Corvus

Sorry for the delay between Skrall and now. I've just been procrastinating and not doing anything... *ahem* I picked Gresh up at TRU last week, and I must say, he's a great set. The box: Gresh has a very nice box. It's beautiful, colorful, and matches the whole Jungle theme nicely. On the back, it depicts Gresh and his Agori companion standing in front of a stone building, like the other boxes. Oddly enough, Gresh's Bio-code is M41UMZ... Leet-speak for Malum? Odd. EDIT: Ah. Printing error. The correct code is GR35H1. -JINZO The spike-balls, or Thornax, are rubbery with a black plastic ring around it to fit into the launcher. The set only comes with one, so if you lose it, you're screwed. I've already lost one... The ball fits into the launcher like so. I like the launchers- they're small and aren't massive and ugly like those of years past, and shoot by squeezing the launcher. They fly about a yard and bounce, which is pretty nice. They don't need to shoot across a room, do they? The game counter. It's a nice little piece, even if it's useless. The new game features shooting two Bionicle and when a hit lands, you count down a number. You get to the skull, you die. Pretty simple. The new head. Unfortunetely, my picture-taking didn't turn out so well here, and you can't really see much detail. It looks like Iron Man, like others have said, which I think is awesome. Gresh has an awesome mask. His eyes are very bright, and the mask is a decent size, not too big, but not too small like Malum's. Gresh's build is a pretty simple, and isn't really all that different from those of last year's, or the years before that. However, he does have claws build into his shoulders, and a dark green torso piece like Jaller's. The shoulder spikes push the torso out one stud, and make him look less skinny, though give him unsightly gaps: Gresh's new hands are great. They look good even without weapons, and offer some interesting new poses: He does look very buff, doesn't he? He looks pretty good so far, except that his legs are too skinny and his arms are too long. Gresh has some extremely useful weapons. They can multifunction as arm blades, swords, a shield, or a staff thing. Take a look: Side shot: Unfortunetely, you have to put the armor pieces on the back of his arms, or else they can't bend more than 90 degrees. Like most canister sets, his back is nothing too original. Full gallery here when public. Well, Gresh is a pretty great set. He's not much different from sets of old, but he's a step in the right direction with a thicker torso and not extremely skinny. However, his legs are extremely skinny (I've already modded this, maybe pics later) and his arms are too long. I'd like to see TLC using the shorter linking pieces for the arm, which I can't properly name... the one that's 1 stud long, not three. Anyway, Gresh has some great colors on him and some cool weapons. I'd reccomend getting him. Note: Please tell me what you thought of the picture quality. Too dark? Too anything? I'm experimenting with a new light tent and I'd like some feedback.

Whoops. I seem to have started something I shouldn't have. I like the frontpage BZP reviews, really. However, the forum reviews on BZP can be bad, as can the ones on EB, which is why the Reviewers Academy was started. Any review that has a background and good lighting in the pictures is good. Slightly off topic here, next time you review a set, can you take more 'final product' pics? I'd suggest getting a light tent. They fold up and save room, where as a posterboard box gets in the way and takes up room.

I guess I'm basing what I'm saying off of the assumption that Dooku is still going to the Republic. Now, if Dooku were being sold to the Seperatists, it'd make sense for Anakin and Obi to escape. I meant that they would give their lives so Dooku would stay captured. Have you read Shatterpoint? Mace (the main character) says a lot about Jedi making the 'ultimate sacrifice', or their lives, to protect others. It seems to me that any Jedi would risk their lives to get Dooku to the Republic (or stay in a cell with Dooku so he'd stay captured). But I'm assuming that they're going to be sold to the Republic. Maybe the pirates have a different plan...

But they're Jedi- aren't they supposed to give their lives in service? I'm pretty sure any Jedi would gladly sacrifice themselves to have Dooku captured.

I was at Target about a a week before christmas. The manager said they were getting rid of the old stuff to make room for the new stuff. Calm down. It's a licensed theme; no one can steal it from TLC, or else they'll have Lucas coming down on them as well. The only bad thing that could happen is that it'll ruin the suprise and we'll have to wait longer. A theme that gets copied as often as Bionicle, maybe, but not SW.

This won't help to keep dust off, but I like to hang a few things from the ceiling. I'll take something small-ish, like a TIE fighter or so, and attach it to fishing line and tack it onto the ceiling. I think it looks pretty nice, but if you don't want dust that might not be an option.

That was...odd. I blinked after I saw it and completely missed the next 30 seconds or so because I was laughing. But I loved the new episode! The parts with the pirates were pretty funny. The random brawling, the drinking, and the servants were hilarious. The head Weequay seems much too smart for a Weequay, though. I thought they were supposed to be complete morons... About the next episode: Why do Anakin and Obi-Wan try to escape with Dooku? They're Jedi! They're supposed to sacrifice their lives so Dooku can get captured.

