Tag Archives: lego

May 12 2012

Lego Kingdoms: Crossbowman Bagged Impulse Set (#30062)

[I am indeed gone for the weekend, but I did have time to put together something that’s been sitting in my hopper since the beginning of the year. I’ll be off again tomorrow, and back on Monday for the usual M.A.S.K. Monday goodies, which by the way is starting to wind down for the time being. In fact, I have only three more installments planned for the present time. Hopefully they’ll be some new stuff turning up on the pegs soon, else I forsee some kind of Summer Hiatus for FigureFan. -FF]

Yes, bagged impulse set! I don’t know what else to call this thing, but no doubt you Lego collectors are familiar with these little impulse sets that turn up en masse during the holiday season. I picked this one up quite a while ago. In fact, it was probably a couple of days before last Christmas in that array of binned stocking stuffer items that Target sells that time of year. I seem to have dropped it into a drawer and forgotten about it, because I only found it again yesterday when I was looking for a bottle opener. I can’t remember the exact price, but it was either $3.99 or $4.99.  That’s a buck or two more than the blindbagged Minifigs usually sell for, but this one comes with a little more than your average Minifig.
As the name suggests, this set comes in a simple, printed baggie. The front shows you what you’re going to get inside and declares that the set contains 31 pieces. It doesn’t sound like a lot of bricks, but for a set this small, that’s not bad at all. It takes no time at all to slap this set together. When you’re done you get the Crossbowman, a little cookfire with a turkey leg, a couple of spears and a box to stand them in, and a target with an apple tree.
The Minifig is very cool, although if you collect the Kingdoms series, he’s probably pretty familiar to you. He’s got a nice printed tunic, a jolly grin and a very cool steel helmet on his head and quiver of arrows slung on his back. He also comes with… wait for it… his crossbow!
The box of spears has been included in various Kingdoms sets before, and I think most collectors of the line will be happy to get another. You can stick it in the corner of your Castle or Prison Tower as an enhancement. More weapons and a place to put them is never a bad thing. The cookfire and turkey leg is an ok piece. I’ve never been overly fond of it, but it makes for a nice enhancement to any Kingdoms camp or guard barracks.
The other bigish piece in the set is the target and tree. The apple tree is a little funky, but hey its hard building a convincing Lego tree of this size. The target is cool and can be angled up or down. Again, this is a great enhancement piece to a Castle courtyard or your Kingdoms camps. Besides, I’m pretty sure I don’t have any Lego apples, so it has some unique bricks for my collection.
In case you haven’t picked up on the subtle theme of this feature, its enhancement, and that’s what this set does best. While there’s nothing essential here to make me want to hunt down more of them, everything in this little baggie make nice additions to any Kingdoms collection. On the other hand, if you just collect the Minifigs, the Crossbowman is a good addition to any lineup, and he does look great dispayed with the extra set pieces. All in all, not a bad little set for the price of admission.
Apr 10 2012

Lego City: Mobile Police Unit (#7288)

Ok, so yesterday’s Lego City set was ok, but it didn’t really blow me away. Let’s see if something a little beefier can fit the bill. We’re still on a police vehicle kick, but this time we’re looking at the Mobile Police Unit, a semi-truck that opens out into a CSI style crime lab. If you’re living in Lego City, chances are a lot of your taxes got pissed away on this thing, so let’s hope it’s paying off with a return on lower crime rates, eh?

The box is satisfyingly big and it shows off the truck opened up as well as all the other goodies and figures you get in this set. It also shows a motorcycle cap nabbing a crook running off with a gold bar. How clever can the criminals of Lego City be to be knocking over gold bricks right in front of what looks like a $2.5 million mobile crime lab? Not very. At 408 pieces, this set is more than twice the size of the last one I looked at. Inside the box, you get four numbered baggies of bricks, two instruction booklets, one sticker sheet, and a loose base, which will become the floor of the trailer. This one took me quite a while to put together and there’s all kinds of cool stuff going on with it. When all is said and done you get three minifigs, a little sports car, a road barricade and traffic cone, a police motorcycle, and of course the truck itself. As always, let’s start with the minifigs.

