ch_ris127

The main reason I got the Chima sets are for the minifigures, and I suppose a lot of people do this too. The fact that they're releasing a bunch of battle packs and multiple Speedorz sets greatly reduces the need to actually buy the larger sets, except for exclusive minifigs though. I think that this won't help the Chima sales at all if people find it easier to get the minifigs in cheaper packs like the Speedorz and battle packs...and those who actually collect sets will end up with a lot of doubles. If only TLC would just release 'soldier' members of the tribes instead of the main characters for the battle packs or some sets, there would at least be variety in the minifigures... Wow, those are some hi-res pictures! Thanks for showing them! I'm planning on getting this Combat Lair, but for the love of life, judging from the images, they. Have. Tons. Of. STICKERS. I guess it comes with the territory :(

Maybe it's a...magic well? Hahaha. Either ways, the roof looks amazing :)

Awesome depiction of the event! There's a lot going on in the crowd, and I really love the stake area, the scribes and the drum player. It really adds to the atmosphere. Good luck in the contest!

Thanks to all the replies! It's been a while, but I'll surely continue this story. And lightningtiger, this won't be the last of Johnny's hat! I can see it being a running gag...thanks for the inspiration! Whoops, I guess Johnny's pants and the pilot's jacket are really famous huh? It seems like the rookie's gonna have a change of clothes soon Nice minifigure, by the way (the eye patch gives that badass look :p)!

It surely looks intimidating! This is great! We certainly need more raven builds, as there's so little of them...

Hahaha, this is hilarious. Billy's expression is especially fitting for this scene. I wonder if the tall grass prevented him from seeing who he really is planning to rob...either ways, it'd be great to see the next tip! Will you be continuing the tips with Billy or different characters?

Thanks! I might just will; story telling with LEGO's surprisingly fun :D Yup, I got that compass from the old Pirates set 6289 (Red Beard Runner). Gotta love the compass.

Well, this isn't really a vignette or build (it's not a build, really), just a small scene I set up to try out the new white-background 'studio' for photographing bricks. Anyways, I made a small story out of it with some humor in it. Enjoy! The Rookie's First Investigation "Hmmm...I better get this artifact figured out quickly before Johnny gets back," the rookie archaeologist muttered to herself, walking towards the cluttered table where the Egyptian artifact lied. Two torches lit the area for her to see clearly, and it gave that ancient feel to the room that would help her get in tune with the artifact itself. The rookie grabbed a magnifying glass and studied the object closely. "Interesting..." she said, staring at the artifact while her mind picked our relevant information from the depths of her knowledge, a librarian choosing books from a library. The longer she searched, the more confusing it gets. The smell of the old artifact, dust particles and flickering flames overwhelmed her senses. This was too much for her! The rooie held her head and headbanged the table in despair. "This is impossible!" she screamed. "Something seems to be missing, and I just can't tell what it is!" All of a sudden, she heard approaching footsteps and turned to see Johnny Thunder! He came in confident and cool like his usual self, with his iconic sideburns, adventure-worn clothes and...a new hat? The rookie didn't recall seeing him in a hat that looked...new. Either ways, he greeted her with a smile and handed out a new artifact. Her eyes wandered to the similar-looking artifact he had in his hand. Johnny had came back with a new clue to help her investigation. The rookie was delighted to see him, and couldn't wait to continue the investigation with a newfound energy now that a new clue is at hand. The two studied the artifacts closely, with Johnny on the other side of the table, in between the torches. "Uh, Mr. Thunder, aren't you a bit too close to the fire? You might get bur--" the rookie was cut off before she could finish. "Nonsense," Johnny thundered, "I need to be close to danger even when I'm standing still. That way we'll always be prepared. You see, 'Dangerous' is my middle name, from my mother's side." Johnny and the rookie discussed closely over the artifacts and coversed about pharaohs, tombs, skeletons and golden studs, linking clue after clue until..."I got it!" Johnny placed his hand on the two artifacts and declared out loud. "This, this is the answer to finding the treasure!" The flames flickered ever brighter between him, and his face formed a wide grin. "If we link both of these maps and consider the tombs we've investigated, it all becomes clear." Johnny traced his hand over the lines on the maps. "We need to follow this map and have both masks to reach the treasure. Kid, we've done it!" Both of them cheered upon the discovery of the answer. "I knew we needed the other artifact to find the answer!" the rookie said. After much joy, they contacted their teammates and discussed about extracting the treasure. It would be an all new adventure for the rookie, and just another day's work for Johnny Thunder; an exciting work filled with dangers and brick-monsters, of course. With the answers found, Johnny Thunder walked home to rest before the big search for the treasure. "Hmmm, that rookie could make a great assistant, or at least an archaeologist on her own," Johnny thought, when all of a sudden, a stranger stopped him in his tracks. "HEY!" the stranger, said. The stranger had quite the familiar face, like the one you'd see in movies. Johnny couldn't just stared at him dumbly. The man quickly snatched Johnny's hat and yelled, "Give me back my hat!" and walked away just like that. Johnny was left dumbfounded, wondering whether he made the right choice trading his old hat for the new one at a pawnshop in Cairo. A cold wind blew over Johnny's hatless head, and he really felt insecure without one. He kept figuring out what hat he would use for the treasure hunt. The end...?

