NAME: Robo Attack #8970
LINE: Agents 2.0
# of Pieces: 414
MSRP: $49.99 (US)
I realize that this set is around a year old and no longer available on the Lego website, and that the entire Agents line has been discontinued, however you can still find them here and there. In fact, I bought this at a Zellers in Toronto last month, so if you look hard enough, you might be able to find them around.
A bit of a back story, when the Agents line first came out, I was hooked. It was everything a Lego fan could ask for: Heroes with cool names, cool cars, and cool gadgets. Villains with ridiculous appearances, evil plots, and Sharks with frikkin (I hope its ok to use that word) laser beams coming out of their heads (Dr. Evil would have been proud). I got all of the original sets and was very excited when I heard they were coming out with more. Unfortunately, the 2.0 sets were not quite as interesting to me, and never seemed to go on sale. I really wanted this one, and another set featuring a massive blue helicopter. So when I found this one on clearance, I had to have it.
Here is the box. As you can see, this set features the evil Dr. Inferno and his giant robot attacking the city.
[url=ttp://www.flickr.com/photos/hatcherman/4905912396/]
[/url]The back of the box reveals some things. Apparently one of the Agents thought this would be a good time to recreate that famous scene from "The Empire Strikes Back" and wrap a tow cable around the robots legs while another Agent attacks with a small jet. Alas, the Robot body can fly away, leaving the legs behind. And, should the robot body be damaged, Dr. Inferno can escape on his mini rocket jet. The robot has a light up brick in one arm to simulate a flame thrower, and the other arm has a claw hand to hold the helpless female. (Why do the bad guys never grab men like this?)
Inside the box. Instructions, stickers (BOO!) and 4 numbered bags. I don't usually apply stickers, since they often fall off, or I don't plan on keeping the set together. So no stickers on this build.
The cover of the Instruction book.
Bag number one gives us the mini figures, the two Agent vehicles, and Dr Inferno's rocket jet. Here are the pieces from the bag.
Here are the mini figures fronts. First we have the 3 civilians. Notice the first man has a classic space man on his shirt, and the second guy with the camera looks like he just got in from Hawaii. The woman has the same hair style as the female Agent, only in red.
The two agents (the man is named Chase, the woman Trace) and Dr. Inferno. Dr. Inferno's hair is the same material used to make the flexible heads of Kit Fisto and others. Dr. Inferno was available in the original Agents sets, as I believe were Chase and Trace.
The back of the mini figures. All of them, except Dr. Inferno, have reversible heads, one side normal, the other side scared.
The Agents vehicles and the Rocket Jet completed.
The extra pieces from the first bag.
Bag number two builds the legs of the Robot. Lots of orange pieces, and some rather cool pieces to make the joints in the legs.
The completed legs. I was impressed with how sturdy they were once completed, and how they could move in so many different ways.
The extra pieces from bag 2.
Bag #3 is gives us the body of the robot. I was interested in the giant hinged dome they used ,and was pleased to see they had found another use for that giant bottom part of the UCS Darth Vader Tie Fighter from a while back.
The completed robot body and the extra pieces off to the side. Very nice looking.
The wings on the rocket jet fold down to allow it to sit snugly inside the robot head, and Dr. Inferno sits on it.
The robot body on top of the legs.
Bag #4 contains the pieces for the arms.
The completed arms, with the one extra piece from this bag. The light up brick is inside the mechanism of the right arm, and when activated, the fire coming out lights up. It looks pretty cool, but I couldn't get a good picture.
The arms attached to the robot. Its a fairly tall robot, and stands up on its own without any trouble.
The entire set.
Final thoughts. I was very excited to get this set, and I wasn't disappointed. I could see kids playing with this a lot. The robot is very cool, and could easily fit in with any other modern day settings themes. The mini figures are very nice, even if you already have previous versions of them, and the female hair pieces are very cool, even if they don't let the woman lie down on her back flat. Some of the pieces have very limited usefulness, but there are lots of cool and uniquely colored pieces in this set. At full price, it was a bit pricey for my tastes, but other than that, I highly recommend this set. I give it 9/10
