Review Review: Galaxy Squad 70706 Crater Creeper

[Pandora]

Number – 70706

Name – Crater Creeper

Theme – Galaxy Squad

Year – 2013

Minifigs – 2

Pieces – 171

Price – $19.99/ €15.99?/ 12.99? Exact price not yet known.

Links: Brickset, Bricklink not yet listed, Peeron not yet listed, LEGO Shop@Home not yet listed.

Galaxy Squad (and I really keep wanting to say Galaxy Quest) is the brand new Space theme from TLG, which has been launched in many places to general approval. Unfortunately this is the first Galaxy Squad set I've been able to see up close, as TLG has decided to launch the Winter and Summer waves together in Summer in the UK, but the general feedback from those who got their hands on the Winter wave is that they are enjoying this new theme and liking a lot of the features of the sets. If, like me, you wish to know a little more about Galaxy Squad, then here's a little bit of the story:

The Galaxy Squad consists of four colour coded sections: Red (led by Billy Starbeam), Blue (led by Solomon Blaze), Green (led by Chuck Stonebreaker) and Orange (with Jack Fireblade and Ashlee Starstrider - a girl!) and each team also have their own colour coded robot side-kick too. The Galaxy Squad fight the Alien Buggoids and Mosquitoids to stop them from doing... whatever it is they're doing or trying to do, which must be bad because they're bugs, right?

So far in the theme the sets have been a mixture of monochrome with single-colour accent futuristic space vehicles, and exotically coloured insect shaped vehicles - a really intriguing combination of builds within one theme. The Green team (and so far as I can tell the teams are only called by their colours) had a large vehicle in the first wave 70704: Vermin Vaporizer, and this set has Chuck striking out in a smaller vehicle against a reasonable large Alien Insectoid vehicle. So, I'm excited for my first opportunity to build one of these sets - let's have a look at it!

The Box

The colour base for the box is white, reflecting the Galaxy Squad's mostly-white vehicles, but there's a lot of artwork to depict the alien world and its landscape. The Crater Creeper is crawling over the alien rockface, while Chuck zooms in to attack with his missiles. In the top right the alien Buggoid is amusingly 'bursting' out of the box and it's a great touch to bring the alien to life. In the bottom right Chuck looks cool, and confident with his gun. No Buggoids are getting away from him.

The back of the box has a 'Tron' style grid overlaid on a background of stars and galaxies in space. There's a great view of the Crater Creeper itself, including lots of insets showing all the playfeatures, including the fact that the Crater Creeper can grip Chuck's pod in its pincers. There's a lot more information here, including a QR code (that I admit I haven't scanned) and in the bottom right a cheery picture of Chuck with a website that doesn't currently work for me (perhaps because I'm in the UK where Galaxy Squad hasn't been released).

On the top and bottom of the box you can see better the continuing minimalist white. I think this is a great choice for a colour; it's really clean and fresh. It's unusual to have such an empty colour on such action packed sets, but it allows the actual LEGO to stand out more, and it ties in so well to the white basis of the Galaxy Squad's vehicles. Unusually, instead of using a minifigure, they've chose a raygun to denote scale. I'm not sure how much that helps, but it looks quite stylish.

The sides of the box show more clean and contemporary white space. You can just make out four symbols, denoting the four different Galaxy Squad teams, and each team's set has its logo filled out in its team's colour, which is a nice design. The design of the sides are kept sleek, with just a smaller picture of the set from the front of the box. It's a shame they had to include the LEGO club promotional stuff, as it does spoil the aesthetic, but I understand that it's necessary.

The Box Contents

There are four polybags inside the box, two large and two small, and this is where you first get the sense of the colour scheme for the set.

There is also a small sticker sheet, with four stickers, which was in remarkably good condition when I fished it out of the box. You'll see how these are applied later, but they are printed on a transparent base, which makes them slightly less obvious as stickers. The printing itself is fine and clear, so they are the next best thing to actual printed parts.

The Instructions

Just one instruction booklet; hardly surprising, as it isn't a very big set. The artwork here is the same as for the front of the box, but you can see a bit more of the landscape. It's been mentioned by a few that there's more than a passing "Starship Troopers" vibe to this theme, and it looks like the lime green construction in the background is actually the Buggoid city, not least because you can see the pincers of another Crater Creeper on the horizon. So that sort of implies that the Galaxy Squad have travelled to the Insectoids' world to take them on. Very Starship Troopers...

