Is City 4430 an awful set?

Norlego · July 2014

Over the last 4 years I have built a lot of Lego sets. I now need to build #4430 and it looks awful. Very bulky and I cant see children wanting to play with it. It might be one of the worse City sets.

CCC · July 2014

Multiple firemen, two large vehicles. One goes on the other. Of course kids like it.

Threads like this are not a good idea.

binaryeye · July 2014

Norlego said:
Over the last 4 years I have built a lot of Lego sets. I now need to build *4430 and it looks awful.

Why do you need to build it?

Norlego said:
Very bulky and I cant see children wanting to play with it. It might be one of the worse City sets.

To be honest, if you can't see children wanting to play with this, how can you see children wanting to play with most sets? Along with the points mentioned by CCC, it has a "building" on the trailer for the firefighters to sit in. To me, the playability of this set seems higher than most in the City theme. My three-year-old loves these kinds of sets.

Jumpinbeans · July 2014

I think it comes down to preference - for me given that 4430 and 4209 cost the same (UK and EU not US) and have the same amount of parts....I'd say that playing with the original models then 4209 would be better but i think if you break it down and rebuild the 4430 would be more fun.

Norlego · July 2014

Somebody has kindly asked to buy it and I need to build it so I can see if everything is there.
I do agree the "building" bit on the trailer is good, but the lorry and extra vehicle are ugly. A much better set is the 7998 which has a lot of playability. I can only speak for girls not sure what boys like. My girls like the house sets and my youngest will happily build sets but not play with them.
Anyway, I am due to build the *3182 and *7994 so will have some fun.

CCC · July 2014

Check off the parts in the instruction book or the inventory at Bricklink , it is quicker than building it.

Norlego · July 2014

It is partly built, so will be quite quick to rebuild.

CCC · July 2014

So finish building it, and decide for yourself if it is awful. Whether something is awful (or great) is highly subjective and personal. Some things that one person finds awful others will find excellent and vice versa.

And thank lego for that. The range of lego sets available would be incredibly boring if everyone had to like every one of them.

Aanchir · July 2014

Does anyone know specifically what kinds of rescue vehicles it's based on? I feel uncomfortable criticizing it for its looks without having any idea what it's based on. There are some weird firefighting vehicles out there (especially if you look at specialized ones like the amphibious one this set seems to depict), and since most of the other fire engines that year were fairly realistic, I have to imagine it's based on SOMETHING...

Generally, the set seems to offer a good value, though. Creative cab design, nice command center, and good price-per-piece.

CCC · July 2014

Would kids care anyway? Looking at the heli-boat-crane that one of my kids built earlier, my vote is no!

scrumper · July 2014

^^ Going by the set description the amphibious looking vehicle is an 8x8 forest fire fighting truck, I would think real ones need roofs though.

Norlego · July 2014

^ I am vindicated! The amphibious thing does not look like the first photo as there are no windows...

MathBuilder · July 2014

Norlego said:
It is partly built, so will be quite quick to rebuild.

I think here lies the big mistake. When you want to check if something is complete, specially if you are selling it to somebody expecting to receive something complete, never finish building something partially built. Who is to say that the missing pieces are not missing from the built part!

Maybe for a small set like this the chance of error is small but try your method with a modular...

Norlego · July 2014

I have not built it, so will have to take it apart to build it. But I wont have to find a lot of the bricks so I have a head start. It came in a job lot I bought.
I am getting better at sorting lego and can now separate bricks into sets quite quickly. Never thought I would be able to do that, though. (Once you have built the police station 3 times you don't really want to build it again... But police stations seem to be popular, I would prefer a the farm set any day.)

iancam33 · July 2014

@scrumper: that first vehicle is pretty bad-ass.

scrumper · July 2014

Norlego said:
^ I am vindicated! The amphibious thing does not look like the first photo as there are no windows...

Vindicated? I wasn't suggesting it was that particular vehicle, it was just an example for @aanchir and I don't see how that makes it an awful set. It's a playset with fire trucks that the minifigs can fit in. I would have loved it as a kid.

TheBigGuy · July 2014

I would have to say, as an AFOL, that set #4430 would be among my all-time favourite sets. In fact, I love all four sets (4208, 4209, 4427 & 4430) from the Forest Fire sud-theme. There is just something about them that appeals to me, not really sure what, I just really like the look of them.

paul_merton · July 2014

I don't think I've seen this set before, but it looks pretty cool to me!

Is City 4430 an awful set?

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