Review: 44023 Rocka Crawler

[VBBN]

Set name: Rocka Crawler

Set number: 44023

Piece Count: 49

Year Released: 2014

Price: 9.99

Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the Rocka Crawler. Firstly as always I want to thank Lego and the Eurobricks staff who made it possible for me to bring these reviews to you guys.

Rocka Crawler is the smallest Hero set of the wave, and is comparable to the Evo Walker from the first wave. Many people may find this set a bit needless to have, iven that Rocka already had a larger set earlier in the year. Is this set worth picking up? Read on to find out!

Bag Front

Like the first wave, the bag has some nice artwork on the top. I was fortunate enough to get these sets signed, and I do believe the signatures on each bag correspond to who designed the set; In this case there would be 3 designers (or 4, not sure if that signature on the top is one or two)

Bag Back

Like the first wave, it's apparently a significant feature that the seat can be taken off. Right. On a more interesting view, you can see the jumper's, well, jumping, the projectile gun, and the cocoon's flexible petals.

Contents

Contents

One bag of parts and instructions

Instructions

To save redundancy, I have only shown further instruction photos in the reviews of the boxed sets. The one thing worth mentioning is that the comics are back in the instructions, just like the first wave.

Petals

The new petals, which are red in this set. The black is a hard plastic, and the red is a softer rubber-like plastic, and the petals can stay open as I will show.

Smaller bits

Some smaller parts worth noting, the jumper shell now comes in bright blue, and we have the minifig saw in gold which is a nice weapon for minifig Rocka.

The Build

Minihero Build

Rocka's build is the same as before, utilizing the skeleton torso as the main body.

Front

He is the same as his first incarnation. If you missed didn't like the set he came with in the first wave, you've got two more options with this wave.

Jumper

While I am extremely disappointed that we didn't get new jumper colors for the legs, it is nice to see that the shells have a variant.

Cocoon Build

The cocoons are built with the brown tri-connector.

Completed cocoon

I do quite like the look of these cocoons. They are very organic and I feel they can be reused in future mocs (I also wish we had more colors these.)

Petals open

The petals do hold open (usually)

Hatchling

Dawh look at the little guy

Torso

The torso begins with the smaller torso variant.

Legs

His legs are extremely short and oddly use the smaller beast feet.

Arms

His arms win points for being...different. They don't look entirely convincing and they can be very awkward to pose.

Cockpit

The cockpit doesn't have any canopy covering it, we will talk more about that soon.

Completed Set

Front

From a front view, the set doesn't look too bad. The arms leave something to be desired, but they can be made to look less awkward depending how you pose them. The printed shell is in a rather odd place at the top of the mech, and you attach the gun to it. This is the projectile gun that has been seen in SW, and I like it quite a bit. It fires a good distance and fits in with the HF aesthetic.

Side

It's profile is rather thin.

Back

Once again, a boring view. At least there is some back armor to be seen.

Pose 1

Posing the set is...difficult. The legs only have two points of movement, and the arms can only do so much. However, the lack of a canopy does add some dept to the set. The pilot plays a more central role in the final look of the set.

Pose 2

Someone please explain to me how this is a crawling machine. The original rumor of it being called the climbing machine was still a stretch, but it would make a lot more sense than this.

Pose 3

Not really sure what pose I was going for here, but it's a view from a different angle if nothing else.

Pose 4

"Momma beast help me!"

Canopy

For fun, I added on a canopy to see how the set would look.

Rocka Crawler was a surprising set. At first, I felt it was one of the weakest looking sets of the wave, with a rather boring design. After building it and having it in hand, my opinion of the set has grown. I like the overall look of the set, and it's a neat small little mech. It suffers from some issues, such as very odd arms and strangely articulated legs. I think it was silly giving Rocka a small machine, when he not only has had a larger mech earlier in the year, but also a flying machine as part of the combat machine. I would have much rather seen Nex get this small little mech (and conversely give the slot for a third evo machine to stringer, or something like that) I don't think it's a bad set, but I wouldn't put it at the top of anyone's to-buy list given the other sets available in the wave. I also don't think it's too spectacular in the way of parts, but that depends on what parts you find useful.

[EVO97]

Great Review! I'm actually looking forward to this one, I like the smaller mech. Do you know when these will be released in the US? Is the date still August?

[VBBN]

Great Review! I'm actually looking forward to this one, I like the smaller mech. Do you know when these will be released in the US? Is the date still August?

