Brickthing

Everyone? There was only one post.. I love the updated version. I take it the frog isn't meant to be a pilot though? The arms and legs are better in the second version, although I think there are still a few things that you could improve. The Vahki legs don't line up with the upper arms and those claws would be more useful as weapons if they were bigger, but the general shape and bulk of the lower arms works well. The lower legs look better, but I don't like the amount of Old dark grey compared to the rest of the MOC. The feet could be made more interesting with angles and white blocks similar to the torso, because currently they look like the block of TECHNIC connectors that they are. The back of the feet are nice though, despite their weak connection. I'm not sure if jamming axles/small pieces in the half-axle-holes will help tighten the connection. I really like the shapes and colour blocking of the torso and shoulders. My main suggestion would be to work in some tapering on the back of the spine, but the straight spine is only really visible from the back and straight on, so isn't a large issue. Overall this is a great MOC. I enjoy seeing your creations, because they often push the boundaries of sense. This is quite a tame example.

Set name: Stringer 3.0 Set Number: 2183 Price: $7.99USD , 9.99 Euro Pieces: 30 Year of release: 2011 Peeron Bricklink Brickset Time for action Stringer! Distress signal from jungle planet Quatros indicates that Witch Doctor is extracting the planet’s Quaza core. If he succeeds, the planet is doomed!. Cover Furno’s back with your black bear animal power and use your triple-bladed bear claw to fend off Witch Doctor’s vicious band of beasts. The Box Front An immediate detail that you will notice when you see these sets on the shelves is that the new 3.0 Heroes have Lime lids and lush green backgrounds to suit their jungle theme, just as the 2.0 Heroes had Orange lids and backgrounds. I personally think it’s a pity that the canister lid isn’t a new recolour, but the different style of box-art sets these canisters far apart from Breez 1.0, who also had a Lime lid. Each Hero has his own intricate background, and Stringer 3.0’s is especially nice. There are bioluminescent sporangia in the foreground and moss-covered trees in the background, which create a very atmospheric welcoming to the jungle for the Heroes. Stormer 3.0 can be seen standing in the back right while Furno jumps down from a drop-ship in the left. Unlike the 2.0 Heroes, Stringer does not pose for publicity shots while villains rampage unchecked in the background. Back The back of the new canisters are identical to the back of the 2.0 canisters, except with a green theme and different character combiners. This formula evidently works well, and it shows plenty of information, although I can’t help but wish that the legal disclaimers took up less space – almost two thirds of the back is just text! The size comparison Hero Core for Stringer is Orange, although the actual core used in the set is Yellow-Orange. I suspect this was changed because a Yellow-Orange core on a Lime background would look horrible. The legal disclaimers again mention that there is no requirement for a purchase to play the online game, and there is a unique code printed on the lid of the canister (no you can’t see my code! ). Overall the new canisters stick to the same formula established by the 2.0 Heroes and it works even better in this wave, because the jungle backgrounds contain so much more beauty than rows of tankers and explosions. You’ll have no trouble finding 3.0 Heroes when they arrive in stores, although it may be hard to find the specific Hero you’re looking for if they aren’t at the front of a row. Contents Instructions The front cover of the instructions has the same art as the box, only not wrapped around a canister, and there are a few less information labels obscuring it. A full booklet is given, but you could easily build Stringer in 4 steps that could be printed on a double-sided instruction sheet similar to Metru/Voya Nui Matoran. But then again you wouldn’t receive advertising pages such as these two, which brilliantly explain the complicated process of accessing the online game using your unique Hero code. Currently this procedure is made more difficult by the game not being available yet, but that should change in the upcoming weeks. Here is a random instruction page showing the faint green background and an essential step for building Stringer. It’s quite easy to tell Gunmetal apart from Black and Dark Grey, although it’s not required in this set because there are no similar pieces in different colours. At the back of the instructions there is a larger image of the combiner that can be made from Nex and Stringer. It’s awesome to see that the combiners continue to be creative and different and good looking despite each of the six combiners so far using almost identical pieces. The instructions for this combiner can be found online here, although sadly I do not have both Stringer and Nex to build the combiner myself. The back pages show Raw-Jaw fighting Bulk 3.0 atop a thick tree branch. I’m not sure if Raw-Jaw is trying to steal Bulk’s Hero Factory DVD or if Bulk is trying to con Raw-Jaw into buying it, but either way it is odd that there isn’t an advert for the 2.0 Hero episode instead of the 1.0 Series. Pieces Stringer 3.0 has 30 pieces, which is considerably more than his previous incarnation, which sold for the same price-point. Naturally after the 2.0 revamp there are only a few new moulds (three), however because Stringer 3.0 is a different colour to those of the previous Hero sets, there are a lot of recoloured pieces. The recoloured pieces include Dark Grey bones, Yellow-Orange Hero heads and cores, Black Hero hands, feet, chest plate, and Black size 3 shells. There is also a single Exo-force arm in Gunmetal, which initially seems very strange considering that there are no other Gunmetal pieces in the set and Black Exo-force arms are even being used in Bulk 3.0 (where there is Gunmetal). Each Hero has his own animal totem shell, printed on a trans-green shell. It’s been a while since trans-green was used in BIONICLE/Hero Factory, but I’m glad to see it being re-introduced. It works well for a non-distracting jungle colour, although you can see through the printing slightly due to the transparent base colour. Stringer’s animal is supposedly a cross between a black bear and a panther, but once you see it as a slightly overweight panther you’ll have trouble seeing it as anything else. ( ) Surely the star piece of the set must be the new helmet, which is beautifully designed in detail and overall look. The helmet reminds me of previous black BIONICLE masks, as it has teeth like Stronius and similar eyes to Onua Mistika, but it also strongly resembles a Predator head. The smooth surfaces and technological ears match the style of other Hero Factory pieces, and although the spot texture on the forehead is used on other Heroes as well, here it looks like an audio speaker texture, linking this helmet back to the Sound-based Stringer 1.0. The face has a determined “Let’s get