Set Review ➟ 77073 LEGO® Fortnite® Battle Bus
The Battle Bus is a blue bus, and not the blue bus Jim Morrison wrote about. Nope. The Battle Bus is basically a blue school bus and it is definitely not tricked out for battle as it does not feature any weapons: no guns, no shoot-yer-eye-out shooters, no cannons, no flamethrowers, no flick-fire missles, nothing. Instead it features an undersized hot air balloon on the roof along with what I’m guessing is some sensor gear. The bus roof is apparently held to the bus by some giant sort of clamp things. A view-of-the-road-obstructing giant yellow hose runs from some gadget presumably connected to the radiator on the front of the bus to some dohickey on the roof. Note that your author knows nothing about Fortnite and is quite likely to continue to know nothing about Fortnite on into perpetuity, thus the more generic technical terms gagdet, dohickey, clamp things, and view-of-the-road-obstructing giant yellow hose are used in this review.
The bus is solidly built, and that’s definitely a good thing. Also good is the fact that the entire roof along with accoutrements removes easily as a single unit and if you do that the parts don’t want to fall off. The bus roof attaches with four studs on a crossbar; the clamp things just hang loose and don’t actually attach to the bus.
While there are some moving parts on the model they do not exactly engender excitement. The wheels on the bus turn and the doors open. The front bus door is covered by one of the clamp things, but the clamp things are articulated so the door can be uncovered and accessed (this feature is the height of excitement). The mirrors flap. Oh. And the propeller on the motor (?) attached to the balloon spins.
Sadly, there aren’t many places on the outside of the bus where the minifigures can stand or grab. If this is a flying bus, the least that could be included is some long rope or something dangling from the vehicle where our heroes could grab and hold on for their lives, right?
There is a yellow clip on the back clamp that can be forced into service, and a figure can hold onto a balloon support. A figure can stand in the rear doorway if the door is opened, but not in either of the side doors as there are tiles beneath the side doors and not plates with studs. If you are super desperate a figure can grab one of the mirror supports. I suppose those few are better than nothing, and I will wager none of them are intentional, and they certainly aren’t Mad Max level points of attachment…which is kind of what I want to see on a Battle Bus.
There are nine minifigures in this set. The box names them as Trespasser Elite, Battalion Brawler, Cuddle Team Leader, Cube Assasin, Brite Bomber, Adventure Peely, Raven, Meowscles, and Drift. For me, these figures are the high point of the set.
Trespasser Elite
Batallion Brawler
Cuddle Team Leader
Cube Assassin
Brite Bomber
Adventure Peely
Raven
Meowscles
Drift
The interior of the bus is built to accommodate the nine minifigures with nine seats.
Unfortunately the bus does not actually accommodate all the figures without some editing of the figures. One might guess that the banana figure would be a problematic passenger, but, no. The brick-built construction of the seats in the bus, used in lieu of the usual part 4079 seat, allows for fit and adjustment where the 4079 seat would not.
Some figures will not comfortably fit into every seat. The Trespasser figure’s shoulder pads can bump into the window frames but seats nicely next to a window hole. The roof cross bar behind the middle row of seats does not allow enough clearance for some of the figures’ hair and headgear pieces to fit under it. Figures with the pony tail hair piece, the bear head, helmet, white mask, and the mohawk will fit, barely, but can’t recline.
Some figures’ heads fit under the crossbar…
…others do not.
Meowscles with the protruding tail needs the tail removed to actually sit in any seat, but there are spaces where the figure can stand. The standing options diminish if the figure holds the water bottle or whatever that is. The figure’s tail piece protrudes a tiny bit past the second stud space behind the figure…the tail is soft plastic, so it does flex…but while carrying the water bottle the figure effectively requires 5-studs’ depth front to back if the bottle is held to the figure’s front. The standing positions in the bus are also shifted by a half stud compared to the seats, so a standing figure requires additional space on one side or the other depending on where it may be in the bus, and it may need to stand on one leg. Assigned seating for passengers may be mandatory to get them all on the bus at the same time.
Note tail flexing as it hits the seat behind.
Standing beside side door possible because thin door allows additional space to accommodate arm.
Standing on one leg with water bottle held behind.
Standing sideways.
In almost every instance, getting figures into seats is a fiddly undertaking because there is little room to fit fingers, tolerances are tight, and figures may need to be bent a little forwards or a little back depending on where the seat is located on the bus. I found it was easier to remove a seat completely, position the figure in the seat, then replace the seated figure into the bus.
There is no consideration for the figures’ weapon storage. Fitting figures into seats while carrying weapons is tricky. Figures carrying pickaxes fit with the weapon carried on either side, globe weapons need to be aligned to the center of the bus and cannot be seated next to another figure with a globe weapon. The red-domed blaster fits, but only in the center row seats and in the seat kitty-corner to the driver where there is additional space in front of the seats.
The stickers for the set are minimal and the rectangular blue stickers particularly are so low in contrast they are barely discernable once attached to the vehicle. The others add a little something.
The Randolph T. Fielding Absolutely Administrivia Section
Apart from minifigure parts and a few recolors of existing parts…
- 14301 Flexible Ribbed Hose 12L
- 20482 Tile Round 1 x 1 with Hollow Bar
- 3758 Hair, Mohawk Wavy
- 3961 Dish 8 x 8 Inverted [Radar], Solid Studs, Rounded Anti-stud Underside
- 43967 Door 1 x 4 x 5 Train Left - Thick Support Bottom
- 65783 Panel Curved Tapered with Bars at Each End
- 80519 Wave / Flame with Clip
- 15504 Minifig Hipwear Cat / Monkey Tail
…it looks like the 6562 axle pin has been remolded. My set contained three of the newer version and one of the older version. The newer version has a more matte finish to the plastic and a smaller slot on the pin end. Identifying numbers and the injection pip have moved. Pictures below show the older version on the left and the newer version on the right.
The two 2x2 trans light blue round bricks in my set have remarkably dissimilar color.
Summary
I had to find out if my ignorance was biasing me, so I consulted a gamer. I asked, “What do you know about the battle bus in the Fortnite game? Does the bus just take people to the battle like a school bus takes school kids to school?“
The gamer responded, “Kinda. It’s like one of those planes the army has where people jump out the back and parachute down. It flies across the map at the start of a round and people can choose when they want to hop out of the bus to land in a spot in hopes of getting good guns/loot/consumables.”
If you view the set from my position of ignorance the set is kind of a turd. But with the gamer’s explanation in mind, I have to say that LEGO nailed it in making a nice bus. A nice, solid, boring bus. With some stuff glommed on top. Play value of the set is irrelevant because the bus is intended as a display piece for Fortnite fans. Viewed from that perspective, the set fulfills its purpose.
It’s a bus. Your mileage may vary.
Disclaimer
Thanks to LEGO for kindly providing the set for review.
33648
