Review: 8016 Hyena Droid Bomber

[Inconspicuous]

Hi everyone! Welcome to my review of 8016 Hyena Droid Bomber.

I received this set as a gift, and I just couldn't return a Clone Wars set I didn't have. I had heard poor things about this set, but I tried to be a good critic and go into it with a positive attitude. I must admit, I ended up enjoying it much more than I thought I would.

The Bomber appeared in the Clone Wars episode "Liberty on Ryloth" for about 45 seconds total. Why did Lego make this into a set? No one will ever know. The real question is "whether it was worth doing", according to Goethe's (pronounced ger-tuh's) third principle of Criticism. There's only one way to find out.

BASIC INFORMATION:

Set Name: Hyena Droid Bomber

Set Number: 8016

Theme: Star Wars / Clone Wars

Number of Pieces: 232

Minifigs: 3

Price: 19.99 USD, 39.99 AUD, 26.99 CND, 21.49 GBP, 26.99 EUR

Year Released: 2009

RESOURCES:

Brickset

Peeron

Bricklink

Shop @ Home

Brickshelf (When Public)

Wookiepedia (for the curious ones)

THE REVIEW:

BOX:

Front:

The front of the box shows the set in action with a purple planet in the background and the usual random laser bursts from nowhere. A few set features are advertised here too. The box has the average white and blue Clone Wars logo at the top.

Top Edge:

The top edge features the three average minifigs that come with this set. The one on the right is shown sideways, to get a better view of the "jet-pack".

Back:

The back shows all of the set features and advertisements for other sets of the wave. There is actually false advertising here; it shows that the main head can swivel, but it can't. It would have been much better if it could, and it would seem it was originally intended to be included. That's a mouthful!

Box:: Thoughts: Clear box art and good colors, but it's a shame they advertised a feature not included.

Contents:

This is how the contents looked when I dumped them out, and I was absolutely horrified to find a mangled instructions book, slightly folded DSS, and scrunched up bags. What a terrible first impression!

DSS:

Ah, the classic Dreaded Sticker Sheet. Quite a bad one for a $20 set. The curved stickers are always a pain in the As I was saying before, mine was bent up a little, which was a little annoying because they kept curling up when I tried to apply them.

Rubber-band Holder:

What do we have here? It looks like our favorite rubber-band holding brick has been replaced! It probably saves money but it was always fun to find ways to use the old ones in MOCs.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Front:

Next up we have the mutilated instruction booklet. It seemed quite flimsy at first, but wasn't as hard to keep open as some of the other instruction booklets. The front is the same as the box art, except it's a little less compressed. Same random blaster fire and purple planet, nothing new.

Minifig Page:

Shown here are the first two pages, the first featuring the "don't build in the grass" and "sort by color'" suggestions. Until now, I never noticed that they're actually steps 1 and 2. Also shown are the three battle-droids, more detail on them later.

Random Page:

A random page, featuring the ever-more common piece call-outs and relaxing light-blue background. You can also see that each sub-model gets its own large piece call-out box.

Parts Inventory:

The parts inventory, for those of you too lazy to look it up on Bricklink. It's like a mini vision self-test.

Back:

Ahh, the infamous WIN, WIN, GEWINNE, GAGNE, 当てよう(Thanks, def)! ad. It still has the Naboo Starfighter on it hinting that the AAT replaced it in mid 2009.

Instructions:: Thoughts: Fine design, pleasing colors, and the not necessary but helpful piece-call outs. This is my first mutilated manual, but I've heard stories of other ones too, I guess I just got lucky until now.

PIECES:

Pieces (unsorted):

Then just like magic the pieces are de-bagged. I've left them in piles to show which came from which bags. Already a lot of dark blues pieces show up.

Pieces (sorted):

The pieces, meticulously sorted for your viewing pleasure. The dark blue doesn't seem as plentiful from this angle.

Pieces of interest:

A few of the more interesting pieces (yes, that's all the dark blue in the set). The large curved bricks aren't too useful for MOCing but I'm a big fan of the 1x2 clips.

Pieces:: Thoughts: Not too many interesting ones, but at least a few dark blue ones. Then again, there are quite a few of them for a smaller set.

MINIFIGS:

Droids:

The three minifigs included with this set are three identical rocket droids. Their "jet-packs" are a stud with binoculars on top, which I find quite lame. However, I like them more than regular battle droids, because of their special coloring. Then again, what would a regular battle droid be doing in space? Lego did a very good job making them accurate, although a headlamp would be above and beyond.

Minifigs:: Thoughts: Nothing too special apart from new colors, and what set would Lego put them in anyways? It's not like we have a pod- hunter set yet, even though one would be really awesome.

COMPLETED PRODUCT:

Front:

Time for completed set shots! It looks pretty menacing from the front, but you can already tell that the wings are going to be flimsy just by looking at them!

