Two Lost Boys Blog

TMNT Mega Bloks Review, Part Nine - The Technodrome

Hello everyone,

In my ongoing series of reviews of the TMNT range from Mega Bloks, today I am going to be taking a close up look at the brand new Technodrome, from the classic 1987 TV series.

The set is currently exclusive to Toys R Us, and retails for around $250, plus any applicable taxes. The set number is DPD82, and contains 2976 pieces, including four minifigures.

To begin with, let's take a look around the outside of the box, which I must admit, is really awesome looking!







Once I opened the box I was really pleasantly surprised to see that the detailing continues on the inside, with a really cool cutout of the Technodrome, and two large interior boxes with TMNT designs on them. The instruction book was carefully placed between two brackets on the top box.






The instruction book itself is really well designed and has some really colorful art pages at the start.





So, I emptied the contents of the boxes onto my living floor, and construction began! The one really frustrating thing about Mega Bloks is that they do not number the bags, like LEGO do. With just short of 3000 pieces, this was going to be a real chore! The photo below is not all the bags - I couldn't fit all of them in to take a good enough photo!



Oddly enough, despite there not being any numbered bags, the instructions are divided into four sections. I'm not sure what purpose this serves since you have to basically dump everything out in a heap and sift through it all yourself.


Nonetheless, after section A, this is where I was at:


Hours later, after section B was complete, this is what I had:


Much, much alter after section C, I was almost done!


Finally, we come to the finished product! I'll share with you a few photos, then give some thoughts, then some more photos afterwards.
















Here are the fronts and backs of the minifigures:






So, as you can see, this is a really awesome looking set! However, I have a couple of things to talk about before I get into the actual discussion of the set itself. During section A, I found that I was missing a piece. I searched high and low, checking and rechecking all the contents numerous times. The piece was no where to be found. Additionally, during this meticulous process, I discovered that I had a bag of duplicate items that I knew even before finishing that I would not need. So, I went back to Toys R Us, and spoke to the really nice lady that we know at the customer services desk. She suggested that we buy another set, take out the pieces we need, and return the new one as the faulty one, so that I didn't have to deconstruct my 'Drome and start all over with the new one. Another $300 later, and some more bag sifting on the living room floor, I found the piece I was missing within the new set, and carried on construction.

It took hours, and HOURS. My fingers really hurt after I had finished it. My consistent complaint through all the TMNT Mega Bloks sets has been that sometimes the pieces are really hard to put together. They aren't quite as well made as LEGO bricks, and they can really hurt your fingers - and slow construction down, especially when you have 3000 pieces with no numbering system!

Oddly enough, despite the missing piece earlier on, at the end I was left with a pile of extra pieces (none of which were the missing one, I might add), which is really bizarre. Take a look below at what I was left with:


So, let's take a look now at some more areas of the set, then I'll give you some more thoughts before sharing with you some fun Technodrome scenes I created with the other TMNT minifigures from other sets in the range.






I would give this set five out of five. As I said above, this set is awesome. I absolutely love it, and I think Mega Bloks did such a good job with its design; it's just a shame they let themselves down with the quality control when it comes to missing pieces (and in my case extra pieces, too). I really like that they included details such as the chairs and lab area, where you could imagine Shredder mutating Rocksteady and Bebop in the original five part mini-series. The view screen with General Traag is a nice touch and a fun nod to another original character. There are a lot of moving parts which add dimension and depth to the set, such as the various opening doors and compartments, the rotating eye, the prison cell, the guns and the revolving chairs. I love the Krang minifigure, and love even more that they gave him two different coloured walker bodies! In addition to the blue one in the photos above, there is a sparkly purple one, which you can see below:


The other minifigures are really neat, too. I love they included Splinter for the first time in the classic range, and Leonardo has a cool metallic effect to him. While not true minifigures, the four Mousers are a good addition, and are white like the classic TV show, unlike their other incarnations which have a more metal-gray look.

I pulled out the other TMNT, Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady from the other Classic TV Series sets in the range, and added them to the Technodrome, to create these fun scenes, below.











If you have any comments on this review, the Technodrome, etc, then you can leave them in the Disqus section, below.

Have a great day everyone,

Dan.