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REVIEW 70007 - EGLOR'S TWIN BIKE Taking flight on the wings of…jet engines and motor fuel? Theme: Legends of Chima Pieces: 223 Price: USD 24.99 / £19.99 Links: BrickLink / Brickset Sleek, polished and fast with a futuristic look, the Twin Bike sports an air of unparalleled coolness in the Chima universe. You can almost feel the wind blow right through the wing-like structures on the bike, hear the engines rove as the Chi fuels its wheels and sends it down the road with the furious roar of a mean machine. Not to be left behind, Eglor, the Eagle Tribe minifigure in this set is just as cool as his bike, and this duo is surely well worth the buy. Eglor has also appeared in a smaller and cheaper Speedorz set (70105). Read on to see why this set is more worth it than the Speedorz set if you want to get Elgor. Packaging: Front Box Art Let’s start from the beginning. You get a giant picture of a bike running down the road, while Razcal the raven is flying a copter while attacking Eglor. The question of why a raven needs a flying machine in order to fly will be answered later (or at least I’ll try to). What you’ll probably be noticing is the corner of the box showing the bike in its jet mode. And yes, it does look as cool as it looks on the box (more on that later). Back of the Box You can see more of the jet mode in the back, along with the transformation steps that are really, really simple. Oh, and again there’s Razcal the bird using a copter to fly. The box looks great, attractive and all, but let’s get to the set itself!!! Contents: Breaking out the insides of the box Look! Two numbered bags (with smaller bags inside each of them), two giant plastic wheels, a sticker sheet and an instructions booklet. There’s only three stickers on the sheet, which is great for those who don't like putting them on. The stickers do look great though, as will be seen later. The instruction booklet contains the usual instructions, ads and minifig sheet, all of which I'm not going to be showing here. Let’s begin with Bag 1! Bag 1 contents Here you’ll get the bricks needed for building Razcal’s mini-copter, the wheel-base of the Twin Bike and of course, the minifigures themselves. Some of the more interesting pieces You get some shiny metallic parts in this bag, along with Chima’s purple wing pieces and two light-blue Technic wheels. Funny how those wheels are used as steering wheels in giant Technic sets instead of, you know, wheels. This color that the wheel comes in though is exclusive to this set, and has only appeared here so far. Minifigures: Eglor’s front side And heeeere’s Eglor! At least, the front of him without the mask. There is only one word to use for his minifig – amazing. Just take a closer look at his torso and legs. He’s in full military-like garb, with holsters overlapping his chest plate, and he's sporting a six pack underneath all that. I didn’t know birds could have six-packs. Oh well. The belt is also painted in detail, while the holsters continue to the legs, ending with a knee-guard and some yellow claws at the feet. It’s holster-overload, but that’s what makes him look great! The entire dark-blue scheme works beautifully with the silvery white and dark-grey equipment. Wonderful color arrangement, and wonderful design. Eglor has freckles on his light-blue face, and he’s looking kind of serious here, unlike his TV series counterpart where every character is bright, high-pitched and cheery (no offense to the show). Eglor’s helmet piece is in the same dark blue color, different than the usual white of other minifigs from the Eagle Tribe. It’s simply patterned with white stripes, but it’s effective nonetheless. The beak yellow looks a bit thin and faded at first, oftentimes looking like it has mixed with the blue, making it look like bad printing quality. But you get used to the look after a while and actually feels that it matches Eglor. Eglor’s back side and alternate (awesome) face Eglor’s alternate face shows a whole new side of awesomeness. Just check out that monocle!!! He still retains that angry serious look on his face, but it feels different and looks cooler thanks to the red monocle. I can see him being used in a lot of ways, steampunk coming first to my mind. The armor extends to the back (I love how the armor follows his spine structure), and so does the belt and holster. The helmet itself is the same on both sides. Eglor all geared up And thus he grew wings. And a Chi armor. And he looks great. There's nothing much to be said about this character other than he's amazing. The front side of the helmet has the same white pattern. Notice how Eglor’s freckles still show underneath his helmet? That is some great detail. You can feel the character bursting out of this guy. The wings are white, and it’s a nice contrast to his overall blue color. Both faces look great in the helmet. Eglor is definitely one of the best Chima minifigs out there and a must-get for collectors. He's so different from the other tribal Chima characters, it’s as if he came from the future with all his soldier-like equipment and looks! Eglor’s Chi weapon Here’s him with his weapon that looks like