You get two cops and one criminal. The criminal is just a guy wearing a striped shirt and a pair of grey pants. He’s got a skull cap and he comes with the gold brick. Next up, we have the crime lab guy. He’s wearing a blue shirt with a badge and tie and has the cushy job of sitting in the lab while our next minifig, the motorcycle cop is humping the beat all day. The motorcycle cop is my favorite figure in the bunch. He’s got a nicely illustrated outfit showing off the zippers on his jacket, his badge and his walkie-talkie. He’s also got a helmet with a movable visor and the ubiquitous mirrored shades painted on his face. He also comes with a pair of handcuffs.

Next up are the little vehicles. The police motorcycle is an awesome little piece. If Lego would put this bike and the cop in a baggie and sell them alone, I’d bet they’d move a bunch of them. I’d buy a half dozen just in case I ever want to make a Lego Presidential motorcade. The little car, on the other hand is pretty goofy, but it still makes for a nice bonus in the set. I’m guessing it’s the criminals getaway car.

And then there’s the truck. It’s built in two pieces: The cab first and then the trailer. The whole thing is beigger than I expected. The cab can disconnect from the trailer and the trailer has fold down support so that it can stand on its own. The cab features opening side doors, angling sideview mirrors and movable spotlights on the top. The trailer features a compartment just behind the cab to store the road barricade and the traffic cone. The back of the trailer has a cell area with a barred door and bars on the windows. There’s also a rotating dish antenna on the top of the trailer.

The roof and doors to the trailer all fold out to give clear access to the crime lab inside the trailer. Inside you get two workstations with chairs and computer screens, a coffee pot, which oddly enough is one of my favorite things in the set, and a rack to keep equipment like the magnifying glass, extra handcuffs, and flashlight. The set makes great use of the stickers as display screens on the walls, maps of the city, and a wanted poster.

At $40, this set was a lot more satisfying then the last one. It was double the price, but it has signicantlly more than twice as many pieces. The extra vehicles add a lot of play value to the set and the whole design of the truck and crime lab conversion is executed extremely well. Plus, the motorcycle and cop are really cool additions to the set. If you’re short on Lego funds, I’d recommend skipping the Prisoner Transport and going straight for this one. Yeah, it’s more money, but you really get a lot to show for it.

Feb 9 2012

Lego Alien Conquest: UFO Abduction (#7052)

Yes, it has been quite a while since I looked at a Lego set. In fact, I’m pretty sure the last time was also one of the Alien Conquest series. I’ve actually been hankering to build a set for a while now, but there’s been an awful lot of stuff out their vying for my toy buying dollahs. But, this past Sunday morning as I was out hitting Wally World early to get some snacks for the Super Bowl I decided to pick up a new set to give me something to do while waiting to see the Giants kick the Patriots’ collective asses. [Why yes, I am a prophet! -FF] 

