Review: 76014 LEGO Spider-Man Spider-Trike VS Electro

Wow hello all!

It's been a long time since my last post.  All that real world stuff caught up with me in big way.

So to ease myself back into this blog writing thing I'll start with a small set: 76014  LEGO Spider-Man Spider-Trike VS Electro.


The Box:

Pretty standard and comes with the Ultimate Spider-Man logo

The instructions:

Pretty standard stuff with the front of the manual being a copy of the exterior box art.

And then inside it's the usual Lego instructions

The Minifigs:

The set comes with Spider-man and the one of the villains in Amazing Spider-man 2, Electro!


Electro comes with some nifty accessories to represent electric bolts coming out of his hands.

This is the same piece that was used to demonstrate Flash's speedlines.

And here we have a stock Spider-man that doesn't come with his usual web line accessory.  I guess they decided that a spider-trike with two missiles was enough for Spidey in this set.

Hey buddy do I look like Jamie Foxx?

And more of those electric discharges for Electro.  And he swiped a green gem to boot!

The Spider-Trike:

Whoops I almost forgot to mention, although I bought this set I decided to give it to my girlfriend's nephew AJ as a birthday gift.  So it was AJ who did all the building for this one.  The set of course was acquired through the help of my friend Kathryn.


Here's a highlight brick, a modified 2x2 slope with the spider symbol.  I wished it was printed though and not just a sticker.  But it does look good!

When AJ finished the top part of the Trike we both looked at it like it was a jetski.

Here's the completed trike.  Two flick missiles complete the weapons array for this Spider vehicle.

And here's a shot of the trike without Spidey.

The jetski attaches to the lift arm that's strangely in two colors.   Before it was built I thought the back wheels would be angled up a bit but apparently they were on the same level as the front wheels.

Here's Spidey responding to a crime!

In conclusion:

Not a bad small set.  The actual retail price for this set is around 1,388 pesos at local Lego retailers.  I got it for far less than that.

The pieces in red and blue offer a nice selection for other builds like jets and battle armor that will be done in Spider-Man colors.

The minifig of Electro was nice except sometimes he reminds us of the X-Men's Iceman.

The wheels are also awesome for your MOCs.

So yeah it's good to be back!  Please do come back for my new series on how to build some MOCs :)

Review: 6873 Spider-Man's Doc Ock Ambush

One of my favorite Lego themes are the superheroes sets.  I've always been a fan of DC and Marvel comics starting way back when I was 5 and my parents bought me a couple of issues of Green Lantern.  A friend offered this box with a good price and I couldn't say no.

So the name of the set is Spider-man's Doc Ock Ambush which looks to me like Webhead trying to either rescue Iron Fist or he himself gets trapped by Dr. Octopus.

The Minifigs:

Let's look at the heroes first.  We get Spider-Man of course with his usual Lego web line.  And the fig I like from this set: Iron Fist!  Danny Rand has always been one of those B-list heroes that I've always liked.

So here's Spidey:

And here's Iron Fist.

This is pretty timely since Peter Parker is back at being Spider-Man.  And Iron Fist is getting some love from Marvel with his own series running right now

And here's the villain of our story: Doctor Octopus.  For people who follow the comics Ock spent the past year being Spider-man in a twisted revenge against our favorite webhead.  In the end Ock became somewhat of a hero, managed to save New York city and die in the process.

The minifig Doc Ock has the pin connector as an attachment for four grappling arms.  He mostly needs a stand otherwise the sheer weight of the arms makes the fig unstable to stand up by itself.

But you can establish awesome shots with Ock's arms as shown below:

Ock!!!!!

Here I managed to get Ock to stand up by using the two lower arms like a tripod.

The Build:

Ok for some strange reason I seem to have misplaced my pictures showing the structures in mid build.  So I only have pictures of the structures after building.  The lab is split up into 3 major sections.  Shown below are two of those sections.  The main computer and lab table as well as the vent section.

Aside from the lab itself we have a vehicle which Ock can ride on.

Here's the vent section:

Here's Ock with his weird buggy.  Oh and look at that he even has his own Doc Ock logo!

The third section of the lab is a containment facility that can fit one minifig.

You can set-up stories where both our intrepid heroes are trapped by Doc Ock for further experimentation!

Iron Fist is trapped in the containment unit.

Ock about to experiment with Spidey!

Here's one way to make Ock stand using his arms.

The lab table!

And here's our final picture.  Doc Ock triumphant!

In conclusion:
The set was a simple straight forward build.  There weren't that many gimmicks involved but there were a lot of parts that can be useful for other future builds.  The air vent for one has a turbine piece that can be used for spaceships and robots.  The containment unit has a cockpit like transparent buble and OCk's arms can be repurposed for future robots.

The vehicle's wheels are great and the nice computer screens are good pieces.

The figs of course are outstanding and buying this set let's you get Spidey with one his most iconic villains. This is also the only set so far where you get Iron Fist.

Until next time.  Leg Godt!

MOCs: Atlantean Royal Metal Works Solo Suppression Craft SSC-001x "Hammerhead"

(This continues my on-going series of posts on my own Lego creations (or MOCs for short))

When the Lego DC Superheroes Aquaman minifig came out in the LEGO Arctic Batman vs. Mr. Freeze: Aquaman on Ice Set #76000 I knew I wanted one.

