TheOneVeyronian

That is perfectly possible, and I'd actually quite like that to be the case to be honest. The only reason I think that'd not be possible is the fact we have high-resolution pictures for Frax's Phoenix Flyer formatted in the standard S@H stock image way, normally a good indication that it's an upcoming promotional item on S@H (however, never say never!). Panthar I guess wouldn't require any new moulds, just recolours. I can very much see the tiger/leopard/lioness headgear in black being used for him if he's ever released as a standard minifigure. Just my thoughts of course

Well, just as suspected, in the weapon bios of the Chima microsite, there are indeed 6 weapons which do not appear in any of the sets we have pictures of. These seem to perfectly equate to the three Speedorz we don't have pictures of, and a tribe is mentioned in each weapon bio. So, from this, I can get a good idea of what the Speedorz will contain: The Skorch and Piker weapons indicate a Raven Speedorz set, probably Razar in his fire outfit, and I'll guess this is 70152 Lava Breakout. As already stated, the Rhinfurno and Splitta weapons indicate a Rhino Speedorz set, probably Rogon in a fire outfit, and I'll guess this is 70153 Fang Trap. And finally, the Froztang and Frax weapons indicate a Sabertooth Speedorz set, very possibly with Sykor (logical choice), and that will most likely be 70154 Frozen Fortress. The first two might be the other way around as well. I'm personally a bit disappointed that there is zero mention of Panthar anywhere else except as an Ultrabuild (next year, or as a promo figure even? Not sure what would include a promo Chima figure though, we already know the encyclopedia exclusive), and the only mention of Frax is actually as a Sabertooth weapon. But who knows, my assumptions could be completely wrong

This picture? That's not actually Stealthor in that middle picture, that's actually the uncaped, unarmoured version of Sir Fangar as he appears in the Speedorz set 70156 Fire vs. Ice, albeit tinted with a warm hue to alter his colours a bit. I think it's unlikely that Stealthor will be in a Speedorz set. I might analyse the weapon bios a bit more and do some set matching to see if I can identify which ones might belong to the unreleased Speedorz sets, and make a good guess at what tribes are going to feature in those. I've already discerned that there might be a Rhino Speedorz using this information.

In addition to everything Aanchir describes that was added to the Chima microsite, I was just reading through the weapons page, and found a particularly interesting mention of a Rhino fire weapon that reads like this: This sounds like there is an extremely strong chance that one of the unrevealed Speedorz is a Rhino Speedorz. I'm guessing it will feature Rogon in a fire outfit. If that's true, unless there's a limited retail 70148 in the pipeline, hopes of getting Frax, Sykor and Panthar minifigures in normal retail sets (not polybags) are looking pretty low at the moment. After all, it'd seem silly to mention Rhino Speedorz (albeit a fairly well buried mention) without there being any plans for one to appear in a set, but it's all speculation at the moment until we see some pictures.

Good news! I logged into the UK Chima microsite this morning and found the combo building instructions for the constraction sets there! CHI Laval / CHI Fluminox CHI Cragger / CHI Fluminox CHI Panthar / CHI Fluminox CHI Mungus / CHI Sir Fangar CHI Vardy / CHI Sir Fangar CHI Fluminox / CHI Laval CHI Sir Fangar / CHI Mungus (note these are just the pages where the download can be found - not the downloads themselves. They all download and work fine for me) Time for me to go buy another Sir Fangar and beef up Mungus I think

Not only that, they're also recycling names from past LEGO themes. Firox was also the exact same name of the orange Rock Monster in Power Miners as well. Very imaginative indeed . Not that that's the first case of this happening, of course. That aside, I'll pick this one up I think. Thanks for the info J2G!

This is beautiful stuff. I love the cohesive, gapless look, the NPU's are genius (I particularly like how you used the minifig broom as part of a brush, might have to borrow that idea ) and the painting is a really nice add-on. Your MOC's never fail to impress me pig, great stuff!

