{"id":2426,"date":"2012-08-07T09:45:35","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T14:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=2426"},"modified":"2012-08-07T09:45:35","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T14:45:35","slug":"mega-bloks-review-countdown-set-97017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/?p=2426","title":{"rendered":"Mega Bloks Review: Countdown set #97017"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>Countdown: Set number 97017
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Technical Specifications:<\/strong>
\n<\/a>Build Time:\u00a0<\/strong>1.5 hours sorting, 5.5 hours build. Total 7 hours.<\/p>\n

Set Piece count:\u00a0<\/strong>1241
\nMinifigs: <\/strong>Blue Spartan “Jorge-like armor”;2 Reach style Marines-1 with green eye HUD\/1 with gold goggles; NEW<\/strong> UNSC Technician; NEW<\/strong> Brown Spartan Mark V [B]; Standard Green marine with NEW<\/strong> head featuring military cap instead of helmet. Armory items:<\/em> JFO right arm, CQC left arm, Operator helmet
\n<\/strong>Weapons:\u00a0<\/strong>2 Assault Rifles (black); 3 Magnums (grey); Battle Rifle (black)
\nAccessories:<\/strong>\u00a02 Reach style marine backpacks; Tools include: Power wrench, wrench, screwdriver, hammer, ratchet, crowbar, lock cutters, monkey wrench<\/p>\n

Special Features:\u00a0<\/strong>Sabre cockpit slides open\/close; Yellow gantry ladder swivels
\nDimensions:<\/strong>\u00a0Sabre W 10.5″ H 3.75″-without 4″-with staging rockets L 15″-without 16″with staging rockets \/ Gantry-Tower assembly W 18.375″ D 9.5″ H 16″
\nPrice\/Value:\u00a0<\/strong>$110US<\/p>\n

The set has 1241 pieces. Roughly 80% are for the Sabre, with the rest for the Gantry\/Tower.<\/p>\n

Here are the pics with some explanation along the way,\u00a0to help your build.<\/p>\n

Click on images to see a larger version.<\/p>\n

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The second pic of the above shows the contents of the big bag from the first pic in the upper right.<\/p>\n

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Pieces sorted out into the “Brickyard.”<\/p><\/div>\n

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Note in the above picture the yellow circles. The two forward parts of the engines kept falling off. This was due to the +bar being too short and not being a snug fit. For the rest of the build until the end, these parts remained off so as not to fall off and frustrate me. In the end I used double sided tape to keep them snug.<\/p>\n

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In the above pic the yellow circle shows where there should be a 2X2 double stud sided piece. That piece was missing. Thankfully it isn’t an integral part of the build and would be hidden anyway, as you can see.<\/p>\n

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The cockpit assembly is terrific. Nice smokey glass, dark grey hatch and the sliding feature works VERY well.<\/p>\n

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Beautiful, isn’t she?<\/p>\n

To save space yet show build progression, I made this animated gif of the gantry assembly:<\/p>\n

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Next up the control tower\/station in steps:<\/p>\n

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In this next pic, you see the junction between the gantry and the tower. The directions call for the silver piece (at the bottom) to already be on the build. I found it much easier to take this off, assemble the bottom part them fit the silver part on top.<\/p>\n

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Bright yellow!<\/p>\n

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Here is the set fully completed (without stickers) As some of you long time readers know, I don’t like to put stickers on my sets. This set certainly speaks for itself without the stickers, don’t you think?<\/p>\n

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Here is the sticker sheet:<\/p>\n

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The leftover pieces: As usual, I try to make a mini of the set the pieces came in. I was successful in part for a small control station. The miniSabre came out pretty good I think. I even was able to make stage separation rockets for the miniSabre.<\/p>\n

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And finally the minifigs, weapons and armory bits:<\/p>\n

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Summary:<\/strong>\u00a0A fantastic set, with long build time. The price is set VERY well for the set. With the piece count coming in at 1241, I would have expected the set to be priced closer to $125. There are some new parts here like the engine nacelles, cockpit slider and cockpit hatch that really add to the look and playability of the set. I am extremely happy with the turn out of the Sabre, but for the one issue with the front engine nacelles not staying on without a little help. Either a longer +bar or a tighter fit would have fixed that. Still, it’s fixable and not too troublesome. If you display this upright as picture, then it’s not an issue.
\nThe gantry\/tower assembly is huge and fits the Sabre well. It really adds to the set. Had this just been the Sabre, I’d have been very happy. I feel the gantry\/tower was the extra put in the set that adds to the realism of it.<\/p>\n

Overall Rating:<\/strong>\u00a04.75 out of 5 medals. Just one missing non-essential part and the forward nacelles as mentioned keep this from being perfect. But damn, it’s CLOSE. Is it worth getting? HELL Yeah!<\/p>\n

-HFFL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Countdown: Set number 97017 Technical Specifications: Build Time:\u00a01.5 hours sorting, 5.5 hours build. Total 7 hours. Set Piece count:\u00a01241 Minifigs: Blue Spartan “Jorge-like armor”;2 Reach style Marines-1 with green eye HUD\/1 with gold goggles; NEW UNSC Technician; NEW Brown Spartan … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2426"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2452,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2426\/revisions\/2452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/halofanforlife.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}