down to business” expression and I was pleased to find that the piece is perfectly symmetrical. All of the 3.0 helmets use a double-rod connector to attach directly to a Hero head, and there is a large amount of space around this connection point within the helmet. Stringer’s helmet will work perfectly for a lower jaw of an angry creature, especially because the eye holes are quite small so can go unnoticed without an eye colour behind them. The other new pieces to this set, which are used to make Stringer’s giant claw weapon. The new Hero shield shell is also available in black from Scorpio, while the new finger pieces are exclusive to Stringer in this colour, and the piece itself only available from Stringer and Rocka. The finger piece serves its purpose for Stringer, although it is a lot less detailed compared to other new pieces, which makes me wonder if it will be used for other themes in the future instead of Hero Factory. Build The building process of this set is almost identical to the 2.0 Heroes, and although it isn’t challenging at all, it is still very satisfying to click together balls, sockets and shells, especially without the fear of them breaking. The main differences from the 2.0 sets are the asymmetric arm lengths and the use of clips instead of axles for assembling the weapon. Stringer 3.0 comes together quickly and easily, so is ready to ship off to Quatros immediately! I think it’s a slight shame from a storyline point of view that the skeleton structure of the 3.0 Heroes are different to their 2.0 counterparts (if they have one), that prevents you from simply swapping shells and weapons around to upgrade the to their new forms if you have both sets. Completed Set Stringer 3.0 is themed around a black bear/panther, and you don’t need the namebadge or online description to tell you that! Along with the helmet, I was pleased to find that the rest of armour contributes to his look – despite the small range of shells, this certain combination works well to emphasize his upper body strength and bulk. Being nearly identical to the 2.0 Heroes in pieces and design, Stringer 3.0 shares most of the same strengths and weaknesses of the 2.0 Heroes. There are improvements, including a more distinct appearance compared to other 3.0 Heroes, and a personal one-piece helmet. The 2.0 Heads were good for creating your own Heroes, but they lacked personal character. Stringer’s 3.0 head has a lot of character, but I personally see it as more “Bear character” than “Stringer character”, so Heroes I make myself will be Bear Heroes rather than Refitted Stringers. Stringer 3.0 looks decent from side angles as well, and the green name badge doesn’t glaringly stand out. The gunmetal Exo-force arm is next to the green shell so it doesn’t look out of place as you mind think it would. I’m not sure what that arm and Hero spike are meant to be, but they cover the exposed arm bone underneath. Sadly, nothing is included in the 3.0 Heroes to cover up the open backs, so Stringer 3.0 suffers from the same hollow back syndrome that plagued the 2.0 Heroes (some more than others). The Yellow-Orange torso shell doesn’t hide the empty space, but the colour-scheme matching torso bone helps provide relieve from that problem. In this shot you can clearly see how Stringer’s arms are different lengths, which you may or may not forgive due to one arm being an exaggerated weaponised club. Now is as good enough time as any to wonder why Stringer’s weapon arm has switched from 1.0 to 3.0, in a similar case to Kopaka’s Akaku scope. From the other side Stringer is a lot less interesting, with only a single spike to add detail to the few black armour pieces. I imagine he uses that shoulder armour to block Zamor Compressed Air Midak Metal Meteor Lava Energy Spheres? Stringer runs headfirst into battle! Hunched over and hiding, waiting to spring the ambush… Ah ha! Prepare to have the honey knocked out of you Waspix! Oh right, there you are. It’s a bit hard to see with this helmet on. Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 10/10 – I have no problems with Stringer’s colour scheme whatsoever, and I’m very glad to see it return to an “Earth” set as opposed to a “Stone” set. Black and Yellow-Orange is as faithful to Stringer’s 1.0 colours as is possible unless Bulk was to use Nougat or Burnt Orange as his core colour. Stringer is also only 3.0 Hero not to use any Silver, which is great if Silver antagonizes you. Parts - 9/10 – Stringer 3.0 is one of the three 3.0 Heroes that gives you the most recoloured pieces; standard Hero gear in Black, and a new Hero/Core colour. Black is one of my favourite colours to work with, and Stringer offers 4 new size 3 shells and another Black torso shell. Although they are new to Heroes, the Yellow-Orange torso armour and spikes are only really useful if you didn’t pick up Nitroblast or Jetbug. My only qualm with the piece selection is that there aren’t any proper weapon pieces, and his Yellow-Orange claws come in an odd quantity. For MOCing purposes, replacing the Exo-force arm and spike with another claw would’ve made Stringer’s claws twice as useful. Design - 10/10 – The Hero 2.0 building system may seem to have reduced the variation of Heroes to which colour and size shells used, but Stringer 3.0 demonstrates how those choices can have powerful results. Even without his Bear helmet and name badge, you couldn’t mistake Stringer for a 2.0 Hero. Articulation - 9/10 – Stringer has 17 points of articulation, including the claw and Exo-force arm hinge joints. Naturally with this building system Stringer articulates well, and none of the armour shells significantly hamper movement. The shield shell used for his claw does have a limited range if you don’t want to expose the un-armoured arms underneath, and the claw pieces will disconnect if you don’t turn them quite in line with the way they are meant to turn. This is a problem with any hinge joint, but because the hinge pivots are at different angles you usually need to move each claw individually to avoid disconnecting one. Quality - 10/10 – Stringer’s pieces are of equal quality to 2.0 Hero pieces, and the printing uses more colours and detail. His sockets and ball cups hold well and won’t break, and the new claw pieces seem to work well. Time will tell if they loosen from use and if they’re prone to breaking, but I’ve found no indication of it yet. Overall - 48/50 – The biggest “letdown” of the 3.0 Heroes is that they’re essentially identical to the 2.0 Heroes, although that was to be expected when the 2.0 Heroes overhauled the Buildable Action Figure system. It doesn’t at all feel like Stringer 3.0 is a clone of a 2.0 Hero, mainly because of his strong bear/panther features and partly because he never was a 2.0 Hero. I strongly recommend you pick up this set, either for the updated version of Jimi Stringer’s character, the goldmine of parts (but to be fair Rocka does that better), or for the savage Beast Bashing bear Hero that he is. With his upgraded Hero technology, can Jimi Stringer save planet Quatros with a diplomatic handshake? Or will he choose to resort to his fists of justice? High-ho away Raw-Jaw!

