[TnB Review] The LEGO Movie 70811 "The Flying Flusher"

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What do YOU think?

Flying High! (It's cool)
6
86%
It flows nicely (It's alright)
0
No votes
I think there's a clog somewhere (It's not good)
1
14%
 
Total votes: 7

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[TnB Review] The LEGO Movie 70811 "The Flying Flusher"

Post by vynsane » Sun Feb 16, 2014 12:42 pm

Name: The Flying Flusher
Number: 70811
Theme: THE LEGO® MOVIE™
Sub-theme: 2-in-1
Release Date: December 29, 2013
Piece Count: 351
Minifig Count: 3
Age Rating: 7-14
Cost: US $29.99 - CA $39.99 - UK £24.99 - EUR €29,99 - DK 249,95 DKK
Availability: Walmart exclusive (US)

Our next review of the sets in the line that ties into The LEGO Movie is another 2-in-1 set, "The Flying Flusher", a plumber's van that is rebuilt to protect Dr. McScrubs from the evil Micro Manager! Here's what LEGO has to say about the set:
Rebuild the 2-in-1 plumber’s van into The Flying Flusher!

Wash away the Micro Manager with The Flying Flusher! Use all your creative skills to convert the regular plumber’s van, with its tools, ladder and portable toilet. The Micro Manager is chasing a civilian so you need to work fast. Take off and track down the robot. Target it through the toilet seat, fire the flick missiles and give it a soaking with your wing water-sprayers. Includes 3 minifigures: Plumber Joe, Alfie the Apprentice and Dr. McScrubs.
  • Includes 3 minifigures: Plumber Joe, Alfie the Apprentice and Dr. McScrubs
  • The Flying Flusher features plunger flick missiles, spinning propellers, wing sprayers and translucent water elements
  • Also features the Micro Manager with poseable legs and double flick missiles
  • Alternative-build plumber’s van includes tools, portable toilet and a ladder
  • Grab civilians with the Micro Manager’s claws
  • A brilliant 2-in-1 building experience
  • Includes building instructions for both models
  • Watch The LEGO® Movie to see all your favorite characters in action
  • The Flying Flusher measures over 3” (10cm) high, 8” (21cm) long and 7” (19cm) wide
  • Plumber’s van measures over 3” (9cm) high, 5” (14cm) long and 1” (5cm) wide
  • The Micro Manager measures over 2” (6cm) high, 2” (7cm) long and 2” (7cm) wide
Packaging

The packaging is your standard LEGO box for a $30 (US) price-point set. Emblazoned with The LEGO Movie branding and featuring the "Flying Flusher" mode prominently in the main image, protecting Dr. McScrubs from the Micro Manager, with a call-out featuring the 2-in-1 aspect and alternate "standard" plumbing truck build and Port-O-Potty in the bottom right corner.

Front of the box:
Image

The two builds are more evenly displayed on the back along the top, with some feature call-outs along the bottom including the opening hatches, removable top panel, minifigures and plunger launcher as well as an ad for the videogame tie-in.

Back of the box:
Image

The top of the box features the three included minifigures, "Plumber Joe" complete with enormous plunger, "Alfie the Apprentice" with wrench, and "Dr. McScrubs".

Minifigures highlighted on the box:
Image


Parts and stickers

The pieces come in three un-numbered bags, so all the pieces for the various builds are intermixed. The small sticker sheet features a large "Joe's Plumbing" sticker, a small "Joe's Plumbing" sticker and two license plate stickers.

Image

Here's the heap of parts. Notable pieces include the red inverted 2x2 dome in red (presently exclusive to this set - used for the plunger ends) and lots of bricks with studs on one side. There are a handful of 1x2 bow bricks in Medium Stone (Light Bluish) Gray, and this is the cheapest set to feature the white 2x2 brick with 45deg. angle (not the slope brick, but the one that looks like a macaroni brick) - only available in five sets total, and the other four retail for at least $100 US. This is a relatively rare piece all together, even though it's been in production since 2011.

