Lego Space Buggy 3365 review

Introduction

It's a hard life here on Moon Base Alpha, some 300,000 miles away from Earth.  Sure, the facilities are good and we don't want for anything but I do miss those little pleasures in life.  The day the space freighter arrives is always a moment of celebration here in the base, it only comes once every six months after all, and with it comes those small personal artifacts that make life here just about bearable.

So it was with great joy I was finally able to take delivery of a brand new Space Buggy, model 3365 made by the Lego Corporation back down on Earth.  Our existing vehicles had long seen better day, cobbled together it seems from any old spare parts from the big bin at the back of the warehouse.

The 3365, while at the bottom of the range of models (what do you expect working for The Company?), is a lovely little motor.  Bertha, my current buggy has been modified so much, I can't remember what she originally looked like.  This first thing I'll have to do is give the 3365 a name.  Brenda seems alright.  My lovely Brenda.  There you go.

 Construction

Like all vehicles from Lego, Brenda came supplied as a flat-pack kit.  Luckily, they also supply full building instructions.  I was glad about that as I didn't fancy waiting another six months for them to arrive on the next space freighter consignment.

I had to call in Little Mel and Big Papa from Stores to help me out though.  While the instructions are very clear, it took a bit of to-ing and fro-ing before it was in a completed state.  Mel and Big P looked on with envious eyes I can tell you.

Putting it together in the workshop

Space Helmet

The first thing I noticed was the inclusion of a brand new space helmet, one of those with the gold-covered storm shield.  It looks right proper bling it does and if only I could get some zero-gravity jewellery, I'd look like Snoopy Snoopy Diggy Dog.  In space.  Word.  I'm a bit suspicious though, as The Company never send us anything as shiny and sparkly as this without a good reason.  There's been rumours flying about they are looking to expand the drilling operations over into the dark-side, and we all know what lurks over there don't we?

A very neat feature is the ability to store the helmet on the back receptacle of the vehicle when not in use using a couple of custom mounting points that fit perfectly.  A nice touch and very well-engineered.

The Wheels

The solid wheels on Old Bertha really weren't up to the job of driving over the harsh surface of the rock-strewn Moon, struggling to gain traction on some of the steeper inclines.  The new chunky wheels on the 3365 are a welcome update and after test driving around the moon-dust dunes surrounding Alpha, I can confirm they are perfectly suited to all-worldly terrain.  Those six-wheels provide plenty of grip and handling is superb and amazingly stable, especially considering the lower gravitational pull here on the Moon.

Suspension, like all other lunar vehicles, is sparse and virtually non-existent.  The extra large tyres do provide a modicum of comfort but really, it's very little and after all, it is a working vehicle designed to be used in harsh climates.

Giving it a test run on the landing pad

New Components

Lego have also updated some of the components and there are two new grill fascias, in a matt-coated tungsten grey which offsets the snazzy Ferrari red axles and forward-facing protective shield.  Not only do the grill fascias provide particle filtering to Jupiter-23 standard, they also claim to improve power to the Kilowatt Inertia Drive (K.I.D) located behind the vehicle.  Whether that's true or not, I can't tell, but that particle filtering will come in most handy.

I'm not too sure about the protective shield on the front though.  It's a bit too small for my liking and dust flying over the top can be distracting.  We were chased by one of the Quaargon Crater Beasts from Sector 4 the other day and if it weren't for the improved blast deflection capabilities of the new helmet and fantastic handling of the 3365, we would have been served up as grilled spacemen with Yorkshire puds faster than you can say, 'Do you want gravy with that human dear?'.

The rock-cutting rig on the back is sturdy and has the new Brinylonium coating to make sure it never gets stuck.  We have a few of the other cutting rigs fitted with Brinylonium and they _never_ go blunt.  I found the arm extenders to be a little limiting and it was tricky pointing it in those hard-to-reach places.  Maybe it's a case of getting use to them?  Saying that, I reckon our mechanic, Matt McFixit, will sort something out.

The communications satellite is a bit flimsy I have to say.  The Company, in paying extra for the hardened drill coating, have skimped somewhat in this regard.  It's literally pushed into one of the connector pegs on the back and I'm sure if we have any more vigorous escapes from vicious crater beasts, it would easily wiggle loose.  I don't fancy having to drive back to pick it up with all those tentacles flailing in my direction.

Drive Unit

As mentioned, the Kilowatt Inertia Drive is located to the rear of the vehicle and is roughly equally to one Actual Realized Mile (A.R.M) of power per cylinder.  That's a _lot_ of power I can tell you.  Flooring this baby over a sand-dune can send you into orbit, quite literally, and a couple of times I've had to deploy the emergency Atmos-brakes just to keep it on lunar firma.

Space Penguins! Run away! Run away!

Conclusion

The 3365, or Brenda as she is now affectionately known, is an absolute marvel.  Compared to our older terrain excavation vehicles, she is well made, powerful, handles extremely well and goes like stink when running away from all the nasty monsters up here on the Moon.

If you're running your own outer-space mining operation, I can't recommend it highly enough.  Big Papa tells me it was bought for 7,200 Moon Credits, roughly equal to about £3.50 Earth pounds, and at that price, it's a steal.