You said it right. We'd probably get the sets in JANUARY 2014 if in Indonesia

Ahoy there! I'm very eager to join the Academy, and I want to help contribute reviews in this site (I just posted one just now). I got old sets, new ones and two unopened boxes ready to review.

So, here's my first review, I've wanted to do one for so long and I've finally got an unopened set for it! Well, let's get started. Title: Ice Tower Set Number : 70106 Ages : 6-12 Pieces : 101 Price : $14.99 The Packaging: The frontside of the box features a design that's mostly similar to other Speedorz sets, showcasing the un-built Speedor on the left corner, the cards and ripcord above it, along with the cardboard artwork covering the LEGO packages behind. It stands out pretty well on the shelves, nicely designed with the iconic Chima character close-up (in this case, Winzar) staring from the top right corner. Judging from the action-packed feel of this box, you can easily tell that this set is meant for kids and is more directed towards playing than building. The back of the box is also the same as the others, showing two kids playing the game and having fun with it. But none of the images matter anyways, considering that the box is going to be ripped apart to bring out the only thing that matters: THE LEGO SET. The Content: And here we are with the sealed packages of the set! We got two un-numbered packages, one instruction booklet, the Speedor, a red ripcord, and the cards sealed in plastic. It's all nicely packed and organized. The Cards: Let's start with the cards. First off, the art is gorgeous. I don't know about you, but the color contrasts are beautiful, especially the ones between the icy blues and fiery reds complementing each other well in those action-packed scenes. It's easily much better than Equila's cards in Target Practice (set 70101), which were more subtle with the colors and not as interesting. What once was considered as a forgettable gimmick, these Chima cards are actually quite collectible for those who like well-drawn art and cards! The Speedor: On with the Speedor itself now; here we see it as it is from the packaging. A Speedor is really too easy to build - it's simply made up of the armor and the wheel. The armor has a different design for each tribe, and even a different mold for some. Here it is constructed. 'Constructing' it is as simple as attaching two technic pegs to join the armor and the wheel. I'm really digging the metallic look of the wolves' Speedor, with its rugged design and patched-up decors. It's so much better up close than expected when you look at it on the box or pictures online. Every Speedor comes with its own equipment, be it boosters or weapons. Winzar's come equipped with two chainsaws attached to its side. You can see it in action in some of the cards' artworks. The weapons actually look pretty cool on the Speedor, and doesn't really hurdle the process of using it in the game. It can be detached from under the Speedor if not needed. The Minifigure: I think it's safe to say that this is what most of us would buy this set for - Winzar. The only other way to get him for now is to buy Wakz's Pack Patrol (set 70004), so this is really just a cheaper way to get Winzar's minifigure. And sure enough to say...he. Looks. AWESOME. Here is his front and back view in all his glory. His torso is the simplest design among all the other wolves, and it really lends to the savage look and feel of Winzar. He looks like he's ready to pounce at anyone anytime, and is unburdened by any armor that can slow it down. He's unafraid of getting hurt, and...he has a lot of chest hair, it seems. Here's Winzar without the mask. Both his faces look aggresively good; one of them in pain, and the other just plain angry. Winzar's a badass wolf, that's for sure, and he's currently my most favorite Chima minifigure, and might be for a long time. Here's his mask in detail. It's one of the best part of him. It's amazingly well designed with lots of detail. There's the bearded chin (beard on fur? huh...), the uneven fangs and the iconic blood-red scar. Pretty scary for kids, but well, kids aren't afraid of anything nowadays, aren't they? Anyways...I love how the Chima characters have detachable masks, a point agreed by a lot of people by now. It's totally reusable for other purposes in MOCs and of course, creating new characters. ...Herr Wolfen von Fang, anyone? The Weapons: Ice Tower comes with two weapons for Winzar - an axe and a fire staff/torch. Both of them are built from a combination of a short black rod and a black telescope piece, and both look really neat. The axe in particular has a nice bulky design, and can be placed upright on a base plate or brick. The torch itself is one of the best I've seen. Here's Winzar