Adidas Edition Team Transport - Can Mass Marketing and Product Pimping Save The Series?
Written: Jan 15 '03 (Updated Jan 15 '03)
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Pros: Six figures, mini soccer ball, nice design, got it on clearance!
Cons: Only one soccer ball, stickers are extremely fragile, costly if not on sale.
The Bottom Line: Can the Adidas Edition Team Transport save the series? If the clearance prices at the stores are any indication – I'd have to say the plug has just been pulled.
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| Freak369's Full Review: Lego Soccer Team Transport Adidas Edition |
The Lego Soccer series never had much luck in the United States. Overpriced sets, lack of enthusiasm and the necessity to purchase numerous products to build a scene were just a few of the nails in the series coffin. Trying a last ditch effort to pump [and pimp] up the sales, Lego released the Adidas Edition Team Transport. With a suggested retail price of $19.99 most people didn’t fall for the bait. It’s not often that you will see me bash a Lego series – but this one seemed doomed from the very start. We have several Soccer sets and they saw a good bit of use however most of them were stripped down and the pieces were used for other projects.
When I saw that these sets were on clearance I didn’t jump on them right away. I labored over purchasing them because they were only marked down a few dollars – but I knew that if I waited it out I’d be rewarded. When there were only ten or so sets left on the shelf I grabbed up four sets and took them to the layaway department. One thing that most people don’t know about Wal-Mart is that if you purchase an item and it goes on sale or the price drops all you have to do in bring back your receipt and get a refund on the difference [for 30 days after the purchase date]. I tossed them into layaway in case the price dropped on the remaining sets [which it did] and made sure that the price was adjusted. All said and done, I ended up paying $4.50 per set – a far cry from the suggested retail price of $19.99!
Team Transport
The Team Transport bus is a cool little vehicle. If you choose not to add the Adidas stickers to it you can modify it to be used with any of the City, Town or Studio sets since busses are few and far between. Building the bus is easy if you have had previous experience with Lego sets but beginners will need to read through the booklet first and group the pieces into sections. The best feature of the bus has to be the nice blue tinted windows. These can be used for so many different things if you get bored with the bus design. The boys chose to remove the windows from the bus so they would be able to try and get the figures in and out of the bus a little easier. As it stands it is hard to get the figures in and out because the designers were clearly having a bad day when they threw this on to the drawing board. The figures ‘sit’ on a long thin base plate [2 x 16] and this is slid in and out of the bus. With some modifications you can remove some of the bulk from the inside of the bus and have the figures sit or stand but I suggest that you first build it according to the instruction – then make changes to the design.
The rear hatch of the bus opens and closes to allow the base plate to side in and out. This too can be modified if you don’t like the original design. Overall the outside of the bus is really nice, but inside it’s a complete mess. There are just too many unnecessary pieces that take up room that could be used for the players. I’d venture to say that the bus design was rushed through the creative process and never sent out for test marketing – that is the only thing that could possibly explain the crappy overall interior design.
The double windshield attachments really take away from the overall aesthetics of the bus. Why not create one single pane instead of having two smaller ones that stack on top of each other? Still, the smaller blue tinted windows used on the side are a great asset to any Lego junkies collection. When built according to the instructions you will end up with a pretty sturdy vehicle that will withstand more than a few crashes. The wheels [with tread] snap on to the axels nicely and stay in place even under heavy use. As a whole the bus gets a five out of a possible ten – mainly for the cluttered interior and silly windshield design.
Figures
Included with this set are some very cool little figures that you can have a lot of fun with. There is a sticker sheet that’s to be used to complete the figures however if you don’t like the ones that are provided [Adidas logo, various numbers] you can visit the Lego website to print up your own [link is provided below]. There are five team players and one coach / bus driver / referee. The team players are all in red and white uniforms and have different hairstyles and facial features so you can build them any way you like. The illustrations provided in the instruction booklet are there just as a guide so don’t feel that have to be limited to what you see on the pages. As a side note, there is one figure that I just have to laugh at – he has wide-open eyes and looked like he just saw a ghost. Kudos to the Lego designers for giving us five different faces and hair pieces for the players – finally some variety!
