Subject:
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Four sets reviewd, but only one good one, so be warned!
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.reviews
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Date:
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Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:11:31 GMT
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Hey all,
Got a lovely selection of holiday loot thanks to my sweetie-pie, and after
building the sets I have some impressions. The sets are:
Mars Mission # 7695 MX-11 Astro Fighter
Town City # 7991 Recycle Truck
SpongeBob Squarepants # 3830 Bikini Bottom Express
Mars Mission # 7693 ETX Alien Strike
Before I get specific about the sets, I first have to say that this can be a
difficult time to be an older Lego fan. When I first built these sets I was so
upset over a variety of things that I thought I’d better wait a day or two to
post and I’m glad I did! Even though I have a strong appreciation for the
company’s history and hopes for its future, there are so many changes happening
now that it’s often hard to take them all in, and often harder to accept them.
So if I come off like a slice of bitter, old Grinch, guilty as charged!
In choosing these sets, the addition of a large selection of orange pieces to my
collection was the primary motivator. However, I was disappointed to discover
that the bright, candy-colored orange (which I’d noticed in the first run of
SpongeBob sets), is here to stay. I wish I could be enthused about it, but I
just don’t like it. The bricks have a translucent quality to them which just
makes them look very toy-ish and candy-like. I greatly preferred the previous
orange, which while not as bright in color, was deep, rich and very opaque. It
looks more solid and to my eyes conveys a more realistic appearance.
You can see an example pic here with the new orange in the front:
Thankfully, there’s not much of the older orange in my collection, so this will
be an easier change to accommodate.
My second critique has already been discussed ad nauseum, but I find it vexing
that the instruction booklets still have not been corrected so that black, dark
gray and gray are easier to distinguish. Black bricks with white outlines
worked beautifully for years, and I’d like to think that it would be a fairly
simple process to alter the virtual palette of the instruction layout program so
that this issue could be fixed. I had to check the instructions against the
parts on several occasions because I could not tell the difference (something
I’ve never had to do before).
Finally, the usage of CG imagery for the box art has created more opportunities
for the product to be misrepresented. I have details on that in the section for
the Bikini Bottom Express.
#7695 MX-11 Astro Fighter
I was mainly interested in this set for the trans-orange cockpit piece and the
new white wing plates. It goes together easily and quickly and makes a nice
little swooshable ship. Everyone already agrees that the alien/martian figure
is poorly designed, but I’m sure someone will figure out an interesting way to
use them at some point.
If all the human pilots of the Mars Mission line steer their ships by telepathy
while in hypersleep, then that should be made clear somehow. Otherwise, their
apparent ability to control their ships without instrumentation is a little
too fantastical, especially since their heads are not even oriented forward so
that they can see where they’re going! It seems that nearly every ship in the
theme has this arrangement, and it just nags at me. Yes, it’s a space fantasy
line, but most fantasy greatly benefits from real-world concepts to lend a sense
of plausibility.
#7991 Recycle Truck
This is an excellent set! It builds well and has a very solid feel and
appearance. The way the dumper functions along with the opening rear door is
quite nice, as is the addition of the articulated garbage can. My only critique
would be that the color of the yellow warning lights gets lost when placed over
orange bricks. There was also an error in the bags so that I received three 1x2
white bricks with the side clip and only one plain 1x2 brick, whereas I was
supposed to have two of each. Not a problem as far as this set is concerned,
but I hope this does not occur elsewhere.
#3830 Bikini Bottom Express
I was a very big SpongeBob fan until the fourth season, and was eagerly looking
forward to more sets from the show. However, the bus is a disappointment for a
number of reasons, partially due to the usage of CG imagery as I mentioned
above.
First, the trans-clear 1x2x2 thin-walls with portholes on them (first seen in
the Santa Fe engine) do not match the color of the orange bricks and the paint
is not applied heavily enough to make the orange areas opaque. What makes this
so irritating to me is that both the box cover and instruction booklet cover art
depict an exact match in color. It’s not until you open the booklet to the
pages where those pieces are in place on the model do they actually show that
the colors are different. In the instruction booklet, the color of orange on
the porthole pieces looks closer to the new light brown.
Here’s a picture of the cover and instruction art:
and here’s a picture of the actual model:
A very significant difference in my opinion!
The second CG issue (that you can also see in the first picture) is that the bus
driver figure is pictured sitting right in front of the wheel of the bus.
However, when you build the model you will discover that this is physically
impossible due to a red 1x6 arch that spans in front of the windshield. It was
very easy for me to substitute two 1x2 inverse-slopes in orange to solve this
problem while not compromising structural integrity or function. Why they
thought the arch was a better choice is beyond me. SpongeBob is the only figure
in the set that can actually sit and hold the wheel, and we all know that’s a
recipe for disaster! The bus driver mini-fig is probably my favorite of all the
SpongeBob mini-figs, he even has a little fin on the back of his head and his
expression is perfect!
The bus stop sign and the ticket vending machine are very nice stand-alone
units, which is nice to see as I had misgivings about such items in other
Spongebob sets.
#7693 ETX Alien Strike
I chose this set mainly for the orange cockpit, lime green, and the four new ¼
circle black saucer sections. The drill vehicle is quite rudimentary and I
really don’t care for it. I don’t think that the stickers do much to dress it
up. I hadn’t noticed before that the green alien/martian is virtually impaled
through the chest by a white rod while in its little container, which struck me
as a little macabre as it suggests that the creature has been more than
temporarily imprisoned.
The alien ship is a terrific idea, but not well executed at all IMHO. The wings
are supposed to click-hinge open and closed for attack mode, but the hinges are
VERY loose and floppy. Even my wife thought it was poor design. This is not
the first time that I’ve found certain click-hinge pieces to be far too loose to
be functional. I hope that this is just due to variances in the molding
process. They really should have doubled up on the hinges to make the joint
stronger.
Also the alien/martian pilot just about falls out of the cockpit if you turn the
ship upside down because he/she/it cannot be attached. Finally, what’s the deal
with the four blue Technic half axle/half friction pins on the underside? Are
they supposed to mesh with some other set item?
Finally, the stickers in this set really felt like an attempt to add visual
interest to otherwise “meh” vehicle designs. I will often build sets without
stickers as a way of judging the quality of the initial design, and this set
definitely fell short for me.
Well, that’s that. I hope that the company’s re-organization efforts are
fruitful that these times are just the bumps and stumbles that come from new
beginnings.
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