New Lego Merchandise up on Shop@Home

I'm sure you guys already know this, but there have been the new 2008 sets appearing over at Lego's Official Website. Lots of new stuff, including some familiar Toa and their new enemies, New Exo-Force battle machines, the new Indiana Jones theme, and some Mars Mission vehicles. Of course, that isn't all of it, so you should check the website for more info.

The one burning question I have though is why the heck release them so close to the holidays! I had already made my list and sent it, and now all this stuff comes flooding out. I was kind of hoping I would have a little more time before these sets released. Ah, well I hope I get tons of money over holiday break. My birthday is four days after the 25th, so I get double-whammied with presents. Hopefully I can pick up a few of the new sets for review, but I'll first have to sort through all the other Lego's I receive. D:

Toa Mahri: Jaller review

Well, I guess this is the first of probably many of my reviews heading your way. So as my first one I would just like to clarify something. I wasn’t kidding when I said that I would do some picture heavy set reviews by yours truly. In this case, I am reviewing the 2007 Toa Mahri Jaller. Yeah, I know. It’s a bit late to be reviewing these guys right? WRONG! I sure am going to review some newer sets, but I can’t say how many times I didn’t buy a set, but then a few year or two later I smacked myself in the forehead for snatching it up the first time I saw it. When I hit a review drought expect to see some older stuff reviewed. So sit back, relax, nuke a bag of popcorn, and enjoy the show. Comments, criticism, and new found wisdom are available for your convenience after exiting the review. Oh and sorry about the camera before hand. The pictures are decent, but not quite as clear as I hoped to get out of my old camera. At least you know what else Santa is bringing me besides LEGOs for the Holidays. *wink wink*

*IMPORTANT*

EDIT: Actually, the blog cut the photos.To view them in all of their glory, right click over them and click "view image." There is nothing I can do about it now unless I resize all the pictures, but that wouldn't look good at all. I'll have to keep that in mind for future review pictures.

Toa Mahri: Jaller

Everything you get for your cash.

Introduction:

In my opinion, Jaller is the most physically striking of the six Toa Mahri, with the cool new chest plate and sidekick crab. I knew he would be a definite buy right from the get-go. Although he wasn’t my first Mahri purchase, (Nuparu stole that award, but hey, he had a shield) I feel as though I have a duty to first review my favorite set out of the bunch.

First Impressions:

Well, I kind of tore open the packaging and threw it away before I remembered that I was supposed to be reviewing the thing, so no full box pictures for you. I have to admit though, that the boxes the Mahri come in look awesome, however, they are not canisters. In the first time in Bionicle history, the main Toa set boxes are not in any way designed for storing anything. You just pull the colored plastic thing off and you have just a plastic container that you have to rip open to get the pieces out. The pieces are in smaller bags, with exceptions of the Cordak Blasters, weapons, and the new breathing tubes.

The “canister” *coughhackcough*

The piece of colored plastic is really the only thing that you can keep, as the round piece holes can be used to kneel your Mahri in with their Cordak Blaster situated like a stationary turret. (as demonstrated on the back of the packaging, however it requires some extra pieces if you don’t want to use one of the set’s hand pieces) If you want to keep it you may run into a wall of how to store the thing, since it appears they were not designed to line up with one another. However, with a bit of force you can stack them on top of each other. I guess I was pleased with how cool the set box looked at first glance, but I was largely disappointed that it wasn’t designed with set storage in mind. (That rhymed! *shot*)

The ever important Manual, with out it, we would *gasp* have to get the directions through the interwebs.

Building:

Jaller comes with the standard 60 or so pieces, and he isn’t hard to build at all. The directions show you everything you need without having to ask any questions at all with pesky piece placement. It took me around 5-10 minutes of building, and I couldn’t imagine anyone else taking any longer if they aren’t distracted by anything. There are a few new pieces as well. Besides the Cordak Blaster, the new pieces include Jaller’s awesome chest plate, sword, mask, air tubes, orange waist armor, and a small number of older pieces with new colors.

I wonder if he has any baggies to pick up those crab droppings?

After the hard work is out of the way:

There you go, the complete Jaller Mahri. His figure is definitely recognizable as a Toa, with the proportions from last year’s Toa Inika, not to mention many of the parts. You can immediately notice his trait that sets him apart from the other Mahri, the Hahnah Crab. As the story goes, the rahi is attracted to his heat energy, so he started following Jaller around. Another neat feature is the new chest plate armor. The piece itself resembles a “C” when turned on its side and could have tons of great potential for MOCers. From out of the mask, the two air tubes pass through back armor to the chest armor and then loop right back into the chest armor. The orange piece of armor in the center can also be pretty useful and is used differently than the other Toa. Without it, Jaller would look even skinnier than he already is. His sword arm has switched from his Inika form, and is instead on the left arm instead of the right (looking from the back). His right arm now sports a 3cm “+” rod with a round attachment on the end. This is the leash like stick that holds the chain connected to the Hahnah crab.

