[REVIEW]: 70790 Lord of Skull Spiders

[VBBN]

Set name: Lord of Skull Spiders

Set number: 70790

Pieces: 145

Price: $14.99, €

Release date: 2015

The only villain for the winter wave of Bionicle sets is the Lord of Skull Spiders. I won't lie, I'm not a big fan of spider-villains, I find them to be boring counterparts to large bipedal figures, unless they are gigantic. (I'm talking Striking Venom sized here) That aside, the Lord of Skull Spiders (or for the sake of this review, LoSS) has the highest piece count of any of the winter sets and 145, which is interesting considering he's one of the medium sized figures instead of large. He's also the most technic oriented build. So how does he stack up? Let's find out.

Packaging and Contents

Box Front

The front of the box shows LoSS coveting the golden skull spider mask. It's actually a very striking and cool look, with the glowing mask illuminating his eyes. It's actually one of my favorite graphics of the first wave. Something else to note is that, as usual, this is the European packaging, so piece count is absent from the information, among other things.

Box Back

The back of the box is on the lighter side of action features. Funny, the figure that is completely constructed around a function, ends up having the least functions of the winter wave. His legs snap shut. There you are. No mask launching, no gatling guns, no alternate weapons, power-up modes, etc. So this better be one amazing function, right? Right?

Also, as you can see in the animation, LoSS is not intended to have a giant abdomen- it looks more like he's just a gigantic skull spider.

Instructions

The instructions feature the same image-and what an awesome image it is.

New and Interesting Parts

Faceplate

If you're looking to get a slew of new parts, this isn't the se for you. He doesn't come with a gearbox, gatling gun, the new head or eyestalk, piston add ons, or new shells. Instead he has a different fare, mostly technic but the first highlight is this...printed breastplate. I haven't a clue what I'm going to do with this, I really don't like printed faces like that.

Golden Skull Spider Mask

In terms of parts, one of the biggest draws for people is sure to be this, the golden skull spider mask. Unfortunately there isn't any spider legs to go with it.

Technic Bits

Now here are some beauties. First, you get eight of those trans neon orange beams. Then you have the gray technic pin which also comes with Lewa, a part that is relatively new, and never before seen in Constraction. I believe the black one is new, either way both of these are quite rare at the moment and are sure to be amazingly useful in MOCing. It's a shame he only comes with one of the black ones.

Building Process

The Beginning

LoSS has one of those builds where you have no idea what is going on until you are done.

Rubber Band...Thing

Okay moving on we have... well there's a rubber band..and some other stuff. Yeah, I'm gonna let you just look at the pictures.

Gears

Now here we have the meat of the build. The yellow gears are what move the legs. Everything else is just a mount for the trigger, essentially. The red piece will connect to an XT4 torso to give him back armor, and the balljoint is for his face.

Trigger

Next, the trigger is built, and the first set of legs goes on.

Legs

The face is placed on, and we finish up the mounts of the legs.

Finished Build

Front

Okay, we know he looks decent from the front. It's how you see him on all promotional artwork, and is frankly one of his best angles.

Profile

It's a bit unsightly, but not horrible. The trigger does look very strange back there, but it works.

Back

You can see a lot of orange beams. Other than that, there is literally nothing interesting of note here.

Functionality

His function is, well, lame. Basically when you squeeze the trigger, all six legs swing downward about 90 degrees. I'm sure it's fun for a kid to run around snapping his legs open and shut, but for us it's not the most practical thing. It severely limits his poseability and doesn't offer any posing incentive since the legs snap right back, the function doesn't support his weight completely so his balance is completely off (which in turns makes it hard to pose his legs in what little poseability they do have), and it doesn't really pick up the mask so well. Meh.

Pose

I use the term "pose" very loosely here, because honestly all I did was raise the front two legs. But, captured at this angle, the set looks menacing enough, which is better than I was expecting.

Pose 2

This is about the most you can do with his back legs other than a static pose, or a squished spider pose.

Overall

He's not great, let's get that out of the way. When you judge this set, you can't hold him to the same level as the other 12 sets in the wave. He's a very Technic oriented build, which is good fun to construct, but not so fun to pose or look at. He doesn't have a slew of new parts, but what parts he does have are decent for the more Technic savvy builders. Would I recommend him? As a build or parts pack, yes. But as a set, I don't like him. He doesn't really fit in with the other sets, won't pose nearly well enough, and quite frankly I don't know how he's supposed to be any sort of threat to Tahu who could probabaly just step on him.

Now yes, many will argue and say how wonderful it is that he is a Technic build, and that is poseability is forgiven because of that. However, the Toa took the gear system and created functions that don't interfere with the sets, and actually improve the look of the sets in some ways. LoSS, does not successfully do that.

Let's hope the summer wave offers more promising villains.

