The Absolute Best Model Crane for Children Review

Today I've got something very exciting for brick-building fans and for children. I'm going to be showcasing a classic custom creation.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to our blog. It's Victor from the Gulo Gulo team here. Gulo Gulo sets are one of the top alternatives to Lego and compatible.

Today we're going to be reviewing this cool crane set. First things first, we're going to learn about its details.

— Set details —

This one is called Gulo Gulo City Technician Constructor Engineering Mobile Crane Vehicle Bricks Set. It consists of 665 pieces and it came out in 2021. So this is a modified verson of the Liebherr truck-mounted crane and as you can see, it looks very nice. On the box, there’s no minimum age, so I think it's suitable for people of all ages, especially for children. So let's open this up and show you guys what's inside.

    

And now for the moment of truth: we have got an instruction manual, a sticker sheet, a string and 13 bags.

— Completion —

Hey guys. Welcome back. We finished it. You know what they say, many hands make light work. I needed an extra couple hands for this set, so actually my son, Justin, had been here to help me build this set, which is pretty awesome. This thing took us about six hours to make and we had a lot of fun building it together.

 

It even enabled us to immerse ourselves in this activity so deeply that it kept us away from social media for some time. So we started off by building the front portion of the truck-mounted crane. Because Justin is a beginner, at first he found it a bit hard to build this. When we were even in the middle of being finished, it was like that was not a crane. Meanwhile, he asked if we could have a rest and I told him “Man it up, son! Man it up!” However, as he finally saw a payload lifted up and flying around in circles, he felt a sense of achievement.

So after 6 hours’ work on this, it’s definitely not like a difficult project, but it is very intricate and it keeps your mind and your hands active the whole time, which brings me to one of my favorite quotes that I’ve ever heard by Tom Hiddleston: “You never know what's around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you've climbed a mountain.”

— Features —

As well as kind of educational entertainment, Gulo Gulo City Technician Constructor Engineering Mobile Crane Vehicle Bricks Set is something you get to play with afterwards and actually like a piece of art. It just looks great. In fact, though it is like a little Lego, a smaller build needs to be completely redesigned. So it is also unique.

Now let’s dive into the features of this thing.Truck-mounted cranes are made up of two parts: the carrier (the truck), and the boom (the crane arm). Due to their unique build, they’re able to travel easily on the road with no unique set-up or transportation equipment.

So let's now take a look at the carrier or the truck.  

 

— The carrier —

First off, looking at the front side, the detail is really nice.

As well as the headlights, we’ve got the marker lights on top of the front. They are the orange clear pieces, representing the LED lights on the real truck and that looks both nice and correct.

And then a front-mounted tow bar can be used to mount the crane hook. It seems real.

This model not only looks like the original Liebherr truck mounted crane, but also it has the addition here of several futuristic designs, one of which is that the A-pillar or the structural upright that partially frames the windshield is movable as it’s on a ball joint. It raises and lowers and also rotates. This design is radical and may let your imaginations soar. 

At the top, we’ve got a small space on the roof of the truck to put the crane arm when the crane is not in use. So that's just the practicality of this set. 

As you can see, there are two semi-emergency lights on either side of this space, represented by four little orange lights. How detailed that is! 

There is a black engine near the semi-emergency lights and that makes sense for these modern hydraulic truck cranes are usually single-engine machines, with the same engine powering the undercarriage and the crane. The engine has got 8 sections, so I believe it’s an eight-cylinder engine, which is kind of cool.

Taking a look at the sides, it looks so cool.

So the coolest part is the gull-wing doors that are hinged at the roof rather than the side. Opening upwards, the doors evoke the image of a seagull's wings. It's incredible.

It even has a running-board to provide easy access for a driver and passengers along either side outside the door. They just they thought of everything in this set. I love the set.

One interesting thing that translates into real life construction equipment and traffic cones is these indicators on the running-boards. So if you see, when they go on a piece of construction equipment or a construction vehicle like so, they indicate by slanting down which direction you should walk or which direction you should drive your car to avoid the dangerous obstacles in the middle. So it’s nice to see that Gulo Gulo is translating these real life stickers onto their project.

And not only that, but there’s also another sticker indicating all of the slings and rigging equipment along with the vents on either side above the front wheel. This is very interesting because part of operating a crane is working with slings and rigging gear. Crane equipment’s efficiency depends on various factors, and the performance of sling and hook is the most important. Operators are required to inspect these every three months as a minimum and they do a daily inspection as they use them. In other words, before they use it and as they use it, they’re checking it out to make sure it’s safe and it’s going to do the job and not fail. Looking at this right now, I can imagine an operator examining a sling carefully there.

