ZORK64

Oooooh trust me, he's the 5€ more totally worth, as he comes with many really cool pieces. EDIT: Also, DB sounds kinda weird in that commercial.

Thanks for your feedback guys. I also would have preferred something like a spear for him. It doesn't look that elegant in my eyes. That's a good question, actually. To me, it looks like the green is a colour of its own and not a mixture of the blue and the yellow, especially since the red/yellow flame piece doesn't really have some orange inbetween (which it should have in this case). There's also so much of that green, and it doesn't blend all that well into the blue part. Hmmm...

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.

I think that mostly depends if you want a hero or a villain first. If you want a hero, go with Stormer. He has a fantastic design and comes with great parts. But if you rather want a villain, pick Dragon Bolt. He comes with very awesome parts, a cool build and is, after all, a freaking dragon. Personally, I still think Stormer is the best set of the batch.

I do the same thing with my MOCs elbows, but for the knees, I keep the regular design, since I don't care about knee rotation all that much (while I appreciate it in Transformers toys, LEGO's constraction figures are even without poseable enough thanks to their ankle joints). But I have a hard time imagining that the elbow issue has something to do with the price point. The respective limb pieces are nigh-identical, after all. I guess it has more something to do with stability. Given that Aquagon's limbs and face are already yellow, I'd give him blue armour instead - well, actually, I'd replaced the silver bits with gunmetal or black if the silver would bug me that much, since I like his overall colour scheme. But yeah, as I already said: This guy won't last too long because of Hordak.

Sounds like the Brain Attack sets start to be released elsewhere too, hm? I really should get all the reviews done I wanted to for something like a month now. Anyway, I've got yet another review done, it's Aquagon.

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).

Smaller ball joints? That sounds very interesting, as it would make smaller-scalled constraction MOCs a lot easier to equip with stable joints.

It actually slipped my mind that it comes in a new colour here, mostly because it's a piece that was already covered in various reviews back then when it was new.

It's a pity that it's so hard for folks in the US to get the polybag. On the other hand, we here in Europe (or at least, Germany) have to wait much longer for the release of video games (sometimes the games don't even make it to us), also, Hasbro is not too keen on Germany when it comes to Transformers.

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.

Well, to be honest, me neither. I only learned of the Furmanisms via the TFWiki entry since I don't pay that much attention to the comics, though I own by now one Transformers comic, whose story and script is indeed written by Simon Furman. And re-reading it just to spot all the Furmanisms is surprisingly entertaining.

The next review I'll make is Frost Beast, since he was also requested. In fact, Frost Beast was requested even before Stormer, but I decided to review Stormer first because I was really looking forward to his set. I'm surprised that the European prices differ that much from region to region. Regarding your request: I'm sorry, but I already disassembled my Stormer XL last year. But I can put Stormer's regular helmet on the BA Stormer, if you wish. Since I have Aquagon (who also got the blue swords like Laval), I can try the blade swap some time too.

The first question was actually if not trans-blue itself is new to Hero Factory, but the trans-blue shells, my bad that I wasn't clearer on that. Anyway, thanks for your informative answer. I'd never expected that this trans-blue is the same as used in Stormer's original tool. Funnily, the only Chima set I own is Eris' Eagle Interceptor... which features a single claw piece in black. So that's the reason why that piece was so familiar to me. And thanks again for all the positive feedback on the review. I'm personally not too fond of the pictures because of the bright carpet and the general light on them. I had build my "photo station" someplace else for these reviews, and the light I used is much brighter and stronger than the one I usually prefer.

When I saw the leaks of Jet Rocka, I thought "Meh". When I saw pics pics of the actual set, I thought "Slightly better, but still meh". Now, after reading your review, I start to warm up to him. I'm generally not too fond of Rocka, but you managed to make very sweet pics of his jet pack, which really starts to warm up to me. Since I already own almost the entire summer wave, I'll pass on him for now though, maybe I'll pick him up if I can get him once he goes on sales. Oh, by the way... Do I see a Furmanism here?

Personally, I think this guy looks pretty cool. Only the feet look odd, but that's more because of personal preferences. I'd like to know how poseable he actually is, though.

His arms aren't actually that monkey-ish, since both his upper and lower arms are shorter than the respective leg pieces. I guess he gives off that monkey-arm vibe due to his very massive weaponry. Though I have to admit that I was never really bothered by the monkey arms some sets had. I prefer them also over short arms on backward placed shoulder joints, like Furno XL does.

