Review: 7065 Alien Mothership

[Baylego]

Great review! Those minfigures are just so detailed, I must have them!

[Nakara]

Nice review, Final Exit! It's nice to have a closer look at it now.

Thanks for the review! I came up with a reason why its a skeleton,because those empty spaces are portals where other alien craft can come from!

PS If it the set does not fit in the space,use your imagination.

I came up with an elaborate back story for the whole theme, a lot better than TLG's simplistic, childish one . I read about a scientific theory somewhere involving a ring of plasma and the creation of an anti-gravity field, which would serve as the UFO's propulsion. The one in the abduction set are escort ships, and the mothership is a "bomber" class ship, which requires a much bigger ring to keep stable while firing its superweapon, which would be the equivalent of a city-destroying a-bomb.

Also, TLG's product description includes "Attack civilians" directly in its play features list. That's among the chief clauses of the Geneva Conventions, is TLG teaching kids to violate international law now?

[vexorian]

The mommyship is skeletal because no retailer would order a 120.00 space set (What a bulky, correctly designed mommyship would cost) when they could instead order star wars sets with that price

[Blondie-Wan]

I really like the use of train tracks to make up the outer ring of the ship. I wish these had been in the dark bley colour so that they'd incorporate better with the IJ stuff, but I'm bound to keep this set together anyways and not use it for parts.

I love the inclusion of the tracks here as well, and I actually like the fact it's black instead of "dark stone" or whatever TLG calls it; I think it'll look great for Indy mocs depicting the tracks in certain parts of the mines, especially for scenes where it's "underlit" by "lava" somewhere below. I also think the ramshackle appearance of the tracks might be well-served by using a handful of different track colors anyway (truth be told, I think the ideal color for that track would be something like reddish-brown or dark orange anyway). I obviously do hope to pick up "extras" of this set (or at least the track - wouldn't it be great if it turned up in PAB?) to expand a certain Indiana Jones creation I plan to do sometime... though I also want this set just as an Alien Conquest set. The fact that it contains so much of this track (twice as many segments as the set for which it was created!) is just a really, really nice bonus, for me.

This picture explains very well why I hate double-faced minifig heads It's a pity considering that otherwise the journalist is very well designed.

Because of the tiny bit of the mouth on her alternate expression visible at the bottom of her hair? It's there, but it's so minute a detail in this instance I'd consider it pretty trivial and easily ignored, to be honest - it doesn't really stand out. If anything, I would say this picture doesn't explain particularly well why one might find double-faced minifigures undesirable; there are several much better examples in various other sets. IMO, this one isn't really worth getting worked up about... again, IMO, of course.

Also, TLG's product description includes "Attack civilians" directly in its play features list. That's among the chief clauses of the Geneva Conventions, is TLG teaching kids to violate international law now?

I somehow doubt the aliens were signatories to the Geneva Convention. That said, it's interesting to see in an official TLG product description; it's really skirting the edges of what's traditionally been acceptable for them, I think.

[Stardusty]

THank you for great review.

This is one big sets, but I don't plan to buy it at all.

Only thing good in it is a lot of gorgeous pieces and minifigs. (my opinion)

[Legoist]

Because of the tiny bit of the mouth on her alternate expression visible at the bottom of her hair? It's there, but it's so minute a detail in this instance I'd consider it pretty trivial and easily ignored, to be honest - it doesn't really stand out. If anything, I would say this picture doesn't explain particularly well why one might find double-faced minifigures undesirable; there are several much better examples in various other sets. IMO, this one isn't really worth getting worked up about... again, IMO, of course.

It's bad enough for me if you have to avoid/hide it when taking pictures. You're right that it could be worse however, with other types of headgears.

[Aanchir]

It's bad enough for me if you have to avoid/hide it when taking pictures. You're right that it could be worse however, with other types of headgears.

There's a guy in the Power Miners set Boulder Blaster with a knit cap... which is a problem when you remember that all Power Miners minifigures have double-sided head printing. That's the biggest example of "What were they thinking?" that I've ever seen with double-sided faces. Generally, though, in themes like Exo-Force and Agents, as well as this theme, the second face print isn't quite that obvious from behind. It's usually easy enough to ignore IMO, but you make a good point about photographs. I don't do a lot of LEGO photography so that aspect of the issue never affects me.

[The_Box]

Just forget for a second the fact that the repoter's double sided head shows in the back. Is it me or does she seem like Sarah Palin with a different hairstyle?

[Aether Fox]

I really like the girl's face! It's hysterical!