Unfortunately I was not given information on a release date. I didn't receive a date for the Chima Ultrabuilds either, and they started showing up in stores right after reviews went live, so it is possible we may see these sets earlier than August in some places.

[EVO97]

Unfortunately I was not given information on a release date. I didn't receive a date for the Chima Ultrabuilds either, and they started showing up in stores right after reviews went live, so it is possible we may see these sets earlier than August in some places.

I hope so, thanks!

[Brickus]

It is a very aesthetically pleasing mech, thanks for reviewing.

[Sir Brickalot]

Wow... This is bad. It is so boring to me, and Rocka AGAIN?!

Thanks for the review anyway.

[Kalhiki]

I personally thing this thing is adorably cool. Though I will modify the legs by giving it the smallest bone to provide a knee joint.

Also cool to see I was right in assuming the cocoon petals have an open position. Makes them all the more interesting.

[TheOneVeyronian]

Once again, thanks for the review. Overall I think this set is okay, I think the blue backed jumper and the cocoon interest me much more than the actual mech does. And I have a Rocka already from the Stealth Machine. I didn't think the mech itself looked too bad on the box art, but now I can see it in a different position, those arms are just... . They are in desperate need of modding in my opinion. I think they would benefit from having a 5M and a 3M bone rather than the one 4M bone, and at the same time it would probably benefit from a leg extension and joint addition. It's definitely no Evo Walker, but at the same time it's no Tunneler or Jaw Beast either.

And the name... sorry, even I can't explain why they chose "crawler" over all the more appropriate descriptors that they could have chosen (and I have a university degree!)

[Im a brickmaster.]

I like the seacond to last picture, looks like he's about to shove that chainsaw into the jumper! Nice review, I we defiently at least get this model, seeing how I missed the first wave..

[SmoothJazz]

Thanks for the review. Anyway, as for the set, I don't like it in the least. It basically looks like they took the Breez polybag and added some extras. Overall, it seems far too small for a $10 set.

[toatyger]

It could really use different feet, but it's a cool little set anyways.

[Cirkit]

For the price it's set at, it's a decent little set. We have a mech that is largely solid in its build, compared to the 'Evo Walker' from last wave; we have something for Rocka and his mech to fight ( the little crawler), and we have that gorgeous cocoon-egg-leafy-flowery-pod-thing. It's got a few more interesting parts and on its own could be fun to mess around with, or just use as a parts pack.

One thing I will say is that while the arms do look a little awkward, I do like how they are in 'Pose 3'. That shot kind of reminded me of one of the Bohrok from the old 'Bionicle' days.. at least to me it did.

Also, those feet. Just saying. Add some claws to it or something.

I do agree that it probably would have been better if another Hero had piloted this vehicle, Nex or Stringer perhaps. Gives a new(sort of) and interesting colored character, exclusive to the set, that makes people want to pick it up more(if only for the figure).

I'd probably pick up the set once it becomes available at my local Toys "R" US. I like it enough, and I'd probably do what I planned to do with the Evo Walker and just revamp it somehow. No beastie's going to be able to stand against the almighty Rocka Crawler!!

...maybe

Edited June 15, 2014 by Cirkit

[TheGreatSpirit]

Nice review. Is it just me, or does this set feel remnicent of Breez's mini mech which nobody seems to have? (http://brickset.com/article/10655/40116-hero-factory-mini-model)

Although its nice to see that the set includes a full set of those new petal pieces, I think I'll just settle for one of the 15 dollar sets when I get back to the States.

[Aanchir]

I like small machines like this. They remind me of the old small BIONICLE sets — though of course, at $10 this one is a lot more expensive than those would have been. This year's HF polybag is probably a better comparison, though that lacks a jumper, a cocoon, or much of the armor that decorates this set. A better comparison in terms of piece count would be a BIONICLE canister set like the Vahki, though height-wise those tower over this set.

Bit of a shame that the cocoons use the Dark Brown tri-connectors rather than the new black ones that appear in the Ultra Agents sets.

Not sure quite whether I'm getting this set. I'm probably going to want either this or Rocka Stealth Machine, but not both. And neither is a huge priority now that I've finally committed to getting Surge & Rocka Combat Machine.

[beartrapper]

The cocoon's look awesome. I'll want to grab quite a few of this set just for moc's down the road.

[plew2000]

nice review dude! I really like the mechs in this wave of sets.