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Recently I've managed to get the HF Breakout game working through Pale Moon but I can't find a downloadable PC version on BMP or anywhere. Does anyone know where I can find the game?
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These are my revamp/modifications to all 7 of the Brain Attack Villains. Gallery When Public http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=541230 LXF file of all of them http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/hf_brain_attack_villian_revamps.lxf Starting with Pyrox Not much is changed with him. More dark red was added along with using A Drilldozer torso piece to add bulk. Front http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/001.jpg Right Side http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/002.jpg Back http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/003.jpg Left Side http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/004.jpg Pose http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/005.jpg Next is Scarox. The thing unique with him is I've changed the swinging arms gimmick to use one of the spring piece from the hockey player sets. I've also added more gold. Front http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/006.jpg Right Side http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/007.jpg Back http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/008.jpg Left Side http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/009.jpg Closeup of back showing the piece I used http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/010.jpg Pose http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/011.jpg Next is Bruizer. His main change is his bashing arm is now poseable while still retaining the bashing gimmick. I used friction adders on his right arm so the arm can stay in place when using the gimmick. I've also removed all gunmetal grey and made his right leg bulky as well along with giving him more beast like feet. Front http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/012.jpg Right Side http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/013.jpg Back http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/014.jpg Left Side http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/015.jpg Closeup of back showing a locking feature that prevents the gimmick from working when you want to pose the arm http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/016.jpg http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/017.jpg Pose http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/018.jpg Next is Ogrum. The main change with him is how his mace is constructed and attached. I used a flick missile to connect his mace to his hand leaving the ball joint free. The way the mace part is attached to the chain isn't purist but I think it looks better this way. Front http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/019.jpg Right Side http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/020.jpg Back http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/021.jpg Left Side http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/022.jpg Pose http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/023.jpg Next is Frost Beast (Or as I like to call him. Chillax) Not many changes here. Just a change to the back construction to allow back armor and new feet since the hero feet did not suit his beast design. Front http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/024.jpg Right Side http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/025.jpg Back http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/026.jpg Left Side http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/027.jpg Pose http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/028.jpg Next is Aquagon. Small changes here as well. I replaced the gunmetal armor with yellow, Swapped the feet out for shadow matoran feet and gave him some chest decoration Front http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/029.jpg Right Side http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/030.jpg Back http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/031.jpg Left Side http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/032.jpg Pose http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/033.jpg Last up is Dragon Bolt (I never got the actual set so his pics are all taken in LDD. All parts used exist in real life) The changes with him are bigger wings and a longer tail. Changed build to lower jaw and added in a tongue. Replaced the red button with a yellow one. And the back legs are more dragon like. The most unique thing about this modification/revamp is that it uses exactly 222 pieces (Counting the rubber band which doesn't attach in LDD Front View http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/034.png Side View http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/035.png Back View http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/036.png Top View http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/037.png Bottom View http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/038.png Pic showing how tongue is attached http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/takanuinuva/herofactory/BrainAttack/Villians/039.png Comments and Criticism appreciated. I will be doing revamp/modifications to all the Brain Attack Heroes
