Legends of Chima 2014 Discussion

[Aethersprite]

Hmmm, maybe the set will surprise me with its quality, then. Personally, I don't find him quite as outstanding as Laval or Cragger from what I've seen in reviews. When the first wave of Chima constraction sets came out, I was impressed by how well-rounded they were. All the figs besides Eris and Razar had back armor of some sort, even if CHI Gorzan's was rather pitiful. Every fig was fully armored except for CHI Cragger, who left certain colored beams without armor for stylistic reasons. Moreover, CHI Gorzan had two articulated fists plus a club, while Laval and Worriz had not only a sword and a shield but also two articulated claws.

That's a big deal when no previous constraction set had been able to offer it. Raw-Jaw was the only Hero Factory figure that had ever boasted two articulated paws, but besides that had no weapons of any kind. Rocka XL, Pyrox, and Ogrum each had one articulated paw and one proper weapon. The Hulk had two giant fists with no articulation and no weapons. CHI Panthar and CHI Sir Fangar just return to what was standard for Rocka XL, Pyrox, Ogrum, and Frost Beast, and as such I'm not as thrilled with him as with CHI Laval (who manages to maintain the complexity of last year's version, albeit with one-piece claws instead of two-piece claws).

Now, CHI Panthar does have some cool traits going for him, like having a single energized Warm Gold and Tr. Fluore. Reddish-Orange arm rather than using those colors evenly throughout his build. I like this kind of asymmetry a great deal. Unfortunately, that also reduces his usefulness as a parts pack — unlike CHI Laval or CHI Cragger, he boasts just one Warm Gold shell detail, and just one of each size of Tr. Fluore. Reddish-Orange beam. Those two beams and the Chi orb are the set's only new recolors, and it also boasts no Dark Red shells or printed shells. He's still a very cool set — the only constraction set ever to feature articulated toes, if I'm not mistaken — just not my favorite and maybe not the most useful to me as a MOCist.

Point taken - for me, when it comes to sets with only a single claw hand such as Rocka XL, Pyrox, Frost Beast and even Sir Fangar - it comes across to me as a little 'stingy' or 'lazy' on Lego's part. But when I look at Panthar, I don't get that impression at all. The asymmetry of his arms comes across as absolutely intentional and obvious, and is an integral part of his character design. Unlike the above mentioned sets, which didn't give off that vibe, and could've easily incorporated 2 claw hands. I understand that those sets might've forgone one of the claw hands because they were wielding weapons, but Lego could've made the extra effort like they did with Laval and Worriz rather than take the easy way out and just go with a regular hand piece.

Regardless, I hope you enjoy your set as much as some of us did! I'm not much of a MOCist myself so I didn't really consider your point about the odd number of parts, which is a valid concern. But like I said, this isn't due to Lego's unwillingness to go all the way with the symmetry, but is a genuine part of the figure's design.

[MakutaDreadscythe]

Hmmm, maybe the set will surprise me with its quality, then. Personally, I don't find him quite as outstanding as Laval or Cragger from what I've seen in reviews. When the first wave of Chima constraction sets came out, I was impressed by how well-rounded they were. All the figs besides Eris and Razar had back armor of some sort, even if CHI Gorzan's was rather pitiful. Every fig was fully armored except for CHI Cragger, who left certain colored beams without armor for stylistic reasons. Moreover, CHI Gorzan had two articulated fists plus a club, while Laval and Worriz had not only a sword and a shield but also two articulated claws.

That's a big deal when no previous constraction set had been able to offer it. Raw-Jaw was the only Hero Factory figure that had ever boasted two articulated paws, but besides that had no weapons of any kind. Rocka XL, Pyrox, and Ogrum each had one articulated paw and one proper weapon. The Hulk had two giant fists with no articulation and no weapons. CHI Panthar and CHI Sir Fangar just return to what was standard for Rocka XL, Pyrox, Ogrum, and Frost Beast, and as such I'm not as thrilled with him as with CHI Laval (who manages to maintain the complexity of last year's version, albeit with one-piece claws instead of two-piece claws).

Now, CHI Panthar does have some cool traits going for him, like having a single energized Warm Gold and Tr. Fluore. Reddish-Orange arm rather than using those colors evenly throughout his build. I like this kind of asymmetry a great deal. Unfortunately, that also reduces his usefulness as a parts pack — unlike CHI Laval or CHI Cragger, he boasts just one Warm Gold shell detail, and just one of each size of Tr. Fluore. Reddish-Orange beam. Those two beams and the Chi orb are the set's only new recolors, and it also boasts no Dark Red shells or printed shells. He's still a very cool set — the only constraction set ever to feature articulated toes, if I'm not mistaken — just not my favorite and maybe not the most useful to me as a MOCist.

