Set Review: 2519 Skeleton Bowling

Hmm, another review? And late? How... unsurprising. The set itself might be surprising, though... read on.


Skeleton Bowling

The Package

It's what catches your eye as the set lies on the shelf, and is the selling point.



Okay, so it's called Skeleton Bowling. Though the box isn't quite as funny as the name, it still is vaguely amusing and ridiculous. Yes, apparently instead of normal bowling with a ball and pins, Skeleton Bowling involves getting into the bowling alley/arena itself and whacking at tan dummy skeletons with a katana.



The back of the box isn't quite as dynamic, and has no true functions to demonstrate, but still tells you something about the set. In the upper right, you are informed that you are getting the DX version of the minifigure Jay. In the second-to-upper right and lower left, it graphically repeats that this is a Ninjago set by showing you the golden spinner top and its corresponding luridly colored ninja. In the upper left is shown the counter for skeletons toppled, which is actually a reused BIONICLE Life Counter piece (but can truthfully be called a Death Counter here). And in the center the unsuspecting and non-sentient skeleton dummies are arranged in an ordinary triangle whilst the blue Jay flails his shiny black katana in an uppercut over their heads.


The Instructions

Are they easy or hard to build from?



All in all, the instructions can be followed with fair ease. Nothing is strikingly difficult to do. However, despite the best offset-brick-stacking efforts of the set designers (I would imagine), this flimsy Ninjago arena does indeed fall apart if you try to pick it up and move it.

But we'll talk about that in a little bit (probably). On to the parts.


The Parts

The most important part of the set, and what I bought it for.

Well, first, the minifigures.



Some people may have bought this set partly for the semi-Special Edition "Dragon"-themed Jay minifigure. The gold detailing is actually pretty neat. However, when deciding whether or not to get this set, I hardly considered the blue ninja. Despite lacking a normal type of minifigure head, the tan skeletons are the major things I wanted. And there are six of them. JAY IS OUTNUMBERED. (No matter that the skeletons are supposedly wooden dummies.)



Unsurprisingly for a Ninjago set, an array of weapons is also included, none of which (except the two double-ended scythes) seem terribly interesting. Each of these armaments except for five are prominently attached to what passes for a wall in the set. The first exception to the wall-mounting is a single black katana that is Jay's default weapon as according to the instructions. The other four are actually brown poles that the white flags are mounted on in the finished set.



However, besides the minifigures and weapons, there's actually a surprising amount of unusual parts. Several of these I had never even seen in person before, such as the black small arch in the upper right and the red narrow plate with side studs in the center. The other parts in the picture seem more common, but also may be of special interest.



Lastly, I found it odd that the spinner was almost entirely red underneath (if you don't count the dark gray slider plate that you eventually attach). Okay, so the set includes a bright blue ninja (which is a weird fact itself), and they give him a spinner that is essentially solidly two-toned in gold and red - with a bit of blue edging on the top.

Hmm.


The Finished Set

This is what it's for, people. The finished product of your labors.



So the arena is set up, the skeletons are arranged, and Jay is locked into the insanely large and heavy golden spinner. Can he knock down the dummies?

No, or at least obviously not well. This is on the carpet. A flat and smooth surface is needed.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures nor any videos of the actual bowling event, but the act of transporting the arena to that smoother surface does bring me to the point that it is quite flimsy.

The "arms" of the arena are designed to swing outward and inward, and this would hardly be a problem. However, the attachment of the hinges as well as in the center of the arena isn't as strong as the joints themselves, and generally if you accidentally twist one of the "arms" even slightly, the studs tend to pop off.

When you've actually put the arena down and set things up, however, it works perfectly well in its intended function. It's plenty stable enough to spin Jay into it and have him bounce off the gray tube-built rails.


Final Thoughts

All in all, was the set worth the purchase? Or should you have kept the money?

Unsurprisingly, this is kind of an unusual set. If you're wondering whether to get it, everything depends on what you're looking for.


