Renowned Neo-Spacer Tim Goddard (Rogue Bantha) takes a look at 70163 Toxikita's Toxic Meltdown today, and creates his own toxic meltdown of sorts...
This is a cracking set from the revised Agents line, now called Agents of Shield. No, sorry, Ultra Agents, not affiliated to Agents of Shield in any way. The set has a nice selection of basic and interesting parts and is minimal on the ugly structural elements that have plagued many sets of late.
The sticker sheet is superb if you like interesting consoles and such. Two or three years ago these sort of stickers were few and far between, I know this because I was looking for them; there were some old ones from Exo-Force and expensive ones in Star Wars sets but at the moment TLG are on top form with stickers for this kind of thing. A nice sticker or two can be the icing on the cake for a MOC.
For your money you get a little laboratory, a marauding baddy helicopter type thing and a nice selection of minifigs. In fact the White hazmat suit scientist is what attracted me to this set. If you were a Federation technician in the future and had to deconstruct a radioactive spacecraft engine you really need a full hazmat suit, which means I need one too, and in White. There was just the issue of the printing on the head cover; more on that later…
Following the instructions as always, the laboratory and the two good guys are put together first from bag 1. The Agent in the suit is probably my least favourite part of the set, he just looks silly to me with the massive shield and chainsaw rig. The rig does use some very nice pieces though; a new mould for Ultra Agents and Ninjago is a funky neck bracket (Element ID 6078731 | Design ID 15406) which has all sorts of possibilities both on and off a minifig. Also there's an exclusive Trans-Light Blue [BL]/Tr. L.Blue [TLG] ice saw (Element ID 6082596 | Design ID 6117). Very tasty.
The lab itself is a really clever piece of construction. I don’t really enjoy building sets these days, I’m mostly in it for the parts, but this bit was a pleasure. One side is a rotating airlock using the rare Trans-Clear [BL]/Tr. [TLG] half cylinder (Element ID 4641109 | Design ID 85941) which cleverly uses a four-wide turntable on the bottom and a two-wide turntable on the top.
The other side is two remote arms behind a screen. The platform can be rotated from behind the protective polycarbonate panel. The arms work really well as a nice play feature but I’m not sure why they are holding two trans bright yellow four-long bars. Do these represent uranium rods? If so why are they used to investigate a rock crystal? But I digress. The sub assembly with a satellite dish that sits between the two halves is sublime, I take my hat off to the designer. I won’t ruin it for you in case you buy the set but I found it quite exciting. You want to know what I’m talking about now don’t you? Well this is a site mostly about parts. I recommend you buy the set to find out ;)
Toxikita's helicopter is bombastic in a Batman villain type way. The construct is good here as well; lots of nice bracket action and the half cylinder used as a cockpit window fits like a glove.
I’m going to need a bigger Ziploc bag for my Bright Light Orange [BL]/Fl. Yell-Ora [TLG] as this set has quite a bit. The half cylinder (Element ID 6082544 | Design ID 6218) and four-wide hollow cone (Element ID 6082546 | Design ID 4742) are new in this colour.
And if like me you are a fan of M:tron, Christmas has come early with loads of Trans-Neon Green [BL]/Tr. Fl.Green [TLG] (personally, I always thought it was closer to yellow). I had been concerned a few years ago that this colour was going to be killed off by Trans-Not-So-Fluorescent Green (or Trans Bright Green officially), which is also nice, but recently there has a been a bit of a resurgence in pieces. Here we have more set exclusives: two 6X4 bubble cockpits (Element ID 4622097 | Design ID 87752) and yet another colour of half cylinder (Element ID 6082545 | Design ID 85941).
More great stuff comes in Lime [BL]/ Br.Yel-Green [TLG] which is used as a highlight colour. We have the always-useful 1X1 brick with stud on the side (Element ID 6073026 | Design ID 87087), the always-sexy baby bow (Element ID 6069006 | Design ID 11477) and the not-quite-so-exciting round 4X4 plate with hole (Element ID 6062087 | Design ID 11833) and studless angular 4X4 Technic beam (Element ID 6082985 | Design ID 32348). Of these, the baby bow and round plate are currently exclusive to this set.
You want more exclusives? How about this three-branch crosshole in Black (Element ID 6083347 | Design ID 10288)? Much more useful than the Dark Brown released before.
I said I'd come back to the printing on the hazmat suit later... well, it’s Brasso time!
If you’ve been around the LEGO® community for a while you will have probably come across this. You can use it to polish out scratches on old trans parts or use it to remove unwanted printing. You also need a good dollop of elbow grease, some gloves and make sure to give bricks a good wash with water afterwards so they don’t dissolve on you over time.
