Seven Spielberg Look Out, There’s A New Director In Town!
Written: Oct 18 '03
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Pros: Great add-on set for the Adventurers or Studio line, lots of accessories.
Cons: Not much fun as a stand-alone set.
The Bottom Line: Looking to add a little behind the scenes action to your Studio or Adventurers series? If so, this is a great pick.
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| Freak369's Full Review: LEGO - Mini Copter |
The Lego Adventurers series has always been a favorite of the brood, when they started working on their pyramid and Egyptian Lego scene they found that a lot of the sets from this series could be slightly modified and used within the scene. One of the small sub series of The Adventurers was Dino Island, something that eventually went hand in hand with the now defunct Studio series. One thing that really killed this series was the lack of mid sized sets. There were a ton of small sets like Sam Sinister And Baby T and the Island Racer and larger sets like the T-Rex Transport and Dino Research Compound but virtually no mid sized sets in the $10.00 to $20.00 price range. To me this was a sure sign of poor marketing strategies, without the mid sized sets people had for fork out $50.00 - $80.00 to get the larger scenes then have to supplement them with the small $2.00 - $4.00 sets.
Lego Adventurers Mini Copter 5904
This small set is great for adding a little behind the scenes magic to your Studio or Adventurers sets, the boys used fishing line to suspend the copter over a scene as well as using the clear prop rod from some older Star Wars sets to have the copter fly around. The small copter is easily built and while it only has room for one Lego mini figure, there are tons of spots to attach the various accessories that come with the set. The red and green colors of the copter aren’t the best picks and if you have other Lego sets on hand, you can swap out some of the pieces to make it blend in with a scene a little more.
The Lego mini figure that is included with this set is that of Dr. Kilroy. He’s not all that rare to find in this series but you can never have too many of them in your collection. Kilroy has a number of accessories including a shovel, rifle, video camera and stenciled movie scene tile. Some sets had duplicate shovels while others featured a smaller gun in addition to the rifle. These accessories can be clipped on to the copter or snapped into the doctor’s hand – however you prefer to display them. Kilroy fits snuggly into the copter but it does take a little maneuvering to get him seated properly.
When you have built the copter and understand the basics of the set, you can add other pieces to it or change the color scheme. Be sure to check out the back of the boxes for a bonus set of building instructions. You will need to purchase three other sets to make this model but it’s well worth the effort to track them down. The box also gives you some additional photos of alternative designs hut you’ll have to figure out how to build them because they aren’t covered in the instructions.
Instructions
The single sheet of instructions carries you through the assembly of the copter and the figure. There are a total of seven steps from start to finish and it should only take about five minutes total to assemble all the elements. For the most part this is a very basic set and would be great for those that are just getting into Lego sets or have moved up from the Duplo line. On the back page you will find some alternative uses for the pieces in the set however there are no instructions for these photos so you’ll have to figure it out on your own through trial and error. A great set for beginners but not much fun as a stand alone set.
Things To Know
This set was packaged in several different formats; the United States version was listed as set number 5904 in a boxed format with the 1280 set available in a bagged format. These are the same set with identical pieces, instructions and end product; the only difference is the method of packaging. This was also released as a promotional set in Japan with the popular Kayaba candy [set # 1279]. If you are having trouble locating one of the sets, you can search for the other set numbers at online auctions and try to outbid everyone else. I found a majority of these sets in the bagged format at Wal-Mart for $1.99 and picked up a few of them, when they were reduced to $1.00 I picked up several more. Looking back on it, I should have purchased all of them because they are getting pretty hard to find.
The Bottom Line
I really regret not picking up more of these when I came across them, there are a ton of accessories that come with this set and the blades from the copter have a lot of different uses. For the price, this is a great way to add a little bit of detail to larger scenes that need a little filler or have some weak spots. There are some small pieces in this set so make sure you keep it away from smaller kids as some of them could easily be swallowed. Be sure to look for the bagged version of this set on hang tags in the toy section and since this is an older set, check the clearance and sale aisles at Toys R Us and K-Mart for killer deals.
The Stats
Set Name: Mini Copter
Family Set: Adventurers / Dino Island
Lego Set: 5904
Number of Pieces: 27
Age Recommendation: 6 - 12
Ease Of Assembly: Easy
Time Of Assembly: 10 minutes
Cost: $ 2.99
As always, thanks for the read!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2003 Freak369
Related reviews …
• Johnny Thunder • Sam Sinister And Baby T • Adventurers Pen •
• Dr. Lightning's Car • Johnny Thunder and Baby Dino • River Raft •
• Jungle Surprise • Research Glider • Island Racer •
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1.00 - 1.99
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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