LEGO 7700 Stealth Hunter - Battle Peak's Exo-Force Retrospective!
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2023
- Today we take a look at set 7700 Stealth Hunter on this episode of Battle Peak's Exo-Force retrospective.
This series is dedicated to showcasing our love for the Exo-Force theme.
We owe so much to R.R. Slugger for inspiring us to make this video series, and never would have been able to do it without his help. Check out his channel: / @rrslugger
Music tracks courtesy of GameChops
'Agni Kai' and 'Four Seasons' • Chillbending // Avatar...
'Bamboo Island' • Legend of Synthwave 💿 ...
We created all of the Lego photography and stop motion animation in this video.
![BLOKEES Transformers Model Kits Review [Galaxy Version 01]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fSU9uj2_wzc/mqdefault.jpg)
This is such a great first outing - I’m so excited to watch this series develop over time! ❤️
Thank you so much! Can't even begin to explain how much your support helped us get to this point!
- Jesse
thanks for shoving me over. i only own a few sets since my childhood and am looking forward to those. more lego goodness in my life. what a great time to be alive. sometimes i tell myself that exofoce made me a weeb but i loved asian culture even before that. its more of a child between my to loves: lego and asian culture
Thanks for basically advertising this channel, I probably wouldn’t have seen it otherwise
A German CZcamsr did a hundred of these, like years ago
Slugger, Cheesey, and now BattlePeak… how are there so many high quality retrospectives now?!
We were inspired by Slugger and started work on this last year, so let's just say we had a lot of time to put the work in.
- Jesse
Not exactly a hot take but the 2000s really were the golden age of legos creativity, possibly the last decade they were primarily still focused on play rather than display
I was sold on the series from the offset, but when you rolled out those eye catches and an entire end credit segment AND the historical references, my jaw dropped - You guys are amazing!!
Yeah we like anime a little, only natural for it to find its way into our humor.
- Jesse
Love the demon core reference with the light bricks!
I knew someone would get it! I really just put it in there as a gag for myself, and no one else on the team got it. If you know, you know.
- Jesse
Here on the slug's recommendation, and I was not disappointed!
Right off the bat, this is probably my favorite Exo-Force set. The combination of design, colors, and the fact that it's a flying mech just hits me in all the right ways. I have a second copy that I never applied the stickers on, and honestly that's a look as well.
I think it's super wholesome RR Slugger inspired you to start your own channel, keep up the great work guys. These types of vintage LEGO reviews are awesome, and it's good to see a classic theme like Exo-Force get some love.
I can only hope other people take the plunge too and tackle their favorite themes as well! Slugger has been a huge help to us and we owe him a lot.
- Jesse
ooh, this is exciting. exo-force doesn't have nearly the online following it deserves imo, a series like this is a long time coming and I'm happy to see it's been executed well
Yeah I've always loved the theme, so that's something that I'm hoping will change.
- Jesse
It's heartwarming to see Slugger inspiring more creators to do this thing and even supports them in their endeavours.
Magnificent
He was such a huge inspiration that Tyler said to me one day that since I already had all of the Exo-Force sets we should just do the series. Little did we know that we would actually do it and with the slug's blessing no less.
- Jesse
@@BattlePeak now that I see this picked up might as well try and do it with my own favourite retro-Lego series too.
You my friends are awe inspiring with your first episode being so high quality!
Go for it!@@ladahieno2382
- Jesse
Lord Slugger has trained you boys well
Four color-coded protagonists with a teacher/leader figure is something it shared with Knights' Kingdom II, too.
The reused molds definitely work well here.
Yeah that's a formula that just works in a lot of media. Originally we were going to draw a straight line to the Ninja Turtles, but figured we could do better with another Lego theme.
- Jesse
@@BattlePeak Code Lyoko also followed that pattern pretty well. Pink Aelita, Purple Odd, Yellow Ulrich, Black Yumi, and though he never actually fought on Lyoko, leader-role Jeremie could be seen as either Blue (his signature sweatervest) or Green (the color of his Activated Towers). In the final third of the show, they added Silver William (though he ended up an antagonist for almost all of season four). Finishing out the color coordination is White Franz (creator of the supercomputer) and Red XANA (the big bad).
Let's goooo! Buckling up, sent by the slug
Thank you so much! Hopefully it'll be a long ride!
- Jesse
I very much enjoyed your nerdy Japanese historical references and dioramas in this, especially the nod to the Tale of Genji as the Heian period is one of my fields of study lately. Hope these become a recurring gag of sorts.
I don't think I could stop them even if I wanted to, so I think they're here to stay.
- Jesse
Random thing I always remember is there was a team in the short-lived Lego Drome Racers theme called Exo-Force. It’s interesting that Lego obviously saw the potential in the name enough to re-use it for the name for this theme.
It's a great name, though I was partial to Battle Peak. Good that Lego didn't use it, because now we can!
- Jesse
There was even a drome racers set named Exo-Force Bike - I actually just picked up a copy, I had forgotten how much fun the old pullback motors were!
-Tyler
Clearly R.R. Slugger was suing them for using the Slug-o-meter before the full wave recap episode where you can see its relative scoring in action.
Haha, exactly! ❤
That's where the true power of the Slug-o-meter lies. I think our goal is to keep things in perspective and compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of the sets against one another. We'll have some words to say about the Sentry...
- Jesse
I’m glad others are appreciating this theme and digging into those little obscure details. I’ve done so much fruitless digging trying to find information, it’s great I’m not alone with my passion for Exo-Force
This was one of those themes that I really wanted as a kid but my parents said no, it’s always had this aura of mystery for me so I’m excited to see where this series goes from here!
Perfect- a mech series just in time for Armored Core 6. I may make some Exo Force AC’s just to see
That's a great idea! Love armored core so much. I've been a fan since AC 4, so it's great to see another generation of people get to experience such a polished game.
- Jesse
The demon core light brick gag hysterical
I’m a teacher that loves Lego!!! Well done educating me on this set!! Eagerly anticipating more content.
#exceptforthepolybags 😂
There's more coming, so stay tuned!
- Jesse
The outro sequence killed me. Good job!
Yeah we really wanted to go for classic anime outro. I had a clear image of this from the start and it's great to see other people think it's funny too.
- Jesse
In retrospect, I don't know why I was so into these goofy-looking figures and the theme as a whole, but it was my entire childhood nonetheless. Cannot wait for more videos! The work you put into this hasn't gone unnoticed, bravo 👏
Slugger guided me here and I’m not disappointed. Great first video! Looking forward to see more. 😊
Oh yeah, this is happening! (I'm very excited for the fire vulture (that one's my favorite))
That one is up next, so stay tuned!
- Jesse
Loving how in depth you guys get in this episode like Slugger. His style is quite the charming and informative one.
It's kinda annoying when stickers are crucial to detailing a set, or even any toy. As stickers can be a pain to apply for some people. Hoping someone will try making reproduction decal sets for these sets sometime soon. If other toylines like Transformers and GI Joe can get that treatment, along with custom upgrade decal sets too, then why can't more LEGO sets get that treatment too?
I was sent here by the Slug. This really was a good first episode. I will certainly look forward to the rest of the retrospective series.
I remember the old flash games from exo force
I don’t have much more to say but it’s good for the algorithm I think
Yeah I remember those too! All of the Lego flash games were pretty decent. The one I remember most is the Mars Mission one that played a little like StarCraft.
- Jesse
Omg hype. This is one of two sets of Exo-Force that I own. Always wished I had more sets from this theme.
I would consider this set one of the main flagships of the series. Seems like this is one of the ones that stuck with people the most over the years.
- Jesse
A suggestion I'd like to make is adding a section where you go over the play features of each set
I thought we did a good job with that this episode, but I'll make sure to make that more of an emphasis going foreword! Thanks for the feedback!
- Jesse
@@BattlePeak I mean like going through and showing them off and not just talking about them
@@hendersonglover4063 Don't worry, we decided to put the light brick and surrounding mechanism in the fire vulture video, since the fan on the back lets you put even more leverage on the system (and thus make the model split apart). We'll go over the light brick and the eject button in full detail in that episode, so stay tuned!
-Tyler
The slug suggests. I am here. The show. Is good.
Fenomenal video!
glorious!! thanks for doin this, mecha girlies rise up
Glad to have ya!
- Jesse
Oh yeah? I'm excited to be the first non-slug commenter!🎉
Glad to have you!
- Jesse
I'm looking forward to more, and I _really_ appreciate you including the Alt Build! Not many people do anymore, which is a shame because I think Alt Builds and Combo Models are peak Lego!
The Stealth Wasp _really does_ fit in super well with the rest of the theme! I can totally see Hikaru leading a squadron of them into battle, or seeing a pair fly patrol over Sentai Fortress! Maybe, once he upgrades to A.04, someone gets the idea to make a second Stealth Hunter so Hikaru has a couple wingmen on equal footing! It may just be me, but Lego _really_ missed out on the opportunity to make generic versions of each of the roles the 4 main characters fill! Imagine how many Polybags would have sold if they allowed for easy army-building!
This was genuinely awesome! I'm looking forward to the next episode.
That one bit at the end had be rolling!
Thank you so much! The best we can do is make jokes that we think are funny and hope others will too.
- Jesse
Oooh a very in depth review! Ive watched a lot of Exo Force retrospectives, and yet after watching this video I still end up learning new things! Cant wait to see the next episodes (its a long way to my favourite set, the Aero Booster, but we'll get there eventually im sure!)
That's the goal! We're going to try to get through all of wave 1 first, but rest assured I do own the set and everyone on the team thinks that one is super cool. High on the list of wave 2 sets to cover.
- Jesse
The anime style outro caught me off guard, it’s awesome! I can’t wait for more videos
That was something we knew we wanted early on. Glad you liked it!
- Jesse
A nice slug sent me this way. can't wait for the rest of this series.
exo force truly was peak, and so is this retrospective
Awesome to see Exo-Force in the spotlight! Can't wait to see what y'all think about the limited edition sets, I freaking love them
The Bridge Walker Vs White Lightning is a serious contender for best set in the whole theme. I also adore the Supernova.
- Jesse
First there was "The lego rewind" , them I incountered "Cheesy Studioes" . And here I am, at the doors of yet anouther promesing channel that celebrates the times of lego "in house made" IPs. And honestly, I can't wait to see what eals there is to find in one of my introductions to lego it self (well at least technicly speaking, since I never had EF sets as a kid. But the theme was one of the first, that inspired me in creating my first mocs).
And besides that, all that I have left to say is this ....
I wish you the best of luck with the projeckt, a wish from me, and from one green slug who lives in cosmic crystal cave.
Hope to see bouth of you soon 😊👍 .
Honored you're counting our channel with those other ones as well. Thank you so much for the support! Mechs have always been something that I loved. In middle school Exo-Force, Armored Core and Gundam all came together for me and solidified mechs as one of those things I will always think are neat.
- Jesse
I've always wanted to get into Exo-Force, but never knew where to start. I can't wait to see what this series teaches me!
Any of the Grand Titan, Stealth Hunter, Fire Vulture and Thunder Fury would be a good first get. I think an ideal would be pairing two of the large battle machines with the set 7705 Gate assault. That gives loads of things from just three sets!
- Jesse
@@BattlePeak Thank you so much for recommendations! Good luck with the channel. I'm looking forward to seeing where this series goes.
You called them Galador-Joints!!
We had already called them rotation joints, but then we saw Slugger's video about trying to make it a thing. We needed to go back and re-record it so that we used the right terminology.
- Jesse
9:20 wow, that's a great little Lady Rainicorn.
Yeah! It's from one of the earlier Lego Ideas sets 21308. It has brick built versions of most of the main characters from Adventure Time.
- Jesse
Out. Standing.
Exo force was released at the start of my dark age, so I never appreciated how much lore and effort went into their design. Especially loved the breakdown of the Kanji and seeing all the supplementary media.
Only problem is: I'm torn between wanting to see more soon, and not wanting to have you rush the next video out 😂. Would be happy to wait longer just so that each video can get the attention and AMAZING production values it deserves like this one. Instant subscribe. Keep up the incredible work!!
Thank you so much the positive feedback really means a lot to us! We're going to get to work on the Fire Vulture video soon, so hopefully you won't have to wait too long.
- Jesse
What a great intro to the series. Exo-Force was one of my favorite themes as a kid. Really excited for this series, I'll be following!
Mine too! Thank you so much for the follow!
- Jesse
What a joy to watch, your channel is giving this theme high quality coverage I always hoped it would get, I can't wait to see more
It's crazy to see such spiky anime hair on a Lego figure but I'm here for it!
The anime esk end credits was a nice touch. Great job on the whole video!
Thank you! Doing the stop motion for the flowers was not as hard as I thought it would be!
- Jesse
@@BattlePeak That's good to hear!
I have a vague understanding of how stop motion can be time consuming, I'm glad it wasn't as hard as you thought it was, but I just want you to know the time spent on it was still appreciated immensely!
Exo force totally captured me as a kid, I had a friend who had some of the sets completely unbuilt in his lego box and I when I would go to his house I would try and find the parts to make a mech. I never got one of the sets for myself tragically.
the ashtray at 8:00 Dx
The Stealth Hunter as one of my first models from the series, I love these cool mecha!
Oh my god the outro/credits killed me 😆
Well done guys, the dedication & passion is really impressive.
Love your style, can't wait for the rest of the series!
Thanks so much! We're working on it so stay tuned!
- Jesse
This shit fire I ain’t gunna lie, very informative and y’all have a really fun dynamic, also the anime ending bit made me chuckle rather hard
That was the goal. I'm just glad so many people think those are as funny as we did.
- Jesse
incredible debut, excited to see more and 100% subscribing and ringing the bell so i can watch them as soon as they're available
Amazing first video guys! I love the attention to details you put into like breaking down the translations of kanji (as someone who recently started my journey with learning japanese, this things keep up the excitement of learning). Happy to be here at beginning and even happier to stick around for the future!
Minor constructive criticism: a couple of shots/photos appear to be a little blurry/out of focus.
Omg I'm so excited for this! You don't know how much I love this theme and getting a whole series of videos about it is a dream come true!!!!
Great video, Exo-Force was one of my childhood favorite themes.
Mine too! Thanks for watching!
- Jesse
Ive collected all Sets from Exo-Force earlier this year fullfiling my Childhood dream worth it also its good to see exo force get a lot of love and attention recently
There's a lot to this theme! Did you have a hard time getting all the stickers in good shape for some of the rarer sets like the Supernova?
- Jesse
@@BattlePeak funny that you mention the Super Nova I have two of those and one has the Sticker sheet unused so yeah most stickers are good I have a missing one here and there or a misplaced one but I'd say 90-95% are good
I wish they’d revisit Exo-Force. The Ninjago mechs are great but you can only buy so many sets in the same 4 colors before it starts to get old.
Agreed. I think the overall designs got better in many ways, but Exo-Force has a huge color variety when it comes to the sets.
- Jesse
Looking forward to seeing more from you two Jesse and Tyler!
I'm a big fan of these and having made a slightly more aesthetic Magnalink, I can say moving around stickers really helps that set greatly!
I see the love you guys have put into this video and Cant wait for part 2.
haha this is really funny! loved learning about what the stickers say! the banter between you too is fun too
This is the definition of serendipity! My girlfriend just gave me this specific set (and the Shadow Crawler). I can't believe I get to be the 380th subscriber to this channel! Thank you Tyler and Jesse and Slugger! From a long-time fan of Exo-Force this rocks!
Perfect timing on her end! Thank you so much for subscribing! The support we've gotten has been surprising to say the least.
- Jesse
This is amazing. Exoforce is my favorite theme. And the video is amazing with lots of cool stuff in it. Thank you and I look forward to your future endeavors
Thank you! This has been in the works for a long time, so we're overjoyed to see the positive response we've been getting!
- Jesse
Amazing video!
Nicely done. The quality of this video is first class. Look forward to more.
Let’s go!!!
Glad you liked it!
- Jesse
Loved Exo Force when I was younger. Modern mechs just don’t have that Gundam-esque feel. Love the bits of Japanese history and language breakdown! Keep up the great work!
Omg the anime ending credits tho 😂
10/10 this was really good, you even gave us a little mock to how you would fix the doors so the frontal guns will point forward.
Loved this video! Exo Force is one of my all time favorite Lego themes!
This was really well done guys! I learned a lot. Good luck with growing the channel
The Slug sends his regards...
Top notch work! Slugger sent me here. Well done,i missed this theme back in the day,so it will be cool to get some insight on it.
Rei, blue hair, white suit.....
Another Exo-Force retrospective? Sign me up!! (This is one of the only occurences where I subscribe instantly to a channel I just stumbled across.)
Also thanks for the Japanese lesson! It really taught me a lot.
First video done and it's a hit!! I love it and wait for more episode!😊
Amazing video, loved it!
Thank you so much! Glad to see the positive reception!
- Jesse
loved the demon core reference, will stick around!
I love the whole vibe of this video, all the animation and fun posing really added to it. Keep it up, I got notifications on so I’ll be here for the next one!
Thank you so much for the support! We've got another one coming on the Fire Vulture so stay tuned.
- Jesse
So excited to see more videos from you! This video is amazing!
incredible video, my favourite lego theme of all time
Ayy! Great to see more Exo Force!
Was a great Introduction to Lego and Mecha (Anime).
Wish, someone would build like more of the Sentai Bridge as a mic, so I can build it myself.. Thanks for the Review!
oh yeah this is gonna be good
Complain about alt models with a few intermediate pictures as much as you will, but I am currently going through all of the 80s-90s Castle alternate builds. You try and piece together a huge giant castle where the LEGO designers apparently insisted on placing a minifig or dragon or horse in front of every and any detail that would help me figure out what goes where on the mostly single picture they made of the alternate build.
Great review and keep going!
I think I would prefer if you did use the slugometer or something similar, given the Slugger himself allows it. It's a metric I've gotten used to and it ties the community together in a fun way, in my opinion.
Yeah that's what our totally original proprietary light-brick-o-meter grading system is for!
- Jesse
I think it'll be best for these guys to use their own rating scale - something more thematic to the series! 😊
Using the Slugometer kind of casts a shadow over them, one that I think they will outgrow one day!
For those wondering why this theme had such an emphasis on story and characters, the answer is pretty obvious: Christian Faber helped conceptualize it. :)
My thoughts on this theme is that I loved and still do love it as a CONCEPT. The execution of the sets purely as toys, though... left something to be desired. These sets absolutely BEG to be played with, but the sad reality is, I remember these first wave sets being so fragile, that was almost impossible. I don't recall being overly rough with them back in the day, either- but they simply fell apart if you so much as looked at them funny. Later waves did improve the durability, but the damage was done by that point.
Also, obligatory "sLuGgER SeNt Me hEr3!!!". :P
I think a large part of the fragility of wave one comes from being built around the light brick mechanism. It's a pretty novel idea, and the function works very well. I just think it sacrificed too much structure. None of my childhood sets survived till today, so I had to get them all again to do this series.
- Jesse
@@BattlePeak Join the club. All the sets from wave 1 I had? All in pieces by now. 🙁
Great video! Awesome to see some love for Exo-Force, especially with nuanced commentary. Sticker time is by far my favorite segment
if you like sticker time, I have got some good news for you about every other Exo Force set in the line!
Thank goodness@@BattlePeak
Great review! It was really fun to watch! Makes me wanna buy this set now lmao. I subscribed and cant wait to see more amazing content from you!
Great video! I hope more people see this ❤️
Thank you so much! I'm so glad people like this after the work we put in!
- Jesse
Looking forward to more! This is really well done!
Thank you so much! It's been really encouraging to see the positive reception after we worked so long on this.
- Jesse
I'm thinking of making an Exo Force Brickfilm if I can make the time. And I might even make it in Japanese with English subtitles to make it even better.
woah, mechazone... i never knew david white was involved in exoforce!
Great work!
Thank you!
- Jesse
Amazing stuff, I always wanted to know what all those kanji mean!
Will definitely be back for more!
Great work, I really appreciate all the effort that went into this.
Especially the Kanji Breakdown, explaining every single one as well as it's origin, and how you guys went out of your way to research this, not just taking info from the Wikia/Fandom which does contain several inaccuracies/made up information.
The stop motion animations/photos were a nice touch.
Liked the anime outro, guess that style was common in late 90s/early 2000s anime?
Only seen it a few times so far but immediately recognized it.
