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Hello! This is my entry to LEGO's Legends of Chima Big Box Competition! Before I start talking about the actual fortress, I just wanted to say that I don't build many things with physical bricks. Only things I do are my Winter Village entries (I will definitely be entering again, this year!) and an occasional thing for another contest I might see. I usually use LDD, which I'm pretty decent at, but they haven't updated it at all during 2015. So, with my limited selection of bricks, I made this. Hope you guys will like it! The theme of the contest was to build a fortress to protect the CHI. I had a friend help me with photography, and I asked him to keep the images looking a little amateur-ish so it didn't look too "official" like an actual LEGO Shop@Home image, or too 'professional' for the CLUB magazine if they ended up choosing me as a winner (of 2) and putting it in the next issue. Also, a lot of the pieces are a bit dusty, so excuse that, sorry! I only had 2 of the Fire vs. Ice Chima sets (and some polybags) and resisted ordering any extra pieces from LEGO. So, without further ado, this is Flinx's Flaming CHI Fortress! The figures I included were Flinx, Frax, Laval, Cragger, Worriz, Eris, Mungus, and Voom Voom. In the front, a gate with a phoenix head, two big torches on the sides in front of tan, brick guard towers. One has a moveable turret, and the other just has a balcony. I watched some episodes of the show to get some reference photos. The entire temple was on fire, so I tried adding some flames, torches, and other things around the outside. I tried integrating the Chima "theme" with the giant animal heads into this, hence the giant phoenix head above the gate. I usually try making my MOCs look like official LEGO sets, so I added a lot of play features to this. The phoenix head can turn from side to side, and has spring shooter eyes. Turning the fortress around, the interior features a large tower, stairs, a Fire CHI pit, and more. Starting with the right tower, the lower half features a small blacksmith/weapon creation/armory room. There's a rack with multiple golden weapons and tools to create flaming swords and such to attack the Ice Tribes with. An anvil is off to the left with a golden fire chainsaw. Above is a balcony. The middle tower features a prison, a room with The Artifact, which in the show is a giant map showing all of Chima. Mount Cavora lays in the middle with a hovering fire CHI crystal above. Above is a small bedroom for any of the characters to sleep in, with a lamp. The top of the tower has Flinx's throne (in my "world of Chima," Flinx is the ruler because I don't own Fluminox.) Giant flames burst from the sides, to show the flaming effect. In front of the Artifact is path with torches and a trap door leading to the prison below, activated by turning the entire Artifact. (Fun fact, my original version of this fortress was a lot smaller. The Artifact was still in the middle and I wanted it to turn and do something. At first it knocked down the stairs in front of the gate. Then I decided to switch to this Indiana Jones baseplate I found. After heavily revising this middle section over and over again, I was finally satisfied with how I made it.) Onto the last part of the fortress! The bottom half has a small elevated area with a pit where the CHI is protected and can be lifted by the nearby crane. Above that is a staircase that leads to the turret. It took me a while to figure out an acceptable design but I'm glad with how it turned out. I really wanted to use those trans-orange claw pieces. The turret can be raised and lowered past the golden fence piece. It can also spin around, and all four flick-fires can be shot at once. And that's it for the fortress! Now onto the Croc tribe vehicle I included. I made this a long time ago, when the contest was first announced. I actually based it off of some really old concept art for the Chima line that was posted on the site. I tried reverse engineering the build, but I couldn't exactly figure out the treads on the side, so I just built them so they don't actually roll. And that's everything! I really had a lot of fun building this, and I hope I win the contest. Even if I stopped being interested in Chima after 2013, that's a LOT of LEGO! If you wanna see the 2-3 extra photos I didn't post in here, check out this album on my Flickr! If you've got any questions, please feel free to ask below. Thanks again for looking!