That’s me about done. If you know who the main designer was on this set was give him a pat on the back. He/she has done a great job; nice design, good features, tight colours and interesting and useful pieces. Designers can get a bonus if a set sells well so consider buying this set if the above sounds like you would enjoy it, using the link from this site of course!
Our thanks to LEGO's Community and Events Engagment Team for supplying the set.
Good review, though I have no idea what you mean by "ugly structural elements that have plagued many sets of late." When I read a sentence like that, I think of the big panel pieces people often complain about, and I would think the half-cylinders in this set would definitely meet that description. Sure, they're used in ways that other pieces couldn't easily take their place, but they're big panels regardless.
On a side note related to the site, I've had an issue recently where when I try to submit a post, I get an ad in place of the normal captcha. It's extremely frustrating, so if that could be fixed that'd be great.
One piece I noticed that I thought was noteworthy is this one. It's not entirely new (it came in the Fairground Mixer and the X-Wing microfighter earlier in the year), but it's still something rare that could be super useful!
Thanks for the comments Aanchir. The ugly structural elements I'm talking about are all the studless technic beams and other multi-coloured technic bits that is often left exposed. The last Chima set I reviewed was particularly bad.
Good spot on the rare 1x2 with technic hole, defiantly a useful bit to have a few of.
There's a captcha-refresh button in case you can't actually read the garble that they put up the first time. Hit that once or twice to refresh back to an actual captcha if you get an ad.
My problem with this site (and why I wouldn't mind seeing this blog migrate to Wordpress) is that I can't post from my iPod. I've tried it from the phone-friendly version of the site, and the full web version, and in either case the instant I hit the Publish button, it erases my entire post without actually submitting it.
I've been thinking about picking up a few sets from the Ultra Agents line since they looked neat. This set specifically looked good and this review totally sold me. Im glad the sticker sheet is stocked with a bunch of neat prints, Im looking forward to using on other MOCs already. Also when I saw that Hazmat head piece my first thought was that I'd be getting rid of that printing if I picked it up.
you can use a pencil eraser to easily remove printing, i used an Eraser on a spare Medusa collectable minifig head AND body to replicate a Statue of Liberty color, though it took a couple of hours and a REALLY steady hand as I used an eraser attached to a pencil rather than an eraser block.
to find out ;)
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Good review, though I have no idea what you mean by "ugly structural elements that have plagued many sets of late." When I read a sentence like that, I think of the big panel pieces people often complain about, and I would think the half-cylinders in this set would definitely meet that description. Sure, they're used in ways that other pieces couldn't easily take their place, but they're big panels regardless.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note related to the site, I've had an issue recently where when I try to submit a post, I get an ad in place of the normal captcha. It's extremely frustrating, so if that could be fixed that'd be great.
One piece I noticed that I thought was noteworthy is this one. It's not entirely new (it came in the Fairground Mixer and the X-Wing microfighter earlier in the year), but it's still something rare that could be super useful!
Thanks for the comments Aanchir. The ugly structural elements I'm talking about are all the studless technic beams and other multi-coloured technic bits that is often left exposed. The last Chima set I reviewed was particularly bad.
DeleteGood spot on the rare 1x2 with technic hole, defiantly a useful bit to have a few of.
There's a captcha-refresh button in case you can't actually read the garble that they put up the first time. Hit that once or twice to refresh back to an actual captcha if you get an ad.
DeleteMy problem with this site (and why I wouldn't mind seeing this blog migrate to Wordpress) is that I can't post from my iPod. I've tried it from the phone-friendly version of the site, and the full web version, and in either case the instant I hit the Publish button, it erases my entire post without actually submitting it.
Looks like you found the next Lego Movie villain - the Brass O' Doom!
ReplyDeleteThey already had the Remover of Nail Polish in the first movie, and actually put it to use (if with super-unrealistic ease of paint removal).
DeleteI've been thinking about picking up a few sets from the Ultra Agents line since they looked neat. This set specifically looked good and this review totally sold me. Im glad the sticker sheet is stocked with a bunch of neat prints, Im looking forward to using on other MOCs already.
ReplyDeleteAlso when I saw that Hazmat head piece my first thought was that I'd be getting rid of that printing if I picked it up.
you can use a pencil eraser to easily remove printing, i used an Eraser on a spare Medusa collectable minifig head AND body to replicate a Statue of Liberty color, though it took a couple of hours and a REALLY steady hand as I used an eraser attached to a pencil rather than an eraser block.
ReplyDelete