Review: 60034 Arctic Helicrane

[woofmcmoose]

So I told myself when I bought 60036 last year that I wouldn't buy any more Arctic sets, and that I didn't need 60034 because I probably had all the parts anyhow. But then I went into Smyths, and they had a sale, and well....err... here is my review of 60034:

Arctic Helicopter

Set #: 60034

Year Released: 2014

Piece Count: 262

Minifigs: 2, plus 4 dogs

RRP: $39.99, £24.99

I must admit the first time I saw images of 60034 I was quite excited; a lego helicopter not in police or fire colours. Not only that but clearly based on a real helicopter; the Sikorsky S-65 (CH-54) Skycrane, and almost in the livery of a real operator; Erickson Air-Crane. Also the huskies looked awesome! So did the set live up to expectations?

The Box:

A surprisingly compact square number:

The front shows the helicrane doing what it does best, coming to pick up a crate under radio direction from the explorer on the ground. The husky team stand firm despite the rotor downwash and somehow avoid an unplanned swim. A nice touch is the pilot visible in the cockpit as this pose is not really possible in the actual model and he just disappears in the dark behind the trans-blue glass. Note the city skyline hiding just behind the mountains at the back.

The back of the box is extremely busy as the left half is entirely taken up by the modular build and city online adverts leaving the right side to demonstrate the action/play features of the set: Take your husky team, detect the crystal block, call in the chopper, then race it home.

The top edge is less action, more science with the team photographing and sampling the ice. A 1:1 pic of the helicopter pilot is shown for reference at 90° to the rest of the image as the box is barely a minifig tall.

The Contents

We get 3 bags, two booklets and a sticker sheet which between them pretty much fill the box (it barely rattles when you take it off the shelf):

Sorry no printed parts in here!

Here are the contents of Bag 1 which makes the crate, minifigs and dogsled:

The ice block and crystal (in this colour) are unique to the theme, there are some 1x1x2s in light bley, we get a couple of ice picks and this is the first time I have seen the new style radio and metal detector pieces. Compare for example the new parts on the left with their classic equivalents on the right:

I think the older radio looks much better, I'm also slightly disappointed by the loss of the stud on the detector as this reduces the MOCing potential of the part.

Bag 2 & 3 give us too many parts to photo so here are my highlights: 3 2x2 round tiles with hole, 1x2x2 orange windows (though only 1 piece of glass), some orange Technic arm pieces and grey 1x2 plates with Technic axle holes.

The Instructions

The first booklet is about half the size of the second and covers the husky sled and crate build from bag 1. The cover shot is exactly the same as the box, but removes the helicopter and photoshops in the pilot:

The second booklet cover also replicates the box art the same but photoshops out everything but the helicopter.

The instructions are clear with good colour differentiation and a wavy pale blue background. My only possible gripe is that, as with 60036, the 'sticker' icon is missing from some steps so stickers magically appear on parts such as:

The shot below shows the good colour differentiation between dark bley and black and light bley and white which is occasionally poor in other sets (including 60036). The instruction steps are all very clear and provide part callouts and plenty of pointers so your are unlikely to miss anything.

The Minifigs

Here we have our pilot with standard smug aviator sunglasses face and the Arctic pilot torso; I still love the leather jacket and parachute printing even if it is identical to that for the 60036 pilot. The explorer fig is the same female fig found in 60036 with the, in my opinion, unnecessary torso hourglass print; the details of the rest of the print are great though as noted in my 60036 review the goggle print limits use of the head to winter MOCs. A view from behind, I do very much love the Arctic logo:

The Build and Model: Dog Sled and Crate

The crate comes first and there is not much to it- plates over the base stack 2 bricks per support then add the roof, done:

It does look quite effective, though lacks some realism in that the contents are not secured in any visible way.

The sled is a very similar size to that of the one in 60036 though featuring some design differences. Oddly the sled features a much larger radar screen than the 30036 offering but no visible radar dish. Believe it of not this shot is the sled finished except for accessories and dogs:

With everything on the sled looks quite good, and as ever the huskies are brilliant with each having a slightly different appearance due to the grey/white plastic mix:

Although it looks good the sled has some drawbacks over that of 30036. Firstly there are no 2x2 round boat studs or similar on the underside to reduce friction so it tends to get caught in carpets. Secondly the camera attachment is rather flimsy and as the equipment in the crate is loose you tend to lose pieces if mushing too vigorously. Finally the crate attached direct to the large orange piece and so has a low of clutch power, so changing loads to the ice block (as shown in the instructions) requires quite a bit of effort and can lead to unplanned disassembly of other parts. 30036 got around this issue with jumper plates though that resulted in some loads being offset due to the different footprints of the 3x4 crate and 2x2 ice block (a problem this set does not have).

