19 replies to this topic

[Brickviller]

Today I review the new forest fire truck, a set I bought to replace my aging fire fighting department. But is it just as good as the 2005 version? Lets find out

Item: 4208  
Pieces:243
Price: €19.99/$19.99
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Shop description

Quote

Put out the forest fire with the mighty 4x4 Fire Truck!

Climb over any terrain to put out fires in the LEGO® City forest with the 4x4 Fire Truck and its rotating water cannon!

We start ofcourse with the box. Most City boxes look the same in terms of background, and this one is not really an exception. New is ofcourse the forest like background, which all boxes of the subtheme have, to me it looks very nice.


The back of the box shows the various functions of the set, note that the minifig says HEY! is still the older version






Side of the box


Other side


Content of the box are 2 bags, here showing bag 1


Bag 2


The instructions,


And the stickersheet which are very common in the City sets


After opening the first bag I immediatly saw these. New pieces used in the tree, a very welcome piece and possibly very usefull to moc'ers


The build is devided into two parts to construct the truck and tree




The minifig is brand new in the city theme (or any theme for that matter). His helmet is a new dark red color, and his clothing has changed from black to orange, a much better color for firefighters if you ask me.


The submodel of this set is the tree, and it's on fire! Good thing Lego City has a very big fire department to make sure the city is not destroyed by..lets say somekind of fire dragon


Close-up of the new pieces


And we have bag 1 finished, on to bag 2


The model finished, and we saw it was good It's a really nice engine, but more on the details later



Parts list


Our favorite page of the instructions


And what seemed to me a new page advertising the Lego City website


The other advertising was only the forest fire sets, no police or whatsoever


And on to the truck, its very bulky and sturdy, so you (or anyone else) can play rough with it


The roof is easily removed to acces the drivers cabin. Also it has doors so the driver can enter it without help from the 'Great hand'


And something that was funny two years ago, a coffee mug. It's cool and stuff, but TLC has added these to just too many vehicles IMO, but maybe I just want to have everything perfect


The other part of the vehicle is the cabin for the watercannon controller, It's quite cool they added this feature to this set, but the fact it has only one minifig, while it should be manned by two costs points.


Close-up, note that the controls are printed


And the last cabin is for the firemans equipment.



Equipment of the fireman



Rear view


The water cannon


And the firemen with his equipment, ready to safe the day!



Extra parts


And the complete set

Conclusion:

All in all, a very good set. Especially for the price, which is about 5 Euros lower than the firetruck from 2005. Comparing those two is ofcourse innevitable, but I won't do that, since it belongs in a different subtheme. The build is also nice, but if you've build City vehicles for the last two years, it's not much different than any other City truck. Playability is ofcourse also high, you can drive to the tree, extinguish the fire and drive to the next fire

The cons is that it didn't come with another firefighter, which is a missed oppertunity. Also the water cannon on top tends to turns around while driving the vehicle.

From me it gets a

8,5 out of 10



Thanks for watching!

Edited by Rick, 02 January 2012 - 07:40 PM.
Indexed

[The Yellow Brick]

Thank you for the review 'Brickviller'!
None of the 2012 fire sets really interest me to be honest, not sure why but its probably because we've seen them all before in the past . However the trees really do look nice and those new pieces will really come in handy. I really hope Lego consider releasing those types of tree on there own along with some other builds or accessory!

Love the picture at the end !

[EM4CZ]

I buy this set just only for stickers and firefighter, the vehicle design I have criticized elsewhere.

my idea of ​​how it should look like     

[Deeks]

Thanks for the review. My 7 year old nephew got this set for Christmas. He loves this forest fire theme. I was impressed with how sturdy it was. One feature that I particularly liked was the way the equipment rack was mounted in the back so it comes out either side but sits inside securely.

[prateek]

Awesome. I really like that water cannon control centre, and the minifig is great. The one thing I'd change though, is the minifig's face. That's one of the ugliest faces (bar CW) that I've seen!

[dr_spock]

Thanks for the review.  I like the unimog like look of the truck.

[lightningtiger]

Thanks 'Brickviller' for your review of this COOL fire truck, and I agree with you on this only having one fire fighter....you do need one controlling the water cannon !
Plus my number one beef, tools....an axe...seriously only one axe, no shovel, no chain saw, no crowbar (vehicle crash rescue.....fire fighters do a little bit more than fight fires).
Still it's a good solid build with great play features....simply drive your fire truck into the flames.
On the shopping list this one is....fingers crossed Lego Australia pull their fingers out and get the stock into stores a.s.a.p. !
Brick On Review On 'Brickviller' !

