Toy Fair 2014: Legends of Chima

[Hapori Tohu]

On the road along our Toy Fair 2014 coverage we're making a stop at Chima-town. Legends of Chima is back with two waves of sets introducing a whole bunch of new animals. There's lots of interesting sets and pieces, so you should read on to find out what we've got in store!

 

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[Wazdakka]

That awesome mega-sized Wooly Mammoth steals the show. I like the fusions of Hero Factory and System that we are getting.

[Dark_Stranger]

I hate to be the first to nitpick, but I was certain there were going to be constraction figures this year.

They were at one of the Toy Fairs in Europe...Nuremburg, maybe...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61839591@N08/12211904543/in/photostream/ (Just go back to the picture before that one in the photostream; they're right there. No sure why I can't link directly to the darned picture, though...)

I recall seeing these on several different sites covering the Nuremburg Fair, and they're listed on Brickset (no pictures, though), so I'd assume they're legit.

Still greatly enjoyed the new coverage--though I think the winter wave is considerably better than the summer one. Not really sure why; just a matter of personal preference, I guess.

Edited February 19, 2014 by The Hudson Hawk

[Lyichir]

Did they not have anyone on-hand to show off the functions of the sets? There are no pics of the coolest thing about the Flying Phoenix Fire Temple—namely, that the entire back wall lifts off and transforms into a phoenix-shaped flying machine!

 

And having gotten the Eagle Legend Beast today, I can give that my personal recommendation. It isn't as posable as the other Legend Beasts, but it looks gorgeous.

Edited February 19, 2014 by Lyichir

[Aanchir]

As I observed on Facebook, you apparently completely missed the main selling point of the Flying Phoenix Fire Temple — that it is not a Fire Temple for Flying Phoenixes, but a Flying Fire Temple for Phoenixes. Other than the outer wall, almost the entire temple detaches and becomes a flying vehicle with auto-stabilizing cannons! Check out the box pic! The Sabertooth vehicle in the set also has a detachable flying vehicle.

 

Also, the minifigure in Vardy's Ice Vulture Glider is a leopard, not a tiger. The head is used for a tiger and a lioness in the Flying Phoenix Fire Temple. I think that's great, since the Lion Tribe is one of the ones from last year that did not get any female minifigures (for obvious reasons — a lioness with the same thick, spiky mane as the male lions would have been puzzling).

 

Not too fond of the new Speedorz designs for the summer, though they are more Technic-based, which might make them sturdier... not to mention provide some constraction MOCing fodder.

 

I'm not too interested in getting any of these sets besides the Legend Beasts, personally. My brother and I got our first two (the eagle and wolf, respectively) today. They're both incredible. It used to be that Technic-based constraction models were the only kind that could be this stylish and affordable, but these challenge that notion, and at a more compact scale to boot. I'm interested to see how these joints might be used in the future!

 

And yes, as The Hudson Hawk says, there ARE constraction sets — seven of them, at two different price points! I might also get some of those, mainly for parts. They're decent designs, better than I thought they'd be based on the first, badly-posed and incorrectly-built photos we got from the German Toy Fair.

 

The other System sets are still beautiful, though. It's just that with The LEGO Movie, Ninjago, and HF, I don't want to cram a whole other theme into my budget for this year!

Edited February 19, 2014 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[believe victims]

The Mammoth Mech looked absolutely gorgeous until I got a better look at the skeletal (*rimshot*) body. There are so many exposed beams from the "skeleton" of the body and it's so SQUARE and hollow. It's almost as if it were designed for a slightly higher price point but they were forced to scrap a lot of cover on the back end to fit a lower price point.

 

Also, I thought the large circle things were supposed to resemble the ears, which would have been kinda neat, but now I see that it has smaller (albeit more realistically shaped) ears and the circles, when not the wings of the detachable vehicle, are actually just supposed to be massive shoulders. How boring.

 

(That being said, the head is gorgeous in its design. The HF chestplate shapes its front wonderfully.)

