REVIEW: 31007 Power Mech

[Artanis I]

Not Review Academy approved! Read at your own risk!

I noticed that this set has not been reviewed, so this will be the 2nd time (besides board games) I've bought a new* (this one not so new for some) set and had the opportunity. This time I have a better camera but unfortunately I was in a hurry to build and photograph so I apologise in advance for a few shots. I also forgot to crop the photos.

Full Flickr set available here.

CREATOR: 31007 Power Mech

223 pieces

381g

MSRP/RRP: $19.99 USD, £14.99 GBP, €19.99 EUR, $24.99 CAD, $29.99 AUD, $39.99 NZD

Usual fluff from TLG:

Blast into the future with the Power Mech’s articulated arms, grabbers and leg boosters or rebuild it into a helicopter or pickup truck!

Be king of the robots with this amazing 3-in-1 Power Mech!

Make way for the mighty Power Mech! Suit up for futuristic battle with strong green armor,
powerful arms, grabbing claws and leg-mounted boosters and launch into the sky!
The Power Mech is a bright battle bot ready for anything! Move the arms and legs for realistic robot action.
Then rebuild it into a fast helicopter with moving rotor or a heavy-duty pickup truck with rugged offroad tires.
•3-in-1 model: rebuilds into a fast helicopter or heavy-duty pickup truck
•Features green armor, twin antennas, articulated arms and legs, hand grabbers and leg-mounted boosters
•Helicopter features moving rotor and large engines
•Pickup truck features folding tailgate, detailed engine and rugged off-road tires
•Move the Power Mech’s arms, legs and hand grabbers for realistic robot action!
•Spin the helicopter’s moving rotors!
•Rev up for a wild ride with the pickup truck’s rugged offroad tires!
•Measures over 6" (18cm) tall and 5" (12cm) wide
•Helicopter measures over 1" (4cm) high, 5" (15cm) long and 3" (8cm) wide
•Pickup truck measures over 2" (7cm) high, 7" (18cm) long and 2" (7cm) wide

Instructions for download:

http://cache.lego.co...ons/6036599.pdf (mech)

http://cache.lego.co...ons/6036296.pdf (helicopter)

http://cache.lego.co...ons/6036298.pdf (truck)

Bricklink | Lego Shop @ Home | Brickset

This set caught my attention due to the lime green colour (I've always been drawn in by green ) and the appearance of the mech really reminded me of mid 80s Transformers, specifically the head. The colour particularly invokes thoughts of the Constructicons/Devastator.

I have not seen this set in a shop, I assume it's one of those annoyingly limited availability sets you can only get at a particular retailer - and one I don't live near . As I was placing an order for the Tower Of Orthanc set from S@H, I decided to grab this one while I was at it.

So, get on with it...

Box:

Not a huge box, because it's not a huge set. On the front, the main build (a six-fingered man?!? My name is Inigo Montoya... ) is featured prominently in somewhat of a wrestling stance, and accompanied by the secondary & tertiary builds of a small helicopter and a truck (roughly minifig scale) featuring a closed tray. Australian boxes are the western European ones, so they have as little text as possible because there are so many languages to cover. "3 IN 1" advertises the fact that there are 3 models that can be built in this set. I don't remember seeing anywhere on the box anything about you only being able to have 1 built at a time. (I know it's obvious to us, but you know, Nans...) We do however have a parts inventory on the box (top or bottom? I forget):

On the back, a very simple illustration showing the majesty of the power mech, with his sidekicks already transformed and ready to roll out.

A quick look at one of the sides. Nice 3D bevel effects there.

Instructions:

Three booklets, one for each model predictably. Because the bags are not numbered, the inside cover shows us that it's helpful to sort the parts into separate colours rather than a big pile. Instructions are set out as you'd expect, the same as most Lego themes these days with simple steps and part call-outs the whole way. Step 1 of the mech was too much for me, I had to give up.

Doesn't look like many parts, perhaps I've been buying too many large sets lately. Let's have a squiz at those next.

