I’ve gotten into anime recently... and isn’t this great!

Wild box art man.

Yet another theme I've heard great things about, but never bothered to get into because Star Wars had its talons in me. I was also never big into Manga and Anime, and I'm still not, so something that took inspirations from that type of media wasn't of much interest to me, but I still always thought these sets looked cool. Plus, it's the theme that gave us the ever useful Exo-Force arm, and popularized the bar clip piece which was released the year earlier but only in a handful of sets. Exo-Force's Legacy is far reaching and continues to influence sets with these parts, albeit with some slight mold changes over the years. Kind of sad to have missed out on the theme, but I enjoy what it did for the other themes I've gotten involved in.

I remember when I was younger I was always jealous of all the cool mechs they'd made back for Exo Force that I'd missed out on. These days Lego does a lot of mechs (honestly they could do with cutting back on them a little bit), but even now I still appreciate these sets. If I had more money to spend I'd probably pick a few Exo Force sets up, but alas my budget is rather limited.

When Exo-Force was still on the shelves, this set was *the* pinnacle for me as a kid, and I treasured it over every other set back then. Since picking the hobby back up, I managed to obtain every set made for the theme. Wasn't too difficult since I managed to obtain all but four of them as a kid.

When I worked at a toy shop, Exo-Force warmed the shelves, but I feel like nowadays they would go off.

These were hot sellers in Tennessee USA at Toys R Us. Very popular.

I loved the Exo-Force sets, and I loved more that this set was the closest direct Sentai reference that Lego ever gave us.

In terms of bang for you buck, this kit was probably one of the best of all time. 1400 pieces, many of them quite substantial, for $100. My brother and I loved Exo-Force and this kit brought so much fun to our lives. I still remember picking it up at the LEGO store at the Mall of America.

I got the Striking Venom and Grand Titan from this theme, and both have actually kind of tainted my view of Exo-Force in hindsight. They both look neat on paper, but in person they are flimsy and take up a lot of space with hollow negative space. My Striking Venom is one of the few Lego sets I can call a white elephant, because it chews up so much shelf space and is constantly falling apart even when I leave it alone, just a pain in the ass in general. Exo-Force was boldly experimental in pushing Lego's standards and ability, but it was clear they were still shaking off the early 2000's dark age in System sets and Exo-Force at least in its first year showed it badly. But I also feel like all the amazing mechs since be it in Ninjago or the various Hulk Busters owe their lineage to Exo-Force being a chance for Lego to break the ice in the mech genre.

@xboxtravis7992 said:
"I got the Striking Venom and Grand Titan from this theme, and both have actually kind of tainted my view of Exo-Force in hindsight. They both look neat on paper, but in person they are flimsy and take up a lot of space with hollow negative space. My Striking Venom is one of the few Lego sets I can call a white elephant, because it chews up so much shelf space and is constantly falling apart even when I leave it alone, just a pain in the ass in general. Exo-Force was boldly experimental in pushing Lego's standards and ability, but it was clear they were still shaking off the early 2000's dark age in System sets and Exo-Force at least in its first year showed it badly. But I also feel like all the amazing mechs since be it in Ninjago or the various Hulk Busters owe their lineage to Exo-Force being a chance for Lego to break the ice in the mech genre. "

I also own the Striking Venom, and while I can understand the comment about it being flimsy and taking too much shelf space, I personally kind of love this style. Nowdays, it feels like sets are designed around simply being sturdy, and a lot of unnecessary pieces are added just to bump up the price, while the set's size not being very substantial (Case in point, compare the 15$ Exo-Force Mechs to the 20$ Mechs we get today from Ninjago, the difference in value is pretty obvious)
I for one would prefer getting a large set with a small number of pieces over a small set with a large number of pieces.
With that said, Exo-Force still stands as one of the most unique themes LEGO has ever done. While a lot of the Mechs we get nowdays can feel very "samey" and repetitive, Exo-Force pulled off a very unique anime-inspired design language that we haven't really seen done in LEGO before this theme, nor since. And even if I don't care much for Manga or Anime myself, I still really appreciate LEGO's attempt to try out something completely new.

This is a theme that I would love to see make a comeback or reimagining of with the modern mech builds we get from Ninjago.

The old exo force builds by today’s standards are not great but they were so much fun. I always wanted this one but never had the cash for such a large set as a kid. Such is life.

Makes you wonder if LEGO put the effort behind Exo-Force that they did with Ninjago, if Exoforce would have celebrated 10 years.

@LegoDavid said:
"I also own the Striking Venom, and while I can understand the comment about it being flimsy and taking too much shelf space, I personally kind of love this style. Nowdays, it feels like sets are designed around simply being sturdy, and a lot of unnecessary pieces are added just to bump up the price, while the set's size not being very substantial (Case in point, compare the 15$ Exo-Force Mechs to the 20$ Mechs we get today from Ninjago, the difference in value is pretty obvious)
I for one would prefer getting a large set with a small number of pieces over a small set with a large number of pieces.
"

Yeah I guess I will just have to agree to disagree here since that is my exact opposite sentiment. A smaller more robust set is my favorite over a larger flimsy one; and while I agree the large cheap sets of the mid 2000's were nice as a kid to get something big while still in budget, the flimsiness in general just detracts to much for it from me.

In some cases smaller sets actually are more accurate to the source material in a licensed theme, like the case in the last Republic Assault Tank being actually you know, the size of a tank in minifigure scale and not the size of a small building like the original The Clone Wars release from a decade earlier was.

Absolutely one of my favorite themes. I had a friend who got two of this set, because apparently he lost the instructions and convinced his mom to buy him a second so he could get the instructions.

This is still one of the best flagship sets ever. It is so god damn playable and huge!

I was completely uninterested in this theme at the time, as I wasn't a fan of anime or manga or whatever (I'm still not). But nowadays I appreciate that at least it was original and not licensed. Nostalgia and all, but I miss the old days when Lego had a plethora of their own themes and wasn't just a subcontractor for the big IPs.

PS. Let's not start this discussion again, shall we? I just wanted to rant.

For the last three days, Random Sets of the day are surprisingly good sets. For me, Exo-Force was better than Ninjago and Bionicle.