[Mesonak]

Now yes, many will argue and say how wonderful it is that he is a Technic build, and that is poseability is forgiven because of that. However, the Toa took the gear system and created functions that don't interfere with the sets, and actually improve the look of the sets in some ways. LoSS, does not successfully do that.

That's pretty much the best way to describe this set. BIONICLE 2015 has finally, after all these years, merged functions and poseability together in a seamless combination. LoSS isn't so lucky, which is irritating, because if they had bumped up his price to $20 and replaced the technic liftarms with HF bones, perhaps this issue could have been avoided. I wonder how that would look...

WITH THAT ALL BEING SAID, yeah, this set has plenty of flaws and he doesn't necessarily stand as tall as the rest of the wave (figuratively and literally). However, for some reason, I can't help but enjoy him. He has a certain charm that appeals to me, although it's probably just nostalgia for technic-based creature builds. Oh well.

I'm getting him either way. Great review!

Edited November 21, 2014 by Mesonak

[arc]

I know LoSS is gonna get a lot of hate, but I really like the set. As a set and for parts. Those technic pieces will be crazy useful to me, And I think it looks pretty good put together.

There are some things I would've changed though, like have his back legs at an angle like the front, make his gears black, and add some armor to the lever, but overall I like it. And am looking forward to picking it up. Thanks for the review!

[DOTM Shockwave]

The only thing about the LOSS I like is the gold Skull Spider mask, which I'll more than likely buy from Bricklink if/when it appears.

[Aanchir]

That's pretty much the best way to describe this set. BIONICLE 2015 has finally, after all these years, merged functions and poseability together in a seamless combination. LoSS isn't so lucky, which is irritating, because if they had bumped up his price to $20 and replaced the technic liftarms with HF bones, perhaps this issue could have been avoided. I wonder how that would look...

I'm sure that would LOOK fine (not that I think the current legs have any problems in terms of looks). But it sounds like a nightmare to me as far as posability and functionality is concerned. I feel like having full articulation on the legs of a four-legged or six-legged model is more trouble than it's worth (my brother, having built a fully-articulated, eight-legged spider from CCBS parts, can attest to this — getting photos of that model was a chore). I can fully understand just why the designers chose NOT to give the set fully-articulated legs, and if they HAD given it fully-articulated legs, I think it would have been a real mistake.

Now, I am not under any illusion that this is likely to be as good a set as, say, Gali or Kopaka. But at the same time, I do think that some of the arguments about its aesthetics are a bit picky. To me, the shaping seems about as nice as one could reasonably expect. The only photos in this review that look genuinely bad to me are the side view photo and the photo where the legs are splayed out awkwardly at the end. Otherwise, I think it looks very shapely, with good color blocking and the same balance of curves and angles one might expect a CCBS set to have — yet still with thin, creepy legs and a bulbous body like you'd expect from a spider. The trigger, mounted well behind the rest of the body, hardly strikes me as obtrusive.

Now, as for the functionality? There I can say I'm a bit disappointed with what I've seen and heard. The grabbing function sounds extremely fun (kind of like Dragon Bolt's flapping-wings function), and it's also brilliantly complex. I love that! But it can't exactly measure up to the 2001 Rahi when there's no "game" to it. As it is, there's no way to visibly incapacitate the Lord of Skull Spiders, unlike the 2001 Rahi which all had masks to knock off. And also, the Lord of Skull Spiders' function is not well-suited to knocking off OTHER sets' masks — at best, it can grab them, which is nice and creepy but doesn't make for much of a "game". Part of what makes the Toa and Protector sets so great is the number of ways they surpass the BIONICLE hero and villager sets which came before them. The Lord of Skull Spiders, in spite of all his creativity and functionality, can't make that sort of claim, which is a bit sad.

Oh, and I hope I don't see any ridiculous "how can it be a spider if it just has six legs" comments, because I'm really sick of those. It's a fantasy creature, so there's plenty of room for creative license. And there's no reason a fantasy spider's number of legs is any more important than the number of legs on a fantasy insect, or a fantasy tiger, or a fantasy scorpion, or a fantasy wasp, or a fantasy crab. The Gukko even had four wings and nobody raised a stink about it, even though pretty much everybody should know that real birds only have two! But for some reason, perhaps because everybody learns how many legs a spider should have in grade school, some people have come to treat that characteristic as gospel, all while ignoring whatever other sorts of creative license show up in sets.

All things considered, I hope the people who nitpick the number of legs on fantasy creatures never watch Avatar: The Last Airbender. Hearing characters refer to a six-legged creature as a bison might give them a seizure.