I think the "promotional sets" would be the combiner and another 2.0 combiner using Furno and Evo instead of the intended Heroes. Or perhaps it is referring to Furno and Evo themselves as promotion sets as they are part of the promotional combo-set. It may just be a translation quirk.

Thanks. It looks like the head connection works well, and could be useful for other Hero/BIONICLE heads that don't fit properly on 2.0 torsos as well. I agree that this topic may make it slightly harder for individual MOCs to get attention, but hopefully the people who enjoy seeing Hero-2.0-mods will come back to this topic frequently enough not miss any new Hero among other replies. This has been done before with art (although that change has since been adjusted), and I'll change this setup if it doesn't work out properly. It's nobody's fault that Heroes can be built so easily with the new system, but as a result there isn't much you can say about each Hero-mod due to them mostly having only minor differences in armour placement and colours. In this topic each Hero remains easy to find rather than getting buried under other topics after only receiving a few views. Most Toa MOCs have a fair amount of "custom" designs to them, but I would have put any Toa-mods using a Mata/Metru/Inika/Star design into a Toa thread or banned them completely because they don't look as slick as 2.0 Heroes. I want to leave this topic as it is for now, but I will make changes in the future if I see a better way of organizing Hero-mods. As a moderator what I think will work the best for members will usually be what is done, but please complain in the Action Figure Forum Discussion topic or by PM if I'm actually completely off my Rockaer.

More specifically, it's the box that the six small $7.99 Heroes of each Hero Factory wave come packaged in, with the stickers/box art removed. The main 6 BIONICLE/Hero Factory sets (almost) always come in canisters rather than cardboard boxes, to serve as a place to return each action figure for storage. The Hero Factory canisters are referred to in the storyline as "Hero Pods", which Heroes use to get to their missions on various planets. This Dropship set is meant to fly a Hero Pod and the Hero inside to their mission destination, and then drop them into the battlefield.

I've merged your MOC into this official thread, because it qualifies nicely for being in here. I like the combination of colours as well, and the helmet suits perfectly. I have a feeling that the shin shells would look better if they were attached to the sides of the legs, to break up the flat surface formed by them and the thigh shells. If you have a trans-orange Lightsaber blade, it would match better than the trans-blue blade. How is the shield on the back attached? I can see a black piece behind the head that looks like part of a different method of attachment than I would have done.

Bulk's helmet fits in place of Fangz headpiece, but then there isn't a jaw for the resulting wolf. I'm sure you could find a suitable piece though. The spikes and trans-orange shells can be replaced with silver versions, however to my knowledge the long Red arm bone only comes in Red. Fangz is more of the size for Bulk to ride on him, aside from the small issue of spikes. His head is bigger than Hero heads, although it's smaller than Raw-Jaw's and the Fire villain heads. Maybe it's the proportions of it on the body that make it looks small, because it's wide enough to fit a socket piece inside it, making it as big as a Glatorian helmet. The example I was thinking of in particular were the 2004 instruction manuals, which (referring to some Rorzazahk instructions in front of me) have 2 pages for the Vahki, 2 for the 2004 Titans, 2 for the Toa Metru, 2 for the Vahki Combiners and another 1 page for the Metruan. I'm fairly sure other years around 2004 did this as well, although it may have varied between regions and individual sets, and I suspect that the online PDFs cut them out to reduce file-size. The back is fairly sturdy, although over time and use the ball pieces could become loose. The shells are aligned differently because they wouldn't fit on the bone if they were aligned the same way. I agree that it isn't a flawless result, but I think it's the best possible solution given the pieces that exist. You can see the orange eye colour if you look for the eye colour, but because it doesn't glow it won't stand out to you during a quick glance over. I think the contrast with the trans-orange back plates that are bright from catching light makes it more difficult to see the eye orange, but it's there. I was skeptical about the double-headed helmets in the 2009 Glatorian, but I was quite pleased with them once I had them in hand. They don't work well for strong character faces (as shown in the Fire villain sets), but for the 2009 helmets it worked well and we ended up with 6 different character helmets over 4 recoloured pieces. I enjoy having more of the same colour as it allows me to make bigger colour-coordinated MOCs, but only in Silver, Gunmetal, Black and Red. If I try to make anything in any other colour it becomes very difficult, so because the bigger sets don't provide you with a wider range of colours, the neat colours you get from Heroes are limited to being used on smaller MOCs. In general of course, as there are always ways around not having many pieces in one colour. I love variations to the standard humanoid build, but I think alternating between different and normal would work best. As fun as these animals are, I hope they won't be disadvantaged by the most expensive set in the wave being the only actual villain - without him, who will be controlling the animals in their fight against the Heroes?

It was one of the first things I tried, but unfortunately the Villain heads are designed to fit flush on shell pieces, so the connection points don't fit on Hero heads. However, Raw-Jaw and Fangz' heads can be used as Hero heads if you get a bit creative with attaching them - I'm currently working on a Rocka XL-like titan that uses Fangz head and pneumatic hose to attach it to the Hero head, so I'll have pictures of this connection later this week. The head pieces of Raw-Jaw and Fangz are also at a larger scale than Hero helmets, so they're best for titan Heroes unless you really want a bobble-head Hero. Waspix/Scorpio's head doesn't fit and wouldn't look good if it did because the eyes are too far apart (and solid plastic), and while I can't speak for Witch Doctor from experience, I would think that his head could be used with the right connection pieces. However, I don't think you'd be able to see the Hero head inside the headpiece anyway. I'm uploading the original images for Fangz and Raw-Jaw now (will take a while though), before they were resized to be topic friendly. Until the folders become public, you can access them by adding "HQ/" before the file name in the URL of each image: "http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/sprxtrerme/Reviews/Fangz/box1.jpg" becomes "http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/sprxtrerme/Reviews/Fangz/HQ/box1.jpg" Hopefully these will be useful for you, although please forgive the grain and possible Photoshop artifacts - I took these photos intending to scale them down a lot. Fangz doesn't have many TECHNIC pieces compared to BIONICLE sets, but the few that he has are nice ones.