So here's a random(ish) page from the instructions. Firstly, the Tron-like grid background is back, which is kinda retro in a cool way plus there are faint impressions of nebulae too. Secondly, there's a nice cheery picture of Chuck to encourage you while you build. He's also got his green team logo next to him too. Thirdly, at this stage in the build, you can see there's quite a bit of SNOT work and Technic, which we'll see a bit more of later. This isn't just a brick-on-brick build.

It could be argued that one of the most useful pages in the instructions is the inventory, so here it is, and if you'd like to see it better then please click on the pic for a link to a larger version.

I have spared you the torture of seeing the ignominious "Gagne" child that graces the back cover, and instead I offer you this: the page that shows the complete view of all the upcoming Galaxy Squad sets. If it looks a little pink, that's because it is. It seems that, in Galaxy Squad, pink is the colour of the laser fire from the Insectoids, so there's quite a bit of pink here, as the Galaxy Squad hide behind their set boxes to take cover from the fire. I like the little 'holes' in the scenery from the laser fire too; the artwork as a whole is fun and action-packed.

The Parts

There are a few parts here that are new to me. It's easy to spot the Hero Factory angled blades in black, and they have only appeared in one Hero Factory set 6228 Thornraxx, before cropping up in Galaxy Squad's 70703 Star Slicer. The light bluish grey 6x6 round plate has only appeared in a few sets before, so it's also not easy to get hold of, as is the trans red windscreen which hasn't been seen since 2003.

It's unlikely you'll have many of the dark red curved 2x2 slopes, unless you own a lot of Maersk sets, specifically all four versions of the Container Ship, as those are the only sets it's ever been seen in before. The dark red 4x1 curved slope is a relatively new piece, having debuted in dark red in 2012 in the Ninjago set 9448 Samurai Mech and then appeared in only 3 other sets so far this year. Just next to them, the 2x2 air scoop tops are brand new in dark red for this set.

In these bags my eye was certainly drawn to the olive green 1x2 plates. This colour version of this piece is pretty new; it's only been around since 2012, and has only appeared in this colour in 4 sets, 3 of which were pretty large. You can't ignore the only printed piece in the set; the lime green printed 2x2 round tile that's supposed to represent an open insect mouth in the Galaxy Squad sets. It's only appeared in 70700 Space Swarmer, in the sets that have been released so far, and the 1x2 lime green cheese wedge has only ever been seen in 31007 Power Mech before. The dark bluish grey 1x2 modified plate with pin hole is a brand new piece for 2013, however TLG have already made good use of the part, as it's far from rare already, and the two barrel pistol is also reasonably new (2011) but featured in a myriad of sets.

Minifigures

Here they are, side by side, Buggoid of unknown name, and Chuck Stonebreaker, leader of the Galaxy Squad Green Team! Mr Buggoid manages to look both serious and slightly smiley at the same time, which is really quite a feat. He's looking at you, with his four eyes, from under his heavily fortified forehead. As with any insect-like creature, he seems to have a segmented abdomen, although he also seems to be wearing a very small pair of underpants. Chuck, on the other hand, is wearing his Galaxy Squad standard issue space armour (in green, naturally) which comes with artificially enhanced pectoral and abdominal muscles, decorated with Galaxy Squad logos. Chuck's grin indicates a man used to space-swashbuckling and derring-do, and his scars mark him out as a battle hardened hero. He has a lovely matching helmet, too. The printing here is really very detailed and precise, with good colour choices too and I'm really impressed with these figures.

As mentioned, Unnamed Buggoid has four eyes, but all four of these eyes are printed with detailing that really adds another level to this figure. It's only a few dark red spots, but it's such a great detail to really give the figure something extra.

