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Gatanui

REVIEW: 6222 CORE HUNTER

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And here we go with the last of my series of reviews and the one many of you have been waiting for: Core Hunter! Is this pack of awesomeness worth your money? Check it out!

Red alert! CORE HUNTER is on the loose somewhere in Makuhero City and is trying to disable as many heroes as he can get his claws on. His plasma shooter, multi vision mask and razor spike armor are dangerous, but his hero core remover tool must be avoided at all costs. Cuff him or he could disable all the heroes and bring chaos to the galaxy!

Set name: CORE HUNTER

Set Number: 6222

Price: 12.99 (11.99) EUR / 8.99 GBP / 12.99 USD

Pieces: 51

Year of release: Summer 2012

Size: Medium

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Presentation/Box

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The packaging continues to be the same one as the winter sets had, apart from the golden top I haven´t thrown away yet just to include it in this picture. The packaging size is somewhat blown out of proportion in size compared to the small-sized sets, but I guess an oversized packaging is better than an undersized one, so that's okay. Core Hunter is featured in a very good-looking pose, although it does´t make sense that he´s flying as he has nothing to fly with. The city background, supposedly Makuhero City, looks nice, though, and you can even see Bulk, also flying without anything to fly with.

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The back shows Core Hunter in a standing post and promotes his launcher function and his core remover pincers. Do they work? We´ll see.

Apart from that, the usual legal stuff and the Breakout game screenshots. As usual, the components are made in Denmark, Hungary, Mexico and the Czech Republic.

Building

As usual, the build is nothing challenging, although more so than the small sets are. Still, there are more interesting builds this year and there are no remarkable surprises. Be sure to connect the new Captain America armor facing the right way, though.

Set Design/Pieces

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Core Hunter has 51 pieces, which is less than every other mid-sized set of this year apart from Splitface, who has 50. Still, the price point is pretty decent compared to what we´ve got in some previous years.

Sadly, Core Hunter has only one new mold and piece, namely the head, if you don´t count the Captain America armor piece. There is no remolded Glatorian head piece either as many including me had hoped there would be, but maybe it will come in later production batches. The helmet is a great piece, though. A downside is that not all eyes can glow as shown on the packaging and CGI, but it manages to look very menacing.

The recolored pieces make up for the lack of new pieces. The two Captain America armor pieces are fantastic (perhaps the most useful pieces to be connected to cladding so far) and even more so in black. Then there is the new torso armor piece in solid black without any kind of printing. Then we get three of the Savage Planet paw pieces in black and a total of six Savage Planet claw pieces in red. There is also a black MTIS piece. As far as I know, Core Hunter is the only set so far to have it and it´s great. I´m sure it looks much better to fill the hollow back than the silver MTIS they use in the TV episodes, but I haven´t tried.

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These four pieces are not new, but they are rare and always welcome.

Let´s get to the actual design of the set.

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Core Hunter is tall, spiky and massive. There are no annoying gaps and the only thing looking off is an exposed ball joint on the back. Overall, he looks very complete. The color scheme is as good as perfect. Not even the gunmetal pincers, launcher pieces look disruptive. The Zamor sphere may do so to you, but it doesn´t to me.

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The ammo belt is a nifty addition and it´s perfect to show off your or Core Hunter´s collection of Hero Cores. For starters, he comes with one Hero Core like all other sets this year, so I suggest attaching it there so it doesn´t lie around.

This doesn't mean the set doesn´t have any flaws, though.

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Core Hunter´s arms are so ridiculously short it´s not even funny. This means he can´t be properly cuffed and that the weapons will often stand in the arms' way when posing. I guess LEGO wanted to save costs by using the shortest available bone pieces, but even the small-sized sets have longer arms. This could have been done better and unfortunately, he´s not the only set with this flaw. The short bone pieces are some of the rarer ones, though, so that can be considered a plus. They are also used for the neck, which even manages to look good and not too long

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Another flaw to some may be how the back armor is connected. The connector piece is rare and always nice to have, but Stormer XL has a new piece which would have allowed to stay the back armor in place. It would have been good to have that piece in a smaller set.

Playability

The additional articulation point from the neck increases playability and poseability.

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Core Hunter wouldn´t be Core Hunter if he didn´t have a core hunting tool. The two pincers from Jetbug are used for this and at first glance, they look simple, but effective. Funny how LEGO makes a play feature out of unintended piece flexibility in this set.

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However, if you try actually removing a Hero Core with the pincers, you will soon be frustrated. If the Hero Cores are already harder to remove than other pieces because of the two pins of hard plastic, it´s as good as impossible with these pincers. All you can do is squish the pincers together, but you won´t be able to remove Hero Cores with them, and that´s a minus. Actually, if you pull hard enough you will end up removing the entire chest armor, like poor Core Hunter did on our photo. At least the tool looks nice and personally, I didn´t have the pincer pieces before, so that´s something.

