REVIEW: 70201 Chi Eris

[ZORK64]

I've been a member on Eurobricks for something like 3 years now. It was also 3 years ago when my local LEGO store opened. But I'm still absolutely clueless about new releases until I spot them on the store shelves. And that happened just earlier this week when I found out that TLG already released the Legends of Chima Ultrabuilds here in Germany (though in my defense I should mention that I was kinda busy being on a convention last weekend).

Well, it's been a while since TLG had two original constraction lines at the same time in their sortiment. Back then it was Knight's Kingdom, a fantasy theme about knights (as the name suggests) which coexisted with LEGO's well-known more sci-fi Bionicle franchise.

After the rather mediocre sells of both the Ben 10 and Superhero Ultrabuilds TLG decided to make Ultra Builds for the already established Legends of Chima line (which is the successor to the incredibly successful Ninjago).

But instead going for Laval or Cragger, I decided to get Eris first - despite the fact that her Ultra Build was already criticized for various reasons.

But how much of the critic stands true? Let's find out (after this incredibly long intro).

Set name: Chi Eris

Set Number: 70201

Price: 14.99 Euro

Pieces: 70

Year of release: April 2013 (Europe), apparently August 2013 (USA)

The bag

Just like the Hero Factory sets, the Chima Ultrabuilds come packed in nice resealable bags.

The front of the bag shows Eris flying through the skies of Chima with a floating island behind her (which just reminds me of the floating islands which were here and there part of the displays in various stores - those things were simple but very cool designed). You can also spot Eris minifigure head in the upper right of the bag, hinting that this is her super-powered version.

Urgh, making a picture of the back was a pain. But to make sure that you can appreciate it properly...

I decided to scan it this time after I emptied the box bag.

The big picture shows Chi Eris in her natural environment (she didn't got any action features we got used to with the past waves of Hero Factory, so there's plenty of room for a beatiful landscape - oh, there's also Chi Worriz in the background!), and below that there's a mini comic showing how Eris goes Super Saiyan to kick Worriz' butt (I'm surprised it's Worriz, not Razar though).

There's also a picture of the combiner model which requires Eris and Laval.

Oh, and there's of course also the chunk of legal text. And the choking hazard in plenty of languages.

What would be a review of mine without a size comparison of the packaging? Eris' bag is roughly the same size as the bags of Deluxe sets like Ogrum.

Enough about the bag, let's take a look inside!

The parts

Eris comes with 70 parts (10 parts more than Ogrum, though Eris costs 2€ more). As you can see, she comes with lots of bones, white shells, transblue shells and a few golden pieces. Overall a nice collection of parts, though there aren't many recolours or new parts.

Let us start with highlighting the most exclusive part to this set - Eris' head. If you compare it with the minifigures head you'll probably notice that this head looks far less feminine. In fact, it looks radically different from it. I wouldn't say it looks necessary masculine but rather has an ambiguous gender. Given that generic look I wouldn't be surprised if TLG will use this head again in a future set (and I'd be more than happy if this set would be Eglor).

If you put aside the issue with the resemblance to Eris (or the lack of resemblance), it looks actually quite cool and would be great for MOCing.

This picture was supposed to show the nostrils on the beak, but it's blurry. Oh well.

The top of the head.

One thing of interest is the connector of the head. It doesn't face downwards but backwards.

Like all Chi Builds (except Gorzan, who got the Hulk chest), Eris comes with a recoloured version of the super hero chest which features a printed pattern. While I was a bit disappointed with this piece (I'm not a fan of printed pieces, and I don't like the asymmetrical design of it), it grew on me while I was building her because it shines really nice. I suppose TLG decided against placing the Chi sphere in the middle of the chest due to the shape of the part.

However, I wish TLG had gone the extra mile to give them unique torso plates similiar to those of the 2.0 heros instead of printed shells. But that was probably not in the budget.

The new blade piece, which are used in Eris' battle axe. The shape of this piece is very versatile, which is a big plus for MOCing purposes.

In case you were wondering, this piece is in the same blue as Stormer XL's swords.

Oh, and one thing I forgot to take a picture of... The mold for these blades features a minor improvement over Stormer's (or Furno's) swords: The blades aren't bend, which results in an even axe blade for Eris.

Eris' wings itself aren't new since they were already featured in a few Chima sets (mostly Eris' eagle jet), but the colours are new. Chi Eris got 4 golden and 2 white wings. It's a very nice piece, and I hope to see it in even more colours in the future.

A few pictures of interest from the instructions

The cover. Same as the bag minus the age recommendation (Geez, I'm 23 years too old for those... ).

Yet another picture of the combiner. I haven't checked yet if the instructions are already online (which reminds me I have to check if the instructions for the Brain Attack combiners are online - I wanted to try Breez'/Ogrum's combiner out!).

A few pictures of the instructions are dedictated to ads, showing the rest of the Chima line. This page shows all six Chi Builds in action. Oh dear, I'm so getting Cragger just for the colours and the neat head sculpt.