Parts:

As I mentioned, these sets don't use the numbered bag approach. Obvious reason being: if you want to build the models in a different order. This time around, it's 3 bags of parts. Let's lay them out for a better look:

All fairly common parts really, if you are into multiple themes you would've seen this all before. (We even get 2 standard 2x4 bricks.) I have heard that the lime 2x1 cheese slopes are rare, well here's a bunch of them. On to the models.

Model - Truck:

I chose to start with the truck. Simple build really. Didn't take long (each model took 10-15 minutes roughly) to build, and quite a few parts were left over:

Depending on where you live, you may know this vehicle as a pick-up truck, perhaps some variety of lorry, or in Australia it would be known as a utility vehicle/truck but referred to as a "ute". This particular model is the type with sides around the tray to drop your goods into, avoiding the need to tie things down. The rear tailgate wall folds down as in real life, but there is no canvas cover in this instance. It's one solid brute of a machine, take a look at the bonnet (hood)! Big headlights to warn the deer/cows/roos of a fair fight coming, (although that grille is a bit susceptible, better throw a bull-bar in front) and big honking wheels. The walls are solid! Nice detail with the step to get up into the cabin, and it's good to see a rear window, that's very useful! (Except that there's solid brick on the inside...) Unfortunately due to the part restriction (all 3 models using the same parts) the cabin cannot seat a minifig. You may be able to see the 2x4 wedge plates that close in the space. Easy modification if you're that sort of person. Let's check out all the angles:

Obviously if you were to clean this up (replace some parts with others not in the set) you would change the white cheese for lime green, and the hinge plates for standard 1x4 plates, and rearrange the cabin area to fit a minifig in. There are a few areas in the chassis where other parts would fit better than what is included.

Model - Helicopter:

Next up is the helicopter. Even smaller build this time, but some more interesting moments than the truck. Nice snot on the sides and rear, I liked how that fit. Many parts left over:

Not a lot to say about this model, it looks okay but it does still look a bit blocky from some angles. The rotor spins freely which is important for toy helicopters, and the details show nice use of the parts available. The cockpit opens too, that's a nice inclusion. Let's get some angles:

As with the truck, I don't like the white parts showing. Swap them out for lime green or dark grey and we're good. I was surprised by the use of 2 2x2 tiles with pin for the rotor, that was a bit different to the usual.

Model - Power Mech:

Robot, automaton, mech, whatever you want to call it. This Lego set really is a transformer triple changer. The build this time used most of the parts (as was expected), and was a lot more modular compared to the linear nature of the truck. No surprises, as we are building feet, legs, arms, torso etc. Lots of snot involved, with only very minor greebles. Leftover parts:

He's pretty solid. Nice big but well sculpted torso, arms & legs. The shoulder joints look a bit exposed, as do the hips. By adding more chunk to those areas we would lose poseability, I fear. The problem with the parts used to connect these legs to the torso is that they aren't symmetrical, and if (as in this case) the brick part is a different colour to the pin part you get an ugly situation. One hip is grey at the front and back at the back, the other is black at the front and grey at the back. My primary concern about this model. The white is not so much a problem on this model, it looks fine, but I think I would've used grey instead. I like the use of the wheel arches, I would've liked to have seen the wheels used somehow, but that may have been a bit too Hasbro inciting.

Looking at it from behind, it's very bare (normal for the underside of sets). Being a standing model, I think it should have something, either snot, inverted slopes or those new inverted tiles. Something to cover his back. I like the view of the off-square angles better than the straight-on front & rear. The lights on the chest are interesting, and the little rockets on the lower legs.

