REVIEW 60061 Airport Fire Truck

[Prezes]

Review of 60061: Airport Fire Truck

Details:

Series: City

elease year: 2014

Quantity of bricks: 326pcs

Quantity of minifigures: 2

Qty of bags with bricks: 3 large bags + 3 small bags + 2 strings (fire hoses)

Bricklist: BrickLink

Price: ~30Euro (local shop in Poland)

Brickset

BrickLink

Number three on my private 'must have & most wanted' list. Airport fire truck. 8 studów width, 8 wheels and remarkable body. Do we may expect step 'out of the box' ? If yes, in the right direction ?

Box:

Very well matched: 35cm x 19cm, 9cm high above. In the end, more than 300 blocks and 2 minifigs, so it is necessary to package all into quite huge box. After all, it is the second largest set of the series 'Great Vehicles' in 2014.

FRONT & REAR

TOP & BOTTOM

LEFT & RIGHT

Instruction:

As in 60056 - two books. Unfortunately, the division is no longer the same as in Tow Truck. Two instructions, but three bags. The first instruction includes operations for the first two bags, a second statement to the last third. The disparities are significant. Instruction 1 is more than 70 pages, "cover" with art paper, and 2 are 20 pages made ​​with much worse quality paper. I do not understand this move. Size also differs from the standard. This time, almost a square shape ... but not the most important instructions are here.

Bags & labels:

Inside the box there were labels and hoses (out of the bags).

Minifigures:

Masculine and feminine. I have not seen lady in the ranks of firefighters, so it's nice to have one here. I'm not sure but firefighter has clearly inconsolable mine, but I do not know what is the reason ? Parts for both minifigs are in the first bag, but other gadgets: the cylinder, the mask will get in the third bag. Why ?

Interesing bricks:

Water ... looks outstanding !

6055858: Flame 7M Shaft Ø3,2

6055313: Flat Tile 2X2 Round W. Hole Ø4.85

4278756: Middle Ring

Work in progress:

Engine or maybe the pomp - mounted in the rear part of the vehicle.

Finished set:

=== === === === === === ===

BENEFITS:

+ courageous step 'out of the box' - it looks professional compared 7891 from 2006,

+ whole set is one big lump with many compartments and moving parts which make this set more attractive,

+ remarkable construction without special bricks,

+ no multi colours bricks in chassis, (we call it in PL scrambled eggs)

+ upwardly open door,

+ unusuall rear part of the truck with the tools - that's the best part of model,

+ nice wheels,

WEAKNESSES:

- set has too many wholes:

a) lack of rear wall inside cab,

b) from the cabin you can see the wheels of the first axis,

c) the whole structure is assembled on the backbone chassis. In the horizontal position between the wheels and the body there's a gap,

d) on the roof the same situation - 6 wholes,

e) drum with a hose wound also reveals in the background center of the vehicle,

f) motor / pump also have a lot of space around,

- weak front of the truck, does not look very well - visually weak,

- it's over-size vehicle, but holes slimming a whole construction,

- lack of water gun control, handle or knob,

- poor, simple design of the pump / motor,

- cab tilt mechanism fails and sometimes jumps out of the rack, so that one part of the cabin do not close,

SUMMATION:

Despite of a couple of negatives I can not undoubtly write that the model is bad. It is a bold step forward, but made by undecided designer. The set looks like it needs an hour of work to add a few details and close down whole. On the box looks massive, boldly but in fact it seems to be a colossus with feet of clay. 8 studs were needed here ? I'm willing to write that 8 studs are necessary to fit two minifigs and desktop in the cabin ;-) This width gives you more options and place, but it must be skilfully used, and here it seems that it is precisely lack.

[polarscribe]

The lack of a visible control for the water cannon is intentional. Modern airport fire trucks/crash tenders have remote-operated, computer-controlled water cannons - "snozzles." No need to stand up on the roof - the firefighters can control the snozzle from inside the comfort and safety of their cockpit... with those handy-dandy stickered control panels doing the work for them

http://www.oshkoshai...ks/snozzle.aspx

Your pictures do a great job of showing why I am in love with this model. I think it does an incredible job of capturing the prototype in proper scale, is replete with great play features and just plain looks slick. Compare it with the real-world Oshkosh crash tender in the above link... the resemblance is actually striking! It looks damn close to real.

The fact that it does it, as you note, without any specialized bricks or big pieces, makes that even better. It is, IMO, one of the best of all the Great Vehicles so far released.

Edited January 29, 2014 by polarscribe

[ER0L]

Thanks for the great review which more or less meets my own thoughts upon this. I agree that it's quite a step forward - it just looks like such a behemoth is supposed to look: neither too short nor too narrow, proportions are excellent. Then there's the playability.

In my opinion 8w is the right width for this since those vehicles are considerably broader than usual trucks. On the other hand the gap between the usual 6w trucks and this scheme is much too big, but well, we won't see any vehicles with an odd width in the near future, I guess ...

Of course the whole thing can be refined, details can be optimized (that steering wheel is but a joke) but that's where the fun is anyhow.

[Prezes]

The lack of a visible control for the water cannon is intentional. Modern airport fire trucks/crash tenders have remote-operated, computer-controlled water cannons - "snozzles."

Good point. I didn't know about this. I saw one of fire truck on my local airport but not in the action. Now it explains why we have control panel between minifigs.

[LukeWarmTea]

"I have not seen lady in the ranks of firefighters, so it's nice to have one here. I'm not sure but firefighter has clearly inconsolable mine, but I do not know what is the reason ?"

Nice review! My kid would love this. The female fig is not City's first (or last) but it's nice to see one with a more serious face, usually they are smiling which contrasts awkwardly with the other firefighters faces featuring frowns of concentration; dirty patches and sweat. Did you think your firefighter is crying? It may be sweat!

I think Gail the new Lego Movie CMF is the only female fig to have a 'dirty frown face' as I like to think of it.

[Weberd01]

I'm divided about this set. I love the idea of it, but I see a big flaw - it relates to the colour scheme. All the dark grey really takes away from the red, it looks like one of the cheap Chinese knock offs that pollute eBay if you're ever trying to find something! I