Wings collapsed:

One feature of this set is that the wings can fold, similar to the Vulture droid from the 7660 Naboo Starfighter. However, I have no memory of the Bomber doing this in Liberty on Ryloth.

Side View:

Now for a side view of the open wings, in which you can see the jaw-stickers. When you collapse the wings, the jaws close. Man, are those Separatists detailed!

In "Walking" Position:

Our next picture demonstrates two more of the Bomber's features: the walking mode and movable head. Both of these features are very smooth and are quite accurate from what we saw in the TV show.

Back:

This back view gives a nice shot of the bomb-dropping mechanism. The bombs drop in pairs, each pair controlled by one little switch.

Second "Head" Close-up:

Another nice little touch is that the second, non-movable head has a bottom section! I definitely didn't expect this, and it's a nice touch.

Bottom:

Last on our tour of the Bomber, we have a bottom view, with the bombs clearly visible again. Also note that the second head has a photoreceptor of some sort.

Extras:

All of the leftovers of this set. Not too many interesting pieces, just a few Technic pins, studs, and battle-droid arms. I guess the battle-droid arms could be used for Droidekas, but I like to use light gray ones better.

And now for a few feature videos! The first will showcase the Bomber's many functions and the second will showcase the bomb-dropping function in detail.

The feature works, quite well, wouldn't you agree? That is, if you've survived the bombing. :skull:

_______________________________________________

Now for those Totals!

Design: 7/10 The wings come off easily when transforming to walking mode and landing, and the mechanism they attach to is ugly and blocky.

Parts: 7/10 A good amount, but no printed pieces. I would have liked more dark blue pieces for a set mostly dark blue and dark gray.

Build: 8/10 Fast and straightforward. The stickers were evenly spread out, but quite a bit of tedious Technic.

Minifigs: 8/10 Nice minifigs in new colors. Since the droids don't really go with this set, it's nice that Lego bothered to include them.

Playability: 9/10 The bomb-dropping feature is lovely. Even if you have nothing to bomb, it's still fun. A lot of nice functions too, like the folding and transforming wings and the movable head.

Swooshability: 10/10 Very swoosh-able and sturdy. The main body is easy to hold and contrary to what you might think, the wings only come off when changing the Bomber to walking mode or crash-landing it.

Price: 10/10 232 pieces for a $20 set excellent, and even better considering the large ones.

Total: 59/70 Based off of my original expectations, this is really good! The strong points were definitely Playability, Swooshability, and the price, which are some of the more important points to judge when buying a set. (for kids that is ) Still, an AFOL could get a lot out of this too. Considering pretty much all this ship did was fly, drop bombs, and get blown up, Lego really nailed this one. If you can stand the stickers and flimsy wings, pick this up right away. Otherwise, wait for a sale (I'm sure that it will go on sale at some point).

I gave it an 84% based off of my score card. Not bad Mr. Bomber, not bad....

Bonus:

"Ha! You call yourself a Vulture droid! The only scavenger you resemble is a yellow-jacket!"

Thanks for reading!

-Inconspicuous (you may call me Inky if you wish, I know it's easier to type. )

[Skipper 24]

Great review. The function videos were a great extra addition .

I always think this set is quite small until I see it compared with the vulture droid as you have done. Some little head lamps would have been great for the droids too, but an extra mould would have probably been needed and so is unlikely.

[Rufus]

Ah, the classic Dreaded Sticker Sheet. Quite a bad one for a $20 set. The curved stickers are always a pain in the As I was saying before, mine was bent up a little, which was a little annoying because they kept curling up when I tried to apply them.

Fantastic review, Inky! (you asked for it ) One of the best I've seen. Love the videos, especially the own goal of Hyena bombing the droids in the first vid. Is there no honour amongst droids?

You know, you might have convinced me actually to buy this set. Normally I don't buy Clone Wars unless the vehicle appeared in the 'proper' movies, but I made an exception for Nute Gunray, maybe I will here. You've done a much better job selling this than lego did!

Great stuff

[def]

I certainly liked this more than the regular vulture droid set, but have destroyed mine for parts. I did like the battle droids here. A little variation goes a long way

Thanks for the clear looking review.

[Oky]

Thanks for this in-depth review, Inconspicuous! I still think that TLG did a horrible job at recreating this vehicle though (click here to see why). I have only seen one blurry pic of the new Tri-Fighter, but I already know that I prefer it any day over this poor excuse of a set. The only things that save it from being "Poor" are the price-per-parts ratio and the (for now) exclusive figs.

Great review, but like in the other review, I think some comparison pics with the "real thing" would have been good.

[Fumoffu]

Excellent review of a pretty average set. There's not a lot going for this set even with the exclusive minifigs.

I hope to pick up a set later on sale and I suspect it will go on sale for a substantial discount because you can find this set on all shelves ... a bit like the Assassin Droid BP. Fans are voting with their wallets on this one.