MEGA Construx Tesla Cybertruck Review – Own the Future

As a collector of various figurines, sets, sneakers and more, there’s nothing more exciting than a unique piece to add to your growing collection. This is the feeling I had when I received this specific package for review a short while ago – the MEGA Construx Tesla Cybertruck.

The Cybertruck captured everyone’s attention at its launch event all the way back in 2019. Its unique design, features and underlying construction were quite the hype at the time and still remain that way today for petrol heads and the likes. So, it was a welcome fusion of these two worlds as both a collector and car enthusiast.

MEGA Construx features a wide range of brick-building sets from the simple, sub-R100 playsets to the more advanced building sets like the Masters of the Universe Havoc Staff. Being my first build for the brand, I wasn’t sure what to expect other than the description on the box at the time. The daunting task of assembling 3,283 bricks lies ahead of me. Exciting, nonetheless!

MEGA Construx Tesla Cybertruck Design

To say that the MEGA Construx Tesla Cybertruck has an intriguing design is an understatement. As mentioned in the introduction, the design of the pick-up itself brought with it quite the hype that still applies today. This uniqueness in build has grabbed a lot of attention, good or bad. And the MEGA Construx brick set only adds to this intrigue.

This is further emphasised by its size alone. It’s now officially the largest brick set I have in my collection. But, by far, it is the heaviest. This is thanks to its underlying details within the design. It’s not just a shell of bricks for display purposes. Almost everything on the build has a function, as it turns out.

The completed build has the shape of the Tesla Cybertruck down to a large degree. Yes, there are sections where there are gaps and or are not perfectly aligned but this adds more to the overall aesthetic than takes away from it. For example, there are gaps between the edges of the door frames. However, at the same time, the doors themselves are fully functional and open wide enough to reveal the details awaiting on the inside as well, of which there are plenty.

In addition to the doors opening, the bonnet (hood) and boot (trunk) are also functional. The latter includes the sliding lid and extended door that slides down to the ground. The sunroof can also be easily detached if you want more of a convertible look. Then there’s the wheel which is quite large as well, rubberised around the edges and can turn left and right while moving around as a normal car toy would.

The MEGA Construx Tesla Cybertruck design threw up quite a number of surprising results. This came from a selection of “bricks” I haven’t seen before on other sets. There were plenty of Easter eggs to discover, both as you’re building and fitting the specialised pieces together, to the final reveal at the very end.

Build Experience

The overall building experience was great. While there are parts that are similar to other brick sets, there were some really unique pieces as well. That said, you won’t have any difficulties figuring things out, although you’ll have to pay a bit more attention to the more complicated aspects.

Each of the bricks connects far more tightly than I’ve become accustomed to on other builds. This makes it a challenge at times to click into position during the build. And with five straight days of building the MEGA Construx Tesla Cybertruck, my fingertips were a little bit worse for wear at the end of it all. Thankfully, when you do make a mistake, you don’t have to put any additional stress on your fingers. The included separation tool does this job for you. And it works, too. I found myself making quite a few mistakes, both on incorrect pieces chosen or positioned in the wrong spot. These were fairly minor mistakes but still tricky to undo without the tool itself.

At certain stages of the build, I’d often find myself questioning a lot of the decision-making as to the thought process behind each piece. In some instances, I wondered why some pieces were longer or taller if I was going to build them that way in any case. While I don’t have actual answers to these questions, there’s a lot to factor in.

For starters, adding two pieces instead of one adds more build time and overall experience. For those who love the challenge of longer builds, then this would be right up your alley. In some instances, I also found that it added a bit of detail that you wouldn’t have if you had a single-piece bonnet, as an example. It would feel empty, especially for collectors of brick builds. And, lastly, although you can’t beat a single-piece brick versus two when it comes to strength when connecting these pieces to others in the build, it definitely felt more robust overall.

