Dave's Exo-Force Deep Jungle Rantlet 8111: River Dragon See http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Lego/ExoforceDJ for general line comments. For some reason, the sticker code that came with this toy is the code for the Chameleon Hunter. I've emailed Lego about this issue, if they reply with a replacement code I'll add the info. Update 12/27/07: Lego customer service provides the code as EXO47RZ0. CAPSULE Nice little mech, decently poseable and stable. Good weapon loadout, decent partner mech. Recommended. $9.99 at TRU ($8 price point otherwise) RANT Making up my own info for some things now, will update if/when I get the proper code. Note, the instructions include some new connector pieces, but those pieces do not exist in the set. Instead, you have to build them up out of existing pieces...which I suppose is the meaning of the cryptic add-in note. Unit: River Dragon Type: All-environment EXO-FORCE battle machine Pilot: Ha-Ya-To Pilot Hair Color: Red Main Mecha Colors: Red, white, black. Weapons: Autocannon pistol, Electron Sniper Rifle (on partner), point defense lasers Official Weapons: Magna-burst rifle, repeating heat cannon, twin concussion blasters Partner: Longbarrel Partner Code: JNO Armor: 4 inches Zaylium Sensors: Enhanced sensor package Power Source: Magnetized Oroniate Unit Designation: W.20 Unit Type: Aerial (or Water?) Nickname: None Sticker Code: EXO47RZ0 Bio Note: The first time he saw the new battle machine that Sensei Keiken designed for him, Ha-Ya-To thought it looked kind of puny. Then he climbed inside, and now he isn't sure why he ever would have wanted to pilot anything else. The River Dragon's omni-directional antigrav turbines let the daredevil ace maneuver through the air like never before, and its compact size means that he's pretty much the only thing that can fly beneath the heavy jungle canopy. What's even better is that it can operate underwater just as well as on land and in the air, and its dragon-scale camouflage coating helps it slip right past robot sensors to hit them where they least expect it. It's even got a transforming mini-robot drone that can go anywhere Ha-Ya-To can! Partner Bio (fanfic): It used to be that everyone thought Ryo was nuts when he'd talk to his mech...these battle machines weren't self-aware, that was the whole point! Self-aware robots were how they'd gotten INTO this mess. But something about Longbarrel (as he calls it) has Ha-Ya-To wondering if maybe any sufficiently complex machine will inevitably show signs of a personality. Longbarrel certainly does, showing an eagerness to attack that has Ha-Ya-To finding himself forced to be the level-headed one in the partnership. While the Electron Sniper Rifle built into Longbarrel is incredibly accurate and able to shoot right through most intervening obstacles, Longbarrel can't use it when on detached duty...and sometimes seems to forget that on his own he's not possessed of the firepower needed to take down an enemy mech. Build Time: 5 minutes sorting (bags not numbered for sets this small), 18 minutes to build the main mech (although some of that was trying to figure out the whole part-substitution issue mentioned in the line overview), 4 minutes to build the partner mech. Dimensions: 5.5" (14cm) tall if you don't count the whip antenna on the right shoulder, 8" (21cm) if you do. Longbarrel stands 4cm tall, and they were smart enough to have his main weapon stick out back as a tail rather than make him a CodpieceMaster. The River Dragon has a width of 5" (13cm) at the hover nacelles. Colors: Red is the main surface color, with some white accents and a few splashes of yellow. Black and medium gray are more common in the structural parts. There's a little bit of light tan in the cockpit area, and a smoky clear canopy. The comm dish on the left shoulder is clear blue. Stickers: The stickers are mainly red and reddish brown with black and white. There's one with an untranslated bit of Japanese, which may be a nickname for the unit (I don't see anything that looks like the character for dragon). One sticker that goes on the right shoulder is covered with text: SPY DRONE Encrypted Transmitter Info-X JNO-Launcher ...plus a sort of schematic view of the drone. Other sticker text bits include "Carapace Shell", "Anti-Gas System," "Danger Hot", "Power Vent", "JET FUEL" and "Volatile". Articulation: Ball joint shoulders, hips and ankles. The left hand has three fingers and a thumb using robot minifig arms. When Longbarrel is attached as a weapon hand, the minibot's arms become double thumbs of a sort. The elbows and knees are permanently bent connector pieces, and not articulated. The ducted fan nacelles can be rotated to vector the thrust. Weapons: A sort of machine pistol thing plugs onto a peg on the left palm, and there's two cone pieces on the front of the cockpit that look to be point defense weapons. The right arm has a single long barrel sticking out, plus Longbarrel's hand weapon as a secondary attack. Update: the point defense weapons are official concussion blasters, the machine pistol is probably the heat cannon, and Longbarrel becomes the Magna-burst rifle. Other Features: Ducted fan nacelles are on each shoulder. And unlike a lot of earlier Exo-Force units, the cockpit is mostly enclosed, with a proper chair and a wide canopy. Later note: I'm starting to wonder if the W.20 designation means it's a water mech, and the propellors are for underwater movement. That would explain the enclosed canopy. That would fit with a "river" nomenclature, anyway. Update: Okay, it can fly AND submerge. Heh. Officially combines with the Chameleon Hunter into a quad mech. Pilot Figure: Ha-Ya-To is mainly white plastic with black hands. His chest is printed in gray, blue and red with black lines. As usual, he has two faces, one of which is covered by his hair. Partner: Longbarrel connects by simply putting its arms up behind its optic and connecting a rod on its chest into River Dragon's elbow. Detached, his shoulders are a sort of universal joint, using swivels in two directions. He has a single clear yellow cone "head" in the center of his chest, being something of a hunchback. His legs are on hinges to swing outward, but there's no forward or back motion. His arms are robot minifig arms, but without hands. His sidearm simply plugs into one of his forearms. The core of his body is a weird little piece I've sometimes seen as an X-shaped gear in Technic sets, like the old Cingular logo but without a head piece. :) Dave Van Domelen, notes that the Arachnoid Stalker's flight pod is smaller than the River Dragon, putting the lie to the bio note's boast about being the only thing that can fly under the canopy.