Picture Review: 7707 Striking Venom

[Zarkan]

2006 was to me the first truly great year for Lego since the early 90’s, and one of the main reasons for that thinking was the introduction of the Exo-Force theme. While maligned by many older fans of Lego, it did have recognition as the first and only Mecha oriented theme TLC has produced so far, and although it was far from perfect, it proved to be my favorite theme of the year. Today, I’ll be bringing you a review of one of the flagship sets of the first year of Exo-Force – which incidentally also happened to be the machine that the whole storyline was based around.

Name – Striking Venom

Set Number – 7707

Year – 2006

Pieces – 646

Minifigures – 6, plus two half figures

Age Recommendation – 8 to 14 years

Price – $49.99 USD / Unknown EUR / 34.99 GPB

The Box and Instructions:

Out of all the themes TLC has ever made, the Exo-Force line is among the best when it comes to box art. The dramatic action pose, firing lasers, and detailed background make the Striking Venom’s box a pure beauty to behold. There’s no doubt in my mind that this kit was a particular standout when kids went to the toy section of various stores, and I can only imagine the excitement on their faces when they saw this giant spider robot blasting off of the box cover. Also of note is the picture in the bottom left corner – when assembled, this kit is a full 18 inches across!

The back of the box is not quite as amazing as the front, but it does contain several interesting details. In the top right corner, we have a picture for an alternate model, which I believe had online instructions at one point. In the bottom right corner, there’s an impressive advertisement for the other kits in the Exo-force line, put together in a giant battle scene. Finally, right under the picture of the Striking Venom, we have a picture of the Meca One minifig that comes with the set. Why is this interesting? Well, you’ll find out soon enough.

Here’s a closeup of the aforementioned advertisement. It’s easily just as dramatic and action-packed as the front of the box, and it contains every 2006 Exo-Force kit (minus store exclusives).

A random page of the instructions. The background is rather plain and uninteresting for a theme as action-heavy as Exo-Force. Still, the instructions do have piece callouts and differentiate the piece colors well.

The piece inventory, which oddly enough appears in the very front of the instructions, rather than in the back like it does for most kits. Apologies for the poor condition of my manual – I don’t really know why it’s in this state and most of my other recent instructions are not.

Oh, and here’s a close-up of the alternate model, which is included only as a reminder that you can get exclusive instructions for it online.

The Pieces and Minifigures:

The Striking Venom contains a total of 646 pieces, minus the extra bits I’m sure it came with when I first opened the box. As you can see, it’s mostly a mix of black, grey, and green, with a bit of lime and red mixed in. Oh, and it’s also largely technic, something that may cause at least a few members to stop reading my review at this point. I’m serious though - this kit has a LOT of technic. The black technic pins take up 108 pieces alone!

Still, this didn’t stop me from finding a few interesting pieces within the kit. The Striking Venom does contain eight modified green slopes and sixteen long green fins, eight black corner slopes, five trans-black windshields (not printed), two interesting grey octagonal pieces, four yellow technic corner bricks, and eight of a neat technic joint that was introduced in the Exo-Force line. The latter actually consists of two separate pieces that you must connect together, which may or may not be permanently attached once you do that. I haven’t tested them to see if they can come back apart, and I won’t be doing that any time soon.

The Striking Venom also contains several very special pieces used in its action features – a trans-black launcher with ten yellow-orange disks as ammo, and a light-up brick that connects to a long clear tube. Both of these features appeared in various other Exo-Force kits, so while interesting, they are far from unique.

Now, onto the minifigs. The Striking Venom is an excellent source of the copper robots called Iron Drones, containing six of them in all. It also features the parts to make half a silver robot (called a Devastator) and half a gold robot… wait, something’s not right. Yes, contrary to the back of the box, the Meca One minifigure included in this kit is not complete, but is missing his legs! This to me smacks of false advertising, and I remember it caused quite a commotion over on at least one other message board.

Back and side views of the Iron Drone minifigures. This is in my opinion a far cooler robot design than that of the StarWars battle droids, as it’s far more bulkier and stronger looking. And of course, the incredibly useful arms have found their way into many other lego sets and quite a few MOC’s as well.

The Build:

7707 is, as you probably expected, a largely technic-oriented build. However, I’m not nearly as put off to technic-heavy kits as many people here are, so the construction process overall was fairly enjoyable for me. The build starts out by putting together several technic beams and the large hinges, forming this octagonal base.

Soon, plates, slopes, and windshields are soon added to the base, along with two Iron Drones connected to silver tubes. More beams and those green slopes are built around the technic hinges, forming a large cross shape.

Now, it’s time to assemble the legs, with – you guessed it – more technic beams.

The legs now get plates and slopes added to their front surfaces, giving the technic skeleton some needed detail.

The remaining four Iron Drones are now attached to these strange contraptions. What are these for, I wonder?

Well, this still doesn’t answer my question, but at least we know where those things go. Along with the Iron Drone contraptions, technic digger scoops are also connected to the bottom of each leg, completing this stage of the assembly.

The legs are now attached to the body, but there’s still more to be built.

