Cardinal Brick
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Posts posted by Cardinal Brick
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Thanks for the review, I quite like this set and I really like R2-Q2. However I think this will be another Star Wars pass for me as I expect it'll just be to much for what it was.
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Depends on the time frame and the set in question, I'm not sure I've ever paid more than the early 90's price for a Space set (apart from my monorails) and considering inflation they've clearly gone down in price. However if it's a rare one like the Renegade then you'll have to pay more so I guess what I'm saying is what do you think people will think of the set in the long run if you think it's a rare classic it will only go up if you think it's a fad that'll fade it'll go down.
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£1.80 and a 40 minute bus ride.
Did you go to Bluewater by any chance?
I've traveled about an hour and a half before, but only when I know they've got the set I want on sale and I can't find it anywhere else. Mostly I make detours in journeys I'm making anyway so if I have to go somehwere and there's a Toys R Us around I pop in.
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You know you have a NinjaGo picture instead of the contents picture, right?
No I didn't thanks for pointing that out!
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Pinky and i just left Bluewater (literally we are on the way out of the carpark!). Apparently they didnt receive their shipment of sale stock due to the weather before xmas so they only have the SW starfighter on sale with 30% off and some packs of magnets. Disappointing. Is it worth going to Westfield?
Did they say if they were going to get sale stock in later on?
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Set Name: Invader
Set Number: 6894
Number of Pieces: 164
Figures:1 + 1 Brick built robot
Released: 1987
List Price: £? (GBP) $? (USD) ? (EURO)
A very long time ago, I think it might actually be years now I promised to review this set after reviewing one of the other Blacktron sets however I've only now gotten around to doing it
Lets us begin with the box.
I do love these old boxes simplicity and the gride pattern sky.
The back of the box shows alternatives.
Contents
Sorry it's a bit blury and original it didn't come in a ziplock bag obviously.
Instructions
Instructions as always and making a much demanded return the random instruction page.
Minifigs
You get one standard Blacktron pilot and one brick built robot I do love these brick built robots and I hope that these will come back more often.
Front view.
Side view.
The set comes in three parts the cockpit the cargo pod and the engine. Lets take a look of the cockpit to start with
Partly built.
The cockpit it quite large and has a number of parts that fold out which makes it take up a much bigger space than it did before.
Folded up.
Opened out.
Cargo Pod
The cargo pod is the next part where you can keep a robot and two tools
Partly built.
Closed.
Opened.
Engine Pod
The final part is the engine pod which powers the entire ship.
Engine pod with two wings.
Complete Ship
Here's the complete ship has a nice sleek look to it I also like the trans-red fins at the end.
Looking good!.
Time to add in the figure.
Everything and everthing open.
Engine problems?.
The Rating System
Figures: 9.5/10 (Nice brick built robot and who doesn't love Blacktron Mark 1 figs?)
Parts 8.5/10 (Fair selection lots of black but you do get trans-red parts to.)
Fun Fun Fun 10/10 (Lots to do you can take it apart re-arrange it and that's before you even swoosh it about at all!)
Design 10/10 (I can't fault it one bit nor will I)
Price ?/10 (Can't find a price so if you know what it cost let me know!)
Grand Total 38/40 (So near to perfection)
Conclusions
I'm not really a Spacer but there's something about the Blacktron ships that simply draw me to them and make me want more. At this point I've something like 4 of these and if I see one going cheap on ebay I'm always tempted. It's a well designed set that has lots of playability and lots of options for expansions, this is one of the sets that Lego should always be looking to emulate in the mid sized sets.
One day I hope to have the Renegade as well to add to my collection*, when I do about two years later I'll review it for you.
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Thanks for the review, it's an intresting set though I'm not overwhelmed by this set the dragon isn't to bad but I think it seems rather shorts and it's not as impressive as the Fafnir Dragon.
I'm not sure I'll be picking this set up though maybe if it's on sale.
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You should take photo of weapons! Could you?
Ask and ye shall recieve
I find your rating a bit harsh to the set to be honest. I think it'd deserve something along 40, as it offers much potential for MOCing, as you said yourself. Pricing seems quite ok in euro.
Maybe I am being a bit hard, but then I feel that Lego has been creeping up to much in price in the UK recently, I'd have rated it better had it been 29.99 only a small diffrence but it's phycological
Quick question: did Bluewater have Pharoah's quest in? Thinking of popping there soon.
