7731 & 7732 pic review

[Zarkan]

Great picture-full reviews as always, yoda. ;-)

Sadly, these kits seem to be overpriced. The Mail Van isn't so bad, and I may pick it up a lot later in the year, but the Plane only has 88 pieces, yet it costs 14.99 USD. Now, I'm all for a $10 price, but 15? That's a lot of money for a dinky plane, even though it is awesome. |-/

[yoda601]

That plane reminds me of the classic airport sets. Nice reviews!

[Svelte]

Got these a few days ago, and just to add a few of my own thoughts.

- The van really is rather nondescript, and the grey doors clash horribly. Would have looked much better in yellow. The same colour problem occurs with the plane - odd mix of red, yellow, light bley and dark bley - although it sticks out less there as a lot of the dark bley is the underside of the plane, which at least makes sense compared to having the back doors of a postal van painted a completely different colour!

-- 2008 seems to the be the Year of the Sticker, from small sets right up to the large ones. I got the Cargo Plane and Truck & Forklift as well, and the amount of stickers is just unbelievable. Compare the Cargo Plane with the Passenger Plane from 2006 - absolutely everything in the former is stickered, whereas the latter at least had the tail, nose cone and fin printed. The truck is just as bad - 13 or 14 stickers on the whole thing (can't remember exactly!) - it's like City is the new Exo-Force. More annoyingly, the sticker for my mail van was misprinted so the colour red bleeds over into the white - misprinted stickers is a trend I've noticed increasing (as opposed to crushed and mutilated stickers, which remain fairly constant :) ).

- The minifigs are nothing to write home about. I'm getting very sick of (a) men with beards (b) men with sunglasses © men in caps.

- Overall, though, the plane is quite cute and a nice, quick, classic type build. These two smaller sets are at a good pricepoint for casual buyers and, while not revolutionary, do the job well to expand the City range and to flesh out the Cargo narrative from post box to van to plane to cargo plane and back again!

[alex54]

An impulse set like that would be really great!

Maybe too big parts for an impulse set, but it would be very nice. Note that I've photoshoped the satchel to make it black.

[Bonaparte]

That would make a very good Impulse set Alex!

Note that I've photoshoped the satchel to make it black.

Wow, nicely done. I hope TLC makes these in black one day.

@Yoda: Nice review! It has the same high quality as your past reviews!

[Svelte]

On a side note, did anyone notice the message on the back of both sets' boxes, "designed for easy building and instant play"? It surprised me a little, since these sets seem no less complex than any other City set of late. They look like quick builds, sure, but not as though the designers went out of their way to simplify them.

Sets in other markets have had that 'easy building and instant play' branding since the City sets of '05, usually accompanied by a picture of which bit of the set corresponds to which numbered bag is inside. When they first started doing it every different 'module' had its own separate instruction booklet, which is annoying if you're trying to keep them all together! Thankfully they've cut down on this although they often have at least one vehicle with separate instructions.

If this text is appearing in the US then it's probably because this line is a 'limited edition' there so TLC hasn't bothered to remaster the packaging as they would probably usually do.

[Chuck]

Wow, nicely done. I hope TLC makes these in black one day.

Then we can slap a little overpriced rubbish sticker on them, and call each of our sigfigs Sally!

-Chuck

[Asuka]

Thanks for a very interesting review with cool pictures, yoda! *y*

Beside the sticker mayhem and lost car doors everything looks great to me.

An impulse set like that would be really great!

Yep, that would be soo sweet.... :'-)

[xwingyoda]

Indeed Asuka ;-)

However, we can be sure that there will be postal goodies in the advent calendar which could make up for the absence of postal impulse ;-)

*yoda*

[PaulC]

Thanks for the review Yoda! I knew I wanted both of these sets as soon as I first saw them. At last a return of the postal theme... now, where's the Post Office??? One problem - the Mail Van has failed to appear in any of my local shops (I live too far from nearest Lego brand store, and I refuse to pay postage on top of SaH's prices)!

Fortunately I was in Paris last week with my wife and picked it up at Galeries Lafayette. You might think that's a long way to travel for a 6.50 Euro set, but since we were there anyway for another reason *wub* , this was just an added bonus.

My first throught on opening the set was... I'm going to be buying several more of these! The actual design of the set irritates me somewhat. I hate the wheels, because they don't sit in the arches properly. The reason they don't sit in the arches is due to the use of this piece:

...but that piece is one the reasons I'm going to buy several of this set! It hasn't appeared in a set since 2003. Hey TLC, how about making Asuka's wish come true and putting some proper doors in too?

Oh, and Alex, you're a genius! Indy's bag to carry the mail in - why didn't I think of that? Personally I think that the bag works really well in it's existing colour. The postmen and postwomen I see locally often have a battered brown satchel. Chuck's right - a black one would be better as a designer handbag.

So, here are my 7731 mods. Oi! TLC! No! Either use those wheel arches properly or don't use them at all you muppets!

[Lord Of Pies]

I like your "classic" looking postie van, and that satchel looks perfect on the postman, hopefully if their are any future post sets, that piece will be used!

[Asuka]

A very nice work, PaulC.... although, I wonder how it would look a little higher - perhaps

with the use of these newer 1x1 slopes instead of the 1x4 tile on top of that grille.... 8-|

[ExoBuilder]

Good job PaulC!

The one on the left really caught my eye. The wheels look made for it *wub*

*y* *y*

[alex54]

Oh, and Alex, you're a genius!

I know, I know X-D

There are few modification between the official postvan and yur version, but yours looks more finished to me. And the other car is great too. It looks like an older, a previous version of the official van. *y*

[PaulC]

There are few modification between the official postvan and yur version, but yours looks more finished to me. And the other car is great too. It looks like an older, a previous version of the official van. *y*

Actually the version on the right (which I call type 2) is closer in design, and uses more bricks from the original 7731. The version on the left (type 1) had to be rebuilt from the ground up using totally different bricks, and yet it looks more like the original.

I have been experimenting with Asuka's idea and have created type 3:

Although I still prefer type 2:

[Asuka]

Yep, you