User blog:BrickfilmNut/My Thoughts on the 2015 Reveals - Part 3
The final part of my 2015 reveals! Strap into your seats, everyone, because it's the law, dang it!
Today, we put a spin on things, starting off with... Ninjago!
Ninjago - Worthy Enemies at Last
Woo! Snake Cultists! Forget BIONICLE, this needs its own hype train! Seriously, though, these are such an awesome concept for villains. It's original, it fits into the setting, it's nice and creepy, and allows for fantasy-aligned and cool designs. YESS!!!!! Alright, I can't avoid it. This is going to be another theme where I have to quickly go over each set.
70745 Anacondrai Crusher
I love the colourscheme of these Anacondrai vehicles. That shade of tan looks great, nice and stone-like, and those swords work great in this colour too. The feature of this set looks to work pretty well, though I wonder where the missiles fire from. The snake head looks great too; the sticker for the eye kind of detracts a little, but it still looks pretty good. The overall shape of the set looks kind of weird, however, and those back wheels are a bit too big. And that catapult is just useless. XD
The minifigs are pretty nice, though. Kai's printing looks much more realistic and detailed than stylized, and the ZX hood that allows them to move their heads is back, though without any glaring metal colours, so I'm pretty happy about that, even if I still don't get the set(s). It's great to have more places to get that swordholder on his back too (too tired for proper terms right now). The snake guy looks cool, and a lot of these henchmen have a degree of individuality, which is nice. He also looks really tough and evil, and so invested into the cult that he'll go bare-chested with tatoos and wear a skull, which I enjoy. The skull itself is kind of odd, with its hole in the top. It increases the ways bricks can attach, but it would be nice to have that area smooth for aesthetic reasons. Looking at google images, a lot of snake skulls seem to have such "holes", though, so I have to admit that that justifies it pretty well. That purple sword is disappointing, though. I have no use for it.
"Zukin" is a nice name for Kai's suit, better than a "<Letter>X" suit again; I hope it's the official name.
70746 Condrai Copter Attack
Unlike the previous set, I actually really like this design. It's a new way for LEGO to do a copter, what with two rotors in different "wings", and the shape works well. There's a lot of nice bonework on this set, and it both looks naturally-placed and just cements them as demented characters. On the wings, I like how the purple slopes and white teeth angle inward at the propellor to kind of "highlight" it, and the hinged tan portion at the back gives the two wings an aesthetically-pleasing curved shape. The purple in the set is placed nicely, and look at all those purple 1x2 slopes! And finally, the body both manages to accompany the snake head while overall maintaining a normal helicopter shape. All in all, the build is great. The net-shooting is kind of an average feature by this point, though, and its implementation makes the front of the mouth a bit square. And the handlebars for "piloting" these vehicles don't look very realistic in the end; using "teeth" as handles this way never seemed like a good idea to me, as they can't really be moved around and just look wrong. The ninja vehicle is okay, but it has a few too many flat studs.
The headdress in this one just seems kind of awkward to me; I would have preferred another design, but then on the other hand, I don't know what that would be. The mohawk henchman is probably my favourite of the cultists, though. His punk look, with the mohawk and slick black jacket and gloves, really fits into the whole idea of misguided cultists, and he just looks totally deranged. Skylar looks like a cool ninja, and we now have all the BIONICLE colours for the ninja. XP The face, from what I can see through the hood, is likeable and subtle, and the choice of a ranged weapon is a good choice for variety, and will probably give her a firm and specific role in the team that I look forward to seeing. As for a female ninja in general, I look forward to the new interactions that could exist in the story... after all the "A Girl?!" stuff that will inevitably come at first, at least....
70747 Boulder Blaster
Very innovative on LEGO's part, both in the overall shape of the vehicle, as well as the innovative multi-firing function. It's always encouraging to see LEGO try something new like this, and it should make the set pretty popular. The plane doesn't look like it could realistically fly at all, though, and the little Anacondrai setting is just laughable. Basically, the function sells the set, but I don't have much use for a function.
