So I was at my local Target with the wife and baby. As is always the case, I scope out the toy section. Plus, after having a baby, it’s almost expected. As I am perusing around the isles, I come upon one of my childhood favorites: Legos. When I was a kid, these were one of my favorites. If I wasn’t playing video games, more then likely I was constructing some monstrosity out of these beautiful bricks.
Of course, as one gets older, jobs take up most of your time, and the rest is devoted to life, family, and children. So naturally, time and money are not something I have in spades. If I did have a disposable income, you better believe I’d buy up every space themed Lego set I could get my grubby hands on. As I’m looking at all the colorful pretty boxes, I come up a set on clearance.
Did I buy it? Did I not buy it? Did I make farting noises over the store intercom? You’ll have to read on to find out.
The set is called “Exo-Force”. From what I understand, it’s based off of Japanese mechas. It was a sweet looking set. It had a bottom tank car of sorts with a top turret that turned into a fighter jet of sorts. Just the kind of thing that makes you geek out inside (that sounded dirty for some odd reason). It had been marked down from $30 to $20. Not too bad of a price drop, but I was on the fence about it. When you have a wife, child, house, insurance, and the boatload of bills one amasses over the years, simple transactions like this aren’t as easy as they once were. But a small voice inside told me to go re-check the price. I took the box to those nifty isle price checkers, and what do you know, it was just $15! Now the temptation was reaching a boiling point. I bring the set over to where my wife is and set it in the cart with a mischievous look of joy and elation. She smiles and shakes her head with approval (man I love my wife). We check out and drive home.
Once home, it takes all that is within me not to run downstairs like a giddy schoolboy and rip open the box and start putting things together. Mind you, this is the first Lego set I’ve gotten in about 15 years. After we get settled in, I clear a space off downstairs to get to work as my wife and I relax and watch a bit of TV. I open up this holy grail.
And here are the contents:
Now Lego is marking the bags in the order they should be open. So first were the figures:
After that was the top spaceship/fighter jet/turret:
It has all sorts of missiles and guns. Plus the robot on top acts as a gun and can be detached as well. Even neater is the ability to transform the ship into a “fighter mode” of sorts:
Now it’s onto the bottom vehicle:
After a few hours, it was complete:
Needless to say, I spent the next hour or so playing with it. I forgot how much you can get immersed into these things. The points of articulation are great. The treads on the vehicle even make the front turret spin around! I advise anyone who wants a taste of your childhood, go pick up a set of Legos. Some may call it childish, but I just call it fun.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to save the world from Lego apocalypse.
