REVIEW: 5966 Hikaru's Training Glider

[WhiteFang]

Hello everyone,

I will be bringing everyone a brand new polybag review which was actually released back in 2006. It was quite a surprise to see myself reviewing the LEGO Exo-Force theme. Although this polybag doesn't seems to be widely available but this is a definitely a great way to get yourself introduce into this manga-mecha theme that will excite those robots builders.

Please note that the actual name for the LEGO 5966 polybag is not available. Brickset has briefly named it as "White Good Guy" while Bricklink listed it as "Glider". For my review, I will prefer to name it as Hikaru's Training Glider. This name is not an actual representation of the actual naming convention.

Name: 5966 Hikaru's Training Glider (no actual LEGO set title is found)

Theme: LEGO System / Exo-Force

Year: 2006

Pieces: 22

Minifigs: 1 minifigure

Price: USD N.A, GBP 1.49, SGD N.A

Resources: Brickset, BrickLink

An original polybag image of the 5966 Hikaru's Training Glider

Back view of the original polybag image of the 5966 Hikaru's Training Glider

Do you want to have a piece of me?

First of all, I am extremely fortunate to be given a chance to own this hard to find polybags set from the LEGO Exo-Force theme. As far as I know, most of the Exo-Force polybags including this one are considered quite hard to find and it can be a little tricky to attempt to complete them all. In my case, the biggest motivation for me to acquire this polybag is definitely because of the main lead, Hikaru. I will touch on that under the "Minifigure" portion in this review.

Instruction Manual

Short manga introduction of Hikaru

Seeing this small manga introduction of Hikaru coming into action certainly brings back memories when we first introduced to this unexpected theme. In fact, using manga drawings illustration to build them as LEGO sets was the first in this unique line. If you could remember, these manga drawings are actually part of the comics which are released by chapters following closely on this settings.

The LEGO building content and instruction manual

There are not much content in there. I couldn't expect much since there are 22 parts in this polybag but because of its low parts count, it still amazes me.

Meet the dualism expression of the Exo-Pilot, Hikaru

Here you are, let's meet the pilot, Hikaru who is the man controlling the 7700 Stealth Hunter. Fortunately, Hikaru is available in this low cost polybag and he is indeed my favourite character in the Exo Force series. I am very fond of white and seeing him in this outfit does reminds me that he is like the White Ninja equivalent.

Hikaru comes with an unique facial dual expression that illustrates his normal cool mood and his battle mode expression where he reveals his hunger and excitement for battle against his enemies. Most of the time, we don't get big round eyed expressions for our minifigures and these are some exceptions. If you have also noticed, Hikaru's hairpiece is very special too. It is made up of a special rubbery material that allows certain amount of compression. You can't find this hairpiece elsewhere and it is only meant for the Hikaru minifigure.

Time to form up the mechanical legs

As you can see, Hikaru is getting ready to be assembled together with the mechanical legs to prepare for his wing combat training. Do note that the legs can only be adjusted sideways and cannot be moved forward or backward.

Aerial weapons wings

Hikaru's main aerial weapon wings consist of a laser gun and missile launcher that will inflict substantial amount of damage to its enemies.

Ready to form up and move out

There you go, Hikaru is now ready to form up and move out to meet his enemies. Personally, I felt this glider can be used for 2 different objectives. It can be used as flight combat training for Hikaru to train up to get himself ready and familiar with such aerial combat robot of a smaller scale before embarking to the full pledge machine known as Stealth Hunter.

Alternatively, this can also be used as a small defence mecha solder to serve as aerial support to deal with those robot minions in battles. I am sure it will look fantastic with a couple bunch of similar robots size to form them up in squadron level.

Different posing angles for Hikaru's Training Glider

Do you think they look nicely with one another?

Fighting along side by side with both "Grand Titan" and "Stealth Hunter"

In my own Exo-Force collection, the 7700 Stealth Hunter and the 7701 Grand Titan are my only existing pieces in the first generation. I never had the chance to continue to own the rest of the Exo-Force collection. Despite of that, I am extremely pleased to have these 2 main highlights to be part of my display collection.

