monke monday just extended into tuesday
righteous!

I was so excited when I heard we'd be getting Ben 10 sets. It felt like a dream come true. When I saw what they were, man I was disappointed.

Clearly @Huwbot read my RPotD comment about having a sense of humor…

I've never seen Ben10 and never had any real interest in the sets, but I will admit that this one's colors are nice.

Would look right at home in Galidor.

@ElephantKnight:
The styling looks more like Galidor, sure, but the system is more compatible with Bionicle and other constraction themes.

@MCLegoboy said:
"monke monday just extended into tuesday
righteous!"

The first week of the new year is dedicated Monkie Week.

Thanos was right.

@ElephantKnight said:
"Would look right at home in Galidor."

The Gaildor TVshow's Nick Bluetooth could beat up Ben 10 any day of the week. Technology eventually breaks (the alien wristwatch thingy Ben wears, what's it called? I never watched the show) but what about when you can just think of something, and become it? I think Mr. Bluetooth comes out on top here!

...Also, Where's my giant can of RAID (buy spray) when I need it?!?

Monkey!

The Ben 10 sets were certainly not a high point for buildable figures, but they did introduce some interesting pieces and have some decent colors.

The only memory I have of spider monkeys is seeing some in a zoo pooping a ridiculous amount.

Coming from a Ben 10 fan, Spider Monkey was my favorite alien from Alien Force, purely because he was blue.

Coming from a BIONICLE fan, the Ben 10 sets were super weird. They weren't nearly as good as the Inika build sets that came before nor the CCBS sets that came after. Even a bunch of the first wave of Hero Factory had similar builds but looked way nicer. They feel like someone just slapped articulation onto the Av-Matoran/Agori build... which didn't really fix anything.

Granted, given how Galidor and a lot of the Star Wars CCBS sets looked it's probably just a case of constraction working better on robots than organic creatures.

What did we do to deserve this creature coming at us in our dreams?

Had LEGO decided to make Ben 10 sets using traditional builds, they would have sold better.

@Murdoch17 said:
" @ElephantKnight said:
"Would look right at home in Galidor."

The Gaildor TVshow's Nick Bluetooth could beat up Ben 10 any day of the week. Technology eventually breaks (the alien wristwatch thingy Ben wears, what's it called? I never watched the show) but what about when you can just think of something, and become it? I think Mr. Bluetooth comes out on top here!"
I've seen about a third of Galidor, and... I'm not impressed.
Nick Bluetooth would be demolished by Ben Tennyson. The Omnitrix, while finicky, is nearly indestructible. The only things that can destroy it are itself, another Omnitrix, it's creator dismantling it, and I suppose the only other thing would be the universe dying, but even that's not a given. You can't even get the thing off Ben's wrist unless you know how it's programmed, it literally bonds itself to the wearer.
And you would think it's as simple as just cutting off Ben's arm, but the Omnitrix also acts as a bit of a life preserver. If Ben is truly in danger, it will automatically defend him with either some sort of self defense energy field or will auto transform Ben into an alien that can withstand whatever is trying to kill him. Ben used to always select which aliens he would turn into, many times that never worked, but there comes a point where he doesn't even look because the Omnitrix just knows what he needs and he trusts it. And while there is a power down function after 10 minutes, that's more like the training wheels protocol from the MCU Spidey Suit, in reality, it really doesn't need to power down to maintain a charge. With enough time, the wearer can unlock more programs that allow for unlimited time and just thought will transform them one alien to the next.
But this is just the Omnitrix, what about the aliens? While Nick can transform parts of his body into what he needs, Ben becomes the whole alien. While we only saw about 70 or so Aliens across the shows, in reality there are millions to sample from. Can Nick transform into a Way Big alien that's the size of a Kaiju? Can Nick transform into a Nanomech or Goop that allows him to sneak through any tight space? Can Nick increase his brain function with a change into Grey Matter or Brainstorm? Can Nick become incorporeal like Ghostfreak or Big Chill? Can Nick duplicate himself like Ditto or Echo Echo and magnify his attacks? Can he become literal pure energy as some beings are?
How about we get even more nuts? Can Nick literally become indestructible? There are beings called Celestialsapiens that live between universes and help create them. They are unaffected by anything. Ben can turn into one of these guys, who he has named Alien X. He becomes the third member of personalities within the being that are in constant conflict and he acts as the mediator. He convinced the other two to just let him have control, and as such, he has the ability to do literally anything. He produce energy blasts, stop time, he can reverse it, he can create matter, there really are no limitations, you can basically just take all the other alien's powers and combine them into Alien X. He was incapable of stopping the death of the universe, so at the last second he became Alien X and then remade it. Can Nick Bluetooth do that?
(Continued...)

