PaulC

Thanks for the review Sinner! I definitely want this set now. The mixed rough and smooth roof bricks would annoy me on a model like the MTT, but here it looks as is if the roof is quite old with some parts being worn and pitted and some parts being replaced with new roof tiles. I quite like the effect. I agree on which is the best vehicle, and if it doesn't fit minifigs, just mod the heck out of it! X-D

Nice review SW4J. What really attracts me to this set is NO GLUE! Yay! That means I can use all those parts and figs for anything I want. It would have been better if the skelly pawns were white, but I'm still seriously considering this set now for army building purposes. Hey TLC, where is our STAR WARS CHESS SET??? :-D I have a question: Are the black and white squares glued to the baseplate as with previous chess sets?

Ok, now the real fun begins... 8147 Bullet Run Pic Review Part 3: Minifig Modding Masterclass! The easiest and most obvious part to use as a minifig scale model is the Toll Plaza. As you can see it fits really well on the current roadplates: However, to fit the larger vehicles it needs to be raised by at least two bricks, and the width of the centre baseplate needs to be reduced from 6 studs to 4. I've used grey bricks for the height adjustment so you can see what I've added: A simple mod to the lime green sports car makes a snazzy convertible for this businessman, complete with a space for his suitcase in the back: My limo mod somewhat loses the sleekness of the original. This is the one I'm least satisfied with. It definitely needs some more work: Here's the breakdown truck in it's original form. I really liked the "Brad's Towing" stickers on this model, so I decided to apply them after all. But here's the trick. I replaced the 2x2 brick at the front with two 1x2 bricks before I applied the stickers. This meant I could easily increase the width of the vehicle and keep the decals: Here's the finished truck next to the original for a size comparison. I've increased the width of each section of the cab by one stud: Now it's big enough to tow some of the current city vehicles!

Wow, those two mechs are pretty neat, especially the second one which is made from two Iron Condors and even uses the robot pilots as part of the body!

*Appears on deck for his cigarette break, and watches the others working to get the Minnow aboard.* Man it is quiet round here. Captain, I had a thought about the mystery containers. We might have some oxy-acetelene cutting gear on board. We could try cutting a hole in the side of one of the containers instead of going through the booby-trapped door. The only problem would be that this method would probably cause severe damage to the container's contents. What do ya think?

Bah, I just can't keep up with you kids. I'm going back to the first avatar I had when I joined Eurobricks and I'm sticking to it! *gets his Vader on*

Miss Piggy? How dare you confuse my Avatar with that old trout! Mine is obviously the younger and far more attractive Spamela Hamderson.

There is absolutely no way that I am joining in with this. No way. Nuh-uh. None. Zip. Nada.

Doh! I should have thought of that. Thanks Freddie. Further tests reveal it only works marginally better, and only at top speed and point blank range. AND even then not all the time! The hinge is just too stiff, but then again if the hinge ever gets loose the truck will fall apart whenever you move it.

Okay okay, here it is, 8147 Bullet Run Pic Review Part 2: Crash Test Dummy The final stages in construction are: The two bags marked "3" build the blue truck carrying steel pipes, the red racing car and the yellow 4x4 (see the first post for pics of the racing car and 4x4). I like the truck a lot, although the trailer looks a little odd as it has pivots built in to "spill" it's load when it's hit by another vehicle. The bag marked "4" plus the un-numbered bag containing the over-large parts builds the toll plaza. This is one of my favourite parts of the set, so much so that I've used all the stickers and I am determined to somehow use it in my minifig scale city. Now the fun part. Test 1: This is the first time that I've built the slammers in a Tiny Turbo set, and I'm quite impressed with the speed you can get out of the little cars, but you really have to whack 'em hard to do it! On the front of the box, it shows the cars breaking through the barriers of the toll plaza, so that was the first thing I tested. Ooops... looks like those break-away barriers don't break away that easily! Test 2: Does the tanker truck break apart as designed? Yes and no. Even from point blank range it won't bend in the middle, but the tank does roll off quite satisfyingly if you hit it hard enough. Test 3: What about the same for the steel truck? Crash! Yeah baby! This works the best out of all the action features in the set. I did also try the ramps. These are made out of a weird lightweight plastic and don't even feel like Lego. They are so light, the cars won't really jump over them but instead push them along, making them a bit of a waste of space. Overall, I really like this set. The parts selection and design of the vehicles is excellent, lots of stuff that can be adapted for minifig scale with very little modification, and there is some good fun to be had with the slammers for the set's target age group. I'm deducting one point as yet again we have a Lego set with some action features that don't work well at all, plus I'm unsure of marketing illegal street racing to kids. Perhaps if the set included some police cars who were promoted as the heroes they could get away with it, but when the whole idea is to crash into the petrol tanker I think it's a little dubious. Frankly they could have made a set containing the same very cool vehicles without the "racing" aspect at all. Score: 4/5. Addendum: Note that the yellow and black stripey 1x4 tiles on front and rear of the breakdown truck are printed, not stickers (you can't see them in most of my photos). Yay! These are the only printed parts in the set. Look out for Review Part 3: Modding for Minifigs soon!

