Review: LEGO 70327 The King’s Mech

May 5, 2016 | 10

Nexo Knights is one of LEGO’s biggest new themes this year. Mashing up swords and knights with futuristic technology, the theme was greeted with a bit of apprehension (mostly from Adult LEGO fans) at the beginning, but as soon as the sets started getting into the hands of fans, public opinion started to sway once people started to realise that Nexo Knights could actually be a fun and interesting theme.

If you’d like to learn more about the theme, read my interview with one of the Nexo Knight designers, Roland Frederic Andre.

For my first Nexo Knights review (and I hope there’ll be many more to come), let’s take a look at one of the standout sets of the first wave, 70327 The King’s Mech.

Name: The King’s Mech
Set Number: 70327
Pieces: 375
Price: AU$59.99 | US$29.99 (Buy from LEGO.com [AUS] [USA] [Amazon])
Exclusive to: N/A
Minifigs: 3
Theme: Nexo Knights
Year of Release: 2016
Instructions: Book 1

If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you’d know that I have a bit of a love affair with LEGO mechs, which is why I was eagerly anticipating getting my hands on The King’s Mech. In Australia, this set is a Big W exclusive, and it took awhile for it to hit Australian shores.

First impressions are always important, so I was quite intentional to begin my foray into the Nexo Knights theme with one of the best sets in the wave – The King’s Mech. The fact that it happened to also be a LEGO mech was a nice little bonus.

The King’s Mech comes with 3 minifigures – King Halbert, his trusty King’s Bot, and a villain, Flamethrower. The minifigures included aren’t too flashy as none of the major Nexo Knights characters are included but there’s a decent balance of good guys and villains.

King Halbert is the main minifigure included and this is quite possibly the most bad-ass King minifigure that LEGO have ever produced. Eschewing traditional regal garb usually found on LEGO royalty, King Halbert is armoured to the teeth and is ready for battle.

I really love his printed armoured body– a very sci-fi flavoured pearl gold armour piece with splashes of light blue accents. The plated armour sections and cool little details like visible screws on his chest and knee areas are really something different. Halbert rounds up his kingly look with a recoloured hairpiece first seen in Series 13’s Classic King and a ginger beard.

His companion, the aptly named King’s Bot is a robotic squire cobbled together out of several parts. Sporting a very retro pearl silver helmet and a metallic head, the King’s Bot also has a printed tile with the royal coat of arms on it.

The King’s Bot’s sky-blue shoulders are a brand new element that’s made out of rubber, instead of ABS plastic. They’re… bizarre to say the least, and I’m not a fan of the rubbery material.

Removing King Halbert’s beard gives you a better look at his face, which has a kindly and pretty chilled out expression. Quite a far cry from his battle-ready armour and massive hulking mech suit. LEGO also made a pretty good choice with his cape, which contrasts brilliantly with his pearl gold armour. The cape is made out of papery material instead of the heavier cloth material in recent superhero sets.

Here’s a look at the back of King Halbert’s torso where you get more of that incredible looking armour plating on the back – love the reticulated spine reinforcement and the distinct plates. I do wish that King Halbert’s torso was a bit more generic – if he didn’t have his lion emblem, it would’ve been so sweet to use as a futuristic piece of armour.

For the villain, we get Flamethrower, a rather generic Lava Soldier, one of the grunts in Jestro’s monster army. Despite being an ordinary footsoldier, Flamethrower looks pretty snazzy with his spiky mohawk hairdo. I love his reddish skin, which is peppered with dark red scales on his face and edges of his torso.

Flamethrower has a fairly fierce-looking face, I love the sharp teeth in his mouth. For pants, he’s sporting some ironclad trousers with steel-tipped shoes. He comes with a quiver of crossbow bolts that’s attached to his neck.

On the back, Flamethrower has more of that scaly printing across the back of his head and body, which is quite nice. I would’ve loved it if the scales had extended to his arm, but his minifigure still looks pretty decent with his bare red arms.

Flamethrower has a double crossbow stud shooter, which looks a bit like a mix of a ballista and a turret. It’s a cool little contraption, quite basic, but I like the overall look of it. You get two of those new stud-firing crossbows, which is pretty cool.

Here’s a look at the crossbow stud shooter from the side. There’s a curved slope with some a fiery sticker on it, you know, since he’s Flamethrower and all.

The crossbow ballista is a simple contraption but it functions well to give the puny villain something to fight off the massive King’s Mech with.

The King’s Mech is one of my new favourite LEGO mechs. Building it was a cinch – you put the mech together limb by limb. There’s a bit of repetition here and there, but it’s mostly a rapid and painless affair.

The King’s Mech is a hulking, heavily armoured mecha that’s obviously modelled off a a knight in a coat of armour. The colour scheme is a pleasing blend of greys, silvers, dark blues that’s punctuated by trans orange sections, falling in line with the overall colour palate of the Nexo Knights good guys.

When you first look upon the immense King’s Mech, the first thing that grabs your attention is the gigantic sword that it wields. The blade makes clever use of a grey rotor blade and is decorated with stickers to make it look like a charged energy blade thanks to the orange beam that courses through the middle.

The massive sword is so much fun to play around with, as you can use The King’s Mech articulation to model it in all sorts of cool positions – it makes displaying this set so much fun as you can constantly adjust it to conform to different battle stances.

