Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Lego: Mikey's Mini-Shellraiser Baggie Set
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There are a few toys that almost every kids has or plays with at some point in their childhood. Lego building blocks
are one of those toys. But people of my age were forced to make due with generic themed sets such as knights, city or
space. We could only dream of seeing the heroes and villains of Saturday morning cartoons in brick figure form. We
got a taste of what we wanted with the Mega Bloks sets released with the 2003 cartoon. But with the Nickelodeon
cartoon, we finally got true Ninja Turtle Lego sets last year. And it seems that the line was a success last year as
they came back this year with even more sets this year. so I'll start things off small with the new bagged mini set:
Mikey's Mini-Shellraiser.
Packaging - 7/10As with the Kraang's Laser Turret set from last year, Mikey's Mini-Shellraiser set is packaged in a small plastic bag which measures roughly five and a half by six and a half inches. The front has a photo of the completed set with the TMNT logo. The back is taken up with the various legal fine print necessary on toy packages these days and a coupon for a free kid's admission to Legoland. It is fairly simple. But the photo does a great job of showing what the set includes and making it look fun in a single image.
Sculpting/Design - 7/10This set includes a Michelangelo mini-figure and parts to create a small scale version of the Shellraiser vehicle. It is fairly similar to the mini vehicles Lego produced for the Star Wars line. But in this case, it is suppose to be a remote controlled toy for the enclosed Michelangelo mini-figure. They did a great job of creating a tiny version of the Shellraiser. It is simple, but easily identifiable as the Shellraiser. The only down side is that it is too large to be an RC vehicle for a mini-figure. It looks more like a Mini-figure scaled child's ride on toy.The Michelangelo figure that is included is the exact same figure as the one that came with the large Shellraiser Street Chase set that was released last year, complete with his tongue sticking out. I don't really need a unique version of the Turtles with each set. But if they were going to repeat one of the figures, I would rather they had included Leonardo since he was the only one not available from the cheaper sets in 2013. Even Donatello would have made more sense since he seems more likely to be playing with a remote controlled vehicle in the new series than Michelangelo.
Paint/Color choice - 7/10The Shellraiser mini vehicle is a decent rendition of the larger vehicle. But there is definitely room for improvement. A couple of decals for the side doors would have been a nice touch. They could also have swapped out the single yellow blocks at the front and back for some thinner blocks to create "windows" though that would have required the set to have a few more total pieces.
Features - 4/10The Mini-Shellraiser has rolling wheels and opening side doors on both sides. But that is about it. There isn't a lot more they could have added given the limited size of the set though.
Accessories - 4/10The set comes with just one accessory, a walkie talkie to serve as the "remote" for the shellraiser. That's cute. But it's hard not to feel like the set is incomplete without a set of chucks for Mikey.
Value - 8/10The baggie sets sell for just $5. Considering the single bagged mini-figures such as the ones for the Simpsons line are $4 each, that's a pretty good deal. The only drawback to the value here is that you can still get the Kraang Lab Escape set to get a regular Michelangelo figure as well as a Foot Soldier and Kraang and more accessories.
Happy Hunting:Mikey's Mini-Shellraiser set has been shipping for a few months in place of the Laser Turret set from last year. I have had no luck finding them in person this time around. Though I have heard reports of them at Toys R Us stores and I know Target stocked the baggie sets last year as seasonal merchandise, so they may still show up there before the year is out. I ended up ordering my set from Toys R Us' website. But ordering online in this case is not an ideal choice unless you can combine it with another purchase since the cost of shipping will likely be more than the cost of the item itself.
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