[Out of Sight]

I'm more into City theme than Sci-Fi, but I'm heavily considering to buy all the AC lineup for few reasons:

- The design is a reminiscent of classic 50's sci-fi alien invasion type movies

- Green...nothing better than a green alien humanoid terrorizing our homeland, the cartoonish expression on these guys reminds me of the "Mars Attack" sci-fi comedy

- It's not a licensed theme, so basically it's 'neutral'.I can integrate them into my City sets for a unique invasion theme to spice things up or display them anyway I want them

Few question on this set, how/where do we install the batteries? What size are they? I'm thinking off adding more lights and perhaps find a way to integrate a PF motor to rotate the disc continuously

[otterlilly]

Yeah, I agree with some of you guys about the minifigs-they're delightful!

My collection is mostly towns, buildings, the classic bricks. I guess that's one of the reasons why I tend to easily overlook themes like Alien Conquest, Atlantis, etc. And quite frankly, City minifigs are getting boring as my collection is growing bigger. I can see the value of them-even the human ones have more character; for example, I really like the overalls that the guy is wearing. Also love that little alien dude!

Many thanks to Final Exit for the great review with the detailed pictures!! :thumbup:

[Final Exit]

The sound brick in this set and the light brick in the abduction set both use small watch batteries that are inside the brick, pretty neat and tidy.

[Toa_Of_Justice]

Nice review, Final Exit! I like how the train tracks were used on the outer edge of the model. I can't believe LEGO made such a mistake regarding the reporter's gender!

I really want to hear the alien sound effect, but the video in Flickr won't play for me, in either IE9 or Chrome. Could you upload it to YouTube or some other video site please? Thanks in advance.

-Toa Of Justice

EDIT: The video plays for me now. The sound is pretty good!

Edited May 17, 2011 by Toa_Of_Justice

[jangofett]

Aww the alien pet is lovely.

Great reveiw by the way.

cheers jango

[Blondie-Wan]

It's bad enough for me if you have to avoid/hide it when taking pictures. You're right that it could be worse however, with other types of headgears.

There's a guy in the Power Miners set Boulder Blaster with a knit cap... which is a problem when you remember that all Power Miners minifigures have double-sided head printing. That's the biggest example of "What were they thinking?" that I've ever seen with double-sided faces. Generally, though, in themes like Exo-Force and Agents, as well as this theme, the second face print isn't quite that obvious from behind. It's usually easy enough to ignore IMO, but you make a good point about photographs. I don't do a lot of LEGO photography so that aspect of the issue never affects me.

There's also a particularly egregious example in one of the World Racers polybagged promo sets, a small jetski-like boat for the X-treme Daredevils (the lime green team), in which the racer has a biker/skateboarder helmet. It shows a huge part of the face on the back of the head regardless of which of the two expressions is showing.

This set, on the other hand, shows just the reporter's lower lip, which really amounts to just a red line - easily ignored or overlooked. Someone unfamiliar with LEGO's double-sided minifigure heads could easily look at that photo and not notice the little bit of red there at all. For me, I think the extra playability afforded by having two expressions easily outweighs the (IMO) very minor bit of the "back" face showing at the bottom of the hair (though that said, the most ideal solution would be to have a whole extra head for the second expression, allowing either to be used with other hair / headgear elements that reveal a lot more of the back of the head). But that's just my opinion, of course.

[Artanis I]

-talking about backfaces-

I noticed the red sticking out the bottom straight away. It's only a big deal if you want to display or take photos. I do think it should be avoided if possible though, a longer hairpiece could've been used (or less protruding faces or separate heads as mentioned). Not a big deal for me (as with pink knights... did I need to go there... )

The ultimate in terrible backface moves by TLG would be a Mace Windu...

[ETAV8R]

I'd like to know if this set comes with the little tripod for a camera which is seen on the front of the box. I haven't heard it mentioned so I am doubting the inclusion of this part. Thanks.

[Final Exit]

I know what you mean, the camera and a camera man should have been in the set, not a huge addition but it would have rounded the set off perfectly, shame, maybe next series

[lego king]

Nice review I think that ship would be good for MODing.

[-zenn]

Here's the video

I thought it would give some sort of creepy 50's alien invasion tune... Is there a 'deathray' sound as well?

[matrixrenegade]

Thanks for the great review. I really like this new theme but this is my least favorite set I hope I can see it on display somewhere to see if I like it a lot more than I do at the moment. The alien lord is great however.

[Bubastis]

Thanks for the review! It's a great set and I'd love to have it. But unfortunately it costs way too much for my taste. With 45 Euros I'd be okay, but not for 59,95

[mostlytechnic]

I think this is a very cool set, and the handle makes it massively swooshable, but man, was it a pain to build. That ring was just so boring and repetitive.

[Glitch System]

All the sets from this series are awesome! Thanks for posting!

[Super Brick Collector]

Thanks for the review. I will deffinitly pick this set up and the others.