Review: 30638 Police Bike Training

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Police are ever-present in LEGO City and these sets are sometimes criticised for their repetition of certain subjects, although these are obviously revisited because they remain popular!

Nevertheless, new approaches to the traditional police vehicles and buildings are enjoyable, with training as the focus this year. 30638 Police Bike Training provides a nice entry to the range.

Summary

30638 Police Bike Training, 36 pieces.
£3.50

This polybag provides excellent play value and contains some interesting parts

  • Desirable minifigure
  • Good variety of obstacles
  • See-saw lacks detail

Minifigure

This minifigure is suitably dressed in the new police training uniform, only otherwise available in 60372 Police Training Academy. The medium blue and dark blue colour combination looks good and I like the badge design on the torso, although perhaps this could have matched the badges found in other police-themed sets more closely.

Additionally, the helmet looks excellent, particularly in conjunction with the orange-tinted glasses printed on the head. However, I wish the helmet produced for the Wheelchair Racer Collectable Minifigure had returned here. That element is equally detailed and would probably appear more realistic for a police officer.

The Completed Model

The mountain bike frame introduced in 2018 is provided in dark blue, following appearances in a few bigger sets. As usual, the minifigure sits perfectly on the bicycle and I like the knobbly tyres too. These tyres are necessary to traverse the included logs, which feature a row of printed 1x1 round tiles, with woodgrain patterns.

A simple see-saw is also included, tipping as the mountain bike rides over the top. This function works well, although the base lacks detail. Perhaps the 1x2 bricks with Technic pins could have been better integrated. The printed 1x4 brick looks reasonable though, underneath a fluorescent yellow 1x4 plate.

The instruction leaflet shows two cones stored alongside the see-saw. These can be removed to create a rudimentary slalom course. I think packing three separate obstacles into a polybag that only contains 36 pieces is commendable, with two pieces spared to assemble a bottle of water.

Overall

Play value is undoubtedly the primary strength of 30638 Police Bike Training. The mountain bike alone is fun for play, while the accompanying obstacles provide appealing variety. The dark blue bike and uncommon minifigure will doubtless entice some older LEGO fans too, seeking a good selection of elements for a low price.

This polybag is currently available in Tesco in the UK, costing £3.50. While not as interesting as the excellent 30655 Forklift with Pallet, I would consider this a worthwhile purchase.

43 comments on this article

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By in United Kingdom,

Really wish poly bags where more widely available, I can never find any, I checked my local Tesco yesterday for any. some the best sets lego do!

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By in France,

It would have been so cool if they were to use one of those Stunz bikes for this set.

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By in Netherlands,

@Goujon said:
"Really wish poly bags where more widely available, I can never find any, I checked my local Tesco yesterday for any. some the best sets lego do!
"


Agreed, LEGO.com Europe has a polybag section at their website, but it has not been updated recently, it just has some really old products that look like leftover stock, as the 3 available are believe it or not Hidden Side, Xtra (both retired) and DOTS (soon retired)

For some reason, City magazines also reduced in number from 12 to 6 a year a few years ago in my country (different publishers/languages have different editions of the magazines)

2018 still had mini boxed sets with 60170: Off-Road Chase

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By in United States,

Needs more BTS members.

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By in United Kingdom,

I'm totally baffled by Lego's Polybag strategy. Never, or at least rarely, sell them in Lego stores or on the Lego site, but they do turn up in other stores with very little consistency. It's like they don't want people to find them.

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By in Netherlands,

@kinggregus said:
"It would have been so cool if they were to use one of those Stunz bikes for this set. "

Yeah but at €8 those bikes are double the cost of a Polybag.

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By in United States,

@BooTheMightyHamster said:
"I'm totally baffled by Lego's Polybag strategy. Never, or at least rarely, sell them in Lego stores or on the Lego site, but they do turn up in other stores with very little consistency. It's like they don't want people to find them."

There seem to be two kinds of polybags:

1. Specific marketing items which are restricted to Lego Stores/SAH. These are intended to get you to shop with Lego itself. (Examples: seasonal fun packs.)
2. Impulse buy marketing items for retail stores. These are the Lego equivalent of candy at the store checkout--you see it, you want to buy it. These are frequently duplicative of existing themes and don't usually contain anything exclusive, and are probably intended to hook children into shopping for the larger items. They also work as Christmas stocking stuffers, Easter basket fillers, etc. (Examples: City bags like this, along with Star Wars/Marvel/Creator/Friends mini sets.)

