REVIEW: 7050 Alien Defender

[sidersdd]

REVIEW: 7050 Alien Defender

This is my first review on Eurobricks, so feedback is welcome. Also note that I'm using Bricklink color names - so if that infuriates some of you, I apologize.

Description: Jump on the scout vehicle to catch that alien invader with this LEGO Alien Conquest Space Alien Defender (7050) set! The alien defense unit soldier is patrolling the city in his swift scout vehicle when an alien invader whizzes by on his spaced-out mini hover bike. Nab the invader with the scout vehicle's rotating anti-UFO laser and 2 flick missiles! He won't make it past the fully armed alien defense unit this time.

Now for the review.

Box and Contents

Nothing too special. Bright colors with lime accents - resembling Power Miners or World Racers.

Box Front and Back:

Box Side:

This set doesn't have the nice cardboard insert like many of the new sets are getting (such as Pirates of the Caribbean). The sticker sheet is small, and was actually tucked in the instruction book, which was folded. Not sure if that was on purpose or not, but I almost forgot about it until I found it flipping through the pages. The vehicle base also didn't come protected in any plastic bag.

Box Contents:

Sticker Sheet:

Instructions:

Minifigs

Both of the minifigs that come in this set are very nice, and basically make the set.

The Alien Defense Unit (ADU) soldier comes in a new azure blue uniform and helmet. Unfortunately it appears this new color is used on the minifig parts only. At least with the sets that are out now. I've heard there may be some pieces in the larger sets. There's printing on the legs and back of the torso, to show the bullet-proof (raygun-proof?) ADU vest. The helmet comes with the long awaited trans-clear visor. The head is two sided - one side calm and collected for patrolling the streets and the other for berserk mode when blasting the invaders back to where they came from with the new two-barrelled pistol weapon piece. On both sides he's sporting some orange tinted shades - which is different than the soldiers in other AC sets.

ADU Soldier:

Comparison of azure blue against (from left to right) dark blue, blue-violet, blue, sand blue, bright light blue, medium blue, Maersk blue, aqua, and dark turquoise:

I'm not sure what the alien's name is, but he's referred to as "Alien Pilot" in the tri-copter set. There's printing on the legs, but none on the back of the torso. The arms, and some of the decoration on the torso and legs, incorporate the rarely used magenta color. The alien gets a new weapon piece as well - the same ray gun element as the CMFs have been using, but in a flat silver color. The coolest part about the alien is that the head can be rotated/positioned around the neck stud 360 degrees. This allows for more posing options.

Alien Invader:

Build

The "spaced out mini hover bike" is a pretty quick build as you can probably imagine. Nice use of the lime green barb pieces in the back. Not much else to say. The little thing looks like it can zip though, and my kids gave it an A+ on swooshing through our home.

Mini Hover Bike:

The scout vehicle is a pretty simple build as well (although I did mess up the orientation on the front of the vehicle when I originally took the pics as several observant flickr users noted). I like the use of the round 2x2 brick with grille in the back, and almost an NPU on the pistols up front. I think they're supposed to be support bars or shocks, like you'd see on an ATV. They're just not long enough to pull it off. It's nice to see the designers incorporating elements like this though. You also get five dark bley double wide cheese slopes and four light bley 1x3 tiles in this build, which is nice. The turret in the back spins 360 degrees, although if there's a driver then he'll need to be leaning forward a little or else risk getting bonked in the head by the modified 1x2 plate with handle. Two of the new gun pieces are used on this turret, which as you'll soon see is a bit of an issue for our soldier. The other weapons on this vehicle are the two flick firing missiles on the sides. They work, but don't fly very far (an observation from my son). The trans light blue curved slope piece on the front is a new color for that piece, and looks nice as a windshield piece.

Scout Vehicle:

The instructions had an interesting profile inset for the step where you attach the front piece to the hinge part.

Two big bonuses in the extra parts category - one extra pistol and one extra trans clear visor. As you can see though, there's not an extra two-barrel pistol. The two included in the set are used on the turret in the back. This leaves our solider unarmed should he need to pursue one of the alien buggers on foot. I suppose he can remove one of the guns from the turret, but it would have been nice to have a third new gun, along with a place to clip it on the vehicle.

Extra Parts:

New Parts: (I forgot to include the 4x3 wedge with cutout - for which blue is a new color for the element)

My Ratings:

Minifigs: 9/10

Excellent minifigs. Soldier comes in a new color for LEGO, has printing on front of legs and front/back of torso, has the new trans-clear visor, and a new cool weapon. The alien's head is a wonderfully sculpted piece, has the ray gun in a new color, magenta colored arms, and has printed legs. Printing on the back of the alien torso and a new helmet element for the soldier would have made this a 10/10.

Parts: 8/10

Most of the parts are tiny. There's only a single actual brick in this set (a 2x4 dark bley brick). But you do get the pistol pieces (three of them in fact), the new double-barrel pistol, the trans clear visors (including an extra one), and several double wide cheese slopes. It would have been nice to have printed tiles instead of stickers.

Build/Design: 8/10

It's a small set - not a whole lot to the design. I liked the attempt at NPU with the pistols. The hover bike is compact, and the scout vehicle is very nice for its size. The use of levers for the controls looks cool/retro, but they tend to fall off with play.

Playability: 8/10

As mentioned earlier, the hover bike is maneuverable and swooshes. The scout vehicle drives nice, has flick firing missiles, and a rotating turret in back.

Price: 8/10

$10 for about 100 parts. Not the worst ratio out there, but as mentioned earlier, most of the parts are tiny. You do get two great minifigs though, and some cool new parts.

