Review: 70206 CHI Laval

[VBBN]

Set name: CHI Laval

Set number: 70206

Piece Count: 49

Year Released: 2014

Price: $14.99 USD, 12,99 EUR (?)

Hello everyone and welcome to a review of CHI Laval. Before I begin, as always I want to thank the people at Lego and Eurobricks staff who made it possible for me to bring you guys these reviews.

My gratitude for this opportunity is furthered due to an unfortunate bit of news that we have all heard by this point: The 2014 Chima Constraction sets will not be released in North America. I have the prices listed above in both EUR and USD, however this is for completion sake and does not mean anything.

Laval is one of the two returning characters from the first wave of Chima contraction figures. Is this figure worth picking up if you have the original? Read on and hopefully you'll be able to answer that question when you're done.

Bag Front

We see a posed laval, standard set information, and the like. Similar to Fluminox, Laval's colors blend in with the orange background, one drawback to his already fiery color scheme.

Bag Back

A splash of blue helps to see what you are actually getting. Only one set feature is shown, which is the dropping orb, which I'll talk about shortly.

It's worth noting that there is a very interesting combiner at the bottom, and that each set has a different combiner displayed. For each of the smaller sets, they combine with the larger set of their respective team (Either Fluminox or Fangar) to create a sort of powered up form. That combo model will use their head to give the appearance that they are the mind of the form. For Fangar and Fluminox, they combine with one smaller figure in a similar fashion.

Contents

The contents spilled out. Loose pieces include a standard torso (wide) and his magnificent shield.

Instructions

The instructions show the same image as the bag, nothing interesting there- However there is one very odd thing that happened to mine. At a first glance, it looks like this is off at an angle, this is because the instructions were cut incorrectly, causing the the top and bottom to slope downward slightly. Nothing earth shattering, but an interesting factory error. (Unfortunately not a misprint that I'll make millions off of... )

New/Interesting pieces

Shield

Look.

Look at it.

Gaze upon it's magnificence.

Observe it's majestic colors and shapes.

Alright perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself here, but I really love this shield. The paint apps are spectacular, and compared to his plain gold shield of 2013, this blows it out of the water and into another solar system. Now I could be nitpicky and say that a problem I have with this is that the Phoenix on it is just the color of the gold plastic beneath it and not painted gold like the other printed leg parts in the set- But I'll silence myself and continue to drool over this.

Head

Laval's head is in fact the same mold as we saw before, however this time he has a trans neon orange mane. If you don't like the fire on Fluminox's head, you may have trouble getting past this as well.

Recolors

Here we have the new printed armor shell (yes, more printed parts!) as well as the IFB beast foot in gold. That latter piece is sure to spark some interest. I think by the time these sets are over, we will be even more sick of gold than the day when an entire year's wave of sets are just armies of Rocka- but 'll certainly be interested in seeing what people do with these new and recolored parts.

Torso Armor

The new torso armor is larger than the old one and has a spot for the Chi orb to fit in. When you push the button underneath the hole, the orb will fall out.

Armor add-ons

The new armor add on. All of the fire sets have this piece, as does the Queen Beast from Hero Factory- and yes, you can have color you want as long as it's gold.

CHI Orb

The Chi Orb, or as I will always call it the zamor sphere, is a yellow mixed with trans neon orange.

Weapon

The new blade that all of the fire sets include. I quite like the detail and shaping of it, however I'm sure many people prefer the more colorful weapons of last year and it's a shame that this is the only new blade that that the fire sets received.

The Build

Torso

The torso begins. Many people will be pleased to see the return of Pyrox's dark red torso shell.

Legs Added

The legs, sporting the new beast feet. These work way better as lion feet than the old hero feet did.

Adding On

One thing you may notice with this this build is that he in fact has no recolored bones. I'm guessing the money saved by not recoloring the bones went into the generous printed parts.

Bulking

Just like his old form, he gets a set of claws, but this time he has fiery orange fingers. The new torso shell is also in place.

Finished Set

Front

The completed set. A lot in common with the original Laval, such as the connection method for the shield.

Side

Another look at that lovely shield in place.

Side 2

His weapon is a large blade with fire coming out the top. It's a bit busy, and personally I prefer the look of his older sword.

Back

His back looks pretty solid due to the extra torso armor shell. However, just like the first laval, it can be used to store the shield, which I'll show you soon.

Pose 1

There's only so much you can do when you have claws built like this. He has no real wrist movement, so the shield is stuck in a few positions and the sword just ends up being difficult to find a complementing pose.

Pose 2

My attempt to have him blocking his face, but the end result looks like he is just trying to show off his one major upgrade since his last form- lead based paint chi- I mean, uh, printed shield.

Pose 3

He can still pull off an animalistic look, and I really love the new feet in comparison to what his older self had.

