REVIEW: 8401 City Minifigs

[Izzy]

_{Congratulations Cutlass_IZ! Your review is the 200th in Trains & Town!}

_{Make sure you check out EB's Front Page. -TheBrickster}

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Set: 8401

Price: $14.99

Minifigs : 4

Other: 1 BOOM box, 1 Fire Hydrant, 1 Traffic light, 1 Bench, 3 street signs, 1 trolley and 1 parcel, 1 megaphone, 1 walkie talkie, 1 yellow cup, 1 briefcase.

The standard red trolley is the same as in many other sets, useful but common... however the parcel is new to me, nice size and shape, brown paper package tied up with string... um, yeah! I like the box.

The park bench/Bus stop bench is very nice, simple but very effective, with a reclining back. I guess that comes in hand when some punk kids come along and try to kick the back off.

The 1980's BOOM box is cute, very retro and reminiscent of earlier sets from TLG, a good piece to use in other situations... Police interviews... Recording studio... for reporters... etc. The fire hydrant seems a little 4+ to me, but I like it none the less.

This set contains one set of traffic lights with red yellow and green lights. I don't know about other countries but in Australia we have ORANGE as the middle/caution/amber light, so I immediately fixed this oversight using a piece from the Gryffindor fireplace. (doesn't it look much better?)

I must say the design on the female minifigs sleeveless shirt is also reminiscent of the 80's and I find it and all its silver shining glory to be absolutely disgusting, nice blond hair though so she is not all bad.

So... this is how the story begins...

One day, Blond Lady is waiting for a bus whilst listening to her boom box , and Business Man is crossing the road, Mr Plod is walking the beat in the background and Mr Delivery Guy is drinking some coffee while doing the post.

Oooh I love this song, I might just turn it up... La La LAAAAAAuuuaaah

Just walking the beat, just walking the beat

I am in such a hurry... rush rush.

Hmmm, coffee good.

I might just turn this up really loud.... La LA LAAAUUHHH!!!

WOAH, that's loud.

Heyyy, where did coffee go?

The loud music made me drop my briefcase, now all my spare parts have fallen out.

Uh oh! I see trouble a brewing.

Hey lady, turn that down, you made me drop my spare parts

Don't make me come over there.

Ugh, no coffee.

Just walking the beat, just walking the beat

Damn spare parts, how did I have all these in here?

Hey lady, I've got no coffee!

Your point being?

You're a woman aren't you?

And that is just when 'click' someone took the cover shot for the box.

Aren't we all glad it wasn't taken a few seconds later... or else is might turn out like....

Overall it's a good little set and lots of fun. I'm glad a bought it. :thumbup:

Edited October 24, 2011 by Rick

[graham g]

Nice review, nice set and great back-story.

Thanks

PS. I don't understand why there's, a yellow rather than orange light in the middle. Strange.

[WesternOutlaw]

(as I sip my morning coffee)

Nice review Cutlass_IZ, and funny at that.

I picked this set up over the weekend on sale at Target (here in the U.S). I haven't opened it yet, but I like the little components. A boom box, bench, street sign, and hydrant - all very useful to a City scene. And with the new Bus/City Corner set coming, I think this will make a nice supplemental set. The figs can be waiting for the new City Bus to arrive.

Great review! Now I'm going to enjoy my coffee (won't say who made it ).

EDIT: Oh, I love the blond lady. That torso looks familiar:

[prateek]

great review i like the figs but not so much the price

[maiq the liar]

Uh-Oh! the Blond Lady made Incognito Gordon Freeman drop his stuff! she'd better hope there wasn't a crowbar in that suitcase!

Congrats on the 200th!

[Cavannus]

Great review! I was hesitating to buy the set until my girlfriend gave it to me, and I like it. This is flexible enough to be used in an existing city or to be played as is (as you illustrated it perfectly ).

PS. I don't understand why there's, a yellow rather than orange light in the middle. Strange.

The middle light is often represented using yellow. The real colour is supposed to be amber, which is neither orange or yellow (but something in between with a hint of brown), while it may actually look yellow or orange depending on the coloured lens or the led tint.

For example, this one is closer to yellow:

[Squeaker]

I was thinking of getting this, but I thought it was $10 USD. $15 is in Austrailian, right? Anyway, if I'm not mistaken, this is the first non-licenced yellow minifig with blonde (tan) hair. TLC avoided it before because hair being lighter than skin looked odd to them. I too hate that shirt. It's been around for far too long and noone wears that type of shirt anyway.

[Izzy]

Thanks everyone for their kind comments... and congratulationss to the 199 other reviewers who made this possible.

Thanks to my Mum and my Dad without them....

Oh! Hang on, that's my OSCAR speech. Oops!

