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VBBN

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  1. Unfortunately I was not given information on a release date. I didn't receive a date for the Chima Ultrabuilds either, and they started showing up in stores right after reviews went live, so it is possible we may see these sets earlier than August in some places.
  2. Set name: Surge & Rocka Combat Machine Set number: 44028 Piece Count: 188 Year Released: 2014 Price: $24.99 Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the Combat machine. Firstly as always I want to thank Lego and the Eurobricks staff who made it possible for me to bring these reviews to you guys. Before we begin I do want to apologize, upon posting this review I have noticed a couple photos in the review that I did not get a chance to retake. These photos will be amended in the morning. The Combat machine is the second largest set of the year, and is also one of the most unique, Two machines that can connect together, and with a build that is unlike anything we have seen from Invasion from Below. But is this flagship Surge machine really that fantastic, or is the hype for it overshadowing some major faults? Packaging Box Front The box displays the set in a rather boring action pose, though you will come to find that this is about as exciting of an angle as it gets. These sets were signed by the designers, and in this case it appears that two people designed the combat machine. Box back Various functions and play features of the set can be seen here. Firing weapons, flick fire missiles galore, opening cocoons, jumping jumpers, firing spheres, removable ship with moving wings- there's a lot to be seen here. Contents Instructions One thing I found interesting, was that the instructions for this set were actually quite thick- thicker than those with the queen beast. As far as build complexity goes, the Combat machine takes the cake this year. Random instruction shot While I will discuss my mixed opinions on this set later, one thing that cannot be denied is that it's a pleasant change from the usual formula. The structure of the body is a maze of bones, and you really don't know what is going on until it's all done. Also it's worth noting that the instructions have a jumper printed onto them, witnessing the build as you go. Comics Like the first wave of IFB sets, the instructions have a nice comic in them. Usually the first part of the comic shows off the set in action, and the second part details the combo models. In this case we see the interchangeability of the mech's weapons. It's worth noting that this set looks miles better in the comic than the actual set. The back of the machine is filled out and solid. Beast combo model I didn't receive PDFs of the combo models for this wave like before, but I can say for sure that I will build that combo as soon as the instructions go live. The beast combo before was a three headed kaiju which just didn't look good overall, and now we have a massive scorpion that gives Scorpio a run for his money. The cocoon-stinger is also an interesting design choice. Needless to say, I really want to build this. Hero Combo On the other side of the frying pan, we have this buzzkill. It's like they took the worst parts of every mech and put them into one, larger and messier looking mech. I'll reserve judgement until I actually build it, but I wish they had included the combat machine and made a really massive machine to combat the scorpion. Combat Machine Alternate weapons Now this was a surprise when I peered into the instructions. I'm sure we all remember the absolute tragedy that was the six-armed evo XL machine from the first wave. he harvested the limbs from other mechs, to "power up" his machine. This is repeated again with the combat machine, although it's not nearly as bad (and actually quite cool) the weapons from the driller machine and flea machine can be swapped out for the ship. (The container from the evo spider mech from the Queen Beast set can also be swapped out as I will show you later in the review) Sticker sheet I've avoided showing sticker sheets thus far because they really never show up on camera, and basically the only difference is that the names are different for Surge, Breez, and Bulk, who previously did not have sheets. Interesting Parts Surge goodies Among the interesting parts we have blue minifig parts and a new helmet for surge, as well as his printed shell piece. Cocoon petal The cocoon petals are a soft plastic that can usually be bent down (to imitate an open cocoon) We get red petals with this set. Build Surge and Rocka front view Both minifgs come with the projectile gun that was a new piece earlier in the year with Star Wars. Do note that the final mech has two of these near the surge cockpit- They are the same blasters as the ones the minifigs are holding, I just removed them and placed them on the mech. In other words, the set only comes with two blasters, to avoid confusion. Surge and Rocka back No major differences here. Something I did find interesting, was that the instructions mistakenly instruct you to place the silver armor on Rocka, and the gunmetal on Surge. Jumpers While the other sets include the new blue-shelled jumper, the two jumpers in this set use the older black shell. I would have expected a red body jumper with a blue shell, but it looks like they chose this route instead. Cocoon The build of the cocoon utilizes the tri-connector in dark brown. Cocoon closed The cocoon has a very neat organic look to it, with the veins and tears in it's surface. Cocoon open As I said earlier, the petals can open. Some of them don't like to stay open, but you can get some cool "hatching" poses like this if you wanted. Rear Body The build begins with a double torso. Torso If you found Furno's mech from earlier in the year to be strange to build this one will have you tripping down a flight of stairs. Admittedly it's not all that complicated, but at this stage you don't know what is going on, or what will become