Random set of the day: Fire Plane
Posted by Huwbot,Today's random set is 4209 Fire Plane, released during 2012. It's one of 41 City sets produced that year. It contains 522 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$59.99/£39.99.
It's owned by 4,190 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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35 comments on this article
So many 1x1 bricks lost under the couch...
Under the oven...
Under the washing machine...
Your sacrifices shall not be forgotten.
@MCLegoboy said:
"So many 1x1 bricks lost under the couch...
Under the oven...
Under the washing machine...
Your sacrifices shall not be forgotten."
*taps plays*
I loved these forest fire sets, mostly because they looked just like the fire vehicles we see in Australia. Kind of wish we saw more of these specialist themes, like police did (Sky Fire, anyone?).
Technically this is a military aircraft - most "water bombers" like this are actual carpet bombers that have been retired from air force service.
This was in my opinion one of the best City lines for the Fire Department. We even had storybooks from this era so we could (learn to) read the stories, then build and play with the sets.
Play feature with the water dump was great but yes, those cylinders had a habit of going awry! Really stretched our One Rule of LEGO: if a piece falls off the table, all play stops until it’s found.
I love so many things about this set. The water-drop function (even if, as @MCLegoboy says, it can lead to lost pieces.), the jeep with its equipment trailer, the trees on fire, the use of the Cars front-end piece at the trailing edge of the engines...
"Fire Plane"
Uhm, hello, there's also some trees! Now they're gonna feel left out!
Ok, I was close: Firing Planes :)
Seriously, I have this set (sits on top of one of my bookcase); and think it looks better than its modern counterpart...but maybe I'm biased:)...Funny thing is: my set has an instructional error. The connector on the 'jeep' is not connector shown in the instructions. 'Shown' is the older style 'ball-socket' (a 373023-type), given/presented was a newer style 'open-U' (a 4667166)
This set and entire theme is so nostalgic to me as it was around this time that I was introduced to Lego sets. I (obviously not having any money of my own at the time due to being a child) chose to collect the mine sets instead of these, but this theme fascinated me almost as much and still does to this day. Whenever I see 2011-2013 year sets it just takes me back to the good old days of just being a kid, when your biggest concern was your 1x1 cylinders rolling under the couch...
@RaiderOfTheLostBrick said: "I loved these forest fire sets, mostly because they looked just like the fire vehicles we see in Australia."
Agreed. I thought the forest subtheme sets of Fire, that year, were wonderful. They really were.
0/10, the plane is NOT on fire as advertised.
Looks more like a water plane imo
This was actually the set that brought me out of my dark ages.
I'm not a fan of overly specialized pieces, it makes the sets look like Playmobile. And makes it harder to use in other creations.
Two very lovely tree builds! That feels quite generous.
@GSR_MataNui said:
""Fire Plane"
Uhm, hello, there's also some trees! Now they're gonna feel left out! "
Fire Plane Jeep With Trailer Flaming Trees Attack
The Fire Plane, favoured transport of Fireman when he need to make a getaway from the Fire Cave
What a great set. One of the best firefighting play sets.
So many fun play features,
A nice set. This tree design from 2012 was so effective!
"Plane, you're fired."
More seriously, it does have some room for improvement. In particular the engines should be much closer to the fuselage, engine-out handling in this aircraft would be atrocious as it is.
@Norikins said:
"Technically this is a military aircraft - most "water bombers" like this are actual carpet bombers that have been retired from air force service."
The Canadair CL-215 and -415 say hello.
In general, surplus military aircraft have become rarer and rarer in the water bomber role. For the most part, those were WW2-era planes that have since either aged out and been retired, or sadly perished in flying accidents. They were also largely land-based, the only military flying boat that was used in any numbers was the PBY Catalina.
These days, it's mostly conversions of newer civilian airframes (up to the size of widebody airliners), some military transports getting roped in at peak times, and a few purpose-built designs like the Canadairs. Despite the different tail, I'd say they're actually the closest match for this set.
