Set Review ➟ 31101 Monster Truck
Theme: Creator 3-in-1
Release: 2020
Parts: 163
This set looks appealing from the box, featuring a cool monster truck with some kind of suspension, a little car to crush, and a couple of promising alternate models. The box contains three bags of parts, four loose tires, three separate small instruction books, and zero stickers.
A Model: Monster Truck and Car
The build begins with the little red car before moving on to the main vehicle. The instructions are simple and easy to follow. It’s nice to get a set of the old 4-wide mudguards in red, and the suspension on the monster truck is achieved with a clever mechanism where Technic liftarms (29162) lever against rubber axle connectors.
The small red car is minimal, but makes for a great addition both for play value and in adding to the colour selection for the set’s parts. The suspension on the monster truck works really well, and is satisfying both to build and to play with. My only complaint here is that the axles chosen make the monster truck far too wide. Swapping the axles from 5L to 4L makes for a much better-proportioned main build.
Grade: 8/10
B Model: Race Car with Finish Line
This is again a very simple build, beginning with the car before building the start/finish line. The car features a great teal and red colour scheme with a white stripe, providing a classic/retro look that works really well. This colour scheme is compromised only by the windscreen 1x2 brackets being dark grey instead of black. The finish line makes good use of the set’s parts, and it’s height may explain the A-Model monster truck’s overly wide axles.
Grade: 7/10
C Model: Top Fuel Dragster
The dragster build makes use of the set’s brackets to extend the length of the vehicle. The rear wing is nicely built, and the pattern on the side results from building the red 2x4 wheel arches into the car’s body. The result is a passable C-Model, although the proportions seem a little off to me. I’m not sure where an imagined driver is meant to fit here (under or inside the over-sized engine block?). Moving the windscreen 1x1 slopes forward a stud may improve the look.
Grade: 5/10
Conclusion
This is a solid set in my opinion, offering a very pleasing primary model with great play value and an appealing colour scheme, along with a couple of decent secondary builds. The inclusion of a small car for the monster truck to crush is a really good move, although the truck itself begs for an axle swap. The set is also very reminiscent of the 4-wide Tiny Turbos product line, and would scale really well with cars from that range.
Monster Truck with short axles
Overall Grade: 8/10
We wish to thank LEGO for providing this set for review. The opinions in this review are not supported or endorsed by LEGO.
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