[REVIEW] 4900 Fire Helicopter

[legitimatealex]

Indexed

4900 Fire Helicopter
Price: $3.99
Pieces: 34
Price Per Piece: $.12
Minifigures: 1
LEGO Description:

None! They must not care.

Fire helicopters must be popular and a necessity in LEGO city because I've never seen one in my entire life but LEGO has made 7 sets with the exact name 'fire helicopter.' This particular one is currently available from Target at the checkout aisles for a limited time.



Pretty standard poly bag goodness. Crunchy and crinkly!



The back sports a free child pass to LEGOland. Only about a decade and a half too late for me.



The instructions come in just a tiny little fold out piece of paper. It's really really super simple. I didn't use the instructions and it turned out just fine :)





Here's a pretty stock fireman. There's no back printing.



And here's the complete helicopter. There's not much to see at all. But then again, in a poly bag what would you expect?



Is this some kind of weird fire extinguisher? A hose? I have no clue.



Looks pretty good from the front.



Good from the side too!



The biggest downside to this build is that you have to pop the top off to get the fireman in :? Kind of ruins it.



Top view.



The back propeller just sticks into this handy dandy block.



Another downside: the propellers hit each other when they spin. Blech.



These are the extra pieces. Why I need a second blade, I have no clue! You usually only get extras of small pieces!

I've bought about 7 different unique poly bags and I have to say that this bag is close to last place in my ranking. It's not a particularly useful or rare minifigure, the build isn't even clever or interesting and you have to take apart the helicopter to stick the minifigure in, plus the blades hit each other and cancel each other out. I can't really say that the pieces are that interesting either. A windshield like that is interesting and nice to have, but is it really worth shelling out the money for? I don't think so.

I wouldn't recommend this set.

[ncbarrett]

I actually like this set, and my daughter does to.
for 3.50 I think is sufficient.
But if everyone agrees with you, I might be able to snag them at half off or better, eventually.

[vynsane]

I'm in it more for the pieces here than for the final build. That windscreen is great for speeder bikes, and I've not seen that fire extinguisher/gun thing in yellow before. The inverted curved 'hull' piece is pretty awesome, the red 2x2 slope brick is a great piece, too, and you can never have too many helmets and visors. The build is relatively uninspired, but like I said - I like the pieces. I'm definitely going to pick up at least one or two for myself and my daughter, who likes the Fire sub-theme. I'll probably grab some more if they hit clearance.

[legitimatealex]

I'm in it more for the pieces here than for the final build. That windscreen is great for speeder bikes, and I've not seen that fire extinguisher/gun thing in yellow before. The inverted curved 'hull' piece is pretty awesome, the red 2x2 slope brick is a great piece, too, and you can never have too many helmets and visors. The build is relatively uninspired, but like I said - I like the pieces. I'm definitely going to pick up at least one or two for myself and my daughter, who likes the Fire sub-theme. I'll probably grab some more if they hit clearance.

I will grant you the windshield and the yellow gun being useful but the slopes and the hull pieces? In the tiny 1 stud length the hull pieces aren't too useful. As for the slopes, they suffer from the same problem for me.

I'm sure there are going to be people who want this set a lot though. There always are :) But I just can't recommend it. Maybe if it was at a lower price I could, but it did not seem justified in this instance.

By the way, the worst poly bag I ever got was this one:



I only got him for the lime green rock monster. As I recall I picked it up for $2.50 from Target. Sure beats buying a $30 set you don't want though for the minifigure.

[ncbarrett]

...

By the way, the worst poly bag I ever got was this one:

How can you ever say a rock monster was the worst poly bag?
Esp. for only 2.50
I wish I had picked some up. Can never have too many rock monsters.

[Mantisking]

I've bought about 7 different unique poly bags and I have to say that this bag is close to last place in my ranking. It's not a particularly useful or rare minifigure, the build isn't even clever or interesting and you have to take apart the helicopter to stick the minifigure in, plus the blades hit each other and cancel each other out. I can't really say that the pieces are that interesting either. A windshield like that is interesting and nice to have, but is it really worth shelling out the money for? I don't think so.

You're not buying it for the windscreen, those are fairly common. You're -- at least I did -- buying it for the yellow chainsaw body and the two 1x6x1 inverted slope pieces. And maybe for more helicopter blades. :)

[legitimatealex]

...

By the way, the worst poly bag I ever got was this one:

How can you ever say a rock monster was the worst poly bag?
Esp. for only 2.50
I wish I had picked some up. Can never have too many rock monsters.

It was objectively the worst poly bag I have ever gotten. Personally I like it because I wanted a complete set, which I do own because of that one poly bag. But seriously, on it's own, it's a pretty bad set.

[ncbarrett]

...

By the way, the worst poly bag I ever got was this one:

How can you ever say a rock monster was the worst poly bag?
Esp. for only 2.50
I wish I had picked some up. Can never have too many rock monsters.

It was objectively the worst poly bag I have ever gotten. Personally I like it because I wanted a complete set, which I do own because of that one poly bag. But seriously, on it's own, it's a pretty bad set.

How is a rock monster different from any other minifigure?

[legitimatealex]

It's not. I really wanted the whole set of them. I'm just saying that when you look at the poly bag as a a complete set, with play functions, other pieces, etc. it is pretty terrible. 13 pieces is super low even for a polybag.

[vynsane]

I will grant you the windshield and the yellow gun being useful but the slopes and the hull pieces?

I'm talking about the main curved hull piece, not the pieces they used for the runners (although, I wouldn't call them terribly useless). The red curved 2x2 slope is the other piece I called out. The rest of the parts (aside from the windscreen and gun) are standard fare.

Anyway, impulse sets are generally a good value no matter what. When you consider that a minifigure is valued at $2 that means you're getting the rest of those pieces for $1.50 - which is ~$0.044/piece (going by the 34 pieces included in this set, as the minifigure pieces we're not counting are nulled by the five extra pieces). Even counting the figure, the price/piece value is $0.089.

[yeti79]

I have the police helicopter it is very similar to this and also have the problem with the rotors hitting each other, ruins the set for me. The rotor problem can be fixed with a 2x2 plate under the red rotor plate.