Built this one up with my 4 year old son. He has contributed more on other sets, but this one he let me do most of the building. This is a 2 in 1 set and my son had wanted to do the alternative plans first a year ago, my mistake but I thought the container assemblies for the two versions would be the same; turns out they are not. We wasted a bunch of time trying to find connectors that were used in the construction of the containers in that particular configuration.

It is a really fun set to play with when built. I will use it to practice the concept of backing up a trailer for my real-life truck and trailer setup.

Now if they could make a Dodge Ram 2500 set I’d be really happy.

Remark: I got the set pre-assembled and therefore do not discuss or rate the building process. I kept the rating of Building Experience at its default (3).

Truck

The towing vehicle is as big as necessary yet well defined:

• steering - probably the smallest possible setup
• pin (representing 5th wheel) to attach trailer
• doors open (compared to the seats inside too big?)
• decoration: (inevitable, blue) seats, mirrors, sunshade, front and rears lights, wind deflector

The truck looks well without stickers The blue - white colour scheme is nice.

The turning cycle is OK. However, the vehicle is no very well balanced as weight is over front axle. This reduces maneuverability.

Trailer

Although it is made from mainly a handful of beams it looks nice and does the job. You could argue that a second axle would have been adequate (for optics) but it isn't necessary for play. Two containers can be placed onto the trailer.

There is no support if the trailer is decoupled from the truck.

Container

Containers are build from two 5x7 frames and four 5x11 panels. Both ends are open. Their weight just balances the stacker if the boom is extended to its ful reach, so don't put any freight in.

If you don't like the monochrome colour put the stickers on.

Stacker

Compared to a lot of recent technic sets, this vehicle is rather monochrome appearing in (bright) orange with some black spots.

List of functions:

• Steering: rear axle
• Raising + lowering the boom by worm screw on 20tooth gear
• Boom extension by means of lever.
• Container grapple.
• Drivers cabin swings open.

All operations are nice and responsive. However, the turning capability of the stacker is not matching the task: It takes a lot of shunting to place the vehicle in position to grab the container.
Although truck and stacker are using same steering wheel the proportions seem to be off: Floor space of the stacker is twice that of the truck. Also, the seat is considerable bigger.

Summary

The size of the box may serve as indicator wha you get: The assembled model will (approximately) use the front area as floor space.

The towing vehicle looks much more refined than this years Hook Loader.

The set and its technical functions are focused on container handling and transportation. Scale appears to be approximately same as minifig so you might add it to your city / train layout.

I bought mine mainly for orange parts, blue beams and gray panels.