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.

I took a comparison picture of the two helmets (I also put Stormer's 2.0 helmet next to them, just because I could do so). And I'm sorry that I still haven't written any new reviews yet. I'm kinda lazy and partly busy with other stuff. But I already took the pictures of almost all sets (only Dragon Bolt is still in his bag). Maybe I'll start writing Stormer's and Frost Beast's reviews tomorrow. Ah, in that case I might try Stormer's combiner out if I can find the instructions. I can clearly remember I wasn't able to get the instructions for the Breez/Ogrum combiner back then when the Brain Attack sets were released.

That's a sure thing. I scanned the back of the bags, just like I did recently in the reviews of Chi Eris and Chi Cragger.

Maaaybe. From what I've seen so far, the combiners don't interest me all that much, and it wouldn't surprise me if the instructions aren't even online yet (which was also the reason why I didn't built the Breez/Ogrum combiner back then). Also, I don't have Evo, so I can only make two of the combiners. So maybe I'll try at least Stormer's combiner, but I wouldn't count on it.

I'll try to keep your question in mind when I'll review him.

Behold! My highly requested review for the polybag is online! You can find it here. I also already took pictures of Stormer and Frost Beast. Tomorrow I'll take pictures of Aquagon, Surge and Dragon Bolt.

I'd like to begin this review with a (slightly modified) quote from Gandalf the Grey: "AFOLs. You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month, and yet after a hundred years they can still surprise you." When I asked you which set I should review first, I had never expected the polybag to be the most requested set. I thought you'd go for Dragon Bolt or one of the heroes (well, Stormer was mentioned at least once, same goes for Frost Beast). But I don't want to complain about that. It's just a funny surprise. Set name: Exclusive Accessory Pack* Set Number: 40084 Price: ** Pieces: 9 (but only 6, according to the instructions) Year of release: July 2013 (Europe) *Well, I guess it's the name, since there's no specific name on the bag itself. **The pack itself is free, but you can only get it with another Hero Factory purchase. The bag The front of the polybag shows the black brain and the fire sword on a green background. One thing I find noteworthy on this bag is the title in another language (I guess it's French, but I'm not sure). The bag shows the title in yet another language, but otherwise it's relatively dull. So let's slice this up! The parts I was pleasantly surprised to find out that all of the TECHNIC pieces are included two times in the bag, especially the sword hilt piece - it really grew on me in the last wave, so I'm happy to get even more of these. This is also most likely not a particular case, since my other bag contained the same pieces. Here we have the exclusive black brain slug, which makes this pack so interesting. The slug itself is a redeco of the other brain slugs, cast in black rubbery plastic with a solid red eye section, so aside from the (solid) colour, it's identical with the regular brains. That means of course it got the same amount of detail as the others. I really like the brain-like detailing on it. It connects of course in the exact same way like it's less exclusive brethren. Pictures of interest from the instructions Due to the small size of this set, the instructions are not a booklet but just a single sheet of paper. Here we have the actual building instructions for the sword (ironically, there's an error in the assembly if you look at the steps 2 and 3). Turn the instructions around and you'll find a nice poster of the previous wave's bad guys and their brain slugs. A smart move, since that poster encourages kids to upgrade those guys with the flame sword and the black brain too. Building the set I guess that picture shows clearly the proper assembly of the sword. It's basically assembled in a way similiar to Furno XL's sword, only far less complex. Design and playability Well, both the sword and the slug look pretty nice. However, both of these can't really interact with eachother since the slug doesn't have any hands or such. But that doesn't matter, because you can get this set only with another Hero Factory set, which you can of course upgrade using these extra parts! Here I replaced Furno XL's default sword with the sword from this set. I could of course also try to combine both blades to make an even bigger sword. Final thoughts What can I say about a free parts pack aside from the obvious fact that it's a cool idea? The Accessory Pack is a very nice parts pack (even if you put the brain slug aside). If you happen to know a LEGO store near you (or decide to order Hero Factory sets online), I can only recommend you to get this pack, since it comes with a small yet versatile number of parts.

To be honest, I'm far more interested in the sword than the brain slug, but that's mostly because I haven't really tried the MOC potential of the slug out yet. I'm also not to keen on the tail connection of the slugs, since it hinders the poseability of the head to a great deal. But hey, given how many slugs I now own, I will eventually use a few for MOCs I guess. And a super special brain slug is also neat. It was an actual LEGO store. Though the one in my town is still relatively new, it opened in late 2010.