7041 Troll Battle Wheel Review

[Dovchenko]

...because there's picture/lag galore to be had.

Troll Battle Wheel

The Box:

I like the front scene: the haughty looking guard with his halberd, the one running away from its daunting wheels and screaming for his life, and one using a unique sort of "hook-mace" to get up onto the mighty wheel and hopefully stop the Orcs before they rip up the barricade and move in on the castle. The Orc Warriors are running (in the wrong direction actually, see further into the review) on the wheel to make it jolt forward, while our treacherous Orc Chieftain waits on top with his powerful sword and ornate armour for a chance to pick off one of the guards with his mighty mounted crossbow. Pretty detailed description, but I really like the colours- it is very bright, attractive and really sells the product. Rather, the ENORMOUS "Special Edition" labels sell the product. The Troll Battle Wheel was released just earlier this year (Febuary?) to kick off Castle 2008, and with its gigantic golden labels reading "Special Edition" in white text, it was awaited by quite a few people.

On the back of the box is another scene: the battle wheel at a stop due to the Crownies ambushing the Orcs on top; the chieftain dueling a knight with his sword and shield, another slaughtering an Orc on top of a stationary wheel, also breaking the halberd off of the battle wheel, and the halberd crownie sparring the crossbow Orc. The battle wheel has launched its competition missile, while the zamor sphere catapult has been fired at said battle wheel. All of this is on a grassland/battlefield back ground, with the castle visible on a mountain on the horizon. The borders here are green, a nice and sort of grassy green, which eventually changes to moss-covered rock on the back. The bottom shows a fight scene between the six figures, and the top has another Special Edition label on it. In total, there are four of those annoying "Special Edition" labels. They look castle-like but... come on, you feel almost like you bought the set just for completion because of that.

The box itself is nice, but it is not a "punchtab box" but rather the new tape w/flaps; making the box worth less for some and being a very poor move on Lego's part. Someone could have done something to it... opened it and taken some contents, wrecked the parts, and more. But it's nothing to watch out for- you should be able to tell. Just not as easily as the punchtabs, which I felt were Lego's best idea.

The Instructions:

In total, there are 48 pages of instructions here. The background is the best I've ever seen- grey silhouettes of the Skeleton Tower set on one side, and the King's Castle on the other. There are absolutely no "gotchas", however, there is as expected loads of repetition at the end. Making the wheels for the battle wheel involve repeating the same section twice, and with 16 sections in each wheel, you have to repeat the wheel segments 32 times. It can be painful... especially on the fingers with so many of those click joints... but it's a very fun two-and-a-half-hour-build. At the beginning, it shows that piece sorting warning, and of course a "don't shoot your battle wheel's competition launcher at your little brother!"- it's obvious that someone's been watching too much "A Christmas Story". With details on the Lego Club Magazine and subscription online along with a "Win Lego Products" advertisement at the very end, it's a pretty solid manual. There is only one instruction book in the set. Two things I should note is that this set comes with 32 pearl silver teeth pieces for the wheels (for anyone needing them, along with some other of those awesome chocolate brown pieces, this set may be a good parts pack), and that the large graphic on page 45 may be of some interest to people, seeing as it could give some vignette/diorama/battle ideas, and it's overall an awesome image.

The Figures:

There are six figures in total, three crownies (one with the double sided grin/scared face, one with the gallant goatee face, and one with the grim, hardened battle look. The torsos aren't new, but are still good for army building. The three orcs included get less praise, seeing as two of them have no weaponry, making them utterly useless once the battle wheel is taken down. They are interesting figures though- a nice, menacing head; rugged torsos and glittery-black helmets. The Orc Chieftain is very cool- some people have had a problem with the fact that he comes with a skeleton chestplate (from the final joust last year), however, it looks awesome on him and with his large bronze helmet, an even cooler and way more rugged torso underneath and of course that nice head, he's probably the best figure here. Due to it coming with three crownie knights, two unarmed Orcs and one orc chieftain, this is an excellent start to castle- just like I have started now.