Sorry for the double post, but I got a reply from Customer Service about the combination building instructions. They said they were supposed to be uploaded by the end of last week, but that didn't happen. The assistant who replied to my email said she'd contact the people who out out the building instructions again, and she'd forward me a link to the instructions when they do have them available. Disappointing I guess, but at least it's a step in the right direction, it might just prompt them to put them out if they'd forgot about them

I've noticed that, a week after the sets were made available online at S@H, I still haven't seen the combination building instructions for the Chima constraction sets anywhere on LEGO's site (neither on the microsite nor the Customer Service Building instructions download page), which I thought was a bit peculiar, and a bit of a shame as I'm eager to try the combo builds myself. I've just sent Customer Service an email on the off chance that they know anything about these combination instructions. I will post again when I get a reply

It's interesting how the Hurricane Heist seems to be the "Marmite" of the wave though, in that you either love it or you hate it. I'm personally in the "Love" camp, having bought the set a week ago. It looks good both as a mech and a flyer (just don't look at the back of it in Mech mode, it's a little spartan ) though slightly smaller than the box art makes it out to be. Plus, I absolutely love Psyclone (what, I have a soft spot for heroes and villains that only have one eye ) and is so easily repurposed as a normal jet fighter pilot, just swap out the head if need be. I'm also planning to pick up the Infearno and Tremor sets at some point. I'd pick up everything in Ultra Agents but lots of other new sets are clamouring for my money and shelf space, so I really do have to pick and choose what I like best.

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 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.

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 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

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

Yes, I kinda answered my own question about 2 minutes after posting it, since I then found the image on Brickset I'm guessing it must have been uploaded to LEGO's cache then picked up by Brickset that way, the same way they found the instructions. Again, good indication of it being included in an upcoming S@H promotion, maybe in July or August? Now for me to try to seek out the Sykor poly...

I am always yearning for new parts and recolours, and I think the one that constraction lovers would love to see is the Hero Factory hand with handles instead of static fingers, so that you can have action figure models with poseable fingers while still maintaining the robot-like aesthetic, like in this concept sketch I drew up really: The axle holder in the middle would still allow the hand to hold weapons and stuff. It'd be ideal for those who don't always want their figures holding weapons. I'd also like to see the 6M shell cast in in blue, but that's because I have an MOC that would look better with them than what we've currently got.

Nice, where did you find that? It looks to me like a high-res promotional image normally produced for polys that are used as promos, so could it be an upcoming S@H promo even? If so...

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 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

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 ) (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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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? 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: 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): Bag 2 builds the body of the Sabertooth Walker. The gears are part of the chopper trike launcher mechanism. Looking promising so far: Bag 3 adds the legs. This is the most repetitive part of the build. The trans-light blue liftarms look really nice here Bag 4 builds the head and shoulder armour where the flick fire missiles are mounted. And it's finished! 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: The icecage piece is open at the back. Probably not it's best view to be honest... 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! ) Stealthor: "Hey, check out my cool ride!" 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. 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. Back view: Marginally a better view than the side view, but still looks a bit unfinished here too: 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. 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. 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. Fangar has to stand to pilot the Walker. His ice leg better be of good quality And finally, a shot of the contents of the entire set: 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 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 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 EDIT: Changed location of pictures from Flickr to Brickshelf.

Looking at it again, I'd actually agree with you to an extent Clone O'Patra. I really like this set, however the lack of any sort of interior whatsoever is somewhat strange for a temple. In fact, the lack of a door into the temple which I pointed out in the review suggests this has no interior quite deliberately. Sure, I like it because it's ambitious and it succeeds to an extent, but I imagine that having both an interior and a transforming function would have been nearly impossible given the amount of Technic needed to achieve the transforming function. If you prefer an interior though, 70010 probably fulfills that desire better Anyway, what's the use of a flying temple to conquer new lands if it has to build a new courtyard and pool of fireballs everywhere it settles? Jokes aside, it must be LEGO's answer to "Vehicles sell to kids more than buildings", so LEGO tried to make the best of both worlds I guess.

