Gatanui

It's just a short 22-minute LEGO Friends mini movie. I'm pretty sure the show will continue the week after that. -Gata

Too bad they didn't make an XT4 level. The Core Hunter and Speeda Demon levels are quite original, though. -Gata

Awesome, thanks for letting us know! -Gata

They are always more expensive in Europe. :/ -Gata

Reusing set numbers makes no sense as there are still plenty left. Also, VenomFang is apparently a MGBLKS set. I doubt they would use that. -Gata

Fake. 4224, 4225, 4226, 4229 and possibly others are already taken. MYTH BUSTED. -Gata

I don't think so, as I'm pretty sure there will be no summer episode this year. Thank you all for your feedback! Glad to see you all liked my reviews. I'll try to review more sets in the future. -Gata

And here we go with the last of my series of reviews and the one many of you have been waiting for: Core Hunter! Is this pack of awesomeness worth your money? Check it out! Red alert! CORE HUNTER is on the loose somewhere in Makuhero City and is trying to disable as many heroes as he can get his claws on. His plasma shooter, multi vision mask and razor spike armor are dangerous, but his hero core remover tool must be avoided at all costs. Cuff him or he could disable all the heroes and bring chaos to the galaxy! Set name: CORE HUNTER Set Number: 6222 Price: 12.99 (11.99) EUR / 8.99 GBP / 12.99 USD Pieces: 51 Year of release: Summer 2012 Size: Medium Presentation/Box The packaging continues to be the same one as the winter sets had, apart from the golden top I haven´t thrown away yet just to include it in this picture. The packaging size is somewhat blown out of proportion in size compared to the small-sized sets, but I guess an oversized packaging is better than an undersized one, so that's okay. Core Hunter is featured in a very good-looking pose, although it does´t make sense that he´s flying as he has nothing to fly with. The city background, supposedly Makuhero City, looks nice, though, and you can even see Bulk, also flying without anything to fly with. The back shows Core Hunter in a standing post and promotes his launcher function and his core remover pincers. Do they work? We´ll see. Apart from that, the usual legal stuff and the Breakout game screenshots. As usual, the components are made in Denmark, Hungary, Mexico and the Czech Republic. Building As usual, the build is nothing challenging, although more so than the small sets are. Still, there are more interesting builds this year and there are no remarkable surprises. Be sure to connect the new Captain America armor facing the right way, though. Set Design/Pieces Core Hunter has 51 pieces, which is less than every other mid-sized set of this year apart from Splitface, who has 50. Still, the price point is pretty decent compared to what we´ve got in some previous years. Sadly, Core Hunter has only one new mold and piece, namely the head, if you don´t count the Captain America armor piece. There is no remolded Glatorian head piece either as many including me had hoped there would be, but maybe it will come in later production batches. The helmet is a great piece, though. A downside is that not all eyes can glow as shown on the packaging and CGI, but it manages to look very menacing. The recolored pieces make up for the lack of new pieces. The two Captain America armor pieces are fantastic (perhaps the most useful pieces to be connected to cladding so far) and even more so in black. Then there is the new torso armor piece in solid black without any kind of printing. Then we get three of the Savage Planet paw pieces in black and a total of six Savage Planet claw pieces in red. There is also a black MTIS piece. As far as I know, Core Hunter is the only set so far to have it and it´s great. I´m sure it looks much better to fill the hollow back than the silver MTIS they use in the TV episodes, but I haven´t tried. These four pieces are not new, but they are rare and always welcome. Let´s get to the actual design of the set. Core Hunter is tall, spiky and massive. There are no annoying gaps and the only thing looking off is an exposed ball joint on the back. Overall, he looks very complete. The color scheme is as good as perfect. Not even the gunmetal pincers, launcher pieces look disruptive. The Zamor sphere may do so to you, but it doesn´t to me. The ammo belt is a nifty addition and it´s perfect to show off your or Core Hunter´s collection of Hero Cores. For starters, he comes with one Hero Core like all other sets this year, so I suggest attaching it there so it doesn´t lie around. This doesn't mean the set doesn´t have any flaws, though. Core Hunter´s arms are so ridiculously short it´s not even funny. This means he can´t be properly cuffed and that the weapons will often stand in the arms' way when posing. I guess LEGO wanted to save costs by using the shortest available bone pieces, but even the small-sized sets have longer arms. This could have been done better and unfortunately, he´s not the only set with this flaw. The short bone pieces are some of the rarer ones, though, so that can be considered a plus. They are also used for the neck, which even manages to look good and not too long Another flaw to some may be how the back armor is connected. The connector piece is rare and always nice to have, but Stormer XL has a new piece which would have allowed to stay the back armor in place. It would have been good to have that piece in a smaller set. Playability The additional articulation point from the neck increases playability and poseability. Core Hunter wouldn´t be Core Hunter if he didn´t have a core hunting tool. The two pincers from Jetbug are used for this and at first glance, they look simple, but effective. Funny how LEGO makes a play feature out of unintended piece flexibility in this set. However, if you try actually removing a Hero Core with the pincers, you will soon be frustrated. If the Hero Cores are already harder to remove than other pieces because of the two pins of hard plastic, it´s as good as impossible with these pincers. All you can do is squish the pincers together, but you won´t be able to remove Hero Cores with them, and that´s a minus. Actually, if you pull hard enough you will end up removing the entire chest armor, like poor Core Hunter did on our photo. At least the tool looks nice and personally, I didn´t have the pincer pieces before, so that´s something. Apart from that, Core Hunter is fun to play with and allows for many different poses. Final Thoughts Pros Fantastic color scheme Solid and non-gappy design Many rare, useful and recolored Cons Short arms Core Remover doesn´t remove Cores No remolded Glatorian head Overall, Core Hunter is a very good set. He has some flaws, especially if you look for them, but he looks very good and is one of the best sets this year. Don´t be fooled by the list, as I feel the pros outweigh the cons. If you are looking for a mid-sized set, Core Hunter should be one of your choices. The only other mid-sized villain this year I have is Voltix but he is so different that it´s your taste which decides here. Although, you could simply get both like I did, makes it easier. And that makes yet another villain caught 'n cuffed and our series of reviews done. Thank you all for your patience and feedback. I hope you enjoyed them! -Gata

