Review: 3433 The Ultimate NBA Arena

[Night City Dream]

The present set was purchased in Kindermix store, which is probably the best LEGO store in Russia, and I got the last one. The box was a bit damaged but I didn't pay much attention to it as the set was one I’d been searching for for a long time.

Some official info:

3433 – The Ultimate NBA Arena

Year: 2003.

Pieces (officially): 491.

Minifigs: 10.

This review has been written with an account to some following factors: the Sports series was available when I was far away from LEGO (1998 – 2008) and didn't pursue much interest in the development of LEGO SYSTEM, just herd some names and that was all. So, I am viewing this set as a person who is trying to catch the past. The second factor to be mentioned is that I was a fan of LEGO in 1994 – 1998, very keen especially on TOWN series, so all my considerations are strongly influenced by the «best years» of LEGO.

That is why to me even the box is important. It is DIFFERENT. The box is large but not the largest. We can see it is also quite thick as the set contains huge parts of the Arena.

The most important thing about the box to me is that it is designed in the way they used to design boxes and probably not long after this design was changed. Modern boxes are not very good: after opening you can't store anything in as they almost don't close at all.

Age brackets. No module principle building resulted in the fact that building used to take longer as you had to search for pieces in the whole bulk of parts. The downside to it is that we used to have less extra parts – we'll see it later.

On the upper part we see minifigs. It is completely different from traditional LEGO System minifigs:

On the other sides we see some sketches with famous real basketball players, and there's a list of players represented by minfigs of the set:

The old set reference when Denmark was the only country mentioned:

At the back side there are variants you can build out of this set, you can't see it on the boxes of modern sets:

Here we stop reviewing the box saying once again it is much more convenient than modern boxes that open sidewards and that can't close normally... Here you can see how it used to work at those times:

As I said, the box was a bit damaged. When I open it I had a little impression the set was used. Some stickers were damaged, too, and a large piece of Arena was a bit dirty. However, I checked all pieces (that's my strange hobby as well), everything was ok.

The book is also interesting as you can find there some info on the sets of Basketball subtheme.

According to the book, it takes 20 steps to build the Arena:

Some random pics of pages:

The other set of the subtheme. There was a number of minifig sets. So, the subtheme was highly developed, not in the way nowadays series are developed under the strict laws of marketing.

There'a a small poster in the box that shows us other sets of the year:

The set comes with 10 minifigs, which is quite an exception to what is now put in sets.

Many interesting pieces, rare or unique. Large pieces are not packed:

There are 10 bags with pieces. The whole opened set looks like this:

Some bags are traditionally perforated, they are much more solid than modern bags. Bricksets indicates 491 pieces in this set, I counted 494. I have also to say the peculiarity of this set is that it contains lots of similar parts.

The first bags give us torsos and heads of the players.

The second bag:

In bag 3 we see baskets and 4 balls! The baskets are just stunning. I can't understand why they were not used in the Apple tree house – there's something similar to toilet saddle instead. The bag contains also players' legs.

As you can see, the minifigs are totally different from the figs we got used to. They have springs inside the legs that allow them to return to standing position. So, you can't make them sit down because of that. They didn't have traditional holes for studs at the back either.

The minifigs are fixed on the Arena owing to these elements:

Bag 4:

This bag is interested as it contains tyres, like those of 7731, but they are transparent:

There are also «steering wheels» to operate central players and basket handles:

The fifth bag contains lots of small parts.

Bag # 6:

Other 4 bags. Bags 8 and 9 are identical.

To be continued.

I'm not going to show all building process but some moments have to be covered.

Edited August 17, 2010 by Night City Dream

[prateek]

Can't wait for the rest. I like this set. IMO, they should make a new set with the new Miami Heat vs Cleveland Cavaliers.

[Night City Dream]

OK, sure, I'll carry on my review. Can anyone tell me if there are any limits per post and per thread? I had to withdraw some of my pics from the first post as they appeared as links, not as images.

The minifigs are probably the most interesting about the set.

Apart from what was said above, the minifigs have different arms, their hands can't turn. The arms can be fixed in several positions, they don't turn the way you turn arms of a typical minifigure.

10 basketball players are represented in the set. Mind that almost each face is different. The only player – Dirk Nowitzki – was given hair.

A bit off-topic but just not long before reviewing this set I had watched «Rush Hour» with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, where one of the protagonists is James Carter.

View from the bottom:

Some pics of the system operating central basketball players.

Pins are used to connect the mechanism to the field. The steering wheel turns the handle that touches the second axis, which, in its turn gets the player up.

Edited August 17, 2010 by Night City Dream

[The Yellow Brick]

Fantastic review Nght City Dream, I dont like the figures very much, they just dont seem lego

[Night City Dream]

There are two tribunes and they are not identical. One of them has got the main entrance, so it has got less seats.

Some pics of the tribune that is above the entrance.

There are lights above the entrance:

The second tribune has got more seats. 3 rows are available on each tribune.

You can seat 20 + 29 minifigs, with a potential up to 30 minifigs fot the larger tribune. It means that the Arena can hold as many as 50 spectators. It think for a LEGO city it is not that little.

Every basketball player except those who stand near the baskets, are mounted using these elements:

Then, we put 5 blue and 5 red flags. Later stickers are used to show the points (1-2-3-4-5).

I also find interesting the way the baskets are fixed. The shields are probably unique pieces, they are transparent 6x5 piecex with printed images:

Some pics of the building process:

To be continued.

Edited August 18, 2010 by Night City Dream

[prateek]

One thing I don't understand is why Steve Nash doesn't have any hair

[Night City Dream]

I've no idea either...

Now, if you want, I'll continue.

Technic elements are used to build the supporting structure. The structure is very steady.

Let;s pass now to the stickers. I must say they are too many stickers and you are given a choice. You can choose for example what sponsor ads to put. I decided to use those shown in the book.

These stickers were not used:

Extra-parts and 3 extra balls:

The Arena is built. Let's look at it more in detail:

Conclusion.

In my opinion, the set is excellent, just as almost any old LEGO set. Everything is well thought out, the Arena is steady you can carry it with one hand only and it will not break apart. The minifigs are marvellous and very realistic. I can also notice the high playability of the set, so it will be popular for the whole family. The tribunes allow us to use the Arena in the city layout and make there city-dwellers sit. The players can take and handle the balls as well as to throw it. Sometimes however, a player can take and hold the ball quite strongly, and you can't throw it. Sometimes also, the ball flies out of the arena. The minifigs can't sit down and can't be widely used in the city layout. By the way, the Arena is larger than the box, is measures 64x56 studs, which is a bit less than 4 road plates put together. The box offers us some other thing to build but these are merely variations of the Ultimate NBA Arena.

Strong points.

1. 10 minifigs.

2. Minifigs' design, originality.

3. The structure is very solid.

4. The Arena is well scaled to Lego City System.

5. Tribunes.

6. high playability if the set.

7. Very well designed box.

8. Lots of useful parts and pieces.

9. Other models to build.

10. Lots of stickers giving us freedom of choice.

Disadvantages.

1. Very hard to find.

2. Large stickers are very difficult to put.

As for the price, I bought it for nearly 110 euros but I think is it not that costly. The biggest City sets have often the same price tag but they are smaller. And the minifigs is the Arena sport some metal parts, which is always very expensive at Lego (just remember the 9V rails).

To be continued...

There will be a small BONUS ;)

Edited August 18, 2010 by Night City Dream