Review: 4429 Helicopter Rescue

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Thanks for this great review!

[Nightshroud99]

Nice set I guess, but the inside is severely lacking... It doesn't have a waiting room (which is notorious in the U.S.) nor an Operation room. I also don't like that Lego is producing two different scaled vehicles like you pointed out.

EDIT: There is a waiting room, but it's rather pathetic.

Edited May 2, 2012 by Nightshroud99

[scottwb2010]

I really like that doctor figure for sure. I will most likely bricklink him. Hopefully they fix that printing. I like the set overall, but I doubt I will get one. The build looks interesting enough and it would work well in a city theme, but since my city is only Modulars, I would have to mod this quite a bit. I will just wait until they come out with an official Modular hospital, or maybe make my own for this contest running currently.

Thanks for the review. Keep up the good work.

Hopefully they would commit alot more effort/resources to a modular Hospital.

Great review, unfortunatley TLG has let us down with this much anticipated Hospital

[-zenn]

The doctor reminds me of George Clooney btw... *lol*

[just2good]

Great review, 'Cwetqo'!

The set isn't as good as I originally thought it to be. The helicopter and mini-ambulance is cool, and the same goes for the hospital's exterior design, but the hospital interior isn't very accurate and a bit crammed.

Eh whatever, it's still a must have in my book.

[mrklaw]

It's disappointing, but I'm not really sure we can expect more. These days both hospital and police stations are generic plastic framed buildings with a few minifigs. They don't even use standard bricks for the walls, but instead use panels to keep costs down. They are even usingnpanels in the ambulance and double/triple height bricks in the helicopter. That really limits how kids will reuse the set to build their own models. I appreciate the open back for playset use, but to have so few rooms, limited/no interconnected rooms and such poor furniture is really bad.

We still have the hospital from about five years ago and this looks similar but smaller. I guess new kids are coming along and so Lego needs to keep these evergreen themes and sets refreshed, but they haven't moved on at all.

Edited May 2, 2012 by mrklaw

[Cwetqo]

After sleeping on it I still think its worth 7 out of 10. Problem with all of us (including me) is that we expected something large, police station sized. But TLGs policiy is such that City theme can have just one 100+ eur set per year and this year it will be park garage (which is ok with me). Its true that they shoud have do it a little differently, maybe to rise the price for 10-20 euro and make something fire-station sized, or leave the price as it is and make smaller helicopter. But that would again take away a lot of playability (my son enjoys loading up patient in the chopper very much). So, only thing I really dont agree with is really poorly equiped interior. On the other side I like minifigs very much. They have reflective paramedic stripes, front and back printing and even leg printing on two of them and only thing missing is nurse (and better printing, but I expect that to be fixed).

[meyerc13]

Now that I've had a closer look at the pictures I can't believe this set is using so many "leftover" bricks. Walls made up of grooved pieces where it serves no purpose other than to make it look terrible.

This is nothing new, LEGO did the same thing with the most recent 7208 Fire Station. I think they do this so that the kids don't get confused and try to use the non-slotted brick where the slotted one should be used. It's easy enough to swap out if you have a decent LEGO collection, and it gives you extra slotted bricks which are far more rare than their plain counterparts.

the angle of the hospital in the picture hides the missing side of the garage, that's miss leading and sneaky!

Once again, nothing new. Look at the same fire station from 2 years ago and you'll find the exact same design. In fact these sets have so much in common I wonder if it was the same designer. The wall made of windows is another similarity between the sets.

They are even usingnpanels in the ambulance

I think this is a design feature. By using panels, they add more interior space to the 4 wide ambulance. If they hadn't done this, it would be an extremely tight fit getting a stretcher into the ambulance.

Sometimes I can fault LEGO for using panels, like on the City House when they put one behind the stove, so when you dropped the sausage piece it would get stuck back there and you'd have to take the set apart to get to it... but in this case I think that was a good choice. I you want bricks instead of panels, you should be buying Creator instead of City.

Edited May 2, 2012 by meyerc13

[Darth Hagrid]

I really like that doctor! Shame about the legs, though...

[Cwetqo]

This is nothing new, LEGO did the same thing with the most recent 7208 Fire Station. I think they do this so that the kids don't get confused and try to use the non-slotted brick where the slotted one should be used. It's easy enough to swap out if you have a decent LEGO collection, and it gives you extra slotted bricks which are far more rare than their plain counterparts.

