Stuntz, the latest subtheme of LEGO® City was officially released on 1st of October. This theme brings flywheel powered motorbikes to a world of monster trucks and jumps. At this point, we have limited availability on shop shelves. However, I was able to pick up 60927 Demolition Stunt Bike. This set has only 12 pieces, including a minifigure and a motorcycle only. Let’s take a quick look at this set, and see what it has to offer.
The Bike
The Bike is a simple construction. The main body of the bike, including the real wheel and flywheel mechanism, is almost 2 studs wide, and a little over 7 studs long. The body is dark stone grey, and the rear wheel is bright orange, with a flat molded tire over the top. There is a single connection point below, and another on top.
The front forks of the bike accept the same wheel as seen in the mountain bike that was released in 2019 (and needs to have its rubber tire applied).
There is a yellow cowling that fits over the top of the body: this has 2 studs present behind the area where the rider sits, with an anti stud below. Amongst the details we see are a headlight – which is printed as cracked – with silver gaffer/duct tape printed over the top holding it together.
A clip on top of the main frame accepts the handlebars. Looking through the catalog, there are three different body molds, in a variety of colours.
The Minifigure
Our minifigure, Wallop, has a certain ‘Mad Max’ kind of charm. Personally I am still struggling with LEGO City minfigures having names! He has plain dark orange legs and a dark orange printed torso, with yellow arms and black gloves. He has reddish-brown body armour printed front and back, along with a wide printed bright yellowish green and black belt. He has a studded shoulder pads/ epaulettes, similar to those seen on various characters in the Apocalypseburg sequence of the LEGO Movie 2.
His face has the appearance a classical pantomime villain: toothy grin, handlebar moustache and bushy eyebrows, and wide eyes. His alternate face print looks like he has been bumped on the head, and lost a couple of teeth. He has a black motor cycle helmet, with an opaque bright yellowish grren visor, with black stripes on it. As an alternative to the helmet, he also comes with a new hair piece – black, with a receding hairline. Unfortunately, it is cut a little short at the back, and you can see a trace of the smile at the bottom of the hairpiece.
The figure sits firmly on the bike, and comfortably grips the handlebars, although this can sometimes be a little bit fiddly. The antistud underneath the bike allows you to post the bike in mid air, should you choose.
Play feature:
The bike has a built in flywheel, that maintains energy as you power up the bike with a few firm pushes. dropping the bike onto the ground virtually always gave us a satisfactory run. But what about air time?
I didn’t have any of the jump elements available in the theme at the time of writing, so I set up a baseplate on the living room floor. The result was something like this:
Suffice to say, I found that this behaviour was fairly reproducable, and I look forward to giving it a try with one of the jump
elements. One thing is for sure, with a little experimentation, I have found that my rider has occasionally landed on his head, or mudguard. After a few dozen bad landings, we are starting to see a little scuffing, here and there.
I had very little difficulty balancing the motorbike to keep it in an upright position. In motion, the flywheel acts as a gyroscope, and resists tilting as it zips along.
I was surprised at just how much fun I had: getting the bike revving and letting it rip along the floor, and up the jump. I saw a variety of landing behaviours, including front or back wheels first, doing a somersault, or landing while doing a wheelie. Over all I was keen to keep playing, but would love to have a formal slightly curved jump, as featured in the sets.
Some of the Stuntz range are now available, but in Australia at least, some sets have been delayed in arrival. The individual bikes retail for $AUD12.99, and for the play value, I think it is well worth while. Be aware that repeated play (especially with jumps and concrete paths) will result in scuffs and scrapes on your figure, bike and helmet!
That said, this was way more fun than I expected, and I would expect these to be great stocking fillers on Christmas day, and there also appears to be great play value in the larger sets of the range as well. I give this an unequivocal 4 out of 5 arbitrary praise units. There may not be a lot of innovative building techniques at work here, but the play value is immense. I am curious about the overall longevity of the product, mainly because I have no idea how much ‘trauma’ the new motorbike can stand, without damaging the flywheel mechanism.
What do you think of this type of set? Another fad, or a bit of fun? Why not leave your comments below, and until next time,
Play Well!
