Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Lego: The Shellraiser Street Chase set
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Lego sets has been a dream for Turtle fans for many years. When Mega Bloks got the license for the 2003 cartoon,
it seemed like fans might get the next best thing. But after that line died quickly, we were forced to wait almost another decade for another
opportunity. And thus far Lego has not disappointed. Already with the first five sets, we have gotten most of the main vehicles and characters
from the new cartoon as well as a cool sewer lair play set. But the biggest set is still to come in the form of the Shellraiser Street Chase
set. Once all 620 pieces are assembled, you end up with the a large version of the Turtles' main vehicle, the Shellraiser, a delivery truck
for the Kraang and five more mini figures. The Shellraiser set has some big shoes to fill to outshine the Turtle Lair Attack set given how
well that set turned out. Unfortunately the Shellraiser Street Chase set doesn't seem to be up to the task.
Packaging - 9/10The packaging for the Shellraiser Street Chase set follows the same design as the previous sets. The front of the box has a large photo of the completed set with a few tweaks to show it in action as well as an inset image of the five mini figures included with the set. Due to the size and shape of the box, you can see a great deal of the detail of the Shellraiser and other components of the set. The back of the box has several photos of the set showing off the features as well as a comic strip along the bottom. The larger box means that there is plenty of space to show off the detail. In general I feel that the main job of a toy's packaging is to make the toy look good and help sell it, it that regard, this the best of the TMNT sets so far.
Sculpting/Design - 4/10The Shellraiser set has a few major hurdles working against it right off the bat. To start with, much like the Shredder's Dragon Bike and Stealth Shell in Pursuit sets, the Shellraiser set is made of a pair of vehicles. But to date, there are no vehicles for the bad guys that really rivals the Shellraiser in size and complexity. So instead the set has a pizza delivery truck for the Kraang to transport ooze. That isn't a bad idea in principle and fitting for the property. But it is tiny. It has almost the same wheel base as the motorized skateboard from the Dragon Chopper set or the go cart from the Baxter Robot set. It lacks any doors on the front and is only wide enough for one mini figure. In short, compared to the Shellraiser, it looks like a toy. Then there is the Shellraiser itself. The Shellraiser is supposed to be a modified subway car. But subway cars are huge. And even with as large a set as this is, it is still too small. If you look at the size of the 'doors' on the front and back, they are at least 30% smaller than they should be to actually be in scale with the mini figures. And then you get to the inside which has seats for the four Turtles, and pretty much no room for anything else. This was also the first set that had structural issues. The Shellraiser is built around a large base platform. That doesn't seem so strange except that I do mean that it is built around that platform instead of being built up on it. As a result, throughout most of the build, the entire set is prone to coming apart. The final product seems reasonably stable. But it seems like a lot of extra work and extra pieces had to go into making up for the fact that they started with a base that was slightly too small.The Shellraiser Street Chase set comes with five mini figures: Leonardo and Michelangelo for the Turtles and Dogpound, a Foot Soldier and a Kraang exoskeleton for them to fight. The Turtles are nothing that special, we've gotten a version of each before. The Foot Soldier is somewhat worth noting for being the only Foot Soldier that isn't exactly like all of the others. This one has brown legs similar to Ray Bradford's Dark Ninja costume. And speaking of Bradford, he's present in his post-mutation form which is probably the highlight of the set. Dogpound could use some paint on his spikes, but otherwise is fairly nice. Finally there is the Kraang mini figure. It is just a normal mini figure body with a painted image of the interior exoskeleton and Kraang in the stomach. I would like to see them try a Kraang exoskeleton using a translucent blue mini figure body. That would make the figure stand out amongst all of the other mini figures and would better represent the design from the show.
Paint/Color choice - 9/10The color choices on the Shellraiser set are more or less what one would expect. The delivery truck is white with a red stripe and green roof which is a fairly reasonable color combination for a truck like this. The Shellraiser has a yellow body and green roof as well as a lot of attached parts in shades of gray. The yellow is a bit too bright for this application. But I suppose Lego doesn't have a lot of different shades to choose from. There are a few minor changes I would like to see. The industrial drums that form the front bumpers would be more distinct if they were red. It also seems a bit odd that the parts used for the side panels of the Shellraiser are not the same color. The front half of each one is a smooth gray panel while the rear portion is pink and lined with studs along three edges. It isn't a big issue, but it seems odd that they didn't match the two parts.
Features - 4/10Given the size and complexity of the Shellraiser set, it doesn't have nearly as many features as I was expecting it to. And all of those features are on the Shellraiser itself which reinforces the feeling that the delivery truck is little more than an afterthought inclusion to the set. The Shellraiser has a number of features. The first is the ability to raise and lower the rubber wheels to switch between street and subway modes. There are railroad style wheels mounted under the Shellraiser in the middle and the front. But you can also lower the road tires for pursuing enemies street side. Unfortunately the front tires are a bit too small for where they are mounted. So quite often, even when the street tires are lowered, the Shellraiser will actually be rolling on the train wheels underneath. Raising the large rear tires helps, but it shouldn't require a lot of fiddling with the positions of the tires to get it right. There is a large cannon mounted to the roof. The red lower portion is just decorative. But above that is a working, launcher that shoots what appears to be a large boxing glove via its spring loaded mechanism. There are three ways to access the interior. The roof is designed to be removed and reattached fairly easily, or you can flipped the panels in the middle of either side down. Hidden behind those panels are the final two features of the set, a computer terminal and skateboard on the left side and a weapon rack on the right side. The weapon rack and computer are nice additions, but they don't justify the amount of space that they take up on the inside of the Shellraiser. The features that the Shellraiser set has aren't bad, I just had higher expectations given the size of the set.
Accessories - 5/10The Shellraiser set comes with weapons for Leonardo, Michelangelo, the Foot Soldier and Kraang as well as a pair of canisters of Kraang ooze and a skateboard for Michelangelo. It also includes a brick separator tool. The swords that are provided for Leonardo and the Foot Soldier are the same ones that have been included with previous sets. Michelangelo's nunchuks are different as they included a different piece for the handles which also allows you to attach a "tooth" to make a bladed version. The Kraang comes with a gun and a jet pack backpack. The jet pack seems a bit out of character, but as it is the only instance of Lego going above and beyond just the minimum with this set, I'll take what I can get.
Value - 5/10The Shellraiser Street Chase set sells for $60. While the Shellraiser is a nice vehicle, it isn't that nice. And the addition of the Kraang delivery vehicle isn't going to add much to the set. If they could have kept the part count down and sold just the Shellraiser for around $40, it would have been a better value and more in line with what we got from the other sets.
Happy Hunting:As with the other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Lego sets, the Shellraiser Street Chase set has been out since Christmas and is available at most stores that carry Lego kits. If you prefer online options, Toys R Us, Walmart, Kmart and Target all have the set available online. It is also available directly from Lego.com as well.
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