Category: Lego & Construction

Winzar’s Pack Patrol – Lego Chima

This is the second of the two polybags I bought at the toy fair.

Front:

Here he is, looking very growly. The minifigure looks nice, and I like that he can hold the handlebars. 

Bone:

I like this small detail that they’ve included. Fitting with the wolf theme. 

Side:

I like the tilted design of this snowmobile. The skis and blades also add interesting details to the vehicle. 

Back:

He’s even got some lights on the back of his snowmobile! The back isn’t too interesting, but looks fine.

I think the overall design of this one is better than Frax’ flyer. Overall, I’m pleased with this one and can recommend it.

Frax’ Phoenix Flyer – Lego Chima

This was one of two Lego Chima polybag sets I bought at a toy fair:

Here he is, in his shiny orange glory. The flyer is a bit of an interesting shape, but does the job. 

Front:

Here we see Frax, who looks good imo. We’ve also got a little detail on his front with the flat stud. Instead of lights his flyer seems to have… crystals. Those wings aren’t looking very aerodynamic…

Side:

Here we can see how his wings are attached – a little bulky and odd due to the constraints of Lego. The forward-pointing lights look kinda cool though. The controls look kind of strange, due to the small amount of space available. 

Right:

Not too much to see here. Very flat on the back, Wing do look a little odd from being clipped on the back instead of truly being part of him. 

Overall, this isn’t a bad little kit, but could possibly do with a few more pieces to bulk out the shape.

Raidramon – Digimon/Appmon

I bought this guy because he looked cool, was cheap, and potentially looked like he was compatible with Lego Bionicle figures. For the first part, whilst the construction pieces are similar shapes, they are a bit smaller and thus not compatible. So if you get these, don’t expect them to be compatible with Lego pieces. 

So here he is, fully built:

He wasn’t too hard to build, but one or two things changed between the instructions being written and the boxed product – mostly with pieces being pre-attached to each other. 

Overall, he looks pretty decent for what he is – decently painted, though I do wish they had a bit that clipped onto the under-wing to cover up the support structure – this will always be visible from the front, unless you have some very specific posing going on. 

Front:

Looking kind of squarish in the face there. He seems to stand up OK to me. 

Face:

His jaw can move, as demoed here – it has a couple of click points, so you can have it closed or open. Here we see a screw, which is a deviation from the Legoesque styling (this was not part of the construction process though – all parts that are left for the buyer to do is clip parts together). 

Left:

Here we see his tail, which I’m rather “eh” about. Doesn’t look particularly attractive, and doesn’t have any articulation. Would’ve loved to have been able to move it up and down or side-to-side. Head looks cool from the side though. 

Right:

Wires are kinda cool, not too much extra to say about this side.

Back:

The cape-wings look cool, and the shapes are nice. The wings have some articulation to them, as evidenced by the less-than-subtle hinges. 

Wire close-up:

Here’s what the wires look like up close – decent sculpting on them, for a toy of this type. 

Here’s me doing some posing with him:

So I wouldn’t class him as super-flexible, but you can probably get something decentish out of his arms and legs. The wing hinges are good for use as a toy, but I don’t think as useful for posing. 

So I’d recommend this one as a toy to play with, rather than a display piece. It is meant as more of a toy, but I don’t think it has the displayabilty of Bionicles, which make cool toys and display pieces. Overall, I think he was worth what I paid, but I think he’s going to be more of a toy that I put somewhere to fiddle with rather than integrate into my displays. 

Benny & Spaceship – Lego Dimensions

These sets were being sold off in Poundland for a fiver. For those living under a rock, yup Poundland sell things for more than £1 now. 

Whilst I don’t own Lego Dimensions, £5 isn’t too bad value for these sets – a mini-fig averages out about £2.50 if we go by blind bags, and we also have a little set to go with it, so £5 is around the right mark for it being “just Lego”, so I decided to buy it:

Here we have Benny & his ship. Not exactly to scale. The instructions don’t come with these sets, as you’re supposed to use the game to get the instructions to construct it, but working how to build it wasn’t hard. There are some extra pieces attached to mine, as I like to embellish sets with the spare pieces they give. 