Yes Pharoah's Quest is in though how much if left I don't know it was rather crazy there
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Set Name: Spinjitzu Dojo
Set Number: 2504
Number of Pieces: 373
Figures:3
Released: 2011
List Price: £30.99 (GBP) $49.99 (USD) 39.90 (EURO)
When I first saw Ninja go I wasn't very impressed but over the past few weeks I've been thinking more about it. I did always love the Ninja theme and while the individual minifigs don't appeal to much I thought the sets might be worth a second look. I went to Bluewater this morning to start my Pharaoh Quest airforce but I was tempted by this and had money to burn after Christmas. With it in had I thought I may as well review it, as that's all I seem to get time to do on Eurobricks any more. SO without more woffle lets get started.
Lets us begin with the box.
Considering how few pieces there are you get alot of Danish air, it's almost Star Wars worthy.
The back shows the play features and the gold weapons which are aparently quite important.
Contents
This is what comes in the box though I don't think it really need to sets of instructions.
Cards
As with all NinjaGo sets you get some card here are the selection you get in this box, they remind me of Mike Rayhawk's Brik Wars cards, I do wonder if he was involved somewhere along the way
Minifigs
You get three minifigs here Sensei Wu Zne and General Nuckal. I like all three of them, while Zane if fairly standard (and I've just recieved an original Ninja Princess) Sensei Wu is a nice adition and I love the new hat mould I hope to get my hands on alot more of these at some point. General Nuckal is also intresting and alot more elaborate than previous evil skeletons.
Front view.
Wu and Zane without facegear, Wu's back inserted. Zane has no back printing.
New Windows
I really like these new windows and I can seen they'll be very popular for Japaneese mocing
They do seem a bit loose in the frame though.
Dojo Side
The final part of bag 1 is the side of the Dojo containing spinning blades for training purposes.
Does anyone ever train without spinning blafes.
Dojo Side 2
This bag only has the second Dojo side which has falling axes and water with spike in it.
Another sale for the Acme Falling Axe system.
Central Dojo
The final bag is the central part of nthe dojo with exploding floor which gets and entire page of the instructions
I couldn't replicate the instructions very well in real life.
Now lets put it all together
Front view.
The Dojo looks quite impressive and it does look like you could have an impressive montage of training before facing the evil skeleton oposition. It also has a very nice look to it.
Adding in the minifigs for battle..
The Rating System
Figures: 6.5/10 (I like Wu (the only set he's in at the moment) and Nuckle but Zane is a little ordinary)
Parts 8/10 (Fair selection and the new windows are a great adition in my view.)
Fun Fun Fun 6/10 (You only get one spinner so you can't have a sill spinner battle but there's a fair amount to do but a second spinner would have seemed wise)
Design 8/10 (Nice design and well executed has a great feel to it.)
Price 5/10 (I don't know maybe I no longer understand Lego pricing points, it just seems a little high while I was afraid 7307 would come in over £20 and was very happy to see it come in under £15 (just) £30.99 is A a strange price and B seems rather expensive for what you get.)
Grand Total 33.5/50 (Middling sets with a middleing score)
Conclusions
NinjaGo is a strange theme, but some of the sets do look very nice I like the looks and feel of this one for instance though I do feel the price point is to high. It's similar to the price I paid for 3053 recently which no one is going to argue isn't a superior set (if you are you'd better come armed!). I look forward to seeing the other sets that are coming for NinjaGo the Fire Temple looks excellent and these will make a good adition to my ninja collection I just want a little more for my money. On the plus side though the new skeletons are great in my opinion and Wu is well designed and I love his new had, if we could now just have large numbers in black so I can equip a force of ashigaru so I can have Shogun Total War in Lego at last.
The last page of the manual offers a map which is quite intresting and offers a view of the future, well perhaps!
And now for a bonus comic
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I'm not sure, I think I'll reserve final judgment until I have them both in my hands to compare. However at the moment I perfer Bi-Wing Baron which I think has a more rugged apearance and while Spirit of Luis is sleek it doesn't look like it would last very long in the desert. I think the best bi-plane is the one from 2879 however.
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Simply amazing, I was wondering how many NXT it took I'm rather surprised it was only five. Has to be one of the most impressive MOC's I've ever seen and that it can build the Christmas tree just blew me away.