The Barricade:

This has received some criticism due to it being "useless", and I'll agree that it is generally a useless addition to the set, but it is visually pleasing and has some very nice crownie pieces. The dark green ground parts are very nice, less flamboyant than the usual green and more realistic than using a rocky grey. With 6 spears, this is a great parts pack for spears as well- along with one lance. The thing is on hinges to make the barricade supporting the catapult (the millionth catapult LEGO has ever done), which I felt was the best possible way to do it. It's fairly sturdy and all, but at the same time, this is too small. Only by cramming can you get all three figures inside- and usually, it's impossible. Only two can really stand in either spot due to their weapons and all- if it were bigger, a platoon of crown knights could have stood behind it. However, rather than a barricade, it feels like the catapult is more of the emphasis. The barricade only defends the crownies as they load the zamor sphere in and fire. There is no mechanism as usual- slam the long end of the catapult and hope for the best. If it used the chain mechanism similar to the Dwarves' Mine Defender (and there's more than enough room below the catapult to have the "pull the chain" mechanism), it would have been far more interesting. The sphere will roll far, but it doesn't get too high above the ground. It will skim the ground, hitting infantry until it rolls to a finish in front of the general, tripping him for novelty's sake. Unless you practically break it by slamming it, the catapult won't go very far. Break this for pieces if you really need to, but it's still a really nice model that works amazingly for displays. Another problem- there's nothing in it. Just space. The one crownie comes with a unique hook-mace weapon, and it can be a pain to carry around (it's very long), and somewhere to put it wouldn't be too bad an addition.

Troll Orc Battle Wheel:

The main part of the set, this is a very nice vehicle, very nicely coloured, and excellently designed. Though fairly small and somewhat impractical in an Orc army... well, what is practical in an Orc Army anyways? I view it as a special unit, maybe only used in certain battles because of its unique concept and clever ideas, maybe it's expensive to build or not fool/Orc proof... but still, maybe as the leader's vehicle, it's almost like a mobile throne with a competition missile and giant wheels. The "chocolate brown" as some people call it, looks very realistic with the red brown as compared to a mono-coloured wood vehicle... Harry Potter's Shrieking Shack could have benefited from this new colour. Luckily, the set somes with an enormous supply of 2X6 Chocolate Brown Plates... 64 in total. I made a simple staircase that took a while to deconstruct, but was still pretty awesome looking (it gets to be really high!) but on a finishing note about the new brown, it goes perfectly with the Orcs and their wooden gimmicky vehicles. The wheels themselves... well, if anyone is a fan of Pirates of the Caribbean here... Dead Man's Chest in particular... let's just say you're in luck.

Construction is fairly simple and honestly, the entire vehicle is either a repetition (the wheels) or just building the frame (boring), but somehow, the wheel is fairly interesting to build... especially to see how big it really is in real life. The wheels are supported extremely well and they move extremely fast (they aren't slow and clunky but smooth and durable). Construction of the wheel may have taken me 2 hours, though I was working very slowly and taking my time to enjoy the unique building style. In the back of the vehicle, I should note that it is long, with the trigger mechanism being very similar to Exo Force's Sonic Phantom in 2006. Both sets have recieve some criticism about using the trigger and all, more so in the Sonic Phantom, but that's just ridiculous. The Sonic Phantom has been criticised as a "gun that's dressed up to look like a ship". And you know what? Maybe it is. But your claims that it doesn't work or it's a very useless/annoying to build battle machine? It sure beats the Fire Vulture's stupid cockpit and stocky legs and the Sentry's posability-but-not-much-else idea. The Troll Battle Wheel is much easier to steer, play with and raid crownie villages with using the trigger mechanism, which never really gets in the way, save for if you're trying to grab the battle wheel from the back. A bit of the mechanism reaches the top, and if you hold it the wrong way when lifting it, you're bound to loose the missile in a messy room. Moving back to how there is the long trigger part in the back to make up the frame and to stop the platform from tipping backwards... well, it's long. It just sticks out, kind of annoying and in actual combat useless (crownies are going to see some random long plank of wood sticking out of the back?) but it's a very good idea and probably the only way of supporting it. The competition missile is better than you might expect. The mechanism pulls back with the trigger, launching the newer missile (the smaller design) extremely far and often hitting your pets/siblings/friends/whatever. In combat, it's wipes out Crownies pretty fast, sweeping across the landscape and slamming through a platoon of those knights. However, it isn't very good for attacking the barricade. With no action feature at all, it just bounces off and takes a few of the spears off. If you're lucky though, it knocks a guy in the face and probably the most important part of the missile... when it hits the catapult, it "messes it up". Knocks out the rock, sometimes flipping the entire barricade over.