I think 2 is far, FAR less concerned with AFOLS and completionists. Read: it's not for you. It's for kids.

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By in United States,

Insert Nicholas Angel skidding to a stop on bike.gif

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By in Netherlands,

I've seen a few polybags in stores, still very rare and random, mainly got lucky during the LEGO Movie 2 era when they had like 4 different for sale at the same time.

For CMF , I have never seen those sold in a store that's not an official LEGO store.

But also, the concept of a "toy shop" have become rare here, and yes LEGO did open their own stores starting only a few years ago, but those are still located at the very premium streets or malls.

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By in Netherlands,

For the Dutchies (see a few above) - i've spotted this poly in different outlets of Kruidvat for just 2,99.

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By in United States,

If I would ever get this, it would just be for the printed log 1x1 round tile.

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By in United States,

Fantastic little polybag! It's definitely worth $5. That being said, it doesn't interest me. I would rather wait to see what other polybags might appear as well as for the Disney CMF. I also might have blown through my polybag budget for a bit by getting two Dr. Strange polybags...

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By in United Kingdom,

Anyone else humming the theme from Kickstart?

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By in United States,

Surprised that the logs aren’t wearing striped prison uniforms, given their status as the “opponent” in this set.

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By in United Kingdom,

Does anyone in the UK know of a way to get the new monkie kid polybag? The monkey king market set? Lemme get the number for it. But I’ve been looking for it forever and I’d love to get a hold of it

Edit: it’s 30656 love this little set

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By in Albania,

For anyone in Belgium: I picked this up couple weeks ago in Colruyt. Not sure if it’s still available there though

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By in Netherlands,

@TeriXeri said:
" @Goujon said:
"Really wish poly bags where more widely available, I can never find any, I checked my local Tesco yesterday for any. some the best sets lego do!
"


Agreed, LEGO.com Europe has a polybag section at their website, but it has not been updated recently, it just has some really old products that look like leftover stock, as the 3 available are believe it or not Hidden Side, Xtra (both retired) and DOTS (soon retired)

For some reason, City magazines also reduced in number from 12 to 6 a year a few years ago in my country (different publishers/languages have different editions of the magazines)

2018 still had mini boxed sets with 60170: Off-Road Chase "


Check Kruidvat! They recently restocked their polybags with this set, 30641, 30655, 30503 and a couple others! Trekpleister also sells a random assortment of lego. Both stores stock them slightly below MSRP.

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By in United States,

@thirteeneighty said:
"Anyone else humming the theme from Kickstart?"

Is that a BTS reference?

*returns to being out of touch*

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By in Poland,

@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"Needs more BTS members."

Arrest them on the spot. Crime: cultural de-K.

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By in United States,

i really enjoy the proliferation of the mountain bike pieces. I made a little trail vignette for mine and it makes me really happy

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By in United States,

@Goujon said:
"Does anyone in the UK know of a way to get the new monkie kid polybag? The monkey king market set? Lemme get the number for it. But I’ve been looking for it forever and I’d love to get a hold of it

Edit: it’s 30656 love this little set"


I don't think we have confirmation yet, but it is likely a promotional polybag like last year's. I'm not sure the west will see it very much in stores aside from as a GWP due to the limited availability of Monkie Kid for the west.

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By in United States,

I haven't seen a polybags of any kind in multiple retail stores for about six months.

Walmart, Target, Kroger stores, Kohls for example. Can't impulse buy if they aren't offered.

That said police is the one theme that I would never buy. Quasi-military glorification is not for me. :)

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By in United Kingdom,

@thirteeneighty said:
"Anyone else humming the theme from Kickstart?"

I can’t recall the tune, but Kickstart was my immediate thought on seeing these pictures. The logs, the see-saw, the weird size relationship between bike and rider. Better times!

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By in Australia,

Speaking of polybags, is the Doctor Strange one out? 30652

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By in Switzerland,

love the color of the bike. this one is the best imho.

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By in United States,

@ozbrickcreator said:
"Speaking of polybags, is the Doctor Strange one out? 30652"

It has been out in the U.S for two weeks, but I can't speak for down under.

