Little, Yellow, Different .... Lego's!
Written: Nov 09 '01 (Updated Mar 23 '06)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Nice selection of pieces, great for fans of the Studio line.
Cons: Small set, pieces get lose easily.
The Bottom Line: A small yet functional set. Not recommended as a stand alone set but a great addition for Studio or Lego fanatics.
|
|
|
| Freak369's Full Review: LEGO - Camera Man |
Keeping with my current trend of Lego reviews I was a little leery of writing one on the Lego Studio Camera Man. It’s an extremely small set, but packs a powerful punch. Following suit with it’s cousins from the series, it’s geared toward the new Lego Studio series – meaning that it’s a direct tie in to the larger, more expensive sets. And, as usual, I managed to get them on clearance at Wal-Mart.
Now, for those of you that don’t know, I am a die-hard Lego fan. For those of you that have endured my hundred or so Lego reviews you must know by now that I am in desperate need of professional mental help. So to you I confess – I was the person that bought the entire shelf of these when they were reduced to make room for seasonal items and new Lego series. Form the line to the left if you wish to slap me.
As I mentioned, the Camera Man is a very small set with the total piece count being 20. But don’t dismiss it just yet. There are more than a few redeeming qualities for this set so just bear with me. The instructions included with the set are for the design sown on the front of the box, but for once Lego gives you several alternatives for building the set as well as how to adapt them to other sets in the series. As always, additional plans can be found at the website [www.lego.com].
The Camera Man
Resembling the director from the Stunt Man Catapult set, the Lego person featured here comes with a blue baseball hat [removable], stenciled identification badge and ‘movie maker’ patch on the breastplate. He looks to be a rather happy little employee but again, slightly resembles Burt Reynolds – which is rather disturbing to me. He is also one of the few Lego people to be embellished with sideburns and a mustache.
Rigging
The camera, platform and lighting rig can be assembled in a variety of different ways so don’t confine yourself to the basic instructions. The camera is basic and does not include a film canister or pop on / clip on film cassette. The early releases of this set did include the snap on cassettes but they were dropped for some odd reason.
You might think that with only 20 pieces you would get bored with this in about five minutes. Not true at all – in fact having so few pieces kind of forces you to get creative. One of the other ways of building the platform is to use the lighting rig as a boom or even mounting the camera on it for elevated shots. If you want to see examples of this, visit the Lego website and click on Studios and select any of the movies that Lego addicts have created and submitted to the site.
Another plus is that the camera and lighting rig rest on movable pieces allowing you to position them at different angles. These pieces are very sturdy and we’ve yet to wear them out. These pieces can be used in so many different ways that if I started listing them I might just lull you into a coma. Let’s just say, it makes this small set extremely functional and are considered key pieces.
Odds And Ends
One of the cool pieces included in the box is the yellow and black ‘danger’ or ‘warning’ pieces. While you only get one of them [rather than two with the Stunt Man Catapult set] you’ll find a use for it somewhere outside the recommended placement.
The camera comes with two small white pods that can be used to elevate the cameraman or used to prop up the platform. The more you play with it the more ideas and designs you can come up with – so don’t think that this set is useless.
As with all Lego sets, the small pieces are small. Use your judgment when giving these sets to children and make sure that all the pieces are collected and accounted for if small children share the same play area as older kids.
Notes, Tid Bits And Overview
While I have said more than a few times that this set has a wide variety of uses, if this is the only set a child has to play with – eventually the fad will wear off. They make great stocking stuffers as well as rewards instead of candy or treats. I can’t recommend this as a stand alone set since – as I said – the fad will wear off.
I found that this set could be adapted and blended with almost every other set we have – including the Star Wars scenes that have since taken over parts of the playroom. Add a few of these guys in the background of any scene to give it a movie set feel. The brood have managed to convince me that they ‘needed’ several boxes to create a television station and a dinosaur compound “monitoring station”. Now you exactly where they get it from right?
So, check those clearance aisles to see if your local stores have also reduced these sets. I cleaned out my local Wal-Mart and plan on checked a few other locations in the next day or two. As I said before, the holidays are right around the corner so get a head start on the shopping with some small treats that will be sure to please any Lego fanatic!
The Stats
Set Name: Camera Man
Family Set: Lego Studio
Lego Set: 1357
Number of Pieces: 20
Age Recommendation: 6 㪨
Ease Of Assembly: Extremely easy
Time Of Assembly: 5 minutes
Cost: $1.00 per box [sale price]
Normal price ranges from $1.99 to $2.29
As always, thanks for the read!
^V^ Freak ^V^
Other Lego Studio related reviews ...
Temple Escape
Stunt Man Catapult
Camera Man
Stunt Go Cart
Director's Copter
Air Boat
Green Goblin Set
Werewolf Ambush
Vampire's Crypt
Pirate Scene
Curse of The Pharaoh
Mini Copter
Pirate Treasure Surprise
Dino Head Attack
Scary Laboratory
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $1.00 - sale
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.