LEGO Space has a long history of excellent capital ships, including Space Police 2's Galactic Mediator and Ice Planet 2002's Deep Freeze Defender. 2009's Galactic Enforcer is a modern update of these classic sets, and despite a few design missteps it has become one of my favorites.

The most impressive part of the Galactic Enforcer is probably its sheer size, which rivals the Explorien Starship from 1996. However, unlike the Explorien Starship, the Enforcer has a very solid construction and feels like a much more substantial model. The white and dark blue color scheme suits the theme well - although some have criticized Space Police 3 for feeling more like a "future City" theme than a true Space theme, there's no denying that the Enforcer is a love letter to the classics. This is evident in the set's modularity, which is clearly inspired by the designs from the 90's. Four different sections of the ship can split apart and function as individual vessels, or combine in different ways to form mid-sized star ships. Unfortunately, the Enforcer's appearance is pretty clunky unless you leave it the way it's shown on the box. In this respect, the classic capital ships are definitely superior, since the modularity was executed with far more class.

If you're like me, though, you probably don't care about the modularity anyway. There's a lot to love here, including the spacious cockpit and miniature police droid. One of the set's best features is the interior, which is fully realized with a hinged midsection that opens to reveal a control panel and weapons cache. There's even a swivel chair to seat one of the police troopers. Aesthetically, the Enforcer is a beauty, with convincingly large thrusters that don't feel disproportionate to the rest of the ship (something many of the 90's sets lacked) and hinged turrets that help the ship feel like a real star cruiser. The back of the ship opens to release a small police buggy. Like the modularity, this feature is undoubtedly a throwback to the Galactic Mediator, which had an identical feature. The buggy itself is nice enough, if a little bare bones. It's one of the few ground vehicles ever released in Space Police 3.

There are four "prison cells" attached in pairs to either side of the star ship. Again, these are an obvious throwback to the prison cell system featured in the earlier interpretations of the Space Police concept. Unfortunately, this version is probably the weakest. There are targets attached to each pod that you are supposed to shoot with the spring-launcher attached to the villain's ship. On the off-chance that you actually manage to hit one of the targets (which would be a pretty impressive feat), the entire pod breaks apart. It's a pretty clunky system and probably the weakest element of the Space Police 3 theme.

On the other hand, the minifigs are great. This set includes the only female police trooper released with the theme, and it's a great little touch. The aliens are just lovely - both are extremely unique and very collectable. One of the coolest additions to the set is a LEGO Space statue (which the aliens are trying to steal, for some reason) - it's a cute little throwback that adds a lot of charm to the overall package. The only flaw here is the lack of airtight Police helmets (this was changed with the second wave), and lack of police troopers. It's a pet peeve of mine when a large set like this doesn't include enough minifigs to properly man the vehicle.

The flier is basically a giant spring-launcher with wings attached, but it's quite a bit better than some of the other Space Police 3 throwaway speeders. Still not fantastic, but it does add some play value to the set.

Overall, I can't see any Space fans being disappointed with this beauty. It's a massive ship, and a fantastic display piece. It gives the 90s classics a run for their money in a lot of ways, and although those sets will never be replaced, this release can stand tall among them for sheer display value alone. It suffers from some of the flaws that all modern LEGO sets do - stickers, overemphasized play features, etc. But the overall package is incredibly satisfying and extremely fun. I highly recommend this set.

I received this LEGO set for Christmas, and although I didn't have much initial interest in the Dino line, this set's unexpected charm made me a fan.

When you open the box, the first thing you'll build is a small outpost of sorts. It is very basic, and I think of it as a parts pack. It includes a nice printed slope, some foliage and four spikes. Additionally, there's a crate of some useful accessories. Beyond that, the function of the outpost is not terribly clear, but I think it does a good job of rounding out the set into a more complete package.

After that, you'll start building the jeep using the nice numbered bag method that LEGO's adapted in recent years. The jeep is the meat of the set, and I think it's fantastic. The construction is extremely solid, and the finished project feels like an able-bodied vehicle that could easily capture some predatory lizards. There aren't any parts that fall off during play, and the model feels nice and complete. If you need some yellow parts in your collection, this would be a great parts pack - the jeep includes a healthy number of slopes, tiles, planks, cheese slopes, and the like. It does have a crane of sorts attached to the back end of the vehicle. The crane seems to work well enough, and it seems to be intended to capture dinosaurs lured towards the cunningly placed turkey leg. I have trouble believing that this device could actually be used to restrain a raptor, but a little imagination goes a long way. It does include a pair of flick-fire missiles, which seem to be standard-issue these days. I find it annoying, especially because the jeep is already equipped with a crane and a tranquilizer gun intended to peacefully capture the dinos. What are they flick-firing at them?

