LEGO Food Trucks are all the rage in 2024

January 15, 2024 | 10

2024 is shaping up as an unexpectedly great year for LEGO Food Trucks, with offerings from LEGO Icons, City and Friends all serving up delicious meals on wheels.

Starting off the year, we have 40681 Retro Food Truck, a small LEGO Icons promotional set, which is currently available as a gift with purchase when you spend US$190 / AU$310 / £170 / €190 or more on LEGO.com from 1-16 January 2024 (in Australia and New Zealand, it ends on 18 January).

If you don’t have anything to purchase at the moment, you don’t need to worry as 40681 Retro Food Truck will also be available again from 1-7 April 2024.

It’s a nice little bonus, especially with all the new January 2024 releases to help you get over what is quite a high GWP threshold, but don’t worry, as LEGO have plenty of other Food Truck options across the board!

• 60404 Burger Truck – US$19.99/ AU$29.99 / £ 17.99 / € 19,99/ CAD$ 24,99
• 42633 Hot Dog Food Truck – US$19.99 / AU$29.99 / £17.99 / €19,99 / CAD$24.99
• (note: this is a 2023 set) 60384 Penguin Slushy Van – US$19.99 / AU$32.99 / £17.99 / €19.99 / CAD$24.99

Let’s see how 40681 Retro Food Truck stacks up against the competition!

Note: Special thanks to LEGO for sending  40681 Retro Food Truck over for review. I purchased 60404 Burger Truck and 42633 Hot Dog Food Truck myself.

If you’re planning on making any purchases, please consider using these affiliate links to make any purchases, as I may earn a small commission which helps run the blog, and support the work I do here. Thank you once again for your continued support!

40681 Retro Food Truck

40681 Retro Food Truck is a really tidy design, and generally quite deserving of the LEGO Icons label.

It’s a very attractive 6-stud wide vehicle and true to the LEGO Icons theme, features a slightly more advanced and complex build, so it’s far more interesting and enjoyable than a LEGO City truck.

The colours and mostly smooth aesthetic with minimal studs make it look great, and I also enjoyed the fine details like the white wheel arches, and attractive front.

Here’s a look at the back.

Here’s a look at the insides – I especially like that there’s plenty of space for a grill, as well as the technique that uses pearl gold wolverine claws as fries!

The one downside to the Retro Food Truck is the extremely high GWP threshold. Having to spend US$190 / AU$310 to qualify makes this quite a hard sell, especially if you prefer waiting to get the new January 2024 releases on sale, and if you don’t have any large purchases lined up.

The value proposition further degrades when you compare it against some of the other Food Trucks that are currently available.

While Hot Dogs are great, 40681 Retro Food Truck has a hard time going up against LEGO City’s 60404 Burger Truck, which features a large novelty burger stand that can be detached to function as a standalone food stand!

I have a short review of the Burger Truck coming up, but it’s one of the most enjoyable and also fun LEGO City sets that I’ve built in a while, and offers superb value for only US$19.99. Here in Australia, the Burger Truck is available for the low low price of AU$22 at Kmart, which is pretty unbeatable value.

In an ironic twist, the LEGO Icons 40681 Retro Food Truck has Stickers, whereas the LEGO City 60404 Burger Truck has all printed elements.

60384 Penguin Slushy Van which released last year is also another great set to pair with!

For a Hot Dog showdown, LEGO Friends have embraced a lot more silliness, with a Hot Dog-shaped Food Truck, which is arguably a lot more eye-catching and fun than a Retro Food Truck.

42633 Hot Dog Food Truck is a 4+ LEGO Friends set, so is way more basic, but scores points for it looking like an actual hot dog, as well as boasting all printed decorations too.

And for those interested in diversity and representation, 42633 Hot Dog Food Truck also comes with Kaya, a new minidoll character who has Heterochromia, with different-coloured Irises!

So yes, while 40681 Retro Food Truck is a pretty well-designed small LEGO Icons set, the high purchase threshold does put it out of reach for builders on a budget, but thankfully, LEGO City and Friends have much more cost-effective and conceptually interesting Food Trucks on offer!

In practice, I do like the design of 40681 Retro Food Truck, which is a step up from 40586 Moving Truck (also a LEGO Icons GWP). It feels like a cross between the utility of a LEGO City Vehicle, blended with the complexity of a LEGO Speed Champions build, and most importantly, provides a matching vehicle to your LEGO Modular Street – handy as a street food vendor alongside your Modular Natural History Museum!

40681 Retro Food Truck is available as a gift with purchase w hen you spend US$190 / AU$310 / £170 / €190 or more on LEGO.com from 1-16 January 2024, and again from 1-7 April 2024.

What do you think of this 2024 lineup of LEGO Food Trucks? Do you prefer the City, Friends or LEGO Icons take on the humble food truck?

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