Shakar

I know that's the reason, but since I don't follow the story I was looking at him from a purely aesthetic perspective. I thought the gold looked tacky, but that goes for the preliminary version- now I think the printing is gorgeous.The only thing I would change about the minifig would probably be his helmet, or at least make it gold since he's essentially a being of black energy wearing gold armour. Colour coding matters.

Wow, the Overlord looks FANTASTIC. Now that's how a top bad guy should look. I used to dislike the gold but it does blend with black, purple and red really well and the printing on him is gorgeous. Even though I won't buy the sets I just have to get my hands on this guy, like when I bought myself a few Stone Army minifigs (which are absoloutely beautiful, BTW). Nya's new printing looks great too. If I'm not mistaken, she's not using her old mouth piece, but the new one the Stone Army figures used without the teeth printing. It's nice to see a previously printed piece without printing, though I prefer the smaller, more subdued piece (though samurai helmets and masks were often meant to look big and scary).

Znap! That's what I was talking about. Galidor came out in 2002. Anyway, thanks! As for the packaging, we got clear shots of the bags in one of the pics Aanchir posted a few pages ago. Still, it's nice to see that Fangar and Fluminox are confirmed for costing 20 Euro.

Speaking of which, there was a, very very weird line of buildable creatures back in the 90s, which used their very own building stystem. I saw the sets in a German catalogue during a trip with my family: IIRC I read the sets were exclusive to Germany, what I'm sure of is that they never reached Italy. Anyone remembers their name?

Now that I own all 5 mini Heroes released so far, I can properly form my opinion on this. This is probably the closest to what I think. I absolutely love the mini-Heroes (way better than the Bionicle minifigs IMO!) and I think Lego had a genius idea when they decided to mix constraction with minifig scale. The minifigs themselves look great and are a lot of fun to mess with. But I love when new Hero sets come out because I like updating my Heroes' gear, and the Machines, while cool sets, provide little new stuff to equip my Heroes with (except the gorgeous printed shells!). So, I'd like if there was a way to return to full size Hero sets while keeping the minifigs. The only way I can think of is flipping the scale: full size Heroes fighting mini robots inside evil mechas. That could be cool and might provide for some really cool parts, especially since the cockpit and minifig parts wouldn't be new anymore.

Ah, thanks a lot! Now I know Il'll buy some of these to tweak the coccons (I'm mostly interested in them as figure parts, though). Sometimes designers come up with some truly weird colour choices, though I'm sure that doesn't depend on them only.

Too bad we haven't got a clear shot of the Overlord's face yet. BZP probably got the closest one. From what I can see, it kinda reminds me of Killer Croc's face (with different colours and a much more demonic appearance), which I guess it's fitting given that his true form is a dragon.

http://www.cooltoyreview.com/2014-Toy-Fair/Toy-Fair-2014-LEGO/image186.asp I can't believe they introduced the 3-way female connector in dark brown of all colours, and they're keeping it that way. Would it have hurt them to make it black to begin with?!

BZP's Toy Fair NY on Chima (Ultrabuilds were missing, sadly) is up, and I just noticed the ice villain sets use normal tr. blue Zamors, instead of the blue/white mix spheres featured at Nuremberg. Looks like the Nuremberg sets are final, while the NY sets are preliminary versions. Now I'm even more sure the Nuremberg lime cocoons are the final ones (they're much closer to the box art, too).

I think the issue is about shade not opaqueness. At Nuremberg, the coccons were closer to lime, at NY the shade had a lot more blue in it, sorta like azure. I personally prefer the former, there's no point in another bluish tint.

Those feet are absolute genius. I have to use them someday.. The rest of the MOC looks really good too. The only thing I don't like is how the Jumpers have nothing to do with the flow of the mech. Then again, you were experimenting.

I would wait for better pictures, these are pretty terrible. You can't tell Surge's and Bulk's eyes colours or other details.. I wanted to take a close look at the Overlord's face, but it's an incomprehensible purple and black mess. Then there's the terrible posing as usual, including stuff like Bulk taking a nap in the Crystal Beast set and the Queen having her chest armour attached upside down (it's like, the third time they make the same mistake with that piece). The green cocoon pieces look a lot more drab for some reason, though that might be the picture quality at fault. EDIT: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23BZPToyFair&f=realtime BZP's been tweeting some preview pics. At least Bulk's standing in their CB set photo.

Another Evo, REALLY? Breez was a good idea since she appears in only two main sets, but a fifth Evo is ridiculous. It should have been Surge or Bulk, they're the only Heroes who appear in two sets each.

Yeah, those ones. I really don't follow SW at all so I assumed them to be new. I had a gut feeling they showed up somewhere else before but I had no clue where to search (that, and I was on my phone).Well, first off they finally did it, they finally managed to make minifig sized launchers. Second, I see they use the good old round 1x1 as ammo, that makes them pretty customizeable (you can give each Hero the ammo colour you want, as if they were mini-Zamors).

I guess the Chima armour does match the crown and the staff (I knew there was a gold piece here, I just couldn't tell which it was). Surge's helmet looks kinda bland, I agree. Bulk's looks very true to the character however. And, anyone noticed Tunneler Beast's eyes are white and pupiless? My guess is that he's blind, like some IRL animals living in caves.

