Legends of Chima 2014 Discussion

[Zenerius]

That'd be us. And you know it, Zenerius. We're working on it as I type this.

Thanks very much for alerting us to the pictures, CM4S. :D

Are you making a video for the new ToyFair HF summer sets? If you haven't, hurry up and check it out!

[Jetrax99]

This blows the last wave out of the water. And those feet on Laval work a whole lot better than the gold HF feet the last one had.

I'm definitely getting this wave. No question. Though, the mammoth's trunk is a bit odd, but... ICE LEG!!!

[WARHEAD]

Looks like there's some new armor on the shoulders of the good guy sets. Only in the boring gold color though, it seems. :T

[Takanuinuva]

The new feet in white! Those are perfect for my Skeleton Dragon. Laval looks like he has roughly the same build as his first chi set.

[Aanchir]

This blows the last wave out of the water. And those feet on Laval work a whole lot better than the gold HF feet the last one had.

I'm definitely getting this wave. No question. Though, the mammoth's trunk is a bit odd, but... ICE LEG!!!

If you're talking about the last constraction wave, I dunno. These new sets are decent, but some of the color schemes look a bit iffy with the overwhelming use of gold. Also, the rigid Technic wings on the flying characters do not impress me as much as the 2012 ones. And the torso armor on the mammoth character looks terribly awkward.

I'm kind of surprised — not happy or sad, just surprised — that the Zamor Sphere launcher is being brought back, considering that it might have been simpler to use the same Thornax-style sphere launchers they've been getting such good mileage out of.

In terms of parts, though, there's a nice selection. Lots of cool recolors. I am not entirely pleased with the new torsos. The pop-out CHI cores are a cool concept, but the shape of those new torsos looks a bit awkward. The new axe/bow pieces are kind of cool.

In any case, there's still time for the sets to improve, so I won't be too critical until we have finalized, high-quality pics.

[PenPlays]

These look excellent! The CHI sphere's are a nice touch. I was hoping that Maula would have been larger, but I digress. Sir Fangar and Fluminox are really cool looking!

[Xeros610]

wow, these looks cool, but i'm only seeing these as parts packs, because, trans orange AND light blue lower bone pieces AND hands,AND new armor for the normal legs, thats cool, altough they are only on gold, but, it is still a pretty nice parts pack, even if you only get one of fire and other of ice, the trans bones, you know...

Edited January 30, 2014 by Xeros610

[Kalhiki]

Darn trans pieces. May have to get some of these now.

Whoa whoa. Hold the phone. Zamor sphere launcher? Ain't that a blast from the past. Surprised to see that return.

[Dorek]

I'm digging the "white walkers" vibe from the ice sets, for sure, and you definitely can't go wrong with capes. Laval's head mold seems to be exactly the same (redder hair?), which is an interesting choice, but emphasizes the minifig roots these guys have.

[dviddy]

Well... that's a lot of gold. I desperately wish for a bit more colour variety. Oh well.

[Aethersprite]

...Wow. Great to see some pics!

The good: Fluminox is awesome, love the wings and that awesome huge bow! Sir Fangar looks good as well, though I'm not a fan of how his asymmetrical hands. They worked well with Frost Beast, but not so much here. Otherwise, though, he looks very intimidating with a nice weapon to boot. Love that cape! The appendages on his back are odd, though. Both are definitely must-buys.

The "meh": Cragger looks good with the new armour pieces, but the colour scheme doesn't work for him. Will probably skip him since I have his 2013 version. Laval looks good though, love the printing on his shield. But his shoulders seem to be lacking in bulk, making him look a bit awkward. I'll probably get him, though, since I don't have his 2013 version, unlike Cragger. Panthar is pretty average-looking, probably a pass.

The ugly: Vardy looks really messy - considering how well they pulled off Eris, Razar, and Fluminox, he's quite disappointing. It probably has a lot to do with the awkward posing and bad camera angle, but he still looks pretty bad. The wings don't match and his weapon is pretty boring. As for the mammoth (what's his name again?), he has a great head and weapon, but the rest of his body doesn't match his mammoth design. Considering how bigfigs were used for mammoths in the system sets, I was expecting him to be more bulky. Sure, he has broad shoulders, but his legs look really skinny. Also, what's up with his trunk? The parts usage here is really awkward. Hopefully the final design is tweaked a bit.