 

On a similar note, they really should have made a separate head for the minifig-sized mammoths, because that noggin is just too big on them.

[Toa Zaz]

Yeah, there are definitely constraction sets this year which they displayed at Nuremberg, I don't know why they didn't have them in New York.

[Black Six]

I hate to be the first to nitpick, but I was certain there were going to be constraction figures this year.

They were at one of the Toy Fairs in Europe...Nuremburg, maybe...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/61839591@N08/12211904543/in/photostream/ (Just go back to the picture before that one in the photostream; they're right there. No sure why I can't link directly to the darned picture, though...)

I recall seeing these on several different sites covering the Nuremburg Fair, and they're listed on Brickset (no pictures, though), so I'd assume they're legit.

Still greatly enjoyed the new coverage--though I think the winter wave is considerably better than the summer one. Not really sure why; just a matter of personal preference, I guess.

Those sets were definitely not on display anywhere at the event and were not in the press materials I received. With that in mind, I doubt they're going to be available in North America this year.

 

Did they not have anyone on-hand to show off the functions of the sets? There are no pics of the coolest thing about the Flying Phoenix Fire Temple—namely, that the entire back wall lifts off and transforms into a phoenix-shaped flying machine!

They did, but I had no idea it transformed so I didn't know to ask.

 

As I observed on Facebook, you apparently completely missed the main selling point of the Flying Phoenix Fire Temple — that it is not a Fire Temple for Flying Phoenixes, but a Flying Fire Temple for Phoenixes. Other than the outer wall, almost the entire temple detaches and becomes a flying vehicle with auto-stabilizing cannons! Check out the box pic! The Sabertooth vehicle in the set also has a detachable flying vehicle.

I spend most of the event looking through the viewfinder of my camera looking at the sets, not the box art, so I guess I missed the transformation.

 

Also, the minifigure in Vardy's Ice Vulture Glider is a leopard, not a tiger. The head is used for a tiger and a lioness in the Flying Phoenix Fire Temple. I think that's great, since the Lion Tribe is one of the ones from last year that did not get any female minifigures (for obvious reasons — a lioness with the same thick, spiky mane as the male lions would have been puzzling).

While I'm sure the difference is detailed on the website somewhere, it's a pretty minor difference in the world of anthropomorphic animals.

[dotcom]

Maula's Ice Mammoth Stomper thing is one of my favorite sets of the year and just an amazing, amazing looking set. At that price, though....only about 600 pieces for 90 dollars is....ouch. A lot of the pieces are big and there's quite a few minifigures, but still, that's really pricy. Shame, really. At even 70 dollars I would have definitely gotten it. As it is, waiting for a sale might be the smartest move....

 

The Flying Phoenix Temple is also a definite highlight. I saw a video of it from the Nuremberg Toy Fair where one of the people there just picked it up and started swooshing it around, at which point I could just look in wonder, it caught me completely by surprise. That is a really really cool play feature and if The Lego Movie wasn't taking up all my monies this summer I would definitely aim to get it.

Edited February 19, 2014 by dotcom

[Aanchir]

Those sets were definitely not on display anywhere at the event and were not in the press materials I received. With that in mind, I doubt they're going to be available in North America this year.

I wouldn't be so sure. Not all sets for each year are displayed at Toy Fair — for instance, the Technic sets for the summer haven't been at ANY of the past three New York Toy Fairs, if I'm not mistaken. They certainly weren't there or in 2012 when I attended, even though they were on display in Nuremberg both times.

 

While I'm sure the difference is detailed on the website somewhere, it's a pretty minor difference in the world of anthropomorphic animals.

The difference hasn't shown up on the website (since the characters haven't appeared in any sets yet), and I probably wouldn't have known it from there anyway since I don't follow the Chima story too closely. But it isn't anything the LEGO Group invented. Leopards have spots, tigers have stripes. This one has spots, so it's a leopard (plus its name begins with an L, fitting the Chima character naming scheme — but you wouldn't have known that without looking at the boxes).