Finally, all the remaining assemblies (cockpit, turret, and laser cannons) are built, and….

… the Striking Venom is now complete!

The Finished Model:

Spanning one and a half feet across, 7707 is one impressive kit. Here’s a side view, which shows just how big this thing really is.

However, from top, it’s easy to see that there’s quite a few holes in the design. This is a problem widespread with the Exo-Force kits, mostly because adding bricks to cover up everything would raise the price considerably. Still, it’s not nearly as noticeable from other views.

The head is one of the neater parts of the Striking Venom. Can you see why? Yes, the head is built to look like the head of one of the Exo-Force robots! This is a neat design feature that is only present in one other Exo-Force set, and it really helps make the kit stand out.

The middle section is not quite as good, mainly because there’s nothing really that interesting about it. The Iron Drones plugged into the machine are a nice touch, but that’s about it.

The laser turret is a lot more interesting, however. While the guns can not spin, they’re quite impressive, and it’s neat how the entire thing is built around a silver robot body.

Speaking of which, the lightbrick included in this set is connected to that robot body. Push it down, and the robot eyes light up! This is a relatively pointless feature, but it still looks quite cool, and I’m sure the kids liked it.

Then, there’s the disk launcher, which is also built onto the turret. This strange device was built into every summer kit of the 2006 Exo-Force line, and really was the only thing that was unique to those kits. Unfortunately, the disk launcher is pretty much useless and non functional. Pulling the launcher tab back only succeeds in hurling the disks a few inches, and more often than not they come out of the top of the launcher instead of the bottom.

However, the most interesting feature of the Striking Venom is undoubtedly the deploying Iron Drones on the legs. Through the usage of a simple technic system, the drones are held high above the ground.

Using this mechanism, you can lower all four robots down to the ground, where they can be sent into battle. This may not be the most interesting feature for an AFOL, but for kids it’s sure to be really enjoyable. Unfortunately, for some reason the system only works on two of the legs of my Striking Venom. I think it’s probably because the technic connections are wearing out, though, and I believe the feature worked fine on all four legs when I first assembled the kit

Unfortunately, as with most spider mechs, poseability is fairly limited. This is as far as you can get the Striking Venom’s legs to move out, and the only real way to move the kit across the ground is by “moonwalking,” a term given to walking the mech across the floor with your hand, one leg at a time. This is usually a bad thing, but fortunately the Striking Venom looks perfectly fine when doing this – perhaps because it has four legs instead of two.

The Model in Action:

After unsuccessfully scouring multiple dimensions for another four legged spider to mate with, Fenrakk finally resorts to desperate measures.

Conclusion:

Presentation – 9/10 (Wonderful as always, aside from the fragile instruction manual)

Pieces – 6/10 (A few special pieces, and a whole lot of technic)

Minifigs – 8/10 (Six Iron Drones are great, but the missing legs on Meca One are really annoying)

Model – 7/10 (Lots of gaps, but it’s size and overall look are very impressive)

Playability – 7/10 (Any giant war machine is great fun, but it’s too bad that the action features aren’t that great)

Price – 8/10 (646 pieces and 6 and a half figures for $50 bucks is a great deal)

Overall Rating – 7.5/10

Striking Venom, big as it may be, is not a kit for everyone. Its appeal is limited to lego fans who like big, futuristic fighting machines, and those who are looking for an incredible, flawless design will also be disappointed. But, for those of us who aren’t that good at MOCing and love big lego robots, the Striking Venom provides a great, relatively inexpensive opportunity to own and enjoy a giant spider mech. If you are a fan of Sci-Fi or mecha and aren’t too concerned about having perfect, airtight designs, then 7707 should be a worthy addition to your collection

Other Links:

Brickset page for 7707

Bricklink page for 7707

Peeron inventory for 7707

Brick Factory instruction scans for 7707

Brickshelf gallery for this review (when public)

[Lordofdragonss]

Nice rewiev I love last picture

I think it's one of the best Exoforce sets, nice pieces(light up brick, a lot of robots!),and you can build a cool base!

And one thing more:

We are bad-bots, and we have doughnuts shooting, four-leged spider! Fear us!

[Front]

Thank you for the detailed review. I voted average for this set, seen in relation to the rest of the theme.

This was one of the first larger Exo-Force sets I purchased. I'm considering getting a spare, for the parts included, as it is at a very low price these days.

This is probably the only larger set that does not feature both good guys and bad guys.

I think it's a good set, it can't really move that much, but I really like the use of the large rotation joints.

Exo-Force was the theme that brought me into System bricks, after dealing with Technic and Bionicle for a year or so. So the theme will always be something special for me.

According to brickset I got 58 robots :-)

[Algernon]

This set is a pretty good example of Exo-Force's strengths and weaknesses. At first glance, it is very cool, with an intimidating figure and a lot of firepower. It only takes a little up-close examination, however, to see how skeletal and empty the design really is. Exo-Force was a disappointment because of this, although the theme did have some useful pieces.

I feel for this set the same I feel about Exo-Force in general... cool at first glance, but not worth the money in the end. Good review, however!