Review: 70008 - Gorzan’s Gorilla Striker

[XimenaPaulina]

I’ve always thought that the Legends of Chima theme won’t appeal to the AFOL in me considering it is primarily targeted to kids, but surprisingly one new set in the second wave of this theme suddenly captured my interest – the new 70008 Gorzan’s Gorilla Striker. We’ve seen lions, crocodiles, eagles, ravens, and wolves before, and now the second chapter of the Legends of Chima introduces us to the newest tribe in the world of Chima – the Gorillas. For some reason I find these new Gorilla characters/minifigs really appealing, they look so adorably ‘brute and cute’. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that the set includes a great-looking gorilla mech – probably one of, if not, the best Chima vehicles released. So let’s take a closer look at this set with this review…

Set Information

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Set Name: Gorzan's Gorilla Striker

Set Number: 70008

Theme: Legends of Chima

Year: 2013

Pieces: 505

Minifigures: 4

Price: US$49.99

Links: Brickset | Bricklink (not yet listed) | LEGO Shop@Home (not yet listed)

The Box

One of the best aspects about the Chima sets is their ‘customized boxarts’ depicting the main character each set, in this case it’s Gorzan’s face prominently displayed in the upper right corner beside the LEGO and Chima logos. The main boxart presents the set with a battle scene between the Gorilla tribe with their Gorilla Striker mech versus their lone Raven opponent. One minor nitpick with the graphics is the way the mini-tree build was photoshopped in the background looks ‘a bit off’, it’s as if it was just plastered directly on top of the trees.

The back shows the obligatory play features of the set, on an slightly more organized layout than usual (the panels are properly aligned compared to more random placement in other themes’ set boxes). Another unusual detail are the text describing the play features in all the panels (in six different languages), which we don’t normally see with other sets. An image showing the face-off between Gorzan and Rizzo on the upper right corner gives a nice touch to the relatively subdued blue background.

There is an ad on the lower right corner for the LEGO Chima Game online, which provides another interactive play platform for Chima fans. I haven’t played the game, nor I have the intention to, but it’s good to see TLG adapting to the current age of mobile online technology, as evidence by the iPad/tablet graphic on top.

The top of the box displays the minifigures of the set and the 1:1 panel. The box is so long that there are lots of unoccupied background space. The minifig display at the top of the box has full body action shots of the minifigs while the one in front of the box shows the ID profile shots with the respective character names. I like this variation in presentation unlike in other themes (i.e. the Lone Ranger) where both minifig line-ups have the same poses. The main character of this set, Gorzan, is shown in the 1:1 inset.

The Contents

Four numbered bags of LEGO, three loose pieces, an instruction booklet, and a small sticker sheet are what we get from this set.

The Instruction Booklet

The instruction booklet has the same coverart and horizontal orientation as the box, though the booklet is meant to be read vertically inside.

The instructions have a conservative plain light bluish background and lack the faint images detailing on the pages that other themes’ instruction booklets have. I also noticed some pages have a lot of steps like the one pictured above, dividing the page into two sections. AFOLs probably won’t have problems with this, but younger kids may have to be careful when reading the instructions so as not to miss any step.

Click the image for hi-res version

I was a bit surprised that there was an ad midway through the booklet (first time I encountered one) and I thought that I may have gotten an incomplete instruction booklet. But it was just a centerfold (that is meant to be taken out of the booklet if one wishes to) showcasing all the Chima character minifigs including the new ones from the second wave.

The Sticker Sheet

A small sheet of stickers for added decorative detail on the set is included.

The Pieces

Bag #1

All the minifig parts are contained in the first bag, along with the pieces needed to build the Raven tree/vehicle contraption. Love the dark red foliage pieces. A brick separator is included too.

Bag #2

The medium azure pieces stand out among the sea of the usual blacks, greys, and browns.

Bag #3

There are a lot of interesting parts on Bag #3:

a. Bananas! You get 7 of ‘em. Yum-yum!

b. There are several huge pieces in this bag, particularly those 3x3 and 6x6 quarter circle round corner bricks (first time in black) and the medium azure octagon plates.

c. Lots of multiple pieces in this bag! (17 x brown round plates, 8 x black round bricks, 8 x black dome heads, 8 x mechanical arms, etc…)

Bag #4

The are still multiple pieces in this bag but not as much as in the third bag. The colors are consistent with the black-brown-grey-medium azure general motif of the pieces.

Interesting Pieces

Since this set is not yet listed in Bricklink I don’t have the exact piece names, but these are the ones that was interesting for me: The black technic part, the 1x2 curved slope, the hammer head piece and knuckle hand accessory. The 2x3 curved slope also seems to be a new part (first time I’ve seen it).

