VBBN Posted November 28, 2011 (edited) Thought I would share my thoughts on this guy, albeit a little late to the cut. Set Name: Rocka 3.0 Set Number: 2143 Pieces:30 VIP Points: 7 Year of Release: 2011 Lego S@H: Rocka 3.0 Brickset: Rocka 3.0 Attention, Rocka! We’ve received a red alert on jungle planet Quatros. Witch Doctor is trying to remove all of the planet’s quaza. If he succeeds, the planet will die. Stop him before it’s too late! Quatros is crawling with beasts under his control. Use the double claw combo tool and lion animal power to ward them off.Includes double claw combo tool and lion animal power Rocka’s specialties are speed, strength, ferocity Stands over 6” (17cm) tall ----------------- Packaging Front Rocka 3.0, which for the remainder of this review I shall simply call Rocka, comes in the same canister as every hero has come in. The only noteable difference is the fact that all of the lids for this wave are lime green. (For those who are not familiar, all 2.0's had orange lids, and 1.0's had lids corresponding to the colors of the respective hero) Other than that it's pretty standard, showing off rocka in his lion-y glory, with the usual set information. Back Once again standard, shows off a combiner model between Rocka and Stormer. I still find it odd that they use the hero core as a size comparison as opposed to the standard mask. *** Contents Spilled out Nothing says lovely like seeing gold parts fill out of the canister. Certainly a good amount of pieces here, and is almost on par with the original Toa Mata in terms of price and parts. Instructions Nothing to really comment here, though one thing I must say is that i love the heads with glowing eyes to the far left, a very eerie backdrop indeed. Random Instruction Shot.. ...Though it's actually not random. I chose this shot here to show the black/grey differentiation, which can vary. As you can see, Rocka's isn't the easiest to tell. Being a smaller set, this isn't much of an issue, but on a much larger set this would be. "Bone" Pieces As you can see, Rocka does indeed have the thinner shoulder torso, causing his arms to be closer into his chest. I'm not a huge fan of him having ths piece, but I do find it more useful for female figures, so I don't mind it. In addition he has some standard short upper and lower joints, and well as a slightly extended version of the lower joind, which makes his legs taller as I'll get to later. Armor and Other Interesting Bits Firs thing that you will undoubtedly notice is the lovely gold armor and feet, as well as his black hand, and white hero head. He also has his nametag, which i'll touch up on in a second, and his new paw piece. More Interesting bits A white hero core, gold chest piece, some new claws which ill get to in a second, his head, and some gunmetal exo-force/bionicle minfig robot arms. Helmet Now when we first saw picture of Rocka's head, I can say with confidence no one knew what was going on with it-let alone where his face was. In closeup, you can see he has a very awesome looking lion headsculpt, with a huge mane. That's no joke either, this is by a far the largest helmet on a hero thus far; And it looks LOVELY. Though to note, this wasmore designed for Rocka XL, a large version of the figure who utilizes this head much better. Rear View Fear not children, the back of his head is indeed closed, so there is no unsavory gap behind this large helmet. It too has some nice shapes and detailing. Nametag Plate At first I wasn't a huge fan of the trans green, and I'm still not. I mean, I know I'm going to get criticized for this, but when it comes to these nametag plates, i would RATHER have a sticker, because I want to reuse this part, without hating to use other resources to remove the printing. But alas, it does look quite nice and has some nice gold and silver paint on it. Other new bits And so here we are at the other new bits in the set. The new hook-claws(which are solid plastic), the pointy blades(rubberized plastic), and finally the large paw piece. All of these bits are quite useful for the hero factory system, and are great additions in my opinion. *** The Build Bone Structure Normally the forearms are the same as the shins, but as I stated earlier, he does have longer shins, so he stands taller. You can also see the closer shoulders. Armor Armor works pretty much the same here is on 2.0, just random bits here and there in different configurations. The colors on him are quite balanced, much like previous waves, so that is good to see. Though, the green on his arm is a bit of a throw off, but Ill get to that shortly. *** Finished Set Front Back In his finished form, Rocka looks quite stunning. The gold and black give off a good contrast, and white hero core looks excelelnt(lets face it, white and gold go good together) In addition, the white hero head looks neat with the lion head, as it acts as "teeth" for the helmet. The giant paw leaves something to be desired however, as it does cause him to lose a black hand(White of course is a lovely black hand -.-) On a plus side, the weapon hand itself is quite nice, and offers some good poseability. And yes, he does suffer what I now dub "HBS" or "hollow back syndrome" a common problem caused by this new building system. Posed Still Think Hero Factory is not a worthy successor to Bionicle? (at least parts wise, story wise it can't even compare:() Think again And a final Size comp ---------------------- And so there you have it, Rocka 3.0. I must say, he is quite a nice figure, with good articulation as expected from a 2.0 core build. His color scheme looks excellent, and of course his new helmet is very striking, and arguably the best. Though a bit large, it still looks good, and even moreso on his larger counterpart. If you are only going to get one hero in this wave, then I would recommend Rocka. His design isn't the greatest, but he is the only hero thus far to have gold parts, white hero mainframe(core and head), and of course the lovely black hand. other than that, you won't be finding a large amount of new parts in any of the figures. parts; 9/10. Not many new bits as expected, but lovely gold, and a great helmet. Would like more armor to bulk him up however. price; 10/10. For a figure this size, I have no problem with the price. P/p is a bit off, but once again that is expected. design; 7/10. Although he may have good parts, his design..isn't that great. it's quite generic, with oddly lacking arms, and I do not like the thin shoulders. Anyways that's it for my review of Rocka 3.0, stay tuned for more hero factory reviews! I know I was late to the chase this time around, but fear not I will be grabbing the 4.0 or "1.0 re-imagined" sets as soon as I can for reviews. Edited December 15, 2011 by Brickthing Indexed and Poll added! (Finally) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nightcruise Posted November 28, 2011 They really should had done a smaller helmet, just looks a bit off on that figure. Beside that, I do find the set to be good. Good review. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
