I’m late to the party with my reviews for sets from The LEGO Movie and Nick already picked up the Glider and Cloud Palace sets, so I’m going to dig right into the two I have left. Starting with the Flying Flusher. This set seemed more interesting for the tongue in cheek aspect then the Ice Cream Machine or Trash Chomper which to me looked like more fun, but the Flusher did have those plungers… is it worth picking up for those parts alone though?
No. But the Flusher has more going for it then a couple of nifty bits. First up are the figs. We get no robots in this set, but we do get a nice new nurse/doctor and a couple of the happiest plumbers this side of the Mario bros. The medical dude is Dr. McScrubs and is a great new print with his ID badge and stethoscope and his “Ahhhhhh” alt face works for running from bad guys as well as it does a little latter in the review. The back printing with the scope showing around the neck is a nice touch and I’m glad to have more hospital staff in scrubs because he could work well in many a hospital role.
Other then the damsel in distress we get two unlikely heroes as well. Joe of Joe’s Plumbing and his assistant Alfie. Our plumbing heroes have no alt faces, presumably because they are just as happy flying into battle against the forces of cubism as they are fixing toilets. The Joe’s plumbing logo and otherwise generic overalls mean these two could easily fit into any city layout and keep all the waters flowing in the right directions. Joe comes with the newer style ball cap in plain blue and his face print makes him look like a happy bear.
The threat in this set is provided by one of the smaller “Micro Manager” cubes. I like to call them proto-Borg and he is all kinds of SNOT in construction.
His legs fold up to give it a more cube-ish look, but it’s kind of pointless because the arms don’t fold away or anything. I assume it’s to allow the cube to spring up on legs and chase the citizens of LEGO city around it certainly works well enough. He comes with a couple of flick fires that work about as well as you’d expect and I like how them just seem to add to the overall look of the proto-Borg.
Menacing, no?
Let’s head into the sky with the sets namesake, The Flying Flusher.
Brought to you by Joe’s Plumbing.
Like the other sets in this line, the Flusher looks like it was cobbled together from a bunch of junk, or at least a pile of colour co-ordinated parts. It’s a fairly sturdy build with only the tail being a bit flimsy in comparison to the rest of the build and the ladder is a big part of that flimsiness. I’d never had one of these ladders before to my recollection and was surprised at the type of bendy flex attachment, but my son loves it. The sides open to reveal what I believe are pipes… appropriate I suppose. Water faucet sprayers on the wings and a toilet seat targeting scope complete the themed look and it is very swooshable with the well constructed sides. That just leaves the main weapon of the FF.
The new inverse domes are a sweet part that feels like a long time in the making, but other then looking funny and actually pretty cool as giant plunger projectiles…
… the end result is pretty meh as play features go. All is not lost though, as the true saving grace of some of these sets is the 2-in-1 feature. I’m not saying this set is no good, but the alt mode definitely helps it along.
Joe’s Plumbing van. Ready to move into your LEGO city display… well, now.
Porta-John on the fritz? Certainly looks that way, but have no fear. The plumbers are on their way!.
Many parts of the Flusher are not used in the van/outhouse build and vice versa. Like this blue basket used for the toilet bowl and the big grey door. It’s sort of a space age stall, but it’s a neat idea and certainly original in the LEGO line. I’m sure many of the construction sets could have used one of these. LEGO has been trying to send a message with a few sets in the last few years and it seems to be that “everybody poops”.
I love Joe’s van. I built the Flusher first, but still prefer the alt mode on this one. I just feel that I would prefer the Chomper and Ice Cream Machine modes more then the alts, but I’ll have to wait to find out. As a plane the Flusher is not all that fun, but it’s still has play value.
The van is just frosting on the cake and we love our frosting. It’s very well built like many of the recent city vehicles, maybe a little bit better. The Van is well stocked with plenty of tools and an abundance of pipes. I really dig the stickers on this one and I hate stickers. They’re just specific enough to be awesome and plausibly realistic too. The side flips up to reveal what I believe is a pump or roto-router and the back holds the industrial strength plungers. It isn’t perfect, but considering it’s an alt mode it makes it much more impressive. The roof even pops off for easy access as many vehicles do, like the Flusher itself.
I did mention the nifty inverse domes and there are a fair amount of sweet bits in the set for MOCers. Also, I quite liked the doors.
What I Liked:
- The alt mode is great and the van is a welcome cityscape addition.
- Lots of sweet little SNOT bits.
- Figs are great and generic enough to double up on to fill out your town.
What I didn’t Like:
- The Flusher is a little bland and doesn’t feel as fun as some of the other sets.
- Stickers. Oh no wait, I actually liked the stickers in this one. There must be a pig flying somewhere.
Using our fancy new rating scale:
5 – An Absolute Must Buy
4 – Worth the money
3 – Get it when it’s on sale
2 – One for the clearance bin
1 – Not even if they paid you to take it
I’m giving this set a begrudging 4. It’s really a three at best to me, but since the value IS there my love of the alt mode van is punching it up a notch. Maybe we do need to split these digits…
You can pick up 70811 The Flying Flusher on Lego Shop@Home right now!
