NAME: The Ostrich Race #7570
LINE: Prince of Persia
# of Pieces: 169
PRICE: $19.99 (US) $26.99 (CAN)
Ok, so here is the second Prince of Persia set I'm reviewing. I have actually assembled 3 of the five, the desert attack set that I reviewed a while back, and another set that my daughter and I put together last month, The Fight For the Dagger. That is a nice set with some very nice new elements and very impressive mini figures, and a Camel. You should check it out.
Sadly. I was not nearly as impressed with this set.
Here is the front of the box.
And the back of the box. Note the graphic in the lower left, indicating Dastan has a reversible head.
The contents of the box. Instructions, 3 bags of Lego (not numbered) and the Ostriches, bagged separately. No stickers.
The cover of the instruction book, shows the race is on!
The ostriches are two pieces, the body and a head. The head turns, but the legs do not move. There is room for a mini figure to sit on the ostriches back. I was excited to see Lego ostriches at first, and these do look nice, if they don't do much else.
Here are all the pieces laid out and sorted. I don't usually do this, but since the set is relatively small and I had to open all the bags to put the mini figures together, I thought I do it this time. I don't see any new pieces AFAIK, except perhaps some new colourings, such as the battle droid arms. As a parts pack goes, this set is not very exciting.
The 3 mini figures. Prince Dastan, Ostrich Jockey, and Sheik Amar. Like Dastan, Sheik Amar has a reversible head. Interesting fact, Sheik Amar was played by Alfred Molina, who played Dr Octopus in Spiderman 2, and the guy who went into the temple with Indiana Jones at the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark (and got ran through by the spikes when he tried to steal the idol). So this would be the third Lego mini figure to be made of him . I think that would give him the lead in unique characters based on the same actor (Harrison Ford having Han Solo and Indiana Jones). Dastan is shirtless, and has apparently been working out. All the figures have nice patterns on them.
The backs of the mini figures.
Now, onto the build. There are three separate structures. First we have a weapons rack.
This must be where Sheik Amar stands to start the race.
The starting gate. I will say one thing about this set. My 4 year old daughter put the entire thing together herself. I only helped her one time. This is a remarkably simple build. Notice those 2/2 tiles with the one stud in the center? I assumed that the ostriches feet would stick on those. Well, you can attach one foot to one of them, but no matter what angles I tried, I couldn't get the other foot to go on the other tile. So I'm not really sure what their purpose is.
At this stage, you use two of the battle droid arms to attach the starting gates to the large bar that you pull back on to make the gates open. This was the only spot I had to help my daughter, those battle droid arms kept popping off on her.
The completed starting gates.
And now we put in the ostriches and racers.
Pull the mechanism in the center back, and the gates open.
The extra pieces.
And the complete set. Who will win the race? Does anyone care?
Final thoughts. While it is a nice easy build, and does have ostriches, other then the shirtless mini figure chest that you can use to make your own surfer or pro-wrestler or what have you, there really isn't a lot here. The pieces are nothing special, the mini figures are ok, not amazing, and while I can't speak for children out there, I really can't see them having ostrich races all day long. I am glad that I got this on sale, as had I paid full price, I think I'd feel a bit let down.
I give it a 5/10.
