TOY
Halo Wars UNSC Scorpion
$29.98
About this product:
Assembled the tank last night. Most of the assembly time is the 4 treads. In part because a deceptively large amount of bricks go into them compared to the main body of the tank, and also in part because they're first so there's more other bricks to sort through.
Pro:
* Lego-compatible.
* The tank looks cool and has all the articulation you'd expect from a tank.
* Lego doesn't do much military themed stuff, so this will get you some camo-color bricks that you might not be able to find in legit Lego products.
* The MB minifigs are awesome. They're actually little action figures, almost GI Joe level of articulation and fairly detailed. Way better than a Lego minifig.
* Stickers are transparent so if you choose to put them on they look better than typical stickers do.
Con:
* The treads are designed to be able to swivel (so the tank can drive over rough terrain), but to get this effect, they're each connected to the tank itself by one peg. That's not liable to stay sturdy and stable forever. Also, there's nothing inhibiting the tank treads' rotation. So if you pick the tank up, the treads flop around.
* For some reason, some of the stickers are meant to go across multiple bricks. Why designers think that is a good idea escapes me. The whole point of these kits (as opposed to just buying a prefab vehicle) is so you can remake it later into whatever you want. Can't do that very well with stickers crossing brick boundaries.
* The bulk of each tread cover is actually one specialized piece. This is kind of cheating, and it limits the utility of these pieces. Still, it's only 4 of the 200+ pieces, so a minor quibble.
All in all, I'd give this model a C+. Would be higher, but the floppy (probably gonna fall off the thing after a while) treads call for a downgrade. However, if all you want is something from Halo Wars to sit untouched on your shelf and look cool, this would be a good buy.