70748 Titanium Dragon
Why is there so much talk about the brick-built head on this one? We already got a brick-built dragon head on the Mechdragon this year, so it's not that big of a shock. Well, anyway, some of the older custom-moulded heads looked really nice on their respective dragons, but it was unfortunate that they were really designed to accompany those Thornax launchers, which don't look dragon-like at all, so I'm glad they moved away from that in some sense. This dragon also looks very different from past dragons, with a unique wing configuration and a different head shape, and I do appreciate this new look. On the other hand, the front legs are basically rectangular prisms, and the back legs are also blocky and ugly. At least they're bent, unlike some dragons, so overall it's a comparatively-good design, even if its shortcomings are puzzling. The scenery is better than in the boulder blaster, but still pretty mundane, and I don't know how that little projectile is going to bring down this big dragon. :P And finally, a key as a collectible. I was getting tired of just weapons all the bloody time.
Zane's silver outfit is both glaring and uninteresting, so even though it's a "special" minifigure, it's not very appealing. The bad guys, on the other hand, are appealing. The cultist in this one has a lot of individuality, looking like a serious and disciplined cultist whereas the others are more punks and goons, which could (but probably won't) make for an interesting character. The pieces themselves aren't that interesting though. The snake, however, is probably my favourite Serpentine, with a good moulded head and an interesting, reusable armour element that I actually kind of want. It's also cool to see the snakes wearing tribal-like clothing this time, which distances them from the 2012 Serpentine a bit more and adds a bit of personality.
70749 Enter the Serpent
As far as temples go, this one's a bit of a let-down for me. I don't see why these temples need to always be on rocky outcroppings. I guess it's so you can get stairs, but I would prefer, for a change, a temple with less emphasis on the rocks and height and more empahsis on the depth and interior. The rocks on this one aren't even well-done, and the temple hangs off of the rocky support its based on. The temple itself is uninteresting and messy. Though the column style is interesting, everything except for the snake head is not given enough substance or attention, and on top of that, the snake head doesn't really fit in with the design of the temple. You can either design the temple to compliment and fit into the "snake" appearance, or you can decrease the emphasis on the snake head and work on building a temple with a flat sloped roof and simple geometric shapes working together. But don't just build a simple little temple and slap a snake head on top. The stairs look unnatural too, but that rope/bone bridge turned out well, and the prison building is okay, even if the top is kind of blocky/dull.
Minifigs don't offer too much new for me to comment on (it's just colour changes for the most part), but man is that cultist's weapon top-heavy. Also, it's a little strange that what are just two transparent green and blue cylinders are getting so much emphasis in the images. I wonder what role they could possibly play in the story.
70750 Ninja DB X
Odd name. Anyway, I don't have much to say about the set itself. It's certainly a variation of the "mobile base" concept, and the outside doesn't look bad if still pretty rectangular, but I think images of the inside will really be needed to judge this set. The flying vehicle Nya has is interesting, though, and Kai on that motorbike just makes me laugh. XD Actually... Kai doesn't have a vehicle in the images yet, does he? I guess that could be the "missing" set.
The minifigures, on the other hand, I can talk about a bit. Pythor the White is interesting, though I can't say necessary, either in pieces or in concept. I like how that brick-built robot looks; he has about as much articulation as an actual minifigure. :D Aside from that, though, all the minifigs are either included in other sets above or are nearly identical to past variants.
70752 Jungle Trap
If I get a set from this wave, this one would probably be the one. The build is simple enough, but contains some useful parts, such as the leaves and those lovely new swords. Kai's new suit actually looks pretty cool, and it's a great way to get his hair for cheap. And one can also get that new skullpiece for cheap. The play feature may be interesting, but I can't tell yet. Gosh the "special" weapons this year are dull, though. The same trans-green blade just attached to different, already-plentiful gold elements, and the blade isn't even that groundbreaking.
70753 Lava Falls
Basically the equivalent of 70752, except with Cole. The play feature is kind of neat, and one we haven't seen in a while, but play features aren't enough to make me buy sets anymore. :P I have the same comments on Cole as for Kai, except I got his 2014 variant so I don't feel as great a need to get him. And as for pieces, 70752 was actually a bit more interesting to me, though just because I need some more green leaves; aside from that personal need, they're both about the same.
70754 Electro Mech
No picture, no saved prelim.
