Walter Kovacs

This is the only spot that I really don't like. It just doesn't fit for some reason. Greebles are fine there, but the cannons just don't work for me. *shrug* However everything else looks great. I still love the red color. And that little speeder is very good.

I'm glad everyone liked the review. I plan on reviewing most of the Exploriens theme (I don't own one of the sets ), eventually. The android is coming up soon You can probably find quite a few yellowed parts in my pictures, if not in this set then others. Sadly, I didn't know about the yellowing until recently . Oh, you'll see plenty in the RA, Cam. Now that is something I did not know.

Ground vehicles have always worked well in space themes. Sure, I love a sleek starfighter better than any other LEGO model, but without the ground vehicles supporting those flying ships, a theme feels like it is missing something. So when I saw this set, 6938 - Scorpion Detector, I knew I had to add it to my new Exploriens collection. Stats: Name: Scorpion Detector Number: 1737/6938 Theme: Exploriens Year: 1996 Parts: 197 Minifigs: 2 Original MSRP: $24 USD Links: Bricklink, Peeron, Brickset Note: I have no idea why there are two set numbers on this set. They probably are for the Europe/US markets, but my set is marked as both. Strange. I no longer have the original packaging, and Peeron doesn't carry a picture, either. That or the Instructions cover looks exactly like the box front. At any rate, I have no photos of the box to give to you. Instructions Front The front of the instruction booklet shows the Scorpion Detector in all it's glory. Back Some nice alternate models that can (allegedly) be made. I haven't built any of them as of yet. Random Page A random step showing the construction of one of the arms. Bits and Pieces The Big Pile Here lies the peices needed to construct the Scorpion Detector. Lots of black and white. It's a nice mix of pieces, and most MOCers will find use out of most of the parts. Interesting Pieces Some of the more interesting pieces that are included in this set. This is the last set that I ever bought that included one of those 2 x 5 hinges. That massive white wing plate originated in the Exploriens line, and hasn't been used much since. Probably a good thing, as it's large size really limits it's use in MOCs. I included the 1 x 1 lever because it is the first one I ever owned. Stickered Parts This set did include some stickers, unfortunately. The round tile is used as a control panel. The sticker on that panel does not like to stay on. Of all the stickers I've applied to LEGO parts, only those on the deltoid panels try to come off. I'm not sure why. The black tiles are interesting. When viewed through a trans blue or trans red piece, the image changes. They also are attracted by magnets! So the magnet at the end of one of the arms on the model can pick them up. I thought this was a neat feature. Printed Parts LEGO hadn't abandoned printed parts yet. Here is a nice tile with the Exploriens logo, and a new printed slope just for the Exploriens line. Were there extra pieces? I'm sure there were, but they have long since been absorbed into the rest of my collection. Minifigs First, the minifigs themselves. Minifigs I like the Exploriens minifig torsos. They certainly look like they belong out in the frontiers of space. Minifig Faces Here are the minifigs without their helmets. Are these two twins? Minifig Back The back of the minifigs, showing the classic air tanks accessory. There is no back printing. The Build The build starts with the front section. Just a few plates to start with as a base. The white cross plate is for the back wheels. A few more steps in. The technic pieces are the axles for the front wheels. These are the only technic pieces in the set. You can also see the classic socket of a ball and socket joint. The pins for the rear wheels are in place. I like the two black inverse slopes towards the back. They tend to get lost in the final model, but add a little bit to the overall effect. The large wing section has been added. That piece makes for a nice cockpit, but you'll end up with an open space underneath it. I've always preferred my cockpits be enclosed, thank you very much. The front section is almost done now. Wait, where did that technic piece go? I took these build pics by deconstructing the model. The pin got stuck in the wheel, and I didn't realize it until later. On to the trailer. Here we can see the frame for the trailer ctaking shape. The pins for all four wheels are in place. This is a little sub-assembly. It is also the only SNOT in the set. The fence pieces make a nice detail under the cannon. Here's that sub-assembly in place. I like how the slopes nestle up next to the engines in back. The Model 3/4 And here is the finished model. For a wheeled ground vehicle, the Scorpion Detector is pretty sleek looking. You can see the trans red and blue dishes that are meant to look for those important fossil tiles. Those arms are held on by two & three finger hinge plates, so they can move up and down. But the weight of the arms is too much, so they can't stay up on their own. Notice the large blue and neon green cannon on the trailer. I'm still not sure what it's supposed to do, but it is a hallmark of the Exploriens line. The cannon moves up and down, and rotates on a large 4 x 4 turntable. In front of the cannon on the trailer is a little compartment for holding the fossil tiles. Front This was one of the first sets I bought after coming out of a dark age. So I was surprised at all the little details. The long 8H whip attennas running up the sides of the windscreen. The 2 x 2 dish on the front. The instruments on the side of the srms. I don't recall those kind of details from the classic space sets in the early '80s. Side Here's the left side of the model. You can see that in addition to moving up and down, the arms also rotate out to the sides. The magnet on the end of the arm is there to pick up fossils. Scores Build: 7.5/10 An enjoyable build, though it won't take you too long. There's a little SNOT thrown in, as well. Playability: 8/10 Lot's of movement in this set. The arms move up, down and rotate, the cannon rotates and moves up and down. The trailer detaches. Minifigures: 7.5/10 While not as good as the classic spacemen, these minifigs certainly don't disappoint. It would have been nice to have two different faces, though. Pieces: 7/10 There are quite a few large pieces, which relly hurts the usefulness of the parts selection. But it does have some old style finger hinges, which are always useful. Price: 2/10 You can find some used sets for under MSRP on Bricklink, but new sets will run you almost twice MSRP. Design: 7/10 A good wheeled space vehicle. Lots of playability, and some good details. Total- 39/60 Overall a solid set that would make a good addition to any space collection. Not the best ground vehicle, but certainly not the worst. Full gallery for more pictures, when moderated.

