REVIEW: 71316 Umarak the Destroyer

[VBBN]

Set name: Umarak the Destroyer

Set number: 71316

Pieces:191

Price: $24.99

Release date: 2016

Hello everyone and welcome to Umarak the Destroyer! Now that The hunter has put the mask of control on his face, he's...lost control of himself? Well, let's see if this "upgrade" to Umarak is worth the purchase, especially if you already own his previous incarnation, which was my favorite set of the year- Does the Destroyer dethrone the Hunter? Let's find out.

These sets were graciously provided by LEGO to review- All thoughts in this review are my own opinions and not those of LEGO.

Front

As usual, the box is standard fare. As with the winter wave, these boxes are a heavier cardboard than they were last year. As always please note that this is the European variant of the packaging.

Back

We see a rather uninspiring combo mode, the set's features, and a comic that shows umarak placing the mask of control over his own face,

Interesting parts

Firstly, while it's not a "part," we do get a sticker sheet for his torso print. Also, we have the new jaw piece, and a slew of trans neon green pieces including the new crystal armor piece, and recolors of a bone, the head and skull spider legs.

Mask

Umarak comes with only one mask, a very corrupted version of the Mask of Control (pictured on the right for comparison sake). The middle of the face is similar but her gains some fangs, a crack on the upper right, and...some obnoxious looking crystal structures. As we will see, the 'horns" of the original mask have been extended with a more custom build. Sadly, I couldn't show you the Hunter with the new mask of creation, the crystal structures on the side of the mask don't work with the original Hunter's antlers.

Torso

The torso is solidly built, and uses a turntable torso as it's main source of a function. A gearbox is also used, though there aren't actually any functions to be seen from it.

Legs

Similar to the Hunter, the Destroyer gets a technic heavy leg build. You'll see the choice of bone on the back of the leg culd have used the less restricting open ball bone, but I'm guessing such a choice was made to ensure stability. It also ensures a lack of forward and backward picot. Hmpf.

Adding on

We finish off the legs and carefully get those stickers on,

Hands

Each of the smaller beasts gets some poseable hands, and Umarak is no exception. There is an odd function that was integrated there, where moving the two longer fingers the thumb will move with them. it's, well, cool, but it really doesn't have a great way to 'activate" it and there's no friction to it at all. So that's not fun.

Head

Now here we see the jaw build- the difference here is the massive horns coming down. These are meant to be "mutated" versions of the MoCo's horns.

Front

Color wise, everything here is pretty well dispersed (save of course for the gold from the MoCo). He has a very mutated look, with absolutely massive hands and a hunched, top-heavy look.

Side

The hunch back is a little out of control here, with his head being mounted to an awkward technic structure.

Back

One thing of excitement here is get get another pearl dark gray ribcage!

UNLIMITED POWER

Umarak is limited in what he can do poseability wise, but that's mostly due to a lack of weapons and legs with somewhat restricted motion.

Take control...

I already didn't like the jaw piece on the beasts, and i think it look twice as bad on Umarak here. Since he has a different mask, the jaw is even larger than it should be, and the contrast of gunmetal against gold makes the jaw almost hard to see.

Comparisons

Like I said in my Ekimu review, I do like how well these incarnations of the characters retain some elements of their previous forms. Since the Hunter was quite a tall figure, I wasn't surprised to see that even the Destroyer is only slightly larger than his older form. The monster is quite a bit larger than Ekimu, though doesn't surpass our most recent supersized CCBS set, Grevious.

Overall

Umarak is a good looking set. He's an interesting build, and has a decent amount of parts for your money, with an alright selection of new and recolored pieces. His functions aren't anything too exciting and the lack of friction in the hands is a shame. I'm not particularly fond of how the 'horns" or the new MoCo looks- but how do I feel about him when compared to the Hunter? In my opinion, the Hunter remains to be my favorite set of the year. While Umarak looks cool, I feel he's been devolved not only into a crazed monster, but also into a "standard villain" syndrome. While the Hunter was a really cool Wendigo inspired being, the Destroyer is just a juiced up beast, and I would have liked to have seen something that retained more of that Wendigo look. But that's all personal preference and a comparison, as a set the Destroyer is a decent set and a worthy purchase in my opinion. As always sound off your thoughts in the comments and be sure to vote in the poll!

[TwistLaw]

Cool guy with a more boring concept than the original. Still cool on its own, but with some strange techniques used here and there.

