7591 Construct-a-Zurg
Price: $24.99
Pieces: 118
Price Per Piece: $.21
Minifigures: 1
LEGO Description:
He shoots spheres. How could you ever pass up this guy?The Evil Emperor Zurg is out to conquer the galaxy!
Now you can build Buzz Lightyear's arch-nemesis, the Evil Emperor Zurg! With his powerful sphere-shooting cannon and rotating waist, this poseable galactic overlord is more than ready to battle Buzz and his little green alien friend the next time they meet. Includes alien minifigure! Powerful sphere-shooting cannon Emperor Zurg features a rotating waist Measures 9" (23cm) tall
So I cannot seem to find the box, but let me assure you it was lackluster at best. The sky printing is just unattractive. The box just showed the set, the minifigure, how he is pose able and how he shoots SPHERES. You wish you could shoot spheres.
Here is the minifigure. This guy is probably one of the most recognizable characters from Toy Story, as they show up everywhere.
I really like him. He's got a perfect 'alien' look on him and his torso is pretty spiffy. He's got children legs though, so they aren't pose able.
He also has minimal backside printing.
Now onto the meat and potatoes of the review: ZURG!!!!!
Terrifying isn't he? Kudos if you can tell where I screwed up the build. I didn't even notice it until I went to nab the LEGO description from the website. Let's start with 'legs' (he's totally wearing a skirt).
His entire leg structure is made up of about 12 or 13 pieces. They're purple though and I wont lie, I'm really digging the purple.
I'll break it down more so you can see what is in there.
Here is the base that Zurg rests on, as well as the smaller dishthat goes at the top for his 'hips.' It's a very large dish. I have no clue what to use it for outside of this.
On top of this dish these semicircle tubes go. These are larger than your normal semicircle tubes, and have space for a 2x2 in between them in the middle.
This pillar goes in the middle of them...
...as shown here. Now onto the body!
The good news about this set is that there are no stickers. Everything you see here is printed on. That Z on his chest, his mouth and the dial are NOT stickers.
The gun itself is just 1 piece. It has some spots where some Technic pins can go in, which is how the tube is hooked in and how he is carrying it. The dial is also connected through a Technic pin, so it is removeable.
The gun shoots three of these 'spheres' (Spheres, I just can't get over it.'). The gun actually shoots decently far. It's powerful enough to knock a minifigure over, that much I'm sure of. You shoot it by holding the gun like a gun, and spinning the wheel in the front to force the spheres out. There's a spring in the back to help propel them out. Loading these spheres isn't too bad, but sometimes you drop them and they pop out really far mid-load.
Here's that tube hooked to the back of the gun to the back of Zurg.
Zurg's torso is just a bunch of skinny wheels put together. I was a little disappointed by this, as I thought it was some sort of new piece It's a pretty good technique though, so I will be using it sometime in the future.
Here is his head. It's a total of 7 pieces: the top part, the bottom part 'cone' base, a flat circular 4 x4, and 4 studs (2 purple, 2 red transparent.)
I predict the top of the head piece being useful in future creations. I'm just not sure how to use it yet. Probably some sort shoulder piece, or perhaps center emblem on a robot? Who knows.
By the way, the cape is huge. Goes from his head down to the feet. It's one piece, red on the inside, black on the outside. I really REALLY have no idea how to use this. Maybe some sort of gigantic drape.
The arms aren't anything special so I didn't bother with any sort of close up shots of them. They're two ball joints, one at the shoulder, one at the hand. There's no elbow joint, which limits pose ability a little bit, but he didn't really have elbows in the movie either so I suppose it's true to the original.
I'm going to point out the huge drawback here...The price per piece is INSANE. 21 cents per piece, even with how big most of them are, is a little ridiculous to say the least. At $25 this set is not really desirable if you look at the price. I purchased this for $15 at Walmart. That brings it down to 13 cents per piece, much more reasonable, especially given the size of most of the pieces.
There are a lot of pros to outweigh the price con here though. Purple is a rare and new color to the LEGO universe and it doesn't come in a lot of sets. Most of the pieces here are purple! It's awesome. There are NO stickers, and three printed pieces. It comes with some very large pieces, unique pieces (such as the top of the head and the gun) and it really does look good while being posed. The minifigure is also very nice and I have a ton of plans for it already. This really is a great set, but the price will probably keep a lot of people away unless it goes on sale like it did for me.
I recommend this set, despite the high price. If you can find this on sale for pretty much any amount I would say go out and buy it.