Building the set

Eris' build starts pretty much the same way as every HF build does. First she gets a part attached to her back and after that the legs are built.

Then the legs get already armour and the arms are built.

And here's the rest of her armour.

Then there comes the head. Due to the socket and it's shape, Eris needs a separate piece for her neck.

But every eagle needs wings, and they are the next step (the piece in the front is the wing skeleton without shells).

And after attaching the wing bones to her back...

...she gets her wings!

Now it's time to build Eris' axe. This is the upper part, which includes a fair share of TECHNIC pieces. Once finished you put it in Eris right hand.

Then comes the lower part of the axe. This picture contains probably the most complex assembling I ever took a picture of. I hope you can figure out how it works.

...

Okay, enough sarcasm. If you attach the lower section of the axe to Eris' hand as well, it will result in...

The finished set

So yeah, here we have Eris, leader of the eagle tribe, in her powerful Chi form.

(and a few spare parts too)

Design and playability

Eris uses practically the same build as most HF sets did in the past three years, so she offers of course a fair deal of poseability. Her bright and vivid colourscheme looks also very cool and is well patterned across her body.

However, similiar to some other Ultra Builds (like Big Chill or Iron Man), her head has a few issues regarding its poseability. You see, due to the feathers on her neck Eris isn't able to look downward.

At least she can look upward, which is important for flying poses.

One thing I don't like about her however are the wings, and this is mostly because of the wing bones. Eris' wings look very skeletal, and the very large bones don't help matters either. It's also nigh impossible to pose her wings in a relaxed position that looks good.

I think Eris would look better if TLG had shorten the wing bones but had added the wings in a slightly different way which would put them closer together.

Though to be fair, Razar has the same issue (although one could argue that the skeletal look works better for him, being an evil raven and such).

I do however like the design of her legs. The lack of shell armour helps to give off the impression of sleek, bird-like legs, though it would be even better if her lower legs (or at least her clawed feet) wouldn't be black, but yellow, orange or even gold instead - it's really a pity that only Cragger (and arguably Gorzan, since he's mostly black anyway) can benefit from recoloured bones for his build.

Her axe looks very cool though. Makes me wonder though how TLG got the idea to give the winged character an axe. And said character is also mostly white and blue.

You know, all these things apply to my Self-MOC as well (although my Self-MOC got silver, not gold, has no animal motif and is male).

Crazy coincidence, eh?

Here's a comparison between Eris Minifigure form and her Chi form. Many people complained about how much Eris Chi form differs from her default appearance, and I have to agree here. It's partly because of the colours (like the much brighter blue of her minifigure), but also because of the rather masculine look of her Chi form. Of course, this stems mostly from the head (Eris' head is dominated by round shapes, and there also her round eyes, which make her look absolutely adorable, while the Chi head has sharp edges, looks dead serious and lacks any pupils), but I also think that Eris' overall design could had been at least slightly more feminine. For example, I wonder why TLG didn't used the Breakout torso armour for her, it's sleeker than the 2.0 armour, and let's face it, both look rather robotic.

Here's a size comparison with a few HF sets. Eris is visibly taller than Breez and Ogrum (though Ogrum is a bit short when it comes to Deluxe sets anyway), but she's still a head smaller than Furno XL.

Final thoughts

Let me be honest here, Eris is not the best transition of a mini figure into an Ultrabuild figure. Be it the differences to her normal form, the ambiguity about her gender in this form or the design of the wings, the poor girl got a few issues. But aside from this, she's a cool set to have. Pretty much all of her parts have great potential for MOCing, especially if you desire to build something different than a robotic warrior (or at least someting that doesn't have a robotic head).

I would recommend her if you like eagles or still need more white, blue and gold after Surge, Stormer, Frost Beast and Jet Rocka (I guess the next Brain Attack wave will hit shelves in mid summer both in Europe and the US, but I'm just guessing - so it's still possible that these will be released first in the US too).

Otherwise you're probably better off with one of the other sets of this line (or even one of the smaller Chima sets - I seriously recommend you Eris' eagle jet, that thing is fun).

Edited April 30, 2013 by ZORK64

[howie28]

Nice review Zork! I think I'll be picking up Laval and Worriz.

[just2good]

Woah, nice review 'ZORK64'!

These ultra-builds sure are interesting. Also, were there any other Summer 2013 sets at the place you purchased this at?

[SpiderSpaceman]

Uhhhhmazing. Now I think I may pick up all of these big figures (was planning to skip over lion and eagle)

[Brickthing]

Great review! Scanning the bag is a brilliant solution as well.

Overall the set looks pretty cohesive, even though it doesn't resemble Eris as much as it perhaps could have, but at least the Chi figures are meant to represent different forms/states of the characters rather than just a different scale. Do you think Reidak's dual-coloured claws would improve Eris? They might improve the colouring, but Hero Factory style sets generally seem to have moved away from blended colour pieces.

[WARHEAD]

Loving that weapon and head sculpt, thanks for the review!

[DraikNova]

If it wasn't for Laval's blue Rocka blades, I'd be picking up Eris instead. You did a good job turning my opinion on this one around.

