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“What’s that, Morty? No snappy comeback? How unlike you.“
Johnson Brewer didn’t bother wiping the killing dagger off, but simply threw it
on the chamber floor, the inert body of Mortimus Drew spilling the last of his
life blood over the scorpion altar to run into the stone seams of the floor.
“How fitting that your final resting place should be here among your beloved
relics…minus this particular one of course.” He grinned as he lifted the
gleaming khopesh from the altar and started for the exit of the Anubis Sphinx
chamber.
“And now, our final adieu, Mortimus. Parting is such sweet
sorrow.“
In the chilling desert night, Johnson almost reached the car with his
prize when he heard a terrible wrenching of earth against sand mixed with the
grinding of stone on stone. To his shock, he turned to see the impossible
vision of the giant sphinx rising from its resting place. A fierce gleam of
unearthly blue light filled its eyes as its head turned to Johnson and the giant
stone jaws opened to show giant, black gleaming fangs.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the Egyptian sets so far. They’ve improved considerably
on the late 1990’s Adventurers models (which were of themselves pretty good)
with a greater accent on the mummy figures while still paying attention to some
good ancient structure models.
The 7326 is no disappointment in the lineup. The set is comprised of a
principal monument model with a curious adventurer and his car.
The car is a pretty good model, lending itself to almost a hotrod feel. Just a
couple of elements are thrown together to resemble an exposed engine block and I
like the way a castle window is used for the front grill. As with previous set
vehicles, the car’s principal color is a dark scarlet hue. The car allows for
driver and a passenger and the rear section of the car almost gives the illusion
of a rumble seat (maybe in a future design). Just behind the driver/passenger
area are some studs for mounting a rifle. A pick can be mounted on the rear
bumper. One final note of interest is the way the ‘fez’ elements are used for
headlights.
Finicky builders will note that the car is out of scale when
comparing it to a standing figure (the car is too big) but this is excusable
considering the cool overall design of the car using a minimum of pieces.
The main model for this set is the sphinx monument which is broken into two
constructions: a principle ‘core/chamber’ unit and the ‘sphinx/shell’. The
‘core’ is a small chamber with an altar construction set between the two shorter
(we’ll call them front and rear) walls. The rear wall is stationary but the
front wall can come loose. The altar construction sits snugly between the two
walls and can slide out of the chamber when the front wall is removed. The
altar looks very much like the ‘ark of the covenant’ from Indiana Jones movies
but instead of two seraphim with extended wings, a scorpion sits on either side
of an open space with a golden khopesh (the collectible component from the
series) extended between the two scorpions. A sliding pin/rod constructed
within the rear wall can be pushed to slide the altar forward, ‘ejecting’ the
front wall. I really miss the days of spring-loaded traps but this particular
‘exploding’ wall effect isn’t too bad. Multiple colors are used well for this
and the shell construction (tan, dark tan with black and dark/burnt orange
highlights).
The ‘shell’ of the core unit is really the star of the show, its a
jackal figure with rotating shoulders and bending knees that separates from the
chamber unit and gives a good impression of a tail-less dog/jackal figure
(though he looks a bit scrawny once you separate him from the chamber). I found
it interesting that the forward and rear legs on the figure are exactly the same
assemblies (though obviously the right legs differ from the left).
Three figures come with the set, the adventurer and two mummies. The mummy
figures are the same types that were included with the 7306 Golden Staff
Guardian’s set (black headdresses, black spear and dark grey khopesh). The
adventurer fig has black wavy hair and comes with a rifle and dynamite (to blow
the wall, naturally!). The only stickers included in the set are for the
walls/stelae of the chamber.
This set with its jackal/Anubis figure seemed very reminiscent of the Mega Bloks
9352 Jackal & Scorpion model which is by no means an insult to either Lego or
Mega Bloks (the 9352 is a pretty cool set). Heck, the scorpion from the MB 9352
set even looks a bit like the one in the Lego 7327 Scorpion Pyramid set. The
nice thing about the Lego version of the sphinx is that they were able to
recreate the full headpiece without using a single pre-formed element.
With
some minor rearranging of blocks in this 7326 set I may try an alternate model
of a standing Anubis figure (interested folks can see an earlier attempt I made
at such a figure here).
Bottom line is that this is a terrific stand-alone set. The price is just a bit
high (probably closer in value to around $40 once you’re looking at the
completed model) but if you can’t afford the 7326 Scorpion Pyramid set this is a
great runner-up purchase.
!!! 4x2ReVu Stats !!!
Rating: Six out of eight studs
Pros: Great principal model with a decent assortment of blocks and plates for
alternate building possibilities.
Walletwise: 527 pieces for around $50.
Date: 1/31/11
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In lugnet.reviews, John Kyle wrote:
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I rather like the minifig primarily because he’s perfect for use as the
standard slob who does nothing but sits around the house watching TV &
sipping beer :)
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I figured that the brown
stains were oil from working on his motorcycle, but they could indeed be
maple syrup from Waffle House pancakes, slobbery dribbles from chewing Skoal or
even rust spots from the shirt lying on the floorboard of a beat up old 76 Ford.
Good point John!
David
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In lugnet.reviews, John Kyle wrote:
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I rather like the minifig primarily because he’s perfect for use as the
standard slob who does nothing but sits around the house watching TV &
sipping beer :)
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good point. i didn’t describe the adventurer fig, he’s got dark brown pants,
suspenders and a tanktop t-shirt. he’s unshaven, got a smirk and the t-shirt
has a big old brown stain on the front (it’s nicely detailed two-sided torso
print)...fits your description perfectly of a bum in front of the telly.
..jg
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