It's hard to explain. I feel that while the other fire guys are cool, they stick too closely to their theme and I feel it makes them lose some of their identity in the process.

Panthar IMO has a lot of things going for him. He doesn’t stick to one overall theme and I feel that allows him to preserve his character.

It’s the little things that make me complement him as I did in my previous post. His build suggests a powerful character, and they put in more animal traits, like claws on his feet, an actual tail (which is a luxury only Cragger used to have) and that opening mouth. The way his neck even is built though subtle suggests strength and is more akin to an actual panther.

I am aware that in terms of a parts pack he is probably the worst considering he only has a few pieces in one copy each, but to his credit I feel he makes use of his parts and doesn’t shove in recolours for the sake of recolours. Every design choice in the set feels intentional rather than a budget constraint. Even the weapon in his left hand feels intentional despite only using two pieces; I could not imagine him with any other weapon be it an axe or a sword or whatever.

I may be rambling at this point, but the set has left such an impression on me that I cannot help but feel inclined to do so. In any case, I sincerely hope you enjoy Panthar as much as I did and congratulations on winning him.

[MakutaDreadscythe]

Apologies for the double post, but something interesting I noticed in the LEGO Summer 2014 catalogue (UK of course). It does indeed show the Chima constraction sets, however Panthar is missing amongst them. Considering the oddities already discussed (e.g. no printed parts, yellow eyes, mismatched moral alignment) this is turning out to be a rather strange case indeed.

[Agent Fusion]

Indeed, I noticed that also, but I assumed my catalogue was missing a page or two, as there was no sign of Ninjago, either.

[TheGreatSpirit]

Picked up Chi Mungus recently (Chi Fangar was unavaliable for some reason). IMO, there's a lot of good and bad things about him... I find him to be a very interesting figure with a nice selection of parts, so I don't regret buying him. But does anyone know why he looks absolutely NOTHING like his bigfig?

[Leewan]

Bought Fangar today, I really like him, but he's really lean, even if he's supposed to be an ice zombie. But nothing some modifications can't fix. :D

[Aethersprite]

I built Fluminox and made a few minor modifications to his bow. Firstly, I'm an archer myself, and the way he holds his bow is extremely awkward and so wrong, I just had to change it. A bow should be held by its riser (its middle section). Secondly, because of the way it's built, posing it is very rigid and difficult, so I replaced the axles with pins. Just thought I'd share it:

Pardon the bad photos, I'm not very good at taking them and these were taken with a phone camera.

Edited June 20, 2014 by Lockon Stratos

[MakutaDreadscythe]

Oh wow. That mod just works wonders. Almost tempted to pick it up now.

[8BrickMario]

I see you also removed the wing mechanism for more posing, it looks good! *tries not to be jealous*

[Aanchir]

Thoughts on CHI Panthar, now that I have him:

He's a cool looking set, but he doesn't excite me as much as CHI Worriz from last year. Proportions are good, color blocking is good, and construction is clever, but I dunno... he just doesn't really speak to me the same way.

The new shell detail piece for his shoulder... I dunno quite what to think of it. It definitely looks cool, but holding it in hand I'm not quite as thrilled about it as some of the older shell detail pieces like the ones from the Breakout series. It just doesn't seem to fit quite so snugly around a shell. Rather, there's a big gap between its sides and the sides of the shell it's attached to. The spherical shell detail piece also has a gap, but for some reason it feels a bit more natural to me than the one this part leaves. However, I'm sure the part will still be useful, and I'm sure there are still ways to make it look very pretty on a model.

The new blade pieces are kind of cool. I'm sure you could make all sorts of weapons from them. The ornate detail on them feels just mechanical enough that it could probably be used for a BIONICLE model, but I don't think they'd be well-suited to a Hero Factory model. Just a bit too much fantasy flair, IMO.

The head and jaw are quite cool, as is his tail. And I really like the claws on the feet. They feel nice and sturdy, with a good range of motion. I hope they come in more colors in the future — Warm Gold, White, Tr. Light Blue, and Tr. Fluore. Reddish Orange are just fine, but some more neutral colors like Silver Metallic or Titanium Metallic would also be very useful.

