REVIEW: 7067 Jet-Copter Encounter

[Dunjohn]

My fourth Alien Conquest review finally gets around to covering one of the ADU sets.

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Set Name: Jet-Copter Encounter

Set Number: 7067

Theme: Alien Conquest

Year Released: 2011

Number of Pieces: 378

Minifigures: 3

Price: €34.99 on release

Lego.com

Bricklink

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FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

Probably the most action-jammed box image in the line depicts a high-speed battle between the jet-copter and the two ambitious alien miniships.

The back shows them who's boss. The ADU pilot obviously feels quite safe landing the ship, hopping out and arresting one alien while the other is still flying around.

The set comes with a very clear, efficient manual and two smallish sticker sheets.

The yellow's a bit offset on my DSS, but since I never apply the stickers, that's not too big an issue. It feels kind-of weird to see "Petrol Injection" on a military craft, I suppose I'm used to the American "gas" or "fuel." "Nabii" is the internet handle of Lego set designer Mark Stafford. He's presumably responsible for this one.

THE PARTS

We gots five bags, four of them numbered, with three numbers. There's logic there somewhere. Danish logic.

I own a few of those big helicopter blades already, but these are my first airplane tail fins.

I've never seen those half-slope parts before, but apparently they've been around for a while. The large slope brick and engine tubes are old too, but they've never appeared in blue before.

More interesting are the new canopy parts that are also exclusive to this set. Two clear curved ones with bars at the tops, and a 6x6 trans black one that looks like it came off a stealth fighter. It was introduced in last year's General Grievous' Starfighter but appears here unprinted. The light blue pod half and the four light blue 1x4 tiles aren't that common, appearing in two other sets each. Seventeen studs is all the purple the set contains.

Finally, I want to spotlight a couple of retro goodies the set contains. The trans neon orange stuff isn't exactly new or unusual, but its combination with the jet copter's blue made me a little nostalgic for Ice Planet 2000. Those lazer guns, on the other hand, are straight out of the past. They went on pretty much everything I built in the 80's and they haven't been seen in years.

At this point, I should be showing a photo of a big pile of normal stuff, but I seem to have deleted it. Whoops. Well there's lots of it, mainly blue, light grey, dark grey and yellow with a little black and lime.

The set includes three minifigures; two identical aliens and an ADU astronaut. Actually, I don't know if we can call them astronauts, since they never go into space.

This particular astronaut probably isn't the sharpest bulb in the forest, since he has a note jammed into his knee strap reminding him what a UFO actually looks like. And yet he's piloting a machine that contains more explosives per kilo than weight. Still, despite these concerns, he has one of the best head printings in the theme, with nothing either too specific (something that always bothered be about Power Miners) or familiar. I like how the helmet neatly covers the lower part of the shouting-face mouth, it makes it look like a completely different expression.

I'm recycling this image from my Abduction review because it's the same minifigure. It's still my least favourite of the AC aliens, because of how odd he looks from the side.

THE BUILD

Building begins with the two alien craft. They're almost identical so it's a quick x2 job.

The wings can flip up on each side.

The only difference between them is this pair of Technic pins that one of them has. Obviously it'd be no problem to put the same on the other craft and attach a third one. And keep going. You know how some people go for the 300 Spartans challenge? This could be the next big thing - how many Alien minicraft can you join together! My record is two.

The four grey stickers are supposed to go on the curved bricks. I think the ships look quite nifty, either joined or separated (though I can't fathom what advantage the joined mode offers). However, there is one major drawback to them:

To say they're cramped would be the understatement of the evening. You can seat the alien with arms up, as in the top picture, but then he literally can't budge; his hands are wedged between his head and the blue tile. There's also no place to put his ray gun (a familiar complaint with this line). The bottom image shows him with his arms down, in which case he can hold on to his gun, but it'll stick out the bottom and prevent the ship from sitting flat on the ground. Some people might be additionally annoyed that the craft are far from airtight, but they're probably not meant for space flight anyway.

Still, we move on, and start on the cockpit of the ADU jet copter. Do jet copters really exist? I can't see anything on Google or Wikipedia, and I find it difficult to imagine how the technologies mesh, but then I've never considered myself to be a true aerodynamics engineer.

Here's what the twin flick-firing mechanism looks like. Note that I've made a small error here, the Technic bricks holding the missiles are supposed to be black rather than dark grey. I fix it later. These flick-fire missiles are kinda difficult to operate. You can manually press the black knob in as hard as you can, and they'll shoot about the length of the orange antennae. Or you can actually try to flick the black knob, and smash your finger off the blue exhausts. It's nice when TLG includes little choices like this.

