Brickthing Posted July 31, 2013 Posted July 31, 2013 Set name: CHI Cragger Set Number: 70203 Price: $15USD , 15 Euro Pieces: 65 Year of release: 2013 Peeron Bricklink Brickset CHI-up with CHI Cragger, a CHI-powered warrior with a cool CHI fang staff, huge snapping jaws, CHI orb chest armour and more! This summer’s new wave of Chima CHI figures marks the start of LEGO’s second original IP sets/ultrabuilds using the Constraction figure building system. Cragger is a member of the Crocodile tribe, and is the main antagonist of the Chima theme in the story so far. The Packaging Front While all of the heroes face left and glow with blue Chi energy, the bad guys face right and emanate red, the colour of anger and hate. It’s not as colour coordinated, but the bag still does an excellent job at setting up and selling Cragger’s character. Probably because they didn’t want minifig Cragger to look like a zombie, Cragger’s blind eye has mysteriously healed, or at least swapped sides. Back The back of the bag showcases Cragger and his features amidst a beautiful lush swamp, while Chi Laval looks one from the background. Because Cragger’s face is quite long, the front-on scale picture doesn’t really do the piece(s) justice. On the left Cragger and Worriz combine to become… a bigger Cragger. No complaints there. Contents Pieces Cragger probably has the best selection of parts out of the Chima Constraction line-up, including recoloured/rare bones, shells, spikes and weapons. It’s fantastic to see Olive Green debut as an action figure colour, and while there aren’t as many as Cragger’s prototype form suggested, the 4 Olive green bones, 2 hands and Crocodile jaw will surely be useful in MOCing, and will hopefully be joined by more bones and shells later. Cragger also has a healthy assortment of Dark Green, which aside from the resent Ogrum, has been lacking in sets since Bionicle ended. If these two colours aren’t enough for you, Cragger also has a large torso bone, 2 C-bones, 8 Silver claws, the standard but welcome reinforced socket and beam w/ socket combo and four gunmetal chain links. I miss the dual-coloured Piraka claws, but I haven’t grown tired of the solid Black ones, despite them having appeared in a very large number of villain sets recently. Black is a very neutral colour, so a large number of these claws would be great for spamming on a big monster of some sort. Cragger's Head Cragger’s head is made of two pieces, which come packaged in their own special polybag. Unlike the other Chima heads, each of Cragger’s head pieces are a single piece of plastic (excluding the socket), with printing adding all of the colouration details, and the lines of the head seem less stylized or sharp. The printing of the teeth and crown bleed a small amount where they shouldn’t, but the resulting effect is much better than omitting the colour altogether. Open wide! Similar to the Crystal King, Rancor and other large jawed creature heads, Cragger’s jaw uses a click hinge system that locks the jaw into three main positions – unpleased, angry and really angry. The head is mostly symmetrical except for a scare across Cragger’s left eye, which suggests that this mould was created specifically for Cragger rather than as a generic Crocodile tribe head. It’s a subtle detail though, so there’s nothing stopping you from creating your own crocodile headed creatures and ignoring the scar over their left eye. Front view The two pieces Build Cragger’s build is mostly a straight forwards build, with the exception of the neck/head, tail and the weapon, which takes extra assembly on account of the chain and Technic bases staff. The set plays with different bone lengths to create a longer reptilian body instead of a standard Hero build, so it’s definitely a worthwhile experience. Finished Set Cragger! Once assembled, this crocodile warrior is ready to hunt down rival tribes in his pursuit for Chi! Without armour his limbs seem a bit thin, although the Olive colour makes up for it so that he isn’t left looking exposed. His longer torso works well, and he has an imposing hunch created by his thick arching neck and long tail. Side Cragger is very large both in height and length, but thanks to his reinforced waist joints he is able to stand up with little trouble. The Technic connector construction of his weapon means that it’s easy to alter where he holds his weapon from. Some reassembly is required, but that’s the point of LEGO right? Back Along with most of the new Chima figures, Cragger’s back is well armoured, right from the top of his head to the base of his tail. The Ben 10 component of his tail is regrettably hollow, but without the hollow design that part probably wouldn’t exist