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(I'm terribly sorry for the huge delay of this review. I was just either lacking the time or the muse to write it until now. Luckily, Brickthing got us already covered with a review earlier. Also, it's somewhat ironic that I start to write this review now after we already got reviews of the new wave - which I initially wanted to avoid.) Dragons. I think we all agree on the well-known fact that dragons are easily among the most awesome creatures of the fantasy genre. They are somewhere between sleek lizards, giant dinosaurs and hungry crocodiles. And very often, they can fly and even spit stuff like fire at their prey. Yeah, dragons are awesome. But even if Dragon Bolt wouldn't have been a thunder-themed dragon, but a different creature, he would have gotten my attention anyway for the mere fact of being a blue coloured set. Alongside with the wonderful new version of Stormer and the very great Frost Beast and Surge, Dragon Bolt and his glorious amount of blue is yet another reason why I can happily declare this wave the best wave ever in my eyes. I guess that intro is long enough now - time to find out if Dragon Bolt does justice to the reputation of dragons being awesome! Set name: Dragon Bolt Set Number: 44009 Price: 24.99 Euro Pieces: 149 Year of release: Summer 2013 Size class: Titan set The bag Even the largest bag isn't large enough to show the mighty Dragon Bolt in his whole majesty, as his wings disappear at the edges. The brain slug in the lower right corner (which is unfortunately not really visible) features also one of those glows in the dark-symbols. Dragon Bolt (or Sárkányvillám, to pick his name in some other language) doesn't bother himself with showcasing his combi model with Surge. His bag instead highlights his flapping wing feature, his dragon head and the brain slug. And, of course, the 1000 game points he comes with. Inside the bag - the parts Sweet Quaza power core, dudes. Dragon Bolt comes with plenty of very cool and useful pieces. For starters, there's a truckload of those small lightning things, and three of those ball joint things and 4 friction joints and blue shells and trans-yellow shells and yellow NINJAGO katanas and a small torso and a large torso and... In more comprehensible words: Dragon Bolt is a great parts pack if you have a serious lack of blue and yellow in your collection, and he also comes with a very healthy dose of TECHNIC pieces. Let us take a look at Dragon Bolt's fancy Brain Slug first. The slug's body is an odd (and certainly unique - your slug may look somewhat different) mixture of yellow, green and blue, giving it a very slimy look. The eyes of the slug are white since the solid eye plastic is actually the part that glows in the dark. In other words, most of the slug doesn't glow. I'm 100% positive the horns aren't new, but I just took a picture to show that the horns I got with my Dragon Bolt are not all identical, as some have the small hole on the left, others on the right, but these two variants are evenly numbered, so I guess it's because of the creation process for these that they are asymmetrical. Dragon Bolt's head piece got lots of details aside from the obvious horns and teeth. It looks really cool and beastlike. The cross axle on it points downward, which might make it difficult to use it with most Bionicle heads though. Oh my, I'm so in love with those katana swords, they look just so awesome, and they are so ridiculously large. It still bugs me that they are not on Pick-a-Brick in any more blade-like colour, but only in rather expensive NINJAGO sets, which I just don't want to buy only for those (best example is the Rattlecopter, mostly because if I would've bought it, I would have ended up with yet more lime green - and since Breez never ceases to get cool sets, I'll get enough lime anyway). Since I'm one of the few around here who actually passed on Voltix and Speeda Demon, I get these little parts for the first time with Dragon Bolt now. And he comes with a fair share of them, which is pretty neat. A few pics from the instructions The cover is of course pretty much identical to the art on the bag, only with less advertisements. I think it's kinda odd that Surge is shown flying, while Dragon Bolt actually stands in his picture. Dragon Bolt's instructions have a rather large mini-comic at the beginning, which is kinda nice, even if it mostly shows sets from the winter wave. Building the set If you remember the first building step in my previous reviews for this wave, you might expect that Dragon Bolt's built starts with adding something to his back, and this picture also looks like that - except that it's not his back... ...but his underside! You might wonder why there's a single connector first, but it does serve an important purpose - more on that later. Then Dragon Bolt's torso get turned around and we start building the basis for his back (or his wing joints, to be more specific), the neck and his front legs. Then Dragon Bolt gets already his legs, which is quite convenient for the rest of his built. His legs get also already shells. But he doesn't look very dragonlike yet, so let's move on. Next limb on our to-do-list is the tail. The build for it is rather simple, but effective. Then the tail gets already attached, and after that... ...he gets already shells on it. Note there's also a spikey plate on the shell at the beginning of the tail to cover the construction there. Now we continue with the neck and the head. This is also the place where the small torso (a really cool piece) comes into play. This grey balljoint will eventually become the neck joint, but it's first time to give Dragon Bolt some more shells. Yeah, now he already starts to look dragonlike, doesn't he? The built of the head starts with his jaw, which is actually a 2.0 Hero foot. The foot gets turned around then, and now it's time for a fair share of TECHNIC assembly. The Hero head piece functions as the connection between the lower jaw and the upper part of his head (it's practically the center). Don't worry about the hollowness of the foot or the lack of teeth, as both gets fixed. Where are almost done with the lower jaw. It just needs some lightning, and then... ...voilà ! The lower part of the head gets attached. Now it's time to put some parts on Dragon Bolt's