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Theme: Military
Pieces: No idea, I could count the piece sheet, it's not handy
Price: 26000 won ($23.37 USD)
Minifigs: 7
Time: About 1.5 hours
As I mentioned in the military guide, Oxford has released four new military sets. This is the first one I got my hands on, and it is sexy.
I'll post more pictures later, as it took longer to put together than I expected, and I ran short on time. There is a lot to cover in this review, and it's pretty much all good. This is fine chopper with some new and interesting unique pieces. Also new minifigures and new guns.
Box
Just a stock image, it looks the same. The Box has a great picture on it and shows off the set well. You can see all the figures, as well as get a feel for the set itself. The guy in the chopper manning the mini gun appears to be photo shopped in. I just can't see how you'd get a mini in that position without ripping his legs off.
Instructions
Standard instruction book.
Well illustrated. Oxford has now introduced individual piece count sheet at the end, but no total. When I get a few minutes I'll go through and add it all up.
Pieces
Here is the interesting part. Oxford has introduced several new ideas with the new military line. We have sliding doors. Sliding doors. I need to say it twice. I don't know if Lego does that. Basically it's a 1x4 piece with a track attached to one side. The track has a groove above and below so it can be the bottom or top universally. The door has a little bit of a piece on it sticking out to help it from sliding right off. They've also got a few new shaped pieces I hadn't seen before, like new sized curved pieces. The helicopter blades are huge and great. They have attachable missiles and bombs, which are weird, because the set doesn't show them, but the sprues were included. They also have 2x4 smooth top thin blocks. I hadn't seen those before.
Sort is standard Oxford sorting. I'm not sure whose logic it's based on, but you just gotta dump them all out.
Minifigs
7 minifigs. These figures have a new body construction. Their bodies are not compatible with old figures. I'll get a shot of it, but the legs and torso now have a tongue and groove kind of piece set into them, so that the legs don't just plug in, they've got a tiny bit of the lower torso attached to go together. Heads and hands and accessories are still the same. They have new printed faces, and new printed torsos. They also feel better. The old Oxford minis were the only weak point. They were good, but not quite a lego figure. The new ones are much more solid feeling.
Also, new GUNS. The old Oxford guns were kind of big sized. Great for a gun emplacement, but ridiculous to carry around. The new ones are probably scaled with Brickarms type stuff in terms of size. They seem well suited for the figures. I hope they'll release some mini figure sets with these sprues so that we can cheaply get more weapons that actually fit the guys. Comes with some weird pliers that are too thin to fit in anyone's hands.
One of the pilot's eyes look distinctly female also!
Construction
There is nothing special about the construction here, except that they include 2 pieces to be used only while building it. You know normally the back end of a chopper goes down, so it's not flat. They've included 2 2x2 thin yellow flats to make the set level during construction. When you put on the wheels you take them off and they are spare.
Finished models
There are actually 2 models here. A Chopper and an anti-tank gun. The gun feels a little tacked on and out of place, but even if it was just the chopper at this price it'd be worth it. They're both very solid. The chopper is strong and doesn't feel loose or like you have to be careful with it. There are so many play options with this. Lots of places to put guys.
Conclusion
This is a fantastic model. I haven't been this excited building a model in a long time. It fits well with other military stuff already out. The chopper is just wonderful all around. I can't really find a flaw with it at all. Easy access cockpits (they have a kind of false roof, that very easily detaches to allow you to put guys in there), lots of places to store guys, an anti-tank gun tossed in, 7 figures (for this price!), great faces, great new weapons. The set just keeps on giving as you move to the next aspect. I can't score it, because as far as I'm concerned it's the perfect set right now. I really need to order the Anti-Aircraft with Humvee next so I can shoot it down ;)
any questions/requests for further pics, just ask.
Edited by crossmr, 16 September 2011 - 09:42 AM.
And not a bad review! As prateek says, some more pictures of the details would be nice 
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