Being a bit of a motorbike collector I had to try this new Stuntz bike. My local toy store only had two of the single bike sets so I opted for the daredevil.

Parts-wise there's not much here. The bike chassis with a front wheel and handlebars, a fairing (for want of a better word) and a minifig with a helmet. The front wheel is the same as regular City motorbikes while the rear wheel is 20% smaller. The fairing/ bodywork is different from normal City motorbikes and not compatible. The minifig looks great; nice printing on the torso and rugged shoulder pads. His face fits the character. I'm not sold on the lime green visor though, I'll replace that with something clear from the spares bin.

Build experience is almost non-existent; in 30 seconds you put a minifig together and click a wheel into a bike.

But this is not about the parts or the build experience, it's about play, and it sure delivers in that department. One good swipe puts a lot of momentum in the flywheel to let the bike race at good speed (it's easily faster than the Control+ Rally car...) and reach a good distance. I don't have a four-year-old for durability testing but it looks solid.

Could this be better? A dual-colour mould for the fairing would be nice, making the engine, shocks and exhausts black or grey. A stud and a printed round tile would be nice for the headlight to allow customisation. A rear wheel the same size as the front would look better.

None of these are dealbreakers. For less than a tenner this is great fun at a pocket money price.

Introduction

I'm from Australia so most prices I refer to will be in AUD.

The LEGO City "Stuntz" subtheme has managed to pique my interest ever since the first leaks. However, I found the prices of these sets, especially the smaller single bikes, to be a bit of an obstacle.

Although I had made some plans to buy at least one of the single bikes for collection purposes, I sort of put the thought to the back of my mind, at least until recently.

All the stores I'd been to only had two of the six single bike sets - which were 60298 Rocket Stunt Bike and this set. I've seen a lot of people say that the minifigure included in the Rocket Stunt Bike evokes nostalgia from the original LEGO Racers theme. Personally I was too young during Racers' run to remember much, so I wasn't too attached to the Rocket Stunt Bike minifigure. I chose this set because I liked the overall design of the minifigure as well as the bike itself.

Packaging

The box is very small and designed vertically, and is about the same size as 5 dollar sets were back in the day. It's got some pretty attractive box art with the traditional City blue border below some white skid marks, and the Demolition Stunt Bike midair in front of a purple and orange background. Towards the bottom there is a bright orange text box with a warning, as well as the Stuntz logo in an attractive shade of green.

Contents and build

Inside the box are fold-out instructions and one small bag containing all the pieces. You get spares of the nice visor and the armour padding.

The build is over in about 20 seconds if you're a fast builder like me, and I can't imagine young and inexperienced kids taking over twice that amount of time.

Minifigure

The sole minifigure is not named anywhere on the box, but if you've watched the LEGO City show, you'd find out that his name is Wallop. (the show is why I finally decided to give the Stuntz theme a try.) Wallop seems to be a quite fitting name for this character, which gives off the rugged impression of circus strongmen, especially because of that moustache.

Wallop also has a toothy grin on one side, and his other expression is quite brutal - he has a big bruise above his right eyebrow inadequately covered by two band-aids, the tips of his previously immaculate moustache are now frazzled, and he is missing quite a few teeth - but even so he is obviously still grinning. His hairpiece was developed for Mr. Incredible and I think it works really well on Wallop. His armour piece was most recently used for Hero Wu from the LEGO Ninjago: Master of the Mountain wave, which goes great alongside the reddish brown breastplate printed on both sides of the nougat torso. Securing the breastplate is a printed belt, with a lime green and black colour scheme which matches the design on the helmet, and otherwise contrasts nicely with the rest of the minifigure.

The aforementioned helmet is made up of two different pieces. The black helmet has been seen countless times since LEGO's earliest days, but the classic visor piece is new in lime green, and it's even printed! LEGO rarely does this, if ever before, and unfortunately they haven't really perfected this technique. The resulting product looks quite awkward - only the front of the visor is printed, leaving the sides of the visor very bare, especially because the stripes on the side of the print cut off quite abruptly.

Even with all these flaws though, this minifigure is a fine addition to my collection.

The completed model

The bike comprises just five pieces: a dark bluish grey handlebar piece, a new yellow fairing, a black rubber tyre, a bike rim, and last but most certainly not the least, a bike base with a wheel attached - the first hint of something special.

The handlebars and the wheel pieces are nothing too special - the rim comes in a orange which is not too common - but the real treasure lies in the special base. The build may seem simple, but the special base hides a new feature for the Stuntz subtheme - a flywheel! This new play feature will undoubtedly be very fun for kids, even I myself as a 15 year old found it fun.

Also, the fairing is a new piece which was adapted from usual LEGO bike fairings to fit this new base. Unfortunately, this new fairing is not compatible with usual LEGO bikes. The headlight is printed with a nice crack covered with two bandages - evoking similar ones covering Wallop's bruise. Prints are usually great but this instance is slightly disappointing as a printed 1x1 stud would have offered more customisable options. There are two studs on the back of the fairing for a bit of customisation though.

As advertised on the back of the box, rolling the bike forward three times in quick succession will allow the flywheel to charge up, and letting it loose will allow it to zoom forward at a surprisingly high velocity. Moreover, the bike can travel very long distances, even on carpeted floors like my own. While testing this bike, I rolled it quickly forward thrice and lifted it to observe the wheel, and I found out that it can comfortably spin for almost 30 seconds.

Overall thoughts

Being new to the Stuntz subtheme, I'm surprised by how well I like it, except for one thing - the price. The included minifigure is more than decent and the new play feature works very well, but for $10 AUD, I don't think I'm getting my money's worth - just a minifigure and a new bike.

Other sets in this subtheme suffer from being overpriced too, and as I expected this set is no different. The value would have greatly increased if LEGO included one of the new orange ramps exclusive to Stuntz in these single bike sets - for testing this bike I had to get out my old Legends of Chima Speedorz ramps, which I don't think has the same effect.

I feel $7 would have been maximum, and therefore I would recommend this set at a slight discount.

Thank you for reading, I hope you found this review helpful and informative.