Jump to content
  • entries
    221
  • comments
    792
  • views
    131,874

Tunneler Beast and related musings


Aanchir

1,518 views

Earlier I was looking at how this year's Hero Factory sets compare to similarly-priced BIONICLE sets in terms of complexity. Turns out they fare rather well. Let's look at one in particular: 44024 Tunneler Beast.

 

tunneler_beast_vs_surge.png

 

Tunneler Beast is a $9.99 set coming out this summer (as such, it's at the lowest price point for this year's sets). It boasts 59 pieces (45 if you don't include the minifigure or his accessories) and 20 points of articulation (15 if you don't include the jaw and fingers, which only rotate along one axis each).

 

A typical Piraka cost $9 in 2006, which according to WolframAlpha would be about $10.60 in today's money. Each Piraka had 41 pieces (plus one extra for Hakann and Thok's weapons) and 13 points of articulation.

 

If we reach back a bit further, the Vahki cost $9 each in 2004, which would be $11.32 today according to WolframAlpha. Each one of those had just 32 pieces and only 10 points of articulation (perhaps eleven or twelve if you count the squeezable launcher-jaws, but that's being extremely generous since those couldn't really hold a pose).

 

Now, obviously I'm being a bit selective here. There are a number of BIONICLE canister sets that had more pieces than Tunneler Beast, particularly if you don't include the minifigure and accessories (though several of those sets, like the Toa Mahri, are inflated by lots and lots of ammo pieces, not to mention a plethora of pins and axles). I don't know if any canister sets have more points of articulation than Tunneler Beast, though. Chirox had just 17 including the chest that splits open, and Pridak had just 16 even if you count the mandibles separately. Even Gorast, with her six limbs, had just 18 points of articulation including the wings! And in any case, you have to be just as selective to suggest that Hero Factory, as it exists today, is considerably LESS complex than BIONICLE sets of similar size or price.

 

Just food for thought. I'm personally fascinated how far Hero Factory has advanced since 2010, when the $7 hero sets were pitifully simplistic and repetitive even by BIONICLE standards. There are some rumors floating around that Hero Factory might be ending soon, and now that it's been around for four and a half years those rumors are starting to seem more believable than every other year of its life that they've been thrown about.

 

But we've been assured that its building system is here to stay, and that gives me great confidence that the NEXT constraction theme will not be hindered by such a rocky start. The new building system really did put Hero Factory on the fast track to greater complexity and diversity of designs, and this year I feel like the Hero Factory sets in general not just one or two have finally stepped out of the long shadow of their BIONICLE predecessors.

  • Upvote 3

2 Comments


Recommended Comments

I suppose I just yearn for Bionicle's aesthetic. A lot of sets, particularly the early ones (the Toa Metru being my favorite example) looked a lot more cohesive and complex than HF sets. For all its versatility, the HF system can't match the level of detail and unique character personality that Bionicle sets often had. I feel like the stark, geometric shapes of HF pieces aren't particularly "cool" or believable. The edges and backs of HF armor in most sets makes the character look incomplete. Maybe it's the nostalgia, but the pinholes and Y-sockets in the first four or five years of Bionicle never felt that out of place. Later sets, though very original build-wise in general and creative in their parts use, started to look less cohesive in many cases, but still more aesthetically pleasing to me that the last couple of years of HF.

 

Also, I feel that points of articulation are over-stressed in discussions of playability. Yes, as far as creating cool poses go, any and every joint adds new possibilities. And few key joints really matter- a lack of shoulder, elboy, knee, hip, or heat articulation is usually a bad thing. But I find a solid build, with a good frame work and no more joints than necessary, to facilitate really satisfying play (or just handling, if you don't "play" anymore [you do and you know it]). You can't adjust the pose of a set well in the middle of a dynamic fight scene without pausing and carefully adjusting each joint. Adjusting the joints involves forethought, dexterity, and the ability to change that one joint without your grip on the toy messing up the toy's whole pose. Designing sets to make posing quick, intuitive, and satisfying is what matters to me, and I don't think HF sets as a rule really facilitate that. There are exceptions, but for me most sets with many legs with multiple joints each are very inconvenient to pose, especially is those legs are too close or too far from each other. I love the Rahkshi and Vahki because they're so satisfying to play with. The single-piece arms lacked elbow joints but looked so dynamic and cool with their respective staffs you only needed that one joint- in fact, I had more fun with them because they lacked elbow joints to keep track of. I'm not saying that HF sets need similar functions, but the arm-waving gear function was convenient to use in a dynamic play environment and did more to produce and absorbing play experience than any number of joints. Their legs were well-proportions and fun to use.

