Brickthing

New HF monster/villain feet perhaps? This set already proves that they work well with System, but their design style would suit for pure constraction as well. The whole dragon in general seems to be integrating the constraction system to a small degree, so it makes sense if Hero Factory starts to integrate System more as well.

Some of the prizes have been sent out already, while the rest will be sent out in early October, after Brickcon.

Contest Results! The results for the Hero Factory contests are finally ready, so I will delay you no further in finding out who has won. There were over 40 entries across the different categories, with many excellent entries, but there could only be a few winners. Please join me in congratulating the following winners, who in addition to their prizes will also receive the special Hero Factory tag! Click on the respective thumbnails to view members' entries. Category 1 - Monstrous Hero 1st Place: Choice of Signed/Unsigned 44014 Jet Rocka + 44008 Surge + 44012 Evo Hector Steelson XL by WARHEAD 2nd Place: 44014 Jet Rocka + 44008 Surge + 44012 Evo Nick Evero by Infernum Category 2 - Before and After Brain Infection Through discussion with the 1st Prize winner who was also a winner of the Chima contest/raffle, there will be an altered 1st prize and a 3rd prize position for this category, since this was a particularly close category. 1st Place: Parts pack specially tailored to CIDDi's building style Marcus Fisher by CIDDi 2nd Place: Choice of Signed/Unsigned 44009 Dragon Bolt + 44011 Frost Beast + 44013 Aquagon Gambrodon by pig 3rd Place: 44009 Dragon Bolt + 44011 Frost Beast + 44013 Aquagon Koboldon by Aanchir & Lyichir Category 3 - Digital Hero 1st Place: Choice of Signed/Unsigned 44010 Stormer Marshall Boyle by Leewan 2nd Place: 44010 Stormer Floral Strike XL by Jetrax99 Giveaway Prizes Congratulations to bacem and Mencot for being the lucky winners of 6230 Stormer XL and 6228 Thornraxx respectively. If you've won a prize, you'll be notified over the next coming days so that I can collect your address and arrange for you to receive your prizes. I'll try my best to make the process as quick and painless as possible, but please be patient! Thanks again to the Hero Factory and Community Teams at LEGO for their excellent support and for creating and providing the fantastic signed prizes!

Set name: Frost Beast Set Number: 44011 Price: $13USD , 13 Euro Pieces: 60 Year of release: 2013 Peeron Bricklink Brickset Use the light-blue evil brain to transform into the LEGO® Hero Factory FROST BEAST with spiked ice teeth, frost claws and a frost blade! Following on the Breakout theme structure from last year, both the summer and winter waves of 2013 focus on a single theme, this time with the retro alien-invasion Brain Attack theme. From trailers of this year’s Hero Factory TV episode, we've known about Frost Beast’s appearance for longer than we usually would have, but how does he finally compare in the plastic? The Packaging Front Like the rest of the sets this year, Frost Beast appears in front of a blurred green cityscape. He appears to be summoning a blizzard, although it’s quite contained and close to the ground. Tax-payers of Makuhero City must be pleased that these villains focused their destructive energies into destroying the roads rather than collapsing any of the tall expensive skyscrapers nearby! Frost Beast’s packaging reveals an interesting quirk in the box art renders, where the transparent thigh shell doesn’t appear behind the transparent Frost Blade, leaving an exposed leg bone. (Occlusion helps cut down on rendering times and cleans up complex transparent geometry, but it’s amusing to see it manifest in this way on packaging.) Back Frost Beast stands out well against the green background here, alongside the range of features included in the set – combiners, brain slug infections and 600 game points! Of all the combiners, Frost Beast has had the most success at demonifying the resulting hero, by giving Stormer a wicked pair of spiky shoulder appendages, and infecting the core holder with villainous red spikes. Contents Pieces The pieces of Frost Beast come packed in two bags, for large and small parts, plus a separate torso bone and brain slug. There are 60 pieces in total, half of which (visually) are white, accompanied by a mixture of black and grey bones, and a very generous amount of trans-light blue. Interesting Pieces Highlights of Frost Beast’s inventory include a White HF paw shell, a milky light blue Chima blade, 2 Chima fur pieces in White, four 3/4M Trans-Light Blue shells and four Trans-Light Blue clawed fingers. Trans-pieces have usually only appeared in sparing amounts in various sets, but recently each different colour has been given a chance to appear prominently in multiple sets, with the Summer wave this year being very favourable towards Trans-Light Blue. Other pieces of interest include Frost Beast’s excellent icicle inspired face, the new head piece in Trans-Blue, and an updated version of the triangular 3x5 Technic liftarm. This piece isn’t new for Technic sets, but it’s the first time the updated piece has been in a Hero Factory set. Instructions Frost Beast’s instructions are the same format as usual, showcasing the set with the box art image, but this time without the snow that was accumulating around his feet. Is that black ice on the unusually reflective tarmac? A random instruction page shows the inner workings of Frost Beast’s torso, utilizing the regular, easy to follow visual style. Build Frost Beast’s build is definitely an enjoyable process, owing to the Technic assembly of his upper torso, which shifts Frost Beast’s shoulders out further, and provides space for numerous shoulder/chest armour shells. When the Constraction System was first introduced, it at points actively avoided using Technic in favour of bone-only alternatives, but often at the expense of unneeded articulation points. Frost Beast’s limbs or weapons are very simple, but they serve the purposes and visual style called for by the character. Finished Set NAME I generally prefer villain sets, because they’re able to be monstrous in appearance than Heroes, allowing for more absurd proportions and varied part selections. Frost Beast is no exception, with his hulking top heavy proportions and large under-bite making him into a cartoon icicle version of Beauty & the Beast’s Beast. Side It’s quite impressive how different pieces of Frost Beast repeat icicle patterns and the spiky leg shapes of a brain slug, with only one of the pieces being expressly designed as such for his character. These same pieces in Chima would represent fur and sharp rocks or tooth blades, with the simple adjustment of colours and context. While many of the new pieces have less useful connection points for MOCing, there’s definitely a lot that can be learned from the way that official sets use the new parts that they introduce. Back Frost Beast suffers from an open back, but the effect is partially offset in person by the 3D form of the brain slug spine. While the brain/face interconnection is the focus of the brain slug gimmick, I would have loved to see dedicated back shell piece for the slug tail to rest in, in order to properly show the tail acting as an infected/overridden spinal cord. Thou art all ice. Thy kindness freezes. When not storming Hero Factory facilities and causing general mayhem, Frost Beast is quite fond of Shakespearean soliloquies. Chill out to some cool riffs Frost Beast comes with 14 regular points of articulation, plus movement in his fingers and his frost shoulder pads. The rubbery brain slug does interfere with neck movement, and will pop out of the back if you want Frost Beast to look in directions too far away from directly forwards, but luckily he still looks rather good with his slug tail loose. Instead of a thumb, Frost Beast has four fingers, perfect for rocking out with his electric-ice guitar. Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 10/10 – Frost Beast’s red highlights can be a little jarring, but it’s important to note that this is a necessity imposed by all brain slugs, and it’s a constraint that Frost Beast embraces with the use of red Barraki teeth scattered around Frost Beast’s body to mimic his eyes and the brain slug “eject-button” horns. It’s funny that for one of the few sets that justify random dots of red within the colour scheme, Frost Beast avoids using any red 2L axles. Parts - 8/10 – If White or Trans-Light Blue are colours that appeal to you, Frost Beast is definitely a worthwhile set to get. Otherwise, while Frost Beast has a fair amount of pieces for his price, he doesn’t offer a superb amount, nor are there any uncommon shells or bones that might make this set more useful for MOCing with. Design - 9/10 – While his ridiculous proportions might be detrimental to a Hero figure, they work well for Frost Beast, since they give him a more interesting build and a more memorable appearance. I appreciate the differences in style between Frost Beast’s cartoony ice interpretations and the elemental ice armour of Bionicle’s Strakk from 2009. While beautiful pieces, Strakk’s Ice parts were fairly single use and clearly ice parts, while Frost Beast’s parts are clearly ice under this context, but would be easy to reapply to other roles as well. Articulation - 9/10 – Frost Beast has a full range of motion and all the articulation points a humanoid action figure tends to have. I’m slightly confused by the Brain Slug design though, because it limits the head articulation when the tail is attached as directed by the instructions, but even the box art admits that it’s easier to disconnect the tail, which the tail will very often too under its own elastic accord. Quality - 10/10 – Frost Beast has no issues in the quality of his plastic or the strength of his joints. While not exclusive to this set, the brain slug is probably the best single piece creature that action figure sets have seen, at least since the days of Krana. Overall - 46/50 – Frost Beast doesn’t stand out as having the most exciting design or most useful pieces of this wave, but he is by all means an excellent set, and a very solid entry as an ice themed monster. If you’re looking for more trans-pieces, consider Frost Beast as a very good option, but otherwise you’ll probably find the winter wave of monster sets more appealing for useful bones and weapon pieces.