what. Rear legs Something that annoyed me from the first sightings at toy fair, the rear legs. It's not that they are smaller that mothers me, but whoever decided that foot was a good choice? Had it been my decision, I might have chosen a foot that is closer to the style of the front feet, or the exact same. (The most likely choice would be ben 10 feet, but they are limited in their front and back pivoting movement.) Front Legs The front legs are larger, though again they have this strange bending to them which ends up leaving a lot of spots unarmored. I've left these legs flipped like this so you can see the structuring of them. Legs added With the legs added, it just becomes more ridiculous to look at those back feet. Weapons and cockpit The finishing touches include adding on a cockpit, the two guns from the minifigs, a sphere launcher, and yes, 6 flick fire missiles. (Don't worry, there's more where those came from) Finished Set (Part 1) Posing Well, he can lift his foot. Posing this set is...difficult. The legs have very odd bends in them, and attempting to really make him look dynamic is, not my strong point. Perhaps I'm just terrible at posing four legged sets. Running pose Er..something like that. The back legs almost disappeared in this photo, which also gave me inspiration to start working on a two legged machine, sort of like an AT-ST/AT-RT. In all fairness, I didn't even attempt posing this set with the flying machine attached to it, as I feel that the whole thing would collapse under the extra weight. Build Building the ship While Surge's machine was a balljoint jungle, the ship is almost entirely technic inspired. Here we see the start of the two most crucial aspects of the ship- Wings, and more flick fire missiles. Put flames on it, it'll go faster. As we press on with the build, a construct to attach the cockpit is made, and some of the strangest looking engines are built. I do question what the designers were going for with those front fins- Any hint of adding aerodynamics is shot once the cockpit is added on. Finished Set (Part 2) Ship Front View Is this a ship, or just a menacing cockpit armed with flick fire missiles? Side view Again, those fins on the front literally lost all purpose as soon as that cockpit got smacked on there. This thing needs a lot more of them to give it a real nice shape. Rear view Oh lego, this has to be one of the saddest engine 'attempts' I've seen. The trans light blue wheel looks like the pilot should be standing back there, or manning a pirate ship. The little silver cylinders just look like exhaust pipes. Wings extended From this angle, the fins on the front end up giving the ship a nice shape. In fact, most of it looks quite good from this angle. It's from every other angle that it gets progressively worse. Rocka Piloting "Today, Hero Factory is proud to announce the new Flying machine. Rocka, how are you liking it?" "It's quite exhilarating, every moment you are in intense fear of losing grip of the handlebars, otherwise you'll plummet to your death. I hear a lack of floor panels helps with aerodynamics." Machines together (Apologies for the photo everyone; Upon posting this review this one slipped my radar, I will be retaking a couple photos for this review tomorrow) Words cannot describe how odd that looks. Personally, I would have preferred it more if Rocka's portion was a large turret on top of the mech. Right now it looks like the two machines were never meant to be put together. Side view Oh dear. I don't know if it's the smaller legs, strange feet, or fact that the entire big behind of the mech is missing armor, but it looks like lego gave up on the whole back half here. Rear view Again, just very awkward. Wings extended I'm noticing a common theme with this set as a whole- The best views are these top-down views. Mech components Here I have laid out the top-portion of each machine, which utilizes a two-pin system for being removed. As shown in the instructions, the ship can be swapped with the drill or the...flea? I have also thrown in the container from the spider machine for science purposes. Driller I'd actually go as far as saying that this improves upon the look of the set. The orange gives purpose to the seats, and makes it more look like a combat ready machine. Grabber-claw thing Again, this adds to the set, giving it the cool functionality of the claw. Container Okay, it's not the best idea, but it's there if you want to do it. My overall opinions on the Combat machine are...scattered. Do I love blue? Yes. Do I love mechs that combine together? Yes. Do I love 4 legged mechs and flying vehicles? Yes. But when I look at this set, too many things, to me, scream unfinished. The ship is a valiant effort, but overally really doesn't look like anything more than the oddly shaped cockpit with two wing pieces, sitting on top of a bed of technic bits, with flcik fire missiles to show which direction it's supposed to be facing. Surge's mech is actually really nice from the front, but like many cars, gets progressively worse as you get to the sides and back. The overall "combined" machine is very open and unfinished looking from the back, and I can't get behind the rear legs, which look like an utter afterthought at the most. THe set has it's charms though. It's a new and unique idea, with a fascinating build, and I really enjoyed how one half of the set focuses on the bonestraction system, whilst the other half was more technic oriented. The color scheme is great and vibrant, and I also appreciate how they incorporated the other mech's "backpacks" in place of the ship, as opposed to the mess that Evo XL harvested in the first wave. I think this set is a worthy pickup for those who don't mind the rather lacking back half and strange shape of the mech in it's combined form, but for those who had doubts about this set since day one, I can't say much to change the opinion. I still feel the same about the set as I did at toy fair, and before having it in hand. It's okay, but I feel it could have been so much more.