The specifics:

The Body:

Jaller himself, alone, isolated, remote, desolated, not with other people.

His limbs are the same as his former Inika self, with the exception of his arm armor being the same as the leg armor also seen last year. It kind of gives him more of a compressed look in my opinion, but it leaves the back of his arms bare, but more on that in a little bit. The color scheme uses dark red armor, black for the hip joints and basic joint connectors, orange for the mask/waist armor and the limbs, the same color of Hakann’s limbs instead of the darker, translucent Inika limbs. Except for the color, however, everything from the waist down is the exact same as his Inika counterpart. It would have been so easy to change at least something, as I would have settled for just some different feet. This is definitely the biggest let down of the set, but the sets good points far outweigh the bad. Besides, I can always use more of those feet pieces for MOCing. Other pieces that stay the same are the hip connecters, although this time it is black instead of red.

Seriously, did the Toa go on a Subway diet?

As I said before, Jaller is skinny, really skinny. I guess it is Lego’s new trend to make the sets as skinny as possible, even skinner than last year’s Toa.

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Jaller’s largely neglected backside

Taking a look at the back you can see where the air tubes connect to the chest armor from out of the mask. You can also see where his three spare Cordak ammunition is horizontally store in the middle of his backside armor with the help of those grey, 3/5s tube connectors. Like I said before, the back is pretty bare, almost unarmored. It seems like Jaller falls victim to the other trend Lego sets have, that being the back of set is pretty much neglected completely. You can also see from here that the Mahri have switched back to the Toa Metru head instead of using the featureless head from last year. There are also the neon green eye sockets, as Jaller is one of the two Toa Mahri that use the eye color. (Kongu being the other Mahri)

Hit his weak point for massive damage.

The only real downer in the design of Jaller is the giant cavity behind his chest plate. If you lift the head up you can really see a bit into the inside of the set. I wish it could have been a bit fuller, and I’m sure I could come up with a way to fill it myself. It isn’t that big of a flaw, but it can be noticeable after you build Jaller.

The mask:

“lawl, wut ye be lookin at?”

Ahh, the mask; for some this can be the most important part of the set. Jaller wears the Arthron Mask of Sonar, and with it he can detect anything swimming around in the water with sound waves, much like a real dolphin or bat would. Rest assured, since the Metru head is back, the old mask style also makes a return. This means that there are no more rubber masks, as they are once again made out of plastic with a “+” rod sticking out where you attach the mask to the head. Although it is made of plastic, you can tell just by feeling it that it is made from a different grade than the rest of the parts, which can only be a good thing for the durability department. The mask is one of the two in the Mahri series that are two-toned, in this case it is orange-red (Hewkii has the other mask that is Black-Yellow)

It’s one of those epic “stare into the distance” moments

I for one adore this mask as the top coincides with Jaller’s chest plate (they both share the upward arc and smaller rectangular gaps). The top part seems to be red while the bottom tends to be orange. Mine seems to have a more dominant orange, but I can’t be sure if it is the way for all of them. Depending on how the color was put on the mask during assembly, the same mask may have a different dominant color. For example, I have seen Pridaks with tons of red around the mouth or just a little bit of a smidgen, and I am guessing these masks will work the same way. There are two small, circular air tubes of the same color attached to the mask itself, while the separate silver colored air tubes connect to the bottom gaps that that the mask tubes lead out of. It also has an overall windswept look to it, as though something is pulling on it tight from the sides of Jaller’s head. Overall, the mask is awesome, and a big positive for the set.

Weapons:

Jaller’s main weapons are his Hahnah Crab and a silver sword. The crab holds the Cordak blaster, so I consider him part of the arsenal, no matter how deceivingly cute it may be.

The Sword:

Pointy pointy! Sharp sharp!

The sword is a nice piece of equipment that would make a sharp, sleek look if used for MOCing purposes. What really makes it nice are the two round pin slots near the “+” rod handle, so you aren’t forced to use the “+” rod attachment, unlike the Inika. To me, the two tubes in the middle look like shock absorbers for some reason, which completes its awesome look.

Too bad it’s a one-sided blade

However, there is a tradeoff, as the back of the sword is not identical to the front. There are indentations where the shock absorber tubes are on the other side. If not seen from the front the sword looks a bit awkward, as one again Lego demonstrates their neglect of the backside of a piece. The sword overall is cool, but I would have liked it more if both sides were identical.

