MOC: Customized Hot Dog Van

A while back, I reviewed the LEGO Friends Hot Dog Van (41129), you can click here if you want to read the review. While I liked the general look of the van, I decided that it needed some changes before I would incorporate it into my LEGO city. I have finally had some time to sit down and tinker on some of my custom projects, and this one was at the top of the list. I have included the pictures of my modified Hot Dog Van along with some of the photos from the aforementioned review so that you can see the changes that I made as compared to the original.

As you can see in the images above, I tried to remain true to the original design. I did really enjoy that the van actually looked like a hot dog, so I wanted to keep that idea. One of the big changes that is noticeable right off the bat is that I got rid of all of the pink. I know it was a Friends set, so pink is a major part of the palette used in the theme. But, the pink and red together in this set just looked off in my opinion. Throw in purple and baby blue, and this set was just a colorful mess. I made mine much more uniform. I also decided that the Hot Dog Vendor (from Minifigures Series 17) would run this truck in my LEGO city. Since he is all red and white, I made the colors of my food truck match him. Then I took the little sign that I loved so much in the original set, and I mounted it on the actual truck.

Again, you can see from the images above, that I got rid of the rainbow of colors and opted for something a little more realistic. Perhaps more visible in these photos is the fact that my van is more sealed off. The food trucks I have encountered are never as open as the original Friends van was. I also added a hand rail to help people step up into the truck (it is rather high for a Minifigure), and I secured the ladder to the roof from the top as opposed to the bottom, like it was in the original.

From the front of the van, you can see that I added two things: rear view mirrors and headlamps. It would technically be illegal to drive without those. Since my next custom project will be a police station, I have to make sure my builds are all up to code. The rear of the truck is almost identical, minus the rear view mirrors. The headlamps were also replaced with transparent red pieces to act as break lights.

The roof is another place that I made some major changes. I really did not like the colors on the roof of the original. I also thought that it made no sense to have a dining area up there. No one wants to climb a ladder with hot dogs and drinks. So, I made the roof of my van complete the bun look a little better. I also added ventilation since they are cooking inside. Finally, got rid of the asymmetry along the long edges of the van.

Inside the van, I changed quite a bit too. The original was a little bland. The mini-dolls in the Friends version had to sit on the floor to drive, and could not see over the sausage sticking out of the windshield. I raised the cab platform, added a chair, a speedometer, and a gear shift. The cash register also faces into the truck now, and not sideways.

The interior of the original Hot Dog Van was a little empty. There wasn’t anything except a grill and a steering wheel. So, I added a range hood over the grill, and a soft drink machine. I thought about adding a fridge, but it seemed too cluttered.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. If you have built your own custom version of the Hot Dog Van, let me know about that as well!

Until next time,

-Tom