What you are looking at is the 30001 City Fire Chief, a small 33 piece impulse set that comes with a Fire Chief minifig. It’s basically a 4-wheeler/All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV).
Again, no idea on the availability outside of Target stores or the US in general (or outside the US for that matter). I will say up front that if I had to choose between the two, I would pick this one. If you are picking for a small child, definitely buy this one in my opinion.
By the Numbers: Set: 30001 City Fire Chief Year of Release: 2010 Type: City / Impulse # of Pieces: 33 (including 2 extra) # of Extra pieces: (2 extra, see photo below) # of Minifigs and what kind: 1 – Fire Chief / Firefighter Stickers? No Price: $2.99 at Target (US) Ages: 5-10 Time to Complete: Less than 10 minutes
This review is for one of the impulse sets available at Target (in the US) for some kind of Easter promotion. There is also a 30001 (Fire Chief) set as well as two Star Wars sets – 30050 Republic Attack Shuttle and 30051 – X-Wing. Both of the Star Wars sets are micro-scale and while the non-licensed Police Boat and Fire Chief are $2.99, the licensed Star Wars sets are $3.49. The Star Wars sets do come with more pieces. I’ll be posting reviews of the other three sets tonight and tomorrow.
As for whether these sets will continue to be produced beyond this run, or will be available elsewhere, I have no idea. They are actually cool little sets and I think good values for the price. They are not located in the toy section in the Targets I’ve seen them – I’ve only seen and read about them being in the Easter sections. They have popped up on Amazon.com and eBay, but you’re paying more.
By the Numbers: Set: 30002 City – Police Boat Year of Release: 2010 Type: City / Impulse Buy # of Pieces: 32 (including 2 extra pieces) # of Extra pieces: 2 (see photo below) # of Minifigs and what kind: 1 – Police Officer Stickers? No Price: $2.99 at Target Ages: 5-12 Time to Complete: Less than 10 minutes
LEGO’s first movie on DVD, the Adventures of Clutch Powers, should be available today (February 23, 2010), at least in the US.
Amazon.com is currently listing it for $14.99 (normally $19.98) with a release date of today. This is for the widescreen version in English, with English, French, and Spanish subtitles. It’s 82 minutes long. Best Buy is also showing it with a release date of today but there’s no way to check if it’s available in the physical Best Buy stores yet – it’s only listed for pre-order on their website.
Before anybody says “what about the Bionicle movies?” LEGO is apparently not counting those, and rightfully so. It’s also not counting LEGO Atlantis: The Movie since that has not made an appearance on DVD (unfortunately).
Obviously it’s going to be used to help sell LEGO products and sets, however a lot of effort has been put into it, and it’s looking more and more like it will be a way to introduce newcomers and possibly even AFOLs to either existing sets or upcoming sets, such as Kingdoms (the replacement for Castle), Power Miners, Space Police, etc. I think it’s going to be as cool as the Atlantis movie.
Don’t expect any of the licensed themes like Harry Potter or Star Wars to make an appearance – from the trailer and from people I’ve talked to, this is all in-house themes/lines from LEGO.
This is LEGO and Universal Home Entertainment’s summary of the action:
For the first time ever, see the creative world of LEGO® come to life in the all-new feature-length DVD movie. Meet Clutch Powers, the best builder and explorer in the LEGO®universe as he heads off on his most dangerous mission yet. Join Clutch and his team of LEGO®experts as their adventure leads them from LEGO® City to the Space Police prison planet to the medieval world of Ashlar where they must help the rightful heir to the King’s throne find the courage to regain the kingdom from the evil wizard Mallock the Malign. Their brick-building skills will be put to the ultimate test as they face off against Mallock’s skeleton army. Get ready for an action-packed adventure like nothing you have ever seen before, The Adventures of Clutch Powers!
Last weekend, Kris Abel from CTV News visited the Canadian Toy & Hobby Fair and got a good look at upcoming LEGO sets from the LEGO Canada display. He posted a lot of pictures (would have loved more from some of the Atlantis sets) and a lot of them I was surprised at. They were some of the first good photos I’ve seen of some of the unreleased sets scheduled for later in the year.
A few highlights:
8077 Atlantis Exploration HQ
8078 Portal Of Atlantis
My observation on the Atlantis sets:
* The 8077 Atlantis Exploration HQ looks to be shaping up well. The first blurry shots I saw a while back made it look closer to the 7775 Aqua Raiders Aquabase Invasion. It looks to be a square-ish/self-contained structure which makes sense. I’m assuming the vehicles will dock on top.
* The 8078 Portal of Atlantis (the infamous Shark Temple or Shark Castle) is bigger than I thought and looks to have a lot of really cool and unique parts. It’s hard to get a sense of the minifigs since they were mixed together with other sets. There looks to be some parts in colors that we haven’t seen before. The box shows 898 pieces but that’s obviously subject to change since it’s a prototype. I’m not sure on new minifigs – there is a skeleton with some diving gear on that has a trident symbol on their head. You can barely make out what looks to be the “turtle warrior” on top of the Portal, that’s been discussed in the past.