The Minifigures

The highlight of the minifig line-up is obviously the new Gorilla characters: Gorzan, Grimloo, and G’loona. I like the fact that despite being part of the same animal tribe they have unique colors and detailing (just like the other tribes). The Rizzo Raven minifig isn’t new and has been released in two previous sets before.

Gorzan

The main gorilla character of Legends of Chima is Gorzan, a black gorilla and a great warrior of his tribe. He is armed with a giant hammer and sports a battle armor with a Chi crystal. There is a slight discrepancy with the head markings from the TV show character, but I presume this minifig is the “battle version” of Gorzan having different “war face markings”.

Gorzan’s fierce expression is fit for a great warrior of the Gorilla Tribe. The light green war face paints goes well with his black skin/hair color.

Removing the armor the full print details of both the front and back torsos can be clearly seen. Gorzan has a double-sided head showing a battle-raged angry face on one side and a happy and relieved expression on the other.

Grumlo

Having a lighter grey skin/hair tone, Grumlo looks less fierce than Gorzan with his more laid-back mouth expression in his gorilla head. The white hair on the cheeks indicate that he’s probably one of the older Gorilla tribesmen(?).

Grumlo has the same laid-back facial expression on both sides of his head. Also, gotta love those two bananas tuck in his waist at the back!

G’loona

A young female brown gorilla, G’loona can’t be anymore ‘girlier’ with all the floral decorations on her head and body. She has a child-like expression on her gorilla headpiece emphasized with her buck teeth and pimpled cheeks. Her weapon of choice is a pair of “giant clobbering fists” (for lack of a better term).

She has a similar expression in her head like the one in the headpiece, while the other side has a slightly pissed-off look. The printing of her front and back torso are consistent showing her leaf brassiere with flower decors.

Rizzo

The scavenger of the Raven Clan, Rizzo sports his signature metal eyepatch and pegleg and armed with his dual-purpose blaster-axe. His overall appearance is the stereotypical “black villain look”.

Like the rest of the Chima minifigs he has a double-sided head having an angry evil look and a surprised/scared alternate expression.

Minifig Weapons

Rizzo’s dual-function blaster-axe, Gorzan’s and Grumlo’s battering sledgehammers, and G’loona’s clobbering fists.

The Build

Bag #1 Build

First to be built are all the minifigures and the tree-catapult contraption. I’ve been used to sets with the multiple minifigs not built from one bag, so this is something I haven’t seen in a quite some time.

Bag #2 Build

This is the starting point of building the Gorilla Striker mech. A gear mechanism inside will provide an important functionality which we’ll see later. The main body/torso of the mech is semi-finished at this point. Note the prominent use of brackets – this will be essential in the SNOT design of the mech.

Bag #3 Build

This stage of the build is where it gets repetitive as there are quite a number of multiple builds, like 8 x fingers, 2 x arms, 2 x shoulders. Kids may need more patience to get through this stage.

An interesting part of build is the banana cannon weapon. Needless to say, the concept behind this cannon using banana as ammunition is crazy genius!

We get a half-mech after the third bag build. From this you’ll already expect what would be the last part of the build is…

Bag #4 Build

The finishing touches are built from the last bag, namely the waist and leg parts. Attaching these to the main body and we now have the finished mech!

I’d like to show the ‘segmented’ style of the build with this image – the whole build process is systematically designed to build the separate body parts and attached together in the end.

The Completed Set

Leftover Pieces

Lots of the usual 1x1 spare parts, though I fear I might’ve missed a step after seeing that 2x2 round plate.

The Set Features

Gorzan’s Gorilla Striker

As the ‘star of the set’, the Gorilla Striker mech is one huge, bulky, and imposing build. The overall black color scheme with medium azure highlights is based on Gorzan’s own skin/hair tone combo. The mech having long arms and short legs approximates those of real-world gorillas. And if by any chance you haven’t noticed it, the details of the “body” are actually parts of the face of a gorilla (see the eyes, nose, and two sharp teeth?). Quite clever design isn’t it?

The back is less covered compared to the front, which actually provides unobstructed access to the various play mechanisms.

Prominently seen on the side views are the wide curved shoulders of the mech – which is my one of my favourite aspects of the design as it gives the mech an imposing muscular brute appearance. There are also a pair of tubes on both sides going to and from the hand and shoulders, whose function I assume is a fuel link that provides power to those huge arms (yeah, I just made that stuff out ).

There is however an noticeable flaw in the design – one of the drawbacks of having a large and heavy body and small stubby legs is there is instability in making the mech stand up. The mech has tendency to fall back when stood up straight, so one has to stoop it down a bit to stabilize the center of gravity (as evidenced in both images).

Mech Movement

If my count is correct there are 20 different points of articulation which allows for various movements of the mech’s limbs. These movements are mostly for play purposes, and due to the aforementioned instability of the mech, action poses are somewhat limited.

