Shakar

Well, the combiner isn't what I was excepting (which was an humanoid), but I still think it looks good. It seems combiners this time are animal-like creatures, much like many Bionicle combiners, about 2005 onwards, were Rahi. I welcome this direction- it inspires us to sway from the humanoid structure amd think up new uses for the new building system. Oh boy, Front just gave Thornraxx and Splitface his stamp of approval. Now I'm even more anxious to see reviews of them..

Can you post an instruction shot of the Rocka-Black Phantoma combiner? I'm dying to see that (sorry Siegfried ).

I was baffled when I found out that even the taller Heroes used the old 2.0 body. I thought they would have included some sort of new, piece to keep the torso area in proportion with the longer legs. But at the end of the day, there's not a big difference between Surge/Evo and the taller trio- just longer pieces (which really doesn't increase the parts count)for the legs and some extra equipment (which increases the parts count by a bit). I really can't wait to see reviews of Breez (or Breeze? I saw people utilizing both with a quick Google search), Splitface and Thornraxx. There's so much stuff we still don't know about them, especially Thornraxx: how is it build? Is it black or Titanium Metallic?

Ditto about Rocka looking better in the dark, for some reason. Also, I kinda feel the same about Evo- once I get him I'm going to make him as tall as the three large Heroes (same thing I'm going to do with Surge) and I'm going to give him some lilac accents......buuuuut the official set looks like it could be used as a fine grunt for an army of good guys (or of bad guys, even). Regarding the shields, since they're made of two pieces I think that, with some creative and expert bulding, they can be be used for pretty much any sort of armour- shoulder armour, chest armour, etc.. Speaking of the shields, we know which colour Rocka's in, but I wonder about Breeze's. I'd love to see it in tr. red- it'd look s bit bland if it was solid red. Speaking of which, is that even bright red she has? It almost looks dark red to me. Spell checked- I need to be less impulsive when I post...

A short Rocka review (not mine, I wish).) To me he's beack to being awesome. I guess I needed a video to make that happen.

A..silver foot? Sometimes I fail to understand you, Lego. I admit some of Rocka's awesomeness aura disappeared after these pics, though I don't understand the origin of this feeling I have. In general, I really dislike the overusage of dark bley bones. Also, I wish the larger Heroes used those friction joints the DC heroes use in their legs..I hope those pieces appear in Pick A Brick, I know I would buy many of those (especially in black).

So only the feet are titanium metallic? Huh. I'll have to replace them once I get him. Thank you for the pics Siegfried, I can't wait for the full review.

Yup! He's one of the most demonic looking HF figures. I can really see him as a Makuta in the Bionicleverse. By the way, how is the Black Phantom-Rocka combiner? Before you post the full review could you post a pic of it if you can?

And with a clearer photo in front of my eyes I can honestly repeat it:Black Phantom rocks.

Black Phantom rocks. I'm glad he features tr. bright green and dark red, they look much better than tr. neon green and regular bright red, I think. The tr. neon green tubes and the cladding in the back clash a bit with the tr. bright green, but I'm going to remove that section once I'll have my hands on him so it doesn't matter to me. Surge looks better than I thought, but that lime green still looks inappropriately placed..still, not as much as I thought.

Is it? I didn't realize that. That makes everything much better.

Thanks! Better than nothing I guess. Still, I'm not too fond of this new packaging style. I don't know, it feels kind of cheap. And the fact it is so BIG is big disappointment: and I thought we had to no longer endure those gigantic canisters which started to appear with the Toa Inika and that had finally disappeared after 2009..). One upside is that 13 Euro sets are no longer contained in classical Lego-style unsealable boxes and finally return to being contained in sealable packagings.

I thought the Brickmaster set was a "gift" you received as part of your subscription to Brickmaster. I didn't know it could be sold in a store, but apparently you guys are telling me it is possible to do that. Wow, I really feel like an idiot.

I'm really disappointed by the use of bright green- there goes my dream of doing a Lewa revamp. Less money to spend, at least. That being said, my favourite parts in this set remain the two sections that form the morning star. The head piece can make a great mace as Black Phantom shows, while the "chain" piece is good to build some sort of energy attack. I hope to see these two pieces in more colours in the future (except the already existing black head in the Black Phantom set, of course).

