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Set Review: 70808 Super Cycle Chase
 Sunday, December 29th, 2013 at 5:25am by Jason, BZPower ReporterThe LEGO Movie might not premier for another couple of months, but the sets are just starting to hit shelves. And to promote those sets, LEGO has sent us a bunch of them to review for you. Today BZP Reporter Xccj takes a look at one of the more iconic sets from this wave, 70808 Super Cycle Chase. Will Emmet and Wyldstyle escape from the Robo Cops on their sleek cycle? Read the review or watch the video and see if this set is one to get your hands on! Presentation
It's shiny. Like, really. The package almost seems like its laminated, and it should stand out on store shelves compared to other themes. The front features the two vehicles and lists all the figs, while the back has some of the action features included in the set. There's also nice detailing of film strips around the package, to showcase that this is for The LEGO Movie. Building
It's a fun build, but not overly complex. There are a lot of hinge bricks that you use to achieve some nice curves on the cycle, but they're not that hard to put together. However, what I did find bothersome was the stickers. There are a LOT of stickers in this set, and a lot of the ones on the cycle are on long and narrow curved slopes. For somebody who's a little fat fingered like me, this makes it really easy to mess up when putting the stickers on and not get them straight. They add variety to the set, but there are just so many that go on narrow pieces that it definitely slowed down the build for me. I understand that this probably isn't an issue for everybody, but be warned regardless. Set DesignNow that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.
Although it doesn't say on the box, this set comes with 514 pieces, which is a pretty good value. (Although there are 40 of the tread pieces, so they balloon the piece count a bit.) However, outside of some of the minifig elements, there aren't a whole lot of new molds. There are a lot of black and orange pieces, to fit the color schemes of the cycle and police rig. Pictured above are some of the notable parts from the set. Of particular interest are the new gun and the Piece of Resistance. The gun mold is new for this theme, I believe, and has a clip to attach things too. The red Piece of Resistance (which I incorrectly called the Imagination Brick in the video review) is the red brick that's attached to Emmet's back. It's a brand new mold, 1x1x2 with a stud connection point on the side. It's really cool that they gave us a new mold instead of just trying to recreate it using standard bricks.
The minifigs in this set are excellent, mostly because it contains the main protagonists. Emmet shows up in his orange construction uniform, and has the Piece of Resistance "glued" to his back. His hair piece looks similar to the classic LEGO hair design, but has a new tuff on it, and the back extends down far enough to cover his second face. Emmet's double sided head lets him go from determined to scared pretty quickly, showcasing his wide range of emotions. He's not a spectacular fig, but the whole point of the movie is that he is un-extraordinary, so I guess it fits with his character. Wyldstyle (and not Windstyle like I kept saying in the video) is the female lead and the builder of the sleek cycle. She has some neat blue and pink graffiti on the right side of her outfit, both front and back, and has a new hair piece with a small ponytail and streaks of color in it. Also of interest is her hoodie piece that fits around her neck. Her facial expressions are more limited, going from serious to slightly less serious. Her looks certainly contrasts with Emmet, and I'm excited to see how the two of them work together in the movie. Finally we have the three robo cops, who are part of President Business's Super Secret Police force. (It even says so on the back of their body armor.) All three have the same legs, torso, and armor, and two share the same robot head. They wear different headgear, with new goggles and a printed helmet, and carry the new gun pieces. Besides some of the robot and Super Secret Police printing, these figs could easy fit in with any police force. (Not that we don't already have enough LEGO police.) But, all in all, they make for some good robotic antagonists!
The first "landscape" piece is a small road spikes station. It's a very simple setup, but has a bit of play value to it. When you flick the lever on the side, the rolled up thread pieces flip out and create a strip that's meant to stop the cycle. It's okay, but is mostly forgettable compared to the two vehicles.
The Super Cycle is easily the highlight of the set. It just looks pretty incredible and sleek. It makes good use of hinge elements and curved slopes to really round it out. The front wheels have some nice dome piece covers, whereas the back wheel is comprised of a large gear piece covered by the thread pieces, which work out really well. There's room for both Emmet and Wyldstyle to sit, and they can go racing across the city in this. As I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of stickers on this. On one hand, it adds a huge amount of detail to the set, and makes it look like Wyldstyle really did build this out of whatever bricks were laying around on the fly. (Which is why you get some interesting partial graffiti designs.) But, on the other hand, this seems like an excessive use of stickers, and the set probably wouldn't be any worse off without them, because the design is still stellar.
The Police SWAT car is big. Really big. It's almost as long as the cycle and almost twice as wide. If you wanted an impressive vehicle to show off the power of the robo cops, then this rig pulls it off. There's some nice curves and detailing on this rig, and although stickers are used on it, they're mostly on larger pieces. These stickers include the minifig head insignia of the robo cops, as well as the title "ST 43" which I'm sure is relevant to something. When you take off the roof, you get a very roomy interior, where one robot cop can sit comfortably and attach his accessory to a clip behind him. There's also some room for another cop or two, but they'll make it a bit more cramped. Still, the size is impressive. It even dwarfs the SHIELD truck from a few years ago. Playability
This set is probably supposed to recreate an important chase scene from the movie, and that alone gives it plenty of role play potential. But one of the things I like about this is that the two sides are about on equal footing. This set isn't focusing on one vehicle while giving the other side a throw-away craft. No, a lot of effort went into both the cycle and the police rig, and it's a toss up to see which one will eventually come out ahead.
There are a few fun little play features. As mentioned earlier, there's a small lever that lets you unroll the road spikes. It's a very basic setup, but it works! The cycle itself doesn't really have any features besides the rolling wheels, and it instead seems to focus on achieving the curved sides. The police rig, on the other hand, has a few. The sides underneath the door pop up and unveil everybody's favorite play feature: flick fire missiles! The angle for flicking these is still bad, but I must admit that they are well hidden in the overall design. Next, the back of the truck lifts up to open a compartment where the robo cops are storing dynamite. Because you know that's standard police equipment there!
But the best part of this set is that you have two substantial vehicles you can roll around and chase each other. And that's what this set is really about. Final Thoughts
This set is probably the flagship set of the movie, and that title is not undeserving. The vehicle designs are amazing and the figs are awesome too. If you wanted to get just one set featuring the characters from the movie, this would be a good choice. However, priced at $49.99 USD, it is also one of the more expensive of the LEGO Movie sets, so it's not exactly an impulse buy. But I still think it would be well worth it. I would like to again thank LEGO for sending these sets to us ahead of time to review. By now, the sets should be available online and in stores, so if you're interested, keep an eye out for them! And make sure to catch Emmet and Wyldstyle in The LEGO Movie when it premiers in February.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! Want to receive free tickets to The LEGO Movie, as well as 6-months of free Premier membership? BZPower is hosting a comedy contest, and the goal is to write about a scene that could take place in the movie. Your story can feature the lead characters like Emmet or Wyldstyle, or it could feature one of the minor characters that appeared in the trailers, like Abe Lincoln or Marsha the Mermaid! Check out the contest topic on BZPower today and start writing! Thanks again for watching / reading, and stay tuned to BZPower for more LEGO reviews, including more sets from The LEGO Movie!
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