Here is the sled carrying the ice block:

The Build and Model: The Helicopter

The helicopter starts with the spine, I was slightly confused at this point about the two 1x2 plate with hinge facing each other:

It tuns out that these are a clever method of holding the engines (which I should note are the 2x2 stud versions not the older versions with the same shape but 1x2 pylon attachments):

The spine grows very quick and suddenly you realise this model is going to be huge! Notice the winch, which passes through a gap in the spine:

The cockpit is a separate build to begin with, and the reason for having 3 windows but only 1 glass element becomes clear:

I assume this build method was chosen over using the equivalent 1x2x2 panels to reduce the overall number of unique parts required in orange. I suspect for this reason we also see 1x1 and 1x2 bricks used where we would normally see a 2x2 corner brick:

You can also spot in this shot that I was mistaken, we do get 1 printed part after all, the instrument panel which is fairly common to city era aircraft. As with the 60036 helicopter the pilot gets a single control stick rather than the classic 90's two. The rather heavy build at the back of the cockpit gives the model some strength but unfortunately makes the rear window and spotlights feel a bit redundant as the pilot cant really get to them. The real skycrane had a rear facing operators station from which the winch operator could control the aircraft during winching operations.

The snot plates of the cockpit are used to provide additional structural attachment to the spine via some 2x6 plates with a few bits of greebling:

The landing gear is then built from a variety of Technic parts and some snazzy stickered wedge parts for decoration. The landing gear is probably the only fiddly bit where younger builders might need help (aside from sticker application of course) as parts have to be correctly aligned when inserting pins/axles:

Finished, and my is it a big helicopter, although the crate just fits underneath. This is not helped by the fact the model actually sits a few degrees nose down as the nose gear is 2-3 plates higher than the main gear:

As the winch is a single point attachment your loads will tend to swing around, though his can be temporarily fixed for the crate by attaching it to the plate at the bottom of the spine when winched fully in.

And to justify having this set as well as 30036, well what happens if the mini helicopter from 30036 breaks down and needs rescuing:

One last shot of the helicopter from the front:

I think lego did a great job in capturing the feel of the skycrane in this model. It looks convincingly like a heavy workhorse and makes me think this model is what 60021 should have been (tilt-rotors don't make sense for logging operations).

I must however, note two small deviations from the instructions I made in this build:

1 - I build the rotors with the opposite offset of the blades to produce an anticlockwise (Sikorsky type) rotor rather than the clockwise (Airbus type) the instructions showed.

2 - The rotor mast has an empty Technic pin hole behind the engines which I filled with a pin and 1x1 clear round tile from the spare bits in the set to simulate a gearbox oil sight glass.

Finally a beauty shot of the whole set:

Conclusion and Scores

Parts: 7 - Good selection of bits but nothing unique except in terms of colour.

The Figs: 8 - Very nice printing on both figs despite the unnecessary hourglass torso effect. If I hadn't already got the same figs from 60036 (admittedly different pilot face) I would be extremely happy so have rated accordingly. The dogs are simply great, very cute and the individuality of each due to the colour mix is a real bonus.

Build & Model(s): 8 - The Dog-sled build disappoints slightly (until you get to adding the dogs) due to its simplicity. The helicopter has enough interesting techniques to please seasoned builder without being complicated; and when finished it just looks great! It would also be easy to use this helicopter in a city/forest scenario by simply swapping the skis for wheels.

Playbility: 8 - Should be 10 but points lost due to the issues with changing loads on the dog sled and running it on carpet. A few extra parts could easily have solved these issues. The accessories (metal detector etc) allow for some play before the helicopter swoops in, but let's be honest, that's where the action is! The helicopter winch is easily controlled one handed whilst flying with the other and the model is very robust and swooshable.

Value for Money: 8 - Though I think this score depend on whether you have any of the other Arctic sets as you could easily find yourself with many duplicate figs and vehicles fulfilling the same functions which will determine your view on the value of these element and also affect how long each particular set may be played with. Certainly for the sale price (£21) I was very happy, for RRP I would probably still be.

Overall: 8 - Excellent helicopter, let down slightly by issues with the dog sled, but not enough to seriously affect the playability or enjoyment of the set.

So what's your view?

Edited April 17, 2015 by woofmcmoose