Random set of the day: Police Copter
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 4604 Police Copter, released during 2001. It's one of 11 Jack Stone sets produced that year. It contains 14 pieces and 2 minifigs, and its retail price was US$7/£5.99.
It's owned by 1,193 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $12.00, or eBay.
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26 comments on this article
I remember throwing those Jack Stone figures out because I thought they weren't Lego.
Good heavens, he's about to jump!
...
Go for it! Do a flip!
The image took a second to load, so I saw "Police Copter" and thought, I wonder if I have this one." But I saw the words "Jack Stone" in the instant before the image popped up, and I realized, "And that would be a no."
Why is the version of Jack Stone depicted in the logo barely found in any set?
I honestly want a few Jack Stone sets. The giant parts are fascinating and I've seen people use them in really fun ways.
@TannerTheHunter said:
"I honestly want a few Jack Stone sets. The giant parts are fascinating and I've seen people use them in really fun ways. "
7133 used one for the canopy on Zam's speeder. Unfortunately, the ridges on the canopy's click hinge didn't go all the way around, so rolling the speeder or pointing its nose to far down meant the canopy would flop open, unless you modified the speeder.
Late halloween set?
Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't seem like a terribly-safe way of traveling via helicopter, you know?
Having said that, go look at a lot of the Jack Stone air-travel related sets. In a lot of the photos, Jack seems to be hanging off the side of the helicopter.
Do you think he just doesn't understand how helicopters work?
@Zordboy said:
"Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't seem like a terribly-safe way of traveling via helicopter, you know?
Having said that, go look at a lot of the Jack Stone air-travel related sets. In a lot of the photos, Jack seems to be hanging off the side of the helicopter.
Do you think he just doesn't understand how helicopters work? "
He's a chad action hero. There's nothing he can't do, won't do, done.
@Norikins said:
" @Zordboy said:
"Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't seem like a terribly-safe way of traveling via helicopter, you know?
Having said that, go look at a lot of the Jack Stone air-travel related sets. In a lot of the photos, Jack seems to be hanging off the side of the helicopter.
Do you think he just doesn't understand how helicopters work? "
He's a chad action hero. There's nothing he can't do, won't do, done."
Good ol Jack Stone, a guy who keeps inserting himself in rescue, salvage and air traffic situations and forcibly rebuilds other people's vehicles so he can sit in them too. What a guy. Such a chad.
In this set the 'alternate build' is a snowmobile-like thing.
https://lego.brickinstructions.com/instructions/04000/4604/002.jpg
At least there's one chrome exhaust pipe and a pretty good winch. I knew someone who somehow had the misfortune of having two of them and those were probably used the most (as in, he now had a set of the exhausts and a set of winches).
@Zordboy said:
"Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't seem like a terribly-safe way of traveling via helicopter, you know?
Having said that, go look at a lot of the Jack Stone air-travel related sets. In a lot of the photos, Jack seems to be hanging off the side of the helicopter.
Do you think he just doesn't understand how helicopters work? "
Given how often he tends to rebuild every vehicle he can get his hands on, I don’t think Jack really cares much for rules or standards
Maybe this is why I got over my dislike for minidolls. This existed. Jack Stone was inflicted on an unsuspecting and defenseless demographic. Jack Stone was the answer to a question nobody asked, and nobody asked for Jack Stone to be that answer. The minidolls - with one notable exception - at least try to coexist with minifigures. Jack Stone lives in a world without minifigures, a cold and apocalyptic hellscape where one man rules the barren wastelands with a misshapen, three-fingered ABS claw. Jack Stone is the law and the lawless, Jack Stone is the first and only response to his very own crimes against Lego.
Jack Stone is a dire warning. Embrace the minidolls.
Well, not all of them, obviously.
I don't undersrand the hate for Jack Stone. They are sets for four year olds. The slightly larger complete figures were great for being roughly handled, they don't break, they don't get lost as easily, they don't lose parts. The designs might look odd compared to those of today but most contemporary designs were pretty poor too especially those aimed at very young kids.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @TannerTheHunter said:
"I honestly want a few Jack Stone sets. The giant parts are fascinating and I've seen people use them in really fun ways. "
7133 used one for the canopy on Zam's speeder. Unfortunately, the ridges on the canopy's click hinge didn't go all the way around, so rolling the speeder or pointing its nose to far down meant the canopy would flop open, unless you modified the speeder."
Wow. Never knew that.
Actually they appeared in quite a lot of 2002 sets, like Drome Racers and Alpha Team.
