The Insectoids were among the first subthemes that I intended to make a serious collection out of during my earlier days of getting back into the hobby, and after picking up Arachnoid Star Base (6977) for cheap, the next logical no-brainer for me was this set, the Planetary Prowler. I feel like I have already mentioned that ground-vehicle-heavy Space subthemes seem to be a relative rarity, with M-Tron sort of pioneering the gimmick that kind of petered out in subsequent years. And while Arachnoid Star Base has the "heavy" feel of a moving fortress - as it should - Planetary Prowler, by contrast, is a streamlined, all-terrain vehicle that succeeds in maintaining the insect facade of the Insectoids while being beautifully functional as well.

Planetary Prowler is essentially a single skinny vehicle, not at all typical of the way most Space vehicles are designed, and it manages to draw a fairly good balance between basic and specialised pieces, although, like most sets of the late-90s and early 2000s, it does seem to suffer from a slight bias towards fancy, single-use pieces. Just two Minifigs power the entire operation: a typical Insectoid drone and a cybernetic assistant. Neither of them are spectacular, but they'll do well enough in fleshing out your Insectoid army. The stipulated retail price of $35 seems pretty outrageous in retrospect, but you can surely get it for much cheaper nowadays, provided you find it used.

This set's build follows more or less singularly from the head down. There's nothing too complicated here, but the set is packed with neat features nonetheless. While Space purists may complain about the open-sided cockpit, the rest of the features are sure to please, which range from a cool pair of posable "eyes", a set of transparent hinge pieces that hide an engine, and a little hover craft that presumably acts as a scouting vehicle of some sort. The coolest part of the Planetary Prowler is arguably the shock absorber wheels, which some people might consider to be a gimmick, but I think that they are pretty fun and well-designed. It's sort of like sci-fi monster trucking.

I consider Planetary Prowler to be fairly emblematic of the Insectoids line as a whole: it's a well-designed piece of machinery that effectively suggests the appearances of a bug, and it's all put together in one unified package. If you have any desire to collect the Insectoids at all, Planetary Prowler has to be a part of your display.

The whole insectoids theme was a great idea and was even better then ufo. On to the review.

This set looks like a huge ant, and the domes for the eyes were not a mistake. They rock! I droid and the insectoids are once again awesome, and so is the rest of this set.

This set can be found as cheap as $15, and is one of the best designed sets Lego has made. It is basically meant to be a Grasshopper, and is MUCH larger than most of the $15 sets today. It has lot of extras, like most Insectoid sets, and is a blast to play with.

And, this is a great set. The shocks are so cool. And, the peices are VERY useful. I keep taking it apart, but, I always end up putting it back together. Worth your money. Even better if you are a Insectoids fan.

I really like this insectoid set. The back wheels have those neat shock absorbers, making any terrain easily accessible! The figures are unique too. I particularly liked the droid. Overall, this is a really neat set and a quite unique theme!