Who let the wolves out? Were they ever in? These questions and more will get no follow-up in this new-fangled review of… Set Name: Worriz' Combat Lair Set #: 70009 Theme: Legends of Chima Pieces: 664 Minifigures: 6 Year of Release: 2013 Price at Release: USD 70, GBP 60, EUR 70 Bricklink it! Flickr album! INTRODUCTION Full frontal disclosure: I was never very excited about Chima and I'm not sad that it will no longer be with us. I like the minifigures for their parts, especially the feline faces which look great in a number of custom minifigure applications, but I never cared for the sets. The whole animal-look thing was an interesting concept, but more often than not it seemed to me that the animal-head ate up a ton of parts, leaving the rest of a model to be a bony, technic jumble. I'm mostly a playset kind of guy anyway; if I'm going to like a vehicle, it better have some meat on its bones. How, then, am I here right now, reviewing one of the largest purely-vehicular sets of this entire theme? Easy: sales. I'm a sucker for sales. I've since learned to curb my wallet a bit, but at 40% off the old me would've bought just about anything. Since I own the set, I thought I might as well go through in a detailed review and see if it meets my 'all Chima sets are a crappy bunch of technic with an animal head' expectations. INSTRUCTIONS Usually set artwork ranges from 'inoffensive' to 'quite good,' but I must say they were stretching here to make this set look exciting. They've placed most of the minifigures in physically impossible positions, including a couple of the wolves 'standing' on the truck. Do you see how, on the front booklet, one of the rotors on the helicopter is awkwardly behind those old gun-like pieces? It's like that on the box too. There's really nothing about this artwork that would make me want this set. Even though there are six complete sub models, the instruction booklets still break smack-dab in the middle. Right, makes sense. Remember the old days when LEGO would make awesome displays of whole themes placed together on built landscapes, and then photograph the setups for promotional materials? Actually they still do for City, so that's something, but not for their 'big bang tons of tie-in merchandise' theme Legends of Chima. Instead, we get this supremely cruddy photoshop job of a few sets together. My favorite thing (besides for the magically reversed image of the Lair) is Grizzam (the white gorilla) now swinging off to nowhere. In my head he's saying "F*** this battle, I'm out of here." LEGO's 2D backdrop artists are doing a great job, though. STICKERS Since I bought this set on-the-cheap and will surely break it down for parts, I did not apply stickers. These stickers do actually look pretty cool, and I'm sure would work well in a variety of sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, or other type of grungy setting. I didn't think they'd make or break the look of the set; pretty sure I can give it a fair review without them. INTERESTING PARTS This set does include a fair number of rare, interesting, or otherwise useful parts (for anyone that doesn't exclusively build bright fairy princess castles with studs purely on top). I went through and picked these out based on a combination of personal preference and what I thought other people like. There are a ton of SNOT pieces and tiles, which are always great, as well as a bunch of varieties of slopes. The dark red is in there just because it's cool and I like it. All-in-all, even at full price this set makes a decent parts pack provided you like this type of part. MINIFIGURES Finally, my favorite section!!!!!!!!!1 Like I said in the intro, I do like the Chimafigs. They are absolutely covered in finely detailed prints which inevitably get covered up by other things, so first I'll look at them all decked-out before closing in on the details. These minifigs get some pretty cool weapons - did you know that the trans-red serrated thingies the wolves have only come in this set (in that color)? That's pretty cool! The gun build for Windra, the wolf matriarch, looks great and its main component is quite rare in flat silver to boot! The good guy weapons look great too. I should also mention that the white, jagged cape on the wovles only comes in two sets (and on the SDCC exclusive Collector minifig). For those that cared about collecting the minifigures or cared about the characters, this set was a great way to get most of the wolf tribe. From left to right, you get Worriz (the young leader or something), Wilhurt (the brute-force muscle-man?), Windra (exclusive to this set and the real brains behind the tribe?), and Wakz (the old wizened military commander?). I've added the fifth member, Winzar, on the far right. I happened to have him from a polybag. I do appreciate how much the members of the wolf tribe vary. They fit together, for sure, but they all have distinct differences in their prints down to things like different sizes of teeth on their 'face-helmets.' They're a fun, rugged bunch. Back to just the minifigs in this set… they all have cool back prints too, though I don't think the fur-and-tail detail on Wakz is very successful. The armor plating on Worriz looks simply wonderful, and so useful for castle/fantasy. The daggers on Windra stand out as a fun detail too, making her seem very dangerous. I like the Chima 'face-helmets' for what they are, but what I really love about the Chimafigures is their head-prints. I was so surprised when the theme launched that LEGO had gone all-out on the head prints when the figs were intended to wear their helmets, but I love it. You might not think it, but the more humanoid faces look fantastic in a variety of headgear like hoods, helmets, and the like. My lion-headed green spacemen always bring a smile to my face. I don't care for the bird ones, so Eris' head does nothing for me. Worriz also looks a bit… strange. The other wolves and Grizzam could be quite useful, though. Truly surprising was the fact that not only did the Chimafigs have head prints, most of them had two! You don't want to mess with these wolves when they're angry - they look liable to literally bite your head off. Grizzam looks more like you made a bad play-on-words pun. Eris I screwed up, and put her 'angry' face in the previous picture and her 'happy' face in this picture. If you can tell the difference between the two, you win eternal happiness. THE SET - By Parts Though the set artwork might lead you to believe that the set contains just two models (big truck and copter), the box assures you that it splits into five. I count six. … Obi-Wan: From a certain point of view. … In any case, I'll go through them now in build order before looking at the result of their combination. Athletic Wheelchairs The build starts weak with these two, er, things, that are supposed to evoke wolf paws but to me evoke athletic wheelchairs. No matter their name, they don't look good. Had these been packaged as a set on their own, I believe they would have joined the 'awful tiny set' ranks occupied by the Spider-Trike and Mandarin's Flame-Thrower Lawn-Mower. You will notice the pieces usually used to attach wheels sticking out conspicuously on the back. These hint at a play feature that actually works quite well and is really fun. Bottom line: even though these models tend toward the 'garbage' side of things, they turn out ok in the context of the larger set. Wolficopter After a poor first showing, the build progresses into one of the best models: the copter. The overall shaping looks nice, with a touch of wolf nose on the front. It's not intended to have its rotor folded down when not on the truck, so I had to prop it up with a wolfy friend. Though the set uses a very limited color palette of just light bley, dark bley, black, and dark red (with smatterings of white and red), it still comes off looking a bit jumbled and colorful. I get that LEGO doesn't go for monochrome much, and it might make a set harder to build for the childrens, but eliminating black or one of the bleys would make this thing look much sleeker. Regular red really comes off as unnecessary here against the dark red, and the model would look much better with only the darker shade. What really makes the copter is the fact that the rotor incorporates well folded up and unfolds wonderfully with quite an impressive wingspan. Plus, wolfy is no longer needed with the rotor unfolded - the redistributed weight keeps it from falling back. I guess it's worth noting that in fantasy Chima land there's no need for such physics-necessitated things as tail rotors. But really I don't mind. I'll admit I've been making you wait for it - what REALLY sells the copter is that the rotor spins really, really well. Maybe it's the excessive wingspan, the way it's attached, or something else, but whatever it is this things spins amazingly and is therefore a ton of fun. Truck Flying swiftly along, we come to the beginnings of a larger part of the model: namely, the Wolfy truck part. This isn't the sort of build I enjoy. There's a lot of Technic, a strange slidey mechanism locked down by Technic and SNOT stuff, and a general sense of 'where the hell is this thing going.' The end of booklet 2 (and bag 3) leaves me with this: I wrongly believed that those black Technic beams will become some sort of play feature. They won't. Next comes the head. As usual with Chima, the head displays the wonders of modern, imaginative LEGO set design. Also as usual, there's a crap-ton of parts crammed into a relatively small space that do nothing for the model but look nice. So far, this truck meets my 'bunch of technic with a part-eating head' expectations. As far as the build goes, the instructions next have you make the little side equipment compartments, and then you move on to the prison attachment. However, I photographed the truck with the Wheelchairs already attached to the front, since it really looks a bit terrible without them (yes, I actually did the set a favor). With the Wheelchairs attached, the Wolf Truck really looks quite nice and menacing. Mean-looking head, big rough wheels, some kind of attack paws in the front - nice. You would not want to have this beast coming at you, staring you down. It looks really menacing and ready to flatten you into a road-kill pancake (presuming you're an animal, since everybody is an animal in Chimaland). It also looks fairly decent when viewed from the side, though it becomes apparent that the truck is pickup-style, given that there's not much of anything besides the head. Still, it works. I like the use of the Chi crystals as a sort of super-charged jet exhaust. Even though the whole truck gives off a 'big n tough' vibe, which would usually make it seem not so fast, these engines get you thinking about this thing tearing up some pristine landscapes and leaving them in dire need of new vegetation. But now we come to some issues. Let me pose the question - what does one want out of a truck? I'd say two things: rolling well and space to put minifigures to engage in roll-play. The wolf tribe gets only this as their base, after all, so they better get some room to have tactical meetings and strategize their hits against the meddling Lions, Eagles, Gorillas, and whoever else. ALAS, this truck is just a bunch of gappy technic and other structural stuff. There's no real place to pose minifigs at all. I understand that the helicopter needs a place to rest here (which I will show later on the completed set), but couldn't LEGO have achieved both? Couldn't the designer have filled in some of these spaces with a few plates and added some consoles at which the wolves could work? As it is, Worriz might fall through the cracks and end up roadkill himself. Onto more lameness, we get these storage units on each side that look nice but have very little function. The one that's left empty can't fit any of the weapons included in this set, and the other one has two saws, which I suppose are meant to be repair tools? "Oh hey, the engine broke." "Eh, just give it the ol' saw." Right. Despite its flaws, the wolf truck still makes it into my good book due to its very awesome playfeature (and its general good looks, which I've already mentioned). Seriously, shooting off those wheelchairs and knocking over minifigures doesn't get old. Plus, unlike with most of LEGO's shooters, these projectiles won't be lost very easily since they're so large. This one's a winner. Prison Pod We get a significant down-grade in build size with the next section: this prison pod. The parts use here veers into 'extravagant' territory - it really has more tiles and detailing than a prison pod needs. All those tiles certainly make it look quite nice, but with respect to the set I think the parts could have been better used making the truck less gappy. From a parts pack perspective… whatever, I'll be grateful for the tiles. Unlike the near-useless storage containers on the truck, this prison has plenty of room to do what it needs to do - namely, house prisoners. I even managed to fit Eris in there. Overall - job well done on the prison, LEGO. Cycle What? - you say! Cycles have their wheels facing the same direction as the driver! - Aha! Fooled you again, did I. This cycle can both incorporate into the larger vehicle, and pop off, having its wheels rotate to turn it into a cycle! Vehicles that can fold and be functional always get me. That's part of why I love the copter in this set, and why I loved that Shield car set. For you see, the wheels fold out to make a functional cycle. Just position the gun out a little bit for balance, and it even rolls fairly well and stays standing due to the width of the heavy-duty wheels. Simply put, I dig the look of this thing all around. The asymmetry really works for it; even the side with the technic parts exposed looks alright and I appreciate the tiling. The gun might be ridiculously huge and impractical, but the whole thing is fantastical, so I don't mind. The gun being attached by ball-joint gives it a superb range of motion and makes for fun scenarios like this - 'Ha, thought I couldn't shoot you over there? Guess again!' WHOLE SET Now that I've gone through everything separately, it's time to click everything together and see how the thing stacks up as a huge 'Combat Lair,' whatever the heck that means. I must start off by saying that in person I really don't care for it. All together, it looks like a big bland jumble that's too large and ugly. Some of my photographs make it look much better than it is - looking over my Flickr set, even I kind of like it. But I'll start with a picture that illustrates what you'd be looking at in real life: See? It's quite large, but has no substance. The colors all blend together and almost negate any detail, making even the good sections fade away into the mass. The engines that look cool on the truck part now presumably spit Chi exhaust right on the prison, and there are no additional engines on the back since that's where the cycle goes. The copter just sits on the thing with no attachment points, and it doesn't really integrate into the model. It looks much better on its own. Take the copter off, and the issues become even more apparent. There's just no substance here at all: no place to pose figures, no place for our wolf friends to relax on their ride, no meeting center. What kind of a mobile base is this? LEGO got 'mobile' down, but it seems they forgot the 'base.' Here's my best attempt at getting some roleplay going. I'm really reaching here. I know what some readers may be thinking. Essentially it's a big truck for kids. Isn't it awesome enough that the set makes one huge truck and splits into a bunch of vehicles? Can't kids roleplay with the minifigures on the floor next to the truck anyway? What's CloneyO griping about? Let me explain. Firstly I'm griping about the plain fact that the huge combined vehicle looks ugly. It's drab, it's full of holes. I appreciate aesthetics and have a feel for how I'd relate to a set were I a child, and this set would turn me off. It doesn't scream 'fun and excitement.' Further, even as a child I liked sets that have some interior. I liked trucks, but I wanted to put minifigures in them. The City line has a new Mobile Police Center all the time, and the fun there is having a full truck that also has a fun interior. What I expected out of a big, mobile base was some interior, and that's not what I got here. I got the Chima design brief of awesome animal head attached to gap-filled nonsense. But hey, these low-angle pictures make the thing look pretty decent: CONCLUSION The above picture shows what I like about the set (minus Grizzam - I like him too). Buuuuut wait, isn't that everything in the set? Yes, yes it is. Everything separately has merit. The Wolf Truck looks beastly and has a super-awesome play feature in the launching of the front claw wheelchairs. The copter has a rotor that spins like ace. The prison does what you want a prison to do and gets covered in lovely tiles. The cycle has a wonderful folding feature and an overall fun design. I indeed went about slamming the set as a whole; as one huge vehicle, it's a mess, no way to sugar coat that in my eyes. The basic Chima design principle of 'all look and no substance' gets put on display here in full effect. What's more, the color scheme involves too many colors and still results in a set that's drab and ugly. Yet I like the different components on their own, and the minifigures are a cool bunch for both collectors and customizers. They have neat weapons to boot. Ultimately, I don't much care for this set, but I enjoyed the experience of thinking about it. Chima's over, dead and gone, but with sets like this I can't help feeling that LEGO brought Chima's less-than-Ninjago performance on itself with sets like this. I simply can't see how this set would really appeal to children, being drab and lacking interior as it does. For adults, it's a reasonable parts pack, but not much else.

