Brickthing Posted December 30, 2011 Set name: Splitface Set Number: 6218 Price: $12.99USD , 12.99 Euro Pieces: 50 Year of release: 2012 Peeron Bricklink Brickset Evade capture with SPLITFACE’s shredding claws and split personality! Heroes, we hope you’re receiving this message! SPLITFACE has escaped and is trying to disrupt Hero Factory communications. Equip yourselves with anything you need to combat his vicious shredding claw, plasma gun, precision laser and split personality and stop him before its too late. Failure is not an option! Hero Factory 2012 leaves the themed structure of 2011 waves to return to a diverse selection of villains, from humanoid to insectoid to downright fishy. I like this, because each set is more varied, and we get to see some very wacky themes. Splitface is the only large (+300 GAME POINTS tier) villain of the wave, for whom the smaller Surge gets the unfortunate mission of capturing. Claws and laser guided Zamor aside; something tells me that Splitface isn’t the stable kind of character that can be reasoned with. The Bag Front First we start with the bag, which replaces the tall boxes of previous villains. Splitface wastes no time in admiring the beautiful space background, instead charging towards the customer leaving Surge struggling to keep up. The GAME POINTS feature seems to be a big deal, and Splitface gives you 300 of them! My favourite detail of these bags has to be the mini Splitface head on the zipper. It’s a bit odd that his eyes are red and face is all black in that thumbnail though. Back On the back we have the usual assortment for box arts; set functions, game ads and legal texts, but this time they’re all backed up with the shiny chrome of the bag! According to the bag if you say Splitface’s name three times in different languages he will assume an obedient zombie pose and allow you to fire his Zamor weapon. Or maybe I’m interpreting the image wrong. I’m still not sure about the purpose of the ball/socket diagram, which repeats the joints you can see on the set but doesn’t explain what they are or how they work. The game advert is the same as on the Hero sets, except Villains don’t have Hero cores, or at least they don’t show it as part of the set… Contents What's within? Cut open the bag and out spills this lot; polybags, instructions, a tube and a torso bone! Splitface’s instructions were fine but Surge’s weren’t. That means the bags are capable of protecting instructions but just as with boxes, it is luck of the draw as to whether they chose to do so. The instructions So let’s take a look at these wonderful non-crumpled instructions. We can see Splitface in the same pose as on the bag, but the rest of his leg isn’t obscured by the +300 GAME POINT advertisements. I’m glad that it didn’t reach the instruction booklet. First pages Oh, nope, there it is on the first page. I’ve now just realized that I’ve mixed my +300 and +200 cores together, so I’ll need to redeem carefully them if I want re-identify them to sort out the pattern behind the codes. Random Page The instructions are standard fair, and it’s easy enough to tell Dark grey from Gunmetal from Black. None of the pieces in the set double up in different grey/black colours however, so you’ll have no trouble identifying colours. Inventory Shot! You probably can't read any of the codes or quantities from this picture, but it looks impressive right? Next pages On the next page the temperamental Splitface and the stoic Surge combine together to form a monstrous Splitface Vahki hybrid that is intent on destroying Firelord’s digital instruction manual. Later in this review I will attempt to recreate this monster, for better or for worse. I like that all of the sets have combiners again, but I really hope that each mission pair don’t actually combine as part of the story.. Final pages Finally we have a club advertisement and an ad for the two paired sets. I like the orange tape graphics between them, although I don’t think there are any crime scenes involved in these missions. Pieces Because of Splitface’s dual colour scheme, a fair number of his pieces come in odd numbers for use on one side of the body or the other. Splitface has surprisingly few recoloured pieces; a gunmetal Hero foot, a trans-apple Glatorian head and a matching apple Zamor. There are five new pieces; Splitface’s mask parts, his printed torso armour, the Hero core with code, the remodeled Zamor launcher and new “bubble” armour. If you don’t have the Witch Doctor set you might be interested in the red ball joint piece included in this set. While I’m glad that this piece is now available in a colour other than black, I hope that red doesn’t replace black ball joints in future sets at the expense of the colour schemes. Launcher Splitface features the new Zamor launcher piece, which is a miniature version of the Thornax launcher piece. This new piece isn’t intended to be used with the previous version, which makes me wonder why it is still so aesthetically similar. The ball grasper is more curved and the pin connection point (that was almost never used in sets) has been removed, but otherwise it is identical. Torso Front Torso Back Splitface’s torso printing is probably the best demonstrator of the new torso piece, which looks much more robotic and strong than the existing torso shell. However, it is less adaptable than the existing torso