Edited November 21, 2014 by Aanchir

[Ventum]

LOSS is A LOT better than I had been expecting. From earlier photos of concept art and of the set, I wasn't a fan, but now I can say I'm generally impressed. I like how he looks, he pulls off the antagonist look pretty well. However, it's a sad shame that the articulation is so limited on him, it would of been better if it could have moved more. Overall, not as bad as I was expecting, but it could be better.

[Echo]

I like him. Not as much as the Toa or Protectors, but he's still a purchase on sight for me. I love his color scheme aside from the yellow gears. I do agree that he does look like he would be easily squished by any of the Toa though...

[Kalhiki]

After a spell of not liking him, my want for him has increased quite a bit. Like, shockingly so.

I'm absolutely loving how he looks and can't wait to get him. Is he the best set? Not in the least, but I can't help but love the guy.

[Lord-Vorahk]

Eh, I don't like the set. THe model doesn't appeal to me, I'll just rebuild some Visorak.

As a parts pack, on the other hand... Glatorian necks, HF Y-joints, claws, dem pins, etc. Yeah, he's not high-priority, though. Because Bricklink still exists.

Also, not really taken with the trans Technic beams. Never been much of a technic builder (I am a rather shameless fan of Inika torsos), so while they look nice... I wouldn't have much use for them.

[Nekchir]

Nice review! My standing of him hasn't been phased much. I really love him! Despite him being the only major bad guy of the winter wave.

I wouldn't be impressed, however, if they did somehow mange to add more of what people 'want' just to bump up the price to $20.

Good thing Lego stuck with this design.

Edited November 22, 2014 by MonkeyChud

[Clone 01354 Productions]

In all honesty, he is very underwhelming....But I'm going for a complete collection, so I guess that I'll be spending money on him.

So far, I'm loving all the sets (except this one), and I'm really hoping that they can be out by Christmas....

[TheOneVeyronian]

I normally have a soft spot for the villains of any given theme, and that's still true for LoSS for me. Sure he's not the most interesting set of the wave to look at, but by no means is he the worst set I have ever seen. And now I've seen photographs of the construction, I'm beginning to think that this little bad guy will be quite easy to modify. For better poseability, I can always experiment with some Glatorian or Hordika necks and high friction joints. I'll probably also fill out the small abdomen a little bit to make it blend into the model more rather than have it look like that bit that was tacked on as an afterthought. And the yellow gears - while the colour denotes function, I'm not really a big fan of the colour so I'll likely be swapping those gears out on all the models in favour of black ones.

Oh, and I am going to turn that beautiful gold Skull Spider mask into an "elite" Skull Spider. Just got to wait until the legs are available to buy. That or I can de-tail the Skull Scorpions

[VBBN]

I'm sure that would LOOK fine (not that I think the current legs have any problems in terms of looks). But it sounds like a nightmare to me as far as posability and functionality is concerned. I feel like having full articulation on the legs of a four-legged or six-legged model is more trouble than it's worth (my brother, having built a fully-articulated, eight-legged spider from CCBS parts, can attest to this — getting photos of that model was a chore). I can fully understand just why the designers chose NOT to give the set fully-articulated legs, and if they HAD given it fully-articulated legs, I think it would have been a real mistake.

I'm not sure what kind of poses you were trying to achieve, but I have never had issues posing six or eight legged builds, unless something is seriously off balance. 4-legged builds cause me problems, but in this case the front set of legs at that angle really helps to stabilize things. I already tried giving this guy new legs- Instead of the technic beams, I attached glatorian necks to the frame of the body and built legs off of that. Poseability was significantly improved, and the function still worked completely fine. I see no reason why the designers chose this route.

(I'll post photos later but I had to disassemble it for the review, gotta remake my design)

[dviddy]

I'm not sure what kind of poses you were trying to achieve, but I have never had issues posing six or eight legged builds, unless something is seriously off balance. 4-legged builds cause me problems, but in this case the front set of legs at that angle really helps to stabilize things. I already tried giving this guy new legs- Instead of the technic beams, I attached glatorian necks to the frame of the body and built legs off of that. Poseability was significantly improved, and the function still worked completely fine. I see no reason why the designers chose this route.

(I'll post photos later but I had to disassemble it for the review, gotta remake my design)

I don't know, at the level of the LOSS I don't think it would be a problem, but my spider guy with the preview 2015 parts is loaded up with friction joints and even built at slight angles to provide more stability, and it still has problems standing sometimes. The problem with posing six legs is a real one- BUT I don't think a set as small as LOSS would have that issue.

[Aanchir]

I don't know, at the level of the LOSS I don't think it would be a problem, but my spider guy with the preview 2015 parts is loaded up with friction joints and even built at slight angles to provide more stability, and it still has problems standing sometimes. The problem with posing six legs is a real one- BUT I don't think a set as small as LOSS would have that issue.