All the sets have it, and it features some sort of game which involves you setting up two figures and shooting them with Thornax. When you get hit, you lose a count on the counter, and it keeps going down 'till they're 'dead'. Well, why don't you like him? Is it the shoulder plates? The chest piece? Tell us why!

The TRU in Seattle, Washington, US. I went there looking for the SW sets but they weren't there, so I got these instead.

Yep, I just got mine. It's great! Shows all the new sets.

Hello, it's me again. Next on the review list is 8979 (one of the few numbers I can actually remember...) Malum. He's my favorite set of the four I've gotten (Strakk, Skrall, Gresh, Malum) and I hope you like him too after this review. Anyway... Malum's box is very intimidating. Most of it is on fire, with Malum standing in the middle. There's alsoa staircase in the back, although I'm not sure why. The back features Malum and the little guy standing in front of some stone building. Nothing too different from the last review. Interestingly enough, there's a pic of Malum actually going into his box. What's this? We can actually store them? I wouldn't recommend it, though, because bits of Malum keep getting stuck in the canister and it's hard to get him back out... The Bio-Code is M41UMZ. Gahhh... Ah well. Again, the code doesn't work, but I guess we'll just have to wait. OK, onto the head. I love these new heads, which look rediculously like Ironman. His mask is much, much smaller than I was expecting. It attaches from the top, which lets it look something like an actual helmet. His build is fairly straightforward. What I really like about him is that he's not rediculously skinny and leggy. Here, he really, really looks like Ironman. Someone confirm this so I know I'm not going crazy. The recolored chest piece here looks pretty sweet. It gives Malum a bit of a hole in his chest, but this can be fixed. His 'shoulder' plates attach very simply- directly onto the front of his upper arms. I was worried that this would be horrible, but the technique worked better than I thought. Sure, the arms get in the way sometimes, but they're OK. Still, don't do it again, TLC. Malum's new fire-claws-pick-things are pretty cool. It's easy to imagine him ripping up the side of a volcano with them. The spiky-ball (Isn't it a Thornax or something? ) is kind of dissapointing. It's rubbery and the colors don't look so great. Other than that, it's launcher is fairly simple and not oversized. (Note- it only comes with one) Malum's back. The game piece goes here. Easy to take off if you want. Side shot. Various action poses: He looks a bit like a football (american version) player, doesn't he? Another head closeup: The full gallery can be found here. Overall I think Malum is an amazing set, and the pictures don't do him justice. Sure his shoulder plates get in the way every once in a while, but it's a lot less of a problem than you might think. The Thornax launcher is neat, and even the game counter has a use! It's easy to take the red Metru chest piece there and stick it like so: Which helps cut the gap problem in his chest and overall buffs him up a little. Thanks for looking!

Crap.

"I brought a toaster." Best line yet. Good episode- I'm going to have to go all the way back and start from the beginning now. Can't wait for the next episode! What's it called? "KimT's Revenge" ?

I like the idea of a mid-scale Falcon. I was always too scared to swoosh the old one...

Hello, Mr. M again, now here to review 2009 Glatorian, Skrall. I picked Skrall up at TRU along with Berix, Gresh, Malum, and Strakk. He was suprisingly my second favorite, after Malum. I'll let you take a look, though. The box features a full picture of Skrall in the all-important 'action shot'. What I like about him is that the box art is located underground somewhere, as all rock-style Bionicle ought to be. The back of the box is similar to last year, with another shot of Skrall along with his short 'lil sidekick, Atackus. They're both standing next to some sort of massive stone building, which I think gives the Glatorians the proper Gladiator or maybe even Egyptian theme... The BIO-code is SKR411, and like the others, is leet-speak. I tried it on Lego.com, but it hasn't been working. I assume it'll be another 360-degree view, which would be more helpful before I buy the set. His mask is awesome, IMO. I didn't notice before that it had awesome authentic battle-damage, or some sweet dents in his head. Maybe it's not so good to his brain, but maybe he doesn't need it. Now we move onto his shield. Ignore the obnoxious blue pin- it's supposed to be tan. Astute obsevers may notice that there are also parts of my face reflected in it. Skrall's shield is amazing. Like his mask, the shield also features awesome authentic battle-damage. It kicks the hell out off Kopaka's shield. Now we move onto the new thigh piece, which is actually the highlight of the set for me. TLC has taken way too long to give us a new piece, but I'd say it was worth the wait. Last we have his sword, which I don't like nearly as much as the other new parts. The blade is cool enough, but then it has to curve around and make it look really awkward. His build is very original and works quite well. It works by attaching the standard hip part to the standard Inika torso by way of the Toa-Matoran linking device from last year. One of the new armor pieces attaches, and secures the head. Attach the armor pieces and you have a very cool warrior on your hands. He looks cool even without his weapons, partly because of the new hands. Unarmed combat on! Skrall is fairly thin, but he looks good with it. The thin look only looks bad on Toa and other more humanoid-shaped figure. Luckily, Skrall is far enough away from this to be completely awesome. Back view. Skrall's battle-counter attaches to his foot, which really gets in the way. Luckily, it's extremely easy to take off. The battle counter (which I have no pics off...in this review, at least) has five points on it. When you lose all your points after being hit with the spiky ball-lauchers (again, I forgot to have pics in this review.), you go to the 'skull' symbol and most likely die. It's not a very interesting game. However, the launchers are quite nice. They consist of two silvery pieces, which shoot the spiky-ball when you apply pressure to it. It takes up little room and looks much nicer than the massive shooters of late. The spiky ball, however, is rubbery and doesn't look so great... Again, the shield is great. Also again, there's supposed to be a tan pin there instead. Due to his build, Skrall has a hard time looking up, which lead to some inconveniences while posing. The swords on his arms also get in the way every once in a while, although they're not a problem. If it were real life, however, I wouldn't be suprised if he cut his own head off with them. Full gallery here, and I'm sorry that I forgot to take pics of the launcher or spiky-ball. I've gotten into the habit of taking them off automatically! The launcher attaches to Skrall's sword, which I also didn't cover enough. You could ask me to take pictures, but a look at what I do have should be fine. It's not that complicated. If you need to see pics of the launcher attached to the sword, look at the box. Next: Strakk Erm, Malum.

