LEGO City 60013: Coast Guard Helicopter Review

 After Reviewing LEGO Architecture 21017: Imperial Hotel  We will continue with the new City Coast Guard theme. Today we are going to take a look at 60012 Coast Guard Helicopter. This made my son very happy as he got to build 4 mini figs this time around missing out on any in the last review. Just a side note...
Upon building this set our white shark was missing so I had to buy another set while I await a replacement Shark from LEGO to do this review (Q: Why buy another? A: We lost the receipt for us to return it plus I wanted 2 anyway :-P)

LEGO City 60012: Coast Guard Helicopter. 

 The set contains 230 pieces and retails for $39.99.

 Comes with 4 Minifigures: Coast Guard Helicopter, Catamaran and a White Shark.

  
Note: All photo's can be clicked on for a larger view.

The Front box art shows the brave coast guard flying in to rescue a troubled sailor from a broken down catamaran whilst it approaches the rocks and a great white shark closes in on his pray.    Note: Boat does not float.

The box art on the back shows the sailor on his catamaran. Showing you how to reenact a broken sail. The sailor shipwrecked on the rocks with the Coast Guard close by for the rescue. on the bottom right shows how the winch works on the Helicopter.The diver in the water looking to wrestle the Great White Shark!

Upon opening the box we get 2 numbered bags. Loose in the box are instructions, a sticker sheet and a plastic sail.

Here is a close up of the sticker sheet. There are 15 stickers to apply in total.

A close up of the sail. This is it second outing, previously last seen only in set 4644: Marina.

The contents of bag 1. This will build the catamaran and the body of the Helicopter. All 4 minifigs are in bag 1.

A look at the breakdown of what bags 1 and 2 will build.

This is the second time we see the wetsuit, previously in 60011: Surfer Rescue 

The minifig has a single sided smiley face print.

Our first and only female Coast Guard Crew Member. She too has a single sided face print and comes with the new blue hat and headphones.

The Pilot has the new uniform like the last few coast guard sets I have reviewed. Standard helmet and visor

Same with the diver, different face print of course. Same great detail on the torso.

One of the few reasons I wanted this set was for the new white shark. On the the box art it shows the new mold, but sadly what I received was the old mold with no gills. I wonder if the one I was missing in the first set had the new mould.  :-(
But other than that this looks great in white.

A step by step picture on the construction of the catamaran.

Catamaran complete with sailor. A fun quick build, I really like the look of it, simple, yet effective.

Now we move on to the step by step process for the main body of the helicopter. 11 stickers are applied in this section.

Bag 2's contents will finish off the undercarriage and the helicopters engines and rotor blades.

A quick step by step picture building and finishing the copter and the last 4 stickers to apply for this section.

All finished! Building this had the same feel as when I built and reviewed 60015: Coast Guard Plane, with the exception of the obvious differences, the body was almost in the same vain.
 

Finally the spares... less then I thought we would get since we got a spare flipper in 60012: 4x4 & Diving Boat and a spare life jacket in 60011: Surfer Rescue. A spare wheel for the spare tyre would have been nice too.

Final couple of shots of the completed set.

Overall thoughts on this set are in the positive. The fact that you get 4 minifigs, a white shark (albeit the wrong mold) and a large and small vehicle/vessel really helps sell this set. Surprisingly we have the same RRP as the U.S which helps give another reason that this is a great set for its value. With a sale on almost fortnightly it seems, getting it for less $$ is a nice excuse to pick this set up. (not that we need any excuse) My son and daughter have played with it now for almost 2 hours straight so I will say its a big thumbs up. They are loving the winch play feature on the copter... best way to catch a shark... use the sailor as bait.

Go get it if you haven't already.

Thanks again for reading!

As always and if you want too, let us know in the comments below, what you think of the set. I would love to hear others opinions on it.

Until next time this is Tan Tile... splashing in for the next review.