78 replies to this topic

[TheBrickster]

Introducing the long anticipated, new 2009 City set: Farm!

Part 1

Set #: 7637
Theme: City
Sub-Theme: Farm
Release Date: February 2009
Pieces: 609
Minifigs: 3
Critters: 2 cows, 1 cat, and a mouse
Vehicles: 2
Price: $89.99 USD

Most of you have seen the brightly colored box art depicting the suburbs/country side of Lego City:



Let's take a closer look at the back of the box that highlights various components/parts of the set:



Doesn't the barn look terrific?



Also pictured is the grain/wheat silo and other action photos:



The contents include six numbered bags of bricks:



And two non-numbered bags that include baseplates and two prized cows:



Not bagged are these two large crane pieces for the grain silo and two green baseplates (not pictured):



The set has one small sheet of stickers which isn't too bad:



And three instruction books; one for the barn and silo; one for the tractor/front end loader, and a small set of instructions for the smaller vehicle and accessories:



Lastly, as the picture of the main instruction book (largest of the three) is a different picture than that of the box, here's a close-up:



This concludes Part 1 of the Farm review.  Part 2 coming soon...

[Natman8000]

Thank you so much! I cant wait for part two. Is there alot of dark tan in this set?

[TheBrickster]

Natman4000, on Feb 3 2009, 08:27 PM, said:

Is there alot of dark tan in this set?

No, actually they're light tan.  I don't see any dark tan yet.

[WhiteFang]

Brickster, I love you!  

Is this the new review which you have promised to do, with your awesome photo editing skills. It's looking good so far. You are getting all of us very excited.  

[Svelte]

Can't wait for the rest of this review.

The box art looks great and I like the selection of tan, red and dark red with the blue tractor.

I also really like the new grain logo to indicate the Farm theme - instant classic!

[TheBrickster]

WhiteFang, on Feb 3 2009, 08:32 PM, said:

Is this the new review which you have promised to do, with your awesome photo editing skills. It's looking good so far. You are getting all of us very excited.  

Yes, and no.  New review -yes, Major photo-editing -no.  I've done a little photo-editing, but nothing major.

svelte_corps, on Feb 3 2009, 08:43 PM, said:

I also really like the new grain logo to indicate the Farm theme - instant classic!

I really like the new logo too, that's why I added it to the first photo.  I think it represents wheat.

[Ralph]

WhiteFang, on Feb 3 2009, 09:32 PM, said:

Brickster, I love you!  

Is this the new review which you have promised to do, with your awesome photo editing skills. It's looking good so far. You are getting all of us very excited.  

Dittos on the photo editing skills, and thanks for posting.  Looking forward to Part II, and buying a few of these myself.

Ralph

[Erdbeereis]

Excellent! I can't wait to see the full review Brickster!

It's looking wonderful already.

[5150 Lego]

Such a tease....

[TheBrickster]

Part 2

Opening the contents of bag #1; for such a small bag of parts, this gets interesting:

Starting with two of the figs, the other one is contained in another bag of pieces.  I love the farm gal (my kinda lady) :



Here's some sort of tank(s).  I wish Lego would tell you what these components are:



A brown police dog.  Farms always have at least one dog:



And this interesting machine that may be a cow milking machine.  The machine is pictured in the instructions with the drill tool (not yet added in the photo):

  

Here's the ring o'tools:



This little machine is interesting.  Perhaps it is intended to water the crops, or harvest them in some way.  The back section can be brought downward (perhaps for digging):



My favorite and one of the highlights of this set, the two black and white cows.  The middle section is a regular 1x2 brick and 1x2 plate (just like those used to fill the mid-section of horses):



Each of the horns is a single piece (two per cow), and not the smaller white fang pieces (for lack of a better name).  These pieces are larger, and I think a new piece:



I love the faces with the soft eyes:



This concludes Part 2 of this review.  Part 3 coming soon...

[Lockt]

Thanks Brickster! Loving this set, and loving your review... (as always!)

Ofcourse the machines are what you believe, but I believe the parts you are in doubt of are:
- Welding bottles
- Machining/working bench to make repairs on
- Spray can to kill some bugs (EDIT: or for painting)
- Lawn mower for the lazy :P

Again thank you for the review!

Edited by Lockt, 04 February 2009 - 06:35 AM.

