60010 Fire Helicopter Variant roaming around?

[TTTbionicle]

Hi everyone. I am new here and I haven't actually written a post introducing myself yet, However I do have some news (I hope, people may have found out about this already)

I was surfing around brickset yesterday, and I checked the section where new instructions pdfs from lego.com are posted, and I stumbled upon what looks like a variant of the 60010 set!

http://cache.lego.co...ons/6058362.pdf

Now, you may think at first glance that this is nothing new, but compare it to these instructions:

http://cache.lego.co...ons/6036607.pdf

You will see that the interior is different, the "arm" holding the water gun is different as well (and way more flimsy i might add) and worst of all:

The beautiful snot on the sides has been completely removed.

Why? Is this an actual variant we may find in stores? Or is it a prototype? Judging from the changes, seems like the piece count of the variant may be lower, even though the price per piece ration is already pretty mediocre in this set. (30€ for ~200 pieces)

Is this a vicious marketing scheme to fool those who aren't aware of these changes? I am really concerned, has anyone got any answers perhaps?

[lightningtiger]

Excellent find, so that's the quality control issue I have been told about by many sources I have access to, I prefer the new design - the fire fighter has greater control over the water jet nozzle even though the jet of water is green......fire fighting chemicals I would guess at.

Oh, and by the way 'TTTbionicle' welcome to EB......and Brick On !

[Darthluke824]

Wow! Thanks for that! I have the 1st Version that I bought at the start of the year, I wonder if they have some problems with it and redesigned it. Interesting, I will keep an eye out next time I go LEGO Shopping!

[rriggs]

Which is the new one?

Cheers

Rog

[scottwb2010]

Hi

I built this last Friday and the one I have is the one with the snot on the side. Looking at the 2 instructions ie the ones from the helicopter I built (studs on side) and the ones on the lego sight which have the snot, the helicopter with the snot has 2 water cannons, 1 on each side compared to the one without the studs that only has one water cannon. What is also strange is the model shown on the lego site is the one with studs.

[polarscribe]

I have the original (and now rare, apparently!) 60010 helicopter with SNOT sponsons. It does not have two water cannons, however - the right-side sponson is fitted with a Technic hole where a second cannon might go, but parts were provided for only one cannon, which the instructions place on the left side under the winch. Is there perhaps a third variant?

[lightningtiger]

I have been told what the retailers have been......the floor of the original is not strong enough and the minifig would fall though it ?

In my opinion it's to do with the water cannon, but in the new instructions the landing floats are different too.

[polarscribe]

Yeah, I wonder if they decided the SNOT bits of the sponsons were too finicky for the target building market. A shame, because it really is rather elegant design. My only complaint is that too much of the cabin is taken up by the Power Functions bit, but that's easily fixed by replacing it with a plain old red winch :)

[just2good]

I haven't seen this topic until today. Very interesting... I'll need to check for variants next time I got to Target.

[polarscribe]

Per the new instructions, the landing gear of the helicopter has been completely changed - uglier, less realistic *and* less functional!

http://cache.lego.com/bigdownloads/buildinginstructions/6058365.pdf

The swiveling nose gear and sponson-mounted wheels appropriate to an aircraft have been replaced by a terrible, fixed hard plastic roller (NO tire) at the nose and single wheels mounted to the main fuselage *behind* the sponsons. Yuk! Glad I have the original.

[Darth Malgus]

not a fan of the new landing gear, a couple of these are out and about near me, will have to see which version they are...