The claw looks awkward in many poses because of the way the first two fingers are parallel and the third is slightly angled. It's not nearly so bothersome on sets where the fingers aren't so long.

As for the torso shell... still not sold on it. As with the weapons, the chest area's decoration might work for a BIONICLE creation, though the lower section feels a lot less mechanical. I haven't come up with any uses for this piece in MOCs just yet. Its large size and few connection points feel limiting compared to existing torso shells. The way it ejects a CHI orb feels a bit underwhelming. I know it wouldn't make much sense for the CHI orb to shoot out, but the way it just drops out (and even then, only if the torso is not tilted upward) means that it's more just a peculiar means of disassembly than an action feature.

On the whole, it's cool to have this set, but it might be a while before I can really make good use of it. This is one of my first sets to have a great quantity of gold parts. So hopefully those might inspire some cool creation. Sadly, I don't foresee getting too much use out of the transparent fluorescent reddish-orange beams, since I just have two non-matching ones rather than any more useful quantities. Maybe if I'm lucky somebody might be selling other sets like CHI Laval or CHI Cragger at Brickfair Virginia this year.

[MakutaDreadscythe]

On a side note (this applies to system Chima as well) why do the bird characters have three talons? I'm pretty sure they have only two talons. I feel it's a bit of a waste considering two years earlier they remoulded the two-claw foot piece. Not so much for Fluminox but for Vardy perhaps. I dunno. What do you guys think?

[Aanchir]

On a side note (this applies to system Chima as well) why do the bird characters have three talons? I'm pretty sure they have only two talons. I feel it's a bit of a waste considering two years earlier they remoulded the two-claw foot piece. Not so much for Fluminox but for Vardy perhaps. I dunno. What do you guys think?

Eagles, ravens, and vultures actually both have three talons in front and one in the back, so other than the lack of that back talon (don't know if there's a specific name for it), those sets' feet are fairly accurate.

I agree that it's a shame that two-claw foot piece has not been reused, especially since the remolded version didn't even appear in all copies of the set it was produced for (6201 Toxic Reapa). But I think the Chima designers made the right decision about which foot piece to use for the birds of Legends of Chima.

Now, Cragger is another story. Both CHI Cragger sets have used the three-claw Piraka foot, but crocodiles actually have five digits on their front legs and four digits on their hind legs. It is peculiar that this year CHI Laval's foot changed to the more bestial foot piece from the Invasion from Below sets, but Cragger's didn't. While his feet were already sufficiently bestial, this foot piece would technically be more accurately proportioned for a crocodile foot than the Piraka foot, since crocodiles have four toes which are not very long. Perhaps the LEGO Group is using the Piraka foot for Cragger on account of its slightly webbed appearance, or perhaps because it's more like what people expect a reptilian foot to look like.

[Takanuinuva]

Just got Laval, Fluminox and Fangar in the mail today. I paid a bit much for shipping but I think it was worth it for these 3 sets. Fangar is definitely my favorite and I have ideas on how to mod him. I just need to make a parts order first. Laval is pretty good as well but His sword is a bit to extreme. Fluminox is ok. He requires heavy modding in order to become better.

[Timeline15]

Got Fangar recently, pretty impressed. Love the spike gimmick, feels very BIONICLE. He's great for pieces too. He still suffers from the HF curse of weird, lopsided armour placement however. Why do they keep doing this? It doesn't make up for the fact that you haven't made a new armour shell since HF 2.0 lego -_-

Edited June 26, 2014 by Timeline15

[Aanchir]

Got Fangar recently, pretty impressed. Love the spike gimmick, feels very BIONICLE. He's great for pieces too. He still suffers from the HF curse of weird, lopsided armour placement however. Why do they keep doing this? It doesn't make up for the fact that you haven't made a new armour shell since HF 2.0 lego -_-

I'm pretty sure the "lopsided" armor placement in this set is because zombie-like asymmetry is one of the defining traits of the Chima villains this year. The Sir Fangar minifigure is arguably even more asymmetrical than the constraction set, since an entire arm and leg are colored differently from one another. I agree that it's not very elegant in this particular set, since it's too understated to make as big an impression as the minifigure's asymmetry. I think CHI Mungus is probably the best of the new villains when it comes to color blocking, though I don't like his torso design any more than CHI Sir Fangar's.