For the record, I prefer the purple over the red. Both look very nice, though. If the legs and interior structure are done, I can start on those. I must reiterate that it will take a while. Besides, my UCS TIEs will take precedence. Could you ask that question agian, Anio. Your post makes very little sense to me.

So many great MOCs, so hard to choose. My vote goes to L-space, and his excellent Poor House.

The TIE and the shop itself are very well done. What I'm not getting is any threat from Vader himself. Probably because Kamil is halfway across the room. Perhaps if he getting force choked, or the lightsaber blade were near his neck or something similar. It just needs a little more "action" , in my opinion.

This reminds me a lot of a K-Wing Bomber. Overall I like the design. The brown parts on the bottom of the cockpit seem out of place, and the blue on the cockpit and near the wings should probably be red, instead. The shape is very appealing.

I'm game. Do we have an adjudicator available? Sorry, looks like I'm out of time. Perhaps another time?

Personally, I think adding PF to this MOC is a bad idea. How close are you to finishing this monstrosity? Looks like you're getting close. Cavegod, I've been thinking about the future of your AT-AT. As you know, I like to work in MLCad. Given enough photos, I could reverse engineer this model into MLCad, and generate an instruction list from that. It would mean some extra work for you, as I will probably need some specific photo angles to decipher what you have done, and it WOULD take me a long time to work everything out. When I'm done, I'd return the cad file to you, since it is your design. Let me know if you'd be interested.

This MOC looks like it came right out of the PT movies. Excellent job, pedro. I would buy this in a heartbeat if it came out as a set. Then again, I love the Clone Wars era ships to begin with.

Wow, these are fanastic. I like all of them, but the one that really grabs my eye is that Vader kart. Anyone else find it funny that MillerTime suggested making them all OT, then threw in JarJar as an optional eighth kart?

Vry nice speeder there, CloneCommander. The SNOT really helps round out the shape. I agree with iamded, and think a different windscreen would make it better.

