That gate seems pretty insubstantial…

Of all the weapons you could assault someone with, I think a gate is pretty deep on the “not these things” list.

The copper Exoforce robots are fantastic, unfortunately the legs are clips that broke on the single one a got in a bulk lot.

Although they have the simpler mechs here, solo Mech sets in this theme were very imaginative and colorful. They were the coolest thing I've seen back in 2006. These are still nice but Lego clearly went for the body count in this set.

No real warfare weapons for Lego but huge gatlin guns for our kids to play a gate assault nonetheless.

Love this set; it’s just a great little play set with a bit of everything. Human thing, robot thing, bit for them to fight over, all you need

@Brick_t_ said:
"No real warfare weapons for Lego but huge gatlin guns for our kids to play a gate assault nonetheless. "

We’re still getting them today, actually, via the stud shooter one!

This is probably LEGO's most violent theme after Dino Attack, and that theme only had one wave. I guess it really depends on how much melee and elemental powers contribute to your list because that's a bit more up close and it can get personal, then you might be able to make a case for themes like Bionicle and Ninjago, but with nothing but just big guns everywhere, it's hard to top Exo-Force on the violence meter for LEGO themes.

Dude, I júst built this set two days ago!

I once got the two smaller mechs and the minifigs in a bulk lot. I kept them and eventually got the full set to sell the two small mechs from that to have a full set at last.

It's great. Very space-consuming, a bit flimsy and not very filling in terms of interior, but great. The trick to this one is that it's actually at a different scale than normal because of the mechs. The mechs here show a great deal of personality, and the R-1 Rammer is great at filling a more specialized niche in the robot army (battering ram vehicle). The gate is small, but I imagine this one is fine for the small-sized mechs seen in this set. For a bigger gate there's the one from 7709!

@Zordboy said:
"And what did that gate ever do to you?"

I'll have you know the assualt charges are being brought against the gate!

This was such a fantastic theme and the builds still hold up. Most of the mechs had light bricks and a fiber optic tube that attached to the arm for laser gun play all day long. Great minifigures as well. I'd welcome a return of this theme.

@Ridgeheart said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
" @Trigger_ said:
"I’ve seen this set image on here before but not enough to develop any memories of note. While I’ve already mentioned this in a previous Exo Force thread, I’d love to reiterate that the emergence of anime into the western eye during the 2000s is something super cool to learn about as someone who didn’t know what anime was during those times (I was 5 in 2009). I prefer the new art style (the generally more realistic look of 2000s shonen reminds me of try-hard edgy games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl) but a time when anime was something that mostly “nerds” watched in the west as opposed to it also being watched by dudebros who own AK-47s and think war is cool is such a fascinating concept now."

Your enthusiasm is infectious. It is cool. But, it's a bit older than you think- even in the 'Western eye'.

Even 'way back then', transcontinental culture was considered more cool because of the work and expense to keep abreast of what was going on (Europe or Asia). That only made amime/manga more of an exclusive group.

I say that as one who was on the periphery of things. My friends did drag me to the 2003 opening night of Cowboy Beebop at the Laurelhurst in Portland. Hell of a party!

... See ya, Space Cowboy!
"

We all have our own experiences. I for one was pretty disappointed during the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020. I was promised that Neo-Tokyo was going to E.X.P.L.O.D.E. with the Olympic Stadium as its epicentre, but nothing of great interest happened.

All that hype, for nothing. Bah."

Akira!... hai.

To wit. 1988.

Most of my early experiences included blurry, post-clubbing nights in the 90s, perched in front of a tv, gobbling pizza, chugging beers n chronic, and watching bootleg tapes from Japan while 'that one guy' lectures endlessly about anime like he teaching a college course.

Good times! Of course, in the moment, I was usually cursing myself for being relegated to such a smoky sausage-fest. Why didn't I try harder to talk or dance with that hot redhead?!

Summary of The Lore™ time!

Robots designed to help humans turned evil and rebelled (because of course they did). Their attempt to take over split Sentai Mountain in two; the robots claimed one half and enslaved or killed all the people living there, while the Exo-Force resistance established their base (7909) on the mountain's other side and work tirelessly to overthrow the robots. The two sides of the mountain were connected by several bridges, such as the one pictured here, the only way to get between the human and robot sides of the mountain on foot. The gates built to keep the robots out were constantly under attack, just as this set shows.

In hindsight, I wonder why the humans didn't just destroy the bridges altogether to keep the robots at bay. Although I don't suppose that would have stopped them either, since the robots had mechs capable of flight like the Fire Vulture (7703). Which then raises the question of why the robots constantly staged attacks along the bridges when they were capable of just flying in from any angle where gates such as this wouldn't be able to hinder them.

Hm. Maybe whatever technology allowed the mechs flight was rare, so it could only be equipped to a limited number of machines? And maybe this was explained in the comics, it's just been a long time since I read them and I don't remember xD;

In any case, Ha-Ya-To here was the most minor of the main team in the first year's story; I seem to remember that in the comics he was mostly just out of focus in favour of his three teammates, unless there was a scene like this where someone needed to hold off a robot attack until Hikaru and Takeshi charged in to save the day at the last moment. Still, I liked his character design even so; I thought about getting this set at the time, mostly because it was the only set of the first wave to include him, but didn't do it in the end.

(For what it's worth, TVTropes reckons that Ha-Ya-To got more spotlight during the theme's second year, but I kinda failed to keep up with the story after 2006.)

Also, this set was the only place to get the Toa Nuva chest armour piece in lime!

Mechs have evolved so much over the years,would be awesome to see it come back.