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Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen to my latest review, I thought as it was my 1000 post I should do something specail for you all. So back to Unitron reviews with the big daddy of them all the ‘Monorail Transport Base’
Before we begin apologies that the photos aren't the best but sadly the set is to large to photograph well.
Set Name: Monorail Transport Base
Set Number: 6991
Number of Pieces: 568
Figures:4
Released: 1994
List Price: £Unknown (GBP) $178 (USD) Didn’t exists at the time! Though EMU did I think? (EURO)
One of the three Lego monorail sets that were relased and the last one.
Lets us begin with the box.
As usual with space sets from this era the sky is a grid iron pattern.
Due to the era we get a nice back of the box shot with a number of diffrent models which could be made from this set.
Back of the box.
We also get a falp showing us some more views of the main model
Flap up.
Now for what’s inside. As I had this set built already I wasn't going to deconstruct it in order to take some photos.
Now time for the minifigs we’re provided by only four of them which in a set of this size seems a little on the mean side. Every other Lego monorail had far more minfigs than this one. So we’ve got the Unitron ‘Chief’ two unitrons and a Spyrius robot spy.
Here are the only two normal Unitrons ever released in Europe.
I’ve always been a bit confused about the Spyrius spy robot I means he’s hardly inconspicuas.
Now time to look at the different components that make up this rather large set.
The Monorail Train
The most important part of the set obviously composed of the two standard monorail bogies between a monorail motor
At this stage much like at the other trains.
What makes this different from all the other monorails is that the the pods on either side are only lightly connected and come of easily
The two train pods.
Trains with mounted pods.
As with the other unitron sets the pods can be interchanged
Crater Crusier pod on the left and pod from Space Station Zenon on the right.
Launch Pad with Spy base
The next part of the set is what for want of a better term I’m going to call the launching pad this is where one of the monorail pods can be sent up I assume to blast off into space.
Long shot of the launch pad.
Apart from the obvious there are two interesting parts of the set the first is a concealed computer unit inside the rocks, which I assume is used by the Spyrius spy in order to relay information back to his base.
The spy sends out his message.
The Second interesting part is what looks lime some form of control of science station located near the top of the structure which with clever use of hinges looks like you can’t get into but can.
With the sides down.
Closer look at the control panels.
The Drop down
The next part consists of a very simple bit of base and some tack to enable the train to get down to the ground level and deposit one of the pods into a transporters. From the commercials it seems that this was some for of escape mechanism when a large number of Spyrius robots rrived to escape.
Drop down and base.
The transporter
The front comes off though there's nothing in the set to go on instead!
Pod on transporter.
Mainbase/Station
Next we come to the station, which has a number of intresting parts, the radar dish on the top rotates as the train goes through the station, this is moved by the wheel in the station. There's also an arm for moving train pods backwards and forwards.
The main station looking very good in my opinion.
Pod on the transporter arm.
Side view you can see the wheel that turns the dish more easily here.
Track assembly
The final part of the build is assembling the track into the layout directed in the instructions, this being my first monorail there were a few problems with assembling the track mainly because I’d never doneit before. Attaching the struts underneaither and the side plates and sliding the parts together presented some problems till I got the knack of it. The main problem I had was the up and down parts which I confused and then wondered why they didn’t fit.
Quick picture of a set of points.
Finally I worked out how I was being foolish and then put everything round the right way, time to put the set all together
First view of everything.
Second view of everything.
Launch pad
Here are a few pictures of the train delivering a pod to the launch pad on top
Nearly there.
Pod placed on the pad.
Drop down
Train comming down the slope.
Pod loaded onto the transporter.
Finally lets add the mini-figs and everything is done
The Rating System
Figures: 7.5/10 (Nice space selection, though there could have been more for the money )
Parts 7/10 (A limited selection of parts though I like the black base plates.)
Fun Fun Fun 10/10 (Once you’ve built it there’s quite a lot of play and fun to be had here even a lot of swosihing)
Design 10/10 (Can’t fault Lego on the design it’s one of the best space sets in my opinion and superior to ever set the came out about that time)
Price 8.5/10 ($178 is the only price reference I can find for the set, which seems a tad on the high side but all the monorails were expensive.)
