Want to Build Your Own Mack Anthem? You Can — on a Much Smaller Scale
Want an all-new Mack Anthem, without the six-figure price tag or commercial driver’s license needed to drive one? Well, you’re in luck.
Lego has a solution — assembly required.
Mack Trucks on Jan. 22 announced its partnership with The Lego Group and the resulting 2,595-piece Lego Technic Mack Anthem building set, which can also be used to create a Mack LR front-loader refuse model. At 2,595 pieces, it’s the fifth-largest Lego Technic set ever, according to Mack.
The set is listed for $179.99 from the Lego online shop, which will ship its first order by Jan. 29. It’s also online at the Mack Shop, where it’s listed for $189.99 and available next month.
The set’s release corresponds with Mack’s production of its new highway truck, a vehicle dubbed Anthem that represents an opportunity for the company to grow in the long-haul segment — about 50% of the total heavy-duty truck market. The first Anthem models have been assembled at the company’s Lower Macungie Township, Pa., plant, which employs about 2,400, Mack spokesman Christopher Heffner said.
“This is the first time the launch of a Lego Technic set has coincided with the launch of the actual product to market,” John Walsh, Mack’s vice president of marketing, said in a news release. “We worked extremely hard with the Lego team to deliver a true-to-life representation of the Mack Anthem that folks everywhere will enjoy, whether they’re associated with trucking or not.”
Mack has ramped up its marketing efforts in recent years, especially in the run-up to the September unveiling of the Anthem at the PPL Center in Allentown. For example, to promote the new truck, Mack reached a sponsorship agreement last summer with National Football League defensive star Khalil Mack.
Mack and Lego designers started collaborating on the project in mid-2016 with a series of meetings. The Lego design team later traveled to Mack’s headquarters in Greensboro, N.C., to drive the Anthem and LR model on a test track.
In addition to portraying the Bulldog hood ornament in Lego form, other features include an interior with a detailed dashboard and steering wheel, sun visors, adjustable seats and bunk bed. Also part of the kit is a working driveline with an engine, spinning radiator fan and moving pistons, the latter of which move in the actual firing sequence of a Mack MP engine.
