Alldarker

10197 Fire Brigade Ages 16+. 2,231 pieces. US $ 149.99; CA $ 199.99, UK £ 97.85, DE € 149.99 Build an authentic vintage fire station! Ding ding ding! There’s a fire in town! The fire brigade drives to the scene from this detailed and realistic 1930’s fire station. Designed to fit with other modular buildings like 10182 Café Corner and 10185 Green Grocer, the station features rare LEGO® pieces and innovative construction techniques. It includes a ‘30s-style fire truck, 4 minifigures, a fire-dog, an opening station garage door, and a removable building roof for interior access. It also includes 2 fully-furnished floors with fire-fighting tools, racks for the firemen's helmets, fire-pole, ping-pong table, kitchen with fully-stocked fridge, couch, bookshelf and a roof with a water tower and bell. Measures 14" (35 cm) high and 10" (25 cm) wide. • Includes a 1930’s-style fire truck, 4 minifigures and a fire-dog! • Features lots of realistic details including fire-fighting tools, racks for firemen’s helmets and even a fire-pole! • The station house features an opening station garage door and 2 fully-furnished floors including a kitchen with fully-stocked fridge and a ping-pong table! • Remove the roof for interior access! • The roof is equipped with a water tower and bell! • Fire Brigade features rare LEGO elements including bricks and plates in dark tan, 1x1 dark red tiles, a red hot dog and the 3x6x5 Belleville® arch. It also features gold fireman’s helmets, a tan hand bag and a red sliding garage door! • Measures 14" (35 cm) high and 10" (25 cm) wide. • Add Fire Brigade to your LEGO® Town and combine it with other modular buildings like 10182 Café Corner and 10185 Green Grocer! Available for order directly through LEGO® beginning September 1, 2009 via shop.LEGO.com All pictures link to HR images which can be +7000.pxl All Pictures © 2009 The LEGO Group and used here with permission!

Hi, I've reviewed a couple of sets on Eurobricks already (Temple of Anubis, Thunder Driller), but I'd like to officially join the Academy, seeing as there's always something new to learn (especially regarding sizing pictures)!

Good review of a good set! I have had a interest in the Lego Adventurers line, as shown by my recent review of the Temple of Anubis. In recent times I have been mostly buying the large sets in the Adventurers line like the 5988 Temple of Anubis, the 5986 Amazon Ancient Ruins, the 5976 River Expedition and the 7419 Dragon Fortress. Most of these contain a vehicle just like this one. The design of these vehicles is usually excellent for the size of the set, especially the fact that two figs can sit side by side. You could argue that comparing Lego Adventurers to Indiana Jones is like comparing Megabloks to Lego, but that would not do the Adventurers any justice. The sets were usually very well designed, had a freedom of design beyond the strictly licenced borders of the Indy movies and were often playset-based. Like many others, I hope Lego is able to restart the Adventures theme once the Indy theme is done (although there might then be legal obstacles to such a comparable theme).

Good review, The Rancor! I was looking forwards to a review for this set, and you have made me want it even more. Together with the Space Truck Getaway, this is the only set I want from the Space Police Line: I love the way both these sets were designed to look like earth vehicles 'spacified'. The amount of stickers is slightly horrifying, though... @Rick77... Had to laugh at the way bad-'megablocks' turned out...

= a might buy

From the worst of the best to the best of the best!!! 10. AT-ST driver (cool helmet, cool uniform) 9. Jawa (looks exactly like it should, great head and torso printing) 8. Cloud City Boba Fett (full body printing: need I say more?) 7. Ten Numb (great face printing, very cute!) 6. Endor Rebel soldier (superb helmet mold and printing, great torso print) 5. Scout Trooper (first ever available Emperial troopers, still an excellent helmet mold) 4. Snowtrooper (great helmets: look very threatening) 3. Darth Vader (a true classic minifig) 2. Greedo (brilliant head mold) 1. Chrome gold C3PO (the way all C3PO's should have been from the start of the SW licence, alas quite rare)

My apologies to everyone who had to wait for my hugely oversized pictures to load... It was a dumb oversight on my part, which I have now corrected (likewise for the broken links)! I won't let it happen again. And special apologies to Tom Bricks who also bid on this set! Furthermore thanks for everyone who liked the review.

