Review: 70366 Battle Suit Lance
Posted by CapnRex101,
The first year of Nexo Knights seems to have proven quite popular on the whole and the second is shaping up to be just as good. I found the Ultimate sets to be a relatively weak aspect of the range in 2016 but those have now been replaced by the Battle Suits which occupy a similar low price point of £7.99 or $9.99.
70366 Battle Suit Lance stood out to me as it offers an unusual wheeled design as well as an impressive selection of new elements. It was therefore the first of the 2017 Nexo Knights sets which I purchased and I am very satisfied with the result!
Minifigure
Each Battle Suit comes with a unique minifigure, the design of which reminds me of those in the Mighty Micros sets as the printed designs are relatively plain. Nevertheless, these figures look splendid to me and Lance Richmond wears a striking white uniform which contrasts beautifully with light bluish grey armour and some silver highlights. His equine insignia adorns the front of the torso and a matching white design is visible from the back.
Lance's helmet includes a pearl silver visor which can be lifted to reveal his smiling face on one side of the head and a winking expression on the other. It is a little unfortunate that no accessory is included but you could use the spare trans-neon orange spearhead as a dagger if you wish.
The Completed Model
All five Battle Mechs measure a little over 9cm in height and offer a relatively impressive range of articulation considering their small size. Lance's mech features ankle, hip, wrist and shoulder joints as well as a rotating waist and head. You can also alter the positioning of the shield and lance to create some realistic action poses.
One might reasonably assume that the wheels on the feet of the mech would restrict the poseability but I have not found that to be the case at all. They are fairly large in relation to the body and the four wheels present a fairly large surface area which allows you to create some dynamic poses with only three wheels touching the ground. It is even possible to stand the battle suit on one leg, although it tends to start rolling when you do so.
The torso is emblazoned with Lance's crest which is printed on a 2x2 tile to match the minifigure inside. I like the shape of the chest armour and it forms a tight fit around a minifigure so they are well protected during battle. The bulky shoulder armour is decorated in complimentary white and orange colours and includes a new sloping element which is bound to prove useful.
There are four studs inside the cockpit, allowing a minifigure to sit securely in place with the head poking out of the top, as shown above. It would have been nice to see some controls included but there is little room for a brick-built assembly and this would likely have necessitated a sticker instead as one rarely finds printing on the interior surface of a LEGO piece.
The back of the Battle Suit is relatively plain, consisting primarily of some white slopes along with a conspicuous orange clip. This allows you to connect the mech to 70348 Lance's Twin Jouster and the instruction manual suggests that the other sets offer similar features, although those for Axl, Macy and Aaron will not be available until the summer. We will be showing the combined model in an upcoming review of 70348 Lance's Twin Jouster.
Each Battle Suit is equipped with a large shield with space for three NEXO Powers. Diamond Spear, Dynamighty and Silver Pegasus are equipped at the moment. The light bluish grey shield is a deceptively versatile part as it has several attachment points including studs on top, clips on each side and a pin hole underneath so it could probably be incorporated into other models. However, it looks great as a shield and I like the varying colours of the NEXO Powers.
Two additional NEXO Powers are also included: WhirlWind and Standing Ovation. These can be swapped with those already in place on the shield and you can collect even more in the first wave of Combo NEXO Powers packs. The mech also carries a lance which is tipped with a new spearhead element in trans-neon orange. I like the texturing on either side of the tip and this element matches the shaft which is also cast in trans-neon orange for the first time.
Overall
I think these Battle Suits are going to prove very popular. Not only does each set include an exclusive version of a knight but the mechs offer impressive articulation and considerable play value. 70366 Battle Suit Lance is the only one I have purchased at the time of writing and I cannot compare it to the others directly. However, the wheeled design is unique and I like the bright colour scheme as well as the pleasing array of new pieces included.
The price of £7.99 or $9.99 seems very reasonable and I certainly recommend this set. At the very least it serves as an excellent source of parts and the central torso element is remarkably versatile so could form the core of your own mech designs.
I hope you have found this review informative. Let us know by liking this article and share your thoughts on the set in the comments below.
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21 comments on this article
I'd love to see those new slopes in some other sets in the future!
Not to shabby. Pretty cool in my opinion.
It really is turning out to be Exo-Knights...
This will definetly be used by me to MOC a couple into SW Mechs (construction and one for Imperial combat). Wonder how DV and Palapatine will look.
Lordmoral i have the same ideas for MOC soms SW mechs, first i try Hera's microfighter.
That 45º slope with attached tile (do you have a part or design ID?) is an early candidate for 2017 Part of the Year.
@Astrobricks Clay's Battle Suit seems to have those slopes in earth (Lego) / dark (bricklink) blue. I'm hoping there'll be a good colour range pretty quickly.
I'm looking forward to these! I'm really surprised though that they didn't use the new hand piece from the 70901 Mr. Freeze Ice Attack. I think it looks much nicer on smaller mechs than the oversized Constraction Figure hands we get here. And I was looking forward to getting the smaller hand in more colors than just medium-blue.
This will be the first i'll get. Followed by all the others probably :D
Aaron's mech is a must buy for me, and those new shield pieces are great for MOCs. It just seems build for a helicopter, with clips for rotors and the attachment point on the bottom.
So this looks to be the size of the original bionicles, but able to fit a minifigure inside. Any chance of an exo-force revival or tribute theme in the relatively near future?
I must say I had NO IDEA these get new prints for bodies!
Clay's mech is the best!
I think I like these better than the Ultimate line - they seem a bit better value, even though they're £1 more than those were - maybe because there's more building to them; a lot of the piece count on the Ultimate sets was in accessories. They also felt more like something to collect than to play with (in themselves; obviously they'd join your other NK stuff if you had more), whereas these look like there's a fair bit of play value if you only have one. I love the wheels and the idea that each one will connect with another set is exciting. I'm saving up so am going to have to ban myself from buying these until this time next year...
Great review, great set! I'll be getting all five - however, Axl's definitely interests me the most.
I don't think that the torso design is plain! It looks very sleek and streamlined.
I have no interest in the Nexo Knights but can see picking up a couple of these Battle Suits, as my mind is swirling w/ideas on how to use those parts. I wonder what that big triangular shield looks like w/o the NEXO Powers... it would make an excellent hatch on a Spaceship! Spaceship! Spaceship!
I do like the designs of the figs in these battle suits. They evoke outfits from franchises like Evangelion or Tron while still keeping a little bit of that Castle inspiration in their tunic-style cut. I am a little disappointed, though, that Macy's similar outfit lacks the curves that are present even in her fully-armored depiction from this year.
I'm very pleased with the Battle Suits themselves, which manage to pack in decent variety despite their small size. The new parts are nice, too—the cockpit is a great solution for a mech this size and the opening front section seems like it could be interesting as the front of some sort of car or similar vehicle. The brick-built lance on this one is quite neat, too!
They are a pound more than the Ultimate sets because England's Pound is worth a 30% less than it was last year.
I love the fact the 2x2 tiles are printed. The green one has a nice Wolf design. And the wheels on this one are very neat.
I was worried the new mech minifigure holding pieces would be bad, but they seem to have done it well.
The shield and a selection of 5 Nexo powers are available on their own in blind bags too
These comments are making me sad that we probably won't get a Battle Form Lavaria now :( Guess I'll have to build one myself :D
WHAT!?! No Aaron until wave 2 of these? Bummer, but I will probably get the others too.