 

All things considered, I definitely think you should try and photograph the boxes at the next Toy Fair, especially if they continue the tradition they established this year and keep all the box art watermark-free! It's good to be able to compare the sets as they're displayed and the sets as the LEGO Group intends them to be seen. Especially constraction sets which, as we've seen, the setup staff are not very good at displaying or even assembling correctly. Plus, in some cases, the boxes provide story context and character names.

[Black Six]

 

Those sets were definitely not on display anywhere at the event and were not in the press materials I received. With that in mind, I doubt they're going to be available in North America this year.

I wouldn't be so sure. Not all sets for each year are displayed at Toy Fair — for instance, the Technic sets for the summer haven't been at ANY of the past three New York Toy Fairs, if I'm not mistaken. They certainly weren't there or in 2012 when I attended, even though they were on display in Nuremberg both times.

 

Sure they weren't on display, but they were still in the press materials I received. The Chima constraction sets aren't even mentioned. I've put out a request to see if we can get come conclusive information.

 

All things considered, I definitely think you should try and photograph the boxes at the next Toy Fair, especially if they continue the tradition they established this year and keep all the box art watermark-free! It's good to be able to compare the sets as they're displayed and the sets as the LEGO Group intends them to be seen. Especially constraction sets which, as we've seen, the setup staff are not very good at displaying or even assembling correctly. Plus, in some cases, the boxes provide story context and character names.

Not all of the boxes were watermark free, and I do recall most of the Hero Factory packages being cardboard mockups with watermarks. I already took over five hundred pictures, and it's taking quite a while to go through them all. While I appreciate the feedback, I make no promises.

[fishers64]

I actually think the Vulture set does better than the eagle one. While the eagle looks more detailed, the Vulture has Razor's Wings in brown, and trans-blue stuff. But the real sell is the lioness, especially with the red throne thing. Plus less money.

 

And yeesh oligophant.

[Vorahk1Panrahk2]

All that trans blue... I want it.

 

Yeah, I have no interest in the rest of the sets but I'll be buying that mammoth and saber tooth tiger for sure. Between this and that Crystal Beast HF set I wonder if LEGO is deliberately pushing trans blue for some reason. I certainly don't recall many sets having that much of it, although I could be totally of base here.

[Click]

...my goodness. So much brown and trans-blue! I wish I could get them all, but alas, I already have way too many expensive sets on my wishlist. That mammoth is definitely going on there, at least for the pieces. The set design also looks great, but I'm just so excited about the brown!

 

Seems like this year will be great for pieces in general. There's so many new things in trans-blue, including the new claw design and minifigure parts. It seems like Lego spent quite a bit on Chima 2014 in new mold design. Seems like it should pay them back pretty well. I'm also really happy about the brown eagle wings in the Vulture glider, as I can now update my Steampunk Eglor's Twin Bike from a while back. That's probably where most of my brown pieces will go.

 

I'm also a big fan of the functions Lego is putting into their sets now. There's a lot of great original functions like the Scorpion Stinger's claws with a new method involving those minifigure turning handle pieces. It looks like the Spider Stalker also has a similar crawling function to Pewku, so that's a great reminder of Bionicle and a great reuse of a function. The Twin Blade seems worth it just for those omni-direcional joints (or whatever they're called) as well as the function they provide. I haven't seen many of those around lately.

 

The Legend Beasts also seem much improved from the apparently preliminaries I saw. I was really hesitant about getting them before because of their awful shaping, but these newer versions look great! I'll have to pick up a few with their decent price point, Chima figures, and Mixels joints.

 

Sigh. I can see my wallet emptying all ready.

 

By the way, why is there no sloth figures? I mean, we have mammoths, saber tooth tigers, and vultures, pretty much the entire cast of Ice Age 2.

[xccj]

Hehe, the Chima fans are getting real nit picky here. All the same, thanks for the picts Andrew!

