Lego Tram (set 8404) review

To celebrate the arrival of Santa, I am going to post my second review since this blog has been made. As I haven´t seen the 8404 set a lot, I have decided to review it to give you more information about the set. Now there has also been another similar railway product: the "Lego City Town Square", set 60097 also contains the kind of transport but instead, in orange.  Coming back to the 8404, the tram is 32 cm long, 8 cm longer than the green bus which is also a component of the same set.

Personally, I think that it was a marvellous idea to add this creation to the market and really admire the way it was built. I especially like the front and back windscreens and how they were incorporated to the model using simple pieces which look good overall. The weight factor didn´t show anything surprising compared to my other creations and most pieces seem to be standard and easy to find. Considering the structure it has it is compact except the roof which was probably designed to be removed easily and to generate an easier playing environment.

Cabin junction:

I have dedicated a whole section to this as I want to talk about all the benefits and disadvantages to the system. I have never really had any problem with it and shows to be very stable. One good point about it is that there are no flexibility limits except the pieces themselves. That makes it good for extreme manoeuvring or simply sharp turns on the lego train tracks. I think that there is nothing negative about this aspect though next time they could try to create the attachment with more simple pieces.

Wheels:

The wheels are also one of those things which are not that common but they function in perfection and smoothly. They do make some noise but I understand that the plastic can´t be silent.

Summing things up this was a great creation by the lego group and I give it a 4.7/5. With only a couple of mistakes, this build is one of my favourites in my collection.

Now that I have reviewed this interesting model here is a MOC using some of its pieces and becoming a totally new transport. I hope this gives you ideas for your own!

Yes!, it is a homemade lego cable car. As You can see I used the front and back windscreens of the tram for this creation and helped myself with the structure of one of the cabins. I was the main author of the cabin but then I needed help for the system in which my dad produced the movement. This is also related to christmas as it was done in those dates and includes the christmas tree to cheer up the photo!

THE COMPARISON!

To finish this post I have decided to show you the two trams face to face. Which one do you think is the best? What rating do you give each? Share on the comments below your favourite!

Click here to check out the video about the model

Click here to check out the photo better

VS

Lego ferrari f1

 FERRARI F1

I was getting out of ideas for a blog post so I decided to get the smartphone and start to take photos to my lego sets. But as I found this car, I got to it and started editting it creating this image.
This ferrari I own from lego speed champions is a set completed with the ferrari truck. The logos and how well it has been designed (even with the help of stickers) can clearly represent this iconic car.
Review:

the original photo

I am quite impressed and excited about this new set by the fact of how well the car was done. This updated version of the ´Lego SPORTS` has certainly improved and I really enjoy playing with it and having it in display.
I also tried to build a speed champions porsche though I haven´t got any spare long car bases and that would have to make me destroy the F1 or the lego city rally car which also has that common feature.
So I dedicated lego ´building time` to make other things or instead bigger cars.
Overall, I think this car could get a 4.5/5 on my scale.
It is just perfect, though if the use of stickers could be reduced it would be the best it could possibly be. (Even though being quite impossible as the minifigure size scale must include them to assure a magnificient result).

Delorean DMC-12 (2015 Jan) adapted version

This MOC was created in a different place than usual. Instead of my playing room this model was literaly built on my own bed. My strategy to build lego cars is to start of with its base, and start building ´up` until you only have to add the big covering plates on the roof and front or some last details. As I did it in a big scale I had enough space to do functioning doors and an opening at the back.
Now, a problem with the car is that in my range of bricks, I didn´t find the correct sized wheels for it so since then it was maintained in the same state until eventually it was destroyed.
Creativity is certainly essential but internet also helped me with this vehicle-lots of learnt techniques were used here.

LEGO ambulance (June 2010)

This MOC would be corresponding to a Lego creator or classic model as it isn´t minifigure size. But in this case my dad (the author) managed to add more details like the red cross, which could have to be done with a sticker in a compatible-with-minifigure vehicle.
Though if you analyse it carefully it seems to fit in well with lego figures, the only doubt is if it would look the same with creations suitable for figures together. Maybe, as this is a classic version, I could try to build a modern one and add more details on the wheels or perhaps the side mirrors to a different shape. These look well with this creation but they wouldn´t suit a modern ambulance because they´re mostly for trucks and normal car ones would be better.

