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Name: 7066 Earth Defence HQ
Theme: Alien Conquest
Year: 2011
Pieces: 874
Minifigures: 5 + 1 Head monster
Price: £76.99
I had an early start today going up to the Metro Centre at Gateshead to exchange an iPad and while there I decided to have a look in the Toys R Us store, be rude not too really
at first I spotted some of the new City sets but non of the Alien Conquest, gutted 
never mind, then a TRU guy asked what it was I was looking for, and directed me to the front of the store and said that the Alien conquest sets had arrived about a week ago but they had to take them off sale as a kid had tried to buy some but the checkout had flagged them not to be sold yet!Luckily for me that wasn't a problem today, and I think they had all of the sets available in stock, I almost bought the 7052 UFO Abduction too but settled on just the one having already bought the 8129 AT-AT this week.
Description (from lego.wikia)
Earth Defence HQ
The Earth Defence HQ is the main feature of the set. It is a large vehicle that has ten wheels. The front of the truck has a cockpit with an easily removable glass, with two guns underneath. On top of the cockpit are two smaller mounted weapons for close-range defense.
The roof of the first vehicle is dominated by a large, rotating pair of quad missle launchers. It has enough room for a minifigure to sit on it. The tow-behind trailer carries a small, single-person fighter mounted on a multi-directional jet launcher.
Fighter Jet:
The fighter jet can land on the back of the Earth Defense HQ. It has two wings on the front, and two "wings" on the sides with guns on them.
Maintenance Truck:
The maintenance truck features an alien prison canister on a universal turning system on the back.
Alien Saucer:
A minifigure can sit inside of the cockpit of the alien saucer.
Review
Box front and back
Minifigures
The set comes with five minifigures and an alien head creature, two ADU troops 1 male with a heavy duty "I'm gettin' too old for this" style 'tache and a feisty looking female officer, one ADU Inspector who's very scientific looking, one Alien grunt and an Alien commander.
Vehicles
Interior
Jet + Saucer
Red and green transparent bricks inside the cockpit of the jet are just added in as they were spare bricks.
Building
Instructions come in the form of two booklets, you start with the minifigures (is there any other way
) then on to the vehicles in the order of: maintenance truck, alien saucer, alien prison canister, fighter jet, front section of the HQ then rear section.Nothing tricky, a nice easy afternoons building.
Ratings:
Minifigs: 10/10
Minifigs are great, the alien commander having the peg leg makes sitting him in a vehicle a bit hard but thats the price you pay for getting bits blown off you I suppose
, the lack of back printing on the aliens is a tiny disappointment on an otherwise superb couple of figures.ADU figures are great too, all of witch using unique printing in this set, the two troopers looking very much like Halo "Orbital Drop Shock Troopers"
Parts: 9/10
The parts that this set comprises of are good (if you like blue) I really liked the lap top (new to me) both the alien and ADU guns are great. Quite a few stickers but thankfully, none that cover any brick joints (my pet hate) and they seem to be much stickier than the ones that came with the sets from last year, some of which peeled off (my 7213 - Off-Road Fire Truck & Fireboat being one such set lacking in stickiness)
The main windscreen of the HQ is brilliant, and the smoked grey/brown colour, very nice.
Design: 10/10
As soon as I saw the blue multi wheeled vehicle on brickshelf I loved it, at first I thought it was someones own creation but having seen it was an actual set I had to have it! its pretty much what I've always built/tried to build only not stuffed suspension, steering, lights and magnets (maybe later
) in fact I'd love a white one for Hoth exploration. 
Its brilliant, the addition of the jet and the saucer really make it a superb set, finished off with great minifigures.
The Jet launcher, is operated by a slotted wheel on the back to aim it into the air, no actual launching mechanism though, the missile pods have four flick fired missiles, both missile and jet launchers are mounted on turn tables so they can be fired off in multiple directions, depending on mission parameters
If I were being picky I'd have liked to have seen the spot lights be turntable mounted and a hinge underneath the roof mounted missile launchers, but they are very easy to retro fit, and thats probably why Lego left them out, to encourage kids imagination
Playability: 10/10
The playability is great, I'd say children will love this set, it ticks all the boxes, has goodies and baddies, flying vehicles and a big base/mobile head quarters, I could play with it for hours myself (if I still played with lego that is
)Price: 8/10
I think those over inflated Star Wars/movie tie-in licensed sets have had an effect on the pricing of the non licensed sets now, having said that it is pretty big and pretty awesome so maybe its about right, but I'd still have liked it a bit cheaper.
Overall: 47/50
Superb set, very highly recommended.
Hope you enjoyed, its my first review
Edited by Final Exit, 12 May 2011 - 09:40 PM.
