Review: 2283 Witch Doctor

[TheRedGuy]

Stage an epic battle against the heroes for the planet Quatros!

This is it, heroes! Witch Doctor has a nasty plan for jungle planet Quatros – to steal the planet’s very life force – its quaza! If he’s not stopped before it’s too late, the planet will break into pieces. Battle through his corrupted helpers, the beasts, to get to him! Beware of his mighty power staff!

Features skull-decorated power staff equipped with dual shooter and claw

Power up Witch Doctor’s mighty staff and battle!

Measures over 14” (36cm) tall

Welcome to my first review in Eurobricks! I'm a beginner with reviews, so don't expect much. I'm nothing compared to skilled reviewers like Brickthing. By the way, sorry about the bad quality, because I took these with my phone.

Anyways, let's get into the review, shall we?

The Box.

Well, there it is. The box is a little bigger than I thought. I thought Lego started shrinking boxes? In the background, you see a bunch of animals (Most noticeably yellow Raw-Jaws) , and some temple. And he's standing on a tree. The lime green really stands out. I like it. In fact, it was so bright, that it was the first thing I've seen in the LEGO aisle. Maybe it was my hunger for the sets, I don't know. Let's take a look at just how big is this box, shall we?

I think it's about twice the size of the hero canisters. A little too big for my taste. Also, the titan box is somewhat wider, where Aldy's box is taller.

The back of the box includes a little comic explaining the story. Witch doctor, gets call, the heroes gets upgraded, then they fly into the in-torture Quatros. And yes, curse you, tape. Yes you. Stuff. Keys. Parking lot. (Sorry about the orb of light.)

But I didn't buy this for the box, right? Well, no one does.

The Instructions.

Pretty much the same thing as the box, except no numbers, wider, pages, thin- forget it.

Random page

Inventory

Yeah. But I didn't buy the set for bunch of pages giving you orders either.

The Set.

First of, here's the Hero Factory exclusive parts:

Plenty of large skeleton pieces, those... Things, 4 corrupted Quaza, 2 wing/claw/pincer/tusk pieces, and plenty of white.

Interesting parts:

Gotta love that quaza. It's tinier than I thought though. I'm also in love with that white mahri tube and the white Ben 10 tail. By the way, to avoid any confusion, some of you are wondering where are the red tubes. Well, it's available as a extra piece. I chose the white ones because it gives a rib-ish effect. Here are some of my most favorites:

I really love these things. In fact they are my favorite new non-mask piece, second being that paw piece.

And the star of the show:

Man, this thing is so awesome. Looks WAY better in real life, I promise. And much thanks to Front, who engineered this wicked piece.

The Build.

Well, let's get started!

Body:

Side of the body:

Back:

The thing I don't like tough, is the fact that the back is even more exposed than the heroes. Or atleast that's what I think.

Legs:

Side:

I didn't know this until I actually got the set, but Aldy here has chicken legs. (For those who don't know, Aldy is short for Aldous, Witch Doctor's real first name.)

Back:

Attached to the body:

Starting to take shape here.

Arms:

I hadn't realized this, but it looks pretty devil-ish when it isn't attached to the body.

Back:

Attached to the body:

Now for the weapons:

The amazing staff. I wish it was a little longer, tough.

Thornax launcher Clawed meteor launcher:

Looks like the best one yet. Only if there was a other version of that clawed piece, where it doesn't have those boosters, I would like it even more.

Now attached those weapons and the head, then boom!

Alright, there is the finished model. That... Is alot of flaws. but, the model is still fairly impressive. Before I start the critics, let's do a size comparison. Will he be a midget compared to other figures?:

"O hai thar, midget."

Not yet.

..Noope.

You know what, forget about the midget thing.

Final thoughts

Articulation:7/10

The articulation is pretty average, except with a little amount of limitations.

Playability: 9/10

He's big, can control your critters, has a launcher thingy, spikey, and awesome. What more can a kid ask for?

Appearance: 6/10

Looks pretty nice, just don't stare at all the wacko parts or you'll go "WHAT THE HECK IS THIS?"

Swooshability: ?/?