The Crab:

It may be cute, but it has got enough fire power to blow you to bits.

The Hahnah Crab itself is nothing but the reincarnation of awesome in its purest form. Although very simple in construction, it looks completely original. The greatest part of the crab in my opinion has to be the fact that the main body is comprised of another new arching chest piece, which is a double helping of the best new part of the set. That should definitely make most of you MOCers happy. Other than that, other pieces include the two blue bulblike eyes that were introduced with the Barraki, two silver Onua “claws” for feet, four white “spikes” use both as teeth and tiny claws, two round pins, and a basic black joint ball connector. Of course you can also see that it carries Jaller’s Cordak Blaster attached to ball joint connecter as its main source of firepower. The top of the Blaster holds the same “+” rod a round lego stud on the tip which you stick to the other end of the chain Jaller holds. It should be noted that it can move its feet around so you can adjust for balancing the Cordak Blaster, which is just about the size of Mr. Crabby himself. Thanks to the round connector piece, it allows the Cordak Blaster to be pointed in any direction, which is something the other Toa may be inhibited to do.

“Pet me, I dare you.”

Without the Cordak Blaster, our friend the crab can hold still hold its own as a rahi beast. You can really start to see just how small it is without the hulking missile/torpedo/overkill launcher.

“OH MY GAWD! IT’S A SHARK! GET IN THE CAR!”

If you think the black ball joint connector is sticking out a little bit in the back and seems to be an unneeded piece if you aren’t using it to hold the Cordak Blaster, do not fret; you can remove it without altering any other pieces.

This thing runs on pure, unleaded awesome.

After popping the hood to see what makes this baby tick, you can start to appreciate how all of the pieces fit together. Like I said before, this crab is crazy simple.

Overall, the crab is an ingenious edition to Jaller that really makes him the set he is. It definitely sets him apart from the other Mahri Toa, and his former Inika self.

The Cordak Blaster:

NOTE: This is the one and only time I am going to go into depth with the Cordak Blaster. Since they are the same for each set, why would I need to repeat myself twice, trice, or whatever the “T” word used for four? You may see this passage word for word in other reviews separate from this one though. (because I am such a lazy bum)

I want a life-size one. Don’t you?

As the main gimmick for the sets for ’07, these do not disappoint. Unlike the Barraki, these things work just as they are advertised.

I wonder if the red means “DO NOT TOUCH?” Nah.

The basic design has you thinking that Lego really thought this one out. It looks more like conventional arms than the Zamor Launchers, so it really doesn’t look as much Toa-like as it does giving a huge boost to the “cool” factor. There are six slots where you put in the red ammunition, giving it a total of six projectiles to fire, two more than the Zamor Launchers if you were pushing for the magazine to hold that forth sphere. On one side there is a ball socket, while on the other a “+” rod connecter jutting out. This gives it tons of versatility to where you can put these things, so this is a great victory for MOCers. The back has a red moving piece that compresses when pushed on, and if you apply enough speed and force, you will fire the Cordak Blaster with the awesome power of air. A really neat feature is the fact that after you push the part forward, the front barrels of the Blaster move to the next slot, meaning it can be fired quickly and rapidly; practically as fast as you can pump. There are also two flat pieces that serve as places to put your fingers, but more on that in a second.

IMMA RELODIN MEH LAZAR!

The ammunition these suckers take are the red Cordak Ammo pieces. A normal Toa set always comes with nine, with the exception of Hewkii and Kongu, who come with ten and sixteen respectively. Six of these are meant to be stored inside the Cordak Blaster itself, while the others are stored on the body somewhere (in the case of Jaller, they are stored on the horizontal part of his backside armor). The ammo is made of some sort of rubbery, yet sturdy material, and has a widened cap on the end to prevent it from falling inside the barrel where the red slide goes back and forth.

Look Mom! The ammo stays in!

For you yourself to grip it, just take your middle finger and your pointer finger and push on the two flattened parts near the barrels of the Blaster. Then have your thumb rest on the back of the red piece and you are set for some missile launching action. For those of you who remember how annoying it was when the Zamors fell out every which way, there is good news. It takes a sizeable amount of force to take the Cordak ammo out by mere handling, even when upside-down! For maximum range, I would it goes as far as 12 feet if you are really forcing it. Normally though you can get 6-8 feet easily. Although it isn’t very Bionicle like, it is the most well designed gimmick launcher yet. I really didn’t have much hope for the Cordak Blaster after what the Barraki pulled with the squids, so I was pretty shocked to see that it worked flawlessly. I hope the next batch of sets keep this up and be just as good, if not better, than that of the Cordak Blaster.

