ASIN : B0007ZCIZI
Lego Stories and Action Bionicle Visorak's Gate
Manufacturer : LEGO
List Price: $39.99
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Total New: 0
Total Used: 0
Toy
UPC : 673419077538
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FEATURES
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Adaptable to other LEGO products
Includes six mini figures
Includes 325-piece set
Has huge builders, rappelling lines, and pincers
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Weight in pounds: 1.55
Dimensions in inches: 11.30 by 15.10 by 2.40
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REVIEWS
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Summary: 3 1/2 Stars because of unstable beams...
Date: 2005-11-26
Rating: 4
Review: Easy to put together - Check!
Fun to play with - Check!
3 Beams not as sturdy as we wanted. The toy can wreck and fall apart easily. Which is frustrating in the heat of battle.
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Summary: An idea that's been long overdue
Date: 2005-09-30
Rating: 5
Review: I haven't seen a Lego set this cool in a long time. This set radiates coolness like a shining star in the Lego universe.
I must admit, I haven't kept up with the Bionicle story over the years. I always just liked the action figures. The Bohrok were very cool, as were the Rahkshi. I began to lose interest in Bionicle when the Vahki came on the scene, but I still collected a few of them. As far as I can tell, the dynamic of Bionicle stories is usually the same. The heroic, robotic Toa versus a horde of monsters. That's pretty much what's going on here.
The Visorak are cute four-legged monsters with large pincers. There are eight of them here, and they are fighting against the six elemental Toa (humanoid robots). It should be noted that the Toa figures are not posable like other Lego minifigs. They're more like mini figurines. Each guy stands in his own heroic pose, and each guy carries his own unique silver weapon. There are spears, halberds, and battering rams. I'll forgive the lack of posability here because the rest of this set is so cool.
There are six different Visoraks (they have different styles of pincers). This set comes with eight, so two of them are duplicates. They're made of semi-flexible plastic. You can push down on a little monster's back and spring him into battle to knock down the robots. Very cool. The Visorak also glow in the dark. Both the Toa and Visorak figures have some great textured detail, and the Visorak have some very nice color detail as well.
The backdrop for our epic battle between monsters and robots is a well-designed Visorak fortress that has some very cool features. The little monsters can raise and lower the front walls of the fortress, and lock them into place. With a front wall raised, they can then send a flaming boulder careening down a ramp to knock over the attacking robots. The design of the moving walls and locking mechanism is pretty inventive and lots of fun. The front gate of the fortress has large pincer claws that can open and then close to grab a robot as he's trying to sneak inside. The central tower is an elaborate launching mechanism. Load a Visorak into the chamber and then pull back on the trigger to launch the little guy out the front of the fortress, energetically springing into battle. There are also vines that our little monsters can use to scale the walls, and they can be snapped firmly onto a vine.
Going into the construction of the fortress is a good variety of Technic and regular pieces. Colors are dark gray, black, light gray, some dark blue, and just a little of white. We also get some decorative decals to spruce up the look of the fortress. Also included is a small catapult that the Toa can use to launch a flaming boulder at their enemies. All of the construction here is pretty easy. Nothing too difficult. The finished model is sturdy and easily portable. I haven't had any problems with it falling apart.
The idea of giving us mini Toa figures, mini monsters, and a fortress for them to fight over is one that was, in hindsight, long overdue. It would've been nice to see mini Bohrok and Rahkshi. This is what I like. Lots of guys with cool weapons, lots of cute little monsters, and a really nice techno-stronghold with cool action features so I can stage an epic battle.
This set gets a big, big thumbs up from me. Kudos to the designers at Lego! They did a wonderful job on designing the whole thing. It's fun to build, and loads of fun to play around with.
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