a Chi-powered Nunchuck/Bolas (you know, the kind you use to throw at animals and catch them). It’s a bit unwieldy for playing, but it looks great for poses. I wish that there’s some compartment in the Twin Bike to store this weapon, rather than having it kept separately. It sure looks like it'll come in handy during close combat when out of the bike. Razcal’s front side Moving onto the next minifigure, here’s Razcal from the raven tribe. He appeared before in his solo set, Razcal's Glider (70000), so he’s not that exclusive either. The Ravens are almost always excessively equipped and wonderfully so. The Chi chest piece looks great, and Razcal has a little pouch dangling off his torso, in reference to his status as tribe accountant. His face looks menacingly good with the reds all around. Funny how his helmet doesn’t show them though, and it’s even funnier how the beak on his face doesn’t have the same gold plating as it does on the helmet. His helmet itself is awesome; one of my favorite Raven Tribe helmets. Notice that the metal plating on his beak is just an attachment, not the actual beak himself. The rings around his eyebrows and beak ridge adds a nice touch to his character too. I’m going to go ahead and call him Metalbeak from now on. Metalbeak, ahem, Razcal's back side. Whoa! Looks like Razcal’s either cranky, freaked out, or just that he drank too much coffee. Or maybe he really did freak out after seeing the tribe's financial charts plummet to the ground. Either ways, it’s really different from his other face, which is good. His beak is slightly open here and it makes for a pleasant variation. The details on the pouches are also nice, with small glimpses of money/gold coins showing out of his overstuffed pouches. The helmet looks the same but with only two rings. Razcal in gear Black wings, amazing helmet and face combination, this figure is frankly terrifying and awesome. The shiny metal beak looks amazing from the front. Sadly though, Chima’s new armor piece covers up almost all of the front torso, hiding all the details that make the character look good. The bird tribes would naturally have wings, so it’s a pity that their armor covers up the details. This new armor’s shoulder pads look like some animal’s paws, which is pretty cool. Razcal with his weapon It looks like a bowgun-ish weapon, or maybe just a gun with horns on the side. It’s a nice little weapon for Razcal, albeit a bit too bulky. It’s decent that Chima sets have customized brick-built weapons, but they hinge on the side of awesomeness and downright ridiculousness. This one’s in between. Vehicles: Razcal’s copter A simple and small build, Razcal’s copter has this makeshift look to it, and it’s very Raven Tribe-like, not only necessarily because of its purple wings. The build of this vehicle is simple, but also interesting in some parts, like the way they built the flip-sided 1x2 plate to attach it to Razcal. Razcal attached to the copter So...Razcal’s minifigure is actually different from his previous set (70000), because in this set, his wings are attached to an additional 1x2 plate for ease of removal. His armor then fits to the copter securely, and it works nicely. Just one thing though…a raven that detaches his wings and uses a copter to fly…? The only explanation I can come up with is that he needs to fly at a faster speed, like Eglor with his jet. But a makeshift copter? The wings are pretty wobbly when you start spinning, and I doubt that a copter can catch up with a jet. Anyways, it’s a nice side addition to the set, but I feel like the designers could have done something more than this. Kids would surely grow tired of this tiny copter when they're aching for a more worthy enemy for Eglor's bike. Basic skeleton of the bike Bag 1 contains the basic build of the Twin Bike, with plenty of Technic parts used, much like other Chima sets. The turntable base is the main part used to transform the bike into a jet. Somewhat interesting Technic pieces This is somewhat interesting. I don’t play into Technic sets often, so having this yellow pin was new for me. After looking it up, it turns out that this almost never appears in normal LEGO sets other than serious Technic ones. It's probably used for motors or such...I don't know. Here though, it half-fits the grey piece and is used to hold the wheel in place to the basic skeleton of the bike. Base of the bike done Here’s the wheels and extra parts attached. The light blue ring looks great and even gives it that TRON look for some people, and I take it that it’s the Chi powering the wheels. Other side of the base The other side of the bike has been criticized by some to be…ugly, or not uniform to the bike’s blue wheels. I disagree for that fact that this is a transforming LEGO bike, and this side would be the underside of the jet. It makes sense, it looks fine and neat enough, so no complaints about that. The trans-blue piece extends to the back, giving it that Chi effect again. Pretty neat and consistent. Leftover parts from Bag 1 Some transparent pieces, technic pieces, a claw and a shaft. Nothing special here. Moving on to Bag 2! Contents of Bag 2 Right off the bat you can see that this contains the