Review: Toys R' Us Police Car

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

So today, as a Father's Day event, Toys R' Us had a mini-build of a police car. (TRU seems to be doing these fairly regularly now--they had Star Wars last month, and Friends in March or April.) It was labeled as a "City" event, so I'm reviewing it here. However, this really seems more like a "Creator" project than a "City" one. Maybe City is a bigger draw?

I mean, seriously, here's the ad. It says "City."

So, if you went--or didn't go, but want to build your own, how does it stack up? Read on!

Set Number: Unknown (I haven't found one yet)

Set Name: Police Car

Sub-theme: Promotional

Year of Release: 2013

Pieces: 35

Price: Free!

I don't have any pictures of the event itself. My TRU has a small area with just enough room for events like this. Fortunately, they've never been too crowded--maybe everyone was at the beach today? We were the third ones in line with no rush. The pieces were individually set out in boxes (i.e., all the red studs were in their own box), so you grabbed your instruction sheet and then put it together in assembly-line format. Here's what you'd end up with:

It's a nice little assortment of parts. I like the "symmetry"--out of most of the parts, you get almost two of everything.

I conveniently disassembled the set for this review. The downside is that the transparent 1 x 2 transparent plates were on top of the 2x2 transparent slopes. They were a PAIN to separate! I'd heard that transparent pieces tended to "fuse," and it seems to be true.

This is the other side of the instruction sheet, in case you want to build your own. I don't know if Lego is going to upload these anywhere, so I'm glad we got to keep the sheet.

Midway through the build, you can see that this car is a solid chunk of bricks, In other words, this won't be a simple mod if you want to put minifigures inside. There's really no room for them.

Getting a little closer to finished here. Again, no room for minifigures here. This will become more apparent in a moment....

Ta-daa! It's a complete police car. Admittedly, it's pretty cute. My daughter told me I need to sit in the back of it. I had to explain to her what that meant.

Then again, as a City set, it's not so practical. Officer Bob here clearly has no room to get in. At best, this set is maybe 2/3 scale of conventional City sets.

Here it is compared to one of the smallest Police sets I have: the "golf cart" from the 2011 Advent Calendar. They both use the same frame and wheels, but that's where the similarity ends. Clearly, the car is meant to be a full-sized police cruiser, so there's definitely a scale problem.

Even as part of a Police fleet, this car would look a little odd.

It's not a totally bad car--it's a fine little set of bricks for those of you who want to build simple cars and buildings shy of minifigure scale. It's just not a "City" set. I imagine they purposely labeled it that way to get people in the store. Well, it's free Lego, so it worked.

I didn't give you a shot of the rear, so here it is in all its license-platey glory.

CONCLUSION

Design: 8/10; not perfect, but it looks like what it's supposed to be, and little kids who like cars will love it.

Parts: 7/10; I like the "symmetry" of most of the pieces. I wish the license plate had come with a sticker, and maybe the "doors" could have had some as well.

Build: 7/10; I think it's an easy build, but my daughter actually struggled with this a little.

Minifigs: -5/10. That's right, I gave it a negative score on the basis that not only is it minifig-less, it can't even hold a minifig. If they'd called this a "Creator" event, we wouldn't be discussing this.

Playability: 7/10; zoom! That's about all it's good for.

Price: 10/10. It was free!

I don't know if any of you can get one at this point--the event is over--but maybe it'll help you decide if you want to go to a TRU free build in the future. I'll emphasize again: it's free! You can't go wrong regardless of the build if it's free.

[just2good]

Nice review, 'ResIpsaLoquitur'!

I got this set too. It's nice to get the 2x4s, and I agree with the rating, as it was free!

[lightningtiger]

Nice review 'RL', I think the reason behind it being a city theme is because the car is more of a classic town/late 1970's design Lego police car.

Brick On Review On 'RL'.

[meyerc13]

I took my two kids, they had a fun time building it. As a dad, it's great to see my 5 year old daughter building on her own now without help from dad. She got hers done only a few seconds behind her big brother who's had 2 more years experience building with LEGO.

The model has a very retro 70's feel to it. I haven't tried this yet, but as I was watching my kids build I thought to myself that it might be better with a 2x4 white plate on top of the trans slopes and below the 'light bar.' It would definitely help with separating those pieces.