Sluban M38-B0780 Not Lego Recycling Truck Set Review

Intro

Hello and thanks for visiting Its-Not-Lego!  Today I'm going to do a detailed review of the Sluban Recycling Truck which is a fairly new set for 2019/2020.

TL:DR

Here's the synopsis, if you want to skip all the pictures.

Model: Sluban Recycling Truck
Set Number: M38-B0780
Number of pieces: 432
Number of minifigures: 3
Manufacturers Details: 
http://www.sluban.com.cn/ShowProduct.aspx?ID=833

Fake Lego?  No.
Missing Parts: N/ Deformed pieces: N/ Scratched pieces: Y
#itsnotlego Rating:  4.5 out of 5 stars, excellent play value, solid build, excellent clutch

What's Inside?

This is the first time I've seen Sluban number their parts bags.  Eight numbered bags in total. The instruction manual refers to each bag as you need it.  It made for building very quick and easy.

Minifigures

Sluban does not use Lego style minifigures, instead they have their own proprietary design which they have been using for years.  You'll need to assemble the minifigs yourself.

The Sluban Recycling truck building set comes with three minifigures:  a small boy, a girl and a truck driver/operator.  Sluban minifigures have a higher degree of motion than Lego style minifigures.  They can twist at the waist, and angle their head sideways and up and down.

The little boy has a backpack and the truck driver has overalls, but not sure what is supposed to attach to it.

Set Assembly

Let's start building!  Each bag of parts corresponds to the steps in the instruction manual.  Brick clutch is excellent.

I was disappointed to find that the windshield glass was deeply scratched.

I had the cab one stud too far back in the above picture, which I subsequently rectified.  I don't particularly like the curved glass windshield, nor the cab design. It's something I will change at a later date.

Something you don't see a lot of in other vehicle sets are windshield wipers.  I like the side mirror design.  Unfortunately, there are no opening cab doors.

There is a lift up door behind the driver's seat, but it's blocked by the exhaust stack, so it is unusable.  The right side gets a small storage compartment.

Waste is sorted into different colour coded bins.

The multi-jointed arm lifts the trash and recycling containers.

Here is the completed Recycling truck.  The jointed arm can travel along the length of the truck to access the required trash compartment.

Access to the recycling compartments is via corresponding doors on the right side of the truck.

Here's how the rear of the truck looks like.

Secret storage maybe?

There are stickers you are supposed to affix to identify each compartment, but I didn't use them.

There are four separate compartments depending on what's being thrown out.

The Accessories

There are colour coded containers with lids which you could slide into the truck.

And here are the four containers to hold different types of trash.  The gray bin holds non-recyclable material, ie garbage.  The green bin holds kitchen waste.  The red bin is used for hazardous materials, and the blue bin is used for recyclable materials.

An extra set of brown accessories can be used to replace the green ones if desired.

Here's how the containers attach to the lifting arm.

There's a small number of spare parts coupled with some trash accessories.

I believe this set is targeted at the Chinese market, based on the accompanying literature.  The pamphlet probably serves to educate children from a young age how to identify what is trash and what is recyclable material.

There are 4 sheets of items, which can be placed into the applicable colour coded boxes.  So this set serves both to entertain and educate.  An excellent idea.

Summary

That brings this post to a close.  In summary, I gave this set a 4.5 rating out of 5 because I thought that  this set was well designed and came with a good assortment of accessories.  It's great that it also had an educational component to it too.  I took marks away for the less than attractive truck cab design and the scratched windshield.  I don't mind the non standard minifigures, but having said that I don't use them much alongside my other minifigures.  Hope you've enjoyed this review of the Sluban Recycling truck!  Bye and talk to you in a future blog post!