LEGO City 7639: Camper

I'm very excited. This is the first Lego City vehicle in over a decade to feature opening doors! Okay, perhaps excited is a little strong, but this set is proper old school and its all the better for it.

There's loads of `proper' bricks - long and short beams and so on - that go into making this set up. There's no corner cutting large panels in sight. This makes it a more satisfying build for old farts like me.

The detailing is magnificent too! Outside, there's the canopy and ventilation fan, storage points for the surfboard and bicycle, whilst at the rear there's an access ladder and floodlight. Unclip the latter and the full glory of the set is revealed; the rear section splits in two and swings out to reveal the depth of the play value in the set.

Inside we have a flat panel TV (a nice touch - and very modern!), plus two storage points which can accommodate the two mugs or the frying pan and portable stove. There's seating inside for two, which can be easily removed for ad hoc picnicing (hey, there's a fish included, why not?!) The hollow canopy doubles as a sleeping area and the role play possibilities are endless. Only the female figure's hair spoils things as it fixes her looking straight ahead and looks a bit much. A minor detraction, and not something that adversely affects things. Fantastic!

My daughter was lucky enough to get this lego set for her birthday from Granny. She has just turned 6 and is a bit of a lego fan already, this set is part of the "City" range. As you can see from the photo it is a cute item with 2 people and a number of play elements - a bbq with a fish - strange but sweet, a surfboard and also the ability to be opened up so that your little people can go to sleep or sit down on one of the three little seats.

The first thing to say about this van is that it is a lot smaller when built than it looks on the box. It is 14cm long and 7 and half cm tall and barely 5cm across. Actually for me this is quite a good thing as it doesn't take up too much space, and it is nicely detailed as I shall explain, however that photo is really deceptive.

Construction:

The set comes in two bags, cunningly numbered "1" and "2", with step by step instructions in booklet form (if lost these can be downloaded from the lego site these days). You build the chassis first and then the top, which is a good idea as it makes hunting for pieces less of an ordeal if you don't mix up the bags, and also you don't have to build the whole thing at once.

The age range from lego is 5-12; I think a 5 year old could manage with help, I'm not sure that the 12 year olds I know would really be interested in this, it does seem aimed at a younger market being a van that can be played with after building. There are 165 pieces in all - which sounds a lot, but as some of them are single blocks and quite tiny, isn't in fact excessive and certainly not enough to put off a new lego-builder.

It took my daughter somewhere between half an hour and a hour to build this van, the instructions were clear and there were not too many fiddly bits, though she did struggle to put the wheels onto the bike, and also needed some help with the stickers for the number plate and logos on the roof. You can't deviate from the instructions really, which is a bit limiting, but I did find that this didn't seem to worry my daughter who was keen to make the van.

Finished item and play value:

Once complete, as mentioned the van is pretty compact. The construction of it is solid; it is cleverly designed to that you can take off a small retaining hinge on the back and open it up to see inside, the whole thing swings easily on two hinges.

There's a hidden sleeping area for your little people, a mug and saucepan attached to the walls, this is a bijou but very sweet camper van. We have found that the camper van does stand up to being wheeled along the floor by an enthusiastic younger sibling, the people do fit nicely onto the bicycle and when you are playing with it no bits fall off, which has not been the case with other sets we have had. The little people will also hold the accessories included quite nicely, I think the little mug is my favourite, though it is quite small so probably doomed to be lost up the hoover one day soon!

Overall:

I like the fact that this item is suitable for girls and boys, and think that it does encourage imaginative play as your child gets the people to set off on holiday with their surfboard and other assorted items.

This camper van is definitely one of the better new sets that we have had, and although once built it can't really be changed into anything else (the creator set models are 3 in 1 and offer more construction), it is a lovely little van. I would thoroughly recommend it as a good gift for a child of 5-8. It's a great fun item!

This is a really fun addition to the Lego City collection. There are lots of components to it and my 9 year old son had lots of fun building it. We also bought the City Farm and we have been enjoying holidays on the farm in our camper van! Highly recommended.