70755 Jungle Raider
This set is actually pretty well-designed. It's got a nice TECHNIC chassis, some green TECHNIC elements on the side to give it a smooth shape, a nice canopy, some good suspension, a greebled back... The feature on this one also is interesting. It seems that you push down on the golden lightsaber handle to launch the two missiles. Not only is this a fun way to implement them, but the lightsaber handle in that position actually fits into the vehicle's aesthetic, along with the lone golden katana at the back. Overall, this set has some nice detail that goes beyond just sticking more bricks on top. The one part I don't like is the green, single-piece hood, whose shape and style contrasts with the rest of the vehicle too much.
As for minifigures, we have Lloyd again, whose green outfit, like Kai's and Cole's, is both a fresh new take on the suits and looks to have some fun uses elsewhere. Lloyd's hair is also exclusive to him as far as I know. The cultist is the same as before. I really hope the show doesn't screw these guys up as characters. I know I should probably stop looking at a toy company for interesting stories, and I do look elsewhere, it's just that LEGO comes up with such creative ideas, and it's painful to see them always taking them in the same overdone direction nowadays. I mean, snake cultists for crying out loud. If there's any idea LEGO came up with in the last few years that demands a genuinely darker interpretation, this is the one, but I just know they're going to end up as your standard bumbling/personality-less goons. It just feels like we're at such a high-point in LEGO design, as so many sets this year seem to indicate, but the storytelling has yet to match that level of innovation. I know past themes weren't all that serious; KKII, though I enjoyed it, was certainly not much different than Chima or Ninjago when it came down to it. It just gets tiring to see good ideas like snake cultists get boiled down to an evil villain with a vendetta manipulating worthless goofballs to do his fighting. If only there was a way way to add something new to the mix, something like...
70756 Dojo Showdown
...what's this? Hmm... another dojo is interesting, and we haven't gotten one in a while. I kind of like the old Spinjitzu Dojo better in terms of features, with all its spinning swords and falling axes and swinging on chains and all of that, but this one is at least, well, three dimensional. :P Though the only features it really has are flick-fires, a trap-door (I'll get to that later), and some spinning swords, it really is much more of a building, and has more interesting aesthetic to it. The black swords at the top, the heightened fighting space above all the obstacles and only reachable through obstacles, the flags and banners, the depth, the curves... It really is a far more interesting building. The steps leading up are much more creative than LEGO could have been with, well, just steps, so I'm happy about them even if I wish they had a feature. The spinning swords are kind of dull on the other hand. That trap door, though... does the character get dropped into a firey pit? What's up with those flames? I mean, yikes, that'd be intense. "Send your oponent to their own personal hell with the new Ninjago Dojo Showdown!" Overall, I do like this dojo.
The dojo itself is not what interests me the most, though. It's the minifigures. We get Kai again, another cultist, and a somewhat interesting Samurai. But that white-robed dude... at first, I thought it'd be another Dereth-like character, which we don't need two of, but then I realized... he's with the villains! Yes! LEGO! This is your chance! I know you can't have a super dark, complex, haunted-by-the-past villain in Ninjago, but you can offer something interesting now without going to dark. A sadistic, eccentric but still competent villain! Yes! That wouldn't be too dark, but it would also be more interesting than just another evil-guy-and-goons set of antagonists. Oh, please, LEGO, make him competent. Make him a new kind of foe that your themes really need. Because this is what LEGO does well consistently: villains with flare! My expectations may be warped a little thanks to subconsciously comparing him with The Second, but still, I have high hopes for this guy. For the minifigure itself though? Meh, nothing interesting. :P
Pirates - Yohoho and a bottle of what is clearly not alcohol
Another theme with mixed feelings about it. There's generally a lot of praise for the minifigures this time around. Well, the new bandannas get a bit of hate, but while I don't think they were necessary, they don't look bad. Many say the sets are juniorized, which I can see in some ways and not others. Most of the buildings and scenery look a bit too clean and polished, sort of like they belong more in something like Pirates - The Stage Production, but the building doesn't look juniorized, and they still capture the tropical and pirate-y feel exceedingly well. For that reason alone, it far exceeds Castle (2013) Besides, we got our more gritty buildings and ships with the Pirates of the Carribean line. Though I would like a nice, large, overgrown Skull Island at some point, this aesthetic isn't bad for now. I'll just go over the sets very quickly, as I have some specific things to say, but not too many.
