REVIEW: 44011 Frost Beast

[ZORK64]

I humbly apologize for my slowness when it comes to these reviews. I've got 6 sets on my schedule, and so far, I've reviewed only 2 of them (and one was just a little polybag!). Well anyway, it's time to write a new review, isn't it?

Frost Beast is Stormer's enemy in this wave. He's neither a former hero who went bad, nor a powerhungry supervillian, nor a rowdy on a purple motorcycle, instead he's a rather normal yeti-monster guy. He's also the first enemy of Stormer who shares his colours with Stormer (unless you count Witch Doctor also as the enemy of Stormer, but your mileage may vary here).

Oh, and before I start this review: Any wordplays containing the word "cool" are most likely a coincidence.

Well then, let's find out in this review how cool ol' Frosty actually is!

Set name: Frost Beast

Set Number: 44011

Price: 12.99 Euro

Pieces: 60 (+ 3 spare parts)

Year of release: Summer 2013

Size class: Deluxe set

The bag

Frost Beast looks a slightly bit more dynamic than Stormer, since he's running toward the viewer on his bag. As you probably already noticed, he shares his background design with Stormer.

Also, one thing I forgot in my review of Ogrum back then was to mention that the bad guys don't advertise the game (and the hero cores with game points which these guys do have), but rather the brain slugs they come packed with.

I really dig one of Frost Beast's translated names: I don't know what "Criatura Do Gelo" means, but it sounds awesome, if you ask me.

Aside from this, the backside of his bag is pretty much standard. It shows the combiner, the brain slug and it advertises the Hero Factory game (do the codes actually expire? If not, I should be able to start the game with at least 5000 Game Points by now...).

Inside the bag - the parts

As long as I didn't counted wrong, Frost Beast comes with a total of 63 pieces - 60 according to the instructions and 3 spare parts.

Similiar to Stormer, Frost Beast contains lots of white and trans-blue, combined with a healthy dose of TECHNIC bits. The most notable difference between the two is the absence of silver in Frosty's inventory, but that's of course not a bad thing, since he got more trans-blue instead.

For a closer look at the head piece (in a new super-awesome colour), the "fur" piece or the large horn/claw piece, check out my review of Stormer.

Frost Beast's brain slug is bright blue, which nicely fits the icy theme of him. For more pictures of a brain slug (the'yre all the same, except for the colours), you may want to check out my review of the special polybag.

Frost Beast's head is probably the most exclusive part of the set. It really looks like he's smiling, which is somewhat adorkable.

Oh, one important thing I completely forgot to take a picture of: Unlike Ogrum's head/mask, Frost Beast's head (and Aquagon's head as well) don't require a TECHNIC cross axle to be connected to the head - it got's already a cross axle like the kanohi of the Toa Metru.

Here we got a new (and exclusive) recolour: Frost Beast features the clip-on claws from the Savage Planet waves in bright trans-blue. To be honest, I wasn't much interested into this mold at first, but after Core Hunter and especially after Pyrox (and now Frost Beast) I really start to like this piece for it's possibilites to add details to certain shells.

Frost Beast's blade is a recolour of the blade that debuted with Chi Cragger and Chi Worriz. Compared with the render artwork on his bag (and the instructions) you'll clearly have noticed that the blade isn't as transparent as the other trans-blue parts. While a bit unfortunate, it's understandable - a piece that size would be much more prone to break (perhaps even in the packaging) if done in that solid trans-blue plastic.

A few pictures from the instructions

The instructions cover. Obviously a "cleaned up" version of the cover of the bag.

Apparently, all sets in this wave feature an add for that Brainify app. Unlike the adds in the instructions of past year's sets, this one shows the end result of the app. And yikes, that looks freakish.

Fun fact: This page is actually from Stormer's instructions, but it looks exactly the same in Frost Beast's instructions, and since I already put the pages dedicated to the combiner model into Stormer's review, I decided to split the scans up and put the brain app ad into Frost Beast's review - it suits this review much more anyway.

Building the set

The build starts with putting a piece on Frosty's back (noticing a pattern here?).

But he soon stands up, since his legs get built (complete with shells, the left one is just empty on this pic to show the construction beneath the shells).

Then it's time for some TECHNIC assembly! We take a few ball joints, a cross axle and put all of this together.

That little thing gets connected to the two triangle-shaped pieces (I really should start to learn the terms for all these things - since I MOC on my own, I didn't need to learn the terms for these things, but it would be probably helpful for my reviews, wouldn't it?).

To complete that bit, it gets also two ball joints on the other side.

The entire construction gets then added to his back.

His torso gets then finished with some armour on the front...

...and at the sides. If you guessed that Frost Beast's shoulder construction is a downsized version of Furno XL's shoulders, you were right.

After we're done with his torso, he gets arms.

Then we build the hilt of his saber weapon, but only the hilt (why is the blade itself saved for the end of the build? It could be already attached now).

His left arm ends in a monstrous, clawed paw. It looks already pretty cool.

"What's the deal with the other ball joints behind his shoulders?" you may ask now. Well, these get some shells with fur pieces on them to give Frosty big, beefy yeti-shoulders.