And here we go. The goods come in a standard Lego box declaring that this is in fact set number 7052 and does indeed contain 211 pieces. That piece count includes three minifigs, one alien flying saucer, a couple of barricades and a missile launcher. It also points out that this set includes a light up feature, which is the first time I’ve ever seen this in a Lego set. I didn’t need much incentive to pick this one up, as I’m really digging this Alien Conquest series, but if at any point I was teetering on indecision, the light up gimmick surely had me sold. The Alien Conquest series continues to tap into that whole Mars Attacks aesthetic with the logo and artwork. Tearing open the box you find an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, a loose clear plastic dome, and two decent sized baggies of Lego goodness.
As always, let’s start with the minifigs. You get one Earth Defense guy, one farmer, and one alien. The Earth Defense guy is pretty much the same thing we saw in the Alien Defender set (that’s number 7050 if you’re keeping track) although the head is new. These guys are basically just dudes in blue space suits, which is kind of strange because they seem to do all their alien fighting on Earth. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that before, so let’s move on. The farmer is the alien abductee, which is pretty funny because it’s usually some hick that the aliens kidnap (God, I love this series!). He’s a cool little figure and comes complete with a pitchfork. If you have any need of a generic farmer minifig, this guy can easily be cross purposed. And lastly you have the alien. I like these guys, but Lego’s alien minifigs do tend to blur together a bit for me. Both the Earth Defense guy and the alien each come with a pistol.
The bulk of the build here is the alien saucer, but there are a couple of barricades and a simple missile launcher for the Earth Defense guy to use. Seriously, gotta make sure those road barricades are up to defend that thing against the giant death dealing alien spaceship, right? Suffice it to say this isn’t even a fair fight, so you may want to make sure you pick up the Alien Defender set to give the humans a little more firepower. C’mon, it’s only ten bucks!
The saucer is very cool. I was a bit afraid its simple and very symmetrical design would make for a boring build, but there’s a lot of cool little details that help keep things interesting. The bottom hatch has an elaborate little system of teeth and claws that let you drop the saucer down on a minifig’s head and it will pick the figure up. Well, maybe seven out of ten times it will anyway. There are two articulated antenna arrays, the dome opens and closes to sit the minifig and oh yeah, did I mention it lights up? The build for the light up mechanism is very cool and the whole assembly sits in the cockpit. By pressing forward on the big green ball behind the cockpit the red brick in the cabin lights up and shines down through the hole in the bottom of the craft. It makes for a very cool effect and it casts the light down on the ground below the ship really well. Its kind of hard to show with my shitty little camera, but take my word for it, it’s pretty nifty.
All told, it took me a little over an hour to build this set. As usual, I took my time and I was watching some Doctor Who while doing it, so your build speed may vary. It’s certainly a fun build and the saucer turns out very nice and solid for play or display. The set costs just under thirty bucks, which is not bad, but somehow it doesn’t seem quite the value that the Tripod Invader set was at only twenty. Still, I highly recommend this one, whether you’re already into Alien Conquest or you’re looking to see what its all about.
Aug 26 2011

Lego Alien Conquest: Tripod Invader (#7051)

I promise I’m getting back to the Playmobil stuff soon, but I’ve had a tight schedule this week, so I’m forced to run some of the content I’ve already finished first to buy me some time to catch up. So, today we’re going to climb another rung on the ladder of Lego’s Alien Conquest series by looking at the next larger set of the line: Tripod Invader. I don’t have much of a preamble for this one, so let’s just get to it.

     
Another pretty standard Lego box with some pretty cool artwork showing little Lego people running for their lives while the alien menace descends on them. Once again, I get a nice B-movie vibe from this line, right down to the intentionally cheesy logo. The set boasts 166 pieces, which is around 60 or so pieces more than the first set I looked at. The box contains an instruction book, a sticker sheet, and three baggies of bricks, which build two minifigs (three if you count the alien head clinger), and the alien Tripod.
      
The minifigs include an Alien Trooper, an Alien Clinger, and a human businessman-slash-captive. Like I said when looking at the last set, I’m getting a little burned out on the Lego alien minifigs. This guy looks ok and I still like the pink veins that make up his brain, but he’s nothing all that special. The purple and black suit is pretty sharp, though. The human is just a guy in a business suit with a happy face and a “holy shit, I’m about to get my ass probed” scared face. He does come with a briefcase that opens, which is kind of cool, and if you collect Lego City sets, I’m sure you could get some more mileage out of him. The Clinger is just a single piece that fits over the head of the human, obviously while in the process of digesting the human’s entire head. It’s a cool idea. I like him a lot.
The Tripod is actually built up in two main pieces. You have the lower part that includes the legs and the death ray and the upper part that detaches to form a space ship. At first I wasn’t crazy about the top part not being a symmetrical looking Tripod body, but I’ll confess having it detach to double as a spaceship is just so cool and adds a ton of play value to the set. The legs don’t actually move a lot, but they do support the ship very well and it’s very cool how the death ray sockets into the globe like an eyeball. I’m sure this sort of thing has been used in Lego sets before, but this is the first time I’ve encountered it and I think its terribly clever.
The spaceship itself has an opening dome canopy so you can put the Alien Trooper at the controls. There’s also some socketed bricks around it so you can plug his laser gun into the ship for some added firepower. The stickers do a very nice job adding detail, including a bumper sticker that reads: “We’ve Been To Earth.” The back of the ship features a green pod that opens and serves as a prison to put the captured human into. The ship portion rests on a large rod and simply lifts right off when it’s ready to fly away.
          
