Review: 72163 Mewtwo's Lab Break
Posted by SetToBuild,
A legendary Pokémon that was created as a genetically manipulated clone of Mew in the hope of unlocking some of life’s secrets, Mewtwo instead became a weapon and the ultimate monster. This imposing figure looks just as unsettling as its animated counterpart, suspended in a containment cylinder in Dr Fuji’s laboratory.
This set offers fans a fun way to observe and display Mewtwo in stasis, and reenact scenes from Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back with a breakout action. Read on to find out if it stacks up among its SMART Play line or better serves as a display.
Please note: This set does not contain a SMART Brick.
Summary
72163 Mewtwo's Lab Break, 605 pieces.
£59.99 / $69.99 / €69.99 | 9.9p, 11.6c, 11.6c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
This accurate portrayal of a unique Pokémon is more smart display than SMART Play
- Faithful representation
- Cool display piece
- Sturdy in play
- No other SMART tags
- Pricey
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Box & Contents
The box art focuses on the LEGO model and physical action features. The yellow SMART Play branding area on the front and the black-bordered smart feature showcase on the back explain the compatibility, but there is no major electronic imagery as this set is only SMART Brick compatible. Not being an ‘All in one’ set, it does not contain a brick of its own. Inside there are 5 paper bags, 1 plastic bag of large parts, 2 instruction books, a folded electronic waste leaflet, and 1 clear sticker sheet (loose, not in a folder).
A combination of clear and opaque mechanical designs are present to decorate the chamber and lab display.
Completed Model
The tank is without glass—you’ll have to use your imagination for that part, but other than Mewtwo’s tail sticking out of the back, the containment is believable. This avoids wasting pieces on a fragile, easily scratched construction, so I am not missing a 21313 Ship in a Bottle style shell here. The chamber is accompanied by a Master Ball and a screen showing monitoring data.
Mewtwo is the tallest Pokémon of this wave, exceeding Charizard and Garchomp by some margin. The head uses the same slopes with a mirrored pair of printed eyes as were used for the Charizard model in 72167 Charizard vs. Jolteon Ultimate Battle. The arms have a good range of motion for posability, with hinges at the shoulder and elbow.
A consistent theme of recoloured elements in LEGO Pokémon continues, this time in medium lavender, throughout the underbelly and tail.
The sharp bend in the tail is a bit strange; perhaps the newer macaroni pieces would have helped to make a more gradual curve. It looks like it was caught in a door! The standard macaroni pieces are used again in white at the back of the neck, and are a bit less jarring up here. Their rear ball joint connection works in tandem with the neck joint to allow for sideways head tilts but no up or down range of motion.
Recolours continue with the white in the Technic ball joint for the neck.
At the feet, the structure of the legs and toes express Mewtwo’s Xenomorph-like tiptoe posture successfully. The transparent 1x1 round bricks for stability are reinforced with central bars. The same white Technic balls are used as fingers.
Getting the grey inkwells between the screens to meet up evenly is a bit of a challenge, but it can be done. However, after releasing the mechanism that ‘opens’ the chamber, your perfect adjustments are reset. Just under this, the top rim of the chamber is sturdily formed by recoloured mudguard pieces.
Upon gaining full consciousness, Mewtwo breaks from containment!
The structure of the chamber itself has a straightforward simple design. The framework is light enough that when the sides come down, they don’t crash too violently. The way the wires are hanging is quite clever, as it gives the appearance of wrapping around the contours of the imaginary glass.
Mewtwo connects to the clear pillar via a Technic axle. While this is a stable connection, it can be difficult to pull the Pokémon off its support for play.
Since the incubation container is without glass, a puddle of stasis gel left after the escape is all we get, rather than the full volume. This large dish is unique in transparent purple and feels like it has potential for some interesting alternative uses.
Turning the dial on the front causes this weak connection of click hinge and clip to separate, activating the ‘breakout’ action feature. Rubber bumpers on the left and right near the hinge brick pivot points help to soften the fall.
With a few exceptions, Silph Co.’s Master Ball has a 100% capture rate towards wild Pokémon. Instead of printing the colourful design on the top of this ball, just the ‘M’ is printed and the magenta details are achieved with a couple of 1x1 bread loaves on the sides. The Master Ball does have raised bumps in this area, so this makes sense as a strategy to represent them in LEGO. Unlike the Poké Balls in the other sets, this coveted item sits on a special plinth.
This display showing Mewtwo’s vitals and DNA structure whilst in containment accompanies the huge chamber. Large stickers are already difficult enough to apply, and clear ones are worse! If you can smooth it on evenly without dust or bubbles, the transparent screen effect does look good.
The extra flexible zipline piece always puzzles me, as its inclusion can’t be based on the same weight threshold as the typical 1x1 pieces, so it must be based on some other criteria or a different packaging process. It’s not a bad piece to have more of though!
Play Experience
After evicting Mewtwo from its chamber, there are a few options for play with or without the SMART Brick. Considering this is the biggest and most elaborate Pokémon of the wave, it is surprisingly solid compared to the other large creatures and the various Technic connections withstand active play better. As well as the arm motion, the legs can pivot at the hips. It was a relief to find that the model can stand and pose on its own outside of the containment tube.
The placement of the SMART Brick is a bit odd at this scale, especially when eating the sandwich from 72164 Training House with Pikachu! The chest (or perhaps sideways at the waist) might have been a more natural place for the brick, albeit making it harder to get the brick in and out and maybe compromising the structure more.
When active, the SMART Brick makes a constant sound which is common among the larger creatures in this wave. The ‘hovering’ sound is similar to that of Gengar and Mew, and luckily less annoying than the more aggressively noisy Charizard and Garchomp.