[Fulcrumfan91]

As a massive fan of trans neon green, I'm looking forward to this guy. I love the mask....not sure how ill like the jaw. The functions are ok, but I do not mind the overall look of the figure. Not my favourite for now, but definitely up there.

[Logan McOwen]

I only just ordered him today, but I'm already in love. The upper back does look very empty though, and I am kinda bummed out by that empty gearbox... but that's all by-the-by. He's cartoonishly dangerous looking, almost like Taz the Tasmanian Devil or something, which I really dig.

9.5/10

Edited June 6, 2016 by Logan McOwen

[Kalhiki]

I like him. There are some things I think that could've been done better, but on the whole, not bad. Swapping out those rear ankle bits for the open balljoint version does wonders, though. Really the only thing I don't particularly like is the neck area. It just looks and feels really stiff and gappy. Not a deal breaker.

Also, you said there wasn't a good way to activate the claw function. I find that moving the Bohrok eye is the most effective. But yeah, I could've done with more friction. It can hold a pose, but good luck getting him to hold anything.

[Lyichir]

Umarak isn't a perfect figure but he is a good one, a worthy successor to past "titan" sets. You mentioned in your review that there's no easy way to activate the snapping claws, but I think that's what the Bohrok eyes on the underside are for—they provide a decent "lever" for manipulating the claws without actually having to reposition the fingers themselves.

[Jetrax99]

I honestly like the whole jaw thing, though I'd like the jaws more if the could properly close.

Oh well, I'm sure people here will be coming up with ways of doing such.

In regards to the Mask Of Control, the jaw being gunmetal I can deal with. It's those black technic connectors that bug me.

Really wish lego made them in gold.

[MrHerofan]

If the jaw, and connector pieces on his mask were gold as well then this new Mask Of Control would be really awesome. He reminds me of Broly from Dragon Ball in the sense that he started off slick and ended turning into a huge bulky monster.

[Ikaatril]

The biggest problem I have is that the bottom of the mask does not simply look enough like the upper teeth, it looks like the bottom of a 'face' instead, making the jaw look even more out of place, as it's very hard to see it as a lower jaw.

[arc]

It's not a bad set, just not what I was hoping for. When the names of the summer sets first came out, I pictured something like a warlord umarak. Tall and imposing, with 3 times more antlers, and a cape. Perhaps using the mask of control to corrupt okoto wildlife into the beasts we got this summer. Instead it seems the mask has taken control of him, and he's devolved into this beast like creature we see here. Like I said, it's definitely not a bad set, just not what I was hoping for. The head and neck are a little wonky, and I miss the antlers, but it's still pretty solid.

Edited June 6, 2016 by arc

[Mutant Orc]

I like the mask on this Umarak more than I expected myself to, but the rest of the figure is nothing special. The trans colour isn't one of my favourites (in fact they're all getting a bit meh to me, I'd like to see some new ones) and I agree that he's not as interesting as a figure as Umarak the Hunter was. His massive chest and skinny skeletal waist isn't brilliant either, nor is the lack of a forearm as his hands take over them.

I moslty built him from my own parts collection the other day, and I found that his shoulder connection was a bit weak with just a single pin and an axle holding them into two pin holes. Is this a problem of the set, or are the parts I used a bit old and running low on friction..?

[TheDesuComplex]

It's really awesome to see Lego taking the risk and making an actual 'Titan' figure. This Umarak looks incredible- just as good as his previous incarnation, for different reasons. While the Hunter focuses and hones in the silent and agile warrior vibe, this one goes towards the opposite end of the spectrum with the big, brutish feel. His claws are great, his legs are great, and so is his smart little torso build. The only thing I do not is the technic connectors used to make the mutated MoCo horns- I just may stray from being purist just to paint these gold along with the jaw piece and mask.

[YellowCorvette]

Thanks for the review. Umarak the Destroyer looks pretty good, but I'll prefer if the jaw piece is colored in gold since that's make the jaw piece looks like a part of the mask and make the jaw piece looks slightly better.

Still waiting for a G2 set that can rival Grievous and Witch Doctor, through.

[ToaDraco]

This is a fantastic set and he looks great on my shelf. One thing of note, he does have a way of activating the hand functions. The Bohrok eyes on the underside of the wrists are attached so you may turn them to open and close the hands. It would have been nice if the functions image was a bit more clear about that being the way to activate the function. They may not have a ton of friction but I don't have any problems with them falling out of poses or anything. The jaw piece should have been in a different color for all the beasts imo, as the gunmetal fades into the chestplate color at a distance. Overall I feel he is one of the best sets of gen2.

