REVIEW: 70204 CHI Worriz

[Brickthing]

Set name: CHI Worriz

Set Number: 70204

Price: $15USD , 15 Euro

Pieces: 55

Year of release: 2013

Peeron

Bricklink

Brickset

CHI-up with CHI Worriz, a CHI-powered warrior with a spinning saw blade shield, sword, spiked shoulder armour and CHI orb chest plate!

This summer’s new wave of Chima CHI figures marks the start of LEGO’s second original IP sets/ultrabuilds using the Constraction figure building system. Worriz is supposedly the diplomatic statesman of the backstabbing Wolf Tribe, which means that he’s merely better at concealing his ruthless nature than other tribe-members.

The Packaging

Front

Worriz’ packaging is quite a lot darker than the other Chima sets, with the background showing an alpine forest at night rather than an exotic jungle setting. It’s a full moon, and the wolf-like Worriz is out on the prowl. Not very stealthily I might add, with such an amount of red Chi energy surging through his being…

Back

On the back of the bag the setting is the land of Chima again, and it’s daytime. It’s a bit confusing, but I suppose it wasn’t worth creating two new panoramic backgrounds for each of the six characters. Still, Worriz looks angry and imposing here, and the many red backgrounds make it clear that he’s not to be messed with. In the comic below Eris has made the mistake of following Worriz out to wolf-country at night, where Worriz uses the power of the full moon his Chi energy to unleash his powerful Chi form.

Contents

Pieces

Worriz ties with Laval for the least number of pieces in the Chima collection, as he has an essentially identical build, with the exception of the colour scheme and minor tweaks. While Laval provides a solid collection of Gold pieces, Worriz provides a range of silver, gunmetal, and grey and most importantly, 4 Dark Red 5M Shells, which is a much needed colour appearing previously only on Pyrox.

Other than the Dark Red, Worriz includes 4 6B bones, 2 HF paws, 8 exo-force arms and 2 new fur pieces in Dark Grey, as well as a Red Hero Factory sword, exclusive to this set and the Hero Factory weapon pack currently available as a promotion only.

The Head

Worriz’s head is an excellently designed part, made from three sections of plastic for the fur, eyes and teeth, with additional printing for the nose and “scar” patterns. The face is a very stylized mixture of wolf and human proportions, with a comically massive snarl and solid streaks of hair that lend themselves well to the new fur piece and the general angular aesthetic of HF shells.

Multi-part Assembly

Back

The back of the head reveals the general assembly of the part, with the socket and teeth sections both using screws to connect in. The head is hollow, but there isn’t much space to see this, so Worriz doesn’t appear to have a massive concave hole in the back of his head.

Build

The build process is simple but effective. It’s exactly the same as Laval’s, with the exception of the leg shell placement and the choice of shield piece, but it’s still nice to see the set come together in a manner of minutes while appreciating the new colours and pieces.

Finished Set

NAME

After the construction process is complete, you're left with a mean and snarling wolf warrior, ready for action! Worriz’s colours scheme works well, with the reds of the shells and chest plate print accenting the otherwise grey scale wolf colour scheme.

Side

Similar to the minifig scale vehicles, Worriz’s weapons and armour carry a ragged spiky style, with the simple alteration of the weapons, colours and head compared to Laval, who has a much smoother and less chaotic appearance.

Back

Worriz’s back is covered with the simple addition of another torso shell, which also allows him to store his shield on his back with the ingenious use of a flick-fire missile handle. Worriz doesn’t have a tail however, and since Cragger has one, it seems like a shame that Worriz didn't end up with one as well.

Prepare for an attack!

Owing to the great head and weapons, Worriz comes across as the angry and deceitful wolf character that he is, although I do feel that he could have done with being bulked up more. His paws are comically oversized for a wolf, but they become weapons in their own right, and the parts provided to make the paws are much more interesting than the 2 silver hands that probably would’ve been used otherwise.

Action Two

Worriz has a great range of motion, which is to be expected from the Constraction system. The reinforced joints in his waist make it easy to pose him on one or two legs, although out of the Chima figures the joints are least required on Worriz.

Combo Set

Front

Worriz combines with 70203 Cragger to make a bigger wolf, who comes with more weapons, a tail, and a werewolf-like hunch. I quite like the ease of which you can make your own weapons with the various weapon-type pieces provided in recent HF/Chima sets, and the new gunmetal triple-connector part. However, Mega-Worriz seems to strike out a bit here, because although sharp and dangerous looking, I’m not too sure how his triple sword is meant to work, with the different blade types opposing each other…

Back

The back is still properly armoured, although the shield sits lower on his back than it ought to, and is needed to hide the single splash of dark green on the wolf warrior’s back. I think it might have been better for Worriz to embrace all of the dark green pieces provided by Cragger, since not using them required the Dark Red to be used only on the lower half of Worriz’ body and tail, which seems a bit disjointed. As a combiner set though (or any LEGO set for that matter), it’s easy to make your own adjustments to however you see fit, and there are enough left over pieces to work with.