Pros:
Tan skeletons
Array of weapons
Unusual arches, side-studded plates, etc.
Works, after all, as an arena

Cons:
More like a $15 set than a $20 one
Flimsy for moving around


When you look for sets, do you want play value, parts, or just a few cool things for less money? This set is perfect for playing with, if a bit one-track. Some uncommon parts appear in its construction. But it is $20 USD for a flimsy half of a stadium.

If only for parts, I personally recommend it. It's not as if it was high on my wishlist or something, but it did exceed my expectations in terms of parts. And that probably deserves commendation anyway.



Once again, I hope you enjoyed this review. Please leave a comment if you want to say anything!

I'll try to have another review, maybe two, posted over the holidays. Until then.

Set Review: 7984 Deep Sea Raider

Well, obviously it's been more than two months.

Again I have been tardy in composing a final version of a post, but here we are now.


Deep Sea Raider

The Package

It's what catches your eye as the set lies on the shelf, and is the selling point.



The material of the box itself is as normal - the LEGO Group's favorite thin cardboard, set up in a rectangular prism sort of shape. The ink may be a tad less glossy than usual, but the focus is on the printing.

You can pretty much see why it's a raider. The miniature sub is almost lost in the bigger picture of the main submarine hovering belligerently over the Atlantean treasure with an ancient column squeezed in its metal grasping hand, giant drill blocking the way of the hammerheaded guardian minifigure. The choice of the scientist minifigure to pilot a raiding vehicle for grabbing treasure is vaguely amusing.

Sorry, no pictures of the back of the box (which attempts to demonstrate some of the functions of the subs).


The Instructions

Are they easy or hard to build from?

Sorry, no pictures.

I'm not sure whether to be surprised or not, but the instructions were actually average - they were neither exceptionally difficult nor especially easy to build from. Other than the fact that I found the drill just slightly harder to attach than I might have expected from the instructions, the only thing I can really note about the instructions was that the manual was kind of thick, as newer LEGO set instruction manuals tend to be.


The Pieces

The most important part of the set, and what I bought it for.



I'm assuming you guessed by now that I didn't buy the Deep Sea Raider for its wonderful instructions. Well, what did I buy it for?

Some notable items that appear as part of the set are the dark red crab, two black sausage pieces (which form part of the cockpit assembly in the set), the silver large drill, two red smooth domes, a flat-silver unicorn horn (used as the drill of the mini sub), and the transparent yellow slopes and clip-hinged windshield. Other interesting parts that have appeared before are the various Technic-ish engine turbine cylinders, the spiral propeller, and the golden trident and silver speargun.

Another notable fact was that most or all copies of this set include no less than three pairs of scuba flippers on sprues, when only one is necessary for the set. (Less unusually, the set includes a second unicorn horn as well.)



The minifigures are also notable. First, the hammerhead warrior has a specially molded rubber headpiece much like other Atlantis guardian minifigures, but the regular minifigure head underneath is transparent red, with a grotesque toothy mouth pattern (and oddly, small rudimentary eyes on the sides, which are concealed when the rubber headpiece is put on). Second, though the underwater scientist minifigure wears the same gear and printed body parts as other minifigures in the newer Atlantis sets, the head is exclusively included with this set. The monocle-like eyepiece shown on the head displays a "reflection" of the golden triangular Atlantis symbol.


The Finished Set

This is what it's for, people. The finished product of your labors.



One of the first things the manual instructs you to build (after the minifigures, of course, who always come first in a LEGO manual) is the small area that holds the treasure chest and its accompanying jewels. Whether the single column draped in seaweed is a remnant of a temple or storehouse where the chest was held is unknown, and the hammerhead isn't telling. Anyway, the little area is just a prop.



The set is only truly impressive when the gaudy submarine and the fearsome THREE PAIRS OF FLIPPERS ON SPRUES are added to the scene. When confronted with this menace, the trident-wielding hammerhead must look away to avoid damage to its color vision.

The back of the large submarine does indeed open, and when it does, it reveals a smaller submarine as well as a crate that would hold the flippers if there weren't THREE of them on SPRUES. On both subs, the arms are adjustable; the larger one certainly has the larger range of motion, but only fairly stiffly. The black U-shaped cages that support the flick-fire missiles above the engines also boast limited adjustability, and can be fun when used to put the large sub into "attack mode".



