[REVIEW] 3182 Airport

[hatcher]

Indexed

Set Name:Airport
Set Number: 3182
Theme: City
Year: 2010
Pieces: 703
Mini figures: 5
MSRP: $129.99 (CDN) $99.99 (USD)

Description from Shop@Home:
Everyone’s on the go at the big LEGO® City Airport!

There’s so much to do at the LEGO® City Airport! Enter the terminal through the revolving doors, check in at the ticket desk, go through the security checkpoint with X-ray machine, and relax in the café and lounge while you wait for the call to board your flight. Once the go-ahead comes through from the Control Tower, you’re all cleared for take-off, and it’s off on another adventure! Includes jet plane, flight terminal, control tower, baggage cart, passengers, crew and more!

Includes 5 minifigures: passenger, pilot, flight attendant, steward and service man
Includes airplane, terminal, control tower, baggage cart, crew, passengers
Open the revolving doors on the terminal!
Terminal measures over 10" (25cm) long and over 10" (25cm) tall
Airplane measures over 20" (50cm) long and over 7" (17cm) tall

Award Winner:2010 Dream Toy (United Kingdom)

link: http://shop.lego.com/en-CA/Airport-3182 ... ty-ByTheme

The flagship set of the Airport sub-theme of the City Line, the Airport looks good on the front of the box. Will the set meet expectations? Lets find out.

Here is the front of the box. I purchased this set damaged (you can see the right side of the front of the box is ripped all the way down from the top to the bottom) but all the bags were inside and undamaged, so I was pretty happy getting it for over 50% off, considering the hefty MSRP. The set comes with a very large red and white plane, and airport, and control tower and support vehicles.

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The back of the box. A modular set for easy building, the left side shows you which bags make which parts. You get some examples of play features, and on the bottom left some shots of related sets.

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Inside the box, we have 8 bags (numbered 1,2,3,3,4,5,6 and one unnumbered) 4 instruction books (of different size), some base plates, the giant wing piece, and the dreaded sticker sheet. I don't usually put stickers on my sets unless they are going to be permanently displayed, but since this set is for my kids to play with, I put them on.

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The instruction books are all of different sizes and the cover of each one shows you what you build with it. For modular sets like this, I think its a great idea. I focus more on themes like Castle and Star Wars in my collecting, and I have never seen that done in any of those themes.

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A random page from the instruction book. The steps are numbered, but the parts you need are not shown separately. This is a fairly easy build, so that was fine.

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The parts from bag one. This bag gives us the mini figures, the baggage car, the plane stair case, and a fuel station. I was VERY surprised to see lightsaber handles in this set.

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The mini figures. You get a grounds crew person (Seen here with those lights they wave to guide planes around the ground, made with lightsaber handles), a pilot, a flight attendent (male!), a female passenger, and a male passenger. I love the torsos of the pilot and flight attendent, as well as the female passenger. I believe they are new, not sure about the female passenger. The male passengers torso was previously seen in the Agents 2.0 robot attack set.

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And from the back. Only the male passenger has any printing on the back of his torso.

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Here is the refueling station. It is a quick little build. The lamp post was a bit of a challenge for my daughter (she's 5) but only in getting those hinge pieces in place.

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Before I forget, here's the dreaded sticker sheet. Most of the stickers are signs inside the airport or decorations for the plane itself. As much as I hate to say it, if you are planning on actually playing with this set, you need to put the stickers on. (I feel dirty now.)

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The baggage car nearly complete.

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And completed. It is kind of small, but upon reflection, real baggage cars are small too, so I guess it is accurate.

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The baggage cart itself. It attaches to the back of the car. The set even comes with a bunch of luggage (not shown) to put here for transfer.

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And the stair case for the plane. I've actually used one of these when I flew in from JFK on a fairly small plane that couldn't attach to the terminal the way bigger planes do. It attaches either to the car, or the baggage trailer.

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Here is the completed contents of bag #1. Sorry its a bit out of focus.

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The contents of bag number 2. This bag contains the parts for the control tower. Other then the white half cylinders and the funky windows, nothing too special here.

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Start by building the spot where the controller would sit. Interesting that they don't include a controller figure.

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The control panels are printed, not stickers, interestingly. I like how they use the hinges to make angled walls that are not 90 degrees.

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Windows have been added.

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The roof is now on, with the "ladder" pieces that you often see on control towers.

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The base of the tower, complete with flowers.

