Dave's Lego Exo-Force Rantlet

     8101 Claw Crusher

     See http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Lego/Exoforce81 for general line
comments.  

     Updated 12/28/06 with Codebrick info.

CAPSULE

     Not quite as nifty as the Cyclone Defender, but still a good figure for
the money.  Recommended.  $8 price point.

RANT

     The 8100 series sets lack the techspec panels found in the 7700 series,
so I'm making my own names up for weapons for now, and making up my own armor
types and thicknesses.  This info is available online, I'll note it in
parentheses after my versions.  There are no official alternate models.

Unit: Claw Crusher
Pilot: Devastator
Pilot Eye Color: Red
Main Mecha Colors: Black, orange and gray.
Weapons: Crusher Claw, Rotary Cannon (Rotating blaster cannons; powerful
     ripping claws)
Armor: Persitium, 5" thickness (8" tenatium armor)
(Power Source: Magnetized nuclear plasma)
Unit Designation: 8101
Unit Type: Ground
Nickname: None

     Code Bio: The newest battle machine designed for use by Iron Drones, the
Claw Crusher is also mass-produced much as the Sentry was previously.  Also
like the Sentry, it is considered expendable by the robots - therefore armor
is sacrificed in favor of better armament.  Claw Crushers are designed to
attack en masse - so where one by itself might not seem overly formidable,
dozens or hundreds working together are almost unbeatable.

     Build Time: About 20 minutes, 5 of that being part-sorting.

     Dimensions: 5.5" (14cm) tall, with a shoulderspan of 3.5" (9cm).  While
made from pretty much the same pieces as 8100, the stance is slightly
different.  Or I was just sloppy in measuring the height of 8100.  :)

     Colors: The armor pieces are black.  The core and some of the joints are
gray (666666) while other core bits are black.  The cockpit, claws, hip
joints and some accents are orange (FF9933), and the shoulder secondary
weapons use clear orange pieces.  The feet are black Bionicle (Rakshi?)
feet.  The cockpit is orange and just an open frame atop a black shaft.

     Stickers: As before, no Japanese on these, just techy details and a
stylized 8101.  I got two sticker sheets by mistake.  :)

     Articulation: Has the same right hand design as the Cyclone Defender,
but with long claws added to the fingertips.  The shoulders, hips and ankles
are ball joints, as is the right elbow.  The left elbow is permanently bent
at 90 degrees, and the knees are permanently bent with 135 degree joints.
The left hand gun does rotate, but stiffly.  The top part of the cockpit
frame folds down.

     Weapons: The Crusher Claw has "fingers" 2" (5cm) long, but can only open
far enough to get around something 1" (2.5cm) wide.  They can close past each
other, however.  There's no stabilizing peg to let it hold a weapon securely
in this hand.  The left arm ends in a six-barrelled cannon that has six black
round-to-cross rod connectors stuck into a pair of orange pulley pieces.
There's also secondary weapons on the shoulders.  A short rocket (a clear
orange cone on a finned barrel) and a single clear orange dot for what I
guess is a laser.  Mine had a spare orange dot and a spare black dot, so I
built up that weapon a bit.  :)

     Other Features: Not so much a feature as a note on construction.  The
torso section is built very similarly to 8100's, if not exactly.  Also,
except for the feet, the two have identical leg construction.

     Pilot Figure: Sadly, they ditched the clear plastic torsos this time
around, and the torso/head piece is just silvery plastic.  I suppose that
without the lightbrick, there wasn't the incentive to make the pilots
translucent. 

     Dave Van Domelen, notes that the shoulder area makes it look kinda like
a scaled down Thunder Fury.