Set name: Fangz Set Number: 2233 Price: $12.99USD , 12.99 Euro Pieces: 55 Year of release: 2011 Peeron Bricklink Brickset Heroes! Witch Doctor’s servant, Fangz, has been sighted! This ferocious beast will defend its master with everything it’s got. Including the jaw-mounted spears and corrupted Quaza spike. When you see Fangz, you know you are close to Witch Doctor, so set proximity sensor to maximum! The Box Front I really like the boxes of the Summer Hero Factory sets, with their bright green borders and beautiful background art. Here, Fangz lunges at you with his head awkwardly to the side, kindly sacrificing his depth perception so that you can see how nice he looks before he eats you. In the background it’s raining Fangz through the sunlit canopy of the Savage Planet jungle, ready to follow up on attacking you incase the leader Fangz isn’t successful. (His front legs are bending backwards to fit on the box, which I think may be detrimental to his running...) In most boxes I prefer the non-US versions that don’t have the extra text, but this box does a good job of not letting it get in the way of the wonderful box graphics. Top The top of the box has a 1:1 image of Fangz’ head, which if anything, is slightly smaller than the actual piece. Side Instead of a LEGO Club advertisement as on Raw-Jaw’s (Non-US) box, there is a cartoon Witch Doctor skull. Fangz’ Club advertisement is on the opposite side, along with some additional translated warnings. Back The back of the box shows the same comic on all of the Summer boxes, but with Fangz facing off against Nex 3.0. Fangz seems to be having some trouble standing on the tree branch, but overall this little action scene looks very nice, and portrays both sets nicely. Unlike Raw-Jaw’s box, the Hero being upgraded in this comic is of the 2.0 variety. Contents From within the box Inside, we are greeted with the instructions, a small-shoulder torso, a large bag of pieces, and a tiny satchel of TECHNIC pieces along with two spears and two balljoints. Instructions The instructions are clear and easy to follow, and the added diagrams specifying which shell size to use is more useful this time, because Fangz has multiple sets of 4 and 5 shells in the same colours. The instructions would have you build Fangz as if he’s skydiving, but I find the building process to be more entertaining if he is posed as he is built. The parts inventory is quite wide for a small Villain set, with most pieces coming in multiples of 2 or 3. Along with ads for the website and Hero Recon Team, there is this wonderful double page of an aerial battle between Waspix and Furno 3.0, with some ancient jungle ruins in the background. Although it’s a space saving move for the instructions, I miss the older BIONICLE instructions that had multiple pages like these for the entire wave in one booklet. What you probably bought the set for Fangz has 55 pieces of which only 7 are small TECHNIC connectors, so naturally there are some very good parts contained within. The recolours include four Dark Grey bones, two black 5 shells (exclusive to Hero Recon Team before) and two Piraka claws in Black mixed with the new Silver-Metallic colour. Non-new highlights include three Silver 3 shells, another Trans-Orange 5 Shell, two ball joints (sadly not new pieces) and a long red bone. Fangz has a smaller selection of new Summer pieces, being spine armour, Quaza spikes, his head piece and a new Hero spike, although he makes up for it with his printed armour. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Fangz comes with two unique types of Trans-Orange shells, of which there are three of the size 4 type! They’re printed with orange and silver, depicting tiger patterns mixed with metallic plating, including some air ducts on the size 5 shell for the head. Fangz’ headpiece is another piece exclusive to this set, as compared to the Fire villains’ shared heads. It uses the new double rod connection to attach to a shell piece, meaning that it is wider than I expected from the box shots that always depicted the head from the side. Rather than a wolf, Fangz’ head is shaped more like a hyena or a rodent, with buckteeth to go with it. Due to the gunmetal colour and angular form, the head reminds be strongly of a Zoid head more than a Hero Factory head. Still, the detail of this piece is excellent and I’m sure people will find many applications for it besides as a creature head. The underside of most of the new Summer pieces have the double rod connection, which works well as long as both rods are attached (depending on the plastic/rubber of the piece). Fangz’ headpiece has the rod connectors at a roughly 20o angle from the direction the head is facing, which you’ll see gives the head a much more dynamic look. The mouth of the headpiece is also big enough to fit a ball joint and socket through it, allowing it to potentially be used as leg/arm armour. Build Due to the quadruped stance and spiked back of Fangz, the build is a fair bit more interesting than usual. To be expected for a set this size, the build isn’t very long, so I’ll let you look through the building sequence before I present my thoughts on it: There we go! I really like the order of building Fangz – You start off with the torso and back legs, which seem like a velociraptor until you add the front claws and armour. The head is added near the end, followed only by adding the back spikes, as if you were corrupting the innocent creature after completing it. The only negative part of the build is clicking together the old-socket Matoran claws, where it feels a lot less secure compared to the new sockets that I’ve gotten used to building with. Completed Set Front Firstly, many people have raised the question of what exactly Fangz is meant to be. I think the best answer would be that he is meant to be a “Fangz”, because there are many features that don’t match any Earth predatory animals, such as the spear tusks, buckteeth and spiky spine. He can be posed to resemble a hyena, but none of the official images suggest that (although some images suggest his front legs be bent forwards. ). Regardless of what he is though, Fangz look vicious and ready to pounce on an unsuspecting Hero. There’s no part of his body that doesn’t have something sharp, be it claws, teeth or spikes. I like his colour scheme a lot, and even though his head is the only Gunmetal piece, it suits better in that colour than it would have in Black or Silver. His body is illuminated by trans-orange and red, although I’d have preferred the long Red bone used on his torso to be in Black or Orange, to either intensify the “glow” of the trans-orange shells or let them do their work on their own rather than confuse the colour scheme with a single red piece. The back looks like it’s emanating with power, but I’m not sure what the storyline explanation or purpose of this is. Side A side view of Fangz shows of his triple-jointed legs, his toothy snarl and curving spine, although it also shows the holes in the construction of the back. From many angles it’s quite easy to see through his body, and the construction underneath the plates is only one stud wide. The only way I could see to improve the thin shape of the body would be to replace the trans-orange 5 shell with a trans-orange torso shell, but otherwise the way Fangz back is built is as good it can be for using the Hero Factory system. I’d much rather see the building system push itself to create interesting creatures such as this rather than it sticking with easier humanoid builds. His front legs are remarkably bulkier and larger than his back legs, which is something that isn’t shown on the box. Even though torso armour for shoulders as now been used quite a lot, it helps hide the vertical thickness of Fangz’ back, and make him look strong in addition to being fast and agile. Back Unlike most sets, Fangz looks good from the back as well; all the exposed undersides of the armour shells face inwards and down. The spikes on Fangz’ back can be articulated a fair amount, although they look best when all of the back shells follow a smooth arch shape. The colour of the spikes doesn’t entirely match the trans-orange armour (black/orange spikes would’ve been very nice), but it does make Fangz look like he has been corrupted and is now under the influence of something evil. Faaangz?!TM Despite his name, Fangz doesn’t actually have any fangs. Instead, he has two spears protruding from below his jaw, made out of rubber so that they don’t hurt people, break or damage the TECHNIC connectors holding them. I’m not sure if their articulation is meant to be a play feature or not, because it isn’t very exciting when his jaw clearly hasn’t lowered with the spears. The “fangs” benefit the set by making Fangz look more dangerous, but if you don’t like them they can be removed and the head will still look fine. I just find it odd that Fangz doesn’t have proper fangs while four of the Heroes, Raw-Jaw and Rocka XL do. In the above pictures you can also see the effectiveness of the new headpiece connection. Like Raw-Jaw, the printed armour that the headpiece attaches to acts as Fangz’ eyes, with the trans-orange armour meaning that Fangz has evil BIONICLE-like eyes. Unfortunately his eyes cannot catch the light to glow, unless a laser/black light is used to make the trans-orange piece fluoresce. Action Poses Hyena mode Raptor Mode Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 9/10 – Fangz uses a solid colour scheme of Silver through to Black, with the twist being his glowing back. The Silver and Black gives him a dark metallic look perfect for an evil robot hound, and it is distributed evenly throughout his body so that no part is too bright or too dark. The trans-orange gives him proper eyes and an interesting back, and while I’m not sure why they are there, I can’t complain about the 5 trans-orange pieces that Fangz used to give him that colour scheme. My main but small disagreement with the colours used is that Fangz only uses colours from the Fire Villains, albeit with a focus on the Blacks and Silvers rather than the fire colours. Parts - 8/10 – Fangz doesn’t have many Summer pieces, but he is an excellent source for armour shells – many black/silver shells that are either coloured or were found singularly in only one Winter set, a trans-orange 5 shell to pair with Jetbug’s and 4 trans-orange printed shells. I hope it will become a trend to include a trans-orange heavy set in each wave of sets. Fangz has a decent number of bones, however there are only two less common bones (the long red bone and the small torso piece). In summary, if you like trans-orange pieces Fangz will be a must-get, otherwise Fangz provides a solid selection of pieces for your money, but you’ll find more interesting/special pieces in the other villain sets. Design - 9/10 – This set provides a pleasant break from humanoid villains, fully embracing the look of a feral jungle animal. Considering the limitations of the Hero Factory system, Fangz does very well at making a different but sturdy body, using the Quaza spikes in the best way out of all the villain sets. The fangs/spears are the only strange part about this set, and they can be easily removed if you don’t like them. Articulation - 10/10 – Fangz is completely articulated with 21 points of articulation, including the 3 spikes’ movement. The back legs and tail are especially fun to pose, and I believe Fangz and Waspix are the first sets in Hero Factory and BIONICLE to have such legs with full articulation. Quality - 9/10 – The quality of the new pieces and printed armour is excellent, and the only shortcoming in quality is the use of Av-Matoran feet with the breakable sockets. It’s a shame that they have been re-introduced after the new sockets had been supposedly phased in completely, even showing up in redesigned SYSTEM socket bricks. Hopefully the fact that the claw feet weren’t modified means that it wasn’t worth redesigning them for two sets because they won’t be used again in the future. Overall - 45/50 – Fangz is an excellent set, primarily for his departure from humainoid villains and for his trans-orange pieces. As a non-sentient predator, he doesn’t have as much character previous villains, but that doesn’t mean he’s any less of a formidable opponent for a Hero. The set also lends itself perfectly for buying multiples of, either to build a pack of Fangz or for the pieces, which are suitable for a wide variety of Hero Factory/BIONICLE MOCs. He’s right behind me isn’t he? Alright fine, you can have the spears back! High-Res Photo Gallery!

