Tag Archives: lego

Dec 22 2012

Star Wars: Republic Striker Class Starfighter (#9497) by Lego

Oh, Christ, it’s another Star Wars Lego set. But wait… let me explain. This one here is from the Old Republic. I fell in love with the ship designs from the Old Republic back when I was playing KOTOR and KOTOR II like crack. I would have gladly sliced off both my ears and mailed them to Hasbro if they would in return have made toys out of the Old Republic ships. I don’t want to tell you what I would cut off in exchange for an Ebon Hawk. Instead, all we got was a grab bag of hard to find figures. I had no idea Lego even made Old Republic sets until I was in the aisle looking for another Star Wars set to buy just passing quickly through the aisle, not looking for any new Star Wars sets to buy, and happened to spot this one. It was also ten dollars off and in truth… I’M WEAK… OH, GOD, I’M SUCH A SAD, WEAK, AND PATHETIC MAN!! Thankfully, Lego is my only real vice… well, Lego and any other kinds of toys… and alcohol, but that goes without saying because I’m kind of a functional alcoholic… and cigars, I really enjoy a good cigar… oh, and pizza and cheeseburgers… and cake, pretty much any kind of cake… let’s get on with the feature…


Damn, this box is awesome. It’s got a cool, darker motif than the other Star Wars sets and it brandishes the “Old Republic” logo right on the front. Alas, it still has Darth Maul’s friggin mug on the box as his agent is clearly working overtime to make him relevant. The box shows off photos of this seriously awesome looking ship along with some minifigs of characters I’ve never seen or heard of before. Inside, you get a meaty instruction book and three numbered baggies containing a total of 376 pieces, which build the three all new minifigs and the starfighter itself. Time to brew up a pot of coffee and get building!


The minifigs are Satele Shan, a Republic Trooper, and an Astromech Droid called T7-01. I had to consult the Wookipedia to see who the hell Satele Shan was, and it turns out she’s a descendent of Bastila Shan furthering the idea that everyone of any notoriety in the Star Wars universe is related to each other and possibly Kevin Bacon. I’m not a big fan of the way her ponytails are printed on her torso, but you have to look pretty closely to even see them. Nonetheless, she’s a pretty cool little figure and includes two printed faces and a double bladed lightsaber.


I really dig the Republic Trooper as well. His body features a colorful and highly detailed printed outfit, and he’s got a scruffy face and he’s all scarred up. The Republic Trooper also comes with one of the most complex and badass guns I’ve ever seen in a Lego set.


And lastly, there’s T7, who is no slouch either. I really love the primitive Astromech Droid designs from the Old Republic period and this minifig is a great recreation of it in Lego form. He’s also a far more complex build than I suspected. For a group of characters that mean nothing to me, this lot of minifigs is still a win.


The Striker is a wonderful and original Starfighter design. The dual position wings make it feel like the melding of an A-Wing with a Z-95 Headhunter. With the wings closed, the ship has a vaguely triangular configuration with two engines protruding off the back and the single-pilot cockpit right in the center of the ship. This mode is so well designed that it’s almost impossible to tell there’s a second configuration. It just looks like a forerunner to the A-Wing and it would have been a perfectly serviceable model even if this were the only mode it had.

The ship makes use of some printed detail on the hull, rather than stickers. There are also a bunch of bricks used to reinforce the plates of the wings, giving the model a lot of depth and complexity to the design. I consider these Lego’s answer to sculpted panel lines, and they go a long way to make the ship look more detailed and convincing, while actually serving to strengthen the model for playability. Yes, this is one solid build, which holds up really well under handling. There are two small articulated stabilizer pieces on the nose of the ship and a pair of clips concealed between the engines to store Satele’s lightsaber pieces. In this mode, the Striker’s armaments consist of two forward laser cannon positioned under the wings.


To put the Striker into its attack mode, you unclip the wings on either side of the Starfighter’s main body, just in front of the cockpit. The wings swing back on hinges and lock firmly into place near the engines. Then all you have to do is swing the laser cannon forward and now you have a completely different looking ship with similarities to the Z-95 design. This mode also gives the Striker a little more firepower by revealing a bank of two proton torpedoes under each wing. Holy crap, I can’t say enough about how much I love this ship!

While I would still prefer Hasbro to do some of these ships for the 3 ¾” figures, I’ll happily take the Lego versions instead. The Striker offers a fun and satisfying build and the end result is a really well-engineered model and definitely one of the coolest designed Star Wars ships I’ve seen since the V-Wing. The only odd thing about the set is that since the ship is a one-seater and it isn’t slotted for an Astromech droid, the extra minifigs feel out of place. Still, that’s the way the ship was designed and it isn’t Lego’s fault. Besides, I’m not about to complain about having extra minifigs in a set. As far as value goes, I’ve seen this set sell for as much as $55, which is really pushing it. My local Target offers it for the more reasonable $45, and I was able to pick it up on a Price Cut at $35. Not bad at all!