at all. RWOOOARR!!! Cragger looks great in many different poses and with many different postures. His jaw snapping feature is great, although it’s a shame that there’s no tongue piece as well. It reminds me of the short-lived Dinosaur theme’s 6721 Mosasaurus set. Incoming Croc! Fast and deadly underwater and on land, Cragger and his weaponized kayak paddles are more terrifying than Jaws and a Land-shark combined! Who will fight the mighty Cragger!? Cragger cries out for a challenger worthy of facing his terrible strength. Suddenly, Laval appears! Laval accepts the challenge of his nemesis, and the fight between the legendary duo begins! Combo Set Front Cragger combines with 70204 Worriz to make a larger and more intimidating crocodile form. Worriz’s extra parts are used to add armour to Cragger’s previously lean limbs, extend his tail and exaggerate his neck/shoulders, all to great effect. More than the other combiners, I think Worriz and Cragger’s combiners demonstrate how well the colours of the overall line have been chosen, because each combiner uses most of the pieces from both sets, but still carries the original colour scheme of the character. Previously you’d expect most combiners to be rainbow coloured and uncoordinated as they merged together the parts of vastly differently coloured sets. Back Cragger’s tail is left with an oddly coloured segment, and while you can see that the torso is a bit of a ridiculous shape, and least it’s still well shielded and appropriately spiky. The Crocosaurus lives! Although the neck is very long, I really like this style of combiner, since pads up the exposed sections of the original set, and exaggerates what was already good. It seems as if the Design Team has found a good mix of Technic and Constraction parts to include in sets to make this possible, although I imagine a large factor is the slightly non-humanoid qualities of the Chima warriors, which generic Hero Factory heroes/figures don’t have the luxury of having. (The instructions for this combiner can be found here) Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 11/10 – Olive Green, Dark Green and no exposed Technic pins. There’s not much else you can ask for from a set like this. Parts - 11/10 – Again, the Olive Green and Dark Green pieces are fantastic, and there’s a useful selection of bones, shells and small detail pieces to compliment them. Design - 10/10 - Text Articulation - 10/10 – Cragger has all the standard points of articulation, plus tail, neck and jaw articulation, which are all a lot of fun to play and pose with. Quality - 8/10 – Cragger’s head seemed to need to sacrifice some of the printing quality and clarity compared to the other Chima heads in order to achieve the jaw functionality and size, and the new blades sometime need to be bent back into a straight position, but otherwise the quality of the parts is very high, exactly as you’d expect from a regular Hero Factory set. I still very much enjoy the joints not breaking. Overall - 50/50 – If you’re only planning on buying a few action figure sets this year, this should definitely be one of them. Cragger has an exotic colour scheme that provides you with a wide range of useful bones, shells and accessories, and the crocodile warrior is difficult to not enjoy with his toothy grin and aptitude for looking ferocious. The only quality issue is limited to the exclusive head pieces, which you’re probably not going to be using for general MOCing anyway, although out of the six animal heads in the line, I think Cragger’s head has the most potential for innovative NPUs. Quote
toatyger Posted July 31, 2013 Posted July 31, 2013 That head piece is hands down the best part in the chima line, and that combo is epic! Quote
Aethersprite Posted July 31, 2013 Posted July 31, 2013 Thanks for the review! I love the poses you have Cragger in, they're way better than mine. The opening jaw definitely adds a ton of expression to this set. Quote
Kalhiki Posted July 31, 2013 Posted July 31, 2013 Definitely getting this dude at some point. Not really interested in any of the Chima Ultrabuilds except for Cragger. May have to get two. One to keep, and one for parts. I'd love to make a giant gator monster with that head. Kalhiki Quote
ZORK64 Posted August 3, 2013 Posted August 3, 2013 It's nice to see how other reviewers tackling sets I've also reviewed. Plus, your pictures are better than mine. And I can really agree with you on Cragger. The only thing that bothered me was his staff-like weapon, but as you said, it's LEGO, so it can be easily rearranged. Oh, by the way... Design - 10/10 - Text Seems like you forgot to put some here? Quote
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