Can the Training Glider be part of the Stealth Hunter prototype development?

To conclude, the Hikaru's Training Glider is a decent looking simple piece of robotic machinery that are used to perform aerial support combat along the aerial robots. I like the fact that it comes with Hikaru and it is quite affordable to buy this polybag just to get more of him.

In the Exo-Force theme, each minifigure comes with their own individual personality and there are no generic pilots to pilot them. So in this case, you can't expect to use the same Hikaru to pilot a squadron, some amount of customisation must be carried out. The tricky part will be toggling the facial and hair pieces around, as there are quite a limited amount of parts to choose from. Nevertheless, I am still very pleased to have a chance to add this into my collection.

Summary review

Playability: 8/10 (Despite of the low parts count, I find the glider to be very appealing.)

Design: 7/10 (Simple illustrated aerial glider design of a mecha robot but there are room for improvements.)

Price: 8/10 (Pretty affordable even in the secondary market.)

Overall: 7.7/10 (You should grab this polybag if you have the chance to do so.)

I gave it a "4" based on my Review Score Card. What about yours?

I hope every one of you enjoyed reading this simple review of mine. Comments and Criticisms are strongly welcomed.

Pictures can be found in My Flickr and My Brickshelf (When moderated)

[Dunjohn]

Interesting. Exo-Force was what pulled me out of my Dark Age a few years back, though I never owned any of these polybags. However, these miniature mech types also crop up in some of the larger sets, so I have one or two.

Personally, I think they're a bit daft. The wings aren't attached to the legs, Hikaru himself holds them. That doesn't make a lot of sense. One missed switch or unfortunate laser blast to an engine and WHRUNCH, Hikaru's missing an arm. Never mind how he has the strength to hold them up in the first place. And how does he work the controls?

Good review, even if I wouldn't have been as generous!

Edited May 30, 2011 by Dunjohn

[WhiteFang]

Interesting. Exo-Force was what pulled me out of my Dark Age a few years back, though I never owned any of these polybags. However, these miniature mech types also crop up in some of the larger sets, so I have one or two.

Personally, I think they're a bit daft. The wings aren't attached to the legs, Hikaru himself holds them. That doesn't make a lot of sense. One missed switch or unfortunate laser blast to an engine and WHRUNCH, Hikaru's missing an arm. Never mind how he has the strength to hold them up in the first place. And how does he work the controls?

Good review, even if I wouldn't have been as generous!

Thank you Dunjohn. Exo-Force wasn't the theme that pulled me out of my dark age but interestingly, Exo Force sets were one of my first few new sets that begin to melt my dark age. This was my only Exo-Force polybag sets and personally I prefer this kind of glider looking design than some other mini models.

I can believe that Hikaru must have harness some sort of gravational energy that enable to lift it up easily? That sounds crazy. I am not sure how it actually works but I think it is due to the low parts that utimately forced the designer to innovate in this manner.

[LEGO AFOL]

I totally missed out this theme.

[CMP]

A fair set. But the design is completely recycled from Ha-Ya-To's glider from Sentai Fortress.

(Picture borrowed from Brickshelf)

Well, on a second thought, I think this set came out first.

[Fuzzylegobricks]

Very nice review WhiteFang!

I love the heads these sets come with.

[Blacktron]

I'm a big fan of the exoforce line, but I haven't bought any of those polybag sets yet. They are not that cheap on the secondary market as they should be. I would'nt want to pay more than $4 or 4 Euros for such a small set.

To be honest, I think this is the worst one of those few polybag sets. Just for the reasons Dunjohn mentioned before. Those wings and guns must weight a ton and poor Hikaru is forced to lift them, hold them and operate them just with his muscle power. It's not just the fact that this isn't very realistic, it's also not what a mecha or exo armor is build for.

Your review is great and Hikaru is a great mini figure, but this Glider is just a for me.