This time I want to show you my revamp of set 70212 Chi Sir Fangar. For more photos click this link to the gallery on Flickr. I hope, that you like it. All comments are welcome. -H.unter

Hey guys, I was looking at modding some of my Legends of Chima weapons to be more show-accurate... For example, Laval's black Valious has a chrome Lion head and a red handle. Crominus's blade is red with black scuff marks and fine gold embroidery, and so on. I am relatively new to customizing and was wondering if any of you had any suggestions for what paint I should use to create fine details... Any help? Thanks!

I'm not into LoC, but as a collector of fantasy monsters I couldn't resist getting Flinx's Ultimate Phoenix (70221). The phoenix in that set is a work of art! That said, it does have a few characteristics I'm not crazy about, so I modded them out. The changes I made are: SNOT'ed the neck SNOT'ed the body where Flinx normally goes SNOT'ed the tail SNOT'ed the wings removed the push-fire play feature, and replaced the blue pins in the talons with black ones. You can see the mods in the picture below apart from the replaced pins. Sorry about the rubbish photography. Any burning questions or comments?

I created this topic so people can share pictures of Chima I recently bought the eagle legend beast DSCF3612 by camberry234, on Flickr DSCF3619 by camberry234, on Flickr DSCF3621 by camberry234, on Flickr This ones my personal favourite

This is a small project of mine that is now complete because of limited number of Speedorz frames available in LDD (a least for now). I am a big fan of Mecha. And I like Chima pretty much alot, that's why I even had this idea in the first place. So I was thinking 'what if I will take a Speedor frame and make with it a Gunmen-ish Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann-style Mecha? I think that would be awesome!' How awesome it is you can judge for yourself. =) Let us pretend that In the magical world of Chima where animal tribes struggle for possession of a precious Chi orbs, the great Mount Cavora suddenly shuddered. And as it did so, it threw out a number of enormous, never seen before Chi orbs, that were scattered across all the Chima, too powerful to use them on their own, too dangerous to be left alone. And King of Croc Tribe, Cragger, was the first to find a use to them by building a first ChiMech: a towering, brutal machine of destruction, that could compete even with Gorillas' Mechs. After defeat against Cragges's ChiMech, Gorzan, the mightiest of Gorilla tribe's warriors, has met with his friend Laval, a prince of Lions, and brought the grim news. ChiMech - Croc by The Mugbearer, on Flickr Laval decided to make a stealth sally in the territory of Crocs to find out what gave Cragger such power. Together with Gorzan and Eris they snuck into Crocs' fortess and found the ChiMech. While passing by throne chamber, Eris overheard Cragger bragging to Razar and Worriz about his discovery of Chi Core, the biggest Chi orb ever emerged from Mount Cavora. She also discovered that Crocs already sent out the scouts to find other locations where Chi Cores landed, and hurried to tell Laval and Gorzan who were sniffing around the hanger, but Worriz has scented her presence and caught her. But he never told Cragger and ordered his wolves to deliver the eagle to their camp. Laval and Gorzan never discovered her disappearance until they've been spotted by croc guards and was forced to leave. ChiMech - Croc Cockpit by The Mugbearer, on Flickr In the Wolves camp Eris discovered that Worriz secretly envied Cragger's success and sent out his own scouts to find at least one ChiCore, while his best mechanics were reverse-engineering Cragger's ChiMech by blueprints that they managed to copy while Cragger was so busy bragging. Eris decided that as much as she'd hate to steal, she must take those prints and deliver them to Lagravis. Razar has happened to visit Worriz's camp after visiting the Cragger's fortress and made a deal that she'd give away a first Chi Core they will find to Ravens if Razar will help her to escape and steal the blueprints. The two made a cunning and daring escape from Wolfs' camp but not before Worriz's mechanics finished to build their own ChiMech. ChiMech - Wolf by The Mugbearer, on Flickr While it was not as intimidating as Cragger's, it possessed outstanding agility. After parting with Razar, Eris made her way to Lion Temple and gave the blueprints to Lagravis. She discovered that after their escape from Croc Fortress, Laval and Gorzan wandered to the Temple and warned Lagravis about Craggers ominous invention. Lagravis ordered Longtooth and Leonidas to find the closest Chi Core and bring it back asap. Meanwhile, Laval let Gorzan go back to the forest to protect his tribe. Left alone, young lion spent alot of time planning how to find Eris and worrying about her safety. To his relief, Eris appeared at the Temple's gate at dawn, tired but happy. She gave the blueprint to Lagravis personally and went to have some sleep. ChiMech - Wolf Cockpit by The Mugbearer, on Flickr Back after Eris's escape, Worriz, while being angered by this event, has his Chi Core installed and so departed from the camp to meet with Cragger and tell him that he now has a ChiMech too. Cragger was furious and at first even engaged in a fight to destroy Worriz's Mech but suddenly changed his mind. He decided that he will just let Worriz to go first and 'accidentally' will shoot at his back where Chi Core was installed under an armor plate. Worriz told nothing about Eris's escape to not cause further anger from Cragger. They rallied their warriors and marched out on the Lion Temple. Combined forces of Wolves and Crocs has arrived by the noon... and was really surprised to discover that Lion Gates were now guarded by a ChiMech designed by the Lions! ChiMech - Lion by The Mugbearer, on Flickr Laval was piloting the Mech and he proclaimed that Cragger will never reach the Chi Cores anymore and that he will protect it even with his own life. Since Cragger still was pretty sure about who sent his parents to that Gorge, he was okay if Laval - or any number of Lions - will fall on his, Craggers, way to rule all the Chima. He ordered his forces to attack the Temple. ChiMech - Lion Cockpit by The Mugbearer, on Flickr Since Laval was equipped with a spear and an impenetrable shield, he could repel any ranged attack, even from Cragger's ChiMech deadly cannons. But once Worriz has reached him, Laval felt all the sharpness of Wolf ChiMech's claws. Furious strikes made Laval to back off, step by step, until he has reached the closed gates. And that's when Cragger decided that it's a good opportunity to kill two rabbits with one stone and opened fire at Worriz's ChiMech back. However, armor was strong enough to endure all the shots, although sudden back-stabbing attack allowed Laval to kick Worriz off the Temple's stairs. Worriz, though infuriated, decided to retreat, but suddently a volley of rockets has covered the battlefield, leaving havoc among Crocs' and Wolves' lines. ChiMech - Eagle Diving by The Mugbearer, on Flickr A majestic shadow has screened the sun, and a white and blue lightning swooped across the battlefield. Lions rejoiced, for Eris, who managed to reach her people and give them the blueprint, piloted the brand-new Eagle ChiMech that brought the balance and tilted the scales in their favor. Eris changed her flight mode on the fly, hovering near the Laval's ChiMech, ready to unleash another salvo at the Crocs heads. Feeling that this is good time to disappear, Worriz commanded retreat and Wolves left Cragger and his goons alone on the smoking field. The battle was won. ChiMech - Eagle Hovering Mode by The Mugbearer, on Flickr Lagravis ordered everybody to immediately extract the ChiCores from their Mechs and never ever use them again. He found a place at the Temple where Cores could be kept in safety and in a few days every Chi Core that Mount Cavora produced have been found and brought to the Lion Temple. But Laval still felt uneasy: something told him that this isn't the last time he's seen Chi Cores, and the day will come when ChiMechs will be needed again. And he swore to be prepared and asked his father's permission to keep Lion and Eagle ChiMechs intact. Worriz and Cragger did the same without anyone's permission, but since the blueprint was destroyed - by Lagravis's orders, of course, nobody could make any more of those powerful and dangerous machines of war. ChiMech - Eagle Cockpit by The Mugbearer, on Flickr One day Lion guards discovered that one of Chi Cores has disappeared, and found a black feather lying under empty pedestal... To be continued?..