[5150 Lego]

TheBrickster, on Feb 4 2009, 06:55 AM, said:

Part 2


This little machine is interesting.  Perhaps it is intended to water the crops, or harvest them in some way.  The back section can be brought downward (perhaps for digging):

I believe this is a ride on lawn mower.

Great review so far! Looking forward to part 3!

[metalandi]

I'm so envious about you, this is such a great set! Looking forward to the rest of the review, looking great so far! But it looks as you are not too fond of technical things..i know what the yellow/blue thing is, and the other thing is definitely nothing to milk a cow

Edited by metalandi, 04 February 2009 - 07:04 AM.

[TheBrickster]

Part 3

What a great component within this set; the blue tractor.  At first, I must admit that I wasn't looking forward to this part of the set, but let me say that this is an excellent tractor.  The construction is much more detailed than I thought (from a City set with numbered bags), and I just like the look of this tractor and trailer.

Starting with the tractor:



A side view:



The front end "scooper" is a good size (although I should have put a cow or something inside to better show the dimensions):



The back end has a hitch for the trailer as well as a little arm to reinforce the connection:



This image of the right side provides a look at the double rear wheels:



Here's a shot of the front end with lots of lights:



And the top front:



Lastly, a view of the side:



Moving on to the trailer, which is equally nice:



The back end has a caged window piece that opens when lifting at an angle:



The sides also go down to allow things like cattle to climb aboard:



Here's a side view, but I did fail to show an image of the trailer lifted upward (like a dump druck):



The last image of Part 3, the complete tractor and trailer:



I really like this part of the set, and I'm not a big vehicle person.  What I would have liked is some sort of rotating soil lifter as an additional attachment to the tractor.  Blue was a good choice of tractor colors, esp. considering that red is used for the single set.

This concludes part 3.  I will be moving on to the barn tomorrow.

Metalandi: I may not know what the different machines are, but the Milking Machine was just a joke - from an old Green Acres Episode (I think).  

[legofan]

Wow! Thanks alot for the wonderful review Brickster!! I could seriously pick up some photo editing tricks from you.. Your pictures look so great! Makes me ashamed of myself...  

Anyway, nice set! Great details on the tractor! And gotta love that cow!!    Await anxiously for the barn!!

[WhiteFang]

Brickster, thanks for taking your time and do up part 2 and 3. Your photo editing is not minor efforts. There are great and consistent, and I love this kind of presentation. I need to learn how you managed to do this extraction and placed it in my EB News Reviews. Imagine ImperialShadows or Staudie, appearing in every EB News Reviews.  

I must admit that this farm set is filled with many great details, especially after reading through the 3 parts. The tractor are very nicely designed. I thought the main attraction will be the barn itself. In fact, the tractor is filled with beautiful small features such as the side mirror, digger bucket, the variation of its wheels, exhaust pipe and even the wide long empty trailer which are very useful for transporation. About those gas tanks, I think they are kind of related to the Vestas set. It was seen that those Vesta delivery boys were caught in action, by delivering these tanks to a residence. Perhaps, it could be something to fuel the vehicle or the barn.  

legofan, on Feb 4 2009, 04:08 PM, said:

Wow! Thanks alot for the wonderful review Brickster!! I could seriously pick up some photo editing tricks from you.. Your pictures look so great! Makes me ashamed of myself...  

You can learn the basics from the Reviewers Academy itself. Sign up, if you are interested to find out more about making a review.  

[rriggs]

TheBrickster, on Feb 4 2009, 07:35 AM, said:

Part 3
The back end has a hitch for the trailer as well as a little arm to reinforce the connection:

I suspect that this little arm is meant to represent a PTO (power take off) which are common on tractors.  These are used to power other machinery like ploughs, threshers, etc.

Great review!

Cheers

Rog

[BlueBard]

Thanks for this amazing review, Brickster!    You're so terribly fast!  

[Lt. Col. Thok]

Great review!  In my opinion, the set highlights are the cows, the tractor and the tan fedora.

[Deinonychus]

I don't know if it's just how the review is being presented, but I can't be the only one thinking that this set would have worked just fine split up as several smaller sets...for cheaper  

[TheBrickster]

WhiteFang, on Feb 4 2009, 12:41 AM, said:

Your photo editing is not minor efforts. There are great and consistent, and I love this kind of presentation. I need to learn how you managed to do this extraction and placed it in my EB News Reviews. Imagine ImperialShadows or Staudie, appearing in every EB News Reviews.  

