Friday, November 30, 2012

HexBug Habitat Set or a Masterpiece Optimus Prime?


What a strange day. I spent most of the week indoors, so I thought I would take some extra effort and go over to Toys R Us. It was a mad house, and its only the last day of November! I didn't have much in mind, only something worth my time on a rainy day afternoon. The HexBug stuff was on sale, and after I amused guests last weekend with a small set, I thought I should upgrade to something larger.  The Nano Bridge Battle Habitat Set looked like promising fun, and it was ten dollars off!

After an annoying drive home full of heavy traffic, I tore into the set for some fun. Basically you raise and connect the standard white Hex platforms with this long orange bridge. The bugs are to follow the bridge, then fight in the middle, and the looser falls to the lower level. I was looking forward to some sort of silly video capture, but things didn't go that way. The first bummer was the fact that the bugs don't have a path to climb back to the second level. I didn't look at the box that hard at the store, so that was my bad. It wasn't a big deal, you just manually place bugs up on top. Then came the second, BIG, BUMMER. Complete design fail! Its hard to explain, but the white Hex platforms included, would not fit the stands that raise it off the table. My original white HexBug Platform would actually work with the stands, as it has the appropriate side locks. What ever they threw in with this set, were completely useless, and it would be impossible to make a second level. So my afternoon trip was wasted, and I had to make plans for returning it.

UPDATE! - It turns out that there was a mistake in the type of risers that were included in the HexBug set! The white platforms were modified with holes, so that new round risers would fit. The set I purchased had only flat risers, so I was stuck. Stay tuned for a return to the Bridge Battle!

I wasn't planning on going tonight, but now my wife had cabin fever, so it was an excuse to do something. The store was packed again. I went to the desk to return and or exchange. I wanted to see if the other sets had the same flaw, which they did, so I X'ed out that. I almost picked up the HexBug Zip Line, and then I saw two Masterpiece Optimus Primes just sitting in a cart full of store junk in one of the center aisles! Holy Crap!!!

There is another long winded story of me weeks ago, going early Thursday morning to pick one up with a friend, only to have them sold to someone who was an earlier bird. My friend obtained one from Montana or somewhere, but I passed due to its complications. After I 'inspected' my friends Optimus, I started to really want one. I almost went to Ebay, but held off just in case of, well what happened today.


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