Purity: Mega Bloks CNF29 Spongebob Squarepants Patrick Wacky Pack

Not the set I had originally planned to review but plans change.

Box.  MSRP is $5.99 for a $0.14 Price per Piece.  I think I paid $2.50 for it at Kmart.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts.  Lots of Lime Green here.  I think the most interesting pieces are the almost Headlight Bricks and the Curved Cheese Slopes.

Build.  A Small IO Frigate with two assault weapons and one defensive Attachment.


The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Above.  (-10) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  No.  (-5)
Score: -5 (B-).  I don't think any of these small sets from this line are going to get  good score.

Purity: Mega Bloks DPJ10 Destiny Atheon Review

The new sets from Mega Bloks for the Destiny computer game have finally hit the shelves.  Here's my first review.

Box.  MSRP is $19.99 for a $0.10 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.

Parts 1.  That's a Trans-Red Round Tile in the bottom center of the picture.  I wonder if BrickForge is upset.

Parts 2.  Those brackets in the top right corner are pretty interesting.

Parts 3.  Lots of Trans-Black pieces here -- especially the Tile Clips in the bottom row -- and those Trans-Blue Brackets are neat.

Parts 4.  A fair amount of Trans-Blue in here.

Parts 5.  Those blue bricks in the middle are two bricks tall, can fit a Technic Pin in either end, and have studs on two sides.

Parts 6.  The Technic Pin Bars and Technic Pin Clips are pretty interesting, as are the Cheese Slopes w/Studs in the lower right corner.

Parts 7.  Bar Whip Antennas are interesting.

Build.  Two frames and a Station with plenty of parts left over.

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  At.  (0) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +15 (A).  Another good score for a licensed Mega Bloks set with lots of interesting parts to play with.

Sales Alert

Toys'R'Us once again has a good Lego sale.  20% off Ninjago, Angry Birds, and Technic, along with an online $7.98 sale on a few random sets.

Purity: Mega Bloks CNH23 Halo Covenant Commander Review

I reviewed a similar set a couple of years ago.  I've been curious about this one ever since I first saw it on the shelves.  As you can see, I picked this up for half price on Target clearance.

Box.  MSRP is $9.99 for a $0.09 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Minifig.  That is a lot of parts for a minifig.

Parts 1.  Those angled pieces on the left have an anti-stud on the bottom.

Parts 2.  The Axle Plates in the top right of the picture are not friction pins.  The bars on the Bar Plates in the middle of the picture are tiny.

Parts 3.  Nothing really new here.

Parts 4.  Kinda bummed that there wasn't a printed Round Tile in this set.

Parts 5.  The Clip Bars in the bottom row are the most interesting piece in this picture to me.

Build.  I had to cheat a bit with the hips and not fully insert them to make sure it could stand up without falling over.  I'm thinking 2Rd+d8/1B/1Y/2W for stats.

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  Look out Lego, Mega Bloks has a licensed set with the top score.

Review: 41558 Mixel Mixadel

Let's bring Series 7 to a close, shall we?

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99 for a $0.08 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts.  The bottom half Boulder Piece is going to be problematic.  Otherwise there's a good selection of Modified Bricks, Slopes, Plates, Mixel Joints, Clip Plates, along with a couple of Tooth Plates, Bar Plates, 1x1 Round Tiles, an Axle Holder Plate, a Large Jumper, a Minifig Helmet, a Minifig Head Eye, a Flag, and a Lightsaber Blade.

Build.  I managed a Frame, Station, and Terrain out of this set.

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  This is my favorite of the Medivals tribe.  And it's a clean sweep for Series 7!

Review: 41560 Mixel Jamsy

The next to last review for this Series.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99 for a $0.07 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts.  Plates are the bulk of this set.  Clip Plates, Slopes, Modified Bricks, Tooth Plates, Hinge Plates, Grille Tiles, Mixel Joints, Double End Bar Plates, Robot Arms, a couple of Brackets, Technic Ball Eye, a Nixel Tile, and a silver Barraki Eye make up the rest.

Build.  A Commisar-like Frame and a funky looking Station.

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  I like this set, it has a lot of useful parts.