Weapon Storage

Like the older Laval, you can place his shield on his back. I also found that if you take the weapon in half and you place it so that the blades reconnect aroudn the post holding the shield on, you can make the sword stay comfortably on his back as well.

Weapon Storage Front

Overall, I think the main upgrade for Laval here is the new feet and the printed shield. Parts wise he is good, but other than those two bits there isn't much you won't get with other sets of this wave. He's got the same gold armor parts that the other Fire sets have, trans orange shells as seen on Fluminox, and a bunch more of those orange claws that we have hundreds of by this point. You will have to get used to the rather large amount of gold and trans neon orange he has, and the new armor pieces are sure to be a love-hate relationship. If you don't have a Laval yet, this one is worth a pickup- But if you already have him, I'd grab this guy for some of the parts like new feet and shield, and reuse the rest of the parts for something else.

What do you think?

VBBN

[Aanchir]

Good review. I'm not totally fond of the way his shoulders look from the front or back. A 3/4 view looks great, but from the front or back it feels like maybe the 9x9 torso hurts him rather than helping him. Unlike the spherical or square shell detail pieces, these concave curved ones do little to mask the extra width. I wonder if he'd have looked better with a 9x7 torso. But on the whole, I love that the set looks well-balanced, much like last year's version. His colors are well-distributed and the new sword is cleverly built. You're right that the feet look much more lion-like than the hero feet from the previous CHI Laval.

As far as parts are concerned, I like the new shell detail pieces a lot. They have an awesome, unique shape, and this set uses them fairly well besides the issue I mentioned with the width of the shoulders. I wonder what new building opportunities they might open up, especially if they show up in more colors. I do not do a lot of building in gold, but owning a set with this many useful gold pieces could definitely change that.

I do not really like the new torso shell, though — while it's nifty from an aesthetic standpoint, the connection points are rather pitiful and the function strikes me as rather pointless. There's no sense using the torso without a CHI orb. It just leaves a gaping hole in the chest and makes no story sense, since these characters represent the CHI-enhanced versions of the characters. So why use the ability to pop it out of the torso as a selling point? I'd have much preferred a new CHI orb piece that works similarly to a Breakout-style Hero Core. It wouldn't be spherical, but I feel like it and the torso shell alike would be much more valuable as building elements.

You're right that I prefer last year's weapon pieces to these new ones, but not just because of the more diverse colors. I feel like their designs were not quite so ornate and specialized, and as a result they could be used just as easily in a more sci-fi mechanical universe like BIONICLE or Hero Factory as in a more organic fantasy universe like Legends of Chima. The shape and the second connection point DO make this more versatile in terms of shape, though — I love how all four of the sets that use it make it into a different type of weapon.

The piece count of this set makes it seem a little less desirable than the other sets, but then again, it actually has MORE pieces than the last CHI Laval if you discount the claws (which use twice as many parts in last year's set as in this year's). I think this set is much more elegant than CHI Panthar, and while a lot more generic in design than CHI Panthar or CHI Cragger, it still looks quite stylish in its own right. I'm somewhat hoping to add this set to my collection, but I don't know if I'd go out of my way to get it, especially since it's not available in retail on this side of the Atlantic. Maybe The Brick Show will be selling a review copy of it at a deep discount at Brickfair Virginia — my brother and I got CHI Worriz and CHI Razar for less than half price that way, and their parts have seen lots of use in my MOCs!

[DuckBricks]

I literally cried out in surprise and anger when I saw they aren't being released in NA... Any ideas why?!?!?

[Csacsa234]

Woah, that shield I was waiting for a good close up on it, I have to say this Laval is nothing special but I would buy him jsut for the shiield

Great review, thanks!

I literally cried out in surprise and anger when I saw they aren't being released in NA... Any ideas why?!?!?

It surprised me as well, maybe they didn't sell in NA as well as TLG expected

[Mesonak]

This guy, just like the first wave's Laval, is bland, uninteresting, and average.

That being said, it speaks to this wave's strengths that the set still ends up looking pretty solid overall. I doubt I'll get him, but meh.

That shield, though... o.o

[Leewan]

This guy, just like the first wave's Laval, is bland, uninteresting, and average.

He's the Hero. Maybe the designers kept his design simple purposely so kids who aren't into Action Figures but like the system sets / the Chima universe can have the main character and build it quite easily, and then, buy other sets. My 8-year-old cousin's first AF set was last year's Chi Laval, and he later got Gorzan, Worriz (who is pretty much like Laval), and Cragger.

So basically, I see it as a "starter" set for kids who weren't really interested in Action Figures before the Chima Ultrabuilds' release.

I didn't notice the #4 trans neon orange armors on the first pictures, this is quite a surprise. But these and the shield are really the only elements worth buying the set, which is quite weak. So... I'll pass this.