[sigmeister]

Nice review. I agree with both you and Lightningtiger. Lego should have included more tools. That fire truck looks like an off road brush fire fighting vehicle. I wonder where the water tank is located in this vehicle.  

[Huntleyfx]

I know it is just a sub-model, but I think the tree is one of the best looking official trees LEGO has released.

[Gabe]

Thanks for the great review Brickviller, i've been waiting to get a good look at this one, and i want it even more now! Great to see some CFA (Country Fire Authority, for non-aussies) type fire vehicles, it might inspire me to get back to some town building. I agree about the lack of tools and an offsider, but they are dead easy mods if you pick up the Fire ATV (4427) as well.

[Esurient]

Great review, I like the fireman minifigure, though I might consider buying another fire truck since I already have lots of them.

[jansued]

Hi!

I absolutely share your opinion about playability and more tools - but I found something which might have influenced LEGO:

Morita Future Brush Truck

Regards, Jan

[TheLegoDr]

Thanks for the warm review.

I definitely like the new brown pieces for trees. We can always use more foliage. Granted, it is still sparse in this theme even though it is a "forest" theme.

The overall shape of the truck is fine by me. I do think they should have an extra figure for this size of vehicle, but at the same time, I think they typically only have one figure in this size set.

Keep up the good reviews. We'll keep reading them.

[EM4CZ]

dr_spock, on 02 January 2012 - 08:57 PM, said:

Thanks for the review.  I like the unimog like look of the truck.

Unimog? which series? does not remind him.

sigmeister, on 03 January 2012 - 02:17 AM, said:

Nice review. I agree with both you and Lightningtiger. Lego should have included more tools. That fire truck looks like an off road brush fire fighting vehicle. I wonder where the water tank is located in this vehicle.  

Water tank not attached in truck, only computer and cannon.

jansued, on 03 January 2012 - 05:37 PM, said:

Hi!

I absolutely share your opinion about playability and more tools - but I found something which might have influenced LEGO:

Morita Future Brush Truck

Regards, Jan

Hi Jan, I already commented earlier with large galleries in the Czech firefighters server Požáry.cz
http://www.eurobrick...3

Morita Truck is only prototype with command center running on Windows system,    isn´t a full functional fire truck.

Edited by EM4CZ, 03 January 2012 - 07:52 PM.

[jansued]

Hi Jan, I already commented earlier with large galleries in the Czech firefighters server Požáry.cz
http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=58486&st=840&p=1150983&#entry1150983

Morita Truck is only prototype with command center running on Windows system,    isn´t a full functional fire truck.
[/quote]

Sorry, didn't see that. You are right. A chainsaw, a hosereel or a backback pump (SCBA Bottles with Hazmat-Guy Hose) would have improved the design.

Regards, Jan

[scottwb2010]

Thanks for the review Brickviller.

Like many, it could do with another Firefighter and seems strange it has less equipment than the atv.

This truck is easy moded and I would bring the controls for the monitor nearer the driver, remove the panel behind the drivers seat and put a turntable under the seat so when the driver is in position they can turn around and operate the water monitor. And where the controls were originally, put in some blue bricks to replicate water tanks. Job done.

Scott

[EM4CZ]

Hi Scott, think something like this?
my MOD only with original parts.

[scottwb2010]

EM4CZ, on 05 January 2012 - 08:18 PM, said:

Hi Scott, think something like this?
my MOD only with original parts.

All you need now is a hose from the truck to feed the monitor.

[EM4CZ]

scottwb2010, on 06 January 2012 - 03:48 PM, said:

All you need now is a hose from the truck to feed the monitor.

Hose isn´t original part.  

[Faefrost]

If you are looking for something a little closer to reality, simply take the water cannon off of the roof. Or replace it with a small light crane and winch. While the truck really doesn't look like anything that an actual fire department would routinely take into the woods, it does look more than pasibly  like eith a European or American heavy rescue truck. ( someone really needs to teach Lego that not ever fire truck sprays water). It follows the patern of most such trucks. A very square boxy truck with a cab, often a comunications station midship, and the rest big cabinets containing tools for cutting, lifting, rescuing, diving, hazmat, etc. basically a gigantic mobile toolbox for any situation. Should be fairly easy to mod into one

Edited by Faefrost, 30 April 2012 - 12:17 AM.