Author Topic: 4822 fire 4x4 review  (Read 8090 times)

Offline Wolf Knight

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Re: 4822 fire 4x4 review
« Reply #10 on: April 25, 2010, 09:09:37 »
Thank you, Bill, for your comments.  A similar vehicle would make a nice edition to the police and ambulance thermes.

Police!!! Yes!!! That is a good idea!!! .... make a custom police vehicle of this....hmmm

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Re: 4822 fire 4x4 review
« Reply #11 on: April 25, 2010, 12:54:01 »
Thank you all for your comments.  Now on with the rest of the review.

The headlights are nice, neat representations of headlights plus either driving lamps or fog lights.  A good finishing touch would be to have orange turn indicators in the sides by having clear and coloured plastics injected into the mould and that may come with later versions of either this or other similar vehicles.  The rear lights, too, are separate plastic injections, this time in orange; again, a two colour moulding (red and orange) or even three (red, orange and clear) would have been a bit of extra detail, but these comments (like those about the headlights) should be seen as minor criticisms of what is a very good representation of a modern, small 4x4.  (In this area, Playmobil are lifting the standard to new levels which makes some of their productions in other themes such as (in my view) the ghastly fantasy area all the more disappointing.

The dashboard is a neat piece of moulding with four instrument dials, heater controls and a storage compartment, something which, offhand, I don't remember seeing before.   Between the front seats is a storage slot which I thought was for the laptop which comes with the model but isn't as the laptop hinge is too big for it to fit vertically, although it will fit in at a slight angle, hinge side up.  (See next post for a picture.)  Alternatively, the two-way radio easily fits in.


« Last Edit: April 25, 2010, 15:13:59 by playmofire »
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Re: 4822 fire 4x4 review
« Reply #12 on: April 25, 2010, 13:00:35 »
The roof clicks on and off for access to the interior and the rear storage area is moulded so that the fire extinguisher and first aid case are securely held rather than sliding about or falling out when the model is in motion or picked up.  At each rear corner there is a small circular hole to take the hand held stop sign provided with the equipment.

The remaining space takes a yellow storage box and the driver's helmet so that overall the storage space is effectively used with no wasted space.

There is a good range of equipment provided, laptop, two-way radio, stop sign, three small traffic cones, the first aid case and fire extinguisher and a loudhailer.  The klicky has detachable gloves and currently I am storing these in the first aid box.  This comes without the insert and stickers as found in the police estate car and the ambulance, but I have spares of the insert and stickers and will add these to make the first aid case complete.

The stickers (which I'm sorry I used before scanning them in) consist of the radiator grille, two medical stickers for the outside of the first aid case, the laptop screen and keyboard, and the front and rear number plates
« Last Edit: April 25, 2010, 13:11:58 by playmofire »
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Re: 4822 fire 4x4 review
« Reply #13 on: April 25, 2010, 13:24:20 »
One figure comes with the set - a grey haired fireman with a moustache.  He has the rather fancy haircut of some younger klickies, so maybe he is going through a mid-life crisis and searching for his lost youth!  He has the standard white helmet of the theme but with a red badge on the front.  He has the usual equipment belt (usual for the male figures as the belt will not fit the slightly wider hipped female klickies) and separate work gloves.
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Re: 4822 fire 4x4 review
« Reply #14 on: April 25, 2010, 13:26:56 »
Here are a set of photos of the figure for Heather for playmoDB.

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Re: 4822 fire 4x4 review
« Reply #15 on: April 25, 2010, 13:38:00 »
One of the advantages of the new 4x4 is that it is much more in scale with the fire engines.  The 3181 4x4 (either a G-Klasse Mercedes or Land Rover, depending on your view - to me the fact that it was made by a German company and the wheel hubs definitely made it the former) was out of scale with the 3880 because of it having to accommodate the optional RC system.  The 3070 4x4 was likewise too big compared with the 3880.  The new 4x4, however, is nicely in scale while still being able to carry an adequate amount of equipment.  What it lacks, however, is a working roof light as it uses the roof light from the 3177 Smart car.  If Playmobil do produce more emergency service vehicles using this 4x4, then a working roof light is something they need to produce.

Summing up, then, a very welcome model in the new fire theme with only some minor suggestions for possible detail improvements.  Criticism is limited to the new fire theme badge (and this applies to all the vehicles I've reviewed in the new theme), but probably careful use of polishes etc can remove these.  The use of the Playmobil name across the shoulders of the firecrew is also something I would prefer not to have been done.  But these are minor criticisms of a great new range of fire vehicles.  Hopefully, there will be one or two additions to the range in the next year or two.  And on the basis of this version, I think I will get the parts for the vet version from DS so that smaller 4x4s can appear on the local streets.
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Re: 4822 fire 4x4 review
« Reply #16 on: April 25, 2010, 13:44:28 »
A final postscript.  Over the years I've always liked the way Playmobil have reused parts in different sets and this occurs in this set too.  When putting the wheel centres into the wheel hub, I thought I had seen them before recently being used for something entirely different, and I was right.  The wheel centre (picture 1) as well as appearing in this set (picture 2) is also used as the filter for the suction basket on the hose in 4821 (picture 3)!
« Last Edit: April 25, 2010, 15:39:08 by playmofire »
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Offline Bill Blackhurst

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Re: 4822 fire 4x4 review
« Reply #17 on: April 25, 2010, 19:58:49 »
The grey mustache & haired Klicky will be a must have to update my avatar with a finally true representation of a grey upper lip that is SCBA friendly :lol:! Thanks Gordon! I've been waiting for this a long time & finally it comes to be :yippee:!
  Forget about all of the other stuff,....all we need is the reintroduction of the 3526 Fire Engine!

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Re: 4822 fire 4x4 review
« Reply #18 on: April 25, 2010, 20:05:22 »
The grey mustache & haired Klicky will be a must have to update my avatar with a finally true representation of a grey upper lip that is SCBA friendly :lol:! Thanks Gordon! I've been waiting for this a long time & finally it comes to be :yippee:!


Glad to have solved a problem for you, Bill.  An item for your next DS order then?

I haven't forgotten the spares for the old pumper, Bill, but we've been a bit busy with things about the house and I also want to get the lowest possible postage cost for you so I'm doing a few permutations of the small spares.
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Offline flatcat

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Re: 4822 fire 4x4 review
« Reply #19 on: April 25, 2010, 20:54:03 »
Great review Gordon :)9

I know I have mentioned this before but is there anyway to put larger wheels on it as they look too small. perhaps not larger wheels but thicker tyres maybe? Do any that would fit this exist ???