The manufacturers recommendation is from 5 to 12 years of Space Ranging experience, but I reckon with a little supervision and help in the construction, a 3 year old apprentice from the Academy would find plenty of use out of it.

You'll like this if ... you run your own deep-space mining operation
You won't like this if ... you think News at Ten is too far-fetched.

Lego Police Motorcycle review

The bikes down here at Police HQ are long past their best.  Bits are falling off, they look scruffy and there's more parts welded on than a page 3 glamour model.  It was with huge relief that an updated version of the trusty LEGO Police Motorcycle was delivered to the garage.

I look soooo cool.

Construction

As with all LEGO models, they are self-assembly and it took a good few minutes for us to attached all the bits together.  The instructions were dead easy, although a couple of us were needed to lift the chassis onto the fairing but it wasn't too bad.  They even supplied a new helmets with a slide-up visor.  This was most welcome as thanks to the old visor-less helmets, I've got more flies in my teeth than a small dog chewing day-old poo.  Lego even supply a spare visor.  How good is that?

Those boys down the workshop know what they're doing.  Even in space.

Performance

This bike is fast, very fast I have to say.  From the lights just outside of TV-Standville, I was able to reach Settee Hill in an amazing 3.6 seconds, much faster than the old model.  Top speed, as observed on the kitchen floor test-track reached a mind-boggling 6 million miles per hour.  I was glad of the visor, I can tell you.  Mid-range response is good with all of those 2400 cylinders in the engine providing amazing torque.  The engine itself, despite thick twin mufflers, sounds meaty with a growling 'mmmm', 'mmmmmMM', 'mmmmmMMMMMM', 'WEEEEEEEEEE' type noises.  It certainly turns heads when riding through town.

Handling

It looks like it shouldn't be good at handling, particularly with the fixed handlebar configuration, square car tyres and chunky fairing but it's surprisingly nimble.  Chasing after a cat (burglar) the other day was great fun, whizzing through the chicane at Chair Leg Avenue with ease and literally running rings around Hi-Fi Central.  There's not much clearance with the fairing and side stands though and grinding down is a problem.

Stop! Halt!

Extras

For a basic model, we in Police HQ were surprised with the extras.  One front yellow light (non-shining), two blue lights (non-shining, non-flashing), three rear tail lights (red, non-shining, non-flashing), TWO radio aerials AND a walkie-talkie complete with holder.  We looked proper 'bling' driving through town at night.  We want to put some flashing blue neon lights on the bottom but so far, Chief Papa has denied our requests.  The miserable old goat.

There are two luggage cases, either side of the rear sub-frame but as far as we could see, there was no way to open them.  This seemed a scandalous waste of space and if we weren't mistaken, they are there purely for show.  Where are we going to put our notebooks, nightsticks and bag of donuts?

It has an independently-operated double kick-stand and even a spare should one go missing.  This doubled up as a useful crutch after I came off.  Yes, I had an 'incident' with the afore-mentioned cat (burglar).  I can't say much as investigations are ongoing but suffice to say, the cat stopped, I didn't and the rest is history.  The injuries were slight however so don't worry.  My leg came off, as did my head and I think my torso was ripped in two but it was nothing that couldn't be fixed by running crying to Chief Papa.

This looks worse than it is.

The siren is loud and goes, 'Mee-maw, mee-maw, mee-maw' (* - see below)

Bad Bits

Big Jock McEngine down in the repair shop wasn't impressed.  You see, he's a bit of a 'tinkerer' when it comes to his vehicles.  It's been so long since we've had anything new and he's used to making his own unique brand of customizations.  He didn't like the chassis or fairing, stating that nothing can be done with them insofar as adding extra bits on.  I can see his point if I'm honest.  The front light *could* be removed and an extra-large Deathray Laser Cannon would conceivably fit into the space but that's about it.  Also, when inevitably this motorcycle 'fails'  i.e thrown down the stairs, using these 'factory special' components for something else will prove difficult.

The rear luggage cases, as well as not opening, have a propensity to fall off as there is only one fixing lug.  This seemed a bit cheap on LEGO's part.  Surely they could have put two lugs on there for a bit of extra purchase?  The last thing you want when chasing the dastardly Dick Dastardly (see pics) is to have to stop to pick bits up.  Totally destroys the street cred.

Dick Dastardly about to kill the photographer.  Grrr.

The visor on the new helmets are great, but are quite fiddly and difficult to see on a carpet should they fall off.  Chief Papa stepped on one the other day and he shouted words that would make a Donny lass blush.

Conclusion

For £3.97, the Lego Motorcycle represents excellent value for money.  It falls down somewhat in the longevity stakes as part of the appeal of *any* Lego product is the ability to use the  bricks to make other things.  The two main components here, the chassis and the fairing, could not by any stretch of the imagination be used to make anything other than a chassis and a fairing which is a real shame.  Lego are in danger of removing the biggest weapon they have in their armoury and that is the power of imagination.  Without it, they are just like any other bog-standard toy.

Apart from that, the extras make it a worthwhile investment to add to your arsenal of vehicles for the never-ending fight against crime.

You'll like this if ... You want to catch criminals
You won't like this if ... You're a desk jockey

(* - siren not included.  Make your own noises).