When I first saw the Legends of Chima theme I wasn't sure what I think about it, the minifigs are beautifully detailed and good-looking but the vehicles looked somewhat silly to me. Now I dug deeper in the wrld of Chima and I came to really like it, so I decided to ge my first set and bring you a review. Theme: Legends of Chima Set Name: Lennox' Lion Attack Set Number: 70002 Year of release: 2013 Minifigs: 2 Pieces: 230 Price: 17.99 GBP / 24.99 USD / 19,99 EUR / 5990 HUF Set Description: Protect the Lion tribe’s CHI with Lennox’s Lion Attack! Crug is after the CHI powering the mighty Lion Attack vehicle. Catch him with the all-wheel drive then help brave Lennox to deploy the big claw attack. Load up the rapid-fire disc shooter and send that CHI-swiping scavenger back to the swamp where he came from! Includes 2 minifigures and a weapon. Includes 2 minifigures: Crug and Lennox and a weapon Features CHI, big claw attack function, all-wheel drive, lion head front and rapid-fire disc shooter Includes Crug’s standard weapon Power through the jungle with all-wheel drive! Shoot the rapid-fire discs! Fire the two flick missiles! Protect the Lion tribe’s CHI! Measures over 3" (10cm) high, 7" (19cm) long and 6" (16cm) wide Box: Front The box is from the smaller category but to my biggest surprise it's very stiff and heavy. It sports the usual design with the Lego and Chima logo. In the right corner we can see Lennox's head, I really like how TLG make every box unique with the current hero's face. The main image shows the lion vehicle in action (spitting mentos), chasing the bad croc guy who stole Chi from the lions on a dusty road, surrounded by forest/jungle. On the left we can see some info about the set but this being the europian version there isn't much. And finally we can see the minfigis on the low left corner, namely Crug form the crocodile tribe and Lennox from the Lion tribe. Their association to the bad/good side is easily recognizable, Crug has red background, while Lennox has blue. Back On the backside of the box we can see the play functions of the set through a little story where Crug is trying to steal the Chi, but Lennox with his Lion car is defeating him and takes it back. The functions are described in 6 different languages and we can see the guys arguing in the upper right corner (Give it to me! - No, you give it to me!) The content of the box We get 4 unnumbered bags, 2 Chi tubes, 2 Building instructions, 4 rims and a Sticker sheet. Interesting parts In this set there are beautiful new and/or rare Flame Yellowish Orange parts, some old parts in reddish brown, the new tooth pieces (which are made of rubbery, very soft plastic) in both white and reddish brown and the black technic piece for suspension. Last but not the least we have the new Chi part and the 2x3 plate with holder in trans lightblue. Building instructions I haven't inserted a pic about the front because it's the same as the box. The BI has a light blue background which makes the colors easier to recognize. There are 2 booklets and they are surprisingly long (wich is very good) and in the first booklet you can find a picture of all the figures from the first wave in the middle of the building, which is quite odd. The steps are easy to follow and there is little repetition. Sticker sheet There are stickers yes, but there is not much and they just add to the overall look of the set. Minifigs: The set contains two minifigs, for me Crug was the selling point in this set, he is my favorite Chima minifigure. Crug: According to Lego.com he is Cragger's loyal muscleman, if he needs raw force to get things done, then Crug is the one he hires for the job (Like taking the new refrigerator up to the 7th floor...). The minifigure looks beautiful, he is the brown croc in the theme. The paint job is spot on with all small details like the steel jaw with a screw in it and the fangs on his belt, with the ripped clothes, this figure is freakin' awesome! His head is dark brown while the body is reddish brown. We get a double-sided head with a calm killer's look and with a surprised/frightened look on the other side. Lennox: Lennox is the vehicle-pro guy of the lion tribe, a cool, careless young lion with hidden potential to do great things. Tha paint is beautiful here as well, the little details makes him perfect, like the lion head shaped knee-armor, the detailed belt and the greekish looking skirt. He has a double-sided head too with a shy smile on one and a fierce/angry look on the other. Unfortunately his only weapon is the Lion car, at least he could have a saber or something... The completed set: I'am very satisfied with the result, the vehicle is very sturdy and it rolls easily. The Lion head on the front looks great, but it somewhat resembles a cub more than an adult lion's frightening look, anyway I like the design. (Next time I'll have a walk with my vacuum cleaner before making a review ) The tubes connected to the claws makes the feel that there is really something flowing in to them, I really like these parts. The contras of this set is that the rear part of the car is almost empty, there is a curvy back with stickers, a little place to stand for Lennox (a real cockpit would've been better) and the Chi holder, which is very simple, the cannons cover some area but if you look from behind it's still a bit naked. The play functions: Now that's where the set stands out! First there is the disk shooting mechanism wich works fantasticly, the disks fly a long distance before they hit anybodys eyeballs . You have to load them up into a hole at the back of the lionhead and you pull the trans blue plate at the back which loads a disk in to the rail, then release the plate and Bang!!! Then we have suspension for the wheels which is not common out of the world of Technic. For flick-fire lovers I have good news, but I don't think there is actually somebody who loves them (I hope TLG readsthis). Moreover the cannons can rotate up/down and left/right. Rating the set Design 8/10 The designers captured the lion-ish look very well, the great choice of colors make it mor authentic. The 2 minus points are for the naked back. Build 10/10: It was really fun and took a surprisingly long time. The BI is easy to follow with good color differentation (In spite of this I managed to miss a step ) and with little repetition. Parts: 9/10 There are tons of parts here in rare/new color, which can be useful for MOCers, I myself can't complain. Minifigs: 9/10: Both figures are excellent (especially Crug ), with beautiful paint job all over them but it's a shame that Lennox doesn't have a weapon. Price: 8/10: Its a bit high but you get Crug (he only appears in a polybag and in a big set of the summer wave) and a fun little vehicle with great play features. Overall: 44/50 I'am very satisfied with this set, a few weeks ago I couldn't have imagined that I'll be buying this but here I am and happy with my Chima set Great play functions, beautiful figs, nice lion looking vehicle, tons of fun. I hope you enjoyed my review and it help you decide whether to buy this or not. End of story.

http://www.polygon.c...daptations-from 3 titles: LEGO Legends of Chima: Speedorz, which is by TT Games and 4T2 and will be online and in the iOS app store tomorrow. Racing/battle themed. LEGO Legends of Chima: Laval's Journey, which will be released for PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS in the summer and Nintendo DS in the fall. LEGO Legends of Chima Online, a free-to-play online game by WB Games Montreal. I guess Legends of Chima video games were a bit of a foregone conclusion, but it's still a surprise to see just how many games are planned. Not sure what to expect of the third title, but as far as the first two are concerned, TT Games and 4T2 have offered up quality LEGO gaming in the past, so I expect great things.

I must admit I wasn't very convinced by this Legends of Chima theme when we first heard of it and saw some images. But, as it often happens, it has grown on me over time, and I started the year with a LEGO order including a couple of the smaller sets and one of the medium sized ones, to try it out, and eventually re-use them as parts packs. Let's see how it goes for set 70000 Razcal's Glider, the smallest of the line (excluding polybags). Theme: Legends of Chima Set name: Razcal's Glider Set Number: 70000 Price: 11.99 $, 7.99 £, 9.99 Euro Pieces: 109 (+ 8 extras) Minifigures: 1 Year of release: 2013 Links: Peeron, Bricklink and Brickset The Box Front This small set has an almost square box (size 14 x 12 x 4.3 centimetres, or 5.52 x 4.73 x 1.69 inches). The front of the box has a very eye-catching representation of the model in action on a Chima landscape background. The upper rim sports Razcal's snout as well as the standard set info, theme logo and LEGO logo. The lower left corner has the character shot we have come to know, first in Star Wars sets, and later in many other themes as well. The colours are vibrant and very evocative of action and adventure in (maybe over, here) a jungle environment. Back The back is a patchwork of small shots showing the model's features, with and unusual amount of text describing almost all of them. In the upper right corner, the character can be seen in action pose; notice that while Razcal's weapon is 'buildable', as described on the box itself. Side(s) The only interesting side of the box (the others sport the usual legal and safety writings) is the upper one, with Razcal's 1:1 mug shot. Contents Inside The box contains two bags of different sizes, two instruction booklets and a no sticker sheet. Not bad for a set this size. The parts assortment is dominated by darker colours, mainly Black and Dark Red, with some Dark Bley and Purple in the mix. Blue, Bley, White, Brown and some varied Transparent hues complete the palette. New pieces New parts included in this small set are: Black Tile 1 x 2 with White Fangs and Dark Red Pattern, Black and Purple Wing 9L with Stylized Feathers, Light Bley Barb Large Flexible (Claw, Horn), and Trans Light Blue Rock 1 x 1 Crystal 4 Point (CHI crystal) [curiously absent from the Brickset inventory page]. Rare parts Parts collectors and MOCers will be interested in the following rare parts also: Blue Pneumatic Hose Connector with Axle Connector (only in 2 other sets so far: 8110 Mercedes-Benz Unimog U 400 and 9448 Samurai Mech), and Purple Minifig, Weapon Crescent Blade, Serrated with Bar (only in 5 other sets so far: 4 Ninjago 2012 sets and 70100 Ring of Fire). The usual extra bits include small Technic parts, some round plates and tiles, a cheese slope in Purple, a small bone and a horn, a robot arm and a small 1x1 tile. Instructions As already mentioned, the instructions are divided into 2 small booklets, as seems to be common in smaller sets nowadays. The instructions are standard fare for a the current trend. Most pages include one step that uses 1 or 2 pieces at a time (here we have a majestic 3 parts in one step!). I'm sure this explains the need for 2 booklets in such a small set as this one. The parts' summary is split in two non-adjacent pages. I suppose someone in Billund had a hard time trying to squeeze all the parts in one page, or to spread them on the two pages to make them look more full. In the end he/she must have give up, and left almost one quarter of the second page blank. I'll skip the ad pages shots since those are perfect replicas of the one in all the other Legends of Chima sets. Minifigure In this pic you can see the main parts of the Razcal minifigure. Not shown here are the armour piece and the feathered wings that are attached to it. As we know, LEGO designers put a lot of effort in these figures, and I think they hit the mark pretty well. I really like this Raven figure, which sports fantastic details and is not too specialised to be re-used in other themes, especially Castle and Fantasy, in my opinion. From the side, we can see how the head piece is shaped to be reminiscent of the actual animal it is based on. I think the LEGO designers did a great job with these parts and they add a lot to the LoC theme. Also, notice the discussed piercing and the 'gold plating' of Razcal's beak. A better shot of the helmet and full figure from the front, without the armour. The above pictures show the difference between the two sides of the dual face head, and the back printing of the torso. Personally, I think the second expression is somewhat comical. It looks like Razcal just discovered a big mistake in the Ravens' accounts. [For those who did not read his bios on the LoC site, Razcal is the Raven Tribe accountant.] Building Start We start by building the base of the cockpit, with a mix of Black and Dark Red for the main structure and a bit of Brown to simulate a leathery seat (do Ravens skin their enemies from the other Tribes?). By the end of book one, we have a general idea of the overall shape of the glider. I really like the beak and the tail support part. The very strange bit is the bone used as a control lever. Adding limbs Next phase includes the addition of supports for the talons and the use of few technic parts for the 'hidden' play feature of this set. Yup, the flick-fire missile piece attached to the chain is the 'hidden' play feature. It is stored under the rear end of the glider and, when you push the front cannon (or trans-red cone), it poops pops out! Finished set By adding the wings and tail parts, we complete the set. The overall feel is pretty nice, and it is quite swoosh-able, too. The only con is the wing parts have a slightly loose connection, and may rotate a bit when provoked (i.e., when friction with the air is barely more than a gentile breeze). Action ready? Indeed, that of a thief is no easy life. Imagine being a burglar who approaches his prey on a (more or less) stealth glider. You land, dismount, get ready to attack... And have to stop, pick up few odds and ends from the glider, combine them together, and only then you have your weapon ready. But wait, things get even worse when you have to take flight again: you're running, hunted by those you stole from, and you'd need to take off as fast as possible, only, you need to take apart your weapon, re-attach the pieces to the glider in order to have it in working conditions, and only then you can go! See, no easy life at all. Final comments Overall, this is a nice little set, full of interesting parts (mainly the new wing pieces and printed parts), with a fair amount of play value and a really excellent (albeit weird for some) figure. Design & Colour scheme – 9/10 (Very well proportioned and efficient. The colour scheme works well both for a raven shaped vehicle and its stealth/thief function.) Minifig – 10/10 (Superb printing and funny animal structure make this character very collection worthy.) Parts – 8/10 (Nice variety of useful parts, a discreet amount of new pieces, including two cool printed ones. Not bad at all for such a small set.) Playability – 9/10 (The play features are funny both for kids and not-too-serious adults. I spent some time swooshing the set around and trying the various positions allowed to the control surfaces of the wings.) Build – 8/10 (Nothing too complex, but some efficient solutions are used. I especially like the beak and tail shapes.) Price – 10/10 (The pieces/price ratio is good, and the addition of the very detailed minifig make this a very good set to buy.) Overall: 9/10 Excellent As always, questions, comments, and pic requests welcome! If you like my reviews, and would like to learn how it's done, please consider joining the Reviewers Academy:

