[REVIEW] 7239 Fire Truck

[legitimatealex]

Indexed

7239 Fire Truck
Pieces: 214
Price: $22.99
Price Per Piece: $.11
Minifigures: 2
LEGO Description:

Race to the fire in the fire truck!

There's a fire in LEGO® City but never fear, because the fire truck is on its way! The brave firefighters use all their gear to battle the flames and save the day. Raise and lower the ladder to fight the fire! Choose from an assortment of firefighting tools! Includes 2 firefighters.

That might be the most generic and short LEGO description I've ever seen. Now onto the review.

I'm going to spoil the review right here and say that this set is awesome. Go buy it. Seriously I don't think I've bought a better City set that had more of absolutely everything than anything else. I should be more objective though. You will find my reasoning below.



I may have been exaggerating a bit above. The box is pretty normal for a $22 set. Slightly longer than usual. It's a decent quality cardboard, not very flimsy. For some strange reason the guys appear to just be pulling everything out of their truck without actually having a fire to fight.



The back images make more sense to me to include on the box art. It just shows how the bags are separated for easy building, etc. etc. Shows off some nice features. Of course I didn't take the separate bags route and instead just emptied them all into one giant pile (not pictured).



Here are your two friendly firefighters, keeping your LEGO city safe from raging plastic fires and rescuing the occasional cat from a tree. There's no back printing on them but that doesn't detract from them. Solid plastic, nice printing.



Here they are all suited up and ready to fight fires/bodies of water. The older man is the veteran so he gets the shiny silver hat :D



And here they are from the side for a better look. I'm not sure how I feel about the updated life vest. I like that it's now actually orange rather than that silly yellow color the older ones were but it's unrealistically thin for a life vest. I think I would use it for some sort of officer directing traffic rather than a life vest.

Now to move onto the actual truck



I'm going to start with the hitched on part of the truck first since it's less exciting. You can see that it's just a few extra compartments and a boat attached to the top. The boat is one piece and everything else attached to it is just added on top of it.



The compartments (there's one on both sides) are stuffed with firefighting equipment. In this case I believe that's supposed to be a fire extinguisher. In my experience though fire extinguishers are red and have black nozzles.



Here you can see the boat separated from the trailer. It's not very secure when playing with the truck and I've knocked it off a million times by accident but it's not a really big deal.



The amount of attention to detail on this truck amazes me. Even the back sports some tail lights and the small boat has a motor attached to it. More detail will be seen as we move onto the actual Fire Truck itself.



Bam. The truck is a six stud width, so you could fit two minifigures in the cab if you really wanted to. However the steering wheel is located directly in the middle of the cab.



Here's the truck from the side. It looks very impressive. The amount of playability features and movable parts they pack in here is astonishing.



The side compartment opens up to reveal a storage area. There's a crate that you can pull out that should house all of the fire fighter's equipment. Right now however the fire fighters are wearing it :)



The ladder is perhaps the most noticeable play feature in this set. After putting the stabilizers down on the ground the ladder is able to rotate around.



The ladder stays upright by means of being propped up by a stick.



The ladder is two pretty nifty pieces put together. It is fitted for minifigures perfectly. You can have them fit comfortably on it to have them climb up.



Here's the ladder in it's two pieces. One slides into the other and they stay together very well.



Here's a nice action shot showing the functionality of the roll out hose. It does stretch out at a very comfortable length to reach up the ladder.



So all together now, here is the set in it's entirety.



And here's the set ready for action

So here's the quick rundown.

I would recommend this set to everyone for whatever reason. It has a nice variety of pieces, comes with two good minifigures that have decent printing and are a nice addition to any city scene or fire department. The accessories it comes with fully equip the fire fighters for pretty much any situation and it comes with some less than common pieces like the ladders and the hose.

The price at first might seem like a mark up by LEGO but it's definitely warranted. You get more here than you do from other $19.99 sets. The piece price also turns out decently well so there's no worries there.

Go out and get this set. It's loads of fun to play with and you wont regret it.