  3. ​ Set name: Breez Flea Machine Set number: 44027 Piece Count: 102 Year Released: 2014 Price: $14.99 Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the Flea Machine. Firstly as always I want to thank Lego and the Eurobricks staff who made it possible for me to bring these reviews to you guys. In the winter wave of Invasion from Below, Breez was never given a mech of her own. This time around, she recieves the Flea machine. Is it a worthy mech for Breez? Read on to find out. Bag Front The front of the bag continues to display the rather cool artwork that we have seen on previous sets this year. My sets were also signed by set designers, and I do believe they were signed by the respective designers. if that holds true, then this set was designed by 2 people. Bag Back The rear of the packaging showcase the set's features. Jumpers, flick fire missiles, cocoons, and projectile weapons, and then there is the main feature of the set- The claw/flea/anchor whatever it is. Contents Contents 2 bags of parts, a torso (the narrow variant) and instructions. Interesting Parts Random parts The gun is not new, it was seen in earlier in the star wars sets, but since it is still technically new to 2014 and new to HF, I've included it. You can also see the blue jumper shell, and the armor add on in a lime green. Cocoon petals The petals come in red with this set. I will detail the functionality of these shortly. More random bits At first I wasn't sure if breez was going to get her own printed piece, but in fact she does. Sadly it's only one piece and it's on a 4L shell instead of 5L, but it's there. Build Minifigure Breez's construction is just the same as previously. Front This time around Breez gets a projectile weapon, as well as a datapad. Notice the orange clip on the datapad- It's actually meant to be attached to the cockpit as you will see, however the back of the bag does show that she can utilize this on her arm. Rear Unlike her variant in the first wave of sets, she does not have her rocket thrusters on her feet. Jumper The jumper is a blue and orange mix. It's quite vibrant, though i still would have preferred to have new body colors instead of the shell color in blue. Cocoon The petals can be bent downward to imitate hatching. Usually this works, though some petals can be stubborn to bend downward and won't stay down. Body The body begins by creating the section for the cockpit to attach to. Legs The flea machine has three legs, the front two being the same and the back one being slightly different, also gaining a friction joint to add support. While the front legs have a good range of motion, the rear legs doesn't move up much because it clashes with the bottom of the torso. Mechanism construction The build of the claw uses a heavy technic structure. Feeders I was surprised to see how many feeders for the string were added on to guide it properly. Also notice that the rope-glider piece is hooked on to the side, so if the claw were grabbed onto something across a gap, breez could zipline over to it. However, because he hands are molded only one way, she is sideways while doing this. Good effort lego. Finished I'll admit, this section took me a while to complete- I am slow as a tortoise when it comes to getting these strings tied up properly. Also after wall was said and done, I realized I had mis-fed the string through one of the holes and had to amend that. The string attached to the claw does not actually tie around it, rather you place it next to the axle that is plugged into the tri-connector. Completed Set Front The machine doesn't look too bad from this angle once finished. I think a green cockpit might have suited this better, but it varies the color scheme if nothing else. Also take note of the data pad which is now attached to the left of the cockpit. I don't know why they decided to put it there, but I will give props for matching the color of the clip to the seat. Side view Exposed balljoints seem to be a common theme with some of the machines this wave but it's not a major issue. I do wish that they had placed some sort of armor on that gray bone piece though. Rear Although the rear leg is made differently, the armor placement is roughly the same, which I do appreciate. "Posing" Well, the set is a tripod, so most poses will not look very dynamic. If you attempt to raise the legs, it just falls over. (It probabaly could stand if it's feet were more stable, but just those little bars don't do much) The claw The main attraction of the set is by a far the claw mechanism- and it works considerably well. The string is guided properly, so that when you turn the crank to pull the string back in, it doesn't overlap or get tangled. The string also reaches pretty far, this shot only shows it extended about halfway. The Flea machine. I really don't knoww hat to think oft his one. On one hand, I'm happy that breez got a machine, and a printed part to herself. I also really like the set's mechanism, it's fun to build and works quite well. On the other hand, as someone who prefers the poseability of a set and how it looks displayed vs playability, the set does suffer. it really can't pull off any dynamic poses, and theres not a whole lot you can do besides extend the claw to grab onto things. Overall I'd say it's a good pick up, but I'd place it's value as a parts pack more than it's final version as a set.