Set name: Dragon Bolt Set Number: 44009 Price: $20USD , 25 Euro Pieces: 149 Year of release: 2013 Peeron Bricklink Brickset Attach the multicolored evil brain to transform into LEGO® Hero Factory DRAGON BOLT with powerful biting jaw, flapping storm wings and more! 2013’s Brain Attack is different from previous Hero Factory themes, in that the Heroes are not pitted against individual villains, but rather hordes of mind controlled monsters that would usually be peaceful. As a lonesome dragon infected by a special glowing brain slug, Dragon Bolt is probably the closest set to a regular villain this year, and is also the biggest “villain” of this year’s sets. The Packaging Front While previous sets this size came in boxes, Dragon Bolt comes in a resealable bag, about 1.5 times the size of the regular sized sets. More so than other sets, the bag seems extremely full of pieces, which is no doubt a great selling point for the set, although Dragon Bolt doesn’t contain noticeably more parts than any other set at this price point. The bag is a better format I think, because boxes tend to come with a lot of Danish air. For some strange reason there’s a flying brain slug in the background, a detail that isn’t in the background of other boxarts. Perhaps it’s controlling an invisible monster? Back On the back of the package there is the usual range of diagrams and ads – the set’s action features, a scale size comparison, game points and the ever lovable disclaimers and legalese. The size comparison (and box pictures in general) completely undersells the head piece, which is actually quite long. Contents Pieces Dragon Bolt comes contained within three plastic polybags, plus an extra polybag for the large pieces (wings, brain slug, torso bone), probably to help with packing so many parts into a single bag. There are 149 pieces in this set, which comes mainly from Technic parts and wing pieces. There are a lot less bones than in previous Titan sets, although the bones that are used are very useful. The shell selection is good but not notable, and is equivalent to the shells you’d find in two $10 Hero sets. For Dragon Bolt’s parts per dollar, the piece assortment is definitely better than smaller sets, especially because it avoids parts that you probably have enough of already, such as regular torso bones, hands and chestplate pieces. Pieces of Interest Highlights of the set include 2 Black Chima teeth, a small torso bone, the new Hero Factory head in trans-neon green and numerous Technic pieces new (or in colours new) to Hero Factory sets. Dragon Bolt has four reinforced joints and three 3L beams w/ Balljoints, which will no doubt be a useful boost to a MOCist’s collection. Dragon Bolt comes with four exclusive types of pieces – 2 Blue spear pieces, 4 Yellow ninjago blades, Dragon Bolt’s head piece and a GITD Brain Slug. The final pieces of note are the Yellow dinosaur tails, which although they aren’t new recolours, before Dragon Bolt and Aquagon, they previously were only available from a massive Creator set (6751 Fiery Legend) and a Ninjago polybag. Dragon Bolt’s brain slug is created from two separate material – a soft rubbery material for the body, and a hard plastic for the eyes and axle attachment point underneath. The rubber is a dual mix between trans-blue and yellow - the same blend as the lightning pieces used in this set and previous sets such as Speeda Demon and Voltix. Instructions Dragon Bolt’s instructions came slightly crumbled in the bag, but it was nothing that couldn’t be fixed by some time underneath a heavy atlas. The instructions are the larger format, and you proceed along through the steps at a nice pace, usually adding multiple parts per step. A random page from the booklet, where we use the small torso bone as the basis for Dragon Bolt’s upper neck. The instructions are easy to read, and you should have no difficulties identifying the parts called for at each step. Build First we start with the torso and legs, which are the only fairly regular sections of the build, before moving onto the tail and neck. So far Dragon Bolt’s construction uses bone and Technic elements very well together, to form a stable and part-efficient construction that has no unused ball joints and very little Technic elements visible from the outside of the model. We then build Dragon Bolt’s jaw and head, which although has some unsightly blocky liftarms, the overall effect is very functional and does bear resemblance to a dragon. Especially when you consider the requirement for simplicity and the fact that only one piece out of 20+ parts that are used in the head is specifically crafted for use as a dragon head; it’s a very interesting construction to build. Finally we make the wings, and attach them to the space left for them on Dragon Bolt’s back. Whether you like the look of the final wings or not, this construction is definitely the highlight of the build. The usage of the small electric pieces and the compact yet highly functional wing flapping mechanism are both very interesting and entertaining to build. Overall, Dragon Bolt has an absolutely fantastic build experience, especially compared to other sets of his price point, which are only able to offer at best innovations in joint reinforcement. Dragon Bolt is able to do a lot with the proper selection of Technic elements, but the wings teach a lot about mechanics that I very much hope will be included in future sets as well. Finished Set Wings up Wings down I’ll get this discussion out of the way first, because it greatly affects how I consider the worth of this set. Firstly, Dragon Bolt doesn’t look like a very good dragon. His head is gigantic relative to his body, his neck is ridiculously short, his wings are rigid and would provide hardly any lift, his jaw lacks teeth, and his legs are disproportioned and non-reptilian. If this were a MOC people would be quick to point out that dragons are usually much bigger and elegantly shaped. But secondly, this isn't a MOC, but rather an official LEGO set, which is made entirely with legal connections, works under a cost/piece effectiveness budget, has working wings and a jaw, incorporates a brain slug, and it ultimately does look like a dragon. And it does all of this with less than 150 pieces, for the mere price of $20 USD. BIONICLE’s only attempt was the Kardas dragon, which used around 4 times as many pieces and still barely resembled a classical dragon (even with consideration of it being a combiner set). My perception of how difficult it is to create a good looking dragon might be slightly skewed, I don’t think any observations I could make are of any merit, because I wouldn't have believed making a decent $20 dragon set was even possible. I'll proceed as if this wasn't a dragon but some generic monster set instead, but my consensus is that the very fact that this set exists makes it incredible. Side Dragon Bolt Is quite short from the side, and has a good thickness to his body, although his neck doesn’t flow into his spine/tail line. Reinforced joints are used around his shoulder area, to hold up his heavy head and support his upper arms, where most of his weight is directed through. The colour scheme is generally quite good, but it does start to get messy on the torso area. I think it would have been better if this set avoided dark grey, especially on the tail. Just about any pieces could have been used for the “club” at the end of the tail, and while the two Yellow dinosaur tails work well and balance out the yellow on the model, I’d have liked to see something more spiky/barbed/electric that added a bit more to the overall length of Dragon Bolt. Back Dragon Bolt doesn’t suffer from an exposed back, but is instead exempt from aesthetic standards due to the button which you press down to make the wings flap. I’m not convinced that it needed to be red - it’s not too hard to remember where the button is, especially if you built the set. As usual with LEGO, it’s a very easy fix to swap the colour to blue or black if it concerns you. With his belly on the ground, Dragon Bolt can sense the footsteps of his prey from miles away... Making good use of the brain slug colours, Dragon Bolt’s wide eye holes create green eyes with GITD pupils. His only 2 teeth are spaced strangely on the semi-loose Technic liftarm, but the jaw articulates with a perfect arc, and the HF foot is repurposed well considering it probably wasn’t intended to be a jaw when it was first designed. Urgh, Hero metal and quaza! Not really my tastes... Much better! Dragon Bolt flies back to his den, proudly carrying his hunt for the day. Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 9/10 – Dragon Bolt follows the lightning colour scheme established by Surge, but with the addition of GITD and the removal of metal colours. The dark grey bones probably could have been better as black in some areas, but aside from the torso the colours scheme is mostly well executed. There are no exposed red axles, although the new Tan 1 ½ pins threaten to become distracting in the future. The main adjustment that would have improved my perception of the colour scheme would be if the trans-neon green was replaced with trans-yellow, which Lightning sets have teased but never embraced. Parts - 9/10 – For his price, Dragon Bolt provides an excellent number of pieces, with numerous useful bones and Technic connectors. On the flip side, there are no recolours of shells and the weapons included are either in odd colours or in exorbitant quantities, so if you prefer making humanoids, buying some of the smaller sets instead might be more useful. Aside from the lightning pieces, brain slug and obligatory Hero Core, Dragon Bolt doesn’t have any specifically Hero Factory pieces. Design - 10/10 – As I said before, while Dragon Bolt is by no means a perfect dragon, it takes a lot of skill to create a simple dragon, under the constraints of set design. The highlights of the design are definitely the wings and their mechanism, which alone are worth 10/10. Articulation - 10/10 – I’m not sure how many points of articulation you’d expect for a dragon, but the (roughly) 22 points of articulation included in this set are sufficient to give Dragon Bolt an excellent range of motion. I particularly like the articulation in the neck, which tapers visually and functionally from double reinforced joints for strength at the base, to a single joint at the top of the head, for freedom of movement. Quality - 10/10 – Dragon Bolt includes a lot of different types of pieces, and they’re all high quality, including the rubber bands, which are the kind with a circular cross section that don’t dry out and become brittle with age or sun exposure. Overall - 48/50 – In my opinion Dragon Bolt is a very special and rare set, because I wouldn’t place it as a must-buy for the final model or as a parts pack, but rather for the build experience. Dragon Bolt is excellently crafted under the constraints a $20 set is placed under in order to be fit for production. The wing mechanism is a simple and compact fully-functional contraption, offering functionality that is usually reserved for the larger Technic-based vehicle sets. If you miss challenging and interesting build processes or the gear-based mechanics of BIONICLE sets, Dragon Bolt is definitely a set worth picking up!

Votes are all tallied, but I have a few other things to prepare for the results announcement, but they should be ready by tonight / in around 12 hours. Thanks for your patience!

I'll close this topic for now, because without any shred of evidence or rumour the speculation will get quite abstract and off-topic very quickly. But with the 2014 Ghost animated HF episode, we can definitively know that when it comes, 2014 is going to be a very good year.

At long last, the results of the Chima Raffle/Contest are in! Are you a lucky winner? Click here to find out! To go along with the Chima results, be sure to have a look at Eurobrick's reviews for each of the six Chima CHI Figures: Finally, there are still 2 more days remaining for the Hero Factory Brain Attack Contest voting, and every voter gains the chance to win a free Hero Factory set or two! So if you have not placed your votes yet, be sure to do so! Before and After Hero or Monster? Digital Heroes

The paws and his fingers are plain Dark Bluish Grey, as they also appeared on Bruizer earlier this year. There are quite a lot of different grey colours on Worriz, in order to cut down on recolouring costs, but the two new pieces - his head and the fur pieces are Dark Bluish Grey as well.

Results! Massive thanks to everyone who participated in the raffle, and waiting out the delay at the end. The results are finally ready, for your viewing pleasure! There was an impressive range of quality and styles across the 39 different entries, and it was great to see both LDD and physical entries with a considerable amount of time and effort put into them. The months started off with a lot of weapon entries, but they tapered off as the month progressed, and the best entries mostly came through character and vehicle entries. Running through all the entries, I picked out 8 entries in total that I thought deserved extra recognition and points. Bonus Points Character: Infernum, Chi Spider – 3 points A clean and stylish build, with an excellent colour scheme that oozes of chi and toxicity. CM4S, Rhogon the Rhino – 1 point A solid set-like depiction of a Rhino in Chi form, with a fantastic brick-built head. CIDDi, G’Loona – 5 points No explanation is really needed here, with the colours, part usage and style all being exquisite. I wouldn't have thought that a Krana, a Kraata and a Dinosaur could make such as expressive face. Weapon: Dorek, Raven trap – 1 point Dorek isn’t too sure how this trap works, but that probably makes it all the more dangerous. It definitely looks like it will hurt anything that comes near it. Emma, ChiBow – 3 points A very stylish jungle bow, which features a great use of palm tree segments and minifig spears. It’s also a great example of using System pieces to create an action figure accessory that probably wouldn’t look as good using just Bionicle/Hero Factory parts. Vehicle: Oky, ZNAP Double-Crosser – 4 points I’m not sure how to classify ZNAP, but Oky puts it to good use with this excellent action figure scale quad-bike. Not only is it made almost completely from ZNAP, but it manages to look good and carry the raven colour scheme. Bacem, Chi Copterpack – 3 points Highly inventive and fitting to the crazy animal vehicles of Chima, the Copterpack seems mad enough to work. Dorek, Crawley’s Claw Crawler – 3 points Albeit aided by LDD’s unhindered colour selections, this recreation demonstrates that the minifig sets would work excellently as action-figure sets as well. Get on it LEGO! Congratulations to all seven bonus point recipients. In addition to increase odds at the raffle, you'll also receive a special Chima Action Figure tag! The Prize Winners With bonus points taken into consideration, the four lucky winners (in order of placing) are as follows: Takanuinuva Bacem CIDDi CM4S Congratulations to these four members! Each will win 1 or 2 Chima Action Figure sets, signed by the designers that created them. Please send your full name, mailing address and order of preference for which Chima set to receive to me (Brickthing) so that I can get your prizes sent out to you. Thanks again for LEGO and the Hero Factory Design Team for generously providing these excellent prizes! Please share any thoughts you have on this contest/raffle format as well, as I’d like to start running more building challenges for the sub-forum in the future, so your feedback will be very useful and appreciated!

