Review: 70816 Benny's Spaceship, part 2Review: 70816 Benny's Spaceship, part 2

In part one of my review I covered the box, parts and minifigs. Now it's time to build the spaceship and give you my opinion.

The set contains 940 parts which thankfully are divided into seven numbered bags. I know some people like the challenge of a huge pile of parts in front of them and to spend ages rummaging at every step of construction but I'm not one of them.

Bag one contains three minifigs and parts to build the two small detachable craft that are mounted on the wing tips at the end of the build, and the robo pilot's craft.

They detachable craft are an interesting design. The wings are hinged as is the canopy. When a minifig is seated in them it is vertical. The sticker then becomes a 'head-up display' in front of their head.

The robo-craft is a competent design but nothing special and unlike anything from the classic space era. If it had trans-red canopy it could have passed as an original space police craft, but alas it does not.

Construction then begins with the chassis of the spaceship. This section is the rear of it.

The contents of bag three is built as a separate subassembly that is then connected to the rear section by Technic pins.

Bag four adds the wings and an assembly to extend them. It's a smooth movement: the wings slide in the 1x4 grooved bricks you can see in step 1 above. Yellow technic beams connect the wings to the rear engine which, when pushed in, causes the wings to move out.

Just in front of this mechanism is what is presumably the craft's energy source. I've no idea what it is, though, I can't recall if it's mentioned in the movie.

Construction from bag 5 begins with Astro Kitty and Benny which completes the minifig selection.Then, the fuselage is built up and bulked out.

The octagonal section at the top, which will become where Astro Kitty sits, is hinged to reveal an area underneath with a couple of seats, control panels, and a clear panel at the back to enable the crew to keep an eye on the power source.

The cockpit is also added and it's great to see so much room in it, enough to seat three minifigs which I believe was not possible in any of the original classic space sets. The old-school seat/bracket piece has been used which is cool.

Bag six completes the rear of the fuselage and provides a bay for two robots.

Small robots were an integral part of the original classic space sets so it's really great that two have been included, using classic space parts as well as cheese slopes.

Before the two top engines are added this is how the back looks. The lower engine is pushed in to extend the wings.

Bag seven adds engines, tail wings and other details. Adding the small craft to the wing tips completes construction.

Here's the cockpit fully loaded with all the protagonist minifigs...

.. and Astro Kitty in her own slot at the back.

One wing of the small craft is folded up to enable it to be clipped to the main craft's wing. Note the LL929 markings, which follows on from LL928 used on Galaxy Explorer in 1979.

The 6x6 perforated radar dish is hinged and is shown in its down position. The long red bars in front of it are the new flick-missiles: one touch and they go flying an impressively long way.

An impressive set of engines...

This view shows the view of the wings from a low angle and it is not pretty. The mechanism for the sliding wings has necessitated some huge chunky parts that detract from the sleekness of the craft's look.

Other than the wing area, the underside is not too bad although devoid of detail as is normal with this sort of model. One reason being, I believe, because it can't be seen in the photo on the front of the box, so why waste parts and money on it...

Here's the entire set. After all those photos it seems I have omitted to take one with the wings extended. Sorry about that! Extending the wings exposes the Technic missile launchers, the yellow tip of which you can just see in this view.

Construction was enjoyable and never boring or repetitive. Thankfully there are no large Technic sub-assemblies to build which can be tiresome in sets such as this.

There are a lot of stickers. Many of them are for 2x4 tiles or other square parts and so can be positioned easily. However the classic space symbols affixed to the rear tail fins are not so easily applied accurately.

The completed model is an impressive size: 50cm long and about 35cm wide with wings retracted. It's packed with details and features that can be moved or detached and I reckon it will provide a lot of play opportunities for kids. I particularly like the way Astro Kitty is positioned, like an astromech droid on many Star Wars ships.

It's larger and more intricate than any original classic space ship but it retains their unmistakable look and colour scheme. The designers have made good use of new parts but have also used many that featured in the the original sets which I thought was a nice touch. Overall I think they have succeeded in bringing classic space right up to date.

The only thing I don't care for is the clumsiness and bulk of the mechanism under the wing. From most views, including that on the front of the box, it's not visible but it does detract from the overall sleekness of the ship and that's a shame. I guess it was a toss-up between having the wings move and providing playability, or having something more streamlined. Most AFOLs would probably choose the latter in their designs, but of course I appreciate playability is more important to the target audience.

The minifigs are also great, particularly Benny, Wyldstyle and Astro Kitty (if you can call her a minifig) and are the icing on the cake.

Price-wise, it's £80 or $100, which for 940 parts makes it pretty good value so I can think of no reason why you shouldn't buy it...

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