Grand Total 43/50 (A high rating but a fine set deserves nothing less)
Conclusions
This set takes up a very large area, which looks very impressive when built, I think it’s also the most technically complex monorail ever built with the great option to drop of both the drive pods at various places on it route rather than just running round and turning back on itself. The train looks good but seems to be rather minimalist but that doesn’t bother me it fits in nicely with the rest of the Unitron theme. That there are two well devloped stations is another great bonus in my opinion, also this is the only monorail set to come with a set of points so anotehr plus.
The price is still an issue, but you can now get this set second hand for less than you’d pay for it news so I don’t think in the long run that’s really mattered. Of course I’m sure it mattered at the time and consdring how few normal parts you got I think it might have deterred me at the time when as a child I could buy a 9V train set instead for if I remember a similar price.
Regardless of that I have it now and I’ve become a bit of a Spacer because of it! I think this is one of the best Lego sets I've built in a very long time, I look forward to hearing your thoughs.
Bonus Comic
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The temple looks great, the giant fish reminds me of the submarines from Stingray, not sure if anyone else remembers those. It's shaping up to be a good year for Atlantis unlike Power minders which tailed off badly in year two Atlantis has kept going strong.
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I for one am excited, and I asume that they'll be a few refinments before the release of all the sets, I can't wait to add some more adventurers to my group also the torsos would be god for some sort of iregular regiments.
While I am excited I'll have to wait and see what the UK prices turn out to be, if they've been posted sorry I must have missed them and depending on how high they are I'll make my assesment of how much will be joining me at home.
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Sounds intresting, I look forward to hearing some more details of this and some pictures as well but at the moment it sounds good
This could potentially make me bankrupt
I'm starting to think the same thing to many themes!
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I agree with the assesment above, you'll probably get a good price on ebay just have a look at the ebay madness thread.
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Next years prices revealed a little early I see, how else are profits going to keep rising with such a poor economy
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Intresting I wonder if we'll see it in the UK any time soon, I would rather have the passanger train as others here but if the saving in the UK is enough it might prove worth it.
And also they seem to have put the Construction worker on the box front, why not the Train driver
Well someone has to build the track don't they!
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Excellent! I've been looking forward to the Photon Pistol since I first saw it! I also can't wait to get hold of the scalpel, so this is great news it's even better that they've already reached resellers so postage wont be that high.
I look forward to seeing what's comming before the end of the year, any hints?
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I'm also hoping that we get more balance next year but I'm not going to hold my breath the good guys seems to always out number the bad guy in the Lego work for some reason. Maybe the Stormtrooper Marksmanship course isn't avalaible in the Lego world?
I'm not that struck on the red knights so unless we get some more dragon sets I'm going to be a tad disappointed.
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I can't decide really, I grew up with Divers which was one of the best sub-themes at the time in my opinion, I quite like Aquaraiders (the original) and the second theme of that name, but mostly due to the realistic sets like 7776 (also reminds me of 6560) and finally Atlantis which has the best minifigs in my opinion and alot of the model have really grown on me and I love the underwater buildings.
So inconclusion I don't know!
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Today I bought a number of series two minifigs when I opened them however I found that one of my Spartans was missing a cape and one a spear. I've never had this happen before with the collectable minifigs, looking on the Lego Service website if you enter the set number it tells you replacments are not available. I've sent off an e-mail to Lego asking if I can get the parts. My question is has anyone else come across one of the bags missing any parts and if so what did you do?
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Sound intreating, I do hope this new thing whatever it turns out to be will be over this side of th Atlantic aswell, I shall watch this with intrest.
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Excellent work as always Woody I love the bowler hat something I think alot have wanted for along time.
How deep can a Lego Atlantis diver go?
in General LEGO Discussion
Posted
The short answer at least 45m
I've just come back from a diving holiday in the Red Sea but before I went I was given a Lego Atlantis diver keychain (sort of good luck charm idea) which I clipped to my kit on a daily bases. While I was out there I got the chance to start doing some technical diving and again decided to my diver along, I was somewhat aprehensive what the presure would do it him at that depth (my camera housing states it may warp at depth) but once we came back up from the last deepest dive of my course I discovered he was fine!
So now at least one Atlantis minifig has dived the depth of the ocean, though we didn't find Atlantis. This got me wondering if anyone else has tried the same thing and if so how deep and what was the result?