Both a better airplane and "jeep" compared to the vehicles in 60217: Fire Plane imo.
Really wish we had more than 3 sets this wave. I like the whole forest idea they had. Maybe they can revisit this next year?
@monkyby87 said:
"This was actually the set that brought me out of my dark ages. "
Me as well!
I was sorely tempted to pick this one up. Looking back, I kind of wish I had. The water dump feature looked so cool, and from the comments, sounds like it worked well.
This set also more or less brought me out of my dark ages. I had bought Lego through the years since I was a kid, but the Forest Fire subtheme piqued my interest enough that I started monitoring what Lego was releasing on a regular basis again.
The box art shows both trees on fire, but probably more dramatic having all the flames on one tree. The trailer has a pump and pipe which connect to the back of the plane to refill with water which is a small detail usually missed out event though adds to the play.
The first ‘Random Set of the Day’ that I actually own! Yay!
the Technic Fire Plane from 2015 (an excellent set, one of my favorites from that time) used 2x2 round bricks instead of 1x1 round bricks as the water payload. Much easier to find those on the carpet
Two of the Minifigures look the same lolz.
@Trigger_ said:
"Two of the Minifigures look the same lolz."
Interestingly enough, they do. The renders/official photos show the pilots both basically being the same minifig--with orange safety/sunglasses. However, the inventory shows one has the standard generic female head.
@cody6268 said:
" @Trigger_ said:
"Two of the Minifigures look the same lolz."
Interestingly enough, they do. The renders/official photos show the pilots both basically being the same minifig--with orange safety/sunglasses. However, the inventory shows one has the standard generic female head. "
I assumed they weren't the same in the set itself but I was too lazy to check.
@Norikins:
The two issues are whether it’s exclusively used by the military, and if it’s a licensed product.
@VintageDude:
I have seen CB antennas that are so long they have to be bent over and hooked to the other end of the car to keep them from striking objects overhead while driving in urban environments (Ecto-1 has one of these on the forward passenger side). Dune riding also requires significant long-distance visibility, because sand dunes don’t have lane markings, and two airborne dune vehicles have zero ability to avoid each other when cresting opposite sides of the same dune.
Anyone who is regretting they missed out on this set, and/or it’s nostalgic for them …. Buy it on eBay or Facebook Marketplace or Bricklink!
It’s relatively common and cheap!
:)
An awesome set. I never got it because the plane was too big for my layout (not a criticism of the set itself). A friend of mine had it though and it's such a great set. The mechanism works well, the plane looks really cool, and I really liked the jeep because it was the closest thing we had to a 1943 MB Willy's Jeep. Even the trailer looks really cool. I also like the firefighter's uniforms in this subtheme, one of the first very realistic ones.
Agreed that the modern one was no where near as good. It was just a red version of the hundreds of cargo planes, police planes, coast guard planes, and goodness knows how many helicopters, along with some weird buggy thing that looked like a MOC to me. The trees weren't too bad but even the water dumping feature wasn't very good.
I also completely agree with others that this was the prime time for City. City post 2014 roughly just went downhill. There are some good sets here and there but I miss the creativity and interesting features of 'new' City themes they came out with like Forest Fire, Forest Police, Mining, sets like Public Transport and City Corner etc.
@VintageDude:
Not upset, just being informative. And now I’m kinda wondering what your track record is when it comes to getting upset when people inform you of things you may or may not know. This is a set that features wilderness firefighters, who do have need of long-range communication equipment (which technically wouldn’t primarily involve CB),
@Brickchap:
I think there was a previous discussion of firefighter minifig outfits, where someone commented on the outfit not being realistic, only to be informed by someone in another country that they were realistic over there. There was a black outfit with yellow and silver safety stripes about 15 years ago that looks like ones I’ve seen used in the US, though it is not universal here by any means. It is worth noting that the yellow safety stripes fluoresce under UV light, which was cool to have pointed out to me.