Indexed
Set Name: Seaplane
Set Number:3178
Theme: City (sub-theme Airport)
Year:2010
Pieces:102
Minifigures: 1
MSRP: $14.99(CDN) $10.99 (USD)
Description from Shop@Home:
From sky to sea, this Seaplane goes anywhere!
Fly to remote locations all over the world and land on lakes or the open ocean with the LEGO® City Seaplane! Open the top to climb into the pilot’s seat, then take off from the water with the powerful twin propellers. Don’t forget to stop and refuel before you go! Includes pilot minifigure.
Includes Seaplane and pilot minifigure
Measures over 8" (21cm) long and over 7" (18cm) wide
http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Seaplane-317 ... id=4514924
The smallest of the plane sets currently available in the Airport sub-theme, the Seaplane is a nifty little set. Lets take a closer look at this plane that apparently actually floats in water (I say apparently because I have heard this, but not done it personally.
Here is a shot of the front of the box (top) and the back of the box (bottom). In addition to the plane and a pilot, you get some kind of wind sock thing. Not really sure what that is, but its there.
The contents of the box. Two bags (not numbered), two instruction books with different covers, two wing pieces not in bags, and the dreaded sticker sheet. I will not be putting the stickers on for this review.
The cover of the two instruction books. Each book shows you on the cover what you can build using this book. In larger sets I think this a great idea. In this set, I scratch my head why. The wind sock thing is like five steps. There are more pages in the smaller instruction booklet dedicated to advertising then to building steps. They could have easily done all the instructions in one book. The steps are numbered, but they do not show the parts required for each step. The build is quite simple, so this not a problem.
The dreaded sticker sheet. They all go on the plane itself, and are really irrelevant for play time, so leaving them off does not take anything away from the set.
The parts out of the bag. About the only thing that I can't remember seeing elsewhere is the large yellow slopes pieces (seen near the upper right corner).
On to the sole mini figure of this set. A pilot with a brief case (or maybe its a suitcase). He is pretty boring actually, a red baseball cap, sunglasses, and a blue checked shirt.
And from the back. Even more boring (sorry dude, but its true) nothing on the back.
Now on to the build. First up is the wind sock thing. I think these things are used to determine wind direction. As mentioned, the entire first building booklet is devoted to putting this together. It takes about 30 seconds to complete. Here it is with the pilot.
The next set of shots are of the plane in various stages of construction. The build is fairly straightforward, so I won't be making a lot of comments here. It is a quick build, and nicely designed.
At this point the body of the plane is complete, and we now move on to the pontoon section of the plane.
And the completed plane, with spare parts off to the side. The plane is fairly sturdy, with the exception of the pontoon which is sturdy but wobbles a bit. The cockpit roof is designed to come off easily for pilot access, so the roof might fall off during play, but otherwise, it is quite "swooshable".
Here are some shots of the play features. Here you can see the storage compartment for the brief case. There is a door on either side.
And the open cockpit with pilot in place.
And finally the complete set with pilot inside the cockpit.
Ratings.
Mini figures: 2/5 Only one figure, which is reasonable since only one guy can fit in the plane, but he's kind of dull.
Parts: 3.5/5 Parts are fine, but not a lot of cool or interesting parts, and some are clearly only usable in planes or maybe boats.
Cost: 3/5. More reasonable for Americans, but us Canadians continue to get ripped off.
Playability 5/5 For a small plane set, its perfect. The plane is sturdy enough to play with, has cargo storage, and pilot access, and might even float.
Overall: I would give this set a solid 4/5 (not an average) losing marks mainly for cost and a boring minifigure. A nice addition to your LEGO city.
[REVIEW] 3178 Seaplane
-
hatcher
- Count
- Posts: 1089
- Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:46 am
- Location: Barrie, Ontario, Canada (aka The Great White North)
[REVIEW] 3178 Seaplane
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?
Re: [REVIEW] 3178 Seaplane
Nice review. Great little set. Thanks!
Re: [REVIEW] 3178 Seaplane
Nice review. My seaplane seems to have come with a different type of propellers. They are flatter and rectangular, not like the ones in your pictures. Did Lego mess up the packaging?
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests