Dragons Universe Deluxe Dual-Blast Dragon Hunter Review

I have a video mini-review up on Youtube. http://youtu.be/TaswTtqIYFc



So I bought a Deluxe Dual-Blast Dragon Hunter earlier this week. Why did I decide to get this now? The explanation is on the back of the box.



See that price tag there? Let's get a close up.



Nice... XD



So here's the contents of the box. The parts are bagged according to size rather than parts so prepare to do some searching around. At least the figures and dragon were bagged separately although not with their weapons. :P I put together the dragon before remembering to take a pic so apologies for that. :/



The assembled set. You get the ship, a dragon, and two mini-figs. It also comes with a CD which contains a very simple schmup type game which is hardly worth your time as well as a link to the Dragon Universe website which contains all sorts of goodies like design illustrations, wallpapers, and an online version of the crappy shooter. :P

Although the dragon is supposed to be the enemy, I like to have the mini-fig ride the guy. I mean, the dragon's turret has handles on it; if that's not begging for a mini-fig to ride it, I don't know what is. :P



A close up of the dragon, Iceblaze. It's a translucent blue with mixed bits of opaque white and blue mixed in. Looks much nicer in person than the box pics would suggest. The dragon alone already makes the purchase worth it.



The rear view. As I said, very nice.



The ship itself, the Alliance Condor. I've noticed others do this too but I'm using the wings to store the shields since there's no other place to store them. The wings are on ball joints and can be moved up or down. The wing turrets are on a pivot joint and have about a 90 degree range of movement. The tail feathers are also movable although it's best to leave them alone as they snap off easily.



I really love the handles. Dragon Universe may not be the first toy line to implement handles for holding an aircraft but they're definitely the first I've seen that uses them as the landing gear as well. It works very well. One more thing to note is that there are two different positions the missiles can be locked into the missile launcher. The midway position, which is shown in most of the photos, won't engage the springs yet will hold the missiles in place while pushing it all the way will. The video gives a better idea of what I mean. :P



Rear view.



Lower angle. Here, you can make out the switches just under the tail wing.



The ship without the pilot. I've moved the removable gun from the original position on the back of the seat to the side of the seat.



The reason I did that was because in the original position, the rifle looked like it's going to shoot the pilot in the back of his head. :P



The other mini-fig. This guy's a Captain Cato. Comes with rifle and shield.



And he's joined by General Marcus. The other rifle is attached to the ship and the general also has a shield. I'm sad they don't have different weapons but it's a minor nitpick.



Rear view of the mini-figs.



Lower angle shot of the ship. Here, you can see the trigger.



A close up of the switch box. The left switch has 3 positions: light & sound, light only, and off. The right switch toggles which sound effect blares out when you press the red trigger: a regular blast, a rapid-fire blast, and a blast with explosion.



If you absolutely want the handles out of the way, you can do that. The handles will fold up with a nice click.



Underside view.



Close up of the seat. The instructions show to attach the seat all the way forward but that results in the pilot slouching way too much so one notch back is the best position.



And that wraps up this mini-review. The light and sound makes the ship twice as fun as the ships without them. This is definitely worth the full price which makes the clearance price all the more sweeter. If you have any interest in this at all, GET IT. :D

edit 8/4: Shameless plug in case you don't have a Target selling these things. :P