 

It would be surprising if the constraction sets made a Europe-only release, it's not like there's any licensing issues with Chima like there were for some of the Star Wars sets in recent years. Perhaps the last wave of Chima Constraction sets sold very poorly over here, like the Planet sets, and that's why they cut the US out of the loop? Or course, from what I've seen, the new Chima Constraction sets look pretty bad IMO, but it's too bad we couldn't get better pictures of them.

 

The trans blue is nice and all, but for some reason I haven't been excited about trans light blue since I realized it doesn't look cool under a black light. All the same, looks like there'll be some interesting parts coming this summer.

 

[Gatanui]

Okay, Chima is getting like one of the weirdest things LEGO has ever done. But all dat trans-blue! Confused about the lack of constraction sets, though, let's see if we can get some more information about that.

 

-Gata

[Aanchir]

The Legend Beasts also seem much improved from the apparently preliminaries I saw. I was really hesitant about getting them before because of their awful shaping, but these newer versions look great! I'll have to pick up a few with their decent price point, Chima figures, and Mixels joints.

The shaping of the Legend Beasts has not changed significantly since the preliminary images. The builds are almost exactly the same. But presentation-wise, the finalized images do a much better job than the preliminary ones did. That's part of the reason watermarks get put on preliminary images — even if the sets themselves are finalized, the pictures are not yet presented in accordance with the LEGO Group's standards.

 

You're not the only person who has been misled by preliminary images with barely any build changes, though. Black Phantom from LEGO Hero Factory was incredibly unpopular when the first preliminary images surfaced. He was seen as incredibly gappy, with uncoordinated colors. One reason for this, it turns out, was that the preliminary photo was cropped very badly, so any Technic hole or other gap looked bigger than it was supposed to. Another reason was that some parts like the chest plate and helmet were rapid-prototyped versions of the parts, so the colors and textures didn't quite match the finalized versions, even though the shape remained the same. The final set, while still no masterpiece, was a lot more photogenic, and opinions of the set improved greatly when finalized renders and photo reviews actually began showing up.

 

Even seemingly-finalized display sets at Toy Fair can have shoddy presentation, especially constraction sets, which it seems the people responsible for setup have very little experience with. Build errors and shoddy posing are common. Just look at Queen Beast, whose wings are pointed in completely different directions and whose chest plate is attached upside-down.

 

 

All things considered, I definitely think you should try and photograph the boxes at the next Toy Fair, especially if they continue the tradition they established this year and keep all the box art watermark-free! It's good to be able to compare the sets as they're displayed and the sets as the LEGO Group intends them to be seen. Especially constraction sets which, as we've seen, the setup staff are not very good at displaying or even assembling correctly. Plus, in some cases, the boxes provide story context and character names.

Not all of the boxes were watermark free, and I do recall most of the Hero Factory packages being cardboard mockups with watermarks. I already took over five hundred pictures, and it's taking quite a while to go through them all. While I appreciate the feedback, I make no promises.

 

All the Hero Factory photos I've seen (like this one, this one, and this one) are watermark-free, though the foil packages are just cardboard mock-ups.

 

It's possible the box art might change, of course, and they're just not bothering to mark them as "confidential" since they're display items at an event that promotes photograghy and reporting. The preliminary packaging for the Epic Dragon Battle at Toy Fair 2012 didn't have any "confidential" watermarks, and the actual set photos remained unchanged in the final version, but the box had some differences from the finalized version (among other things, it featured a QR code). Still, I think images of the sets that are as clear as these packaging images are invaluable.

[~garnira returns~]

Okay, Chima is getting like one of the weirdest things LEGO has ever done. But all dat trans-blue! Confused about the lack of constraction sets, though, let's see if we can get some more information about that.

 

-Gata

It always has been, Gata!

 

Anyways, I'm not sure how many of these I will get. They look great, but they are pretty high, price-point wise. Also, was I the only one that noticed that the ice tribes are zombies? Look at the printing on them, you can see muscle tissue showing through on most of them, and bones on some of them. Those are some pretty gritty details, IMO.