70409 Shipwreck Defense
This is one of those sets where the build really didn't have to be so... shiny. Nonetheless, you get a lot in this build. A green bottle, that lookout, a moderately fierce pirate flag, two jewels, lots of muskets, and a cannon. That's way more than the respective 2009 set offered. Also, interesting that the cannon appears to get three cannonballs now. In 2009, I think the standard was about two per cannon. Hmm...
70410 Soldiers Outpost
The raft in this set is okay; a bit too bulky, but the use of a minifig cape as a sail is innovative and intriguing. The outpost looks great, though. Still a bit too "shiny", but I love the detail, with the lantern sticking out to the side, the red masonary bricks, the flag, etc. It looks like there's a lot of room inside while still maintaining a solid set. And I love the "environment" around it, with that one big branch on the side and the rocks leading up to the construct. This set very strongly conveys the tropical theme, and I love that.
70411 Treasure Island
From the prelims, this set looks a little more on the juniorized side. The island is way too small, and the skull occupies way too much of it. I must say, though, pushing down the palm tree to open the skull and reveal the treasure is much more interesting than the respective 2009 set again, where the treasure-related "feature" basically boiled down to opening a door on its hinge...
70412 Soldiers Fort
I like how compact this set is. It accomplishes everything that the 2009 set did, but on a much smaller scale, and has a much more interesting shape to it. The red masonary bricks, angles, black bars, and some SNOT techniques keep it from looking too plain, it looks like there's a fair amount of space, and the features should still be fun. That palm tree looks great too, though the frogs are confusing to no end. It looks a bit more like this is an outpost than a fort, but it's still a nice build. This is the Pirates set I'm most considering getting; my only wish is that we got a monkey instead of those frogs, like in the 2009 one.... Also, hey, a blue bicorne, neat.
70413 The Brick Bounty
Not a bad pirate ship. I like some of the updates, such as the lack of those awful steps to the cabin in Brickbeard's Bounty, as well as the way the cabin in Brickbeard's Bounty hung over the hull way too much. Aside from that, it's pretty similar to Brickbeard's Bounty, which makes it a strong ship. The minifigures, particularly the chef and kid pirate, are interesting. Not must-haves, but it's nice that they make the ship stand out more than if it just included more generic pirates. Still no monkey, though, dangit.
Speed Champions
First off, if you haven't already, read through this by Meiko.
Anyway, I'm much more interested in this theme than I thought I'd be. Being minifigure scale allows the cars to be implemented into many people's already-existing minifigure scale environments, the designs are innovative and use some interesting pieces/techniques to achieve the curvy designs, and there are some nice new pieces like the flags and the new windshields. I'm not too much of a car person, so I probably won't buy any of the sets. 75910 Porsche 918 Spyder has some nice grey pieces that would be useful to me in MOCing, but I imagine the license will bring it up more than its worth.
Star Wars - The Phantom Reposession
Disney now owns Star Wars, and though there's not too much effect on the sets, you can see it creeping onto the boxes, with that lovely magical Disney logo on the same boxes as the sharp, futuristic Star Wars one. I only have things to say about particular sets in the wave, so I'll be grouping some together and only analyzing some of them.
Microfighters
The concept doesn't really appeal to me that much. All the minifigures are mostly pilots, which are only useful when you have the respective vehicle. None of the pieces are that new or interesting, except for the 1x2 plates with peg holes on the bottom in the AT-AT, but I'm not even sure how new they are, and they'll surely be used elsewhere. So this whole line is a pass for me. I must say I like the designs of the AT-AT and Spider Droid more than anything from Series 1, though.
75078 Imperial Troop Transport
Dang Rebels Stormtrooper variants. I already have six, which should be enough for most scenes I use them for in any future films, so I probably will skip it. If you were to start your Stormtrooper army from scratch, though, this looks to have a nice assortment of pieces, a better vehicle than the previous Stormie pack, and troopers that are, aside from the blue on the helmets, iconic and detailed.
75079 Shadow Troopers & 75089 Geonosis Troopers
None of the minifigures in these interest me, so I'll pass, but I do want to comment that these are much stronger set designs than are found in a lot of battle-packs. The vehicles, for the most part, make sense in a battle scenario (unlike a few battle-packs), and they look a lot better too. The Geonosis walker has a nice smooth cockpit area, and the Shadow Trooper speeder is streamlined, with the rods along the side breaking up the rectangular build with some roundness and bending. The rods are also not just implemented without care/reason, and come to a nice conclusion at the front of the model with those black wings. It's an interesting design that turned out quite well.
