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[parchioso]

Set No.：8409
Name：Spider Monkey
Theme：Ben 10
Parts： 21
Minifigs：None
Price： USD 14.99
Year：2010



I was not aware of this new theme called Ben 10 before I saw 6 boxes of these on display in local Toysrus, although I was not very interested, out of curiosity I purchased 2 boxes. Since I have already gotton some clues from the box, there was no shock.

As expected, there are some Bionicle like big parts, the whole thing can be assembled in minutes, in Bionicle sets there are usually technic parts and bricks, but there is none in this set, there is no minifig, you build the characters of the series.

A quick search over the web reveals quite some negative remarks about this series, I think Lego does this with a valid business reason, well, in the days of PSP, Wii and XBOX, the fans of the Cartoon series can be a promising customer source that Lego wish to target, and they may conclude that such design is best for the group.

Now on to the set, 8409, this is actually the only set in the theme that I have some interest, in fact, the creature is designed to be very flexible, aside from the official posture, I tried to turn it into a spider and it works, as a toy the playability is great.





The parts are not that bad actually, nice color mix, and like Bionicle parts, I think they are technic compatible, may be usable for MOCs.







The torso can actually be further broken down into 2 pieces, the one with many connectors can be useful in MOCs

Personally I am not in favor of such design, getting a box for fun is fine, but I hope this trend will not expand to the other theme, Lego as I see it, should be based on a design concept that focuses on building from small parts, with big flexibility for changes in very detail level, big parts simply is against such design concept.

I really don't know how to do a rating here because of the mix feeling, really wish that I can create a poll to know your opinion regarding this design trend. Such as: accept/agree, reject/disagree, observing, or no opinion (don't really care), I am doing such a poll in a Greater China forum and the interim result is quite interesting.

Review in My Blog: http://brickand.me/2...nkeyReview.aspx

This post has been edited by 3D Brickthing: 22 May 2010 - 03:43 AM
Reason for edit: Indexed and Title changed

[Jippon]

Thanks for the good review! I was curious how the ben 10 sets would look out of the box.
As an old bionicle fan I really like the torso, although the rest of the parts seem useless. Too bad there are no technic axle holes in the arm/leg pieces
kutgw.

[vexorian]

From close look the limbs are not really that bad, the pieces are small and not much worse than for example the Toa Nuva legs... The larger ones actually have cross insertion points.


The torso is definitely the worst part. Although it is good news that the blue part with logo can be extracted. It is still way too much of a piece that could be done by combining much smaller pieces.

I think it would be a fine set if it had a much, much lower price.

Edit: I guess the small holes in some of the parts are compatible with minifig accessory "sticks" ? (sorry, don't know what the official name is)

This post has been edited by vexorian: 02 February 2010 - 01:21 AM

[Lord Starkiller]

What? 21 pieces for $15! Thats a rip off!

[Svelte]

Thanks for the review, parchioso!

These are not my cup of tea, but I don't hate them, unlike most AFOLs seem too. I actually really like that they look totally different from Bionicle characters. Even the new Hero Factory sets look too Bionicleish for what is supposed to be a total relaunch. So yes, I do appreciate the design of these characters and I bet small kids will love 'em.

parchioso, on Feb 2 2010, 01:57 AM, said:

This poor Spidermonkey looks like a dissected frog in this pic

[prateek]

Nice review. As Svelte said, this is for kids so I won't be hard on this. It's a nice set, but it is overpriced so I won't get it.

[Ratbat]

While I do have a small grudge against Ben 10, I find that the sets are awfully, AWFULLY underrated.

I'll definitely buy one or two. I really like the limbs and torso. They look great for mocing.

[lightningtiger]

Well at least it does look like the character from the series, so he might be worth getting at least !
It can even be posed like in the series - cool !
My mind is still open on the rest !
Thanks 'Parchisco' for this review !
Keep on bricking !

[Siegfried]

Thanks for the review. These sets don't interest me... at all. They are way too specialised and I hope that this is going to be a one wave theme.

parchioso, on Feb 2 2010, 02:57 AM, said:

I really don't know how to do a rating here because of the mix feeling, really wish that I can create a poll to know your opinion regarding this design trend. Such as: accept/agree, reject/disagree, observing, or no opinion (don't really care), I am doing such a poll in a Greater China forum and the interim result is quite interesting.

Done!

Svelte, on Feb 2 2010, 10:38 AM, said:

Even the new Hero Factory sets look too Bionicleish for what is supposed to be a total relaunch.

Yeah, that confused me too! I was expecting a compete rejection of the semi-organic look...

[Clone O'Patra]

I'm with Seigfried, not interested.
I'd heard/read that these sets were made of crappy plastic, what is your opinion on that?
Even though these are more compatible and LEGO-ish than Galidor, I still see this as Galidor 2. Unless there are some system sets too, I hope this doesn't last long, but there has to be four more sets, right? Since it is Ben 10…

[Grimmy]

Great review. Nice pictures too. The colors and character, and the many points of articulation look like it would be a great figure for stopmotion animation.

Lord Starkiller, on Feb 1 2010, 01:42 PM, said:

What? 21 pieces for $15! Thats a rip off!

Are these pieces newly molded for the Ben 10 series? That would be my only guess as to why it would be this price.

I don't know much about Ben 10. I'm a bit confused because on the cartoon channel I've seen cartoon animated commercials of a Ben 10 show but the channel has also showed a live action movie with real people called Ben 10. I asked my niece if she knew what it was and she says it's a cartoon. I looked it up on wikipedia and it describes Ben 10 a kid who has a watch I think it was, which can change him into various things?

[Brickus]

Thank you for the review, now that I have seen the pieces close up I still don't like these sets at all, and I won't be purchasing any of them.

[Makuta Plasmix]

That.. that torso is from hero factory!

This post has been edited by Makuta Plasmix: 02 February 2010 - 02:24 AM

[Lavalizard78]

This is the first time, after 8 years, that I say, megabluck you, LEGO.

[Tereglith]

I think that, out of all of the Ben 10 sets, this one is the best. That said, I still voted "Bad". The price per piece ratio is at the level of DUPLO, and the pieces are far more specialized than Bionicle pieces (which were at least technic-compatible). I will concede that the colors are good, and there are KNEES (Thank God, KNEES AND ELBOWS!), but that doesn't save this set or any of them. I hope that the second wave of Hero factory gets back to Bionicle goodness in a way that these sets don't.