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I have put Umarak's review up, wanted to bust out something today so I got him out as soon as I could. The rest of the reviews will be coming throughout the week, I want to aim for 1-2 reviews a day (I'll be prioritizing them as pairs, so if I did Ketar I would make sure to do Pohatu before anyone else.) Also a reminder that I'll be joining BZP's livestream tonight. so you can get a preview of what's to come in both my reviews as well as theirs and ask questions and all that wonderful stuff. Oh, and I'll mention this in my review of Melum & Kopaka, but I really don't feel they are a set worth $30. Kopaka, while slightly more involved than the 15$ toa, just doesn't feel like he is on the same level as Tahu and Onua, and Melum is very similar to Terak, albeit a different function, yet he doesn't have a Shadow Trap which doesn't make him feel worth 10$ (or at least the same as Terak.)

Set name: Umarak the Hunter Set number: 71310 Pieces:172 Price: $20.00 | £xx.xx | €xx.xx Release date: 2016 Like 2015's first wave, of 12 sets released (or more specifically, 13 individual characters), Umarak is the only one who is an actual villain. You may interpret the creatures as villains if you want, and of course there are the shadow traps, but in terms of an actual villain in the flesh this is the first big bad. We will see a "Umarak the Destroyer' in the summer, so time will only tell how that version of our deer-friend here will differ, but I look forward to it. Either way, The focus here is on Umarak the Hunter- Coming in at a price of $20, Umarak is one of three sets in this price range right next to Onua and Tahu. Is he worth the price tag? Read on to find out. Box Front Similar to 2015, we are given a hexagonal-shaped box. I did, however, notice that the material this box was made of feels far sturdier than the 2015 packaging. Instead of being a thin, poster-board like material, they are now a more substantial cardboard. Interestingly, while this was shipped from Denmark as per usual, it is the American variant of the packaging with the extra info on the box like piece count. Umarak is displayed shooting at an off-screen figure, and we can see the Mask of Control hovering above a pedestal in front of him. Gone is the Mask of Creation in the upper right corner, now of course replaced with the Mask of Control. Back On the back we can see the set's action features, which include the launching mask, the firing stud shooter, and the new turntable waist. Also to note, is that while not specifically paired to a creature, Umarak still has a uniting feature and it is recommended to combine him with Uxar, no doubt due to the similar colors. There is one final feature to the set that I was surprised not to see mentioned here, and that is the ability for Umarak to "shed" some parts to construct a shadow trap of his own. Interesting and New Pieces New torso The new gimmick for this year's Toa and Umarak is a turntable waist. As you can see, a new torso has been created, that lacks a proper shoulder joint and opts for an axle connection instead, and replaced the hips with a gear. The new hip piece, cast in a pearl dark gray, clips to the torso in a similar fashion as the stud shooter's firing pin does. It is possible to separate these pieces, but it still takes quite some force to do. When attached, there is some good friction, so no loose Vahki-style gears here. Due to the stoppers on the gear teeth on the torso, you can only rotate the torso about 60-70 degrees to each side, which is about as far as you'd really need to turn it. For some reason my Lewa and Gali's joints are much tighter (to the point where they squeak when turned) and I haven't been able to remove the hips from those torsos. Shadow Trap Here we have the new hairclip piece shadow trap cage halves. While it appeared at first that Umarak had them in silver, he in fact has pearl dark gray like the rest of the traps. Colors Here's a few interesting colors to look at- a full range of spikes in dark tan (these may not be entirely new recolors, but they are something we haven't had in Bionicle yet, and they are pretty, so yeah.) Also we expand upon our selection of trans bright green bones with a longer variant of the male-female bone. Other new parts This year we get a new eyestalk. It's the same front half as the 2015 one, but gone is the Metru-style stalk sticking out the back. For the most part, it makes it harder to accidentally pop the masks off, which is much appreciated. Umarak doesn't really benefit from this because his giant Antlers make it easy enough to pop off as it is. With that said, he is the only set of the wave to come with the eyes in trans neon orange, whereas the rest have trans light blue. Next, the 'piece of unification,' or as I like to call it, "the needlessly detailed piece." We get it in pearl dark gray, and while I think this piece might be digging too deep into Bionicle's mechanical styling, it's a critical piece in almost all of the 2016 sets as it served to unify the Creatures to the larger sets, and a lot of the Creature's functions are built around this piece. Finally we have a standard torso breastplate with a very interesting print, depicting...a mouth in the middle of his chest? Masks Umarak comes with two masks. The first is his actual mask, cast in a trans bright green mixed with black. It looks fantastic and evil, and I'm curious to see what his summer set wears. A gold version of the mask mixed with trans bright green? A Mask of Control in the black mixed with bright green? Or something else entirely? We also get the Mask of Control, which was certainly a shorter wait to get than the Mask of Creation last year. MoCr and MoCo I'm not as big of a fan of the Mask of Control as I am the Mask of Creation. However, the only thing that it has going for it (besides some obvious similarities to the MoCr), is that it certainly looks old. It has a medieval dwarf wearing a helmet sort of vibe, and while it's not everyone's cup of tea for mask design, it certainly looks like a mask that predates the Toa's. Ekimu Of course it's not meant to go on Ekimu but that's the first thing I had to do with it. The horns do collide with the small trans blue shells however. The Build Torso Here you can see the torso turntable mechanism is really very simple. Like all of the Toa, Umarak has a slightly more customized torso design