Dr. Panda Trucks is here! Tons of fun! Five Stars!

Bottom Line: Dr. Panda Trucks is the newest app from our friends at Dr. Panda. Join Dr. P and his friends for some heavy machinery fun and spend an afternoon constructing some fantastic buildings. It’s free to download with a large amount of content included.

If you’d like to purchase Dr. Panda Trucks (free to download the base pack, iPad/iPhone), please use the handy link provided so they’ll know who sent you.

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No ads, there are in-app purchases for extended content, external links to developer’s other apps in parent protected area

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Reviewer’s note: I was testing this app using a TestFlight version of the product. All things should remain the same, but occasionally apps are tweaked or improved a bit before they are released to the appstores.

The first time I opened Dr. Panda Trucks, I was given a short tutorial about how to run each available truck and other functions in the app. It appears that in the starter pack we have four vehicles available to us and six buildings that we can work on. There is a building supply store that we can visit to stock up with things to make our creations unique.

Little builders can carry supplies from place to place using the dump truck. Using the crane, they can place the blocks where they want them to be in order to build their structures. What happens if your kiddo builds something they don’t like? Well they can just knock that thing down with the wrecking ball and clean up the mess using the front end loader.

The building all appears to be done on a platform in the center. Little builders can move their desired blocks there and design their buildings on the spot. Users can swap between the buildings they are working on from the slots on their home page. In the starter pack there are six slots available for buildings, but this might be able to be increased with in-app purchases.

The basic supply center is available right off the bat. Through in-app purchases users can also shop for more decorative pieces like fancy rooftops or customize pieces by painting them different colors. In-app purchases can also make more vehicles available like some kind of fancy scrub truck and a big drilling machine that looks like it could cut through anything.

As with all Dr. Panda apps, there are fun things to explore all over. On the track surrounding the job site, there are entertaining things like a soccer field and a musical platform. Kids can also jump their equipment using ramps, which really tickled me. Don’t miss out on exploring the tar pits, either.

Watch Ellie bring this app to life here:

What I liked:

I don’t know any little kids who don’t love watching big trucks and equipment. This game gives them a chance to be the ones in charge!
My favorite thing to do was to poke the chickens so that they’d lay eggs. I know it is technically just tapping, but to me it was poking and then they’d squawk a little and lay an egg. (Disclaimer: Kelli would neveractually poke a chicken. That wouldn’t be nice. Plus they’d probably peck her if she did.)
There are a ton of fun thigs to do just in the starter pack. With four trucks and six buildings, there is plenty to keep a young builder busy. Plus there are always fun extras to discover all over. It’s a generous amount of free content.

What I liked less:

I was only testing with the basic options. I was a little disappointed every time I tapped on something only to find that I needed to make an in-app purchase to make it available. It does look like there is a lot more exciting stuff to work with in the in-app purchases, though.
Even with the tutorial, it did kind of take me a bit to get the hang of running the equipment, particularly the ones that have dual controls like the crane. (There’s always the possibility that this problem is strictly user error, I guess.)

Overall, I was not disappointed at all with Dr. Panda Trucks. The free starter pack has a generous amount of content, and if you decide to purchase the extended options it just increases the fun. 5 stars!

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