June 1, 2014

Review: First Aid Jungle Bike



With her medical bag, shovel and trike, there’s no jungle emergency that Emma can’t deal with! Let’s take a closer look at the First Aid Jungle Bike.

The FriendsBricks community wishes to thank TLG’s CEE Team for generous support of this set to review and share with fans.

The front of the box shows Emma going to the rescue of the orangutan, who seems to be caught in rockslide. I hope she gets there before he gets buried under all those 1x1 bricks!



The back of the box shows how the main features of the set, with Emma desperately shovelling away the bricks to rescue the orangutan and then tending to his injuries on the bike.



Inside the box is one loose instruction booklet and three un-numbered parts bags. No stickers in this set, which seems to make it the odd one out in the jungle subtheme.



The instruction booklet has the same main image as the box cover.



The instructions are easy to follow for even the younger fans with parts lists for each step.



Here are the contents of the parts baggies:



The first thing I noticed is that the colour palette dominated by the greys, greens and browns, making it a great selection for building mountain terrains and landscapes. While this in itself is not that unusual for the jungle sets, having only a handful of parts in pinks and purples is. 

The motorcycle parts also stood out for me. The Black chassis is not new, neither is the fairing, yet appearing in Medium Azure is new.  This is also the first time that type of mudguard has been found in Medium Azure.

The other parts that caught my eye were the Magenta helmet, Light Aqua medical bag, mushroom print dish, the Dark Orange cross plate and Lime palm leaves.

Let’s see what we build with these parts:



First up, a closer look at Emma (she is after all my favourite Friend):



The outfit is totally inappropriate for going out into the jungle and rescuing anything! But I am going to forgive her because she looks adorable. The torso assembly with Sand Green top is unique to this set, but Emma is wearing the same Dark Pink shorts and Magenta sandals as in Emma’s Lifeguard Post (#41028). The Magenta helmet is the same one as Mia wears in Mia’s Lemonade Stand (#41027).

The orangutan likes to hang around:



She (Juliet) is the same as that found in the Series 5 Orangutan’s Banana Tree (#41045) and the Jungle Tree Sanctuary (#41059).

Time for a closer look at the motorcycle:



The side cart provides both a place to store equipment, in this case the medical bag, and a bed for treating the patients (I’m working on the assumption that the White double cheese slope is a pillow). 

The fairing seems to have been made for Friends dolls as it provides the centre piece to hold Emma’s legs in place. However, she is unable to hold the handle bars, as shown in the image in the top right.

The image on the bottom right (above) is the seven year old’s version of how the bike is to be used. I like how she used the shovel to hold Emma’s hair!

Now for a closer look at the main play feature, the rock fall:



There are a few left over 1x1 bricks which are placed in the top of the rock wall, and then let loose by turning the Lime knob. This lifts up the 4x4 plate, thereby letting the 1x1 bricks fall down on the little orangutan.

There is also a sliding door, which allows the orangutan to escape safely into a secret cave (some imagination required at this point, as it doesn’t actually go anywhere).

The spare parts include the usual suspects in terms of the round plates and cheese slopes, as well as a syringe in bright Light Blue.



Another look at the set as a whole:



Overall, this was a neat little build and it’s got a couple of interesting play features. My daughter loaded up the hold with 1x1 round plates and let those loose on the poor little orangutan! 

I noticed the waterfall in the background and the rockface behind the build on the front of the setbox. It would be fun to build this into the same rock or cliff face as the Jungle Falls Rescue (#41033), and then have the two caves connect into one big chamber for hoarding treasure, or just having secret meetings!!

Given the selection of parts and the playability, I feel this set will appeal to both kids and AFOLs.

Thanks for reading

Note: All exclusive parts mentioned in the colours noted were applicable at the time this review was posted. Parts may be available in other colours and sets after the post of this review. Brickset and BrickLink were use to verify this information.
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