Mega Bloks Banshee Strike

Technical Specifications:
Build Time: 10 minutes sorting; 25 minutes building. Your time will vary as I take pics of the build along the way for the review.
Set Piece Count: 173
Minifigs: Storm Elite (Brown armor)
Weapons: Needler
Accessories: N/A
Special Features: Cockpit hatch opens/close, rear wings pivot left/right
Cost: $20 (US)

And on with the pics! (Click pics to make BIGGER)

A very dynamic action shot awaits you on the front of the box.

Here’s what you get inside. 

And the pieces sorted out. Almost all are either grey or indigo-purple.

Okay, let’s start into the build. This Banshee design is different others that have come before it. Keep in mind the bottom right pic as I’ll come back to that shortly.

With the bulk of the body taken shape, side curved panels are added. These give the Banshee as more organic feel to it.

The wings are built and place onto the Banshee as well as the cockpit cover. I’m not entirely thrilled with the wing design here. I think it’s that purple disc piece that throws it off for me. On another note, be careful how you build the wings. Pay attention to the instructions as for this part of the build, they were just a smidge confusing at first. 

Now with the top cockpit piece added, you can close it down. Note however that when you do so, there is a gap between it and the rest of the body of the Banshee. If you’d rather not have that gap, there is an easy solution. As you can see by the middle pic, I’ve highlighted the two curving pieces. Remove those. Then, at bottom, you’ll see that the cockpit piece closes better. This is optional of course. I’ve kept mine with this slight modification.

Now let’s talk about the base upon which the Banshee sits as well as those little hanging pieces on the underside of the ship.

The base is pretty simple. I show these two pics side by side for a reason. If you add the tiles (the ones without the studs on them), you can place your Banshee on the stand and easily remove it. However, it also makes the Banshee more prone to falling off. So your choice. I chose to keep those tile pieces off and connect the base via those studs.

Heres the Banshee with those tile pieces on the base.

And the model with the tile pieces not on the base. There is barely any difference in height, but a definite upgrade in stability between the base and the ship.Also note that I removed those hanging pieces from the under side of the craft. They just look out of place to me, even if they are truer to the in-game model.

As well, I didn’t like that Mega used the old energy sword mold for the fins of this Banshee design. So instead, I switched them out for the angled pieces from the underside of the Banshee. I also popped off the little extended pieces from that assembly as noted by the crossed off graphic.

Then I added them to the back of the Banshee. While slightly less organic, in my opinion, they just look better. And yes, they still can be pivoted left and right.

Below are the pieces I had left over. The ones in the red box are the pieces I would have had, had I not made the modifications. The rest are what was left over as well due to the mods I made to the design.

Here are the left overs built into….I don’t know what. LOL

You get a standard Storm Elite. This one in brown. I still don’t know why Mega chooses to use brown as a covenant color. This is one color I wish they’d stay away from for the Covies. The figure itself is of course fantastic. It’s just the color that bothers me.

As for fitting the figure into the cockpit, it does fit. I however grew frustrated by not being able to get it to hold the two handles that you build into the model. So I just placed it inside. As you can see by the right pic, it fits in quite well, even when not holding on to the handles AND with that modifications I did of taking out those two curved pieces earlier.

Here’s the finished model with my mods to it. 

Summary: The set has a short build time. It’s fairly easy to put together, with the only slight exception being the wings. A couple of easy modifications to the build make it look better, in my opinion.

Overall Rating: I give this set 8.5 out for 10 medals. This set has ok value at $20

Why did I give it a 8.5 out of 10?
• The wing design looks out of place with the rest of the more organic feel to the ship. 1/2 point off
• I’m not a fan of the brown color armor for Covie figures 1/2 point off
• Piece count for price isn’t quite worth it. I feel this set should have been $17 at most, not $20. 1/2 point off

Do I recommend it?  YES The main reason I suggest getting this is for the new cockpit hatch. It’s better curved and detailed, not to mention has the graphics already printed on it.

If you’re not fond of the brown color armor or do not like the wing design, you can skip this one without feeling much loss. Yes, I know, it’s rare when I say that. However, every set can’t be a knockout win. This isn’t a bad set, just not a great one.

If you have any questions about this set that I didn’t cover in the review, please do not hesitate to ask me. Either reply below or e-mail me at [email protected]

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think of the review. If you get this set yourself, please let me know your thoughts on it too!

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-Sal