Review: 70207 CHI Cragger

[VBBN]

Set name: CHI Cragger

Set number: 70207

Piece Count: 58

Year Released: 2014

Price: $14.99 USD, 12,99 EUR

Hello everyone and welcome to a review of CHI Cragger. Before I begin, as always I want to thank the people at Lego and Eurobricks staff who made it possible for me to bring you guys these reviews.

My gratitude for this opportunity is furthered due to an unfortunate bit of news that we have all heard by this point: The 2014 Chima Constraction sets will not be released in North America. I have the prices listed above in both EUR and USD, however this is for completion sake and does not mean anything.

Bag Front

The bags for this wave are themes after each character's respective element. In this case, Cragger's bag is a very bright orange, with fire and shades of hot colors really making it pop. The packaging is european, so some information such as part count is absent from the front of the bag.

Bag Back

The back of the bag continues to carry the orange color, and also adds in a bight shade of blue to even things out. You can see a few of the features of the set, including his opening mouth and the Chi Orb falling out of his chest- More on that later. It's worth noting that there is a very interesting combiner at the bottom, and that each set has a different combiner displayed. For each of the smaller sets, they combine with the larger set of their respective team (Either Fluminox or Fangar) to create a sort of powered up form. That combo model will use their head to give the appearance that they are the mind of the form. For Fangar and Fluminox, they combine with one smaller figure in a similar fashion.

Instructions

New parts

Bones

Surely one of the most interesting aspects of this new wave is the vast choice of new recolors in these sets- Most notably trans bones. Now we saw trans bones first appearance in Jaw Beast, and this time around we get a much larger variety. Cragger has the shortest length and 3rd shortest length of bone in a trans neon-orange, as well as the fist piece.

Armor Shells

Here we have a look at some new colors of shells. Firstly is a 4-L shell in dark green, surely to be coveted by those who have the previous Cragger and Ogrum and are looking to build up their dark green collection, and we also have the new printed shell that all of the fire themed sets besides Panthar include. Unforunately this suffers from the same syndrome that the 3.0 heroes had; The printed shell is a universal color. All of the sets have it in dark red, and while it fits a firey theme, it ends up looking rather odd on Cragger as it's the only bit of dark red that he has.

Head

His head is the same as the previous mold, but he instead now has a gold palte on the top instead of silver, and his eyes are a blue print instead of the red.

Armor Shells

The armor on the left is not new, however it is worth noting that as of now It's only been in one other set, which was the original CHI Laval. I have placed it here to show you guys a comparison between it and the new torso shell. It is much larger, and features a hole for a zamor sphere or "chi orb" (let's face it, to us it'll always be called the zamor sphere) When you push the cut out button beneath it, the orb will fall out. While I love the look and the new shaping of this part, it only has one point of connection because it loses the two bar-holes that the older piece includes.

Armor Add-ons and Weapon

To compliment the new torso piece, we also have some fantastic looking new armor add-ons. Many people will be upset that these are only available in gold, hopefully we see these in a variety of colors in the future. We also have the new weapon piece, a very cool and stylized blade. The ice sets still have more elemental looking weapons, whereas the fire sets utilize this new piece. Personally I am a fan of this very intricate design, however many people may prefer the more colorful weapons of last year.

Chi Orb

The recolored zamor sphere at first glance appears to be what we received with the Fire Lord wave of sets in 2011. That sphere was red and yellow mixed, whereas this sphere is yellow and trans neon orange mixed. When held up to a light, it gives off a neat glow due to the slight transparency of the orange.

The Build

Torso

The torso begins with some connections for the tail and chest armor.

Adding on

Utilizing some of the trans neon orange bones, he has a neat "fire arm" effect going on. You can also see that he has an extended neck construction, similar to the previous Cragger.

Armoring up

Dark green and gold begin to cover up his skeleton, and this is also where you will see the rather out of place red shells.

Bulking

The new torso armor is much bigger than the other styles, and gives him a slightly beefier profile look than the older combination of the armor+breastplate gave, and the front looks bigger partially in thanks to the shoulder construction, which will offer him more shoulder protection than he previously had.

