[REVIEW] 75638 One Piece: Battle At Arlong Park

[MKJoshA]

INTRODUCTION

Through it all, through all the troubled times
Through the heartache, and through the pain
Know that I will be there to stand by you
Just like I know you'll stand by me!...

For those unfamiliar with the long running Manga and Anime, One Piece is the story of Monkey D. Luffy and his dream to become king of the pirates. Through the world of One Piece there are many other pirates looking to achieve the same goal or carve out their own slice or territory. Luffy fights many of these foes through the series, one of them being Arlong. Acting as the season finale for the first season, Luffy and his crew face off against the Arlong Pirates.

This is my 4th review of this theme. You can read my review of the Going Merry, the Windmill Village Hut, and Buggy's Circus Tent respectively. 

Is this set a good representation of the season finale or can you skip it? Let's find out!

SET INFORMATION
Number: 75638
Title: Battle At Arlong Park
Theme: One Piece
Released: 2025
Part Count: 926
Box Dimensions: 38 x 26 x 6.75 cm
Weight: 1008g
Set Price (RRP): £74.99/$79.99/€79.99
Price per Part: 8.1p/8.6c/8.6c
Links: Brickset, Bricklink

THE BOX AND WHAT'S INSIDE

On the front of the box we get to see Luffy's Gum-Gum-Pistol move in action. 

The back shows off the play features including the tower collapsing.

In addition to the bags there are 3 instructions books, a large sticker sheet and Luffy's torso.

THE BUILD

First off I'll start with the side builds.

I chose not to apply the stickers. And without them everything looks really plain. 

There is a small carnival game, a bar with the transponder snail, a throne for Arlong, and a tree for Usopp to hide behind. Overall these are nothing special. They look like their counterparts from the live action show, but they don't really add much to the set.

In contrast the main building uses some great techniques to build a structure that is both sturdy and breakable. The bottom side panels use technic beams with pins to create a sandwhich.

These are then attached with axles to the base so they can easily fall over. A part of the roof is attached to the white bars using inverted tiles with holes from the Unikitty CMF.

The rest of the tower is built designed to allow the right and left halves to split. I did apply the shark mouth and flag stickers as those can be reused for other MOCs easily.

Folding down the shark mouth peak you can use Luffy (or your figures) to push the middle of the tower causing it to fall apart.

The end result is very satisfying. It's a great recreation of the epic battle moment between Luffy and Arlong. The chunks of the building stay together nicely even when exploded over and over again. And the whole tower is easy to put back together.

You can see from this photo that the sections are held together in part by clips resting inside click hinges. That plus the jumper plate connections provides a sturdy enough hold that the parts don't fall apart when moving the tower. I wouldn't go shaking it, and the whole thing wobbles when moved. But overall I am very impressed in the structural integrity of a collapsible building. 

True to the story, you can chain Nami up inside and force her to work for Arlong. Trying to get Luffy to fit inside is another issue. I love the option to have the long arms to re-create his stretching ability. But is does pose problems when trying to actually do things with the minifigure.

You can see here that I had a hard time getting him to stand straight due to the oversized appendages. 

Adding a stand with a place for his arm to connect you can see the fronts of each minifigure. Nami and Usopp get unique outfits for this set. I particularly like the green hat for Usopp as opposed to his pink one in the other 2 sets he shows up in. It's more faithful to the anime.

I was disappointed to see the shark fin molded onto Arlong's hair. It's faithful to the source material, but it ruins the usability of this piece. I would have rather they printed the fin on his back instead.

The alternate prints are good, especially Nami's crying face and Chu's blow-fish mouth. 

Except for Luffy all figures have arm printing on 1 arm. The Arlong tattoo looks really good.

To finish off the review we end with a feast... or at least we would if there were any food elements! All the other One Piece sets have at least some food. Arlong is skimping on the catering budget it looks like. We do, however, get the gorgeous transponder snail. A hilarious method of communication that mimics telephones in real life, just with snails... I guess you just have to watch the show.

We do get a bowl and some hot-sauce. But that's not going to satisfy Luffy. On to the next island!

OVERALL

This set has a fantastic main building with a cool destruction feature. It comes with a good group of minifigures and I'm glad at least 1 Arlong pirate got included. Chu was a good choice as he and Usopp face off in the episode and his design looks good. The side builds, while faithful to the show, detract from the set. They don't add anything essential. I wish the parts had been allocated to the main building allowing it to be even bigger or removed allowing the price to be lower. The ability to re-create Luffy and Nami's interactions during the Arlong arc may be the best part of the set as it's an emotional scene that really sets the bar high in character development. 

SCORE
How do I rate this set?

DESIGN 7
It's hard to rate the design because the main tower is designed incredibly well. But the side builds should have been skipped. 

BUILDING EXPERIENCE 8
It was really fun building the tower, but the side builds were more like after thoughts.

FEATURES 7
At risk of sounding like a broken record, just see the above two comments!

PLAYABILITY 8
The collapsing tower is fantastic. The ability to recreate scenes from the Arlong episodes is great. But the side builds are a major let-down.

PARTS 9
There are a lot of parts that will make castle and Asian scene builders happy. It's a good selection of parts and makes a good set or parts pack.

VALUE FOR MONEY 9
There are a lot of small parts that inflate the piece count. But even with that this set is a decent value. It has a good selection of minifigures too.

FINAL SCORE: 8
Getting Luffy with long arms is going to be one of the biggest reasons people get this set. But you also get unique versions of Nami and Usopp as well as two good figures in Arlong and Chu. In addition the main building really adds value to the set. It's just the side builds that let you down. 

 

Last time we left Luffy and his crew on a strange island... 

 Wow Zoro, you really are bad at directions. I still don't get how you ended up locking yourself in that prison cell.

 Hey just drop it okay!

 Do you feel like someone is watching us?

 Hey, some creep just showed up!

 Don't worry Nami swan, I'll protect you!

Tune in next time to find out what happens next!