December 3, 2012 James Martinez

Gears of War Armadillo Erector Set Hands On

I haven’t built or played with toys for a while, so when I got a chance to build something as cool as a Gears of War Armadillo, I thought it would be a nice project. I think a lot of us remember being little kids and getting our first LEGO set. I remember being a happy little kid, ripping the box apart, and then spending hours building and rebuilding the toy inside. I found the same type of joy putting this vehicle together. Unlike LEGOs, this set does require a tool or two that is included in the box, and this toy only has one shape in mind.

This Gears of War Armadillo construction set is sold exclusively at Toys “R” Us. It comes with 80+ pieces, is under $30, and is for ages 8 and up (I think I qualify to tackle this one without any other adult supervision). I enjoyed figuring things out and putting everything together. The process is as fun as looking at the end result, like a jigsaw puzzle. After you’ve completed your build, you can also add the two action figures that come with the set. Dominic Santiago and a Locus drone came with this set, as well as three mini weapons; the Mk 2 Lancer Assault Rifle, the Boltok Pistol, and the Hammerburst.

I wish they made these toys a bit bigger, since getting some of the pieces screwed in took a bit more time and patience than expected. You can blame that on my non-eight-year-old hands.

Fans of Gears of War should definitely get one of these. You can find other sets online including the Centaur, King Raven, and a Battle set Locus Vs. Delta squad between $27.99 – $64.99.

I have one small thing I want to complain about. The two figures that come with the set seem a bit flimsy, especially the hands. Every time I put the gun in either hand and picked up the figure, the gun would fall. I easily fixed that by just pinching the hands a few times to create a better grip for the guns. The articulation is okay, the figures are a bit bigger and taller than your normal LEGO figure, and they do have some good detail to them but nothing really to brag about.

The Armadillo itself is built solid with all the screws nicely tightened. It could go through any makeshift cardboard wall or climb dirt roads you can build outside in the yard. I know when I was a kid I liked to get my toys dirty and have a lot of fun with them.

On to the build! Everything you need is included in the box, screws, nuts, all the plastic pieces, stickers, the manual, and two tools. From opening the box to putting on the stickers took a little over an hour. One thing I don’t like about a lot of these builds involves the stickers. Again, my hands are kind of big and trying to apply these stickers to small areas took a little finesse.

Everything is nice an organized in small bags.

I’m about 30 minutes in and everything is turning out as seen in the instruction manual.

Just a funny note; after I had everything laid out it reminded me when I had to build some IKEA furniture. I tried not to over tighten any screws, seeing as the base was just plastic. As I went along I did however start to go back and give the screws a few more spins of the L wrench, just so everything was tight and ready to go.