Color scheme: 8/10

Good enough for me. One of the rare cases where the red axles don't stand out. Just don't like the random gray, but what can you expect for a titan set?

Price:10/10

Worth it. Trust me.

Overall: 40/50

I'm not sure if sharp-criticizers like Aanchir would agree, but that's my opinion. His mask has the word "Awesome" all over it while his body has "Meh" all over it. But If you have 30 bucks and don't know what to buy, this is the set.

"So much good!"

Edited September 1, 2011 by TheRedGuy

[Aanchir]

I think 40/50 is a fair assessment. He's a well-designed set. I just don't like the design direction. I feel titan sets this soon after the introduction of the new building system should work on improving on titan designs like Fire Lord that work at a wider range of scales, rather than sidestepping them entirely for a radical design like this one.

His arms, legs, and body also look rather lacking from certain angles. I think it'll be a long time before we see a Hero Factory titan set that captures the artistry of BIONICLE titan/warrior sets like Roodaka, Brutaka, or the 2008 Takanuva. He's imaginative, though, and I suppose that counts for something, since it demonstrates how Hero Factory beams can be used in a variety of ways structurally.

[Fireburner5000]

Coincidentally I just finished building this set and he looks really cool, but he isn't as good as I thought he would be. He is amazing, but his chicken legs are kind of awkward. Anyway, great review and I was hoping that somebody would finally make a review on him, and that's what you did! So, thanks.

[prateek]

Oh, man. This is awesome. I just love the mask. It's the best mask in years. The only fault I see to this is the forearms. They are just too skinny IMO.

[Refia]

I bought this set two days ago. I have one question: why did I get two red tubes alongside the two white ones with my Witch Doctor? O.o

Set wise, I think Witch Doctor is the best Titan we got since 2008 Takanuva. He's not as good, but I think that's more because the new HF system is difficult to work with for titans than because of some design flaws. Design and look-wise, this guy is gold, and succeeds in many levels. He looks menacing, evil, and though there might be flaws, there is nothing that stands out so glaringly it ruins his overal look. Unlike Fire Lord, with his stick legs. Witch Doctor succeeds when it comes to looks. Personal tip: turn the meteor blaster around so it looks as if he has a giant-claw hand. Much more appealing, IMHO. The colour scheme also is fantastic. Red, black and white blend nearly perfectly in this guy. 2009's Titan Mata Nui could take lessons from this guy. The grey parts stand out a tiny bit, but don't distract too much, so I don't mind.

I do dislike the empty head, though. Seriously, LEGO, what's up with this new tradition of the villains having empty helmets? Give them some eyes, please! It doesn't look good.

When it comes to the build, I was surprised by the ingenuity of it. The way Witch Doctor joins at the hips and shoulders is nothing short of marvelous, IMHO. LEGO has finally perfected that double-joint build they've had going since 2008 on their titans. Witch Doctor's double joints look far more pleasing to the eye than a pair of Av-Matoran arms on his shoulders or at the hips. It functions better than Tuma's hips, too. He has full range and motion at the hip. The shoulders can't be lifted up too much, but it's okay, Fire Lord couldn't move them at all. The many red balljoints did end up hurting my thumbs though. <_< One thing I'm baffled about is the assymetry of the hip. Why one side uses a 3-length plusrod with a flat head and the other side a 3-length plus rod with a studded head, I don't get. It doesn't serve any purpose that I can figure out.