upper side again. We start with some shells on his neck. Then the Brain Slug gets attached on the head piece, the same way it's done with the other villains. Of course, that means the head needs another piece to be attached. The Brain Slug's tail gets attached. As you know, I'm not too keen on this, but at least this connection is far more stable. Oh, I actually forgot to take a picture of adding the upper part of the head. Oh well, let's move on to building the last section of Dragon Bolt... the wings! The wing assembly is dominated by classic TECHNIC building, which is a nice change from the rest of the built. You know, it's really hard to remember what I wanted to comment to all these pictures, since I took them maaany months back then in summer. It also feels somewhat redundant to commenting every picture by stating the obvious, which is also the reason why I decided to ramble here a bit instead of just saying something like "Well, we add some more TECHNIC pieces (whose names I don't know right now), slowly building the mechanism for the wings.", because I'm sure most of you can tell that just by looking at the picture, right? XD Every mechanism needs a button to trigger it, so it's the next thing we build. It's a red button... is it safe to press red buttons? Well, technically, punching a dragon in his back by pressing this button, and I guess punching dragons isn't very smart, so yeah... Now we put all of this together for a nice little mechanism. Isn't it beautiful? Of course, a wing-flapping mechanism needs wings to make sense. You can also already see the rubber band here. Before Dragon Bolt reaches his entire wingspan we add some additional greebles to the wing bones. The assembly for both wings is identical, but mirrored, so I won't show the assembly for both wings, and I won't talk much about it, as the pictures explain it rather well. Anyway, here we go: There we have the wing construction, and if we add this to Dragon Bolt's back, we get... The finished set! Behold! The fearsome Dragon Bolt is about to attack us! All dragons have a treasure, Dragon Bolt's spare parts are a good starting point for his I think. Design and playability Once built, Dragon Bolt looks very impressive. He is very large, mostly because of his long neck, the tail and the wings though, as his legs are somewhat short. But even without long powerful legs, Dragon Bolt is still a very convincing dragon. A side view. He looks also pretty cool from the top view. The red button stands out a bit, but it's easy to fix if it really bugs you. (And yes, I assembled one of his wings wrong, it's supposed to face in the other direction) His jaw can be opened quite far, so he can shoot lightning bolts at those pesky heroes or attempt to bite their limbs off. Here's a nice demonstration of how poseable his tail his. Dragon Bolt is overall very poseable, and he can hold most poses up very well. But enough about poseability, it's time to try his fun features! Because if you push down the button on his back... Dragon Bolt's wings move downward, so if you push the button repeatedly, his wings flap up and down like he's flying. While I've preferred if the wings were down (and not up) in his neutral (not-pushing pose), I can understand why it's not, since it would have required a different mechanism. Anyway, it's a pretty neat feature! Swoooosh! Yeah, Dragon Bolt is very swooshable. He's comfortable to hold, and the button can be also easily reached. Oh hey, remember the little connector from the very beginning of the built? Well, it's there to hold the armour on Dragon Bolt's underside in place even while you're holding him. It's simple, but genius! Dragon Bolt vs. Surge! As I said earlier, Dragon Bolt is stable enough to stand on his hind legs, though I'm using his tail as an additional stand here. Size comparison time! On this picture, Dragon Bolt looks rather small... ...once we lie Surge down, the size difference between the two sets becomes very obvious. Even Furno XL looks rather short when he's lying next to Dragon Bolt. Of course, if we stand him next to the dragon, Furno is still the taller of the two. Final thoughts Dragon Bolt is overall a pretty cool set... and yes, he does justice to the whole "Dragons are awesome"-thing. However, I can't shake off the feeling that Dragon Bolt would have worked a tiny bit better if he'd been the largest set of the wave instead of Jet Rocka, simply because I wished that he'd be a bit bigger. But even now, he's a very impressive set with an unique built and great parts, so I can recommend him. Also, in case you haven't noticed yet... he's a freakin' dragon.
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This is my Revamp of Jet Rocka. I've built the actual moc in LDD. I also made a half built version in real life as well. The real life version is just to show the new functions that the LDD one can't show. .LXF file http://www.brickshel...ocka_revamp.lxf Gallery when public http://www.brickshel...ry.cgi?f=537362 Changes from original set 1. Swapped trans green windscreen for larger trans clear windscreen. (Windscreen won't attach in LDD but I will in real life) 2. Modified wing unfolding gimmick. It also makes the jet engines move. 3. Changed handle to add stand so Jetpack can stand on its own when Rocka isn't attached. Stand folds up and extends handle to be held better. 4. Changed Rocka to be built the same as his bag set. Only things changed are removal of silver and both shoulders have armor 5. Zamor blasters can be moved up and down (Similar to LEGOJANG's JET NEX) 6. Red short beam handle replaced with longer blue one Real Life pics (Not actual revamp. Just to show functions) Front- Cockpit open http://www.brickshel...t_rocka_001.jpg Front- Cockpit closed http://www.brickshel...t_rocka_002.jpg Front- Wings extended (Wings can't be locked open. I just put a pin in a beam to hold it open for pics) http://www.brickshel...t_rocka_003.jpg Side- Wings folded http://www.brickshel...t_rocka_004.jpg Side- Wings extended http://www.brickshel...t_rocka_005.jpg Back- Wings folded http://www.brickshel...t_rocka_006.jpg Back- Wings extended http://www.brickshel...t_rocka_007.jpg Zamor cannon position 1 http://www.brickshel...t_rocka_008.jpg Zamor cannon position 2 http://www.brickshel...t_rocka_009.jpg LDD Pics (Actual Revamp) Front http://www.brickshel...t_rocka_010.png Back http://www.brickshel...t_rocka_011.png Landing gear folded up when in flight mode http://www.brickshel...t_rocka_012.png Comments and criticism appreciated
