10 replies to this topic

[Erdbeereis]

Welcome to another sunny day in Legoville...Today we will be joining the Mailman on his daily route delivering the day's mail.
When I first saw this set, I immiediately liked it.I think TLG should make more of these everyday life type sets such as delivering mail, going to the grocery store, things like that.
Anyway, enough blabbering, on to the review!

7731 Mail Van



Set Name: 7731 Mail Van
Year: 2008
Theme: City
Pieces: 66
Price: $7.99   pounds 4.99  Euros 5.95
Price Per Piece: About 12 cents

We'll start with the box shots.



The box is an interesting shape that I have never seen before. Very rectangular. The box art is pretty nice. The back shows the mailman delivering some mail.

The picture on the front is the same as on the box.


Random manual shot. The manual does not have the piece call outs, but on a small set like this, I don't feel it's needed.


Parts list. Decent selection of parts. I really like the mail pieces.


Image at the back of the manual showing all of the Cargo sets together in a little scene. I like it when the manuals have images like these because it's nice to see all of the sets together.


All of the parts spread out.

The parts in this set are pretty good. Unfortunatly the car base is one large piece, however, we do get 2 printed mail pieces which are always nice.

Our trusty mailman.

This torso I think is very nice. The little envelope is a nice touch.

Extra parts. Not much to say here...


The finished set! I really like the design of the van. It looks very smooth and somehow looks very LEGO to me. The colors are my favorite part. The red and yellow look nice together


A nice mailbox. However I wish the letter on the front was printed.


The front of the van is nice I think. The textured brick on the front gives it a different look on the front which is nice.


The back of the van.


The doors open to store mail, although it doesn't have much room, I like that they included this feature.


Delivery! The mail bricks slide right into the hole at the front. This adds nice playability.


The van's all loaded up! We are ready to deliver!



=======================
Parts: 7/10 (Pretty good piece selection, but for $8, should have included a few more.)
Playability:8/10 (It's fun to deliver the mail to all of your town's residents.)
Design: 9/10 (The design is very nice, except I feel that some of the stickered parts could have been printed.)
Overall: 24/30





After a long, hard day of delivering mail, there's nothing like enjoying a nice pizza and letting your hair out. Why do they make us wear those silly hats anyway...


This is a nice set that I can definitely recommend and I think TLG should certainly release a post office to go with this and the Air Mail set. I really like these everyday life sets rather than always fighting crime or putting out fires. Those guys have normal lives too!

Brickshelf folder: http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=338718

[LEGOMAN132]

This set is nice it looks like a DHL van

[Darth_Legois]

LEGOMAN132, on Aug 29 2008, 03:35 PM, said:

This set is nice it looks like a DHL van

Funny, thats what I thought when I first saw the pics

Good Review BTW

Oh and I keep meaning to get this set but keep forgeting..

[Alywin]

Good review, thanks!

For the mail van, while it certainly adds interaction and fun to a LEGO town, it alone lacks details and playability, and thus not a good set, especailly taking its price into consideration.  Its value is pretty much just like, if not less than, some impulse sets, in my opinion...

[samthelegoman1]

It's a good set, but I think the first sticker shouldn't say "7731"

[rriggs]

LEGOMAN132, on Aug 29 2008, 06:35 AM, said:

This set is nice it looks like a DHL van

Makes you wonder if there was some kind of promo or hookup in the pipeline that never happened??

I have this set and I really like it.  It works well with either the new City sets or with my older 1980s/1990s sets.  I actually like the use of the old style car base and mourned the day that these became exitinct the first time round (c1990).

Thanks for the review!

Cheers

Rog

[Brick n Brick]

It's an ok set. I just don't really like the look of the van much. Too rounded for my liking. What happened to the box like cars??

[Asuka]

Thanks for that very nice review, Erdbeereis1.  
It´s great to see some other City sets beside the usual hospital, police and firefighter mayhem,
and this is a really nice little one. Now give me some car doors and a Kevin Costner-like MF
and I´m a happy camper indeed, TLC...  

[Wout]

Nice review.

I like this little set. Some how it reminds me now of "Postman Pat" in dutch "Pieter Post", an english childrens tv series about a postman in a little village somewhere in Yorkshire. Aah, sweet memories

I would rather have seen a postoffice released (with some women minifigs) instead of the green post bigplane. But maybe in a couple of years.

[AFOL12v]

I do like the set also. I've bought 2 of them. One to build it up and one to keep it MISB (I dunno for how long ). Only poor things is that the wheels are too wide. Car is 5nops wide instead of 4. Afterall a good design. I wonder if there's a post office coming soon.

By the way, great review.

[Tenorikuma]

rriggs, on Aug 31 2008, 02:55 AM, said:

I actually like the use of the old style car base and mourned the day that these became exitinct the first time round (c1990).

I don't hate the piece, but I did object to the way this set fills in the middle recessed area with a 2 x 2 plate that is nearly impossible to get out again without doing some damage to it. What's more, if you fill in the recessed area, you've eliminated the only rationale for using the car base in the first place.