Sign in to follow this  
TheOneVeyronian

Review: 70135 Sir Fangar's Saber Tooth Walker

Recommended Posts

NOTE: I've just noticed that the title states the number of Cragger's Fire Striker and not Sir Fangar's Saber Tooth Walker, can someone change it to 70143 please?

Hello, and welcome to another of my pictorial reviews! For this review, I decided to pick set 70143 Sir Fangar's Saber Tooth Walker (or Sabre-Tooth, whatever your preference :wink: ) (Brickset entry | BrickLink entry). The set retails for £34.99 (UK) or $39.99 (US), and contains 415 pieces. But is this set cool or does it send chills down your spine? Read on and make up your own mind :classic:

Would you prefer to just let the pictures do the talking? Brickshelf gallery

First up, the box. It has the same fire-themed banner as all the other Chima Ice/Fire sets, contrasting with Sir Fangar's icy mugshot in the corner and the generally cool colours of the background. Gorzan breaks out of an icy prison while Stealthor rides a cool chopper. The star of the set however just stands there while Sir Fangar (I'll refer to him as just Fangar for the rest of the review) fires flick missiles at Gorzan from the walker's enormous flanks.

70143_01.jpg

The back fo the box shows the various functions of the set, as well as a nice action shot of a trapped Gorzan while Fangar and Stealthor get away with the CHI. Funnily enough, they show the moving jaw as a feature but not the more obvious moving legs. Other features include the chopper trike storage and deployment and the obligatory flick missiles.

70143_02.jpg

Three Minifigures accompany this mid-sized set: Gorzan in his new fiery garb, Stealthor and Sir Fangar. None of them are exclusive to this set, Stealthor also appears in the Flying Phoenix Fire Temple, and Gorzan and Fangar both appear in the limited retail set Sir Fangar's Ice Fortress, but this is the cheapest way to obtain all three minifigures, including Fangar with his full bad guy garb (a version of Fangar without the cape or armour also appears in the Speedorz set Fire vs Ice).

Fangar: This is likely the reason that many would pick up this set, so you can obtain a fully equipped (armour, cape) Fangar, leader of the Sabertooth Tiger tribe. This is an extremely detailed figure, with Fangar boasting copper and grey body armour printing, including a beautiful sabertooth tiger head pattern with the Chi orb mount in it's mouth. Unfortunattely it seems like my torso and legs don't match up exactly with each other, but I can just about live with that. Unlike many of his cronies, Fangar doesn't show a great deal of decay printing, most of it is on his head. His head features a lot of scarring and it looks like the Sabertooths discovered how to use copper plates to patch themselves up. The copper patch isn't reprinted on the headgear so it does make his right eye look a little odd, but I personally like that. The trans-light blue armour lets you enjoy the printing while still bulking out the minifigure. Fangar wields an enormous fang blade of sorts, which uses a white lightsaber hilt, a relatively rare part. The cape is the same as 2013 Cragger's, but cut from white fabric, a new colour for this cape.

70143_21.jpg

Stealthor: I've already talked in extensive detail about this Minifigure, so rather than repeat myself I refer you to my description on my Flying Phoenix Fire Temple review. Stealthor gets a new weapon here, a sort of CHI-powered ice gun which utilises a brand new paw piece.

70143_22.jpg

Gorzan: The protagonist of the set gets an update from his previous Outlands version, sporting not only some new clothes but also a new headgear expression, which no doubt adds some variety. His headgear gets a more neutral expression this time around compared to the traditional open mouth headgear, with a more concentrated / determined expression. The torso and legs receive some gold and dark red armour plating pattern, with the torso getting some Phoenix patterns presumably to show the Gorilla's alliance with the Phoenixes. It's a beautiful but generic print, I just wish that Gorzan got some gorilla motif kneepads (like how Cragger and Laval got their tribe motif kneepads on their fire suit versions), this would have helped Gorzan get some more individuality and connection to his tribe.Gorzan has a very elaborate fire hammer which makes use of the new fire piece. This does make the hammer much taller than Gorzan himself though, but I suppose more leverage means more damage, right? :laugh:

