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[The Cobra]

If I just believe it, there's nothing to it - I believe I can fly - I believe I can touch the sky (Micheal Ball - I believe I can fly)

Set data:

3563: NBA Collectors # 4
Year: 2003
Theme: Sports
Subtheme: Basketball
Pieces: 12 + 3 cards
Price: 8 USD (Peeron)
Building time: less than 5 minutes
MISB on review: Yes
More info: Brickset - Peeron - Bricklink
Official description: N/A

Box front: Players close-up, cards, players name and theme logos. A great overview.


Box rear: Catalog for 3-fig packs and "instructions" for those who can't figure out themselves how to build displays.


Box sides: Generic Collectors pack picture (Allen / Duncan / Gasol); 1:1 Kidd minifigure and NBA action scene (Chris Dudley from Portland TrailBlazers defends against Miami Heat's Alonzo Mourning. None of them are available as minifigs, not even one of their team mates!); finally, an NBA hologram and various TradeMarks .


Box content: Lego bag and cards bag.


Cards: 3 Upper Deck cards with "action shot" on front and stats on back (latest 5 years and career totals).
Kukoc is portrayed in the Atlanta Hawks jersey, but he was then been "traded to (Milwaukee) Bucks".
Bryant's and Kidd's cards are silver plated, Kukoc's is gold plated. One side of the box reads "Trading cards, randomly packed" (yes, with a comma).
Oddly, Brickset pic is a bit different (Kidd's outfit looks much darker and Kukoc is bouncing the ball, not shooting)

Click pics for a larger version!



NBA minifigs arms and hands: Hands are different from ordinary figs, shorter and unposable. This is because they should carry the ball and be able to shoot it. By the way: Lego basketball has to be larger than Lego football, since this one falls from minifig hands.


NBA minifigs legs: Light blue legs are pictured front, yellow and dark blue are pictured back. Legs are held together by plastic, so they can not move, and each one has a spring. This will work for ball shooting too.


Pedestal: 6x6, with 4 studs centered on top and place to host 2x2 plates on three sides of bottom (if needed to keep stands together).


Players front view: Kukoc and Bryant are playing home games, they have the team nickname on their jerseys. Kidd is on the road, hence his shirt reads "New Jersey" instead of "Nets".


Players rear view: Bryant used to wear #8 back then. he later switched to #24. Kukoc kept #7 after moving from Hawks to Bucks. Kidd sometimes wore #5 in Team U.S.A. too.


Spring time: Legs can move from -90° to +90°. Human finger not included in box.


Skin color: Comparing IJ's 7195 bad guys with Kidd and Kukoc, their skin look the same flesh tone.


Complete set: Each player on his stand, with his card as a backdrop.



Review:

So here's something a bit different from a standard set. One of 8 NBA minifig packs, with 3 players (including 2 of the most gifted amongs those who performed in two different millenniums and an European talent), their trading cards and a place to put minifig and laminated self.

Minifigs are packed with head on torso, and torsos have one arm up and the other one lying on the side. I tried rotating hands to put them in the same way usual minifigs have them; I quickly stopped trying before something bad happened. After all, they're perfect for holding and shooting a mf-sized basketball (which can be found in other sets, most every one except collectors pack).
As I said before, legs can't move, because there's an additional piece of plastic to tie them together. That and the springs are not the only difference between these and ordinary legs. These ones, after being put together with the torso can be hardly separated. As for the springs, how does the whole thing work? Put your finger on the player's head, pull him back, release and the player will shoot.

It's obvious that these packs were ment for display; who would spend 8 USD for one of these and play with it? These Collectors sometimes got cheaper (last time I spotted some in Italy, they were on sale for 5 Euros) but have varying prices on eBay and Bricklink. Varying from 3 to 15 USDs! It's up to you decide what sum they are worth. I bought these one along with more LEGO on a BL order for what had to be a fair price.

Trivia:
what's the only minifig amongst these 24 to have a hair piece?
(Answer:

Spoiler

Dirk Novitzki

)
what's the only team amongst those with two players to have them wearing different colored jerseys?
(Answer:

Spoiler

San Antonio Spurs

)

Rating:

Color scheme: 5/5. Well, they look like official NBA jerseys!

Minifigs and accessories: 3/5. Worthless if you're not into NBA; great if you are. Too bad these packs didn't include a ball.

Pieces: 3/5. Perfect for display, great if you had more of these packs AND a basketball field or add-on (like shooting practice). Otherwise, it was just 3 out-of-ordinary figs.

Playability: 2/5. Playing is not what this set was meant for.But there is / were chance, as I said before.

Design: 4/5. More of a collector's item than a toy.

Overall rating: 3,5/5. This is hard to put in numbers. I summed it up in the review.


The final words: "Best on the planet" in ABS! Ain't it great?

[Tom Bricks]

I had so many of these sets, I used to love them. Interestingly most of the figs have either retired r changed teams. I believe there are only 6 on the same teams, and that counts AI who left and came back. I always thought the faces looked weird but the Kobe one was probably the best in terms or realism.

[prateek]

Nice review. These figs were so wierd becausetheir faces were obscured and none of them had hair, except Dirk.

[RileyC]

I just loved all these basketball sets and I do have quite a few. I dont have any of these collectors sets though which I am striving to get them soon.

Great review!

[Marko]

Nice that Sports theme gets coverage here. I hope LEGO would bring back any of Sports teams as they are great play value to any family. Collection sets are nice put they make you to buy all of them and makes now to collect them kind of expensive. I hope more "real life sets" like Ferrari, NBA, NHL gets covered here. Specially I am waiting NHL coverage.