I’m taking tomorrow off so I can get some last minute stuff done after work and before Christmas, but I’ll be back on Monday to kick off the last week of 2012… Marvel style

Dec 15 2012

Star Wars: Luke’s Landspeeder (#8092) by Lego

 

I started this week with a Star Wars Lego set, so let’s end it with one too. Yesterday, I needed to pick up a pound of coffee and while the Lego aisle is on the exact opposite end of the store from the coffee aisle, I still found myself over there picking up today’s item. This set was the other one I was considering last weekend when I bought the Desert Skiff. I knew I’d be back for it sooner or later, and it turned out to be sooner.


The box calls this a ”special edition” and I’m not sure what that means. A number of different retailers sell it online, but Walmart is the only store I’ve ever actually seen it in.  I’m sure someone more enlightened in the way of Lego can clear this up for me. The box is satisfyingly large for the size assortment and features some very enticing photos of the finished products. Inside you get an instruction booklet, two curious bendy tubes, and three unnumbered baggies. All told, you get 163 pieces, which build the Landspeeder vehicle, four minifigs and a little sentry droid. To the Minifigs!

Starting off, you get Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Both are solid minifigs, but nothing extraordinary. The printing on their torsos does a good job reproducing their Tattooine clothing, although I think Obi-Wan could have used a cape. They each only have one printed face, and while Obi-Wan’s hair piece looks fine, Luke’s seems a little off to me. I know he had long hair, but this piece looks more like a chick’s hair. Both minifigs come with the same lightsaber and I’m cool with that. You can never have enough lightsabers.

Next up, you have the Sandtrooper and his sentry droid. The Sandtrooper is a regular Stormtrooper with extra bits to make up his backpack and pauldron. I understand some people have taken issue with him not being more unique, but I like the fact that you can turn him into a regular Stormtrooper if you want, so I’m very happy with him. The helmet sculpt is excellent, the printing on the torso is great, It could have used some printed detail on the legs, but he still looks good without it. There’s no Clone head under the helmet, just a blank, black head to hold it on. The sentry droid isn’t really a minifig, as he’s built with just regular pieces and he comes with some clear pieces to make a “levitating” stand. He’s ok, but nothing special.

Last up are the droids: R2-D2 and C-3PO. 3PO is ok, although the matte gold plastic they used for him looks kind of cheap. R2, on the other hand, well I’m really on the fence over him. The lack of printing on his back pisses me off quite a bit, and I don’t think it would have killed Lego to toss in a third leg. I also wish they had constructed him so that his dome would rotate. The droids are passable, but considering how many times Lego could repaint and reuse an Astromech and Protocol Droid, it seems like they could have put a little more effort into this pair.

The Landspeeder itself was a fun and somewhat surprising build. There’s a lot about it that didn’t go the way I thought it would, and that made it interesting. The color pallet on the vehicle seems a bit off, as I think the chassis should have been darker, but the end result still gives it a cool animated vibe. One of my favorite things about the build was the clever use of the tubes to make up the recessed bumper under the hood. I had no idea what those were going to be used for and when I got to that point in the build, I didn’t think it was going to work all that well, but it did and it looks very cool and unique.


I’m not terribly keen on the engines. While it’s cool that Lego designed one to look like it was ripped apart by the Sandpeople, the other two should have had proper tan or brown casings. As it is, they all look like they’ve been taken apart and exposed. Even the one that’s ripped apart has a couple of pieces on the front that doesn’t match the other two. They don’t totally kill the vehicle for me, but I think these parts could have been much better executed.


The build allows for the middle engine to be removed and it reveals a little storage compartment. If you disassemble the lightsabers you can store them both in there. It’ll also fit some guns, other accessories, or a sack lunch if you want to pack for your Tattooine day trips.

At $24.99, I’m pretty happy with this set. The minifigs are all solid, if not spectacular, efforts and certainly help give a new Star Wars Lego collector like me a number of core characters. The Landspeeder is nice, but I think Lego might have taken a few too many liberties with the design. It’s a good placeholder, but I can’t see this being a definitive Lego treatment of the iconic vehicle. Still, it’s a huge improvement over the last Lego Landspeeder, and I’ll be interested to see how much the design improves when they decide to revisit it again in the years ahead.

And that’s this week in the bag. I’m taking tomorrow off to get caught up on some stuff around the house because work and the holidays are taking turns kicking my ass. So, no feature tomorrow, but I will drop in to quickly set up next week.

Dec 10 2012

Star Wars: Desert Skiff (#9496) by Lego

I’ve been hankering to build a new Lego set for a while now and while I tell myself I went down to the Wally World to get some provisions for the week, it was really to scope out the Lego aisle and see if I could get into any trouble. Normally, getting Lego sets this time of year can be slim pickings, but they had all the new Hobbit sets and some other odds and ends. The Lord of the Rings “Mines of Moiria” set was really tempting, but I really didn’t want to drop a lot of money, as besides the usual Holiday spending, I have a number of pre-orders scheduled to hit my bank account any week now. In the end, I did something I swore I’d never do… I got a Star Wars Lego set. Star Wars was the only line with some good looking low-to-medium sized sets on the shelf, and since I’ve already expressed my love for the Tattooine Desert Skiff a little while back, it should be no surprise that was the set I ended up with.


