Nick Bluetooth - Hero of the Outer Dimension!
Written: Dec 15 '02
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Pros: Lots of design options, compatible with other Galidor figures, projectile missiles
Cons: Requires purchasing additional figures to create designs featured on the package.
The Bottom Line: If you can find this on clearance or at a reduced price – snap it up!
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| Freak369's Full Review: LEGO - Galidor #8313 Nick Bluetooth Deluxe |
I swore that I wouldn't buy any Galidor items after the awful experience I had purchasing one of the extremely over-prices ships in the fleet. I changed my tune when I came across the Nick Bluetooth Deluxe figure online for less than half the suggested retail price of $9.99. For $4.99 [free shipping] I snagged a few of these figures in case Lego decides to yank the series off the shelves in the near future. Most people were anxious to get their hands on the Lego Galidor products thinking that they would be compatible with regular Lego sets - wrong. I found that out the hard way after I tossed down a large chunk of change at Wal-Mart only to find “less than Lego quality” products in the boxes. Even with my initial distain of the series, I am a die-hard collector and something tells me that these little babies are going to be worth some money some day.
When the Galidor series was first released they begged me to pick up all the figures and ships and since they had the Lego name on them I figured why not. The figures, especially the deluxe ones, aren’t bad at all – but the simple fact that you need to purchase other sets in order to build the featured designs irks me to no end. This is compounded by the fact that some of the figures aren’t readily available so you have to hunt them down or go online and pray that you get what you ordered. Just because it has the Lego name on it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be as good as the traditional Lego building sets or series. Coming from a complete Lego junkie – those are some pretty harsh words but something that needs to be said about the entire line.
Nick Bluetooth
Well, ask ten people what they think of this figure when they first see it and chances are you will get ten different responses – however – most of them will say that it looks rather bizarre and out of proportion. The first thing that caught my eye was the strange hip and leg assembly – they look nothing like human leg joints and after digging around for some information about this I found it was necessary to have this portion of the figure made this way so it could be interchanged with other characters in the series. Even so, when you first see it – it catches you off guard. Keeping the basic premise of the Lego family, the doll can be stripped down and rebuilt using pieces from other sets within the Galidor series. That’s great if you can find them – but in order to build the ones featured on the package you will need to fork out another $10.00 - $15.00 for them [retail prices].
Nick can be built several different ways – with both arms attached, with a single missile attachment or with both arms removed and replaced with the projectile packs. The range on the missiles is about two to three feet however the boys managed to get a little more distance after playing around with it for an hour or so. When I was checking it out I had a hard time getting him to stand up without falling over when the missile attachments were on him – as usual the boys had better luck in this area. The figure is just too top heavy in my opinion and reminds me of the old school WWF figures that seemed to fall over at the drop of a hat.
Nick comes with a map – if you can even call it that – of the Outer Dimension. Since I never really got into the specifics of the set, series, television show or characters I am sort of clueless about current events regarding the line. My son mentioned in passing that Nick, a fifteen year old, is the good guy, Gorm is the bad guy and the Outer Dimension is where the battle is taking place. From what I have seen on the television show, the person playing Nick Bluetooth has a very striking resemblance to Leonardo DiCaprio – the doll however looks more like Michael J. Fox [go figure].
Things To Know
This figure shouldn’t be confused with the regular Nick Bluetooth figure [Lego # 8310] that retails for about $5.99. The regular figure doesn’t feature the wings / missiles on his arms as well as having completely different clothing – however the regular version does come with a backpack. They are the same exact size and shape but the features are different. If you are ordering this product online make sure you know which one you want as well as which one you are receiving – some toy vendors might make a mistake and some are just out to make a few extra dollars on people who aren’t up on their action figures.
The Nick Bluetooth figure is for ages four and older however I challenge that age recommendation. Most four year olds that I know wouldn’t be interested in such a figure – especially when you need to collect several other figures to create ‘new’ Nicks. The pieces aren’t small but you have to keep in mind that there are projectile missiles used with this figure. This could present a dangerous situation if the missiles were aimed at another childs face. If you are thinking about purchasing this figure you might want to remove the missiles from the package or make sure that your child knows the dangers of them.
The Bottom Line
The Nick Bluetooth figure is nice, but the fact that you have to purchase other figures to make the new designs doesn’t sit well with me. To me this is target marketing – much like the fast food restaurants that carry the kid meal toys that are just components for a larger robot, ship or scene. This sends out a bad message to kids and often results in them whining about needing to collect them all. I really expected more from Lego when I heard about the new Galidor line, I expected them to be compatible with the normal Lego elements or at the very least have a little more replay value. When these figures first hit the market they were selling in the $10.99 - $12.99 price range – the current sale and clearance prices at toy stores should be a good reflection of how well the line was received. The bottom line – pick these up as collector items unless you want to track down all the other figures needed to morph Nick into an outer space meanie. I hate to say that Lego screwed up with this series, but they did. They had a big push for the series but never bothered to mention that the ships, figures and creatures wouldn’t be compatible with standard Lego sets.
The Stats
Set Name: Nick [Nicholas] Bluetooth
Family Set: Galidor
Lego Set: 8313
Number of Pieces: 15
Age Recommendation: 4 and older
Ease Of Assembly: Easy
Time Of Assembly: 5 minutes
Cost: $ 4.99 [sale price]
As always, thanks for the read!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2002 Freak369
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $4.99
Type of Toy: Action Figure
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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