Funnily, there's even one at least that survived till this day: 30663 (although slightly altered as 16091).
The 4x4 (or something) skull piece from 4+ Pirates (which kinda is also Jack Stone) also made it in a few "regular" sets years after. Also the big ship hull (of all things...) was reused in Harry Potter.
I had a bunch of these. The giant elements are now in a box of their own, waiting for when inspiration strikes. Same for the minifigures. Used to take a Jack Stone minifigure everywhere I went!
@CCC said: "The designs might look odd compared to those of today but most contemporary designs were pretty poor too especially those aimed at very young kids."
Jack Stone, like most things, was a reflection of the time he was produced. In the early 00s, Lego was just having a bad run. They completely forgot the point of their own product, and nearly bankrupted themselves as a result.
Like a lot of things, Jack was a victim of corporate policies and inept decision-making that was beyond his control.
Almost everything Lego was producing at that point was terrible, including the Jack Stone sets (although the instructions are always the highlight. Recovering from a helicopter slamming into the side of a mountain, and then using the pieces to build a snow-mobile to rescue a large truck that just happened to be stuck in snow, halfway up the hill, is apparently a normal day at the office for Jack).
I had this one broken up in my lego box as a kid. Used the cockpit and skids on lots of MOCs growing up
@Norikins said:"He's a chad action hero. There's nothing he can't do, won't do, done."
Don't you mean "can't do, won't do, undone?"
Me and my brothers and sisters watched the heck out of the free VHS tape LEGO sent us for this theme - probably because it was funny. (my father still has it to this day!) I didn't really like the actual sets as much as my younger siblings, but there were no stickers in them so that's a win in my book!
@Jack_Rizzo said:
"I had a bunch of these. The giant elements are now in a box of their own, waiting for when inspiration strikes. Same for the minifigures. Used to take a Jack Stone minifigure everywhere I went!"
The airplane engine and airplane engine rotor are also holdovers from the Jack Stone theme. Although the ones in the Jack Stone line had pins that couldn't be taken out sticking from the sides of the engines, IIRC. I don't know if those are still in use today, but they were definitely used years after and saw more use elsewhere than they ever did in Jack Stone!
Personally I've never quite disliked the Jack Stone figures. They lack the charm and customisability of minifigures, of course; but I found particularly their faces having moulded details while still trying to maintain a minifigure-ish aesthetic to be interesting, and honestly I like the moulded design of Jack's hair and think it could be a neat inspiration for an actual minifigure hairpiece someday.
What I didn't care for was the incredibly simplistic storytelling of the theme; even compared to the earlier City (a.k.a. Town Jr) comics in Lego Adventures magazine, which I was never the most enthusiastic about in comparison to the comics for more adventure-focused themes, the Jack Stone comics felt like a step down. Jack himself was some bland random dude who spontaneously showed up to do emergency workers' jobs for them, and apparently everyone was happy with this arrangement?
Even as a kid I didn't spend any more time than I could help on the JS comics... but like I said, the figure design fascinated me. The having moulded noses, while also still being typical Lego yellow-skinned, kinda reminded me of the Technic figures, so I saw it as a kinda interesting mid-step to me between those and minifigures. Never got any of them myself, and in hindsight am glad I didn't because I wouldn't have known what to do with them (and even less known what to do with these sets...!); but something of that fascination still lingers.
Or maybe I'm just weird...!
I know I have the figures and barely recall the set.
Yet, only the figures survive.
Look, I know being a Jack Stone figure is a pretty big downer, but having someone slam you bodily into a mountain with a helicopter is just not the answer!
I had Jack Stone sets, including this one. I enjoyed them perfectly fine, I was a kid and thought they were fun Lego sets.
@Maxbricks14 said:
"I remember throwing those Jack Stone figures out because I thought they weren't Lego."
This is a man who made good choices in life.
I tried to get my chemistry-major friends to melt them down in the lab, but sadly I was not successful in talking them into it. So mine went into the trash too.
@CCC said:
"I don't undersrand the hate for Jack Stone."
Look at the set photo a little longer. Let the hate flow through you.
@Jack_Rizzo said:
"I had a bunch of these. The giant elements are now in a box of their own, waiting for when inspiration strikes. Same for the minifigures."
Nearly a quarter-century years later, and it sounds like your inspiration hasn't struck yet. Might I offer that long-elusive inspiration in the form of my plan described above?
Jack Stone is clearly Emmet in a different universe where there's no Rex Dangervest.....