Sorry. BZP does have good reviews, and I go there regularly to check for them. The only thing I dislike about it is that there's a format you have to follow to make them... Then again, I haven't checked that in a while... My bad, sorry.

This is the only small guy I have. I agree though, I can never remember the names...

Hi there! (Yes, this is the most creative intro I can think off... ) I was in Seattle last weekend for X-mas, so I picked up some of the new '09 Glatorian at TRU. First up, we have Berix, who was a whopping $7.99 for 15 pieces! The box: Nothing going on here. I think this is exactly the same as last year's matoran. Boring. However, the back of the box has the BIO-code, which is B3RXOR. I hate leet-speek in BIO-codes. I didn't get anything, but maybe that's because it hasn't been updated yet... Them new parts: A few new parts here, and almost everything except one piece (pipe-thing) is recolored! Yay! The new head. I like it, and I count 3 different colors so far: Trans-yellow, trans-orange, and trans-blue. I was hoping to get red, but whatever. It's funny how much it looks like Ironman. They actually attach from the top now. This screws with the masks of old, but it opens up some new possibilities. I kinda like it. The new hands. I've heard a lot of whining about how horrible they are, but I think they're just plain awesome. Maybe they look a bit oversized on the matoran, but they were never really properly scaled to people, now were they? The build: The build. All right. Em....hmmmm. There isn't one. The only reason I wrote 'The build' in large letters is to make fun of BZP. But come on, there are only 15 parts! What build can you do? Right. None. It's boring. That said, Berix does all right for a partless loser. I think the angle on the arms could be a bit more, but they're not bad. The legs, however, look chunky. The good part is that all the parts are recolored and that he has a very nice mask. Very refreshing. I was highly dissapointed by this. For some reason, I was expecting some sort of trans-blue, like that of the bigger guy's swords. Ah well. It'd be so much better trans... OK, here we have him with full weapons. I like how the hands make it look like he's actually holding the two parts to make a shield. And, well, that's it, really. He's a matoran, what else can you expect? He's pretty thin, yada yada yada, but this is the better of the two torsos. Overall, he's actually pretty nice. He's colorful, and all the parts are either new or recolored, except for his shield pieces and the tube. I give 7/10, mostly because I don't care much for the torso and the price. Anyway, useful little bugger. A lot more pics on flickr. More reviews of Gresh, Malum, Skrall, and Strakk coming tomorrow! (Why? It's late, and I'm tired. )

Thanks, guys! Why, sure: Mr. Mandalorian Well, it looks like I'm definitely going to have to make a proper Basilisk out of it now.

Hey, cool! I actually won something! Cool! He cheated! He blew the $!&% out of us! Owww....

The thing that really killed the elemental look was silver pieces and bley...

Soldier's Fort UCS AT-ST Some camera setup phone ipod (and ipod stuff... ) Wasn't really expecting the two bottom stuff. I would have gladly traded the ipod (and stuff) for some more Lego, though. On the bright side, we're going to Seattle in a few days, which means TRU and LEGO store!

New pirates and a camera setup! Woohoo! UCS AT-ST, Imperial Fort, and other non-lego stuff.

Everything, including Power Miners, is now up on US S@H.

Ew. That's a horrible price. I don't even have a choice to wait 'till that goes on sale. EDIT: Everything except for Dooku's sailer is up on S@H (USA)!