Customer Reviews

Alien Agency: Mobile Recovery Unit

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My 9 year old son had some difficulty with the instructions, but I don't think they are that hard, you just have to lay out the pieces like the pictures illustrate. The toy is pretty durable, but not like a lego toy. My son has a lot of fun with the toy and I would have to give it a high replay value.

I don't disagree that it is very confusing to put together and not very durable, but my 7 year old is totally thrilled with it. The aliens are really just play dough like creations but he hasn't had so much fun with a toy in ages. It remains to be seen how long his enjoyment of it will last, but it's been great so far.

Assembly of this toy with the directions provided is impossible. The age recommendation of 6+ is accurate for PLAYING with the assembled toy, but an advanced degree is required to ASSEMBLE it. I found two errors in the assembly manual which cause the toy to not stay together properly. After some trial and error, and disassembly and reassembly, my wife and I were able to get the toy together in a mere 3 hours. The unfolding garbage truck is cool, however, the parts of the lab, which end up on the ceiling and walls inside the truck fall apart easily. To be a good toy this one would need better assembly instructions and to not fall apart so easily.

My son and I were both greatly disappointed with the Alien Agency Mobile Recovery Unit and the Burger Barn. I just finished the final step in completing the Mobile Recovery Unit. Just as I put the last pieces together, the entire unit fell apart. My son is in tears of disappointment. He is also unhappy with the quality of the modeling clay.

I bought him the Burger Barn as well, with similar results. Considering the price of the two sets ... I feel I didn't get the value for the price paid. I will no longer purchase Mega Bloks products.

I wrote another review on Mega Bloks and this main story about them is that they have wonderful ideas but stink in quality. The garbage truck shown here is so neat with the gadgets inside! But everything is made so poor and cheap and barely stays together. Every set I have bought for my son never works 100% and he ends up in tears or I do. Try Lego!

I first saw this Megablok garbage truck in our local store when my son was two. He wanted it badly, so I told him I would get it for him when he was older. I also checked this site and noticed another reviewer saying how the bloks don't fit well like the Legos, so her child ended up bursting in tears when the truck fell apart. I then decided to stick with Legos.

My son is now 5½ and an experienced Lego player. Since Lego doesn't have garbage trucks, I decided to take a chance with Megablok, especially since it is on sale here at Amazon. I was prepared to keep a close eye on my son and give help whenever he needed it.

I was successful in spotting his mistakes in Part A, but in Part B my son got lost and started crying and screaming in frustration because he went wrong and he couldn't tell how, the instructions were so unclear. This has never happened with him with Legos, and he has played advanced sets such as the prehistoric set for ages 7+ and the Harry Potter train for ages 8+, and I didn't have to watching him closely either. I told him to start from the beginning of Part B again but he refused. I was prepared for this; I put the toy away and made him sit on a chair until he was quiet and ready to start from the beginning. As a math teacher, I consider it an important ability to solve a problem by going back to the beginning and trying again.

After twenty minutes of tears flowing my son was ready to work from the beginning of Part B. He was successful this time and eventually got the truck built. The whole job took him about 6 hours. It took him this long because:

1. The bloks fit, but not perfectly like the Legos. Often you have to force it in, and even then, it sometimes looks a little crooked. The Lego pieces fit into perfect straight lines and fit easily, but I have never appreciated that fact until now. Once you fit it in, the truck holds together fine.
2. The Megabloks instructions are small, vague and difficult to see, whereas Legos instructions are big, crisp and perfectly obvious. A poor instruction does help development the child's spatial conception by forcing him/her to think.

Yet, the Megabloks has one main advantage: it is so much cheaper than Legos! Now that the truck is done, my son enjoys playing with it. It also includes some play dough and molds for making aliens, which is a lot of fun for little kids.

I remember another reviewer saying that little kids should play Legos, and older kids can handle Megabloks, and I think that's a good idea. If your child is young, you should count on being there for him/her every step of the way in the building process, and you should be good at mechanical toys yourself, if you want to buy this set. It can be viewed as a challenge and character building opportunity, and though there might be tears at times, there will be a happy ending.

This toy is one of the best toys I spent my money on.Mega Bloks always has creative ideas,and the toys they make are always satisfactory.Lego and Mega Bloks should merge and be one company....
Anyways,I'm giving this toy 5 stars in durability because it hasn't broken in half or any other unfortunate things AT ALL.
The only problem I had in building this toy wasn't really a warped piece or anything,It was getting the pieces that fold up in the right positions when folded.This toy is fun to play with,especially with other Alien Agency toys.I reccomend this toy to any kid who has time on their hands or are just extremely bored.It is even fun to see how many different alien combinations you can make.

The men off Alien Agency look a lot like the f.b.i.I really like the bioplasm because it also has a molding container disguised as a dumpster .It has three men with it,agent raven,agent rock and agent poindexter.