The main action movement of the mech are the synchronized pounding of its huge arms controlled by a rotating knob at the back (remember the gear mechanism at the start of the build?). Here’s a video showing how it works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilZTZ5O-idk

I really like this function! So simple yet so playable. I’m sure kids would enjoy this feature of the mech.

Left: The mech seats one pilot at the top, but the space is very limited and there is some difficulty putting the Gorzan inside because of his battle armor. The banana cannon also sits atop the right shoulder of the mech, Iron Patriot-style.

Right: There is a clip at the back to put Gorzan’s hammer while he’s operating the mech.

A couple of studs in the shoulders allow both G’loona and Grumlo to hitch a ride on the Gorilla Striker.

Flick-fire Missiles

Flick-fire Missile lovers would surely enjoy this mech as it is equipped with not one, not two, not three… but SIX flick-fire missile hidden inside the mech’s body! There is an option to open only two flick-fire hatches, or you could go all-out with six missiles and destroy the opponent by opening the whole body cover. All flick-fires are fired by push-levers at the back. There is also a hidden crystal inside the body compartment.

Rizzo’s Tree Catapult

This build is composed of a tree catapult and a vehicle on top. This catapult works like any catapult would, or does it really? Well, I tried (look below):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYLaW9MdUms

I guess you have to press the lever on the sides for it to work properly. Dumb Kiel

There is also a miniature catapult beside the tree, where Rizzo could fire away anti-gorilla mech blackberry bombs.

Here's a comparison of the Gorilla Striker with other LEGO Mechs:

Click image for hi-res version

LXF sources: 6862 - Tontus, 9448 - Zarkan, 60008 - CMS4, 8970 - prateek, 70500, 70505, 70704 - penguinz, 70708 - KDM

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Rating the Set

Design – 9/10 I am absolutely impressed with the overall design of the mech – from the aesthetics, color scheme, functionality, etc. The only minor criticism for me is the instability of the mech for action posing purposes, but that wouldn’t be much of an issue for children I suppose.

Parts – 9/10 It’s great to get a good combination of new parts, new colors of existing pieces, and a nice variation of colors from the usual blacks, greys and browns to colorful medium azure. The multiple number of several pieces will also be useful for future MOCs.

Build – 8/10 While there are some several repetitive steps, there are a number of interesting building techniques particularly those involving SNOT.

Minifigs – 10/10 What can I say I really love the new Gorilla minifigures – they’re colourfully unique and highly detailed. Even the villain Rizzo minifig ain’t bad either (no pun intended).

Playability – 10/10 There will definitely no shortage of playability with this set – from the mech’s arm-stomping action, flick-fire missiles, banana cannon, tree catapult – kids will spend countless enjoyable hours of playtime!

Price – 9/10 The price slightly lower than the 10 cents/parts ratio (9.899c), even with the large parts the $50 price tag is more than justified IMO.

Overall: 92%

This set is definitely worth the purchase – from the new gorilla minifigs to the Gorilla Striker mech itself – I recommend it to anyone who would like to try our the Legends of Chima theme.

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Parting Shot

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Thanks for your time reading the review! C&C’s are always welcome.

:monkey:

[howie28]

Great review. This set looks nice, but it's not my taste. (or in my budget)

[KazeMonsuta]

I really like the set. I've been waiting for a Chima set that actually represents the coresponding animal from head to toe.

I actually might pick this one up.

And don't think I didn't hear the One Piece soundtrack in the small video showing the mechs arm-flailing. ;D

[CM4Sci]

Nice review. I'm thinking of picking up this set, I really like the mech. Or anything Chima.

How'd you get this? Do you have and other summer Chima sets?

-Sci

[MECHALEX]

Great review, really thorough. Like you, this is the first set that has really grabbed me from the Chima range. I love the minifigs, but have a terror of sinking yet more cash into a range which has the potential to snatch my wallet, eat it, and spit the small change back through my letterbox. However I'll definitely be picking this up, just as the samurai mech from Ninjago was my first brush with that range - a hulking great mech will always turn my head.

I think it only needs a minor mod to get the arms to alternate in their swinging movement too.

[homemade sciencefiction]

i don"t like chima BUT it has very good parts i may think get it and use the parts

[Leewan]

Thanks for the review, Kiel. The set looks great, I especially the design and the colors of the mech. The arms feature is nice, and the banana gun is absolutely awesome. Unfortunately the crow's vehicle (?) is weird, and does not seem very nice. :/

[XimenaPaulina]

Thanks for the comments!

How'd you get this? Do you have and other summer Chima sets?

All the second wave sets were already available in stores here in Singapore this week (first week of June). I picked this set only since it's the one that got my interest the most. I'll just probably get the other Chima minifigs of my interest (Grizzam the white gorilla, Furty the Fox, and Skinnet the Skunk) either through the Speedorz sets or BL.