main body of the Twin Bike. The dark blue and white mixes well, along with the yellow beak standing out of the pile. Parts are well varied here, with a lot of engine parts, connectors and wings. Yes, more wings. Wings Aside from the orange wings from Razcal’s copter, we get two white and three blue wings, much like Eris’ Eagle Interceptor. Not a lot, but it’s still nice to have these since they're only released in Chima sets so far. The cockpit Following Chima’s well-known animal-like vehicles, the Twin Bike’s cockpit is in the shape of an eagle-head, and it's well done here as you can see. The sticker go to the head, and it looks cool, so I recommend putting it on if you don’t mind stickers. The cockpit then fits onto a stand to attach it to the rotating base of the bike. Completed bike base Here’s the base of the bike completed with the engines and two Chi crystals powering them fitted on it. It’s taking shape already, and it looks good with a rough technical/industrial feel to it. The claws are lifted up here to show the (simple) engines a bit clearer. Bike wings Here are the wings to the bike, with two stickers to each wing. The white and blue colors play off really well, and I love how the white wings are held in place using the binoculars at the tip of the plate. The Twin Bike Putting it all together, we get this awesome-looking bike. The claws on the bottom act as holders when the bike’s standing still, although you don’t really need it since it stands fine on its own (the wheels are large enough to support the entire build). This is surely something nice to display on your shelf. The other side of the Twin Bike And this…this isn’t really the part of the bike you want to display. It doesn’t look as sleek and cool as the other side, but it’s not cluttered enough to be off-putting. Extra parts from Bag 2 Only three small parts, since most of the bricks in bag 2 are large and unlikely to be lost. To the Jet Bike! : Transformation steps The transformation is really simple; just flip the wings up, twist the cockpit 90 degrees left/right depending on where it’s facing, flip it back, then extract the claws. And turn it over to get this: Jet mode A jet/hovercraft! It also looks cool in this mode, with the wheels acting as the jet’s engine, and it looks like it can hover too. There’s two circular trans-blue bases on the bottom of the bike that act as the jet’s thrusters when transformed, in case you’re wondering how this jet moves forward. It’s a really cool form, and it captures the Eagle tribe feel very well. Both modes are just amazing. Conclusion: Bike Mode Jet Mode And there you have it. Battle on ground, dogfight in the air. Which mode do you like better? The jet’s pretty cool to me. Price : 7/10 For the price…it’s fair enough, although the overall set feels lacking thanks to Razcal’s tiny copter. You’d feel like you could get a better land vehicle or small ATV to accompany the bike rather than having the copter. Keep in mind though that the only other way to get Eglor is from his Speedor set or the pricier and bigger Equila's Ultra Striker (70013). And with this set, you get an Eglor-centered vehicle and Razcal. Design : 8/10 Well, you gotta give props to the designer for fitting a jet and a bike into one build. The bike is cool to display, and so is the jet. Considering this is from the Chima Universe, it fits in perfectly well, and continues to show Chima’s strength with its animal-based vehicles. Razcal’s copter would probably just be put aside though. And one more thing - I wish the set name would be something other than 'Twin Bike'...what part of it is a twin bike??? "Eglor's Twin Jet Cycle" might sound cooler. Just sayin'... Play Value : 9/10 Hey, you practically get to play on two bases here – on air and on ground. It’s like having two separate sets. Kids will love the heck out of the transforming bike, but you’d better get a replacement for Razcal, because he’ll just be kicked out in the first five seconds using those jet lasers. Overall : 8/10 You get two great minifigures and a kickass bike/jet. The bike is a definite must-buy for Chima vehicle collectors, and it's a decent set for a gift to kids. As for parts, it’s good enough with the number of wings and a beak, but there are more technic parts in this set than normal bricks. Extra Pics (because why not?) : Calling the Eagle Tribe! Well, I don’t have all the eagle tribe members and vehicles, so this would have to do. But hey, Eglor’s bike seriously stands out, doesn’t it? There’s Equila with his speedor and Eris with her new armor from Worriz’s Combat Lair (70009). This will look amazing with her Eagle Interceptor. And now…for some extra shots of Eglor being well, Eglor… ...Because he looks like he’s an awesome biker. He has a Twin Bike, but can you imagine him in a real bike? Look how cool he is! Eglor as a specialist in a crack team of soldiers. Here’s him going on one of his missions. He’ll probably do something rad with that dynamite. Somebody make a movie out of him already, please. Okay, it's a lazy mix and match, and I just think Razcal would make a nice tough biker-gang figure in an alternate anthro meets Sons of Anarchy universe Thanks for reading!