POLICE 4x4 (2016)

front view

 When I am in the mood of playing around with my lego I normaly build minifigure sized vehicles to use in a game. It is just a police suv because the only piece I had was this one (in the picture) with a sticker saying police but this model could be a Land Rover Discovery, a Land Rover Sport or probably a Volvo XC90. Inside the space is for one minifigure though it has a kind of storage place where you can fit a suit case or a weapon. Unfortunately I couldn´t find a totally transparent front window so I had to put a blue one.
In these pictures the driver is actually a Star Wars Naboo starfighter pilot but I thought it would look cool with this particular figure.

engine view/front view

Even having these nice suv effects this MOC uses  most of the same structure and techniques or maybe it simply has other details such as the engine-easy but very impactful to the design.


Down in the last picture you can see the base of the car. This is different to the normal structure but also very simple and efficient.

lower view

LONDON bus (November 2012)

 This was my dad´s "work" but it deserves to be in my blog. It has been chosen as an original and fun MOC so I am going to write a post about it.
This is a 1980 LONDON bus. As usual it is two floors tall and of course it is red. It´s not so difficult to do as it is not minifigure size too. But in our case we still had it complicated to do the windows correctly. (You can see we used the lego airplane windows from the set 3182).
It would also be a bit better if we had thinner wheels to match the width of the bus but that was the same problem in the Jeep willys - http://brickblogdversion.blogspot.com.es/2016/03/holiday-version-jeep-willys.html - so I guess it would be useful to have it.
Now, I am looking forward to building the Harry Potter knight bus as a MOC but I think it also requires the thin wheels!

AUDI supercar (September 2013)

Two months before I built "My MUM´s car" (a creation that you will find further in my blog) I built this modern AUDI. Looking at the techniques used in this model makes me think it was my dad who did it for example, the front lights were built horizontaly, a feature that I probably didn´t use at the time. But surprisingly it was me, the creator.
 A major advantage of this MOC is that it is minifigure size (kind of) and has opening doors and other functioning parts.
The front clearly looks like an AUDI though I doubt other bits didn´t look as good.

DOORS:
You can also spot that the doors are very simple, and fortunately look well with the model. Perhaps because the rest of the car is simple too.
Summing things up, I think that the simplicity and quality that was achieved in this model is in my "MOC top 3".

Sail boat November 2013

This is one of the best MOCs I did though my dad helped me with it, especially in the sail part. We did use some non-lego strings and sails because we didn´t really have much variety of lego those days, but enough to build a decent boat. In this creation I quite remember the difficulty of creating good figures. I enjoyed trying to use the legos I had to create characters suitable for the sail boat. Regardless of being small in this picture and not that clear you can guess that there are 2 minifigs on the boat.
The one at the back is commanding the ship - I tried to make him look like an old experienced sailor.

The one at the front is a younger man wearing nice sunglasses and a cool hair style. The ´younger´ lego figure is also wearing a life jacket which makes the sailor seem professional because he is not wearing one - he is probably very confident.

You might have noticed the kind of bumpers on the side of the boat. They are to avoid the boat from hitting when it is close to the port. Sadly, I don´t remember what bricks were used.

Finally, I put a flag at the back. In real boats it´s supposed to be of a country, but I only have single coloured and flags designed for racing sets.

My MUM´s car (December 2013)

In 2013, the passion for lego gave me the inspiration to  do a birthday present to my mum made out of lego!
I think that finally I did add wheels on, though in this particular photo (the 2nd picture) it doesn´t. I believe that in those ages, I was very focused on getting the interior of the car right. But for the age I had ( 8) I´d say I did a good job on the outside too.

                                                               

On the first photo you can see the version of my ´lego mum´ and the car with wheels.

On the first picture I´ve also added a couple of extras. I guess it was suposed to be an AUDI of some kind.

Modern supercar Aston Martin (November 2015)

 FRONT VIEW

To create this sports car, I used a variety of different techniques. Though what was really very helpful was that I used the base and other ideas that also appear in the creator speedster. I don´t have the set but I went on internet to check the instructins out. As the title says, this is an Aston Martin. Even though the headlights aren´t the same I just decided to do a different version than normal Aston Martins. The same with the exhaust tubes, I made it seem faster with six!

BACK VIEW  

One of the issues is that minifigures don´t fit in terms of  hight. For this reason this car would be in the theme of design more than to play with. But I believe the car has many benefits too.

Lego kayak (July 2012)

It is not the best it could probably be, as I wasn`t as experienced in lego as I am now in 2016 but you can at least say it is a kayak. Something I could improve in my next kayak would also make the sculls more realistic