Greetings, all! It's time for another retro set review. This time, the villainous Time Twisters and their smallest set, the Time Tunnelator!
Presentation
From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.
We see here one of the sibling antagonists, Tony Twister (whose face bears a striking resemblance to Black Bart of the Wild West theme), flying through a stormy backdrop with a jagged mountain to the left, a forest or something of the like near the bottom of the picture, and what looks like a portal to a city in the back-right.
Building
Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?
There are 80 pieces in this set, and all are pictured above. This build is pretty straightforward and doesn't take more than ten minutes. Still, there are more pieces than the Rocket Racer, so it's slightly more involved, but not by much.
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 set foundation is a blue wing piece, and everything kinda sprouts from there. It's interesting that, despite the fact that the set isn't really "filled in," it doesn't look very skeletal or lacking, and I think the plastic wings help that. As far as interesting pieces go, there are two trumpet pieces, two bats, and a few trans-neon orange pieces. I like the use of the black dragon wing as a rudder; it adds to the bat/evil look that this theme has going for it.
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?
Oh, the functionality. In this set, when the wheels move, not only does the propeller spin, but the wings also flap up and down. The mechanism for the propeller is a rubber band belt that goes from the wheel axle to the propeller, while the flapping wings occur due to the cranks connected to the outside of the wheels; as they spin, the wings flap.
This kind of functionality will be seen again in future reviews of Time Cruisers and Twisters, and this is one of the reasons why I find this theme so cool; they have cool looking vehicles that do more than just roll on the table.
Final Thoughts
Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?
While this is a small set, the functionality is a reason I would recommend getting this set over the Rocket Racer; the friction-driven propellers in that set aren't as reliable as the cranks and gears of this set, so this set will satisfy you more if you're a fan of functionality (like me).
This set also looks cooler than the Rocket Racer and has a more diverse range of pieces in its inventory, like the bats, barrels, and bugles. Tony Twister is also a good minifigure in that he gives you a set of epaulettes in yellow and a police hat (which is odd seeing as he's a bad guy, but I digress). Given the choice between the two, I'd buy this set. It was originally listed as $10.00, but can be found now for about half of that, making this set a pretty good deal.
Pros
What's to like?
- Functionality!!!
- Cheap (~$5.00 on BrickLink)
- Looks cool despite being small
- Has good pieces to plunder
Cons
What's not to like?
- Small
If you're thinking of collecting the Time Twisters sets, this isn't a bad one to start with, so I highly recommend it.
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