REVIEW 70107 - Royal Roost

[ch_ris127]

REVIEW 70107 – ROYAL ROOST

The King of Lions comes along for a Speedor ride.

Theme: Legends of Chima

Pieces: 105

Price: $14.99 / £9.99

Links:

Bricklink / Brickset

I can’t press how useful these Speedorz sets are for getting Chima minifigures the easier and cheaper way, and with this wave of sets, it has become much more obvious. Royal Roost presents us with Lagravis, king of the Lion Tribe, who is of course, quite an important character.

Whenever you hear ‘king’, you’ll probably expect him to be an exclusive or at least a hard-to-get minifigure available only in a huge set. But here we can just get him for a mere $15, making it a sure deal for those who want him and does not want to get The Lion's Chi Temple (70010)

Let’s get on with the review now.

Packaging:

Front side of the box

Like all Speedorz sets, the packaging is compact, nice, and sturdy. Not to mention that it’s very disposable after you ripped it off and get the insides out There’s not much to say about this other than it looks good, especially the close-up of Lagravis’ head on the right side corner…he sure looks old

Back side of the box

It’s funny how the same two kids show up on the back of every box…Here you can see the small tower of the set; it plays and breaks up almost similarly to Winzar’s Ice Tower (70106) .

Unboxing:

Everything in the box

The contents are the same as in any other Speedor set; there are the cards neatly packed in plastic, the building instructions, two packages of bricks, the ripcord and the Speedor itself. For Royal Roost, we get an additional white box containing Lagravis’ cape.

The new minifigure sheet

Here’s a look at the new minifigure sheet, which seems to be present in all of the new wave sets. Furty and Skinnet have the Lion Tribe emblem beside them if you look close enough. Sure they’re the allies of the lions, but are they part of the tribe? Don’t they have their own Fox and Skunk Tribe emblems? We can only wait until next year...

Rules of the game

The game doesn’t differ that much from Ice Tower (70106). The objective is to knock down the tower, and whoever catches the ball gets to draw a card first. If you’re looking for good games, it’s better to look at LEGO Games itself. But then again, this is aimed towards kids, who will no doubt enjoy letting the Speedorz loose and raising hell on the tower again and again.

Laying down the cards

One thing that’s awesome about these Speedorz sets are the cards. They’re beautifully drawn with great colors and eye-catching action. Just look at Lagravis being all badass! For all art-appreciating LEGO fans, this is surely a treat. Lagravis is seen holding all the weapons in the set too, and I can easily imagine kids playing with the Speedor and imitating these scenes. If only the TV series could be this cool…

Contents:

Freed from plastic packaging

Right out of the packages, the one thing that immediately caught my eye is the colors of the bricks. You can quickly tell that the set belongs to the Lion Tribe. Chima sets do a really good job in making each tribe stand out with their own unique color themes. Bright, cheese yellow, brown and green; it’s easy to say that the tower’s gonna look lively.

Lagravis’ mask comes in plastic, which is nice because considering the cramped packaging in a Speedor box.

Quick look at cape and mask

We’ll get to the minifigure later, but here’s a quick view of Lagravis’ cape and mask. The cape's shade of blue color is a very nice choice, and the mask...well, you’ll just have to wait till we get to the details

(More or less) Interesting Pieces:

Shiny!

Translucent parts are canon in the Chima universe, as you can see with the abundance of Chi-colored (or translucent-blue if you prefer,) parts. With Royal Roost, you get some pearl gold ones too. The axe-head is a definite extra, useful for making more weapons. If for some reason you’re looking to collect Chi (those blue gem-like pieces), Speedor sets give them away as if TLG has a warehouse full of them, just waiting to get rid of the stock.

Some misc. parts

Bricks ahoy! Like, literal brick-like bricks. Ahem, that was confusing. There are only two of them, but it’s better than nothing. They add a nice detail to buildings. Then there’s the somewhat new inverted bracket (they appear a lot in Chima and new Star Wars sets), quite useful for those looking to build MOCs.

The Speedor:

Speedor armor and ‘engine’

Coming down to the core of the set itself, the Speedor, you can see that it’s quite different from the others. Lagravis’ Speedor is fancier due to the fact that it comes in pearl gold color instead of the usual yellow or orange that other lions have. The design is neat, and it feels like royalty too, much suited to King Lagravis, although I believe that the armor looks somewhat more eagle-like than lion-like. The wheel is the same as any other Speedor. Here it is in full glory:

Lagravis’ claw-weaponized Speedor

Like any Speedor, the armor is fixed with two black technic pegs, with the optional weapon attachable under it. Lagravis’ Speedor has a claw-like modification for its weapon.

…But seriously, the more I look at it, the more it looks like an eagle. What do you think?

The Minifigure:

Hail Lagravis, old man!

Now, on to the King himself, Lagravis looks great. Just look at him! Dark-blue cape flowing, bearded muzzle, muscled armor (?!) and a shiny crown. This has got to be one of my favorite minifigures…well, all the Chima minifigures look great, so it’s hard to choose, haha. Great price for the set to get this guy, remembering that he's only available in the largest and most expensive Chima set - The Lion Chi Temple (70010).