At the back, Buggoid has more great printing to show his segmented Insectoid body, and you can see the moulding of the back of the head, designed to fit with this segmentation. The shape of this moulded head carapace fits really well with the design of the Buggoid, and the fact that the hands match some of the printing detail is another great design feature. Chuck also has a detailed back print, that looks very Sci-Fi with an almost mechanical representation of his spine. There's another Galaxy Squad logo here, and you can also just make out the number 30; I confess, I don't know what that means. I assume Chuck's wearing a sort of spacey respirator type thing, which is nicely printed with shiney silver, but does look a bit like Hannibal Lecter's gimp mask. Chuck doesn't look too happy about it.

Here you can better see the shape of the Buggoid's head. It's all one mould, not a head with a mask or helmet over it, but here you gain a better sense of the curvature of the carapace and can see the probosces at the front.

The Build

Having assembled the minifigures, the first thing to build is Chuck's pod. It doesn't look like your usual "spaceship", it's not enclosed (ensuring easy access for fingers) and it's not all sleek and streamlined. It looks a little like an armoured armchair on a circular rug. With guns and missiles. And I rather like that idea, and I also like that it isn't just another pointy little ship. The green team's coloured stripe is effected by an expertly () placed sticker on the front, and the basic colour here is white, with a hint of trans for that clean, futuristic Sci-Fi feel.

A view from the back shows that the colour scheme also includes dark green; the curves of which add further to the armchair aesthetic. It's an eye-pleasing colour combination, and it also makes sense from a story perspective too. The control panel of the armchair is effected by another expertly applied sticker, and is also mostly in the green of the green team, and looks suitably impressive as to transform the otherwise boring 1x2 white cheese wedge.

Chuck looks both excited and menacing as he chases you down in his floating armchair, and that's really quite an arsenal he's got pointed at you there, too. In fact, from the front, this looks a bit more like a souped-up mobility scooter for people who get annoyed at pedestrians walking too slowly in front of them. The glow of the trans light blue lateral thrusters work nicely with the green-and-monochrome colour scheme.

Round the back you can see more of that lovely dark green, and also a flash of blue. Id' love to say this was the impulse core or something, but actually the SNOTage of the lateral thrusters is created by the use of Technic pins (in fact there's quite a bit of Technicy stuff in this set) and that's what's causing the blue. Chuck can't actually lean back in his armchair, as the angle's a little wrong, but then if you're going off to blast Insectoids to oblivion, you probably shouldn't be too relaxed about it. Either that or he needs a space-cushion.

As Chuck wobbles and upends his craft, we get an opportunity to see that it does indeed hover, no doubt due to the transperambulation of pseudocosmic antimatter (with apologies to Robert Rankin). This is, however, delightfully represented by four trans blue 2x2 boat studs, and very pretty they look too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Having happily sorted Chuck's conveyance out (and happily indeed one does), it's time to move onto the main build: the Crater Creeper itself.

Earlier on, in the instructions part of this review, I showed you a mid-build picture where I mentioned that there was quite a bit of SNOT work and Technic involved here. You can see that there's a few SNOT brackets already applied to the main build, and there are a lot of Technic bricks, and axles and pins and other Technicyness involved.

You can understand how this goes from a bare skeleton to being a large insect-like vehicle, even at this point, thanks to the appearance of some of the Technic angle connectors. A reasonable number of interestingly coloured and shaped parts are actually lost underneath further layers of bricks, plates Technic and SNOT, and the build really does feel like a layering process.

So here is our Crater Creeper, in all its red and lime green glory. It really does manage to look like part vehicle and part bug; both mechanical and organic. It looks venomous and sinister and "Creeper" really is the right name for it. The curved lime green piece at the front looks like an insect's carapace, and in armouring an insect it is armouring also an alien vehicle. The pincers at the front are snapped shut thanks to the tension of the colour-coordinated red rubber band, which is the only thing that really looks out of place.

If you take the red rubber band off, though, then you can see more of the front of the vehicle. As the pincers open, they reveal the placement of that singular printed round tile, which is nicely positioned on top of four pink 1x1 round plates. The pincers in the open position looks more organic and menacing, but removing the rubber band removes a play feature. By pressing on the Technic axles that are exposed on either side of the front of the model, the pincers will open and close at will and are even able to grab things, including Chuck's pod.