Let's talk poseability. Head rotates 180°, but doesn't tilt up or down. To look up, he has to bend at the hips. There is no flexibility in the core at all, this is not a problem really, just makes it harder to look up/down. The universal joints in the shoulders mean that the arms can position just as well and even better than normal human arms. Despite not having wrists, the combination of the universal shoulders with standard elbows mean that the hands can take any normal position. For the legs it's not quite so rosy, having no rotation at the waist makes the walking, well, robotic. The hips can move backwards, forwards and sideways. The unfortunate thing is that there are no functioning knee joints and the ankles only tilt sideays. One leg forward and one leg back to walk means that the leg is straight and the foot is not flat on the ground. It doesn't look too bad, but it maybe could've been better. At least he can show sass with the legs a bit sideways, the feet sit flat in that instance. He has opposable thumbs but only 2 fingers per hand, they must be pretty strong.

And now some vogue... let's strike a pose!

"Say wha?"

"Step aside, sir"

Aghast!

Nice balance

Flexible sideways splits, and double jointed ankles?

Stayin' Alive

Crab or something...

Yes, he does transform: into this... thing. (And yes, he does have an anus, thanks for sharing... why I don't know...)

I like the look of this guy, I'm not into those Bionicle/Hero Factory style figures. They seem to have big holes everywhere, and don't use much in the way of standard bricks. They don't really look "Lego" to me either. This guy is made primarily from stuff you'd find in a normal set, with studs everywhere. The body parts are all in decent scale to each other. Often the arms or legs will be too short or something like that.

The final word:

I built this model last because I was expecting to keep this one built rather than the other two. This is only my 4th Creator set, the other 3 I bought because of the parts. One of those I bought 3 of, so I built each model from separate sets before dismantling into storage. This one might stay built though. I thought that the inclusion of 4 big tyres only used in 1 minor model was a bit strange.

Was it worth buying/the money? That's the question everyone wants answered when they read a review. My answer is always another question: "Is any set worth buying/the money?" I enjoyed it. Don't know if I enjoyed it as much as it cost, I never really know that. I liked the look of the set pictures, and I don't mind the final model in the end. To be perfectly honest I feel like I'm buying outside of my normal theme interest when it comes to Creator.

Score? X apples out of Y oranges. You can probably get the feeling of a qualitative score by reading this post. Hope you enjoyed the "review" and thanks for reading/looking.

If you have any further comments on this set or review feel free to contribute, any questions or photographical requests go ahead. I don't have the smaller Creator set (31006 or 31008?) to compare that mech to this though.

Edited July 13, 2013 by Artanis I

[GregoryBrick]

Thanks for the review - I always like to see the Creator robot sets. It looks like a good combination of functional specialized parts (like the ball-joints) and more basic parts with wider application.

[Laservampire]

I was a little bit underwhelmed by this set. The robot mode really doesn't have good articulation. Lego needs to steal some of the SNOT ideas that many of the larger Kre-O transformers bots use...

[Esurient]

Thanks for the review! Maybe you should consider signing up for the Academy

[Artanis I]

Thanks for the review - I always like to see the Creator robot sets. It looks like a good combination of functional specialized parts (like the ball-joints) and more basic parts with wider application.

The part selection seemed to me fairly broad, but not too specialised. If this was your only set you could find the parts quite useful with many building options.

I was a little bit underwhelmed by this set. The robot mode really doesn't have good articulation. Lego needs to steal some of the SNOT ideas that many of the larger Kre-O transformers bots use...

The ent from Orthanc has better leg articulation, and rotation on the torso too. Yeah this one isn't really that great an action figure.

Thanks for the review! Maybe you should consider signing up for the Academy

What are you trying to say?!? Haha. I previously considered it but I heard it's time consuming.

[Esurient]

What are you trying to say?!? Haha. I previously considered it but I heard it's time consuming.

Your review looks pretty good, I am not a teacher/reviewer but I reckon you will breeze through the course

[Xfing]

This baby just arrived to me today off Bricklink along with the 31006! I had already bought the 31008 a while ago, now I got all three of these sister sets. I was pretty impresed with what you could do with the pieces from 31008 even without putting much thought into it. Having all three sets will definitely let me build something sick when I'm done with the official builds.

Hell, Creator's altogether different from the Aquazone action sets that I've been collecting. The pieces are much, much more multipurpose and much more conducive to building in microscale.