due to the need for custom shoulders. Lower legs Another heavily custom design choice on Umarak is his lower legs. I know these have received quite a bit of criticism because they are quite under armored. I like the overall shape that these legs create, it's sort of a false-chicken-leg design, but the are a bit limited in their forward and backward movement, and honestly I feel like a similar effect could have been achieved with a more pleasing build. I guess I don't see why this was a necessity with the figure. They don't look too bad from the front though, as you'll see. Antlers I AM THE DEER MAN Ahem. Umarak is, of course, themed after a deer, and to compliment and really seal that look we get some massive antler constructs on his head. Not only do these put Skull Basher's to shame, they look quite convincing. Frame As we put his limbs and torso together and add a few extra bits on, we really start to see his size and shape come together. Also notice the shadow trap pieces placed on to his shoulders and that random chain which will have a purpose later on. Weapon Umarak, being a hunter, has a good supply of weaponry. First off, he has his "bone bow" which is built quite similar to the bow that Skull Warrior carried. If you are familiar with Skull Warrior or any of the protectors, likely this build won't come as anything new. We also get one of the skull villain's swords that attaches to a holster on his thigh, and dangling from a chain is a spare disk full of ammo. Something to note here is that the set, in total, has 13 studs like 2015's sets. 6 for the shooter, a second set of 6, and a spare. Finished Set Front When he's complete Umarak oozes evil. He has a wonderful color scheme of black, trans bright green, dark red and of course the hints of dark tan and brown in his antlers and chest area. He is well bulked up, and unlike the other two $20 figures, I don't feel like there are too many clashing textures on the set. Of course, given that he is supposed to be a mutated-spikey-deer-monster-thing, that's a bit easier to pull off than the relatively clean Toa, but anyway, Profile He is a bit flat, although of the six Toa and himself,he's actually the bulkiest from a side view. This flat design is of course intentional, as it makes it easy for all of the creatures to mount to their backs. Again, the legs don't look that bad. Although I might swap out those blue friction pins for black ones. Back Back views usually aren't anything to be excited about. Of course, the next wave of Star Wars figures looks to prove that wrong, but as far as Umarak goes it's relatively uninteresting. You can see the 'unification piece" on his upper back, which is wear the creatures can plug onto. Bow at the ready So how does he pose? Very well. One benefit to the this new torso is that it gives you a waist swivel, and while I normally don't have a need for such a joint, it can produce some interesting outcomes. He holds his bow about as well as any of the other figures with long stud-shooter weapons, and the cage pieces on his shoulders don't restrict movement. One of me versus twelve of you Something else that I really like about his design is he looks well proportioned, or rather he is a very tall figure but he doesn't feel lanky or stiff, unlike many of the Star Wars figures, namely Darth Vader. Also note that his legs look fine from a front-on view. "You failed, now I have to clean up your mess." "Take control...take control of your city" Yes, the mask of Control can be placed on his head without removing the antlers. Surprisingly, the gold doesn't look too bad mixed in with this color scheme. Size Comparison 1 Firstly I'll compare him to our control group, Tahu (Yes, 2015 Tahu will be the main size comparison figure throughout most of my future reviews. So if you are that concerned about size and don't have a Tahu yet, it's best you go grab one. He's great, you won't regret it.) Both of these sets are at the same price point, but Umarak really takes a height advantage, something many fans were hoping for. And I like this too, he's big enough to be an imposing threat, but not so big that he just looks ridiculous. Size Comparison 2 As someone who was disappointed in Kulta the Skull Grinder's size, Umarak more than makes up for it here. But wait! There's more! One really neat part about Umarak is that they give you the pieces needed to construct an eye and the hinge for a Shadow Trap. Then, you take the trap pieces off of Umarak's shoulders, the claws from his feet, and that chain i mentioned earlier, and you have a Shadow trap! So this brings the total number of Shadow Traps in the wave to 6, although i'm really quite disappointed that Melum doesn't have a specific ice-themed one. But more on that in their review. The trap itself is really cool, it closes well, (you have multiple degrees that it can be open or closed, it just used a basic system click-hinge.), and it's actually a really substantial size, as you can fit kanohi into the claw itself. Trap Dance Party? As a preview into the reviews of the creatures, here we can see all six traps together. I love the diversity in these builds, it's a welcome change from the mini-kaiju of 2014 and skull spiders of 2015. There's even MORE! If you are wondering what to do with Umarak once you take off his shoulders and toes, you can of course still mount a Creature to his back. In this instance, we have placed Uxar to his back as demonstrated on the back of the box. It looks pretty decent, Uxar is one of the better creatures in united mode which I will explain in his review. I'm not entirely sure I would keep the helmet on top of his mask like that though. Do note, however, that it's not entirely necessary to remove the Shadow Trap pieces from Umarak to unite a Creature to him, you can still mount a creature even with the cages on his shoulders, though it's a bit clunky. Overall Umarak is awesome, and my favorite figure of the wave. He looks great, he poses well, he has a lot of weapons, functions, and is a great size for being a $20 figure. Furthermore, he has the added bonus of the removable Shadow Trap, and can still unite with the Creatures. While the legs might bother some, they are really a small complaint, and i honestly feel this might be one of my favorite figures of Bionicle G2. Go out and buy him, and hope that Umarak the Destroyer can somehow manage to be even better than what we've been given.