Image


Minifigures

Here we have the three figures from the set, Alfie, Dr. McScrubs, and Joe. Alfie and Joe have the same tan torso with dark blue overall printing and dark blue legs with pocket designs while the good Dr. has a printed torso on sand blue and plain sand blue legs. The face prints for Joe and Dr. McScrubs are unique to this set while Alfie's face is pretty easy to come by. The doctor is the only one with alternate "panic-stricken" printing on the reverse side (not pictured, frankly, I forgot).

I was surprised to find the hair used for Dr. McScrubs is unique to this set in this color, having been previously released in black, dark orange, and dark stone (dark bluish) gray. I'm sure we'll see this show up in sets in the future. These three figures are easily suitable for any CITY layout.

Front:
Image

All three feature printing on the back of their torsos. Otherwise, nothing to report.

Rear:
Image


Instructions

In total, there are three instruction booklets - one for the "standard" plumbing truck build and Port-O-Potty (pictured above) and one each for the Micro Manager and "Flying Flusher" build.

This booklet features the same picture of the plumbing truck depicting a catastrophic plumbing emergency in the Port-O-Potty as the back of the box.

Instruction booklet for Plumbing truck:
Image

Featuring the artwork from the front of the box, the Flying Flusher is swooping in to save Dr. McScrubs from the clutches of the evil Micro Manager.

Instruction booklets for Micro Manager and "Flying Flusher" mode builds:
Image


Port-O-Potty

Here is a detailed shot of the inside of the Port-O-Potty, including the 1x1 round brick as toilet paper and overflowing water (which is not attached to anything). The bowl of the toilet is "Pannier" minifigure neck basket.

Interior:
Image

For a simple build, the Port-O-Potty is constructed with some tricky techniques, including some bricks and plates with studs on the side to hold the wing plates on.

Port-O-Potty 3/4:
Image


Plumbing truck

Featuring some pipes and a ladder on top and some tools on the sides, the final build of the plumbing truck is pretty standard fare, though well built, and will fit in well in a CITY layout and actually fills a void for such a profession. I can't recall anything else plumbing-related in CITY other than the Plumber CMF from Series 9, who looks not dissimilar from Joe and Alfie, frankly, other than the white shirt under the overalls in contrast to tan.

Front 3/4:
Image

There are two different hatches that can open in the rear and side of the plumbing truck, to grant access to the plungers and "toilet snake" inside.

Rear 3/4 hatches open:
Image

With the top removed, you can access the comically over-sized plungers in the rear and the "toilet snake" in the center. The "snake" is really not much to speak of, just a technic wheel on a holder - you'd have to use your imagination for it to be functional.

Top-down, top panel removed:
Image

A fair deal of pieces are left over after the initial build of the plumbing truck, most of which will be used in the "Flying Flusher" build.

Leftover pieces:
Image


Micro Manager

Most of the bricks with studs on one side are used in the construction of the Micro Manager, seen here in-progress.

Micro Manager interior structure:
Image

The Micro Manager is at once cute and menacing. Comprised of mostly black and gray pieces with translucent red accents. These antagonists are reminiscent of both the Borg from Star Trek and and the Sentinels from The Matrix.

Micro Manager front:
Image

Micro Manager side:
Image

The only issue I have with this build is the hollow back, to facilitate the legs folding up inside. It's a cute feature but it's too bad the rear didn't feature a hinged hatch or something to cover up the gap.

Micro Manager rear:
Image


The Flying Flusher

Obviously, the idea of a flying plumbing truck is mainly comedic in nature. The boxy frame looks nearly incapable of flight and the propeller featuring two hammers and an axe looks like it wouldn't do much to propel anything. The goal here is wackiness and is duly achieved. The cockpit is pretty tight compared to the spacious room in the truck, but the gunner's seat in the top is funny.

The propeller is actually impeded by ground clearance during take-off, which is a design issue to be sure. It spins free when the rear of the plane is on the ground, but if one were to mimic a true take-off with a spinning prop, the hammers and axe would dig into the landing strip!

