Shakar

There's one thing I can admit though. The Uniters might be not perfect in my eyes, but at least none of them (with the possible exception of Tahu and Lewa, depending on his height) feels like a downgrade from the Masters. This is something I sometimes felt with G1 and HF, some examples being Hewkii and Kongu (Inika -> Mahri), Breez and Bulk (Breakout -> Brain Attack). These are different, but no less powerful than their previous forms.

Not sure why you think he's going to be short. 2015 Ekimu is just as tall as the Protectors, I imagine they want to make him look rather powerful and regal given his plot status. I think he's going to be fairly tall, at least as tall as Gali, just stockier.

I wonder if EtMM (Ekimu the Mask Maker) can be combined with the Creatures, too? Though that would require a remoulding of the MoCr. I imagine he's going to follow the Uniters' design, with his own torso print, or maybe he does something closer to Umarak's design.

Yep, guess I'll do the same thing. I found some sellers in Europe selling it at a fair price (basically, what I ended up paying to get the Hero Pack).

I agree, there's no dark tan aside from Umarak's horns. Shame, I would've liked to see it on the Stone sets. I used 4 dark tan shells from Vardy on Pohatu, and he looks great with them.

I don't see any dark tan, much as I'd love to.

They should have though, Lewa's lower legs look dangerously short for a tall and slender bodied character like him. Lewi's solution looks better and feels less awkward and more flexible.

>Implying other Star Wars sets aren't "money grab"

I was thinking this before- it happened with a lot of good guys, but I think this is the first time a villain gets two distinct sets in the same year, so I'm not counting combiners (like Makuta as Dume/Ultimate Dume and Fenrakk/Kardas). And, probably old, but I just realized something. I think the real reason the Toa have, ahem, butt gears isn't to allow a Rahkshi-like function, but to free space on the back so the Unity (Toa+Creature) feature can occur. I bet there's still an arm swinging feature there, at the very least on Kopaka, it's just triggered from the lower back instead of the upper section like we're used to. There's got to be some neat engineering work hiding under those big mono-piece torso shells. Were my theory to be correct, and considering his mask top has the same shape of those of the Toa masks, maybe Umarak is designed to unlock the Unity feature like the Toa, and maybe his box art does advertise it, only difference being that he doesn't have his own Creature. But Umarak the Destroyer might be big enough to combine with the Beasts. Considering Grievous is big enough for Skull Slicer to ride on his back, it's not that farfetched.

@Draik Nova Reminds me of R+S Battle Machine from Invasion from Below Wave 2. Actually a pretty cool idea. The sets would need to sport a fairly consistent colour scheme among each other for it to work, I'm thinking black+additional colour like the 2008 Makuta. Tr. bright green for Umarak, tr. reddish orange for Lava Beast, and I don't know about the other 2. Hit Add Reply by accident.

The two are on par in my eyes, but I'm such a purple junkie so I prefer Terak.

