I blame Exo-force for getting me hooked on giant robots/mecha. I mean it’s a given for everyone, mecha love is basically hardwired into the DNA, but I’m glad this was my way in

You repeatedly excel at your retrospectives. The way you balance nostalgic influence; youthful, imaginative excitement and balanced critiquing without the slide toward cynicism is what originally drew me to your channel and you continue to impress.

Gotta say, that skeleton in the back of the walker is, for Lego standards, 'Getting Crap Past The Radar'. The only other theme that did something similar was an Aqua Raiders set that had a skeleton of one the Raiders in the body of the giant squid. (And yes, I know Bionicle was orders of magnitude darker than that, but only in terms of its plot. And I guess the blood on Pridak. YES IT'S BLOOD GREG, I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY!).

Exo-Force is what sparked my current love of mechs. Claw Crusher and Sky Guardian are my favorite sets from this wave. I am looking forward to you covering the Deep Jungle wave!

Between Exo-Force and Bionicle, this was the reason I was into Lego as a kid and seeing this retrospective really takes me back. I definitely agree that the first 2 waves aesthetically were better, but I still really enjoyed the golden city arc. Thank you for the trip down memory lane.

This brings back many memories. This wave and some of the early power miners stuff were my JAM

To me, the Golden Guardian marks the point lego finally comprehended mechs. It's so much more refined than the later waves, with a elegant gold-and-white design, and few exposed studs. It also seems to gather some inspiration from anime mechs, as the big, bulky leg armor is very remiscient of many of 80-90's mech design, through I can really only think about Zeta Gundam and Dragin's Heaven. Lastly, I LOVE these revisiting videos. The atmosfere you build is amazing, specially with the dim-lighted room, music choices, camera angles and overall profesionalism. Admitedly this also extends to the other videos like the minecraft series or other reviews, but it's so good. Hopefully we get more of this series!

29:55 no way. Exo-Force revolutionized so much for us, and gave us the closest link we get to the Gundam Franchise. The many Lego mech builders all get their generic roots from this theme, and I’m so happy it existed. And of course, thank you for your continued coverage of these themes.

The Exo-Force sets mean a whole lot to me, especially this wave. The Cyclone Defender was one of my first lego sets ever. Some of the pieces are missing now and my Ryo minifigure got older, but it holds a special place in my heart.

Having grown up watching stuff like Mobile Suit Gundam, Big O, Gurren Lagann, and many others, Exo Force was a dream come true for me as a kid. While the mechs LEGO produces now are a league above what came out a decade and a half ago engineering wise, there's still something so charming about Exo Force, and I believe they hold their own design wise. I'm definitely NOT salivating seeing all those sets lined up on your desk their lol. Thanks for the videos, man. I hope you have a fantastic life as well!

Golden Guardian really is such a beautiful set. Still have mine!

You've probably had one of the most spoiled childhoods anyone has ever had and more Lego sets than any kid ever dreamed of. Yet you're still one of the most down-to-earth and genuine KZfaqrs I've ever watched!

You’re right. Later waves had some cool moments, but nothing beats the first year of Exo-Force. It had a more grounded, lived-in feel.

Fantastic retrospective as always! Wave 3 was nice, I really like the vibe the ancient Golden City gives... I'm just waiting for wave 4, as it'll contain my favourite Exo Force set 🙂

I love your vids

i’m waiting for the video when you put all of the exo force mechas side by side for a direct comparison on how their designs and weapons evolved and got more complex with each yearly release

This theme got me through some hard times as a kid. Thank you for sharing!

This wave is the one to which I have the most nostalgia from exo-force. Great content!

I never had any of the sets, but I love watching your revisiting videos -probably because of the immense detail you go into!

You’ve been busy lately, holy moly! The hits keep coming! 😊

Man i love your videos, your vibe is super chill and entertaining! Love your other vids too! They are all amazing! Keep up the good content! Love ya!

