Customer Reviews

LEGO City Fire Helicopter (7206)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ok, so there are other parents out there who have Lego-addicted children. It actually might all stem from the fact that they get the Lego magazine FREE for 2 years, thus Lego company is ensuring all parents will at some point be begged for something their child sees in the magazine. Which is exactly what occured here. My son HAD TO HAVE this helicopter, so we searched and found the best price on Amazon (though the Lego site isn't bad either, just pay for shipping). In any event, my son loves this. It's pricey, yes, but it's big and it took a long time to put together. As with all Legos they always need to have more "people", but this one has 2 and that works ok for now. I highly recommend putting it in a container once it's built, which is how we store all our Legos. That way they can be stored on a shelf in an orderly fashion and when they are bored and haven't seen a particular one for a while, just pull out a box, take it apart, and they get to put it together again (in typically a different way).

All in all, a great helicopter.

Another reliable lego standards toy. Makes a large helicopter, that you can play with and it doesn't constantly fall apart.
4 yr old and 8 yr old love it.

Lego really understands little boys with big imaginations. It took my 9 year old a bit over an hour to assemble with little help from me (mostly locating little parts). It sparked quite a conversation on how aircraft fly; it gets 5 stars in educational value. Legos hold up well, but get disassembled and little parts lost; 4 stars on durability. After a couple of weeks he has moved on to other toys, but still plays with it from time to time; 4 stars on fun and overall.

Legos are legos and we have them all with (2) boys under 6 years old! I have to say though that so far this one is the one that he has kept assembled and actually plays with the end product. The propeller is smooth, the wheels work well and their is a lot of accessory pieces that keep his mind in motion.

"Its my favorite toy" according to my 4 1/2 year old. He needed help putting it together and gets a little frustrated when pieces fall off when he plays with it, but he loves it.

My six yeaqr old grandson couldn't wait to start building his helicopter. He just loved it. Not only was this a challenge but after completing it he could play with it.

Gave this to my 10 yr. old grandson for Christmas and he loved it. Couldn't wait to open the box and put it together.

The lego city helicopter I ordered was for my 7 year old nephew. He loved it and kept him busily engaged for hours. He did need some adult help to complete some of the steps. They could make the instruction pages larger and the colors in the pictures more vibrant to distinguish between the shades of gray. Overall great toy-child needs patience to complete

My grandson (five and a half)and his dad have found common ground that they can work for long periods of time together(or alone sometimes)and come away feeling good and creative and HAPPY!!

Update 6 march 2011:
He plays less with it now, but still likes it.
Here's perhaps a tip for parents getting Lego sets like this one. Be prepared to find it all taken apart, with the pieces scattered around the house. It happened to us. One day I came home and found the whole set taken apart, with pieces all over the floor, and everywhere. I was not happy. First I taught our son had dropped the helicopter, and it just smashed to pieces. But when I asked him what happened, he explained that he and his older sister took it apart to try build a 'boat', because they found the back piece of the heli looks like the front of a boat. I wasn't happy but did not give them a hard time. Atleast thet were exploring. It took quite some time to gather all the pieces form everywhere, to build the helicopter and jeep back. Even had to wait a couple of days, because could not find all the pieces right away. It also took some time for me to talk to the kids and explain, if taken apart, will take time to build back, and also chances are pieces will get lost, and then cannout be build back. They seemed to undrstand. But remember, kids will be kids, and you will get surprises every now and then. Perhaps we'll get them the LEGO City Fire Ship (7207) or the LEGO® City Fireboat so they'll have there boat to go with this set.
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Review Dec 11 2010:
Last holiday season we were looking more for toys or games, that were at least a bit educational. We found this Lego set very educational. More than I expected. My son (almost 6) basically build it himself, by following the instructions, with me at his side, to help guide him through the step-by-step instructions. Basically the only thing I did was making sure he went from step 1, to 2, to 3 etc making sure he followed the instructions step by step. There were very few times (I think 5 or 7 times, less then 10 anyway), I had to show him he connected a piece just slightly wrong, and he would correct it. We were not planning on getting any Lego set. I taught a set like this one, kid should be a bit older then 6. Found it a bit too much too build fo a 6 year old. And also kids like to take it apart, and then loose the samll pieces. But our 6 year old kept asking for this particular set, for the helicopter. So we decided to try it.

I was impressed. I start building it for him, but then he stopped me, he wanted to build it himself. I thought he would not have the patience nor concentration to do it. But he proofed me wrong. We sat, I think for about 1,5 hour, maybe 2 hours. And he sat there, working on it, piece by piece, page by page, and very concentrated. At times, he would see things before I saw it, or even that I did not see at all. Only at the end, he started to get tired and slightly loosing his concentration. At that point he would get somewhat frustrated everytime I tried to tell or explain something to him. I had to help him with the last piece of the blades on top and the blades at the back. But he build it almost completely by himself.

He plays with it almost every day. Mostly with the helicopter. Doesn't seem to care much for the jeep or the little firefighters self. The helicopter is still in one piece, almost. Only the blades do come off, frequently but he connects them back. The small pieces are a bit of an issue, because they can get lost very easily. Again, very educational, for being able for a kid to sit, concentrate and follow instructions like that. Recognizing pieces, and there place on the instructions.

I think the instructions, while good, could be better. Especially if a 6 year old is going to build it. For example, I would like to see more arrows point to were pieces need to go. I think it would help. Then again, I was quite surprised that my almost 6 year old son, was actually watching the instructions, and following it. Again, on more then one occasion he saw pieces that needed to be connected, that I missed.

It's the 1st time we got our 6 yo son a bigger Lego set. Although I like Lego products, we were always thinking he was not yet ready for it. I guess he's now.

One concern we probably will keep, is that the small pieces will probably get lost. We try to have him take care of all his toys, but kids are kids. While me as a parent, who likes nice toys, would like to keep them complete.... But I also like to see him play, learn and have fun,... Ah well,... I'll cope.

And finally, as I mentioned earlier, we do like Lego products, but we do find them somewhat pricy too. I'll check for deals and sales.

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Update 23-dec-2010:
He's playing a little less with it now, perhaps not every day, but several times a week. Now I'm thinking he actaully liked builidng the helicopter more, the playing with it. He's seen the fire boat, and now is asking for it. We'll see. Perhaps with his b-day, or other holiday, or something.

I've also checked the Lego website. I find it a bit complex to browse/navigate through,... I think because it has so much information, options, posibilities on it,... but I discovered an interesting option. You can actually ordered individual bricks/pieces from Lego. Priced anywhere from a couple of cents like 0.10 to like say 3.99, depending on the particular piece. There might be pieces that cost more, I did not look at all of them. But I think this is great, if a couple of pieces get lost, and you want to replace them later. I think not all pieces are there, I searched for example for the main blades of the helicopter, and could not find them. But I'm thinking, since they are selling inidividual pieces on the Lego website, they might be able to help out, if you mailed them and ask for a specific piece that you can not find on the site. At least that's what I'm hoping. The Lego site is cool because you can check out all products, find all sort of information, become member of the Lego Club, ... looks cool.

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