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Lego Maniacs' Guide: Reviews: Miscellaneous : Crater Critters

[Purchase Lego at Amazon.com] 1785 - Crater Critters

Rating: 3 Stars
Pros: A good assortment of pieces at a reasonable price.
Cons: Principal models are goofy but this could simply be a Freestyle set.
Contents: 143 pieces (no mini-figs)
Price: Discontinued
Reviewed: 19-Jul-1998
Reviewed by: Joseph Gonzalez

1785 Odd occurrences at the Cratier Robotics Development plant: at the end of the work week (when all employees returned to their living quarters) the virtual alarms were silenced and production conveyor belts began moving on their own. Autobot units gathered omni-intellect boards, combat appendage assemblies and other essential components and transported these to waiting robot assembly arms that took the many elements to begin assembling a large (and undreamed of by human standards) creation. By dawn of the next day the primary modules were transported to a spacious interior warehouse where they were carefully completed by servo-constructor droids into the assembly of a towering thirty-foot high monstrosity.
But that was only in one day. The second day of the weekend will be spent on yet another auto-intelligent robot to free the cyber intelligences from their human masters and on Monday morning the Cratier employees will return to encounter two new VERY large supervisors!


A fairly recent set that got passed by because it didn't seem to fit in with any particular theme is the odd set 1785. The box is labeled "introducing Crater Critters" as though the Lego Group had some intention of creating a new theme/subtheme but nothing more seems to have come from it (it's entirely possible this is simply a Freestyle set with some useful Space elements). The first time I saw this set I passed it right by because I usually buy from specific themes and it just looked like another small freestyle box (because of its size and shape). The set later came to my attention when I was looking for some particular space elements and it had just what I was seeking.
The 1785 makes two large, somewhat goofy-looking robots. The first robot comes in basic colors of grey and blue. It stands on two black rocket boosters at about thirteen or fourteen bricks tall (the completed robot, not the boosters). Its right hand is a two-finger claw and the left arm sports a Town tow hook for a hand with a small grey laser rifle mounted at the base of the elbow. The swiveling head has two 1x2 sloped control panels for a mouth and grey 2x2 saucers for eyes. Robot Two comes in Spyrius colors of black, red and grey. It also stands about thirteen bricks high but rolls on four small space wheels (on one panel of the box the wheels appear grey but are actually black). The right arm is a two-finger claw and the left arm has four black 1x2 arm-and-clip fingers that don't really grasp but just kind of stick straight out of the hand. This robot's head also swivels and features a beak like mouth and trans-green saucer eyes. Odd appendages stick out of the robot's head with a 4x4 grey radar dish attached at each end. Arms on both robots hinge at the shoulder and feature elbow joints.
The set isn't overly exciting and many fans will pass right over it for the silly designs and lack of mini-figures but it makes for a VERY good collection of space accessories including: eight 1x2 vertically hinged plate sets, four 1x2 horizontally hinged plate sets, two 2x2 plate swivels, two large black space cones/rockets, lots of slopes, four space wheels, a 2x4x2 brick with studs on the sides and four red bullhorn/megaphones (these usually come in black and it's kind of nice to get some in red).
It's already unavailable through Shop at Home and originally sold at a retail price of around $10.00 but makes for a very good collection of moving/action elements to add to and enhance any other space or town set.

18 readers have rated this set as 3.11 out of 5 stars.
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