Overall: 41/50

This set is very enjoyable, the new parts are cool, and I'm really looking forward to this new Alien Conquest theme.

[Ceroknight]

great review! Can't wait to get these!

[Fuzzylegobricks]

Great job! I love this series (to be). Where did you get this?

[XimenaPaulina]

Very good first review sidersdd! Thanks for sharing this! It's nice to finally see a set from the new Alien Conquest theme reviewed, and this one really looks great IMO - the figs are awesome especially the new alien. Both mini-vehicles are decently made and I'm sure this set will surely be hit for the kids.

This is my first review on Eurobricks, so feedback is welcome.

You really did well for your first one I must say - the quality of the pictures are better than most starting reviews. One thing I could suggest is putting the product info at the start, like this one:

Name: 7050 Alien Defender

Theme: Alien Conquest

Year: 2011

Pieces:

Minifigs: 2

Price:

And if you want, you can join the Reviewer's Academy, I'm sure you'll learn a lot from there.

[Iysk]

Nice review, I've always wanted this set in addition to the cheapest and the tri-pod. Thanks for this, I'm sure getting this now. Love azure blue! Hope more comes along.

[Lordofdragonss]

Thanks for really nice review!

I really like this set- Great parts- Many weapons, 1x3 grey tiles, the column piece... And Alien is ugly and cute at the same time! It's sold for me!

Edited April 30, 2011 by Lordofdragonss

[Blackknight112]

Thanks for the review. This really is a small, cool set. But I really dont like that TLC used blue on the ADU.

[Still Raindrop]

Thanks for the review! It's interesting that the license plate spells out "Patton" (when one converts the sevens to the letter t).

[The Yellow Brick]

Great first review Sidersdd I can't wait for the whole alien conquest line to be released after seeing this review

[Avenger]

Great review! This theme is really not up my alley but seeing this review makes me think I need to get this set.

[Trainee]

Very nice review and pictures but does any body else see this as:

Lego-"Hey bob here's some pieces, now make a set out of them"

Bob-"Erm, ok, Can I use these as well to make it better?"

Lego-"No Bob, these are all that's left of the other 3 sets we have built and we need a forth"

Bob-"Erm, ok."

Maybe it's just me but it just looks like a mash of left over pieces. Even the colours look mashed together.

[Siegfried]

Wow! These are turning up earlier than I expected... and I love that new gun! Thanks for the review.

(...and on a side note it's interesting to note that the helmet and the gun that was supposed to be exclusive to the fig line has now became common. No, I'm not complaining! )

[Holodoc]

Thank you for the review sidersdd!

I didn't expect these sets to pop up so soon. Nevertheless the minifigs and some parts (double barrel pistol) are really cool to call one's own.

Good to know these parts will be available at S@H telephone order too.

Now let's see what the other sets will look like.

[Cutty]

Excellent review there! Thumbs up and thanks a lot!

Seems like this theme is actually living up to the overall high expectations. Figure quality is top-tier and the new accessories, especially those ADU rifle-thingies (instant love with me!), are very useful parts for once.

I must say I wasn't entirely sold on that alien soldier at first yet he grew on me to the point where I'd have to say: He looks damn intimidating for a minifigure. Also I dig the magenta coloured arms. Good stuff!

Conclusively this might reignite my interest in general alien themed stuff, just as I had in the mid 90's when I played UFO: Enemy Unknown for obscene amounts of time (yet never beat the game ever :-( ).

Let's hope there's going to be a real base for either faction, the alien faction's preferably on a rereleased moon-crater baseplate in some crazy alien colour! That'd rock!

Be well all!

Cutty

[Masked Builder]

A great set for an amazing theme! The Alien in this set is my favorite of most of them. But I would like to see a few things added to this set. Very nice work on the review!

[The Crazy One]

Why are people saying this trans clear visor is new? I have loads at home.

Anyway great review, and Im am deffinatley getting a couple of these.

[tomie satoshi]

love the set and the whole theme...

you did great review and i especially liked the part where you compare different types of blue colours

[vexorian]

Why are people saying this trans clear visor is new? I have loads at home.

Anyway great review, and Im am deffinatley getting a couple of these.

Are you sure yours aren't trans light blue or trans dark/smoke? Peeron does not seem to acknowledge they exist: http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/2447 . If so, do you remember the sets they came from?

Edited April 30, 2011 by vexorian

[prateek]

Fantastic review! This is one of the weaker sets of the bunch IMO, but it's still decent.

[Tamamono]

Thanks for the review, sidersdd! It's good to see the Alien Conquest sets finally leaking out there. You got it from TRU, right?

[Algernon]

Awesome review, you've sold me on this set- I was hesitant to buy it at first, since it seemed somewhat thrown together at first glance, but it's a pretty sweet deal considering what you get. Plus, any excuse for those minifigs. Great job!

[Sirens-of-Titan]

Awesome review!

The blue ADU uniforms look great! I wonder if we will get more variation as the theme goes on. ( I sure hope so) A lot of potential with the new pieces, just a great little set and a great intro into the theme for people who don't want to buy the big sets.

[jamzee]

Great review, great set! I picked this one up today (my first AC set) and the new space astro minifig is fantastic! (the bad guy is really cool too).

All the other sets also look amazing, I hope this is the start of a new long line of space type sets...!

Edited April 30, 2011 by jamzee

[Aether Fox]

I really want some of the Alien Conquest sets because they look very cool!

[Legostein]

Hello!

Now that I have seen this set in this wonderful review, I am much looking forward to that trans-light-blue curved slope! It's so useful for my purposes. Great!

Cheers,

~ Christopher