       
The Tripod Invader set retails for $20. It’s a fun build, albeit doing the three legs is repetitive, but what you get when you’re done is well worth the money. Possibly the only downside here is that you don’t get a human vehicle to play against, just some poor sap in a suit to get captured. Nonetheless, if you already have the Defender set we looked at last time, the two compliment each other very nicely and I do recommend picking up the pair of them together.
Aug 18 2011

Lego Alien Conquest: Alien Defender (#7050)

It’s been slim pickings around here for Legos lately. I’m still waiting for new Pharaoh’s Quest sets to show up and I’m not terribly keen on the new Kingdoms sets that I’ve seen exhibited this year. I have been curious about the new Alien Conquest line, as it’s a bit similar to the Space Police series I love so much and I dig the way the vehicles and ships draw from the whole retro 50’s theme with plenty of saucers and tripods and whatnot. So when I went out today hunting for Mattel’s fabled DC endcap that is supposed to be turning up at Walmarts I came up empty and instead took home a couple of these sets. I’ll start off today with the smaller of the two.

The set comes in a standard, serviceable box like all Lego sets. I like this line’s logo with the B-Movie silver saucer as it really captures the vibe Lego is trying to do achieve with this series. At 105 pieces, this one is about a step up from the little impulse sets. Inside the box, you get an instruction book, a small sticker sheet, a base piece for the vehicle, and two baggies of bricks. The 105 bricks builds two minifigs, a human attack vehicle and a little alien attack flyer. As always, let’s start with the minifigs!

The two minifigs consist of a human defender and an alien attacker. The human has a printed outfit that looks like a cross between a space suit and a SWAT outfit and includes a helmet with a clear visor. Why is he wearing a space helmet? I don’t know. Maybe it’s just supposed to be for combat. The bright blue plastic used on this figure and a lot of other pieces in the set really pops. I like it.  He has a double printed face with both an angry and happy expression. While it doesn’t show it on the instructions, mine came with a little pistol. The alien figure is pretty cool, although Legos alien designs are really starting to blur together to me. He’s got a squat head with bug eyes, although I am really fond of the pink veins on the back of his head. His outfit is black and purple, which looks really good. He comes with a very cool ray gun. These are both solid figures, but I was surprised to find I liked the human better.

The alien flyer is kind of the throwaway construct of the set. It’s the typical “small piece count, one-man vehicle with a control stick” that we’ve seen in various lines from Space Police to Atlantis. In other words, it’s not much to write home about, but it does give the human defense vehicle something to shoot at, and that’s cool. I will give the Lego designers credit. It can’t be easy to keep coming up with new designs for these simple little vehicles, and they always manage to give each new one a little unique flair.

The Earth defense vehicle, on the other hand, is very cool. It’s a one seater with a rotating turret on the back equipped with dual ray guns (recovered alien tech, maybe?) and a couple of rotating flick-firing missiles on the sides. The mounted ray guns in the turret can also be used as BFGs for your minifigs, which is always a nice plus. It’s a fairly simple build, but the finished vehicle feels a bit more substantial than what I’m used to getting in sets around this piece count. The vehicle rolls along great and should compliment some of the larger alien ship sets very nicely.

The Alien Defender set retails for about ten bucks and it feels like a pretty good deal. The build won’t take most Lego veterans much time at all, but when you’re done you get the basic ingredients needed for some alien fighting fun and it seems like a good sampling of what to expect from the rest of the line. In a couple days I’ll take a look at the next size set in the series, which includes an alien tripod!