Thanks WF.  It's funny, in looking back at the pictures, I'm not too impressed.  I think the colors could have been better and more consistent.  In addition, all the pictures were taken at night making them dark/with bright flash.  The editing really wasn't much aside from adding the border and the tan hat farmer.  A much better photo edited review was that of Legoland Sea Life.  I'm much more proud of that, but thanks none the less.

WhiteFang, on Feb 4 2009, 12:41 AM, said:

I must admit that this farm set is filled with many great details, especially after reading through the 3 parts. The tractor are very nicely designed. I thought the main attraction will be the barn itself. In fact, the tractor is filled with beautiful small features such as the side mirror, digger bucket, the variation of its wheels, exhaust pipe and even the wide long empty trailer which are very useful for transporation.

Yes, I thought the same excited to build the barn.  I have not built it yet, but the tractor is superb - a bit large, but nicely detailed.  

WhiteFang, on Feb 4 2009, 12:41 AM, said:

About those gas tanks, I think they are kind of related to the Vestas set. It was seen that those Vesta delivery boys were caught in action, by delivering these tanks to a residence. Perhaps, it could be something to fuel the vehicle or the barn.

Interesting.  I'm not sure what they are.  I mentioned this before, but I would like Lego to tell us what each component is, esp for the machinery that leaves us speculating.

rriggs, on Feb 4 2009, 03:02 AM, said:

I suspect that this little arm is meant to represent a PTO (power take off) which are common on tractors.  These are used to power other machinery like ploughs, threshers, etc.

Maybe.  You seem to know a little farm vehicles.  I appreciate that info.

BlueBard, on Feb 4 2009, 04:19 AM, said:

You're so terribly fast!

But not cheap.   

Lt. Col. Thok, on Feb 4 2009, 05:03 AM, said:

In my opinion, the set highlights are the cows, the tractor and the tan fedora.

While I love the cows and the tan fedora (excellent cowboy part), this set does offer a lot more.  It's packed with great pieces and comonents.  My complaint would be the price/piece which I think is extremely high.  I'll mention this later at the end of the review.

Deinonychus, on Feb 4 2009, 06:21 AM, said:

I don't know if it's just how the review is being presented, but I can't be the only one thinking that this set would have worked just fine split up as several smaller sets...for cheaper.

I don't think it's the review.  Having the multiple components separated in bags lends itself to separate sets.  Priced out; however, Lego would probably get more for the set as separate components.  This set is like the new Construction Site in that it really has different and distict components.  I do think that this is a good thing that makes the set diverse and interesting.  I also think this adds to the appeal and charm of the set.  I' just hope Lego adds additional sets to the sub-theme.  We might see more animals, as well as other farming scenes.  Playmobil Farm is a good example of the additional possibilities for the theme.

[Loganwan]

Thanks so far.  It is as good as I was hoping it would be.   I am wondering about your list on the first post. It said "animals" you listed two cows.  There is a dog, cat, and rat from the looks of the box.  Is there a reason you did not list the other animals?

[Matn]

Thanks for the review so far. I really like this set, however I'm not sure of those wheels on the tractor. Two wheels together seem way to big!
I will take the second on each side away, than it will look more realistic. =)

Edited by Matn, 04 February 2009 - 04:51 PM.

[DJ Force]

Loganwan, on Feb 4 2009, 05:38 PM, said:

Thanks so far.  It is as good as I was hoping it would be.   I am wondering about your list on the first post. It said "animals" you listed two cows.  There is a dog, cat, and rat from the looks of the box.  Is there a reason you did not list the other animals?

My guess is that the other animals are in the last bags he hasn´t opened so far.

[Eilif]

Great Job Brickster!
     That yellow tractor is definitely a riding lawnmower.  Though not usually equipped with collection bags, the rear section of the tractor may be meant to represent a grass collection recepticle.

I totally agree that LEGO could take a lesson from Playmobile with regards to Farm and other "civilian" sets.  Playmobile has a much higher percentage of "civilian" (as opposed to police/fire/rescue) sets than LEGO.  

Unfortunately I also agree with you about the price to piece ratio.  I have limited funds, and there are so many other neat sets coming out this year.  So despite how charming I find this set, it probably won't be on my "list". Medieval Market Village has 5 more figs, almost 3 times as many pieces, and is only 10 bucks more!