This is a minor drawback, however. The jeep has outstanding playability. It has some decent detailing on both the front and the back end of the model. Large wheels make it seem capable of navigating treacherous jungle terrain. There are some stickers, however. Not too many, but they're placed on important parts of the model that seem pretty bare without them. The back end has a yellow plate that is intended to be a license plate - but you wouldn't know it without the sticker. I imagine this could be an issue for those of you who don't like to apply stickers, which would make the back plate seem pretty useless.

One of the best parts of this set - making it my favorite of the entire Dino line - is the minifig lineup. You only get two minifigures, and one of them appears in pretty much every other set. But the other one is an exclusive, and in my opinion, one of the coolest minifigs of the line. He genuinely looks like a safari veteran, including back printing and an awesome fedora. Definitely a great fig.

Of course, the set also includes one of the brand-new LEGO dinosaurs. This particular set seems to include a raptor. Each part of the raptor is packaged in an individual bag - it seems that LEGO is taking great care in packaging these toys. The raptor is great, and is pleasingly articulated in all the right ways. The best part is that the raptor actually feels like a LEGO piece, and not a juniorized plastic hunk that the Dino Attack sets suffered from.

Overall, you get a lot of love for your $30. I don't own any of the other Dino sets (yet), but if they're all as satisfying as this set, I may very well pick them all up.

I highly recommend this set!

I picked up this lovely set marked down 30% on Amazon.com, and now having received and built it, I realize that I would have happily paid full price for it. This set is simply wonderful - it packs a healthy dose of old-school charm with some great construction techniques, a variety of exclusive parts and an extremely play-friendly overall package.

I wasn't always such a fan of this set - it seemed pretty over-hyped by the LEGO Space community (the owner of this site called it the best retail set of the year!) and I couldn't really justify spending my hard-earned $89.99 on such a boxy looking vehicle. But my hesitancy was quickly eased once I started constructing it - there's a lot more to this set than you might think.

The first thing out of the box that you build are the minifigures, which are great. It comes with two exclusive figs, including a scientist and alien cyborg. Both of these are great - the scientist has very detailed printing (including back printing) and the alien is extremely unique. His head is three parts! You also get a generic alien "grunt", an alien clinger, and two ADU soldiers. The two soldiers sport slightly different prints - the woman has an orange harness, and I'm pretty sure she's supposed to be a pilot. (The Jet-Copter Encounter pilot has the same printing). The other trooper is generic, excepting a "mustached commander" head. I'm not sure if this is unique to this set, but I don't think it is.

Although the exclusive figs are great, I feel that LEGO was a little sparse in it's minifigure assortment with this set. Only two ADU troopers to man the entire HQ? This is probably the set's only real disappointment.

Next up is the assortment of small vehicles. The first thing you'll build is the small UFO fighter. Although it's probably the least remarkable part of the set, it's still attractively simplistic in its design, and the build is solid (a theme that pervades throughout the rest of the HQ). Plus, it includes a great trans-clear dome. You'll also build a small cart with a stretcher on it - nothing special, but it's a nice addition.

The space plane, however, is fantastic. It's very elegant in its aesthetics - its sleek, smooth, and sturdy. The build is especially enjoyable. I know a lot of people want the HQ only for the excellent space plane, and I can see why. However, the HQ is even better.

The first thing you'll notice about the HQ, once constructed, is that it is extremely compact. The walls are sturdy, the interior is detailed with cabinets and medical equipment, and the exterior is surprisingly small. Don't let this throw you off, though - the smaller size is just the result of some admirably solid construction. The HQ is bulky and it feels more like a tank than a truck. There are multiple rooms inside the HQ, including an examination bay where the scientist can observe captured alien specimens from behind a window. It's rather amazing that LEGO managed to make the interior of the vehicle feel so complete while the exterior seems relatively small.

When I say the HQ is small, I really only mean that its small compared to the box. The vehicle is still huge - roughly the same length as the Galactic Enforcer and far more complete looking. The trailer of the vehicle can detach to function as more of an outpost, and both the space plane launcher and missile boxes can detach to function as independent turrets. This really makes the set feel more like a transforming base.

There are at least two brand-new exclusive parts included with the set, including 2 medical syringes and a new printed control panel (!). Both of these are quite handy, although I don't know if I could bring myself to break this lovely set in order to use them!