Apr 17 2011

Lego Atlantis: Atlantis Exploration HQ (#8077)

I’ve featured a fair number of the Lego Atlantis sets here on FigureFan, but they’ve all been small to midsize sets. Today we’re finally looking at one of the meatier ones. I’ve actually had this set built and sitting on my shelf for quite a while now, so today’s entry is long past due. Let’s take a look at the Atlantis Exploration Headquarters.

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It’s a big box, and it’s practically bowed out on the sides from the contents. Ok, so at 473 pieces, it isn’t exactly top of the line, but it certainly falls into the hefty high-mid range category. The box contains two instruction booklets, one sticker sheet and four numbered baggies of bricks. The first bag builds the minifigs, a one man sub and the support structure and the other three bags all go into building the HQ itself. Keep in mind this set only has three minifigs, which seems a little light for its size, but it seems like the bricks were well invested back into the set. This was a fun and satisfying build, taking me about an hour and a half.

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The minifigs aren’t bad, but they aren’t anything special either. You get two divers and a Manta Warrior. One of the divers is the same Dr. Fisher we saw in one of the previous sets, the other is the Captain, whose name I can’t remember right now. They’re basically the same figure with different heads. They each come with a helmet, oxygen tanks and flippers. The Manta Warrior comes with a weapon. You also get a yellow Atlantis treasure key. Needless to say Manta Warrior is my favorite minifig in the batch.

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The playset itself breaks down to three basic parts. You have the base, you have the little one man sub and you have the HQ itself, which transforms into a submarine. Let’s start with the base first. It’s more like a skeletal support or superstructure than anything else, as it’s main function is to hold up the HQ when it’s deployed in HQ mode. It does, however, have a couple of cool play features. There’s an articulated crane with an operators station where one of the minifigs can sit. There’s also a raised platform where you can park the minisub, or any of the other smaller Atlantis vehicles as well. The only downside of the base is it tends to be a little on the fragile side, so if you’re planning on moving the set, I recommend converting the HQ to the submarine and carrying the two pieces separately. I learned that the hard way!

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When deployed in HQ mode, there’s two wings with workstations for the divers. The one on the right has a computer terminal with a fish to analyze. The one on the other side has more computer banks and a clip that holds a metal detector. There’s a central tower that has four articulated spotlights, and the walls of the HQ feature two flick-firing missiles and two double harpoon cannons. The harpoon guns can also be removed and equipped by the minifigs. Cool! In typical playset fashion the front of the HQ looks like the exterior and the back gives you access to the inside. The HQ mode looks great viewed from either side.

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Of course one of the recurring themes for the Atlantis series has been vehicle transformation, and in this case the HQ transforms into a submarine. The HQ is designed so that it just rests on the three supports, so you can just lift it right off of the base. The transformation is simple enough, as you just fold in the sides and peg them together and fold down the top. Even with the simple transformation, the resulting submarine looks awesome. The front dome opens up so you can put in a pilot figure. What’s really nice is how solid this thing is when it’s in sub mode. You don’t have to worry about it falling apart when you handle it. Now the divers can prowl around the sea and come back and dock at the superstructure when they’re done.

All in all, this is a pretty amazing set and definitely my favorite addition to my Atlantis collection. Not only was it lots of fun to build, but the playset aspect has the potential for loads of fun and the transformation gimmick works great. It’s also a fantastic set to have if you own a lot of the smaller subs and want some place for them to dock and hang out. The HQ cost $45 at Walmart and I’m more than pleased with what I got.

Apr 9 2011

Lego City: Prisoner Transport (#7286)

So, after more than a week of remaining Lego-Free here at Figurefan, I’ve decided to do a Lego weekend before moving onto whatever it is I decide to go with on Monday. I probably should have used today to look at the last Lego Atlantis set that I built, but I’m rather excited to begin my first forays into Lego City, so I’m going to spend the weekend looking at two of the Police themed sets from this series. We’ll start with the smaller one and move on to the bigger one tomorrow.

