Review: 9390 Mini Tow Truck

[fitzi]

Hey guys,

I´m relatively new to this forum, I read through a lot of topics and reviews and I thought the time has come to make my own review.

As this is my first review, I thought it would be a good idea to start with a small Lego set rather than picking a big one. And since the 9390 Mini Tow Truck wasn´t reviewed yet, I made my choice.......

-- Review -- Lego Technic 9390 Mini Tow Truck -- Review --

Purchase Date: 11.1.2012 at REAL, Germany

Price: 9,99 €

Pieces: 136, Price per piece: 7,34 ct

The box

Compared to the last year mini model 8065 Mini Container Truck (which actually is available in two different shaped boxes), the box of the 9390 is a bit bigger.

Here are a few pictures of the box:

The parts / instructions

Inside, there are two sealed bags and the instructions for the A- and for the B-model.

I always wonder why TLG divides the A model instruction in 2 booklets but uses only one booklet for the B model.

Same thing with 8065 last year......... I don´t get the point in doing that because the A-model instruction is not more extensive than the B-model instruction.

A closer look at the sealed bags:

Interestingly this set contains 5 gears, 2 of these black 12 tooth gears and 3 of the 8 tooth gears.

Heretofore, these mini-sets only contain 2 gears, one 8 tooth gear and one wormscrew, as far as I know.

As the orange parts are quite new, here are all the orange parts the set contains.

The black part is quite rare I think, and I never saw the translucent orange part before.

The build & functionality

My setup, ready to build!

Lets start putting this thing together, so here are a few pictures showing you the process while this cute little thing is born.....

The crane in the back has a pretty simple design, one of the two 8 tooth gears sits on a friction pin to kind of stop the rope from completely pulled out by some heavy stuff.....

As you can see, the Mini Tow Truck really takes shape, and here is one (at least for me) interesting detail.

I never saw this type of steering before, it´s a quite clever solution using no gears at all!

Here is the instruction booklet showing how the wheels are assembled, the attachment is part of the steering system, really clever, I think:

I made a short video to show how the steering works, have a look:

The completed model

After building the Mini Tow Truck, I think it´s time to show some final pictures:

These are the leftover parts:

I did the building at work during my night shift, and we had some dry ice lying around, so I tried to make some unusual pictures using the awesome effect of the dry ice.........

Final conclusion

I like the Mini Tow Truck. You get a lot of the 136 pieces, and I like that beside the crane function this model has a steering, too! This adds a lot of playability to the model.

I like the new orange parts and everybody immediately recognises it to be a Unimog, so actually TLG did a good job!

At first I was a little bit disappointed that the 5 gears are not really used for the functions, 2 of them are used as turning knobs and the two 8 tooth gears are not really functional used, if you know what I mean.

But the steering without any gears works quite well, I like the idea behind it.

Overall, you get a very cute little model for under 10 €, I would recommend this to every true fan!

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As I mentioned at the beginning, this is my first review, so I really would like to know whether you liked it or not and what could be done better the next time.

Feel free to comment, to criticize or to praise

You will find all the pictures (and more) in high resolution at my brickshelf account, (once moderated): 9390 high res gallery

Thanks for reading & watching,

fitzi

[chorlton]

Nice Review. Good focus on the unusual steering. Cheers!

You had some dry ice "lying around"? Don't we all

[fitzi]

Nice Review. Good focus on the unusual steering. Cheers!

You had some dry ice "lying around"? Don't we all

thank you!

I´m working in a dialysis center, sometimes we need dry ice in order to transport things like banked blood or other stuff from our center to the laboratory.

[rener]

Nice review! Normally I'm not even thinking about getting the "littluns", but this one is now on my shortlist.

[harakiri]

nice review. Good pictures!

And the set is just to cool (cute?) to be missed ... Need to get one ASAP

Looks even more likeable than the Mini Bulldozer

[timslegos]

Very nice review. that steering has a very interesting design, but i guess thats why Lego designers get paid .

tim

[Smrgol]

Thanks for the review, you have helped me make my mind up, as I am on a fairly tight budget I will be buying this little thing until I can get some bigger stuff later on

[paul_delahaye]

Is it only me who finds it hard to believe that Lego needed to include 3 instruction manuals in their smallest set in the 2012 technic line up?

[Smrgol]

Is it only me who finds it hard to believe that Lego needed to include 3 instruction manuals in their smallest set in the 2012 technic line up?

Nope, I thought it odd too, when you consider that 8109 has 3 for just one model. You would have thought they would save on the staples and put just one in haha

[AndroTech]

Excellent review. You can see right away, that you have put a lot of time and effort into making this review. Good job.

[captainmib]

Good review~!

Thanks for sharing.

To me, it seems this little set has more and better construction pieces than the 9391, which has a lot of beams, but almost no options of connecting and making nice functions...

I like the steering as well, very clever!

(is this the smalles possible??????)

[fitzi]

I´d like to thank you all very much for the nice comments!

Yes it´s true, I put a lot of time and effort into making this review, but it´s worth it as it was really fun to do.

And it´s nice to have the chance to do something for the community.

fitzi