[REVIEW] 8190 -- Claw Catcher

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How would you rate this set?

Excellent
6
67%
Average
3
33%
Poor
0
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Total votes: 9

DrBeaker
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[REVIEW] 8190 -- Claw Catcher

Post by DrBeaker » Tue Oct 26, 2010 6:55 am

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[REVIEW] 8190 – Claw Catcher

Having worked through most of the Summer 2010 SW sets that I was interested in, I decided to look for a set in a different theme that I hadn’t previously collected. After some deliberation between the World Racers and Power Miners, I settled on 8190 Claw Catcher.


Set Details

8190 – Claw Catcher
Pieces = 290
Minifigures = 2
MSRP = $34.99
Price per piece = 12.1 cents/piece

Box

The box has very bright colors with a lot of green and orange. The front of the box shows our poor, hapless rock monster being scooped up by the Claw Catcher. Interestingly, the figure inset doesn’t show the whole minifigure, but rather a pseudo-action shot of them facing each other.

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The rear of the box reveals the functionality of the set. The claw not only catches the rock monsters, but flings them back into a holding cell.

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Some of the smaller inset images on the back of the box are interesting. There is a nice shot of all of the accessories from this set, a rather uninteresting image of the cockpit and a picture of Brains frying up a hot dog. I guess he gets hungry while chasing rock monsters.

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Opening the Box & Minifigures

Inside the box, there are three bags, one instruction book and a small sheet of stickers. Two of the bags are numbered, while the third bag contains only components for the wheels.

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The “#1” bags contain our minifigures, accessories and the core of the catcher. Bag #2 contains the parts for the superstructure of the vehicle. The last bag has just the various wheel pieces.

Only two minifigures are included with this set. The Power Miner is named “Brains” according to my 6-year old son, who is the self-proclaimed expert on this theme. The rock monster is dubbed “Infernox.” Brains comes with a silver heat suit, helmet, goggles and accessories. Infernox comes with a red crystal.

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Here is a close up of both of them. Brains’ torso has printing on the front and back, but this is largely invisible when he is wearing his heat armor.

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The Build

I really enjoyed the early part of this build. The core of the vehicle has a good amount of Technic construction to it. It was not immediately obvious during the build how the claw functionality would emerge from the construction. Here is a shot of the inner core of the vehicle.

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Once the Technic core is complete, the superstructure of the Claw Catcher is quickly assembled on top of it. This part of the build goes very quickly and isn’t particularly novel. After the application of a few stickers, our build is done! Here is the finished product:

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The blue catcher arms are both visually pleasing and functional. The color adds a nice splash to the otherwise monotonous green/gray palette. The arms function in two positions. First, fully extended as seen in the previous picture. When the claw function is activated (by pulling on a lever at the back of the vehicle) they snap shut and then quickly rotate up 90 degrees while opening.

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The result is a nice bank shot of the trapped rock monster into the holding cell.

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Pro’s

Excellent function and playability
Interesting core build
Humorous, tongue-in-cheek overall theme
Nice color scheme, especially in the accent colors

Con’s

More minifigures?
Limited appeal for MOC use
Price

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed building this set, even though I have not collected this line before. It has a nice function and my son and I enjoyed playing with it. It is very durable and held up well to repeated play. I was a little dubious about the mechanism, but it puts the rock monster in the prison every time (or flings him over the vehicle if the prison is door is closed). The number of stickers is reasonable for a set of this size and one of them is truly memorable:

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This set could have used one more minifigure, IMHO. The price point is a little high, but at least you’re getting a build and vehicle that is relatively unique (that was a veiled reference to you, oh overpriced Plo Koon Jedi Starfighter!). I am not a big MOC builder, but I can’t see this set having a lot of appeal in terms of the raw pieces on that front.

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legitimatealex
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Re: [REVIEW] 8190 -- Claw Catcher

Post by legitimatealex » Tue Oct 26, 2010 10:35 am

Thanks for the review. It looks like an interesting set and I'm a fan of Power Miners in general. You're definitely right though that they need more minifigures in the sets. I think that is the line's weakness.

Glad to see the set was as interesting as I thought it would be. If I could find it on sale anywhere I'd pick one up in the future.
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Playing with LEGO when I can. Where does the time go?

funnypeople
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Re: [REVIEW] 8190 -- Claw Catcher

Post by funnypeople » Wed Oct 27, 2010 7:11 pm

Good review and very nice pieces. :P

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