70143_20.jpg

New parts and recolours: Plenty of wonderful new parts and recolours are present in the set, presumably to try and justify the price tag in part I guess! New parts include 16768, 15090, 15091 and 16770, as well as a multitude of unique recolours. Trans-Light Blue recolours include 32348 and 48169, and Dark Orange recolours include 98585, 13547, 93606, 47456, 43723, 43722 and 2450. Brickset's inventory obtained from LEGO.com lists all the parts present.

Instructions: Clear and easy to follow, and follow a similar format to all recent sets. Dark Brown is diffrentiated from Black by white borders around Black parts. Here's the obligatory random instruction image:

70143_03.jpg

The build is decent, with Technic mixed in with system to keep it interesting, although the legs and armour flanks are fairly repetitive. A competent builder can have this built in about half an hour to 45 minutes. There are 4 bags and also a DSS with a few difficult to apply stickers, they are mostly either small stickers going on large parts or stickers that apply to awkward edges such as the angled, sloped edge of the 6x2 wedge shell, so be aware of that.

Bag 1 builds the Minifigures, a small patch of land with the lovely icecage piece and the Sabertooth chopper trike. Stealthor's weapon can also attach onto the front of the trike, which you'll see a bit later. So here's the contents of Bag 1 (all pictures exclude spares):

70143_04.jpg

Bag 2 builds the body of the Sabertooth Walker. The gears are part of the chopper trike launcher mechanism. Looking promising so far:

70143_05.jpg

Bag 3 adds the legs. This is the most repetitive part of the build. The trans-light blue liftarms look really nice here :thumbup:

70143_06.jpg

Bag 4 builds the head and shoulder armour where the flick fire missiles are mounted. And it's finished!

70143_07.jpg

The finished model:

The piece of land. This literally uses just 3 parts, yet it does what it's supposed to. Gorzan models his icy prison for us:

70143_18.jpg

The icecage piece is open at the back. Probably not it's best view to be honest...

70143_19.jpg

The Chopper Trike. Here I've attached Stealthor's weapon to the front. The Trike is simple but I really like it, I think it's cool (I promise I'll stop the ice puns! :laugh: )

70143_08.jpg

Stealthor: "Hey, check out my cool ride!"

70143_09.jpg

The Sabertooth Walker. From the front, it's an imposing beast of a machine and by far it's best angle. It really does look menacing.

70143_10.jpg

Side view: Not really it's prettiest side to be honest. The front looks brilliantly executed, but as soon as you reach the rear section, it kind of looks lazily designed. You can see where the chopper trike mounts on the walker here, but to be honest, it's far too sparse around the belly area. It tries to emulate the curvy hips that big cats usually have, but since there's only Technic bricks here, it just looks half finished.

70143_11.jpg

Back view: Marginally a better view than the side view, but still looks a bit unfinished here too:

70143_12.jpg

The Walker exhibits some asymmetry, with cogs on one side and this Technic liftarm I'm pointing to on the other side. Pulling this liftarm down releases the trike. Unfortunately this function does not always go smoothly, you are supposed to pull the lever down and the trike will slide out of the bottom of the Walker and roll along the floor, but more often than not the trike will get wedged on the Walker upon exit, or not roll off the platform smoothly so that the trike sticks after the front wheel touches the ground. I did take a picture of it, but my camera decided not to save it unfortunately.

70143_13.jpg

Here are a couple of shots of the Saber Tooth Walker without the trike on the back. Without it, the sparseness seems to be exaggerated even more and the Walker's back goes very flat.

70143_15.jpg

70143_16.jpg

The Walker's legs are very flexible and sturdy and allow for some quite cool and threatening poses. But this leaves me wishing that the head had some movement as well, as the huge, static head limits the posing possibility.