There’s the box. It’s got a landscape orientation to it with a shot of the completed set on the front and back and various panels to show the goodies that are included. It’s also got Darth Maul’s ugly mug on the right corner. Are we back to putting his face on everything again just because he came back for Clone Wars? That’s apparently the case, because they’ve even got his face on every other page of the instruction book. Blah! Inside the box you get the usual instruction booklet, three loose long bricks, and three numbered baggies containing a total of 213 pieces. The pieces build the Skiff vehicle, the Sarlaac and four minifigs. As always, we’ll start with the minifigs.

I don’t envy Lego trying to decide which four minifigs to go with in this set. There were lots and lots of options and whoever they went with, the roster was inevitably going to feel incomplete. In the end, they decided on Jedi Luke, Lando in Skiff Guard Disguise, Boba Fett, and Kithaba… Wait, Kithaba? Really, Lego? We couldn’t get a Weequay? I wanted a Weequay. Boo! But, hey… Boba Fett! I’m sure he’s been done a billion times, but since this is my very first Star Wars Lego set, I’m glad to have him. Let’s check out the good guys first…

Luke is nothing special, but then he didn’t really need to be. He’s got a black body with the robes printed on the torso. The head and hair are unremarkable, and he only has one printed face. I do dig his lightsaber, though, and he’s a competent enough minifig. Lando is a little more exciting. Lego did an awesome job with his helmet and pike. Unfortunately, he lacks a hair piece, so you can’t really display him sans helmet, but that omission is the only flaw in an otherwise excellent minifig.


Moving on to the pair of scum and villainy, we’ve got Kithaba and Boba Fett. I don’t have a lot to say about Kithaba. He’s ok. He’s got nice, bright red pants and a dewrag for his head. His printed face is good and he comes with a little holdout blaster. Boba, on the other hand, well he’s the man, and he’s downright awesome. Besides the printing on the body recreating his armor, he has his trademark jetpack and half-cape, sash, thingie. His helmet is amazing and it fits over a head with a printed unshaven face. The targeting arm clips into the helmet and can rotate. It looks a little big, but if it were any smaller it would get lost too easy. Lego generously provided four of the arms as replacements, because chances are you’ll lose this one too.


Let’s get the Sarlaac out of the way first because I’m not all that crazy about it. It was a nice bonus to round out the set from a play-ability standpoint, but I really hate the Special Edition version of the Sarlaac and this Lego interpretation kind of looks like Audrey II in a kiddie pool. I’m probably being way too hard on it. It does have a pair of poseable tentacles and the mouth does open up and you can fit a minifig inside it. I think a lot of my criticism of the Sarlaac doubles back to my feeling that this set should have been bigger, but I’ll come back to that thought later.


The Skiff is excellent. At first, I thought it would be undersized, but it seems to be scaled pretty well to the minifigs, particularly when I compare the way the Kenner/Hasbro toy was scaled to the 3 ¾” figures. The Skiff was a fun build, and hits all the major design points of the original vehicle model. It holds together really well (despite the fact that you can see a loose brick in my pictures) and comes with three short, clear pylons for it to stand on and give it a levitating look. You can also string them all together for one really tall, albeit precarious, stand. I really like the overall two-tone brown and tan color scheme as it’s suggestive of an animated version of the likes you might have seen in the old Droids cartoon.

The Skiff includes a couple of cool play features too. The box on the deck opens up to store weapons (two bonus holdout blasters are included), the rear rudders are completely articulated, and the gangplank swings out from one side. And no, I’m not going to bitch that it just doesn’t slide straight out, because obviously sacrifices had to be made. You have a pilot station on the back for Kithaba to stand and work the controls. I also really dig the little flick-firing missile launcher mounted under the vehicle. It’s a nice little added design bonus.

At $24.99, I think this is one of the better priced Lego sets I’ve picked up in a while and with all the Holiday sales going on, you can probably even do a little better on the price if you hunt around. The four minifigs and the great vehicle make me happy enough with the purchase, so the Sarlaac is just gravy. The set is a good enough value that I may wind up grabbing a second so that I can have two skiffs and an extra Kithaba and then trade away the figures and Sarlaac.

Truth be told, I’ve been admiring a lot of the recent Star Wars Lego sets, so I think today’s purchase was inevitable and I’m pretty sure  it will end up being some kind of gateway floodgate. As Obi-Wan said, “Let’s go! You’ve taken your first step into a larger world… a world where you sign away even more of your monies to some company in Denmark.” Or something like that. As for today’s set, I honestly wish Lego had gone a little bigger on this one. It’s not that the Skiff feels undersized, but they could have gone for two skiffs, more minifigs, and a larger Sarlaac base. As it stands, though, it is a fine set. You get everything you need to have a battle and while I still can’t approve of the “Audrey II” style Sarlaac, Lego did the Desert Skiff proud with this model.