However, the miniature sub is not really meant to be thrown like a paper airplane. Do not try this at home, or even underwater.


Final Thoughts

All in all, is the set worth the purchase? Or should you have kept the money?


As $30 USD LEGO sets go, this one is not bad at all. Or, if you want a slightly less ambiguous statement, I definitely recommend it for both pieces and playability.


Pros:
Sturdy, adjustable sub
Neat recolors
Several propeller and engine parts
Transparent yellow parts
Exclusive minifigure

Cons:
Lacks Atlantean scenery
Stiff joints on mismatched arms
Relies on loud colors for sub


The cons affect my verdict relatively little. While I would have preferred a different color scheme, the sub makes for a fun vehicle most of the time. And when the time comes to dismantle it, you'll get a lot of interesting parts.



As I remind you every time, I hope you enjoyed reading this review. Please leave me a comment with feedback if you can!

Due to my recurring lateness, I can't promise that I will have another review within two months. However, I do at least know I have something to review, so until then!

Set Review: 3365 Space Moon Buggy

Another post in less than two month - let alone a set review? IMPOSSIBLE. THE CHRONICLER IS ALWAYS LATE.

But here it is, a new review. Of a small set, yes, but of a real set, also yes.


Space Moon Buggy

The Package

It's what catches your eye as the set lies on the shelf, and is the selling point.



It is, necessarily, small. How big can you make a box for an impulse-buy set? But it has a clean and simple look to it, with the blue sidebar. Or at least it would, if not for the choking hazard warning placed squarely and quite obtrusively on the front. Ah well, I guess they would have had to put it on the back anyway...



On the back is a picture of the astronaut minifigure in full space gear. The box also claims that the set is "designed for easy building" - more on that below. However, the usual choking hazard warning is, as I said, on the front instead this time. There's essentially no room for anything else.


The Instructions

Are they easy or hard to build from?



The first thing I noticed about the instructions is that they are big. No, wait, this is an impulse-buy set - make that "colossal". Apparently the set IS designed for "easy building", inasmuch as "easy building" follows from "big pictures".

Yet the very last step in the manual involves simultaneously putting six tires on six wheels and attaching all of them to both sides, one of which isn't able to be shown in the same picture. It's still easy to figure out, but it seems that the adding of the wheels was almost an afterthought, making for "easy building" that isn't as incredibly oversimplified as I might have thought or even expected. (Sorry, no picture of the last step.)

The Pieces

The most important part of the set, and what I buy them for.



There are several interesting/useful pieces in such a small set. The astronaut's helmet and visor are somewhat new pieces, only in a few other Space-themed sets this year. The metallic gold new-style half-dome visor is particularly neat.

The light bluish gray rod with a perpendicular "handle" is not the most unusual piece, but is in no other current impulse-buy-sized set. The large number of small wheels and tires (six of each, total) is also somewhat out of the ordinary for any similar set.

Other parts of interest include a dark bluish gray battle droid torso from Star Wars, the space-themed torso on the astronaut minifigure, and the dark bluish gray chainsaw.



The minifigure itself is mostly interesting for the detail on the space-themed torso, which has printed circuitry and armoring patterns. The head, while useful, has been overused lately. The baseball cap is plain blue, but may be of interest due to the fact that it is the new style.



The back is fairly generic, though again, the details in the printing are an interesting point.

The Finished Set

This is what it's for, people. The finished product of your labors.



Perhaps not the most impressive set, but fairly recognizably a miniature moon buggy. The small drill/core sample arm on the back is a nice touch. However, the satellite dish on the side cannot be turned, due to the way in which it is attached.



Practically the only play feature besides the wheels (which, of course, work very well) is the adjustable core-sampling arm on the back. Quite a few disparate (and useful) parts are concentrated in the arm, but they work well enough when assembled as such.



And of course I couldn't resist making the astronaut moon-pole-vault.


Final Thoughts

All in all, is the set worth the purchase? Or should you have kept the money?


The entire set, moon buggy, astronaut, and all, is (sadly) small. However, its price is (very happily) small. Plus, you get some new parts, which are surprisingly many, unusual, and interesting.