Of course there are some flaws. From the back, you can see just how skinny Witch Doctor is in his body. Not so great design there, LEGO. The gaps in the shins and arms are a major flaw, too. I do like that Witch Doctor ditched the stick-legs of Fire Lord and managed to armour the upper leg, too. the lower legs and arms, however, have the same gap-problem as Rocka XL and Fire Lord. In my opinion, this is a limit of the new HF build system. It works great for small sets. But you can't build Titans with it. They either look like stick figures, like Fire Lord, or a strange mismash of technic and ball joints like Witch Doctor. I did enjoy the Witch Doctor build, because of the technic aspects. I miss the Bionicle-style titans. I bought those because I liked technic builds but do not like vehicles, I like building figures. With HF, LEGO took this away from me and gave me a poor replacement. HF titans aren't much to write home about. A titan is meant to be a meaty built, IMHO, hence the higher price and parts-count. Both Fire Lord and Rocka XL did not deliver a satisfying build. They are snap-snap-snap-done builds, like the smaller sets, and they look terrible (I exagerate here a bit, Fire Lord looks okay if you ignore his legs, but I'm not a fan of Rocka XL. Besides, they both don't hold a candle to the high quality of titans we got with the last 4 years of Bionicle, IMHO). Witch Doctor was almost a return to the good old days for me. Almost. It had far more technic bits in it, which I loved. And in fact, the most glaring faws, such as his gaps, are caused by the new HF system. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a fine system, for small sets. It doesn't work well for titans, and I don't see it working in the future either.

So, in conclusion, I think 40/50 is very fair for Witch Doctor. I think he's a great set, especially considering what we've had for titans recently, and he succeeds very well in ways of look and design. His build is satisfying, the new double joints at shoulders and hips are ingenious, but he is prevented from achieving perfection by the limits of the new HF system. If LEGO continues down this road they started with Witch Doctor, though, I'm sure it can only become better from here on out. If it means paying more for titans from now on, I won't mind. I feel Witch Doctor justifies his prize, which I can't say of Fire Lord (should be 15 euros) and Rocka XL (how can they ask 5 euros more for an exact replica of Fire Lord?!).

PS: All of the above is strictly my opinion. None of it is fact.

[Aanchir]

I do appreciate someone who can rant for so long about BIONICLE/HF set design opinions!

A couple things I'd ask about. What do you mean about the "recent tradition" of villains not having eyes? Witch Doctor is the only one who really seems to fail ever-so-badly at this. Raw-Jaw and Fangz both sort of manage to use the shell-based head for eyes, Waspix and Skorpio use solid eyes (something I don't really mind; it's no different than the Hero sets), and all the Fire Villains but Jetbug all had filled-in eyes of some sort (even though the transparent head pieces really didn't work well for Fire Lord and Drilldozer, since there are no holes in the top of the helmets to let light in). Perhaps on Witch Doctor's part the lack of eyes were a conscious decision to make his head (and the one on his staff) more skull-like, but don't think I'm defending him-- I hate the completely-hollow eyes as much as you do, especially since you can look into one eye from the side and see straight through the other one.

I like the ingenuity of Witch Doctor's legs, but it limits his posability in some ways and allows for ridiculously-unrealistic poses in others. His knees always point forward, which bothers me a great deal. I think the 2008 Takanuva really had the best hips from the "reinforced legs" era of sets, although Toa Mata Nui was also pretty nice in that he took the virtual waist-pistons of many sets like the Toa Mata and made them real. Still disappointed that we never got a real version of the Toa Mata's piston-and-accordion-joint waists in a set... Anyway Takanuva and Toa Mata Nui also had great shoulder posability IMO, and Witch Doctor's leaves me disappointed.

I disagree that the Hero Factory building system doesn't work for titan sets, but I agree that TLG hasn't found their stride with it, and to be honest that's one of the reasons Witch Doctor bothers me. He feels like they're just trying to work around the system rather than work with it. Fire Lord was better at this IMO. His legs were weak, something Rocka XL only slightly improves upon, and his arms were rigid, something Rocka XL made worse, but his torso felt extremely substantial. If we had a whole titan set with that sort of streamlining, then it could easily stand alongside the likes of Brutaka-- in aesthetics if not complexity. And the rest of the set felt like it was moving in the right direction to me, so it's sad to see that TLG didn't follow up on that by improving on the flaws.

With that said, I like the simple snap-together builds myself. And in Fire Lord's case, there was more complexity in the form of that beautiful torso substructure. The legs, though, were a shade disappointing, basically reverting to a Toa Kaita level of complexity minus the functions that made the Toa Kaita interesting. I certainly don't want to have Hero Factory titans rely too heavily on Technic.

Don't quite get your comment about how the last four years of BIONICLE had good titan sets, since one of the last Titan sets-- Tuma-- struck me as one of the weakest in terms of design. Toa Mata Nui was OK (I was a big fan at the time), but he didn't quite bring titan sets back to that golden level of design they had with Takanuva in 2008.