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Apart from that, Core Hunter is fun to play with and allows for many different poses.

Final Thoughts

Pros

  • Fantastic color scheme
  • Solid and non-gappy design
  • Many rare, useful and recolored

Cons

  • Short arms
  • Core Remover doesn´t remove Cores
  • No remolded Glatorian head

Overall, Core Hunter is a very good set. He has some flaws, especially if you look for them, but he looks very good and is one of the best sets this year. Don´t be fooled by the list, as I feel the pros outweigh the cons. If you are looking for a mid-sized set, Core Hunter should be one of your choices. The only other mid-sized villain this year I have is Voltix but he is so different that it´s your taste which decides here. Although, you could simply get both like I did, makes it easier.

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And that makes yet another villain caught 'n cuffed and our series of reviews done. Thank you all for your patience and feedback. I hope you enjoyed them! :classic:

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Fantastic review. Thank you for posting it.

Core Hunter's few flaws will be easy enough to fix. I love that mask. Mine should be in my hands on Monday.

Edited by acidophilus

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Thanks for the review! I think the relatively low piece count and the short lower arms are probably both consequences of how very bulky his design is. He's armored about as much as the other medium-sized sets, but his armor and weapon pieces tend to be fairly bulky. Three of those "paw" pieces from the Savage Planet wave is nothing to sneeze at!

Alternatively, it's possible that the designers were aiming for a similar look to the 2010 villain sets, on whom the weapon/tool with its bulky weapon shell usually was the lower arm. If that's the case, I think they succeeded quite well. Part of the reason he looks so effective even with those shorter arms is that he has two very large weapons.

In any event, arms that are too short are easy enough to fix, and he still looks quite impressive in a range of poses. I personally am often more bothered by arms that are significantly longer than they should be-- Natalie Breez's arms in particular seem a bit bothersome. And even though this isn't as much of a problem on the medium-sized sets, I'm quite grateful he doesn't end up dragging his weapons on the ground when his arms are at his sides, a problem faced by some of the 2.0 Hero sets among others.

Anyway, Core Hunter looks really impressive and unique, even with a relatively simple villainous color scheme. Overall I think TLG really showed with this wave that they're far from running out of ideas for themed villains. And a villain with such a dark theme as Core Hunter is well-represented by this fearsome-looking set.

Edited by Aanchir

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He looks a lot better than I thought he would be, which, even though I like him the least of the second wave of Breakout, says a lot. Good pieces and the right color of zamor sphere for my XL Breakout WIP Hero (excessive caps use intentional :tongue:).

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Epic. The only word that can describe this figure. Minus the short arms. But, like Aanchir said, the arms are compensated by the large weapons. Especially the claw which makes makes him seem really obsessed with Cores. So much so that he has a claw built into his arm.

Anyway, despite how awesome this figure is, he'll probably be part of my third purchase (first is Stringer/Voltix, second is Nex/XT4, and then Stormer/Core Hunter).

Kalhiki

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Thank you for your perfect review :D That set is awesome, probably the best in 2012. I only hope that he won't be showed in the tv movie as a big strong idiot who wants to rule the world... omg... I think it will happen.

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Very nice review, and great pictures too!

As far as Core Hunter goes, I'm a bit torn about him. On one side, I really dig his overall design. On the other, he doesn't come with enough interesting pieces for MOCing in my eyes. However, sometimes I do buy sets just because they look good, so yeah...

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Core Hunter.. man.

The villain and the idea behind him (disabling Heroes) is terrific. While the build is simple, the color scheme is perfect, that mask with that breathing apparatus looks freaky(but good for this guy), and the ammo belt for the Cores is a great idea. I feel the same about the arms- they could have been longer- but they don't detract too much from the overall look and feel of the set.

The recolors look very useful, I've been waiting for that black torso piece and the Captain America armor for a while now. Both will be useful for an upcoming 'titan' build of mine..

Aww, the Remover doesn't Remove? :cry_sad:

Nahh, I'll get over it. The bendy 'function' is amusing.

The flaws are easy enough to fix, and if one didn't like Core Hunter(And why wouldn't you, he's friggin awesome) as a set, they could get a fair amount of decent MOCing parts.

A fine review on the best in the wave, thanks so much for sharing them with us. :classic:

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Thank you for your perfect review :D That set is awesome, probably the best in 2012. I only hope that he won't be showed in the tv movie as a big strong idiot who wants to rule the world... omg... I think it will happen.

I don't think so, as I'm pretty sure there will be no summer episode this year. :sceptic:

Thank you all for your feedback! :classic: Glad to see you all liked my reviews. I'll try to review more sets in the future.

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Thanks for the review! This set never really caught my eye, but now looking at it, it seems like a really cool set with the core collection. :wub: Now I'll probably have to pick this one up.

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