Minor characters don't need to be killed off when there are lots of them; they're usually put aside until there's an appropriate use for them in the future. They're good for dying if needed to create effect, but I don't think Telluris' death improved the chapter or properly concluded his own story.

His position in the building pictures has him looking just about as far down as he can, so if he were standing any straighter he wouldn't be able to look forwards. It's a shame that he can't, because gorillas can walk standing up, although elephants can't. Thanks for the translation and lecture! It seems a shame though that the translation is fairly direct - It would've been neat if the names in other languages were puns as well, even at the cost of being less related to the English name. Trying out viking horns as well as Atlantis claws and Hero spikes, it's interesting the effect that each have. Because he then needs to knuckle-walk to avoid breaking his claws, he gains a neat sloth vibe, especially with the Atlantis claws (which can now be used in Silver ). I prefer him without it though, because I think it reduces the focus on his tusks. I also wonder if Barraki eyes could help his fingers, if they're ever released in silver.

Don't bother with the spoiler tags peeps; the first post lets people know whether they've read the latest story or not. I'm not entirely sure of the logic/morals behind the Gold Being's dream power either. Your plot hole aside, warping reality (and creating others) over a planet-wide distance seems like a ridiculously strong power, even if someone needs to imagine it first. The Legendary mask of Creation didn't do that presumably because it was too powerful of an ability. When Sahmad returns the dreaming power to the world, it seems as if he dreamed that no-one but him could dream, but he was feeling the effects of having no dreams himself... I'm really pleased that Greg uploaded this chapter to conclude the serial, however I wonder what made him decide to do so. Discussion of BIONICLE storyline has just about ground to a halt without BZP forums being up, and it's been such a long time since the previous update. The background noise to this chapter was quite different to chapter 6 (which I used to remind myself of the tale so far), so maybe he's just finished resettling into a new workspace?

So they are...I'm too old for instructions - Maybe it's my bias from the way I built it earlier, but it doesn't help show his jaw when his mouth is wide open. It does look better when his mouth is closed though.