Pros:
Useful astronaut parts
A plethora of wheels
Quite affordable

Cons:
Basic vehicle design
Somewhat low piece per dollar count


Weighing all those wheels and the shiny new visor against the MSRP of $4.99 USD, I can only say that if you do want all those wheels and a shiny new visor, or even just a small "Space Moon Buggy", then I completely recommend this set.


I hope you enjoyed reading the review, as always. And if you can, please leave a comment, as always. It's nice to receive feedback.

I anticipate that I'll have another review all lined up to be posted in the (relatively) short timeframe of a month or two, so look forward to that (if you do indeed look forward to that).

Set Review: 8097 Slave I (2010)

I can't say much this time other than that it's happened again - months have gone by, and I haven't posted a single entry. It would be ridiculous if I let it get to five months, wouldn't it? Oh wait, I have before.

Anyway, at least I have something to review now, right?


Slave 1 (2010)

The Package

It's what catches your eye as the set lies on the shelf, and is the selling point.



Well, this box is certainly eye-catching. The latest version of the Slave I flies out at you from a Cloud City background, shooting flick-fire missiles (included, even if they don’t shoot like that) and CG laser beams (not included). The new, somewhat movie-realistic Boba Fett minifigure sits complacently inside the bare-bones cockpit, and all is well. Except for the sheer size of the box, which is ridiculously wide for any LEGO Slave I.



Little inset panels in various places on the box showcase the fact that it includes new minifigures and can hold a new Carbonite-bound Han Solo in a cargo panel (as well as repeated images of the ship itself). Oddly, the header theme of the box seems to be the same as Clone Wars sets, showing the clone captain Rex. Is this some kind of anachronism? Even the sets in the back ads are Clone Wars sets. Hmm.


The Instructions

Are they easy or hard to build from?

Sorry, no pictures for the instructions.

However, you can probably guess what the two manuals show. You build the minifigures, you build a Slave I, and you’re instructed to WIN.

However, the instructions do have one possible difference. Captain Rex is again displayed on the top right of the front of the instructions. But on the inside of the manuals, a partially opaque Darth Vader helmet is shown in the upper right of every page. Hmm.


The Pieces

The most important part of the set, and what I buy them for.



There are a fair amount of interesting pieces in the set, but most are duplicates of each other. You get a lot of dark red cutout slopes, a couple of dark green slopes, a clear windshield, some paneling, gray wall slopes, and many other things, some of which are highlighted above. The windshield, unlike any previous LEGO Slave I, is clear rather than transparent black. You also get several bluish gray wing-style plates, which are used as the base for building the entire ship. Oddly, an array of dark bluish gray accessories for a clone officer is also included.

And then there’s the minifigures themselves.



Included are a new Boba Fett, Bossk, and a new Han Solo. I’m not terribly fond of the new Han Solo except for the head and torso, and only then for using in my own minifigures. The new head is similar to, if not as distinctive as, the old version. The new torso is possibly more distinctive than the old version, but the rampant gray wrinkles on it just end up looking odd to me. The legs and hair are plain reddish brown.



Bossk includes a new mold of head, with orange eyes and white teeth printed on it. The sides of the head are smooth and patternless, but it’s reptilian enough overall. The torso is yellow with sand green hands, and has an interesting armor/tube pattern.



The new Boba Fett is quite bluish when compared to the previous version(s), and includes a cloth pauldron. The legs are now sand blue with a reddish brown waist, and the new torso has sand blue arms with sand blue printed wrinkles. However, the torso printing is dark green, and the helmet and jetpack (now separate) are sand green.



The battle-damage printing on the helmet is quite detailed, and works fairly well. On the other hand, the jetpack is smaller than the old one, is separate from the helmet, and has only a tiny missile attached. Though the new jetpack may be more versatile than the old (indeed, the new jetpack has also been used on clone troopers), I would personally have preferred to see a recolored version of the old jetpack.



Indeed, the new Boba Fett minifigure has a more complex build (as much as a minifigure can be complex, anyway), and certainly has more pieces.




The Finished Set

This is what it's for, people. The finished product of your labors.