Nov 29 2012

Lego Minifigs Series 8 Crapshoot #1

It’s Christmas time and that means a huge stocking stuffer dump bin at Target full of blind bagged minifigs from Lego.


Those of you who have been kicking around my little corner of the web may know that I haven’t exactly been rabid in my pursuit of Lego’s devilish little bagged toy lottery. In fact, I’ve skipped some of the series all together. But when I’m dashing in to buy me a bottle of holiday spirits and cashews, it’s hard not to grab a handful of these things and try my luck. This trip, a handful constitutes three. I actually had more than that, but I bought a particularly good bottle that day and had to put a couple back on account of being short a couple of bobs. It’s the Holidays and monies are tight! The other great thing about these little guys is they give me some quick and easy content for what has been a really busy and tiring week. Ok, let’s see how I made out with blind bag number one…

OH HELLS YES! I hit the pirate on number one! I suppose you could argue that there are a few other figures in this series that are on par with the pirate, but you can’t tell me that the pirate isn’t on the top of everyone’s want list. If you try to tell me that, I’ll have you pegged for a filthy liar. Get it? Pegged? Pirate. ARRRRR!

This little guy is a thousand shades of awesome. The printing on his torso and hat are both very cool and his face is very piratey as well. I think it’s funny that he hit the unfortunate jackpot of having every single cliché pirate deformity. “Hey, I got me a mate who’s a pirate. He be missing a leg, an arm, and an eye.” “Arrr, really? What’s his name?” “His name be Lucky!” “ARRRRR HAR HAR HARRRRRR!” Lucky comes with the ubiquitous minifig stand and a little golden cutlass. Pure win, my friends. Pure win. Let’s see how we make out with blind bag number two…

Umm… DJ Guy? I have very little opinion on DJ Guy, other than I see no reason for him to exist. Unless you happen to actually know a DJ in which case this makes for the best Christmas gift three dollars can buy. The record and album cover are actually kind of cool, and are a nice nod back to a couple of previous minifigs, but I really got nothing else to say about him. So… indifference… baggie number two contained indifference. Let’s try for three…

OH FUCK! It’s the football guy. Of course after opening the first bag, I looked at the checklist to get an idea of who I wanted and who I didn’t. Football Guy was top of my “Don’t Want” list. He’s actually pretty well designed, but a generic Football guy just seems like a waste. Make a set of Minifigs with actual NFL uniforms and you may have my interest there, Lego. But look who I’m talking to. Lego isn’t even an American company so what do they know about Football? Even the trophy he comes with seems kind of out of place. It looks like he just bowled a straight game while wearing Football gear. Blah!

Oddly enough today’s outing demonstrated the three potential reactions to opening a Minifig blind bag: Joy, Indifference, and Disappointment. It was pretty convenient for the purposes of this feature and I swear these were the only three I opened so nothing was rigged. I’d wager that I’ll pick up another handful of these before the Holiday season passes us by. There are a couple of figures on that checklist I’m really eager to get.

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Aug 23 2012

Marvel Super Heroes: Loki’s Cosmic Cube Escape (#6867) by Lego

[Yep, it’s another bonus update. I’m still working may through the backlog of plastic tat. I should be close to caught up by the end of this week, but I’m still expecting a few things to turn up in the mail any day now. –FF]

Aw, yeah… time for another venture into Lego’s world of Marvel Super Heroes. This time we’re checking out another one of the sets branded after The Avengers movie. This set is loosely based on the beginning sequence where Loki is escaping with the Cosmic Cube with Maria Hill leading Shield in the pursuit. I say loosely based because Maria Hill isn’t one of the minifigs in the set. Instead it is Iron Man doing the pursuit. On the other hand, it does come with a possessed Hawkeye and Loki and a SHIELD truck.

And there’s the box showing you what you get. Rip it open and you find two unnumbered baggies containing a total of 181 pieces. You also get an instruction booklet and a comic. To the minifigs!

As mentioned, the set includes Iron Man, Hawkeye, and Loki and they’re all pretty solid figures. Iron Man is comprised of simple, printed body, but his helmet is separate from his little Tony Stark head and the visor actually lifts open, which goes above and beyond. The mix of red and cold coloring is really nice too. The Hawkeye is also a pretty simple figure with a printed outfit, hair piece, two printed faces, one with shades and one without. He also comes with his bow. The quiver is printed on, which I thought was a bit of a cop out since Lego has plenty of quiver pieces that they could have repurposed for this set. Loki has a printed outfit, a single printed face, a cloth cape, his trademark horned helmet, and his Chitauri staff. You also get a Cosmic Cube piece. Iron Man is easily my favorite of the bunch, but they are all pretty solid efforts. No complaints here.

