Aethersprite

While all this is incredibly exciting news - Bionicle was my childhood, and I'm sure it was an integral part in many of ours' - I'd hate to be pumped up now and disappointed later if this rumour turns out to be false, so I'm going to take this with a pinch of salt. Still, I'm quite happy to read about this rumour! I'm sure we'll know more in a few months, when pictures of the 2015 Lego catalogue starts to leak.

Very nice! I love how you've captured the distinctive features of a Gundam perfectly - the V-fin, red chin, protruding cheek sections of the helmet, chest vents, beam sabers mounted on the backpack, and the beam rifle! And of course not forgetting the protruding crotch seen on some mobile suits!

I built Fluminox and made a few minor modifications to his bow. Firstly, I'm an archer myself, and the way he holds his bow is extremely awkward and so wrong, I just had to change it. A bow should be held by its riser (its middle section). Secondly, because of the way it's built, posing it is very rigid and difficult, so I replaced the axles with pins. Just thought I'd share it: Pardon the bad photos, I'm not very good at taking them and these were taken with a phone camera.

Thanks so much for the reviews as usual, VBBN! Unfortunately, after getting a close up view of the sets... I have to say that none of them really stand out for me. I'm not much of a MOCist so the new parts don't really appeal to me, plus most of the builds look quite boring and lacking. The only one that looks good to me is the Queen Beast, but I'm not a huge fan of her colour scheme. Looks like the only HF set I'll own from this year is FJM, but on the bright side, I guess that leaves me with more funds for the Chima Ultrabuilds and other System themes.

Point taken - for me, when it comes to sets with only a single claw hand such as Rocka XL, Pyrox, Frost Beast and even Sir Fangar - it comes across to me as a little 'stingy' or 'lazy' on Lego's part. But when I look at Panthar, I don't get that impression at all. The asymmetry of his arms comes across as absolutely intentional and obvious, and is an integral part of his character design. Unlike the above mentioned sets, which didn't give off that vibe, and could've easily incorporated 2 claw hands. I understand that those sets might've forgone one of the claw hands because they were wielding weapons, but Lego could've made the extra effort like they did with Laval and Worriz rather than take the easy way out and just go with a regular hand piece. Regardless, I hope you enjoy your set as much as some of us did! I'm not much of a MOCist myself so I didn't really consider your point about the odd number of parts, which is a valid concern. But like I said, this isn't due to Lego's unwillingness to go all the way with the symmetry, but is a genuine part of the figure's design.

Congratz! As I mentioned before, I love how complete it looks. I can't stop fiddling around with it and putting it in different poses, the opening jaw and articulated fingers and toes go a long way to make this character so expressive. He's easily one of my favorite constraction sets in recent memory!

I think a new TIE advanced is due as well!

Just got myself Panthar yesterday, and he's great! I really appreciate how complete and cohesive he looks! Looking forward to get the rest.

I agree. The addition of the tongue really adds a lot of character to the head piece. Nice work!

And the Chima constraction sets have just hit Singapore shores! Thankfully, the prices are lower than I expected - SGD$26.90 (USD$21.45) for 'normal' sized sets and SGD$34.90 (USD$27.83) for the 'titan' sized sets. I'll probably get Panthar some time this week to satisfy my constraction craving, then wait for a sale to get Fluminox and Sir Fangar.

I saw that on MOCpages - looks good! Anyway, about the orange head - you're right, orange will clash with the trans-orange, but I just thought that with trans-orange being the more dominant colour over the azure, the orange head might be more fitting. Whatever floats your boat, though! Unfortunately I don't own any of the Beasts sets yet to try this out, none of them really appeal to me so far - but I will definitely try this one out once I get my hands on the pieces needed. I love the use of the printed size 4 black shells on the back of your original MOC/alternate build to give the illusion that they're smaller spikes to go with the larger ones, which really adds to the silhouette of the creature.

The only IFB set I've gotten so far is FJM - and it's such an excellent set. The others just don't seem to appeal to me as much. I love the whole mecha/Kaiju thing going on, it's just that the set designs aren't as outstanding to me as the previous waves were. I fully intend to purchase a Beast set sometime in the future, probably either Splitter or the small red one in the summer wave whose name just slipped my mind. Of course, I've yet to consider the mechas of the summer wave, which I'll do so once we get to see the sets in greater detail when reviews start popping up. HF isn't quite doing it for me this year, which is kind of a good thing since much of my constraction budget is going to the Chima sets.

Nice, thanks! I'll see if I can squeeze out some spare cash out of my budget to get this guy. I think he'll look better with the orange head, though. Great work!

Incredible! I'm actually tempted to buy Splitter Beast just to try this build! Do you have better pics of the back assembly?

I see, good to know, thanks. I've yet to catch season 2 of the show, hopefully he does show up soon. I have to agree with VBBN and DV here - Panthar has easily grown to be my favourite of the new Chima sets. The more I look at the pictures in this review, the more I want him! I, too, really like the idea of a rogue, 'independent' character.

Just curious - does Panthar have a minifig counterpart in the sets, or one in the show?

Agreed - while 2014 Cragger pulls off the armoured look very well, I vastly prefer the slinky, sly and more crocodile look of 2013 Cragger. I also prefer the staff 2013 Cragger had, though 2014 Cragger's axe looks pretty good as well, and is easily the best use of the new blade piece out of the 2014 sets, in my opinion.

Over here, prices nationwide are the same, regardless of store. Probably part of the local Lego branch's price-setting policy. So unless there's a sale, which is incredibly rare over here, you're more than likely to fork out the full retail price. Just to give you a rough idea, last year's normal-sized Chima figures cost SGD$27.90, which roughly equates to USD$22.20 each. I'm predicting Fluminox and Sir Fangar to cost around SGD$39.90, which equates to USD$31.80. Malaysia follows Singapore's pricing rather closely. It's steep, but many of us here have gotten used to it.

Fluminox looks good, I love how cohesive his armour looks. Though I can understand what you mean when you say his articulation suffers. Also, definitely modding his wings to give them articulation, like Vardy's.

Thanks for the reviews VBBN! Very much appreciated. You've pretty much single-handedly sold me on Panthar, I was already planning to pass on him until I read your review! Anyway, legozebra, these new sets should be hitting Singapore/Malaysia next month, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to find them when you're there. But do take note that Lego sets here suffer quite the price markup, you'll probably be paying 40-50% above the price they're being sold for in the US, but I guess that's better than not having the sets at all.

He looks better in this review than he did in previous pics we've seen of him - but still pretty lackluster overall. He would look so much better with a few extra shells to cover up some of his bare limbs.

I feel this figure is the dark horse of the wave - from the pics we've seen so far, I didn't expect to like him much - but after reading your review, I'm pretty much sold on him! I was convinced that the only 2 I would get were Fluminox and Sir Fangar, but now I think I'll pick this guy up as well.

How's the interior space of the Ghost? From what we've seen so far it doesn't seem to have much of an interior, which is a letdown for a ship of its size.

Wow, the summer sets are out in Europe already? Those prices look quite painful! I'm surprised we haven't seen video reviews of them on Youtube yet, given how competitive those reviewers can be...

Bought myself a 75021 Republic Gunship a few days back - my biggest Lego purchase ever! And I don't regret it one bit. I enjoyed the build thoroughly and it looks amazing as a model! Now to find a place to display it, heh. Happy Star Wars Day everybody! May the Fourth be with you all!