7899 - Police Boat

7899: Police Boat

Year: 2006
Pieces: 199


Retail price: $25

Theme: City (Police)

 

This is one of the sets I purchased while in Japan. Back then I was able to justify the purchase to Kate by telling her it would eventually be for a kid we have. Lo and behind, it will eventually be just that. I kind of live vicariously through Daniel nowadays because he serves as my excuse to get new LEGOs.

The set itself is pretty fun. It's a boat with a helicopter, not too many things can go wrong, right? There is room for improvement though, as discussed later. The set instructions come in three parts. The first part is the building of the helicopter while the second and third parts construct the boat portion. It is here that I should note that the boat's hull comes in one piece which makes it floatable in bathtubs, pools, or any other body of water that you are willing to risk the loss of LEGOs in. It even comes with a powered motor that you can affix to the underside of the boat to propel it through the water (not pictured). I am too careful with my LEGOs to place them in the water though, small pieces can easily go down drains if attention is not given, so I tend to avoid bodies of water.

The first part of the set is the helicopter. It's a relatively non-descript vehicle and does serve a good role on the boat itself (its small enough to land and be transported on the back of the boat). This part is quite easy to put together and Daniel was able to do it without any issues. My criticism of the helicopter is that with no sides, the driver can easily fall out of it. The boat itself has guard rails everywhere, showing that safety is a priority, however the LEGO city police department throws caution to the wind to its helicopter pilots. They knew what they were signing up for, right? The helicopter can really only serve as a forward observation point for the boat though. It has no room for passengers and no real deterrent to criminals other than to say "I'm watching you". Not even a camera for evidence collection.

 

 The second and third parts are the boat itself. The boat is large in the LEGO scale of things and looks as if it would move through the water and a breakneck pace (and with the attached motor, does so in the LEGO world scale). The boat was also pretty easy for Daniel to put together. The inside of the boat has a crew cabin complete with storage locker and computer as well as a prisoner lockup, perfect to keep control of those bad guys the boat catches.

 

The outside of the boat has a spotlight and captains chair for piloting the boat. For it being a large boat, it is able to maintained and crewed by just one captain. Notice the guard rails and radar, everything is safety minded.

 

 

 

Now for the criticisms of the boat. First, the sticker on the side of the boat. If anyone were to put their boat in the water, the sticker would be destroyed quickly (one of the other reasons I don't put my LEGOs in the water ( the abundance of stickers).

 

My second criticism is on the design of the boat itself. It looks fantastic, however it serves no practical role in the police department. This would be a colossal waste of money for any police department to purchase. Why? It serves as no deterrent for the bad guys out there. The boat has no guns, not even a ladder to bring the baddies up to the boat with. Its great that it has a prison cell on the boat, but what good will it do if you cant get the bad guy in the boat to begin with? And why would you leave port with a bad guy in the prison cell, unless it was for a prisoner transfer to Alcatraz. If I were a bad guy being pursued by this police boat, I'd just keep going. All that can happen is the police officer on board to shake their fists in anger. If the bad guy were pursued by helicopter, he could make a sharp turn and the helicopter would either lose him or the pilot would fall out (can't make sharp turns without the pilot falling out).

I know kids don't care about any of that stuff, which is why on a kids level its an awesome set (one that Daniel always asks for). From an adult realism standpoint though, I'd hate to be a LEGO city citizen and pay the taxes for this thing =)