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Yeah, instead of letting you folks wait yet another week for the next review of mine, I'll do it now, just to make sure all my reviews are online before this wave is already about to be forgotten because of any leaks of the next wave (which are somewhat bound to happen soon, I guess - though I'm just speculating here). After Frost Beast and Aquagon, it's time to review another hero now, and this time, it's Surge. I might be wrong on this, but so far, I got the feeling that Surge is the third wheel of the rookie trio, probably because he got only a Scout sized set during Breakout, while Furno and Breez made the jump to being Deluxe sets. Now with Brain Attack, the size classes got a bit mixed up. While Furno went XL, Breez got downsized to the Scout class. And now, Surge becomes not only a Deluxe in the second wave, his enemy Dragon Bolt is also the largest villain of this wave! He gets attention, yay! But does this upgrade really improves Surge? Let's find out. Set name: Surge Set Number: 44008 Price: 12.99 Euro Pieces: 66 (+ 3 spare parts) Year of release: Summer 2013 Size class: Deluxe set The bag Surge is flying across the halls of the Brain lab, while some sort of crazy lightning is going on underneath him. Always remember kids: As soon as the electricity goes haywire, better fly away! Surge got plenty of fancy features, and he can also combine with the ginormous Dragon Bolt for even bigger wings, as you can see on the back of his bag. Inside the bag - the parts As a Deluxe-sized set, Surge got a whopping 69 parts (3 of these are spare parts though). For a blue set, he got a surprisingly high amount of silver and grey parts, and his thunder theme is supported by many trans-green pieces. It's overall a good collection of parts. Surge's new helmet doesn't look that jaw-like in real as it does on this picture. I was just unable to make a picture of it that shows that fact. Aside from this, I can say almost the same I've said about Stormer's new helmet: Surge's new helmet is a nice update of his original helmet which feels a bit thicker around a few spots. The only thing I really miss on his new helmet is the speaker-like section on the front. It looked very cool on the original. Surge gets also a fancy recolour of the "generic flame/energy/spike thing" which was introduced with Pyrox and Furno XL in the past wave. It is cast in 3 instead of 2 colours like the other ones. Then there's that gun-barrel thing. Aside from it's very Space-y colour, it gives off a strong TECHNIC vibe, so I'm sure it's not an all-new Hero Factory piece. A few pics from the instructions Ah, there we got the cover of the bag again. Very nice. The picture for Surge's combiner actually manages to hide one of his wings, thanks to the slug in the upper right corner. I'm myself not all that keen on the combiner. To me, it looks mostly like Surge just with Dragon Bolt's wings (which keep their action gimmick, more on that in Dragon Bolt's review) slapped on. Building the set If you've followed my past reviews, you probably already expected that Surge's build begins with putting somethin to his back. And yeah, you're right. However, Surge takes this up to eleven, as he actually already gets most of his back (though not everything) even before he gets limbs. The instructions practically stop right before he would get his wings. Before he can start to fly, he needs to be able to walk, apparently (as usual, the left leg was left blank just for comparison). Naturally, the arms are the next part to be built. He also already gets the grip of his weapon, which is more TECHNIC-focused than that of Stormer's sword. Also, if you've followed my past reviews, you probably already know when we'll finish his weapon, right? His shoulders get transparent shells, unlike the legs, who are all solid (and mostly silver). Wait, did I forget to take a picture of Surge's visor while I was rambling about the new parts? Oh well, let me do this now then: Surge's visor is trans-green, and it ist also printed. The printing is almost symmetrical, except for a small red lense on the left (from his POV). The sleek design really fits Surge's aerial theme as well. After the head, he gets his torso done. Now it's time to finish his back by adding the wings! The build itself is rather simple. Two TECHNIC parts, a flick-missile, and we're done. It then goes of course on his back. The other wing is of course a mirrored version of this. I won't even bother with making a pictur of adding it to Surge's back. After the wings are done, we assemble Surge's thunder weapon. I guess the picture above shows how it's assembled. Add the barrel then to the machinery he already holds, and we have... The finished set! With his thunder weapon and wings, Surge is ready to fly to infinity... and beyond! Oh yeah right, spare parts. Design and playability Back in the original wave, Surge's associated element was thunder, and unlike some other heroes, he never went that far away from it as far as his weaponry goes. This time, his element is combined with a sky motif, which makes just perfect sense for him. His thunder weapon works pretty much the same as Pyrox' flame spear in the first BA wave. It's a nice gimmick, but