This is a picture of a light from Sydney... definitely orange. Hehe!

Yeah that was $14.99 AU, not a good price at all. It is about $3-4 dollars cheaper in Kmart but I am an impulse buyer. Silly really!

Great review! Now I'm going to enjoy my coffee (won't say who made it ).

Haha! I guess that part of the story comes from my Dad, the only line he'll still be able to mutter when he is old and senile is... "Hey Rob, is the kettle on?"

[MarcusV3]

Congrats on the 200th review I picked up this set for the blond hair and I used the business man's torso for my sig fig (changed the arms though)

[Cavannus]

This is a picture of a light from Sydney... definitely orange. Hehe!

Anyway I prefer your version, it is nicer than the original "classic" pure yellow!

[Zorbas]

Excellent review for a very nice and useful set cutlass_iz! You certainly don't lack imagination and creativity.

I really like this set. I have bought two and in my opinion it is a great purchase for city expansion. I got it for 8.99 Euro and although that the price seems a bit steep, actually it's not. It's like buying 4 impulse sets in one. I didn't really pay much attention to the signs since i had never use them in the past but the minifigs are great. Civilians you wanted, civilians you got.

(...okay, and an officer )

Thanks for the review and if you manage to achieve to do the 300th, then i'm gonna need you to tell me the lottery numbers.

Btw, I wonder, which mixtape is playing?

[The Who]

Great review, absolutely love the backstory for the box.

Btw, I wonder, which mixtape is playing?

Hmmm......Let's go with...Iron Maiden...and the song, ''The Trooper.'' If you haven't heard it, look it up. It rocks.

Unless you prefer Classical.....Mozart....Country....or anything else other than Metal.

[Zorbas]

Great review, absolutely love the backstory for the box.

Hmmm......Let's go with...Iron Maiden...and the song, ''The Trooper.'' If you haven't heard it, look it up. It rocks.

Unless you prefer Classical.....Mozart....Country....or anything else other than Metal.

One word: "Prowler". I was 12 and I was mind-blown. (My brother used to be an Iron Maiden fanatic back then.)

After all, judging from the minifig's hairstyle it's not Metal. She needs to have her hair loose for headbanging.

[Izzy]

Excellent review for a very nice and useful set cutlass_iz! You certainly don't lack imagination and creativity.

Thanks for the review and if you manage to achieve to do the 300th, then i'm gonna need you to tell me the lottery numbers.

Btw, I wonder, which mixtape is playing?

Why, Thank You Zorbas... if I manage to do the 300th review I'll definitely give you whatever numbers you want. Although based on my CRAZY number voting... I'd say this was either carefully planned genius or a once off fluke.

I'm pretty sure it wasn't iron maiden playing... then Mr Business Man wouldn't have dropped his spare parts when it got loud... he would have thrown them down deliberately and gone into a head banging frenzy. I'd have it was something retro and extremely grating to the nerves like.... ummm.... Madonna, or the Monkeys, or something starting with M.

[Zorbas]

I'd have it was something retro and extremely grating to the nerves like.... ummm.... Madonna, or the Monkeys, or something starting with M.

Men At Work perhaps?

I actually like it.

Oh the 80's... Memories...

[Izzy]

Men At Work perhaps?

I actually like it.

Oh the 80's... Memories...

I like Men at Work too! Although that particular clip off youtube is rather frightening . Haha.

Mmmmm, that was definitely the song she was blaring.... "La laaa laaaah Land down under!"

[Zorbas]

I like Men at Work too! Although that particular clip off youtube is rather frightening . Haha.

Or more like a nuthouse clip.

Mmmmm, that was definitely the song she was blaring.... "La laaa laaaah Land down under!"

Is this the one you're talking about?

[gormadoc1]

I realy like this set because its a minifig set and Lego aught to bring more of these out for other themes too .

[Lord Admiral]

I picked this set up recently, and just got around to opening it. I'm not going to go into a full blown review, as that's already been done, but I will point out a bit of what I like and dislike about this set. Obviously, I like the minifigures, and dislike the decals. Actually, I wasn't thinking about decals when I bought it, and I think things turned out OK in the end despite the lapse in judgment.

Despite having decals for the road signs (which is an automatic -1 in my book regardless of how their purpose), I think this is a really, really nice little set. I'm a big fan of concise design, and this set defines concise. In fact, I'd say this is what three and a half impulse sets should look like, instead of the sorry excuse for city impulse sets that exist now. Actually, the only impulse sets I dislike are the fireman and policeman. The others I like. But I digress.