The rest of the pieces in the set all go to building the Shield 4×4 truck. I wouldn’t say it’s terribly movie accurate, but it is very nicely detailed and includes a light bar on the top of the cab, a ramming bar in the front, a removable fire extinguisher on the driver side, a clip for Hawkeye’s bow on the passenger side, two flick fire missiles on the sides, and a catapult gimmick in the bed of the truck that can launch a figure in the air. It’s a relatively small vehicle, with only one seat in the cab, but it looks great, particularly with the well-designed stickers all applied. Honestly, I don’t have a lot more to say about it.

The set took me about an hour to build, on and off and I had lots of fun doing it. If I were to have any gripes it would just be that there’s nothing really iconic about a SHIELD truck to me, although it does have the emblems and the SHIELD name on it, which helps. If you’re into Lego vehicles, this set should make you pretty happy, if you’re more into it for the Marvel stuff, then the minifigs may be the major draw of this set. At $20, it’s certainly a decent value for a Lego product, and a satisfying build.

Aug 18 2012

Marvel Super Heroes: Captain America’s Avenging Cycle (#6865) by Lego

[Whoa! What happened to Star Trek Saturday?  I’m putting it to rest for a week or two and I’m going to use this slot to try to get caught up on all the stuff that’s piling up around here these last couple weeks. –FF]

Woe is me, I have contracted the Marvel Lego bug, and just when I was dedicating myself to completing the Lord of the Rings Lego collection. Frankly, I blame Deadpool, because I may never have started down this expensive path had Lego not included him in a set. Anyway, while I was stocking up on provisions the other day at Target I couldn’t help myself but pick up another set. This time it’s Captain America’s Avenging Cycle, and it’s considerably smaller than the first one I looked at.

There you go, it’s a pretty exciting little box. This set comes with an instruction book, a loose motorcycle frame, a small sticker sheet, and two un-numbered baggies, with a grand total of 72 pieces. Those pieces build three minifigs, a missile launcher emplacement, a Chitauri Air Chariot and Cap’s motorcycle. It didn’t take me long to throw this thing together, so let’s see what we’ve got. And as always, we’ll start with the minifigs.

First up, we have Captain America, and he is without a doubt the reason I bought this set. He’s a pretty simple minifig composed of just the head, legs, and torso, but the colors and printed details really mesh well to make him a cool little guy. Naturally, he comes with his trusty shield too.

The other two minifigs are Chitauri troops. I’m pretty ambivalent toward these guys. Like Cap, they’re pretty simple and each made up of just the three basic pieces. The printing is very detailed, but it kind of just looks like a jumbled mess of patterns. I blame the crazy Chitauri design, which was really the only thing I didn’t like about the Avengers movie. Either way, I’m sure Lego did their best with what they had to work with, but these guys just weren’t designed with the Lego treatment in mind. At least one of them does come with a pretty cool gun. And since they’re faces are just a jumbled mess, I’ve put one head on back-to-front just to mix them up a bit.

 

Cap’s motorcycle is absolutely killer for such a small and simple build. The colors match his own and it comes with stickers with his star emblem and a SHIELD sticker for the front. There’s a clip on the back so you can attach his shield to it. Part of me kind of wishes there was a clip on the front to attach it to the front of the bike in the more iconic way, but then the bike looks so good, I’d be hesitant to change anything. And most importantly, Cap looks awesome riding it. This will be a big win for my new Marvel Lego display.

Chitauri pieces are a mixed bag. I like the Air Chariot. It was a little more complex of a build than I thought it would be, which is very cool. It has some great looking jagged blade pieces and some gorgeous stickers to give it extra detail. There’s also a flick-fire missile mounted under it. The side wings can move up and down and the front shield-slash-control column can pivot forward and back. A set of handlebars for the front column would have been cool, but I can probably rob one of those pieces from one of my Atlantis sets. Either way, it still looks fine without it.

The other Chitauri piece, the missile launcher feels like just something Lego threw in to beef up the brick count. It reminds me of the kind of thing they tossed into at least a couple of the Alien Invasion sets, only they made a little more sense in those. Still, I could probably cannibalize the parts for one of my Pharaoh’s Quest sets since the brick colors are totally Egyptian.

This set was $12.99 and it seems pretty fair. While I’m overall satisfied with the set, I would have really preferred Lego broke with the movie and included Skrulls in this set instead of the Chitauri. Skrulls would have worked better as minifigs and I would have had a lot more use for them in my collection. There’s nothing particularly bad in here, and I’m sure kids will appreciate being able to get a little battle in a box like this, but ultimately, I would have been happier just getting Cap and his motorcycle in a tiny impulse set for about five bucks cheaper.

Aug 1 2012

Marvel Super Heroes: Wolverine’s Chopper Showdown (#6866) by Lego

Until now I’ve been mum regarding Lego’s coup of simultaneously securing both the DC and Marvel licenses for their building sets. I can’t imagine how much money was involved to work out this deal, and while it’s true no DC and Marvel characters actually coexist in a single set, the fact that they’re both on the shelf at the same time is mind blowing, as is the fact that if you happen to buy a Batman and an Avengers set, no lawyers will show up at your house to keep you from playing with them together as part of what is essentially the same cohesive toyline. That all having been said, I question Lego’s understanding of the Marvel Universe when they release a set called “Wolverine’s Chopper Showdown” and QUIETLY SLIP A FREAKING DEADPOOL MINIFIGURE INTO IT!!!

