Review- 7738 Coast Guard Helicopter

[5150 Lego]

So i just piced up a new digital camera and i thought what better way to try it than doing a review of my newest set. The new 7738 Coast Guard Helicopter! itsmy first review, so go easy on me!

lets start off with the small stuff. First the mini figs.

You get 4 figs total. Two helicopter pilots, a diver and a civilan to rescue. The torso's are nothing new on the pilot and diver. Same ones as in the last coast guard line. But i like the colors alot better in this coast guard line than the previous generation. The yellow and blue really work well together and the coloring on the badge looks great! The civilian looks to be just a dock worker with an overall torso and a beenie. The diver has nice vented helmet and a pair of flippers that suits his duty perfect!

Next we have an absolute work of lego art. The rescue raft!

The orange flaps can be moved back for easy entry to the raft, as well as the white "support" beams with the caution tape. I put support in perenthaces cause they really don't support anything. Just there to fill in the gaps. At the top of the raft is a red locator beacon, ccommunications antenna, and a cargo loop for lifting the raft.

lets move on to the interior of the raft.

Not much here. But you can see the techinc beam that attaches to the top loop,and to the floor of the raft. So far this has proven to be very sturdy and has supported the full weight of the raft quite well. You can also see the white box that holds the equipment of the raft. Here you can see the life saver tube.

Here's a shot with our dock worker peaking out the side.

The raft says max ocupants 4, but with the storage box, that might be a tight fit.

Now lets move on to the Helicopter!

in my opinion this is one of the best helicopters TLC has come out with to date. I really felt they captured the look and proportions of a real Coast Guard helicopter. it uses a lower hull and tail section of the new airliner, and cargo airplane. It really seems to work well with this application. The engines have good detail using new "cheese graders" as vents, as well as the new engine stacks that come in the new speed racer sets. The rotors also appear to be new as well. lets move on to the cockpit.

We have two seats for our pilots with a sticker sheet for intruments on a flat 4 wide plate. There's also an antena being used as a flight stick. Another shot with our pilots at the helm.

Now lets moveon to the high lihgt of this heavy lifting machine. The med bay, and lifting winch.

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/5150Lego...icopter_020.jpg

here you can see the winch arm at rest, along with the medical strechter. The bad part is that the med. strechter doesn't include the ussually included fold away wheels.

here's a shot with the winch arm extened ready for rescue!

In the second shot you can see the drum that the wire coils up in. It coils up via a recently new power functions "pull" back motor. To operate, just pull out the winch cable, hook on your load, and presse this orange button on the side...

The bad part of the new power functions winch is that although its very smooth in its operation, its not very strong. It will only lift the raft a couple inches before it runs out of torque. It also has a tendency to want to pull the crane arm backin while its lifting. It doesn't matter if its a light load, or heavy load.

The bay doors open on both sides for easy postioning of the figures and accses to the strechter.

Here we have our diver looking over his rescue-e. Nice and roomy if you don't mind a crane arm being in your way!!

At $39.99 and a peice count of 445, i felt this set was a great good considering what your getting. The raft construction is very creative and is probbly the highlight of the set by itself. The helicopter is probbly one of the best, if not the best helicopter TLC has ever came out with if you can get over its size.

in a scale of one to five....

Price-

Peice count-

Playability-

Design-

overall- .5

I would have given it a full 5 out of five, but since the winch can't pull the raft all the way, it didn't fell it right.

Even with this minor flaw, i still highly recomend this set!

[meschepers]

Wow. I was skeptical of this Coast Guard line. Though getting to see some detailed pictures of this set I really want to get get it. Alas, I have not the money to get it and it isn't available in my town. Oh well. Maybe I can catch it on a sale at some point.

Good review!

[Darth_Legois]

Great Reveiw this is DEFINATLY one of the CG sets im geting i cant wait to get my hands on this set!

[Holodoc]

Great review 5150 Lego!

The new camera was well worth it.

You´ve got everything well done. I´m looking forward to your next review.

Wow. I was skeptical of this Coast Guard line. Though getting to see some detailed pictures of this set I really want to get get it.

Same here. Maybe in two days I can see it in real.

[Skipper 24]

This has gotta be the coolest chopper ever. I love it its so accurate plus your review is great because it shows all the inner details

[Big Supie]

Nice review.

A must have for my city collection.

[Clonecommando007]

Great review! This does look like an excellent set; great chopper!

[Klaus-Dieter]

Thank you very much for the nice review, 5150 Lego!

The helicopter is - apart from that it is very, very big and that it does not include any interior - a very nice set . The most I like the life raft becuase it is simply . Nevertheless I don't know if I buy it (probably not) - but it's very nice!

Two questions :

-Where can you fasten the stretcher on to haul it up and down?

-Is the motor working with batteries?

Klaus-Dieter

Edited May 28, 2008 by Klaus-Dieter

[Zarkan]

Great review, 5150. Although, you might want to resize your pictures before posting them so they don't take forever to load.

Wow. I was skeptical of this Coast Guard line.

I was actually the complete opposite. Ever since I saw the first pictures, I fell in love with the whole line. The helicopter looks to be one of the two best in the line, right up with the 4WD and Jetski.

Great job TLC, and I do hope you have something equally as great planned for next year.

[MatthewUSA]

Very nice job on the review 5150!! I definitly like this set much better now that I have seen good pics of it. I am definitly picking this up as soon as I can. Again, great review .

Model On!!

[VBBN]

Great review! I will get

this, but I will wait for a sale.

Edited May 28, 2008 by ~VBBN~

[Asuka]

Thank you for that fine review of a really excellent set, 5150 Lego. I never saw a little 'juniorization' done that good before!

