[REVIEW] 60426 Jungle Explorer Off-Road Truck

[MKJoshA]

INTRODUCTION
You may have seen Clone OPatra's review of the Jungle Helicopter set. I got the privileged of reviewing another Johnny Thunder Returns... I mean another City Jungle set. You may know it as the New Tiger set, but Lego's SEO efforts call it Jungle Explorer Off-Road Truck.

SET INFORMATION
Number: 40246
Title: Jungle Explorer Truck
Theme: City/Jungle
Released: 2024
Part Count: 314
Box Dimensions: 35.4 x 19.1 x 5.9 cm
Weight: 510g
Set Price (RRP): £24.99/$34.99/€29.99
Price per Part: 8.0p/11.1c/9.6c
Links: Brickset, Bricklink

THE BOX AND WHAT'S INSIDE

This was my first time getting the new paper bags in a set. You can also see the small sticker sheet. I was surprised to find that the tiger was loose in the box. If it shows up on Bricks and Pieces eventually I suspect it'll get shipped loose too. Better hope for no scratches.

THE BUILD
Bag one gives us the piece of jungle for the Tiger to roam on. Not very big but it feels more sufficient than the gorilla's habitat. A lime green frog is also included if you're counting exotic wildlife.

Bags 2 and 3 give us the truck.

The color scheme looks good with the SNOT tiles on the side giving it nice designs. The camera crane on the back feels unnecessary and adds odd bulk to the vehicle. We have a DSLR camera and a drone, is the truck camera really going to capture more than a drone? Maybe someone with real-world experience can enlighten me.

Here you can see that the jungle tree towers over the truck. A detail that helps it feel like more than an afterthought in this set.

Inside the truck is a monitor to show what the affixed camera is recording as well as a med kit and map.

The back of the jungle is very plain. Though you can see the connection points designed to allow this piece to connect with the other Jungle sets. The bones scattered around the "cave" make you wonder how many other explorers have tried to take pictures and not made it back in one piece.

Inside the chests built into the sides of the truck is a banana. I think some meat would be a better treat for the tiger. But I guess the snack is more meant for our adventures? Gotta snack healthy. If the banana doesn't please the tiger, the med-kit should help staunch the blood flow.

Accompanying Johnny is another explorer and a doctor. I wish they would have brought back the old mold for Johnny's hat. But the fedora is okay. He's also missing his gun which was previously tucked into his belt. No shooting bad guys any more for Thunder. All 3 minigfiures can be found in the some of the other Jungle sets. So the real draw is the Tiger.

The back of each figure is printed, though the heads are all one-sided.

This isn't the first time Lego has done a tiger. The first being back in 2017 during the last jungle expedition. That cat was Chima orange and shared the mold with the panther, mountain lion, and female lion. It looked good but this one, with the fringe around the face, looks so much better. I didn't realize it till I opened the set but this tiger is actually the new Reddish Orange color. The triangle tile is regular orange. It's hard to see the difference in photos. But the slightly darker orange looks really good.

Now for a public service announcement.

If you've been collecting Legos for more than 5 years you may have noticed a decline in quality, especially with the injection mold points or sprue marks. It didn't use to be this bad as you can see in this photo I sent to Lego CS:

Injection marks have always been present in Lego, but they have gotten either more noticeable or even include rough edges around the mold point. I encourage you to ask Lego for replacements for any pieces that have really bad injection points. I've noticed they are especially bad on tiles and curved slopes. Lego's moto is "Only the best is good enough." Hold them to that. They will only change their production method if it starts to hurt them financially to keep using shoddy methods.

OVERALL

This is a decent $30 set. You get 3 minifigures including Johnny Thunder, a tiger, and decent builds. The real draw is the tiger and at $30 it's nice to not have it locked behind a big price tag.

SCORE
How do I rate this set?

DESIGN 8
The camera on the truck feels slapped on. But other than that it's a decent design. The jungle could have been a little bigger, but that would have meant a larger price tag.

BUILDING EXPERIENCE 7
Nothing jaw-dropping but also nothing repetitive.

FEATURES 7
A truck that can hold all 3 adventures at once, chests for storage, a tail-gate, and pose-able tiger. Would have been fun to have a large leaf that opened or closed over the cave entrance. But overall good features.

PLAYABILITY 10
For kids this set has great play value. Chase the tiger or get chased. Stow and transport gear in the truck. Eat adventures with the tiger. I give full marks for playability.

PARTS 9
You're not going to buy this as a parts pack, but when you inevitable part it out you get a good selection.

VALUE FOR MONEY 7
For going prices this set is a good value. I wish it was $5 less, but it's not a bad value.

FINAL SCORE: 8
If you want a tiger or just want to expand your jungle collection this is a good set. If you're only going to get one new Adventures/Jungle set I recommend this as you get Johnny as well as some other good additions.

[Shiva]

Nice review :)  This is 1 of the sets that has a nice low price on an internet shop here.