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The box shows off what you’re going to get inside and proclaims this is a “Modular Build, Easy Start.” I have no idea what that means, but I’ve seen it on a number of the Lego City sets. There’s nothing challenging here, but I didn’t find building this set any different than other sets in this size and price range. Anyway, the box contains an instruction book, a sticker sheet, and two numbered baggies with a total of 173 pieces. Once everything is built you get two minifigs, a motorcycle, a police barricade, a box of junk police equipment, and the prisoner transport vehicle. Let’s start with the minifigs.

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The minifigs consist of a police officer and a criminal. I’m used to my minifigs being knights or space police or fish-men, so these guys are pretty normal by comparison.The policeman is ok, but because Lego is a European company he doesn’t really look like any cop that we’re used to seeing here in the States, and he doesn’t come with a gun. He does come with a lot of stuff, but I’ll get to that when I discuss the box that goes in the vehicle. The criminal comes with a striped shirt that implies he just got out of prison and is wasting no time commiting more crimes, as he has a backpack and a stolen stack of loot. The motorcycle presumeably belongs to the criminal. It’s a nifty little piece, which thankfully came with an extra kickstand piece for me to give to my Pharaoh’s Quest motorcycle so it’ll stop flopping over.

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I don’t have a whole lot to say about the truck itself. It sits one figure up in the front by taking off the roof and the rear section has a seat for the prisoner with bars on the windows and door. It’s a bit weird just having the one seat in there, as if it was designed to transport Lego Hannibal Lector. Nonetheless, the truck was pretty fun to build and it rolls along great. The oddest thing about it is the hinged shutter-like doors on the sides that give you access to a compartment for the crate of junk equipment. It’s kind of an odd addition to the design and with the shutters up for some reason it reminds me more of an Ice Cream truck than anything else. I guess if you play with these things the equipment is a nice bonus, but I kind of think it was tossed in to up the sets brick count. There’s a hinged spotlight on the back and a rotating spotlight up top. It seems like with just a few modifications you could turn this thing into a number of different vehicles. I’m seeing a News Van and possibly some kind of Animal Control vehicle.

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This set cost $20 at Walmart, which quite frankly I think is pushing things a bit. The truck is substantial enough and you do get two minifigs and a bunch of stuff, but maybe I’m just not seeing as much of the play value or coolness factor because it’s a Lego City set and not a bunch of Knights or Aliens or Divers fighting Fishmen. I just know that I spent less for some of the Atlantis sets with higher brick counts than this, and I guess that just bugs me. Although, I will admit, this set seemed to use a lot less tiny pieces than some of the sets from other lines that I’ve built. Even still, it’s a fine set, and it’ll go well with the Police Station if I ever decide to pony up for it.

Mar 20 2011

Lego Atlantis: Typhoon Turbo Sub (#8060)

[I’ll impose upon you to endure one more Legos feature today before I go Lego-Free for the rest of the week. I’ve actually got one more big set I wanted to look at, but I’m saving it for next weekend. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be happy doing this stuff all week, but I really want to hit some areas that I’ve been neglecting so far this month. With that having been said, bring on the bricks! -FF] I’ve put together my share of tiny little subs from the Atlantis line, and now it’s time to finally tackle one of the bigger ones in the series. This time around it’s the Typhoon Turbo Sub, a one man submersable with some heft to it, not to mention some pretty cool armaments. Let’s take a look.

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The box contains one instruction booklet, one sticker sheet, a baggie with a pair of 3D glasses, a couple of loose engine parts and three baggies containing a total of 197 pieces. Actually, it’s probably 195 if you subtract the two loose engine parts. The 3D glasses are a gimmick that allow you to go online to the Lego Atlantis site and see some 3D stuff. It’s probably cool for the kids, but mine went right into the trash. The 197 pieces consist of two minifigs and the Typhoon Sub. There’s nothing else in the set so you know right away that most of the parts are going straight into the sub.

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The minifigs include one Shark Warrior and a diver. The Shark Warrior is the exact same figure we saw in the last set I looked at (Wreck Raider) and the diver is, well, they’re all basically the same with different heads. The Shark comes with a trident and a Treasure Key, the diver comes with his mask and oxygen tanks and a set of flippers.

