Dave's Throwbots Review:

     Millennia

     Well, after a few months of wondering if the Millennium Slizer would
ever come to the U.S., I was greeted the other day by a stack of them sitting
among the new Arctic and Castle Legos at a local Meijer.  Needless to say, I
was Lego-burdened on my way out of the store.

CAPSULE

     Base Throwbot is pretty good, if nothing special.  The motorcycle is
neat, and can also be used by other action figures if you want.  The combined
mode leaves a LOT of leftover pieces and doesn't compare well to the "Blue
Team" Super Throwbot (humanoid one), but is better than the dragon chicken
Super Throwbot.  Essentially a $6 Throwbot and a $14 motorcycle, though, and
no transforming action to speak of.  Recommended.  $19.99 at Meijer.

RANT

     The first thing that struck me when I opened the unsually heavy-stock
box was that this seemed to be something of a rush job.  There's no catalog
or other paperwork in the box, just the instruction booklet.  And the
instruction booklet is obviously a European one, since it refers to the line
as Slizers (a fact which may confuse some buyers).  My guess is that in an
attempt to get this out before the end of the year here, they just yanked the
Euro-specific stuff from the box (the catalogs and club offers would be
different from the US/Canada ones) and sent it on...after all, all Lego
packaging is multilingual.  Although U.S. release Legos generally do not have
Portuguese on them, as this box does.
     The instructions are very good, an improvement over the instructions
that came with the first batch of Throwbots.  When a rod of some length is
asked for, a 1:1 scale picture of that rod accompanies the instruction, so
you don't have to go back to the first page to check rod lengths.  As this is
one of the biggest hassles of making a Technic model (especially for those
who don't build a whole lot of them), this extra bit is much appreciated.

     Throwbot: Standing 4" (10cm) tall at the head, this is a pretty standard
Throwbot of the same basic cog-centered body type as Ski or Scuba, with a
small central gear.  However, like Jet, it has two thrower arms.  There's no
real transformation for this, nor much in the way of specific details bolted
onto the basic frame.  It does have two big shoulderpads like wings, but
thise actually block the figure from straightening out into a "flying" pose.
Mainly black and grey, with a golden head piece.  Sits nicely on the
motorcycle.  Note, the shoulderpads seem to be portents of the next
generation of Throwbots.  Pictures I've seen from the Euro catalog (which
seems to be down again as of this writing) do not have thrower arms.
Instead, the Throwbots seem to have missile-launchers of some sort, possibly
of the "finger flick" variety, for hands.  These hand pieces are present in
Millennia as shoulderpads and as cowling for the motorcycle (or all as shins
for the Super Throwbot).
     The Throwbot has two discs, one gold and one black.  They are both "nine
dot" discs.  The black disc shows Millennia's "element" as a beam of light
emanating from Jet's domain atop the planet, while the golden disc shows the
location of Earth...wait, wrong golden disc.  This one shows Millennia on its
cycle, throwing a disc at the viewer.

     Cycle: 9" (22cm) long, 2.5" (6cm) wide and 4" (10cm) tall at the
handlebars, this is a mean street machine with big tires.  The tires are 1"
(2.5cm) thick with a 2" (5cm) radius.  A decent challenge to put together, it
has a rather "closed" design for a Technic vehicle, thanks in part to the
cowling created by the upcoming launchers.  The front wheel turns a bit, but
yields a huge turning radius.  One rather nice feature is that there's pegs
on the sides so you can secure the Throwbot's discs to the cycle.  It all
holds together pretty sturdily.
     The cycle's the right size to also be used by other figures of the 5-6
inch size, although they need ball-jointed hips to ride it.

     It's obvious that the Throwbot/Cycle combo is the primary model, since
only a handful of connectors and little fiddly bits remain after building the
two, spares in case you lose a part.  I had hoped that the Super Throwbot
would be created by taking the cycle apart in big chunks and wrapping them
around the Throwbot, but that is not the case.  Rather, like the other Super
Throwbots, you have to completely disassemble the components and build a new
model.  The leftovers from that are extensive, including the majority of the
cycle's structural pieces.

     Super Throwbot: Standing 7.5" (19cm) tall, this is definitely a
bottom-heavy toy.  The torso is bulked out to maybe twice the size of a
normal Throwbot's, the arms remain the same, and the lower legs/feet are
huge.  Poseability is okay, with the head tilting, the torso bending at the
middle thanks to the gearing, and legs having the two ball joints each.  But
it very much appears that this combined mode was sort of an afterthought, a
"what can we do with these Cycle pieces to beef up the Throwbot?" matter.
Given time to fiddle, I could probably build one with a more impressive chest
by incorporating some of the cycle structural members and ditching the wimpy
wings on the Super Throwbot's back.

     Overall: A bit expensive for what you get, IMO.  A good value at $15,
but a tad inflated at $20, especially since for $4 more you could get a group
set of the original Throwbots.  Still, if you're jonesing for new Throwbots,
it's worth a look...and it could probably be seriously improved by adding in
parts from other Throwbots.

     Dave Van Domelen, finds the ice spiders and ice scorpions in the Arctic
set to be a little weird....