I know you've all been waiting for it, and the wait is almost over. Stay tuned for the last of my series of reviews, Core Hunter, coming very soon! -Gata

Nope, no luck even in the LEGO Store. Unfortunately, there are no Müller or Kaufhof close to where I live, at least not close enough for it to be worth going there. We are getting off-topic, though. -Gata

It does have a purpose. It's some sort of barrier when pushing down the liftarm that holds the rocket launcher so you can't push it down too far. Although the question is what 'too far' is supposed to be. -Gata

I doubt it as that would require the bike to fit in Mission Control. -Gata

The new levels aren´t out yet. -Gata

We already knew about new levels coming up, but I didn´t know that you would drive Stormer´s bike in his level (although it makes sense). I look forward to the update! -Gata

It´s just episodes 4 to 9, no new episodes from what I can see (although the calendar stops at August 19th, so there may be something else later). They always announce the series in the catalogue. For some reason, all episodes but Breakout are airing all the the time on Nicktoons here, but they don´t announce that. That´s because it´s not a S@H catalogue, it´s the kind that you get in toy stores. The S@H catalogues are as blank here as elsewhere. -Gata

I thought it was well visible on the photos I took. There is really not much to see, the back is just a black hero foot connected to the torso skeleton through a black 2L pin and, oddly enough, a blue 3L pin. I may upload a photo to my Flickr photostream comparing him to the other Bulks later. -Gata

What´s even stranger is that I haven´t managed to find Iron Man or Batman anywhere. I´ve had this one printed for some time now. The only thing that struck me is the date for the new Ninjago episodes. ^^ -Gata

Thanks for all your comments! I´m glad you all like the review. Thanks for making me aware of the wrong price, it´s been fixed here on on the Voltix review. Actually, it was wrong for Europe as well. :P -Gata

