Where are the honkles?
So, we've seen the Summer Wave and I had to delete my last entry pertaining to my thoughts on them as they were still leaked info at that time - we'd only got names, not pictures, and I was talking as if I'd seen pictures. I'll speak no more of them, because even though we've seen the summer sets, the actual images I saw are still leaks - that doesn't change just because we saw then in non-leaks.
I'll start with Umarak the Destroyer. As a fan of Umarak the Hunter... I think the summer incarnation loses too much of Umarak. I don't get why the antlers had to go when they were one of Umarak's most defining features. Instead, they're replaced with horns that are all too common, used in sets like Pyrox and Skull Basher. It also bugs me his upper legs are shorter than they were in Hunter, and yet they made the lower legs longer by using longer beams, so these shorter upper legs negate the presumed point of the lower legs, which I assume was to make Umarak the Destroyer taller than Umarak the Hunter. If there's one colour that I like more than other people seem to, it's the transparent neon green, but here, for once, I don't really agree with it. Transparent Neon Green doesn't look anywhere near as good as the Transparent Green Umarak, Uxar, and Protector of Jungle us. Also, why does he have such a thin, spindly neck without articulation?
Let's move on to Lava Beast. Lava Beast, I think, looks decent. It's pretty clear it's a beat, but I think Lava Beast is a bit too humanoid and the lower legs could probably have been replaced with one 3m or 4m bone and a 5m bone with hinge, if you know what I mean. I like the weapons, and I like the lower arms, but I don't agree with the crystal shell add-ons being transparent black when Lava Beast has no other transparent black pieces. I like the attempt at giving his head variety by giving him a shadow trap half to give him a 'crest' of sorts.
Storm Beast would look so much better if the transparent blue was replaced with transparent dark blue. Also, the hands could do with being hands instead of feet. And I'm not too sure what the function is supposed to be, except it looks extremely limiting and clunky - it looks like the tail can't move where it's connected but the tail has articulation in the middle - like Ketar. Actually, that might be it - Storm Beast has Ketar's function, in which case, expect Storm Beast's arms to fall down and be hard to pose.
Quake Beast... uhhhh. What's with the random transparent neon green disc-thing and the random shell and blades on the shoulder? They look extremely out of place, and the shoulder shadow-trap doesn't look good nor would it have much functional use being there at all. And it appears that Quake Beast, much like Protector of Earth, suffers from having only half a spiky thing. Quake Beast also doesn't pull off the asymmetry as well as Skull Warrior did last year, nor does the combination of transparent purple and transparent neon green look good.
Ekimu: I think Ekimu is the best lower-priced set of the wave. But I wouldn't mind Ekimu being replaced with another beast. He's like the Toa, except with a gearbox instead of a piece of unification. He appears to be doing something similar to Tahu and Gali last year, where they had shells over the shoulders, except for some reason it's connected to the torso here when it's probably better-looking to connect them to the shoulders where the arms attach, like Tahu and Gali last year. Easy fix to make, so it's nothing too major. I'm glad the Mask of Creation isn't a gold and transparent blue blend, because just look at the shape of the Mask of Creation: even if it was blended, it really wouldn't look too good - the 'spikes' on the top of the mask are too tall. I guess Ekimu is the new Takanuva. The hammer also looks really good, though I don't understand how the shield is attached. It would be nicer if Umarak's mask was black and transparent-neon-green instead of gunmetal and transparent orange, though.
Also, the reason why the Beasts are not as good as the Skeletons?
Bpooky Bcary Beasts doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
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