My BRIO #33883 Airport with Control Tower arrived last week and I am quite happy with it. The first thing you notice when you unbox it is its size: it’s huge!
As you can see from the photo, the airport base has a D-size track molded on one side. The entire base is a little larger than DxD, so this beauty requires quite a bit of space. Much more than the original airport from 2013. The S-shape to the canopy gives it a very modern look, and the flooring is a molded tile pattern which is a nice touch. Also interesting is the luggage slide, an elevator for getting bags to the top, and a loading zone for vehicles. The top of the control tower is removable, and is identical to the one found in the original set which means you can also remove the roof to place a figure inside. The best features, though, are the airplane in red, and a large locator light that glows for several seconds when you tap it.
It’s a winner. It’s expensive, but you are getting a seriously large accessory for your money and the attention to detail is appreciated. It’s a better design, IMHO, than the older airport and monorail combo and worth the money.
Only downside is that it has very little wood to it, but hey, it looks a LOT better than what Mattel is currently putting out for “Thomas & Friends”…
The use of plastic bugs me mostly when it replaces something that could easily be wood. On the airport, the biggest offender is the molded track piece. It doesn’t need to be there, adds nothing, and in fact hinders the placement of the accessory in your layout (what if I want to shift it a little to the left or right to make room for something else?) So why do it?
The vertical supports are wood, however, and I am happy to see that. It is, however, a concerning trend. Even the facade-style buildings of the early 2000’s (which I was no fan of) had more wood. BRIO is competing with low-priced plastic toys, and that means more plastic is in their future.
Indeed, they could have used a wooden 8″ straight track piece with plastic knobs to mate it with the Airport instead (like the Lighthouse).
I’ll hand it to them, though, that the plastic they use is still very sturdy, in fact much more than the plastic they used in the 1990s which tended to warp and discolor.