I've always liked Aquaman and felt he was underappreciated as a member of the Justice League of America.

What does he have to do with this MOC.  Well nothing at the start.  I had a box of parts staring at me and I decided to build a one man craft.  And then I put Aquaman in as the pilot and the story started to write itself.  The single man craft would be an underwater speeder for the king of Atlantis.

Time to serve some Fish Fry!

Build #1

The Jet speeder

So I started out with this one.  I think I had GI Joe on my mind and this was similar to a Joe vehicle I vaguely remember.

The underside of the build shows the "lifter" units (The red bricks).

The side view showing the profile of the vehicle.  The landing skids can actually be folded.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to take pictures of the folded skids

Build #2

First the write up I did for this second build:

"Atlantean Royal Metal Works Solo Suppression Craft SSC-001x "Hammerhead"

Arthur Curry, king of Atlantis, commissioned the ARMW to come up with a single person craft capable of doing policing duties in the fringes of the undersea kingdom of Atlantis.

The result of that request was the creation of the Hammerhead. A single seater underwater speeder, it has dual weapons hard points that enable ARMW to mount a flexible array of weapons load outs.

It has since been distributed in large numbers to help out in the anti-rebel efforts of Arthur Curry.

some rich Atlanteans have requested their own personal Hammerheads without the weapons hard points."

So the second build looks like a more fully formed vehicle if you ask me.

It now comes complete with small wings on the side that can change their angle as well as a weapons hardpoint in front.

Here's a front view of Aquaman with his new ride

Looks decent enough.  I wish I had the bricks I used here in other colors.  I really want tos see this in an all read version.  Or all black.


What do you guys think?
:)

MOCs: Building my own Sith Pawn for a "Jedi versus Sith chess" exhibit

This marks my first post that will be about Lego creations that I'm actually working on.  I am a proud member of the Philippine Lego User Group (PhLUG), Lego's officially recognized club in the Philippines.

Every month members meet-up for Brick-fast, a breakfast event that of course involves all things Lego.  At Brickfast there's a whole ton of Lego resellers and buyers.  You can get complete sets or that little part you've always been looking for.

Aside from the Lego bazaar, members also look forward to the exhibit of MOCs by other members.  all sorts of castles, buildings, spaceships and robots pop up during the monthly exhibits.

With this brickfast happening on May 3, the day before May the 4th it was decided that the major theme for the exhibit would be all things Star Wars.

I volunteered to join the team setting up a Jedi vs. Sith chess exhibit.

Below are pictures of the various builds I tried to flesh out my pawn piece. 

The initial build

Everyone agreed to put the minifigs on 8x8 platforms that will serve as the actual pieces of the chess board.

My first order of business was picking a minifigure to customize my sith with.

Unfortunately I was unable to take pictures of the initial selection process.  I have an actual Darth Maul and Luke in black that became the base for my Sith pawn.

The picture below is the initial build I cam up with.  The head of the minifig was taken from the Mr. Freeze minifigure from Lego set 76000:  Arctic Batman versus Mr. Freeze.

That faces totally screamed Sith, especially after the hood was put on.

Since I was already looking at Mr. Freeze's minifig I also thought of making use of Freeze's minifigure torso for some test builds of alternate Sith pawns.  Here's the result a rocket launcher pack with Darth Maul's face.

The colors didn't feel to Sith-life for my tastes.  The initial build shown below still felt like the better choice.  And I was growing enamored with the look of his armored flight pack.

Here they are side by side.

Tried changing the torso for some other pieces and I still couldn't feel a more sith-like vibe from it.  Maybe I'll just use this in another MOC someday.

How about swapping Darth Maul's head in.  Oh looks sinister!

Some other test builds:

A pawn in every sense of the word.  No weapons pack to augment his pawn like stature.  This one makes use of a Chima minifigure head, Wolverine's hair piece and a pirate captain's body.

So I kinda liked the effect of Wolverine's hair on a chima head.  Gave it a strange Samurai feel.

But Darth Maul still looks more sinister.

Here's the back of that armored flight pack.

Luke want's to see them.

Swapped in the Egyptian queen's hair piece on the Chima head.

And here's tomahawk guy as a sith.  Definitely gives off a Sith vibe but still not as good as Mr. Freeze or Darth Maul.

Using a female hair piece here.

And donning the evil robot's helmet.

Okay now this Winter Soldier type hair gives a great Sith/Boy band mash up feel!  Definitely looking fierce and sinister!


I've adjusted the minifigure's flight pack to reflect a simpler and more pawn looking pack.  Despite my like for the armored flight pack I assembled I kept thinking it was too much for a pawn piece.

Side by side now with the original armored flight pack.

Darth Maul looks like intergalactic Bieber here!

At this point I was beginning to sell myself on the much smaller flight pack.  Next time I'll volunteer for a knight or bishop piece so I can make a bigger MOC hehehe.

Here's the back of the smaller flight pack.

A final look at the armored flight pack.

The board
So exhibit day came and I decided finally to use the smaller flight pack.

Here's the board laid out with the other  chess pieces.

And here's my own Sith pawn at the end of the board.

This was my first time to actually volunteer to do a piece and at first I had my apprehensions about making a piece that was worthy of the other builders.  After this one I'll gladly volunteer to do bigger MOCs.

As usual the Brickfast was an awesome experience and the PhLUG members were all great.

Leg Godt!