NOTE: It does not come with a baseplate. I just used one of mine to stand up the minifigures.

[ncbarrett]

...

NOTE: It does not come with a baseplate. I just used one of mine to stand up the minifigures.

Isn't that false advertising?
Actually thought it looked like a nice set.
My daughter will love the ladder(stairs to her)
This convinces me. I'll have to get it.

[Mantisking]

7239 Fire Truck
Pieces: 214
Price: $22.99
Price Per Piece: $.10

I'm going to disagree on your PpP (Price per Piece) assesment. My calculations has it at $0.107 per which I rounded up to $0.11. Which, for me, puts it into the "not worth it unless on sale" category. Especially with that boat which doesn't have much use besides being a boat.

[legitimatealex]

I'm going to disagree on your PpP (Price per Piece) assesment. My calculations has it at $0.107 per which I rounded up to $0.11. Which, for me, puts it into the "not worth it unless on sale" category. Especially with that boat which doesn't have much use besides being a boat.

I suppose you're right on the PpP. I'll change it in the original post to reflect this. It still wont change my recommendation of it though. This was a much more interesting city set than most of the rest.

EDIT: And of course it wont let me change my original post. Go figure.

...

NOTE: It does not come with a baseplate. I just used one of mine to stand up the minifigures.

Isn't that false advertising?

Ahh it was really just a matter of convenience. Besides making it easier to stand the minifigures up on it also provides a nice color contrast with the red of the truck, rather than the patterned granite counter top beneath it :?

[Brickbuilder0937]

I don't usually buy city sets, but now thanks to your review, I'll probably end up getting this.
Oh, and I fixed the PpP in your original post.

[legitimatealex]

Many thanks. My edit button disappears awfully quick.

[possum]

Nice review of a nice set. The boat is a disappointment IMO, but all else is great. I really dig the stabilizers and ladder. I'd say if you have a couple of extra bucks to spend, it's worth MSRP.

[slacker]

[quote="possum"]Nice review of a nice set. The boat is a disappointment IMO, but all else is great. I really dig the stabilizers and ladder. I'd say if you have a couple of extra bucks to spend, it's worth MSRP.[/quote

Legitimatealex: Great review, I think it's a nice truck but it has it's issues. The good thing is I got it for $15. I would've probably picked it up at MSRP but would've been disappointed.

Possum: I had the opposite reaction. I hate the ladder. When you try to extend it, it keeps falling off. That area needs to be beefed up.

[ncbarrett]

Something funny happened when i went to Target to get this set.
I got 7213 instead.

Wanted the larger boat and was intrigued by the wheels and stabilizers on the truck.
I wish I had time to do a proper review of it, it's a nice set.

Still have to get this set though.

[possum]

Nice review of a nice set. The boat is a disappointment IMO, but all else is great. I really dig the stabilizers and ladder. I'd say if you have a couple of extra bucks to spend, it's worth MSRP.

Possum: I had the opposite reaction. I hate the ladder. When you try to extend it, it keeps falling off. That area needs to be beefed up.

I was speaking from more of a display perspective. Mine stays in place with the man up there. He was just trying it out though, he didn't actually fight any fires or anything so I can't speak for "swooshability." ;)

[legitimatealex]

I never seemed to have that problem with the ladder. It extended great and didn't pop off very easily. That actually surprised me. I would have thought that it would pop off whenever I touched it.

[ncbarrett]

I got this at Target for $17 and built this with my daughter, very nice truck and an excellent price.
The ladder is fine, even with a 2 year old making the firefighter go "up the stairs".

Thanks for such a good review.
Anyone who hasn't got it yet, get it before it goes off sale.

[legitimatealex]

I got this at Target for $17 and built this with my daughter, very nice truck and an excellent price.
The ladder is fine, even with a 2 year old making the firefighter go "up the stairs".

Thanks for such a good review.
Anyone who hasn't got it yet, get it before it goes off sale.

I always get a warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing a review helped :D