the weapon itself is quite large and feels a bit cumbersome. Pew! Pew! The combination of silver and blue with some bright trans-green thrown in results in a fine colour scheme, my only complaint here would be the gunmetal wings, which stand a bit out. He also got some flick missiles on his back, which are connected to his wings. Aiming and firing these suckers is a bit hard though and not nearly as easy and enjoyable as it was with Stormer. I don't want to complain too much about that though, since it's not his only gimmick. Oh, in case you haven't figured it out during the building process: Surge's wings can not be easily removed like Stormer's missile launchers without leaving any traces of them there. You'll need to alter a few things if you want to remove his wings (though of course, why should anyone want to do so?). Surge's poseability is overall good. Nothing of his many parts really gets in the way of each other, and even his wings can moved downward. They rest in a 90° angle thanks to the TECHNIC piece between them, which I really like. He is, however, not perfect in terms of design. His wings are a big offender of this in various ways. As I already stated, they're gunmetal, and since most of his other metallic parts are silver, I'd wish they were silver too. The other problem is of course their asymmetry, though we already expected that since that piece debuted in Furno XL as a shield. It may be also not that big of an issue, but symmetry is something very important to me, so it does bother me a bit. Another thing that bugs me is, sadly, a visible gap between his helmet and his visor. It's noticeably large, so as soon as you look at Surge's head from the side (as in this picture), you'll notice it. But hey, at least the large eye holes on the helmet make sure that his helmet doesn't look so freakishly weird like Furno XL's helmet did. Compared with his buddy Stormer, Surge is pretty much the same height. Stormer might seems to be bulkier and wider on this picture, but that's only because Surge's wings are folded downward. Final thoughts All in all, Surge benefits greatly from the jump to the Deluxe class. Despite using not all that much blue (just like Breez in the winter wave), he still looks clearly like Surge, and he comes with a fair share of very cool parts. But still, Surge's design didn't amazed me as much as Stormer's mostly because of the minor design flaws he's plagued with. Because of that, Surge is only second to Stormer, but let me tell you, it's a very close second, and he's still a very fantastic set.
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Man, why am I so lazy when it comes to these reviews? We almost have August, and I only wrote 3 of the 6 reviews I wanted to do (and the first was just for a tiny polybag special which isn't even a real set). I'm sorry if anyone waits impatiently for my reviews. Well yeah, I guess it's by now pretty much known that I totally love robots, white things, blue things and wings (I also like axes, but swords are cool too), so it's no surprise that I call the current Hero Factory wave the best wave ever because it contains all these wonderful things. But even with all these things that TLG obviously designed with me in mind, I still happen to buy the other sets as well, be it for interesting parts or their design. And that's the case for Aquagon, which I'll review now before I head to the blue sets as some sort of interlude. (Also, Aquagon got limb pieces in another colour - that's also something I totally love, so TLG might made him with me in mind too) Set name: Aquagon Set Number: 44013 Price: 9.99 Euro Pieces: 38 (+3 spare parts) Year of release: Summer 2013 Size class: Scout set The bag Being an aquatic monster (as his name gives away) Aquagon runs through some puddles towards anyone who dares to buy him. Let's hope he doesn't slip on the slug that's swimming there too. The back of his bag is pretty much standard by now. I'd like to mention that scanning the bags for this batch was a bit harder than for my two Chima Ultrabuilds, which almost made me regret the decision to scan them (since they don't show that much fascinating stuff anyway). I guess it's because the bags have a somewhat dark green background. Or because my scanner became angry at me for not using him in such a long time, who knows. Interestingly enough, Aquagon's name gets no translations. Inside the bag - the parts Aquagon is a small set, so he comes with only 41 parts. He got some yellow (mostly yellow bones), some blue (including the head piece in the that wonderful dark trans-blue, awesome!) and also some black, silver and gunmetal. Aside from the yellow bones, I mostly bought Aquagon for the blue swords (the only other sets with these is currently CHI Laval, but I'm not all too keen on getting more gold), but I'm also happy about his black fists, which are versatile. You see, Aquagon is to me mostly a parts pack (but given my nature as a MOCist, all sets are this to me - some just more than others). I'm sure Aquagon's horns aren't a new piece. They look like they were already used in various other sets as something like dragon horns. But maybe I'm wrong here. I'm pretty sure I'm not the first one who notices this, but Aquagon's head bears a very striking resemblance to that of Hordak, the main villain of She-Ra - Warrior Princess (though I only know him from that movie that was a crossover of She-Ra and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe). I tell you, once I've figured a solid-looking head for this mask out, I'll make a Hordak MOC, because Hordak was badass. A few pics from the instructions What? The instructions are too small to get Aquagon's full body shot on their cover?! Rip-off! Just kidding, but I was slightly disappointed about that nonetheless. The Evo/Aquagon combiner (I almost said "Nex/Aquagon" - yeah, I still tend to mess these