The only worry I have is what you mentioned at 11:26, aftermarket prices.
As a fan of the theme, I got most sets when I was younger, only missing out on the Thunder Fury/Fire Vulture/Sonic Phantom/Striking Venom in 2006, Mobile Devastator & Combat Crawler X2 in 2007 and most of 2008 besides the River Dragon/Battle Arachnoid.
Don't think I'll be getting the remaining ones though, as I've stopped physical collecting, them being somewhat expensive and essentially just ending up collecting dust on the shelves/in boxes.
Do hope that we can have third parties produce wanted pieces as well as recreated sticker sheets, that way anyone who isn't a LEGO purist can at least still have an easier access to it.
With that said, I do have a bunch of things to say, mostly just small details, but they might just help in raising the quality level even higher.
Not sure if this was a stylistic choice, but I'd make sure that the hair pieces are straight, for example on 01:00 (Ha-Ya-To), 01:07 (Ryo), 01:49 (Takeshi & Ryo)
You can also see part of Hikaru's forehead at 02:15, not sure if the hair piece wasn't fully on or if that's simply the print though.
00:50
I'd name those three "years" rather than waves, as people often call the winter/summer releases waves.
Exo-Force had 5 of those in total, with the Supernova, Bridge Walker vs White Lightning, Golden Guardian and Combat Crawler X2 being released in-between.
3 years were somewhat common for themes during the early to mid 2000s
Note how Drome, Alpha Team (although with a year gap) and Knights Kingdom all lasted three years.
Even Bionicle, which was concepted to last a longer time, seems to have had an exit planned (in case the theme didn't do well) for year 3.
Ever noted how the Mask of Light movie mentioned awakening the Great Spirit today, yet that suddenly loses relevance after the defeat of Makuta, with them (re)discovering Metru Nui?
What wasn't however was Exo-Force's sudden cancellation.
I'd partially attribute that to the LEGO Group's change of management in the mid 2000s and them possibly not being willing to invest as much into themes, cancelling it as soon as it didn't perform well.
Note how Bionicle was intended to feature the "Inika" team in 2009 and had a slight soft reboot in form of the Bara Magna story in 2010, also how themes were much more simplistic story wise until the introduction of Ninjago.
01:00
It's also important to see at what came before.
I'm sure that if you look at Knights Kingdom II, you'll notice some parallels with Exo-Force.
I'd go as far as considering it a predecessor to Exo-Force in the story theme department.
(It even had 5 books distributed by Scholastic.)
Another theme I'd consider important is Orient Expedition.
While this one was much shorter lived (although it had three waves) it told of a continuous story going to India all the way up to the Mount Everest and ending in China, with the story being told through (different?) comics online and in the LEGO CLUB Magazine.
From what I remember, most comic tie-ins prior to that (except for Bionicle of course) were mostly self contained rather than being part of a bigger story.
01:59
Just me, but I would've shown the Sentai Fortress without any customizations (additional minifigures)
I don't mind their inclusion during the other segments but wouldn't include them during the showcase of the set, only showing what was included to avoid confusion.
02:14
Would have to look for more info, but how common were double side face prints back then?
From what I've heard they debuted in the Studios line in 2002 but weren't widely used until much later.
02:24
The goggles did have a brief appearance in Comic 21 (although in light blue) as well as in Deep Jungle (Hikaru's Deep Jungle box portrait & both comics) I do agree that they were an odd addition, considering their lack of appearance, although it's worth mentioning that the minifigures differ to how the characters were portrayed in general, mostly regarding the heads.
As for the Hair Piece:
LEGO testing prototype pieces in red does explain why we got some pieces in that color.
What's unfortunate is that this specific hair piece doesn't fully cover the back of the head, so you'll always see a tiny bit of either mouth.
02:51
I'd just call them ratchet joints, as that's the common term used in action figure communities and would also allow non LEGO viewers to easily understand what that's about.
Don't get me wrong, while I do believe that those joints were developed for Galidor, they were simultaneously used in Alpha Team and Bionicle/Star Wars sets, 2004 saw the introduction of brick based variants used in Creator & the Knights Kingdom action figures, with most of it's pieces being still in use today.
