5935 - Island Hopper

Rating:
Pros: Large, realistic model; female mini-fig; good parts; good price
Cons: A little too much color
Contents: 202 pieces including 1 mini-fig and a pterodactyl
Price: $19.99
Reviewed: 31-Aug-2000
Reviewed by: Gareth Bowler

"It was just the weather! It was just the weather! It was just the weather!"
No matter how many times she repeated it, Clarabelle Plume, intrepid adventurer/reporter/pilot, couldn't quite make herself believe it. The noises she had heard where too beastly, too strange, to possibly be made by the storm that raged outside her plane.
A break appeared in the dark clouds and she could see the island beneath her. It looked peaceful enough. Suddenly a large, leathery shape flew across the full moon. It let out a shriek not unlike the ones she had heard before.
"Okay, NOT the weather," she muttered, stiffening her resolve and flying in for a closer look...

---

Adventurers? Dino Island? Surely this is a mistake! Surely this little set got lost on its way home to Nautica or Flight. Dino Island? No way. Can't be. Oh, wait, there's a pterodactyl included, I guess it must be Dino Island after all, but you'd never know it from the model.

For the life of me, I can't figure out exactly what this set is doing amidst a juniorized and gimmicky sub theme...as if the sets were on Sesame Street for a game of "One of these things is not like the other." Now I don't mean to imply I have a problem with the Adventurers line itself. Most of the sets in the Amazon and Egyptian Adventurers lines look pretty good, combining function-filled ancient ruins with authentic period vehicles. Dino Island, however, breaks slightly from this tradition, by featuring none of these things. Instead, it seems to feature plastic dinosaurs (because we all know how hard THOSE are to find in a toy store) and vehicles that range from highly impractical to downright stupid.

And then there's the Island Hopper; realistic and with a great piece count. Only the inclusion of the pterodactyl flags it as part of this theme. As you're all probably sick of this rant, I'll describe the set now...

It's a large twin-engine sea-plane. It sports a large, roomy cockpit, a spacious cargo compartment with hatch, and nice detail on the engines. The wings fold up (just like a real sea-plane) and they also detach (just like a very badly built real sea-plane) as does the tail (just like a lizard...on a sea-plane!) There's quite a few semi-rare pieces here and finding the combination of boat parts and plane parts in a single set this size is great for rebuilds. It's a shame they didn't throw wheels in.

It does have a few minor downsides. For one, the pontoons are none too sturdy. You have to remove a piece to access the majority of the cargo bay. Compared to...oh, say the 7180 B-Wing, this set is monochrome, but it does have its own problem with colors. In particular there are three green and two tan pieces that totally throw off an otherwise smooth color-scheme. This is nit-picking (but hey, a good reviewer never leaves any nit unpicked!) The propellers might have been better in black or white.

The set comes with one mini-fig: the female reporter character who appears throughout the Adventurer line. She has a huge backpack, a shovel, a camera, a rifle, and can apparently fly the plane herself. It's always nice to see a female childrens character serve some purpose other than being imperiled and rescued. Cool as she is, she can't quite carry the set by herself. The inclusion of a second mini-fig is about the only other thing I can think of that would improve this set.

Anyway, to sum up, it's a very good set with lots of good parts at a low price. I'm going to give it a four, although it's very tempting to toss it an extra star just for being lumped into an embarrassing sub-theme.