  4. Set name: Crystal Beast vs Bulk Set number: 44026 Piece Count: 83 Year Released: 2014 Price: $14.99 Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the Crystal Beast. Firstly as always I want to thank Lego and the Eurobricks staff who made it possible for me to bring these reviews to you guys. The Crystal Beast has been a surprising character from the start. At first, this beast who was assumed to be azure shocked everyone at Toy Fair, when he turned out to be covered in trans light blue. With the recent release of Chima's 2014 Ultrabuilds, trans light blue has become not so uncommon. Is Crystal Beast still a set worth picking up? Bag Front The front of the bag once again uses the artwork from earlier in the year at the top of the bag. My sets were signed by set designer, and if the respective designers signed the sets, then Crystal beast here was designed by 3 people. Contents Contents Two bags of parts, instructions, and a loose torso. Instructions To see the combo models and other interesting things in the instructions, be sure to check out the reviews of Queen Beast and Combat Machine where I look further into them. Interesting parts Crystal head While many people will get their fill of trans light blue from the Chima 2014 ultrabuilds, Crystal beast does include the smaller jaw piece in a trans light blue. Sadly th other half of the jaw is in black. Recolors We get 5 of the second shortest bone in a trans light blue (the only other set with this piece is CHI Vardy who includes 1) and the 3.0 beast spike in a black/lime green mix. Petals The cocoon petals come in a trans green mixed with black. The black is a hard plastic and the trans green is a softer plastic. Minifig parts Minifig arms and legs recolored in silver, as well as Bulk's new helmet. Also I have included the gun in this photo. It was seen earlier in the year in 2014, so it is still relatively new, but it's a new major accessory to the minifigs this wave so I thought it was worthy to show. Chest piece Crystal beast and Queen beast both share this same printed component. I'm not a big fan of this print, and I would have preferred it if this were in a trans light blue to further the crystal theme of the set. (I know that would display the inner workings of the chest which might be displeasing to some, but I wouldn't mind it) Build Minifigure Bulk's build begins the same as all other heroes, utilizing a skeleton torso as the base. Front My main complaint with bulk is the odd choice for eye color. We haven't really ever seen Bulk display lime green anywhere in his color scehme, and I think a shade of orange would have made far more sense. Back Bulk does get a hint of orange as we spin him around. He features the same rocket boosters that Breez did in the first wave. Cocoon The petals can be flipped down to imitate hatching, or in this case a daring escape. Petals closed Of course, it can be difficult to fit the minifigures entirely into these cocoons; All Bulk has to do here is raise an arm and dig himself out. Torso The body begins with one of the narrower torsos, and a tail construction. Legs His limbs are fairly short, due to the use of the shorter trans-bone. Arms All of the beasts this wave feature a unique claw design which I do quite like. I'm not overly down of how they chose to do the thumbs however. Arms added He's starting to shape up. Weapon top At first people wondered why his part count was quite high, and part of that is due to this staff construction. The top has a sort of grabber that can hold on to Bulk. It's alright, but to me Crystal Beast feels like a character who would use something like a mace or a club. Completed Set Front He does have some rather goofy proportions, his head is especially large in this shot. Side view I'm not fond of the very thin torso construction. Originally I didn't like the looks of him having this extra long neck, but it has grown on me as a neat trait to his character. Back He doesn't have a revolutionary build, so nothing too unexpected here. His torso is quite simple, and really could have done with some bulking up. Pose 1 With that said, Crystal beast is one of two bipedal figures in this wave, and as such, is one of the easiest to put into some great poses. I really love the brick built claws as opposed to the standard "paw" piece being overused once more, and his facial print looks menacing. The extra neck joint also helps with some dynamic movement of his head, and overall I just like posing him. Pose 2 I should mention here that I adore this color scheme. Trans light blue, lime green, and black is a winning combo for me, and I can't wait to utilize it on further MOCs. It also flusters me that his chest print uses that random shade of orange, which not only does this set not feature, but it's also nowhere to be seen on the queen beast. I think a blue would have made more sense. Pose 3 His staff can grab Bulk, as I mentioned earlier, though you can also grab him with the beasts claws if you prefer it that way. Random action shot Crystal beast was another set that I wasn't excited for at first. When we originally saw him at Toy fair, his strongest trait was his trans light blue- which was quickly beaten by the sheer amount we got with the 2014 Chima Ultrabuilds. However the bones he comes with are nice to have since you get 5 of them, and his head is also a drawing point. His design is nice, but nothing revolutionary. There's really not much to say about this set; You get what you see. He has a staff which is alright, but I don't know if it really adds a huge value to the set, and Bulk is a cool minifigure but he comes in 2 of the 3 medium sized sets
