Review: 75547 Minion Pilot in Training
Posted by CapnRex101,
4+ products are designed for easy construction which typically restricts their complexity. 75547 Minion Pilot in Training therefore appears quite simple within official images, featuring unusual comparative proportions between the fuselage and wings on this aircraft.
Such unattractive proportions are exaggerated throughout official images. I was therefore pleasantly surprised after assembling this model, although certain issues definitely remain. However, the figures appear outstanding, as usual.
Minifigures
Minions commonly disguise themselves during operations, hence Stuart wears an airline pilot uniform here. His dark blue attire displays extensive detail, including metallic gold buttons and pilot wings. The dual-moulded torso is disguised quite successfully, especially across the front where the seam is almost invisible. Stuart's bored facial expression looks perfect as well.
Bob appears more cheerful, reflecting his personality during the movies. I am impressed with this character's heterochromatic eyes, demonstrating superb attention to detail after attaching both eyes to the dual-moulded goggle strap. The traditional blue overalls appear attractive too, corresponding precisely with the onscreen Minions.
These figures are both excellent and their accessories are equally impressive. Stuart carries a printed bag of peanuts that was created for this set but earlier appeared in 21324 123 Sesame Street. Bob, meanwhile, includes a fart gun! These dubious weapons have become associated with the Minions and the LEGO accessory is certainly recognisable, making good use of a lime green ice cream element.
The Completed Model
LEGO has produced many vehicle bases for the 4+ series, including an enormous component which forms the underside of passenger aircraft. The element was introduced in 60261 Central Airport, hence that aeroplane closely resembles this vehicle. Numerous building techniques are shared between both models, although the Minions' craft measures 24cm in length so is slightly larger than its City counterpart.
Of course, the colours also differ. This vehicle features white, blue and yellow elements which look nice together and complement the Minions. However, the cockpit element is undecorated and the blue bands along each flank therefore terminate abruptly. The resultant pattern seems rather awkward and printing on the cockpit would have improved the design.
Blue window frames are situated across the exterior, somewhat resembling standard aircraft windows. Unfortunately, no windows are provided to occupy their frames which surprised me, particularly since the cockpit does include a trans-blue windscreen. Presumably attaching the other windows is considered too challenging for the 4+ age recommendation.
Yellow accents appear above the windows and across the wings, which also include trans-red and trans-bright green navigation lights. These look excellent but the tailplane seems absurdly stubby, hardly extending beyond the fuselage and detracting from this whole model in my view. The shaping towards the rear looks splendid though and I like the printed vertical stabiliser.
Opening the hinged cargo bay door reveals adequate space for numerous accessories, with dedicated storage boxes for suitcases. This design is extremely spacious and certainly offers impressive play value, although augmenting the passenger cabin to replace the cargo section might prove effective as well.
The cockpit can be accessed by removing the entire canopy section, as demonstrated below. Limited detail is present inside, including one printed control console with the seat, but I think these furnishings are sufficient. Despite the Minions' inability sit down, there is ample room to accommodate Stuart on this seat and replace the cockpit canopy.
Lattice fences separate the cockpit, the passenger cabin and the bathroom. They appear odd, although internal separation is welcome and this configuration enables quick access. There is only one passenger seat inside which is quite disappointing but the bathroom is a fun addition, containing a toilet beside a pink 1L Technic beam which represents toilet roll. This element has not appeared in pink before.
Overall
75547 Minion Pilot in Training definitely seems more appealing than official images suggest, although the restrictions imposed by this 4+ age recommendation are undoubtedly apparent here. The proportions between the fuselage and the wings are somewhat awkward while the tailplane appears ridiculous, lacking proper length for an aircraft of this size.
Despite these problems, I am impressed with how the internal space has been efficiently filled and modifying the area to accommodate additional passengers or cargo would be simple. The minifigures are wonderful too. However, I think the price of £29.99 or $29.99 seems expensive, corresponding with the broader Minions: The Rise of Gru theme in that respect.
This set was provided for review by The LEGO Group but the review represents an expression of my own opinions.
53 likes
17 comments on this article
More realistic than some City jetliners... ;-)
Keep these great Minions reviews coming!