Unlike you, I feel the new building style has all the potential it needs for great sets, (some of the models we've seen in designer videos show them working towards extremely stylish designs) although it will require a lot of effort on the part of the designers. All in all, the weak designs of recent titan sets remind me of 2004 titans immediately after the Toa Metru set a new standard for posability. Nobody points to Nidhiki and Krekka as examples of beautiful streamlining, although their functions more than made up for this flaw. I'm still waiting for Hero Factory sets to reach the design quality of 2005-2006 titan sets, though.

Great to hear such a detailed opinion on the prospects Witch Doctor shows for the Hero Factory theme. Our opinions seem vastly different with respect to the direction sets should move in-- I would prefer more sets improving on the building style and considerations used in Fire Lord, while you seem to want more sets based on Witch Doctor's building style-- but it's nice to see that we agree on where Hero Factory set designs currently stand compared to some of the best BIONICLE titan sets. I'm curious whether you've ever been much of a MOCist-- if so, you're probably in a much better position to realize some of these hopes than I am, since I've always struggled at building truly creative MOCs. And I'd certainly love to see a Hero Factory MOC with as much thought put into it as you have put into the sets!

[Fireburner5000]

Honestly, I don't really care about how the HF Titans are built as long as they are a) posable b) designed well and c) sturdy

Edited September 2, 2011 by Fireburner5000

[Vinyl Scratch]

Legs scream "Bayformers" to me.

Good review, so glorious parts. But it's still a nice set.

[Bundalings]

Got this set a while back. I agree with your rating, though you didn't point out which parts you don't like. Personally, the main bit I don't like is the way his torso transitions to his head. That part just looks awful. No regrets though, he has a pretty cool design elsewhere and a marvelous assortment of parts for the price.

[Refia]

A couple things I'd ask about. What do you mean about the "recent tradition" of villains not having eyes? Witch Doctor is the only one who really seems to fail ever-so-badly at this. Raw-Jaw and Fangz both sort of manage to use the shell-based head for eyes, Waspix and Skorpio use solid eyes (something I don't really mind; it's no different than the Hero sets), and all the Fire Villains but Jetbug all had filled-in eyes of some sort (even though the transparent head pieces really didn't work well for Fire Lord and Drilldozer, since there are no holes in the top of the helmets to let light in). Perhaps on Witch Doctor's part the lack of eyes were a conscious decision to make his head (and the one on his staff) more skull-like, but don't think I'm defending him-- I hate the completely-hollow eyes as much as you do, especially since you can look into one eye from the side and see straight through the other one.

Ah, I suppose it's my mistake. I only have Jetbug, Fire Lord and Witch Doctor, and seeing Waspix and Scorpio, I thought Fire Lord was an exception to have eyes. Genuine lack of research on my part. Though if I have to be honest, two sets that have this problem are still two sets too many, but we seem to agree on this. =) I think Witch Doctor would already improve a lot if he just had some red eyes staring at you from under that cool helmet. It's a small, but important, misstep.

I like the ingenuity of Witch Doctor's legs, but it limits his posability in some ways and allows for ridiculously-unrealistic poses in others. His knees always point forward, which bothers me a great deal. I think the 2008 Takanuva really had the best hips from the "reinforced legs" era of sets, although Toa Mata Nui was also pretty nice in that he took the virtual waist-pistons of many sets like the Toa Mata and made them real. Still disappointed that we never got a real version of the Toa Mata's piston-and-accordion-joint waists in a set... Anyway Takanuva and Toa Mata Nui also had great shoulder posability IMO, and Witch Doctor's leaves me disappointed.

I do agree that Witch Doctor's legs look a bit odd. Due to the way he is constructed, it looks as if his knees are higher than they actually are, and it indeed gives off the impression that he's always bent them. It's just my opinion, but this doesn't really bother me if I have to be fair. Maybe because I'm just glad those painful stick-legs from Fire Lord are gone, but a titan with strong, armoured upper legs was a welcome sight. Witch Doctor looks bulky, at least from the front, and gives you that impression that he's powerful. Fire Lord... not so much.

