Random set of the day: Shadowstrike S70
Posted by Huwbot,Today's random set is 3808 Shadowstrike S70, released in 2002. It's one of 4 Spybotics sets produced that year. It contains 235 pieces, and its retail price was US$60/£59.99.
It's owned by 301 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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23 comments on this article
Mindstorms + Alpha Team = this oddity
^Well, this DID come out the same year as Galidor and just before Clikits!
Yeah, wow, this is ... yeah, wow.
Ah, I thought it'd been too long since we had a set from an eccentric early-2000's theme.
Armed and dangerous!
Literally. It's a car with arms.
Does anyone know of a good explanation about what functions these had and what they did? Especially, was there any real difference between them apart from the color and external build? And was there any real good reason they required a PC, apart from making them look more hi-tech?
I suspect having four different ones with so little information of their differences and capabilities contributed to the short life of these - many would be reluctant to spend $60 without being sure they got the "right" one or if they needed them all.
My cousin had two of these. They were kinda neat, but they moved v e r y s l o w l y. I never understood what the missions were supposed to be, I don't think my cousin ever finished the missions either.
Never thought much of this set or its kin, but loved the game based around them. Wish I could find a decent place to still play Nightfall Incident without it (ironically) being glitchy as hell
Back when it was all fun and games.
Very obscure, but kind of an interesting concept.
I see it striking the shadows.
Or does it strike _with_ a shadow?
I own the set and i think that the idea behind Spybotics was way ahead of its time.
Each model has a programmable control unit with 2 motors, 1 touch and 1 sensor.
An infrared remote control for direct control of the motors is also included.
The control unit can be connected to a pc via a special infrared-to-com-port. This enables the user to upload a program to the control unit to enable autonomous behavior.
One other interesting fact is that the Lego Mindstorms RCX unit can communicate with the spybotics control modules via its built-in ir port.
I still want this. Used to want two, decided that was unrealistic (and I couldn't decide between 3807 and 3809 for the other one), but never even managed to get one, which made me very disappointed.
Spybotis is an interesting theme. They look like a lot of fun to play around with, and the sets come with a lot of neat pieces. I'll probably pick up one of those from Bricklink whenever I'll get the chance.
I am getting a new and sealed one on Saturday. just to part out , though...
Well there's a theme I didn't know had existed!
@axeleng said:
"Does anyone know of a good explanation about what functions these had and what they did? Especially, was there any real difference between them apart from the color and external build? And was there any real good reason they required a PC, apart from making them look more hi-tech?
I suspect having four different ones with so little information of their differences and capabilities contributed to the short life of these - many would be reluctant to spend $60 without being sure they got the "right" one or if they needed them all."
Yeah, I have all 4 of them. The red one has pretty much no function and pretty much is the most boring one. The Green one has claws that open when you drive forward and close when you drive backward, same goes for the violet one, just reversed and a different kind of claws. But the Blue one is my favorite, while the function is kinda boring (the front saw thing spinns while driving), the driving gear is really really good. It's extremely good to get through really hard terrain and up steep stuff.
@LegoDavid said:
"Spybotis is an interesting theme. They look like a lot of fun to play around with, and the sets come with a lot of neat pieces. I'll probably pick up one of those from Bricklink whenever I'll get the chance. "
Keep in mind, if you want to get the full potential out of this. You will have to play around with virtual operating systems. The whole "programming" for the "missions" is not possible on Windows 7 last time I checked and I doubt it will work on Windows 10.
I regret to say I had this set. Worked kinda well going forwards, not so well going backwards.
I got this set from my grandmother for my 6th birthday. I remember completing numberless “super-secret missions” with Shadowstrike S70, until my sister acquired its controller, and drove the spybot from a table, causing serious damage to it. One of its wheels broke and the touch sensor stopped working properly. Fixing the wheel with some additional pieces was easy, but the touch sensor had to wait years before I gained enough courage to open the Spybot’s chassis. With some trial and error the best way to repair it was to remove the plastic button piece and the rubbery thing behind it, replace it with a metal bar, glued in an “Angle Element, 0 Degrees”, which I connected, with some modifications, to the assembly that holds the front wheel. Not the best solution, but it works nicely.
Last year I got Gigamesh G60, in a nearly sealed condition, and so I was finally able, to try out the 2 player missions. The communication between the 2 spybots is sometimes a bit slow, but the gameplay is still enjoyable. Each Spybot has unique stats (speed agility and strength), which makes it more interesting, for example, if Shadowstrike S70 is auto controlled, and spots Gigamesh S60, it jumps on it like a tiger, attacks, then retreats to the safety, without letting the player react, in other hands, the effects on Gigamesh G60’s attack (actually most of the attacks stuns the opponent for a while), lasts longer and hits harder. So for the play experience, they aged well. My only problem is that their cables are only compatible with my grandmother’s old XP PC.
I really missed out on the Shadowstrike S1-S69 models. Glad they did another one.
Spybotics reminds me of my youth days and the beginning of my Lego collection in 2002-2003...
I always wanted to get SW sets when I was young, but for some reason, the sets were never available for sale were I live (I only started to see SW sets for sale in stores here around 2006-2007). But the Spybotics were there. They could be found in almost EVERY store, on the the top of the shelves. For very high prices.
And that's my long question: why SW weren't sold but Spybotics yes? I always felt this theme made no sense to be sold here...
@axeleng:
Physically, the two main components (the Spybot base and the Spybot controller) were identical except for the color of the transparent parts. Any difference between them (and it sounds like there was some) was purely programming.
As for why they needed a computer, that's pretty common for Mindstorms stuff, especially the "Mindstorms lite" category, as there really wasn't any way to program the device directly. To do anything with it, you pretty much had to plug it into a computer and use the included software to build your new program.
@le60head:
There was also a light incorporated into it, which combined with a pair of fiber optics elements to function as a beam weapon.