Daily Fail: Power Spaceshuttle
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As hinted by Skeleton Town Treasure, there's more to the Zephyr Knight's line of over sized-Impulse thefts than just LEGO Racer designs. No, there's some truly....otherworldly....offerings in there,too. Case in point:
Now...is that Spaceshuttle Power or Power Spaceshuttle?
(And why isn't "spaceshuttle" two words?)
(And why is the sky blue?)
Quite a departure from the endless Racing Car rehashes, eh? This set (# 2007 in the Zeyphyr Knight line) takes LEGO set 7467 (International Space Station), strips it down to just the vehicle and then....does things....to it.
But before we get to the toy, let's take a closer look at the packaging. In particular, let's zoom in on the two astronauts on the lower left...
But before we get to the toy, let's take a closer look at the packaging. In particular, let's zoom in on the two astronauts on the lower left...
The back of the package reminds us that this set is part of "Series Transformation". There are three alternate models for the Space Shuttle....strangely combined with a mini-figure. This shows that Zephyr Knight couldn't let go of the Race Car theme, even when they changed scale and abandoned roads back on Earth. And that they couldn't let go of "Series Transformation" even when the model in question clearly wasn't designed to have alternate builds.
My favorite is the bottom photo where the Moon Giant just stands by and waves.
My favorite is the bottom photo where the Moon Giant just stands by and waves.
The astronaut clip-art is repeated from the front of the box, but those "clever" graphic designers flipped the image to make it fit better. As you can see in the close-up above, "McDonnell Douglas" and "NASA" are inverted in the art. That's attention to detail, right there.
The top of the box has the Spaceshuttle Power logo (Power Spaceshuttle logo?) with the addendum of "INTERNATIONAL" - a possible holdover from the original LEGO set name. (International Space Station)
The bottom of the box has an astronaut and some more NASA clip art. It's strange just how little emphasis they put on the toy this time around.
The instruction sheet allows us to pinpoint just when the bootleggers decided to get drunk: Step 13. Adding a giant pull back motor to the Space Shuttle - that's some impaired thinking right there. Or maybe not. Maybe we should forward this design concept to NASA. I think they'd be impressed with the "outside of the box" thinking on this one.
Here's the toy mostly assembled. The nose piece comes with the desgin printed on it, but you have to apply stickers to the sides and tail of the completed model. Of course, if you DO apply those stickers to the side of the craft, you can't take it apart ot make the alternate models. I'd like to note that this set lacked two of the 1x1 round plates used to assemble the jets at the back of the shuttle.
And where is our Moon Giant mini-figure?
I feel cheated!
Who am I kidding? This is a bootleg! I WAS cheated!
And where is our Moon Giant mini-figure?
I feel cheated!
Who am I kidding? This is a bootleg! I WAS cheated!
And so, I leave you with a shot of "Monster Truck Shuttle Endeavour".
The Space Race is ON!
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As always, many thanks to Joe from The Undiscovered Playthings for sending me this set to review.
As always, many thanks to Joe from The Undiscovered Playthings for sending me this set to review.
posted by Christopher Doyle at
4/24/2009
22 Comments:
Uhhh... What is this mind screw I'm seeing here?
Between the pakaging and the set itself, this is the greatest failure yet!
Well, is this a rip off of a lego set? Or just a nifty little space ship they made up themselves?
That is certainly one of the terminal bootlegs that look as good as lego. But then again I Can't tell from pictures whether the bricks feel wrong. Can you enlighten us?
Aww I wish I had the international space station set, looks pretty cool
@Peppermint:
It's a rip-off. If you look at the International Space Station set linked to early in the review, the Space Shuttle is part of that kit.
As to the bricks, they're the usual Zephyr Knight "not quite right" mix of too brittle and cast from slightly modified molds. The studs all read "HELO" instead of "LEGO".
@Escaper: I remember seeing them on the shelf, but passed on the for some stupid reason. All of the Discovery line sets are pretty cool.
I think the packaging says "Spower paceshuttle"...
@L.D.M.: That works with the Race Car angle, too - The offical "Pace Shuttle" of NAScAr.
I had the international spaceshuttle set and well...
Its still on my shelf from when I got it.
Hey Chris, um my dad wont let me use his credit card and I would REALLY like too get 1 or 2 minifigs. Do you think we could hook something up?
P.s. I have been especialy eying the teddybear1
@C-shorey, email me at bat_hero@hotmail.com and we can probably work something out.
When I first saw the title, I thought it said "Spower Spaceshuttle".
If it weren't for the obvious low quality parts and use of lead paint, I would go out and look for this.
I think the words EPIC FAIL pretty much cover everything else I could say about the toy.
On another note: how can it be possible that a registered trademark (as the R next to Zephyr Knight suggests) gets away with so much thievery of other registered products? For Gods sake, the name of NASA is plainly visible on most of the pictures on the box, and then I'm not even talking about the way they treat LEGO's rights!!!
One would assume that by now someone who knows his/her legal stuff would have walked into a toy store and have come across this FAIL...
chris what do you do with the bootlegs after your done showing them
@Martijn:
I doubt it's an actual trademark. They're stealing designs and parts...I really doubt making sure their paperwork is in order is a top priority for them. ;)
@Anon:
Right now they go back into the shipping box to await their fate. I'm working on something destructive for them, since that seems to be what most of you would like to see.
Hmmm I was for a Brikwars type battle, but after watching the video of Pat buring slowly again, I have come round to the idea that the bootlegs be destroyed as quickly and as painfully as possible!
Space... the final frontier...
These are the voyages of the starship Bootleg.
It's ongoing mission, to steal intellectual property.
To seek out new molds and new ways to fail.
To Boldy Go Where No Bootleg Has Gone Before!
Wow. They didn't even try this time.
The title also has two more counterparts; "Spower Spaceshuttle" and "Spaceshutle Spower"...
Maybe it's supposed to be a Skylinx ripoff as well?
Actually Chris, I think it's pronounced "S power paceshuttle." Perhaps the pull-back motor is "S power," and a "paceshuttle" is a shuttle on wheels? That makes about as much sense as anything else about the toy.
Reading more closely now, I see that two posters beat me to the punch on "S Power Paceshuttle."
My bad.
I thought it said S power paceshuttle at first too...
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