70143_14.jpg

Fangar has to stand to pilot the Walker. His ice leg better be of good quality :wink:

70143_17.jpg

And finally, a shot of the contents of the entire set:

70143_23.jpg

So, in summary: I wanted to fall in love with this set, I love saber tooth tigers, but somehow this set just left me feeling a little cold. The Minifigures are amazing and the design of the front is beautiful, but all of that is let down by the sparse rear end and flawed trike launching mechanism. The platform the trike stands on also tends to droop under the trike's small weight despite the gears trying desperately to provide enough friction to make the platform stay, and this results in unintentional trike launches without you doing anything at all. It has lots of exclusive and rare recolours in decent quantity, so it's great for the parts aficionados.

Now for the ratings:

Set design / asethetics: 6/10 - I might have even been a bit generous here, but a beautifully designed front end coupled with a lazily designed rear end and flawed mechanism does not make for a top-notch model. Even an attempt to hide the gears or Technic frame would have been welcomed.

Parts: 8/10 - Trans-light blue liftarms and a whole host of new parts to add to the Dark orange library? Plus 11 of the trans-light blue Hero Factory claws? Yes please.

Minifigs: 9.5/10 - Almost can't be faulted. Gorzan's lack of individuality on his fire suit is my only niggle.

Playability: 5/10 - It's fun to pose the limbs, but lack of moving head may be frustrating. The flawed mechanism may also frustrate. I would have also liked a little vehicle for Gorzan, the odds seem to be stacked heavily against him :laugh:

Value for money - 6.5/10: It's a sizeable model despite it being quite spartan at the back. The minifigs and exclusive recolours help soften the blow a little.

Overall: 35/50 - I would avoid this set at full price - wait for a sale. If you want a caped Fangar and fire suit Gorzan, you may want to consider the Ice Fortress instead of this. Not completely recommended at full price, but if you value minifigs and parts well over asethetics and playability, go for it :thumbup:

Thanks for reading my review. I wouldn't mind a mod adding a poll for me, but for now, may you share your thoughts on the set in writing :wink:

EDIT: Changed location of pictures from Flickr to Brickshelf.

Edited by TheOneVeyronian

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is a fantastic example of why I have not collected much Chima at all. Sure, there are some well designed sets, but per wave, there are a handful of sets like this that quite frankly look unfinished. This is a piece of crap. The torso is just a couple of Technic beams with almost no detail beyond that. And the trike riding on it looks stupid. Unacceptable design flaws. Still, as per the usual, the figures are fantastic.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Couldn't have said it better Echo. Though thank you Veyronian for a great review :thumbup:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the great review!

I really like some of the figures here, I often do, but sadly I'm also not fond of the set.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I will be honest - I wish I'd left this on the shelf at the LEGO Store, I mainly collect the minifigures and parts anyway, and this set is in need of serious modification. It's quite rare that I give a score under 40 for a set, the only other System set that's got that from me was the equally flawed Lavertus' Twin Blade (even though I got that as a present). If you really want the minifigures, wait for a sale or grab the ones you want off BrickLink really, and if you just want the parts, head to BL or Bricks 'n' Pieces. No wonder the set was largely ignored when revealed despite it containing the main antagonist. I secretly suspect that LEGO themselves know how bad this set is, so they stick Sir Fangar in it and hope that's enough of a lure to get Chima fans to buy it. Oh dear is all I can say :thumbdown:

But, having said that, you'll probably also get the minority that actually like this set. Oh, and sorry for all the ice puns in the review in case anyone looked past the sparseness of the set to actually notice them :tongue:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Apologies for the double post, but I tried to mod the set in LDD to try and sort out some of the issues with the set I pointed out in the review. I ended up with this (trying to make sure I used legible part colour combinations). The bushes are necessary since I changed the mechanism to a trapdoor style launch, and the new claws weren't in LDD yet. I was going to put this in it's own topic but thought it'd be better here:

14365728982_f780228ce7_o.png

14387414163_d4a4b4c402_o.png

14180601909_f780228ce7_o.png

And here's the LXF. You'll need the latest brickset on LDD to view the file.