Takanuva did seem to have the best hip articulation of all the Titan sets that used it. Tuma's system really didn't work, and Von Nebula wasn't much better. I liked the ingenuity of Mata Nui's piston system, and it did remind me of the Toa Mata, but it wasn't very pretty to look at. I feel the same about Takanuva's hips, or Fire Lord's for that matter. It looks weird to see that extra arm there. It's why Witch Doctor pleases me so. LEGO finally managed to build a system that reinforces the joints, but is also subtle about it and doesn't jump in the eye. It doesn't distract, and it doesn't look weird. It's simple but effective. I tend to agree that his shoulder mobility is not as great, but I'm willing to let it slide for the same reason of his hips: it looks so damn fine. Takanuva, Tuma and Mata Nui's shoulders all worked fine, yes, but it looked so awkward. Witch Doctor managed to fix this. He got rid of the awkward look while retaining the stability of double joints. I find it a great step forward, and I would love to see this system repeated in future titans.

In my experience, what tends to limit Witch Doctor's shoulders in posing is more his spikes and loose armor than his joints. But that's just my impression and experience.

I disagree that the Hero Factory building system doesn't work for titan sets, but I agree that TLG hasn't found their stride with it, and to be honest that's one of the reasons Witch Doctor bothers me. He feels like they're just trying to work around the system rather than work with it. Fire Lord was better at this IMO. His legs were weak, something Rocka XL only slightly improves upon, and his arms were rigid, something Rocka XL made worse, but his torso felt extremely substantial. If we had a whole titan set with that sort of streamlining, then it could easily stand alongside the likes of Brutaka-- in aesthetics if not complexity. And the rest of the set felt like it was moving in the right direction to me, so it's sad to see that TLG didn't follow up on that by improving on the flaws.

I think Witch Doctor was an interesting experiment, and certainly ended up giving us an very cool villain and set. I also have Fire Lord, and I've said somewhere before here some time ago that I think everything above his hips looks great (especially if you use his jetpacks as shoulder pads like in the instructions). His torso I fully agree with. It felt great, streamlined and armoured, making this guy appear as a heavily armoured, walking fortress. At least until his legs came along to ruin everything. I'm also bothered by the feet, of both him and Rocka XL. Uncovered balljoints just look painful to me. Why couldn't they cover those up with those smallest HF armour plates? It's personal, of course, but when I see a balljoint, it needs to be used or covered, not left in plain sight.

When I said that I don't think the HF system doesn't work for titans, it's not because I think it's a bad system, mind you. When it comes to singular joints and limbs, like on Heroes and villains, it looks fine, even great. But for titans, at least since Takanuva 2008, you always end up with double joints for reinforcement. And when you use the HF system for this, you inevitably end up with gaps, I think our current titans proved this enough. Not to say Takanuva didn't have gaps (I have not forgotten his craters in his lower legs). But with a technic build, it's easier to work around and cover. HF's system here is limited, I feel, mainly because of it's lack of technical aspects. Not using technic bits is a hindrance, not an asset, I feel, and I'll explain why if I can.

I think it's mainly because of the size and bulk of the parts. When you work with a snap-and-join system, even for armour, your parts become big. You can't avoid this, you need balljoints and sockets and those take up space. Such parts are great for building a skeleton, the bone structure of your set, with. Even for titan sets this could work, I've seen the potential for it in Fire Lord. But then, once your skeleton is done, you need to add meat to the bone, flesh it out. And with such bulky, huge parts as the HF system, there's only so much you can do with this, you're limited by both size and your number of available balljoints. The lack of technic aspects rears its head here. While titans in bionicle certainly have had their ups and downs, there are some beautiful examples of why I feel the technic is better suited for titans.

Take Brutaka, which I think is one of the, if not THE best Bionicle titan. There are so little gaps on this guy, he is so streamlined. And this is not, I feel, because of the large, Bionicle-specific parts and armour, at least not just because of that. It's the small parts here that do it, that finish it up and fill the gaps. Look at those golden Bohrok eyes. Small parts, but they can add so much difference. Hero Factory, for better or worse, has no parts this size it can use, for the simple reason that such a small part with a balljoint is impossible. Even using the new two-pin system would not fully work, since none of the HF limbs have these pins, only the armour plates do (as far as I know), and so it won't do to fill up the gaps.