The completed set is impressive, at least in appearance. Its design is extremely similar to the previous LEGO Slave I versions, with various areas that have been streamlined or refined. The wings still turn automatically to adjust to flight or landing positions, and Boba Fett can sit as complacently in the cockpit as he does in the box picture.



The middle flick-fire missiles actually fire using a button on the back/bottom of the ship (though the lower flick-fire missiles still refuse to be fired with a single flick – more like three). The rocket and turbine details on the back/bottom are also nice. However, it’s difficult to hold the ship without breaking off one of the track pieces on the back.


Final Thoughts

All in all, is the set worth the purchase? Or should you have kept the money?

Even the entire set with minifigures and ship is sadly small for its $80 MSRP. The similar previous Slave I versions sold for $50 or $60. Almost all new pieces in the set are from the minifigures, though the ship has many interesting and possibly useful recolors.


Pros:
Lots of dark-color and gray slopes
Useful and detailed minifigure parts
Continuity in design of LEGO Slave I versions

Cons:
Difficult to handle or play with
Hollow internal structure
Perhaps too much imitation in LEGO Slave I designs
Exorbitant price


I would certainly recommend this set if you can get a better price on it. By now, some stores will probably be having a sale on it. But $80 is too much.


So I hope you enjoyed this somewhat late review of the latest version of this iconic Star Wars ship. However, it may be fortunate that it's late, because by now, you might be able to find a sale or deal on it at a local store.

And as always, please leave a comment/some feedback if you can. Your input (or review of my review) is very welcome.

Set Review: 7135 Takanuva ("Stars")

It's been another long ten months since I did anything. Well, I have few sets to review, but here's one of them.

Takanuva ("Stars")


The Package

It's what catches your eye as the set lies on the shelf, and is the selling point.



Taken by itself, it's not a very large or flashy canister. However, if you think of it as just a container for a small set like Takanuva Stars (or mini-Takanuva), it's large and showy indeed. Never before have the small sets been given their own, fully plastic canisters (the cardboard-plastic boxes of the Av-Matoran and Agori don't count). Still, the BIONICLE Stars are the only BIONICLE sets for this year, so it's understandable.



Just like the front, the back of the canister commands you to "COLLECT THE GOLDEN BIONICLE", and shows you which golden pieces you can get from which sets. There's also the obligatory BIO Code (I still call them Kanoka Codes) and pseudolegalese.


The Instructions

Are they easy or hard to build from?

They're much like the Av-Matoran and Agori instructions, and they instruct you to build a similar oversimplified set from similar oversimplified parts - except they're in the form of a proper canister-set booklet this time. "O rly?" you ask. "Trust me," I reply.



The back isn't new - a similar encouragement to "WIN" as on other instruction manuals.



But - horror of horrors - they don't have an ad for other BIONICLE sets inside the back cover, nor even a nice City or Atlantis ad. Inside...



... are some even more oversimplified action figures.


The Pieces

The most important part of the set, and what I buy them for.

So I open the set up expectantly and find...



The exact same parts used to build the set! Amazing.

So there are a few new and different things. The feet are a new piece for 2010, and could be fairly useful. The mask is an Avohkii from 2003, slightly recolored (this time around, it comes in pearl silver, rather than the three options from 2003 of glittery transparent, dark gold, and the old "protodermic" silver), and this actually is the first set since then to include the piece. The arms/legs are a new recolor of a standard Av-Matoran limb. The shoulder armor has been produced in white before, but also not since 2003. The highlight is the chest armor and extra "GOLDEN" armor, which is a singularly odd and interesting piece. (Sorry, forgot to put the golden armor in the picture below...)



The remaining parts - hands, foot sockets, head, and blades - are all simply reused parts, and are pretty common by now. The handles for the blades aren't new at all, but they are interesting because they're the kind that have a stopper at the end.


The Finished Set

This is what it's for, people. The finished product of your labors.

After a minimum of work, you get a figure that's rather stiff, and similar to the small sets from the previous two years, but with some points of interest due to his nonstandard armor and feet.



As seen from the back, though, mini-Takanuva looks far too much like your standard Agori/Av-Matoran.