Round the back you can see another expertly applied sticker, and that it's been applied to a trans part. The lime green and trans red is an unusual colour combination, but for colouring an alien insect vehicle it's a combination that works well. The curved lime green pieces on the top of the body smooth nicely down onto the trans red shell, and the model looks segmented, just like an insect.

Underneath the rear exoskeleton, there's a nasty surprise, though. This is where the Buggoid keeps his blaster, yet it also seems to be integrated into the vehicle as a sting in its tail. You can't even sneak up on it from behind.

With Buggoid in the driving seat, the controls (thanks to the last expertly applied sticker) are at his fingertips. From this angle you can see that the model is almost exclusively black, grey, lime green and dark red. There's some nice switching between the colours, and the studs from the front lime green curved 6x2 wedges are nicely balanced by the pattern of the sticker on the rear trans red piece, effectively making the studs themselves part of the design.

It would be great to be able to say that the Creeper can walk, or even creep, but unfortunately four of the six legs don't articulate at all. The middle legs are the only ones that do, and you can clearly see the joint here, but unfortunately they only move up and down, not forwards and backwards. This is a bit of a shame, as with all the Technic involved I was hoping for a more dynamic model, but it is not to be. You'll just have to raise the Creeper's middle legs in a menacing way instead.

So here we have Chuck and Buggy, reunited again. Really this picture is to show the scale; Chuck looks pretty much outclassed in this encounter, and he seems quite exposed in his little flying pod. I guess, though, that what he lacks in armour is significantly made up for with manoeuvrability, especially considering he can fly and the Creeper can't even walk.

At the end of building, as ever there are parts left over, but the leftovers here are quite frugal unless you like Technic pins. Really, though, these represent easily lost parts, but it's always nice to know that there are some things that are supposed to be left over.

And a little look at flick-fire missiles. Love 'em or hate 'em, you get two pairs of them in this set, and this picture is to serve as a reminder for those of you who got excited and fired off your missiles never to be found again. This is what they looked like.

Conclusion

Design: 9/10 The whole style of Galaxy Squad has me absolutely intrigued. I really love the clean white base for the theme, with the single colour accents for the teams, but I also love the exotic colour combinations and use of trans parts for the Insectoid vehicles. There's such great contrast, and I saw that in this set. The little pod is great, and it's not a pointy starship. The larger Creeper looks just like a mechanised insect. I think the design for this theme and this set is pretty much spot-on.

Parts: 8/10 There are some newly coloured parts here, and a good amount of parts I wouldn't normally have. Most of them have been used in Action and Sci-Fi sets quite a bit, though, so they may not be all that exciting to the theme's target audience. I suspect that the only printed part will be commonplace within Galaxy Squad sets, so that too is unlikely to be a great draw. There's a good collection of Technic bits and bobs though, especially if that's an area of LEGO you don't usually go for.

Minifigs: 9/10 It's not a huge set, and the two minifigs are completely appropriate. They are both brand new to me, and I am very impressed with the level of detail and quality of the printing. Chuck makes a great character, and his face is a great addition to our minifig collection. The Buggoid looks very alien-insecty; who could ask for more? In this size set you only need one of each side, and that's just what you get.

Build: 10/10 I had tons of fun with this build. There's very little repetition, and the few steps that are repeated are quite complicated, so they certainly aren't boring. It won't have escaped your attention that there's a load of Technic in this build, and that really isn't something I do much of, usually by choice. I've seen it crop up in some CREATOR and Friends sets before, so it doesn't bother me at all, but I was surprised to actually find it fun. Additionally there's quite a bit of SNOT building here, and layering up the SNOT, too. I enjoyed that part of the build immensely too. There was certainly no brick-on-brick element to this, and that was a pleasant change.

Playability: 8/10 With one of each faction (Galaxy Squad and Insectoid) it's easy to create scenarios of fight and escape and peril. The biggest play feature is obviously the gripping pincers, which is fun, but the elastic band required for it does spoil the look of the model a little. Obviously there are flick fire missiles, which will be fun until you lose them, but there could have been an even better playfeature if the Creeper's legs had been articulated. I am aware that that would make this a far more complicated model, though, and this wouldn't be the smallish-sized set that it is.