Well, the review is already up. -Gata

And we are approaching the end of this series of Hero Factory summer set reviews. Now it´s Bulk´s turn! Calling BULK! The villains are fleeing Hero Factory and must be recaptured! We've equipped you with a powerful missile launcher, hero plasma shooter, high-impact shoulder armor, pinpoint laser targeting and hero cuffs. Get the villains in your sights and bring them home – cuffed! Set name: BULK Set Number: 6223 Price: 12.99 (11.99) EUR / 8.99 GBP / 12.99 USD Pieces: 61 Year of release: Summer 2012 Size: Medium Presentation/Box In terms of presentation, there is not a lot to say, as Bulk’s “Caprisun” bag does not feature significant differences from those of the winter 2012 sets, apart from the golden top. Not having bought any of the larger winter sets, however, I must admit that I was surprised to notice the remarkable size difference between the bags of the smaller and those of the larger sets. I am not just talking about the height, but also about the volume. The larger sets’ bags seem mucher fuller than the small sets’ ones, which is logical taking into consideration the higher amount of pieces, leaving the customer with a good conscience for having spent additional money on a medium-sized set. Apart from that, I think it is enough if I say that Bulk’s bag design follows the same pattern as all other bags: Neatly posed CGIed Bulk on the front, neatly posed CGIed Bulk on the back, blablabla. The usual stuff. Building I must admit that I would not have immediately figured out how to assemble Bulk without the instruction booklet. Partly because I have already accustomed to the ridiculously easy and increasingly boring build after the previous generations of heroes, partly because the attachment of the rocket launcher is so awkward that you want to say a word or two to whoever was in charge designing it. All in all, the building is still too simple for my taste, though, and apart from the rocket launcher, the only thing that varies from the building of previous Heroes is the shoulder armor plating and the attachment of an additional armor layer to the lower legs, apparently present throughout most summer sets. The highly interesting Bulk/Core Hunter combiner. I haven´t tried it yet. Set Design/Pieces Remember when I talked about the relatively high number of pieces this set comes with? Bulk consists of 61 pieces and is thus this wave’s best equipped medium-sized set along with Voltix as far as piece count goes. However, out of those pieces, the amount of new pieces is sobering compared to the total piece count. A silver MTIS (which could have been gunmetal but it´s better than nothing!), two new gunmetal armor pieces (the “Captain America” armor not displayed as the photos turned out bad but you can see them in the review of 6283 VOLTIX) and an admittedly pretty gunmetal torso is all Bulk has to offer in terms of new pieces, which is a real pity, particularly taking into consideration that a couple of recolored pieces would have contributed a big deal to improving the set’s overall design. I am talking about the silver and black pieces which should have come in gunmetal instead. Seriouly, was it too expensive to include gunmetal hero feet instead of black ones which appear ten (!) times in the summer sets? I would also have welcomed a gunmetal hand, shoulder plating and helmet, but I guess that’s the price to pay for affordable sets (although I can’t help but questioning the latter). At least the recolored and new pieces are good. The three orange pieces aren´t recolored but rare, having only appeared in Thornraxx so far. Bulk´s helmet in the new silver was only featured in late production batches of the first Bulk set. I also mentioned the odd attachment of the rocket launcher earlier. I think the photos I took speak for themselves, so all I will say is: I am not fond of it. Neither am I convinced that using a foot to cover up the empty back should be considered as an ultimate solution, but it is still better than an empty back. Oh, and one more thing: Why do all summer sets have short lower arms? I can only speculate about the reasons the designers had to do so (cutting costs, maybe?). I must confess I dislike the left lower arm being short, as it infringes the free movement of the lower arm section, but I can live with it. But enough bashing. There is a reason for which I decided to spend my money on Bulk, after all: He looks cool. I really love the extensive use of orange as secondary color in combination with gunmetal as primary color, which suits Bulk far better than silver in my opinion. Plus, I am very fond of the fact that Bulk lives up to his name. It may sound exaggerated, but all other heroes look like if they had been through a one-week starvation when you compare them to Bulk. He is strong. He is heroic. He is Bulk!!! Playability Bulk is quite fun to play with. Maybe I am just childish, but I really enjoy deploying Bulk‘s shoulder-mounted rocket launcher, popping the rockets out of it and plotting an imaginary trajectory to the villains (or my brother). However, there is one thing that reduces the playability. Can you guess what it is? Exactly, the shoulder plates. Albeit articulated, it is sometimes somewhat difficult to arrange the shoulder armor in a pleasing way. And, much to my annoyance, it is almost impossible to move Bulk’s head without cursing the shoulder plates for restricting the head’s free movement. I am sure Bulk is as annoyed about that as I am. Final Thoughts Pros Bulk lives up to his name 61 pieces!!! Orange as secondary color Cons Lazily designed rocket launcher Gunsilver clashes with gunmetal One, two... four new (recolored) pieces. As usual, in the end, whether it is recommendable to get Bulk or not depends on your personal preference. If you are looking for a cool-looking Hero with many pieces and do not mind that only few of them are new, then I urge you to get Bulk as fast as ya can, although it may be a wiser to decision to buy Core Hunter instead, which is not only this summer wave‘s best set in my opinion, but comes with a ton of new and useful pieces. If, however, you think that the additional pieces do not compensate the higher price you should probably get yourself a small set, preferrably Stringer, although I don´t have any other small summer sets to judge. Core Hunter review coming soon! :) -Gata

Coming very soon. -Gata

Who says there can´t be two different newspapers in Makuhero City? :P -Gata

He does indeed have two-holed legs Glad you all liked the review. Bulk should be up later today. -Gata

