Set Review: 44028 SURGE & ROCKA Combat Machine

[Hapori Tohu]

BZPower was lucky enough to get our hands on some of the summer Hero Factory sets, courtesy of LEGO, and it's time to share our thoughts on them. Up today we've got 44028 SURGE & ROCKA Combat Machine, the largest hero set this year. Will these two heroes be enough to fend off the invasion from below, or is it doomed to warm the shelves? Read and watch on to find out!

 

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[believe victims]

It's nice to see my reservations about this set confirmed. The awkward legs really kill it, and the underwhelming body is just a recipe for an aesthetic nightmare.

[UnderscoreChronix]

The surge minifig looks weird. For some reason they decided to give him red eyes instead of yellow, and the helmet really looks nothing like the character. The legs on the mech look very awkward, and that jet/plane/flyer thing looks bad. It's probably the least aero-dynamic flying object I've ever seen, I imagine it would be like flying a very large brick, and the back is empty and looks very messy.

However I do like the egg thingy. It looks very nice and the opening feature is great. I'm also glad they incorporated the new guns.

I rate this set 5/10.

[Lyichir]

This review was okay. I think you accidentally gave Rocka and Surge each others torsos; Rocka looks better with Titanium Metallic armor and Surge looks better with Silver Metallic armor, like they appear in other sets.

 

I'd need to have the set in my hands to be sure but I don't think this set is as bad as the review makes it out to be. I personally like the unique posture that comes from the unusual leg builds (although the problems with the legs disconnecting when posing, as shown in the video, do trouble me), and the exposed ball joints, which never really bothered me as much as it seems to bother other Bionicle fans, bother me even less on an industrial/military mech than they would on a character-based figure. I also have no problem with the orange cockpits, which really make the set pop, although I do think that the contrast with the green weaponry is jarring, so perhaps either the cockpits should have been Bright Yellowish Green or the armaments should have been orange as well. In any case, that'd be a simple change.

I'm still not sure I'll get this set, since I love Tunneler Beast and Rocka's other machines aren't shabby either. But if I do end up getting this I'll definitely have to see how it stacks up.

Edited June 16, 2014 by Lyichir

[Aanchir]

The surge minifig looks weird. For some reason they decided to give him red eyes instead of yellow, and the helmet really looks nothing like the character. The legs on the mech look very awkward, and that jet/plane/flyer thing looks bad. It's probably the least aero-dynamic flying object I've ever seen, I imagine it would be like flying a very large brick, and the back is empty and looks very messy.

However I do like the egg thingy. It looks very nice and the opening feature is great. I'm also glad they incorporated the new guns.

I rate this set 5/10.

I love the new Surge's helmet. It seems to me like a great likeness of his classic helmet, what with those wide, angular eyes, that boxy jawline, and the lightning patterns on the forehead. The added mouth really suits his personality. Shame that the spiky back of the mask could not be preserved, but I still can't help but think "Surge" when I look at it. The change in eye color is a bit strange, but I don't think it hurts him. I am going to want to see what he looks like with Bright Yellowish Green or Bright Yellow eyes, though, as with Furno (whose eyes changed to Light Royal Blue as a mini-hero).

 

I honestly don't have a problem with the cockpits being orange. They actually look much better in a contrasting color than they would have in a matching color, I think, and you can't get a much stronger contrast than Bright Orange and Bright Blue. I suppose Bright Yellowish Green cockpits would have also looked cool and would have matched the glowing launcher pieces, but I still think the orange canopies are quite stylish.

 

There are a couple parts of the review where I'm not sure whether you built the set wrong or the instructions are inconsistent with the box art. For instance, every official picture of this set (or any set from the Invasion from Below series) shows Surge with the lighter Silver Metallic armor and Rocka with the darker Titanium Metallic armor, but you did the opposite. Also, the box art (front and back) shows the shells on the front legs facing forwards, whereas you have them facing sideways in all photos. I like them better facing forwards, to be honest, as I feel they fit better with the feet that way. Now, obviously the box art isn't flawless — the front of the box shows the printed shells attached at an impossible angle. But I still think that even if you built this set correctly according to the instructions, I'm going to want to make the set more consistent with the box art when I build it — I just like it better that way.

 

Anyway, I really really didn't like this set when I saw it at Toy Fair. It seemed like a big disappointment in most of the photos. But I figured I should give it a second chance once reviews started to show up, and I'm glad I did. It really is an impressive model. I love the multi-jointed legs with their different lengths (which I wasn't really sold on until I built the model on LDD and saw how neat they looked when posed well). The clever design of the walker body feels very industrial and unique. I'm not quite so thrilled with the flyer, which feels a bit bare-bones and doesn't make much use of constraction building styles. But its swing-wing function is neat (works much better than the similar function on the Chima constraction sets as far as I can tell) and it complements the walker nicely. Overall, I have a feeling I'm going to want to pick this set up.

[Smitty]

Did Nex get fired? He's not been around the last two years?

[Aanchir]

Did Nex get fired? He's not been around the last two years?

Nor has Stringer. I'm not sure what the reason might be, but it could be that those two didn't sell as well in the Breakout series as the other seven.

[Black Six]

I think you accidentally gave Rocka and Surge each others torsos; Rocka looks better with Titanium Metallic armor and Surge looks better with Silver Metallic armor, like they appear in other sets.

There are a couple parts of the review where I'm not sure whether you built the set wrong or the instructions are inconsistent with the box art. For instance, every official picture of this set (or any set from the Invasion from Below series) shows Surge with the lighter Silver Metallic armor and Rocka with the darker Titanium Metallic armor, but you did the opposite. Also, the box art (front and back) shows the shells on the front legs facing forwards, whereas you have them facing sideways in all photos.

I went and double-checked the instructions and I followed them accurately. The box art is just inconsistent from the instructions.

[Mesonak]

Not that big of a fan, honestly. The whole thing looks hilariously awkward and unimpressive from any angle other than a top-down view. The back half of the set really kills the aesthetic, and the plane is quite haphazard in design. I honestly would have preferred them cutting the combiner aspect out completely and just using the extra pieces to make a really good Surge vehicle. Alas, it was not to be.

 

Probably won't be getting this one.

 

-Mesonak