This whimsical build by Pino came out a couple of weeks ago, but I missed it. I have to say it is one of the most fun creations that I’ve seen recently. The snail is perfect. I love the house built around the outside of the shell and the bait, keeping the snail on the run, cracked me up. Yes, it appears that the bait is non-Lego (unless I’m mistaken) but would you really want to keep a snail that ate Lego?
Some people say that they don’t really like pets. I say they just haven’t found the right animal yet. But once you do find that special beastie, drag it in to the professional photography studio to capture the moment! rong YIREN inflicts a particularly nasty kind of purgatory on this girl and her cuddly pet.
The Light Infantry Grid Runner (LIGR) is my own take on a future fighting vehicle, in the style of the JLTV. I felt that my Iron Mountain Legion theme needed a small scout vehicle, akin to a Jeep or Humvee. Arguably, the name is a bit of a reach, but once I’d decided to put “Light Infantry” in the name, I couldn’t help but try to name it Liger. While this is a post-apocalyptic theme, every apocalypse has a before-time, and these were clearly designed to run on or across a highway grid girding what would become the wasteland. Yeah, that’s the ticket, it’s a Grid Runner.
I thought that it was important to make it capable, and fun to play with, so I started by building a chasis with suspension. From there, I tried to add the usual visual style of the theme, so the model is a little tall and oversized, and, obviously, dark gray. In further pursuit of playability, I added working doors and tail hatches, and a nest on the roof.
We get this awesome micro-scale dreadnaught, posted by Sydag on flickr. For those not in the know, the Vayger and Somtaw are both factions in the PC game series Homeworld. They each have their own visually distinctive style, and each have been inspiring LEGO creations for some time now. This is the first time I’ve seen someone try to combine the styles, though, and I must say that I enjoy the result.
Highlights include the booms sticking far out to the back and sides of the creation, as well as a very interesting shape at the nose of the ship. The trans blue area at the back is illuminated by a LEGO light brick, as well. I also have to praise the builder for successfully mating two car fender pieces (the capsule shape with an orange dot inside), as I have seen this piece used repeatedly with a gap lately. Kudos for going that extra mile!
![Reloaded Vaygr-Somtaw Dreadnaught [With Escort]](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/media.brothers-brick.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/5872452267_b0e2158da6.jpg)
If you like micro builds and you like good LEGO photography then this shot from Tim Goddard (roguebantha_1138) will not disappoint.
Brixe63 has some brilliant optical illusions in her flickr gallery. I’m pretty sure I know how this one is done. Do you?
Obvious Portal references aside, I was drawn to this ship by Jack McKeen (madLEGOman), because of the interesting shapes I saw in a thumbnail. The cockpit shape is really quite beautiful, even if it can’t actually fit a fig inside. It reminds me of a compound eye, as it’s covered in various facets. The angular engine pods contrast with the bulbous cockpit for an interesting build overall.
I’m not goint to lie, the cake looks great, so delicious and moist.
I was sent some of the upcoming Hero Factory sets to review, so I built them with my two sons, 4 and 8 years old, in order to get the reaction of someone in the age demographic for these sets. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. But first, just the facts.
We received four sets: Furno 3.0 (#2191), Stringer 3.0 (#2183), Waspix (#2231) and Witch Doctor (#2283). Furno and Stringer are two of the Heroes, who have appeared in the previous series. As far as I know, Waspix and Witch Doctor are new characters and appear to be “baddies”. Furno and Stringer came in the typical cans, and the other two came in boxes.
My four year old built Furno and my eight year old built Stringer and Waspix. Both of my sons are experienced Bioinicle and Hero Factory builders and neither had any problems building the sets, though the four year old had a few issues with the instructions. I built Witch Doctor as it was too complex for the boys.
Now for the reactions, opinions and general blather.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the theme. It appears that this series of Hero Factory is going with an animal totem theme. Furno has a hawk mask and Stringer is a bear. According the pictures on the back of the box, other Heroes may have a rhino totem, a wolf or fox and a tiger. Bad guy Waspix is naturally a wasp. Witch Doctor appears to be just that, as it has a skull theme to it and has a stylized skull scepter/wand.
The second thing I noticed was that there quite a few new parts that don’t use “bionicle-style” connections, but more traditional connection points, such as clips. The claws on Stringer really stood out in this regard.
Lastly, as far as I reactions go, I was quite impressed with the Witch Doctor build. It was actually quite complex, very rugged and surprisingly large. I wouldn’t be surprised if the skull masks find their way into quite a few fan creations, as they are rather cool. My only complaint is that his left hand has the over-used bionicle shooter, but kids like things that fire. I just wish it had something new there. Waspix was an average build, with a decent amount of pieces. The Heroes had very few pieces and took me about a minute to put together. Even my four year old had one together in less than five minutes and they have an age range of 6-16. They are pretty simplistic.
My sons reactions were very similar but they each noticed different things. My four year old was enamored with the animal theme. He especially liked the Bear/Stringer. He wasn’t as excited about the wasp, but he “flew” the Hawk all over the house and “fought” with the Bear quite a bit. He was impressed with Witch Doctor, due to his size but didn’t really like the skulls as much.
My 8 year old was in heaven. Part of his reaction was colored by the fact that he was building sets that weren’t available yet, but he did come back down to earth to answer a few questions. He loved Waspix, due to the multiple arms, red spikes and trans-yellow wings. Of the two Heroes, Stringer the Bear was his favorite, due to the claws. He said the actual building experience was better than the previous Hero Factory offerings, but he still preferred Bionicle and misses it. He thought Witch Doctor was really cool because he is really into skeletons right now. He liked the animal theme of the two Heroes but felt like they were too simple to build and didn’t have enough pieces.
All of the review pictures can found in the Hero Factory set in my photostream.
This concludes our Father/Son review. Hopefully it gives you some helpful facts about the new Hero Factory sets. Take care!
Edit: I am not an experienced reviewer. If there is information that I left out, please ask questions in the comments and I will do my best to answer them.
The 2011 edition of Iron Mecha has ended and it had some truly superb entries. In the spirit of the original I volunteered myself to write some feedback and crown a winner.
Aaron Williams (m_o_n_k_e_y) was crowned winner after barely edging out Rong Yiren (below left). Nate Daly (below right) had the most creative entry with his nautiloid/gorrila crossbreed.
And so is PCHLUG’s 101 Challenge. Your goal is to build something that represents a Hollywood summer blockbuster (or, really, any movie at all!) and submit it to the Flickr group by July 31st.
Prizes include fantastic custom trophies built by PCHLUG’s members!
For complete rules, click here!
Get your build on!