 

I'm no longer the younger kid I once was, so the playstyles of the target age group have changed since then. But while HF set design has been getting truly excellent in creativity and value in the last few years, I feel like the direction they're going in as far as playability is concerned is a good. I will say that some recent play features I really love, like the soft-tube wing motion in the recently reviewed Chi sets. I just think that joints don't add as much to the product as a lot of people say they do.

 

Edit: Just realized how much I wrote. Um.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment

I suppose I just yearn for Bionicle's aesthetic. A lot of sets, particularly the early ones (the Toa Metru being my favorite example) looked a lot more cohesive and complex than HF sets. For all its versatility, the HF system can't match the level of detail and unique character personality that Bionicle sets often had. I feel like the stark, geometric shapes of HF pieces aren't particularly "cool" or believable. The edges and backs of HF armor in most sets makes the character look incomplete. Maybe it's the nostalgia, but the pinholes and Y-sockets in the first four or five years of Bionicle never felt that out of place. Later sets, though very original build-wise in general and creative in their parts use, started to look less cohesive in many cases, but still more aesthetically pleasing to me that the last couple of years of HF.

BIONICLE definitely had a much more high-detail aesthetic, but I feel like that was both an asset and a liability. As a building system, such intricate, specialized detail could be limiting. It meant that most BIONICLE parts would only make sense on mechanical or biomechanical creations (what place would pistons have on a knight in armor, for instance, or a purely organic creature), and more importantly it meant you had to be particularly selective about which parts you used together on a model if you wanted the aesthetic to remain cohesive (I suppose this bothers some people more than others, since I often see Kalmah's shells used purely for their shape and color — something I'd pretty much never do unless I could somehow spread that extremely prominent motif throughout the rest of the build).

 

Hero Factory's smoother aesthetic feels more like what you might expect of a typical System and Technic set than BIONICLE. It adheres to the classic design principle "form follows function", and I think that gives it an advantage as a building system. Now, whether the actual sets look more beautiful than their BIONICLE predecessors is open for debate. Personally, I am fine with either high-detail aesthetics or more streamlined ones as long as the proportions are appealing and the motifs are stylistically consistent, and I think that gives Hero Factory figures a slight edge in my book since pretty much EVERYTHING is stylistically consistent as a matter of principle.

 

I find the sleek shapes of Hero Factory shells quite cool, and I don't see what is "unbelievable" about them. Robots can have any sort of textures — the textures of Hero Factory figures have a bit more of a streamlined automotive flavor to them than a more industrial flavor like BIONICLE's exposed pistons and 3D frameworks, but it still looks realistic to me, and I have not felt like I need to stylize or reimagine things in my drawings.

 

In most cases, I don't think Hero Factory's shells and beams have to leave the back of a figure looking incomplete. The limb beams generally don't leave the back any more incomplete-looking than a BIONICLE beam or shell, and a torso beam has no shortage of points with which to attach back armor, as the larger hero sets have done rather consistently since 2012.

