LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347

Once in a while you come across a LEGO® set that you never thought existed and sometime back I came across a CREATOR set that I thought was a great set for the boys and their love for vehicles. So here's a look at the rather underrated LEGO® CREATOR 7347 Highway Pickup.

The LEGO® Highway Pickup 7347 set is a 805 pieces 2012 release and unfortunately it's now retired, but if you're lucky you can find a few lying around as I did. In terms of price they don't seem to be as high as other retired sets so I guess in some ways they weren't very popular, not sure why but here's our take on why we like it.

Side view of the LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347

HIGHWAY PICKUP 7347 CONCEPT & DESIGN

LEGO® tends to label their CITY vehicles as 'Great Vehicles' and while their CREATOR 3-in-1 range do put out some nice vehicles they tends to be downplayed quite a bit with their more popular CREATOR house and mini-structure sets.

So to be honest when we built the LEGO® 7347 it felt more of Great Vehicle then the other CITY vehicles we've built. An obvious reason was its size, for instance the main featured Red Truck is a 12 stud wide vehicle which is really wide making the entire build feel more like a TECHNIC set. Naturally it does require TECHNIC parts for the chassis and functional flatbed so it was nice to have a set that was not as complicated as a TECHNIC set but slightly more challenging then a CITY Vehicle set.

LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347

Design wise it's the red pickup truck that stands out, the smaller yellow truck was nice but was a bit blocky without any curves. The white and black pinstripe from the hood to the doors of the red truck gave a cool semi-trailer touch and the bold use of white 2x4 flat tiles was nice. The details of the front radiator grill, exhaust stack, air horn, fuel tanks and air cleaners did the part of really making the truck as realistic as possible.

In terms of parts there were a couple of nice bits. 

The 2 LEGO® Light Bricks included in LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347

The LEGO® Light Bricks (Part #62930) were naturally cool, I'm always up for making LEGO® come to life so these Light Bricks are a natural pull factor for us. 

The Wide 3x10x3 Widescreen Part included in LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347

And secondly you get this nice 3x10x3 windscreen part. This really wide windscreen (part #4581989) is not a very common part as it's only found in 3 LEGO® sets including the 7347, so far this part appears in the latest LEGO® CREATOR Mini Cooper 10242 and the 2011 LEGO® Toy Story 3 Exclusive Limited Edition 7599 Garbage Truck Getaway which was only available exclusively via Toy'R'Us.

This large windscreen also meant that if we ever pull this set apart we can at least make another larger 12 stud wide vehicle.

ADVERTISMENT

The full range of 3-in-1 Models available from the LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347 set

7347 PLAYABILITY

With its size (which my son loves) the playability of the set is great and it houses quite a few functional features. Designed to offer the play of a Breakdown Truck the main build offers kids a large red flatbed pickup truck and a smaller yellow truck that fits nicely on the flatbed. Being a 3-in-1 Model you can build an alternative Red Sports Car and Crane Truck with Engine Block Cargo. We love the main build so we have not attempted the 2 other alternative builds.

So before we get into the main red truck lets take a look at the yellow truck.

SMALL YELLOW TRUCK

Built on a 6 stud framework the Yellow Truck is about the size of your regular CITY vehicle. Unfortunately like most CREATOR vehicle sets the 7347 doesn't come with minifigs and unlike the Aviation Adventures 31011 this set is not designed to fit any minifigs within the vehicles. Slight disappointment on my sons expectations unfortunately.

View of the Yellow Truck in LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347

That being said with its relatively small build the yellow truck still features some functional bits such as a working hood, doors and pickup bed door on the rear. Overall a pretty solid build.

Functions of the Yellow Truck in LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347

HIGHWAY PICKUP TRUCK

With the main Highway Pickup Truck theres tonnes of playability, as mentioned with it's really cool design it just looks the part and is decently sized for kids or as a display piece.

LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347 without the Yellow Truck

Starting at the front we have the hood with engine details with a radiator fan.

The Engine Details of LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347

You'll get some nicely built working doors to view the interior, the build approach of these door were cool and the side compartment behind the doors were an appreciated touch as expected from CREATOR sets.

Cool doors and details of the LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347

One of the highlight features on the Highway Pickup were the light bricks provided in the set, most sets only give you one but with the 7347 you get two.

The Light Bricks in Action

Another cool feature is the active steering control that you usually only get with TECHNIC sets.

This really extends the play for this CREATOR set. The only issue we had were the rather narrow turning circle of the truck, nonetheless a replacement of pins resolved that issue.

ADVERTISMENT

Finally, the main play of the Highway Pickup. The functional flatbed for the inevitable breakdown scenario.

Loading the LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347

As most of the trucks rear chassis is made of TECHNIC beams this whole functionality could be built in and it works really well.

Hook and Load

Once you bring down the flatbed you just place the hook on the bumper bar located on the front of the yellow truck.

Turn the winch and you're in business.

With the provided winch system just turn it and let it do it's magic. Really fun!

LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347

CLOSING

Overall the LEGO® CREATOR Highway Pickup 7347 is a well designed and fun set with lots of realistic details. I'm always am on the look out for LEGO® sets with great playability and extendibility so I was lucky to have found this set for the boys. As mentioned I'm all for making LEGO® come to life and while the Light Bricks do their small bit I can really see expanding this set with Power Functions via a motor and servo for motorisation.

I've already begun a process of collecting Power Function Motors and Battery boxes so maybe one day when the boys are ready for some modding this might be one set worth their build/mod time.

To get an extra view of the set here's a Quick Look video on the LEGO® Highway Pickup 7347:

If you want to have a different view of the various parts used in this set check out a cool video from one of our YouTube friends.

Hope you enjoyed our take on the LEGO® 7347 and do remember to subscribe to our channel.