Onward
Entry posted by ToM Dracone
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With the rest of them! Now, who shall we talk about first...
But when I look at these, it's their Inika-ness that I see more than the distinctions that they do have. Except for Stronius, the Glatorian Legends (is that really their name?) all have almost exactly the same body shape, at most a couple studs away from exact Inika proportions. With the Glatorian you had hunches and new body shapes and Malum's stocky bulk, and only Tarix and Gresh were left upright and seriously Inika-like in proportion. But there just isn't that variety with these.
And because of that, their lack of dramatic distinction from previous canister sets is even more pronounced. Especially because they all use Thornax. I'm all for re-using projectiles or launchers, if there's something different about them (say, the Inika's Zamor magazines or the Midak). I mean, I thoroughly loved the spiked Zamor that were prototypes for the Thornax. But having -exactly- the same launchers for two series is slightly disappointing...
Now, let's see... who shall we go with first... oh, why not Kiina?
Kiina ~ I love her light blue. I also love the fact that -finally- Lego has made a female set that actually has female proportions! But what I don't like is that they sacrificed all aesthetic value of her torso to do so. Would it kill them to make Hordika necks in another color, like black at the very least? Or leave the 2-axles black for Kiina if no one else? And what about the technic triangles on her back; couldn't those be dark blue too? Sigh.
Also annoying is that her body is tiny while all her limbs are really long. Her fin-pieces are interesting, if nothing else... I dunno. She seems very spindly overal, and my opinion on her is not settled yet. Seeing her with her proper mask color will help.
Ackar ~ ORANGE. AND. BRIGHT RED. Plus ankle covers. Loooove. It's almost enough to overrule the fact that he is literally an Inika. Which is rather disappointing. It's a great design, and the ankle guards make it even better, but it just looks like he's missing something when the only thing that's unique to him is his sword, of all things. I'm okay with using Berix's mask (it really can go either way, fire or water), but after Malum I'd like to see some more fiery-looking pieces... maybe on his shoulders?
He ranks very highly for me, just because I want that red and orange. Speaking of which, where were these last year when we had a Toa whose colors are red and orange?
Gelu ~ He looks quite dashing and very sleek, but my main impression is "didn't we get half of this in Strakk?" And indeed we did. I love the white Inika chest, and through such he's better with recolored pieces than Strakk was, but I'm thinking I liked Strakk better. Partly because of how perfectly Strakk embodied the element of Ice. Gelu is cool, I like his sword, and the snowflakes on his arms are a nice touch, but there's ... not that much new to him. And I think the white Inika thigh armor is getting a bit old now. (Seriously – he has exactly four new/recolored pieces. Total. That's not much.)
So yeah, he looks -really- nice, and like Strakk he has an awesome and unique color scheme, but also like Strakk an enormous majority of him comes in other sets. He's even worse than Strakk that way. I might end up just getting the white Inika chest on its own...
Stronius ~ He's bulky and spiky and this is good. I think the only thing I really dislike is how big his head is. I'm not sure how I feel about the club yet. But I like him overall, though he seems a little on the simple end... Sort of hard to tell since most of the pics of him have the club in the way, and the ones that don't have the lighter, grainy prototype plastic. We'll see. I do like the fact that he looks clearly like a Skrall without being a clone of the winter set in the slightest!
Mata Nui ~ I would be utterly in love with him if he were gold. What I had thought, from the leaked pics, was that he had gold armor over a yellow-and-black body – so his ankle guards, Inika legs, thigh armor, chest armor, shoulder armor, and Ignika would be gold, while his feet, hips, upper arm sockets, and hands would be yellow-orange. But because he's entirely yellow and has a new and far less appealing Ignika, I'm a lot less interested in him. I sort of think there's just too much yellow this way. It makes me think of a construction vehicle.
But we discussed him and gold and how disappointing yellow is by comparison somewhat at length in the comments of last entry, so we don't need to here. I like his set's design a lot, especially the ankle covers, and the Mata Nui symbol blades are awesome and make great shoulder coverings (but they'd be so much cooler in gold). His upper arms, however, are annoyingly long. One could use a short double-socket and attach the blades with a perpendicular axle joiner just as easily.
Vastus ~ The only word for him is awkward. His mask is goofy, his shoulder armor looks too organic to work with anything else on his body, the Inika thigh armor on his chest is awkward. And his color scheme is awkward. On his arms, it's lime over dark green, but then everywhere else, it's dark green over lime. It doesn't work very well. And then he has the eternally awkward Hordika legs. His staff looks awkward too. Sigh. The only things I really like are solid dark green Inika feet and the lovely clear-and-green Mahri tube – but even that pales in comparison to the absolutely incredible clear-and-lime tubes that Bunda got. Double sigh.
He could be very interesting, if only he had a better texture. His mask and shoulders are organic-looking, and so is some of his staff, but then the rest of his body is all pistony and technical and the colors on his staff aren't so great. So he could look like this ancient jungle warrior if only the rest of his body matched his shoulders... his arms would have to be inverted, the armor and Metru legs dark green and the socket lime, then maybe another tube on him, and maybe Kalmah armor for his legs... Then he's have to have more organic, trailing stuff to look like vegetation, I think a few Piraka minifig spines.
Hmm, this is fun. I do always enjoy making sets better, don't I?
Well, at any rate, there are my thoughts on the canister sets for you. Opinions on some of them, like Kiina and Stronius, are not quite determined yet. And Gelu is too cool-looking for my own good.
All of this will be resolved by summer, I'm sure. And I'm getting design ideas already, which is a good thing. Maybe I'll draw something in the next couple days. What say you?
~ ToM
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