  5. Set name: Bulk Drill machine Set number: 44025 Piece Count: 113 Year Released: 2014 Price: $14.99 Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the Drill Machine. Firstly as always I want to thank Lego and the Eurobricks staff who made it possible for me to bring these reviews to you guys. The Drill Machine is one of two medium scaled machines in the summer Invasion From Below wave. It's also the personal machine of Bulk, one of the two new additions to the minifigure lineup this wave. But is this machine really a good match for Bulk? Read on to find out! Bag Front The front of the bag shows the Driller machine with it's drill flipped forward. He's in a rather large cavern, and is in the midst of combating a jumper, perhaps it would have made more sense if the gun side was flipped forward? I was fortunate enough to receive these sets signed by set designers, and I believe each respective set is signed by it's own designers. If that's the case, this set was designed by two people. However on the second copy of the set I received, there were three signatures. Which one is the mistake? Bag Back The back of the bag shows some of the set features. These include opening cocoon, firing missiles, firing guns, jumping jumpers, and a spinning drill. Sounds like this set is packed with fun. Contents Contents Two bags of parts, a loose torso, instructions, and a sticker sheet. The sticker sheet sort of blended in here and I don't end up using the stickers on the final set. Basically they are the same as every other canopy sticker set, just with the words Bulk instead of the other hero names. Instructions The instructions. For saving time, I only look inside the instructions in my review of the Queen beast and Combat machine. Interesting Parts Smaller bits Firstly, we have the jumper shell in blue. The gun is not new, however it is new to 2014 and was not seen in the first wave of HF, so I have included it here for observation. We also have minifig components recolored in silver, and Bulk's new helmet. Printed pieces Here we have the printed piece respective to bulk. Build Minifigure Bulk's build is the same as the other figures, starting with a skeleton torso as his base. Front Bulk overall isn't the brightest of figures- He is just shades of silver, black and gunmetal, which isn't bad. Something seems off however. Euuuhm. Green eyes? I would have preferred it fare more if they had been orange. Back A back view. Unlike his variant in the Crystal beast set, he does not include the flight rockets. Jumper The jumper in this set is a blue and green. While I'm upset we didn't get new body colors for these guys (i.e blue, purple, and GITD) the new blue shell creates a very bright jumper. Cocoon I realize the petals were not analyzed in the new parts section. TO see the blue petal on it's own, please look here. It's impossible to see given my setup on this white backdrop, and I don't want to disrupt the flow with a black backdrop for one photo. Anyway, the cocoon can fold open and can hold a minifig or jumper. This is shown among all of my reviews- Given my annoyance with the petals in this review, this is the only photo that actually turned out halfway decent. Body The body of the mech begins with a technic structure. It's a nice change of pace from what we've seen in the past with hero factory builds. Drill component The drill is build on a set of technic arms. It's two sided, with one side being the drill and the other side being twin guns or something. It looks neat, but the entire mechanism is built around a turbine, which means the drill as well as these guns rotate. I would prefer the guns stay in one position, but that's just me (and rather unavoidable in this situation) Legs and drill added The drill gets placed on, and four legs are built. Completed Set Front I actually really quite like this machine. The color scheme is bright and lively, and it feel like an industrail machine as it should. I'm not sure what the lightsabers behind the cockpit are supposed to be, perhaps just lights? Spare ammo for the driller-cannon? Side Unlike the "spider" machine and the flea machine, the connection point for the cockpit is made with a rather simple build, and leaves the lower torso of the machine empty. Back Nothing too exciting to speak of. Action pose Again, these machines are really hard to put into an exciting pose of any sort. If you try to crouch him down, the cockpit just hits the ground and then there's nothing else to do. Also, when the drill is flipped out, the technic arms supporting it lose their grip and it tends to sag back down. Mech mode? While messing around with the figure, I found out you can actually do this if you desire. The construction of the cockpit allows you to actually position it downward, and with a few clips of the limbs you can achieve this. you may want to do a quick swap of the feet to stabilize him further, but it's cool nonetheless. Pose 2 Well, there are some things you can do with it. Certainly more than can be said about the flea machine. The Drill Machine was one of the few sets I was really interested in after seeing them at Toy Fair. I like it's color scheme, and I appreciate the idea of a driller. With so many mechs this year just being combat based, it was good to see something that focused more on being a utility-machine, I imagine it as originally being a drilling machine that they outfitted with combat equipment at a later date. It's design is neat, and it's four legs offer more posing potential than the Flea machine. As a parts pack, you've got some nice bits here, but quite a lot of the parts are already featured in the other sets this wave, so it's up to personal preference on that front.