* Kris mentioned when discussing the Space Police sets that Atlantis was the focus this year, hence the lack of a lot of new Space Police sets.
As Kris notes, a lot of the upcoming sets are prototypes/mock-ups and details are not yet finalized. Nothing from Harry Potter and nothing new from the Toy Story line that’s not already out. I’m not quite as interested in the World Racers line or the Hero Factory line, but it looks like both could give us some new parts or older parts in new colors. Looking at the boxes for the World Racers, I think they’ll probably sell very well to the target audience.
Some of the other sets shown (besides 8077/8078) include quite a few sets that are currently available and some that are limited right now or unavailable (depending on area), such as: Read more »
We thought that LEGO’s 10211 Grand Emporium would be showing up in March as did everybody else. Turns out that we may get it at the beginning of March. Huw over at Brickset mentions that it looks to be shipping to North American and Europe a month from now.
The LEGO Shop has it listed in the LEGO Exclusives section and they are showing a ship date of March 3, 2010.
This is the description for it:
Welcome to the grand opening of the Grand Emporium!
“The LEGO Modular Buildings series continues with this spectacularly detailed 3-story department store, designed in a realistic scale with lots of special building techniques and rare pieces. On the street outside, citizens carry shopping bags, send letters at the mailbox, admire the window mannequins, then cool off at the ice cream stand while a busy window washer works above. Enter through the revolving doors to discover a ground-floor clothing department, complete with a cash register, fitting room, hats, jewelry, perfume, and even a selection of spare trousers. A brick-built escalator carries customers to the second floor housewares department with glassware and golden plates for special occasions, and then it’s up to the top floor for the toy department (complete with toy house and push-scooter) with an impressive chandelier above the open atrium. Up on the roof are a billboard and skylight!
Highlights:
* Measures 15″” (38 cm) high and 10 in (25 cm) wide
* 7 minifigures
* 2182 Pieces
* Designed for a corner location (similar to Cafe Corner)
* Prices: €.149,99, GBA 97.85 (UK), $149.99 (US)
Huw over at Brickset attended the London Toy Fair today to look at LEGO’s upcoming offerings. No photography was allowed unfortunately. Huw made plenty of observations on the displayed sets.
A few notes on Huw’s observations:
* The Harry Potter launches towards the end of this year will be well-received, and The Burrows sounds like it’s what a lot of us were hoping for. I’m surprised at the number of new minifigs – two dozen or so.
* City Trains sounds very promising
* The Prince of Persia theme sounds awesome as well
* Hero Factory will probably be a suitable replacement for Bionicle
* Technic’s launches in August sound solid
* Also the collectible minifigs sound as good as they look. I’m not too happy that some will be rarer than others.
What I’m most excited about is this:
The three summer Atlantis sets look interesting: there’s another creature, a lobster I think, an underwater base and the ‘portal of Atlantis’. The pictures shown elsewhere of these are only a small part of them.
Update: That didn’t take long, they sold out and removed the listing from LEGO Shop @ Home
If you or someone you know are looking to get into some of the more advanced Technic models, thanks to all of the clearance deals going on right now, you can get the 1100-piece 8063 Technic Tractor with Trailer for $49.98 at LEGO Shop @ Home. I’m not sure if it applies to other countries.
Features:
* 1100 pieces
* Tractor: Opening hood, turn gears, moving pistons
* Trailer: Turn gear tipping function
* Tractor measures 11″ x 7″ x 7.5″ (27cm x 17cm x 19cm)
* Trailer measures 15.5 inches long (39cm)
I’m considering picking one up – it’s a good color scheme in my opinion, and for $49.98, it’s a good selection of parts – good wheels, etc. (1100 parts!)
If that’s not something that interests you, if you are in the US, I’ve seen the 7632 Crawler Crane (from the City/Construction theme) for as low as $45. I picked up a 6243 Pirates Brickbeard’s Bounty for $49 + tax at a Target which is half off, and apparently they are also half-off at Walmart as well. I’ve also seen the 7686 Helicopter Transport for $20. I picked up a couple of 8402 Sports Car from the City/Traffic theme for under $5 at Target. It’s hit or miss what you’ll find, but right now is a good time to pick up some of these sets.
The Indiana Jones, Pirates, and Castle themes are all being discontinued/suspended for now (as well as older models from other themes) and some retailers are clearing them out right now to make way for the Atlantis theme, some of the new Space Police set, the Toy Story theme, and the upcoming Prince of Persia theme. If you are just looking to add to your spare parts, some of these deals are getting the price-per-piece down to around $0.04 or so.
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