Review: 8927 Toa Terrain Crawler

[Brickmaster]

Not only is this the second copy of this set I built, it is now ranked among my top favourite sets, ranking with the Titan XP, and other creator sets.

Why? Maybe this review will show you. This is a great blend of bionicle, cool elements, odd peices, playability, and some awesomely pose-able figures. Along with 700 pieces!

And. To combo that, it's been on sale for half off. That's right.

Where shall I begin? I guess I should mention - I put some effort into this review! Nonblurry pictures, set up station to take pictures, staged shots, in build reviewing, I tried to cover alot of areas, to make people happy!

Here we go, the first bag of the build, gets you these two guys. These are the bad guy's rides. The bigger one has a nifty chomping jaw, and frankly, I think these bionicle heads have loads of possible uses. In fact, I used some on my Amaranth's wing's. Check it out, they'll be there next update.

More of the big guy. He looks quite mean. (Blurriest photo of them all)

Side profiles.

Now time for bag two! I separated out all of the minifigure elements. Here are ALL of the minifigure pieces. Quite a stack..

All ten. 6 Good guys, 4 bad, and there are 12 weapons to boot. Someone asked for more detail into the weapons, so, for you! I did just that.

Here they all are, my two favorite are the swords being used.

Here they are in more detail, along with some comparisons of these figures to minifigs. And a cool jellyfish addon.

Here are the good guy's profile shots! With some working, you can get their heads to fit minifigures. I posted that somewhere in the customization workshop, if you are interested.

The (in my opinion) way cooler looking bad guys.

Alright. With that out of the way, we start to build the real deal. The crawler! Here is the front cockpit of it. See that black mask? That was the original reason why I bought this. But it ended up being cooler on more levels than I imagined.

Also, that red cockpit piece? .. Doesn't that just look cool or what?

Here it is all built. Oh, and you build a little scooter.

Next you start to build the next car of the toa train. These are fold down doors.

The innards hold a whole lotta ammo. Clear all this out, and it is very roomy. Even with this in there, it is roomy.

Another shot.

First car all finished. Theres a blaster, and crane, up top.

The door is very cool. Here, you can open up just that seal, and peek inside.

Or you can fold down the whole thing.

Now we start the last part.

It ends up being very empty, and just storage for the lil scooter. But the details on the outside make up for this..

Now here is the whole thing! Along with all the figures, monsters, ammo, weapons.. alotta bang for your buck.

Why it came with squids? I am unsure..

To my surprise, this came with alternate ideas! A rare thing these days.

Well, I hope this came to some enjoyment to you all. I hope the quality of this review was much greater, and more helpful. If you have any questions pertaining to these, please do ask! I really love this set, and just wanted to impart some knowledge on it.

I hope you enjoyed the review, to whatever extent you can. I appreciate any comments!

Untill next time.

- Mark

Edited June 5, 2011 by Siegfried
Corrected title

[ExoBuilder]

Good job on the very detailed review.

This is such a nice looking set, I'm very tempted to buy it. Unless you want to buy me one?

Hmm, for 35$, this seems like such a steal. I'll probaly get this next month.

Thank you once again Brickmaster!

[Asuka]

A fine review, thanks Brickmaster.

That´s quite an interesting set, at least at a reduced price, and the black mask/trans red cockpit

combination looks pretty cool and useable.... for the vehicle itself I clearly prefer the way better (IMO)

alternative version, the original model looks simply messy....

[Natman8000]

Great review! I would buy this set for the parts but I dont feel like it.

[Pate-keetongu]

thanks! I bought this set last year, it costed only 69 e. very good playability and mocing pieces!

[Brickmaster]

Oops! I just realized that I said this was 8925; not 8927 like it should.

[Deinonychus]

Ah, good to see there's someone else who appreciates the TTC.

Anyone still unsure weather to pick this set up or not, it's most defiantly worth it for the discounted price. Neat little Minifigs, great parts for MOCing regular or Bionicle creations, and a pretty sweet assault vehicle when it's all put together.

That, and you can slaps some huge plastic wheels on the thing and make it look even sweeter!

[Plural]

You've totally persuaded me to buy this set. Its got so many useful parts and even parts I've never seen before. And I have to agree with your sentiment that these Bionicle playsets are undiscovered classics with awesome parts.

Cheers for the review.

[yellost]

nice reveiw, thanks. I always hesitated to get it, and usually, it's the look of that mask piece that dissuaded me. I never realized it was actually a normal cockpit (but in trans red ) covered by another piece... Now I'll really regret not having bought it, since I can't find it anymore...

Jellyfish ON

Edited August 6, 2009 by yellost

[zero1312]

Thanks for the review!!

To bad this one is not available here.

[iamded]

I actually kinda, maybe, like these sets. Nah, they're quite cool. Thanks for this awesome detailed review, very cool indeed.

Here they all are, my two favorite are the swords being used.

Thanks Brickmaster! I spy a sledgehammer, axe and sword that would look great on a few knights...

~Peace

[Dark Sword Ragnarok]

Wow, this review made me immediately go online and buy this!

I would have never bought it at full price, and now with my current discount, I got a bunch of PaB parts and a Police motorcycle (wanted one for so long! ) for the same price!

[Brickmaster]

Wow, awesome! I am glad my review helped some peoples decisions, and I hope you enjoy this great playset!

(It's hard not to..)

Edited November 4, 2015 by Brickmaster

[MrTools]

I got this set on sale for 30 dollars, and i love it. THe problem is i took it apart a while ago and am currently searching for all the parts to re assemble it I only have the last section to go, but its worth it.

[jala12]

The best part of this set are probably those two creatures with the recoloured Barraki heads.

[doctordark]

I never wanted this when it came out but now that I've read the review I really want it.

Also could you get a picture of the main vehicle with all the doors and flaps closed please.

Edited August 6, 2009 by doctordark

[Siegfried]

Oops! I just realized that I said this was 8925; not 8927 like it should.

...and I just fixed it!

As a message to all that read this, please report errors like this to avoid universal confusion. I'm indexing at the moment and it's good I've been checking on set facts...

On the subject of the set itself, I liked what LEGO was doing here with the playsets. I ended up with a few of them, but to my regret I missed this one. I'm still hoping that TLG will do playsets for Hero Factory.

[Aanchir]

...and I just fixed it!

As a message to all that read this, please report errors like this to avoid universal confusion. I'm indexing at the moment and it's good I've been checking on set facts...

On the subject of the set itself, I liked what LEGO was doing here with the playsets. I ended up with a few of them, but to my regret I missed this one. I'm still hoping that TLG will do playsets for Hero Factory.

I loved this set, too! It's probably still on a shelf in my bedroom!

Now, personally, I'm not sure how I'd like Hero Factory playsets. Even at minifig scale, it would be difficult to match the design styles of the coolest Hero Factory locations and vehicles.

One thing Hero Factory playsets would allow for, though, would be smaller Hero Factory sets (something that was rarely exploited in BIONICLE playsets besides a couple obscure promos and impulse sets). I kind of miss early BIONICLE, not because I have some nostalgia filter telling me those sets were the best ever but rather because in a time when there were lower expectations of sets in terms of posability and level of detail, there could be well-designed sets using just a few parts, as opposed to the hideous 2008 Brickmaster tie-in set (it was creative, but it took some real imagination to appreciate its design). 2009's Brickmaster set was a lot closer to the traditional BIONICLE mini-beast, but at the same time it was still a fairly cute critter made with some creative use of parts.

Come to think of it, I wonder if the new Hero Factory building system could allow for a smaller "impulse"-sized set... *goes to LDD to brainstorm*