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The Typhoon itself is pretty big with lots of cool gimmicks and features, and it’s overall design reminds me of the Naboo Fighters from Star Wars. It has a fairly complex build to it, mostly because of the mechanism that allows you to automatically rotate both engines 180 degrees just by working the lever on the bottom of the sub. By flipping the engines, you expose a capture arm and a huge missile launcher. The way the whole system works is pretty cool, especially since I had no idea why I was building it until the whole thing was done.

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Besides the hidden missile launcher, the Typhoon’s armaments include two flick firing missiles on the front, there are four headlights, an antenna, and the tail engine rotates to allow the sub to change heading or pitch. I really like that I’ve finally got a sub in this line that actually has an enclosed cockpit and not just a set of handlebars that the diver hangs onto.

Despite having just a tad fewer pieces than the Angler Fish Attack set, I definitely had more fun building this set than any other Atlantis set I own. The engineering in the Typhoon’s gimmick is cool and the whole thing looks really great on display. It may not be a fair comparison, since I like the vehicles better than the beasts, but either way, I highly recommend this one. I got it for just under $20 and it was well worth the price.

Mar 18 2011

Lego Atlantis: Wreck Raider (#8057)

With Pharaoh’s Quest out of the way, now I can concentrate on catching up on all those great Lego Atlantis sets that I’ve missed out on. Today, we’re taking a look at one of the little guys. The Wreck Raider is another one of the zillion little one-man submersables that populate this line. Whether on their own or part of a bigger set, there’s been a lot of them. Does it have what it takes to stand out of the pack? Let’s see.

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The Wreck Raider weighs in at just 64 pieces and comes in a standard Atlantis themed box. Inside, you get an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, and two unnumbered baggies of bricks. The 64 pieces include the Wreck Raider vehicle, two minifigs and a Treasure Key. There are a lot of really tiny pieces in this one, but it didn’t take me very long to get it sorted out and built.

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The minifigs include a diver and a Shark Warrior. I’ve come a long way since I first started building the Atlantis sets and wasn’t all that thrilled with the fish figures. Now I’m really digging them and the Shark Warrior is one of my favorites. He comes with a trident. As for the diver, I forgot his name and, and let’s face it, if you’ve seen one of the Atlantis divers you’ve seen them all. This one has a green tinted visor on his diving mask and green flippers. He’s a great figure, but these guys are getting more than a little redundant for me now.

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The Raider itself is easily my favorite of all the small one-man subs in this line, but then it’s also a lot beefier than Atlantis’ other efforts. Unlike the Ocean Speeder set that is about the same brick count and also includes two minifigs, this set doesn’t come with the extra scenery pieces, so instead all of those bricks got invested in the vehicle itself and it shows. The design is both cool looking and functional, with two pivoting propellers on the back and a pair of flick missiles on the front. I would have liked if this sub had an actual seat instead of just a pair of handlebars to hold onto, but I’m getting to the point where I probably have enough Atlantis themed bricks to make that happen if I want to customize this baby. Either way, this is an awesome little no-nonsense sub that’s ready to raid some wrecks.

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This little Wreck Raider set is a great example of how to do one of these little sets right. You get a great vehicle, a couple of minifigs and an artifact for them to fight over. Maybe it’s a little unfair to Mr. Shark Warrior that he’s got to contend with a missile-firing submarine, but my point is that there’s still plenty of play value here in such a tiny little set.

Mar 14 2011

Down and Out!

I came down with some bad mojo on Saturday night, from which I’m still trying to recover. I’m not sure what it was, but it landed me in bed all day Sunday. Today I felt well enough to at least sit up and build this…

legpyr1

So, I still owe y’all one more non-Lego, non-Tron entry before I dive back into the Tron and Lego madness, which will likely dominate the rest of the week. I’ll drum up something for tomorrow. Until then, I’m going back to bed to finish up reading Game of Thrones and get myself well enough to go into work tomorrow.

See ya!