Thank you very much for this revisiting session!! Lego exo force was my childhood, i remember vividly the first exo force i got was when my family and i was on a trip to australia! not only it was my childhood, it also brought a lot of nostalgia with it. I truly believe this was much ahead of its time, had it been released late 2000s (when transformers and avatar 1 was booming), there would be a lot of fans and popularity. Cannot wait for your video of the 4.0/jungle exo force oness!!!

Your Revisiting LEGO videos are one of my favorite series of LEGO content on KZfaq! It's really neat to learn about not only the sets but the rationale behind them or things we don't usually get to see, like the comic books or promotional material. Great stuff!

Amazing video series! I loved Exo-Force as a kid and I'm so glad it's still getting some recognition to this very day. I would love to see you cover the final wave of Exo-Force sets, I was always a big fan of mechs being utilized within a jungle setting.

Yay another Exo force video! Keep up the good work, I always look forward seeing which theme you'll do next. Sadly Exo force was where I dropped the ball with actually getting the sets, and that was always a large regret on my part. I particularly wanted to pick up the Shadow Crawler, especially because the green devastator was my fav of the robots. Recently though I acquired one on bricklink and I built him a standard walker mech similar to the Thunder Fury, since the green ones always got put into a special vehicle. I actually had the opportunity to have someone tour it at a couple of the Brickfairs this year. :D

This was my wave! I got into Lego in the 2010's as a Kid, and got some of these as gifts. I remember thinking the Iron condor had giant bunny ears xD. And seeing that sealed Shadow Crawler box was such an emotion! I still love this theme, and still have some of the pieces I used to play with. Great content as always!

Great video as always!

Between the old Harry Potter sets and the Exo-Force lines, you're systematically taking me through my childhood, I love it. Please please please please please do a series like this for Lego Agents

Just found & watched these Exo-force retrospective videos, and man, I love them! Great commentary and presentation (goes for any other videos I've watched of your channel, too. And love, also, the nice, positive vibes and the critique/commentary on sets and Lego landscape as a whole). Perhaps unfortunately (for me, not sure for my parents haha) I was never interest enough in the theme to actually get any of the sets when they were coming out, but I do remember viewing them on the paper catalogues (how I miss the childhood excitement of reading through these! haha) and thought some of them looked kinda cool--well turns out, some of those were pretty darn cool! At least to my... current me! I'm spoiled by the Lego's current design philosophy of dense and durable, highly detailed, and sort of over-building of sets, and I can't say I wanna go back to the 'good ole days' of big parts easily falling off, but even with much smaller parts count, some of those simpler/lighter builds look really good even today. (Love especially the look of the Mecha-One's personal mech from the Fortress set, with the sweet-looking arm/weapons mount thing) Thank you for covering those sets and exposing me to a cool theme I was barely familiar with, and for the nice(ly produced!) videos you make. Cheers!

I absolutely love watching these videos. I’ve been getting back into Exo Force over the past year and I’m guessing all the people watching these are who I’m losing the auctions to! :)

This is the video i've waited the most for !!!

I cannot have enough of your content.

Appreciate this retrospective of my all time fav theme. The golden city to me is one of the peak waves ever made. Totally driven by nostalgia, but looking back it still holds up in idea and design, and even more so in play value.

for wave 4 don't forget the super rare promotion set "3887 Introducing Hitomi"

been recollecting them now for awhile im 7 sets short and the polybags varients aswell great video

Very fun video, can't wait to see how wave 4 looks like

The names that LEGO gives the weapons sound like they come straight from Warhammer 40,000 and I am HERE FOR IT.

You just unlocked such a deep memory of mine. I remember playing a lego game that was building mechs but I had no idea what it was, I thought it was Ninjago for the longest time but this was the basis.

2 things, 1) you have easily become my favorite lego content creator over the past year, keep up the fantastic work, and 2) your wave recap vids have really made me realize how much exo force i had as a kid.... so far I'm at 100% 💀

been waiting for this one WOOT

I've always loved the EXO force series, and these reviews are so satisfying to watch. I did not know about the lore behind the skeleton on the walker, that's metal as hell!