[Shakar]

First off, great review and usual. I'm not sure if I'll post on all 7 review topics, but still, thank you for all your hard work!

Design-wise I think I like this one better than 2013 Laval, mainly due to the armour and the much more feral feet, but 2013 Laval's sword and colour scheme were muuch better.

It's the problem all Fire sets (except maybe Panthar) are plagued with- not enough contrast! As it is, these sets are a mass of mostly warm colours. I would've either replaced dark red with dark blue (as you said), or replaced the gold with silver.

Anyway, the feet and the armour are the only pieces I'm interested in, so this one is a pass (unlike 2013 Laval).

[beartrapper]

All of the new armor pieces look great! I guess I'll be buying all of these from ebay or amazon. :(

[Cyanide Kualus]

Actually, I really like those fancy armor pieces, but the construction of his hands paws is quite disgusting, and this statement is related to all other Chima action figures with similar paws. They ruin the proportions, and those "thumbs" look ugly. In addition, the way Laval holds his sword is kind of weird, is'nt it? And that piece of armor on his back is just unnatural.

[Aanchir]

Actually, I really like those fancy armor pieces, but the construction of his hands paws is quite disgusting, and this statement is related to all other Chima action figures with similar paws. They ruin the proportions, and those "thumbs" look ugly. In addition, the way Laval holds his sword is kind of weird, is'nt it? And that piece of armor on his back is just unnatural.

Actually I quite like this paw construction. It's one of the reasons CHI Worriz was my favorite of last year's Chima constraction sets. It can make it difficult to attach weapons sometimes, but it looks cool and really drives home the animal motifs. The thumbs can be improved on some models by using one of these in between the paw and the claw piece to add an additional joint, so that the claws rotate up and down rather than side to side (if that makes sense). It works great on CHI Worriz, though it can be a bit fragile sometimes.

It seems to me like the back armor should be one module lower, but according to the instructions you built it correctly. If I got this set I'd probably lower it so that it provides more coverage.

Edited June 7, 2014 by Aanchir

[Cyanide Kualus]

I've also thought of that sort of modification, it surely can make the figure look more neat, but I'm worried about the pad, 'cause there would be a free space, where seemingly the other fang should be connected (maybe you understand). This whole construction looks either kinda cool or ugly - it depends on a viewing angle.

My criticism can be explained by the prices of these action figures in my country. Approximately 28.5 dollars per set, lol, so I can't afford them as a source of some new pieces.

[VBBN]

The paw piece isn't terrible, but it's damned boring at this point. We've gotten it in almost every color (Oddly we still don't have it in a blue) and we've seen a wide range of claw attachments to go with it. Some claws can be ridiculous, such as some of the 3.0 savage claws, some are just stupid (Like the mechs that only used the robot arms, no fingertips were added) and some are quite cool, such as Worriz.

However, my real issue with it is how it looks with weapons. I really dislike the current formula of attaching it to the wrist and using a socket on the actual arm to attach weapons. In Lavals case here, his fingers are either on the blade, or if you bend them around the handle, they almost entirely get crushed into his palm. This also leaves the paws with no ability to move apart from what the elbow and shoulder give them.

And yes the armor is instructed to be that high, but it is possible to move it down one and I did so shortly after the review. This does not affect the ability to store weapons.

[Aanchir]

The paw piece isn't terrible, but it's damned boring at this point. We've gotten it in almost every color (Oddly we still don't have it in a blue) and we've seen a wide range of claw attachments to go with it. Some claws can be ridiculous, such as some of the 3.0 savage claws, some are just stupid (Like the mechs that only used the robot arms, no fingertips were added) and some are quite cool, such as Worriz.

However, my real issue with it is how it looks with weapons. I really dislike the current formula of attaching it to the wrist and using a socket on the actual arm to attach weapons. In Lavals case here, his fingers are either on the blade, or if you bend them around the handle, they almost entirely get crushed into his palm. This also leaves the paws with no ability to move apart from what the elbow and shoulder give them.

And yes the armor is instructed to be that high, but it is possible to move it down one and I did so shortly after the review. This does not affect the ability to store weapons.

Yeah, I've looked to discover if there's any better way to attach weapons to these paws. If you use a Beam C 5M instead of a Beam A 5M then attaching a weapon can be as simple as building a ball with through hole into the handle of the weapon, depending on how you build and attach the fingers. The weapon can then snap in and out of the ball cup. But it can be sort of awkward with certain weapons.

You're right that this paw was definitely not designed with the task of holding weapons in mind, but I still think it's a fantastic part that benefits the Chima constraction sets greatly.