Set name: CHI Eris Set Number: 70201 Price: $15USD , 15 Euro Pieces: 67 Year of release: 2013 Peeron Bricklink Brickset CHI-up to outsmart the other tribes with CHI Eris, a CHI-powered warrior featuring a CHI axe staff, eagle head, talons and more! This summer’s new wave of Chima CHI figures marks the start of LEGO’s second original IP sets/ultrabuilds using the Constraction figure building system. Eris is a member of the Eagle tribe, and best friends with Laval. Unlike most Eagle tribe members, she is quick-witted and very focused, and prefers to be on the ground instead of the sky. The Packaging Front The Chima sets continue the resealable bag packaging style pioneered by Hero Factory, with bright colours and flashing energy arcs. Here Eris soars upwards past a beautifully crafted floating rock, seemingly propelled via Chi energy, since her wings aren’t orientated appropriately for gaining lift in the direction she’s flying. Back On the back of the bag, Eris as landed and demonstrates her combining feature with Laval, in addition to a comic where she activates her Chi power in response to Worriz. There’s not too much else to say about the packaging, other than it still works very well for action-figures of this size – the bag stands out on the shelves, and it’s packed well full of pieces. I noticed with the previous wave of Hero Factory sets in a local shop that they’d been transferred to the back of the LEGO isle where there was space to hang the sets rather than getting more visible shelf space, but that wouldn’t be possible for the combined number of sets from both the Chima and Summer Hero Factory themes. Contents Pieces Eris comes packaged with 67 pieces, which is the second highest number of parts after Razar’s 68 piece count. This is primarily due to the extra bones and shells needed for her wings, and the Technic pieces used for her staff. Some of the highlights of Eris’ part selection include 10 Dark Grey 5B bones, 4 recoloured Gold Chima wings, 2 recoloured White wings, 4 Trans-Blue 3M shells and 2 reinforced socket pieces. Eris also has 2 new blue blade pieces, which look like they have a lot of potential for creating weird organic spikes and protrusions when integrated into MOCs, although it’s a shame that they don’t have any other connection points. The printed chest piece appears for the third time in Blue, with an added print. If you’re looking for a non-printed version, it would be easiest to Brasso the design off Batman’s torso rather than this one. The gold pattern looks great, but the Chi energy ball gives this and the other similar chest plates a fairly specific purpose. Eris's Eagle Head Crafted specifically for the set, Eris’ eagle head isn’t very feminine, but female and male eagles look more or less the same, and this head is very eagle-like. Side View Back View The head uses the same connection as previous Ultrabuild figures such as the Ben 10 aliens and Superheroes. Eris’ head is quite small compared to the other Chi figure heads, which doesn’t have a large cavity behind the top feathers/hair. Build Eris’ build follows the pattern of a generic Hero Factory set, except you then add a nice pair of wings, which make great use of the Chima wing pieces and 3M shells. I’m a huge fan of this stylised construction, because while they could by no natural means achieve flight, they suggest the idea of flexible layered wings with only natural Constraction/Chima pieces, and without the use of a new large custom purpose wing piece that would probably have needed to cut into the budget for the weapon or shell plating of the arms and legs. Finished Set The Elegant Eris, highflyer of the Eagle Tribe! Once completed, Eris stands tall and majestically, with her wings spread proudly behind her. Her colour scheme works well – mostly white with highlights of Gold and Blue, suggesting golden armour and plenty of Chi power. Although her Black claws don’t explicitly clash with the rest of the figure, I can’t help but wonder if they would’ve been more interesting in Yellow-Orange or Gold, or at least with the Gold blend that Reidak had. Side Considering that Eris’ wings are made from standard bones and shells, the wings are very compact. They can’t really flap towards to give Eris vertical lift, but once she’s flying through the air (possibly from a diving start?), she can look straight up/forwards easily, meaning that she is great for swooshing around. Back Unlike most of the other Chi figures and on account of the wings, Eris doesn’t have any back armour, which is a disappointment. However, adding back armour would add unneeded bulk to a figure that needs to be light in order to fly, so I think the figure is better off without back armour, since no compact piece solution exists yet. Stand your ground! Always ready for combat, Eris wields an abstract battle axe, which uses Technic connectors and bushes for hilt details and thickening the handle for a more comfortable grip. Unfortunately the bushings are light grey rather than black, so they stand out as bushings, rather than properly becoming part of the staff. Eris readies herself for battle Eris has a great deal of motion in her limbs and wings, aided by the reinforced waist joints. Of the different Ultrabuild figures, Eris and Razar probably benefit from the added strength the most, due to their wide wingspan, but that’s not to say that their inclusion on the other Ultrabuild figures in unwanted, because they’re very useful pieces in general. Despite the double neck joint, Eris has trouble looking left/right and down, due to her chest plate getting in the way of her neck feathers. Combo Set Front Eris uses the pieces from 70200 Laval sparingly, to revamp her weapons and upgrade her armour. Laval’s colour scheme seems quite different to Eris’, but only because they alter which colours are primary and which are secondary, meaning that both Laval and Eris’ combiners are able to be consistent with their original forms. Back Eris has a large shield on her back, which seems mostly useless for a flying warrior, especially with two weapons at hand already. Due to the 5M Trans-Blue shells and the longer overall length, the wings have trouble supporting their weight, and can’t articulate freely at the second to lowest joint. Action With the enhanced strength provided by 4 reinforced leg joints, Eris-Extra is easily able to stand in a variety of poses, despite the added weight of the larger shield and wings. This combiner probably makes the least use of the extra pieces provided by a second figure, but that’s necessary when an avian warrior should be lean and agile, with added bulk not being an aerodynamic advantage. (The instructions for this combiner can be found here) Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 8/10 – The colour scheme of Gold, Trans Blue and White looks great on Eris, and it sets itself apart from the Ice themed Hero Factory sets of this wave, but it doesn’t tremendously suit the character of Eris. Yellow hands wouldn’t suit the figure as they suit the minifigs, but it would have been nice for Eris to have more Gold and Light Blue to match the minifig source in absence of other identifiers that the other sets have, such as a Dark Red mane or scars on the face. Parts - 8/10 – Eris provides a great number of bones and shells, as well as some good Technic pieces and a double pin/ball connector piece. Unless you’re a huge fan of the Chima wing pieces though, there aren’t any greatly exciting or broadly useful recolours/parts in this set that can’t also be found in other sets. Design - 7/10 – Eris’ design is light and agile, and uses a great solution for wings at an action figure scale. I appreciate the use of Technic for the weapon, although the colours of the staff are affected by the light grey bushings and the red 2L axle. Articulation - 10/10 – In addition to the 13 points of articulation that come standard with most Constraction figures, Eris has an extra neck joint and an extra 8 points of articulation in her wings (14 if you count the twistable feathers), for a total of 22 (or 28) points of articulation. She has a bit of trouble looking down due to her head catching on the chest plate, but no trouble looking forwards or up, which is more essential for a frequent flyer. Quality - 10/10 – The quality of the pieces is the excellent quality you’d expect from a Hero Factory set, with unbreaking sockets and a high clarity for the printed torso piece. Overall - 43/50 – As a set, Eris perfectly does what she set out to do, which is to be an energy enhanced Eagle warrior. She’s a lot of fun to pose and swoosh with, but while she provides a good range of pieces for her price, I’d recommend purchasing a different Chi or Hero Factory figure before this one, since there are others with more exciting and useful pieces.

Set name: CHI Gorzan Set Number: 70202 Price: $15USD , 15 Euro Pieces: 59 Year of release: 2013 Peeron Bricklink Brickset CHI-up and swing into battle with CHI Gorzan, a CHI-powered warrior with big fists, a heavy mace, spiked shoulder armour and more! This summer’s new wave of Chima CHI figures marks the start of LEGO’s second original IP sets/ultrabuilds using the Constraction figure building system. Gorzan is a member of the Gorilla tribe, and the owner of a gigantic Gorilla Striker mech, similar in size to Gorzan’s CHI form. The Packaging Front Gorzan’s bag pictures the energy laced gorilla lunging through the jungle (in more of an agile monkey fashion than that of a Gorilla), ready to combat the evil crocodile, wolf and raven warriors. Gorzan’s minifig form looks down from above, and while he looks quite different in style and ornamental patterns, I like that they’ve included this detail for each of the different Chi characters, as opposed to using a single flagship character for every set. Back The bag of the package showcases the scale size of Gorzan’s head, a combiner that he creates with Razar, and a comic that shows how the minifig Gorzan activates his Chi form. It’s a neat detail that the bad Chi characters have red background while the good characters have blue, which is reflected even on the combiner diagram. Strangely Gorzan is shown in the comic with incorrect gold armour (compared to a new Gorilla style dark brown armour in his other set appearances so far), which might be due to the Gorzan minifig being altered later in the development process, since he appears in a summer set unlike the other Chi figure minifig counterparts, who have all appeared in the initial Winter line-up. This isn’t an inconsistency to complain about however, since I believe that both the minifig and Chi figure final forms are better with dark brown and gold respectively. Contents Pieces Gorzan includes 59 pieces, which is on the lower side of the Chima Constraction wave. There is a modest range of Technic and bones, and while there aren’t too many shells, the shells that are there are quite useful. Gorzan includes 2 recolours of Black Phantom’s mace piece; Trans-Blue and Pearl Gold, as well as a Pearl Gold Hulk chest plate. Other notable pieces include a large torso bone, 2 new black fur pieces and 8 Dark Grey exo-force arms, as well as the reinforced joints and 3L Beam w/ Ball joint that all of the Chima sets seem to have. Gorzan's Noggin Gorzan’s head piece was created specifically for this set, and uses a combination of printed colours and multiple interlocking pieces. Gorzan’s teeth are cartoonishly asymmetrical, but stand out cleanly due to being made of white plastic compared to the surrounding black. While the Sand Blue printing doesn’t follow the lines of the part perfectly, the colour is solid and it’s great to see this particular shade in action figures again, even if only as an accent printed colour. Side View Back View The back of the head shows the rest of the part that Gorzan’s teeth originate from, resulting in an exposed head husk. Since Gorzan is organic, would this be his skull? Sticker Sheet Instead of a printed chest plate, Gorzan has a sticker sheet for his Chi power. Here’s the last time you’ll see it, in its semi-crumpled glory. It’s a bit strange that this piece hasn’t been setup for printing capabilities, since Stormer XL’s torso needed stickering as well. Maybe it’s too big, or there are too many surfaces on the piece for it to be worth setting up a printing rig for it? At any rate, the stickering here is more intricate than a print would’ve allowed, so the choice of stickering both improves the look of the set (if you use the sticker) and the set’s usefulness in MOCing. Build While Gorzan’s appearance is quite similar to the Superhero Ultrabuild of the Hulk, he uses a different Technic-based torso construction, rather than relying on a mass of bones. The result is a smaller and more refined bulky torso, where the armour shells are more fixed in where they’re meant to be, rather than having the option to act as extra limbs as on the Hulk. Finished Set Gorzan, King of the Jungle! Gorzan is quite tall and impressively comes across as a humanoid gorilla warrior, in that he looks to have the strength and attitude of a Gorilla, but without the lanky arms or quadrupedally inclined proportions. While the Constraction system was initially used for the futuristic robotic heroes of Hero Factory, the excellent design of the new head and fur pieces are all that’s required to adapt the system into a stylized cartoon depiction of organic and very non-robotic animal warriors. Side Gorzan is quite thin around the waist, but his large hands prevent you from directly seeing the side. Back Thanks to the Technic structure used for Gorzan’s shoulders, his back looks a bit odd and semi-exposed, although it’s a large improvement over Stormer XL and the Hulk’s backs. It would have been nice if there was some more armour instead of the three light grey bushings though. Is Drilldozer’s torso shell still available as a part? Gorzan Smash! Gorzan comes with 13 points of articulation, not counting the finger hinges, but he uses those points to great effect when it comes to carrying out cool and heroic poses. His arms suffer from the same wristless condition as Worriz and Laval, although due to his longer lower arm bones it still looks like he has wrists, even if he can’t properly use them. I’m hoping that in the future there might be a double-rod to axle/pin/socket connector, that could be used on HF shells and the inside of HF paws, to allow characters to hold their weapons without sacrificing normal wrist articulation. Swoosh! Gorzan’s colour scheme is fantastic, mixing greys, blacks, gold and blues. With the exception of the back, the set does a very good job at hiding all of the mandatory Technic colours, such as glaring red and blue axles/pins. Wham, uppercut! Gorzan serves spiky justice to any and all troublemakers that cross his path. Combo Set Front While the other Heroes paired with each other, Gorzan is left to pair with 70205 Razar, but their colour schemes do lend to combine well. In Gorzan’s version of the combiner, the might Gorilla warrior beefs up his torso further and sprouts wings, resulting in a creature worthy of fighting Hawkman himself. Back He even has a tail and a vertical back ribcage, which I have to admit are a bit odd. Incoming Hawk-Eagle! I partially wish that the designs were more creative than resulting in 4 out of 6 combiners having wings, but at the same time these combiners act as an accessible and entertaining way to jumpstart kids’ imaginations when building, while still remaining semi-linked to the Chima story. They act as a buffer between playing within the rules of the Chima universe and making up your own adventures from scratch, which is an excellent role for combiners to play. (The instructions for this combiner can be found here) Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 10/10 – Because of the large gold chest plate, Gorzan manages to have gold as a dominant colour while only including 2 solid gold pieces, while the remaining colours of black, dark grey and gunmetal compliment the gold and Chi-Trans-Blue to create an excellent Gorilla inspired colour scheme. It’s a shame that the Sand Blue doesn’t feature more than just a print, but the colour scheme is still strong without it. Parts - 9/10 – Gorzan comes with a solid range of pieces, in terms of shells, bones, Technic elements and weapons. Highlights include the chest piece and spike ball halves, but none of the other pieces seem useless, even the Gorilla head. Design - 10/10 – The design of this set is excellent, using different bone lengths and a small amount of Technic to effectively create a large muscular body type, without excessive exposed bones or superfluous articulation points that you’re required to ignore. With the golden chest armour and black shoulders, the designers have even managed to add some very effective colour blocking to the figure. Articulation - 9/10 – Gorzan has a full range of articulation points, with the exception of wrist movement, which is a shame considering the previous Gorilla figure – Rawjaw, did include it. Quality - 10/10 – All of Gorzan’s pieces are of great quality, and the printing on the face is well done. The stickers are of a great quality as well if you choose to apply them, although only time will tell as to whether they’re resistant to eventually drying out and flaking. Overall - 48/50 – Gorzan is an excellent and fun set to pose with, and a great set for useful pieces to add to your collection, especially if you don’t have many ball joints or Glatorian necks. Aside from possibly the Gold chest plate, all of the pieces would be useful if you were to buy a duplicate of this set, in order to have 2 of each coloured spike half.

Set name: CHI Cragger Set Number: 70203 Price: $15USD , 15 Euro Pieces: 65 Year of release: 2013 Peeron Bricklink Brickset CHI-up with CHI Cragger, a CHI-powered warrior with a cool CHI fang staff, huge snapping jaws, CHI orb chest armour and more! This summer’s new wave of Chima CHI figures marks the start of LEGO’s second original IP sets/ultrabuilds using the Constraction figure building system. Cragger is a member of the Crocodile tribe, and is the main antagonist of the Chima theme in the story so far. The Packaging Front While all of the heroes face left and glow with blue Chi energy, the bad guys face right and emanate red, the colour of anger and hate. It’s not as colour coordinated, but the bag still does an excellent job at setting up and selling Cragger’s character. Probably because they didn’t want minifig Cragger to look like a zombie, Cragger’s blind eye has mysteriously healed, or at least swapped sides. Back The back of the bag showcases Cragger and his features amidst a beautiful lush swamp, while Chi Laval looks one from the background. Because Cragger’s face is quite long, the front-on scale picture doesn’t really do the piece(s) justice. On the left Cragger and Worriz combine to become… a bigger Cragger. No complaints there. Contents Pieces Cragger probably has the best selection of parts out of the Chima Constraction line-up, including recoloured/rare bones, shells, spikes and weapons. It’s fantastic to see Olive Green debut as an action figure colour, and while there aren’t as many as Cragger’s prototype form suggested, the 4 Olive green bones, 2 hands and Crocodile jaw will surely be useful in MOCing, and will hopefully be joined by more bones and shells later. Cragger also has a healthy assortment of Dark Green, which aside from the resent Ogrum, has been lacking in sets since Bionicle ended. If these two colours aren’t enough for you, Cragger also has a large torso bone, 2 C-bones, 8 Silver claws, the standard but welcome reinforced socket and beam w/ socket combo and four gunmetal chain links. I miss the dual-coloured Piraka claws, but I haven’t grown tired of the solid Black ones, despite them having appeared in a very large number of villain sets recently. Black is a very neutral colour, so a large number of these claws would be great for spamming on a big monster of some sort. Cragger's Head Cragger’s head is made of two pieces, which come packaged in their own special polybag. Unlike the other Chima heads, each of Cragger’s head pieces are a single piece of plastic (excluding the socket), with printing adding all of the colouration details, and the lines of the head seem less stylized or sharp. The printing of the teeth and crown bleed a small amount where they shouldn’t, but the resulting effect is much better than omitting the colour altogether. Open wide! Similar to the Crystal King, Rancor and other large jawed creature heads, Cragger’s jaw uses a click hinge system that locks the jaw into three main positions – unpleased, angry and really angry. The head is mostly symmetrical except for a scare across Cragger’s left eye, which suggests that this mould was created specifically for Cragger rather than as a generic Crocodile tribe head. It’s a subtle detail though, so there’s nothing stopping you from creating your own crocodile headed creatures and ignoring the scar over their left eye. Front view The two pieces Build Cragger’s build is mostly a straight forwards build, with the exception of the neck/head, tail and the weapon, which takes extra assembly on account of the chain and Technic bases staff. The set plays with different bone lengths to create a longer reptilian body instead of a standard Hero build, so it’s definitely a worthwhile experience. Finished Set Cragger! Once assembled, this crocodile warrior is ready to hunt down rival tribes in his pursuit for Chi! Without armour his limbs seem a bit thin, although the Olive colour makes up for it so that he isn’t left looking exposed. His longer torso works well, and he has an imposing hunch created by his thick arching neck and long tail. Side Cragger is very large both in height and length, but thanks to his reinforced waist joints he is able to stand up with little trouble. The Technic connector construction of his weapon means that it’s easy to alter where he holds his weapon from. Some reassembly is required, but that’s the point of LEGO right? Back Along with most of the new Chima figures, Cragger’s back is well armoured, right from the top of his head to the base of his tail. The Ben 10 component of his tail is regrettably hollow, but without the hollow design that part probably wouldn’t exist at all. RWOOOARR!!! Cragger looks great in many different poses and with many different postures. His jaw snapping feature is great, although it’s a shame that there’s no tongue piece as well. It reminds me of the short-lived Dinosaur theme’s 6721 Mosasaurus set. Incoming Croc! Fast and deadly underwater and on land, Cragger and his weaponized kayak paddles are more terrifying than Jaws and a Land-shark combined! Who will fight the mighty Cragger!? Cragger cries out for a challenger worthy of facing his terrible strength. Suddenly, Laval appears! Laval accepts the challenge of his nemesis, and the fight between the legendary duo begins! Combo Set Front Cragger combines with 70204 Worriz to make a larger and more intimidating crocodile form. Worriz’s extra parts are used to add armour to Cragger’s previously lean limbs, extend his tail and exaggerate his neck/shoulders, all to great effect. More than the other combiners, I think Worriz and Cragger’s combiners demonstrate how well the colours of the overall line have been chosen, because each combiner uses most of the pieces from both sets, but still carries the original colour scheme of the character. Previously you’d expect most combiners to be rainbow coloured and uncoordinated as they merged together the parts of vastly differently coloured sets. Back Cragger’s tail is left with an oddly coloured segment, and while you can see that the torso is a bit of a ridiculous shape, and least it’s still well shielded and appropriately spiky. The Crocosaurus lives! Although the neck is very long, I really like this style of combiner, since pads up the exposed sections of the original set, and exaggerates what was already good. It seems as if the Design Team has found a good mix of Technic and Constraction parts to include in sets to make this possible, although I imagine a large factor is the slightly non-humanoid qualities of the Chima warriors, which generic Hero Factory heroes/figures don’t have the luxury of having. (The instructions for this combiner can be found here) Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 11/10 – Olive Green, Dark Green and no exposed Technic pins. There’s not much else you can ask for from a set like this. Parts - 11/10 – Again, the Olive Green and Dark Green pieces are fantastic, and there’s a useful selection of bones, shells and small detail pieces to compliment them. Design - 10/10 - Text Articulation - 10/10 – Cragger has all the standard points of articulation, plus tail, neck and jaw articulation, which are all a lot of fun to play and pose with. Quality - 8/10 – Cragger’s head seemed to need to sacrifice some of the printing quality and clarity compared to the other Chima heads in order to achieve the jaw functionality and size, and the new blades sometime need to be bent back into a straight position, but otherwise the quality of the parts is very high, exactly as you’d expect from a regular Hero Factory set. I still very much enjoy the joints not breaking. Overall - 50/50 – If you’re only planning on buying a few action figure sets this year, this should definitely be one of them. Cragger has an exotic colour scheme that provides you with a wide range of useful bones, shells and accessories, and the crocodile warrior is difficult to not enjoy with his toothy grin and aptitude for looking ferocious. The only quality issue is limited to the exclusive head pieces, which you’re probably not going to be using for general MOCing anyway, although out of the six animal heads in the line, I think Cragger’s head has the most potential for innovative NPUs.

