A Tale of Two Fortresses

I recently had the pleasure of acquiring two different yet similar Lego sets: 2006’s 7709 Sentai Defense Headquarters from the Exo-Force theme and 2012’s 5887 Dino Defense HQ from the new Dino theme.

7709 Sentai Defense Headquarters

5887 Dino Defense HQ

Both sets are, in their own right, full of similarities.  Each consists of 4 walls enclosing an open courtyard.  The two side walls on each fortress are mirror images of each other with the front consisting of a large gate.  Each one also includes a variety of supporting cast members of both vehicles and figures.  Although inflation impacts it slightly they also cost the same each clocking in at the $100 mark.  But when you look at them side by side the differences could not be greater.

The most obvious difference is the piece count, the Sentai fortress comes in at nearly double the amount of pieces: over 1400 to the Dino fortress’ 800+.  The second is the size.  I am not exaggerating to when I say that the Dino Defense HQ can fit inside the Sentai’s courtyard.  The walls of the Sentai fortress are tall enough to legitimately impede the non-flying mecha included with the set while the walls of the Dino Defense HQ look like the T-Rex could have stepped over them to get inside as he is pictured on the front of the box.  How in the world could these sets have cost the same amount?  The answer can be found in Lego’s history, specifically the 2004 fiasco.

Most people do not know that Lego nearly collapsed in 2004.  Years of mediocre product did a serious number on the company’s pocketbook and in fiscal year 2004 they posted their biggest loss in history.  The sharks were circling the family owned company, most notably toy giant Mattel (the thought of Mattel owning Lego sends a shudder through every true fan!).  So Lego went back to the basics focusing all their efforts on their core products.  They also had something to prove so sets got big, very big (I have never seen a set which required more floor area outside of the train and monorail genre than the Sentai Headquarters) and the piece counts got large, very large.  Lego had to recapture the market and they opted for the go big or go home approach.  The focus shifted in the last couple of years to realism.  Those dinos (of which the HQ set includes three) are highly detailed, multi-colored pieces that required new molds and colors.  Realistic, but not cheap to produce.  Size was traded for detail.  Each has value in its own right and I am a big fan of both of these sets.  The playability alone for each of them is incredible.  I highly recommend either of these sets.         

Oh My, Oh My, Oh My, Dinosaurs!!!!

I don’t mess with what works; I find the thing I like or the way I like to do things and then don’t change it.  More than any of my other traits I think this is the one which has most flabbergasted my far more adventerous wife.  She loves that Baskin Robins has 32 flavors that change on a regular basis.  Me?  I have not eaten any type of ice cream other than cookie dough since I was 11 (I kid you not, I have a 16 year unbroken streak!).  She hates eating the same meal twice in a month.  Before marrying her I had 5 meals that I rotated through on a schedule.  And I have been this way since I was a kid because growing up while my friends rotated through different interests I stuck to one: Legos.  My consistency is evident on a graph I once made of the number of Legos I have from each year since 1984.  As my age and correspondingly my ability to make more money increased, so did my level of Lego acquisition (and yes I know it is incredibly nerdy to have made a graph of my Lego consumption per year, my wife found that amusing as well!) with one glaring exception: 1993. 

For that year I took my one and only detour out of the world of the plastic brick and into that of another toy.  That was the year that something came along which had a strong enough appeal to redirect my toy purchasing money and birthday present requests away from Legos and to relocate my play hours from the Lego table in my room to a patch of dirt in my backyard.  What was this swirling vortex I found myself caught up in?  Two words: Jurassic Park. 

1993 saw the coming of the prehistoric blockbuster and with it a slew of toys (anyone else remember the Jungle Explorer?  Capture Copter?) and action figures.  I and a friend from across the street were both captured by the concept of humans versus dinosaurs and together we set out to get as many of the toys as we could, ultimately building our own action figure scale Jurassic Park fort to house them on that patch of dirt in my backyard (sorry about the dead grass dad!).  It was a glorious and delightful year and stands to this day as the only major hiatus I have taken from collecting Legos. 

So you can all imagine my delight when I first caught a glimpse of the new Dino theme which was just released.  In fact it seems that I may not have been the only person smitten by those toys as the new line from Lego contains several sets that bear an almost eerie resemblance to those toys from my childhood. 

1993 Bush Devil Tracker a Jeep type vehicle with a missle launcher and sling
... looks familiar...

2012 Raptor Chase a jeep type vehicle with a missle launcher and sling...

The 1993 Capture Copter, a giant helicopter that shoots missles and captures dinosaurs!
Huh... Where have I seen that recently?

2012 T-Rex Hunter

Wow!  Totally cool a fenced in compound with a command center and lab!
That would make a great Lego set I thought to myself back in 1993...

2012 Dino Defense HQ, wow I was right!

Perhaps someone much like me grew up to become a designer over at The Lego Company?  Who knows…  What I do know is that these sets would have been the must have obsession for me had they come out during my childhood and so, for the sake of consistency, it is my duty to make sure a sampling of them make it into my collection.  And if that sounds like a thinly veiled excuse to buy more Legos… well who am I to argue!