Review: 40097 Helicopter - Monthly Mini Build april

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

It's that time again! The first Tuesday of the month means that the Lego Brick-and-Mortar Stores have put out their Monthly Mini Builds for the kids. The Stores do these once a month (at least) to get you into the store and spending money. However, you do walk out with some free bricks and a possibly functional model.

I recently reviewed all of 2013's MMB's in this article. I also reviewed January's model here, February's here, and March's here. I plagiarize my opening paragraphs from my past articles. Life is just easier that way . If you're sad because you don't have a Lego Store near you, that's ok, because Lego publishes the instructions for each month's builds on their website. If it's not up yet, it should be soon.

This month, we're reviewing a small helicopter. Lego has made lots of small helicopters before, so how does this compare? Read on!

Set Title: Helicopter

Set #: 40097-1

Theme: Monthly Mini Build

Pieces: 44

Minifigures: None

Year of Release: 2014

Price at release: Free.

Here's the card you get while waiting in line at the store. It makes a nice display item for the kids when they put their model out at home.

The back of the card has the parts inventory, which is nice if you lose a part, I guess.

Here's the standard sheet of directions you get every month. Actually, this sheet was particularly large. I'm pretty sure the instructions for the last few months were on a much smaller sheet of paper.

Back side of the instructions.

Here's the parts breakdown. It's a nice motley selection, but it's pretty much only good for making a helicopter. I do wish they'd given us some 1 x 6 tiles instead of plates for the rotors--studded rotors look weird. On the other hand, maybe they decided to keep it consistent and just throw in a bunch of plates that were all the same.

The spares are in the lower left and are nothing shocking--two plates, a tile, and a switch.

There's not much to tell in the building process--this set comes together nicely as a little minifigure-sized (more on that in a bit) helicopter. Structurally, it's very similar to a lot of other small helicopters Lego has put into polybags in the last few years, like 4991, 30014, 30222, or 30226. (Weirdly, those are all police choppers.) They're similar in their basic structure of a cockpit, the rotors on top and in the rear, and some form of landing struts.

I do think it's odd that this design includes the "up" snot plates under the main rotors, as nothing goes on them. I guess they're just decorative, and they're nice to have available, but I wish that they had some other purpose.

Here's the top view. One other thing that's throwing me on this model is the red 1 x 1 tiles on the rotors. Maybe they're meant to add color, but they look odd against the overall white, blue, and black that make up the model. I'm not sure why they were included.

One of the draws of this model (for me, anyway) is that it's minifigure-compatible. I've included Emmet in here to illustrate the point--he fits in there very well. (I originally put Batman in there, but the ears wouldn't clear the glass.) This is a nice change, since the Monthly Mini-Builds are usually small brick-built models of things like animals or buildings. This is only the second time in recent memory that they've made a minifigure-sized vehicle, the other being November's lawnmower. Maybe the Store model designers are realizing the popularity of minifigures and are changing their strategy? On the other hand, there's always a ton of kids in line for these builds, so I imagine they'll draw the same crowds no matter what the build is.

One problem I did find is with the cockpit design. It opens just fine....

Because the mechanism is so tight, it doesn't close all the way when you push the lid down--there's a small gap. You really have to push down-and-back to get it to close tightly. This led to the cockpit popping off a lot. There's nothing securing the clips, so keeping an otherwise stable model fully assembled was a little tricky.

Anyway, the color and cockpit flaws aside, this was a fun little build.

CONCLUSION

Design: 7/10. It's a fine little model, and it's nice to see a small chopper that's not a part of Lego City's ever-growing Police fleet. I had to downgrade it some because of the cockpit problem, and I really don't care for the red tiles on the rotors--the color clashes too much.

Parts: 9/10. This was a nice selection of parts, some standard and some unique.

Build: 9/10. I rate these according to how well my daughter is able to put the model together. She did just fine this month. I assisted her just a little to keep her moving (we had to get home), but she was mostly able to pull it together on her own. These models are for kids, so I think ease of build should be viewed with that in mind.

Minifigs: N/A. But it's minifigure-sized and could fit well in your City scene.

Playability: 10/10. This is a very functional model with opening cockpit and two spinning rotors. It's very "swooshable," as they say, and I think we'll have lots of fun with it.

Price: 10/10. It was free! Free!

Overall: 45/50. A few small flaws brought this model down, but it's overall a very nice model with a lot of practical use. Lego is doing very well with the monthly builds this year, and this little helicopter proves that point.

Coming next month: a small dragon. Is it intended for a Castle scene or something else? We'll find out!

Thanks to the good staff at the Westfield Annapolis Mall Lego Store for putting on the free monthly build as usual.

Edited April 2, 2014 by ResIpsaLoquitur

[Sir Brickalot]

Nice review. Same old, same old IMO in terms of mini helicopters. But your review is enjoyable as always, thanks!

[Godtshep]

Thanks for the review.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Quick update, I added a shot of the parts breakdown. Ugh. That's what I get for doing this review right before bed last night.