Set name: CHI Laval Set Number: 70200 Price: $15USD , 15 Euro Pieces: 55 Year of release: 2013 Peeron Bricklink Brickset CHI-up and take on the rival tribes with CHI Laval with poseable and durable design, double sword, shield, lion head, paws, claws and more! This summer’s new wave of Chima CHI figures marks the start of LEGO’s second original IP sets/ultrabuilds using the Constraction figure building system. Laval is the prince of the Lion Tribe, appearing here in his Chi enhanced form. The Packaging Front Laval comes packaged in a large Hero Factory packet, which is the same size as other large villains/heroes. It’s easy to tell these sets apart from the HF packets though, because of the bright blue and gold colours, rippling with vibrant Chi energy arcs. Laval himself jumps heroically forwards, while his minifig form looks from above with his Chi-induced heterochromia. I like the lightning energy effect used around Laval, because it conveys the power of these Chi figures without misrepresenting the actual set too badly. The shield and upper leg shells seem to be in strange positions, but for the most part the pose looks pretty feasible for the actual set. Back There’s a plethora of nice graphic son the back of these bags, with a life-size scale head, a combiner advertisement and a small comic explaining how this Chi figure fits within the minifig-scale story. Cunningly, both sides of the bag demonstrate the multiple positions for Laval’s shield, without using an extra dedicated graphic. The packet is of course very shiny and resealable, which no doubt are part of the reasons this method of packaging has worked so well. Contents Pieces Laval comes with less pieces than most of his fellow Chi figures, primarily because he has no extra appendages or Technic-heavy weapons, but he makes up for this with a large selection of Gold shells, exo-force arms and a Shield. As with most of the other gold sets this year, if you’ve already bought some of the Rocka sets, you might not be enticed by this selection, but if you haven’t, Laval is a great set to jumpstart your Gold supply. Laval also includes 2 5M Trans-Blue shells, 2 Blue swords and 2 new fur pieces in Dark Red. All of the Chi figures have 2 reinforced bone cups, and Laval has another 3 Beam w/ Ball joint, which is always useful for your collection. Head Laval’s Lion head is probably the most interesting part, since its custom designed for this set, either as a Laval head or a generic Lion head. The piece is more complicated than previous Ultrabuild heads, using a combination of printing and multiple pieces fixed together, resulting in a very well designed and styled face with several distinct colours. Back The socket is still affixed to the back with a screw, in the same manner as the Ben 10 and Superhero sets. It’s great to see how the quality of this style of head can improve and develop alongside the developments made to the Hero Factory head type, which stays truer to the robot/Bionicle head type. Another view of the Front It’s a shame that the central teeth aren’t white, although this does cause his fangs to be more distinct. It will be interesting to see if this head is reused in the future for making other Lion tribe members in CHI form. Build Laval’s build is a very standard experience, but it takes a little bit of extra time to put together all of the claws, and it’s satisfying to have the simple but effective extra step of adding back armour to the torso. One of the most interesting and ingenious tricks used in this set is the shield construction, which uses a flick-fire missile to great effect, allowing the shield to easily be added to Laval’s back or hand, or indeed most of the other shell pieces with ease. If the missile piece hadn’t existed for 5 years prior serving a completely different purpose, you’d think this was what the piece was made for. Finished Set Greetings Laval, Prince of the Lion Tribe! Laval is ultimately quite a generic set in terms of part selection and build process, but he serves to show just how powerful the Constraction system is, because the final set looks fantastic. Laval has a heroic posture and appearance, and pulls together many colours (white, tan, dark red, trans-blue, pearl gold, gunmetal, light blue) into a single effective lion-based colour scheme. Back Laval’s bone selection is very uninteresting, but you can see here how it was chosen to blend with the gunmetal shells and dark grey reinforced sockets. Laval has a simple back armour solution, which serves well to bulk his torso up and provide an easy attachment point for his shield. The back of Laval’s head is admittedly a hollow shell, but there are no distracting exposed brains unlike Bionicle and Hero Factory sets often have. Crocodile spotted! Perhaps the only significant flaw of Laval is that he has diminished arms, because his oversized paws are attached to the lower arm armour ball rather than the wrist ball. The alternative would have been comically oversized arms, whereas this solution looks quite good if you don’t think about it directly, since he has no wrist articulation but is able to rotate his sword independently of his hand and fingers… Back foul beast! He also isn’t holding his shield; rather the shield is impaled through his paws via the flick-fire missile rod. His weapon setup seems quite painful, but as the following action poses demonstrate, the end result still looks fantastic. I see someone, something else... Unidentified possibly hostile alien life-form detected! To be honest, Laval is the mystical organic interpretation of Rocka, from the storyline similarities to the colour schemes and Lion-based inspirations. Combo Set Front I really like the direction that the Constraction designers have taken for this wave’s combiners – rather than buying two sets to form a new model/character, each set has its own unique combiner, where it uses another set as a booster pack of pieces to upgrade the primary set into a larger more powerful form. The formula is the same for each combiner, but it’s interesting to see how each set will use the weapons, shells and Technic parts available to create a more interesting upgraded form. Back Laval uses 70201 Eris to gain wings, a tail and powerful new Chi weapons. I suppose it’s fitting that if the already powerful Chi forms of Chima characters were to combine together, the end result would look like something straight out of a myth itself. Action Because of the double set of reinforced joints in Laval’s new legs, Super Laval has no difficulty standing or posing, despite the extra weight. (The instructions for this combiner can be found here) Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 10/10 – Inspired by his minifigure form, Laval’s colour scheme includes a white assortment of colours from Gold and Gunmetal to Trans-blue and Tan, but they all combine effectively to create exactly what I’d imagine a cartoon energy enriched Lion warrior to look like. I particularly enjoy the use of Dark Red, because you need to need to compare it with another Dark Red part to assure yourself that it isn’t Brown. Parts - 8/10 – If you’re looking for Gold pieces, Laval provides an excellent range that isn’t found in an single existing Gold set. Due to his standard humanoid build though, Laval doesn’t have any special bone pieces that can’t be found in the other Chima sets, so if you buy sets for parts, it would be better to go for one of the other sets, such as Cragger or Gorzan. Design - 9/10 – Aside from the shield innovation, Laval and Worriz are very generic figures, but they demonstrate how good generic figures can be. It could have been interesting if Laval had digigrade legs (at one point in development Laval used HF paws for his feet as well), but the HF feet don’t detract from Laval’s design or (more importantly) playability in any way. Articulation - 8/10 – Laval has 13 points of articulation, plus finger movement, but lacks wrist articulation and needs the double jointed neck in order to prevent his jaw from catching on his raised chest plate. The rest of his joints perform well though, and with his reinforced waist he’s able to pull off a wide variety of cool poses. Quality - 10/10 – The quality of Laval’s pieces, printing and new parts is excellent, particularly his head design, which matches the HF shell aesthetic and the fur parts. I suspect that the sword pieces could easily bend slightly to be noticeably out of alignment, although I didn’t have any problems with my particular swords. Overall - 45/50 – Laval is an excellent figure, and is definitely the best Lion warrior set that LEGO has made so far. If Lions or any of Laval’s pieces appeal to you, you should definitely get this set, since the only reason that I wouldn’t recommend him straight away is that he’s overshadowed by some of the other Chima figures, which are equally well designed but include a wider variety of pieces and in greater quantities.

Set name: CHI Razar Set Number: 70205 Price: $15USD , 15 Euro Pieces: 68 Year of release: 2013 Peeron Bricklink Brickset CHI-up with CHI Razar, a buildable warrior featuring 2 scythes, bladed wings, CHI orb chest armour and massive claws! This summer’s new wave of Chima CHI figures marks the start of LEGO’s second original IP sets/ultrabuilds using the Constraction figure building system. Razar is the prince of the Raven Tribe, and appears to have benefited in his Chi transformation by regrowing his hooked left hand, at least for while in Chi form. The Packaging Front In an effort to stand out from the background and demonstrate how evil he his, Razar has set the world of Chima on fire! Above we see Razar’s minifig form, which has a fair amount less silver and more decorative red, but Chi Razar arguably looks more ferocious with his fully metallic face and beak. Back Thankfully the Chima forest is back to normal again on the back of the bag. This side shows us how Razar can combine with Gorzan, and how minifig Razar activates his larger Chi form (in event of forest fire). The size comparison up the top looks very strange due to the head on angle, but it gets the point across. Contents Pieces Razar comes with the most pieces of the Chima sets, at a total of 68 pieces. This total is mostly made up from 10 5B bones and 10 3M shells, as well as a variety of small Technic pieces, Chima feathers, Silver claws and Gunmetal chain links. Razar doesn’t come with any new bones or shells, with the only new pieces being his raven head and 2 Red hook/axe pieces, which while they’re a very odd shape, they’ll no doubt be used in creative ways on MOCs. Also exclusive is a printed chest piece, which has a simple but effective purple feather pattern overlaid with an evil-energy Chi ball. Razar's beak Razar’s metallic raven head is excellently detailed, and is constructed from two main pieces – one Pearl Silver and one Black, each of which adopt a hard edged style that matches the plain Hero Factory shells. Even though this set doesn’t include them, Razar’s feather pattern works well with the new fur pieces that have been introduced to the Chima and summer Hero Factory sets. Other view Back The back of Razar’s head has a screw-connected socket, and although the head is exposed at the back, the relatively small head size doesn’t leave much open space, which is nice. Build Razar’s construction is quick and easy, since it’s a standard light construction with the exception of the wings, which are very elegantly designed. I appreciate the order that you build the current Constraction sets, where you start with the legs and torso skeleton, before moving around the body with a mixture of bone and shell additions. Once the body is generally complete, you add the head, and then the weapons and extra accessories. This gives you the experience of bringing your character to life, and then arming him for battle, which is appropriate for organic characters such as Razar, compared to the process of Bionicle/Hero Factory character building, where you’d save the head/mask/core for last, since that was what “activated” the character. Even though the building process of smaller Constraction sets is never able to get very complicated, even the most generic build is still finely ordered to give the best experience possible. Finished Set Razar, Prince of the Ravens! Razar is a mean and mischievous creature, and his Chi figure definitely reflects that. He has a lean but aggressive posture, added to by his wide and sharp wings. Side Standing straight, Razar looks slightly uncomfortable from the side, but that’s probably has my posing to blame… You can see how compact the wings are, considering they’re made from regular bones and shells, rather than some new specialized part solution. Unfortunately the blue pins on Razar’s weapons stand out against an otherwise greatly coloured model, but they hold onto the chains well, allowing them to loosely hang from whichever angle Razar holds his blades at. Back Razar’s back is exposed, although it’s less noticeable thanks to the black torso shell. Razar’s underlying skeleton uses more Dark Grey pieces than Black pieces, but the bluish tinge of the Dark Grey goes well with the Purple, so it’s overall not too distracting. I hope that the reinforced joint piece eventually gets recoloured into Black (and vice versa for the thin torso bone). Razar sees something in the distance... As a humanoid raven warrior, Razar looks great in all ranges of stances varying between the postures of both. Here Razar is either stalking unsuspecting prey, or has spotted a shiny silver object. The Caped Crow Razar can fold down his wings into a cape-like tangle, and while it’s quite messy, it’s nice to have the option. Without his wings, he still looks equally intimidating! Cacaw! Thanks to his reinforced hip joints and large clawed feet, it’s easy to pose Razar on one foot, even with the added weight and bulk of his wide wings. He can also look straight up, which is useful for seeing where you’re flying, particularly at high speeds. Combo Set Front Razar combines with 70202 Gorzan to create a larger, more buff Raven, who has a wider wingspan, a tail, and two nasty looking weapons. Mega-Razar’s weapons seem rather mismatched in colour and function, but that’s hardly a complaint worth making when you’re under attack by a giant angry raven. Back Mega-Razar makes use of Gorzan’s Technic pieces to create a new attachment point for his wings, and to add detail to his weapons. They’re probably a bit high up now, but it provides space for the back armouring below. The use of the fur piece as tail feathers is a great touch, which unfortunately isn’t in the regular model. Razar waits, weapons at the ready. Mega-Razar crouches, preparing to jump into pursuit of his fleeing enemies….Despite the bulky torso and legs, Mega-Razar’s arms are still very thin and weak… (The instructions for Razar's combiner can be found here) Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 9/10 – The colour scheme of black, purple and gunmetal/silver is perfect for Razar, and closely matches the colours used by the minifigs and vehicles of the Raven tribe. It’s great to see purple continuing to show up in sets, although it only appears in a minimal capacity here, limited to 4 feathers, 4 3M shells and the printed chest plate. The brown handles of Razar’s weapons are great, but they’re contrasted by the blue pins used for attaching the chains on the other sides of Razar’s hands. Parts - 7/10 – Razar includes a lot of bones and an impressive total of 15 shells, although 10 of them are the smallest 3M variety. There are a few highlight pieces, such as 5 Silver spikes and 4 chain links, but overall Razar doesn’t provide any useful new or uncommon pieces unlike some of the other Chima sets do. Design - 8/10 – Razar’s design is essentially the same as Eris’, which makes sense considering they’re both bird warriors. As such, Razar suffers from similar flaws, such as an exposed back and generic feet, although the black claws make more sense on Razar, and his chest plate doesn’t interfere too much with his head articulation. Articulation - 10/10 – Razar includes a massive 22 points of articulation, not including the feather rotation or the loose chain movement. Thanks to the excellent Constraction joint system, Razar is able to pull of almost every cool pose you’d want him to be in, from flying through the air to pirouetting on the spot. Quality - 10/10 – All of Razar’s pieces are of excellent quality, and his chest piece printing is top-notch. Even though this socket design as existed for two and a half years now, it’s still a great experience to be able to snap the ball joints together without worrying about broken or weakened sockets. Overall - 44/50 – Like the rest of the Chima sets, Razar is an excellent depiction of an animal warrior, although he doesn’t represent Razar, but rather a generic Raven tribe member. The set is great for posing, fighting and swooshing, and provides the most number of pieces for you money out of the six Chima sets. There are no revolutionary parts included with this set, but Razar will act as a solid booster shot for your HF bone and shell collection, with the added inclusion of some ever welcome Purple.