Set name: Raw-Jaw Set Number: 2232 Price: $12.99USD , 12.99 Euro Pieces: 52 Year of release: 2011 Peeron Bricklink Brickset “Watch out heroes! Recon has picked up a huge beast header your way. With the agility and speed of a gorilla and armed with what look like elephant tusks, Raw-Jaw is going to take some stopping, did we mention the corrupted Quaza spike on his back!” The Box Front Raw-Jaw’s box is incredibly colourful compared to the previous waves of villain sets – a bright green rock/leather background now adorns all the summer box sets, on which Raw-Jaw’s red stands out well. Raw-Jaw is given a strategic position that imposes and increases his bulk, but his CG form can’t distract you for long from the beautiful artwork behind him. The background consists of a techno-textured tree branch, faded green vines, mist and three more Raw-Jaws reminiscent of Glatorian box arts. Aided by being the European box version, the box front is very clear and effective, with the bare minimum amount of text. The box has the same dimensions as previous smaller villains – I’m not sure what happened to the shift to smaller box sizes with the Fire villains, because it hasn’t been carried over to these sets. Back The back of the box features Raw-Jaw fighting Bulk 3.0, as part of a short comic explaining why all the Heroes are now animals. I think the comic format makes better use of space than the previous Fire villain boxes, although may seem unnecessary to people familiar with the concept of Hero Factory and confusing to people who aren’t. Regardless, the artwork is very well done, especially the shot of Quatros exploding in an exaggerated version of The Shattering. Oddly, the upgraded Hero is Furno 1.0, unlike other villain comics that show a 2.0 Hero being refitted. Side One side of the box has some more green textures, safe-guards to make the identity as a HERO FACTORY LEGO product always clear, and some fun translated names. My digital translating skills lead me to think that “Mandibula Feroz” relates to Iron Jaw in Italian, while “Troglobibulas” only lead me to “Tragedi Bulat” which I’m fairly sure is incorrect. The other side of the box has all the legal text, but because you all know how to say “Warning! Choking hazard. Small parts.” in 29 languages I thought that I needn’t take a photo of that side. Top The top of the box is quite empty aside from a 1:1 image of Raw-Jaw’s headpiece. The head is actually slightly larger than 1:1, but the perspective of placing the actual piece in front of the image will make it seem to be the right size. Anyway, enough drivel about the box! Let’s tear the thing open and see what’s inside! Contents What's inside The box is well packed with two bags of pieces, instructions and a couple of bigger pieces that didn’t fit in a bag. The instructions use the same image as the front of the box, although there is a cartoon Witch Doctor head that despite being a very nice graphic, isn’t consistent with the style of other box-art/graphics. Instructions Pictured here is a non-random instruction page, selected to show the addition of shell size clarification to building steps. There are no similar sized pieces that you can confuse the red 5 shell with. The background is a non-distracting green with a faint Hero Factory logo watermark. The part inventory is wider than other Hero/Villain inventories, however most pieces don’t come in quantities greater than 2 or 3. The back pages show heroes and villains from other boxes along with an ad for the Hero Factory “Movie” DVD. Also in the back pages there is an ad for the Hero Factory website, including the comic maker that probably would’ve only just been finished by the time these instructions went to print. There is also a teaser for the next installment of Creep Crushers, showing that once again the Heroes will have unique codes in their canisters for use online. Finally, there is a non-teaser ad for the Hero Recon Team program, which is now running steadily. There’s no indication of any updates to the program, but it’s probably far too early to hear about that. Pieces All the pieces have been spilt out of the bag, and you’ll immediately notice a few things about them. There are lots of red pieces (the most in a single set so far, if we don’t count Witch Doctor’s ball joints), and there aren’t many bones – how will Raw-Jaw be made? As you probably already know or can see from the box art, Raw-Jaw is going to be short. Despite that, there are still many nice pieces in this set. There are only a few recoloured pieces, which are the 2 Dark-Grey 5L Bones and Red Ben 10 feet. I can’t see it being the most useful recolour of this wave, but it feels good to have this piece in red…Perhaps it is because of how it fits in perfectly with the HF aesthetic, or maybe I’ve always wanted this piece to customize my Jet Ray figure. There aren’t any new/titan bones in the set, but there is a C-bone and three 3L bones to add to my slowly growing collection – soon I’ll have enough for Doc Oc tentacles! The red pieces that aren’t new in this set are easy to come by through Furno 2.0 and any Fire Villain, however the Gun-metal pieces are very nice to have multiples in a single set, each type previously available singularly with Nitroblast or Fire Lord. Exo-force arms have made a strong comeback in the 3.0 wave, featuring 8 Metallic-Silver arms for Raw-Jaw’s fingers. I always welcome these useful pieces, and hopefully their reintroduction to action figures may lead to new similar pieces with alternate connection points. Raw-Jaw has a grand total of 4 Technic pieces, showing how fast the 2.0 building system has become independent from BIONICLE/TECHNIC. Even the titan sets are losing their TECHNIC origins, but that’s a story for a different review… The above pieces are probably the main reason people will have their eyes on this set, either for MOCing or for the character – the new hand and shield shells, provided in duplicate. Despite their strange shapes, there are many connection points and lots of space underneath to allow the pieces to attach easily to skeletons – for instance, the hand shells fit on Hero shoulders. The new spike armour pieces are the jungle version of the Fire villain flame pieces. I love the prehistoric spine/plated shell appearance to them. Unless you fancy these in lime, Raw-Jaw is the best set to get these new spike pieces, with 3 included. The other new pieces for Raw-Jaw are an infected quaza-spike, tusks, his head and his printed armour. The spike piece is made out of blended red and black soft plastic, and the red is translucent to a slight degree, meaning that it glows with an evil menace when backlit! When using both connection rods the spike holds well and comes out a lot easier than the flame/spike pieces, but unfortunately this means it has trouble staying fixed using only one connection rod. Thankfully that’s not a problem in most uses, including its use in this set. Raw-Jaw’s tusks surprisingly only have one TECHNIC axle connector, using potential space for more connection points for what appear to be rocket-boosters or exhaust vents. The piece is also