[5150 Lego]

Thanks everyone for the nice coments! Its nice to finaly have a camera that can take some decent photos! makes doing reviews much more enjoyable!

Thank you very much for the nice review, 5150 Lego!

The helicopter is - apart from that it is very, very big and that it does not include any interior - a very nice set . The most I like the life raft becuase it is simply . Nevertheless I don't know if I buy it (probably not) - but it's very nice!

Two questions :

-Where can you fasten the stretcher on to haul it up and down?

-Is the motor working with batteries?

Klaus-Dieter

There is no real way to lift up the stretcher. Due to the crane arm being in the way there really isn't any room for any kind oflifting straps. The set does include a 1x2 plate with a hinge for the diver to stand on so at least he can hold on to someone, the crane lifts them up and then he can put them in the strechter. Thats my guess at least.

As far as the motor, i don't believe it uses bateries since you pull out the motor, and all the button does is recoil the winch line back in. I have to say it does a very good job of that, and is very smooth. (as long as you don't have anything to heavy)

One detail i forgot to meation is the shark. Its nothing new, just the basic shark lego has had around for nealy 2 decades, but it was a detail nothing less.

[TheTET]

Nice review! The helicopter reminds a Sikorsky chopper,isn't it?

[tedbeard]

I could tell from the pictures that a lot (maybe all) the designs on the raft were stickers. In the whole set are there any printed parts besides the torsos or is it all stickers?

[5150 Lego]

All stickers i'm afraid. Though i'mnot a fan of stickers myself. Some sets (like Ferrari for example) take longer to put on than building the actual set. This one is not as sticker heavy as it seams though, and the ones that areon there really give the set that extra touch. Printed would have been preffered of course, but in this case i didn't mind it.

[Klaus-Dieter]

Thanks everyone for the nice coments! Its nice to finaly have a camera that can take some decent photos! makes doing reviews much more enjoyable!

There is no real way to lift up the stretcher. Due to the crane arm being in the way there really isn't any room for any kind oflifting straps. The set does include a 1x2 plate with a hinge for the diver to stand on so at least he can hold on to someone, the crane lifts them up and then he can put them in the strechter. Thats my guess at least.

As far as the motor, i don't believe it uses bateries since you pull out the motor, and all the button does is recoil the winch line back in. I have to say it does a very good job of that, and is very smooth. (as long as you don't have anything to heavy)

One detail i forgot to meation is the shark. Its nothing new, just the basic shark lego has had around for nealy 2 decades, but it was a detail nothing less.

Thank you very much for that information, 5150 Lego!

[Opproperaar]

That's a very nice set. I'm having my doubts about getting it though still. The overall shape and size of the helicopter remind me of the real-life CH-53 military cargo helicopter.

A very nice review. You've got the photography down very well I feel. Perhaps a bit of nitpicking but at the end where you assign a rating, if you do a rating with faces (which is fine by me) you may want to seperate the faces by a line. Otherwise it may become too crowded to the eye.

[Oky]

This is a very good review, thank you!

But I have some questions about the grey new parts in the life raft. Are they 1x1 like their counterparts with the clips or 1x2? And can they be held by a minifig by the handle?

If so, these could be very useful for brick-build weapons & tools!

Also, I'm looking forward to some orange ETA 2 Jedi Interceptor MOCs now! Who wants to be the first to make one?

BTW, which Jedi has an orange ETA 2?

[Asuka]

But I have some questions about the grey new parts in the life raft. Are they 1x1 like their counterparts with the clips or 1x2? And can they be held by a minifig by the handle?

(...)

BTW, which Jedi has an orange ETA 2?

I guess it should work with MFs....

Hmm.... I think it´s Count Citrus....

[Ralph_S]

I'm rather fond of helicopters and have built many different types. This doesn't really remind me of any particular model, other than perhaps an EH. 101 Merlin and even that resemblance is very superficial. Just for the record: this is a Sikorsky Sea King and this is a Sikorsky MH-53 (a derivation of the CH-53). The only resemblance I see with the former is the colour scheme and with the latter the fact that it's got a fat rear-end, sponsons and six blades.

It doesn't matter though, because I really like it. The colour scheme is great, the shape is nice, it's got quite a bit of detail and I just have to get my hands on the cockpit window and those new rotor blades. When I first saw the large aircraft pieces a few years ago I figured they were very much single-use parts, but the tail end doesn't look too bad. Pretty clever.

I like the raft too. It really does look like the real deal. That the helicopter can't lift it really isn't an issue, because in real life they wouldn't lift the raft either. They'd use the rescue hoist to lift the occupants of the raft into the helicopter one by one (or perhaps in pairs). Imagine a storm with a helicopter hovering over tall waves with a big fat raft strung from a cable underneath it. The raft would catch a lot of wind and flop around quite a bit, causing it to loose all its occupants and also yanking the helicopter around, possibly causing the pilot to loose control and crash. Bad idea!

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited May 30, 2008 by Ralph_S

[Chuck]

I noticed that you said the torsos are the same as the last line; the last line had orange torsos, this one has yellow torsos.

-Chuck

[commanderbly42]

Thanks for the review!

This set looks great and I really wish I had the money to buy the entire line. But unfortunately, I don't.

I love the way TLC used the wing parts to the Jedi Interceptor for the life raft - very well thought of.

Anyhow, great review!

[WesternOutlaw]

What an outstanding copter! I love it. The orange looks fantastic. This is probably Lego's best copter to date. Thanks for sharing the review.

I would definately recommend that you downsize your pictures a bit though.

[robbo]

I will certainly add this one to my collection, i already own every other rescue helicopter and i have a feeling this will be the best. Just love how its completely enclosed, thanks for the review.