two up) looks pretty decent, although it has a major case of gorilla arms. Building the set Aquagon's build doesn't differ much from that of the fellow Brain Attack sets. The most notable difference between him and the Deluxe sets is the lack of any TECHNIC assembly we got with Stormer's backpack, Frost Beast's shoulders or Surge's wings (don't worry, Surge will get his review next). Surprise! We start with placing something on his back! Next up are his legs (just as in my previous reviews, both legs get armour this pic just serves as a comparison between "naked leg" and "finished leg"). We then continue with his arms (and the lower section of his swords - noticing a pattern here?). With the limbs almost done, next up is his torso, the head and the brain slug. Then it's time to give him his face and shoulders (completely with spikes to make him 20% more evil). Then, he gets a connector on the lower part of the sword hilt, the sword blades themselves and we got... The finished set! Armed with his dangerous swords, Aquagon is ready to terrorize your bathtub! Make sure to store his spare parts away before doing so though. Design and playability Aquagon's sleek design allows for a great deal of poses, as seen above (where I tried to give him a "swimming pose"). Design-wise, he doesn't really look much like a water-themed villain to me (he looks more like some sort of goblin-like creature - which is fitting, since we got with Ogrum an orc earlier this year), but his blue/yellow colour scheme gives him the proper nautic feel. The gunmetal on his torso and legs also make a great contrast to his more vibrant primary colours. I also like that he rotates a the knee joint, though I still don't understand why TLG doesn't do that with the elbows. It would allow for much better posing in their sets. Oddly enough, Aquagon does come with some sort of additional play feature: He can combine his swords at their hilts to form a large spear-like weapon, similiar to Cragger's dual blades. However, Aquagon's double sword is still very poseable thanks to the flexible hilt pieces, which makes posing that thing a lot easier. Of course, Aquagon lacks any form of back armour because he's not only a Scout-sized set, but also because of his brain slug. I'm not too happy about that. Size comparison time! Aquagon is unsurprisingly shorter than Frost Beast or Stormer, which is of course not much of a surprise since both are at a higher price point than our yellow gremlin here. It wouldn't had hurt if I'd also had put Breez in that group shot, but I forgot to do so for some weird reason. Oh well. Final thoughts Aquagon is for his size a surprisingly good set. I mostly bought him for his useful parts, but I also really like his design and poseability. He may be more simplistic than Frost Beast (or of course Dragon Bolt), but he's nonetheless a nice set, mostly because of his very good poseability. He's also a cheaper alternative for Chi Laval if you want to have these neat-looking blue swords. All in all, I can recommend him, but he's not as much of an instant-buy in my eyes as Stormer or Dragon Bolt are (he ties with Frost Beast though, mostly because Frost Beast's poseability could've been better).
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My entry for the Before & After Brain Infection contest. For full disclosure, I built both models with the help of my twin brother Lyichir. Click through any of the images to see them on my Flickr photostream. In their natural form, Koboldon are tunnel goblins with a diet of metallic ore, which they mine for with their powerful, shovel-like claws. They are reclusive, but generally not aggressive. But once the evil brains landed on their home planet, many were mutated into grotesque, hulking fiends that burrow beneath cities, reducing buildings and infrastructure to rubble. Can any hero stand up to the might of Koboldon's radioactive power claw? More pictures: About the MOC: Lyichir and I came up with the foot design for a much larger model a few months ago, and we decided a bestial foot design like this would be perfect for this contest. The head was designed in an effort to create a brain-infected head that looked as detailed and fearsome as any of the official 2013 villain faceplates, but which had a unique character of its own. Lyichir had the idea to use Transparent Bright Green (the same color as the brain) to highlight areas most heavily affected by the mutation, and I designed the power claw with that in mind. Comments, questions, and criticism are welcome! Hope you enjoy this MOC!
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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.
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The Gorroz Spider is a large, yet harmless spider. Its large size is enough to scare off most predators, as well as tourists. It has been found to be tamable, and has been used to carry passengers, goods, or pull carts. Putting his six eyes to good use. These animals might be harmless in the wild, but when infected by a brain slug they grow deadly claws, fearsome pincers, and a dangerous stinger.... The slug has made itself right at home... Well that's it! Finally cleared up enough to get some pictures, just in time too! Well, I really love both forms. I wanted to make another spider after figuring out I left out two legs on my CHI spider. . I love the body construction, it remains unchanged between the two forms. With my HoM entry I got a lot of comments saying he didn't look Hero Factory-like. So with this I went almost entirely Hero Factory. I really love the fact I was able to integrate the slug so well. So I decided it'd be cool if a spider grew claws and a stinger and became a scorpion. Cool, but not exactly realistic. . Well it seemed kinda like something LEGO would do, so I went with the idea. Well, hope you like how he (or she) turned out!