used as wings, mandibles and claws, but the single connection point makes this piece still feel very specialized. One of my favourite aspects about the HF this year are the printed armour shells, and Raw-Jaw’s is no exception. The printing in red, white and black has a very high quality and detail, showing a technological brain casing covered with a leathery hide on the edges. It’s nice to see that the detail continues even in the area that will be covered by the headpiece. Raw-Jaw’s headpiece returns to the tradition of unique headpieces, although now with a new double-pin connection point. The detail of the head is slightly simpler than other HF pieces, but it carries a lot of expression – that of an angry mechanical gorilla/elephant hybrid. The underside of the head shows the new style of connections for Villains and Heroes alike, although sadly none of the smaller villain heads fit onto Hero heads (I don’t know about Witch Doctor’s). As much as I’m saddened by the loss of BIONICLE-style helmets, the new solution fits the new system and works very well, as I’ll demonstrate in the next section… Build It doesn’t take long to put Raw-Jaw together, and the new system removes the need for any tricky TECHNIC arrangements – you simply snap together balls and sockets and watch him assemble before your eyes: Let's go! Almost there…Don’t worry Raw-Jaw, I’ve got your back! And he is complete! The build wasn’t long or challenging, but that’s no longer the intent of action figures. It was refreshing to build a less humanoid figure and neat to use the tail bone ball on the torso, which has only been used by Raw-Jaw and Waspix so far. Completed Set Firstly, Raw-Jaw is short, not even higher than a Hero’s shoulder. And he can’t really increase his height by standing on two feet because his head doesn’t articulate that far down. But he looks just as a gorilla-mammoth should do, and carries all the playability and poses of one. Despite the spike being positioned like an RC antenna, it flows well with the body and tusks so doesn’t seem too out of place and distracting. By the way, I have no thumbs. For most gorilla-fist-swatting poses, Raw-Jaw will need to keep one hand on the ground due to his centre-of-mass being quite far forward. However, his hollow hand/arm shells and counter-weight tail make it much easier to keep him balanced on three/two limbs. RAAAAAAW!!!TM One of the more puzzling elements of Raw-Jaw’s design for me is whether he actually has a lower jaw. The tusks swing open in a very impressive arc as he lets rip his name-saking raw, but he then looks as if his mouth is closed as before, with his tusks hanging down to the ground. It would have been nice if a new piece/size 3 armour has used to give him a bottom jaw, but it doesn’t take too long to add those pieces yourselves. Addition: The tusks are meant to be one axle back on the Hordika neck, so while he does have a lower jaw, it's very small and simplified compared to his upper jaw. In the first close-up above, you can see the effect of the head-piece and shell coupling – not only does the shell gives the socket for the head to articulate, but it also becomes the eyes of Raw-Jaw. Depending on the angle, Raw-Jaw’s eyes are either the silver of the shell or the empty space between the eye sockets and the silver “eyebrows”. With these new head-pieces the eye colour can be any colour that (any shape) armour pieces come in, although size 5 shells fit best and only printed shells will hide the plastic colour on the back of the head. Transparent green or orange shells don’t work well with Raw-Jaw’s head colour, but hopefully there will be more bright-trans-shells available in the future. Raw-Jaw charges forth with speed, power and an unyielding determination to rescue his stolen clover. The design of his back is very overshadowed by his front, which helps distract from the exposed socket and torso-armour that is unavoidable one brick too high from the body. The tail is limited in articulation if you don’t want the tail socket to lever the back bone ajar. Activate Rahkshi flight mode! Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 8/10 – There’s nothing horribly wrong about Raw-Jaw’s colour scheme, and it’s a big improvement over the fire villains that were a jumble of fire/metallic colours. It is strange that the fingers and back armour is silver instead of gun-metal, but otherwise all of Raw-Jaw’s colours fit well. However, the simple fact that Raw-Jaw is red and metallic after all three previous villains were red and metallic is disappointing, compared to BIONICLE canister sets that ranged across the spectrum and provided recolours more equally. (I’d also like to see Raw-Jaw in yellow! ) Parts - 8/10 – Raw-Jaw has the middle amount of pieces out of the three villains, and while 8 of them are tiny exo-force arms, there are also four large hand/shield shells. There are no Shadow Matoran clawed feet and very few pieces that aren’t recoloured/new to 2011, so none of Raw-Jaw’s pieces go to pieces that you don’t want. However, many of the red pieces in Raw-Jaw that aren’t new will be pieces that you don’t need if you bought some of the Fire Villains, mainly the red bones and starships/villain cores. Raw-Jaw comes with a wide range of 3.0 parts (spikes, spines, hands, shields, tusks & headpiece), which makes him one of the best sets for getting a taste of the new pieces, but the quantity and recolours of certain pieces in Waspix and Fangz would be more valuable to you collection if you’re buying multiple 3.0 sets rather than just one. Design - 9/10 – It’s been a long time since the villains in a LEGO action figure story were peaceful animals mind controlled by a jealous evil force, and I’m very glad and nostalgic to see it come back again! Although he’s small, Raw-Jaw captures the essence of a gorilla-mammoth perfectly using pieces that mostly weren’t designed exclusively for him. The lower back is rather under-built, but Raw-Jaw draws all the attention to his maw and paws and doesn’t disappoint there. There were even some challenging moments in the building process, such as making the jaw correctly. Articulation - 9/10 – Thanks mainly to his fingers, Raw-Jaw has a massive 26 points of articulation, that allow him to take up any pose that a gorilla should be able to made (even chest thumping!). The only issue is the tail that can slightly disconnect body pieces by articulating. Quality - 10/10 – I’m still immensely pleased that the sockets don’t break anymore, at least for Raw-Jaw. The printed armour is also done very well, with the red and black solidly masking the silver underneath. Overall - 44/50 – Raw-Jaw is a very nice set, and would make an excellent first 3.0 set to aquire. His stature and build does a great job at being powerful and gorilla-like, and the only thing that could detract from that is his size. However, many quadruped predators in real life such as lions, wolves, dwarf elephants or velociraptors are shorter than humans and that doesn’t make them any less intimidating in a one-on-one encounter. But that’s what we have Heroes for, right? High-Res Photo Gallery!