with the torch. Just look at that growl...the minifigure definitely takes the spotlight. ...Right then, let's move on before Winzar burns something or someone down, running around like that with fire. The Tower: The set comes with very nice transluscent pieces (shiny!), including 6 Chi pieces and frost-colored 1x1 slopes. There really isn't anything new or interesting piece in this set, but the colors of the bricks adds up very nicely, as you'll see later. The build is really simple and easy to do. You can finish building everything in under 10 minutes if you're fast. The base of the tower consists of four repeating blocks, as shown in the picture above. Be careful with the grass pieces though; they seem pretty easy to break off it bent too much, and they don't give you spares (which is sad, because leaf pieces tend to break easily). The Tower is comprised of three 'levels' that can 'break' when hit by the Speedor. Here's the first two levels. They more or less slide off each other when hit, thanks to the smooth tiles, but they don't come off that easy in practice. In fact, when you stack them up together, they form a pretty sturdy build and won't budge. The aforementioned frost 1x1 pieces fit very nicely with the tower. The colors look great. Here's the top of the tower. One complaint I have is that the ball feels like cheap plastic, or at least I felt so. It's lighter than it looks in pictures, and I expected it to be made by the same material as the bricks, or at least like the soccer balls in other sets. Anyways, it's just a play piece for the set, and can be removed anytime if you want. Here's the completed tower. Okay, I still don't like how the plastic ball looks with all the solid bricks. Aside from that though, the tower looks great with its complimentary green, white and blues. If you don't plan on playing with this set, the tower itself is a nice display piece, especially when you don't decided to break it off and use the parts for building other things. I tend to keep this on my office desk The game: Well, this set is meant for kids to play, and to say the least, the game works. Sure, I had a hard time breaking the tower in all three pieces, considering how sturdy it is, but I suspect I'm playing it wrong (everybody else seems to be doing it well enough). The Speedorz are really fast when used properly, and sometimes it's just fun seeing it zoom across the room or whatever surface it runs on. It's all a matter of how you let the Speedor go, and the distance you do it from the tower. Oh, and the surface is important. A smooth surface guarantees a fast and effective hit. I think I'm talking too much now about the Speedor that most of you won't even use. Erhm. The rules of the game are described in a comic-strip format in the booklet, and every Speedor set has a different one depending on the game. Here's a picture of it: Overall: Here's the finished product. Well, Ice Tower is a small set, but it does really well for one with its size. Winzar is an amazing minifigure, and that alone is worth the buy for the collectoers and those unwilling to get the bigger set. Not only are these Speedor sets useful for collecting the minifigures, they are actually decent builds themselves, containing mini-sets and accessories for the World of Chima, or simply additional parts for your MOCs. The cards are nice collectibles too. All in all, here's the breakdown: Price : 8/10 Say what you want about the $15 tag for what is a kids' set. The total of a tower, a Speedor, minifigure, accessories (6 Chi pieces!) and 5 cards (don't forget the cards), it's a good price, in my opinion. For Chima fans, it's more than worth the buy. Design : 8/10 The tower is a nice build in itself, displayable with a nice design. The Speedor looks great with Winzar, the cards look good, and everything looks great together. Minifigure(s) : 10/10 Hey, Winzar. What more can you ask? Overall : 8/10 Bottom line is, it's worth buying if you're into Chima and the minifigures. If you're looking to collect just one of the Speedorz sets, this is a good set to get. Some might not be interested in the cards, or just want to get the polybag for Winzar, but frankly, I think this is better than the polybag. You get the complete package with the Ice Tower, and if TLC keeps continuing these small sets, I don't mind getting some of them, cause they are good enough to get, and all the better for gifts for kids. ------------------------------------------------------------- Well, that's the end of my first review. Tell me what you think! Sorry if the pictures aren't that good. I didn't have the white-background 'studio' set when writing this, so I had to make do with a black cloth for the background. Oh, and lousy photoshop jobs in some of the pics. Cheers, ch_ris127