Seriously. Look at that box art. It’s Deadpool attacking Wolverine in a fucking gunship, while Magneto impotently fiddles about in the background. Calling it “Wolverine’s Chopper Showdown” not only fails to recognize that it isn’t Wolverine’s chopper, but also fails to communicate to the potential buyer that Deadpool is anywhere involved with or included in this set. I must have walked past this thing a hundred times in different stores, never bothering to notice that a Lego Deadpool minifigure was within my reach. No, for my money, Lego should have just named this set “Deadpool Minifigure In A Box With A Bunch of Other Stuff“ That I would have purchased straightaway!

Of course, I’m joking… but not really. The box consists of an instruction booklet, a “comic adventure” booklet and three unnumbered baggies of 201 bricks that make up three minifigures, a motorcycle, and an attack helicopter. The “comic” is just a fun little booklet featuring Marvel characters as Lego minifigures, but it ultimately fails in that it is a comic featuring Deadpool, in which Deadpool says absolutely nothing. As always, let’s start with the minifigure… er, minifigures.

 

 

You get Deadpool, Wolverine and Magneto and as much as I adore my new little Deadpool minifig, I have to concede that all of the minifigs in this set are nothing short of excellent. The bright comic-y colors are gorgeous and the combination of printing and unique bits really bring out the personality of each character in adorable minifigure form. Deadpool actually gets by with the least amount of unique parts, although he does have a set of scabbards on his back, which can store his katana swords in a criss-cross fashion. He also comes with a gun. Wolverine features a special hairpiece that meshes perfectly with his printed sideburns. He also has his two sets of adamantium claws, which he actually holds in each hand, but they still look pretty good. Lastly, Magneto features a new helmet sculpt, a cape, and a little disc for him to fly around on. Both Wolverine and Magneto have double printed faces, whereas Deadpool just has his standard Deadpool mask.

 

The helicopter is a lot nicer than I expected. It sits on three sets of landing gear consisting of six wheels, and it’s powered by one main rotor and two smaller rotors on the tail boom. The roof over the cabin lifts off to seat a figure in the cockpit and the sides are open and you can put additional figures in the back. You can also use it as a cargo area for Deadpool’s precious cargo of Hot Pockets and chimichangas. There are two stubby wings coming off the sides, each one holds two flick-fire missiles, can pivot up and down, and they have clips to attach Deadpool’s katana swords to the ends. That’s right, because Deadpool can kill you with swords attached to his helicopter! Wow!

You also get a little motorcycle for Wolverine. It isn’t really a lot like the chopper we usually see Wolverine riding. Truth be told, it’s more like a dirt bike. Still, it’s only made up of seven of the 201 pieces, so I’m not complaining.

This set is $19.99 at Walmart and Target and I think that’s a pretty good value for 201 pieces. It didn’t take me a lot of time to build, but it was fun and there weren’t many redundant steps and that helps keep things interesting. Honestly, I would have almost been happy enough with these three minifigs alone. I really do love them all that much. But the helicopter and bike are nice vehicles and versatile enough to be used in a lot of other Lego series. But most important… I got me a Deadpool minifigure!!!

Jul 18 2012

Lego Mini-Figures, Series 7

Last time I did a feature on Lego minifigs it was waaay back in Series 2 and I bought enough blind bags to make it theoretically possible to get them all. Obviously, I didn’t get them all, but I did do pretty well with only a couple sets of doubles. Well, five series later and I haven’t been holding out featuring these. Nope, I just haven’t been buying any. Why? I honestly don’t know, because for $2.99 you get an amazing moment of either sheer delight or total devastation as you spill out the parts and see what you got. Anyway, I decided to break the unintended moratorium today as I was bumming around the toy section on the prowl for early releases of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures. This time, I was content with just picking up two packets of blind bagged Lego goodness.

Yes, if you don’t know the deal, the Lego Minifigs come blind bagged. There are all kinds of tricks to figure out who’s actually hiding inside, but I honestly think that ruins the fun. Keep in mind, I’m not a diehard collector, and I do feel for you Legophiles who are dead set on getting every last figure, but for a guy like me, I’m happy to go with the luck of the draw. So let’s check out the first one.