 

Also, I feel that points of articulation are over-stressed in discussions of playability. Yes, as far as creating cool poses go, any and every joint adds new possibilities. And few key joints really matter- a lack of shoulder, elboy, knee, hip, or heat articulation is usually a bad thing. But I find a solid build, with a good frame work and no more joints than necessary, to facilitate really satisfying play (or just handling, if you don't "play" anymore [you do and you know it]). You can't adjust the pose of a set well in the middle of a dynamic fight scene without pausing and carefully adjusting each joint. Adjusting the joints involves forethought, dexterity, and the ability to change that one joint without your grip on the toy messing up the toy's whole pose. Designing sets to make posing quick, intuitive, and satisfying is what matters to me, and I don't think HF sets as a rule really facilitate that. There are exceptions, but for me most sets with many legs with multiple joints each are very inconvenient to pose, especially is those legs are too close or too far from each other. I love the Rahkshi and Vahki because they're so satisfying to play with. The single-piece arms lacked elbow joints but looked so dynamic and cool with their respective staffs you only needed that one joint- in fact, I had more fun with them because they lacked elbow joints to keep track of. I'm not saying that HF sets need similar functions, but the arm-waving gear function was convenient to use in a dynamic play environment and did more to produce and absorbing play experience than any number of joints. Their legs were well-proportions and fun to use.

Believe me, I don't really care about points of articulation in a lot of cases either. Thirteen is as many as you generally need for a humanoid model to function well. But I decided I might as well compare that in this case, since often when I talk strictly about piece count people will claim I'm ignoring other types of complexity. Tunneler Beast happens to fare remarkably well in terms of points of articulation, but it's not really a fair comparison with a normal bipedal humanoid model — however, I think it is one of the set's strong points, especially compared to similar bug-like models such as the Visorak or Gorast.

 

Generally I think Hero Factory figures tend to pose very well and very easily — most, no matter what their size, will either have a basic 13 points of articulation, or slightly more or fewer. With that said, I do love figures with additional limbs or an additional joint in the legs if they happen to be going for a more monstrous look, and if you're going to have additional joints like that, they might as well be articulated. I have no love for single-piece "pre-bent" limbs like on the Toa Mata, Agori, or 1.0 Heroes. They were bearable for their time, but the fixed angle reduces both the posability of the figure and the versatility of the part, and now that sets have finally moved past those I see nothing to be gained from going back.

 

I have always hated the Vahki. Let me get that out of the way. They were pitifully simple designs compared to other similarly priced sets even when they were new, their functions were not really anything we hadn't seen before with the Rahkshi, most of their new parts were incredibly specialized, and they were clone sets to the extreme, with nothing but color schemes and weapons setting them apart from one another. Even just comparing their piece counts to the Toa Metru, it's obvious which had a better value. I was surprised to find, when checking Brickset, that the Vahki were actually priced HIGHER than the Toa Metru, and I'm still baffled by this revelation.

 

I'm no longer the younger kid I once was, so the playstyles of the target age group have changed since then. But while HF set design has been getting truly excellent in creativity and value in the last few years, I feel like the direction they're going in as far as playability is concerned is a good. I will say that some recent play features I really love, like the soft-tube wing motion in the recently reviewed Chi sets. I just think that joints don't add as much to the product as a lot of people say they do.

 

Edit: Just realized how much I wrote. Um.

I'm not so fond of the soft-tube function in the Chima sets because it seems like the same thing we saw with Nidhiki's claws or the Nivawk's wings, only substantially less elegant. If the wings are going to be Technic-based anyhow then I feel like they should at least be expected to function as smoothly as Technic-based action features from 2004, especially since the rubber flex axles that those sets used are still present in sets to this day. This is also part of why I have yet to form a solid opinion on Surge & Rocka Combat Machine. I will have to see a review to determine whether that folding wings function has any impact on the design.

 

However, I do like how both last year and this year we've been seeing more play functions besides just launchers, without the need to introduce specialized gearboxes like so many of the most elegant BIONICLE canister set functions relied upon. The playability aspect is one of the reasons last year's Dragon Bolt set is among my favorite Hero Factory sets, and why I'm willing to tolerate some of Evo XL Machine's shortcomings.

 

And hey, don't be bothered by the amount you wrote, or the decision to make it a blog entry of its own. This blog entry of mine was supposed to be just a Facebook post, and I only decided to post it in my blog after realizing how LONG it had become. It's hard to express a lot of thoughts without using a lot of words!

Link to comment
Guest
Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...