Dave's War Planets Rant:

     Planet Ice

CAPSULE

     Numerous neat ideas, but the execution is iffy, mainly in the realm of
robustness of connections.  Parts that should be securely in place fall out
easily and can't be replaced without difficulty.  Mildly recommended.  $9.99
at Toys R Us.

RANT

     Planet Ice is made from blue translucent plastic and looks very nice
until you start trying to handle it, at which point bits start falling out,
mainly the stored Hero warriors and the Drone transport tupperware
container.  It splits open into four sections like the Rock planet, but has
no folding down platforms.  In fact, about all the planet itself is good for
is storage and a mount for one of the guns (which goes into the hole at the
top of the locking cap...finally a planet which doesn't need Beast Planet
accessories to make sense of the "nipple").  And there's more *to* store this
time out, with clips for missiles and even two of the Hero warriors, things
which sit loose in the other two planets I have.  Unfortunately, the
top-mount cannon fits a bit loosely, and is prone to falling off.
     Storage: Just a couple of separate notes on the storage gimmicks.
There's still symbols pointing to what goes where, but since they're
unpainted and on clear plastic, they're hard to see.  Both of the launchers
are hard to store properly.  And the jet's walker (see below) cannot fit on
both of the holes provided for it, I guess you just choose a hole and slot
one leg in to let it hang there.
     Vehicles: There's three vehicles, or four, depending on how you look at
it.  The whole motif for the Ice planet is insect/arthropod, and two of the
vehicles are spider-walkers.  One carries an immense grappling hook as big as
it is, while the other walker holds a jet in a sort of Mazinger Z way.  Too
bad neither of these "spiders" has 8 legs...both have 6.  Snowflake motif, I
suppose.  The grapple-walker and jet are made of softer plastic, while the
jet's walker is made of rigid plastic (and looks decent on its own).  The jet
has a nifty art deco feel.  The final vehicle is a sort of tupperware bowl
for the drones, which can separate from the planet for landing missions.
Unfortunately, if you push it into the planet too hard, the bottom pops away
from the lid, falls inside, and leaves the lid no purchase on the planet, so
it falls off too.  There's a little peg inside where you can secure one of
the drones, at least.
     Launchers: The main gun fires a soft-tipped missile pretty weakly.  The
grappling hook fires much more strongly, but the line does not freely pay out
from the spool, so it goes nowhere if you actually attach the line and wind
it around the spool.
     Warriors: There's 8 Drones, which break the pattern established by the
other two planets I bought in that they're smaller and don't seem as
impressively armed as the Heroes.  They're little ice fleas (sand chiggers?
Sorry, in-joke) with cannons on their backs.  The Heroes are insect/centaur
types with twin blasters and ice chunks on their backs for camoflage.  Two of
the four Heroes can be fitted into the surface of the planet, but it's really
hard to get them to stay in...and once you do, it's harder still to get them
OUT.  Also, the Heroes aren't as poseable as in other sets, their upper
torsos can rock back and forth a bit, but that's all, aside from the
rubberyness of their legs.

     Overall, it's kinda neat, but not very sturdy or as well thought out as
the Rock and Tek planets.

     Dave Van Domelen, posting from eyrie.org because his regular account has
gone foom again.