*** Now with much smaller pictures: apologies to everyone who saw this review earlier and had to wait for my crazy huge pictures to load!!! *** In recent months I have acquired a renewed interest in the Lego Adventures lines. I guess this does have something to do with being slightly disappointed in the Indiana Jones line and with the IJ sets being too limited to vehicles, in my opinion. I already mentioned acquiring a MISB 7424 Dragon Fortress from the Orient Expedition line for relatively little money, but I still haven’t had the heart to open this rare set yet… However, I also very recently acquired a slightly used but 99,7% complete 5988 Pharaoh’s Forbidden Ruins (also known as The Temple of Anubis) for the princely sum of €27,12 on e-Bay. Not bad at all for an eleven-year-old set containing 710 pieces (minus two gray parrots) and including all figures and instructions! The attraction of this set is obvious: the combination of an Egyptian temple, a hot air balloon and a truck make this the biggest set in the Adventurers Desert theme. However, the set came out in 1998, at a time when Lego wasn’t doing too well financially, and this set probably shows why. Having grown used to stickers in sets, my biggest surprise was to see the sheer amount of printed pieces in this set! It contains about 20 printed pieces, many of them very specific to this set. I can imagine the Lego accountants still shaking in anger at the need to print huge bricks that mostly only ever appeared in just this one set. Building starts with the figures and two palm trees. There are no less than ten figures in the set, including all the major characters in the Adventurers Desert theme (Johnny Thunder, Pharaoh Hotep, Dr. Kilroy, Pippin Read, Lord Sam Sinister, Harry Cane, Slyboot) and including three old style skeletons with loose hanging ball-jointed arms (one shown). I was also glad to see the palm trees are built using the old style tree trunk parts instead of the ugly modern one piece trunks. Truck Next, the instructions tell you to build the truck. It’s quite a big truck, the biggest of all the vehicles in the Adventurers Desert theme. It’s a three-axle flatbed truck with wooden railings and two crates. The cabin is a prefab cabin with steering wheel, stick shift and printed gauges. It is partially enclosed by a roof just high enough to accommodate the figures, which almost all seem to have quite tall hats. The excellent printed windscreen which features in a lot of the wheeled vehicles in this theme is slightly too short to reach the roof, but looks great on the truck. Hot-air balloon Next the instructions tell you to build the hot-air balloon. This too is a very fun and surprisingly detailed vehicle, with a slightly small balloon and a large basket with a barrel containing tools and even a gas cylinder. The basket is able to contain three minifigs easily. I especially like the net across the top of the balloon, which has a surprisingly clever attachment to the balloon. It’s a great vehicle, even in its own right without the rest of the set. The front The next step is the Temple of Anubis itself. The set contains two 32x16 base plates, each of which is built up separately. You start with the façade of the temple. Building is easy, with clear differences between the colours, but the instructions contain no parts boxes per step, so some attention is needed to build the set up correctly (random instruction page shown below). The finished front of the temple is quite high, but very narrow. Judging from the alternative name for this set, the front resembles a jackal: Anubis was the Egyptian jackal god of the dead, and in fact it’s not a terrible likeness. It’s just too bad that it is mostly made with a couple of BURP’s and the huge printed wall pieces (which do look good, however). A nice detail is the small campfire before the temple. What is interesting about this, in my opinion, is the fact that that this whimsical detail contains the only two brown 2x1 plates in the whole set! It is another of those crazy design choices which are good for the set, but not good for accounting. Nowadays, sets rarely contain more than one or two standard colours per brick type or per bag, due to cost restraints. This set however contains quite a few like pieces in several different colours. Especially in the case of this campfire they could easily have (and probably should have) left these brown bricks out, but they didn’t, and I appreciate this detail a lot for that reason. As stated before, this set is usually known as the Pharaoh’s Forbidden Ruins, although the name ruins does not do this