As I said in another post, I like Foltrax too (well, I like all the Phoenixes actually, they're beautiful), but maybe the review wasn't that clear on that The wings would have been much better cast in dark red, even on Fluminox, as it would have matched the colours better I think. With orange wings, it just adds another colour to the already very multicoloured Foltrax, and indeed the orange clashes with the other colours. I'd love to try dark red wings on the Phoenixes, but unfortunately I guess we've got a bit more waiting to do

Oops, I forgot about G'Loona! That's embarrassing since I own every single character Guess the excitement of all the new figures was too much for me, I can't stop admiring all the little details on them And in fact, I also just noticed that Fluminox and Flinx have similar torsos because they actually have exactly the same torso print. They must be father and son in the story, surely. I quite like Foltrax as well, that torso printing is just awesomeness in physical form. I just thought that the several colours together might not gel well with some people. I think given that Flinx is so similar to Fluminox, you could easily take the Inferno Pit Speedorz set and put the legs of that Fluminox variant onto Flinx, and have an adult version perhaps. And now you mention it, Li'Ella does kinda look very weird to me now. I thought it was just the lipstick Thank you very much though for your nice words EDIT: And I've just noticed that one of the Hero Factory fur pieces is actually missing from one of the legs in all the pictures. I didn't even notice that until now, but oh well.

Awesome stuff! I'm now inspired to try and create some of my own figs in this style. Barraki was also my favourite era in Bionicle, believe it or not, and these little figures really are reminiscent of Barraki. Again, great job!

