Masked Builder

Oh fun! Let's hope I can play better in it. And for those of you looking for my Mafia game, I still need some parts to finish the main MOC up.

Smiling Alexis leans over to speak to the ant, "Can we help you in any way? And do you know what hurt you?"

The party heads down the right path this time hoping to find the end of their quest. Again, they run into a clearing. What shall the party do here?

Althior sees some birds as well as a ten foot long snake. However he stays far away from the snake as he begins to dig but finds nothing. Skrall tries talking to some of the assembled animals, again the only thing he can get out of them is; "They took her, they took her..." What shall the party do now?

"I don't care to much if I get anything Tensi. Though I will take the gem if no one else wants it. Well let's move onto point number two shall we?"

You're voting the person that protect you out.

Great work Darkdragon! This set is on my list to get as I reall want that Green raptor. That and I need the dude with the hat.

Alexis doubles over laughing again as she tries to imagine Cronk eating them.

I ordered this set the same day that LEGO put it on S@H. The whole theme had greatly reminded me of the Dino 2010 theme for several years ago that I had loved but never gotten any of the sets from. This set was the one I ended up getting for several reasons, I wanted a good selection of the available dinos, and I also wanted a good start on collecting the minifigures from the line. I had also started watching Terra Nova on Fox since it had premiered also prompted me to get this. I want to do some MOCs with the dinos. I was so excited to see it on the site as I couldn't wait for the sets to become available. Once it finally arrived on my doorstep, LEGO got it here fast, I ripped open the box and started reviewing. Oh and guess who has the first 2012 set review on Eurobricks? Me! Name: Dino Defense HQ Set Number: 5887 Pieces: 793 Price: $99.99 Ages: 6-12 Minifigs: 4 Theme: Dino Year of Release: 2012 Bricklink Brickset S@H Be sure to check out the full Flickr Gallery. Box: The front of the box has the main box art. The yellow and dark bley color scheme, with the dino rips, really really appeals to me. It really has that; "let's kick some dino butt!" feel to it for me. On the back of the box you get all of the secondary images one could want from a set. Showing the functions, alternate minifigure poses, and the dinos included in the set. The top of the box has the usual minifigure layout that most other large set boxes have, and of course the 1:1 image this time of a minifigure. These guys are part of the reason I got this set. Contents: There are a total of nine rather full bags that cascaded out of the box when I opened. In fact, I was rather surprised at how many there were! I was happily surprised to see that the manuals and the sticker sheet came wrapped in plastic with some cardboard to keep them from bending. All of the dinos came in their own bags. The bag that the little dino came in is almost like a candy bag, it has that feel to it. He also has a plastic support piece inside the bag to keep him from bending. The other dinos came in bags that had several compartments so that the printed pieces don't rub together and scratch. Manual: As I mentioned before, the manuals and the stickers came packaged in plastic with cardboard. This is really a great addition, to every set, especially this one as the box was so full of parts. There are three manuals, all have the Dino logo, and the first manual has what it builds on the front while the other two just show the whole base. All of them have the orange sky and the city skyline in the background. The front of manual one shows you what the manual builds, in a nice action shot, though I do see that the lady from the set is missing here. I wonder what the story will be for these sets as you can see the city in the background. Inside the manuals you have your usual layout with a very nice, torn up looking Grey background. Simple, but it complements the dino claw rips nicely. This was the only misprint that I found in all three manuals, just a slight lighter area in the brick that was added to the jeep. The backs of manuals one and two have instructions on the back instead of that annoying ad with the kid screaming. In fact, LEGO is kind of conserving paper printing stuff like this. In one of the last pages of the manual, we have an ad for most of the sets in the line. All in a very nicely edited, action shot. The float-plane is absent here. I wonder when LEGO is going to release it.... Lastly, we have the sticker sheet. LEGO has done a great job designing these; most of them have some sort of scratch mark on them like the dinos have attacked them. Minifigures: All of the minifigures have new torso prints, and two have leg print. All of them seem to have explorer gear on and look like they're ready to take on the task of pounding some dino butt! Every minifigure has back print to go with the torso print. I really like the "D" logo that the two guys on the out edges have on their backs. The belt that the girl has, and the man’s belt has, are great looking. Before I forget, here's a picture of the two minifigures that have dual heads. The guy on the left has more of a "What the heck just happened face," while the girl seems to say "Dinosaurs!" Oddly enough three of the minifigures have solid head studs while one has the typical "Y" beam in his head. I still don't know why LEGO does this. I've decided to count the Dinos as minifigures in a way. They really hold just as much of the attraction to this set as do the minifigures. Anyway, here is a nice size comparison between the three dinos that come in this set. As should be quite obvious, the T-Rex towers over the rest of the dinos, and the minifigures. This is a Coelophysis. I didn't know what one was till I Googled it. Basically they're a small less fierce version of a Velociraptor. LEGO has done a great job with the color scheme here, the dark Red and Green is really great. He can hold a LEGO bar in his mouth. The LEGO site just calls this guy a "raptor." I would like to think he's a Velociraptor, he certainly looks like one, I can't think why LEGO wouldn't call him one as they are fairly well know to kids that like dinos. Again, the Orange color really compliments the Nougat color. He and the T-Rex have two mouth positions, open and closed. Here we have the T-Rex. He is probably my favorite dinosaur from this set, the green color scheme he has really works for me. LEGO has done an amazing job designing all of the dinos, and the stripe design on this guy is top-notch. The T-Rex's mouth opens enough to "eat" a minifigure. While this was probably not LEGO's intention for him, it adds a nice thing for the adults that buy this set to enjoy some bloody, minifigure gore. Of course my T-Rex was broken. *sigh* When I pulled him out of the bag and started putting him together I noticed that the bit of plastic had been pushed in, making it so that his arm doesn't click in. And as of today, I still can't get a replacement body for him. Parts: Now for