Cape-less and naked Lagravis

Lagravis is old, that’s what strikes you when you see his face without the mask. He has wrinkles, a gray bearded jaw and eye bags. But he looks wise, and you can tell a lot just looking at his face. The other side however shows an angry scowling lion. He’s probably mad at Laval again for some random mischief he did. The blue cape extends to the torso, although it looks like a scarf when the cape is off. The Chi medallion looks good, and so do the belt and armor. It’s all very Chima-detailed, and there isn’t much to say anymore other than it’s great.

First time that a crown comes equipped with a hollow head and spiky hair…

Here’s a full view of Lagravis’ mask and a close-up. You can see the details of his face, especially the crown and beard. The paint is superb, and there are no shaky lines or imbalanced color here. It really feels well-made and it's pretty much perfect.

A King needs weapons

As in the card images, Lagravis’ axe and knife are there in the set too. It looks royal, again, keeping up with the overall feel of the set, mostly thanks to the pearl gold, white and translucent-blue colors that complements each other very well.

Being the boss

And here is the King with one of his weapons, looking quite aggravated. Lagravis must’ve fought some crazy-big monster to get that tooth as a blade

A King needs no driver, he drives himself!

And there you go, Lagravis, his axe and the Speedor. Someday someone will make a diorama with Lagravis riding down the plains in his Speedor, leading a legion of other lions in their Speedorz, armed with spears and all.

The Tower:

The base

Building the tower is relatively easy, and this base is made up of two similar parts, which of course means that some repetitive building is in store for you. Notice the greenish base and the grass that makes it look more jungle-like.

Second and third layer

For the top of the tower, you get a yellow structure and the ‘roost’ holding the ball. You could replace the pastic ball with a miniature bird or something, so as to make it a real roosting place

Completed tower

The structure is stacked together like the previously mentioned Ice Tower (70106), since it's meant to be knocked down by the Speedor. The translucent-blue is made to look like Chi flowing in the middle, and the base makes for a nice lush green ground effect. All in all, it’s a solid build.

Extras

In case you want to know, there’s some extras here. The typical studs and technic peg, along with some good weapon-builders.

Conclusion:

Everything built and ready...

Price: 8/10

For $15, you get Lagravis and other neat things. As said before, the only other way to get Lagravis is through The Chi Temple, which is way more expensive to buy.

Design: 7/10

The tower’s pleasing to the eye, and it really has that Lion Tribe vibe to it. No complaints here, although I believe most would break it down for parts after a while (I know I will).

Playability: 7/10

It’s boring for adults, of course, but younger kids will like it. I’m not gonna be a critic for such a simple game, but you gotta admit, the Speedor is pretty fun to zoom around with for a while

Final Score: 7/10

In conclusion, this set has got a little something for everyone. The play feature is good enough to be entertaining for young ones, there’s good art to be found in the cards, the tower looks nice, and there’s Lagravis. It’s a great set for a great price, and I recommend Chima-fans and collectors to get this set. As for those who’ve never bought Chima sets before, you can’t go wrong with Royal Roost.

That's the end of the review

Thanks for reading!

...but wait, there's more!

A tribe meeting, and Laval is late. As usual.

With this set, I finally completed all lion minifigures for now! And boy do they look great together. Leonidas and Lennox comes from Cragger's Command Ship (70006), while I got Laval and Longtooth from Laval’s Royal Fighter (70005). Three great sets, all minifigs complete. In other words, awesome!

Here they are side-by-side:

Brotherhood of the Lion~

Edited September 21, 2013 by ch_ris127

[Mutant Orc]

Than you for the review! Lagravis is a very nice figure. I like the animals without the armour actually, especially if they are wearing a cloak!!!

One question- was it $15 or $10? You said 15 at the start and 10 at the bottom!!

[ch_ris127]

Than you for the review! Lagravis is a very nice figure. I like the animals without the armour actually, especially if they are wearing a cloak!!!

One question- was it $15 or $10? You said 15 at the start and 10 at the bottom!!

You're welcome!

I agree with that, the armor blocks out all the great details on the minifigure too

Wow, thanks a lot for pointing that out, I didn't realize that, hahaha. It's done and fixed

[Rumble Strike]

Fantastic review, very detailed with clear pictures. I really like the portrayal of Lagravis in the Chima cartoon, and hs miniigure here certainly does him justice. I love your pictures of the 5 Lion tribe members too.

[WaysofSorting]

Thanks for the review - Good highlights of the set and all its pieces and strong argument for getting the Minifig through the speedorz sets.

I see them often for 10 bucks on clearance - is this a good deal, even assuming I won't use the zip-wheel engine? Or will I not be able to resist sending it down the hallway? If I were heavily invested in Chima (I really like them and think all the design choices Lego Made were solid, but I don't own many sets) I would certainly get this set -