I like it as it’s own little plane! Might buy it for that and modify the seats a bit. Overall, a pretty good set minions or not!
Um, fart gun+pressurized cabin=hilarious!!!
Completely unrelated question for Cap:
Is the color of the brick separator for 75304: Darth Vader Helmet new, or is it just the color issue with the photo?
@CapnRex101, Thank you for the great review and set of pictures.
The price will come down - possibly quite a lot - when Minions: TRoG has been out a while.
@kslin88 said:
"
Completely unrelated question for Cap:
Is the color of the brick separator for 75304: Darth Vader Helmet new, or is it just the color issue with the photo?
"
Looking at official images for 75304 Darth Vader Helmet, I can see what you mean about the colour issue. However, the brick separator is teal.
If a Minions set was only going to include one food item, I wouldn't have expected it to be a hot dog...
And I agree, that horizontal stabilizer is quite stubby. Although it wouldn't be the first Lego airplane with insufficient flight surface, and it probably won't be the last. At least it has one, unlike 6536! I do like the winglets, though.
I have to wonder why the pink toilet paper, considering the part comes in white. There must be a scene in the movie set in the bathroom, showing a roll of pink toilet paper.
The airplane proportions make a lot more sense when you consider the source material. Look at the crazy vehicle Gru flies in the DM trilogy, which shouldn’t even be able to support its own weight, much less get it off the ground.
The dual-molded torso inn Stuart looks better than on the Kung Fu and pajama torsos, but I can still spot the seam on my iPod screen without zooming in. It’s perfectly designed for the overalls, which is all that’s really necessary, but it’d be nice if the overprint looked better. It’d also be nice if they could give Bob at least one alternate mouth. Between his four appearances, three are overalls with the same mouth and eyes, and the only one that’s different is his Kung Fu outfit with scrunched eyes, but the mouth is still the same.
@bananaworld:
The only two sets that don’t appear to have front page reviews are last year’s 75551 and polybag 30387.
@Zander:
The movie has been pushed back to summer 2022. The first two sets will surely be retired by then, and the rest will be getting pretty close by the time people see the film. At that point, expect the rest to fly off the shelves (at least in the US). Kids love the Minions. What remains to be seen is if they’ll come up with any new sets just to have something fresh that they can launch closer to the film’s premiere.
@TheOtherMike:
Certainly the hot dog is not their signature food item, but it can be attached to the food tray without needing a clip. It’s also not something that I expect they’d refuse to eat, being a favored food of kids.
@bananaworld said:
"
More realistic than some City jetliners... ;-)
Keep these great Minions reviews coming!"
That's true, keep these coming.
@PurpleDave said:
" @Zander :
The movie has been pushed back to summer 2022. The first two sets will surely be retired by then, and the rest will be getting pretty close by the time people see the film. At that point, expect the rest to fly off the shelves (at least in the US). Kids love the Minions. What remains to be seen is if they’ll come up with any new sets just to have something fresh that they can launch closer to the film’s premiere."
Or extend the production run/re-issue existing/retired sets ahead of the film's release. In the interim, I would be surprised if the price of this set didn't fall gradually (apart from during the Christmas season). Twenty-five per cent off on Amazon by next February-March would not be unexpected, maybe even more. Kids may love Minions, but they love lots of things and parents' pockets are not infinitely deep.
@TheOtherMike said:
"If a Minions set was only going to include one food item, I wouldn't have expected it to be a hot dog..."
It has two though. Bob is holding a banana in the last picture.
High pressure bleed air from the APU is used as a kind of RCS for pitch control at low speeds, hence there is no need for a large horizontal stabiliser...
hashtagminiontrivia
@CCC:
Look at Bob. The torso is triple molded in yellow (Minion), blue (overalls), and black (shoes). I don’t know why the arm sockets are yellow since they’re not visible, but the only print is the stitching, strap ends, buttons, and pockets. Other than Otto, all of the Minions use the same triple-molded body.
75551 already provided us with both the Kung Fu torso and exclusive pajama torso. I’ve inspected both, and while both torsos have print on both sides to conceal the shape of the overalls, all four prints dip down just a little to avoid the top edge, and only rise up that high where the studs are located.