75081 T-16 Skyhopper
Well, I must say it's better than the original model, and I like the cockpit design (especially that windscreen), but it's not an iconic ship, model, or build, and there is still an element of blockiness to it. As for the minifigures, I really don't like that new Tusken Raider, and I was one of the people who was fine with Boba Fett's redesign, so I'm not against change or anything. This head just feels too large, and way too detailed/textured compared to the rest of the body. Also, we still don't have a set since 2002 where you can amass even a group of, say, three Tusken Raiders for a decent price. Grr.
75082 TIE Advanced Prototype
The problem with a lot of the Rebels models, though it could change, is that none of them are very iconic, so there's not much reason I feel to collect this for use in any future brickfilm or anything. Though in this case, the pieces are okay. The new windshield element, in both of its uses here, is certainly more versatile than elements used on the TIE Fighters I own. And I build in grey a lot, so all the angled grey bricks included do increase the appeal for me. I'm not sure yet if all that will do it for me, though. The minifigures are so-so. I suppose I could use an Imperial Officer at some point. The TIE Pilot, not as much, as I already have a bunch. The Inquisitor's armour and helmet aren't the best moulds ever, though I really like that lightsaber handle. I really hope this element fits its way into other sets; think about the burst of revitalization it could add to the now-repetitive Ninjago and Chima weapons, as well as its decorative uses. :3
75090 Ezra's Speeder Bike
Whenever I hear the name of this set by itself, I immediately mistake it as a Chima set. "Ezra" just sounds so much like an Eagle name. :P
I was pretty sure I was not going to get this set, but now, dang it, I guess I may have to. The speeders are pretty bulked up, and they are okay designs; I do like the printing and colourscheme on Ezra's, but I have other issues. For example, launchers going out at such an angle just seems unrealistic, and it's always dull to get two clone models in the same set. As for the minifigures, the Stormtrooper is, well, I analyzed them above. Ezra is not a bad minifigure, with the hairpiece being fairly useful and the head about as useful as any average flesh-toned head. His lightsaber looked really weird to me at first, but the choice became pretty understandable after I took a look at the one in the show. Sabine is the reason I may have to buy the set. Her weapons would be really useful in my films, I need to amass more flesh-toned female heads to diversify my "cast", and the torso details aren't bad either. She barely looks at all like Sabine in the series, though. XD
Super Heroes - Earning the Name
Similar to Star Wars, I'll try to be fairly brief, and skip going over one set.
76026 Gorilla Grodd Goes Bananas
The Bat-Mech in this image doesn't look as bad as it did in the prelims. Of course, at this size, it's a bit unrealistic (and therefore less useful to me) than if it was about the size of only, say, two minifigures. But at the same time, it offers a lot of good pieces for building one's own bat-vehicles, as well as almost every kind of joint that LEGO still produces. I do dislike it when LEGO mechs' legs don't bend, though. It is just so unnatural. I guess it does mimic minifigures, though... I don't have much to say about the Invisible Jet, to be honest. :P That banana truck is a nice surprise, much better than just yet another car, like in the Metropolis Showdown.
As for minifigures, I'll go in alphabetical order. Batman looks great with that new cowl, new facial expression, and new torso. The cowl is a much more realistic shape than our previous ones, though I can't say I like the old ones less, and the facial expression suits Batman much more than the "smile" his other Super Heroes variants have. Captain Cold looks alright. I don't know much about the character, and the pieces aren't too special aside from colour changes, though the headpiece with the goggles should have other uses. The Flash appears the same as we've had before, but we've gotten Batman clones before, so it's not too much of a disappointment. An alternate facial expression could work, but both of his current ones fit his character, unlike Batman's old smiling one, so it's not that necessary. Gorilla Grodd is another character I'm not too familiar with. The Big-Fig is alright, but I'm upset that there still isn't a solution for moving legs, and, on top of that, the turning/seperable head implementation on Chima's big-fig mammoth is gone now. So we took a step back in articulation. I like this variant of Wonder Woman better than the other one, as she no longer has the cartoony underpants. :P A sword is less interesting than a lassoo, though, especially since they used what's basically the most boring sword mould in their arsenal.