It's time to review another Legends of Chima Ultrabuild (which I will now call Chima Builds for the sake of simplicity)! This time, it's Cragger, the evil warlord of the crocodile clan. While I was looking forward to get Eris mostly because of her eagle motif, Cragger got mine attention for the same reasons I got Ogrum: His colours. In addition to dark green (or Metru green, as some of us call it in memory of Toa Matau), Cragger brings yet another green to the constraction line, a dark olive green, somewhere between dark and lime green. But is a new colour the only thing that Cragger offers? Let's find out in this review. Set name: Chi Cragger Set Number: 70203 Price: 14.99 Euro Pieces: 68 Year of release: April 2013 (Europe), apparently August 2013 (USA) The bag While Cragger's bag uses the same blue frame as Eris (and all other Chima Builds), Cragger himself glows red rather than blue, just to make clear that he's evil (and maybe even a Sith Lord? After all, one of his blades glows red as well...). Since the building instructions use the same picture I'll talk about more about it later. The back of the bag. Unsurprisingly, the layout is the same as on Eris' bag: Cragger is standing in a landscape, and you can spot Laval in the background. Funnily enough, to me it looks like Cragger is smiling, while Laval looks seriously pissed off (Apparently he doesn't like happy crocodiles - what a jerk!). Left to this is a picture of the combiner using Cragger and Worriz, and below all this is a little comic showing how Cragger unleashes his powerful Chi form to beat Laval up. Well, maybe Chi Laval looks so angry in the upper picture because he's about to get back at Cragger... Uhm, I think I interpret waaay too much into all this stuff going on there. I guess it's time to open the bag, right? The parts If I didn't made any mistakes while counting the pieces on this picture, Cragger contains 68 parts. That's 2 parts less than Eris, but on the other hand, Cragger comes with quite a few rather large pieces. Being a crocodile-themed charachter, Cragger is mostly dark green, olive green and gunmetal, just like a real-life crocodile (well, aside from the gunmetal of course). Note that Cragger uses the larger torso skeleton. Cragger's head deserves special mention even among the Chima Builds since it's two separate pieces, the skull and the lower jaw. Both pieces look very nice (Cragger even got a scar on across his right eye) and got some printing here and there. The other side of the head reveals the ball socket, which faces backwards just like Eris' did. Cragger's Chi plate. Note that the Chi sphere is located on the left half of it, not the right as it was in Eris' case. And there's the new sword piece Cragger comes with. I think it's been a while since we got a blade that looks so brutish. Unfortunately, the improvement I mentioned within Eris' axe blades doesn't apply to these swords - the blades are slightly bend. Probably due to their size and the fact that they are packed into bags along with plenty other pieces. Pictures of interest from the instructions Ah, the cover. I really like the design of the Chima covers, with all the glowing energy and the lovely backgrounds. Cragger's cover also really inspired my imagination. Can you see all the little green drops? It looks like Cragger just bursted from below the swamp water to attack his clueless enemy - just like a real crocodile! Well, except for the fact that real crocodiles usually don't wield giant halberds. Here's another look at Cragger's combiner. There's also that neat picture of Laval and Cragger duking it out using their Chi Forms (and before you ask - no, there wasn't anything like that in Eris' instructions ). Building the set Cragger's anatomy leads to a few tweaks from the usual formula of building constraction sets. After putting some stuff (a grey connector on the front, and a small bone piece for the tail) on his torso and building the legs, you put some bones on his shoulders. Which get then connected above the ball joint (which is usually reserved as the neck joint). Then he gets his head, which is connected via the other small bone to the three other bones (which eventually resulted in Cragger's long crocodile neck). Next is his tail. I think this picture shows how it is assembled. While this picture shows what it looks like once it's assembled. After the tail, we move up a tiny bit and cover Cragger's back with gunmetal armour. Then we continue with his weapon. First the staff in the center... ...then the tip of the halberd. The lower part consits only the other gunmetal blade, and then we get... The finished set Behold! The evil Cragger has unleashed his powerful Chi form! Oh yeah right, spare parts. Design and playability Thanks to his extended neck and the nicely patterned colour scheme, Cragger clearly rocks the crocodile thing. His poseability, however, is kind of a mix bag. The extended neck and the tail are very poseable (and thus add a great deal to the fun of posing this guy), but on the other hand, the articulation of his arms is severly limited due to his dual-held weapon. That is something that already annoyed me with Vastus back then - a dual-held weapon is only fun if the character has open hands and can alter the grip of the weapon. This way however, is really hard to put Cragger in poses where he can actually use his weapon (or put him in a pose where neither of his hands is bent in an awkward way). Another thing I'd like to mention are the coloured parts. Cragger's lower legs and arms are olive green bones which don't use any additional shells. That actually helps to give Cragger a crocodile-like appearance, since crocodiles have rather sleek limbs compared to their somewhat fat bodies. Besides, coloured bones are always an instant win to me. Also, having a covered back is yet another great plus for his design. Okay, he got a hole between the two shells, only due to his huge crocodile neck. Cragger's head also adds to the joy of posing him thanks to the moveable jaw (a feature that is strangely not highlighted on his bag - after all, Ogrum's packaging even praised the swinging mace as an action feature). The joint itself is ratcheted and can be placed in 4 positions (closed mouth and after that from "slightly open" to "I'll eat you as a whole" open). His extended neck can look a bit awkward from certain angles due to having no shells there though . Since I don't own any other Chima sets than Eris' Eagle Interceptor I don't have a mini figure of Cragger to compare the Chi Form with. But judging from pictures, the only noteworthy differences between the two are the colours of his armour and weapon (Cragger's spear is golden, and his clothing is dark red) and the lack of a cape (which reminds me that someone here on Eurobricks guessed back then that the Chima Builds might reuse Furno XL's cape). But aside from that, Cragger is quite close to his normal form. The size comparison with Eris surprised me, since I expected Cragger to be slightly smaller than Eris. They are however roughly the same size since Eris got longer legs while Cragger got a taller torso and longer neck. (and yes, both their heads have their problems when they try to look around) Bonus pic! I modded Cragger to hold his weapon with only one hand. A rather simple mod which makes posing Cragger easier (and thus, more fun). Final thoughts Cragger. Is. Awesome! He comes with a new colour, nice new parts, a cool head and a quite refreshing building experience, and his only downside is the rather shoddy poseabilty of his arms due to the design of his weapon. All in all, he's a fantastic set, and I honestly recommend you to get him. Be it for the colours, be it for the head, be it for the blades, or all those things together - he's definitely worth your money.