The Olympic Swimmer? Son of a fucking bitch!!!! So much for the luck of the draw, as I think this is the one figure in this whole assortment that I wanted the least. I mean, seriously? What the fuck am I supposed to do with this? Godammit! She’s so terrible that she isn’t even pictured on the baggie, only on the folded checklist inside the baggie. Why? Why, Lego Gods? Why have you forsaken me??? I suppose if I had any Star Wars Minifigs, I could use the medal as a Battle of Yavin medal. The swimcap would work if I ever custom make a Moe Howard Minifig. …Seriously, I’ve got nothing else to say about this one, except she’s got two printed faces and for some reason the one with the goggles makes me really angry. I’m going to try my luck on baggie number two. And so help me God, if it’s another Swimmer…

Fuck and yes! The Black Knight. Not only is this one absolutely amazing Minifig, but it actually goes with a lot of the sets I have. Just check this guy ou! He has slick armor patterns printed on his legs, and a blank upper body with a separate armor piece that slides on. The silver deco printed against the black really looks fantastic. And check out that printed face! He looks like he’s going to kill you and then use both your femurs as chopsticks to eat your intestines as if they were a delicious Lo Mein. Sadly, he only has the one printed face, but look at those bloody rage-filled eyes and tell me you would prefer something else. The helmet is nicely sculpted, and he comes with a cool sword and shield.

Ok, so as pissed as I was to get stuck with Olympic Swimmer Lady, I have to say getting the Knight cancels out the anger. This guy is one of my favorite figures in this assortment, although to be fair, this is a pretty great series with a number of truly great Minifigs, which kind of makes getting the Swimmer suck all the more. Either way, I’m not deterred by the experience. If anything, I want to try again and pick up a couple more real soon.

By figurefanzero • Tagged
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Jul 4 2012

Lord of the Rings: Shelob Attacks (#9460) by LEGO

LEGO is doing their best to make up for discontinuing my beloved Pharaoh’s Quest line with these new Lord of the Rings sets. This time we’re checking out the next size down from the Uruk-hai Army set that we looked at last time. Shelob Attacks recreates the battle between Frodo and Sam and the giant spider, Shelob, while on their way to Mordor.

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The set comes in a typical box that does its best to show you all that you’re getting inside. I’m still digging the Lord of the Rings deco across the top. Tearing open the box, you spill out four baggies of pieces and an instruction manual. The baggies aren’t numbered, so you have to spill everything out into one big pile. You also get a little box with the capes for the minifigs and a little box with the string for Shelob’s webbing. The piece count on this one is 227, which is only 30 pieces less than the last set, and there are a lot of tiny pieces in here. When all is done, you get three minifigs, a little cave, and the showpiece of the set, Shelob. Let’s start with the minifigs…

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The set comes with Frodo, Samwise Gamgee, and Gollum. You’ll have other opportunities to get Frodo and Sam, but right now it seems like Gollum is exclusive to this set. The Hobbits are both smaller than your average Lego minifig, which is cool, although some may take issue by the fact that they’re wearing shoes, rather than have hairy feet like Hobbitses should. Seriously, LEGO? How did you drop the ball on that one? They also have less articulation than normal minifigs, as their legs are not hinged at all. The printing on their outfits is very nice and each one has a double-printed face. Their hair pieces are repaints of the same piece, but it works well, and they each come with the same cloth cape. Gollum is even smaller than the Hobbits and he’s actually molded almost entirely from one piece. His arms attach and can move, but that’s it. He’s also got one seriously deranged face printed onto him making him the most disturbing LEGO minifig I have ever seen.

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Each minifig comes with some accessories. Frodo comes with his Elven sword, Sting and the ring (actually I got two Stings and three rings!), and the ring is a very nice vac-metal gold, albeit obviously oversized for the figures. Sam comes with a sword and what I first thought was a diamond, but it’s actually meant to be a flask of Elvish potion. Gollum comes with a fish!

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The cave is nothing to write home about. It’s just a little archway for Gollum to hide in and it does have a little see-saw like catapult that you can put Gollum on and flick him toward Frodo so he can try to reclaim his Precious. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to get in an impulse set and it makes a decent little piece of scenery for the main event…

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Yes, Shelob is the big attraction here. I’ll confess I wasn’t terribly excited about building her since I’ve built my share of LEGO arachnids before and they tend to get a little repetitive what with the same build for each of the eight legs and all. That having been said, I really did enjoy building this one, mainly because of the very clever gear system used for her working web. Ok, it’s more like a grappling hook, but you can pull the string out pretty far and then use the gear on the bottom of the figure to crank it back in. It’s a very cool gimmick. The figure itself looks great and even has one of its printed eyes poked out! The legs are each articulated in four places and the back of the body can raise and lower, as can the head. Shelob can also stand perfectly fine on her legs. She’s a satisfyingly large figure and looks even more impressive when displayed against the tiny Hobbits.

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This set goes for about twenty bucks at Target and Walmart and when you consider the piece count and the fact that it took me a solid hour to build, I’m pretty happy. In fact, as much as I love the Uruk-hai Army set, I’d say this one feels like a better value. It feels more complete and it was a more satisfying build, and it also comes with three of the most central minifigs in the series. On the downside, I may not be able to sleep knowing that LEGO Gollum is in my house. He scares the shit out of me.