I rebuilt my blade titan a few months ago and its still one of my favorite sets of all time. the cockpit is incredibly fragile but the mech itself was always super posable. The only other exoforce set i had was the cyclone defender I didnt take very good care of that one though maybe i will piece it back together at some point.

This was the Wave I remember having. I had the Sky Guardian, and my brother had the Blade Titan, and one of us had the Iron Condor? He still has them all on his shelf in his bedroom even though he hasn't bought or played with Lego in years. We loved the minifigures and used them as custom jedi later. I remember using the code cards later as license plates for a car build.

I remember looking pictures of the sets online to get the codes to enter on the website haha Also interesting to note that the sets (partially) changed from the 'Galidor/Knights Kingdom' ratchet joins to the Bionicle ball joins.

Another great video.. love those mechs

I feel the same way about the first wave of Exo-Force, the third wave sets feel much more cyberpunk like instead of the industrial vibes of the first and second waves, and even the mechas themselves are more bulky in said first waves. Still, they very much hold a special place in my heart, reason why I still have them on display and can’t simply disassemble them for storage

Can't wait for the jungle wave! Those were some awesome sets!!!

I remember having the Sky Guardian back in the day, and it was one of the first Lego sets I remember building on my own. Hopefully I can track down another one for a decent price today!

8:07 There were 2 bionicle sets with that kind of color molding, being Krika and Pridak. Although I think they used a more transparent white in this set.

Currently watching a lot of your videos since I've found your review of the viking sets (I had almost all of them as a kid), thank you so much for bringing back this joy I had a s a kid I almost forgot.. I was wondering if you will/did a review of those bionicle brick/system sets from I think 2004, 2007 etc. (?) They were toa hordika or toa mahri themed for example... I also have to check if you have a video on mars mission now, me and my friend loved that theme so much we had almost every set together

finally, I was searching for this video just a few days ago :D

Can't wait for the next wave !

I love this theme, and after recently diving into the world of gundam I’m looking to do a moc meshing the two together in some way.

exo force was the first theme my older brother and I got after having lego creator sets. We got the Fire Vulture when I was like 5 or 6. After that we tried to a bunch more. my personal favorite was uplink which I still have built to this day. among my friend group when I was young exo force was really popular. everyone had their favorite sets and I remember all of us would draw pictures of them. later on we got the Striking Venom and one of our friends got the Sentai Fortress and we had a huge battle. it was that kind of thing where you would bring your exo force over and have a huge fight. one set that has always stood out to me personally was Mobile Devastator. I remember being blown away with how big it was. exo force is defiantly one of those lego themes that is very close to my heart.

The Golden City sets were the ones that really caught the attention of me and my brother’s younger selves. A shame our family members were only able to afford two sets, cuz I’m pretty sure we would’ve bought all of them if we could. XD (We got two of the Aero Booster sets, which I’m sure you’ll cover in the next video.) I do agree with Cheezey here when it comes to the lack of alternate builds, though. Makes the sets feel a lot more…one-note, for a lack of a better term. And it kinda misses what makes LEGO mechs (and LEGO in general) so special in the first place.

Shadow Crawler is my favourite. love the style and weird 3 legged platform

I love this retrospective on the exo force series! I was wondering if you can do one for hero factory or bionicle if you haven't already?

9:38 that's the set I grew up with. To this day I love it to bits, though the years have not been kind to it, the sword, both tubes and one of the shoulder fins are broken, the figuring missing and the ball shooter was mangled. I hope to maybe try order replacement parts for it one day, but Lego is so expensive. And if memory serves, apart from Sky Guardian, I don't think I ever saw another Exo-Force Lego set in my country ever since either

The battery tie-in isn't unheard of; that's how we got Turaga Lhikan!