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By in United States,

Another polybag that'll probably never make it off of my Wanted list and on to my Owned list: there've been a good few of those lately.

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By in Italy,

Do we ever get polybags anywhere here in Italy? Asking fellow Italian members (or anybody that has a clue)...

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By in Germany,

In Germany polybags seem to appear more or less randomly at some retailers for a time, like Rossmann, Lidl, Müller, Rewe, Smyths, and several of the independent small toy stores that are still left. My last polybags I got as GWPs from JB Spielwaren.
Of the offline retailers mentioned above Müller seems to be the most reliable source.

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By in United States,

In the US, you really have to know when and where to look for polybags. Target almost exclusively stocks them in the checkout lanes during the year, but you can find a selection of them in the Seasonal section leading up to Christmas and Easter. Walmart has started hanging little bins on the underside of a shelf in the middle of the LEGO aisle, and polybags go in those all year. They do a Seasonal section, and they may get some polybags timed with Christmas/Easter, but I can't remember if I've ever found a LEGO set there. It's primarily limited to food items. In the Great Lakes region, we have Meijer, which hangs polybags on the sides of the endcaps in the toy section. They also do a Seasonal section for Christmas, and seed that with a selection of polybags. LEGOLAND stores also stock polybags that LEGO Stores do not, but I get to our lone store so infrequently I have not been able to glean any useful information about how they manage them.

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By in Canada,

Ok, so when do Mahoney, Hightower, Jones, and the rest show up...:)

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By in United States,

Frankly, I rely on Bricklink as a source for polybags. The prices are generally reasonable and even the cost of mailing isn't very bad.

Gravatar
By in Netherlands,

@TeriXeri said:
"I've seen a few polybags in stores, still very rare and random, mainly got lucky during the LEGO Movie 2 era when they had like 4 different for sale at the same time.

For CMF , I have never seen those sold in a store that's not an official LEGO store.

But also, the concept of a "toy shop" have become rare here, and yes LEGO did open their own stores starting only a few years ago, but those are still located at the very premium streets or malls."


Check your local Kruidvat. They have these polybags on sale nearly all of the time for just € 2,99. That's where I got this and several other of the new 2023 polybags.

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By in United Kingdom,

Thankyou for the Tesco tip, didnt look at the Technic review but managed to get the last Technic, this City and a Friends set last night.

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By in United States,

Trails: Evolution - Lego Edition

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By in Ireland,

Just walked into our local Tesco in the Republic of Ireland and lucky it was sat looking at me!
So straight into the trolley. Price here is 5 Euro.

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By in Norway,

@Miwa said "For those wondering about the kickstart reference it was a UK Gameshow from 1979-92"

Odd, never heard about this one, I was thinking of the C64 games Kickstart 1 and 2. At least the first one had the same theme music, is there any connection between the games and the show?

Gravatar
By in Poland,

@Goujon said:
"Does anyone in the UK know of a way to get the new monkie kid polybag? The monkey king market set? Lemme get the number for it. But I’ve been looking for it forever and I’d love to get a hold of it

Edit: it’s 30656 love this little set"


This polybag is a great bang for the buck, but for now its not showing anywhere except bricklink fir high markup. According to brickset database it has been released on 1st of January this year but irl it don't seem to be true. I would like a couple of these at least, but not for current BL prices.

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By in Germany,

Bought the polybags from 2023 a few days ago, but only a couple of only retailers have them here in Germany.
@Huw: Is there any known official reason why polybags are not sold by LEGO directly?

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By in United Kingdom,

@axeleng said:
" @Miwa said "For those wondering about the kickstart reference it was a UK Gameshow from 1979-92"

Odd, never heard about this one, I was thinking of the C64 games Kickstart 1 and 2. At least the first one had the same theme music, is there any connection between the games and the show?"


According to the wiki page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick_Start_(TV_series) the game's programmer, Shaun Southern, said "The C64 version's name at least, was a shameless rip-off of the TV series."

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By in Belgium,

@myth said:
"For anyone in Belgium: I picked this up couple weeks ago in Colruyt. Not sure if it’s still available there though "

they still are and can aslo be found at "fun", "Dreamland", "Kruidvat,...

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By in Germany,

Found this today for 4 bucks at a supermarket. Quite a good value compared to the equally priced 71025-16. Of course I couldn't resist the sweaty police academy sweater!

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