[Takanuinuva]

Yeah, I've looked to discover if there's any better way to attach weapons to these paws. If you use a Beam C 5M instead of a Beam A 5M then attaching a weapon can be as simple as building a ball with through hole into the handle of the weapon, depending on how you build and attach the fingers. The weapon can then snap in and out of the ball cup. But it can be sort of awkward with certain weapons.

You're right that this paw was definitely not designed with the task of holding weapons in mind, but I still think it's a fantastic part that benefits the Chima constraction sets greatly.

One thing with your idea aanchir. The new style of socket with hero factory bones won't allow axles to go through them like the old sockets. The hole is just a bit smaller.

How I deal with attaching weapons to the paw pieces is I use a flick fire missile. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=61184 Attach it to http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32034 or http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32016 or http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6536 or http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32291 or http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=41678

Then I put it on the inside of the paw. Leaving the ball socket free to have wrist articulation. Here is a pic of what I mean.

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/mc/laval_paw_sword.png

Edited June 8, 2014 by Takanuinuva

[Aanchir]

One thing with your idea aanchir. The new style of socket with hero factory bones won't allow axles to go through them like the old sockets. The hole is just a bit smaller.

How I deal with attaching weapons to the paw pieces is I use a flick fire missile. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=61184 Attach it to http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32034 or http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32016 or http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=6536 or http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=32291 or http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=41678

Then I put it on the inside of the paw. Leaving the ball socket free to have wrist articulation. Here is a pic of what I mean.

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/mc/laval_paw_sword.png

No, I didn't mean to have an axle going through the beam. I'm fully aware that wouldn't work. I meant to have the beam perpendicular to how it is on these sets, so that you can just snap a ball joint into the ball cup. It'd require a different upper arm (an "A" beam rather than a "B" beam), but that's no big sacrifice. See here. Your technique is interesting too though!

Edited June 8, 2014 by Aanchir

[Mr. Gundam]

One thing with your idea aanchir. The new style of socket with hero factory bones won't allow axles to go through them like the old sockets. The hole is just a bit smaller.

How I deal with attaching weapons to the paw pieces is I use a flick fire missile. http://www.bricklink...tem.asp?P=61184 Attach it to http://www.bricklink...tem.asp?P=32034 or http://www.bricklink...tem.asp?P=32016 or http://www.bricklink...Item.asp?P=6536 or http://www.bricklink...tem.asp?P=32291 or http://www.bricklink...tem.asp?P=41678

Then I put it on the inside of the paw. Leaving the ball socket free to have wrist articulation. Here is a pic of what I mean.

http://www.brickshel...l_paw_sword.png

Dudddde this is genius! And so simple

[Leewan]

The problem with your idea, Takanuinuva, is that the Flick Fire Missile sticks out of the paw. But it's still a nice idea. Aanchir's solution, though, is simpler.

[Takanuinuva]

The problem with your idea, Takanuinuva, is that the Flick Fire Missile sticks out of the paw. But it's still a nice idea. Aanchir's solution, though, is simpler.

Actually it doesn't it fits just right in the paw. There is no sticking out. Just look at how I used it on my Ogrum mod

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/022.jpg

[Aanchir]

Actually it doesn't it fits just right in the paw. There is no sticking out. Just look at how I used it on my Ogrum mod

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/022.jpg

Yep, I've tried this technique before as well (it was one of several techniques I considered when I tried to give Caitlyn Gauss XL weapons, but I ended up attaching them to her wrists in the end). The big problem with this technique, for me, is that while it works for lightweight weapons like swords, it can be slightly wobbly, and it's not a sturdy enough connection for heavier weapons like launchers. This is also when I came up with the attachment style I mentioned above, and I came up with at least one potential weapon that uses that attachment style, though I decided against it for that particular MOC. Using a ball joint offers more friction and a more secure connection than using a flick missile, though on a figure like CHI Laval here, it would not allow independent wrist movement — one of the chief advantages your technique has, since the weapon connects directly to the paw and not to an attached beam.

[Takanuinuva]

Yep, I've tried this technique before as well (it was one of several techniques I considered when I tried to give Caitlyn Gauss XL weapons, but I ended up attaching them to her wrists in the end). The big problem with this technique, for me, is that while it works for lightweight weapons like swords, it can be slightly wobbly, and it's not a sturdy enough connection for heavier weapons like launchers. This is also when I came up with the attachment style I mentioned above, and I came up with at least one potential weapon that uses that attachment style, though I decided against it for that particular MOC. Using a ball joint offers more friction and a more secure connection than using a flick missile, though on a figure like CHI Laval here, it would not allow independent wrist movement — one of the chief advantages your technique has, since the weapon connects directly to the paw and not to an attached beam.

Well you could technically use 2 flick missiles and this piece http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=42003 to prevent the weapon from wobbling. But I found that the fingers of the figure help keep the weapon in place. But everyone have there own ways of building hands for constraction figures. There is no definitive way.