12:50 The disc launcher works better when you put your finger on the opening at the top In addition, Blade Titan can bounce the discs back with the rotation of his shield like in the commercial if you are skillfull enough

Very impressed and surprised with that hostage chamber on the shadow crawler. Taking advantage of human sentimentality by using prisoners as meat shields is exactly the sort of thing a ruthless machine would do. Would NOT have seen that coming from Lego

Great video! Loving these theme reviews. Thank you for all the hard work you put into this channel!

Weirdly enough Exo-force was what got me into Lego system sets finally. Before I was only really into technic with Bionicle but these guys at the time were sorta the first mix-up of them, plus anything involving giant robots were cool. I only got two from this wave but I still remember them fondly.

You mentioning the weird EU collabs brought back some memories and not even related to Lego. Basically there was a Hot Wheels X Duracell collab that gave you your usual hot wheels cars with Duracell decals on them. The decals were alright but the idea of my dad getting a toy for me every time he bought batteries was amazing

I had several of the polybags. It’s hard to overstate how popular the Donald Duck comics are here in Scandinavia. In the mid 2000s, the weekly readership here in Norway was a quarter of the entire population! Virtually every kid were reading them. The comics came with a small toy and it wasn’t uncommon that they were LEGO polybags. I remember there were a lot of contests where LEGO was usually among the prizes. The publisher is based in Denmark so I can see how it happened. If you want to check out the comics, I highly recommend “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck”. It’s a series of stories published in the Donald comic books in the 90s and is considered a masterpiece. Even though it technically follows Scrooge, it’s still the peak of Donald comics.

Iron Condor was the only ExoForce set I owned, and I've been waiting for it to show up since the ExoForce Revisiting episodes started XD

I'm loving these revisiting videos. You should do one for space police 🚓🚀

I really hope we get a new Exo Force series sometime or as a GWP like LEGO did with Tahu

In recently revamped my Cyclone Defender, and having it back in hands (with changed pieces tho) felt very special

I still find it funny that the only sets I got during the first three waves were all Ryu’s mechs/vehicles (except the poly bags). I remember using the green armor for a Spartan way back in the day and now I want to track down a Cyclone Defender all over again

Exo-Force walked so Ninjago could run

I take partial credit for you having to memorize the term "Zamor Sphere Launcher", bwahaha. When I got my Mars Mission Claw Tank from the aftermarket, I thought the seller had shorted me on disc shooter discs, but no, Lego only gave it seven of eleven(?) discs so that they'd be less likely to fall out, and as seen in 12:50 they didn't fire well until it got down to around seven discs left. Speaking of transparent yellow, over a decade later we still do not have a transparent yellow crystal to match the yellow lava monster...

the golden mecha legs have that distinct zeong leg look,most similar to marasai

ohh based on parts there, think i actually had that spider walker around 11:40 , also had, one of the polybag red mechs, one of the bigger red mechs, and i think 2 red light bricks with tubing from unknown robot based set.

After watching your videos on exo force, vikings, and knight kingdom, its pretty clear lego was cooking in the early/mid 2000s damn

I really hope you go back to alternate builds and combo models once you review all of the regular Exo Force sets 🙏

Can confirm the Exoforce game were great! It was fantastically addictive to a kid who only experienced the gameboy mario games.

Late to this one because I saved it for later, but on the shadow crawler as a kid I always figured it drained the life of it's prisoner to power itself Though looking back at just the visuals alone, with a mysterious clear weapon connected to a neon bubble by a hose, I'm fairly confident it could have been conceived as a twin poison gas jet before having it's designed purpose rewritten (The clear tubes and cones being built-up effects for toxic plumes) With the same poison from the jets trickling down in a condensate form onto the machine's front fangs, spooky stuff!

the little foam rocket makes such a satisfying noise

They all look so cool

I still love exo force. Even in my Dark ages I picked up a few sets to make my own mechs.