[Shakar]

WOW, so many recolours! Fangar and Fluminox look gorgeous, not sure about the others but I'm seeing a lot of new pieces (those chests!) and recolours (tr. orange and blue everywhere! Hands! Bones! Wow!).

My biggest disappointments are Fluminox's bow the birds' wings, wish they kept the Razar/Eris design which was perfect..

[Aethersprite]

WOW, so many recolours! Fangar and Fluminox look gorgeous, not sure about the others but I'm seeing a lot of new pieces (those chests!) and recolours (tr. orange and blue everywhere! Hands! Bones! Wow!).

My biggest disappointments are Fluminox's bow the birds' wings, wish they kept the Razar/Eris design which was perfect..

I think Fluminox and Vardy's wings are designed that way to accomodate the flapping action feature. It looks like it can be easily modded to give it articulation, though.

[Shakar]

That might be it, though I was skeptical for Vardy at first (piece number limitations and all). I hoped this year would've been devoid of the gimmicks that plagued Brain Attack (I know a lot of people liked Dragon Bolt's wings, but I personally didn't care much about them). Ah well..

I'm kinda disappointed about Fangar's cape since we're going back to the cliched "Muhahaha I'm super evil so I must wear tattered clothes!". But I can't complain because MAN that's one badass looking villain. I'd dare to say he's one of the better looking constraction figures we've had so far .

Edited January 30, 2014 by Shakar

[Logan McOwen]

Those knightly armour parts look very useful. I wonder if we'll see those in HF?

Also, is it safe to assume that the Mammoths are bad guys? Because if so, colour me disappointed :c

Edited January 30, 2014 by LewiMOC

[Leewan]

Wow, dark tan on Vardy, reddish brown on Mungus, and #4 dark green armors on Chragger, this is awesome ! Laval's hair looks... transparent. Dafuq ?

And, of course, hooray for trans orange and blue.

[VBBN]

Lego we need to have a talk about your wing construction...

With that said, too much gold. Though the smooth armor add on piece looks cool, I hope we see that in new colors in future waves of HF. And all of this Trans blue is getting crazy; not a bad thing of course

[DraikNova]

Sure, these aren't the best sets, but let me name the two most useful parts: awesome shoulder armor (although the absence of tr. light blue ones is annoying) and a longer type of tr. light blue bone, as seen on Sir Fangar and the Mammoth. And the Vulture has a tr. blue 5m armor shell on his leg, plus the use of tr. light blue hands on all of the villains. The tr. orange ones, on the other hand, work significantly less well.

The only set that seems decent to me is Fangar, for reasons that should be obvious: skeletal Phoenix wings, the Vulture: ditto, Cragger's gold overload syndrome (and the blue eyes do not work well on him), Laval and the Panther: ditto (and Laval's mane looks ridiculous). I do like the new shield print, and the front part of Laval's sword seems to be obscuring another new flame part, but the reintroduction of the Zamor launcher is inexplicable(ly useless) and neither the new flame/ice wings, nor the new axe look halfway decent for use in MOCs, much less the sets themselves. I have mixed feelings on the new chest armor; it looks like it should be bulkier.

Amusingly, the posing makes sense for the reanimated vulture: they've been sitting in an icy chasm for ages; you'd expect the ice to crush or at least mangle them severely.

All things considered, I'll probably end up getting Sir Fangar, as he includes the highest concentration of parts that I'd like to use.

To Shakar: His cape is torn because he's been dead for so long. It makes sense for it to have decomposed partially, before the ice covered him.

Edited January 30, 2014 by DraikNova

[ZORK64]

While I'm not super-crazy about gold, the mold for the new armours is just glorious. And of course, all the trans-blue on the ice folks is awesome too!

I'm definitely looking forward to this wave.

[Kalmahiczek]

I must have Chi Sir Fangar!

[Darking]

Funny how nobody's talking about that reddish brown HF chest armour on the mammut walker.

The sets look weird. Just, weird. The armor, the weapons, the colors... weird /:

[Shakar]

Well... that's a lot of gold. I desperately wish for a bit more colour variety. Oh well.

I agree. I'd argue that gold and titanium metallic are becoming the new silver, and silver..well, looks like things have switched. They definitely need to use metallic colours in a more sensible way.