Regarding the injection marks. Could it be that the molds, or something else there, should be changed more often, by LEGO?

[Clone OPatra]

Nice review Josh!

This set definitely has much better proportions between the vehicle and the habitat build. Despite being shallow, the extra height of the habitat gives it a lot more "jungle" feel.

Personally I'm holding out until the tiger shows up on PaB to make my cost analysis. While it'll probably be expensive (I bet around $8 given how LEGO is pricing animals recently), I know that if I bought the whole set I'd spend more and just put the truck in a big LEGO bin, so even if buying the whole set is a better "deal" spending less to just get the one thing I actually want could make more sense for me.

That said, I think for what it is LEGO did a great job with the truck, and it's impressive how there are two usable interior areas in it.

[The Reader]

@MKJoshAThank you very much for your review!

I rate that set with a 10/10. At this price point (I even got it with 30% discount) it's just perfect. A very playable truck, a decent jungle structure, a big animal and three minifigs.

I replaced the stickers on the sides of the truck by using this printed tile (from sets 60377 and 60379):

 

[Roebuck]

Thanks for a nice review.

It Lego had been a little more generous we could have gotten a new tiger-cub or two also,but we will have to wait until next tiger set for that one

On 8/29/2024 at 6:11 AM, Clone OPatra said:

Personally I'm holding out until the tiger shows up on PaB to make my cost analysis. While it'll probably be expensive (I bet around $8 given how LEGO is pricing animals recently), I know that if I bought the whole set I'd spend more and just put the truck in a big LEGO bin, so even if buying the whole set is a better "deal" spending less to just get the one thing I actually want could make more sense for me.

I was at an AFOL event where we could buy City sets at a very good price so I bought all the jungle ones. However fearing the PAB price on the animals I am starting to regret I did not buy more copies and kept the animals and tried to sell the sets for the same price without them

[Jim]

This is a pretty cool set! 

Thanks for the review

[MKJoshA]

On 8/29/2024 at 5:19 AM, Shiva said:

Regarding the injection marks. Could it be that the molds, or something else there, should be changed more often, by LEGO?

I think it's a reliance on cheaper plastic or cheaper factories where the standards aren't as high. I'm not in the industry though so I can't tell you for sure.

On 8/29/2024 at 6:11 AM, Clone OPatra said:

Personally I'm holding out until the tiger shows up on PaB to make my cost analysis. While it'll probably be expensive (I bet around $8 given how LEGO is pricing animals recently), I know that if I bought the whole set I'd spend more and just put the truck in a big LEGO bin, so even if buying the whole set is a better "deal" spending less to just get the one thing I actually want could make more sense for me.

That said, I think for what it is LEGO did a great job with the truck, and it's impressive how there are two usable interior areas in it.

My guess is the Tiger will be over $10 on PaB. Lego's gotten smart and knows they can charge a premium.

Yeah, having space for so much inside the truck is a testament to how well vehicle designs have been improving over the years.

On 8/29/2024 at 10:08 PM, The Reader said:

@MKJoshAThank you very much for your review!

I rate that set with a 10/10. At this price point (I even got it with 30% discount) it's just perfect. A very playable truck, a decent jungle structure, a big animal and three minifigs.

I replaced the stickers on the sides of the truck by using this printed tile (from sets 60377 and 60379):

Yes, if you noticed I skipped the stickers on the 2x2 dark blue tiles. The internal ones I used, but the outside ones were too much for me. Your solution is a good one as it still matches the color scheme.

On 8/30/2024 at 7:04 AM, Roebuck said:

Thanks for a nice review.

It Lego had been a little more generous we could have gotten a new tiger-cub or two also,but we will have to wait until next tiger set for that one

I was at an AFOL event where we could buy City sets at a very good price so I bought all the jungle ones. However fearing the PAB price on the animals I am starting to regret I did not buy more copies and kept the animals and tried to sell the sets for the same price without them

A good point, the tiger cub will get released eventually and we'll all be back buying even more to complete the animal collection.

[Shiva]

Cheaper plastic and/or cheaper factories not so good, if quality goes down.

I did order this set. The jungle part I might connect with the part from the Helicopter jungle. The off-road truck, that I might part off.

Edited August 31 by Shiva

[The Reader]

On 8/31/2024 at 3:27 PM, MKJoshA said:

Your solution is a good one as it still matches the color scheme.

Yes, the colour scheme and the logo, too.

[Horation]

On 8/31/2024 at 9:27 AM, MKJoshA said:

I think it's a reliance on cheaper plastic or cheaper factories where the standards aren't as high. I'm not in the industry though so I can't tell you for sure.

Plastic is of equal quality, I think the issue is a matter of cheaper production methods, you mentioned rough edges, which is sometimes actually a burn mark, and one of the main causes is excessive production speed. Probably a bit of both, in other words, they are likely using cheaper machines AND increasing production, which causes additional deviations, they likely don't consider these parts defective, since it seems small enough to be mostly unnoticed.

Fun set, glad to see Johnny Thunder return.