The LEGO® City Design Team have really stepped it up a notch over the last couple of years. Beyond the traditional Fire and Police sets, this evergreen theme has introduced some really fun builds and that will continue into 2023. I’ve got some of the new 2023 LEGO City sets to review and the first one I’m taking a look at is another food vendor van. This one dispenses icy slushy drinks and just so happens to be penguin themed. Let’s take a look at the Penguin Slushy Van.
Product Details
Bring a fun summer vibe to kids’ play with the LEGO® City Penguin Slushy Van (60384). This penguin-themed vehicle delivers lots of cool features and functions for imaginative play for ages 5+, including a prep area with 4 toy slushy machines and a sliding serving hatch. Just add the customer and penguin-suited vendor minifigures and let the fun begin!
- Set Name: Penguin Slushy Van
- Set Number: 60384
- Theme: LEGO City
- Pieces: 194
- RRP: £17.99/$17.99/17.99€
- Number of Bags: Bags x 2 (plastic)
- Stickers: Sheet x 1
- Minifigures: Penguin-suited Vendor + Customer
- Instructions: Booklet x 1 + LEGO Building Instructions App
- Availability: LEGO Stores, LEGO Online and LEGO Retailers from January 1st, 2023
LEGO City is rife with food trucks – ice cream, pizza, farm-fresh vegetables, burgers and even more ice cream. Most of the major food groups are covered but in 2023 the choice will expand to include Slushy drinks, thanks to the Penguin Slushy Van. To stand out from the others this food truck has a rather obvious USP. Yes, it’s penguin-themed and that goes beyond the penguin-suited vendor, the van is also sporting some penguin features.
The build of the van is very similar to that of the Ice-Cream Truck released in 2020. That includes the sliding hatch and the ability to access the interior by opening the side panel on the opposite. The main differences are found at the front of the van. It’s styled to look like a penguin and there is a penguin character on the sticker found on the rear of the van. Other stickers are used to create the menu board and to add detail on the canopy above the driver’s seat. It’s not often I say this but I think it needed more stickers. Something on the front of the canopy and the oversized slushy cup on the roof of the van feels very plain.
The set includes 2 minifigures, one is pretty cool the other is rather plain. The vendor of the van is really committed to the penguin theme and sports a recoloured version of the penguin head previously found in the LEGO Minifigures range. Instead of being black, it’s now blue to match the rim of the van. The torso features a slushy logo but the white is a little washed out against the blue of the torso. The little game doesn’t really offer anything exciting, her fruity is fun but that’s about it.
Review Round-up
It really is nice to see LEGO City offer different things beyond Police Stations and Fire Engines. Obviously, we’ve had other food vans but they aren’t released every 5 minutes. I like that the build is similar to other food trucks as well, this is often the case in real life so why not in a fictional city? I do think the van needed just a couple of extra stickers. Although it is fairly obvious it sells icy drinks, there is no logo on the front of the van and the slushy cup on the roof lacks a label. Something similar to the penguin character on the back of the truck would have looked great on both.
For
+ Food Trucks are always fun
+ The odd colour scheme works well
+ The front of the van looks great
Against
– Needed more stickers for extra detail
– Minifigures are good but could be better
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This set was provided BricksFanz and provided by the LEGO Group for purposes of review. The thoughts within this review are that of BricksFanz and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group. Providing a set for free does not guarantee a favourable opinion of the set.