I can't believe they managed to get Surge's and Bulk's eye colours wrong, they basically swapped them. I can't tell whether Bulk's head is printed or not. But the sets do look pretty great. Flea Machine has a silver shell on its body so there might be a printed shell on the other side afterall. Speaking of printed shells, Crawler has the print design from Stealth M. on a gold shell. I -think- there's a new minifig gun too.

I don't know, I hear a lot more complaints than praises about these sets, except the recolours (which everyone loves). I'm among the disappointed ones: whilst the 2013 figures stood as something new among the mostly uninspired Brain Attack sets, these bring little to nothing original to the table. HF wins this year, no doubt.

Yeah, I agree with this. I'm surprised no one mentioned the Summer Beast's hands before you TBH. While I appreciate the effort, those hands still feel very odd to me. I tried making a pair for Flyer Beast, overall size is ok but the pieces used are too bulky, and three fingers just look incomplete for a full sized figure. I think it's clear by now that we need a specific hand piece with clips for fingers to attach. Just like the Shadow Matoran feet which are smaller versions of the Piraka feet, and this year's Beasts' feet which come in two sizes: they should make smaller, simplified versions of the Savage Planet paws, either as full pieces with an axle in the middle for the hand to hold things, or as add-ons for the existing ball sockets (something that wraps around the socket, leaving the middle axle hole free). Hands on constraction figures has always been a touchy (sorry) subject, I guess. I came up with a four fingered design myself, which looks decent I guess but is flimsy. The only solution is Lego coming up with a specific, one piece, sturdy and functional design. Now that we have the perfect finger piece (the EF robot arms),I think the time for real hands has come.

I would say the only new thing (to me, at least) is that Crystal Beast's torso isn't printed, he just reuses Queen Beast's chest armour. Whilst I was looking forward to that part,that chest does make him look more imposing, not to mention it's a cheaper way to get it. And, forgot to say, I'm pretty sure that in the movie Flea Machine had a printed shell on its body, but I don't see it anywhere here.. I hope it didn't get cut for the final set, that would make Breez the only Hero without her personalized shell.

Its finally been confirmed, Panthar's right arm uses a tr. reddish orange forearm bone.. oddly enough, it's the only set where this specific recolour is found. I'm glad we're getting it nonetheless. And you might want to post the HF pic in the 2014 thread. It shows the sets from better angles. Crystal Beast looks AMAZING!

Yeah, I'm very fond of the azure+lime combo and the fur part (more on that piece in my reply to Leewan below).As I said, Jaw Beast's purple head is just a place holder. As soon as I get Splitter Beast (which should be happen within two weeks), I'm going to use the smaller half's azure head on Senator Beast. I would've loved to use a lime one of course, but sadly no lime Beast exists, soo.. A mini-Queen, that's precisely what I wanted to build!I'm afraid I disagree on the fur add-on. I personally really don't see it as fur anyway, more like a bunch of spikes, which means, IMO, it fits the Beasts' spiky motifs perfectly. I used them on Flyer Beast's shoulders and i think they work very well. I tried replacing the piece with the Savage Planet add-on you suggested, but her abdoment oses a lot of bulk this way. So this is one thing I won't change. As for the spikes, I just realized I posed them wrong (they were in "high collar mode", when I started taking pictures). They're supposed to be flipped horizontally, like shoulder armour. I guess that still makes them look hard to see, but I never intended them to be particularly visible, just a subtle detail. I might add a short bone before each spike, we'll see. I'll talk on the printed shell in the reply to Draiknova, since he addresses that issue too. You're right, but my canon paints the Beasts as a much more organized and complex militaristic society, so the presence of a ruling class is sort of needed.As for the printed shell, my initial plan was to use the Splitter Beast shell but, as you said, too much orange, while Flyer Beast's is too yellow. Jaw Beast's seems the most neutral at this point so I might have to use it. Sadly there are no new 4M shells (the biggest ones one can use on a XT4 torso) with printing in Summer: Tunneler Beast, my best bet (since he has some lime accents), doesn't seem to feature a printed shell at all.

That's indeed what I'm hoping for: of course they won't make new molds for polybags but they might use recolours. It helps that, at this smaller scale, the helmets look more generic. If I had to choose which helmets should be used, I'd give Nex Breez's helmet and Stringer Stormer's or Surge's. They did the same thing with the 2007 Bionicle minifigs (I just checked them on BL, boy what a mess they did with Nuparu and Takadox..).And, something, I fully realize that, completely crazy I thought of a while ago..how likely would it be for Nex and Stringer to be included in October's CMF Series 12? Would that be impossible since the CMFs are made in China (some issue with molds? I don't know)?

Cute! Finally the CCBS is being properly used for polybags, unlike in the past ones, which were just a bunch of weapons or a one piece gimmick (like the black Brain). I guess this might definitely crush the last hopes we had for a Nex or Stringer minifig..though the fact this one got revealed so early might mean we're getting another polybag later in the year.

Thanks! I'm giving her Splitter Beast's azure head once I get the set. Still not sure on which printed shell I should use though. And yes, I'm reworking the Beasts into a precise social hierarchy. Each Beast set represents a different class, but I'll post detailed info on that once I complete my Winter wave Beasts collection. EDIT: Purpl'd.

Actually, I realized my MOC (which I just posted) might be not so small compared to the Queen. Mine uses two XT4 torsos as well (connected by Stormer XL double C bones instead). My MOC's size is fine (as big as a mid size figure), but it's the Queen who looks small now..