Monday, February 1st, 2016 at 1:09pm by Benjamin, BZPower Reporter
The brave and futuristic Nexo Knights have hit the toy store shelves this year to fight the forces of evil and treachery. Their leader, Clay Moorington, especially loves to fight off monsters in between posing heroically. In Clay's Rumble Blade, he can travel the kingdom with ease and utilize his personal bots to help him out. Evil is all around though, so he a makes sure his vehicle has all kinds of cool features. Check out the text and video review to see just how well Clay's Rumble Blade handles in battle, and what kind of perks the new Nexo Knights sets offer.
Clay's Rumble Blade sells for $40 USD and comes with 367 pieces. It does not meet the ten cents per piece ratio we love in LEGO sets, but considering how cool it looks, the amount of figures we get, and the multiple new molds for pieces that are included, I'll give it a pass for being close to a perfect price.
Presentation
From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.
The box art shows Clay's Rumble Blade ready for action. His “Clay Bots” are equipped and one is already entering a fight. Clay is in the cockpit and utilizing the mounted turrets against the evil inruder. The kingdom and a volcano can be seen in the background, with the new Nexo Knights logo cropped around those. We see along the bottom details that the set has five figures and three different power-ups to equip to Clay's shield, a key component in the story these sets offer.
The back shows off all the features of the set. The most prominent detail is that the Rumble Blade breaks away into four separate vehicles: The base turrets, two robot-controlled motorcycles, and a flying viper. As if the set did not look cool enough already! The box also does not pass up the opportunity to promote the new app, which interacts with the shields found in the Nexo Knights sets. Sounds like a great way to include the line in the video games LEGO has delved into.
Building
Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?
The flying blade incorporates some SNOT techniques and plenty of layering. It gets really clever with parts usage in forming the point, while also making the base look like the hilt of a sword (or in larger hands, a dagger). It also uses my new favorite piece: The new pointed cockpit.
The motorcycles utilize a lot of tiny parts, which makes the build slow-going. However, the final build is sturdy and fits well with the rest of the theme evoked in the set. They fit the Clay Bots perfectly.
The base takes up the largest portion of the set, and while not decked-out in features still manages to hold a few surprises. Building it incorporates many of the techniques we used in the Blade and motorcycles, such as some SNOT and various layers of plates and tiny parts.
Set Design
Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.
The new parts this set comes with is joyously impressive. There are lots of points for the castle feel and lots of transparent orange for the space feel. Between new armor, weapons, and the windshield, only the new 4x4 slopes and pyramid 1x1 slopes outshine cool minifig accessories.
As a whole, Clay's Rumble Blade appropriately feels like a tank. Its big wheels will roll over any terrain, and its hefty design will take a beating from some magma monsters. It shows off all the parts well, like the new pointy slopes and trans-orange parts. The blue, grey, and silver blend well to show off details but still show the sturdiness of the vehicle.
The set excels through it's 4-in-1 design. The most prominent portion being the starfighter-like craft that breaks away to weave around enemies. It has some pivoting front-facing blasters. There are places for Clay's claymore and shield. Cleverest of all is that is looks like a dagger.
The motorcycles that break away from the base are simple yet effective. They are very sturdy and, like the rest of the vehicle, reflect the colors well. The Claybots stand well in the driver's seat, able to “steer” on the 1x1 tile keypads while still swinging a sword.
The figs are really fun in this set. We have Ash Attacker and his Scurrier minion vs Clay and his Claybots. The Claybots come with dual-sided heads on robotic bodies you build from some new parts. New armor abounds in Clay and Ash. The Nexo Knight's armor has a hole in the chest to view the crest. And the Scurrior is just a hilarious little cannon fodder. The short arms fit on just like minifig arms, which can be quite entertaining swapping them out on a regular-sized fig.
There are a few differences between regular Clay and the Ultimate Clay also available in stores. Our Clay has silver accents, whereas Ultimate Clay has blue (sometimes transparent) details, most notably his suit of armor and armor. Ultimate Clay's armor has four studs in the back, but only two in the silver variant. Under it all, Clay's silver suit looks great as a sci-fi suit of armor.
Playability
The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with.
The set is well-equipped to fight off the bad guys, though that's easy to say when it's just two minifigs to battle. The Rumble Blade is best played with against a bad guy vehicle set, or an army of enemies. As discussed, the set breaking apart is a great play feature few sets can equally boast. One vehicle turning into four is quite astounding. The starfighter blade is loosely hooked in the back with a clip technique I did not think LEGO would use. Pressing a mechanism in the back smoothly breaks away the motorcycles. And the rear turrets can turn at all angles, allowing for some extra firepower used by the Claybots. I have not had a set with this many well-done play features in quite a while.
Final Thoughts
Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?
Pros
What's to like?
Awesome minifigs.
So many new and interesting parts in cool colors.
Four-in-one play design.
Space Castle is the next best theme.
Cons
What's not to like?
The bad guys do not stand a chance.
More than the ideal 10-cents-per-piece price ratio.
This set, and the whole theme, is awesome. The play features are some of the best I have seen in recent sets, and that is in part due to the imaginative power behind the different shield powers and the clever bad guys. Plus, the set becoming a starfighter is amazing. It would be nice to see the bad guys have a fighting chance, like a little catapult perhaps, but that of course gives reason to buy some of the other sets with villain vehicles. Overall, falling short of the 10-cents-per-piece price ratio can be forgiven for how great the minifigs, parts, and play features are.