I've been a member on Eurobricks for something like 3 years now. It was also 3 years ago when my local LEGO store opened. But I'm still absolutely clueless about new releases until I spot them on the store shelves. And that happened just earlier this week when I found out that TLG already released the Legends of Chima Ultrabuilds here in Germany (though in my defense I should mention that I was kinda busy being on a convention last weekend). Well, it's been a while since TLG had two original constraction lines at the same time in their sortiment. Back then it was Knight's Kingdom, a fantasy theme about knights (as the name suggests) which coexisted with LEGO's well-known more sci-fi Bionicle franchise. After the rather mediocre sells of both the Ben 10 and Superhero Ultrabuilds TLG decided to make Ultra Builds for the already established Legends of Chima line (which is the successor to the incredibly successful Ninjago). But instead going for Laval or Cragger, I decided to get Eris first - despite the fact that her Ultra Build was already criticized for various reasons. But how much of the critic stands true? Let's find out (after this incredibly long intro). Set name: Chi Eris Set Number: 70201 Price: 14.99 Euro Pieces: 70 Year of release: April 2013 (Europe), apparently August 2013 (USA) The bag Just like the Hero Factory sets, the Chima Ultrabuilds come packed in nice resealable bags. The front of the bag shows Eris flying through the skies of Chima with a floating island behind her (which just reminds me of the floating islands which were here and there part of the displays in various stores - those things were simple but very cool designed). You can also spot Eris minifigure head in the upper right of the bag, hinting that this is her super-powered version. Urgh, making a picture of the back was a pain. But to make sure that you can appreciate it properly... I decided to scan it this time after I emptied the box bag. The big picture shows Chi Eris in her natural environment (she didn't got any action features we got used to with the past waves of Hero Factory, so there's plenty of room for a beatiful landscape - oh, there's also Chi Worriz in the background!), and below that there's a mini comic showing how Eris goes Super Saiyan to kick Worriz' butt (I'm surprised it's Worriz, not Razar though). There's also a picture of the combiner model which requires Eris and Laval. Oh, and there's of course also the chunk of legal text. And the choking hazard in plenty of languages. What would be a review of mine without a size comparison of the packaging? Eris' bag is roughly the same size as the bags of Deluxe sets like Ogrum. Enough about the bag, let's take a look inside! The parts Eris comes with 70 parts (10 parts more than Ogrum, though Eris costs 2€ more). As you can see, she comes with lots of bones, white shells, transblue shells and a few golden pieces. Overall a nice collection of parts, though there aren't many recolours or new parts. Let us start with highlighting the most exclusive part to this set - Eris' head. If you compare it with the minifigures head you'll probably notice that this head looks far less feminine. In fact, it looks radically different from it. I wouldn't say it looks necessary masculine but rather has an ambiguous gender. Given that generic look I wouldn't be surprised if TLG will use this head again in a future set (and I'd be more than happy if this set would be Eglor). If you put aside the issue with the resemblance to Eris (or the lack of resemblance), it looks actually quite cool and would be great for MOCing. This picture was supposed to show the nostrils on the beak, but it's blurry. Oh well. The top of the head. One thing of interest is the connector of the head. It doesn't face downwards but backwards. Like all Chi Builds (except Gorzan, who got the Hulk chest), Eris comes with a recoloured version of the super hero chest which features a printed pattern. While I was a bit disappointed with this piece (I'm not a fan of printed pieces, and I don't like the asymmetrical design of it), it grew on me while I was building her because it shines really nice. I suppose TLG decided against placing the Chi sphere in the middle of the chest due to the shape of the part. However, I wish TLG had gone the extra mile to give them unique torso plates similiar to those of the 2.0 heros instead of printed shells. But that was probably not in the budget. The new blade piece, which are used in Eris' battle axe. The shape of this piece is very versatile, which is a big plus for MOCing purposes. In case you were wondering, this piece is in the same blue as Stormer XL's swords. Oh, and one thing I forgot to take a picture of... The mold for these blades features a minor improvement over Stormer's (or Furno's) swords: The blades aren't bend, which results in an even axe blade for Eris. Eris' wings itself aren't new since they were already featured in a few Chima sets (mostly Eris' eagle jet), but the colours are new. Chi Eris got 4 golden and 2 white wings. It's a very nice piece, and I hope to see it in even more colours in the future. A few pictures of interest from the instructions The cover. Same as the bag minus the age recommendation (Geez, I'm 23 years too old for those... ). Yet another picture of the combiner. I haven't checked yet if the instructions are already online (which reminds me I have to check if the instructions for the Brain Attack combiners are online - I wanted to try Breez'/Ogrum's combiner out!). A few pictures of the instructions are dedictated to ads, showing the rest of the Chima line. This page shows all six Chi Builds in action. Oh dear, I'm so getting Cragger just for the colours and the neat head sculpt. Building the set Eris' build starts pretty much the same way as every HF build does. First she gets a part attached to her back and after that the legs are built. Then the legs get already armour and the arms are built. And here's the rest of her armour. Then there comes the head. Due to the socket and it's shape, Eris needs a separate piece for her neck. But every eagle needs wings, and they are the next step (the piece in the front is the wing skeleton without shells). And after attaching the wing bones to her back... ...she gets her wings! Now it's time to build Eris' axe. This is the upper part, which includes a fair share of TECHNIC pieces. Once finished you put it in Eris right hand. Then comes the lower part of the axe. This picture contains probably the most complex assembling I ever took a picture of. I hope you can figure out how it works. ... Okay, enough sarcasm. If you attach the lower section of the axe to Eris' hand as well, it will result in... The finished set So yeah, here we have Eris, leader of the eagle tribe, in her powerful Chi form. (and a few spare parts too) Design and playability Eris uses practically the same build as most HF sets did in the past three years, so she offers of course a fair deal of poseability. Her bright and vivid colourscheme looks also very cool and is well patterned across her body. However, similiar to some other Ultra Builds (like Big Chill or Iron Man), her head has a few issues regarding its poseability. You see, due to the feathers on her neck Eris isn't able to look downward. At least she can look upward, which is important for flying poses. One thing I don't like about her however are the wings, and this is mostly because of the wing bones. Eris' wings look very skeletal, and the very large bones don't help matters either. It's also nigh impossible to pose her wings in a relaxed position that looks good. I think Eris would look better if TLG had shorten the wing bones but had added the wings in a slightly different way which would put them closer together. Though to be fair, Razar has the same issue (although one could argue that the skeletal look works better for him, being an evil raven and such). I do however like the design of her legs. The lack of shell armour helps to give off the impression of sleek, bird-like legs, though it would be even better if her lower legs (or at least her clawed feet) wouldn't be black, but yellow, orange or even gold instead - it's really a pity that only Cragger (and arguably Gorzan, since he's mostly black anyway) can benefit from recoloured bones for his build. Her axe looks very cool though. Makes me wonder though how TLG got the idea to give the winged character an axe. And said character is also mostly white and blue. You know, all these things apply to my Self-MOC as well (although my Self-MOC got silver, not gold, has no animal motif and is male). Crazy coincidence, eh? Here's a comparison between Eris Minifigure form and her Chi form. Many people complained about how much Eris Chi form differs from her default appearance, and I have to agree here. It's partly because of the colours (like the much brighter blue of her minifigure), but also because of the rather masculine look of her Chi form. Of course, this stems mostly from the head (Eris' head is dominated by round shapes, and there also her round eyes, which make her look absolutely adorable, while the Chi head has sharp edges, looks dead serious and lacks any pupils), but I also think that Eris' overall design could had been at least slightly more feminine. For example, I wonder why TLG didn't used the Breakout torso armour for her, it's sleeker than the 2.0 armour, and let's face it, both look rather robotic. Here's a size comparison with a few HF sets. Eris is visibly taller than Breez and Ogrum (though Ogrum is a bit short when it comes to Deluxe sets anyway), but she's still a head smaller than Furno XL. Final thoughts Let me be honest here, Eris is not the best transition of a mini figure into an Ultrabuild figure. Be it the differences to her normal form, the ambiguity about her gender in this form or the design of the wings, the poor girl got a few issues. But aside from this, she's a cool set to have. Pretty much all of her parts have great potential for MOCing, especially if you desire to build something different than a robotic warrior (or at least someting that doesn't have a robotic head). I would recommend her if you like eagles or still need more white, blue and gold after Surge, Stormer, Frost Beast and Jet Rocka (I guess the next Brain Attack wave will hit shelves in mid summer both in Europe and the US, but I'm just guessing - so it's still possible that these will be released first in the US too). Otherwise you're probably better off with one of the other sets of this line (or even one of the smaller Chima sets - I seriously recommend you Eris' eagle jet, that thing is fun).