  6. Set name: Tunneler Beast vs Surge Set number: 44024 Piece Count: 59 Year Released: 2014 Price: 9.99 Hello everyone and welcome to my review of Tunneler Beast. Firstly as always I want to thank Lego and the Eurobricks staff who made it possible for me to bring these reviews to you guys. Tunneler Beast is the smallest beast in the summer wave. In the winter wave, Jaw beast ended up being my favorite of the beasts, and he was in a comparable size class. Does the Tunneler beast follow in his footsteps, and become one of the best beasts of the year? Read on to find out! Bag Front The front of the bag is similar to what we saw in the first wave. A nice panel of artwork is placed at the top, with the minifigure included at the bottom. The sets I recieved were also signed by the set designers. In this case it looks like there were 3 designers for Tunneler beast. Bag Back In addition to the usual novel of text to read, some of the set functions are shown. These include the moving claws, mouth, and the projectile function of the gun. Contents Contents One bag of parts (with a smaller bag of parts within that) and the instructions. Instructions For redundancy sake, I have only taken photos of some of the interesting pages in the reviews of the boxed sets. It is worth mentioning that the comics are back in the instructions again, similar to wave 1. Interesting Parts Minifig components Here we have the minifig arms and legs recolored in blue, as well as surges new helmet. Obviously the blue lego clip is not new, nor a new color. It is interesting, though, that we have gotten this in blue, whereas the first wave all of the clips were gray, as opposed to the color of their respective hero. Head The three beast heads this wave all use the reverse side of the jaw as the upper half. I do quite like the detailing on this, and it's nice to have a beast head in red. Cocoon Petal Unlike the other sets, Tunneler Beast only comes with one petal, and it's actually built into the final model. A cool and unique design touch, we will have a look at that soon. Minifigure Build Surge's build is no different than anything we've seen in the past. The blue is a nice color, after seeing the same minifigures from wave 1 so many times, Bulk and Surge were welcome changes. Front With that said, Surge has one of the weakest helmets of the wave. It's extremely smooth and I'm not at all a fan of that expression. He does feature a datapad, as well as the new gun that was seen earlier in the year in Star wars. It fires a 1x1 stud quite well. Minifigure Back Surge's back is the same as the rest of the miniheroes, though you can see the blue clip I was talking about previously. Build Torso Tunneler beast begins with a smaller torso construction with a lot of balljoints for further connections. Legs added One thing I was surprised at that I didn't realize until I had the set in hand, was that he only has one armor shell. his legs are completely unarmored, but overall I don't think they look bad. The dark gray does irk me, but at this point I think we will have to get used to these questionable choices in bone color. Arm Like the legs, the arms have no armor on them. Something that I do like about all of the summer beasts, they all have claws on their hands! With that said, the thumb here is rather awkward. Arms added You can also see the small construct that will allow the petal and armor shell to be attached. Head Since the head uses the smaller halve as the top, the end result is a longer lower jaw. I really like the eyes on this beast, they seem almost lifeless, which leads me to believe the creature relies more on senses like smell and touch rather than it's eyesight. (It wouldn't really need eyesight if it was always buried deep in tunnels...oh let me have my moment here ) Finished Set Front The beast from a front view. The portion of his eyes that you can see have a menacing look from this angle. Side You can see that the back legs sit up much higher than the front due to the construction of his torso. Back The cocoon petal adds a burst of color and life to the creature. Pose 1 I absolutely love the look of this guy. He can pull off some menacing poses, as well as some like this which can look either diabolical, or hilariously cute. Pose 2 This may seem strange, but I'm really glad he got claws. Lego could have just as easily given him six legs instead, but the claws here add a lot of personality, something I feel works with all of the summer beasts. Much better than the typical 3.0 paw piece that we saw commonly in the first wave. Pose 3 He can still crawl on 6 legs if you prefer. Overall, the Tunneler Beast is one of my favorite sets of this wave, and a top runner for the whole year. His design is clever and looks good, that's well balanced and poseable. His color scheme is a nice change of pace from what we've seen (namely an influx of Azur) In terms of parts, he does feature some nice bits, such as a bunch of red sockets and some black kaiju fins, however he only has one cocoon petal and one armor shell, so people who find those parts extremely useful or necessary may not be as pleased with the selection in this set. It's also a relatively cheap way to get Surge if you want to skip the much larger Combat Machine.