Edited by TheOneVeyronian

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow, the parts assortment in this set is really stunning. I was already planning to get it, but now I absolutely have to. The claws, the minifig paws, the jaws the everything else... Really, only the green ground piece bothers me, and the fact that I have relatively few green plates alleviates that. There are even tr. light blue joints, and that icy cage thing just screams of potential uses. The fact that I haven't gotten any Chima sets and the inclusion of some of the more alluring parts found in the Chima lineup makes this set a great parts pack for me. Even the back doesn't seem like that big a flaw, considering those of some past sets. Thanks for the awesome review!

Edited by DraikNova

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

{snippety snip}

There is no lever - you're doing it wrong ...

It doesn't make an awful lot of difference to the flawed mechanism workings anyway, even doing it by the instructions. I just prefer pushing the liftarm to rotating a gear, it feels more satisfying to me for some reason :wink: It sometimes works, it sometimes doesn't, it's really dependent on the surface you're using it on, the speed you're activating it at as well as luck whether it works or not :classic:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Great review again, thanks for making it!

I have to say that I was really looking fprward picking up this set despite the design flaws, but you review, just shown me that the back is reaallyyy empty and it bothers me, Lennox's Lion vehicle suffered form this too, but they at least made the back look finished and also the cannons drew the attention away from the empty back. Here they tried to cover it with dark orange parts moreover if the trike is deployed it's really just a technic base with a head and four legs. Although it's the cheapest set were you can get a fully equipped Fangar and still I think the walker looks great from the front and it's an incredibly great pack of parts. I still want to get it and MOD it, you LDD modifications OneVeyronian looks super!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Turning the cogwheel as shown in the building instructions, no matter how fast or slow, is the way to release the vehicle. The "lever", which isn't a lever at all but a stopper, doesn't lower the ramp far enough and gets the bike stuck pretty much every time. So yes, it does make a huge difference.

Edited by BrickCommander

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Turning the cogwheel as shown in the building instructions, no matter how fast or slow, is the way to release the vehicle. The "lever", which isn't a lever at all but a stopper, doesn't lower the ramp far enough and gets the bike stuck pretty much every time. So yes, it does make a huge difference.

Well, I tried it again using the cogs this time, and the bike still doesn't launch as intended on my copy, the bike's front wheel touches the ground then just stops a lot of the time, and the mechanism is slightly jerky at times which is probably why the bike gets stuck as well. Yes, I've built it correctly as well. The cogs don't seem to lower the ramp any more than the stopper does from what I can see, unless you remove the stopper of course. Don't worry about it though, set experiences may vary from mine so just leave it at that :wink: Either way, I don't like the mechanism very much anyway.

I will say that it mostly does work as intended on smooth surfaces though. I don't have a lot of useable smooth surfaces in my house though.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I secretly suspect that LEGO themselves know how bad this set is, so they stick Sir Fangar in it and hope that's enough of a lure to get Chima fans to buy it. Oh dear is all I can say :thumbdown:

Heh, you may be on to something here! What a devious move by LEGO to stick Sir Fangar into ... ummm ... "Sir Fangar's Saber-tooth walker". It's such an obvious ploy that I almost missed it. Well spotted!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This is a fantastic example of why I have not collected much Chima at all. Sure, there are some well designed sets, but per wave, there are a handful of sets like this that quite frankly look unfinished. This is a piece of crap. The torso is just a couple of Technic beams with almost no detail beyond that. And the trike riding on it looks stupid. Unacceptable design flaws. Still, as per the usual, the figures are fantastic.

Well, yes, but in Chima's favor there are many new parts and building techniques-look at all the Olive Green in the Command Ship!

Of course, that isn't an excuse for a bad build...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.