Overall 88%

I'm actually surprised at how much I like this set; there's really a lot to enjoy here. The printing on the minifigs is really lovely, and Chuck is a worthy leader of the green team with his debonair smirk and battle-hardened features. The parts selection is pretty good, especially if you're drawn into this theme from others, and the build is superbly enjoyable. Both contraptions can be swooshed to great effect and having two opposing vehicles in one set allows for instant scenario play. It's clear they've thought about the play features, and they haven't just used a few flick fire missiles (although they're still there for the die hard fans), but it would have been even better still if the legs had been better articulated.

The whole theme and style of Galaxy Quest is hugely appealing. The clean and modern take on the futuristic nature of the Galaxy squad compared with the bright and vibrant organic aesthetic of the Insectoids is a fabulous contrast. Judging by this set, I'll be acquiring several more of the Galaxy Squad sets when they are eventually released in the UK.

Thank you for reading, comments are always very welcome.  High-Res pictures can be found on my

flickr account.

The green team call in reinforcements from the newly-formed pink team to finish off the last Crater Creeper....

...and with the behemoth slain, they decide to hit the space-pub together...

[WhiteFang]

Dear Eurobricks members,

This exclusive Eurobricks Review is now 'live' for public viewing.

WhiteFang

[I Scream Clone]

Great review, I swear I have seen Pinkie before, maybe it was in the US....

This looks to be a nice smaller set, yet containing some nice elements and a cool build.

Great job.

[Brickington]

Great review! Do these sets come straight from TLG? What is the packaging like? Do you get a special message from TLG with the set? Sorry for being a bit noisy, but I have always wondered about these things. I understand if you can't answer those questions.

[DraikNova]

I'm starting to think this guy might actually be worth my money. Irrelevant, as I'm planning to get all of GS anyway .

[Henchmen4Hire]

It's nice to know that no matter what planet it is or how big the bug is, it'll always die with its legs up xD

[LukeClarenceVan]

Very cool, thanks for the review!

[Gryphon Ink]

Great review, Pandora. I really like the look of this set. I must say I haven't really warmed up to Galaxy Squad yet, but I'd like to get at least one or two of the smaller sets because I like the buggoids themselves and some of the parts are really neat. This looks like a good one to get. The beetle is a great model. It looks more like a real bug than any of the buggoid vehicles I've seen so far. It's a real shame the legs don't move, though. I wish TLG had incorporated more movement in the alien vehicles. I know it would drive up the price, but I'd be willing to pay a lot more for a more interesting Technic-enabled moving insectoid.

[Only Sinner]

Great review! The green team got kind of ripped with a tiny vehicle here. They got an awsome one in the first wave, so that makes it fair, I guess. I might consider getting one of these, anyway.

[Csacsa234]

Thanks for the superb review Pandora! I have to say from the summer lineup I was only interested in the big sets but your cool review got me thinking about getting this set. From above it really looks like a bug and the recolored parts are very awesome (dark red engine block ). Also the green squad speeder is really cute with that round shape and makes the set complete.

[The_Creator]

Excellent review Pandora! I love this set, then again I love all the GS sets. :P

[GregoryBrick]

Thank you very much for the review. Of all the 2^nd wave Galaxy Squad sets, this and the Eradicator Mech I have been most interested in.

It seems like a nice set, though I think it is in stiff competition for the price (there are many good sets at $24.99 CAD, where I expect this to be). If it is only $20 CAD, because of the lower piece count, then it's definitely a winner.

I think the small green ship is superior to the small bug ship in Swarm Interceptor, but both are excellent kits it seems.

[Aanchir]

The Creeper itself stands out to me as the weakest model of the summer Galaxy Squad lineup, but I love love love Chuck Stonebreaker's little ship. It brings up many fond memories of the Hovertron, one of the prominent Space sets of my childhood, but its design is so much nicer in so many ways.

[WhiteFang]

Pandy, thank you for the excellent well-written review! It is very enjoyable to read your thoughts for this set, and you have done well to introduce the Crater Creeper in such an appealing manner. To be honest, this set is the least interesting in this wave but I am very impressed that you have managed to sway my thoughts on this.

[Masked Builder]

I really love this little guy. I don't really know why, maybe it's just because he looks a bit like a bug. And at this price it'll be hard not to buy at least one, thanks for the review Pandora!