And here goes the next HERO Factory summer set review. Get ready because this review is going to be literally shocking! Calling all heroes! VOLTIX is on the loose from the Hero Factory and is trying to disrupt the power supply at the Tansari VI energy collection array. With a ball shooting volt blaster, dangerous lightning whip, electricity spark elements and a voltage booster switch, he's got the tools to do some real damage. Stop him before it's too late! Set name: VOLTIX Set Number: 6283 Price: 12.99 (11.99) EUR / 8.99 GBP / 12.99 USD Pieces: 61 Year of release: Summer 2012 Size: Medium Presentation/Box I hope you forgive me if I skip this part, but enough text and thoughts have been spent on the bags, which, although innovative, are not altoo spectacular either. Building There have been many complaints about Hero Factory sets being to easy to build and it seems TLG has decided to come up with a solution to at least partly silence this kind of complaints. “What does that solution look like?”, you ask? Very simple. Take a normal hero or villain, grab a couple of random Technic pieces from a bin, attach them in a halfway plausible way and... voilà: You have not only managed to justify a higher price for the set, but have also increased complexity. Sort of... Like the other medium-sized sets of this summer wave, Voltix is way more interesting as far as building is concerned than his small-sized pals, which is no wonder taking a look at that mess of tubes, tentacles and whatnot. For customers of LEGO Technic sets, however, the building is plainly disappointing. But let us keep in mind that the set was designed for a young target group of seven- to fourteen-year-olds, after all. Nevertheless, I can’t help but thinking that LEGO is underestimating children’s mental capacity. Set Design/Pieces This is where Voltix actually arouses interest. Once built, you are confronted with a cheeringly colorful villain. Some of you may dislike the clash of so many colors: Red, some blue, purple, gunmetal, black, yellow. I, for my part, can live with it, since the colors were not arranged in a totally random way, but instead show up a certain structure: There is a layering of gunmetal and red, the use of purple is only limited to a specific area of the upper body, etc. But I can totally understand if you cannot overcome your sense of harmony and get to like this anarchic mess of colors. Because that’s what Voltix looks like: anarchic. Before I continue my contemplations about Voltix as a finished set, let us have a look at the elementary units every LEGO set consists of. I am not talking about atoms, I am referring to the pieces. Voltix comes with a total of 61 pieces and thus happens to be the medium-sized set with most pieces of this summer wave, along with Bulk. Out of those, eight are new (if you count the Captain America armor as a new piece) and three recolored ones, totalling eleven absolutely gorgeous new pieces (I included the remolded old hand piece in the photo with the recoloured pieces as it is quite rare, having appeared only with Jawblade so far). The yellow tentacle, for instance, looks beautiful and may come in handy for MOCing. So do the purple pieces. However, the excellent part of this set is without any doubt the electric spark piece, which does not only look beautiful, but it will be most useful for electricity-themed MOCs. I am sure the first Toa of Lightning MOCs featuring this part will show up fairly soon. Sorry to disappoint all those who were expecting a Glatorian head remold: TLG does not seem to see the need to replace the old Glatorian head for now. That said, let me point out a couple of things that caught my attention on this set and which I utterly dislike. Number one: The neck is too long. When vertically positioning the neck piece, you get the impression that Voltix has been hanging for several weeks before miraculously reviving. However, you can easily fix this by replacing the skeleton piece used as neck by a shorter one like seen on Core Hunter. Number two: The lower arms leave much to be desired. All medium-sized summer sets suffer from a short-arm-syndrome and this set is no exception in this respect. On Voltix, this does not turn out to be a dramatic flaw, but I would have preferred two slightly longer lower arms with purple cladding on them. However, I am very disappointed about the fact that Voltix does not have Hero Factory hands, but red ball sockets. Of course, the red tubes coming from his head had to be attached somewhere, but I am sure there are more creative ways of dealing with this problem. Then, there is the so-called “voltage booster switch”. A great name for a rather unspectacular construct which can be pulled up and down (like a switch!). At least it prevents Voltix from having an empty back. Playability Despite all the tubing, Voltix’ movement range is absolutely not limited, giving him maximum poseability in a fight against your heroes. While the “voltage booster switch” is nothing extraordinarily fun to play with it is an additional, although simple, play feature, possibly enjoyable for the younger buyers who will push the switch up whenever they want to grill their heroes with direct current and down when they wish to do so with alternating current.... or something like that. I can also imagine kids having fun with the tentacle-turn-function. Wobbling, conductive yellow tentacles are a terrible weapon, in case you haven’t heard, and who doesn’t want his villain to turn every gameplay into a shocking experience? Final Thoughts Pros Decent, original look Purple pieces! Seriously, who doesn't love those electricity pieces? Cons Great variety of colors may not appeal to everybody Short-arm syndrome Reused helmet All in all, Voltix is a decent villain set, with pros and cons mostly outbalanced. Still, I would recommend you to buy Core Hunter instead, unless you are looking for fancy pieces to expand your collection with or a second summer villain to fight against your Heroes. And now that Bulk finally figured out how to unplug this villain, let us close this review of one of the most current Hero Factory villains. That was a rather lame pun, now wasn't it? -Gata

They also wrote Jaw Blade instead of Jawblade. :P I´m still pretty sure Toxic Reapa is the one and only official name. Does it? I can see it on the first page. There was another comic in the latest LEGO Club Magazine, at least in Germany. This one was drawn by the usual LEGO Club Magazine comic artist. -Gata