On the technic panels on Kopaka's stud-shooter weapon there are stickers. And the thing with the trap halves is that you sort of need to remove those in order to get some of the creatures to unite on his back. So, while they make him more empty, the idea is to fill in the gaps with a creature. Yes he can wear it with the antlers on.

Yeah haha that was a first, almost didn't even notice the sticker sheet scattered among everything Oh yeah, Umarak has a shadow trap that you can make using his shoulder pieces, he includes the extra eye and hinge (you use his toes for legs)

So I have the full wave in hand. Reviews obviously coming, but two things- -I'm not sure if it was mentioned or not but Terak and Melum have completely different functions -Umarak is my favorite G2 figure. Hands down. And yeah, he's big.

Keep the discussion based strictly on the CCBS and BBS building systems. I do not want to see this turn into a contest of who is the best MOCist, which community you think is better, or your opinions on how "sexualized" a plastic toy is.. Let this be a warning and do not veer off topic after this post.

I really feel like a lot of personality was lost with this Onua in comparison to his 2015 form, something of a trend with these figures for me. Also I'm not a fan of this new "no build photos" thing BZP is doing. I don't like video reviews and if I wanted to watch a video review I would be on YouTube, when you have a photo review it should be comprehensive.

Serj has an awesome voice, but this song has always showcased it really well- I love the constant and jarring changes between him holding back and belting out.

Actually I love this, and I sincerely hope it doesn't change. Likely one of the largest reason for WW even being in this movie is because her film is right around the corner, and while Suicide Squad has The Joker to sell it to the general audience, a vast majority of non-comic book fans would gloss over a WW film. Plainly put, the DCCU hasn't established itself as much as the MCU has to the point where people would go see GOTG or Ant-man simply because it's a Marvel film. Batman and Superman are without a doubt the two most well known superheroes of DC and that will pull a lot of interest and thus a lot of people going to see BvS. By putting WW in there, you establish her credibility as a fighter if she is the one to take down Doomsday, and leaving her origin a mystery is a strong selling point to make people want to learn more about her by seeing her solo film. That, and I have a very strong feeling that the "parademon Darkseid Knightmare" scene isn't Bruce's vision, but is in fact a vision of the Queen of Themyscia or something and is the reason why WW shows up- also tying into Justice League. So yeah, I'm fine with it.