Anyway..now I'm on my PC I can see pics far better, so here are some more detailed thoughts. Warning, I'm in a snarky mood.

Good guys: as I thought, lots of tr. reddish orange and gold. And, as I feared, it feels tacky. Especially on Cragger, dark green looks terrible coupled with those colours. And I think it's not gold's fault but..you guessed it, it's the tr. reddish orange. I wrote it on the Ninjago thread too, but I'm starting to hate that colour. Aside from small things like eyes, it looks too intense...and they're using it EVERYWHERE. Coupled with gold, it's just way too much: they're charged with fire, we get it. But they should've used different colour combination to provide a better contrast: for example, tr. reddish orange looks pretty good with silver, while still providing a nice contrast to the titanium metallic armoured villains. However, some designs are interesting (more on that later).

Now the bad guys look better as far as colours go: titanium metallic and tr. light blue is a great combination. Too bad the designs are mostly underwhelming (again, more on that later).

Now, some comments for each of the 7:

Laval: the worst hero. The 2013 version was MUCH better, gold and dark red looked great against tr. blue. Where's the contrast here? I don't know, I can't see it. You can't put all those bright and warm colours together like this. In their minifig form Lions, Laval included, use dark blue clothing. why not using them here?. Recolours include tr. reddish orange (grah) 4M shells (introduced with Fangz in 2011, but now without printing) and gold Beast feet (just what I need for that MOC!). And, he has a printed dark red shell, but I can't I care much about it. Lego doesn't need my money for this one, I know kids are gonna buy the hell out of him.

Cragger: as I said, the colour scheme is terrible, but his design is actually pretty good! It seems the arms attach slightly lower, while the shoulder ball joints are used to attach his shoulder armour. And yeah, those are new pieces, and they act both as shoulder and leg armour- which is great, and I'm sure we'll see it on HF next year (hopefully in new colours, but gold add ons have been lacking so far, so I appreciate it nonetheless). Dark green 4M shells..nice I guess, but I can't say I care for that colour. And surprisingly enough, tr. reddish orange bones and hands..not sure if I can find an use for them. The new blade..I don't care much for it on its own, but it has a second axle connector, so it might provide for a fancy giant hilt/blade. Hmm...

Panthar (sp): the best hero in terms of colours, because gold actually looks good with black. The overall design is pretty decent (a big yes for the Beast feet and the tail), don't really like the gold arm though. Weapon is extremely lazy, and no, that's not a sword. I don't see exclusive recolours aside from the new small claws in gold- I really like those pieces because they go really well with the Beast feet (Pyrox claws and Exo Force robot arms with something attached look too big!): I hope to see them in new colours, like black.

Fluminox: I had a lot of hope on this one, and I'm very disappointed. The colour scheme, again, looks bad. The wings are an insult (still better than Vardy's at least). The crossbrow is horrible. And why, why are the Piraka feet returning? I hoped we would've finally gotten rid of those (same rant goes for Cragger, BTW). It's a pity because the rest of the design does look good, the new armour looks great like that. With Razar/Eris wings, a better colour scheme (orange and silver? Dark red and silver?), Beast feet and a better weapon this guy would've been fantastic.

Mungus: a mess. While they tried to make his torso wide, and that's nice, it just looks too skinny like that. Lots of new brown pieces- didn't brown sell badly? I don't know anymore. And there's some white there..why? Don't ask me. The only interesting thing is the tr. light blue mace half (along the confirmation of more tr. light blue bones! And hands, too). Finally, I don't get why the lower leg bone is exposed- we're looking at a 15 Euro set here! I'm getting the feeling the budget is being cut there. The 2013 figures had of things going on- wings, tails, big paws with fingers, back armour.. these sets look like 13 Euro sets at most (well, the two 20 Euro figures look a bit bigger). Which brings us to...

Vardy: so THAT's where the transparent saw blade came from. Hmm.. that might make for a cool shield. Anyway, probably the worst figure overall. Exposed bones? Short legs? After what Eris and Razar managed to pull off, at the same price this guy is an insult to any buyer. I thought no wing design could be worse than Flyer Beast's,but they managed to prove me wrong- they aren't even being consistent with the pieces used! Never been interested in tan, but nice for those who like it. A pass, no doubt.