[Leewan]

Thanks for the review ! Do you plan on making other Chima Ultrabuild reviews ?

Eris doesn't look as bad as I thought, and she has a nice inventory. I will maybe buy her... ^^

[Daimar]

Thanks for the great review ZORK64, Looks like I am the only one, besides you, that likes Eris in her action figure form. I wanted to own her, when the first pics poped up and she is still the only charakter from this line that I will get. I must agree with you on the wings, but they can easily be moc-ed so thats no biggie for me. Thanks again for the review, and now to wait when she will be available in my country.

[Shakar]

Very good review! You covered everything, I think. Unfortunately the only pieces that interest me are the 3M tr blue shells (already found in Aquagon) and the axe blades (I'm sure I'll find another way to get those). I don't need more white or gold, so this is a pss for me. Gorzan and Worriz are still the sets I'm interested the most in.

If it wasn't for Laval's blue Rocka blades, I'd be picking up Eris instead. You did a good job turning my opinion on this one around.

Get Aquagon! He's less expensive and has more versatile parts, I think. Laval's cool pieces are the swords, the gold torso, the tr. blue 5M shells and the fur pieces..and that's it. Everything else can be found elsewhere, and is pretty useless unless you want more gold pieces.

[Aanchir]

Good review! I personally find all the Chima constraction sets quite nice. I long for the day when at least some female characters can be given more unique builds, but it's understandable that they went with this generic torso construction, and they did ag least give her the narrower shoulders. As far as her face is concerned, I agree that it looks gender-neutral rather than decidedly masculine, and that's good enough for me, especially since it means the head sculpt can be reused for other characters. Makes me wonder whether we might see other characters as constraction sets in future years if these sets are successful-- even if not, I'm sure with a set of model paints and a bit of imagination it wouldn't be hard to create custom constraction versions of the other characters.

I'm personally a fan of the wing construction. Certainly the wings can't fold very well, but then, neither can most custom solutions I've attempted since the new HF building system came out.

The combi model looks better than I imagined, and I look forward to instructions for those being posted online.

It's neat how versatile this weapon design is, much like Laval's sword. It's especially nice since until recently weapon designs were still some of the most specialized new elements each year.

[ZORK64]

First of all, thank you all already for all the nice comments! I always appreciate any feedback.

Before I'll fix the few typos I just spotted I'll answer your questions though.

Woah, nice review 'ZORK64'!

These ultra-builds sure are interesting. Also, were there any other Summer 2013 sets at the place you purchased this at?

I... think so. The thing is, I usually don't pay much attention to the other shelves in the LEGO store (usually only Hero Factory, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Chima and the shelve with minifigures and other rather exotic stuff), but I do believe I saw something from Duplo's Jake and the Neverland Pirates in the display.

They did have all six Chi Builds on the shelves though.

Do you think Reidak's dual-coloured claws would improve Eris?

I'm right now wondering who's Reidak. I guess a Bionicle villian?

Thanks for the review ! Do you plan on making other Chima Ultrabuild reviews ?

Since I usually make review for every constraction set I buy, you can at least expect me to review Cragger since I really want to get him too. I'm not so sure about the other 4 however, mostly because I already know that the upcoming Hero Factory wave contains many sets I wanna get and even mine budget for fun stuff has its limits.

However, Laval and Worriz are also interesting to me due to their design and parts. I don't care much for Razar though, and I'm on the fence about Gorzan.

[Jetrax99]

You don't know who Reidak is? Where were you in 2006?

[Aanchir]

I'm right now wondering who's Reidak. I guess a Bionicle villian?

Yep, Reidak is one of the Piraka. His claws are identical to the mold CHI Eris uses, but with gold toes. The Bricklink asking price is around $1 apiece (around €1.30).

[ZORK64]

Ah, thank you Aanchir. I didn't liked the Piraka that much, so I they are among the few canister waves whose names I didn't memorized.

Since I now see the golden feet, I'd say they could improve Eris' design, but I think completely golden feet would be better. But to be honest, I'd prefer the legs orange or yellow, although that would increase the number of colours used for her design.

EDIT: Completely missed Jetrax99' question, sorry for that.

I know, it was probably not serious, but I still can actually answer that: 2005/2006 was the time when I didn't paid much attention to Bionicle because the sets didn't appealed to me. I wasn't a fan of the Hordika and the Visorak, the Piraka were also kinda weird and the Toa Inika could had been cool if it weren't for their weird heads which look awkward from most angles. The only set of 2006 that I consider worth mentioning was Axonn, and my Self MOC owes much to him.

Edited June 7, 2013 by ZORK64

[MakutaNocturn]

Lol, it looks so weird and bad that it seems funny. Anyway, head is the ugliest thing IMO. Other pieces could be useful, especially these ones in new colors.

[Maximillian365]

Neat build for a Chima figure. Besides the head piece which could've resembled Eris's minifigure a lot more, everything else looks great.

[ToaJaller78]

....I'm gonna pretend this is Equila.... THAT IS MAN!!!!!!