Ber'gin'yon Torg'h - Jedi Master Ber'gin'yon Torg'h. A man with no memories. A mute who lets his sabers talk for him. No one knows exaclty when Ber'gin'yon was born, or exactly where. His earliest memories are of a system called Mystara, somewhere in the Outer Rim. Not many have ever heard of this system. No one but Ber'gin'yon knows why he is unable to talk except Ber'gin'yon himself, and he isn't talking. While appearing to be human, Ber'gin'yon will insist he is actually from a race called the Drow, found only on Mystara. The Drow apparently are nearly immune to force powers, but Ber'gin'yon shows no signs of this. While showing few signs of being a powerful force user, young Ber'gin'yon has shown a fearsome aptitude when wielding dual lightsabers. Ber'gin'yon was found by Jedi Master Karin Elvee when he wandered onto Dantooine in 143 BBY. Health: 5 Force Abilities: Sabre Throw Force Shield Mastery Abilities: Combat Master Saber Flurry Wins: 9 Losses: 4

When I was a wee lad, my parents bought me a few Classic Space sets. Alas, the last set they bought for me was #6950 - Mobile Rocket Launcher, in 1982. Fast forward 14 years. MY girlfriend and I are walking through some unremembered chain store (Target, maybe?). On a whim, I walk through the toy aisle, and I look longingly at the LEGO section, fondly remembering the toys of my youth. My girlfriend (who has since moved up through the ranks: fiance, wife, mother of my children) says to me "go ahead and buy one if you want to. I won't think any less of you." So I did. And with that, an AFOL was born. The Planetary Decoder was the first set I bought after coming out of my first Dark Age. I looked for something resmebling Classic Space, since that was what I enjoyed most in my youth. The Exploriens theme fit the bill nicely. Here's the details: Stats: Name: Planetary Decoder Number: 6856 Theme: Exploriens Year: 1996 Parts: 79 Minifigs: 1 MSRP: $8 USD Links: Bricklink, Peeron, Brickset The original packaging was discarded long ago, so here is a picture of the box taken from Peeron: The Box: Nothing special, it shows the Exploriens logo in the upper right corner, and an image of the model itself right where you'd expect it. The Instructions: Front: The front of the instruction booklet looks exactly like the box, minus the Exploriens logo. Looks like I have to remember which theme this came from on my own. Back: The back shows some nice alternate builds (remember when all sets had alternate builds?). I've tried to make all of these alternates, but none of them are very sturdy. Still, building the alternates without instructions was always a challenge. Random Page: No part callouts, but the instructions are very easy to understand. Of course, when you only have black and white parts, it's pretty easy to tell them apart. The build itself only takes about 15 minutes, if you are going slow. Parts: The parts are almost entirely white or black, with a few trans red, trans blue and trans neon green parts sprinkled in. Coming out of a long dark age, I was comforted that I knew most of the pieces. Here are some of the more interesting parts: While the tail pieces were not new to me, I included them because this is the last set I bought that included them. I had always thought of them as fairly useful. The rest were new, at least to me. Stickered Parts: The tile with the silver circle is used as a control panel. The other two are special. They have white, red and blue printing on them, and the sort of look like fossils (if you squint real hard and it's the third Tuesday of the month). More on those later. I have not had any problems with the stickers on these pieces, even after 14 years of play. The Minifig Theres only one minifig with this set, but he is rather nice. No standard smilies here. He has hair, and a microphone inside his helmet. Here he is without that helmet: The Finished Product 3/4 View: There