My goodness, it's been a while since I've been on EB. Anyway, I recently purchased the LoC set Ultimate Speedorz Tournament, and noticed a rather amusing error. The instructions tell you to put two buzz saw pieces on Laval's Speedor and two axe blades on Cragger's. However, Laval's "Tratratrax" card depicts the axe attachment that Cragger is instructed to receive, while Cragger's "Grapt" card shows a grappling hook attachment that isn't even included in the set. The buzz saws don't get a card whatsoever. My nephew and niece are both intrigued by the Speedorz gameplay and have made sure that I noticed the error and corrected it fr them - I MoCed up a "Grapt" to attach to Cragger's Speedor and have given the "Tratratrax" to Laval's Defendor XII. This means I get two more buzz saws for MoCing... Too bad I have tons of them and barely any grappling hooks! =P

We have had the MT-201 Ultra-Drill Walker, the Ultra Sonic Raider and now we have the Ultra Striker. It would seem LEGO designers associate the image of more or less behemoth-sized tank-like vehicles in their action themes with the word 'Ultra'. Will Equila's ride live up to the role? Theme: Legends of Chima [Exclusive] Set name: Equila's Ultra Striker Set Number: 70501 Price: 39.99 $, 39.99 £, 39.99 Euro Pieces: 339 (+ 8 extras) Minifigures: 3 Year of release: 2013 Links: Peeron, Bricklink and Brickset This is the biggest Legends of Chima set I got so far. I must admit the main focus for me were the great figures. I especially like the Dark Blue Eagle (Eglor) and the Black Wolf (Wilhurt). Moreover, the vehicle has appealing aesthetics and looks like a good parts pack. That said, let's have a closer look to this flying tank used by an Eagle tribe in the middle of a mythical jungle world. The Box Front The front of the box shows a shot of the set in action. We have Wilhurt escaping with a CHI crystal in front of a rampaging Ultra Striker, while Eglor monitors the situation from the sky. All of which happens on a jungle background. I'd like to focus your attention on the background for a moment, as I noticed what looks like a fairly rare attention to detail in the photo composition. Look at the right side of the scene: the forest is blurred, due to the speed of the running wolf and the chasing eagles. Now look at the left side: the jungle in the distance is still, as can be expected by something far enough from the action. I'm not sure if this strategy has been implemented by LEGO box designers in other cases, but I seem to remember mostly static backgrounds with the action and blurs limited to the foreground set and minifigs only. Logos and set info complete the art, as always. Back The back shows the various play features of the set. We can have Wilhurt steal the CHI from a parked and unguarded Ultra Striker, with Equila getting all work up when he finds out, or we can suppose the eagle was hiding in the cockpit (not much space for that, but we'll talk about it later), and make him jump out at the last moment to stop the cunning wolf. If the wolf actually succeeds to get away, we can hunt him down with the Ultra Sticker and shoot our huge and painful missiles at him (try not to miss because you have only two shots!). Now come in the two most interesting features of the set: we can separate the cockpit from the main body and have it fly on its own (just like in Eris' Interceptor and Ninjago Ultra Sonic Rider's set); or, we can 'unfold' our wings and have the entire tank take flight. A flying tank (and not just a controlled fall one like in the latest A-Team film)! How cool is that? Sides The sides of the box sport the usual logos and legal notices. The upper side also shows a detailed view of the three characters with their weapons, with a 1:1 scaled mug shot of Equila. Contents Inside Upon opening the box, we find 3 numbered bags of parts, and another bag containing two rubber tracks (big version), two flexible ribbed hoses and one huge rubber tyre. The instruction booklets and sticker sheet will be discussed in the relevant section later on. Out of the bags As you can see in this quite jumbled mix of parts, the main colours are Blue and White, with minor Dark Blue, Azure, Yellow and Bley additions. Few Flat Silver, Pearl Gold, Red and (mainly big) Black parts complete the palette. New pieces New parts included in this small set are: Dark Azure and Dark Blue Wing 9L with Stylized Feathers, Light Bley Brick, Modified 1 x 2 with Studs on 1 Side (I consider this new from this year, even if it appeared in 79003 An Unexpected Gathering in late 2012), Pearl Gold Minifig, Weapon Sword, Double Blade with Bar Holder, and Trans Light Blue Rock 1 x 1 Crystal 4 Point (CHI crystal). The minifigures' parts also fall in this category, but are listed separately (see relevant section). Rare parts Parts collectors and MOCers will be interested in the following rare parts also: Blue Wedge, Plate 4 x 6 Cut Corners (returning in this colour for the first time after 10 years), and Trans-Clear Hose, Flexible Ribbed with 8mm Ends, 19L with Blue Center Pattern (finally crossing from Hero Factory to System LEGO sets via the Legends of Chima theme). Extra parts The usual bits and spares include: two blue half pins, one black pin with friction, a transparent light blue small round tile, one yellow half bush, one red bush, one pearl gold big teeth/claw and one flat silver spear. Colour consistency While most parts have good colour consistency, I noticed that the Yellow Wedge 3 x 4 with Stud Notches has a strangely lighter hue with respect to the other parts in the same colour (these are standard LEGO Yellow). I tried to photograph it, but I'm not sure it is evident in the pic; human eyes are still better than cameras' sensors in detecting slight colour variations. Minifigures The three minifigures included in this set are Equila (the Ultra Striker owner), his friend and ballistics expert Eglor, and fierce Wolf hunter Wilhurt. Here you can see the assortment of parts used to build them. Of course, the Eagles have nice body armours and look quite noble (as the myth depicts them, especially in American tradition). By comparison, Wilhurt looks like a wild un-civilized hunter (which I suppose is the aim of TLG designers with the Wolf tribe, though they gave them high tech vehicles like the speedorz and the Pack Tracker...). Here we have the figs with their accessories. I like the fact that TLG designers introduced a Dark Blue eagle to the tribe; it really adds variety. Wilhurt, too is an oddly coloured version of the mainly Bley and Dark Bley wolves. This armour part, as is now common knowledge is what allows the Chima bird charters to sport wings. I must say I like the look of it, and I appreciate that LEGO is producing more armour parts with studs on the front and back, as they allow a wider range of character customisation, and they can be used in other contexts also. Wing(s) in place. The vertical clip holds the wing bar to connect to the armour. It has been noticed that this configuration renders the figs quite bulk, and it is indeed true, but I feel it at least fits the theme well. In this front shot of the figs without armour and head piece, we can have a better look at the printing of the parts. I especially like Eglor's torso and legs, as his jump suit works really well in Dark Blue and I like the idea of a flying character wearing a jump suit, just like our air forces. Equila gets the second place in ornamentation and Wilhurt, the savage hunter ends dead last; this does not seem to make him happy at all. Looking at the facial expressions, all the characters are quite grim, but the wolf is clearly angry. Allow me a brief consideration. I've always been curious about Wilhurt's name since first I saw it. I'm wondering, is it a short version of 'He will hurt you'? It really seems possible, and I would not be surprised if, when we'll get to see him in the Legends of Chima TV series, the other wolves will be quite scared of him themselves. He seems like a lone hunter, berserker type of character, doesn't he? All three figs have printing on the back of the torso and head. I like how Wilhurt wears (or grows) a sort of fur cloak or mane on his back; it helps in adding detail to an otherwise plain part of his anatomy. Another little detail I appreciate is the fact that Eglor's second face does not wear the usual eagle goggles, but some sort of high-tech eye-glass. It fits well with his ballistics expert role in the eagle tribe. This last shot is a comparison between Equila (on the right) and Ewar (on the left; not included in this set). As it has already been mentioned on the net, the two share every single body part, with not one difference between the two except for the head piece (or mask). Equila has a tiny bit more of printing on the forehead there than Ewar. That's all. Instructions Following what seems to be the most recent LEGO policy for instructions, we have two instruction booklets. Though the set is on the medium/big side, the number of booklets is mainly due to the fact that few pieces are required for each building step, with even single-piece steps. I must admit, nonetheless, that TLG achieved a pretty good compromise with this set. The cover shows the same shot and artwork as the front of the box. The LEGO and Legends of Chima logos, set number and booklet number complete the layout. The stickers are of the clear back variety. I do not apply them, so I do not have any knowledge to share about their glue quality or the like. The only things I can say are: they look pretty neat and do not cover multiple elements. As already mentioned, the instructions are standard fare, with an almost solid sand blue background that neither distracts the eye from the build or plays havoc with colour recognition. The parts' callout neatly covers 3 pages (of which only the last two are shown in the pic above). Yep, there are quite a lot of different parts and colours in this set. The last pages, as we can easily predict, are dedicated to advertising. I decided to put here a pic of the fore last page, with the '4D Movie Xperience' ad, for those visiting LEGOLAND Discovery Centers and LEGOLAND Parks. The rest are Legends of Chima set and speedorz ads, plus the usual LEGO Club and WIN! images we have come to know (and sometimes hate) so well in the last years. Building Start The build starts with the cockpit. Nice and clean, it has a functional look to itself. The red bit will become almost invisible in the finished build. Unfortunately, TLG designers decided to use a new sticker, to apply on the yellow roof piece, for the onboard computer instead of resorting to an older printed brick. Once completed, the cockpit takes the shape of an eagle head, complete with sharp beak. The dark azure feathers serve as... ...wings for the stand-alone flight mode. I did not find the pose of the feathers in the standby mode to my taste, so I rotated them to get a sleeker look. From the back, we can see the pins that connect to cockpit to the main body of the Ultra Striker, and that serve as thrusters in the stand-alone mode, I suppose. The trans-orange bids help give this part a more interesting look, and may serve as warning light for when the cockpit manoeuvres to re-attach itself to the main body. The main body of the tank starts with a forked chassis, upon which we mount the rubber tracks and the rear giant wheel. At the end of instruction booklet one we attach the eagle claws and finish the chassis. Going up, we encounter a recent trend in LEGO sets: in a step we are required to use 4 4x2 white plates where a single 8x4 plate would have sufficed. I'm note sure if using 4 smaller parts helps in achieving better grip and sturdiness, or if this kind of move is only related to rising the piece count; it is not too clear in this case. Here are the wings (only lacking the shooters, which will be added once they are mounted on the vehicle's frame). Notice the two CHI crystals that power the Ultra Striker... ...via the trans-clear/blue ribbed hoses. I'm not familiar with Chima's mechanics and technology, but I really do not understand why the power source should be placed in the open, especially when it does not serve a second purpose as weapon and it is at the centre of a contest between the tribes. It's like advertising it and inviting any wannabe thief to try his/her hand at getting it from under your nose. Notice the yellow and red technic bricks? That's where the connectors on the back of the cockpit go. There is an 'hidden' technic axle that can be pushed from the back to make the cockpit pop out and take flight. Finished set Front By connecting the cockpit to the tank frame and adding the shooters, we complete the model. Notice how Equila has to get stripped of his wings to enter the cockpit. Now, while it's a nice idea to render the wings part of the vehicle's aesthetics and store them safely at the same time, I think I'd be quite annoyed if I had to chop off a body part to get into my car every day! Wing supports While I decided not to include side and back shots of the Ultra Striker in this review (for the simple reason that they can be found on LEGO.com with all ease), I think it can be interesting to focus our attention on some smaller details of the model. First up is the use of hinged 4x1 tiles to support the wings in flight mode. When you first assemble your set, you'll notice that the wings' connection has enough grip to keep them from falling down due to gravity. But then you have to add the shooters, which increase the wing weight in a significant way. The supports, normally hidden by the wings themselves, can then be raised and used to keep the wings in flight mode without ruining the model's aesthetics. I had to ask myself: why did TLG designers decide to go with this solution, and not use click hinges for the wings' connection in the first place? I suppose the reason is linked to the given range of mobility and destination poses the click hinges allow, which would keep the wings too high or too low in the rest position with respect to the body frame. Get yourself together, man! Wilhurt choose one of the worst moments to attack the Ultra Striker: being fairly new to this big toy, Equila is trying to link the cockpit to the tank frame, but it may take some time. All together Another consequence of the limited space inside the cockpit is that Equila has to leave his weapon behind each time he climbs onboard. Is that the real reason why Eglor accompanies him? Bonus images Job description That was when Eglor learnt why nobody wanted the 'Weapons specialist' job in the Eagle Tribe. Bed time tales When he was a cub, Wilhurt used to have nightmares about Little Red Riding Hood and her friend the Lumberjack. Bad time tales As an adult, Wilhurt instils nightmares in Little Red Riding Hood and her friend the Lumberjack. Final comments Overall, Equila' s Ultra Striker is a great set, full of play features and complete with three outstanding minifigs (for the fans of the series, at least) and an exclusive CHI-powered weapons as well as 2 CHI crystals themselves. Design & Colour scheme – 9/10 (Very well proportioned and efficient. The only con is the reduced space inside the cockpit. The colour scheme works very well, both for the eagle faction, and for a bird-like vehicle, with clear paint on the underneath and darker shades on the upper surfaces. The only strange bits are the red accents put here and there to emphasize the play features.) Minifig – 8/10 (A good selection of very detailed prints and a great attention to detail make these figs worth the extra money for this set. The only con I can see, and the reason why I lowered the grade for this voice, is that they have reduced use into other themes, with the possible exception of Eglor's jump suit.) Parts – 8/10 (Great variety of useful parts, and a reasonable amount of new pieces. I'm pretty sure will soon see many interesting MOCs using the big feathered wing pieces.) Playability – 10/10 (The movement of the tracks and rear wheel is smooth, the shooters work as good as they ever may, and the detachable cockpit is a nice [albeit not new] touch. The number of figures of opposing factions also provides ample spark for many interesting stories.) Build – 8/10 (Nothing too complex, but some efficient solutions are used, like the wing supports and talon claws.) Price – 6/10 (The main critical point in this set is its price. Given the piece count and number of figs, it should be in the same range as Eris' Interceptor and the Pack Tracker, so 5 Euros less than it is. I know this set is marked as 'Exclusive', but that does not seem reason enough to make it so price-y without an actual increase in parts count.) Overall: 8.2/10 Very good As always, questions, comments, and pic requests welcome! If you like my reviews, and would like to learn how it's done, please consider joining the Reviewers Academy:

