60437 Jungle Explorer Helicopter at Base Camp (but minus the copter).
I noticed that my pictures tend to be better when I have a leisurely window of time for photo-taking, which I hardly have these days. It's always a rush, now that we have Miss S's baby sister.
And after the last post, I realized there were criminally few photos of the Off-Road Truck. So I took 8 new pics of the truck and uploaded them.
Now I can finally move on to the last and biggest Jungle Explorer set, the Helicopter at Base Camp.
There are four sets in the Jungle Explorer series, not counting one polybag (30665 Baby Gorilla Encounter). Each features different animals.
The Helicopter is the largest and most impressive, but not necessarily the best of the four. The 60424 ATV and 60426 Off-Road Truck are excellent sets too, for their price point. But I didn't care for the 60425 Water Plane and won't be acquiring it.
So I have 2.5 out of 4 Jungle Explorer sets. Why 2.5? I decided not to keep the helicopter and a few minifigures. A travesty, I know!
Yes, the helicopter looks really cool and amazing -- the interior has space to fit the vehicles, minifigures, and base camp. But I knew from the get-go that I wasn't going to keep it,
for lack of storage space and funds. So I sold it unbuilt, along with the beautiful box.
This set was about 13,000 yen on Amazon Japan. I had a 5,000 yen gift card and 700 Amazon points.
I've sold the helicopter, pilot, and one adult gorilla for over 6,000 yen. I'm also selling duplicates of minifigures I already have.
In other words, I got to keep all the other components, which you'll see below, for a mere 1,300 yen.
Here is the jungle portion, sans one adult gorilla.
I'm content with just having one adult and one baby gorilla.
I prefer turning the jungle around to display its rear face. A striking pink-and-white flower grows from a pool of water within a small cavern.
Besides gorillas, there are other fauna. Perched on this coconut tree is a blue butterfly.
Pink frog. Blue fish. The suggestion of a river or stream.
Gotta have a spider in there. This spider comes in medium nougat, which is less common than the black variety.
I love the base camp, small and simple as it may be. My team medic hangs out here.
The computer shows some kind of map or radar.
Tomato-and-lettuce sandwich sits by an egg frying on a Bunsen burner.
I'm not sure what the white and tan objects are on this orange table.
This motorcycle might be my favorite vehicle in the whole series.
Really like how these saddlebags look.
In other words, I got to keep all the other components, which you'll see below, for a mere 1,300 yen.
Here is the jungle portion, sans one adult gorilla.
I'm content with just having one adult and one baby gorilla.
I prefer turning the jungle around to display its rear face. A striking pink-and-white flower grows from a pool of water within a small cavern.
Besides gorillas, there are other fauna. Perched on this coconut tree is a blue butterfly.
Pink frog. Blue fish. The suggestion of a river or stream.
Gotta have a spider in there. This spider comes in medium nougat, which is less common than the black variety.
I love the base camp, small and simple as it may be. My team medic hangs out here.
The computer shows some kind of map or radar.
Tomato-and-lettuce sandwich sits by an egg frying on a Bunsen burner.
I'm not sure what the white and tan objects are on this orange table.
This motorcycle might be my favorite vehicle in the whole series.
Really like how these saddlebags look.
On the rear is an accessory clip, currently holding a black walkie-talkie.
I love the mechanic's hair. The logo on her back shows a snake entwined with a wrench.
Accessory clips on each side -- for a walkie-talkie and camera.
Three maps put together (gorilla in the upper left). Do you see a picture forming? Missing the alligator map, but that's fine.
Jungle builds from three sets: gorilla, tiger, lesser panda. They connect by clip-and-bar.
I love the mechanic's hair. The logo on her back shows a snake entwined with a wrench.
Was planning to sell this swamp boat and photographer originally, so I took these photos belatedly and they're not included in the group photos further below.
The photographer is the only minifigure in this series who has two faces -- one with a slight smirk and one with a squint. I like her hair and vest a lot.
Accessory clips on each side -- for a walkie-talkie and camera.
Three maps put together (gorilla in the upper left). Do you see a picture forming? Missing the alligator map, but that's fine.
Jungle builds from three sets: gorilla, tiger, lesser panda. They connect by clip-and-bar.
You can rearrange their sections in a few different ways.
And now for everything together, from two-and-a-half sets:
Miss S enjoyed playing with these sets. Interestingly, she didn't touch the animals much (and asked for the spider to be removed because it's too scary).
Miss S was most interested in the Off-Road Truck and piling random objects into the truck bed, including the computer, a banana, walkie-talkies, and Bunsen burner. Surprising how much she could pile in there. She also loved the motorcycle.
I'm really glad I started sharing a bit of my Lego with her.
If you want to buy a kid some Lego and aren't sure what they'd like, I recommend one of these Jungle Explorer sets as a fairly safe bet, especially the Off-Road Truck and its tiger for price, size, quality, and playability.
I think these jungle friends might stay in my permanent collection. They were such a delight to build, and I enjoy looking at them in my book cabinet every day.