shell at being things other than torso armour, especially with the silver/red printing on it. The torso printing is fantastically detailed, and uses the gunmetal base effectively as the colour of many pipes, screws and panels holding together Splitface’s organic (?) side. Inside a criminal's mind Splitface’s helmet is ingeniously designed, using the same piece in red and gunmetal to create both sides of the head. The piece is the right (or left) side of a flipmask, meaning that the angular face will always be on the right, and the organic face will be on the left. You can flip the gunmetal/red sides around, or make a purely red or purely gunmetal head if you have two Splitface sets. Also shown is a comparison between apple and trans-neon green heads, and Splitface’s apple Zamor and Surge’s pale green Zamor. The part numbers in both instructions are the same, so the green Zamor used in 2012 sets must just have a lot of colouring variation. If the Zamor colour range goes to almost pure apple green, hopefully it also ranges to near white. Variation was the best feature of Bionicle squid, and I’m glad to see it happening again here. Anyway, enough chat, on to the build! The Build Underneath the wildly different designs all over Splitface, this set is simply a regular Hero-build. There is a neat Technic arrangement to attach the mechanical shell on Splitface’s left arm, and it’s very satisfying to add back armour (in the form of a foot) to the set early on, rather than never having it. Despite the asymmetry of the build, you still get a x3 step for attaching the red shell/bubble armour segments. The Completed Set Front Here he stands, the completed Splitface! He’s a fearsome warrior, half-machine, half…another-machine. The colours of each side are very distinct, and so are the shapes/styles of each side’s pieces. This is only tainted slightly by red axles and a red bone on the right, and gunmetal “precision laser plasma gun shooter” on the right. Splitface looks a lot like Thunder, only with a different colour-scheme and weapons. Side From this side Splitface is a very dark mechanical monster, with sharp lines, spikes and claws. I get the impression that Splitface was originally red and had to have half of his body rebuilt after an accident, except as a robot he could’ve been rebuilt symmetrically again. Perhaps he’s the result of a fusion experiment/accident? Back From the back we can see that Splitface has one of the fantastic new additions to 2012 sets; back armour! The foot piece does a surprisingly good job at covering the usual back cavity, but it’s oddly shaped for a spine and leaves a vacant socket joint. Unless this is used for an over-the-shoulder launcher, I hope the next group of sets will introduce a new piece specifically designed for covering backs. In this shot we can also see how the new bubble armour piece creates a very large cavity from behind. For the sake of the gunmetal arm and red leg, I wish that the bone colours had been asymmetrical as well. Unfortunately the shin bone doesn’t exist in red yet. Other Side From the other side Splitface is now an angry red robot, with an exaggerated shoulder, hip and knee. I really like the new bubble armour piece, because it allows more stylized robots to be built, without any exposed Technic holes/axles as with Bionicle parts. Both of Splitface’s weapons are made with existing pieces in existing colours, although the pieces in question are well-designed and good to have multiples of. I prefer reusing weapons (to an extent) compared to waves of Bionicle sets that had unique once-off weapons for almost every set. Splitface’s arm lacks armour, but this is partially covered up by the weapon that he is holding. Prone, ready for combat! Splitface is fully posable with additional neck articulation, and his split-personality character becomes evident depending on the angle you view him from. Sometimes he is a dainty robot running through flowery fields... Other times he is a cold mechanical slasher! Thought you could sneak up on me? Splitface has an elevated dose of the two-headed syndrome that affected the 2011 fire villains, because his flipped head is his own head. On the bright side, he must have no problems reverse parking! Ah, there he is, cleaning his weapons… Silly Surge, sleeping on the job again? Your superiors will be most disappointed. Bonus Combiner! Front Side Going of the image in the instructions, I’ve attempted to recreate the combiner of Surge and Splitface! I’m not really sure what it is, but it reminds me of combiners from the Metru Nui days. Because Splitface has a standard humanoid build, Surge and him combined don’t provide many Technic pieces or unusual connectors that are essential for making more interesting combiners. I suppose the official combiners are also limited by set requirements, where unfoldable joints, holding parts by friction or balancing are not valid connection methods. There are a lot of pieces left over, mostly belonging to Surge. In the spirit of using those pieces, I had a go at making my own combiner. Meet Goblots! Leftover pieces Bonus bonus images! Here are two badly photoshopped imaginings of what Splitface’s individual halves look like as whole beings. However, Omicron Squad Leader did a better job at representing their individual halves with 2 Splitface sets. Meet Harvey, Xplode’s cousin Thunder