@Murdoch17 said:
" @ElephantKnight said:
"Would look right at home in Galidor."

The Gaildor TVshow's Nick Bluetooth could beat up Ben 10 any day of the week. Technology eventually breaks (the alien wristwatch thingy Ben wears, what's it called? I never watched the show) but what about when you can just think of something, and become it? I think Mr. Bluetooth comes out on top here!"
(...Continued)
And even if we wanted to play fair and just go with the original 10 aliens from the original series (Fourarms, Heatblast, XLR8, Ripjaws, Wildmutt, Upgrade, Grey Matter, Ghostfreak, Stinkfly, and Diamondhead), Ben showed an ingenuity with each of those aliens, quickly mastering them over the course of one summer. Diamondhead is pretty tough, like, you have to apply tons upon tons of pressure before even cracking him, but any damage he takes he can regenerate. XLR8 can keep up with Nepal's speed and probably outrun him. Grey Matter would hack Jens and the Egg in no time. Heatblast could go supernova and overheat Nepal and dry out Euripides. Allegra is just a human, they've never been proven to be a match for Ben even as a kid, but simply becoming Stinkfly would make her run screaming, let alone spraying her with goop. As for Nick, he has the ability to glinch pieces of his body at will, but he seems to always bumble around at it. I'm still only 10 episodes in, so he's still learning but he's not even all that smart from what I can tell. Ben's only 10 years old, and because the Omnitrix rarely ever gives him what he wants (typically Fourarms) he's become very intuitive, inventive, and more adept with each alien. If we want to defeat Nick though, I'm going Ghostfreak since he can just possess him. A lot of the glinches I've seen also seem to be technological, and I wonder if Upgrade could attach onto those and then when Nick tries to glinch back, Ben might transmutate and the mechamorph could somewhat possess organic material, and ruin Nick. Perhaps not though. Even then, Wildmutt could throw him off because he'd just laugh at a dog with no eyes unaware that he's being seen with scent, and then a few simple slashes of claws to the face would knock him out. And Fourarms is strong enough to take whatever punches Nick can dish out. About the only way Nick's going to win is if the Omnitrix gives Ben Ripjaws and there's no water around.
I've had Ben take out all of Nick and his crew, but we still haven't even touched on Gwen and Grandpa Max from Ben's side. Gwen is skilled in hand to hand combat and is studying magic, like actual magic, and part of why she's so adept at it is because she has alien DNA from the Anodite race, a species composed of energy, and magic is just manipulating energy, but she's still a pretty decent sorceress at 10. Then there's Grandpa Max. Retired secret agent that dealt with aliens and alien technology his whole life. He's tricked out his RV, the Rustbucket with all kinds of alien tech that he could punch a hole through the Egg, which is weird to think about given the similar size of the two, but the interior of the Egg is larger on the inside. Then you have the weapons he has on hand, especially the Null Void Projector, which opens a portal to a dimension where you cannot escape, think the Phantom Zone from Superman. And he's still not to shabby just resorting to good old fashion brawling. Even crew against crew, Nick's crew is done.
Nick Bluetooth may be a defender of the Outer Dimension, whatever that means, but Ben's the baddest kid to ever save the day. He's fought on land, in the sea, in the air, out in space, across time, in other dimensions, and even other universes, fighting every type of foe you can imagine. Nick doesn't stand a chance against this kid.

Spiders have 8 limbs. This is an insectmonkey.