Sorry it's taken so long to post part 2 of my review. It's coming soon, honest! In the mean time to keep you going here is a pic of the sticker sheet. Unfortunately I used up all the stickers for the toll plaza already. I might use some of the others, but only the ones that fit on one brick (I hate STAMPS)!

Looking more closely at the photos, I think you're right! The walking mechanism looks identical to 9754 Dark Side Developers Kit. This means importantly that it does drag the rear feet along the floor. I have 9754 and it does precisely that.It also means I could combine my 9754 with my 4483 to make my own walking AT-AT without spending all that money. Hmmm. I'll have to see what I can come up with... X-D

What a revoltin' development.*Looks down at his plate of fish, freshly prepared by Otto.* Aaahh! My food is staring at me!

Whiskey Bong... must be some kind of code, or maybe a new phonetic alphabet! Whisky Bong = WB... it's a secret sign that we should all sit down with the Captain to watch the Warner Bros network. Cool! Are they showing Firefly reruns? I got a way... ever hear of DY-NA-MITE?! Kaboom! Mwahahahahaaaa... *Jack sounds slightly deranged. Maybe the constant fearsome atmosphere of FEAR is getting to him.*

I think that it does lift it's hind leg as it walks, but only very slightly. The walking motion in the first video seems much rougher. It looks as though it was put together with the gears slightly out of synch. In the second video it seems much smoother, and you can see why the handle is absolutely essential - you need to be able to grab it quickly to stop it going off the table! :-D I agree with Yoda and the others that the colours and upper body shape need some work, but other than that I'm very impressed. This is going on my wish list for sure!

It's pretty much the same blaster cannon as you get in 7666 Hoth Rebel Base. I modded it slightly to make carrying handles for the snowtroopers. That's a very neat mod jp, and a neat video. I was trying to figure out how to get the doors slaved together but couldn't work out how to do it easily. Motorised...? Now you're talking!

Help! Fear is almost overpowering me as it clings to my shoulders like the weight of a heavy anchor, ready to rip away at my soul! Hang on a minute, did everyone down here in the cargo space see... this thing...? ...or was it just my over-active imagination? I'll just bend down for a moment and look under this tarp. *Vanishes under tarp and sits there quaking in fear.*

You're right, the chimneys and grilles on the trucks are all flat silver.

Ow! Enough already! Yes, where is the Retired Defective? :-D

Wait, no need for the rough stuff Captain. It's all coming back to me:I was drinking with the Chief at our last port and he gave me something... Some kind of paper with words on it... And in big letters at the top of the sheet it said... Car...go... Man...i...fold... or somesuch... I think I may have used as a pillow when I slept in the... Cargo Hold... And then (gulp!) I threw it under one of the tarps... Ha! I knew I could remember if I thought hard enough. X-D We can talk about that later Chief. Here, have this bottle of whisky.

*Jack appears out of the shadows in the corner of the room*Actually I've been here all along. I've just been very very quiet. The amount of danger we're in has had a very sobering effect on my usual lazy devil-may-care character. The Cargo Manifest.I think I can remember something about this... Previously I couldn't remember anything about our booze-fueled bender at the last port, but it's starting to slowly come back to me... Something about the Cargo Manifest...

With the resurgence of interest in Transformers, I've been thinking about the Lego ones me and my friend Steve (Ohnhai) used build back in the mid-80s. We were kids then and didn't have a lot of bricks, so small was beautiful in our eyes! I can't claim credit for this one, this is Steve's design, I've just tried to build it from memory and update it with a few modern components: Here we have an ordinary four wide Lego truck of the kind TLC used to produce in the 80's It's got everything you'd expect, a driver, doors, even a turntable to take a trailer Hang on, what's this? Standing up It's got legs! Ta-dah! Fully transformed, and quite poseable too. I think the hands look cool as they are, but for the finishing touch you can add some proper hands and a gun, just like G1 Optimus!

Hello folks, what are we looking for?

Thanks guys. That's exactly what I was aiming for. The Rebels had a rag tag bunch of ships of vastly different ages and designs in various states of repair.But wait, as well as stretching out the interior from the back of the doorway, what's going on out front? It's... Part 4: Battle for Hoth In the midst of battle, my modified Imperial Landing Craft has dropped off it's cargo and the Snowtroopers are disembarking. Close-up showing an unmodified 4483 AT-AT and my stripped down speeder bike design. My way cool AT-ST is based on my favourite incarnation: the design from the Lego Star Wars II video game, with a few tweaks of my own for good measure. Snowtroopers exit the drop pod and race across the battlefield with a folded up heavy repeating blaster. And that uses up my entire collection of Hoth-themed Star Wars sets, mods and mocs! I had to present this series in parts because I don't have a space large enough at the moment to set it all up together. Maybe some day...