Next up is his head, complete with an additonal joint piece for his neck and the brain slug.

The slug's tail connects to the piece we already put on his back at the very beginning.

(fun fact: The tail popped out of the supposed connection just a few seconds after I took this picture)

Last but not least, we give him his face, his blade, and then we have...

The finished set!

Watch out heros! Frost Beast is ready to knock you out and to freeze-glue your feet to the ceiling of his ice cave!

Said ice cave is probably the place where he also keeps his spare parts.

Design and playability

Thanks to the additonal shells above his shoulders, Frost Beast clearly rocks the yeti thing. He looks very beastly and monstrous, with his head seeming to be at the roughly same height as his shoulders.

Anoter detail I also really appreciate about him are the red spikes on his thighs and his torso. They help to increase the impression that the Frost Beast is actually controlled by the evil brain slug (who has obviously red eyes), as it implies that the infection already corrupted and changed its body. It's just a small and subtle detail, yet it really helps to define Frosty even more.

Oddly enough, Frost Beast doesn't come with any form of action gimmick like past year's bad guys. No swinging mace like Ogrum, no rotating blade like Pyrox, and now weird attack action like Bruizer (or Scarox... though I can't even remember what Scarox could do anyway). The closest thing to an action feature he comes with are his poseable claws, but really that's all. It doesn't bother me all that much, but I just thought it deserves mention, since Stormer (and Surge as well) are at the same price-point as him and come with a fair share of gimmicks.

Frost Beast is also (unsurprisingly) very poseable. Even his shoulders have a fair range of motion since the shoulder pads above them are on ball joints too. My only complain about his poseability regards the position of his shoulders: Just like Furno XL before him, Frost Beast's design looks strong and bulky, but as soon as you try to point his arms forward, the far back position of his shoulders becomes a disadvantage for good poses with him.

He's still fun to pose against Stormer though. Despite similiar colour schemes, Stormer and Frost Beast still differ enough from each other to make clear that they're enemies, not teammates.

Oh, did you remember how I said earlier how adorkable his face looks? Well, depending on how you pose the completed set, that smile can be easily interpreted as some sort of slasher smile. Or an angry warlike grimace. Pretty neat.

Unfortunately, Frost Beast suffers from hollow back syndrome (and of course he suffers it big time, having a mostly black skeleton with bright shells on it). The TECHNIC construction for his shoulders doesn't help matters much, and the only possible cover up for this would be the brain slug's tail as some sort of spine, but to be honest, I don't like this idea all that much. It looks dumb, and it hinders the head's poseability too much for my liking.

Size comparison time! Frost Beast is roughly the same size as Stormer, but he's wider due to the design of his shoulders.

He looks also noticeably bulkier next to past waves baddies, mostly because of his shoulders, of course.

Frost Beast was early on compared to Pyrox, but after seeing both of them here, the only thing the two really have in common are their paws with transparent claws. Aside from that, they differ in various ways: Frost Beast got more humanoid legs, and his upper body is dominated by his large shoulders. Pyrox got hooves, is generally a bit shorter and puts more emphasis on his head rather than his shoulders.

Final thoughts

Let me be honest here: After I got Ogrum, I wasn't that keen on the Brain Attack villains. While they got some interesting parts here and there, their built seemed to be dominated by the brain slugs, which were just an awfully large, overspecialized piece in my eyes. But after getting a discounted Pyrox and now Frost Beast, I can gladly say I was wrong on this. And Frosty manages to get an even more interesting build than his predecessors.

I mostly bought him as a parts pack for his wavemate Stormer, but even in his own merits, Frost Beast is a well-executed villain. My only complains about him would be his shoulders as explained above and the sword hilt-issue, which is the same as with Stormer.

In other words: I recommend him. He's not as awesome as Stormer, but he's certainly a set that's worth the money.

Edited July 26, 2013 by ZORK64

[Leewan]

A nice review for a nice set. Thanks, ZORK64 !

[bacem]

finally, review! thanks, ZORK64! great review as usual!

[Dorek]

An interesting set, to be sure. I love the threefold joint construction, but I'm always a bit wary when it comes to white sets. Frost Beast definitely has a lot of interesting things going on, so I'll have to re-evaluate my stance on him.

Thanks for the review!

[MakutaDreadscythe]

Definitely picking this guy up. I love the comparisons to Stormer and Pyrox. Speaking of which.

(Sorry about the constant editing, having trouble posting with this computer)

Edited July 16, 2013 by MakutaDreadscythe

[ToaJaller78]

Definitely picking this guy up. I love the comparisons to Stormer and Pyrox. Speaking of which.

(Sorry about the constant editing, having trouble posting with this computer)

Moar memes. MOAR!!!

[MakutaDreadscythe]

On a side note, I'm surprised you skimmed over the white paw piece recolour. It looks quite nice.

[ZORK64]

It actually slipped my mind that it comes in a new colour here, mostly because it's a piece that was already covered in various reviews back then when it was new.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Criatura Do Gelo means "Ice Creature"/"Creature of Ice" in Portuguese.

Looks good, hopefully it'll get released here. Thanks for the reviews!