To support the "throne" as I like to call it at the top, some technic beams are used. In the front it is covered with the Orc Flag but in the back it is exposed... however, it takes nothing away from the model and fits nicely (also heavily strengthening the model). The guy sits on top with his crossbow to shoot up a few Dwarves snooping around outside of their mine, and though small the platform/throne is pretty nice with chocolate brown 1X2 log bricks for that added detail. In the front, there are some black-glitter pieces as "armour" for the vehicle which looks perfectly rugged. Technically, to make this vehicle go, the two orcs hold onto the bars sticking out (halberds) and run forward, kind of like a circus clown running on a giant ball, only now with wooden wheels of death. However, if you're really accurate scientifically with your sets, you'll notice that the way the Orcs are running isn't correct. If they run forward, they're pushing back on the wheel, making it walk backwards. So I like to say that the Orcs "moonwalk" the vehicle around. Sounds weird, but I guess that's the only way that it'll work. I had a problem with the halberds used to support the Orcs on the vehicle however. It's a pretty funny story- when I was zooming around with my Battle Wheel at top speed, one Orc's halberd was fairly loose (it always is) and made him slip under, throwing his back into the wheel. Unfortunately for him, no one noticed he slipped, and at least 60 "clunks" later, I noticed that he was barely hanging on by one hand and was pretty much beaten to death by the wheel! That raises my final point about the wheel, of course... if the halberds are loose, the Orc's fall back into the wheel or end up upside down and, if you're moving too fast, they get jammed against the wheel and rip off the wooden planks. I wish Lego had done something to better support them, in case someone DID end up with a loose halberd. The design of this entire vehicle isn't as blocky as you might think... it's a nice vehicle that though while not smooth is extremely Orcish. The wheels don't clunk at all against carpet (carpet is the wheel's best friend... it runs incredibly smooth and on carpet can really smash into the barricade/knights), but harder surfaces, you've been warned. This may scratch wooden tables.

All in all, this set cost me 54.97 CAN. For me that's quite a bit of money, but even then I felt it was well placed. Seeing as some people here devote themselves to LEGO, 50$ is seemingly nothing spent. Anyone done buying their theme of choice (Indiana Jones, Agents, City, etc.) may want to buy this set to start a castle collection. If you've ever seen some of those table-top games (Warhammer or something? I quit after a year and for the better.) and noticed how each "starter box" is set up, it comes with a fair amount of starter troops for two factions. This is kind of what you see here... a first Orc Vehicle for the Orcs, and a few troops and a barricade for the Crownies. I'm going to buy Tower Raid and make a display... two Orc Vehicles rumbling across the plains, with a mighty prison (that tower with this set's barricade positioned just in front). This set has a great amount of pieces and though there are a lot of repeats, this set makes a good chocolate brown parts pack. Even though it's not at all new, it's still great for the troops and a great investment if you're just starting castle.

10/10 - A modern must buy.

Review finished but pictures coming soon... stay tuned!

Edited June 27, 2008 by Dovchenko

[Sir Dillon]

Perhaps you should have figured out how to post images before making this thread?

Shadows explains it in this tutorial: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18451

[Dovchenko]

Perhaps you should have figured out how to post images before making this thread?

Shadows explains it in this tutorial: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18451

To be brutally honest... yes, I should have. Thank you very much, I'll work that out now.

[Hinckley]

...because there's picture/lag galore to be had.

Resize those pictures before posting them please or they will be removed. Thanks

[Adam]

Uhhhhh...

What pictures?

Nice review, though !

Edited June 19, 2008 by Adam

[Dwarvenlord]

A good review! Though a few pics wouldn't do bad, eh?

[commanderbly42]

Thanks for the review! I really like this set but the wheels sound tedious to build from what you just said.

[Tom_castlefan]

I personally think this set is too bulky, and also don't think that it is a good army builder.

Just my two cents.

Review would of also been better with pictures, but it was good anyway

Tom

[Dovchenko]

"Sorry, dynamic pages in the tags are not allowed"

The written part of the review is completely finished but what's this crap?

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3233587 My brickshelf, if you can maybe understand what's the matter.

[iamded]

Just click on the picture one more time, then stick the url between the image tags.

[img=http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Haunt-For-Life/trollbattlewheel/lego_review_003.jpg]

There.

~Peace

[Lt. Col. Thok]

Wow, nice picture quality! Good job!

[Matn]

Thanks for the review: it's very detailed about everything, I think this will be my next LEGO purchase.