Low production values and uninspired paper engineering keep this gallery of megatrucks in the garage.
Not only are the five central pop-ups—a Car Transporter, a “Concrete-Transport Truck,” a Monster Truck, a Garbage Truck and a multi-trailer Truck Train—so oversized that some need additional pats and massaging to open up, once fully expanded they mostly just sit there. They offer little in the way of moving parts beyond a tiny extending trough and flap-open doors on the cement truck (big whoopee) or a tab that pulls the Monster Truck all of three inches forward. Although weights and measures and much of the language have been Americanized from the original British English, some glitches remain. “Concrete-Transport trucks” is used instead of the more familiar “cement mixer,” for instance, and “Pneumatic Trucks” instead of “sewer cleaners.” Furthermore, the garbage truck is parked between a house and the two trash bins left outside, which makes no sense, and is also propped up with a pair of brick buttresses that seem to be present just to keep it from collapsing.
An inferior (though still engaging for the right audience) follow-up to the far better-made and more feature-rich Amazing Pop-Up Big Machines (2010). (Pop-up nonfiction. 7-9)