With Technic parts, you can go small, precise and detailed. With the snap-and-join system of HF, you will always hit the obstacle of size. At least I think so, I fully welcome LEGO to prove me wrong and will stand down if they do. But as it is now, HF's system means larger, bulkier parts, which, while great to build your skeleton for, can't add "the meat to the bone", if you catch my meaning. You can add some layer, but inevitably will end up with gaps. Fire Lord's torso manages to avoid this, but his lower legs, as well as Witch Doctor's arms and legs, say otherwise, at least I feel so. It's why I feel integrating more technic aspects in HF should not be seen as a bad thing. In small Hero sets and the small villains, it's not needed at all, the new system works perfect there. But Titans, they need it, in my opinion, if only to fine tune the sets and perfect them.

With that said, I like the simple snap-together builds myself. And in Fire Lord's case, there was more complexity in the form of that beautiful torso substructure. The legs, though, were a shade disappointing, basically reverting to a Toa Kaita level of complexity minus the functions that made the Toa Kaita interesting. I certainly don't want to have Hero Factory titans rely too heavily on Technic.

Let me add to my previous point of above here as well as adress what you said of HF not relying too heavily on technic. It's not that I feel that the Technic should be the main build with the HF parts dressing it up. The Technic parts should sustain, support and finish the design the HF parts started. If I can use my skeleton analogy again, the HF parts should be the skeleton, and the Technic and HF parts should 'add the meat to the bones'. And I feel Witch Doctor accomplished this, at least partially. When I look at him, I see a Hero Factory set. No matter the technic bits, this guy is no Bionicle set. I don't feel that the Technic parts and bits he uses take away from his identity as a HF set.

There's also, of course, a personal preference speaking here, in that I feel much more satisfied after building a set with Technic build like Witch Doctor than I feel after snapping together Fire Lord. I suppose it's psychological and personal. The snap-together build is, like you said, simple. And for me that's just it. I don't want my titan sets to be simple, if I wanted that I'd buy a hero who looks just as good. I want something meaty to build when I pay down 20 (or 40, in WD's case) euros for a set. Fire Lord did not deliver this. I did not feel satisfied building him, there was no challenge, and I feel he was overpriced (should have been 15 euros, as I said before). Witch Doctor gave me back that good feel that I missed. The technic aspects and ingenuity of the ball joint system, seeing how it all came together, that was so much more satisfying than snapping Fire Lord together. It's why I feel Witch Doctor is worth his high price. You could say "well, get a technic set then and enjoy!", but I said before: I don't like vehicles that much. I like building action figures out of LEGO, and I like a satisfying build. Witch Doctor was a heaven's sent for me in this way. Of course, this is a personal opinion, and other people will feel different.

Don't quite get your comment about how the last four years of BIONICLE had good titan sets, since one of the last Titan sets-- Tuma-- struck me as one of the weakest in terms of design. Toa Mata Nui was OK (I was a big fan at the time), but he didn't quite bring titan sets back to that golden level of design they had with Takanuva in 2008.

It's probably just my opinion, but I found Brutaka (and Axonn to some extent), Maxilos, Takanuva, Tuma and even Von Nebula to all be very satisfying and great titans. Brutaka just looked fantastic, Maxilos had a great custom build, Takanuva brought us many new and good inventions, and I found Tuma to just look good, even if his hips weren't that great. I even liked Von Nebula, despite his lack of elbows. Toa Mata Nui was the least good of the bunch for me. Hydraxon was just okay, too, and I didn't get Rotor.

Unlike you, I feel the new building style has all the potential it needs for great sets, (some of the models we've seen in designer videos show them working towards extremely stylish designs) although it will require a lot of effort on the part of the designers. All in all, the weak designs of recent titan sets remind me of 2004 titans immediately after the Toa Metru set a new standard for posability. Nobody points to Nidhiki and Krekka as examples of beautiful streamlining, although their functions more than made up for this flaw. I'm still waiting for Hero Factory sets to reach the design quality of 2005-2006 titan sets, though.

