Good / well executed (city) helicopter features

[Pizzasemmel]

Hey guys,

I was recently building 60004 fire station and of course, it includes a helicopter. It is a city helicopter, so the rotor spins and the canopy opens. The list of features - understandably - ends there.

That got me wondering. What functions do you remember in a (City) helicopter (I'll ignore technic for now), that are properly enjoyable? Of course swooshing it around is probably the most important one for kids, but you know, for science :-)

For me, I really liked 60243 Police Helicopter Chase, the one with the magnet. It works so well and can be attached and detached whilst moving.
I also like 31096, the creator twin rotor with the meshing rotors, it is just so satisfying to spin one and get your finger caught in the middle

I'm curious what you think.

[CDM]

As with all City kits I lean more toward realism rather than fantasy. Most of the police helicopters have fantastical features that don't exist in the real world and very few fire helicopters exist beyond those that fight forest fires (at least here in the US). I also don't care for the bubble-type canopies as there just aren't many helicopters with open cockpits these days, especially in cities. I think 60013 60123 and 60166 were really well executed with approximate realism.

With all that said, I had 6482 as a kid and I loved that thing.

Edited January 7, 2022 by CDM

[TeriXeri]

I don't have a whole lot of City helicopters as I only started collecting it from 2018.

Out of the ones I do have 60207: Sky Police Drone Chase , design style was a nice one different from the norm and closer to "military" as close as City would get, net shooter/water shooter is pretty much as far as City goes with projectiles, so not judging that.

60209: Diamond Heist was pretty cool as well , having a seat in the back with that cable to lower down a figure onto the armored truck to steal the "red diamond" also could lift the roof off the truck after roleplaying that the figure cut it open with the circular saw included.

 

Other helicopters I think were interesting concepts : 

60125*: Volcano Heavy-Lift Helicopter looks interesting with the dropping off a base-station, but a very expensive set, but still one of the biggest City helicopters made.

60162:* Jungle Air Drop Helicopter / 72005: Aaron's X-bow  , dropping off a car or bike, with different type of locking mechanisms.

31096*: Twin-Rotor Helicopter / 70353: The Heligoyle , having 1 button to spin both rotors is a cool feature, and the creator set had a cargo bay+winch.

60166*: Heavy-Duty Rescue Helicopter , sliding side door could probably be implemented on smaller helicopters , has a winch, and even a 6-wide boat in the cargo, so yes overall 10 wide but got the features.

*sets I don't own so only judge from reviews

4 of those helicopters using the nice 8 wide cockpit window, hope one day there will be a 6 wide variant of such a window, but 8 wide for a helicopter still isn't oversized imo.

 

City started to using a lot of Drone copters in recent years and I don't think those are really interesting, but still could add some imagintive play, and a few drones put out fires.

I do like the smaller helicopters from the Police and Fire stations, they are nice enough to be included but not oversized and still better then recent polybag/magazine helicopters imo.

Edited January 7, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Johnny1360]

I think one of my favorite recent city scale helicopters is the one from 60281. It really looks sharp, the back opens up to reveal a stretcher, plus the side pods shoot those big honkin water bomb missiles, those are fun. Or if you don't care for the water missiles just don't load them, the shooters blend into the body work and just look like regular side pods.

I have a special fondness for LEGO helicopters as my first successful moc as a child was a helicopter. Also first time I discovered SNOT building, way back in the early 70's, before it was a thing, lol. So I do collect a great number of LEGO's offerings but I do try to stick with the better ones.

Edited January 8, 2022 by Johnny1360

[TeriXeri]

12 hours ago, Johnny1360 said:

I think one of my favorite recent city scale helicopters is the one from 60281. It really looks sharp, the back opens up to reveal a stretcher

Yeah that one looks great too, its trying a new style with those triangle slopes, but looks good from most angles.

And that set is the same price as 60343: Rescue Helicopter Transporter , and even both at 212 / 215 pieces only, the fire heli set looks to have more content and an extra fig.

 

Edited January 8, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Maple]

There was a Coast Guard helicopter from maybe 2011 that has a rescue string and when you hit the button on the side it would bring the string back up.

[Stuartn]

4 hours ago, Maple said:

There was a Coast Guard helicopter from maybe 2011 that has a rescue string and when you hit the button on the side it would bring the string back up.

I recall that one, they had two like that, in 2008 and 2013, and both worked really well and I really liked the life raft or catamaran which come in each respectively. The 2013 coast guard ship also had a small helicopter with a winch, and it was great to have a small scale helicopter that a) looked good (especially for the smaller scale) and b) still had functionality and swooshability, compared to the small forgettable ones we get now in every set. The 2015 news traffic/news chopper was also great for a small scale. I also liked the 2013 fire helicopter which also had the recoiling winch and had a very nice shape, it also sat very low to the ground which looked far better.

I also liked the police chopper in the museum break in. It was a small four wide chopper ( and debuted the common canopy piece) but its inclusion really enhanced the set and the colour was nice.

[Pizzasemmel]

On 1/7/2022 at 9:05 PM, TeriXeri said:

72005: Aaron's X-bow  , dropping off a car or bike

I just had a look, and I really like spring loaded stuff. Thanks for the mention.

On 1/8/2022 at 4:35 AM, Johnny1360 said:

the one from 60281. It really looks sharp, the back opens up to reveal a stretcher, plus the side pods shoot those big honkin water bomb missiles, those are fun

Yes, those big shooters seem to be way more fun than the regular small projectile shooters. From the overall feel they are very close to the old technic shooters with the rubber tipped arrows, which were great!

7 hours ago, Maple said:

There was a Coast Guard helicopter from maybe 2011 that has a rescue string and when you hit the button on the side it would bring the string back up.

Ohhh, I did not know about that yet. And the    Winch neither! That is quite the find for me, thanks a lot. 60013 is the set, if somebody wants to look it up.

[CastleRail]

50 minutes ago, Pizzasemmel said:

Ohhh, I did not know about that yet. And the    Winch neither! That is quite the find for me, thanks a lot. 60013 is the set, if somebody wants to look it up.

The winch also features in helicopters in 4995, 60010 and 7738. 7738 is the only one I have and has what seems like the best usage - the winch arm swings inside the body to allow the door to close, giving the model a full chopper body.

[TeriXeri]

60302 has an integrated winch on the underside (hook can lock on the antistuds of the bottom plate so its hidden) and a somewhat different design with the 6-rotors + a cargo space with no studs.

With modifications, moving the winch to the outside sideways for example, cargo space could be increased from 6x4 to 10x4 so almost 2x as big, and then it might fit the included crocodile, or lion from other sets of the 2021 safari rescue wave.

Edited January 9, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Maple]

6 hours ago, Pizzasemmel said:

I just had a look, and I really like spring loaded stuff. Thanks for the mention.

Yes, those big shooters seem to be way more fun than the regular small projectile shooters. From the overall feel they are very close to the old technic shooters with the rubber tipped arrows, which were great!

Ohhh, I did not know about that yet. And the    Winch neither! That is quite the find for me, thanks a lot. 60013 is the set, if somebody wants to look it up.

Yeah the Coast Guard helicopter is one of my favorites. If I was a kid I would have destroyed the set.

I always wanted Volcano Heavy-Lift but boy that costed too much. The drop off base thing I wish LEGO used in more sets.