This is one of the best sets from 2005.
The scale is good, unlike all the other construction sets.
The details and playability are very good.
The truck looks good and realistic. The crane is great. The conveyor mechanism is good and with time it will run smother.
It should have more round 1x1 bricks, only 15 look ridiculous inside the truck bed.
It looks great in a town layout or simply if you put it a baseplate and display it.
Attention: in the box it shows 4 minifgs, but it only contains 3. If you complain to Lego they send you the 4 minifig. I did it.
Conclusion: in my oppinion one of the best sets from the past 2 years. I recommend to all city fans.

Construction Site 7243 seems to be an oddly obscure set- I don't see much about it, and it only has 3 Reviews at the time I am writing this. This doesn't make sense as this is an awesome set!

The building experience is excellent. Between the clamshell crane, the articulated dumper and the rock crusher, this set has a lot of different techniques of building to offer. I enjoyed building all three pieces of equipment for different reasons.

This set also features some good part usage, ranging from the "blades" on the crusher to the tipper bed on the truck. Pretty wide variety of parts and clever part usage on the builds. I am particularly fond of the rock crusher, the only other set to feature anything remotely similar was Trash Compactor Escape 7596.

Due to the great part usage, the playability is also on point for this set. You've got a crane, truck and crusher that can all work together to accomplish a task. It doesn't get much better than that.

My only complaint is that this set is hard to track down on secondary markets and carries a higher price tag than you'd assume it would.

The truck is good, apart from the juniorised bed and the fact that the driver sits on a tile, not on a chair.
Instructions for the truck left me guessing exactly where the bed should be placed on it's pivot.

The crane is good.

The conveyor is useful for parts, that's about all.

What is most annoying about this set is that it only came with the one caterpillar track used for the conveyor, if it had come with two then the number of alternative models would be greatly increased.

This set is in 3 parts, and all 3 parts are equally bad. Three wrongs doesn't many any rights or in this case, a nice set.

The truck is probably the best of the lot, but even then, the design, looks and playability is bad. The cab seems odd with the lights at the sides instead of the front and it really should have had a hinge at the back for the container instead of using technic parts. Overall, the back feels flimsy and the front looks odd.

The crane is another design that could have been so much better if more thought had been put into it. The winch is a good concept and the scout with the spring is nice. The bad thing is that the cantelevel from which the scoop dangles is fixed in place. Also there should at least be a ladder of some sort to access the crane cab. The final product though seems like a "Junior"-ised version of an actual crane

the conveyer belt things is just odd. A dump truck back affixed to the rear to collect "rocks" is totally odd. The construction also isn't too sturdy especially the part where the lights is affixed onto the conveyor. And the design is also odd - how does the operator get onto that panel bit by the side without a ladder? Perhaps he hitches a ride on the scoop? The playability also suffers as out of the 15 bricks that roll down the conveyor, usually less than half of it end up in the dump truck positioned directly underneath the shredder.

Dismal is one word that comes to mind to describe this set.