Legend Beasts 70123 Lion Legend Beast 70124 Eagle Legend Beast 70125 Gorilla Legend Beast 70126 Crocodile Legend Beast 70127 Wolf Legend Beast Sets: 70128 Braptor's Wing Striker 70129 Lavertus' Twin Blade 70130 Sparratus' Spider Striker 70131 Rogon's Rock Flinger 70132 Scorm's Scorpion Stinger 70133 Spinlyn's Cavern 70134 Lavertus' Outland Base Speedorz: 70136 Banana Bash 70137 Bat Strike 70138 Web Dash 70139 Sky Launch 70140 Stinger Duel Scorpions! I can only assume Lavertus is a new Lion. Though what about Laval and Eris and the other "main" characters? From "Darth_tater", thanks! -Sci

Hello everyone, This polybag review ought to be shared with all of you in a few months ago, since my last visit to LEGOLAND Malaysia in September 2013 and this polybag was part of my shopping basket. I am pleased to pick this up quickly and polybags do not come so easily at times, so I just pick it without hesitation. Let's see if this polybag is worth the effort and value. Name: 30252 Crug's Swamp Jet Theme: LEGO System / Legends of Chima Year: 2013 Pieces: 23 Minifigs: 1 minifigure Price: USD N.A, GBP N.A, EURO N.A, SGD $8.00, RM 19.90 Resources: Brickset, BrickLink An original polybag image of the 30252 Crug's Swamp Jet Back view of the original polybag image of the 30252 Crug's Swamp Jet Ready for some fast speedy water action? This will be a short and comprehensive review. More importantly, this polybag served as an appetiser for any LEGO individuals who are unsure of this new Legends of Chima LEGO Theme. This polybag will allow you to have a good insight and deeper appreciation of the new minifigures designing concept which is largely based on the animal tribes rivalry over the control of 'chi' crystals. In this context, this polybag is all about the aquatic deployment of the swamp jet for the Crocodile Tribe. Instruction Manual (Front) Instruction Manual (Back) The LEGO building content These are the laid out content of building up this lovely little new LEGO Legends of Chima polybag set. The building process is quick and fast. It probably take the builder less than five minutes to finish building. After the built is completed, this is the only remaining spare part. My name is Crug and I belonged to the Croc tribe Crug's body structure revolved around the minifigure scale and the outer layer features his crocodile physical characteristics. The level of details is highly recognised, coupled with the fact that it comes with back printing and double head printing. These details are welcoming to know. Crug has appeared in just a few LEGO sets and not to mention that he has his very own new Speedorz set as well. My only complaint is the lack of weapon for Crug. It could be much complete in this manner The completed built of the Swamp Jet After completing the built of the Swamp Jet, you may find the entire design to be very simplistic. True enough, it utilise less than 30 bricks to construct this Swamp Jet and yet an individual can still readily recognise the direct usage of it. The overall colour schema made use of grey, red and dark olive green combination which is the primary colour of the Crocodile Tribe. On a whole approach, this is certainly an effective simplistic Swamp Jet that can be quickly deployed to respond towards water skirmishes. Lifting the front of the Swamp Jet The front of the Swamp Jet can be lifted upwards. Somehow or another, I find it quite familiar and able to relate it to the crocodile jaws. Where shall I place the 'CHI' crystal in order to power up my Swamp Jet? To conclude, I am very satisfied with this polybag design and more importantly, it is able to provide me a greater insight to the Crocodile Tribe minifigure in terms of seeing and appreciating the in-depth design features. This also allow me to obtain Crug in an inexpensive manner without buying regular LEGO sets. All in all, I will encourage you to grab this without second thought only if the pricing is very very reasonable. Otherwise, it's alright to give it a miss. Summary review Playability: 6/10 (The Swamp Jet can be deployed in many water battles quickly.) Design: 7/10 (Limited parts and simplistic design but able to utilise the parts well.) Price: 8/10 (The price that I paid for, is quite reasonable for a polybag price.) Overall: 7/10 (Grab this polybag if you are able to find it reasonably priced.) I gave it a "4" based on my Review Score Card. What about yours? I hope every one of you enjoyed reading this simple review of mine. Comments and Criticisms are strongly welcomed. Pictures can be found in My Flickr and My Brickshelf (When moderated)