Hello all, and I hope it's okay to post this here. I am contributing my 1st review to Eurobricks, but I'm not new to review writing as I used to write set reviews for LEGO.com under the name "VeyronianHyperLady" and became a top 10 contributor over there. This review will be about the following set: 70146 Flying Phoenix Fire Temple, the flagship set from Chima's Fire vs. Ice wave of sets (Brickset entry | BrickLink entry). It retails for £89.99 (UK) or $119.99 (US), but does it deliver any bang for your buck? Read on and make up your own mind If you just want to look at the pictures, here's the Brickshelf gallery (it's a bit disorganised, but they're all there!) Firstly, the box. It sports the fiery banner at the top, like with the rest of the Ice/Fire Chima sets and features the beautiful artwork of the Phoenix Temple in it’s “Fire CHI Power Mode” as a phoenix flyer, while a sabertooth vehicle attacks the walls of the temple. I don’t understand why the vehicle can’t go through the obvious gap left by the temple and attack it from the inside . My box unfortunately came with a price sticker and was a bit water damaged from being left out in the rain by a courier , but it seems okay now. The back of the box shows all the functions of the set. Note that the Sabertooth vehicle can actually detach into two vehicles. The Minifigures are an immediate selling point to the set. Seven excellently detailed minifigures accompany the set, with six of them (counting Fluminox’s unique royal gown variant and Voom Voom’s trans-light blue heavy armour variant) being exclusive to this set, and the other being found in 2 other sets (at the time of writing). The set includes the Phoenixes Fluminox, Foltrax and Flinx, the tiger Tormak, the lioness Li’Ella, the Sabertooth Stealthor and the Vulture Voom Voom. Fluminox: Undoubtedly the star of the minifig selection, Fluminox, presumbaly king of the Phoenix tribe, appears here in his royal robes, using a printed slope instead of a pair of minifig legs (much like Ewald in this respect). The figure is printed with a beautifully intricate robe over feathers pattern, with golden fire motifs, a pendant, chains, dog-tags and a belt. Only the pendant is obscured by the armour Fluminox wears, which is a new mould cast with a little fire emblem by the front stud and some feathering detail on the shoulders. There are two studs at the back where the wings (new in orange) attach. The head itself is printed with a very similar pattern to the Eagle’s head pattern, with a stern face and a surprised face. The golden fire motifs continue onto the new phoenix helmet mould. All this combines to make a beautiful minifigure which will be absolutely essential for any Chima collection. Fluminox holds a Wingfurno, which a nice but rather uninteresting to look at weapon, but it does the job nicely. Flinx: Possibly the first Chima minifigure to have the short legs (corrected, it's the second, G'Loona was the first), Flinx is a small minifigure but still has plenty of detail, with a similar robes over feathers pattern, which the shoulder armour partly covers. Again his head is double sided, with a happy expression and a stern expression, with both sides conveying a rather youthful appearance. He uses the same headgear mould as Fluminox but with different printing. The youthful face, use of the small triple flames and the short legs suggest that he’s the baby of the Phoenix tribe, but this packs him with a lot of character. His weapon uses a new flame piece, like a lightsaber piece but with flame extensions down the middle and is marbled with trans-red and trans-yellow. Foltrax: Probably the least interesting of the Phoenixes, but still a nice and exclusive minifigure. Foltrax’s mix of red, dark red, orange, gold and dark bluish gray might not agree with everyone though, as Foltrax does look messy with all these colours. Unlike Flinx and Fluminox, Foltrax has an armour, fasteners and abs pattern, which is a very nice pattern sadly obscured by his heavy armour, however the armour is necessary for the wings to clip on. Foltrax’s head is quite similar to Fluminox’s, and could be easily mixed up, but luckily Foltrax and Fluminox come in different bags so, unless you mix all the bags up, putting the wrong head on the Phoenixes is very unlikely. His weapon is relatively standard fare, a Ninjago blade piece on a 4L bar, but does it’s job. Tormak: The first Tiger minifigure in Chima, whose headgear mould is the same as that of Li’Ella and 70141’s Lundor, which makes sense given that they are all based off the big cats. Tormak has some beautiful dark red/gold fire motif armour patterning, fur and muscle patterning on the torso, but this is covered by the heavy armour. Tormak’s head is double-sided, with a scowling face and an angry face, and his head is also printed with lots of tiger stripe patterning which, sadly, isn’t repeated to the same level of detail on the headpiece. The headpiece is strangely devoid of tiger stripe markings for the most part. I would say that Tormak suffers from lack of arm printing as well, he just doesn’t have as many stripes on him as a tiger should have. His weapon, a fire longbow of sorts, is perhaps one of the most elaborate weapons ever seen in an LEGO set, and looks very over the top, since it’s actually taller than Tormak itself. You have to tilt Tormak’s legs right back before he can even stand holding the weapon. The other problem with the headpiece is that, unlike many of the other Chima animal headpieces, it has a raised back. This wouldn’t be a problem if only Tormak’s head wasn’t double sided, since you can see the print of the reverse side show through, which is a shame. You can see how visible it is in this picture: Li’Ella: Finally, the Lion Tribe gets a female member added to the minifigure roster. Li’Ella has a dark red cloth print on her legs with the recurring gold flame motifs, and has some feminine upper armour