Set name: CHI Worriz Set Number: 70204 Price: $15USD , 15 Euro Pieces: 55 Year of release: 2013 Peeron Bricklink Brickset CHI-up with CHI Worriz, a CHI-powered warrior with a spinning saw blade shield, sword, spiked shoulder armour and CHI orb chest plate! This summer’s new wave of Chima CHI figures marks the start of LEGO’s second original IP sets/ultrabuilds using the Constraction figure building system. Worriz is supposedly the diplomatic statesman of the backstabbing Wolf Tribe, which means that he’s merely better at concealing his ruthless nature than other tribe-members. The Packaging Front Worriz’ packaging is quite a lot darker than the other Chima sets, with the background showing an alpine forest at night rather than an exotic jungle setting. It’s a full moon, and the wolf-like Worriz is out on the prowl. Not very stealthily I might add, with such an amount of red Chi energy surging through his being… Back On the back of the bag the setting is the land of Chima again, and it’s daytime. It’s a bit confusing, but I suppose it wasn’t worth creating two new panoramic backgrounds for each of the six characters. Still, Worriz looks angry and imposing here, and the many red backgrounds make it clear that he’s not to be messed with. In the comic below Eris has made the mistake of following Worriz out to wolf-country at night, where Worriz uses the power of the full moon his Chi energy to unleash his powerful Chi form. Contents Pieces Worriz ties with Laval for the least number of pieces in the Chima collection, as he has an essentially identical build, with the exception of the colour scheme and minor tweaks. While Laval provides a solid collection of Gold pieces, Worriz provides a range of silver, gunmetal, and grey and most importantly, 4 Dark Red 5M Shells, which is a much needed colour appearing previously only on Pyrox. Other than the Dark Red, Worriz includes 4 6B bones, 2 HF paws, 8 exo-force arms and 2 new fur pieces in Dark Grey, as well as a Red Hero Factory sword, exclusive to this set and the Hero Factory weapon pack currently available as a promotion only. The Head Worriz’s head is an excellently designed part, made from three sections of plastic for the fur, eyes and teeth, with additional printing for the nose and “scar” patterns. The face is a very stylized mixture of wolf and human proportions, with a comically massive snarl and solid streaks of hair that lend themselves well to the new fur piece and the general angular aesthetic of HF shells. Multi-part Assembly Back The back of the head reveals the general assembly of the part, with the socket and teeth sections both using screws to connect in. The head is hollow, but there isn’t much space to see this, so Worriz doesn’t appear to have a massive concave hole in the back of his head. Build The build process is simple but effective. It’s exactly the same as Laval’s, with the exception of the leg shell placement and the choice of shield piece, but it’s still nice to see the set come together in a manner of minutes while appreciating the new colours and pieces. Finished Set NAME After the construction process is complete, you're left with a mean and snarling wolf warrior, ready for action! Worriz’s colours scheme works well, with the reds of the shells and chest plate print accenting the otherwise grey scale wolf colour scheme. Side Similar to the minifig scale vehicles, Worriz’s weapons and armour carry a ragged spiky style, with the simple alteration of the weapons, colours and head compared to Laval, who has a much smoother and less chaotic appearance. Back Worriz’s back is covered with the simple addition of another torso shell, which also allows him to store his shield on his back with the ingenious use of a flick-fire missile handle. Worriz doesn’t have a tail however, and since Cragger has one, it seems like a shame that Worriz didn't end up with one as well. Prepare for an attack! Owing to the great head and weapons, Worriz comes across as the angry and deceitful wolf character that he is, although I do feel that he could have done with being bulked up more. His paws are comically oversized for a wolf, but they become weapons in their own right, and the parts provided to make the paws are much more interesting than the 2 silver hands that probably would’ve been used otherwise. Action Two Worriz has a great range of motion, which is to be expected from the Constraction system. The reinforced joints in his waist make it easy to pose him on one or two legs, although out of the Chima figures the joints are least required on Worriz. Combo Set Front Worriz combines with 70203 Cragger to make a bigger wolf, who comes with more weapons, a tail, and a werewolf-like hunch. I quite like the ease of which you can make your own weapons with the various weapon-type pieces provided in recent HF/Chima sets, and the new gunmetal triple-connector part. However, Mega-Worriz seems to strike out a bit here, because although sharp and dangerous looking, I’m not too sure how his triple sword is meant to work, with the different blade types opposing each other… Back The back is still properly armoured, although the shield sits lower on his back than it ought to, and is needed to hide the single splash of dark green on the wolf warrior’s back. I think it might have been better for Worriz to embrace all of the dark green pieces provided by Cragger, since not using them required the Dark Red to be used only on the lower half of Worriz’ body and tail, which seems a bit disjointed. As a combiner set though (or any LEGO set for that matter), it’s easy to make your own adjustments to however you see fit, and there are enough left over pieces to work with. Action Mega-Worriz is still very posable, and with his reinforced joints it’s easy for him to swing his weapons around and stand tall without falling over or crumpling under the sheer weight of his canine rage. (Instructions for the combo build can be found here) Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 10/10 – Worriz uses quite a couple of colours, but they all mix well together to create an appropriately evil wolf colour scheme, with no detracting Technic pins to distract or detract. Parts - 8/10 – The Dark Red shells are the standout feature of this set, and while there aren’t any other interesting bones or shells that can’t be found in other Chima sets, Worriz is definitely worth the price for the pieces he provides. Design - 7/10 – Worriz has a very good shield design, and the system for building weapons works well also. He isn’t anything special, but rather a demonstration of an excellently refined Constraction building system. It’s disappointing that he doesn’t have a tail, but rather clones Laval’s build with a different set of colours. Articulation - 8/10 – The lack of wrist articulation is sometimes distracting, and the head has trouble fitting over the chest armour, but otherwise the figure poses just as well as you’d expect with the Constraction system and reinforced leg joints. Quality - 10/10 – All of the pieces in Worriz are of excellent quality, especially the head, which uses a multi-part pre-assembly to show the eyes and teeth crisply against the grey fur. Overall - 43/50 – Worriz is a great set and villain character, but he’s probably also the blandest of the Chima line, since they all present such excellent characters and part selections. Worriz is definitely worth picking up if you enjoy the character or are a fan of wolves/werewolves, but I’d recommend that you buy some of the other Chima or Hero Factory sets if you’re looking for the best value of parts.