she is. Notice the large cannon, er, sensor, um. Just what is that large blue thing on the back of the ship, anyway. I always imagined it as a massive cannon. Anyway, It's best to have the cannon facing backwards for swooshing. Otherwise it rotates a little too freely, and will flop evewhere. There isn't a whole lot of substance to the Planetary decoder. It's an open design, so no cockpit or windscreen to worry about. It's all about making the wings look cool. There are several play features in this set. The cannon rotates, and moves up and down thanks to some old style finger hinges (aside: if you are a MOCer in need of the old finger hinges, fins some Exploriens sets; nearly all of them have black or white hinges in abundance). The engines rotate downward into a launch/landing position. Theres a nice instrument for the minifig to hold. Front View: The trans red and blue dishes on the front end serve a purpose. When the black stickered tiles I mentioned earlier are viewed through the dishes, the red or blue parts are filtered out, showing a different image. It's a neat effect, at least for the first dozen or so times you try it. It loses it's luster after a while. I tried to photograph the effect, but I couldn't get a good picture. You'll just have to trust me. Side View: From the side you can see how simple the ship really is. Not nearly as sleek as a lot of the Star Wars sets that would come later, or some of the late 80s/early 90s Classic Space sets for that matter. But it isn't meant to be sleek, it's there to find those fossils. Or something like that. Back View: The use of the dishes as engines is an interesting choice. They certainly look like engines, but seem a little too frail to move a ship even as small as this one. Perhaps if there were a 2 x 2 x 2 cone before the dish it would look better. But then the hinges would never hold up the weight. Another problem with the dishes is that they come off rather easily. You have to hate it when your spaceship falls apart during swooshing. The Launch: Here are the engines rotated down, ready to propel the Planetary Decoder to it's next mission. Conclusion This was a nice set that got me back into the LEGO fold. But it isn't without it's problems. The support stands that hold the back end up have a tendency to fall off. All too easily. Which is a shame, since I love reasonably priced space ships. The stability problems didn't deter me from buying more, though. Which leads me to... Scores Build: 6/10 A very short build, although the instructions couldn't be any clearer. Playability: 8/10 Lots of motion. The cannon thingie spins, raises and lowers, the engines move up and down, the minifig has a sensor to carry around. No shortage of things ot do here. Minifigures: 7.5/10 Theres only one minifig, and he works quite well for a spaceman. Certainly looks the part, though I think the classic spacemen of the early '80s are better. Pieces: 6/10 A lot of specialized pieces and slopes. It would have been nice to have some regular bricks added in there, but agian, if you need two and three finger hinges, Exploriens is a way to go. Price: 2/10 This is a 14 year old set. But still, you can find some complete used sets on Bricklink for under MSRP. Most, however are outrageously priced, with the cheapest MIB set starting at more than twice MSRP. The set isn't that good. Design: 4/10 The design is eye catching, and it feels very open, which is what the designers were going for, I suppose. But that openness comes at the cost of stability. it's a shame when key parts fall off while swooshing. Total- 33.5/60 A nice set at the time, and one that pulled me out of a dark age. But I doubt if it would even catch my eye nowadays, even given my love of all things Classic Space. It's worth getting if you can find it cheap, but I wouldn't go out of my way to find it. Full gallery for more pictures. EDIT: Poll added