I've been following the hillarious posts in this thread for some time. Finally got to make something up too

With what TLC's been giving us in licensed fantasy themes and such, they clearly have proven that they're good at making fantasy sets...they just have to make a new theme. I agree with going beyond the Castle/LoTR themes; I don't mind them being continued, but it'd be great to have TLC's own epic fantasy theme. They might even make Heroica into sets...a very slim chance of that, but it'd be very interesting to see what they can come up with if they do that.

Yeah, I agree with you about the crocs looking too evil...but I suppose they threw away the prototype figures for better character and emotion on the minifigs' faces...maybe they should make one laidback crocodile character for a nicer less-evil looking minifigure... I can't wait to see Leatherhead's figure if they have one...Splinter looked great! But maybe Leatherhead would be a huge figure like Dog Pound though, considering his size... Again, I'm right there with you with sharp-toothed snout-bearing creatures :D They look so much cooler and stronger than tamer animals, which is why it's kind of annoying when they keep getting portrayed as the bad guys in stories...-.-

That would be very interesting to have Elephants as the bad guys cause I think the good guys seem to have more uniqueness in them. Just look at the vast species they have; gorillas, bears, eagles, and like you said, maybe even rhinos. The elephants would add a really cool look to the overall cast, and the minifigures would be very, very interesting :D Also, I wonder if they're going to release any Legend Beasts builds, or maybe in future sets? That'd be pretty cool too...

Wow....this is such a beautiful set! I love the columns, the tiles and color scheme; it really adds to the royal feel of the Throne Room. And the story is a really nice addition to the already amazing build - kinda makes it feel alive :D

Thanks for the awesome review! Now...time to go stock up on some gold bricks...LEGO is killing my pocket this year with the sets they're releasing...

Awesome! The set design looks amazing, and the characters just...fit. I guess this is what the LEGO TV series would look like if it weren't aimed at kids :D

I'm all for anthromorphs, so Chima's got me from the start. But really, the minifigures are amazing, the masks are great, and the printing detailed as ever. Of course, some won't like them as much, but most of the people I met loved them. As for the sets, it's mostly a hit and miss, some of them worth collecting, and some of them just 'meh'. The Speedorz are a nice way of getting all the minifigs, and they're actually quite fun to collect even if you don't play with them. Like a lot had said, I wish the first wave would introduce more structural sets instead of the onslaught of vehicles after vehicles. The new Crocodile Hideout looks sparse too. More foliage, ruins, temples and bases would be nice, although there's no problem in making those yourselves. Then again, it's just the first wave. And there's too much repeating minifigures. Some minions and soldiers would be nice, but I suppose they'll be hard to make, considering the amount of detail and design is put to the printing on them.

How about a theme set in the Stone Age? :D We can have cool mammoth and saber tooth builds (make it more complicated like the Vikings' dragons). I'd really love to see Jake Raines' sets continued, as he's really a good modern version of The Adventurers...Johnny Thunder himself had an Orient Expedition theme after his old adventures, it'd be great to see the Pharaoh's Quest team continue in another. The Indiana Jones sets were amazing, they should take inspiration from those.

CHICKENS! COWS! BARNYARD ANIMALS!!!....right. I don't think closely related animals will be used as new tribes (such as tigers, hyenas and hawks), considering the number of similarly designed tribes we have already. The fox and skunk look somewhat similar, except for their colors. Deers, Moose, horses and hoofed creatures seem nice, but I wonder how big their antlers would be :/ Elephants seem like a really good possibility of actually happening. How about <b>boars, buffaloes or hippos</b>?

Hello, everyone! I'm ch_ris127 from Indonesia. LEGO's been a longtime hobby of mine, and it also runs in the family. It's been a while since I've got back to building and collecting (it's an off-and-on relationship ), but now I'm back and active as ever. I'm currently starting on brickfilming with the first brickfilm almost done, and also collecting sets as usual, mostly the Chima sets (awesome minifigs) at the moment. I'm looking forward to making new friends here, and also planning to contribute some reviews in the near future. Cheers!