Why, oh why, didn't I get more Exo-Force sets than 8107 ? As others have said, it was anime-styled Lego, for crying out loud!

@StyleCounselor said "... See ya, Space Cowboy!"
Bang.

"Why didn't I try harder to talk or dance with that hot redhead?!"
I feel ya.

@Trigger_:
What I remember is that Voltron and Star Blazers were both mainstream series, having been picked up for syndication on broadcast TV in the late 70’s to early 80’s, and may be where the obsession with anime began. By the 90’s, it had largely retreated to cable TV, where the audience stratified. I didn’t have cable growing up, so I never got into it beyond watching the two aforementioned series as a very young kid.

In college, I had access to it, but no interest. A handful of my friends were fans. One I know was into Cowboy Bebop. At least 2-3 were big Robotech fans, to the point that two of them convinced the rest of us to binge the series on DVD. Now, Robotech practically demands to be made fun of, and I distinctly remember one of these two guys being upset about the dozen or so who were watching constantly riffing on the show. I also remember the other guy joining in.

My first experience with _good_ animation in anime was probably the film Ghost in the Shell, which the manager of the college’s art-house cinema managed to clear for a two-week run (which got cut short to one week once the people she answered to actually watched it). Prior to that, everything I’d watched had all the standard budget-stretching tropes in full force. Characters were painted into the background so the animators only had to change the mouth. The mouths were animated Muppet-style, so they only had to animate two frames and just copy/paste them to indicate who was speaking, rather than actually trying to mimic how human mouths change shape when speaking. Plots were very cookie-cutter, to the point that the series that Lion Voltron was derived from may have had the fight sequence pre-printed on the script pages, and the writers just had to write until they reached that sequence, then fill in some blanks to describe Monster of the Week.

And then there was Teen Titans, which was such a disappointment. I thought it was going to be the next chapter in the venerable DCAU, but it was just kiddie-fare anime. I tried watching it, and had to give up after 1.5 eps, and only managed to go back and watch the entire series so I could catch the digs that Teen Titans Go! took at it.

Way better than the Endo-Force line.

Never heard of it?

It was internal.

@MeisterDad said:
"Way better than the Endo-Force line.

Never heard of it?

It was internal."

What crappy joke! :-P

Considering this set was basically an add-on DLC for the Sentai Fortress, it wasn't bad as a standalone. 3 decent little vehicles, 5 minifigs and 400 pieces for $30 was a steal even in 2006

@Brickalili said:
" @ThatBionicleGuy said:
"In hindsight, I wonder why the humans didn't just destroy the bridges altogether to keep the robots at bay. Although I don't suppose that would have stopped them either, since the robots had mechs capable of flight like the Fire Vulture (7703). Which then raises the question of why the robots constantly staged attacks along the bridges when they were capable of just flying in from any angle where gates such as this wouldn't be able to hinder them.

Hm. Maybe whatever technology allowed the mechs flight was rare, so it could only be equipped to a limited number of machines? And maybe this was explained in the comics, it's just been a long time since I read them and I don't remember xD;"

While I don’t think it ever received any official explanation, my head-canon was that the presence of the bridges meant the robots couldn’t think past not taking the bridges. You have a straight line path to getting what you want, clearly the best option is to take it. Basically a logical extension of their inability to think creatively or imaginatively in contrast with their daring human adversaries. You blow up the bridges and suddenly they do just start flying in and could strike anywhere at anytime…but keep them and they’re unable to process better strategies
"

Makes sense to me! Could also be why this gate is even remotely effective. Robots without imagination be like “Bridge is shortest route, gate is blocking bridge, destroy gate, use bridge.”

To further add to the above theory: the flying machines used in the robot army are all manned by Devastators (silver robots). For the record, Devestators man flying machines in 3872, 7703, 7704, 7721 (the Iron Condor II, arguably), 8105, 8107 and 8108 (the flyers). The lone exception is 8117, which has the function of hovering over the jungle at the base of the mountain so machines can't just exit the jungle. (Patroling is still easy pathfinding).

Anyway, Devastators are more tactically advanced units, often made squad leaders for their more tactical thinking beyond 'zerg rush straight to target'. So in a sense the robots can and will use the sky (which is why both sides have an air force). But the vast majority of the army is still landbound because of the simple programming of Iron Drones. Hence why bridges are tactically versatile; If a gate is overrun that means an endless rush of Iron Drone battle machines, and thus defeat too!

From the wiki:

"The Devastator sacrifices only a little in armor and strength to be a far more intelligent and agile model than the Iron Drone. Where the Iron Drone’s one tactic is “charge straight ahead and break things,” the Devastator is capable of advanced strategies, ambushes, etc. They are the elite troops of the robot rebellion and the most feared by the humans."

Oh, finally, the Sonic Phantom (7704) and Sonic Raven (8107) are not able to be mass-produced and only a few are always active at a time because they apparently require rare minerals. So @ThatBionicleGuy is right about the fast plane-like machines being rare in the robot army. Although the slower Fire Vultures and Iron Condors are common.

Never had this set--I wasn't interested in Exo-force at the time so only had a couple sets--but I literally just yesterday was assembling the dark red drone mech, having landed most of the parts (and all the ones I couldn't source) in a batch of used Bionicle parts. There's a strong overlap, I've noted, between Bionicle fans and Exo-force fans, enough to nudge me a bit closer to Exo-force myself. It's certainly of the era in a way almost no other minifig theme really is: that in-between time between Old Grey's fall and the rise of dominant minifig themes of 2007 and later.