So many titanium metallic...and those blue Hero 2.0 torso armour pieces, the new friction joints, and those lovely Breez katana pieces (they look even nicer than I thought) in black...I may pick this up once the price goes down a bit, it has so many good parts but I don't feel like spending 17 Euro or so for them.

Excellent reviews you made, LuxorV! I rated him "Average", because there are so many things that could be improved in my eyes, starting with the colour scheme. The white needs to go, and so does the dark bley in the bone joints (ugh, I hate those) and the tr. orange (I was hoping for tr. red till the end, but I guess I excepted too much..). And I think the shoulders should be higher, right now he looks..unimpressive. But these are easy modifications to do, thankfully.

Indeed, like Aanchir noticed, Rocka appears to use Tr. Bright Green. Now I wonder if Black Phantom is going to do the same- seeing he's being set up as Rocka's direct rival and as such there's going to be a combiner between the two..it would be weird if two different tr. greens were mixed. Not that Lego cares much about such a detail in an alternative model, but still... Also, the Black Phantom set already features Tr. Bright Green, featuring it in the eyes of the Arachnox drone (which are two of the recoloured Barraki eye Nitroblast uses). And I'm not sure if I understand how the new..ahem, container works. After you cut that top section, can it be sealed again?

That combiner looks MUCH better than Surge+Splitface. I'm even thinking of buying doubles, just to give Black Phantom a fierce pet, like the awesome villain he is deserves. Also, the chains/cuffs are titanium metallic? YAY, RECOLOUR. One more thing I'm surprised about: Evo uses the short torso (the one with narrow shoulders, too- I bet Breez has broad shoulders, who's with me? ;)), and most likely Surge does as well. I wonder what they did with the other three, bigger Heroes. I truly can't wait to see more reviews- especially of Rocka, Black Phantom and Thornraxx.

That Kendo Jay Booster Pack looks really sweet. I really wouldn't mind having it. Is that Barraki eye in the staff in a new colour? It doesn't look like Trans-Medium Blue, nor Trans-Dark Blue. The closest colour it looks to me is probably Trans-Light Blue. Also, while I'm at it I want to ask you guys something. I saw this in a a book shop (a library which also sells DVDs, school stuff, children toys, plushies, LEGO sets...yeah, hardly a book shop anymore) in Padova. I can show a picture if you want (which sucks a bit, since my other much better phone wasn't available at that time), and since I cross that road every Monday I can shoot a better picture as well. Is that possible to sell that separately? I mean, is it even legal?

If I understood correctly, then, Front, send my props to Splitface's mask designer. Not only is it cost-cutting, but it truly is in line with Lego's spirit. The gunmetal chestplate is a bit of a problem- I guess that we'll have to resort to remove printing if we want a fully dark silver Not-So-Split-Anymore-Face.

Wow, they're..pricey. Of course they were going to be more expensive compared to HF sets, but come on.

There was a FaS+Malum combiner? I didn't even know that. :-S And yeah, I forgot that Niazesk included Ignika.

Forgot to say- thank you for your explanations about Jawblade's "derogatory nickname" and his length. I didn't think about the "t-rex=chicken" metaphor, but I guess it makes sense. That, and it's probably going to be the combiner with the most cohesive colour scheme, since black, titanium metallic and tr. flourescent green are colours that Rocka and Black Phantom have in common. The sole remaining colours are the gold on Rocka and the red and the silver on BP, and those are going to flow well with the colours I mentioned earlier. In short, it's pretty much going to be Black Phantom+gold in terms of colours. Also, isn't this th e first time we see a canister set+large set combo? I can't recall any instance of Bionicle doing that.

Oh my. This is going to be fun.

Good. My favourite part of the year, the new sets reviews wave, should start soon. I hope the price increase (if it isn't simply TRU's fault, of course) doesn't carry over to Europe- 9.99 Euro for the Heroes on S@H is enough. EDIT- Wait, TRU site says Jawblade is 30 cm long. Is that possible?! And forgot to say- even though I don't try to build most of them, I'm really happy that Lego is exploring new possibilities by creating Hero+Villain combiners. Yes, Bionicle did that as well, but it's a first for Hero Factory. I can't wait to see what they came up with- I didn't like Surge+Splitface, but I'm sure there will be better ones. Third edit (I just won't shut up, it seems)- did anyone notice that the TRU site called Jawblade "overgrown tadpole"? I thought (who didn't?) he was a shark...