Subject:
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2004 Alpha Team: The Good, the Bad, and the Jack Stone
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Wed, 16 Jun 2004 07:00:10 GMT
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Viewed:
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1374 times
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Hey all,
Much to my surprise, my local consignment shop had the complete theme.
After looking over all the sets, I bought #4743 Ice Blade ($10) and #4742
Chill Speeder ($4). The idea seems to be Alpha Team meets Ice Planet 2002
with a dash of Transformers. There are some new parts and a new
trans-color.
The Good:
FINALLY, at long last, we have a trans-orange that is not flourescent. A
pure orange that is wonderful and that I hope becomes as prevalent as
trans-antifreeze used to be. IMHO, a change of pace was desperately needed
in that department! For that matter, bring back trans-yellow!!
Has a smattering of dark and light blue pieces. The transformation from Ice
Blade to Helicopter is quite snazzy and although fairly easy to accomplish,
does require some dexterity to do quickly and properly.
MAJOR CHANGE TO PIECE MOLD (Good or Bad, you be the judge)
The 2x2x5 two-piece cylindrical Classic jet engine (with light bley fan
insert) has the mount joint enlarged from a 1x2 area to a 2x2 square! These
happen to be dark blue, along with the pair of Classic Space engine mounts!
The Bad:
#4742 barely looks like a helicopter. The blades could have easily been
elongated without adding too many pieces. This would have helped a lot, as
the blades just look too small compared to the size of the vehicle.
The new cockpit assembly, which measure 4x10x2, is screaming MegaBlocks.
It's terribly blocky compared the other wonderfully curved cockpit pieces
(and 1/2 pieces) which appeared in previous Alpha Team sets, and it doesn't
look to be as flexible a piece use-wise(but I suppose that'll be the
challenge that we'll have to take up!). The oval-shaped click-hinge clear
canopy may have potential though. I can already see it horizontal like a
giant eye with a red pupil. The design is pre-painted, unlike the sides of
the cockpit and the blade which are all stickers. Despite the obvious
MegaBlocks echo, the three pieces do have possibilites I suppose, but surely
they could have come up with something better, like the Classic
multi-faceted and tapered Space canopy in the new trans-orange. That would
have rocked!
Also, no offense to Bionicle fans, but I'm a purist when it comes to System
and Bionicle in the same set. IMHO, the pieces just look too different and
that they clash with regular blocks and plates the majority of the time
(although I remember Jon Palmer doing some great stuff with Bionicle feet in
his Alphabet fleet).
The Ugly:
This is comment reserved for the other sets in the series which I did not
buy but looked over the boxes a few minutes each (I was on a break so I
couldn't linger). Each set is designed to transform in some way, and that
principle applied to all the sets has its ups and downs.
The big base set is a wall of dark bley BURPS and incidental
tacked-on-looking stuff on top a famliar baseplate. 3vil will perhaps like
the fact that most of the base is the face of a giant skull. More Bionicle
bits, that again, look out of place to me. No transforming, but there's lot
of other Castle-themed action, battering rams and such. $70
The next biggest set is a large wheeled vehicle that opens up into some kind
of lab. I think, design-wise, this is one of the worst sets I've ever seen.
Not since the Exploriens flagship have I seen something that looked so
hastily thrown together. There are some nice parts like the new 4x12
super-long 1/2 slope( in sand and dark blue if I remember right) but it
just so blasted clunky-looking!! $50! TLG really needs to have some
shakedowns in the design approval teams to allow stuff like this get out.
I'm sure some AFOL's could and will do wonders with the basis of the design,
but it's just got first draft written all over it.
HEAVY DUTY MODE ON
I saw a piece in this set that has further confirmed my growing estimation
that although I will probably not be buying the same amount of new Lego as I
used to. I will instead become much more selective and probably buy more
copies of fewer things. The Classic space shuttle bay door hinge piece is
here replaced by a click-hinge version (original fingered versions appeared
in the ship with the base in the previous Alpha Team series, I have
purchased LOTS of those pieces!). I do not like the click-hinge
interpretation of this piece at all, as they clearly break the vacuum in a
Space environment. I also don't like the fact that click-hinges are
continuing to replace fingered hinge pieces in sets across the board. I
don't mind click-hinges as an option, but they are not a suitable
replacement for fingered hinges because they have different structural
restrictions when it comes to building with them (especially the 1x4
plates!).
HEAVY DUTY MODE OFF
There was no new catalog in either box, so I don't know if there's anything
else from 2004 other than Castle. Sorry I can't provide pictures, but my
website should up and running again in a few days, and I could put up some
pics if no one else has by then.
There was another, smaller wheeled vehicle that just didn't look like
anything. Again, another very thrown-together looking set. $30
Regarding #4742 Chill Speeder, it transforms easily and quickly from another
type of ice sled into a bipedal walker. Has three droid arms in black and a
black magnifying glass with a trans-red lens. I will probably pick up a few
more of these for all the sand and dark blue parts.
Maybe they could borrow some people from the Designer team and get 'em to
coach the Alpha Team team (haha). The new Designer sets sound great (even
though I'll be selling or trading the new colors)!
Dave
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