If you’re not familiar with the movie – Benny is supposed to have a cracked helmet and faded logo – these are true to his appearance in the movie. 

Here they are from the back:

So far, so Lego. Benny’s pretty much as you’d expect him, Back of the ship loks good. 

Overview shot of the ship:

I like the colour scheme used in this. The design seems well-thought-out, which is something Lego tend to do well.

Top:

Here we can see the ship is of a decent size, and is reminiscent of older ship styles. 

Base:

The “LL 929″ is a reference to an older set (LL 928), and we also have the Space logo. Here we can also see the RFID that gets scanned when you place it on the Dimensions base. However, this one ain’t gonna get scanned, unless I get really bored. 

Overall, I think these sets are worth £5 if you’re a Lego fan. For me, I find them kind of mildly overpriced, but that’s just Lego – I think if it wasn’t part of a game Lego would’ve charged £5 for these sets. So I would recommend these sets at that price, if you’re just interested in them as sets… Though you may need to use the internet to get the plans for a set, if you can’t figure them out. 

When you can’t be bothered to put your Lego together…

… you can get bootleg lego!

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Found this in TK Maxx. This is based on the Lego set 70780, Protector of Water. Bought it as I was mildly interested to see how it compared to a real Bionicle.

Here’s the back of the packet:

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Yep, I think everyone now knows what it is called!

And just in case you do pull it apart, they were kind enough to include some instructions, located behind the figure:

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And here is the figure itself out of the packet:

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Note that its weapon doesn’t include the “gun” that the real ones do, so hey, at least I won’t be losing the 1-dot pieces. Other than that, it’s mostly faithful to the original by the looks of it, only… cheaper. The head doesn’t fire off as well as the originals I do own, and the plastic feels quite cheap. 

Here’s his back:

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Interestingly, the blue bit is pegged towards his front, instead of his back. 

So… that’s what you get for your £3.50!

Protector Of Earth

Whilst perusing the eBays, I found this dude going for a decent price, so picked him up.

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He was already constructed in the box, so didn’t need to build him… though his arms fell off, so had to work out which way round those went :P. 

And here’s a side view:

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Did want to add him to “earth corner” with my other earth Bionicles, but there wasn’t enough room… so he’ll have to be alone somewhere else, until I go for a rearrange. 

Bionicle Comic

Saw this as I wandered around the supermarket, and decided to grab it as I have a few of the Bionicle Lego sets:

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That, and it came with two things, which makes it more worth the £5 asking price. As expected, the comic wasn’t much to look at. However, the figures were a bit more than I was expecting. I also appreciated that the sets were in resealable packets – means I didn’t have to destroy the packaging to get the stuff out (and I can put the mini-sets back in the bags if I choose to put them away at a later date). 

First one lived up to my expectations:

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Yep. It’s a pretty basic Skull Scorpion. Does the job of being a small thing. 

Side view:

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However, the second had an interesting feature. So here’s Ekimu’s hawk:

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…. but what’s that he’s standing on?

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Ekimu! One of the sets I do have ;). Originally his shield is to be placed on his arm, but with this hawk set, you get a clip to store his shield on his hip, and can then put the hawk on his arm :D. So this one exceeded expectations and does look rather nifty with Ekimu! Maybe if I had remembered his name, this would have come as less of a surprise, lol. 

Here is Ekimu back on his shelf:

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Whilst I have Ekimu, he’s a retired set, so I can see this magazine purchase potentially being awkward for younger fans without this particular set… though you could sit him on the arm of another Bionicle, or sit him on the part that goes into Ekimu’s hip, as pictured on the packet. Bionicle is going through a bit of a weird time right now, though still find it a bit on the odd side they release an addon to a retired set. I’m not complaining though!