Is it bad if I don't entirely hate those?

Still holding off judgement until my review copies get here, but I'm struggling to find much that I actually like about Tahu.

Everytime I see people bring up Galidor's compatibility i like to bring up someone who used to be active here back in the day, Bigfatslob, who really did make some wild combinations of parts. Nice to see retro reviews, we certainly have a gap in the index so the more the merrier. Will add this to the index soon.

Every reviewer will look for something different in a set. Some compare them to older sets, some compare them only to figures in that respective wave. Some focus on the re-usability of parts in MOCs, some care only about the set itself and not it's future applications. Some care more about color scheme and cohesive looks, while others will argue whether playability with functions is more important than flexibility and poseability. It's entirely dependent on the reviewer and what they want to focus on, no single review will take every side and no one should build an opinion of whether they want to buy a set or not based on reading one single review. That's why I often stress for others to share their own reviews- I know that I have been the dominating force of reviews here in the Action Figures forum for the last few years, but that shouldn't stop others from giving their own reviews and opinions on sets. Of course reviews can also be influenced by the reviewer him/herself. If it's someone who doesn't know much about that theme or building system, there might be a level of obliviousness that leads to the review being overly negative or overly positive. A review might also be affected by the reviewer's experience with that set. For example, when LEGO provides an entire wave, I review the whole wave, in comparison to some other sites such as BZP where all of the staff are well versed in Bionicle and review them accordingly. I have the advantage of being able to stack sets up against one another and tend to give opinions about which i think are the best and worst in a wave and getting to compare the sets against one another, whereas a BZP review has the advantage of the reviewer focusing solely on that set. While they might spend 3 weeks developing an opinion of a set and then reviewing it, I review 6-12 things in the same amount of time and can't really connect with the sets to the same level. Of course, as evident in this topic, some people have a strong bias to one system or another, and as a result in their review they are likely to side or have their opinion influenced by that bias. Really the best way to do a review is (insert Shia here) just do it, don't try to follow a mold, just give your opinion of the set you have in hand, what you like and don't like about it and from there, everyone else will share their opinions and that's where the beauty of reviewing stars. It's not just about how you talk about the sets, it's about the response that review builds and how people react to your photos and being able to see the set from your perspective.

You know what I love about CCBS? A Hero 2.0 next to a Breakout Hero looks perfectly normal. You can easily pit Drilldozer against a Breakout Rocka, or Voltixx against Furno 2.0.

All discussion of the CCBS vs BBS has been moved to it's appropriate thread. Please carry on with that discussion there.

I'm still holding off opinions until having them in hand, as much as I can draw from CGi still just doesn't give me enough to go off of. I do agree with what others have said that textures are all over the place in many places and overall I don't feel that these are a step forward. Not necessarily a step back, but to me they don't feel like an evolution of what we got in 2015. Sure, we are getting more functions...but I don't feel like this is the "next great thing" in Bionicle, it doesn't bring much nostalgic charm to me and honestly none of these sets are gripping me like 2015's did. I wouldn't suggest continuing this discussion, it's off-topic and such a tone isn't going anywhere productive.

I like this guy's stature a lot, and the weapon is a perfect pairing for him. I especially like some of the small details that are hidden around him, like having the exo-force arms underneath the piston armor on his upper shoulders. In the future do try to give more constructive or meaningful replies than these. Thanks

Why exactly did you feel a need to bump a 5 year old thread that is quite irrelevant now as your first post?

The general index has now also been revamped! Note: Artwork/Fanfics that were in the old general index will be in the respective creative index.

This is not the place to handle this, please keep such discussion to private messaging. It is not relevant to the topic and certainly not going to go in a pleasant direction.

Bootleg/knockoff reviews belong in community, I will move this. The most interesting part of this for me is the headgear being mounted to a glatorian head, i have to say I wish that was actually how it had been done in the first place as it would have made the headgear far more useful. (Obviously some slight change would need to be made as it seems to sit a bit high up on the head, but still.) And yeah I'd totally take that torso.

^Hau added And I'm happy to announce the review index is now fully updated up to the Star Wars 2015 sets, now including Bionicle G2, and 2014-2015 Mixels with awesome help from TheOneVeyronian! Stay tuned for many more things in the coming month.

The first picture of the second wave of Star Wars buildable figures has been revealed in the newly uploaded lego magazines! Be sure to hop into the Action Figure forum to discuss!