  7. Set name: Rocka Crawler Set number: 44023 Piece Count: 49 Year Released: 2014 Price: 9.99 Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the Rocka Crawler. Firstly as always I want to thank Lego and the Eurobricks staff who made it possible for me to bring these reviews to you guys. Rocka Crawler is the smallest Hero set of the wave, and is comparable to the Evo Walker from the first wave. Many people may find this set a bit needless to have, iven that Rocka already had a larger set earlier in the year. Is this set worth picking up? Read on to find out! Bag Front Like the first wave, the bag has some nice artwork on the top. I was fortunate enough to get these sets signed, and I do believe the signatures on each bag correspond to who designed the set; In this case there would be 3 designers (or 4, not sure if that signature on the top is one or two) Bag Back Like the first wave, it's apparently a significant feature that the seat can be taken off. Right. On a more interesting view, you can see the jumper's, well, jumping, the projectile gun, and the cocoon's flexible petals. Contents Contents One bag of parts and instructions Instructions To save redundancy, I have only shown further instruction photos in the reviews of the boxed sets. The one thing worth mentioning is that the comics are back in the instructions, just like the first wave. Petals The new petals, which are red in this set. The black is a hard plastic, and the red is a softer rubber-like plastic, and the petals can stay open as I will show. Smaller bits Some smaller parts worth noting, the jumper shell now comes in bright blue, and we have the minifig saw in gold which is a nice weapon for minifig Rocka. The Build Minihero Build Rocka's build is the same as before, utilizing the skeleton torso as the main body. Front He is the same as his first incarnation. If you missed didn't like the set he came with in the first wave, you've got two more options with this wave. Jumper While I am extremely disappointed that we didn't get new jumper colors for the legs, it is nice to see that the shells have a variant. Cocoon Build The cocoons are built with the brown tri-connector. Completed cocoon I do quite like the look of these cocoons. They are very organic and I feel they can be reused in future mocs (I also wish we had more colors these.) Petals open The petals do hold open (usually) Hatchling Dawh look at the little guy Torso The torso begins with the smaller torso variant. Legs His legs are extremely short and oddly use the smaller beast feet. Arms His arms win points for being...different. They don't look entirely convincing and they can be very awkward to pose. Cockpit The cockpit doesn't have any canopy covering it, we will talk more about that soon. Completed Set Front From a front view, the set doesn't look too bad. The arms leave something to be desired, but they can be made to look less awkward depending how you pose them. The printed shell is in a rather odd place at the top of the mech, and you attach the gun to it. This is the projectile gun that has been seen in SW, and I like it quite a bit. It fires a good distance and fits in with the HF aesthetic. Side It's profile is rather thin. Back Once again, a boring view. At least there is some back armor to be seen. Pose 1 Posing the set is...difficult. The legs only have two points of movement, and the arms can only do so much. However, the lack of a canopy does add some dept to the set. The pilot plays a more central role in the final look of the set. Pose 2 Someone please explain to me how this is a crawling machine. The original rumor of it being called the climbing machine was still a stretch, but it would make a lot more sense than this. Pose 3 Not really sure what pose I was going for here, but it's a view from a different angle if nothing else. Pose 4 "Momma beast help me!" Canopy For fun, I added on a canopy to see how the set would look. Rocka Crawler was a surprising set. At first, I felt it was one of the weakest looking sets of the wave, with a rather boring design. After building it and having it in hand, my opinion of the set has grown. I like the overall look of the set, and it's a neat small little mech. It suffers from some issues, such as very odd arms and strangely articulated legs. I think it was silly giving Rocka a small machine, when he not only has had a larger mech earlier in the year, but also a flying machine as part of the combat machine. I would have much rather seen Nex get this small little mech (and conversely give the slot for a third evo machine to stringer, or something like that) I don't think it's a bad set, but I wouldn't put it at the top of anyone's to-buy list given the other sets available in the wave. I also don't think it's too spectacular in the way of parts, but that depends on what parts you find useful.