Pose-ability:

All these pictures and you thought you’d get off scott free without a silly one? HA!

There is nothing much that limits Jaller from posing him however you want (within reason). The tubes connected to his mask may restrict his head movement a tiny bit, but not as much as you would think. While Jaller is very well balanced, the Hahnah Crab can topple over sometimes if you are not careful in using its swiveling legs to balance the Cordak Blaster. Also, the chain Jaller uses as a leash for the crab can be irritating when trying to pose the crab farther away from Jaller, but you can just detach it if you are going for that far anyway. Not much more to say, really.

Blast from the past:

Back 2 kcaB

As you may not clearly see, Jaller has a resemblance from the waist down, but his upper torso and crab set him apart from his Inika form entirely. They are just about the same height if you couldn’t already tell.

So how does it all stack up?

What would make Mata-Nui proud:

+Mask is two toned and of great design/fits well with rest of body
+Double helpings of the new chest plate pieces that are begging for MOC attention
+The crab works out to be awesome
+Different enough from Inika form
+Cordak Blaster is awesome and works flawlessly
+New type of sword
+Air tubes are a great addition
+New parts are very MOC friendly

What would make Mata-Nui a sad panda:

-The large gap underneath Jaller’s head
-From the waist down is basically the same as his Inika form
-Not a large amount of new pieces
-The back of the set is once again, neglected.
-The sword isn’t identical on both sides
-The “canister” is not for storage.

The verdict:

*drum role*

i iZ TEh WiNNaR

If you are going to buy any Toa Mahri, then make Jaller a priority. As you can see above, the cons are just little things that are pretty much overwhelmed by the pros. It has been a very long time since I loved a fire Toa this much, but hey, you can’t argue with one of, or better yet, the best Mahri set, no matter the element (even if fire doesn’t make sense underwater. It’s ok Jaller, at least I forgive you).

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Why hello there?

Well, I guess I better introduce myself and detail the purpose of this blog in its first post (if you didn't take any hints from the banner).

Hello, my name is Tyler. Thanks to my interest in Lego, this blog I've concocted will house various my own personal Lego Set reviews that I can easily share just by linking to here. But why Lego reviews? My beef is that I cannot find one decent Lego site (fan or official) that has a huge database of collective reviews on the various sets that consist of a little more than those Amazon/BrickSet reviews such as:

"k dis set is liek awsone und u shuld by it even tho i don't have it! 5/5!"

Or better yet:

"omg this set sux cause it look stoopid, just don't by it cause i didn't lol."

Since Lego sets are so numerous (and expensive) I have trouble deciding which are good buys and which are potentially not suited for my tastes. Naturally I looked to the interwebs for some answers. Sure, there have been some great sites that do excellent occasional reviews, but what about the new stuff? What about the sets you missed because you didn't have the cast? What about that time you lost interest, but then saw something that caught your eye and you were hooked again? Why don't you review this set, or at least have a guest review, you have at least 400k freaking members for crying out loud!? (BZPower, I am looking at YOU)

So I said "Screw it, I should make my own."

Well, then I found out making a website "ain't so easy." Thus, I decided on a making a blog. There I can add a few personal reviews of sets I already own. The reviews will be picture heavy and pretty detailed, so I don't become what I loathe. Oh, and also expect Lego news to pop up on this blog from time to time. If this kicks off and I grow a small community or fill it up with enough content, I'll expand to a forum; and then, maybe even a website. But that's assuming this place gets anywhere.

The problem is that I am really only interested in three Lego themes. Those being Mars Mission, Bionicle, and Exo-Force. I know my tastes aren't the same as everybody else's (that's why they have other themes, duh) and to have a collective of reviews I will need some dirt on Lego's other themes. That's where other people come in. Have a great review you want to share? Just e-mail them to me and I'll post them up here on the blog. Please sent it to rauzaruke@yahoo.com if you are interested. Just remember to take decent pictures and use correct grammar!




Too long; didn't read? Well then, to summarize:

-The blog is about detailed Lego set reviews with pictures.
-You can send in your own reviews at rauzaruke@yahoo.com
-If this place becomes popular, I will try and expand to a forum for easier discussion and review sharing.

I just hope I help a bunch of frustrated people who don't want to drop a lot of dough on something they've only seen a few pictures of. Thanks to anyone who spent there time reading this and I hope I don't disappoint. Expect reviews to pop up shortly as well!

Oh, and I'm still tinkering around with the blog, so it is subject to change.