after a day at the beach Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 10/10 – Splitface is all about colour scheme, because it is the main part in creating his split persona. The red and gunmetal combination separates each side well but doesn’t clash together. Splitface’s design and colour scheme successfully work around the mandatory red axles and blue pins, preventing them from messing up Splitface’s appearance. Parts - 7/10 – Obviously because Splitface has a split colour scheme, he has many parts in odd quantities, which is something that usually detracts from sets for me. He has a great new gunmetal Hero foot, but only one of them. Overall Splitface doesn’t have the best selection of pieces, but if red is a favourite colour of yours, Splitface is an essential for the new bubble armour. There are no new/uncommon bones, and the shell selection isn’t very interesting. Design - 9/10 – Splitface goes where no action figure has gone before, which is incorporating two separate characters into one body. The wonderful mask is what makes this possible, and as a result Splitface looks very convincing. My only qualm with Splitface’s design is that each side is individually much blander and less interesting than previous villains. But in most cases I’d imagine that having more complicated halves to the whole would create a villain that is far too cluttered and incoherent to look good. However Splitface could have avoided using the same red 5M & bubble shells for all of the red armour. Articulation - 10/10 – Splitface has the standard range of articulation and an extra neck joint. No complaints here, and if a standard humanoid started having more points of articulation than this, I’d start to get worried. Quality - 9/10 – Splitface’s plastic is perfect and his chest printing is amazing. I’ve deducted one point from this otherwise 10/10 score because of the Glatorian head, which comes in a brand new colour but is still plagued by the old breakage-prone socket. The regular hand/socket piece has now existed in all three socket forms in trans-orange, so I wish the Glatorian head would be updated as well. Overall - 45/50 – Quite simply, Splitface is a fantastic character, but a bad parts pack. If you want Splitface for the awesome split persona and for fighting your new DC action figures, I’d recommend him over other villains of this wave. If you want a set with a wide range of useful and interesting pieces, I’d recommend a different set either from this wave or previous waves. Raw-Jaw has more useful red and gunmetal pieces, and Black Phantom or Rocka cover the trans-apple Glatorian head with more exciting pieces to accompany it. High-Res Gallery Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aethersprite Posted December 30, 2011 Thanks for the review, Brickthing! Splitface is a nice set, but due to my limited budget I'm still unsure whether or not to get him. Anyway, your combiner is fantastic! It blows the official one away. I especially love how you did its head, ingenious use of the double-sided helmet piece. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AlexScammer Posted December 30, 2011 Great review. I was thinking to buy this set, now I definitely will. I demand frontpage! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cirkit Posted December 30, 2011 I like the orange tape graphics between them, although I don’t think there are any crime scenes involved in these missions. Heh, that would be pretty cool though. CSI: Hero Factory :P Splitface looks like one heck of a villain. He could be the life of the party, and the one who "accidently" sets the house alight. The bright red and the gunmetal/pearl/dark grey is pretty neat, although I do wish the leg bones could have been different colors instead of the usual, plain ol' black. If and when I do pick up these sets, he'll be one of the first.. right along with Reapa, Breez, Black Phantom, and probably Surge, because I need moar blue. -Cirkit Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brickthing Posted December 30, 2011 If and when I do pick up these sets, he'll be one of the first.. right along with Reapa, Breez, Black Phantom, and probably Surge, because I need moar blue. If you want more blue, you'd be better off getting (another) Surge 2.0 set. The new surge only really has the 2 leg shells and a torso shell with yellow printing. Hopefully the next wave will have more luck with blue sets. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Siegfried Posted December 30, 2011 Nice review! Oddly I'm simultaneously disappointed and impressed by the mask. Impressed by the smart design... but disappointed that his face shows from the rear. Aside from that though I quite like the set and when it arrives sometime next year I'll have to get one! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bfahome Posted December 30, 2011 I was wondering how long I'd have to wait to see someone use one of the half-helmets from the side as a face. Not long. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vinyl Scratch Posted December 30, 2011 Meet Harvey. ... I see what you did there. Anyway, Splitface turned out to be great. Great use of the helmet pieces plus it just looks great. By the way, I see on your Brickshelf that you have a Breez gallery Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aethersprite Posted December 30, 2011 (edited) By the way, I see on your Brickshelf that you have a Breez gallery Heh heh heh. Seeing how you posted both reviews of Surge and Splitface at the same time - I'm assuming you're doing the same for Breez and Thornraxx, eh Brickthing? Edited December 30, 2011 by Lockon Stratos Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Princess Muttonchops Posted December 30, 2011 Thanks for the great review Brickthing, Splitface looks very cool. I have to admit, I'm partial to the whole "incomplete" or "haphazardly-put-together" robot look (Exia Repair in the first episode of second season Gundam 00 looks awesomely cool). And I love the new packaging for this line too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brickthing Posted December 30, 2011 Heh heh heh. Seeing how you posted both reviews of Surge and Splitface at the same time - I'm assuming you're doing the same for Breez and Thornraxx, eh Brickthing? They're not too far away. Breez and Thornraxx are a pair, so I'll post the reviews together. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MakutaDreadscythe Posted December 30, 2011 By any chance, is the grey one called Dent? Anyway, great review as always, loving the combiner at the end! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
K-Nut Posted December 30, 2011 Hey look, It's Two-Face! Nice set, but I'm not sure if I'll get it with Superheroes and all the new things coming out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kalhiki Posted December 30, 2011 Kinda weird seeing the completely grey and completely red Splitfaces. Especially with the body armor with printing that doesn't exist. Good review. Splitty is one of my favorite villains from this wave. I just hope his official personality compliments how he looks. Kalhiki Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aanchir Posted December 30, 2011 Splitface is a very well-designed set, and there are many parts of him I like: The tasteful, well-balanced asymmetry The brilliant design of his claw hand His stylish color scheme (unlike many who I'm sure have grown tired of red Hero Factory parts, I can't get enough of them! His simple but effective laser blaster The only design decision on Splitface I don't understand is why his laser beam is Transparent Fluorescent Green rather than Transparent Bright Green, which would better match his face color and Zamor Sphere. Perhaps the fluorescent color was chosen because it is glowier, but in that case I wonder why it wasn't also used for his head piece. Not sure if I'll be getting Splitface, as he's one of the simpler villain designs next year, but he's also one of the more stylish ones, so he's somewhere on my wish list for sure. Also one ironic thing I noticed is that even without all the comparisons to Two-Face, his name in French is exactly the same as Two-Face's. I wonder how they got away with that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ZORK64 Posted December 30, 2011 Thanks for the fantastic review Brickthing. Alongside with many great photos you also came up with very enjoyable text, like your interpretation of some pictures. While Splitface is an arguably clever designed villain, I'll most likely pass him unless he gets a price cut. He comes with a fair amount of interesting and useful pieces, but I don't crave red and gunmetal that much. Oh, your personal combiner of Surge and Splitface looks much better than the real deal. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aanchir Posted December 30, 2011 (edited) Oh, your personal combiner of Surge and Splitface looks much better than the real deal. So many people are saying that, it confuses me. It's a decent MOC, but the color scheme is a bit disjointed and I thought people usually preferred non-humanoids over humanoids. I think the official Surge/Splitface combi model is one of the better ones, myself, even if it leaves lots of unused pieces. Sometimes I wonder if TLG deliberately makes some of their combi models have a lot of unused pieces, to encourage kids to make their own creations with the leftover parts and any other parts in their collections. But it's more likely to avoid the "throwing on extras" effect that sometimes occurs in MOCs and combi models, where parts are added not because they're helpful to the model but rather just so that those parts get used somewhere. Edited December 30, 2011 by Aanchir Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vexorian Posted December 30, 2011 The main difference between Brickthing's combiner and the official combiner is that Brickthing's looks like it would be a decent villain if only the color scheme was more stable (and since it is a combiner, the color scheme is going to be unstable). The official combiner resembles nothing... Ok, maybe it could be an odd mix between a table and a cow. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zwen Posted December 30, 2011 Did you use photoshop for the grey and the red side to make them look like one? They look awesome, this set is awesome. I like the creativity here, despite of some things in his concept... I would like to see HQ pictures of this set, I'm doing some studies with Splitface and I can't get him... Anyway is not a must, but for the next time it would be nice to see some large pictures so we can appreciate every detail... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Brickthing Posted December 30, 2011 So many people are saying that, it confuses me. It's a decent MOC, but the color scheme is a bit disjointed and I thought people usually preferred non-humanoids over humanoids. I think the official Surge/Splitface combi model is one of the better ones, myself, even if it leaves lots of unused pieces. Sometimes I wonder if TLG deliberately makes some of their combi models have a lot of unused pieces, to encourage kids to make their own creations with the leftover parts and any other parts in their collections. But it's more likely to avoid the "throwing on extras" effect that sometimes occurs in MOCs and combi models, where parts are added not because they're helpful to the model but rather just so that those parts get used somewhere. I actually put a lot of thought into justifying the colour scheme, which admittedly only exists because I tried to use as many of the pieces included in both sets. Green skinned goblin who has red boots, a red shirt (and a red face ), one normal arm and one mechanically enhanced lightning arm/backpack. I think it's quite likely that combiner models deliberately leave leftover pieces to inspire creativity. During 2007 and 2008 I would buy duplicates of sets so that I could have both the regular models and combiners built for display at the same time, and the pieces left over were very useful for MOCing. Since then I've taken apart those combiners to use all of the duplicate set parts in MOCing. Goblots is very guilty of throwing on extra parts just to use them; not visible in the photo are the Hero cores on Goblots' ankles. Did you use photoshop for the grey and the red side to make them look like one? They look awesome, this set is awesome. I like the creativity here, despite of some things in his concept... I would like to see HQ pictures of this set, I'm doing some studies with Splitface and I can't get him... Anyway is not a must, but for the next time it would be nice to see some large pictures so we can appreciate every detail... Photoshop was used on the first Completed Set photo, hence why the perspective of each side is slightly off. I'll upload the non-resized photos for each review shortly. There isn't much more detail to appreciate though, aside from dust specks, focal blur and photoshopping artifacts. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SpiderSpaceman Posted December 31, 2011 So many people are saying that, it confuses me. It's a decent MOC, but the color scheme is a bit disjointed and I thought people usually preferred non-humanoids over humanoids. I think the official Surge/Splitface combi model is one of the better ones, myself, even if it leaves lots of unused pieces. Sometimes I wonder if TLG deliberately makes some of their combi models have a lot of unused pieces, to encourage kids to make their own creations with the leftover parts and any other parts in their collections. But it's more likely to avoid the "throwing on extras" effect that sometimes occurs in MOCs and combi models, where parts are added not because they're helpful to the model but rather just so that those parts get used somewhere. Butt-kisser. just playing with ya Brickthing, that foot configuration is fantastic. And hoofish. or clown footish. or whatever. I just like the center ball in the foot socket idea Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ZORK64 Posted December 31, 2011 So many people are saying that, it confuses me. It's a decent MOC, but the color scheme is a bit disjointed and I thought people usually preferred non-humanoids over humanoids. Actually, I prefer humanoid builds. The vast majority of my MOCs are humanoid (although some have more than one pair of arms or legs, or I throw very often a pair of wings into the mix). But still, the official combiner looks even for a non-humanoid weird and deformed to me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FurnoGuy Posted January 5, 2012 YOU'RE HILARIOUS! Pretty neat set, though I prefer Jawblade. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
VBBN Posted January 5, 2012 Photoshop was used on the first Completed Set photo, hence why the perspective of each side is slightly off. I'll upload the non-resized photos for each review shortly. There isn't much more detail to appreciate though, aside from dust specks, focal blur and photoshopping artifacts. I believe he means the pictures where they have fully red and fully gray masks, because...Those are not possible combinations Which is quite obvious he did, as the chest armors are one color. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
averick Posted January 6, 2012 (edited) so this might sound dumb but how did u get the split face torso in all red and all grey or did u photo shop that i want to make both of those mocs the heads do fit together just like that don't they? For some risen i saw a vid that had both heads one in grey and one in red and they still looked unsymmetrical and bad, please let me know before i waste my money thinking i can make those heads work. still going to by the sets but maybe not right away if it doesn't work like that!!!! thanks sorry i just realized my question was already answered to bad for the heads they look great i really wish they could have turned out that way :( Edited January 6, 2012 by averick Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
