QMan Police Engineering Team Set 2105

Qman's Police Engineering Team is a 3-in-1 Trans-Collector set built from 325 blocks, with instructions for three different vehicles — among them a mixer, an excavator, a helicopter, a motorcycle and a scooter. Age 6+.

What 3-in-1 actually means

Worth being plain about, because it disappoints people who expect something else.

A 3-in-1 set contains one set of parts and three sets of instructions. You build one model at a time. To build the second, you take the first apart.

That sounds like a limitation and for a display collector it is one — you cannot put all three on a shelf. For a child it is close to the opposite. A finished model has a problem: it is finished. A set with three sets of instructions has two more afternoons in the box, and the act of taking something apart to make something else is a different and arguably better kind of play than admiring what you built.

It is also why multi-build sets tend to use plainer, more generic parts. A piece shaped specifically for one model is dead weight in the other two, so the designer works with pieces that can be several things — which is exactly what makes the leftovers useful for building your own.

The Trans-Collector idea

Qman's Trans-Collector line is built around vehicles that come apart and recombine, usually into a robot. It is the same instinct behind every transforming toy since the 1980s, executed with ordinary bricks rather than hinges and moulded shells — so the transformation is something the builder performs rather than something the toy does.

Specifications

Pieces: 325 · Three alternative builds · Series: Qman Trans-Collector · Age: 6+ · Instructions for each build included