This set does include stickers, and personally, I recommend that you bite the bullet and apply them. They are intelligently placed and definitely lend the set some personality (especially the UFO, which looks incredibly bland without the stickers). Most people will probably be glad to hear that the stickers are relatively sparse for a set this size.


Overall, this set is an instant classic, and will probably be remember by Space fans for years to come. Even if you're not a fan of the Alien Conquest theme, this particular set definitely deserves your attention. There are very few, if any, flaws to be seen here. I can't recommend 7066 highly enough!

I might be a little biased in reviewing this set, because I have so many fond memories of Bionicle in 2001. In a very rare occurrence, I became fascinated by the story surrounding Bionicle. The mysterious, dramatic and sometimes dark mythology was an incredibly unexpected move for LEGO - before then, we had been getting Roboriders and Throwbots (AKA "Slizers"), both of which barely had any backstory at all.

Aesthetically, the Toa "Mata" (back then they were simply called Toa) were leaps and bounds ahead of anything LEGO had attempted before. This is particularly evident in the masks - without exception, the 6 collectable "Great Masks" from 2001 were beautiful representations of the elements. Tahu's is one of my favorites, since it is very fierce and warlike in appearance.

Once constructed, Toa Tahu is a very tall and thin figure. At the time, more than half of the parts included with Tahu were completely new to LEGO Technic. The humanoid appearance of the model was also rather unusual, and Tahu stood quite a bit taller than any of the Throwbots. The Toa of Fire's appearance is very menacing, and I'd again describe him as warlike. With a fire sword (a completely new idea at the time) and a bright red color scheme, Tahu looked like the leader he was known to be in the mythology.

I gave this set 5 stars for playability, but that really has nothing to do with the functionality (you can turn a gear in the back of the figure to move one of his arms up and down). The playability largely comes from the story, which involved going on a quest to locate and claim the 6 Great Masks, guarded by minions and traps placed by the enigmatic Makuta... who, at the time, was nothing more than a spiritual presence. This rating is definitely biased, I admit - but it definitely highlights the "Bionicle effect", meaning that you're either really into it or you really aren't. In order to fully enjoy this set, it's worth it to read up on the 2001 mythology and fully understand the unusually deep and creative story that LEGO had created. If you're not really into Bionicle, though, I can't say I'd really recommend this set for anything more than a parts pack. Bionicle, for me, was an awesome theme that drew me in as a young adult because of the fascinating (and sometimes theological in scope) world that surrounded these action figures. Playing MNOLG probably had something to do with that, though.

If you were among the first to purchase one of the Toa "Mata", you got a free CD-rom full of cool CGI animations and interactive puzzles that tied the whole mystery of Bionicle together. For a fan like myself, that was an awesome bonus, especially for a mere $7.

I wish that LEGO had maintained the atmosphere of Bionicle throughout more recent years, and now the theme is officially discontinued. Regardless, I still remember 2001 very fondly, and I think other owners of the Toa "Mata" will understand where I'm coming from.

Definitely a great set, and in my mind, a true classic.

I got this set some time ago, but I've kept it completely intact because of how much fun it is to play with. You get a nifty biplane (that harkens back to the Adventurers themes of old) with updated aesthetics, and in my opinion this is one of LEGO's best attempts at the vehicle. A unique dark red color scheme, minimal stickers and a sleek look make it very swooshable. The dual machine guns mounted on the top of the plane also look quite nice.

The plane does come with some sort of robotic arm that is mounted near the landing gear, which might seem like a rather strange addition. The idea is that the biplane can swoop down and grab the gem on top of the Egyptian tower. As far as functionality goes, this is bare bones. Fortunately, the mechanical arm is very easy to remove and doesn't affect the overall look of the biplane.

The tower I mentioned is simple but effective, with some sparse vegetation and interesting colors. Unfortunately, the hieroglyphics are stickers, and without them it looks quite bland. I have never been as voraciously opposed to stickers as some people seem to be, but I imagine that this could bother some people.

The set includes three minifigures: a pilot, and two identical flying mummies. The pilot is nice, but relatively uninteresting; the mummies are much cooler and probably the best reason to pick up this set. The spread-eagle wings, complimented with a hawk-like headpiece, look gorgeous and even elegant. The mummy figures themselves look decent, and include reversible heads to add a little variety to their appearance (one side has a typical mummy grin, while the other side is fully bandaged aside from one eye - very cool).

In conclusion, this set is definitely worth looking at if you've ever been interested in Pharaoh's Quest. It's much cheaper than the Pyramid, which is the only set in this line that I think is significantly better. At $20, it's a pretty good value, and I enjoyed it immensely. Highly recommended!