Prompted by Richard's purchase of the Lego 7622 Indiana Jones set, I went and bought one myself today, and a couple of others in the series.
This is my first LEGO purchase in at least 25 years, purely because I like the Indiana Jones theme, so don't panic, I'n not about to go over to the dark side.
The last set I remember buying was a western stagecoach, if anyone remebers that.
What I noticed putting together the first set (6720 Motorbike Chase from the Holy Grail film) was that the things which put me off LEGO as a child are still present, only more so.
This set includes many special parts, so you couldn't construct this from LEGO you already have. Once built, you wouldn't want to deconstruct it and use the parts for something else, as many parts couldn't be used anywhere else. Because it's made up from lots of small parts, it can come apart with rough play.
So you end up with a build once, then play with, toy. The building process didn't take long (no longer than a comparable Playmobil build), so I can't really consider this a construction toy, in the way that a bucket ful of loose Lego pieces is.
The bikes don't seem specific to this set, they're generic scrambler motorbikes, and not really the right motorbikes for the period. I think Playmobil would have done this better with the right type of motorbike from their range, or created a new bike for the series.
As for the play potential, the model represents part of a chase scene from one film. The chase lasted maybe 5 minutes on screen? Now presumably the child playing with this isn't going to replay the same 5 minute chase over and over (or do they?) so this is when the imagination kicks in, and the child does somehting new - or gets bored and wants a new toy.
Overall I like the series, but more for the fact it's Indiana Jones than because it's Lego. I'd have preferred this from Playmobil.
Figures from the Playmobil jungle Adventure series could easily be adapted to represent all the Indiana Jones characters, it just takes a little more effort and thought.