the new parts! We have the new gate piece with some studs, the new one by four curve piece, the Yellow wall bit, the two by four dark Grey plate, the Yellow curve piece, the new gunmetal color gun, as well as a very lovely new green syringe. Here are our extra parts from the set. Nothing special other than the trans-clear visor, and the antenna. The Build: We start off by building the jeep from the set. It's a very rugged design. Bag one builds us the first two minifigures from the set as well as a very cool jeep. Here we build the helicopter; it's very simple and almost "boat-like." Bag two builds the helicopter, and the other two minifigures we didn't build in the last bag. I don't know why they were split up like this. Here we start with the build of the actual base. The gates are designed very nicely. I like the prongs on the top of them. And now that we've got all of the gates finished we can start putting the base together. We use those lovely Green hexagonal base plates to build the two outer tower posts. Again, we get a two times build to finish the outer towers. Bag three adds the two outer tower bases to the main gate. It's looking better! We use two hexagonal bases to make the tower caps in this part of the build. Since this is a two times build, we get two once we finish the building steps. To the first tower cap we add what I'm calling a sonic cannon after what the guys in Terra Nova have. After all, who wants to kill the Dinosaurs? And to the second tower cap we add a crane. It's been quite a while since I got a crane hook in a set. Here we build the side walls for the base. All studs up and very simple. I do like those Yellow gate pieces though. The gate is our last two times build for the whole set. Thank goodness. And total we have a rather large collection of things that bag four builds. We have the two outer tower caps, the side walls, and some foliage to decorate the base. Here we have the front gate after adding what bag four builds. It looks quite much more impressive don't you think? After opening bad five, we start work on the helicopter tower. Very simple construction, but all in all it looks good. At the end of bag five we have completed the heli tower and can now snap it onto the base. Here's the base with the Heli tower added to it. We're so close to finishing! Stick with me. Bag six starts the build of the tower. All in all, it was rather simple; putting on those 15 length bars was rather hard for me. First we complete the tower, and then build the research room that goes on the tower. Here is the completed tower and what the last two bags have worked towards building. It is quite impressive. And here we have the completed base! It looks good. It was quite a bit larger than I thought it would be. Complete Model: Okay here we have a nice overall model/action shot of the set. This set was so much larger than I thought it would be, and measures at least a foot square if not more. There are more than enough things for the minifigures to be doing, from capturing the dinos, to researching them. Okay I'll start small with the jeep. Its design it simple enough, but it also looks good enough to make it interesting and another one of the pulls to the set for me. Here's a back 3/4 view of the jeep, LEGO has put a nice box on the back to store some tools, but they put they radio on the back of the jeep. Weird. Now for the helicopter. If I had to dislike part of this set I would have to say the helicopter. It is to overly simplistic for my tastes but at least it does look like a heli. Here you can see just how plain that the back of the heli is. Maybe putting the stickers on would help.... Okay now I can move to the base. On the left most tower we have the sonic cannon, that you can stick a minifigure behind to man. On the right most tower we have the crane are with the net so you can capture the little dinosaur. All of the others are too large. In between both towers we have the main gate, with a chain securing it. Why they're just using a chain to keep the gate close rather than something more secure is a mystery to me. In the back left of the base we have the helicopter landing pad tower, and the ammo storage facility. Why it faces out is a mystery to me. Here's the back of the heli tower. Rather open to attack by Dinosaurs but that is probably me wanting the set to be perfect. And here is the removable ammo rack that faces out of the base. I suspect that the Green syringes are fired like tranquilizer darts. The lower part of the observation tower has the lifting gate that I think has to be the best function of the set. More on that in a minute. Here we have the outside of the observation tower. LEGO has used some of their Technic pieces to connect it in a studs down manner. And now we move to the inside of the observation tower. A simple chair and two computers fill this area. Functions: I shall start with some of the more common functions. On the sonic cannon, we have two flick-fire missiles ready to be launched at whatever Dino decides to raid the base. The crane over on the other tower is perfect for trapping those little pesky Coelophysis. The T-Rex can conveniently walk through the front gate so that the kids can play like he has been captured. Now for my favorite function of the model, by turning this gear you move the... ...Rear escape gate up allowing anyone inside the base to escape. This function works really well and I'm happy that LEGO thought of it. Nice work. Final Thoughts: This set still holds up to my expectations now that I have it built. In some ways, it even surpasses them. The dinos were so well designed, and the base is a lot more satisfyingly cool than in the pictures. In the pictures it looks rather small and "kid friendly" but once you have it built it is so large that it really is amazing. Minifigure wise, the set goes over the top, they are so well designed that I am just blown away by the amount of detail LEGO has put on them, same thing with the dinos. LEGO has done such an amazing job with their hide color and their overall design. Ratings: Playability: 10/10 This set gets a full score in playability because of the many different little things that one could play with. You have the four minifigures, the dinos, and all of the vehicles. Design: 8/10 The base is designed very nicely, though a bit weak when you try to pick it up as a whole. It gets an 8 of 10 here because I'm not too happy with the heli. The jeep is great, but the heli could use some work. Price: 10/10 I feel that the $100 price tag is justified here just because of the Dinosaurs. They have so much plastic on them. Minifigures: 10/10 Overall, I'm very satisfied with the minifigures. Sure a few of them could use leg print, but over all they are very detailed and great figs to own. Parts: 9/10 There was a good number of new/rare parts in this set. Several of the parts here have only come in a few other sets, and the rest are making their debut. Total: 47/50 An excellent score for a set. I would recommend it to anyone. "Faster! Faster!" Want to learn to make excellent reviews like this one? Then join the Reviewers Academy!