I do have to agree in a preference of looks with 2006 vs 2007 overall, but of course the builds are far superior from the Golden City. Golden Guardian and Blazing Falcon are the epitome of battle machines to me, and the Blue Falcon and Cyclone Defender one-up Sentry and Uplink designs as well for me. Those 4 are what most inspired my own attempts at building battle machines of my own with what few System, Bionicle, and Knights Kingdom parts I had as a youth. And as you said, those boxes. The Golden Guardian box absolutely astounded me when I got my hands on it a few years ago, and still is so stunning with its golden shine. I do have Claw Crusher's box as well, which did not have that same shine (thus presumably is also the case with Cyclone Defender). Very disappointed that wave 4 didn't carry over that fancy feature either.

I remember begging my parents for the Golden Guardian because it was a Toys R Us exclusive and because it had literally only come up in a catalog days before Christmas. We stopped at a Toys R Us going to a Christmas party and my parents played it off as picking up something for my cousins. Lo and behold I open up the Guardian Christmas Morning. Maybe I'll put him back together some day.

I love how people are using the term gallidor joints now after all these years!!

Man I totally forgot about the shadow crawlers built in hostage ball. I remember buying it almost entirely for that skeleton though and swapping the ball with something else. Probably best I didn’t think too hard about it back then cuz wow, actually unsettling?😂 that’s some very good villain stuff though

Such an awesome wave of sets. As someone who kinda skipped over exoforce it’s super cool to see these amazing lego mechs that unfortunately are better than todays ninjago mechs. I so what to pick up one of these because their super great and something i wish i had experienced

Love this series

Exo-Force and Bionicle both defined my childhood. I enjoyed many of Lego's original themes back in the day, but Exo-Force, and especially Bionicle, were leagues above them all imo.

11:49 wow I did not know that was what the deal was with the skeleton! I thought it was just like a power source or something, I don’t know!

8:07 Don't forget Pridak, the white Barraki!

I loved mecha before I loved Exo Force, so this was the perfect set for young me! So creative

I didn't realise there were more waves! When will you be doing videos on them? I just started collecting exo force this past week, I only had the grand titan as a kid but was obsessed with all the other sets.

The shadow crawler lore is insane lmao, that's just brutal

I would say that the Golden guardian is my favorite battel machine (if not Rio's tank), but the 2006 wave is my favorite. I do think that lego would profit from simply doing a rerun of exo force. with all of the new mechs being made and so many new parts, they could easily accomplish the same sort of aesthetic as the original 2006 exoforce achieved. Also it's about time they make more mechs with knees.

I agree that Wave 1 looked better and also better captured the "feel" of those sets being actual battle machines, what with them being bulkier (it's especially notable with the Robot sets as they have a lot more heavy weapons and look like they were purposefully made for heavy combat, including huge bazookas, flamethrowers, cockpit-mounted miniguns etc.). Wave 3 has a more ancient-tech and lightweight vibe to it which isn't bad at all, but tastes are tastes. They *did* introduce us to balljoints-on-blocks which are great, and the Iron Condor's amazing swiveling torso mechanism is something I still use today because it's so cheap yet effective (it's 4 bricks and it's only 4 studs in height, which means you can integrate it in a humongous amount of small-to-medium MOCs without compromising stability).

I went to a small Lego convention near where I live and saw the of the smaller sets from the first wave I believe it was the one that used the helmets from the Lego sports theme as shoulder pads , a day later I saw the video on the first wave and regretted not buying it

Lego: "And these ones have special compartments for human shields!"

I really loved Exo Force. I grew up loving anime like Gundam or Robotech, so it amazed me that Lego made their own mech Anime theme

But for a more plausible theory on the shadow crawler, one of the concept designers for the last two years of exo, Andrew Deegan, also built some of mars mission's biggest rigs And with it's tripedal form, black and lime coloring, and trademark clear tubes, it's very possible the crawler that saw release in exo-force could have been built for the martians initially before being recast 😅

14:51 I collect original packaged Exo-Force sets because the packaging is so cool haha I'm only missing a few