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And the completed tower, with some kind of antennae on the top, and the extra pieces at the bottom.

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The controllers area.

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The contents of bag number 3. This bag starts the actual plane. LEGO has made some really nice planes and helicopters in the last few years, but unfortunately, a lot of the parts are only good for planes and helicopters.

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The bottom of the plane and the tail cone (not pictured above as it is in the non-numbered bag). The plane is very large.

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The giant wing piece gets added on here.

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The plane as it looks at the end of bag 3. You can see the cockpit, the galley, and the seating sections. I assume that is first class at the front there.

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The contents of bag #4 and the nose cone and tail fin from the non-numbered bag at the top.Again, a lot of plane specific parts.

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As you can see, as we near the end of this bag, that the roof is designed to be easily removable to allow access to the interior for play. The walls have both tiles and studs at the top.

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The completed plane with the roof on, and the extra parts. It looks very sharp. The door actually opens and closes (it is a bit tricky, but it does work.) The plane is HUGE! It is almost 2 feet long. The mini figures look microscopic standing next to it, as people do next to real planes, so I was satisfied.

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The contents of bag #5. These pieces are used to make the first floor of the terminal. The terminal features a revolving door, which is why we have those 2 large blue circles.

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And the completed first floor of the terminal from the front. Here you can see the revolving door. Also in the picture are the spare parts.

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And from the back. The terminal features a baggage check area, complete with x-ray machine on one side, and ticket area on the other. The red object is a vending machine I think.

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The contents of bag 6. These parts make the second floor and the roof of the terminal.

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The completed terminal from the front. I like the way it looks. The lights on the side and and the antennas on the roof make it look more accurate.

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And from the back. The second floor has a lounge on the one side, and a cafeteria on the other. Not sure how people get up to either area, but oh well.

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And the complete set.

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Conclusion. This set is quite nice. It has lots of play value, and it is a fairly straight forward build. The mini figures it comes with are good, but there aren't enough of them. As mentioned above, there is no controller, no one working in the terminal at baggage or tickets, no one working the cafeteria, and only 1 pilot and two passengers. Obviously adding another 5 or more mini figures would have driven up the price (which is already too high for my tastes) and could be easily added from your existing collection. If you are looking to get it for children to play with, it gets an A. If you are thinking of it for parts, it loses some marks for the large number of one use pieces. It could use more mini figures, and the price is high.

Mini figures 4/5 (needs more in the set, but the ones included are fine)
Parts 3/5 - good for this set, but a lot of one use pieces.
Price 3.5/5 - Some call me cheap, I call me thrifty. A $30 Premium for Canadian customers is obscene, especially when our currency is more valuable then the US dollar. (But that's a debate for another thread)
Play features - 5/5

Overall score (Not an average) 4/5. A good set for playing with that is a bit too expensive and could use a few more figures. Recommended.

[unclephn]

I like the little details that have been included that are found throughout the set, such as the lamp post, garbage can and 'Parking' sign outside the terminal, and even the little flowers at the base of the control tower. Little things like this add a bit of realism to the set, and also give kids some small visual cues on where they could expand on the Airport (ie. adding a road by the lamp post, some parking spots by the parking sign, etc.).

Thanks for the excellent review, hatcher!

[DrBeaker]

Excellent review, hatcher.

I've been watching this set to get discounted for a while. My primary interest is in the airplane. The interior of the airport seems like it could have used a few more details to increase playability.

[ncbarrett]

good review.
I feel for MSRP there should have been more of an airport.
I got a bigger plane (7893) a few years ago for $40.

Of course at the price you got it for, great set. :)
I almost picked it up damaged for $70.

[legogod]

Very nice review. I had no idea the plane was that large. It would be nice to pair this set with another small minifig heavy set.

As for the lack of minifigures-I've heard rumors that Lego Airport has been making cutbacks due to the fact their own currency is worth nothing because Lego just keeps printing 100 dollar bills and gold coins. It sure is a headache making change.

Thanks for this.
Jared

[hatcher]

Very nice review. I had no idea the plane was that large. It would be nice to pair this set with another small minifig heavy set.

As for the lack of minifigures-I've heard rumors that Lego Airport has been making cutbacks due to the fact their own currency is worth nothing because Lego just keeps printing 100 dollar bills and gold coins. It sure is a headache making change.

Thanks for this.
Jared

LOL! Love it. $100 bills and gold coins! You kill me!