That being said, the packaging of each of the various sections you need to build is quite well thought out. I realised very early on that I could separate the pieces in each of the sections in the next chapter of the build into three or four groups making it easier to pick pieces from each. It takes a bit of time at the start of each unpackaging to know where all the pieces are but the separation makes it so much easier to know where each piece is. Towards the end of each chapter, you’ll be able to simply reach out knowing more or less where each piece would be helping to speed up the build – if that’s something you’d want.

In total, I spent over 20 hours building the MEGA Construx Tesla Cybertruck. I lost quite a bit of time not being used to the difference in build over other brick builds, like LEGO, which is far easier to put together. However, there are no complaints on my side in this regard, as the large size of the model would make it susceptible to some damage and pieces falling off if it were too flimsy. This is especially true on the movable parts, such as the doors, bonnet and the likes.

Features

As mentioned previously, there are quite a number of Easter eggs that slowly begin to reveal themselves as you build. This is the aspect of the design that really impressed me the most. And after all that time spent building the MEGA Construx Tesla Cybertruck, it is also very rewarding.

Starting off with the wheel system. In the images, it seems fairly straightforward. However, the surprise here is that it has quite the suspension on it. At the end of the build, you’re assembling two separate “suspensions” that attach to the bottom. During the build, you will notice the front and rear cogs added to the internals that you then build over. Only in the end do they reveal themselves to form part of the suspension and not the “engine” components. The truck can be swayed left to right as well as up and down when pressing down on it. I even performed a small drop test to find out how much load it could take. With a drop of around 20cm – the most I was willing to put it through – it took the shock quite well. Although there was a notable thud as I built up from smaller drops, I could only see the doors moving around a bit with everything else intact. That’s quite an impressive fall in any respect but one that won’t be used very often for most collectors, if ever.

As great as this is, there were still more surprises from the suspension. When you pop the hood, you’ll see a red lever quite contrasted against the darker greys of the build. Pressing this will drop the Cybertruck’s front suspension. This replicates the actual air suspension of the real thing, which can lower and raise itself with a push of a button. To lift the suspension again, all you need to do is pull up on the front and the wheels drop back to their original state. Quite impressive.

All of the seats on the interior are also foldable. While the four main chairs can’t fold all the way back because they’re blocked from doing so, the middle front seat can fold forward to reveal a coffee cup holder, for which there is also a travel mug included with Tesla branding. Other such hidden details include the licence plate on the rear, dash monitor (for which there are three screens), seat covers and more. There’s also a mini trunk within the trunk. This reveals some tools, such as the sledgehammer and a metal ball that were used on the Cybertruck reveal. Additionally, with all the spare bricks remaining, I created a second hammer-like tool and added it to the trunk for which there was still plenty of room in the end.

Further to this, there’s also a steering wheel on the inside along with the brake and accelerator pedals, all of which can be adjusted up or down. Given the level of detail on the build, I was disappointed that the steering wasn’t connected to the wheels. Maybe that’s a bit too much to ask for here but given all the surprises revealed during the build, it wouldn’t have been too far-fetched an idea.

For the windows, there’s also the iconic shattered glass look from the Cybertruck’s unveiling. However, for those with a bit of OCD like myself, there’s also the option of a clean glass panel. This was a nice touch.

Is the MEGA Construx Tesla Cybertruck Worth It?

The MEGA Construx Telsa Cybertruck is a truly great product. It offers plenty of details in the design, numerous hours of build time, and moving parts and rewards all your efforts with great Easter eggs at the end of it all. The brand’s claim of a “one-of-a-kind building experience” is extremely accurate. With plenty of reveals and underlying details, it is truly something.

The Mattel Cybertruck is available across the country at various toy outlets. This includes Toy Kingdom, Takealot and plenty of others.

The set costs R4,299, which is really not bad at all for what you’re getting, in terms of the entire experience and display piece on your collection. Additionally, when you compare this to international pricing (such as the US and Europe) the pricing is similar (with the exchange rate), even considering the import costs and shipping.