76027 Black Manta Deep Sea Strike
The Bat-Sub in this one isn't a bad model, but it doesn't have much interesting to offer in technique, shape, or features. Black Manta's sub does have a midsection that is original, aesthetic, and interesting, with the choice of windshield (watershield?) being an unexpected pro. The wings are quite plain and uninteresting, though they fit into the shape of the model, and a lot of ships that use those big quarter-circle pieces turn out a lot, lot worse. The little bit of scenery is not very interesting, but it works to convey the setting without driving up the price. Does it have a play feature? The piece choices at the top seem to indicate it does, but I don't know what it would be.
Now for minifigures. Batman is the same as in 76026. Robin I could mostly make out of pieces I already have, but it's nice that after years of having scuba variants in the games, he finally gets a physical one. :P Black Manta is yet another character I'm not all that familiar with (I'm primarily a Batman/Superman fan). His armour printing is good as far as armour printing goes, and I'm curious what the head underneath his helmet looks like. Well, I think that covers all the characters.
76028 Darkseid Invasion
I don't have much to say on the minifigures, except wow, Cyborg's printing turned out great.
The Javelin looks much better than the prelims. The colourcheme works well, with enough red and blue to break up what is a lot of white. The way they achieved the shape is great, and the whole thing is incredibly streamlined. And there's a very nice piece usage at the front with the minifigure shield. This is probably one of the best models the Super Heroes line has offered outside of D2Cs.
76040 Brainiac Attack
Luckily for any exhausted readers, I don't have much to say about the set until I see final images, but I'm really happy with the deverse minifigure selection (with characters I actually am familiar with!) and I can't wait to see Supergirl especially.
The LEGO Movie (theme) - Everything is Arbitrary!
That does work to the tune of "Everything is Awesome", actually, if you're careful. Anyways, the point of this wave seems to be for collectors to finish up anything that they or LEGO may have missed. The Angry Kitty set really contains nothing new, but contains a cheaper Unikitty, a cheaper Micromanager and skeletron, and Batman with new faces and a grappling gun. I'm glad they finally gave Batman some new faces, but unfortunately, the "style" of the LEGO Movie faces makes it useless for me. :( So there's nothing here to offer me, but it's not a bad set in itself. The Double-Decker couch is a really strange premise. It seems kind of like those custom sets that users wishing to get all the random stuff only they care about in one set, except that this time it's actually real. Nonetheless, the characters all have good new variations, the Double-Decker Couch is still an iconic part of the film, and Emmet's car is generic, but that makes it useful if you missed LEGO City's old smartcar set (I didn't, but anyway...), and that waffle is great! Finally another addition to the LEGO menu. This is really a pretty strong set, all things considered. Finally, Bad Cop's chase, like any TLM police set, features some strong designs, and these are the best models this wave. The police car, while not quite as groundbreaking as some of the other police designs from the movie, is still different from anything CITY has given us, being a lot more menacing. The chopper is also not bad, being nice and compact but still detailed and maintaining a non-blocky or simplified shape, which is hard to do at its scale. The minifigures are all ones that we've seen before, but Bad Cop is still a great character, Wyldstyle (apparently?) has a new facial expression, and this is the cheapest set to get that Robo SWAT armour. All in all, though an oddly small wave with some fairly odd choices, these choices still pay off for the most part.
Ultra Agents
Ultra Agents is back, armour and "App Bricks" are introduced, and disaster-themed villains are gone. On one hand I'm kind of happy they don't limit themselves to disasters now, but on the other hand, there were still one or two cool villains they could have done. Like "Tidal Wave" or something. Anyways, this'll be the last theme I analyze each set from, as well as the last theme I analyze in general. Yes, you're almost done reading!
70166 Spyclops Infiltration
Thankfully for my wallet, everything that made this set once appealing to me in the prelims is gone in these final images. Agent no longer features new armour? Check. Walker no longer uses multiple still-fairly-new round 2x2 tiles with holes on the model's legs? Check. Spyclop's printing is less cyborg-y and more bug-like? Check. The design of the model is still neat and original. The fact that the legs don't seem to bend at all is a major con, though, and the cannon hangs a bit too close to the floor, but these could already be seen in the prelims. Overall, it lost all the elements that made me think of purchasing it.