Thanks a bunch for the video, cavegod. I've made a change or two to the back of the model. Check out the first post again. Thanks gentlemen.

I believe I qualify for the Tag, if you please. Although I might have to be careful. That 77% in the Star Wars forums might slip down quickly.

Nice review, Big Cam. I like this set a lot. I've always been a fan of starfighters, especially the Star Wars versions. I too hate the landing gear, but I don't care enough to MOD the set. It would have been really nice if those outer wings rotated for landing. But given the size of the set, that feature would have been tough to pull off.

Thanks for the review, Big Cam. Oh how I wish I had bought this set when it was new. The speeder looks awesome, and the minifigs are to die for (or at least pay an arm and a leg for). But alas, I was in a dark age when this set came out. The little mechanical arm I could do without. Which is a shame, since it is probably a third of the part count. And for a third minifig, they could easily added an Ep II Obi or Anakin minifig (or both). But they didn't, so there's no use crying over spilled milk.

Nice review, Big Cam. I like the Grevious minifig. He looks oh so menacing when holding those four lightsabers. If I remember right, the Grevious Chase set only included two? What really sold me on the set was the sliding cockpit. I saw that on the box and knew I had to have this set to find out how it worked. When I opened it and saw the lightsaber holder, I fell in love. Then I got a second starfighter as a gift. Now I have the best of both worlds, one for display and one for parts

Very structurally sound. The stand is based off of the stands used in TLC's UCS TIE Interceptor and UCS X-Wing models, modified a bit where they interact with the model itself. I can take some photos if you want, but it isn't very exciting. The only problem is that the wing tips cause the center of gravity to be out in front of the cockpit, which makes the stand want to lean forward. Still, the models been together for 2 days, and hasn't taken a tumble yet. Well, that's good to know. I never played this particular game (Rogue Squadron III, I think. It was on the Wookiepedia page). I'll have to move them. I've tried many different control stick configurations in my UCS TIEs. This is the one I like best. So far Actually, according to Wookiepedia, it carries two laser cannons (under the windscreen), two ion cannons (out where the wings connect to the hull), and two photon torpedo launchers (I'd imagine those would be in the black area next to the windscreen. That's where I'd house them, anyway). Thanks all for the comments.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Excellent job, pedro.

Thanks, LG. To answer your question, Hinges. Lots and lots of Hinges. In actuality, this was my second attempt at the TIE Hunter. my first try used a technic solution, with some bevelled gears and a worm gear, much like the UCS X-Wing. But things got way too wide in order to make the wings open in opposite directions. The engines would have been a full 8 studs farther back, which wouldn't have looked good at all. Plus, the grey portion of the wings would have been wider (13 studs instead of 7). So I settled on the hinge method, which worked out much better. Consider it updated. Thanks, Pedro.

Hello again. It's been a while since I finished a design in my never-ending quest to have a UCS scale model of all the TIE variants. I have two more in the can, so to speak, but I need a Bricklink order or three before I can construct them, so this one got pushed to the front. The TIE Hunter looks a lot like a cross between an X-Wing and a TIE Fighter. It has S-foils like the X-Wing, but with the standard TIE windscreen. According to the Wookiepedia page, it also was equipped with shields and a hyperdrive. There wasn't a whole lot of source material for this model. Aside from the picture on wookiepedia, the only other image I found was this one. The front and sides are pretty well defined, but the back end is hard to see. It looks to me that the cockpit ball is extended, sloping down to the ion engines in the back. At the same time, the sides of the ship curve down to the wing attacments. So here's what I came up with: Front: Side: Back: After watching the video by cavegod (find it in his post below), I made a few changes to the back and engines. I'm not really enamored with the TIE Hunter itself. The hull has a lot of sloping, curving walls. These always give me fits in my designs, and don't leave any room for greebling. The only place I can really let my mind wander is in the cockpit, shown here: The model itself is very stable; nothing is going to fall apart on it. The stand probably needs a little tweak, to push the center of gravity farther back, but that's a minor consideration. Overall, the model is just sort of meh. I blame the source material. Once the basic shape is captured, there really isn't much more to it. Comments and Criticisms are most definitely appreciated. Brickshelf Gallery, when public. EDIT: Added new picture of the back.

Hrm, I seem to be the only one that is not completely enamored with it. First, the good. I love the color scheme. I think it works well. I also like the doubled engines. They look fantastic. The extras on the nose are a nice touch. What I don't care for are the extra armaments. Then agian, I've never been a big fan of overloading a vehicle with tons of extra weapons. It just seems to be overboard, at least to me. Don't let me stop you from finishing your work, though kcebcire. Most of it is very good, and I might change my mind when I see an overall shot.

Looks more like a jedi being shot by a clone. Notice the lightsaber flying off near the RGS door? A little backstory should help out a lot. That might be why there's only one view of the scene, as well. Any other angle and you'll see something holding that lightsaber. My question is why there's a stormie (unless my eyes are lying to me) up on the platform, when the RGS clearly has phase I clones? Seems a bit random to me.