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After taking many many pictures, it's about time for me to write the first review for an actual set of the second Brain Attack wave, isn't it? Ah yes, Preston Stormer. Stormer is one of my favourite heroes, though mostly for his parts. I guess it's because Kopaka was my first Toa back then, but I have a soft spot for white-coloured sets (the same can be said for blue-coloured sets - and my first Slizer was the Sub/Scuba Slizer). He's also one of the few heroes where I bought every single version so far (the only other hero from which I can say this is Surge). It's been awhile since we got a regular-sized set of Stormer - it was in summer 2011 in the Savage Planet storyline, where he got his rhino armour. In 2012, he joined Rocka in the club of the XL heroes. But now, he's back at normal size to fight the evil Frost Beast (oddly enough, the first bad guy with the same coloration as Stormer himself). But can Brain Attack Stormer fill the (literally) big shoes of his previous incarnation? Let's find out! Set name: Stormer Set Number: 44010 Price: 12.99 Euro Pieces: 70 (+ 2 spare parts) Year of release: Summer 2013 Size class: Deluxe set The bag Unlike the bags of the Breakout wave, the Brain Attack bags from the summer waves are nigh identical to the bags of the Winter wave - they are mostly green, the background is less detailed and the heroes don't pose all that dynamic like they did on their previous bags (I really love the bag of Breakout Surge, by the way), but they just stand there, similiar like they did on the 2011 canisters. The cover of Stormer's bag shows him standing all heroic and cool-looking on an ice-like ground. I scanned the back of the bag since it's so much easier to see all the stuff going on there that way. Stormer get's another name in some language and is called "Tempestivo". Huh. The other stuff is probably already known: Stormer's action features are highlighted, he can combine with Frost Beast, and you get game points for the code on his hero core. Inside the bag - the parts Ho boy, Stormer got plenty of stuff. He comes with 70 pieces (72 in my case because of spare parts). He's mostly white with a fair share of silver and a few trans-blue pieces (it's bright trans-blue, which I believe is new to Hero Factory). He also got a fair share of TECHNIC pieces, which is also appreciated. Stormer's head isn't a new mold, but it comes in a new, super-awesome-didn't-saw-that-coming colour: It's dark trans-blue, apparently the same that debuted in Breakout Stringer's shells! I totally love that blue, it's so wonderfully blue-ish, you know? Stormer also comes with a recolour of the flame piece from the first Brain Attack wave. It's cast in solid white and trans-blue this time, which looks really nice. Too bad it's one of the few pieces he don't share with Frost Beast. Stormer's visor, which got also a nice printing. Ah, and there's Stormer's new helmet. Thankfully, it looks even without the visor pretty neat. It should be noted that his helmet isn't symmetrical like the helmets of Breez and Furno in the past wave. Here's a comparison between Stormer's original helmet, his newest helmet and his 2.0 helmet (which I only included because I had one of my MOCs using that right next to me when I made the comparisons - I excluded his 3.0 helmet since it only shares the bit of armour in front of his jaw with the others). Stormer's new helmet is very close to his original helmet, it's only a bit thicker and narrower. Personally, I like the new helmet a bit more since it also feels sturdier. The new armour piece, which was already introduced with Chi Laval and Chi Worriz. It got a nice shape, which is also not too overspecialized. Man, I'm almost sure these things aren't new, but I can't remember where I've already seen them... They look cool, nonetheless. A few pics from the instructions The cover, where Stormer looks just as good as on the bag itself. Here's another picture of the combiner, together with a link to his building instructions (which brings me to the HF page, which is also kinda glitchy for me). The combiner is essentially Stormer with claw-arms on his back and somewhat chaotic leg armour. The former looks cool to me, the latter... does not. Building the set The building starts with attaching a piece to the back of his torso (Get used to this, because the majority of the sets I reviewed starts this way). Next are his legs, which get also shells (the left one is just empty to show how the legs look without the shells)... ...then his arms. Before Stormer gets his torso and head done, the instructions continue with his shield weapon. The build of this is relatively simple. Then it gets attached. Then we get to build his sword! Or at least the sword hilt. After putting that into his right hand, he gets his torso armour... ...and his head. Now it's time to say goodbye to the hollow back syndrome: Stormer gets his backpack! The backpack contains also the majority of the TECHNIC bits of this set, which also helps to make Stormer's build more interesting than that of most previous Hero Factory sets. Once completed, it gets attached to the piece we put on his torso at the very beginning of the build. The funny construction on Stormer's backpack are missile launchers, so it's time to build the missiles now. It's