Whatever. Once the swelling in your finger's gone down, cover the launchers up and fill the helicopter's body out a bit.

The tail is a simple but sturdy design.

Here's how the nose guns are made. Extremely effective, I think.

The cockpit canopy isn't hinged or anything, it's attached by a single yellow stud at the back starboard there.

The jets that give the machine one third of its name double as landing rails.

The jet copter is equipped with a single transport pod that attaches beneath the tail. It's not 100% airtight but it'll get him to the "conversation" room well enough.

Attach them, add some rotors and wings, finish out some bits like the tail fins and that's the jet-copter completed.

There's a fantastic haul of spare parts, though it's a bit odd that there's no blue.

THE MODEL

Here's what she looks like from the side. It's chunkier than I was expecting. Which is good. Heck, with both rotors and jets it could probably be a giant cube and still fly.

The front shows just how heavily-armed it is, with barely a surface free of doom. Guns, missiles... those orange things are probably lazers.

And that's all three craft. The alien ships aren't as small as the box makes them out to be.

Here it is beside two other AC sets. It's a good size, though I still think the Abduction set is small for the price.

IN CONCLUSION:

The main problem I have with all of the ADU sets, and the reason I've been much slower to get them, is that I don't feel they match the alien style at all. The aliens have that fantastic, campy 50's charm; the ADU have modern, efficient military machinery. Where are the magnetic ray dishes? The sonic detonators? The microwave disruptors? None of that makes sense but the humans need them. These modern missiles and machine guns are no way to deus ex an invading force of hideous monsters. As a Lego model, the Jet-Copter is fine; as something to display alongside the Mothership, it's like a different theme. However, that's an issue with the theme as a whole, and I'll try to keep it out of my opinion of this set.

The good Mr. Stafford can rest assured that that opinion's pretty high. The Jet-Copter looks great from all angles, is extremely swooshable (you can even hold it by the pod, it's very secure) and was an entertaining build. The minicraft, despite their issues regarding leg room and boot size, look cool and the join-up mechanic is pleasantly daft. Overall, good stuff.

Design: 8/10: The Jet-Copter has no crippling problems that I can see. It's sturdy and looks great. The flick-fire missiles are awkward but the medical bills can probably be reduced with practice. The minicraft are cramped but that's understandable; more annoying is the lack of a slot for the ray guns. On the other alien ships you can at least throw them in loose somewhere but that's impossible here. It's a small part of the set, though, and they're cool besides that.

Parts: 9/10: I've come to the conclusion that the Purple Revolution isn't really going to happen with this theme, but overall the parts mix is solid. That new canopy is great, and there's a good mix of bits and bobs that I either didn't own, or didn't own enough of, before. Everything's very recyclable, too.

Build: 9/10: I kept confusing dark grey with black for some reason, but I think that was just me. They seem different enough on the page. There weren't any slumps during the building process, everything puttered along nicely.

Playability: 9/10: The flick-firing could have been better but everything else works perfectly. And it's very swooshable, especially for kids with three arms.

Price: 9/10: €35 seems good for what you get and the final size.

Total: 88%: I have trouble with the ADU sets in general but as standalones the sets look good, and this one is no exception.

Thanks for reading!

"Germs? What germs?"

- Dunjohn

Edited June 2, 2011 by Dunjohn

[prateek]

Finally a review of this set. This set is so much better than I had expected, and the copter looks great.

[zero1312]

Nice, but a tad bland without the stickers.....

[dr_spock]

Good review. I was wondering why kept one alien head in the bag.

[Parrothead Rasmus]

Looks like a cool set. Wasn't planning on getting any of there sets... but know I'm not sure.

Love the closing picture.

[Lord Of The Fries]

Great review and set!

Also, ya know how you said that the cockpits are unique to this set, well I thought that the dark-transparent one came in General Grievous Starfighter

[Blackknight112]

Thanks for the excellent review. I was hoping for a review of this set. i think this set is ok in my oppinion.

[Algernon]

Pretty good looking model imo. I like the design of the Jet-copter, but as you alluded to, the concept is a little... awkward. How does it fly? Helicopters and jets are two rather different things.

But the sleek design makes up for it. I might pick this up. Thanks for the review!

