Set Review ➟ 31142 LEGO® Creator 3-in-1 Space Roller Coaster: Drop Tower
The second of the three builds of the Creator 3-in-1 Space Roller Coaster set is the Space Drop Tower.
Here are the minifigure parts rearranged into new minifigures for the Drop Tower ride.
As with the roller coaster build, the drop tower build begins with a small ride for Spacebaby. This time it is a little ship that goes around in a circle. Unlike the previous ship, this one has an appropriate seat stud for Spacebaby. One can grab the stem in the middle to spin Spacebaby around. This assembly moves pretty cleanly where the previous build is a bit clunky in operation.
The proportions of the tower make it appear quite tall, and though it is certainly taller than the roller coaster, if you happen to be sitting in the pool of the Monkie Kid Team Van you are positioned well above the top height of the chairs in the drop tower.
It is good to see that safety is a concern here at the drop tower ride. The attendant uses a “you-must-be-this-tall” stick to measure the height of riders and there are security bars on the seats. One should be seated on this ride, but the smaller figures with fixed legs will fit if your ride attendant is more interested in profit than rider safety. In other safety news, there is no guest-decapitating turnstile on this ride, but there are sufficient leftover pieces to construct one if you really need one.
Once riders are secured in their seats, the seat assembly is manually slid up the column where it locks in to position. The seats are then released by turning a gear attached to the parallel support column.
There is no gentle deceleration on this tower ride. Riders hit bottom going full speed with abrupt termination which undoubtedly sends lower parts of their anatomy into upper parts of their anatomy. However, the rubber bumper of dubious purpose in the roller coaster build is purposefully used here to prevent damage to the ride, if not to the riders.
Don’t worry unnecessarily about the riders. The park operator has 40582 Rescue Squad on site to take care of things.
Getting around to discussing the build of this set, there is much emphasis on the base and on the shuttle. There is a lot of heavy build in these parts, pages and pages worth of instructions. The tower portion by comparison takes about four minutes. The heavy base is probably necessary for stability of the tower.
At the top of the tower there is a satellite in front of a planet as a decorative element.
The shuttle is also a decorative element and maybe something more. The designers have done quite a good job replicating the look of the shuttle attached to the launch fuel tanks. Hidden behind the fuel tanks is the light brick which will light up the engines of the shuttle.
The shuttle can be easily detached from the tanks portion, though it is more of an Easter egg bonus as opposed to an inherent play feature. For that matter, the whole shuttle assembly with the fuel tanks comes off the base without too much hassle. Chalk this one up to potential added play value. Your mileage may vary.
Footnote
When disassembling the Roller Coaster to free the parts for the Drop Tower, the pins that are set into the 4x cylinder in the Roller Coaster build are difficult to remove from the cylinder. It is highly likely that some sort of thin tool will be required to aid in their removal.
Summary
If you like making very dense platform type structures, then the tower base and the shuttle sections will provide great satisfaction. The set looks great. I would have liked to see the tower at least another girder section, maybe two, taller…but not enough girders in the set to do that. Good play value all around.
Disclaimer
Thanks to LEGO for providing the set. No hallucinogens contributed to this review, but some antihistamines may have. Hard to say.
Postscript
I had to MOC it up, pun intended.
33600