pretty basic though. Then, Stormer gets finally his epic sword done, and then we have... The finished set Stormer is ready to kick some alien slug butt (do alien slugs even have butts?). (oh yeah, right, spare parts) Design and playability And he looks just friggin' awesome while doing so. I humbly apologize that I actually didn't took any more pictures posing him, because I actually forgot to do so. But let me tell you, Stormer looks fantastic. Oddly enough, Stormer's design looks a lot like a down-sized Furno XL (they both use similiar styled weapons, have both a printed visor and a very strong knight-like look), but Stormer also carries (at least in my eyes) many elements of his past versions with him: His helmet is obviously inspired by his original design, the same goes for the design of his shield weapon, he wields a sword like the XL version, he got the bulk and mass of his 3.0 version and the missile launcher reminds me of the spear cannon of his 2.0 version (though that might be just because I built a Stormer-MOC who got his spear launchers shoulder-mounted). He also got of course the same amount of poseability like most other Hero Factory sets, and he can be posed to most parts any way you like him (his shoulders can get in the way sometimes, but it's just a tiny issue, really). My only complaint regarding his poseability would be the lower tip of his sword grip (the horn thing below his fist), which tends to fall out really easily when I accidently touch it while posing him. It's simply because the horn is relatively large for it's peg, so it comes off when it get bent (it's also made of a slightly softer plastic, similiar to that of the small horns on his chest armour). Thanks to his backpack, Stormer looks also good from behind. The rocket launcher on his back can be swiveled downwards if you like, though I think it looks better up (you can also easily detach it if you wish to do so). It is still pretty neat that it can be moved around, since that does not only makes it easier to pose Stormer's head, but also to aim with the flick-fired missiles as well. If you tilt the launcher a bit backwards, the missiles travel a longer distance. Time for a size comparison! Stormer is clearly taller (and more beefy in terms of parts) than the Scout-sized Breez, but he's slightly smaller than Eris (but I'm not sure in terms of parts, since I don't remember how many parts Eris got). Final thoughts Do you know that feeling when you start looking forward to a set because it looks really cool, but when you get it you realize that it's not just really cool, but totally mindblowing awesome instead? Because that's how I feel about Stormer. Brain Attack Stormer is easily the best incarnation of Stormer we've got so far, and he's also one of the greatest (regular-sized) heroes as well. Be it the parts he comes with, the build, his design, his play features - he does pretty much everything right. The somewhat loose lower part of his sword hilt might be his only issue, but it's one I can easily forgive, because Stormer is just so totally awesome. So as soon as Stormer hits the shelves of your local stores, go and buy him. He's definitely worth it.
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Early on in the invasion of the so-called Brain Slugs near Makuhero City and on surrounding planets, many HF scientists decided to experiment with the Slugs and their effects on their hosts. In a process similar to the creation of a vaccine using weakened bacteria, a wounded Brain Slug was forcibly connected to the back of a Rookie Hero by the name of Cade Marler. The ethics of the experiment were just as questionable as the results. As the Brain Slug affixed itself to Marler's spine, the young hero's left side- the right side being his dominant side, a feature integrated into recent Hero personality matrices- gradually became sickly green, twisted, mutated... in a similar fashion, rage, destruction, and distrust filled his mind, and he was unable to control it. The physical mutation of the Brain Slug continued to take root, and so did the mental aspect. Over time, however, Cade was able to regain his control over the mental and physical infections. It became a valuable asset. With enough concentration, Marler was able to keep the Slug's effect in check most of the time, and bring forth its anger when he needed it most, specifically in battle. The mutated left arm's spiny protrusions became quite useful weapons against all manners of enemies. Marler still has to be careful, though, because if he overexerts himself the parasitic Brain Slug will take control. ^ CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO VIEW THE FLICKR GALLERY ^ This is my entry for the Hero Or Monster contest. A somewhat simpler build than my usual work, but I still quite like it. The name is random, the backstory isn't. Feedback on the MOC is appreciated.
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Here's my entry for the "Before and After" contest. The story is given in the form of a report by a hero.
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Here's my latest Quaker! Quaker by Zachattacx, on Flickr As you can see he is based on a Star-Nosed Mole with the Ninjago Sai as a tip on the drill nose. His body is also based on a driller type machine. He is a brain attack villain moc. Hope You Like It!