printed on her torso, but again, this is covered by her shoulder armour. Again, she has a double sided head, one side with a smirk, one with a smile. The smirk is the face represented on her headpiece. If you look closely, her mouth is surrounded by lipstick. Not sure if this printing is necessary since she already sticks out as a female Lion amongst all the male Lions we already have, and, well, lipstick looks a bit strange on a lion I guess! Her weapon is pretty much recycled from the Eagle Tribe but with trans-orange round tiles on it instead. Stealthor: The only figure that isn’t a variant unique to this set, but still a nice figure nonetheless. This figure has some very intricate patterning depicting their partially decaying bodies. I suppose these ice zombies could have been in worse condition if they hadn’t been preserved in ice for 10,000 years (I don’t think calling them zombies is completely appropriate though, Stealthor looks much more intelligent and quick-witted than traditional zombies, but I suppose they’re already undead ). He sports some shoulder armour in trans-light blue, which I really like since you can still enjoy the printing in all it’s half decayed glory, which makes me wish the good guys had trans-orange armour (but maybe that was a Health and Safety nightmare for everyone? ). The patterning continues with the head, which is actually double sided unlike the Vultures. Stealthor’s two faces are both similar, one with narrow eyes, one with wider eyes. The head sculpt is different to that used on the Tiger and Lioness. The ice hand is Dark Azure in colour. Stealthor has an interesting weapon which uses two of the new claw pieces. Voom Voom: The other bad guy in the set. Once again, he has intricate printing depicting him wearing a tatty loincloth decoreated with bones, and showing the half-decaying body. He wears the heavy armour, which is trans-light blue so you can still see the printing. His head is just one-sided, with a cunning expression on his decaying face. I know vultures are scavengers, but it looks like Voom Voom scavenged himself at one point. The wings are new in Light Bluish Gray and he also has an ice leg. I do wish LEGO could have varied which leg is iced over on which figure though. Voom Voom wields a pair of ice axes. My only problem is why did they choose vultures if they were doing extinct prehistoric creatures thawed from the ice? Sabertooths and mammoths made sense, but vultures just didn’t as they’re still around? I guess I’m just being nitpicky because I studied ancient life as part of a degree at university New parts and recolours: There are a few new parts and recolours, including new parts 15092, 16770, 15107 and 16768, 13547, 43723, 43722 and 43719 in Dark Orange, 11091 in Dark Red, 11127 in Trans-Orange and Bionicle Zamor Spheres in both new marbled patterns (representing Fire and Ice), as well as a new 1x1 round tile print. Brickset’s inventory obtained from LEGO.com contains a full list of parts used in the set. Instructions: They are clear and well differentiated, though reddish brown and dark brown do look similar, but shouldn’t be a problem. Here's a random instruction image: The Build: The build itself is an entertaining 2 ½ or so hours without too much repetition, but do be aware that the build is seemingly more Technic than System, which if you didn’t know about it’s function, you’d think that it was a strange choice to build a temple out of Technic. If you don’t like stickers, be aware that this set contains over 20 of them to apply, and some of them aren’t easy to get straight. There was one tiny sticker that was especially bad, but more on that later. Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of the build after each bag since I decided to review it after I built it all, so you’ll have to make do with my descriptions. Bag 1 builds Stealthor and Voom Voom, as well as the base of the sabertooth vehicle. You start the vehicle’s clawing mechanism here, but you don’t finish it until Bag 2. Bag 2 builds the claws for the clawing mechanism and assembles the detachable air vehicle. You then move onto Booklet 2 and bag 3, where you assemble Tormak, Li’Ella and Foltrax, as well as build the temple gates. Bag 4 extends on the temple gates, adding the two rather thin walls, and also assembles the “pool of fireballs”. Bag 5 builds Flinx and Fluminox and starts construction of the base of the center of the Phoenix Temple, including building the bomb dropping function. Onto Booklet 3, and bag 6 adds the Phoenix claws that also act as flaming torches, and finishes off the bomb dropping function. Bag 7 finishes off the centre of the phoenix and you can then see the mechanism that allows it to transform into a phoenix flyer. Bag 8 builds the walls of the temple/wings of the phoenix flyer. Bag 9 finishes the build off by adding the engines and shooter turrets to the ends of the walls built in Bag 8. The finished model: Here is the finished Saber-Tooth vehicle: Side-on view. Not it's best angle I don't think, but here you can see it's aggressive forward tilt. Back view. Front view. From this angle it really does look quite a beast of a machine. Activating the clawing function is easy, you just push a rod that sticks out of the back until it stops, then let go, then start all over again in a reciprocating motion. This is achieved by slope bricks mounted on a modified plate with axle hole, attached to the vehicle with frictionless pins, as well as a rubber band. The motion works very smoothly for the most part. Here you can see the detached air vehicle and what the base looks like without the top. The wings are built with hinges and can fold in and out, but I think I prefer the two attached. Note that these actually sit loosely on top of one another, so don't go rolling the vehicle over your ceiling Stealthor sits in his new toy. It's quite a snug fit. Note the canopy is double hinged. Now onto