Starting this year we will be showcasing minifigures in a one off fashion - we will review them separately from a larger overall play theme. They will be cataloged in a 'miscellaneous' section of the minifigure guides. This will be the first of those reviews focusing on the minifigures and elements of LEGO City set 7279, Police Minifigure Collection.
The overall set contains 57 pieces in total including four minifigures, a minifig scale dog, and several unique elements. We will start with the two police minifigures.
The first police figure contains elements that have appeared with many minifigures in the past, including the helmet, head and legs. The torso, however, features new print on both the front and back. The back of the torso has the word 'POLICE', a nice feature for creating SWAT teams or adding diversity to your tactical police force. I've already seen a few people switching the arms around on this torso to have the 'POLICE' on the front of the fig.
The second police figure is similar in that many of the individual parts have appeared with previous figs. The white cap with the short brim style is a relatively new color for this part, first appearing in sets in 2010.
Although not a minifigure, there is a third member of this miniature police force - a german shepard. A new dog mold with a nice facial print, this hound has a footprint (literally) of 2x3 studs. Similar to other dogs of the past, it has a single, open stud on the back. The head is also stationary and does not move.
Now that we've covered the 'cops' lets turn our eye to the 'robbers'. The first thief is similar to the police in that most of the elements (hat, head, and legs) have been readily available in other sets of the past. The torso does feature a new print. resembling a light blueish gray jacket over a striped prison shirt. On the back of the torso, the jacket has a cinch.
The second thief does not have any new or unique parts, as all the items have been available in other sets before. Now that we've covered the minifigures, we can turn our attention to several unique elements.
There are four key elements we will discuss, the backpack/bag, crowbar, flashlight, and handcuffs. Although I originally thought the flashlight was a new element, it was just a black light saber handle with a trans yellow round plate. The hand cuffs are made of the newer, rubbery material (2008) but they have been widely available since that time.
The crowbar is a brand new element to the 2011 City Police sets. The crowbar comes in red and measures 3.1 cm or approximately 4L in length. Both ends are tapered, with one of the ends being curved. Prior to this part, the only way to get a minifig compatible crowbar was through custom house BrickForge.
The back pack or bag is also a brand new element this year. Attaching on the minifig via the head post, this back pack has an open cavity that allows you to place items inside. As shown here you can fit two 1x2 tiles or similar sized objects inside (like the two $100 bills that come with the set). There's a connection hole on the bottom of the bag as seen above. The bag is only available in dark tan to date.
The remaining parts in the set go towards building an ATM unit and police ATV, both pictured above. Given that this is primarily a minifigure blog, we won't go into too much detail here. We will just share the final, constructed models.
All in all, this is a nice small set providing some unique elements not previously available. The double sided police and criminal torsos, the new dog, as well as the back pack and crowbar elements are the real draws here.
This set's MSRP is $9.99 and should be widely available at retailers who carry LEGO brand products world wide. You can also pick this item up at LEGO Shop at Home (US
| Canada
| UK
) today!