PS: I would love to read a review about this silver Robot bad guy polybag set. This thing seems to be so rare, seems almost like non existend on the secondary market. Which brings me to the question: Where have these sets been available? I know some of them came with special packs of duracell batterys, but I could'nt find any infos about the robot.

Edited May 30, 2011 by Blacktron

[WhiteFang]

Well, on a second thought, I think this set came out first.

I supposed it does not only happens to this set. This design was also "recycle" for other promotional polybag sets too.

PS: I would love to read a review about this silver Robot bad guy polybag set. This thing seems to be so rare, seems almost like non existend on the secondary market. Which brings me to the question: Where have these sets been available? I know some of them came with special packs of duracell batterys, but I could'nt find any infos about the robot.

Are you referring to this?

I don't have any information on this too. It was until recently since I dabble with this polybag. I am quite certain the distribution was not worldwide but it could likely be event specific. Too bad, during this period, I was trying to climb out of mine dark age.

[Blacktron]

Yup, thats the one. This guy is my favorite polybag set. And it seems almost impossible to find.

And yes, it was in my dark ages too. They have lastet until last winter. Since that I'm collecting old Space Police, Blacktron and esspecially Exoforce sets like crazy.

[XimenaPaulina]

Very nice little review Fangy! It's a good thing the Hikaru minifig is worthy enough for this polybagged set, because honestly I think the "training glider" is so uninspired and looks like a lazily-designed piece of mechanical walking stilts. Oh well, good thing TLG has improved with their polybagged sets in the past couple of years.

[Vindicare]

Man...I miss Exo Force, I wish they'd bring it back.

[Aanchir]

Man...I miss Exo Force, I wish they'd bring it back.

Someday they might. The question, though, is which would you rather have? Would you want Exo-Force to come back (in which case it would probably be a complete re-imagining rather than a continuation of the story, since most buyers wouldn't even know about the original story), or would you want a new anime-inspired mecha theme, different in name and concept but similar in spirit?

In the BIONICLE fan community there's a similar sort of discussion going on, and I always feel obligated to remind people that a theme like that with a continuing story doesn't just get brought back at the drop of a hat. The more time goes on without sets, the more difficult it would be to bring it back. The only time this has really happened in the past was with Alpha Team and Orient Expedition. Neither had been discontinued for very long before being brought back, and both had storylines that were largely independent from the previous iterations of Alpha Team and Adventurers, respectively. You didn't need to know much about what had happened in the previous iterations to understand the "revived" themes. With Exo-Force and BIONICLE it's a different story, because both themes' storylines depended heavily on continuity.

Great review, even if it's not very long. How could it be with such a simple set? Overall, the set's structure is a wee bit awkward, but it has to be remembered that it would be almost impossible to make a better-looking battle machine at this scale and budget.

[Vindicare]

Someday they might. The question, though, is which would you rather have? Would you want Exo-Force to come back (in which case it would probably be a complete re-imagining rather than a continuation of the story, since most buyers wouldn't even know about the original story), or would you want a new anime-inspired mecha theme, different in name and concept but similar in spirit?

In the BIONICLE fan community there's a similar sort of discussion going on, and I always feel obligated to remind people that a theme like that with a continuing story doesn't just get brought back at the drop of a hat. The more time goes on without sets, the more difficult it would be to bring it back. The only time this has really happened in the past was with Alpha Team and Orient Expedition. Neither had been discontinued for very long before being brought back, and both had storylines that were largely independent from the previous iterations of Alpha Team and Adventurers, respectively. You didn't need to know much about what had happened in the previous iterations to understand the "revived" themes. With Exo-Force and BIONICLE it's a different story, because both themes' storylines depended heavily on continuity.

Great review, even if it's not very long. How could it be with such a simple set? Overall, the set's structure is a wee bit awkward, but it has to be remembered that it would be almost impossible to make a better-looking battle machine at this scale and budget.

Ya know, I'd probably want a new and improved Exo-Force. With the years since they've got better with building techniques. That would translate to better mechs(hopefully). Good thinking!