Review: 8400 Space Speeder

[Erdbeereis]

While in Germany, I stopped by Galeria Kaufhof in Munich, and to my surprise they had many of the Summer sets. As much as I would have liked to get some of the larger sets, they were a bit too big for my backpack, so I had to settle for the new Space Police impulses. Which isn't too bad.

Let's proceed to our main point, the man with the many eyes.

8400 Space Speeder

Set Name: 8400 Space Speeder

Theme: Space Police 3

Released: Summer 2009

Pieces: 14

Minifigs: 1

Price: EUR: 2.99 / USD: 3.50 / GBP: ???

Now, to the pictures!

The Box

On the box is a picture of our alien friend on his adorable space scooter. In the background a city in a bubble is visible, which is a fun touch.

The top side shows a to scale image of the minifigure.

Instructions

Nothing out of the ordinary here, just the usual folding sheet typical for impulse sets.

Pieces

Besides the lovely black spyglass, the parts are pretty basic.

Minifigure

Now for the main draw of the set, the new alien known as "Snake". He's a really nice minifig, full of detail. Back printing, printed legs and everything about the minifig is new. One of my favorite parts is the large skull belt buckle, which adds a lot. The only thing that's bad about it is that it continues on to the torso as well, so if you don't use those legs the torso looks like a mushroom is growing out of it. Space Police 3 has certainly the most interesting minifigs of any LEGO theme in history. We've never seen such odd creatures, even in Star Wars.

The helmet is beautiful, it's actually quite large and has some nasty looking spikes on top. He could just as well be called Hedgehog, but that probably would lead to teasing by the oher aliens at the playground....

While we're on that matter, I honestly don't know why he's called Snake. He has the eyes of a spider and the helmet reminds me of a hedgehog...

Anyway, let's carry on and forget this classification business.

Some great back printing. TLG has certainly upped their minifigs in all themes with back and leg prints.

The helmet is very long. One of the more interesting LEGO headpieces I've seen.

A close up of the face. One of the weirdest heads ever. Eyelashes on the cheeks, 7 eyes and no bottom jaw, but then again, he is an alien.

The Speeder Comes In

Now for the vehicle. While I love the front part with the awesome spyglass gun, the rest of it feels very mediocre. It's just too random with the colors, and it doesn't have any nice designs. It could have been quite nice with a few adjustments.

I think this part looks far too basic. The plate with prongs doesn't really fit in too well in my opinion although it helps the craft to balance.

My least favorite section. The flame just looks weird coming out of the blue pin. Simply adding a little cone there would have made this so much better looking.

That being said, I still think this is not too bad. The minifig is simply stunning. Here's a little journey through the life of Snake.....

The Beginning...

At first, Snake's life ambition was to become a chef. Unfortunately, due to his scary complexion, he had trouble keeping customers. The grief that came with failing at a life as a chef is what brought Snake into a life of crime....

After joining the Space Baddies Gang, he was given his first job. Because of his many eyes, he made an excellent security camera for the Gang's base.

He slowly made his way up the ranks, and now's he one of the Space Police's most wanted....

=============================================

PROS:

- An outstanding minifig.

- Good price.

- A nice black telescope.

CONS:

- The vehicle is pretty mediocre.

Spongebob likes hanging out with Snake when he's on vacation in space...

Overall, this is a very nice impulse set. A wonderful minifig with tons of new and interesting things, all for a reasonable price. It's a great set to try and see if you are interested in the theme.

A review of the other impulse set is coming soon.

Thanks for reading and happy building!

[Spacefan]

Awww, what a cute yet cool little set!

I bet I could assemble this thing in its bag without looking at the instructions.

[The Cobra]

I can't rate it poor because it has that odd helmet, MOCers will love it.

The building and the colour scheme reminds me a lot of clone brands. Let's say (much) below average.

[CP5670]

This is a cheap and easy way to get the alien. The "set" is essentially just the minifig though. The actual model is obviously an afterthought, although I like that spyglass piece.

[Erdbeereis]

Piece count added.

[Asuka]

Thanks for that fine review, Erdbeereis.

I bought the two SP3 Impulse sets yesterday, and I´ve to say that they´re really great.

The MF´s simply lovely and that spiky helmet can hold a vizor as well, which seems perhaps a little pointless but delivers a nice

additional MOCing opportunity for sure. I even like that little, hmm... rocket chair, perhaps? It´s nicer than I thought and pretty funny to swoosh arround...

[Oky]

Is it just me or is this a really bad excuse for an impulse set? Thirteen pieces plus a minifig is a laughable amount of Lego that you get for $3.50! I could see past that if the set was at least well designed, but it looks like a young kid designed it. It was really cheap of them not to include the visor for the helmet IMO, and the way the flame comes out of the blue pin is jst hideous! The fig included isn't all that interesting either IMO. Not very reusable.

I might still get it just because it's cheap and provides a black telescope (can never have enough of those), but this is a pretty poor set.

Thanks for the great review, though!

Edited May 29, 2009 by Oky Wan Kenobi

[Spacefan]

Is it just me or is this a really bad excuse for an impulse set? Thirteen pieces plus a minifig is a laughable amount of Lego that you get for $3.50! I could see past that if the set was at least well designed, but it looks like a young kid designed it. It was really cheap of them not to include the visor for the helmet IMO, and the way the flame comes out of the blue pin is jst hideous! The fig included isn't all that interesting either IMO. Not very reusable.

I might still get it just because it's cheap and provides a black telescope (can never have enough of those), but this is a pretty poor set.

Thanks for the great review, though!

Well, your mostly paying for the minifig, packaging and instruction sheet, you have to look at the poor excuse for a speeder craft as just an excessory. The minifig not being interesting or reusable is a personal taste, I actually kinda like it. Though I'll agree impulse sets generally aren't that economical for the amount of Lego you get for your money, and this one's no exception.

Anyway, ONLY 14 pieces??? Could this be the smallest Space set LEGO ever released?