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  16. That I'm not sure of, but trying another browser is still worth a shot. Also remember another workaround if need be, is that you can place tags such as [img= ] Around the URL of your image to make it appear
  17. You do not see the "ok" and "cancel" button on the bottom right? I have had this issue with the media function before, usually it's an error with your browsers compatibility. Whatever browser you are using (Internet Explorer, Chrome, etc) make sure it is updated, and possibly try this on multiple browsers to see if it's widespread or just isolated to one browser
  18. I'm not sure why the ice themed sets each got one of the unique printed piece whereas the three from the fire wave with printed parts got two of them. I agree they do look really nice and I would have preferred greater quantity of them. It doesn't look very good when his body is upright in my opinion. Only in his "hunched down" position does it really work, and I just don't like it to begin with- the trans light blue bone doesn't fit at all with the overall look, you have the very organic head and the neck with feathers, and then a random piece that gives him one too many joints.
  19. The paw piece isn't terrible, but it's damned boring at this point. We've gotten it in almost every color (Oddly we still don't have it in a blue) and we've seen a wide range of claw attachments to go with it. Some claws can be ridiculous, such as some of the 3.0 savage claws, some are just stupid (Like the mechs that only used the robot arms, no fingertips were added) and some are quite cool, such as Worriz. However, my real issue with it is how it looks with weapons. I really dislike the current formula of attaching it to the wrist and using a socket on the actual arm to attach weapons. In Lavals case here, his fingers are either on the blade, or if you bend them around the handle, they almost entirely get crushed into his palm. This also leaves the paws with no ability to move apart from what the elbow and shoulder give them. And yes the armor is instructed to be that high, but it is possible to move it down one and I did so shortly after the review. This does not affect the ability to store weapons.
  20. Yes that's a fair concern as well. Admittedly it is a very stylized piece as it is so I'm not really sure what else you'd want to place on, but I think it would have been better if it had holes in place of the large orb socket. The orb itself could have just been a section of the orb with two pins on the back, similar to the hero cores. (Actually that would be interesting to see, a hero core in place of the chi orb...)
  21. Really I think the downside to this larger size is the profile shot of the armor. While it sticks out more than the previous combo, the mechanism for storing the zamor causes there to be a pretty big gap from the torso to the front of the chest section.
  22. You're getting him purely for the fact of making a full cocoon? I'd think with how many other beasts you are getting you'd have a bunch as it is (IMO his selling point looks to be all of those red sockets, a good amount in a small set.)
  23. This looks most excellent I'm happy they are releasing it in dark green. I usually associate red as a typical Mini color, and would have expected it to be that. And 99$ isn't a bad price, I'd have thought it to be slightly more given licencing. Also that picnic set is a fantastic and clever bonus.
  24. Hey don't count on it; I've been fortunate this year so far but it's not a guaranteed thing every time around I thought of that as well. And I would guess you could take the petals and build a larger cocoon if you wanted it to be more in proportion of a matoran.
  25. Bigger fish I merged both of your threads together. Your new thread as well as this old one were the same thing with the link being posted in both, any comments on your new thread would have fit into here equally as well. I did modify your title by ordering the Mixels RPG first to place emphasis on it. VBBN
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