Action

Mega-Worriz is still very posable, and with his reinforced joints it’s easy for him to swing his weapons around and stand tall without falling over or crumpling under the sheer weight of his canine rage.

(Instructions for the combo build can be found here)

Final Thoughts

Colour Scheme - 10/10 – Worriz uses quite a couple of colours, but they all mix well together to create an appropriately evil wolf colour scheme, with no detracting Technic pins to distract or detract.

Parts - 8/10 – The Dark Red shells are the standout feature of this set, and while there aren’t any other interesting bones or shells that can’t be found in other Chima sets, Worriz is definitely worth the price for the pieces he provides.

Design - 7/10 – Worriz has a very good shield design, and the system for building weapons works well also. He isn’t anything special, but rather a demonstration of an excellently refined Constraction building system. It’s disappointing that he doesn’t have a tail, but rather clones Laval’s build with a different set of colours.

Articulation - 8/10 – The lack of wrist articulation is sometimes distracting, and the head has trouble fitting over the chest armour, but otherwise the figure poses just as well as you’d expect with the Constraction system and reinforced leg joints.

Quality - 10/10 – All of the pieces in Worriz are of excellent quality, especially the head, which uses a multi-part pre-assembly to show the eyes and teeth crisply against the grey fur.

Overall - 43/50 – Worriz is a great set and villain character, but he’s probably also the blandest of the Chima line, since they all present such excellent characters and part selections. Worriz is definitely worth picking up if you enjoy the character or are a fan of wolves/werewolves, but I’d recommend that you buy some of the other Chima or Hero Factory sets if you’re looking for the best value of parts.

[toatyger]

I was wondering, are his paws plain grey, or metalic in color? I can't tell from any pictures i've seen.

[Brickthing]

I was wondering, are his paws plain grey, or metalic in color? I can't tell from any pictures i've seen.

The paws and his fingers are plain Dark Bluish Grey, as they also appeared on Bruizer earlier this year. There are quite a lot of different grey colours on Worriz, in order to cut down on recolouring costs, but the two new pieces - his head and the fur pieces are Dark Bluish Grey as well.

[bacem]

thanks for this review. this set looked great. i also already tried the combiner. the only complain i have about the combiner is his arms looked short.

[toatyger]

The paws and his fingers are plain Dark Bluish Grey, as they also appeared on Bruizer earlier this year. There are quite a lot of different grey colours on Worriz, in order to cut down on recolouring costs, but the two new pieces - his head and the fur pieces are Dark Bluish Grey as well.

Ahh, thanks for the info mate.

[Takanuinuva]

I was wondering, are his paws plain grey, or metalic in color? I can't tell from any pictures i've seen.

There plain grey. Just like the fist included in Bruizer

[Aethersprite]

Thanks for the review! Worriz is my favourite of the Chima Ultrabuilds. His colours and overall design complement each other well, and he pulls off the fierce-and-spiky look excellently.

[Aanchir]

Good review! I wonder, is the red on his torso print the metallic red ink color that first appeared on NRG Cole last year, or just ordinary Dark Red printing? In some of your photos it looks like it's the former. That's pretty cool if that's the case.

Worriz is a nice, refined model IMO, and he looks great despite his very basic humanoid design. Love the way the shield is attached to his paw, and the way he is designed with very solid back armor.

[Front]

I think the print is kind of metallic, also in the red colour. But I guess it's a standard red.

[Leewan]

The print is metallic red.

[Aanchir]

The print is metallic red.

Thanks! I was able to confirm this for myself at Brickfair! The CHI patterns also use the metallic blue ink color that was introduced for NRG Jay and NRG Zane. All in all, the use of these metallic inks makes the printed chest plates look even more awesome in real life than they look in photos.

I wonder if CHI Gorzan's stickers use metallic colors... if they don't, then I'm slightly disappointed because his chest pattern will be less impressive than those of other five figures.

[Leewan]

On Gorzan's sticker, the Chi orb is matte, the blue "lightning" is metallic, and the grey pattern is matte with some shiny bits. It's quite hard to explain, I think I'd better provide a scan of my sticker sheet.

EDIT : Here's a scan. White dots are the shiny bits.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Leewan