Voting - Before and After Brain Infection Please post your votes in this thread. Voting ends 7 days from the time of this topic being posted. Voting is open to all members who joined prior to June 20th! You vote by allocating three points to the entries, giving the name of the entry you are voting for. You can allocate these points any way you wish. Eg, valid point allocations would be: 3 points Stormer; OR, 2 points Stormer, 1 point Evo; OR 1 point Stormer, 1 point Evo, 1 point Furno Entrants are NOT allowed to vote for themselves In the event of a tie, the winning entry will be chosen by a special expert judging panel. Before/After category description: Build 2 MOCs displaying an alien creature before and after infection from a Brain parasite. The 2 forms must be recognizable as the same creature, so don't get too carried away with the mutations There must be some form of Brain slug on the Hero, but it can be brick built as an alternative to the actual Brain parasite piece if you'd prefer. Entries: Vidurr "Trollishs creatures that live in cavey regions. Their large claws are adept at breaking rocks, and their other arm can twist back and forth rapidly as a weak drill. When mutated by a brain slug, it becomes a clumsy brute, capable of smashing just about anything, from rocks to small woodland animals. It retains its drill, and uses it as a grotesque weapon." Felix "Felix was just an ordinary feline android, they're sold as pets all over the galaxy. One day its natural curiosity got the better of it though, when it thought a brain parasite would make a tasty snack. The mutation was extremely aggressive and only enhanced the innate cruelty and destructivity of your average cat. Now Felix spreads "misfortune" in the form of razor sharp claws and teeth and it's up to the Hero Factory to put a stop to it!" Marcus Fisher "Marcus Fisher is the hero, who specializes in underwater missions. But after "Brain attack" he was mutated in Sharcus." Koboldon "In their natural form, Koboldon are tunnel goblins with a diet of metallic ore, which they mine for with their powerful, shovel-like claws. They are reclusive, but generally not aggressive. But once the evil brains landed on their home planet, many were mutated into grotesque, hulking fiends that burrow beneath cities, reducing buildings and infrastructure to rubble. Can any hero stand up to the might of Koboldon's radioactive power claw?" Gallux "Small flocks of Gallus gallus dom. populate the desert flatland regions of the planet Fabulox 18. The evil brains have turned the skittish birds into the deadly Gallux, and raised up a formidable army of deadly opponents. Watch out Heroes!" Snapdragon/Sinnertwin "Snapdragons are notoriously cute critters -Well, okay, I think they're cute- that live in the same volcanic region the Pyre Oxes resided. They're named as such due to their only defense, they snap their jaws together, spraying sparks at whatever happens to provoke them. They're a bit jumpy, admittedly. Of course, with the recent Brain Slug Invasion, their jumpiness has ceased to be a concern. Because we're more concerned about the extra head, extra-extra-large size, and extra-extra-extra-potent fire breath. Sinnertwin is not a beast to be trifled with. It thinks trifle is tasty. Good appetizer for Hero Armor." Bruizer "Before transformation, Bruizer was a harmless rock. After, he was transformed into a formidable rock monster!" Rachnavore "Just an ordinary tarantula robot that had a brain latch onto its abdomen." Gambrodon "Gambrodon lizards are herbivorous critter from their native planet Runksukka. They are also very popular pets in Makuhero City because of their cute appearance, playfulness of a puppy and curiosity of five-year-old. But when hideous brain slug attacks and attaches itself in the poor lizard's head, it launches a very fast and nasty evolution... And so, in blink of an eye, a cute pet lizard evolved into a terrible dinosaur." Lord Pyrox "At first he was an experiment. Scientists took a pyrox and made him a genius. After years of testing he was no longer interesting to them, so they released him. He became a rich citizen of Makuhero city and he invested a lot into Hero Factory. But when the brains attacked, noone was safe, even Lord Pyrox how he called himself. Poor Pyrox became much worse beast than other members of his species. Now he is one of the most feared monsters and only team of the most skilled heroes can take him down." Gorroz Spider "The Gorroz Spider is a large, yet harmless spider. Its large size is enough to scare off most predators, as well as tourists. It has been found to be tamable, and has been used to carry passengers, goods, or pull carts. These animals might be harmless in the wild, but when infected by a brain slug they grow deadly claws, fearsome pincers, and a dangerous stinger...." Nrel Bug "As the hero permanently stationed on their home planet, I witnessed the infection of a Nrel swarm. Nrel bugs live in caves, as massive swarms. Up to three hundred individuals make up a swarm. Unlike popular culture will have you believe, however, there is no one "Hive Queen". Each individual responds independently, which makes it even more unsettling to see an entire swarm approach a problem the same way, perfectly synchronised. Nrel Bugs are normally docile...but after being infected by a Brain Slug, not so much. However, even so, the uninfected ones managed to stave off assimilation for quite a long time, considering. Every infected creature or individual Brain Slug was hunted down by groups of several Nrel, attacking on sight. The remaining Slugs, their numbers thinned down considerably, decided to use a different tactic; attacking all of the swarm simultaneously. Without backup, it would have been impossible to hold off the combined forces much longer."

Voting - Hero or Monster? Please post your votes in this thread. Voting ends 7 days from the time of this topic being posted. Voting is open to all members who joined prior to June 20th! You vote by allocating three points to the entries, giving the name of the entry you are voting for. You can allocate these points any way you wish. Eg, valid point allocations would be: 3 points Stormer; OR, 2 points Stormer, 1 point Evo; OR 1 point Stormer, 1 point Evo, 1 point Furno Entrants are NOT allowed to vote for themselves In the event of a tie, the winning entry will be chosen by a special expert judging panel. Hero or Monster category description: Build a Hero that has been taken over by a Brain parasite and show how that infection has influenced them. The mutations can be extreme as you'd like, but they must still be recognizable as a Hero. The mutations do need to be more severe than Surge's brief infection during the Hero Factory show. (Image courtesy of HFsector01) There must be some form of Brain slug on the Hero, but it can be brick built as an alternative to the actual Brain parasite piece if you'd prefer. Entry should be shorter than 30cm/12 inches. Entries: Ryan Korsten Nick Evero Evo Torvax Valiant Venom Draccon Bonnie Crusher Alex Acidicus Julius John Doe Samuel Silver Cade Marler Hector Steelson XL Dr. Kain

Voting - Digital Hero Please post your votes in this thread. Voting ends 7 days from the time of this topic being posted. Voting is open to all members who joined prior to June 20th! You vote by allocating three points to the entries, giving the name of the entry you are voting for. You can allocate these points any way you wish. Eg, valid point allocations would be: 3 points Stormer; OR, 2 points Stormer, 1 point Evo; OR 1 point Stormer, 1 point Evo, 1 point Furno Entrants are NOT allowed to vote for themselves In the event of a tie, the winning entry will be chosen by a special expert judging panel. Digital Hero category description: Use computer aided means to create your own Hero. Entries can be created using LDD and POV-ray, other 3D programs, GIMP/image editing programs, etc. Designing new pieces and recoloured parts is encouraged, but not required. The Hero must be recognizable as a Hero, so should be reasonably humanoid and include a Hero core. Entries do not need to be photorealistic, but should look like they could be built in real life, aside from new and recoloured pieces. Entries should be presented on a plain/simple background, since the focus in on the Hero. Entries: Lance Nimbus Prometheus Helen Kernel XL This is Helen Kermel, a female hero designed for hard-to-control situations. When the Brains attacked Makuhero City, she was inmediatly updated at the Assembly Tower and given an XL to fight the menace. Her equipment includes: -A mounted triple heat-seek missile launcher on her right shoulder -A mounted energy bazooka on her left shoulder -A visor to protect her head from the evil Brains -Two hero cores to give her the power neccesary -Spiked armour protecting her knees, useful for low attacks -A dual saw-sword, able to cut though hard materials Marshall Boyle Neo Back in the early years of Hero Factory, when Hero Factory still hasn't gaining reputation yet, the villains are much much rougher than villains this day. Their crime records are so bad that the only option to deal with them is annihilation. this hero, Neo, was builded and born at times like these. Neo is a hero that specialized in annihilating villains. whenever the case require annihilation of the villain, Hero Factory will send him, and he never failed. none of the villain that's faced with him able to stay alive to tell his tales. Stringer the Stinger Attention STRINGER: The evil brains have made a beast out of Rookie Nex and must be stopped! We’ve equipped you with dual shock-blades, a sleek jetpack, an opening armored visor and hero core locking clamps. Now fly to the threat and fix your friend! • Features dual shock-blades, a sleek jetpack, opening armored visor, hero core with locking clamps, poseable joints and translucent elements • Take back Titan Nex's mind! • Lock the clamps to protect your hero core from the same corruption! • Wear fellow hero Rocka's leftover helmet! • Battle with 41300 TITAN NEX • Combine with 41300 TITAN NEX to create a powerful brain-annihilating super-hero! Gerald Spectrum Flora Strike XL Flora is not one to mess with. Many bots have made her angry and then found themselves completely disassembled in 1/2 a second. One of the few heroes to be given the rank of commander, along with Furno and Merrick Fortis, Flora is a highly skilled combatant. Even some of the male heroes don't have the bearings to challenge her in a sparring match. But some do. Furno, so far, is the only one to beat her. But for some reason, after that, she began frantically chasing him, constantly saying she's in love with him, much to his annoyance. This however, does not effect her prowess in battle. When you see her swooping down on you, RUN! Quazara Angelata Quazara Angelata is an extremely powerful and special Hero. Not only can she fly (thanks to her Quaza wings and boot thrusters), but she also has built-in warp drive (on her ankles). making her among the first Heroes designed by Hero Factory for use in outer space. Her essence is stored throughout her body, so even if her Hero Core were to be damaged or run out of power, she would survive. Moreover, her warp drive is independently powered, but she can re-route that power to her Hero Core or her weapon. She carries a Dual Quaza Staff, which can unleash energy blasts, generate a force field to protect herself in battle, and split into two half-staves. Thrusher Mr. Makuro wanted to make a hero similar to Thresher, but way better in every way. He sketched up a few designs, throwing away the ones he didn't feel were right along the way. In the end, there were 3 designs left. He passed the designs over to the Design Experts in Hero Factory, and they got to work on improving the designs further. Even later, they found numerous flaws in the designs of two of the three designs, and then there was one. They fixed every flaw and improved every detail and then one flaw remained, although it was so small and unnoticeable that they chose to ignore it and go on with the construction. The armour had the flaw that it would be slightly weaker than Thresher's armour, but the Assembly Tower's programs hadn't been updated to say the specific type of armour that was to be used was in stock. The machines used default, incredibly weak armour instead and so Thrusher, the new hero, was too vulnerable to be sent into extreme battle situations. Now, Thrusher is only used for patrolling the streets of Makuhero City, looking out for crime so he can report to Mission Control and have heroes sent to deal with the situation. Sometimes, though, he fights and easily defeats criminals with his Top Mark Grade Plasma Rocket Shield and Tornado Staff and that leaves people wondering... is he really not fit to go on a real mission?

Apologies all for the delay - I've been caught up with work commitments and preparation for a local LEGO show, so I haven't been able to finish preparing the polls. They're almost complete, so they will be up by Friday at the latest, and I will extend the month and voting duration accordingly to give everyone enough time to vote.

And that's a wrap folks. Voting threads will be up in about a day, so stay tuned!

So long as it's July 9th somewhere in the world, you're still fine. As of this post, there are 4 hours and 20 minutes left to enter.

A reminder that there is just under 12 hours remaining before the contest closes. There have been a lot of fantastic entries so far, so to any stragglers; finish up your entries quick!

I definitely agree with the sentiment of the figure being unimportant, but it's difficult to find the line for acceptably cutting down on the quality of the figure in order to improve the vehicle. Pohatu on Rockoh T3 was great as a generic Toa, but his proportions and dis-similarity to the original character were distracting. I wish it were, but I don't know nearly as much about Transformers as I perhaps ought to. For a Hero Factory set, I think it's overly Technic based, without the neat weapons and armour slapped on top that you'd usually expect. Dragon Bolt is similar in that respect, where the Hero Factory theme has matured enough to be comfortable using standard System and Technic where the Hero Factory system simply doesn't suffice, but in the case of this set the part selection and Hero Factory vibe suffers for it.