And technically, this set DOES use a new armor shell for its torso, just as the Hero Factory Breakout and Brain Attack sets did (for that matter, even the Savage Planet sets introduced two "paw" shells, one of which CHI Sir Fangar uses). Generally, I appreciate that constraction sets have stuck with the same basic parts palette for so long, though. Why fix what isn't broken?

EDIT: Speaking of CHI Mungus, I was just experimenting with how you might improve his torso so it doesn't have such a weird T shape. One quick and easy solution is to mirror the shells attached to the top of his shoulders so that he has shells attached to the top and bottom of his shoulders. The ones attached to the bottom of his shoulders help fill out his chest and back somewhat. This requires lowering his back armor two modules, but even that helps improve his look, I think. To improve the chest even further, you can flip the 4M shells on his chest around so that the pointy end points towards the CHI core, then tilt them down a bit. This fills out the torso quite brilliantly without having to fundamentally alter its structure.

Now, obviously, I can see why this set didn't do this. I'm sure with the bulk it already had, duplicating the extra armor from the shoulders might very well have pushed it over budget. Nevertheless, I think this is an elegant solution for those who have this set at home.

Edited June 26, 2014 by Aanchir

[EdWebhead]

The US Chima site was updated with new sets, along with the ultra builds.

I wonder why they're listed on the US site if we're not supposed to get them in North America.

[Lyichir]

The US Chima site was updated with new sets, along with the ultra builds.

I wonder why they're listed on the US site if we're not supposed to get them in North America.

Probably for completion's sake. After all, if a kid in the U.S. gets one of these (even as a gift), they might want access to things like instructions, which are linked from product pages.

[Dorek]

Well, considering their rollout of the HF webpages we had this year, it's still a little odd.

[DraikNova]

I got the sets a few days ago. I didn't pick up Laval or Fluminox, though. Now, my thoughts:

Chi Cragger is a remarkably good set. The official version isn't too bad, and you can easily modify him to have a more crocodilian look. The parts selection is also quite good. I also must say that the plethora of colors used do not detract as much from his look as everyone says once you have him in your hand.

Chi Panthar is kind of meh. The parts selection is average, and the build leaves a massive gap in his back. It's also hard to position his head in a manner that looks natural, and the use of the 4-length bones for his neck looks strange due to the axle part.

Chi Mungus is pretty awesome. The hammer's spinning doesn't look that strange, and it has a strange tendency to settle into a remarkably natural position. The parts are also good. Lots of tr. blue, as we've seen, plus the brown. I'd place him behind Cragger, but he's not that bad, and definitely better than Panthar.

Chi Vardy is a personal favorite. He looks awesome with his ice buzzsaw thing. The animalistic aspect is also pulled off pretty well, and to top it all off, he has the most tr. blue of all of the Ice Chi sets. I've already modified him into a version without the strange six-limbed look, though. Pick this one up, if any.

Chi Fangar is better than Mungus, but worse than Vardy. He's very imposing, which is strongly enhanced by his cape and his function (which usually works, but the right leg looks strange due to the gunmetal armor shell over the tr. blue limb. Why couldn't LEGO have replaced that with a tr. blue one? I know, I know, the cost of having more parts in production. He still looks pretty good, and the parts selection is magnificent.

[ZORK64]

I'd like to inform you all that the sets arrived in German LEGO stores something like a week ago. I haven't picked up any of them yet, but I'm sure I'll get Fangar coming saturday.

I was pondering about Laval too, but they also had the old Laval on sale now, and his brown mane looked more appealing to me than the trans-orange of the new version.

And I'm kicking myself right now for not buying already a second Cragger. He got very unique and cool colors, after all.

[Shakar]

2013 Laval's fur is dark red, not brown.

[TheGreatSpirit]

Just checked the US version of Shop@Home

Apparently the 2013 ultrabuilds will be retired soon

[DOTM Shockwave]

I got the July-August LEGO Club magazine, and on page eight, it shows CHI Fluminox and CHI Sir Fangar. I find that pretty odd to show images of sets that won't be getting a US release.

Here's a image of the issues cover and the page in question:

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/vakama18/Stuff/mag_piece_1.jpg

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/vakama18/Stuff/mag_piece_2.jpg

[Timeline15]

That math problem XD.

Anyway, does the US get the same magazine as Europe? Because if so, it could just be that they didn't bother to change it. I would have though they would advertise all of them if they were actually trying to sell them in the US.

[Dorek]

The magazines can be different for the regions, but usually more in terms of order. I am a bit surprised that they would include it there, though, since they have omitted Hero Factory stuff in the past for the US one despite them being in the market.