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The madness at the digging site of Selket-Set continues in its seventeenth day.
It was only four hours ago that the site was hit by a powerful storm of
lightning (that blasted and disintegrated the larger structures that had been
excavated) and an incredible rain of scorpions that overran the site and
poisoned any workers that remained outside. Tom awakens from the nightmare
under a partially collapsed column at the temple of the goddess Selket herself.
After freeing himself and emerging from the smoke and rubble, he carefully
makes his way back to camp and the hope that he'll still find the jeep he has
carefully prepared with supplies and rations to leave this terrible place. By
early dusk he approaches the camp and possible salvation, terribly aware that
there may very well be more than scorpions waiting for his return!
This is my very first 1998 model and it has turned out to be a nice experience.
The scorpion tracker is a simple set comprising the new adventurer hero and his
trusty desert jeep, some supplies, a map and a couple of scorpions to keep
things interesting.
The main novelty of the set (and the subject of some debate among hardcore
purists) is the tan seat/specialized element. The length of this element is
five studs and the width at the base is four, but the width actually widens out
to almost 6 studs just above the base. This extra-wide piece allows two seats
to sit adjacently on either side of a centered line of studs (for a stick shift
or control-painted tile) just like in a real car. There is a vertical slot
located behind the seats for storing a 2x2 tile. Debate is over the fact that
this specialized element takes the place of what could have been built with say
eight or nine pieces (detracting from the number of all-purpose building bricks
included in a set). Other fans may also not care for the fact that the cab
disallows opening doors. I confess that I originally didn't like the seating
piece either, but the piece does make for a more streamline jeep cab than would
have been possible with regular bricks. Also, the allowance for a driver and
passenger to sit side by side (practically a first in original Lego design) has
swayed my opinion toward accepting the new piece. Lastly, the one-piece
double-seater element reminds me a great deal of similar pieces I used to use
in assembling military models (like Tamiya or Monogram World War II stuff) from
my teenage years, so nostalgia wins out and I find myself accepting the new
element.
Other new pieces included in the set are an open 3x4 brown crate, tan spoked
tire rims (look for LOTS of new bricks in tan with these Adventurers sets), a
grey grill-and-headlamp element, 1x4 clear hinged windshield element (not
preprinted), a 2x2 preprinted map/hieroglyph tile, the new minifig and hat, and
binoculars. Also, two oversized black scorpions now add nicely to the Lego
animal kingdom.
The company is sadly sliding into producing more elementary models (with more
specialized pieces reducing the number of simple building bricks) but I still
enjoyed this simple model and look forward to see what else awaits us in the
Adventurers series.
!!!4x2ReVu Stats!!!
Rating: Four out of eight studs.
Thumbs up for: A fun "period" piece.
Wallet-Wise: Approximately $4.00 for 34 pieces.
Original review date: 12/31/97
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: 4x2ReVu: 5918 Scorpion Tracker
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| (...) day. (...) herself. (...) experience. (...) his (...) out (...) shift (...) say (...) bricks (...) would (...) has (...) from (...) and (...) Joseph your reviews are always poetry. You should write for LEGO on their packaging or at least for (...) (25 years ago, 22-Oct-99, to lugnet.reviews, lugnet.adventurers)
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