HAH! Ah, that's great. I needed a laugh today. Anyone get the feeling that this was designed by the same people who brought us jelly bellys? Look at the hair! Now I really want to see Jayko wearing that three foot baby blue piece. That would inspire some creative captions I'll bet. Maybe the two groups are somehow related.
Hmm... The faces, it looks like, are double sided, giving you the two classic anime expressions.
1) Sulky: aka. trying to look cool- aka. how they look when they aren't fighting robots and...
2) Teeth mode: the outward expression of a heated battle and pretty much the only way to show intensity since all their really doing is sitting on their buts.
It remains to be seen how useful these faces will be.
Now the little robots on the other hand look pretty sweet. I love the way lego has designed their arms and hands. Just like a minifig's only easier to integrate into other creations. Just look at the hand on Red's mech in this set:
http://www.lego.com/eng/exoforce/humans ... umber=7705
They're the little guys arms. TLC thought of it before we did! And if you think that's impressive, think how cool it would look with viking horns doubling for claws.
It also appears that the (little) robot's heads come off and could be replaced with minifig heads. Can't say for sure, but if that is how it works, I'm thinking "New way to build knights"!
The set linked above has to be the best in my humble opinion. You get three little robots and the only two colored hair pieces (Santis and Vladek) which could possibly be natural.
Although, when it comes to hair I believe the green guy will prove the most useful. Can anyone say BUSH?
Anywho- I predict that these will be big sellers, judging by the fact that for some strange reason, kids seem to love anything done in anime. Another example: "Avatar"
As for the story line... According to the comic, they're fighting over control of Sentai mountain. Don't ask me why. I don't know why these robots are so stuck on holding the one piece of real-estate guarded by kung fu mechas. You'd think there'd be plenty of other mountains to build their summer home on.
Then again, they're robots. The ones who really ought to be using their brains are the humans. Let's wiegh the options:
One, move to the valley and let the robots have the stupid room with a view, or...
Two, design and build huge battle mechas and blast the bloody bots off the mountain.
Clearly their brains cells are not proportionate to their huge eyes.
Over all, I think the spacers and mecha builders will end up getting more out of these sets, but you never know. There may come a day when we look back and thank God for the day TLC released Exo-Force.