Once again, nothing new. Look at the same fire station from 2 years ago and you'll find the exact same design. In fact these sets have so much in common I wonder if it was the same designer. The wall made of windows is another similarity between the sets.

I think this is a design feature. By using panels, they add more interior space to the 4 wide ambulance. If they hadn't done this, it would be an extremely tight fit getting a stretcher into the ambulance.

Sometimes I can fault LEGO for using panels, like on the City House when they put one behind the stove, so when you dropped the sausage piece it would get stuck back there and you'd have to take the set apart to get to it... but in this case I think that was a good choice. I you want bricks instead of panels, you should be buying Creator instead of City.

I agree with all above. I have 30 years old ambulance set and it also uses panels. Its only way to fit stretcher into 4 wide vehicle.

[Jay Sathe]

It's a real shame that the helicopter is so large compared to the rest of the hospital, and that the Great Vehicles ambulance doesn't fit. Those are both huge oversights on TLG's part, and all of a sudden, I'm not so sure about this set, and all the summer City sets in general...

[Graysmith]

This is nothing new, LEGO did the same thing with the most recent 7208 Fire Station. I think they do this so that the kids don't get confused and try to use the non-slotted brick where the slotted one should be used. It's easy enough to swap out if you have a decent LEGO collection, and it gives you extra slotted bricks which are far more rare than their plain counterparts.

Oh I know it's nothing new, but I still hate it. Kids aren't that stupid either and shouldn't be treated like they are. If they don't get something to work right they hopefully have parents who can help them figure out what's wrong. I had a bunch of sets when I was a kid too that had the sliding garage door and those sets didn't pretend kids are idiots.

But yeah, it won't be too much to have those pieces replaced with proper bricks, but it's still really off-putting. It certainly made me go from "maybe" to "no".

[Big T]

Great review first of all, really showed the set well and nice clear pics.

As for the set itself... Lego seem to have something against hospitals, I haven't seen a single hospital set that I'd particularly want. They really need to give it the Police Station kind of set up. Nice and spacious like the last police city set (not the forest one). If I were designing it, I'd skimp on the helicopter (sell that separately) and use the extra pieces to go into the building set up.

The ambulance is kinda cute, but pretty weak looking compared to the Great Vehicles one. Makes sense tho, big set vehicles tend to be like that which is fine. Be nice if the garage would fit the bigger one though.

Figures are nice, if they fix the printing on the doctor figure I'd be all over that, looks brilliant. Love the paramedic torso's too, good to see them continue it on. Such a shame Lego don't give the Hospital theme's as much focus as the police sets.

[Vindicare]

It's disappointing, but I'm not really sure we can expect more. These days both hospital and police stations are generic plastic framed buildings with a few minifigs. They don't even use standard bricks for the walls, but instead use panels to keep costs down. They are even usingnpanels in the ambulance and double/triple height bricks in the helicopter. That really limits how kids will reuse the set to build their own models. I appreciate the open back for playset use, but to have so few rooms, limited/no interconnected rooms and such poor furniture is really bad.

We still have the hospital from about five years ago and this looks similar but smaller. I guess new kids are coming along and so Lego needs to keep these evergreen themes and sets refreshed, but they haven't moved on at all.

Look at the two previous police stations(not the forest police, but the two before it), most notably the one the before the forest one. That thing was huge.

Great review first of all, really showed the set well and nice clear pics.

As for the set itself... Lego seem to have something against hospitals, I haven't seen a single hospital set that I'd particularly want. They really need to give it the Police Station kind of set up. Nice and spacious like the last police city set (not

The ambulance is kinda cute, but pretty weak looking compared to the Great Vehicles one. Makes sense tho, big set vehicles tend to be like that which is fine. Be nice if the garage would fit the bigger one though.

Figures are nice, if they fix the printing on the doctor figure I'd be all over that, looks brilliant. Love the paramedic torso's too, good to see them continue it on. Such a shame Lego don't give the Hospital theme's as much focus as the police sets.

I'm sayin'.

[mrklaw]

I think this is a design feature. By using panels, they add more interior space to the 4 wide ambulance. If they hadn't done this, it would be an extremely tight fit getting a stretcher into the ambulance.

Sometimes I can fault LEGO for using panels, like on the City House when they put one behind the stove, so when you dropped the sausage piece it would get stuck back there and you'd have to take the set apart to get to it... but in this case I think that was a good choice. I you want bricks instead of panels, you should be buying Creator instead of City.