So, my take on all sets now that I have some more time: Creatures Akida: can't see much, looks pretty good. 6. Ketar: not bad, but I don't care for brown much. 6. Uxar: one of my favs, good colours and good design. 8. Terak: Nice, but will be mostly a parts pack for me. 7. Ikir: another favourite of mine, I just love birds and I've been wanting a CCBS bird for years. 8. Melum: well it's a Terak palette swap. Not much else to say. 6. Recolours tally: blue Mistika wings/fins, tr. bright green 4M free ball joint bones (I'm sure there's a better way to call them, but eh), *deep breath* tr. purple 4M free ball joint bones, small Chima claws and glorious 4M shells, tr. reddish orange 4M free ball joint bones. Toa: Gali: I like the idea of blue/orange. Looks pretty good, but lacks the solemn look of 2015 Gali. The mask is pretty good, but even more distant from the 01 Kaukau than the 2015 Mask of Water was. I do like the use of tr. dark blue, but I can't tell if she has azure at all. 7. Pohatu: ok, who thought it was a good idea to use TWO browns in the same set? Dark tan would've looked a lot better, and works with bright orange really well. Colour distribution is also all over the place. I like the mask, maybe more so than the 2015 version. But there are too manyproblems for me to care about him. Most likely a pass. 6. Lewa: Good overall, but I don't care for the custom lower legs everyone seems to love. They look awkward, short and really not needed.The return of lime is good, weapons are meh like on most Toa, mask is pretty good. 8. Onua: One of the best ones. Lots of tr. purple, cool torso, good mask, imposing build and AWESOME weapon, the best one of 6 (though it isn't saying much...). 9. Tahu: Pretty weak. The Technic weaapon contraption doesn't appeal to me and overall he feels much less powerful than 2015 Tahu did. Mask is pretty good, clearly a Nuva reference. Too much gold, and not distributed well. 6. Kopaka: Another good one. I'm still unsure about the torso on these, but he's one of the best looking ones overall. The gold however, unlike on 2015 Kopaka, feels very random. Finally a Akaku with a stud connection- customizeable lens colours for the win! 8. Recolours tally: tr. dark blue 4M shells, orange Skrall shell, dark azure 3M shell (?), tr. bright green Bohrok eye, silver Skrall shell, *another deep breath" tr. purple 5M free ball joint bones and studs plus the stuff that's already on Terak, gold Skull Army armour add-on, tr light blue 6M free ball joint bones (?). Umarak: awesome, just awesome. The upper body is nearly perfect. I still don't like the lower legs. But the overall look, wow. By far on the most threatening constraction figures to date. 9. Recolours tally: dark red fins/curved spikes, dark tan viking horns, Chima small spider legs/horns and Chima large spider legs/horns. Pass: Akida, Ketar, Pohatu Maybe: Gali, Lewa, Tahu Definite buys: Uxar, Terak, Ikir, Kopaka+Melum (on discount), Onua, Umarak.

Am I the only one who doesn't want CGI? Man, 3/4 of cartoons I see on TV are CGI these days. I used to think it was cool when I was 6 or so and I watched Beast Wars (which got butchered into Biocombat here, but that's besides the point) but it doesn't inspire anything to me now. Most of it just seems lazy and lifeless to me. I just want them to keep the MNOG-esque style of the 2015 web episodes, I love it. The problem of those episodes wasn't the art style, it was the length and voice actors, or rather the lack of both.

Still, even if there's a trap in there, I agree the Kopaka set is disappointing from an exclusivity standpoint. Only way that would've made it worthwile if the price was lower (like 25 Euro or something), but it's the exact price of the separate figures together. They could've tried something like Kopaka being a mid size Toa like the other 3 and Melum being larger than the other Creatures. I guess they had to limit the number of sets (13 to 12? Why? Dunno), or maybe there's some profit based strategy they want to try out.

If I had to keep the Narrator for one single chracter, it'd be Kulta. He made him sound really menacing.

..do we have it? The first G2 Youtube Poop? Feels good.

Indeed the Creatures are meant to be cute. I for one I'm happy since most of the Rahi in G1 were big and scary, creatures like the Fikou and the Master Builder models being among the rare exceptions. Not sure what your point #5 means though. Someone on 4chan pointed attention to this. It certainly looks like a very early draft of these sets. I can see why that Elemental Being got scrapped- way, way too evil looking. I wondr if the design got reused for a Beast (Lava Beast?) ?

Only Kopaka+Melum is 30, Umarak should be 20.

True, Umarak does really give a zombie feel, even more than the Skeletons do in certain aspects. It's probably due to his colours, I don't know why. He looks like something out of Resident Evil.

Protector Makuta seems hard to fit in the list we got, since none of them sems to be a 2 in 1 set. Only way I can think we can get him is if they follow Ninjago's plot by having Makuta (Garmadon) redeem himself and have the Mask of Ultimate Power (the Overlord) emerge as the final antagonist. Terak and Onua seem to have new trans purple parts (4M shells, 3M and 4M open balljoint bones), so building Makuta might not be impossible anymore. He just wouldn't be an exact copy of Ekimu.