Set name: Jet Rocka Set Number: 44014 Price: $35USD , 35 Euro Pieces: 290 Year of release: 2013 Peeron Bricklink Brickset The Packaging The second half of the Hero Factory sets this year continue the Brain Attack theme and style set by the first, with bright green packaging seeping with the infectious yellow influence of the brain slug creatures. Jet Rocka is the largest set of the year, and is the only set to come packaged in a traditional cardboard box, since both Funro XL and Dragon Bolt have made the transition to the resealable plastic packet. Front When you walk into the LEGO aisle of your local toy store, the Hero Factory sets should be easy to spot with their bright high contrast colours. While you may have trouble singling out a specific Hero Factory packet, Jet Rocka stands out with a very large (but thin) box, showcasing Rocka heroically jetting through the city, firing at multiple unseen villains in the sky and on the ground below! The background art isn’t terribly colourful or interesting compared to previous years, but it conveys the scene well and puts all the focus on what’s actually in the box; Jet Rocka. Back Flipping the box around, you get a clear demonstration of the jetpack’s play features, which include Zamor launchers, flick fire missiles, trigger controlled wings and a pivoting windscreen. Rocka’s Hero Core comes with a code worth a tremendous 3000 Game Points, for use online. Inflation must be rampant during the monster crisis, since last year the comparable Speeda Demon only came with 900 Game Points! The cynic in me thinks that this is a devious marketing strategy to make the new sets seem more valuable than the old sets, but the other side of me thinks it’s working! Buying Hero Cores on Bricklink for their Game Points will be complete anarchy if it wasn’t already. The sides of the box contains the usual warnings and disclaimers, plus some odd alternate language names; Rocka Reactor and Rocka Ultrasónico. I personally preferred BIONICLE’s use of fictional names for vehicle sets, because it avoided a set in story needing multiple distinct names due to a word or pun not translating properly. Contents Pry open the cardboard flaps, and you’ll find the contents of the set split between three bags, with the large Power Miner wheels thrown in separately. One bag is for Rocka, so there’s the potential challenge to bag build him! Also included are the instruction booklet and a dreaded sticker sheet, although the stickers are excellently designed and generic enough to be useful for other creations. Pieces Bag One contains Rocka’s parts, which are a healthy mix of armour, bones and smaller pins/detail parts. Compared to previous vehicle sets (aside from Speeda Demon), the focus has always been on the vehicle over the rider, but Rocka “Five” manages to include a fair selection of useful shells in Gold and joints in Dark Bley, unless you already have most of the previous iterations of Rocka. Bags Two and Three contain the pieces required to build the jetpack, and they consist largely of Technic beams, connectors, pins and axles. This set is invaluable for creating larger MOCs with a Technic based construction, but you get very little in the way of weapons and armour parts compared to a regular sized Hero Factory set. Pieces of note include 8 total Phantoka/Makuta – Matoran connectors, 6 White panel fins and a large selection of Light Bley connectors/beams, including 6 new 1x3 beams with perpendicular axles, which serve the purpose of the 1x2 beam versions, but without the half-stud offset on the perpendicular axle. This set only features one recoloured part – an Apple Trans-Green windshield, which isn’t very exciting for Bionicle MOCists, but would be of interest to Spaceship builders. However, there are a fair number of interesting pieces especially if you don’t have many Brain Attack sets yet, particularly the Trans-Green shells and 4 rubber reinforced bone sockets. Rocka comes with the same helmet, head and visor as his other iteration earlier this year, which is great for using the helmet as a shoulder armour piece. Instructions There is only a single instruction booklet, which is large in area and satisfyingly thick. I’m glad it wasn’t split over multiple thinner instruction booklets, although the model probably wasn’t large to warrant it. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, and I had no trouble differentiating the different colours. It’s a bit strange at first to see the Technic beams rendered without the inter-pinhole recesses, but it’s necessary to keep the instruction images clean in the later stages of construction, otherwise all the overlaying beams and holes could become a maze of meaningless black lines. In the back of the booklet there are the usual adds for the other sets of the wave, in this case the menacing Dragon Bolt and the Stormer/Frost Beast pair. The Hero Factory show and this page suggest that Dragon Bolt is Rocka’s pair, but there is no combiner model to affirm that (and there is a combiner model between Dragon Bolt and Surge). Jet Rocka is the odd set out in that sense, but hopefully he might receive his own combiner/alternate model instructions online or as part of the Club magazine There is also an add for the Chima constraction sets, who we find heroically battling it out in the jungle, amongst scenic skies and floating mountain rocks. There’s a QR code as well, which leads to a TV Spot on the Chima website. Finally there are ads for a Brain Attack warping app, and the LEGO club. I won’t spoil the image on the back of the booklet. Now, onto the set! Build First, let’s start with Rocka… Rocka comes together in a matter of minutes, and despite being a simpler build than a normal Hero or Villain set, his construction is interesting in the way it differs, with a long torso bone and multiple reinforced joints on the sets. It’s great to see the useful Technic motor shaft 1/2 offset axle pieces being used as handles for the jetpack. Next up is the jetpack! The first half of the construction process starts off with a confusing array of Technic beams, and it’s difficult to discern the purpose of what you’re making, but gradually as you add the gears and hook up the colour coded red trigger it becomes clear what each beam structure does. Once the Technic frame is complete, you add wings, a tail fin and the display windscreen. The Apple Green swords suit the wings perfectly and demonstrate that even though some of the new Hero Factory pieces feature very little connection points, they are still tremendously versatile and supportive of creative use. We then attach the jetpack to its rider, but it’s still missing something… Of course, jet boosters! Sadly they’re unable to rotate, but they’re fixed at a nice angle and are very well connected. Finally we add weapons, and with that, the build is complete! Finished Set After swooshing it up and down the house, I've found that Jet Rocka is an impressively sized model that looks great and handles fantastically. First let’s look at the two parts individually; Rocka and the jetpack. Rocka ‘n Roll There’s no denying that Rocka is a basic figure – a skeleton of bones with some colour appropriate shells on top. The Constraction system is amazing though, because a simple build such as this yields a completely playable action figure, with proper proportions and 13 points of articulation (18 if you count the visor and core claws). In a way it’s a shame that this set didn’t introduce a Brain Attack form for a character currently lacking one such as Stringer or Nex (or introduce a new character entirely), but Rocka’s colours do suit the jetpack wonderfully. Reinforced Joints It’s great to see that while Rocka has several design oddities, they all exist to allow Rocka to fit into the jetpack better and with less hassle. His reinforced leg joints are great for posing on one leg, but more importantly they support the weight of both Rocka and the massive flight pack. Don't Look Back Rocka suffers from a horrible case of open back syndrome, but it creates more space when connecting to the jetpack, and it’s not a problem once Rocka is installed. The torso shell is also placed further forwards and higher than usual to allow the size 3 shells on the shoulders. It looks odd from the back, but it does provide the set with an extra 3-beam w/ balljoint. Eagle Droid The jetpack can’t stand in an upright position on its own, instead adopting a form that looks a bit like a bird of prey. The jetpack attaches to the back of Rocka via a Phantoka-Matoran connector, and the windscreen fits comfortably over his shoulders. One unfortunate problem with the connector is that it has no preference over whether it will stick to the jet pack or the rider when you detach the two again, but it’s only a minor hassle and you’ll spend most of the time with this set with the two paired up in flight, not continuously linking up and breaking apart. A red trigger on the handle at the back of the jetpack flings the wings up and the Zamor launchers forwards. If you pull the trigger quick enough, the launchers can knock the windscreen closed in the same swift motion. Load up process (Trans-Green under Blacklight! ) Being a Brain Attack hero, Rocka has a core cage and safety visor, which become superfluous once he’s safely behind the jetpack windscreen. Still, they look cool and contain some great parts, so it’s a pro that they’re included instead of not. There is no frictional resistance in the trigger for the wings, so they will fall into a closed position when the jetpack is upright, and an open position when the pack is horizontal. From the side you can see how large the thrusters of this jetpack are! The tail fin ingeniously functions as the handle for swooshing, and the third point of a very stable tripod stand when on the ground. It’s possible for Rocka to balance the jetpack without the tail fin, but the fin allows Rocka to stand normally with no tedious balancing required. Again we see the size of the thrusters, and the impressive wingspan of the set. (The wings have been propped open with a 1x2 plate lodged in the wing folding mechanic.) Flying through the sky! The real highlight of the set is the playfeature that isn’t explicitly directed on the back of the box; swooshing – the art of running a LEGO model around the house while making plane noises. With enough imagination (and recklessness), even the LEGO Taj Mahal can be fun to swoosh, but this set is an absolute joy to swoosh, right out of the box. If you enjoy Hero Factory and swooshing, you owe it to yourself to get this set, because Jet Rocka has the perfect weight, balance and handle controls to provide a fantastic swooshing experience. Alternate Pilots Since Hero Factory has deviated from clone builds, not every Hero fits into the jetpack, but it’s usually as simple as removing the back armour to expose the appropriate connection pins. Ultimately since it’s all made of LEGO, there’s always room to make the adjustments required for any character, set or MOC, to take a joyride through the skies! Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 10/10 – The colour design on this set is excellent – the aeronautical White and Light Greys of the jetpack neutrally fit with a wide variety of potential pilot colours, while the Apple Green cohesively ties Rocka and the Jetpack together. There is a clear separation between the White aerofoil areas and the Light Grey mechanical underworkings, and while there are the usual blue and red pins, they don’t stand out in garish locations. Parts - 6/10 – At 290 pieces, Jet Rocka definitely gives you an appropriate amount of pieces for your dollar, but it isn’t a good parts pack for most builders. There are a lot of Technic beams and connectors, but there are better Technic set part packs for Technic builders, and the set doesn’t offer as many useful Hero Factory bones/shells/special parts as what an individual Hero Factory figure would include. The primary recoloured part – the windshield would be easier to pick up on Bricklink, for the System builders that might find it more useful. Design - 10/10 - Text Articulation - 9/10 – Rocka comes with all the standard points of articulation you’d expect from an action figure, and the jetpack only lacks rotatable thrusters, something which I’m sure was considered but was ultimately deemed unfeasible for a model this size. Quality - 10/10 – There are no problems with the quality of the joints or plastic, and the set is sturdy enough to take a good beating from many ill-fated Buzz Lightyear dives from the second story railing. Overall - 45/50 – As a model, this set is fantastic, and I would highly recommend it. It has a solid, functional design that is extremely fun to play with, and looks fantastic as well. It carries a bug-like vibe that suits the Brain Attack theme, but it would work well for a Hero on any mission, either Rocka or any character of your own choice. The set falls down with the parts that it offers, but only because the design is so tight that there is no room or need for superfluous and extravagant pieces, other than on the pilot who is generic by design, since he’s not the focus of the set. If you’re looking for pieces, opt for buying a couple of the smaller sets instead, but if you’re looking for a high speed jetpack swooshing adventure (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t want a jetpack? ), Jet Rocka is definitely the answer. HQ Brickshelf Gallery