Applying the stickers to the figures takes a steady hand so smaller kinds will more than likely need a little bit of help applying them. The sticker is packed inside the white box with the Lego elements so make sure you have this before you start tossing out the cardboard and plastic bags. The stickers are printed on clear plastic adhesive sheet and have black and white numbers from 1 to 22, some are white, some are black. The Adidas logo for the players [5 red, 1 green] and the decals for the bus are extremely nice. If you need additional stickers you can get them from the website however I haven’t been able to find the Adidas ones yet.
The small Lego soccer ball [the plastic one, not the free mini ball] that comes with the set is nicely detailed and features the typical black and white design. If you’ve never seen these sets or the soccer balls, you will be amazed at the amount of detail that went into creating them. It would have been nice to get two or three balls with the set but alas, I just review the sets, not design them.
Mini Soccer Ball
A nice little perk to the set is the mini soccer ball! Since the boys never really got into the Soccer series I didn’t think that they would go so insane over this mini ball. Proving once again that kids say and do the strangest things – they hovered over me until I tossed them a box to tear open. They already had a few Soccer sets and while they played with them, they never got all that excited about the series. Toss in a free item and watch kids go crazy … The ball is small [hence it being called a mini soccer ball] and measures about six inches – but it’s a little hard to get an exact measurement since the darn thing is round. It’s lightweight and since my scale is not designed for such light weight items I’ll have to ball park it and guess its about four ounces. It’s fun to toss around but if you get into a feverish game or toss it around too hard – you can get some black and blue marks from it.
The design on the ball features the Lego logo, Lego Soccer crest and one of the Lego figures kicking the ball around. Surprisingly, this has gotten a lot of use around the house and looks almost as good as the day be opened the box. There’s even a small valve on the bottom [if indeed there is a bottom to it] in case it needs to be refilled. The hole is extremely small so I can guessing that you will need an attachment [the kind used for basketballs] to refill it.
Instructions
Unlike most Lego sets that require sticker application, this one shows you a step by step set of illustrations on how to properly place the numbers and Adidas logo stickers. This might seem trivial to those that have experience building Lego sets but to the beginner, this is an essential. One the first page there is a nice colorful index of the player and bus assembly as well as a section on how the pieces from this set can be used to create a humongous soccer field. Building the bus should take about ten minutes however if a child [or adult] doesn’t have much experience with Lego sets, more time may be needed. The most important thing to remember is to follow the instructions and double check your progress. Nothing is more frustrating than realizing that you improperly placed a piece resulting in having to tear part of the vehicle apart to fix the error.
The only thing that really irks me about the instructions is that the booklet is shoved in between the mini soccer ball and the white box that contains the Lego elements. This means that there is a huge crease in the booklet and it makes it extremely hard to keep the pages open when trying to assemble the bus. Save yourself the frustration and toss the booklet under a heavy object for a few hours to straighten out the pages.
Website Support
You can visit the Lego website for more ideas and check out the newer sets in the Soccer series at: www.lego.com/soccer/products.asp. For tips on how to build a better playing field or how to make the most of your sets, be sure to visit www.lego.com/soccer/tipsandtricks.asp. The Lego site also added the stickers for the various sets that can be printed in case you need replacements or want to change the overall look of your team. If you are going to print these I suggest that you purchase clear adhesive sheets that are designed specifically for printers, this will allow you to have a much better looking figure and if you cut the images unevenly – no one will be the wiser.
The Bottom Line
Since this set includes the small mini soccer ball it might be a wide investment for those that collect Lego sets. Any time there are promotional items attached to a product you can usually expect the price to double or triple once it has been removed from production. I haven’t seen these sets recently but I did manage to snap up four sets at Wal-Mart when they were making room for new sets. If you plan on purchasing this online make sure that you are getting the complete set [elements, instructions, mini soccer ball, stickers]. Some sellers at auctions were trying to pass off the regular Team Transport sets as the Adidas Team Transport which led to a lot of disgruntled buyers.
The Stats
Set Name: Team Transport – Adidas Edition
Family Set: Soccer
Lego Set: 3426
Number of Pieces: 125
Age Recommendation: 6 - 16
Ease Of Assembly: Moderate
Time Of Assembly: 10 - 15 minutes
Cost: $ 4.50 [clearance]
As always, thanks for the read!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2003 Freak369
Other Lego Soccer reviews …
Soccer Field Expansion Set
http://www.epinions.com/content_66211974788
Soccer Women's Team
http://www.epinions.com/content_59433062020
Soccer Team Transport [Basic Set]
http://www.epinions.com/content_63909301892
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $4.50 [sale]
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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