That just leaves Stuart’s pilot uniform. On the front it has shirt collar, jacket lapel, and the knot of the necktie that are tattooed...I mean printed on Stuart’s skin. Again, no part reaches to top edge of the torso except the outside corners right below the studs. The lone exception, then, is Stuart’s back, where the dark-blue print does actually cover the entire yellow patch.
Ironically, in this case, the dark-blue dips down at the corners. I suspect the idea is that they extended the print down, to the sides, and only between the studs did they extend it up. If they print it a little too high, it’s just a patch of dark-blue, so the only problem would be if they went high enough to leave a yellow sliver peeking out at the bottom. If they print a little low, there would be some yellow showing along the collar, but it’d blend in to Stuart’s head.
Now look at a minifig torso. The edges except for the waist are radiused. If you print too close, you could get streaks, drips, or blotchy edges. Nothing is going to cover up the blemishes, and no parts will mate up to those edges to hide the ugly (the Minion torso has a hard edge at the top). Also, they probably have multiple printing machines, and we know that ultra-precise prints require longer setup times that eat into their production capacity. Torso prints are probably sized so that any machine can handle them, just for ease of production. Stuart’s pilot uniform probably requires a spot on the newest machine they’ve got so they can really tune the precision in, but they only need to do this for one print across the entire Minions theme. It’s probably factored in to their production cost for the set, but it’s not something that they can do for every set in their catalog.
@stratiformus:
I know they’re using directed airflow pumped through the trailing dorsal edge of the wings to control pitch/roll/yaw on some drones, but there’s a major drawback for a passenger plane. If you lose power on a modern passenger jet, you become a sluggish glider. If you lose power on one of these new drones, it becomes a really flat rock. No power means you have zero control, as there are no backup ailerons, flaps, or rudder. So, unless you can restore power, you’ll probably go into a flat spin, black out, and crash. Now, do you trust Minions with a system that vulnerable to unrecoverable failure? Sure, _they_ might survive (I’m not sure they can even be killed), but their passengers and anyone they land on are doomed.
@PurpleDave said:
"
@stratiformus:
I know they’re using directed airflow pumped through the trailing dorsal edge of the wings to control pitch/roll/yaw on some drones, but there’s a major drawback for a passenger plane. If you lose power on a modern passenger jet, you become a sluggish glider. If you lose power on one of these new drones, it becomes a really flat rock. No power means you have zero control, as there are no backup ailerons, flaps, or rudder. So, unless you can restore power, you’ll probably go into a flat spin, black out, and crash. Now, do you trust Minions with a system that vulnerable to unrecoverable failure? Sure, _they_ might survive (I’m not sure they can even be killed), but their passengers and anyone they land on are doomed."
Well, 75547 is the training aircraft. The wide body versions have quad redundancy utilising both the bleed air from each of the four turbofans, (and I've believe, a pigeon behind the rear bulkhead for emergency), so failure shouldn't be an issue for the passengers...
Besides, it's a plane flown by Minions, I'm pretty sure they weakest link in the chain is the Minion..
@CapnRex101 said:
" @kslin88 said:
"
Completely unrelated question for Cap:
Is the color of the brick separator for 75304: Darth Vader Helmet new, or is it just the color issue with the photo?
"
Looking at official images for 75304 Darth Vader Helmet, I can see what you mean about the colour issue. However, the brick separator is teal."
Thanks. Guess we are not getting a new color for the brick separator. BTW, do you think the choice of orange or teal brick separator for each “large” set is random, or have you notice any pattern for the choice of color of the brick separator included in the “large” sets?
I completely forgot about these Minions sets, tbh. Remember them getting delayed over a year ago, and I guess LEGO must've said "forget it, release them now" because I have not seen any advertisements for the movie they're supposed to be based off of. As an AFOL, these sets are "meh" at best, but the neighbor kid turns 4 in August. A couple of these might find their way to him then.
@GoZachPariseWild:
The movie got pushed back multiple times, and is currently scheduled for summer 2022. Parking on these sets screws up their production, since there are parts that probably would have been retired by summer 2022 if the movie had debuted on its original schedule.