There are no other paths leading out, and only animals are hanging out in the clearing.

With a rather mischievous grin on her face Alexis speaks up. "Did you enjoy yourself Haldor?" She can't keep a laugh in and proceeds to laugh.

The party takes the left path and runs into a clearing. What do they wish to do? Party: Skrall (played by Waterbrick Down) Level 9 Ranger (Party Leader) Power: 15 (+4 against beasts) Health: 14/14 Gold: 43 Inventory: Hunters Crossbow (WP: 6 + 4 against beasts), Potion (2), Remedy, Tonic, Smoke Bomb, Ice Bomb Althior Emorith (played by K-nut) Level 13 1/2 Mage Power: 18 Health: 13/17 Ether: 14/17 Gold: 288 Inventory: Dragoro (WP:3), Diamond imbued Dagger (Light elemental WP:5), Topaz (Lightning), Amethyst (Darkness), Ruby (Fire), Lightning Bomb, Tonic x2, Shovel, Bedroll, Magic Compass, Grand Tonic Arasmyth RuGard (played by Kadabra) Level 6 Mage Power: 9 Health: 8/10 Ether: 9/10 Gold: 43 Inventory: Crystalline Staff (WP: 3), Sapphire (Wind), Smoke Bomb Bob (played by Sirius Black) Level 5 Mage Power: 9 Health: 10/10 Ether: 10/10 Gold: 43 Inventory: Snake Staff (WP: 3), Ruby/fire, Elemental gem, Shovel Dyric Rone (The Legonater) Level 5 Rogue Power: 8 Health: 11/11 Gold: 53 Inventory: Longsword (WP: 3), Double Chain Whip (WP: 5), vial of Venom Namyrra Uq (played by Quarryman) Level 10 1/2 Mage Power: 15 Health: 14/14 Ether: 9/14 Gold: 65 Inventory: Lullaby wand (WP: 5, sleep-effect), Bone-staff (WP: 3), Amethyst (Darkness), Opal (Ice), Emerald (Wood), Tonic, Venom, Bedroll

Would Pharaohs Quest mummies work for you?

I just had a few slip ups when I was talking. It happens to everyone. I have to way to guarantee that I won't but, on my word as a criminal, I swear to use my ability on anyone, including myself, if you guys won't vote me out. How does that sound? Sorry, I meant "will" instead of "won't."

The compass spins unceasingly in Althiors hand.

I would say molded.

Evoker huh? I like the way that sounds. Thanks Sandy!

So, yes it does look like I am going to be lynched today. While you guys are only hurting yourselves hear me out on this. 1. - Okay so yes I did forget that our wonderful hosts had revealed that Doll was town. Sorry I had read that but since it seemed so sort it slipped my mind when I made my post. 2. - Someone is lying to Doll, and it's not me. Whom ever contacted Doll and said they were the doctor is either lying, or there are two doctors. Which would be rather odd.

"You do that Haldor. I'd be willing to take the staff Tensi. That is if no one else wants it." Alexis laughs when she thinks of what Haldor might do with the young gnome.

The party heads down the path and yet again, comes to an intersection. But this time there a three ways to go. Which way shall the party go, left, straight, or right? QM Note: Yeah Ko'ing doesn't get you a level up.

Okay then. This is in the review.

Yep. You'll be able to buy all the gems you can afford.

Sure. If those were a picture.

You guys are like *holds fingers 1/8 of an inch apart* this far from being done. Sorry.