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The colorful sets and manga-like characters didn't persuade me right away, but the urgent need for a couple of white 3x3 wing plates made me purchase this little thing.
It cost me 70 DKR as you can see on the box. This is 9.30 euro, or about the same an American has to pay for the new Republic Cruiser. Pretty expensive for so few pieces (90 + a spare technic pin)
The box
An action-packed box with one of the sides being oddly empty except from the LEGO-logo.
What's inside
There is a small building instruction, two polybags (no bag building here) and a sticker sheet with alarmingly many stickers.
The build
It takes so little time to build this set that I didn't get to take any pictures of the process. Every step was accompanied by an element description although I doubt most of you will need that with so few pieces to keep track on.
Most of the dark green bricks have a sticker - even the slopes where the rough surface makes stickers fall off easily! There should also have been a sticker on the windshield, but I wanted to keep that piece clean for better usage later. (I'm one of those who keeps stickers on the bricks)
The model
You want to see this model from the front, as the back is pretty much neglected
There isn't much for the pilot to grab a hold on either. He is pretty much a sitting duck up there with the screen giving him only partial cover. There is a huge wrench next to him which kind of symbolizes the crudeness of the mech.
The set isn't called "Cyclone Defender" for nothing. The right arm might hold an ordinary light assault riffle, but the other has a spinning disc with samurai swords which you can turn with the yellow knob on the backside. Those of you who have seen Robot Wars might remember the incredible power of this melee weapon from a robot named Hypnodisc. It would have been nice had there been a pull-back motor to power the disc (I'm sure LEGO has a lot of these in stock), but the simple mechanism still works reasonably well.
The riffle comes off and a pin makes it easy to hold with the hand, but the disc is fixed to the arm. It is also a problem that the swords get misaligned quickly during play.
The minifig
I really like this minifig because of the neat idea with an expression on each side that LEGO has made a standard for Exo Force.
Posability
Most mech-moc'ers show off their creations using Gundam-like poses. With two joints per leg (one being the ankles) and one for an arm I thought of some less serious poses:
Crawling (Silent like a ninja!):
Belly gliding:
Kick off!;
Upside down:
Final Rating
I have to disappoint you here. This is my first set in this line and I have absolutely no idea of how good it is. The last robot I bought was the awesome 6889 Spyrius Recon Robot for the same price, but it is in a completely different genre.
The set had what I expected (two white wings) and is as such a no-nonsense set. I guess it would be of more use if you have some more Exo Force, which I don't.
6/10
Ups:
Has great minifig, weapons and is easy to build.
Downs:
Crude design and a bit too expensive for what you get.
(Brickshelf gallery)
