3318 - Skip Truck

[flatcat]

Hello Playmofriends

Here is a joint review of the new skip truck 3318, by myself and Playmofire.

I will carry out the usual review, and then Gordon with follow up with some problems and mistakes with the set, and how the truck can be adapted to take a flashing light unit.

Enjoy

Damo

[flatcat]

Okay, let's kick off with the box

The box is rather large considering the vehicle size, and when I went to file the set away on the shelf, I found that the box was a wierd size, in between what sizes they usually are.

Anyway front of box image:




Rear of box, showing all those beautiful parts:




Some action shots on the side, showing that this set is full of great features:




There are some errors on the box, which Gordon will go into in his bit

[flatcat]

Opening up the box, we find a huge amount of parts including the largest amount of stickers for a set I have ever come across - 40 in fact!




The instructions aren't all that clear as to where things are suppose to be clipped (thus why I already have a damaged ram) but other than that, the truck goes together nicely, and looks absolutely great.







This truck uses exactly the same design chassis, cab etc as both bin trucks 3121 and 4418. The coloured bands on the underside storage bins, however, unlike the two bin trucks are painted on, and are not stickers thank goodness!

However, the skip truck back which clips onto the chassis completely obscures acces to both the side storage bins, and the fuel tank:






The printing on the cab is quite nice, but displays a skip truck which looks almost identical to the Playmobil one, but for some reason has an extra axle?

[flatcat]

Now for how it works

There are a pair of stabilising legs at the back, which securely lock into either up or down postion, suprisingly adding quite a lot of stability when unloading:






Unlike the old orange 3471, there is no official handle or lever to lift from - you just grab wherever takes your fancy.

There is no restance in the plastic rams, but it is possible to position the skip half way, even with a full load:




In the unloaded position, we can see how realistic it looks. The skip loads/unloads very smoothly and realisticly, without the need for any help from 'magic hand' as I call it:




The truck also has another feuture which allows the skip to be tipped up on the back, and therefore be emptied. This is made possible by a little moving clip, which in the 'down' position, skips can be loaded and unloaded as usual, and in the 'up' position, skips can be tipped up and emptied. The skips also have a small tab at the bottom which this clip holds back which enables it to tip up:

[flatcat]

Running empty:




Ready to load:




Now compared with the old orange 3471. As we can see, the new one is much better in style, scale, height etc:

[flatcat]

Now for the Klicky and accessories

Like the 3471, the set comes with two skips. Unlike the 3471, the skips don't have lids, but overall they are of much better size and scale, and they are of good colour with nice stickers.

Skips in comparison:



The four small holes in each top corner allow the skip to be lifted by a crane which is a very good feature:




The skips do stack, but unfortunately they do not nest, so the truck cannot carry more than one at a time without looking a tad silly!




The set comes with a nice supply of rocks which are the same from the new construction/quarry sets. There are 4 each of three different sizes. The larger size comes wih a hole for a hook so that they can be lifted by crane.

The rocks come in halves, and are built by simply pushing the two halves together




The other accessories consist of a fire extinguisher, a clipboard to show the driver his deliveries, and a walkie talkie:




The walkie talkie and fire extinguisher have their own slots in the cab, but unfortunately the clip board doesn't:




The Klickie is of very nice design, with lots of florescent stripes for work:





So that's my part of the review, and now it's onto Gordon to talk about the errors, and show pictures of the truck with the light unit

[playmofire]

Apologies for the delay, folks, but I'll add my bit over the next day or so. 

[Lindama]

Excellent Damo. I look forward to the follow up.

[playmofire]

Right the, here's my part, but first thank you, Damo, for your great review and, too, for explaining the mystery of the four square holes on the skips.  Like you, I was astounded by the number of stickers to apply.


Getting down to things, the instructions are not the best Playmobil have produced.  For a start, begin with the last page to make sure that the stabiliser holders (30 21 2692) are already fitted.  I started with page 1 and struggled for some time to fit the stabiliser legs into something that wasn't there! 

The second problem with the plans so that the three-dimensional representation of the "swing" mechanism" isn't very good as it appears at first (and, indeed, second, third and even fourth and fifth look) to be a straight item.  It was only after I had photographed the actual part that I was able to correctly interpret the drawing.

Here's the plan:



And here's the part:



Turning to the box, there is an error in the picture showing the vehicle being used as a tipper:



In the picture the small grey rectangle is a sort of "switch" which can be turned through 90 degrees and when vertical prevents the skip swinging clear of the truck and so causes the skip to tip.  In the box picture, the "switch " is horizontal when it should be vertical.

[playmofire]

Looking at one or two points about the truck itself, one thing it lacks is a flashing orange light but this isn't a major problem as the hole in the cab roof takes the light from the 4046 construction wagon.

As you can see in the photos below, it just nicely finishes off the vehicle:







The orange light is part number 30 80 4102:

http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30-80-4102

One other shortcoming is the chains for carrying the skips.  These are moulded in plastic and in one direction the links are actually solid: it would have been better had proper lengths of a suitable chain been used





Overall, I find the truck very pleasing and the criticisms above are minor ones.  For the keen fire enthusiast who likes his brigade to be able to cope with any situation, the set offers a quick conversion to a fire brigade skip lorry by a repaint and the use of the flashing blue light from, for example, the 4820/4821 or the 3181.

Sharp-eyed readers of my part of the review will have spotted that it is not only Playmobil who can make mistakes.  Look at the front view of the lorry in my first post and compare it with Damo's truck and the front of the truck on the box.  Yes, I put the front sticker directly under the windscreen rather than above the radiator grille.  However, having made the error I'm actually quite pleased with it.