Review: Jungle ATV [30355]

This week, I have the smallest set from the LEGO Jungle Exploration theme to review. I stumbled across this set on a recent trip to Walmart, and I didn’t even know it existed prior to that. Off in a dusty corner, away from the actual LEGO aisle, I found a bin overflowing with polybags. Some were the police car that I reviewed a few weeks back (click here to read it), but others were the new Jungle ATV (30355) that I will review today.

Set Summary

Name: Jungle ATV
Set #: 30355
Theme: City – Jungle Exploration
Cost: $4.99 CDN
Brick Count: 36
Minifigures: 1
Release Date: Summer 2017

Summary Review: 87%

VALUE: 80% (Average cost per brick, but good for a City set.)
BUILD: 90% (Great design, but a Minifig seat would have been nice.)
MINIFIGURES: 87% (Ok Minifig, excellent brick-to-fig ratio.)
ENTERTAINMENT: 90% (Very good build time value, and I like it a lot.)

Review

VALUE: 80%
My local Walmart was selling these polybags for $4.99 each. With 36 pieces, that puts the cost per brick at $0.14, which is right on par with the current average cost of LEGO in the Summer 2017 catalog (click here to read more on that). That is not a great value, but it is not a terrible one either. It is still far below the average cost per brick for the City theme by itself. I rate this set at 4/5 (80%) for value.

BUILD: 90%
I really like the design of this set. It is simple, yet nicely detailed at the same time. If you remember last week, I review the Jungle Halftrack Mission (click here to read it). It came with a small buggy that I really did not like. It was very plain, with an uninteresting build. I feel like this little ATV would have been a much nicer addition to that set. I really like the size of the wheels that were chosen for this set in relation to the size of the actual ATV. The front has a heavy duty brush guard that remains consistent with other vehicles from the theme. The back design is probably my favorite part of it though, as the frame is pretty neat. My one complaint is the seat, or lack-thereof, for the Minifigure. The main support for the whole build is a dark grey 2×6 plate. It remains exposed in the middle where the Minifigure sits. I feel like a simple seat design or chair piece would have completed the look much better. Otherwise, I love everything about this little guy. I rate the Jungle ATV at 9/10 for build.

MINIFIGURES: 87%
You get one female Minifigure to ride on the ATV. She has the same face, with the sunglasses, as the police officer from the Police Helicopter polybag (30351 – click here for more on that). Her torso printing is the same as the other female jungle explorers. Also, remaining consistent with other Minifigures in the series, her legs are plain blue. She wears a baseball cap, and comes with two machetes. I rate this Minifigure at 11/15 (73%).

The brick-to-Minifigure ratio is 36:1. That is really good, and earns a full 100%. Averaging out the ratio and design scores earns this set and overall Minifigure rating of 87%.

ENTERTAINMENT: 90%
This build is a really short one. For me, it clocked in at 8 minutes. That means that with a price tag of $4.99, each minute cost me $0.62. At present, my average cost per minute of build time is $0.73, so this is well below the average. However, it is still not the best that I have ever seen. I rate the build-time value for this set at 4.5/5 (90%).

In terms of my personal enjoyment of this set, I do really like it. I will get a lot of photography time out of this little ATV, and it is a lot of fun. I will probably keep it assembled, though I will add a seat to mine. For that reason, I can’t give it a perfect score, but still rank it at 4.5/5 (90%). The build-time and enjoyment scores together land the Jungle ATV an overall entertainment score of 90%.

Overall: 87%

This set has a good per-brick value, and an excellent build-time value for such a small set. I really like the design, and think it is actually much nicer than some of the vehicles that come in the larger Jungle Exploration sets. The Minifigure is fine, but nothing new compared to other sets in the theme. This is normally a set that you might see as an in store freebie with purchase, but I still think it is worth buying. As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on the Jungle ATV in the comments below.

Until next time,

-Tom