Coast guard Helicopter fun fun fun

Box/Instructions

great pictures depicting play ideas

Parts

interesting parts in this set especially the automatic winch

it might be good to have a rescue litter basket with this set as a bit difficult trying to rescue people but not impossible

Minifigures

my son was pleasantly surprised that there was a lady "winchman"

The build

My 6 son really enjoyed the build was very excited to try out fly his new build very very happy that he completed it all himself

The completed model

His favourite part was the winching mechanism

all round his favourite helicopter set so far

he loves flying around and performing rescues from his sisters Dolphin Cruiser as well as devising all kinds of other rescue scenarios

Overall opinion

great set highly recommend

This is a great set for lego city coast guard fans: what would the coast guard be without helicopters? Anyways, this is a great set, even though it may be a little pricey.

This set comes with:

-1 coast guard helicopter

-1 small catamaran sailboat

-1 great white shark

-4 minifigures

?The minifigures are:

-a female coast guard officer

-a coast guard pilot

-a coast guard diver

-a sailor

There are some unusual parts in this set. the cockpit is made up of two parts that are new for 2013 and the only other set that has these parts as of now is the cargo heliplane. There is also a brick with an axle and a button to turn the axle. on the helicopter, you can press the button to reel in the hook that the diver is being lowered down on. the helicopter is quite large, so in turn you get a huge rotor! I sometimes like to take it off and pretend its a ninja star.

Overall, this is a great set to have for your lego city.

I bought this set on Thursday evening from John Lewis for £24.99.

I think its brilliant. It reminds me of the R.A.F's transport helicopters of the 1970s and 80s or a Sea King used by the Royal Navy in terms of its shape.

I did think of buying the new Cargo Lorry set but this set has 4 figures for the same sort of price and two vehicles as well as that 'Great White' Shark which reminds me of the film JAWS from 1975.

I like the winch feature, I think if handled with care it will work very well. My only downsides are the continued use of stickers over printed brick elements by Lego, the fact that no figure can comfortably be placed inside the rear of the Chopper in a seated or standing position – a mini figure can be placed in a leaning over the side pose but this only looks good when the craft is held aloft simulating flight.

The small wind sail with twin pontoons is very nice, but it needs a wheel or antenna positioned and placed in the sailors hand to simulate some form of control of the craft. I also found I was missing a 1 x 2 blue plate that is placed under the sloped, printed control brick in the cockpit – when you buy brand new in box this can be a bit of a minor disappointment. Lego take note!

I think the overall package really does give a child room to create an entire scenario and the visuals on the back of the box provide a child with the stimulus to follow suit. But I guess any AFOL'er returning from his or her self – imposed Dark Ages will also be fooling around with this set in similar fashion! I know I have!

Finally, I think the Chopper would make for a great MOC. You could remake it in grey – for a Military take, with armaments perhaps – or any other colour, say yellow, as most Rescue Choppers in the UK are like that. You'd probably have to respray the main component parts that create the Chopper top half to achieve that but the rest could be done via bricks of choice in matching colour.

I do still think its way too expensive for whats in the box and wish it was at least £5 to £10 cheaper but overall it really is a great set that if, one can afford it, don't hesitate to buy one. Its a great 'update' on the Air Ambulance Helicopter the City range put out a few years back, especially in terms of its aesthetic.

My 6-year-old son got this yesterday (with money he earned from running his own mobile lemonade stand) - he's been looking forward to this for a few weeks, and it certainly hasn't disappointed, especially at the $35.29 price on Amazon.

The build was not lengthy, but took him longer than some other sets of this size. He enjoyed some of the more unusual techniques used in the top engines and the windsurfer (he loves learning new techniques he can use elsewhere).

While it's only 230 pieces, the set is much larger than we expected, and looks very impressive when placed next to 60012 and many other sets of a comparable price. The winch brick is particularly enjoyable, and my son has many ideas for alternative uses for it in other vehicles. Some of the other pieces are rather helicopter-specific and the stickers mean that many of the pieces won't be particularly helpful in non-Coast Guard settings, but there's room for some good Coast Guard-style MOC-ing both within this set and when combined with others in the series.

This set has some good playability. My son has enjoyed flying it with the shark in the cockpit "rescuing" stranded minifigs and pulling them up to the helicopter where they have no escape from the shark. I call it the Sharkopter.

The only problems we've found so far are that the main and rear blades are slightly too close and occasionally hit during rotating (though not as much as I would have expected), and that the winch loses power pretty easily - perhaps this is by design, I'm not sure.

All in all, he and I are both very happy with this set and would recommend it highly.

Straight into my opinions and observations:

• This was a Christmas present from my brother-in-law, so no comment on the price paid, although I personally wouldn't have paid more than about 20 GBP/25 EUR/100 PLN in order to get the PPP figure at a more reasonable point. That being said, as there are a lot of larger pieces in this set, it's always going to be one of those that doesn't seem like a great deal based on PPP.

• The helicopter in this seems to be a mix of Sikorsky HH-3F Pelican and the CH-53 Sea Stallion. This is a good thing. It's also BIG - more or less the same dimensions as the police helicopter in 60046 but better looking.

• Unlike the plane from 60014, the helicopter could take one rescued person inside, as long as one of the crew is sort of leaning over the pilot. Unfortunately, the first time the helo banks to one side or the other, the rescued person is going straight back into the drink because there are no doors.

• There are plenty of stickers on this but they don't overlap bricks, so that's at least something. I normally don't mind stickers because I don't buy sets for MOCing, but I do really dislike having to place stickers on round/curved things like the turboshafts - it's really difficult to get them lined up well.

• The playability of the helicopter is better than that of the plane in 60014. There's the winch (which I found to work just fine), it's great for zooming around, and the rotor system is very stable and smooth - no wobble or weird drag.

• The catamaran is nice. This is the first time I've had a chance to play with a "sail" and I liked it. The craft would be even better if the keel was "in the water" but then it wouldn't sit properly. At least it has a keel, so there's that.

• I like that there's plenty of figures with this set and that they've got excellent little touches. There's goggle/snorkel, flippers, air tank, and the winch operator has hearing protection. There's also extra pieces (goggle/snorkel, hearing protection) which is nice. Also, it's nice to have a white shark rather than another grey shark. Maybe someday we'll get different kinds of sharks, or some blue bottle jellyfish or something.

I'd easily recommend this to anyone that likes playing with LEGO, helicopters, the local coast guard, water, or being rescued when in danger.