70167 Invizable Gold Getaway
I still maintain, even in these final images, that that bike looks too big, but it does look like a bike, at least. :P The proportions feel a lot better when it's in flying mode, though; in that case, the bulk can be justified, and it's an original-looking flying vehicle as well. Invizable's vehicle is okay, but it's so small that it's not much to comment on. I kind of like the shape it achieves while still looking plausible, but at the same time, it's not all that memorable. The safe is average, except the fact that it's an odd number of studs wide is a bit annoying, as that may make it harder to incorporate somewhere else.
The unidentified agent is pretty average. Invizable doesn't look bad, but the premise is so weird. I get that LEGO can't make a full-on invisible minifigure, but when would he ever need to be in this half-invisible state, where his head doesn't show but all his clothes do? I think that draws more attention than not being invisible at all. And why is it that the stealth-based villain wears some of the flashiest clothes? It's a cool design, but the concept makes zero sense. :P
70168 Drillex Diamond Job
This vehicle I quite like. As is with Ultra Agents, the design of the vehicle is original, and manages to accomplish a bulky shape without too many pieces, partially thanks to those two "shields" jutting out at the sides. The treads look nice, and that choice of windshield is great. I'll gladly take this over yet another clear transparent curved windshield. And there is a lot of nice yellow and orange parts too. This is a set that I may actually pick up. The two drills at the front are kind of weird, though, and don't seem too plausible; I can't imagine it being all that effective with such a gap in-between, and if they were closer together or angled inwards, it may look better. Props to LEGO for adding an original function, though. The little build with the diamond and Bolt's jetpack are pointless, though. Bolt's jetpack's weight is distributed all wrong, making the wings useless if their purpose is gliding, and the diamond build is an uninspired stack of bricks. All the same, at least these builds provide some nice printed trans wings, and a purple jewel element, which I think is new. Drillex looks awesome, with a headprint that has a lot of personality (but still enough uses away from the character) and those amazing drill-holding handpieces. Those look amazing. And on top of that, there's an additional yellow one included for the App Bricks, which, though admittedly not as useful as grey, is pretty incredible.
70169 4x4 Agent Patrol
I still have the prelim for this one. That Agent dog is an original design with a creative use of technique to achieve the torso, but it also looks to be a bit flimsy and gappy. Toxikita's mech is about as good a mech as you can get on that scale, with realistic articulation, good proportions, and the right pieces on the joints to give them a less rectangular and more organic shape. The use of TECNIC pieces to act as the shoulders works really well in particular. The weapon in its one hand looks big and bulky in a good/interesting way, with that big green slope on the forearm leading up to it nicely, really uniting it with the arm in a way that is quite pleasing. And that claw hand looks like it's going to be awesome on the final set, and give the mech a fair bit of character. That Agent vehicle is pretty bad, though. It's not an interesting design nor a streamlined one, and the use of SNOT techniques is a fail. I don't see why the sloped bricks on the side would angle inwards, and either way they're too angular to fit well into the Ultra Agents style. The lazers on the side of that little "turret" portion with the harpoon stick out unnaturally, and that whole portion of the set just doesn't fit into the Ultra Agents aesthetic. It could really use a little bit of bulking up, as well as some slopes and SNOT. It could really have taken some inspiration from toxikita's weapon. The harpoon is a neat idea, though.
70170 UltraCopter vs. AntiMatter
The copter is an interesting design. I feel the front is a bit too flat at the sides, but the cockpit area turned out well, and it's nice that, as far as I can tell, you can rotate the stud-shooters at the side. I think the tail could be raised up a bit more, but it's still fine where it is. The propellors (supposedly) rotating in opposite directions is kind of like Drillex's double drills; an intriguing feature, but not one I quite understand the value of. Antimatter's vehicle is just horribly simplified, but I like that trans-purple dish.
Antimatter as a minifigure isn't bad, though the main thing I'm interested about are the blades of his weapon, and whether or not those will appear in other sets; they don't look "special" enough to have been made just for AntiMatter. Solomon Blaze and Phoenix are not that interesting. The new armour and helmet moulds are kind of interesting, though the printing reduces the armour's uses. The helmet, on the other hand, has no such problem, and I can't wait to see how others who get this set use them.
Conclusion
Well, thank you all for reading through all of this! I hope my analyses were of worth to listen to. If you want to catch up on my analyses, or just catch up on some of the heartwarming memories I'm sure they provided, you can find part 1 and part 2 here and here respectively.
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