All these people saying it should have 8 limbs; my guys, it’s not a spider, it’s a spider/monkey, and 6 is halfway between the 8 legs of the former and 4 legs of the latter. I mean come on, I’m starting to think you’re not taking this children’s toy based on a cartoon very seriously at all! XD

Nope, this IS lego, whether you like it or not. And it has been so for 13 years in this case. It's just constraction, and a weird experimental offshoot at that.

You guys sound like technic wouldn't be lego because it has holes in it or duplo wouldn't be because it's too big and specialized.
These are just built with ball joints. And they're still in system with everything else.
And reminder, it went like this:
System ---> Technic ---> Constraction

Some background context for this set:

Ben 10 came out around the same time as the very last wave of Bionicle in 2010. As Bionicle had been the main constraction theme since 2001 and the last concurrent constraction theme had ended in 2006 (Knights Kingdom II), there was a gap. Ben 10 and Hero Factory tried to fill that gap in their own ways. HF ran for years, but Ben 10 was a short obscure one-off.

So obscure that Ben 10 didn't release in the Netherlands. I first encountered some in a toy shop in Sweden in 2011 and despite their rarity in my country I didn't hestitate and left them there.

If Ben 10 did one thing right it was paving the way for other licensed constraction sets. In 2012 we got the Super Heroes Ultrabuilds, now using the more uniform and sustainable CCBS system. Now only the heads, some prints and the occasional weapon or armor piece was needed to create a character.

That in turn made the Star Wars constraction figures possible, which were excellent if they depicted a helmeted or robotic character. There were even AFOLs giving those a try because they liked Star Wars and Star Wars + action figures and Lego + Star Wars were already things they were familiar with.

@AustinPowers said:
"But even modern Technic sets can be mixed and matched with the brick based Technic system of old, while constraction basically can only be connected to other constraction stuff, and all those weirdly shaped pieces that make up the outer shape of the characters don't fit into the standard LEGO system.
I mean just look at this Spidermonkey. What about it says LEGO in any way? There is not a single stud in sight, nothing that looks like a brick, plate, tile, slope, or even Technic liftarm, panel, pin or axle. Everything is just a collection of weird shapes and forms and lots of single use pieces, so that it could be just another action figure from any manufacturer. "

You see those holes? Those are pin holes. You can attach anything bar sized there.
And the tail has a technic connector and another bar sized end to it.
Also, there are bricks with ball sockets and ball joints on them you know, in the same was as technic might not always have studs but there still are bricks with pin holes and axle holes.

Ben 10 is just an especially weird case even for constraction, but constraction often uses technic. Just look at these examples:

8520 Millennium/Millennia. Here you can see a figure that can be built as a then-regular sized version OR as a larger figure. This is at the very START of constraction!

8534 Tahu. Those gears and everything between the limbs and torso is technic. Bear in mind that this set was for young children and that this was an introduction of sorts to technic, but as an action figure.

10202 Ultimate Dume. This is a combo of three titan sets. I picked this as an example to show that here you can see a figure that's clearly about as technic pieces as it is constraction pieces.

2282 Rocka XL. CCBS used less technic as constraction had evolved to the point where it wasn't necessary as much. But look at this build and tell me CCBS is not compatible with anything except constraction parts. That's technic.

75111 Darth Vader. But check the torso build in the instructions. It's almost entirely modern technic! And there's even some system parts in there too, like 1x2 plates with clips, a square sign with clip, cheese slopes and a minifig-sized battle droid torso.

@StyleCounselor how is a random Belville figure closer to this set? I'm not a fan of Ben 10 at all but I would still admit it's at the very least a building toy set. Just a very specialized one. That Belville figure is a pre-assembled figure not meant to be taken apart.
By your logic minifigures aren't lego because a random king minifigure sometimes look more like that figure than Spidermonkey here will ever do.
And fabuland figures are closer to that belville figure because they are also not meant to be taken apart. So by your logic Fabuland figures are even less lego...

Also, you see that sword on 5811? That's a minifigure sword in chrome. Yup, so not lego. It's a shame those never appeared anywhere else because the figure sure isn't compatible with anything...

'All swans I have seen are white. Therefore all swans are white'
There are black swans too you know. You just aren't as familiar with them.
Constraction has been here for 24 years already. Just let it be.