8135 Bridge Chase

[Freddie]

Because of exams and other obligations, I haven't posted this sooner. Seeing that no-one else has reviewed this set, I thought I might as well do it myself.

The set in its entire glory (minus the slammer, instructions and the (obviously) massive sticker sheet)

The four cars included in this set; a muscle car, a sports car, a roadster and the police off-roader(!):

Because the police obviously have no clue that an off-roader is useless for catching street-racers, no less a batmobile-ish sports car, it will always trail behind:

But the police have a trick up their sleeve - the drawbridge:

Gotcha!

And the mechanism that makes it all tick:

The motor is nothing more than a (slow) pull-back motor. Push down the bridge, the latch will hook on to the gear and keep it in place until the latch is released.

And there's the new gas station. Staying within theme, this gas-station is, like the tanker in 8147, from the company Fuel 4 Speed:

There's a notable presence of detail here, such as the soda-dispenser, water (coolant?) bottles and other accesories, two fuel pumps and bumper-level railings to prevent cars from crashing into them. There's no interior however.

And as demonstrated here by a loyal Octan-employee and a pursuing officer, the gas station is built to minifig-scale:

My impressions of this set: As a collector of tiny turbos, and yet to miss a set, I got this one regardless of what it included. The gas station is indeed very nice, and the minifig-scale accesories were unexpected. The lack of interior is no big issue, and the both the station and bridge can with ease be implemented into a mini-fig town. The bridge also solidly built, and includes the ramps in its design, so it can be lifted, with ramps attached, without breaking apart. The slammer included in the set is identical, apart from the white color, with those in 8147. The cars are also very nice, altough I am yet to get used to the yellow batmobile, as I've grown accustomed to calling it. I also love the off-roader's chunky tires, they make perfect wheels for the newer minifig-scale cars.

I never consider price/parts ratio, and here it would, for me, be irrelevant, because it will never be demolished for parts. The play value is what I would consider pretty good, and while the bridge won't rise with a car on it, it's still strong enough to stay open with a car tipping over the edge.

Hmm. Every nerve in my body is saying that this sets is worth roughly 8/10, so:

Verdict: 8/10

Edited May 23, 2009 by WhiteFang
Indexed

[brickbitz]

Looks like a nice set, I like the tiny turbos and have most of the older individual cars, but I am put off by the ever increasing price of the large sets with lots of extra parts that I'm not really interested in.

I wish these were available as individual vehicles as well.

[iamded]

Thanks for the review! It's really cool that the petrol station is mini-fig scaled, I wasn't expecting that! :-D

~Peace

[ExoBuilder]

It looks like a nice set but I'm not interested in the minis, it's got a nice drawbridge though! Thanks!

*sweet*

[Darth_Legois]

I want this set but its $60 AUD which is a ripp off! i like the yellow car! *wub* :'-) *y* by the way good review! *y*