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...

Set Review: 8942 Jetrax T6

I know what you're all thinking - "Where has the darn Chronicler been? No new posts for almost three months!"

Well, today I have my third set review for you. With this review I segue from very small sets to very large ones. I now bring to you...

8942 Jetrax T6


The Package

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



There is no way you are going to miss this box on the shelf. It's one of the largest BIONICLE boxes in recent years, second only to such sets as Axalara T9 or Skopio XV1. It has a nice design of the Jetrax roaring out from the swamp, firing its Midak Skyblasters and such. Very eye-catching.



The back showcases Antroz Mistika and his trusty steed (well, vehicle, but you know what I mean) with various functions of the Jetrax and an advertisement for the other vehicles scattered around the edges. The sides, barely worth mentioning, merely repeat the cover image in a smaller format.



The Instructions

Are they easy or hard to build from?


Unlike other, smaller sets, this has not one, not two, but three instruction booklets.



The fronts all show the same image as on the front of the box, with the numbering in the left showing the order which they are to be used in. (Not that we have to listen to the LEGO Company!)



The back of the instructions have various advertisements for other LEGOs and a chance to win free sets.


The Pieces

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

There are a great many pieces here, and certainly too many to take a picture of all of them. (Well, I could, but I'm lazy and at the time of the publishing of this I've already dismantled it.)



These are some of the pieces of interest - at the top is a pearl silver multi-resistant shield, at the bottom is a bluish gray Hahnah crab armor, at the right is a pearl silver aero slicer, and at left is a protodermic silver Krika blade.



The lone Kanohi that comes with the set is a nicely modified Kanohi Jutlin. I prefer this over any other version of the mask.


The Complete Set

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



This is it. The Jetrax T6. Third-largest vehicle in BIONICLE history, second-most-popular. It has only one function for its size, however - its turbines can flip in and out and nothing else.

As seen from the front.



Back view.



The pilot Antroz Mistika, who happens to be a horribly awfully generic Piraka-torso-style cardboard-cutout person who has no distinguishing feature other than his mask. A shame.



The vehicle in landing mode, displaying the internal workings of its turbines...



Antroz clambers into the cockpit.



Ready for flight!



"Out of my way, Toa!"


Final Thoughts

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

This set is large and expensive, but comes with many new and recolored pieces for its price. The blue in it is part of why I like it so much, and all the silver weapons are a bonus.

Pros:
Blue parts!
Recolored weapons and armor
Turbines 'n wheels
Adapted Kanohi Jutlin

Cons:
Price
Too many bulky Technic parts
Cardboard-cutout rider

Overall, I really think the pros outnumber and overpower the cons. This is one of my favorite vehicles of all the ones released (or not released). If you decide to get it, I think it would be worth it.


I hope you enjoyed the review! I'll try to get more content in this blog... if you want me to post about something in particular, leave me a comment! Thanks!

Trading Parts

Hi everyone,

I cannot upload my images to the main Homeschool Lego Club site due to a loading error, so I will post them here.  All of the below are for trade.  Email me if you have questions.

The above is a Black Antenna, Whip for cell towers and other such things.  I have one of these.

The above are Technic Rubber Band Holders.  I have four of these, varying in color from Old Dark Grey to Dark Stone.

The above are Technic Rubber Band Holders, Large.  I have just the two shown, in Dark Stone.

The above are 1x1 Round Singles.  I have one in white, one in black.

The above is a Technic Bar, 1x5.  I have only the one shown, in Yellow.

The above is a Key Holder/Rack.  The one above is the only one I can trade currently, in the color Chrome Antique Brass.

The above is a complete-assembly Castle minifigure!  I only have the one to trade.  Varied colors in the patterned chain-mail vest, head, legs and helmet.

The above is a Chrome Silver Gem, Rock/Crystal!  I only have the one.  If you want it, make an offer - this is a rare color which is sure to go fast.

The above is a Minifig Leg, Skeleton.  I have the one shown in the color White.


The above is a Minifig Shield, Skeleton with a Dark Red and Pearl Silver pattern.  I have one of these.  The handle is Dark Stone.

Please email me or comment if you want to make an offer for any of these!  If you don't have a Blogger account, comment as Anonymous.