Good point, I thought that as I was writing it, as the reviewer points out that it's compact but can hold a stretcher. It's just that I'm not a huge fan of panels. Also a good point on city vs creator, but then I wish we'd see more variety of buildings in creator, I don't think we get hospitals or police stations

[Holodoc]

Err, Cwetqo - what about adding a poll to this topic?

I think it's time to raise our hand and make it visible that this set is a letdown.

[scottwb2010]

This is nothing new, LEGO did the same thing with the most recent 7208 Fire Station. I think they do this so that the kids don't get confused and try to use the non-slotted brick where the slotted one should be used. It's easy enough to swap out if you have a decent LEGO collection, and it gives you extra slotted bricks which are far more rare than their plain counterparts.

Once again, nothing new. Look at the same fire station from 2 years ago and you'll find the exact same design. In fact these sets have so much in common I wonder if it was the same designer. The wall made of windows is another similarity between the sets.

meyerc13 I see where your coming from and agree there are many similarities but on looking at the initials on the vehicles number plates the hospitals designers initials is JL and the fire station is HA. But as you make out there is no originality realy in the hospital

[Cwetqo]

Poll added!

[-zenn]

Hmm, took another look at this set... why doesn't the stretcher has foldable wheels any more? And will a banana 'cause that much injury to be air lifted out?

[scottwb2010]

As for the set itself... Lego seem to have something against hospitals, I haven't seen a single hospital set that I'd particularly want. They really need to give it the Police Station kind of set up. Nice and spacious like the last police city set (not the forest one). If I were designing it, I'd skimp on the helicopter (sell that separately) and use the extra pieces to go into the building set up.

The ambulance is kinda cute, but pretty weak looking compared to the Great Vehicles one. Makes sense tho, big set vehicles tend to be like that which is fine. Be nice if the garage would fit the bigger one though.

Figures are nice, if they fix the printing on the doctor figure I'd be all over that, looks brilliant. Love the paramedic torso's too, good to see them continue it on. Such a shame Lego don't give the Hospital theme's as much focus as the police sets.

Couldn't agree with you more Big T. I think most people are dissapointed in this hospital and feel that TLG have to give the medical theme the Police theme treatment ie a big Police station sized Hospital that has plenty of rooms, ie operating theatre, ER/A&E, recovery ward etc etc, seperate Helicopter, Paramedic motorcyle and Ambulance.

I did a review of the Great vehicle ambulance and in it stated the size of this ambulance compared to other vehicles and it totally dwarfs the medic vehicle that comes with the new hospital. The great vehicle ambulance is even too big for the previous hospital. They maybe should have made it the same size as the previous ambulance that came out at the same time as the last hospital

[Mooch]

I'll probably get two or three and try to make a decent hospital out of them...too bad I'll end up with extra helicopters. :/

[The Fezter]

You're not the only one. It's either swapping out those axles for old ones or using less wide tires. Otherwise it just wouldn't look right.

Maybe if TLG moulded a new version of the wheel arches, where the clip for the wheels is permanently attached at the bottom? therefore the design wouldn't even need the axles.

[alex54]

Thanks for the great review and nice pictures!

Even if this hospital is not perfect, I find it a way better to the previous version, ugly perched on its baseplate...

The design, even if it is quite simple, is nice, sleak and modern, with this red frame in the front. It gives it a real contemporary look.

So I agree with the fact it's too small, wihout a lot of space inside. But for a set targeted to children, I think that it really makes it!

I don't think that children need and want to have a hospital to the same size than the police station.

Despite this, I will pass on this set, which doesn't offered me some interesting parts. The only thing that could make me buying one copy is the doctor. But with this printing problem (TLC doesn't get to print white on blue parts, really?).

My wallet is happy, it can spend some money on other more interesting sets for parts!

[gifinim]

Thanks for a really good review of a really poor set.

Who decided that huge helicopter looked good on top of such a small hospital? Was it added as an after thought to help bump the price up? They would have been much better off using the value of those pieces to add another room or a bit more playability to what is already there.

I think I'll wait till Amazon is selling them at 40% off

[The Joker1]

Thanks for a really good review of a really poor set.

Who decided that huge helicopter looked good on top of such a small hospital? Was it added as an after thought to help bump the price up? They would have been much better off using the value of those pieces to add another room or a bit more playability to what is already there.

I think I'll wait till Amazon is selling them at 40% off

That shouldnt be too long. Ugly unpopular sets like this usually go down quite quickly.