One of my dislikes about this set is that there aren't enough new orange armour pieces. The two orange hands are nice, but Nex 2.0 came with 5 size 3 orange shells, whereas Nex 3.0 comes with only 3, and consequently orange shells still only come in a single size as compared to all other colours (aside from Gold that was introduced with this wave).

It's upcoming very soon.

Wait until I post my review on Fangz! Or rather don't wait, because it's almost finished...soon. Fangz beats Waspix for printed parts, even though those are some very nice patterns that actually make sense for the animal they're on. As with Drilldozer of the previous wave, this is the set that I most look forward to getting multiples of. There aren't many exclusive parts to this set, but the few that are here (Trans-yellow armour and new bone piece in particular) are fantastic!

He could have simply wanted to destroy Quatros, because he's an evil skeleton robot. However, all the arc-villains so far have been acting bad because of a perceived wrong-doing against them or because they were driven crazy - none of them are evil for the sake of being evil or because they deeply enjoy it. This is probably to keep the Hero Factory story from being too dark, and so that the Heroes can save the day and the villains without killing/locking them away forever, although this unfortunately wasn't the case for Von Nebula (yet?). Most of the speculation about Rocka and Witch Doctor's characters were based on the sets themselves, so it's slightly disappointing that the actual characters are more stereotypical origins that don't relate to specific details about the sets. We might find out reasons along the line, but currently there's little explanation for Rocka having golden armour and being portrayed as the main Hero, while our speculated reason of Rocka being a veteran stationed on Quatros would have.

Please do make a review, although don't rush it. DV's correct that EB will be presenting reviews for some of the sets for July 1st as well. If you have Furno 2.0, then you'd only be missing the helmet and wing pieces. Please take the time to check your posts before you post them (there's no prize for posting half a minute faster), which makes it easier and more pleasant for everyone else to read. In my opinion none of the villains are put together in overly unusual ways - they're all mostly standard skeletons with armour on top, but that's what you should expect from a small villain set. Scorpio on the other-hand is very weirdly/interestingly put together, using bone pieces rather than Technic for almost all of its structures. But definitely go for Raw-Jaw - he's diminutive but has great pieces and play/pose-ability value.

My first impression (aided by "Mamut") was that Raw-Jaw was a mammoth, although he has gorilla qualities as well. There's still a lot of inspiration, but it's good to see sets that are supposed to be alien creatures not blatantly being based of a single Earth animal. It always slightly annoyed me that the Barraki and most Rahi were based of real animals. The 3.0 Heroes have an entire galaxy of fauna to choose from, but they take inspiration from Earth animals only. Fangz and Raw-Jaw are based off animals as well, only it isn't stated in their names. Fangz seems to be a wolf/jackal with "fang" tusks. Yes, but other villain patterns make sense as an animal texture/emblem, while Raw-Jaw has bubbles. I agree with Aanchir about them being scales, although I don't think Gorilla fur would be an appropriate texture either for the robotic creature.

I've just noticed that the Pharaohs Quest sets are listed on the Warehouse website. They're not available online, but they can supposedly be found in stores.

Even if Hero Factory is doing really well, it could still be temporarily replaced by a theme that's expected to do even better. Currently a Marvel license seems to be a possibility that would certainly outdo Hero Factory, although I think Summer 2012 would be the earliest date possible for such sets. Sadly no, there hasn't been. I'd love to see a yellow Raw-Jaw though. I think the lack of special edition sets may be linked to the HF system being very new - there isn't a wide enough range of old pieces to make a special edition set (which have very few new pieces) that is a decent model and is still worth buying compared to normal sets with so many new pieces.

Calm down - if Hero Factory does end after this year there will be another action figure theme to replace it, using mostly the same pieces. The Hero Factory building system is specifically designed to be non-specific to Hero Factory, so that it doesn't need to be shelved when Hero Factory is shelved. How does a 2011 dealer book contain information about 2012 releases? There are only two HF waves per year, so I wouldn't expect there to be more Hero Factory sets being released this year. On the subject of this upcoming summer wave, I'm not sure what to think of Raw-Jaw yet. I expected him to be very small compared to Heroes, but he doesn't have nearly as many pieces as the other villains either, so I'm most interested to know how big the hand/arm pieces to see if he is worth his price or not. The gunmetal shoulder shells are a big advantage as well though, because only one is currently only available from the Fire Lord set.

Which new piece is that? I could see that the construction of Rocka's arm was better than Fire Lord's, but I couldn't tell exactly how it was built. I'm very pleased that there are white tubes - the boxart played with my heart by removing them, but I'm glad they're there in the final set! (Although it looks like there is only one.)

The kid is from Germany, so it looks like the early release date for Germany (and Switzerland) is official.