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Star Command
Databanks
Opening File...
Item #: 7593
Name: Buzz's Star Command Spaceship
Theme: Toy Story
Year of Release: 2010
Pieces: 257
Price: $29.99 USD
Welcome, Space Rangers! These are the data files of captain Buzz Lightyear's personal spaceship. First up, we have the packaging.
The front of the box features the classic Toy Story design and a small picture showing the little vehicle the set includes coming out of the back of the ship:
The back shows the ship in its launch position, the two figs with names, and some action features:
The contents include one instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, and two numbered bags, each of which include at least one smaller bag:
Here is a scan of the sticker sheet, and here is a random instructions page showing the SNOT technique of the cockpit:
It's strange that they used the technic pin technique now that they have the new piece which is the same thing in one piece.
Anyway, here is the inventory page:
The following picture shows some pieces of interest which have never (or at least rarely) been available in these colors. These pieces include the SNOT piece mentioned above in lime green and the new 2x4 tile in white.
DISCLAIMER: Do not be alarmed. You did NOT get sucked into a black hole and transported to a Belville review!
Zurg's upper body comes pre-assembled in his own bag together with his cape, and Buzz's wings, jetpack, and head and helmet come in their own bag as well, one with 3 subdivisions. The rest of Buzz's body comes with all the other parts. Sorry for the bad pic.
The picture below shows some comparisons and interesting facts. Compared to the head of a normal minifig, Buzz's head is smaller and Zurg's is slightly bigger. There is printing on the back of Buzz's torso which is a nice unexpected detail. Zurg's arms are the same long kind as those of Woody and Jessie. Zurg's cape is longer than previous minifig capes and is red on the other side, as is his collar. Unlike the collar of the Evil Wizard from the Castle theme, Zurg's collar is separate from his cape.
Here are the two figs completely assembled. The proportions are pretty accurate.
Side view. Here you can see that Buzz's helmet is unfortunately only half closed. Also, I have removed one of Buzz's wings so that you can see the slot it sticks in.
Back view. As you may be able to tell, Buzz's jetpack and hips could have used some more color, but it's OK as it is. You can also see here that Buzz's wings are identical and have the green light bulb printed on one side and the red one on the other. Zurg looks like a very pointy Vader from this angle.
Here we have the Buzz without his jetpack and Zurg without his cape. No back printing for Zurg, but he doesn't need any anyway. His shoulder pads look pretty good from the back, so they could very well be used the other way around on a custom fig.
The build begins with Zurg's blaster. Unfortunately it's just a flick-fire tomato launcher. There is only one missile, so if you loose this one, you're screwed. I would have much preferred a movie-accurate version with three barrels, but I guess this adds some playability to the set. Here is a little comparison:
Next up we have the little transport vehicle. Looks pretty cute, but what is the tank it carries supposed to contain? Fuel? If so, why is it being dragged across the floor? Oh well, it's a nice addition to the set, so who cares.
Last but not least, you have the spaceship itself! Here is the completed set:
Here is a side view of the ship. Very smooth shape, but here you can see one of the few flaws in this set: the cockpit is not airtight. This could probably be easily fixed by a few tiles though.
A rear view. Nice to see all these trans orange studs here. Would have looked rather empty here without them.
Here it is in its vertical launch position. Just for fun, I placed Buzz the way he was packed inside his box in the movie. If you look closely, you will see that all the stickers are split in half. This makes it a pain in the asteroids to apply them correctly, but at least they aren't applied over multiple pieces.
A bottom view. Instead of landing gear, we have these orange hover pads, which is movie accurate (I think).
This is the opened cockpit. As you can see, Buzz's wings have an exact span of 6 studs, so you can seat him in the cockpit with or without them.
Here you see the empty cockpit. The control panel is the only printed piece in this set, aside from the figs of course.
There is a boarding ramp in the back that can be folded down in order to load the little vehicle on board.
This is my favorite feature: In order to reveal the interior of the ship, you can split the top half open. The white clips clip onto the bley handle bars in the back of the ship when closed so that it stays closed. A very clever technique which I hope to see in future constructions. The downside is that there is not much interior to speak of, but then again, space is limited, and I can't think of much that could have been put here.
There is a hole in the wall that separates the cockpit with the cargo area which, I suppose, is meant for Buzz to crawl through to get from one section to the other.
Here it is with the vehicle inside. Of course, Buzz would have to get out for the ship to close again.
Although not advertised as a play feature of this set, you can detach the wings from the ship. The wings are slightly wobbly due to that.
Spare parts include a technic pin, a blue cheese slope, and some studs.
As a bonus, here is one suggestion of what to do with the mystery container:
More pics in this brickshelf folder.
Ratings:
Design: This set seems to be more based on the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command cartoon rather than the Toy Story movies, considering it doesn't represent the box of a toy, but the real deal (you will see the ship 1:49 into this episode). The ship has a very smooth and retro looking shape to it, and the little vehicle doesn't look bad either. As I already said, Zurg's blaster could have been more accurate, but maybe that's just me. 5/5
Parts: You get some nice purple and lime parts with this set, plus 4 white 2x4 tiles. Except that, nothing all that new, but it's all pretty useful stuff in my opinion. 4/5
Minifigs: Buzz and Zurg are both highly detailed, very movie accurate, and proportionally correct. Their should pieces look a bit big, Zurg's lower body looks a bit plain, and their heads aren't very reusable, but they look so similar to their movie counterparts that I am very well willing to ignore these minor flaws. 5/5
Build: I found the build to be quite enjoyable. Very little repetition, some SNOT, and nothing too complicated. In fact, it reminded me of some classic space sets, with the cone thrusters and little deployable vehicle and such. 4/5
Price: The price-to-parts ratio here is alright for a licensed set. Not great but not horrible either. 4/5
Playability: The ship is perfectly swooshable, you can have the wings break off, have Zurg attack it, take the small vehicle out, play inside the cockpit and cargo area, etc. A hole lot of playability for such a small set, I'd say. 5/5
Overall: 5/5 This is definitely one of the strongest sets in the Toy Story line. It's one of the sets I was most looking forward to in this theme, and I can't say I'm disappointed. There's not much I could have expected more from this set. Even if you are not into Toy Story, I can recommend getting this set for the cool minifigs and the retro classic space-y goodness of the spaceship!
This concludes this thorough and slightly nerdy review. Look out for more Toy Story reviews by yours truly in the future.
What's left to say? Oh yeah...
To infinity and beyond!!
This post has been edited by Oky Wan Kenobi: 09 April 2010 - 12:13 AM
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MultiQuote
I really like this set and its design, probably out of nostalgia. I'm not going to buy because of it's high price... 30 dollars for a small spaceship? It justs looks so small. But like I said, I think the design is pretty good and accurate. Again, excellent review.
Posted 24 December 2009 - 01:08 PM
Posted 24 December 2009 - 06:01 PM