Took me a while to find them, but here's some photos of the spider my brother built . It's hardly any bigger than the Lord of Skull Spiders. The issue isn't with it not being stable enough to support its own weight, the issue is that once you get one leg into a position you like, it's very easy to knock it out of position when you go to move the leg next to it. Getting all eight legs angled the way he wanted for his photos was not easy at all. I actually think on a larger spider with longer leg joints it would be much LESS of an issue, provided the body didn't weigh it down a lot.

[Agent Fusion]

I think LOSS is one of *those* sets. One of those sets that, besides all of its flaws, still looks great, to me at least.

I already tried giving this guy new legs- Instead of the technic beams, I attached glatorian necks to the frame of the body and built legs off of that.

That's a good idea, VBBN. I'll have to try that once I get the set.

[DalekSram]

Wow! This spider is even scarier than the Visorak!

[Shakar]

Good review as usual VBBN! I seriously hope we don't get another set like this. I literally, honestly mean that.

The function makes no sense on tall humanoids like the Toa and seems to barely work on a Protector. So, having sacrificed the set's look for a not-very-good function, what is left? A barely poseable set, with an admittely nice colour scheme and two very nice pieces (the gold Skull Spider mask and the printed chest), but with an awkward looking, blocky build.

And as VBBN said, he doesn't fit with the other sets- he's too simple and smooth and shares no visual cues with the Skull Spiders (colours, colour scheme, aesthetics). Whatever his origin is (a transformed/evolved Skull Spider? A special breed?), he doesn't look like a Skull Spider, more like a random giant enemy crab spider that could fit in any theme.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the last set to be designed, after they realized the small Spiders weren't enough. That would explain the absence of new pieces- because the budget for new moulds and recolours was almost completely used up, so they managed to only slip in a few recolours and a print design. It's not such an outlandish theory, IMHO. It could also be that he was salvaged from the scrapped set plans of another theme and underwent very minimal changes (which would explain why the new pieces like the gearbox haven't been used in any way)... but this much more speculative so I shall stop here.

But I'm not going to justify the set's obvious flaws with any personal theory. He's not good as an addition to the new theme and he's not good on his own. This is, for me of course, one of the worst constraction sets of recent time, along Evo Walker and Scarox. Sorry, I'm skipping him.

[Logan McOwen]

I ain't impressed. The colours are nice, and the concept is interesting, but the delivery feels... Weird. He's basically a toy grabbing claw with a face. Won't be buying this one.

[bjj8383]

Spiders just don't seem very "Bionicle" to me.

[Aanchir]

Spiders just don't seem very "Bionicle" to me.

Spiders have been a part of BIONICLE since 2001... six-legged ones, too!

[XBomber1980]

That thing is so scary. I WANT ONE!!!

[DalekSram]

Spiders have been a part of BIONICLE since 2001... six-legged ones, too!

That's true. I always think that if you're going to have an insect type creature as an enemy you should go for spiders/tarantulas or scorpions.

Spiders/tarantulas because they're scary.

Scorpions because they're almost indestructible.

[GoldenChi]

I actually think its awesome,just out of necessity for the Toa's and Protectors to fight something. And I think it looks really cool,regardless of the crummy clasping gimmick.

I think a flick-fire missile underneath the head would be cool,because in Pohatu's character vid,the Skull Spider Lord shoots globs of webbing at him from it's mouth.or only the front legs should have the grabbing feature,.and not all the legs.

I actually think its awesome,just out of necessity for the Toa's and Protectors to fight something. And I think it looks really cool,regardless of the crummy clasping gimmick.

I think a flick-fire missile underneath the head would be cool,because in Pohatu's character vid,the Skull Spider Lord shoots globs of webbing at him from it's mouth.or only the front legs should have the grabbing feature,.and not all the legs.

[Lyichir]

I actually think its awesome,just out of necessity for the Toa's and Protectors to fight something. And I think it looks really cool,regardless of the crummy clasping gimmick.

I think a flick-fire missile underneath the head would be cool,because in Pohatu's character vid,the Skull Spider Lord shoots globs of webbing at him from it's mouth.or only the front legs should have the grabbing feature,.and not all the legs.

I actually think its awesome,just out of necessity for the Toa's and Protectors to fight something. And I think it looks really cool,regardless of the crummy clasping gimmick.

I think a flick-fire missile underneath the head would be cool,because in Pohatu's character vid,the Skull Spider Lord shoots globs of webbing at him from it's mouth.or only the front legs should have the grabbing feature,.and not all the legs.

I agree a launcher there would've been neat. But Flick-fire missiles don't really work well when placed underneath a model, as it can be near-impossible to flick them unless the model's on the ground. Unless, of course, you have a more complex method of firing them. And at that point I imagine you'd be cutting the $15 target price point very close—LoSS already has pretty much the best price-per-piece in the new theme.