The set really does show what can be made from a few simple pieces in the hands of a talented builder. That no special pieces were used for the bench, the hydrant, the traffic signal, and the ghetto blaster is particularly telling. And cool enough is that these were done largely to scale. Granted, the ghetto blaster really should have used 2 1x1 tiles with a printed square pattern on each to make it to scale, but that's just nitpicking. The bench does a great job of bringing out the true potential of hinge pieces. They could've gone with decals for the traffic signal, but chose instead to build it out of bricks. I'm very glad they did it that way. Using decals is a cop out, and I'm glad they didn't for the traffic lights.

The street signs are superfluous, decals or not; those elements I really could do without. The handtruck and crate as well, though I would've loved to have had built one from various little pieces instead of having one big special piece. Both handtruck and crate add a little extra umph to the set, but this set really has plenty to it as it were. Hence the superfluous designation for the street signs, which are even less relevant. Instead, I think a tree and/or some bushes in place of the signs would've been perfect. I also would've liked to have seen a second traffic signal of a different design. Perhaps one that's suspended between two poles, or is somehow otherwise hanging. The latter is not a realistic request BTW, though the former suggestion is sincere.

All in all, I'm glad I picked it up. It's not incredibly detailed, it doesn't have amazing special pieces, and it's not complicated to build at all. And at first glance, it doesn't really have much play value (and maybe alone, it really doesn't). But building the well-designed elements certainly excites me. And fooling around with the ghetto blaster is--no pun intended--a blast. And that's all I'm really looking for these days.

[mikey]

I really like this set, a great collection of figures. I would have liked printed road signs (like in the 80's!), and in an ideal world it would not contain a Police Man, but to be fair I do like his head, so it was still usefull. A set of four civilians would be the ultimate, but having three (one a girl), is more than acceptable. The accesories are excellent, and I think the bench is really clever, and has been an inspiration to me. So all in all an excellent set I think, and I hope we get a new one soon!

[Grimmy]

I just bought this set for the girl in it. I thought she looked cute and that my niece would like her but many people here are saying they don't like her because of her shirt. It looks like a white shirt with flowers. But I think some mentioned silver? Pretty for a girl character I thought. I haven't opened the box yet. I didn't know that the torso was common. What other sets is it in?

It's funny, I looked at the box cover a number of times trying to figure out what exactly was going on. I'm glad Izzy was able to decipher it. I think it's strange that the delivery man is carrying a mug though. And he's walking up to her mad as if he is going to hand her the mug. I'm confuzzled.

Then again I'm usually confused by Lego sets. Like the Midevil Market Village, why does the instructions tell you to put a gold coin piece in the barrel that holds up the table. It's a barrel table. No one will ever find or notice a gold coin in it. Is it a secret hiding place? And how about the Dwarves Mines, the bucket rail that goes from the front to the back of the mine isn't very practical and doesn't seem like the best position for working.

Edited February 11, 2010 by Grimmy

[Piranha]

I just bought this set for the girl in it. I thought she looked cute and that my niece would like her but many people here are saying they don't like her because of her shirt. It looks like a white shirt with flowers. But I think some mentioned silver? Pretty for a girl character I thought. I haven't opened the box yet. I didn't know that the torso was common. What other sets is it in?

According to Bricklink that torso appears in 17 sets and is on 9 minifigs

I enjoyed reading your post about how LEGO does things in the instructions that seem strange.

I always found this set particularly weak.

Reminds me of this, but I would say this is much better.

The only good thing is the street signs, until I found out they were stickers and that was a slap in the face when it comes to city

Not even the signs are printed

Edited February 12, 2010 by Macoco

[CP5670]

That girl torso is the first (and still the only) one of its kind in my collection, so I like it. The sticker signs were indeed lame though. Those have always been printed in the past.

It's funny, I looked at the box cover a number of times trying to figure out what exactly was going on. I'm glad Izzy was able to decipher it. I think it's strange that the delivery man is carrying a mug though. And he's walking up to her mad as if he is going to hand her the mug. I'm confuzzled.

I think he's drinking from the mug, but I was confused by that too. Why is he angry? Maybe the coffee is bad?

[Captain Zuloo]

Great review Iz! Not sure I'd fork out $15 for this set, but I'm also a scrooge. i'm in love with your fig positioning, really funny and added alot to the review. Well done!

[Dennimator]

According to Bricklink that torso appears in 17 sets and is on 9 minifigs

I enjoyed reading your post about how LEGO does things in the instructions that seem strange.

I always found this set particularly weak.

Reminds me of this, but I would say this is much better.

The only good thing is the street signs, until I found out they were stickers and that was a slap in the face when it comes to city

Not even the signs are printed

Yeah, city stickers = . Especially on street signs. Even the one in the police impulse set was printed!

And BTW, I actaully have that set (6326) sitting MISB on my desk right now, waiting to be opened!