I might write something longer if I find the time but for now I'll sum it up: I'm mixed. I like the creatures a lot more than I thought I would. While the heads are quite same-y, the designs make up for it. My favourite is either Ikir or Uxar. The Toa are a mixed bag. I'm worried at the sudden increase of Technic- feels like "complexity for the sake of complexity", as Aanchir put it. I don't see the need for things like Lewa's lower legs to be like they are, it's not they add much in the way of building experience or aesthetics anyway. I'm also worried about the torso construction. And in general, about where CCBS is heading. Technic with a purpose (functions, larger body parts for figures like Darth Vader) is good, Technic shoehorned in to give the illusion of complexity is just bad. The torsos have great prints, but them being one piece is a huge blow to MOCing. The masks look good, but I'm not fond of the feathery designs on top. I'm ok with the weapons, we already have tons of old molds to choose from anyway. All colour schemes are good, except Pohatu's. Two browns together look like the work of someone who ran out of pieces, and the random green lower arms pretty much give the same effect. Umarak is fantastic, save from his lower legs. Again, complexity for the sake of complexity that ends up looking ugly. The new pieces are pretty good, some decent recolours too, and the Mask of Control looks awesome. I hate editing, but the keyboard keeps pulling pranks on me.

Wow the Jungle Creature looks awesome. Imagine Lewa with those wings! And if they have those small bead-like eyes they're going to look really cute. I'm actually getting more interested in these than the Protectors.

It's at least two, Lewa's/Gali's blade and Tahu's/Kopaka's flame sword ("What are you, a Master of Blue Fire?"). Onua's hammer is cut out from the image and Pohatu's weapon piece is nearly impossible to recognize (at least to me lol). If Onua has a new hammer piece, I bet Ekimu the Mask Maker is going to reuse it, especially since it seems to allow for a stud shooter to be built in.

G2 Ahkmou confirmed.But seriously, that's a legitimate question. It took all 6 elements to awaken Ekimu, but Makuta? Since the MoUP is made out of all 6 elements, maybe there was some of its energy that got into Makuta and managed to reawaken him almost immediately. That would explain how Pohatu is imagining him in his corrupted Titan form, maybe he's somehow seen him before, unless that was just a representation for the viewers. But is he hiding now? Is he having his servants do the dirty work because he's weakened (because of Ekimu's blow? Because he's mask-less? You'd think a Mask Maker would be able to craft a simple temporary mask for himself)? Or is he just being your average lazy "I'll stay here on my throne" Big Bad? Or it might be that the blow had different effects on each brother- Ekimu, the hitter, was knocked into a coma, while Makuta, who was the one who got hit, had his spirit removed from his (probably lost or destroyed) physical body. Body-less spirits IIRC died after a while in G1, but that might not apply 1) for G2 in general or 2) for the Mask Makers, who (going by Ekimu) seem to be even above the average Toa's power level.

Took a look at Onua again, man that's just so much purple and gold. I mean, mod him a bit, have him wear the MoCo and you pretty much get a Toa-sized Makuta. Don't get me wrong, he looks like a very solid figure. I'm probably going to use the new Toa as a basis for a different team anyway so I'm actually happy they aren't carbon copies of the 2015 Toa. I didn't think about it much but looks like you're right- the add-on is smaller and more curved than the Skull armour add-on.Are you sure? Now that I look at it better, I'm not even sure if Tahu has them. They look a bit different than the Skull Guys' add-on, especially at the top. I don't hate it but I'm hot for it like many seems to be either. It's..ok I guess. I don't mind seeing some G1 pieces return, though that happened with HF as well. Welcome to the Lego fandom. You'd think that, since 2015 is probably blue to match the owner of the MoCr (Ekimu), 2016 should be purple like Makuta. But green it is, I guess. I bet 2017 is going to be red.The new masks are an odd bunch. Some look like their G1 Kanohi Nuva counterparts (Tahu's, Kopaka's), Pohatu's is fairly close to his 2015 mask, while the others look unlike anything the G1 Mata/Nuva team members wore. Overall though, if we really have to make a Nuva comparison, these new masks are much better looking, keeping a clean 2001-like design line and... being.. not huge and deformed in general.