Head added

More armor and the head is added on, and you also get to snap in the Chi Orb. it fits in really well and won't fall out unless you push the button.

Weapon

Cragger uses his new blades as an axe of sorts. It's nothing too complicated, but doesn't look all too bad. I'm more of a fan of this that the weapon he had last year, though it would have been nice if he kept a two handed weapon since it's more unique to him. (With that said, in this wave we already have two other figures with two handed weapons, so the unique factor wouldn't have been there this time around)

Finished Set

Front

Cragger looks much more compact than his previous form, and I feel loses a bit of the crocodile shaping that he has. At the same time, he also looks better and more armored up, yet the armor dominated his color scheme and we lose that sand green that he used to have.

Side

You can see that the new chest armor does stick out quite a bit, mainly because the orb has to fit in his chest and that takes up a lot of room.

Back

He has adequate back coverage, thanks to the shell on his neck and lower back, and his tail gives some purpose to it as well. For those wondering about the shoulder armor, you can position the panels up or down in relation to his arms, but not forward or back unless you move his entire neck construction.

Action Pose 1

Cragger poses fairly well, and looks good from a lot of angles. Nothing gets in the way, and as always, anything with an opening mouth can really help emote expression in a pose.

Action Pose 2

Overall I'd say he looks more solid than the older Cragger, but you really have to get past the idea that the fire sets have so much gold on them. They really give him a lot of personality, but only being in one color limits how useful you may find them.

Action Pose 3

Needless to say I really enjoyed posing these figures. Some of the IFB sets left a lot to be desired posing wise, and it is one of my favorite aspects of an "action figure" set.

Alternate Weapon uses

The new blades can really be used however you want, you can see here I've used them more as daggers, but I think in the future I may attempt an updated version of his two handed weapon.

Overall, Cragger is a cool set, but is really just an updated version of his older self. Compared to his first figure, he is less animalistic, yet has a more solid construction. If you have the previous Cragger, then I think the main draw to this set is the new pieces and recolors. if you don't yet have a Cragger and somehow can't find the old one still shelfwarming in stores, then this set will be a worthy replacement. Personally, I do enjoy this new look, but the color scheme can be a bit much- the system sets are to blame for that however.

What are your thoughts on this set?

[Aanchir]

The new CHI Cragger has a brilliant design and color scheme. I'd even go so far as to say this model improves on its predecessor, making the torso slightly shorter but armoring it better and doing away with the bony lower limbs that characterized it. The colors are well-organized — while the Dark Red shells do not match any other parts of the build, they do not look out of place in my opinion, and help the model to resemble Cragger's new costume from the System playsets a bit better.

One correction — Cragger never had Sand Green in his color scheme. He had Olive Green, a newer color introduced in the Dino theme in 2012. The loss of it in this set does not bother me a great deal, but it would be interesting to see what the model would look like if you swapped the lower limb beams and hands for the ones in last year's CHI Cragger.

The recolored head piece is great, though it's a shame the scar on his left eye is not more noticeable. It's peculiar that only one arm has spikes on it, as it's one of the only parts of the build that is not symmetrical. At the same time, I suppose part of the goal might have been to balance out the axe in the other hand. I quite like that axe design!

Overall, this is probably my favorite of the "good guy" designs, though CHI Laval is a close contender as well. I don't care much for CHI Fluminox or CHI Panthar, and if I had to pick just two characters to get, these two returning characters might easily be the sets I go for. I'd love to design new versions of other returning characters, like Worriz and Razar, though I likely wouldn't go so far as repainting their faces with blue eyes to show that they're now on the side of good.

[Mesonak]

This set is fantastic! Very solid, well armored build all around and a definite improvement over 2013 Cragger. The color combo also works surprisingly well.

[Pate-keetongu]

Great review, thanks VBBN.

On MOCer's perspective this seems worse than Laval, as there are two new armors, glorious printed shells, axes and new chest plate on the both sets. However, Cragger's four dark green shells and golden basic chestplate can never match Laval's shield, dark red armor and new recolored feet.