Jun 20 2012

Lord of the Rings: Uruk-Hai Army by Lego

It’s been a while since we looked at any actual Lego sets here on FigureFan. I guess I’m still bitter over them dropping my beloved Pharaoh’s Quest line. Either way, Lego launched two brand new lines last week so it was time to sit up and take notice. There’s the Monster Hunter line, which doesn’t really grab my interest right now, and then there’s a little known license called… Lord of the F’ing Rings. Obviously, the Lord of the Rings sets are right up my alley. I grew up reading the books and my favorite Lego sets have been the Kingdoms, Castle, and even some of those Prince of Persia sets. The LotR stuff seems to mesh pretty well with that whole medieval theme and so Lego had my monies from day one on this series. I was oh so tempted to jump right in and pick up one of the biggest of the sets, but cooler heads prevailed and I went with one of the middle of the road sets. Good thing too, since my computer died the very next day, hence blowing my budget for the week.

The packaging is pretty standard Lego fare. It’s a box with a cool LotR-inspired deco on it that shows you exactly what you’re going to get inside. Keep that in mind, as it’s important later. Inside the box you get two good sized baggies containing a total of 257 pieces, and a fairly hefty instruction book. The first baggie contains the Uruk-hai forces, made up of four minifigs and a siege crossbow. The second baggie contains a section of wall and two Rohan minifigs. Normally, I cover all the minifigs first, but this time we’ll look at each bag in order, so let’s check out the Uruk-hai. Keep in mind, the content of these sets seem to draw strongly on the movie, rather than Lego going with their own interpretations from the books. That’s probably a good thing, since most casual fans will relate to the movies and with The Hobbit coming out (eventually) these sets will help keep the property in circulation. Ok, onto the toys…

Yes, as the name of the set suggests, you get an instant squad of Uruk-hai soldiers. Really, it’s the same minifig four times over, but you get different pieces to customize them and make them each a little different if you want. The pieces include three helmets, one hair piece, two poleaxes, two swords, two shields, and two breast plates. The printing on the figures is excellent and each one has a double-printed face to help you mix things up even more. The equipment consists of the vicious killing tools from the movie shrunk down to adorable minifig form. I’m particularly fond of the swords, as they look just like the mass-produced, utilitarian choppers seen on the big screen. I really wouldn’t change a thing about these guys. Well done, Lego!

You also get the big siege crossbow, which is a very cool piece. It rolls along on four big wheels and flick fires two huge battering missiles. It uses some cool new pieces that have printed wood patterns on them and really go a long way to give it a natural look to the construction. I’ve got quite the growing number of siege weapons from my Kingdoms and Prince of Persia sets, and I’m happy to add this fine piece to my ranks.

And then there’s the second baggie with the Rohan stuff. You get two minifigs, Eomer and a Rohan Solider, you get a horse, and you get a section of wall to defend. The minifigs are both excellent. Eomer features some beautiful printing to make up his outfit, a double-printed face to mix up his expressions, and one of those cloth capes that I love so much. He also comes with a gilded helmet, a sword, a shield and a spear. The soldier has some equally fine printing and the same helmet as Eomer only not gilded since he’s just cannon fodder. He also comes with a quiver that slips over his neck and a bow and arrow. The horse features a saddle with clips to hold two pieces of equipment and it’s also articulated in the neck and in the back legs so it can rear up on its haunches. Is this new? I don’t remember my other Lego horses being articulated at all, but maybe I’m thinking of the Playmobil horsies. The horse also comes with the bricks to fill up his mid-section in case you just want him chilling out in the background.

Ok, so let’s talk about that wall. It has two levels, so you can stand figures behind it or up on the top of the battlements. You get a mounted catapult just like the ones we’ve seen in Kingdoms and Prince of Persia. There’s a staircase leading up to the battlements, and a torch and a flag. It’s certainly serviceable to give the Uruk-hai something to attack and the Rohan people something to defend, but it feels incomplete, and that’s because it is. You see, it’s actually designed to link up with the Battle of Helms Deep set, so by itself, you’re just getting a piece of a larger wall. I would have much preferred a tower or something that could both stand alone and link up with Helm’s Deep, rather than an incomplete structure.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, the box shows you exactly what you get, so Lego isn’t pulling a fast one. They even show you how the wall links up to Helm’s Deep. They even have the audacity to suggest you buy two Helm’s Deep sets and link them together. That’s awesome, Lego, but the Helm’s Deep set costs $130. I’m not made out of money, damn you!

Maybe I’m making too big a deal about the wall piece. The truth is, this is still a great set and it gives you everything you need to have a little battle right out of the box. What’s more, this set is absolutely perfect for army builders. You can buy multiples of this set and if you’re willing to count Eomer as a Captain and not a specific character, then every piece goes toward building a bigger army. And that’s a big part of what LotR is all about, huge battles. It’s cool to see that Lego recognizes and embraces it. At $30 you’re getting a lot of absolutely fantastic minifigs and two set pieces to have a battle. The fact that this set will mesh so well with Helm’s Deep when I finally pick it up is just icing on the Lego Cake.