LEGO Icons Retro Food Truck (40681) Review

The current GWP (gift with purchase) kicks off 2024 in style, or should that be retro style?!

The LEGO Icons Retro Food Truck (40681) is one of those sets that screams excellence, not just because it looks nice but the build it great as well. After a quick Google, I found a real-life vehicle that it could be inspired by, a Citroën H Van. The iconic shape and style is all there so it’s a good representation of it and LEGO have done a good job with its design.

At the time of writing this review this set is still available with purchases of £170 ($200/€200) until 16th January. So act quickly if you want to bag this retro looking set, especially if you have purchased the LEGO Icons Natural History Museum (10326) recently, it’s the perfect companion set.

The Box & Contents:

Sticking with the Icons theme and branding the set is front and centre, sat on top of a plain black background. On the reverse is the set at a different angle along with closeups of details and playability features.

Inside the box are 4 numbered bags, instruction manual and small sticker sheet. With 5 stickers in total it’s not too bad, although compared to the size of the set it’s a bigger ratio. As I’ve said many times in other reviews, for the price and size of the set it’s understandable why stickers are used instead of prints.

The Build:

From cracking open the first bag to the finished build it doesn’t take that long for a set that contains 310 pieces. Obviously starting with the base, the wheel arches and connecting points are added followed by a portion of the walls and a sprinkling of interior detail.

Ketchup, mustard and other condiments are added in the first bag, but get plated over in bag two to create shelves. SNOT (stud not on top) elements are added at the front and back ready for the finishing touches.

Bag two sees more or the same, including drinks bottles and French Fries inside and the sloped front on the outside. It’s here you get to see the start of the iconic shape and an overall soze of what the finished product will be, length wise. The colour scheme is great also, with the pale blue body and hints of white as an accent, very fitting of its era.

Bag three and were almost done, as the windscreen gets fitted along with the side opening and walls. Inside we fit a drinks despenser and not much else, it’s terry much building up the rest of the truck.

Bag four, the final lot of parts, we build the removable roof and the a-board. It’s a simple build but with the added stickers it works and looks good too. Each side has a different sticker design which is nice as you can choose which side to predominantly display outside the food truck.

Once you’ve finished the set and added the canopy and popped the roof on you’ll see just what a wonderful set this really is. The colour scheme, the shape and the Minifigures really come together and kick off 2024 nicely. In fact, I’ll go one step further and say it’ll be hard to beat for GWP of the year!

There are two Minifigure characters included, more on them below.

The Minifigures:

First Minifigure built is the food truck owner, who sports a rather simple but fetching red stripe shirt. To compliment the torso he has a red hat and blue legs, is this the uniform or his day-to-day attire? Who knows, but I like it.

He’s ready to go with a fresh Hotdog Sausage in one hand and a bun in the other. He also fits nicely into the food truck itself with plenty of room for movement too. During my livestream build of this set, which usually happen every Thursday, the viewers suggest names for each of the Minifigures… Introducing Brad Wurst, a play on the word Bratwurst.

The female customer, who was appointed Kerry Wurst, again a play on another type of German sausage, Curry Wurst. She sports a lovely yellow cardigan with a white partially tucked-in shirt, dark blue trousers, all finished off with a gold heart necklace.

She’s ready to spend her lunch money on a juicy Hotdog and she has the money ready in the form of a 5 spondooly LEGO coin. I don’t have the foggiest what LEGO money is called!

Overall this set is excellent and one I’m glad I picked up when I had the chance. It will also go nicely with my (yet unfinished) LEGO Icons Natural History Museum (10326) set. Being the standard 6 studs wide, it’ll fit nicely on both old and new LEGO road plates, so wont look out of place in a City or on display.

We highly recommend this set, so head online or to your local LEGO store and secure yours before it’s too late.

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