set any justice. Discovery Channel showed us that the pyramids and temples were originally painted in vibrant colours. Let me say that the Temple of Anubis has stood the test of time very well! Unlike the hieroglyphics in the Lost Tomb, these seem to be as fresh as the day they were painted. Traps Where this set falls slightly short is perhaps the traps. When entering the temple, you are greeted by two skeletons on either side of the entrance. While inspecting these, there is a chance that one is crushed by falling rocks from a trapdoor in the ceiling, or severed in half by the dropping axe also linked to the trapdoor, but these are quite easily avoided, especially as the drop down axe doesn’t work very well. After avoiding these traps, nothing stands in the way of entering the courtyard or opening Pharaoh Hoteb’s tomb, which has been placed in the right wing of the front of the temple. Climbing a ladder to the second floor, there is also a second trapdoor through which one can fall, but then the way is pretty clear to the treasure chest containing no less than 4 gold pieces. For some strange reason, they are coins with modern numerals, proving that Egyptians were WAY ahead of their time. Jewels or gold artefacts would probably have been a better choice as ancient treasure… The courtyard The second base plate contains the courtyard area of the temple. This area is a lot smaller than the front of the temple, and seems to suit the name ruins slightly better. Showpiece in this area are the two gray crocodile altars, both set with tools useful for performing rituals. This set is in fact the only Lego set ever to contain dark grey crocodiles, another example of the strange choices of the designers of this set (although the colour is quite realistic for some species of crocodiles and alligators). The courtyard also contains a nice scorpion altar, featuring a jewel under a glass dome. Behind this, at the back of the courtyard there is a wall with a skeleton. When you turn the secret wall around, it reveals a magnet which pulls the dome with the jewel from its resting place, and by turning the wall further, hides it behind the wall. It’s an interesting mechanism, but slightly useless (the jewel ends up outside of the temple). On the floor of the courtyard, the real threats to our adventurers are the scorpion and the three snakes crawling around. The courtyard is shaded by one of the two palm trees. Again, for a location which seems to be set outside, the courtyard too has stood the test of time very well. Conclusion This is a great set, with great parts, great vehicles, great figures, an excellent theme for playing with and a fun build. Some points of criticism are needed, though. The courtyard area is structurally a little sparse compared to the front, and construction design is lacking somewhat in the whole building. This set is mostly facade and little else. Secondly, the traps could have been more intricate for such a large set, Thirdly, I would have liked to see a gate or door or even a moving rock as the entrance to the temple, instead of the gaping 8-stud-wide hole the entrance is now. Finally, as in most of the sets in the Adventurers Desert theme, I’d have liked to see a lot more influence of 3,000+ years of sandstorms, grave robbers and general decay on the design of the set. Perhaps if this set had contained a couple of disciples or priests of the ancient pharaoh it would be more believable that the temple is still in such an excellent condition. In that respect, Indiana Jones’ Lost Tomb does a better job of looking somewhat realistic. Speaking of this last set, these two sets just scream out to be combined into an Egyptian temple or pyramid MOC. I think this set shows very nicely how in the past Lego got things very right and also very wrong. Very right in the sense that the set is a great setting for children’s adventures and play. Very wrong as far as business sense is concerned, considering the amount of printed pieces, the huge size of the printed pieces, the uniqueness of the printed pieces, the uniquely coloured pieces and the inclusion of the same pieces in diverse colours. I can imagine this set probably still being used by Lego accountants as an example of bad design choices made back in the late nineties. Not that I’m complaining of course. I love this set, as a great display piece, as a testament to the follies Lego used to make, and lastly, as a source of some excellent and unique pieces! Round up Playability: 10/10 Figures: 10/10 Pieces: 10/10 Design: 7/10 Swooshability / structural soundness: 7/10 Price: 10/10 Overall: 9/10

