Hey brick fans! I recently made another order at Temu.com. Temu is
an online shopping site that is supposed to rival Aliexpress, but in reality,
other than a lot of minifigures, they don't have a lot of variety in
regards to building block toys.
I did find this particular set though, it's a knockoff version of the Danish
branded Overwatch Wrecking Ball set 75976. I wasn't really looking for
this particular set, but sometimes, I'll just browse on Temu and I noticed the
mecha style and thought it was ok for the price of around $15. I then
went to check Aliexpress if I could find it cheaper, but the average price for
it there was around $25 CDN.
I ordered it from Temu around the middle of April but it was delayed by a
couple of days and as part of their policy, Temu will give you a $5 credit if
they don't get the item shipped to you in the designated
timeframe.
Unlike Aliexpress, Temu will ship you the box that the set came in, so if you
like to collect cardboard, you will like this site. Other than the fancy
box art, there is no indication of branding, set number or piece count.
There is an age rating of 6+ with some text that says you can build this set 12
different ways.
The back of the box shows you some alternate builds but there are no
instructions on how to build them. While they say 12 different ways, I only
count 10 pictures on the back, so I'll assume that the wrecking ball in it's
open and closed state are the other two styles.
Inside the box, we find 4 bags of parts, 1 double sided instruction sheet, and a
small sticker sheet.
On each of the bags, there is a number 07001 which I assume to be the set
number.
But when I checked brick4.com, I can see a lot of knockoff versions of the
Wrecking Ball set but the number on my set doesn't appear in the list.
With no piece count listed anywhere on the box or the instruction sheet, we
will have to assume it is the same as the authentic version which is 227
pieces.
Here are some pics along the way. The orange lever on the side controls
the hamster pop up function.
Speaking of the hamster, here he is.
The hamster sits on this little blue pad. The hatch is in the open
position.
Here's the hatch closed.
There are dual barrelled machine guns on both sides of the wrecking
ball. They are adjustable and can be moved around freely.
The legs for the wrecking ball can be moved too, but be careful of them
falling off.
Although the box says 6+, I'm inclined to think an age of 8 or 10
would be more appropriate to put this set together. Some of the
pieces are small and a bit finicky and require just a bit more
patience.
Final thoughts
So there are printed parts in addition to stickered pieces. I
don't know why they just didn't skip the stickers and make
everything printed pieces. Brick quality was decent but I
did have some clutch issues.
The technic pins that hold the crablike feet to the orange ball
joint part would keep coming off. I can't tell if the
problem is that the pin is too small or the hole on the joint
piece is too big. Anyways, if you try to pickup the the
set, the legs will fall off, so playing with it will be a bit
frustrating.
I didn't apply any of the stickers so I can't say if they are any
good or not. There were a few extra pieces when I finished
and the set also included a brick separator which I never had to
use.
I can verify that the wrecking ball does contract into itself and
forms a nice ball. Just be careful when you expand it though
as some of the smaller parts might fall off.
As a display piece, the set looks pretty cool, but if you want
to play with it, you might need to replace the ball joints or
the technic pins, or both. I must admit that I really
bought the set for the exclusive hamster, lol. I'll give
this a rating of 3.5 out of 5.
Here's the listing for the Hamster Wrecking Ball set.
Check out Temu, if you haven't had a chance, you might stumble
across something you like! I'd be really happy if
you use
my affiliate link.