Like any good LEGO mechs, the pilot occupies a space in the mech’s chest. King Halbert comfortably fits into the cockpit, which opens up by lowering down his shield piece and lifting the transparent orange visor. I was pleasantly surprised by how flexible the cockpit was and how easy it was to lift it up.

When lowered, the mech’s “head” looks brilliant thanks to the transparent orange visor, which does a great job mimicking a knight’s helm thanks to the blue knight’s plume fluttering above.

Sticker haters beware, as The King’s Mech utilises plenty of them throughout the body for added details. They’re completely optional but I don’t mind them – I almost like them as they give the mech a fitting robotic appearance that you couldn’t otherwise achieve with plain bricks. Printed parts would’ve been preferable but they’re a luxury these days.

Here’s a look at the back of The King’s Mech which is equally as impressive as its front. There’s a clip to hang King Halbert’s broadsword and a cute little handle that you would expect to find on a wind-up robot. It’s pretty nonsensical but it gives The King’s Mech a bit of personality and I’m glad the LEGO designers were able to have a little fun with it.

One of my favourite things about The King’s Mech is the two blue “wings” on its back. They’re extremely reminiscent of Gundam designs, the Japanese Anime series that popularised mecha. The designer of this set, Junya Suzuki is Japanese, so it’s very likely that Gundam would’ve been a huge influence in his life.

The wings contain a surprising amount of movement and can be positioned at different angles, adding more options for you to pose The King’s Mech.

The last thing to note about The King’s Mech is its shield arm. Keeping to the suit of armour theme, the mech’s shield is actually a detachable flying craft, piloted by the King’s Bot.

There are no gimmicks with the functionality, the detachable flying shield needs to be manually removed from there arm.

The Shield Craft is a small, very spaceship-like vehicle with an attractive trans-orange cockpit glass that’s enhanced by some snazzy looking stickers. It has 2 jet thrusters behind and is armed with 2 stud blasters.

Interestingly, there’s a printed tile in the cockpit that you may have seen in Star Wars sets or the Milano Spaceship.

The flying Shield Craft is a pretty ingenious feature and I really like the concept – a detachable flying craft that also functions as a shield. Sadly, the execution could’ve been better, as the Shield Craft is quite heavy and it often droops downwards due to the ball joint’s weakness, making it tricky to pose the Mech’s shield arm as freely as I’d like it to.

That said, once you get the hang of how to work around this slight flaw, I can’t imagine The King’s Mech without its shield.

If you’re curious to see how the King’s Mech looks alongside some of LEGO’s most recent mechs, wonder no more. It’s actually quite hefty, towering above the Iron Man Hulkbuster Armour and is slightly taller than the Exo Suit.

Here’s The King’s Mech going toe-to-toe against the Exo Suit. Pitting robotic LEGO suits of armour against one another is always plenty of fun.

What I liked:

• An amazingly designed LEGO Mech
• Plenty of options to pose it
• Looks awesome on display AND packs plenty of playability
• Great colour scheme

What I didn’t like: 

• The flying shield is too heavy, weighing the left arm down

Final thoughts: I absolutely loved The King’s Mech and I feel that this is one of the most satisfying LEGO sets to come out of Billund this year. If you’re on the fence about the Nexo Knights theme, I highly recommend starting out with The King’s Mech to get a feel for the theme and develop an appreciation for this wild world of knights and hi-tech robots.

I can honestly say that this is one of the most impressive LEGO Mechs I’ve ever built and played with. The designers did an exemplary job making it look like a hulking robotic knight. From the cockpit which resembles a techno-knight’s visor, shoulderpads and chunky armoured limbs, The King’s Mech gets many things right, mostly in spectacular fashion.

The resemblance to Japanese mecha is uncanny, making this extremely appealing if you’re a fan of anime like Gundam or Evangelion. Those wings on The King’s Mech’s back tie the entire package together and just oozes cool.

The high level of playability is another bonus, especially for younger LEGO fans who will definitely enjoy roleplaying a massive robotic knight stomping all over Jestro’s (Nexo Knights villain) evil army of lava monsters. For older fans like me, the playability translates well to its great display potential.

I was very happy with The King’s Mech and upon completing it, I actually went out to pick up a few more Nexo Knights sets. I came away very impressed by the level of care that LEGO have put into this new theme, especially with the introduction of plenty of new elements and parts.

At AU$60, I think it’s priced a little higher than I would’ve liked it, considering Nexo Knights is an original theme. I paid full price for this from LEGO.com, but even then, I totally felt like I got my money’s worth. I think AU$50 should’ve been the ideal price for The King’s Mech, and at the AU$60 price point, it would’ve been nice to have an opponent for it instead of just a meager crossbow ballista.

The King’s Mech goes together with Infernox Captures the Queen, a brick-built magma monster that has trapped King Halbert’s wife. I hope to pick that one up soon, if I manage to snag it at a decent price from Toys R Us Australia.

I highly recommend picking up The King’s Mech, especially if you’re a fan of LEGO mechs. If you’re a regular LEGO fan who is game to experiment with a new LEGO theme, you won’t be disappointed by this set. The King’s Mech is definitely one of the standouts of 2016 and I gladly award it the maximum rating of 5 out of 5.

Rating: 5/5

Thanks so much for reading! I hope to squeeze in more Nexo Knights reviews if possible – I have Clay’s Rumble Blade next on my list once I get around building it.

If you enjoyed this review. you can discover more reviews from all sorts of themes in the Review Hub.

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