TL;DR:
- Original Price: $34.99
- Pieces: 299
- Minifigure(s): Monkie Kid, Bull Clone Bob, Red Son
- Sticker Sheet: Yes
- Pros: High on style
- Cons: Light on play
Assembly:
Bag #1 - Monkie Kid, Bull Clone Bob, scenery
Bag #2 - Red Son, jet core
Bag #3 - Jet details
Leftover Pieces
- Interesting Steps:
- 60: When we place the 2 x 4 x 2/3 slopes, there's a little 1x2 plate gap left underneath, which makes it easy to remove these when disassembling the set, a thoughtful inclusion that I appreciate.
- 78: Using Metalbeard's beard as an engine cover is an interesting touch, and a great way to utilize the details of that very specific mold in an unusual way.
- 114: Combining the 3x3 round corner pieces with the cutout 3x6 half-circle plates results in a 2x2 square opening in the front of the jet, through which the blasters can fire (see "Play Features" below).
- Interesting Techniques:
- I liked the hidden frog in the tiny bit of scenery we get. I read somewhere that this is a signature of one of the designers, and it adds for a nice little surprise.
- It's always interesting to see how different curved pieces interact; here opposite curves form the grip of the ship (see "Play Features" below)
- The Technic trigger (first picture) pushes against the back of the bolts, dislodging them and causing them to shoot out through the front of the ship (again, see "Play Features" below). Where this gets interesting is shown in the second image here: a stud mounted on a Technic pin on one side of the trigger mechanism results in the right bolt being fired first, then the left one. This simple addition turns the jet into a double-barreled shotgun, and prevents the two bolts from getting stuck against one another.
- I appreciate the creativity of the nose attachment, using the stronger grip of two clips to hold the bottom portion (as well as the upper bar) attached, while the single clip on the nose's top only holds on with half the strength. This feature is necessary so the projectile launchers can be reloaded.
- Pain Points:
- I'm always saying I want a bit of scenery to go with my vehicle builds, and that's exactly what we got here. It's a very small build, more evocative than descriptive. This is offset by having two of the set's three minifigures in this first bag as well. If I were going to improve one thing, it would be to add another $5 to the price (raising it to $39.99), thereby allowing the first bag's scenery build to be that much more involved (or at least larger); this would mean that we could also split the minifigures up, one per bag.
- Play Features:
- As hinted at above, pew pew. The jet's bottom "fin" doubles as the grip, and a pull on the trigger shoots both bolts, one after the other, out of the jet's nose. Flipping the nose down allows you to reload it, then close it back up to fire again. Having a built-in grip also means that the jet is extremely "wooshable."
• Overall: This isn't my favorite Monkie Kid set, but it's also not bad, per se. There is good detailing on the jet itself (though the back end does look a little unfinished, probably so it's a smoother area for little hands to grip), giving it a look quite close to its appearances in the show—albeit slightly less cartoonish—and the firing mechanism is simple but smart. The build process was pretty interesting, without repetitive tasks and with a few surprising solutions. The scenery could absolutely have been expanded into something more substantial, and there isn't much play value beyond shooting projectiles and swooshing the jet around. The bull clone seems to have been tossed in as an afterthought, but his jetpack is simple and effective. If you can get this for the original price (or cheaper), I'd say go ahead, but it's not one I'll be rebuilding.
Score (out of 5 🧱):
- Price: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Process: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Presentation: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Play: 🧱🧱🧱
- Pieces: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Total: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
Lego Instructions: here
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