REVIEW: 8396 Soldier's Arsenal & 8397 Pirate Survival

[ILikePi]

NOTE: This review was started on March 22, 2009, and the text and pictures are not as good as I would want them to be (some parts of the text may also be outdated). My future reviews will be much better.

I went to the LEGO store in Valley Fair, CA to get the 7752 Count Dooku's Solar Sailer set, but they didn't have it in stock yet. I looked around, and saw these Pirate impulse sets. (The other time I went to the LEGO store (before this visit) I was looking for them, but they weren't in stock then). I decided to get them and some other stuff instead of the Sailer (I only wanted it for the MagnaGuards and Count Dooku). These were my first Pirate sets (along with Cannon Battle), not to mention, my first impulse sets. Okay, now on to the review!

Set Name: 8396 Soldier's Arsenal

Theme: Pirates (Pirates II)

Pieces: 17

Minifigures: 1

Price: 3.49 USD/ 1.95 GBP/ 2.99 EUR

Year Released: 2009

Set Name: 8397 Pirate Survival

Theme: Pirates (Pirates II)

Pieces: 16

Minifigures: 1

Price: 3.49 USD/ 1.95 GBP/ 2.99 EUR

Year Released: 2009

Note 8396 will be on the left, and 8397 will be on the right.

Box

The boxes weigh more than the set itself!

Front

Right Side

It's strange how the "actual size" thing is on the right instead of on the top (for the US version).

Back, Bottom, Left Side, and Top

Since these sides aren't important, I just put them all in one picture.

Contents

Each set comes with a piece of paper with instructions, a LEGO Club pamphlet, and a bag of parts.

Instructions

Front of the Soldier's Arsenal instructions paper.

Front of the Pirate Survival instructions paper.

The back of the instructions. Each has a poster of most of the sets on islands / water, and some other impulse sets. I don't know why the BBQ Stand set is there (it's not availiable in the US).

For some reason, the back of the instructions sheet in Soldier's Arsenal shows the "European" style LEGO boxes (no words), while the instructions sheet in Pirate Survival shows the US style boxes (words and piece count).

Pieces

These impulse sets have a great assortment of pieces, like a fire piece, jewels, weapons, a crate, a fish, a snake, dark blue plates, and more.

New Pieces (to My Collection)

You can see that my collection is very small.

Minifigures

All 2009 Pirates sets have great minifigure printing.

The backs of the minifigure torsos are very nice, too.

Soldier's Arsenal

After about a 40 second build, you have a weapons rack. I tried to make the picture look as close as the box art as possible.

I prefer the set like this, because the grey jumper plate goes well with the two grey 1 x 1 bricks with clips. Also, notice that the dark grey plates have a white spot where the mold comes off.

Accessories

There's a great amount of accessories.

Extra Pieces

The set comes with two extra pieces: a cutlass and a blue epaulette. I believe that all 2009 Pirate sets with cutlasses and epaulettes come with at least one of each as an extra piece.

Pirate Survival

After about a 20 second build, you end up with a survival kit. I also tried to make this picture look like the box art.

Accessories

The whole set is practically an accessories pack (I call anything that minifigs can hold and use as an accessory). I shouldn't have included the fire piece, snake piece, and crate, though.

Extra Pieces

There's none! That means that Soldier's Aresnal has three more pieces than Pirate Survival.

Both Sets in Action

The pirate ran to the soldier's weapons rack when he wasn't there, took everything he could get his hands on, destroyed the weapons rack, and ran!

Ratings:

Soldier's Arsenal

Build: 8/10; The build was easy and simple.

Design: 8/10 The weapons rack has a pretty good design.

Minifigures: 10/10 The soldier has very good printing and detail.

Playability: 7/10 You can change the weapons that the soldier uses, and have a huge battle if you have enough sets.

Price: 6/10 This set is pretty off from the normal price per part ratio, but comes with many weapons and a minfigure.

Overall: 7.8/10

Pirate Survival

Build: 8/10 The build was also easy and simple.

Design: 7/10 There's not much to "design" in this set. Many people could have come up with a simple fire like that in the set.

Minifigures: 10/10 The soldier also has very good printing and detail.

Playability: 9/10 You can cook fish in the fire, sell/trade the jewels, fire at soldiers with the gun, mine for valuables with the pickaxe, and battle with the snake.

Price: 7/10 The set is also very off from the normal price per part ratio, but the minifigure and the accessories increase the score.

Overall: 8.2/10

Conclusion

These sets are great for army building. They also come with many accessories. However, if you could only get one of these, I would recommend that you get Pirate Survival. While it doesn't have that many weapons (and has less pieces), most of the pieces are accessories, which is very good.

[lightningtiger]

The pirate is handy to add to any pirate ship or scene, but the soldiers are more useful especially with all their weapons and accessories.

Ain't nothing like have the red coats over for a mug of rum !

Thanks for the review 'ILikePi' !

[funkybrick]

Nice review, mate

Thanks!

Edited January 23, 2010 by funkybrick

[Zorro]

Very good and interesting review.

I think its getting time for me to unpack my load of Pirates Impulse packs (mostly Soldier's)...

Thanks for sharing your nice review with us. It might convince some people to get into LEGO Pirates cheaply.

[Dr. Steve]

Great review and great pics.

I will miss the Soldiers Arsenal

[Captain Mickey]

I just picked up 2 of the Soldier's Arsenal at the local LEGO store. plus another Cannon Battle to add to the 4 I have already. These new additions were on sale in the bargain bin due to crushed boxes, priced at $2.50 US and $4.98 US respectively. It was all the Soldier's Arsenal they had left. Didn't see any Pirate Survival.

I got them to help outfit and crew my new Imperial Flagship that I bought when they first became available this month. I have not seen any more in store since. I was hoping to get some more Soldier's Arsenal but am still looking for a reasonably priced source. I asked the store manager and she seems to think they might get another shipment of 8396 in, but she doesn't know when. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Anyone else know if these sets will be available any more this year?

[Kintoé]

I hope so.

I very like the new brown box with the Pirate Survival. But, I can't choose which one is better, both of them have accessories. I think it depends of what you need the most. They should have mixed them together to make a set like the old 6252 Sea Mates.

[Big Cam]

Great review, I love these impulse sets.

You covered both sets really well, and makes me want them both.

[fenris]

I'm not really into pirates, just traded my last figs. But yesterday I was in my local supermarket and saw 8396 Soldier's Arsenal on sale (reduced to $1.50) and could not resist buying the last 7 boxes remaining. It's a very cool set with nice to have spare parts as you already stated in your very fine review.

I still prefer the old ones but for any collector it's perfect to build up an army for quite a decent price (even not on sale)...

[The Eye]

As these two impulses are my only pirate sets, it's not an easy choice as both bring something different. I'd have to pick Arsenal versus Survival, because the weapon's rack is just so well done, while the campfire is a little bit poorly designed with its 2x2 and jumper plate as a simple fire, cheesy brown box and such. I like the figure and accessories in the Survival more though. Go fish!

[Uvga]

Very good review. Personally i prefer the solder arsenal because number of weapons.