may just do that.
2) The dark pink overalls printed on the torso look great next to the dark pink shorts. Sometimes printing one color over another color plastic has inconsistent results and breaks the realism of it.
friends seems like it’s putting on a pretty strong showing this year, even contemplating getting one or two sets for myself, hope they keep up the good work
Really cool set, a nice farm truck, but also those white windows from the greenhouse aren't that common in smaller sets.
Overall, some awesome parts with 2 of those "train" fences on the truck, 4 large windows and 2 45 degree windows, not to mention the yellow "x-wing" engine plant pots, plants and accesoires like green water can and purple wheelbarrow.
Also various small parts like a bee, ladybug and electric power tile, which I assume have a spare of each included as 1x1 pretty much always have.
I haven't gotten my hands on the watering can yet. Does an accessory pin fit in the spout?
@STL_Brick_Co said:
"I haven't gotten my hands on the watering can yet. Does an accessory pin fit in the spout?"
Yes, one of the alternate images from the back shows the blue "water" flame pinned into the spout as if it's pouring water. Good on them, for making that compatible.
@WesterBricks said:
" @STL_Brick_Co said:
"I haven't gotten my hands on the watering can yet. Does an accessory pin fit in the spout?"
Yes, one of the alternate images from the back shows the blue "water" flame pinned into the spout as if it's pouring water. Good on them, for making that compatible."
Ah! I missed that, thank you!
Great set, whether you're into Friends or City sets. In fact, the truck is nicer than many of those in recent City sets. Good value.
@ToysFromTheAttic said:
"Great set, whether you're into Friends or City sets. In fact, the truck is nicer than many of those in recent City sets. Good value."
Yep, there's something about the 21/22 City trucks which I don't like. It might be the black wheel hubs with black tyres, but either way this looks way better.
Nice design work on the stickers too.
The arch/greenhouse looks very nice, but I would have to do something to change where the sloped roof sections meet the uprights... it's decorative but doesn't look structurally sound (for the real world, I'm sure it's a good connection in Lego).
That's a nifty set and while the price does seem a tad steep I think it's spot-on once you look at everything you get. Thanks for the terrific review!
As someone who was involved in industrial tree planting operations for nearly two decades, it's nice to see the job being portrayed in Lego form (it also made a cameo on the back of the 60181 box), even if it looks much more like "casual" or low yield/density tree planting than the high production we had to achieve with smaller seedlings (over 2,000 trees per planter per day is a low target on most contracts throughout Canada, but it can vary depending on terrain and specs).
The Friends line is not my drug of choice, but the recent reveals have been stellar and I look forward to grabbing the new sets for my daughter. And if she isn't interested, I guess I'll have my first Friends sets! :)
Great to have confirmation ther are glasspanes in the windows! The promo materials looked like they had none xD
VERY soilid set, but wish the car was smaller.
I like how the three terrain pieces can clip together. That's a clever touch.
@Zordboy said:
"I like how the three terrain pieces can clip together. That's a clever touch. "
Yeah I see the clips now, that's great and multi purpose as the clips can also hold the rake/spade
instead.
Friends now has better city-type sets than City does.
I get that the set is called what its called, but tree planting vehicle makes it sound like the vehicle is doing the planting. This particular vehicle is actually just a truck. The friends are planting. Not the truck.
@Lasers said:
"Friends now has better city-type sets than City does."
It has have for quite a few years now
@Hobbythom said:
" @Lasers said:
"Friends now has better city-type sets than City does."
It has have for quite a few years now"
Yep and my son really loves some of them; yet he won't allow me to buy them...
Not because of the colours or anything, it's because of the dolls;
he really doesn't like those minidolls!