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Review #1861 - Dated: 13th of April, 2007
Author: Tucker |
Ever since I was the age my son is now, and my father first took us on a family holiday to Malaysia to visit friends of the family, and bought me a box of Lego to keep me occupied on the flight, I have been hooked. I have spent far more than I reasonably could afford at times over the years, building up my collection of blocks. Sometimes I keep special kits intact and together, sometimes I buy kits simply to increase the number of 'odd' blocks in the overall mass... but I always enjoy checking out the Lego shelves whenever I have some spare cash in my pocket.
So it was with great joy I got my hands on this kit for my son, who is developing quite a skill with assembling semi-complex models without adult assistance now... An avid Lego-fanatic-in-training, he has become quite taken by the Bionicle and Exo-Froce models, and is very clever at inventing battle scenarios for them, based on his repeated watchings of all three Bionicle movies and watching his Dad designing Heroscape battle scenario variants. This makes a father proud, to watch his little man confidently tackling what should be a very tough assembly job, and make seriously good progress, albeit thanks in major part to the very clear assembly instructions in the booklet.
It was also fun trying to explain to him why many of the parts he was putting together looked very much like the parts he used in other models, ranging from Bionicle blades through to Knight's armour pieces, and bits of the big racecar. It showed he was developing a good memory for form and function, as well as a strong relational mapping between individual memories and concepts. He demonstrated some excellent lateral thinking when it came to some assembly glitches, because "...there are pieces almost the same on other models, and they work their way, so these ones should work a bit the same, just a little different..." which can only be attributed directly to an increased mental capacity brought about by repeated and prolonged play with the various Lego kits. imho.
Overall, this is yet another excellent example of the Lego designers craft, and I loved the 'special feature' of the shield, that when spun the blades extend, due to their manner of mounting, and application of centrifical forces. My only design alteration would have been to attach the shaft of the rotating shield a little differently, so that the blade would be extended only when the shield was spun in one direction, and retract when spun the other way. This idea was echoed by my son after a little while of play, so that put the stamp of approval on it for me.  A brilliant toy, a stunning building-block system, and another great model for the kids... of any age...
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