Despite all that, mini-Takanuva is good for a few fun poses.






Final Thoughts

All in all, is the set worth the purchase? Or should you have kept the money?

So, he's not bad as a small set, having some interesting/useful recolors and new molds. On the other hand, as one of the only six BIONICLE sets of 2010, he really isn't the best set they could have released.

Pros:
Avohkii again
Torso armor in both gold and white
Toa Nuva shoulder armor in white again
Amusing as a stand-alone set

Cons:
Generic blades carried over from previous years
Low on poseability
Head piece has tended to snap in previous sets
Semi-hollow generic limbs carried over from previous years
Pricy

So I would only recommend him if you can find him on sale somewhere - his full price is a little high, and he's not exactly the most impressive way to end this year of BIONICLE sets. But if you do buy him, he's actually quite a good small set.


Well, I hope you enjoyed this late review of a set that's actually from this year. I've failed to post more often yet again, but maybe next year. Leave a comment if you have feedback, please - it's always appreciated.

Happy holidays, too.

"Set" Review: WII063 Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Wii)

Ugh, has it really been a year since I last published anything here? Well, I'm finally going to get around to posting another review. This review, however, is of a LEGO video game rather than a set.

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga


The Package

It's what catches your eye as the set lies on the shelf, and is the selling point.



Not a very large box, true, but it's not going to be next to any massive BIONICLE boxes - or even other Star Wars boxes - as it's a video game, and will be treated as such.



The back showcases some of the characters from the game as well as some screenshots. The rest is taken up by safety info, rating, barcode, etc.

The Instructions

Are they easy or hard to build from?

Well, the title is somewhat misleading. No assembly is required for this game, though you can build things in gameplay. This is more like a manual instead of instructions.




Bizarrely, the back of the manual is an ad for some unrelated LucasArts game, rather than something from LEGO Company. Sorry, no image.


The Pieces

The most important part of the set, and what I buy them for.

By LEGO's standards, this is a pathetic set. What other sets are $20 or $40 USD in price, but have only one piece? Of course, with "normal" sets, you usually don't get a piece that is a fully featured videogame CD for the Nintendo Wii.



There's not much on the disc: lots of logos, the gibberish explaining who they belong to, and some starships and Darth Vader's helmet in the background.


The Finished Set

This is what it's for, people. The finished product of your labors.

Unsurprisingly for a videogame, this requires no assembly, unlike objects in gameplay. If by "finished set" you mean "finished videogame", though, I can't show you that either, since I have precisely 7.2% left to complete.



I can show you other, more bizarre things, though, many of which are made possible because of the Free Play mode of play, my favorite part of the game. For instance, various odd couples...





A glitch involving one "minikit canister" too many (you can see that I've collected all ten of them by the counter at the bottom of the picture, yet there's another one at the top)...



An Imperial Guard driving a landspeeder through town...



... and Obi-Wan trailing Sith Force spots.



"Sorry, we don't serve droids at the bar..."



"That's gotta hurt!" (Seriously, why does General Grievous pull his lightsabers out of his chest?)



An R1 droid and a womp rat pose for a portrait.



An odd "game-within-a-game" which ends badly for the womp rats.



The return of the womp rats! (Guessed my favorite character in the game yet?)




Final Thoughts

All in all, is the set worth the purchase? Or should you have kept the money?

This set, in contrast to many others, is small and expensive. However, it's a fully-featured Wii game with something for everyone - even a "two-player arcade" mode.

Pros:
Fun and detailed gameplay
Multitudes of characters to play as
Currently lowered price
Many, many unlockable bonuses

Cons:
When in two-player mode, players have to stay fairly close together
Vehicles are often difficult to control
Various minor but annoying glitches (in places)
Some in-game "cheats" are downright unhelpful

There are as many cons as there are pros, but I think this is a worthwhile buy anyway. The overall fun of the gameplay and the variety of settings (and the listed pros, of course) mostly make up for most of the cons.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this unconventional review, and that it's worth a year's wait. I hope to post more often this year, as I failed spectacularly last year. Leave a comment if you can! I appreciate any feedback!

I leave you with a skeletal goodbye wave for now...