ILikePi: yes, that is exactly how you get them. On flights, especially long international flights on bigger planes, the stewardess comes rond with a trolley with small duty free items like perfume, watches, pens and booze, and sometimes also small toys (like these Lego sets). So you buy them directly from the stewardess while in the plane.

Hmm... I'll be flying with Continental next week. I'll see if they have this set available; looks nice.

Actually, acording to the photo of the instructions, it looks like the windscreen should actually be half a stud back! I wasn't even aware that was possible... and on even further investigation, it looks like the windscreen is indeed a full stud back in the box art. To be honest, both options do look (even) better than the way it has been positioned in the review photo's (no offence, BTW, it's an excellent review!).

We did see pictures before didn't we? Anyway, it's exactly what I had expected all along, when the piece count and the tag 'midiscale' first became known. To be honest, I am an OT collector, but I don't like this set at all, and I wouldn't even buy it if it was on sale.

I recently bought some of Arealight's amazing Ithorian head molds. They are about as good as anything Lego would make. He doesn't have a Pons Limbic mold yet though

This is a nice set, even though I am not into the prequel movies or sets. My fondest memory of this set is being able to buy one used together with some other SW Lego sets (including a 7150 Y-Wing and a complete 7130 Snowspeeder) for € 25,- (!!!) back in 2005 and selling just this MTT on for € 85,- a week later! Beste deal I ever made! And during the week I had it in my possesion, I did admire the many cool features, such as the removable back, the hidden guns and the droid rack.

Even though I hated the movie, this set was just too good to pass up when I saw it on sale a couple of years ago. The vehicles are designed very well, even if I have since taken them apart. And the minifigs are excellent, especially Zam Wessel, who's human head is an excellent piece for harem scenes and such.

Like someone wrote before me, these sets won't get any cheaper, the longer you wait. If you'd really want it, you should just bite the bullet and lay down the cash for those sets as soon as possible.

I started collecting SW Lego sets back in 2000, and I was able to get most of the 1999 sets back then. The only sets I dont have but might still be slightly interested in getting are the TIE-bomber and Droid Escape, more because these are the only OT sets I do not own than due to the coolness of these sets themselves. Long ago I realized that day one of availability (on S@H) was usually the best day to buy the sets I really wanted; I never rely on sales and I never expect sets being available for years to come. When a set does go on sale (such as the Sandcrawler or the 6211 ISD) I usually just buy a second. So, all in all, no regrets...

Reviving this topic back form the dead, somewhat, I am very pleased that I just bought this set MISB for €119 on e-Bay. Expensive, some would say, but I have wanted to get this set for ages. And I do remember this set being almost as expensive in the shops back in 2003-2004. I really liked the Orient Expedition sets, but only got the smaller sets (hmm, I see that 7413 Passage of Jun-Chi, which I've got, hasn't yet been reviewed...) and the 7417 Temple of the Mountain. This review actually made me want to get this set a whole lot more!

Sorry for nit picking, but it's Nien Nunb. His name is spelled with an "n", unlike Ten Numb. But yes, a third minifig scale MF with both Nien Nunb and Lando Calrissian would be excellent (although I am not expecting it).

I love the Home One set. Excellent minifigs, and a great design. I'd say the black rod sticking out the front is part of some sort of launching / sliding mechanism for the A-Wing. Looks interesting. And to al the people who were seriously expecting a whole ship: I can remember that almost from the beginning of the "Choose the next SW-set" campaign, more than a year ago, what was promised as the "Home One set" was to be a control bridge with a green A-Wing!!! It was either that or a new Slave I with launchpad or Chancellor Palpatine's arrest... So I really can't imagine why people were expecting something other than this! I can't remember even TLC making a big secret of how the set would turn out: exactly what we see now! Like many, many others have said before me, the whole Home One ship is about 2,5 times the size of a regular ISD, and due to the organic nature of the design, it can be described as a elongated slug shape... Designing it even in 6211 ISD scale would be... unfeasable.

Those are some great comparison shots you've made! It's a great idea: I also have all the OT sets in all their incarnations, but I have never really set them side by side, except for the AT-AT's. Do you have other sets like the X-wings or the Snowspeeders (3 versions!) or even Darth Vader's TIE (4 versions!!!)

Considering the differences, I'd say that these pictures are more recent than these pics. Meaning that all the differences you mention are actually older designs than the designs on the box pictures, which are probably a lot more true to the final designs. EDIT: never mind, I've seen that lots more people have already pointed this out before me...

That looks real nice, Legoman. Might just have to look into that myself. Adding the infrared wireless activator would make it even better, it's true, though. And (no criticism of your Sandcrawler) Í still would have prefered it if TLC would have made the front tracks steerable instead of the back tracks...

No problem, thanks for the tip! Spelling has been changed (in both of my reviews): I wouldn't want people to get the wrong idea!

I bought these at the Dutch Department store "Vroom & Dreesman". Not a store known for the quality of their toy sections, but it happens to be the only store here in the Netherlands which is currently selling the PM sets. I'd say Vroom & Dreesman are probably breaking some embargo from Lego, though, so they can stock Lego on the shelves. Here in the Netherlands it will be "Sinterklaas" (Santa Claus) on December 5th. This is a festivity that centers around giving and receiving gifts, especially toys for kids. In the run up to December 5th (and Christmas afterwards) a LOT of toys are sold, sometimes meaning empty toy shelves.