Great review, really thorough. Like you, this is the first set that has really grabbed me from the Chima range. I love the minifigs, but have a terror of sinking yet more cash into a range which has the potential to snatch my wallet, eat it, and spit the small change back through my letterbox.

I think it only needs a minor mod to get the arms to alternate in their swinging movement too.

I hear you. Ever since this set got my attention, and now that I got it, I feel that I have to complete all the Chima minifigs (or at least a representative for each tribe).

I really like the set. I've been waiting for a Chima set that actually represents the coresponding animal from head to toe.

I actually might pick this one up.

And don't think I didn't hear the One Piece soundtrack in the small video showing the mechs arm-flailing. ;D

I think it is the best vehicle in the Chima theme (with Eris' Eagle Interceptor a close second). And nice to know someone recognized the One Piece soundtrack!

[DraikNova]

While my budget is by no means going to allow me to get this set, this is without any doubt the best set of the Chima lineup for this year, with the possible exception of the Croc Boat.

[just2good]

Fantastic review (like always) 'KielDaMan'!

This set has some really awesome pieces, and it clocks in to just about 10 cents per piece. The figures are fantastic, too. I really hope to find this on clearance in 2014 or so, as I can't bring myself to buy it at full price.

[Faefrost]

The mech is kinda interesting. I've been kind of mixed on Chima. Some sets have really grabbed me while others have left me flat. The mech in this one is great. I'm not as thrilled with the Minifigs as I thought I would be. I was hoping that the Gorillas would lend themselves more towards MOC'ing. But the heads and torsos seem a little overly printed for that and a little too cartoony. I was kinda hoping for the stuff of Planet of the Apes.

[Bigger Fish]

Is it just me, or does the mech kind of look like something from Gurren Lagann?

[XimenaPaulina]

Is it just me, or does the mech kind of look like something from Gurren Lagann?

I'm not familiar with this Gurren Lagann, but after a quick Google search, that mecha does look like the Gorilla Striker having similar 'bodies shaped as heads'.

[Gryphon Ink]

I really like the set. I've been waiting for a Chima set that actually represents the coresponding animal from head to toe.

You didn't like Eris' Eagle Interceptor? It's very much a mechanical eagle. The Raven flyer looks pretty raven-like, too.

I do like the build of this set, but I'm not sold on the gorillas themselves. I know Chima isn't the most serious of themes, but these guys look extra goofy.

[Grazingcattle]

I have waxed and waned between investing in a Chima product. With such a small budget I normally stick to Star wars unless something grabs my attention. The wolf minifigs have almost made me pull the trigger multiple times since they would make neat star wars characters

These monkeys might have sold me... the good piece count, hammers, awesome gloves of doomth, BANANAS, and awesome mech just might sell me... just gotta scrape up the money lol Too many great lego products!

[Csacsa234]

I didn't like Chima since it started, all those silly 'trying-to-look-like-an-animal' vehicles freaked me out. But when I saw this set it really got my attention. The mech itself looks awesome as a standalone robot and it resembles a Gorilla very well too. If I will have any money left after buying Tower of Orthanc and the jedi Defender, than I pick this up. Great parts and colors, and despite I don't like Chima, the figures of the theme are spot on and this set is no exception.

Thank you for the review and the great pictures!

[Sid Sidious]

This wasn't one of my favorite Chima sets, but seeing it closer in the review has started to sway my mind. I like the dark red, brown, and blue pieces, but I don't know if I have room for too many more black ones.

Edited June 8, 2013 by Sid Sidious

[TimH]

Great review! I hope to pick this set up soon.

[MikroMan]

While I'm not really a fan of Chima, after this review, I'm seriously considering buying this set. The mech is quite cool and I love gorilla figs

[Tobias_Jay]

Excellent review, this is the only set of the new wave that interests me, this review only gave me a bigger desire for it.

[ch_ris127]

I never really was interested in the gorillas, but after reading this review...darn, the mech just looks that good! But I'll be getting Worriz's Combat Lair first to complete the wolf tribe, and save this one for later. Much, much later (LEGO this year hasn't been that good with my pocket...)

[lightningtiger]

Great review 'Kiel', personally I can't get into Chima.....but if they have the tiger faction at some stage.....hey, I'll be into Chima then !

The mecha is really suited to gorilla warfare......get it, gorilla.....warfare !

Brick On Review On 'Kiel' !

[Xcod119]

You could use this to MOC King Kong

[8BrickMario]

Great review. While I don't like Chima, I'll probably make an exception for this. I like that the flick-fires are deployed by pegs, as opposed to hurting your fingers. Why did the word "expression" glitch out?

[8BrickMario]

EDIT: The Gorilla Tribe is one of the better ones to me. The only silly-looking one is G'Loona, 'cause she's, well, g'loony.