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REVIEW | Nexo Knights | 30378 Shrunken Headquarters
ZORK64 posted a topic in LEGO Action and Adventure Themes
I'd like to start this review with an apology. I promised to write this review a few weeks ago, but thanks to some Real Life stuff, I had to delay it. But now I've got some time, and I'll make good use of it. Similiar to the Mini Fortrex we got in Nexo Knight's first year as a freebie, LEGO offers currently a miniature version of the Headquarters (or Jestro's Monstrous Monster Mobile, to literally translate the German name which I frankly adore because it gets shortened as "MoMoMo"), the biggest set of the current Nexo Knight wave. But how well does this set fare compared to its monstrous inspiration? Let's find out! Set number & name: 30378 Shrunken Headquarters Price: This set is currently free, but can only be obtained along with another Nexo Knights set Parts: 44 parts and 1 minifig (according to BrickLink) Release: Late 2016/Early 2017 The bag The front of the bag shows us the set and its pilot, a regular Stone Stomper. I'd like to mention that I generally like the visuals of the background used for this wave. All these blueish ruins give off a very eery and spooky vibe, which fits nicely with the bad guys (while the heroic knights provide some nice contrast). The bag is naturally nowhere as interesting. Well anyway, let's open the bag! The parts Here's the parts overview of the set. Since I'm not really willing to count the parts myself (which I used to do in my reviews of the constraction sets), I cheated and checked BrickLink. According to them, the Shrunken Headquarter contains a total of 44 parts. It's kinda surprising to me that the amount of purple and dark stone grey (the two colours which make most of the color scheme of the baddies) is so short in this set. The building instructions are a folded poster, which is quite common for small sets like this one. Pieces of interest The supposed action feature of the Shrunken Headquarters is a catapult. I'm not sure how old this piece is (EDIT: It debuted in 2010's Kingdoms line), but here's a picture of it for the little catapult enthusiast in all of us. This little TECHNIC-esque piece on the other hand is familiar to me, as it was also used in various G2 Bionicle sets (it might even have debuted in them?). It's a pretty cool-looking part, and I'm happy to get it now in black too. Another nice bonus: The Shrunken Headquarters comes with a total of three of these, but one of them is a spare part, so even if you kept the set built, you'll get one of these connectors for your parts collection. This brick is part of the catapult, and it's a rather exotic piece (at least for me...). Oh hey, a Mixel Ball joint! Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but could the Shrunken Headquartes be the first set to use one of those in a vehicle, just like how the older plates with balls were already used for decades? Either way, it's a pleasant surprise, considering that I actively collect these joints, what with being a constraction nerd. I generally like 1x2 plates in this style, I think the first time I spotted this variant was in the Mini Snowspeeder. The Shrunken Headquarters uses two of these to connect to steam roller-like front section. The Minifig Instead of featuring a specific character like Jestro (similiar to how the Mini Fortrex was piloted by Robin), the Shrunken Headquarters is piloted by a Stone Stomper, which are apparently the lowest-ranking mooks of Jestro's new army. As this picture shows, Stone Stompers are Gargoyle-like humanoids. A front and back view of the figure itself. As you can see, the Stone Stomper got overall some nice printing. He also comes with an alternative facial expression, so it's up to you if the Stone Stomper sports a evil grin or a more aggressive expression. Here's a comparison with one of the mooks of the past wave (my apologies for not knowing his title though). Given the versatility of the color black, the Stone Stomper looks good if you swap the gear around, while the combination of bright red and purple is kinda odd. Building the set The build of the Shrunken Headquarters is rather simple and straight-forward, starting with the front section, followed by the back section, and once both sections are completed, they get united. I think I can let the pictures speak for the most part here. This picture shows you how the roller in the front is assembled. The instructions themselves of course expect you to first assemble the roller completely before you attach it to the vehicle, so I kinda cheated the instructions here to give you a better insight of how it is built. The front section, completed! Now we also got the back section done, so once we've combined both, we get... The finished set Behold, the evil Miniature Monster Mobile (MiMoMo)! Oh right, spare parts. Design and playability As the name implies, the Shrunken Headquarters is based on Jestro's Headquarters, the larges set of this wave. It comes probably to nobody's surprise that a polybag set doesn't emulate every play feature of it's bigger brother, but I think the set does manage to evoke the shape of the MoMoMo. One feature I like about it is how you can alter the height of the front roller. Since I don't own Jestro's Headquarters, I'm not certain if this feature is inspired by a similiar trick of it or not, but it's still a cute little feature. The set's other play feature, the catapult, leaves something to be desired though. Not only is the Stone Stomper in the way of the catapult, the bricks you can fling with it also fly in a rather low arc, and thus, not very far. So good luck hitting anything besides a miniature town with it. Of course, as a miniature set, the Shrunken Headquarters may not be really up to challenge the Nexo Knights - or at least not their Action Suits... ...except for other polybags I guess. While I would have loved to show the Shrunken Headquarters next to the Mini Fortrex, I unfortunately don't own this set, so I went with another polybag instead. Final thoughts Truth be told, I was initially not really interested in this set, mostly because another polybag which popped up around the same time in the Nexo Knights 2017 thread, looked far more appealing to me. However, once I opened the bag and built the set, the Shrunken Headquarters managed to win me over, as the set still has a rather neat design and comes with plenty of unique parts that will be very great for my parts collection. So if you want buy some Nexo Knights in the foreseeable future, make sure to also get this polybag with it. It's a neat little set that I can recommend.