The attack sound effect was hard to pin down as a specific move like Psystrike. When tickled, Mewtwo’s deep laugh is a little threatening, but the real fear factor is reserved for the sleep sound effects that give ‘Darth Vader’ more than ‘honk shoo’!
Conclusion
Although it is part of the SMART Play line, this set may actually have greater success among fans who are looking for a display set. As a misunderstood anti-hero from the early generations, the character is popular among older fans who are the target audience of the statue sets like Munchlax, Rayquaza or Arcanine. The larger size of this model makes it look less out of place among these, but it does still follow a more cartoonish aesthetic, and has far fewer pieces than Munchlax at the same price. All in all, it makes sense that this set doesn’t come with a SMART Brick.
As a play set, the sturdiness of the model serves it very well, but the SMART features are nothing to write home about, and the physical ‘breakout’ action is not particularly exciting for repeat play. The set lacks any further SMART Tags to activate beyond the one inside Mewtwo. It was redeemed by the relatively good consistency of the white pieces, which has been a big problem recently.
Within this wave, its comparator in price terms is 72164 Training House with Pikachu. Without the SMART apparatus, there isn’t that much to show for the ~200 extra pieces—the Technic structure, large elements, and recoloured parts must be bumping the costs up significantly. The price per piece is in the ‘acceptable’ range rather than ‘good’ for a set with no minifigures. Personally, as a fan of cute Pokémon over weird ones, if I only had £60 to spend, I would go for several of the smaller sets, and if choosing between the three items at this price point, Pikachu would still be my selection.
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23 comments on this article
You can't fool me, that's a Wario Ball.
So many of the previous gaming-related Lego kits have been so reliably sticker free, and it’s a little disappointing to see that it doesn’t carry over to the Pokémon theme.
@Hiratha said:
"So many of the previous gaming-related Lego kits have been so reliably sticker free, and it’s a little disappointing to see that it doesn’t carry over to the Pokémon theme."
Thankfully there are never stickers on the Pokémon themselves!
I've been mostly on-board with this set, but the review does help, so thanks!
I'd like to think that Mewtwo is contained within an energy field for this set. Glass never felt like an appropriate way to restrain a Psychic-type anyway!
Mewtwo making lightsaber and Darth Vader sound effects somehow feels completely on point lol. You didn't show us Mewtwo eating a sandwich with his crotch though :-/
@Robot99 said:
"Mewtwo making lightsaber and Darth Vader sound effects somehow feels completely on point lol. You didn't show us Mewtwo eating a sandwich with his crotch though :-/"
While this is a site for AFOLs, we don't show content that is NSFW.
I'll never forgive them for adding a hurtbox to my boy's tail.
OK, it's hilarious that the first movie was subtitled "Mewtwo Strikes Back"
Legday Overcompensation Frieza.
I like the design of the Master Ball. I'm glad they didn't just do a print for the purple marks.
The sleeping sounds sound like a copy and paste of the Vader breathing noises.
Love the design but those sound effects are just so gimmicky and not selling the smart play features for me haha, but then again I’m not the target audience being an AFOL, although I do want this one and Growlithe the most for display, the rest are not appealing to me with their flat printed faces.
I’m liking a few of the Pokémon. I do feel in almost all the sets the scenery is pointless and just adding to the price. Same with the €650 set, would’ve been so much better as three €200 sets.
doesn't even look like lego
For this price its reall stupid they havent included like two sheets of plastic to make a propper tube.
Doesn't appear to be something that you would want to build, play or display. Luckily, there is an endless stream of new sets nearly every day.
One of the few Smart Pokémon sets that actually hits the mark, imo. Price aside, I think this is cool. One nitpick though: I feel like the lines of the printing could be a little thicker. Or with more shading or something. As is it feels rather flat and thin to me.
Why is he white?
I sometimes think about what would have happened if various powerhouse franchises had ended much sooner. What if Doctor Who had just ended because the never came up with regeneration, what if Star Trek never got movies or another show, what if Star Wars had only gotten the one movie,etc. Another one is "What if Pokémon had died out after The First Movie." People would look back and think, "They were being optimistic when they named that movie, weren't they?"
@JavaBrix said:
"
You can't fool me, that's a Wario Ball."
https://www.tumblr.com/retrogamingblog2/730937236612333568?source=share
@AgentKallus said:
"Why is he white?"
Oh my god, Kallus. You can't just ask Pokémon why they're white.
I'm very disappointed at the lack of an actual containment tube.
Without it, the set seems unfinished & not really fit for display
those arms are really skinny
@TheOtherMike said:
"I sometimes think about what would have happened if various powerhouse franchises had ended much sooner. What if Doctor Who had just ended because the never came up with regeneration, what if Star Trek never got movies or another show, what if Star Wars had only gotten the one movie,etc. Another one is "What if Pokémon had died out after The First Movie." People would look back and think, "They were being optimistic when they named that movie, weren't they?""
In fairness, that name was specific to the English localization… and it was a pretty safe bet at that point since by that time a second movie had already been released in Japan!
@Aanchir said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"I sometimes think about what would have happened if various powerhouse franchises had ended much sooner. What if Doctor Who had just ended because the never came up with regeneration, what if Star Trek never got movies or another show, what if Star Wars had only gotten the one movie,etc. Another one is "What if Pokémon had died out after The First Movie." People would look back and think, "They were being optimistic when they named that movie, weren't they?""
In fairness, that name was specific to the English localization… and it was a pretty safe bet at that point since by that time a second movie had already been released in Japan!"
Ah, I was unaware of that.