REVIEW: 7032 Highway Patrol & Undercover Van

[WesternOutlaw]

7032 Highway Patrol & Undercover Van

Set #: 7032

Theme: World City - Police & Rescue

Year Released: 2003

Piece Count: 151

Minifigs: 2

List Price: $15 (USD)

Set 7032 Highway Patrol & Undercover Van reminds me so much of Classic Town. With it's 4-stud-wide vehicles, excellent minifigs, and lots of extras brings me back to a simpler time in which Classic Town sets were abundant in Lego's line-up. Let's take a closer look at this set and let you decide how well you like it.

Starting with a similar box as other World City sets, not much in terms of detailed boxart:

The back of the box still shows some alternate models including an airplane and jeep:

The set includes three small stickers:

I like the accessories (some not pictured as I left them attached to the vehicles), esp. the road block and lap top computer:

The set includes two figs, a nicely detailed police officer, and "Man In Black", the mysterious Mr. X. I love that black suit :

My favorite of the two vehicles is this Highway Patrol vehicle that I think looks more like an all-terrain vehicle or 4-wheel drive. The black 1x3 doors gives it the Classic Town look:

Here it is at a different angle:

I like the creative use of the grill piece and the 1x3 angled plates:

The back end has some space and hooks for attaching police equipment:

The van is pretty nice as well, but very non-descript. I suppose the alternative would be to have large POLICE decals on each side of the van, not really making it very undercover. I like the use of the small train windows on each side of the van:

The van also includes some surveillance equipment:

I love the back end with opening doors. The inside can be used to store some of the police equipment:

Here's a Highway scene with both vehicled stopped for a road block:

And the complete set:

Final Thoughts:

Although I don't think the name really describes this set very well, it is a wonderful little police set for the World City collection. As mentioned above, with the 4-stud-wide vehicles complete with 1x3 doors, this set really has a Classic Town look in my opinion. I esp. like the Police Jeep and the Man in Black, the two highlights of this set. It was a good value set offering a lot of police chase fun.

[5150 Lego]

Nice review! I remember buying this along with 7044 helocopter years ago. I bought this set formy nephew, and the helocopter for myself! This was during my dark ages and i remeber him and I having alot of fun playing with both these sets. Brings back some good memories. Thanks for bringing me back Brickster!

[CP5670]

These vehicles are definitely reminiscent of classic town. The van is strikingly similar to the one in this set. The camera and radar/antenna can actually fit inside the van, which I think looks better than hanging them on the outside.

The MIB is one of my favorite town minifigs, and the printed badges are also a nice touch.

The tires in my set were slightly defective though, bulging out at the edges for some reason. The van's wheels wouldn't turn smoothly with them and I had to replace them. It's a good thing those tires are so common.

Edited December 27, 2008 by CP5670

[Section8]

Above average for the World City line, which makes it average compared to the rest of the Town line. The van is a good feature, but the chunky tires make it look odd. It would have been neat if the van was made to look like a flower or delivery van, pretty typical of undercover vans in movies/tv.

[Zarkan]

Thanks for the great review, Brickster.

Honestly, this is how 4 wide vehicles should be done. I've never been a fan of the tiny go-cart style vehicles in many old town kits, but that doesn't mean I don't like four wide at all. On the contrary - sets like this one show that you can stay in the 4-wide scale and still achieve a smooth and fairly realisticially scaled design. Add two great looking vehicles to two nice figures and some good acessories, and you have a 5 from me!

[Darth_Legois]

Im still kicking myself for not geting this! I remember seeing this on the shelf and not geting it!

I miss that old police torso, Its more realistic then the new ones...

Anyway I gave it a above average, Nice review too

[SheepEater]

Hi!

I'm not one for "necromancing" old threads needlessly, but this is one of the VERY FEW town sets for which I was able to recreate one of the alternate models from a single photo from the back of the box - the plane with control center. Hopefully my photos will help people recreate it, including myself - I never bothered to recreate it in LDD or any virtual lego software!

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=390256

[PsyKater]

Above average for the World City line, which makes it average compared to the rest of the Town line. The van is a good feature, but the chunky tires make it look odd. It would have been neat if the van was made to look like a flower or delivery van, pretty typical of undercover vans in movies/tv.

100% agree to this statement!

Edith has just noticed how old this thread was...

Edited August 14, 2012 by PsyKater