It has got ten wheels, obviously five on either side. Each one of them has a more aggressive tread pattern and feels like it's pretty heavy duty rubber, which I believe is accurate to the real truck. As you can see, you can turn eight of them yourself and actually there is a gear at the back that turns them at the same time as well. 

Looking at the back side, here we have our nice little manual controls and support.

The supports are called outriggers. We’ve got two outriggers. One is in the back and the other one is between the front wheels and the middle wheels. They can be extended horizontally from the chassis to level and stabilize the crane while stationary and hoisting. Though these don’t lower down to the table, it's nice when the chassis has them. Plus, if we want to, we can put four little pads underneath.

Looking underneath, you can see the drivetrain and all of that are also very detailed.

So over here, as you can see, there are four different differential gears. There's one in the front. There are two middle ones and the one at the very end. These things are what make the tires move. What’s nice though is that this incredible truck right here has eight-wheel drive. Let's try to go on eight-wheel drive. It was kind of clunky, but the wheels actually did engage. So still, eight-wheel drive blew my mind.

Anyway, since this is a crane, will it lift? To answer the question, let’s now get into the the boom or the crane arm.

— The boom —

First of all, as you can see, the base is mounted on the undercarriage, which actually in its own way is quite realistic. 

There are two stickers on either side. One has the vents and a special type of number on there, but I'm not sure what that number refers to. Again the other one indicates the slings and rigging equipment. I love the detail. They look really nice. It has got a gear at the back that rotates the whole base all the way round. If we want the crane to rotate around, it’ll make a full 360-degree rotation. That's awesome.

Additionally, you can see a pulley is mounted on the top of the base. It consists of a wheel over which a string is pulled. The pulley also has got a gear on one side that tightens the wheel and loosens it in order to raise and lower the payload.

The string has been threaded through those four holes along the top of the boom. There are also two stickers on either side on the crane arm. One of them says Liabherr. I suppose that’s the brand of the crane. The other one is about that same special type of number, which is still beyond me, but I guess it means power is generated at a constant rate by the LH7000. Let me know what you think by commenting below.

You'll notice the little operator’s cab is attached to the front side of the base, together with a gear on one side that raises and lowers the boom. It has it all and that's what I really like about it.

And then the arm has also got a gear on one side to extend and retract itself. It's really cool how this boom is actually functional. Manual controls do take a little bit of time, but it's fun, that's for sure.

Now let’s answer the question. Will it lift?

You know as a side note, one of the little items the set comes with is a crate, which contains a circular saw, a hammer, a wrench and an ax. So I think it’s a toolbox. Look at all the detail. They look awesome.

The payload we will try to lift with our truck-mounted crane is this tiny little toolbox, but the real question is WILL IT LIFT? Let’s find out.

Whoo. The truck-mounted crane lifted the toolbox as easily as if it weighed nothing. Well done!

— Two nice little figures —

And of course, in addition to the truck-mounted crane, two figures are also included. They are really nice builds. I love them.

I think they are two operators. The first gentleman is called Ben. Ben has got a very nice goatee with some stubble. It looks quite stylish. With his eyes and his mouth, he has got a very determined look on his face. Ben is my father’s name.

The other guy looks quite different. He is a smiling operator. He actually is clean-shaven, so that’s me. He is Victor.

They are both wearing the same yellow caps. Let’s pull Victor’s cap off to see if he’s got great hair. To my surprise, he’s just got a hole in his head, so it is not like me. That’s good to know.

They have also got the same vests. One of the details that I really appreciate here is there’s a really remarkable level of detail in the printing of the vest.

I also like the matte finish on the torso and the arms. That’s nice because you don’t always get to see that.

— Summary —

All in all, Gulo Gulo City Technician Constructor Engineering Mobile Crane Vehicle Bricks Set is definitely the best model crane for children.

It has got a whole lot of yellow pieces, long with some nice stickers and orange lights, which is easy on the eye. In fact, it looks really really good, so it's definitely worth sticking on your shelf on display. 

The build process was like educational entertainment and we had a good time together. There are a lot of things it can evoke, such as the A-pillar and the gull-wing doors, so it will encourage your imagination. It's also got two nice little figures, which is a definite plus. 

It's so sweet. I just love this set!

Here is the link to get this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004022306623.html?spm=5261.promotion_single_products.table.3.650a4edfrhCeOh

So thank you for reading, guys. I hope this review was a help. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.

Bye-bye. Adios.