"Flying Flusher" front 3/4:
Image

From this vantage you can see how boxy the frame of this version of the build is. Again, the goal of "wacky" is in full effect here, though. I was disappointed to find the plunger gun wasn't actually functional in any way. I expected some sort of rotating/firing function, but it's just your standard flick-fire fare.

"Flying Flusher" rear 3/4:
Image

A fair deal of the pieces from the Port-O-Potty and a few from the plumbing truck are left over after building the "Flying Flusher".

Leftover pieces after "Flying Flusher" mode:
Image


How about some ratings?

Design (plumbing truck and Port-O-Potty): 9/10
Both parts are representative of what they're supposed to be, which is all you could ask of such a straight-forward subject. The truck will fit in with any CITY layout.

Design (Flying Flusher and Micro Manager): 6/10
While the Micro Manager is well-designed and fills out the "menacing black and glowing red" trope perfectly, the gap in the rear detracts from the design. The Flying Flusher itself, while seemingly the spotlight build for the set, suffers from Alt Build Malady where some bits just seem stuck on for whatever reason. Now, perhaps this was the intent, and it's clearly based on the design for the movie, but it lacks the polish of the truck build.

Build (plumbing truck and Port-O-Potty): 8/10
Intricate techniques on the Port-O-Potty bump this up a notch. For such a throw-away object, it could have easily been less complex. The truck is solidly built.

Build (Flying Flusher and Micro Manager): 7/10
The studs-out build on the Micro Manager is fun and rare for official sets, but the Flying Flusher has some interior details that just don't make much sense.

Minifigures: 6/10
While some of the pieces and prints are unique, the figures aren't prominent characters from the movie and will be overlooked by most kids for sets featuring the main characters.

Playability (plumbing truck and Port-O-Potty): 6/10
Probably the reason there haven't been any CITY sets related to plumbing is - it's just not that exciting to play with. They've done their best to create drama with the overflowing Port-O-Potty, but on the other hand... ewww!

Playability (Flying Flusher and Micro Manager): 8/10
Naturally, this is the more intense conflict of the two builds, and I can imagine kids swooshing the Flying Flusher around and shooting the plunger gun a lot more than I can see them unclogging a Port-O-Potty. Still, if the plunger gun had more of a firing mechanism or even swiveled on its base, it would have been better.

Parts: 6/10
There is a small collection of unique or rare pieces, but most are fairly common.

Price: 9/10
$29.99 in the US for 351 pieces is well below the "golden ratio" of $0.10/piece, and particularly with the 2x2 angled bricks only found in some of the more expensive sets, the price is very good.

Authenticity: 10/10
You'll see the truck version towards the beginning of the movie and the Flying Flusher towards the end, and it's a spot-on representation of both, unsurprisingly.

Overall rating: 7.5/10
ALL HAIL THE BLACTRON EMPIRE!

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dqfritzke
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Re: [TnB Review] The LEGO Movie 70811 "The Flying Flusher"

Post by dqfritzke » Thu Feb 27, 2014 6:42 am

This set seems very hard to find in my area (Canada). Anyone else noticing this? Tons of all other movie sets but zero of these.

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Re: [TnB Review] The LEGO Movie 70811 "The Flying Flusher"

Post by legopeople » Fri Jan 02, 2015 2:24 pm

dqfritzke wrote:This set seems very hard to find in my area (Canada). Anyone else noticing this? Tons of all other movie sets but zero of these.
I can't find this set in stores either... not even the Lego store. Has it been discontinued already?

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Re: [TnB Review] The LEGO Movie 70811 "The Flying Flusher"

Post by Piece_of_Evil » Fri Jan 02, 2015 4:58 pm

It's a mundane set, something not police or fire station based, and such a common sight in real life that it's surprising Lego has done a "common" tradesmans vehicle. Being tied to the Movie made it popular, but it's so understated it's unique. I will agree that they are scarce after the holidays, every Walmart vacant of them around my neck of the woods.

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Re: [TnB Review] The LEGO Movie 70811 "The Flying Flusher"

Post by hatcher » Sat Jan 03, 2015 9:52 am

Shop@home still has them. They are reduced though so they are probably on the way out.
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