[infernalbrick]

cheers for the review! This is one of the better priced Alien Conquest sets and I cant wait to build it.

Im really drawn to this range, mainly due to unique colour pallette used

[Dunjohn]

Great review and set!

Also, ya know how you said that the cockpits are unique to this set, well I thought that the dark-transparent one came in General Grievous Starfighter

It does, but it's printed in that set. Bricklink uses unique part IDs for printed stuff so it didn't show up on the inventory. That's a pain.

And I agree with zero1312, the wing stickers would add a lot to it. I'm buying these sets mainly for display rather than parts so I'm still undecided about applying the stickers. If I ever do, I'll update the review.

[Aanchir]

The yellow's a bit offset on my DSS, but since I never apply the stickers, that's not too big an issue. It feels kind-of weird to see "Petrol Injection" on a military craft, I suppose I'm used to the American "gas" or "fuel." "Nabii" is the internet handle of Lego set designer Mark Stafford. He's presumably responsible for this one.

That color offset is the worst I've ever seen on any sticker sheet. Even some of the blues are offset from where they should be!

I've never seen those half-slope parts before, but apparently they've been around for a while. The large slope brick and engine tubes are old too, but they've never appeared in blue before.

I wouldn't say "quite a while"-- those slope pieces are what I call the Stafford slope, designed by the aforementioned Mark Stafford. They made their first appearances in sets this year.

The set includes three minifigures; two identical aliens and an ADU astronaut. Actually, I don't know if we can call them astronauts, since they never go into space.

TLG actually calls them "ADU Soldiers".

This particular astronaut probably isn't the sharpest bulb in the forest, since he has a note jammed into his knee strap reminding him what a UFO actually looks like. And yet he's piloting a machine that contains more explosives per kilo than weight. Still, despite these concerns, he has one of the best head printings in the theme, with nothing either too specific (something that always bothered be about Power Miners) or familiar. I like how the helmet neatly covers the lower part of the shouting-face mouth, it makes it look like a completely different expression.

I think that piece of paper is not a diagram of a UFO, but rather a diagram of a parachute. Note that he also has a parachute emblem on his torso, which is the special "pilot" torso with orange tubing. Of course, I don't know what the point of a parachute diagram would be, either, or what the letters on it mean. Might be a military history reference I don't know about.

Here's what the twin flick-firing mechanism looks like. Note that I've made a small error here, the Technic bricks holding the missiles are supposed to be black rather than dark grey. I fix it later. These flick-fire missiles are kinda difficult to operate. You can manually press the black knob in as hard as you can, and they'll shoot about the length of the orange antennae. Or you can actually try to flick the black knob, and smash your finger off the blue exhausts. It's nice when TLG includes little choices like this.

Alien Conquest seems to be all about these "shoot multiple flick-fires at once" techniques, such as the launchers on the HQ set. From what I've seen in videos, these don't work especially well. A technique similar to this one for launching individual flick-fires was employed in the Space Police III set Smash & Grab, where it worked amazingly well (making the flick-fires a lot easier to flick), so it's a shame it doesn't work nearly as well here.

Here's what she looks like from the side. It's chunkier than I was expecting. Which is good. Heck, with both rotors and jets it could probably be a giant cube and still fly.

Great review! I enjoyed seeing such an in-depth look at this set. I still haven't decided if I'm going to make the investment in Alien Conquest, but I am very impressed with the theme as well as the individual sets.

[Masked Builder]

Great work! I like the little Alien ships even if they're small. While you might not feel that the theme works together, I do. It may that I wasn't brought up in the Space Race age. There are a bunch of different reasons. I think that the younger children getting this won't care or even notice that they're a bit different styles.

[Dunjohn]

I can see how the note could look like a parachute, but it's definitely a UFO. It's too flat, there are spikes on the side, and it's missing a central rope.

Cooincidently, just this morning Brothers Brick blogged an interview with Mark Stafford in which he mentions that this set is indeed almost entirely his design, and that the thematic discord between the aliens and the ADU is deliberate (as these ADU machines are what kids today are used to).

[WhiteFang]

Thank you Dunjohn for sharing this review with us. This is one of the interesting aerial set which I am actually intending to pick up to illustrate the aerial battle between those small alien spacecrafts. In fact, I am much fond of the helicopter design than the rest due to its sleek design and weapons armaments.

[Ogre]

Wasn't too impressed with this when I saw first pics but, after reading this review and seeing the associated pics, I think it'll be added to the 'must get' list.