02:56
Exo-Force had some interesting part reuses.
Remember the "gun barrels"? Those originated as Spiral Staircase axles in 2001.
That, combined with six pilots only getting two hair pieces made me wonder if it was a budget line of some sorts, considering how few new pieces it got.
Hikaru/Ha-Ya-To & Ryo/Gate Guard even share the same bodies, with the Gate Guard having a variant of Hikaru's face print without the goggles.
03:30
Always imagined that the guns could be angled and as such didn't mind that.
03:39
For me it was always the missile on top of it, especially since it's only held on by one stud.
Surprised that it was the shoulder on yours as that's secured by multiple studs (it doesn't look fully connected in the shot?)
Really wish that they included the longer fiber optics cable that the Supernova and Silent Strike got.
Might be misremembering but I don't think you could have the arm fully pointing downwards as well.
The Grand Titan suffered less from this, having a more solid shoulder assembly (although maybe too solid, the missiles were difficult to remove) and the shorter arms meant the cable wouldn't get stuck on so many things.
This puts it slightly ahead of the Grand Titan for me, although I like both and also got the Stealth Hunter before it.
05:50
Nice attention to detail, given that this was featured on the other battle machines I initially assumed that it was meant to represent the Light Brick energy source.
However, further research shows that the same Kanji is used as Keiken's emblem and featured all over the Exo-Force's human sets.
As such this seems to be intended to represent the Exo-Force team as a whole, kind of like light/dark or good/evil.
06:20
Like you mentioned, the Kanji used on the Stealth Hunter/Grand Titan did differ at some point, they've also been that way on prototype images of the sets and even some comic pages occasionally featured it.
As for the Kanji, I believe it was fixed for the box cover, or at least for other media using that stock artwork, like a banner for example.
The comics are inconsistent, having the wrong rotation or even using the prototype Kanji, at least during the first 5-10 episodes.
07:55 Noticed the small in jokes, like the crew's appearances, seller names, 69420, "smoke free" & "full complete" :P
08:18
Agreed, the translucent stickers of the first year felt high quality and seem to last well.
Unfortunately, they seem to have changed that as the second and third year have colored stickers which don't have the same feel and, at least from my experience, don't age nearly as well.
The Aero Booster I had on my shelf for years also started to have disintegrating stickers, had to apply clear tape to keep them from crumbling apart.
08:39
Heh, liked the hand part :P
What's weird is that according to David White, illustrator of those artworks, those were created after the toy had been designed by LEGO and were initially intended for the comics.
Also hate to correct you, but those Sketches weren't from Blocks and shared by David White on his blog in 2008.
I believe some also showed up in a Lego Club Magazine in 2006.
09:46
Think something must've screwed up the rotation of some pieces on the box art at some point as the Fire Vulture's flamethrower also has a similar error with the nozzle piece.
I've also seen a third wing configuration in a Lego Club Magazine picture where the wings were attached on the front most corner.
10:35
The Stealth Hunter's one of the worse examples, having only three steps.
Also those were pretty much available from the beginning of 2006, even advertised on the back of the box/end of the instructions.
Unfortunately alt builds were mostly exclusive to 2006, with only the Golden Tower getting an alt build post that.
Another interesting thing to note is that the alternate instructions (but not the finished images) also seem to feature prototype stickers, including the old Kanji as well as some other differences.
11:52
Hope that Light Bricks (and perhaps Code Bricks/Mini Robots) can become this series rating system :P
After publishing this video, we went on to debate for days about the "waves" terminology and what constitutes a wave. We ultimately came to the same decision as you, that "years" is best!
Also, thanks for the correction on the original source of the illustrations! I'm gonna try to hunt down a copy of that 06 magazine...
- Liz
So happy you took the time to write this out. It means a lot to us that anyone would be so interested to take the time to do this! For that shoulder scene it had kept coming off whenever we were doing anything else with the set during photography, so it just worked its way into the script. Of course when we actually go to make a video, it wasn't cooperative, so we had to cheat a little with that shot.
-Jesse
This theme needs to come back...
You're right! I'd love to see a big D2C set like Barracuda Bay or the Lion Knight's Castle for Sentai Fortress in the future. I think that's just a pipe dream though...
- Jesse