This wizard is a cute little bugger and I like him. Generally I frown on the use of old and new grey together as they tend to give an unfinished look to a build. However, in this case, it Dave & John Xandegar used the technique to create a nice mottled effect on the wizards robe.
I do wonder if he burned his hand a lot when he was learning that fire spell…
I’m going to let this picture by Todd Wilder speak for itself. I need to go lay down because it’s making my head spin. If this could actually be built this way, I would need several of them. Too cool.
You can see the actual creation here. While it is cool, I think it is pretty wild how the kaleidoscope effect changes it so much.
You should check out his KaLEGOscope set. There are some other rather trippy things in there.
Something along the lines of “incredible”, “stunning” or “out-standing” may be in order. Rakanishu’s mosaic of Mr. Spock is a great homage to the Enterprise’s first mate and science officer. Can we describe a Lego creation as logical? I think we can.
This mosaic, by Andy, is a real eye-catcher. I love the split view of MegaMan and the background gives it a great look.
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.
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.
Actor Gavin MacLeod, best known as Captain Stubing of The Love Boat, made a stop at Brickworld this year. His purpose? To pay a surprise visit to certified Lego professional, Ryan McNaught, who had built a super-sized replica of the Pacific Princess, the ship used in 1970s tv show.
You can also see Ryan’s work in his Flickr stream.
There are good builds and there is good presentation, but they don’t always go together. Chris Malloy has them both, no question about it. With this creation he takes us on a fascinating adventure across an infernal lake, aboard a gloriously improbable craft.
This was built for Forbidden Cove’s monthly seedpart contest.
Mike Nieves has quite a distinctive style and I have come to expect a high level of quality in his creations. However, this one raises the bar. I am impressed all over again. Not only is this girl beautiful, she is fully articulated, including wrists, fingers and feet. I have to say that this one blew me away. Well played, sir, well played.
Katie Walker just keeps blowing my mind. Every time I start to think that I’ve seen it all, she posts something new to her photostream. She even says that this is just an experiment and she built it while surrounded by four children, all under the age of four. After hearing that, I would think she was actually a lego-building robot…except I’ve met her in person. If she was a robot, she hides it well.
There is something engaging about a well-built bus. I have no idea what it is, since nearly all of my experiences on long bus rides have been bad. However, regardless of my own past experience, Karwik has built a charming bus, complete with bus stop.