I'd like to point out that I liked the 2004 titans. =p

Don't get me wrong, I feel the new building style has potential for great sets, too, if anything Witch Doctor proved that. It would appear we just differ on how this new style needs to be used. You seem to prefer a pure HF-style, while I am merely of the opinion that a more Technic x HF mix would benefit future titans more. I do agree it will be hard for any set to match Brutaka (Takanuva came close, but his colour scheme was less appealing, even though he was a fantastic set). Witch Doctor is great, but he lacks the streamlining and the perfected fine-tuning that Brutaka had, as you said. (Don't think I'm ignoring Axonn, I just feel he's less a titan and more a Toa-set on steroids, kinda like how I feel Fire Lord was not much of a titan and should be priced less. I do love Axonn, however. And Vezon and Fenrakk, of course, but Rider + Beast don't count as 'titan' for me. I see titans as big humanoid figures. Which is also the reason why I didn't mention Fero and Skirmix in my list of titans before.)

I'm curious whether you've ever been much of a MOCist-- if so, you're probably in a much better position to realize some of these hopes than I am, since I've always struggled at building truly creative MOCs. And I'd certainly love to see a Hero Factory MOC with as much thought put into it as you have put into the sets!

I've never been much of a MOCist, to be honest. I don't like taking my sets appart, and in my country we never could get our hands on those wonderful Bionicle-parts-boxes. If I had I probably would build more, but as it is, even though I have a lot of sets, I prefer to not take them apart (can't get it over my hear =p). So I just stick to buying and building the sets that catch my interest (even if they don't look that great , like Fire Lord. He isn't fantastic by any means, but I don't regret buying him), and then discuss or talk about it when the topic is brought up. It's part of the reason I am hoping for more Witch Doctor sets: I like building new sets with some challenge, I don't have the parts to MOC, and rebuilding sets you've already built is just not fun. I need fresh bricks to keep me going. ;)

[Front]

I might have engineered the mask of WD, but the designer of the mask is Esben. Esben is also the set designer of WD as well as earlier sets as (among others) Skopio XV-1 (2009 vehicle), Toa Mata Nui (2009 titan), and Takanuva (2008 titan).

I was involved a bit in finding design solutions to the hip and shoulder design of WD, looking into new parts that could solve several issues. Esben did however come up with this brilliant solution, that required zero new parts.

Esben is seen in this picture:

Picture of Bionicle designers

[TheRedGuy]

"I agree with your rating, though you didn't point out which parts you don't like."

Whoops.

I might have engineered the mask of WD, but the designer of the mask is Esben. Esben is also the set designer of WD as well as earlier sets as (among others) Skopio XV-1 (2009 vehicle), Toa Mata Nui (2009 titan), and Takanuva (2008 titan).

I was involved a bit in finding design solutions to the hip and shoulder design of WD, looking into new parts that could solve several issues. Esben did however come up with this brilliant solution, that required zero new parts.

Esben is seen in this picture:

Picture of Bionicle designers

I never said you designed the set. Nevermind. Excuse me for being so stupid.

And to those atleast-two-paragraph guys, Witch Doctor technically DOES have eyes. The red connector piece serves as the eyes in most front angles-how ever, you cant's see it at all from the side (Duh?) and I tried taking all the pictures with the eyes so that people would know that he actually kinda has eyes.

Edited September 6, 2011 by TheRedGuy

[Aanchir]

I might have engineered the mask of WD, but the designer of the mask is Esben. Esben is also the set designer of WD as well as earlier sets as (among others) Skopio XV-1 (2009 vehicle), Toa Mata Nui (2009 titan), and Takanuva (2008 titan).

I was involved a bit in finding design solutions to the hip and shoulder design of WD, looking into new parts that could solve several issues. Esben did however come up with this brilliant solution, that required zero new parts.

Esben is seen in this picture:

Picture of Bionicle designers

That's great to know! If Witch Doctor's complex design wasn't obvious enough, we now know that his designer has a great deal of experience under his belt!