Edited June 7, 2016 by ToaDraco

[Aanchir]

I love Umarak's new design — it's like the Ganon to the previous Umarak's Ganondorf. It does a great job signifying Umarak transformed by the Mask of Control's power into a form befitting the darkness in his heart. A lot of the Hunter's design cues, like his leg, foot, and torso construction, are still evident here, but pushed to monstrous extremes. And the "Ultimate Umarak" combi model pushes those same design elements (claws, feet, torso volume) even further.

I don't see what you mean about the claw function having "no friction at all". The friction pins used to attach the thumb are more than strong enough to hold the claws open or closed, from my experience. I don't think they really need any more friction than that since compared to Ekimu's hammer or a lot of last year's Bionicle weapons, the weight of the claws is negligible (though some added friction might make more sense on the combi model, since its claws do struggle to stay open against gravity). I also agree with some of the other commenters that the Bohrok eyes on the underside make it fairly easy to open and close the claws, so I don't think any other sort of "switch" is necessary.

There are admittedly some weaknesses to the design. Like all the beasts, he suffers from his lower jaw matching his chest plate more closely than it matches his upper jaw. While it being Titanium Metallic makes some sense (matching the unifying Shadow Trap motif of all this year's enemies), it has an unfortunate tendency to blend in with the chest. I also agree with Jetrax99 that the horns might've been stronger if the angle connectors had been recolored to Warm Gold, though this set already has three new molds and four recolors, so I can understand if that was over budget. The gaps in the neck are also kind of unfortunate, as is the neck's general rigidness.

As a parts pack, Umarak the Destroyer main boast is being the first set to have more than one of the "ribcage shells", which is still rare in all colors, and generally having the highest piece count of any Bionicle G2 set to date.

Overall, whether or not he's the titan set people were waiting for, he's very definitely a titan set. He's around as large by weight and piece count as Makuta, Brutaka, or Axonn, and has considerably more pieces than Icarax, Hydraxon, or Nidhiki. Plus, unlike some recent parts-intensive CCBS sets like Evo XL Machine, Surge & Rocka Combat Machine, and even Umarak the Hunter, Umarak the Destroyer doesn't have any tiny ammo pieces inflating his piece count. While he's a little gappy, he's still certifiably huge and fearsome. It'll be interesting to see how the 2017 sets can manage to up the ante!

[SonofTheShire]

I love Umarak's new design — it's like the Ganon to the previous Umarak's Ganondorf.

I was thinking this too. It makes me want to give him a pair of big ol' axes.

[GK733]

I can def see the Ganon comparison. But I can't help not to see his mask as Bane from The Dark Knight Rises and thus afflicting the idea that rest of his body is the more traditional comic Bane with the venom running trough him.

[DOTM Shockwave]

I've recently finished building and modding my UtD, and He is impressive ih-hand.

Personally, I feel replacing these pieces with this piece makes the head look a bit better (shameless plug alert):

[Jetrax99]

I've recently finished building and modding my UtD, and He is impressive ih-hand.

Personally, I feel replacing these pieces with this piece makes the head look a bit better (shameless plug alert):

Looks so much better. Is there enough clearance for the jaw to sit any higher, or is the mask in the way?

[DOTM Shockwave]

Looks so much better. Is there enough clearance for the jaw to sit any higher, or is the mask in the way?

Unfortunately, the lower jaw of the head and tranparent sections of the mask get in the way.

[Mutant Orc]

Nice, I had been wondering what it would look like. I'm much more tempted to get Lava Beast now and try that on it, and then see about the rest of these sets.

[Fulcrumfan91]

Finally have him in hand....and I don't know what to make of him. I like that he's a large build, I appreciate so,e of the techniques used, the colours are fine, love the hands.....but I dunno I feel like there's something missing with this guy. Still awesome.

[DraikNova]

Having just gotten him. I actually like him a lot. He's relatively big, the articulation is better than expected, the weird neck is far less noticeable than reviews indicate, and, in general, he appears to be Toxic Reapa's bigger brother. 8/10 in terms of parts, 9/10 in terms of stickers (two stickers, but extremely easy to apply perfectly), 7.5/10 for build and 7 for looks. So a 31.5/40 in total, or a 7.9/10.