Review: 41554 Mixel Kuffs

Let's head into the home stretch of Series 7 with the last of the MCPD sets.

Bag.  MSRP is $4.99 for a $0.08 Price per Piece.

Instructions.

Parts.  A bunch of Plates, Slopes -- Studless, Inverted, or regular -- and Mixel Joints in this set.  The rest is filled out with Bar Plates, Tooth Plates, Clip Plates, a couple of Brackets, Claw Bar Holders, Technic Ball Eyes, a Large Jumper, and some Minifig parts/accessories.

Build.  2Rd/1B/2W and ugly.

The Questions:
Can you build something -- a frame, station, or starship -- right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio?  Below.  (+5) (The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.)
If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away?  Yes.  (+5)
Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts?  Yes.  (+5)
Score: +20 (A+).  .

Random Starships 3

More starships for you to drool over.

LEGO Guardians of the Galaxy - Mini Milano Spaceship by Adeel Zubair.  The

perfect length for an IO Cruiser.  And of course downloading is disabled.

Frigate by lemon_boy.  Remove the long bits at the back end and
this one looks like it's actually the right length for an IO Frigate.

Neon Spaceship by Matt Mazian.  Render.

This one looks to be Cruiser length too.

RedWelt10-1 by Luis Biaxinho.  In between
Frigate and Cruiser length but, looking fiiine.

starbreaker04 by chubbybots.  It needs a new base and might be a

little long but, all the parts can be found in set 31034 Future Flyer.

Battle Report: Five Way Fracas

We managed five players for our third installment of monthly gaming at the Whiz in Westborough, MA on July 10th. 

The point totals for the beginning of the game were as follows:
Me (3 frames & 12 systems) = (7 Points per Asset) * (4 assets) = 28 points.  (Landsharks)
A Team (4 frames & 15 systems) = (4 Points per Asset) * (5 assets) = 20 points.  (Cyclops)
Tom (4 frames & 16 systems) = (3 points per asset) * (5 assets) = 15 points.
Narbey (4 frames & 16 systems) = (3 Points per Asset) * (5 assets) = 15 points. (Skitterers)
Occam's Spork (4 frames & 16 systems) = (3 points per asset) * (5 assets) = 15 points.

Here are the pictures from the start of the game.  Occam's Spork was designated Primary Attacker by dice roll.


Events of Turn 1 (DDC@11): Tom hits Narbey's Orange frame for 3 damage, then hits his Red frame for 1 damage.  Occam's Spork hits Narbey's Orange frame for 1 damage.  I hit Tom's #3 frame for 2 damage.  My Yellow frame takes 2 Falling damage when the tower it is on gets destroyed.

Me: 28 points.

A Team: 20 points.

Tom: 15 points.

Narbey: 15 points.

Occam's Spork: 15 points.

Events of Turn 2 (DDC@7): I hit Tom's #4 frame for 1 damage.  Tom hits my Red frame for 2 damage.  Narbey hits Tom's #2 frame for 2 damage.  I hit Tom's #4 frame for 1 damage, destroying it.

Me: 21 points.

A Team: 20 points.

Narbey: 15 points.

Occam's Spork: 15 points.

Tom: 12 points.

Events of Turn 3 (DDC@2): Occam's Spork deals 2 damage to my Yellow frame destroying it.  He then seizes my Station.  A Team chain attacks Occam Spork's "Rhino" frame (2B/2G+d8/2W) with three frames but fails to destroy it.  The DDC is ticked down to zero.

A Team: 20 points.

Occam's Spork: 18 points.

Narbey: 15 points.

Tom: 12 points.

Me: 7 points.

Thoughts & Observations:

• This was a weird game.
• I didn't keep that great a track of who did what to whom.
• I didn't set up the table so I got lucky on the placement of my Station in relation to the two towers on the field.
• Placing my two starting Frames on the towers created a large perimeter and forced everyone else back into the corners.
• The dice were hot for the first turn then relatively cold for the rest of the game.
• No-one made a play for my Station that went undefended for a turn and a half.
• There wasn't that much movement in general with Stations pushed out to three of the four corners of the table.
• We gave out a few hand-outs of Tom's creation to passers-by.
• We got one compliment on the look of the table.