Sir Fangar: now this guy looks awesome. Not sure about the spikes over his shoulders, but wow, he looks just great. The only part I really don't like is the weapon. I always hated any Zamor launcher except the plasma gun..and this just looks terrible, at least Fluminox's crossbow was more creative. I fear there might be a lot of Technic involved there, but I still really want to buy this guy and turn him into a HF villain.

Finally, just two words on my favourite new piece, the torso shell. I hope we get it in more colours because I'm really liking it. Unlike last year's printed chests, these are actually useful for HF. I've been wanting something like this- a torso you can put a big heartlight in- for a while! If those are Zamor spheres, customizability will shoot through the roof. I think they are because the ice orbs are the exact same colour mix as those ice Zamors from one of the System sets. I knew collecting weirdly coloured spheres would've been useful one day!

So, I'm disappointed as far as designs go but there are a lot of pieces I'm interested about. Which is good at the end because I buy these for the parts anyway. I'll get Fangar for sure, I think I'll buy the other pieces separately however.

[Lyichir]

Funny how nobody's talking about that reddish brown HF chest armour on the mammut walker.

The sets look weird. Just, weird. The armor, the weapons, the colors... weird /:

Maybe partly because it's not Reddish Brown, it's Dark Brown (a color shared by a grand total of zero constraction parts). It's still cool, but lacking other parts in the same color its usefulness is limited. I'm much more pleased with the Flame Yellowish Orange Savage Planet paws on the Lion vehicle.

Edited January 30, 2014 by Lyichir

[DraikNova]

Wait, Vardy has a sawblade? That thing just blends right into the background. Oh well, it makes the set far more interesting. Also, Sir Fangar would have looked much better with Splitter Beast's way of holding things: the claw(which should have been claws, as the asymmetric look does not work with that paw) is set one balljoint further back and the front joint is used by a bionicle style hand.

Edited January 30, 2014 by DraikNova

[Mesonak]

I may as well throw in my two cents in a set-by-set writeup as well.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Eh, I like it. There are many, many strange things going on with this wave, but overall I think it works out okay. I think that the fire people have more solid (if boring) builds, whereas the ice people do more interesting stuff but the success rate is... average at best. ALSO, out of all of this, what I'm most excited for is that chest armor. Zamor collecting may be back in full force with the addition of that piece. I just hope it looks good in-use; it appears to sit a little low on the torso piece.

Fluminox: I think this was pulled off successfully. I think the wings would have benefited from another flaming piece to help disguise the skeletal structure, but based on the description I'd bet the purpose of this wing style is to incorporate a Dragon Bolt-esque flapping function, which is okay with me. I dunno, I have little issue with this one. I love that weapon and the triumphant (?) return of the Zamor launcher.

Cragger: I think this one turned out okay. A little boring, but he looks better than Laval. Green, trans red, and gold is pushing it as far as a color scheme goes but it appears to work out okay from what I'm seeing. Nice looking additional shoulder armor and a pretty generic weapon. Moving on...

Munugs: Bit of a mixed bag here. I see what they were going for, but I feel like a Mammoth set should be a bit... larger. This guy looks like one of the smallest of the entire line. I think it looks okay, and could be improved with some modifications, but it's not one of my favorites. Great pieces, though!

Sir Fangar: Now we're talking; this guy is fantastic. He's got a good, imposing stature to him, has an epic looking cape, and has a ton of interesting parts. I can't help but feel that he would have benefited from some lower arm armor, though. Oh well, that's easy enough to fix. I think this one is very successful.

Vardy: ...Eh. I don't think it looks terrible; I can see what they were going for, and to its credit the person who posed this set didn't exactly do a very good job. I don't know what's going on with those wings, though, or why they wouldn't just build them like Fluminox's. Interesting weapon, and hooray for tan! This one could go either way and I'll wait for better pictures before I condemn it.

Laval: I don't think this one worked out too well. Design-wise it's okay, but I think the color scheme throws it off. It's way too bright and warm. As far as positivity goes, that shield looks great and I do think the legs worked out well (those feet are a better fit for him).

Panthar: ........This guy baffles me. To my knowledge, we're not getting a panther minifigure in any of the system sets (could be wrong on that one), so why does this guy even exist? He looks boring - incredibly boring. I do like the feet, though. I would've rather there been a Tiger figure than this guy, IMO.