And that's sad because crocodiles are, for the name of Offler, definitely cooler than lions.

[Csacsa234]

I'm a bit confused by this set, I like Cragger and his build is very neat, and has some great parts and I think the new weapons are awesome. On the other hand the dark red and orange doesn't fit him, at least he doesn't have olive green (which the minifig has and looks completely off with red). Anyway I like it, but the previous less armored version is a bit more appealing for me, but this one also has great features. Thanks for the review VBBN, can't wait to read the rest.

[ZORK64]

Yeah axes, I like axes! But still, Cragger is probably the one I care the least about. Probably because I really miss the crocodile theme here, which I absolutely loved about his first version. And while he still comes with great parts and a nice colour scheme (I like how the red is patterned across him), I don't like how much the gold clashes with his dark green IMHO.

[Aethersprite]

Yeah axes, I like axes! But still, Cragger is probably the one I care the least about. Probably because I really miss the crocodile theme here, which I absolutely loved about his first version. And while he still comes with great parts and a nice colour scheme (I like how the red is patterned across him), I don't like how much the gold clashes with his dark green IMHO.

Agreed - while 2014 Cragger pulls off the armoured look very well, I vastly prefer the slinky, sly and more crocodile look of 2013 Cragger. I also prefer the staff 2013 Cragger had, though 2014 Cragger's axe looks pretty good as well, and is easily the best use of the new blade piece out of the 2014 sets, in my opinion.

[MakutaDreadscythe]

Well, the axe looks okay, and he's definitely an upgrade from last year, but he suffers from the shoe-horned fire theme. Did they really need to add all those colours in? Just looking at this guy gives me a massive headache. Not to mention, that blade piece. I can't recall the last time I'd seen such an ugly, over-designed piece. Just...ughhh.

[Lyichir]

Am I the only one who really, really likes this guy's color scheme? I would never have expected it to look so good, but it does. It has just enough Earth Green to make it unique and the Tr. Fl. Reddish Orange and Warm Gold really make him pop! The only thing I'm slightly skeptical about is the Olive Green lower jaw, but even it doesn't look too bad.

I certainly like this one a lot more than Chi Panthar. While Panthar's build is slightly unique (though no more so than Cragger), his color scheme is Boring with a capital B.

[Aanchir]

Am I the only one who really, really likes this guy's color scheme? I would never have expected it to look so good, but it does. It has just enough Earth Green to make it unique and the Tr. Fl. Reddish Orange and Warm Gold really make him pop! The only thing I'm slightly skeptical about is the Olive Green lower jaw, but even it doesn't look too bad.

I certainly like this one a lot more than Chi Panthar. While Panthar's build is slightly unique (though no more so than Cragger), his color scheme is Boring with a capital B.

I agree, I love this guy's color scheme. No doubt it would be interesting to see what would happen if you swapped the Tr. Fluore. Reddish Orange parts with colors like Black, Olive Green, and Earth Green. But on the whole I feel like his color scheme is quite unique, energetic, and elegant. There's a reason he's one of my favorites from this year's lineup.

[MakutaDreadscythe]

Am I the only one who really, really likes this guy's color scheme? I would never have expected it to look so good, but it does. It has just enough Earth Green to make it unique and the Tr. Fl. Reddish Orange and Warm Gold really make him pop! The only thing I'm slightly skeptical about is the Olive Green lower jaw, but even it doesn't look too bad.

I certainly like this one a lot more than Chi Panthar. While Panthar's build is slightly unique (though no more so than Cragger), his color scheme is Boring with a capital B.

I will agree on Panthar. As good a set he is he isn't really breaking any boundaries with his colour scheme. I just feel that Cragger's is a tad too flamboyant for my liking. The last time a set gave me such a headache was Toa Mata Nui, before modding of course.

[LOTRfan]

And that's sad because crocodiles are, for the name of Offler, definitely cooler than lions.

YES! Another discworld fan! I thought I was the one of the only ones on eurobricks. That aside, great review.