the temple: The complete temple is quite sizeable and works quite well as a temple, though the lack of entrance into the phoenix itself may be a bit puzzling. The bley stickered part in the centre is where you can load the zamor spheres for a function you can use in phoenix mode. Plan view: Here's the walls with the phoenix part detached. Note the trans-red circles - the phoenix slots into them when docked. The phoenix actually sits completely loose, so be careful when moving the temple as a unit. The wall section is also the most fragile part of the build, which doesn't help with transporting it. The Phoenix in Temple Mode, detached from the wall section, front view: Back view of the Temple Mode. The back central section is sparse and full of Technic, but with good reason. You can pick the temple up by the back and push the section where my thumb is to begin the transformation from temple to phoenix: The temple in Phoenix mode ("Fire CHI mode", but Phoenix mode is easier to say I think ), a front view: A plan view of the Phoenix in Phoenix mode: The Temple gains another entertaining function in Phoenix Mode. Push the pin where my thumb is in the picture and make the Phoenix drop Zamor spheres as bombs. Bottom of the Temple in Phoenix Mode. Not much to see here I suppose, but you can see the hole where the Zamors drop out when you push the pin in the previous picture. Here you can see the shooter turrets are not very moveable, but they are counterweighted. If there are no minifigs in them, they droop like in the picture, but they level out when a minifig is placed in command. A bit of a close up of the Phoenix, back in Temple mode. The sticker on the black tile is nigh-on impossible to position correctly Fluminox can stand in the head of the Phoenix quite well, though how on Earth is he supposed to pilot it if he's sitting so far away from the controls? As said earlier, the shooter turrets level out when a minifig is placed in them: This is the so-called "Pool of Fireballs", although simple, it looks very nice and compliments the Temple quite nicely when you position it in the middle. And finally, here's a shot of the whole set contents: So, in summary, this is a set that's worthy of being a flagship model in every way. It is a decent and interesting build if you don't mind building with a bit of Technic (I understand why this got a 9-14 age rating after I built it ), it really is excellent value for money, in the UK this is a whole £10 cheaper than the similarly sized 70010 The Lion CHI Temple, the Chima flagship set from last year, and boasts 1,301 parts compared to last year's Chima flagship set which only contained 1,258 parts, so on a price per piece basis, the Flying Phoenix Fire Temple is excellent value for money, especially if picked up on sale. I love all the interesting new recolours in the set, especially those marbled Zamor Spheres, and, best of all, surely it's the world's first swooshable temple? Young kids will need good strength to swoosh it, the phoenix part weighs about 650 grams, but no problem for AFOL's. It's best swooshed with one hand on the back, thumb by the bomb dropping mechanism. Now for the ratings: Set design/aesthetics: 9/10 - This set is very well designed, especially the phoenix. It's clever in construction and looks good whatever mode it's in. Points are only lost on how the saber-tooth's vehicle looks in two vehicle mode. Parts: 8/10 - Plenty of new and especially recoloured parts to keep new part aficionados like me happy, but for it to be a viable parts pack you'll have to deal with significant amounts of both System and Technic, which may put some people off. Minifigs: 9/10 - They're excellent as always, though I think Tormak's lack of stripes and the fact you can see his reverse head print at the back with his mask on is a little disappointing. Playability: 10/10 - it's fun to transform the temple into a phoenix and drop a few bombs on unsuspecting ice zombies. The addition of a substantial bad guy vehicle is also great. Value for money: 10/10 - A pleasing PPP ratio to me in the UK, and there is much fun to be had with this set. Worth every penny I paid for the set. Overall: 46/50 - an excellent set, definitely recommended if you have enough LEGO budget remaining, and even better if you find it on sale Thankyou very much for reading my review! Thoughts on the set are welcome since I can't add a poll quite yet EDIT: Changed picture location from Flickr to Brickshelf.

Fangar's Fortress is actually £59.99 in the UK (see here), but you're right - I have trouble seeing how the fortress could be $90 in the US when it's £60 the other side of the Atlantic. $70 as a higher end estimate seems more likely for the US.

Well, I didn't know where to put this, but given it's related to parts inventories for the Chima constraction sets, here goes! LEGO.com updated the part inventories for the Chima constraction sets a few days ago, and I've just been musing over them, when I spotted something quite strange with the inventories of CHI Mungus, CHI Fluminox and CHI Sir Fangar, and it's to do with the high friction joint. For example, take the inventory of CHI Mungus. The high friction joint is listed second, and is quite clearly shown as being BLACK, which must be a mistake since both the set itself and the parts inventory at the back of the instructions have/show them as Dark Bluish Gray (or Dark Stone Gray for those who prefer LEGO's official colour names ). Either there'll be a second production run of these sets with the black friction joints, or (more likely) we're finally going to see black high friction joints in a future constraction set. If the black ones turn out to finally exist... If this provides any further credibility, there's also an image of the black version and a part colour code of the part on BrickLink, though it's been obtained from LEGO.com (or my first link). I don't know, it's just something I noticed.