LEGO DREAMZzz Cooper’s Tiger Mech & Zero’s Hot Rod Car

A penultimate battle between Mech and… Hot Rod?

LEGO DREAMZzz for this year gives us another wave of new enemies, new sets and new part moulds! Now into its third wave of enemies, we are greeted with the newest force on the block – brain suckers! The penultimate fight between Cooper’s Tiger Mech and Zero’s Hot Rod Car – how does it hold up?

Cooper’s Tiger Mech

LEGO DREAMZzz Cooper’s Mech stands tall as an impeding threat in this set – themed with a red and white tiger Kabuki mask, tiger stripes on the chest and legs, as well as giant sword and shoulder cannons. This tiger theming isn’t just in stickers however, as the mech’s claws and slightly pointed feel really carry the samurai/assassin vibe of the model.

I’m not a big fan of the highlighter green colours in the model, but it isn’t a huge downturn for me. This is a new colour and we have to get the elements somehow. The only real gripe I have with the mech is the shoulder attachment not having a way to fold down – it otherwise spans out the back of the model for a good solid 15cm.

If this were to fold down, the thrusters forward would also double as a neat jetpack! This attachment is the ‘core’ of the model, being the one thing that doesn’t break away during rebuilding, but I really do think it feels out of place.

Zero’s Hot Rod Car

LEGO DREAMZzz Zero’s Hot Rod is a pretty neat little build, giving us lot of air intakes and a neat face plate of a scratchy skull design. Where Cooper’s Mech packs a lot of punch, the Hot Rod unfortunately lacks in this department. I do wish we could have seen more akin to missiles or stud gattling guns, but we simply end up with two stud shooters and an annoying ankle hitter.

Minifigures

Cooper in this set is the exact same as he is in the $30 set of this wave. As a recap, I love the glasses being controller shapes and the fact he looks like a fusion of his casual self and Dreamchaser self.

The dreamer in this set is much alike a dreamling in a previous set. The swirling eyes and dribbling mouth give an off putting sense of danger about what is happening. It’s good to have someone to save here.

LEGO DREAMZzz Zero is the big chase figure for this set, giving us a big bad for the Cyberlings of the set. They have the same helmet, but recoloured with trans-red for the sides and fin, whereas the rest is white. They also have a slightly modified face print, giving us one eye red and one eye white.

This figure also gives us a recolour of shoulder pads in trans-red. Zero’s attire also has lots of zero motifs, with 7.3 RO (1337 speak for ZERO), and a 00 on the jacket too. Once again, this type of figure belongs in a place like Cyberpunk or New Hashima, and I’m all for it.

We also get a larger Cyber Brain Spider in this set, complete with eyes, claws and six legs, as well as Z-blob and two Cyberlings.

Verdict

The set overall isn’t without its problems. There is a lot of fun to be had and a lot of the printed curved elements stand out to me as my favourites across the line. The power imbalance isn’t as nicely accommodating for the ‘big bad’ of this small initial release, and just feels static.

With so much available from the little sets, this larger set makes me feel less satisfied. We really only get little LEGO DREAMZzz enemies, a car, and three spiders for the bad side. All of those things could be stomped easily by the mech in this set. I just wish there was something… *more*.

If you’re thinking about getting the set, I would wait a little bit for the price to drop. You can pick up all the previous sets of the wave with the main crew for less than the price of this model – maybe consider that if you’re going for collectability or the mech.