Set Review: 44024 Tunneler Beast Vs. Surge

[Hapori Tohu]

It's time to travel back underground for another Hero Factory Set Review. Today BZPower Reporter Xccj takes a look at 44024 Tunneler Beast Vs. Surge. Is this set worth spelunking for, or should it remain buried underground? Read on or watch the video review to find out!

 

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[Aanchir]

Tunneler Beast is a brilliant set! $10 for 59 pieces, better than any other $10 set this year. And they're great pieces too — while there may not be a lot of them, the ones there are come in very useful quantities, including six 4M beams in Dark Stone Grey, seven Y-joints in Bright Red, and four talons in Black. The price per piece still isn't great, but better than you get in any of the other $10 sets. I suppose the size of pieces like the jaws and cocoons takes a bigger toll on the budget in sets like these than in sets like Breez Flea Machine and Bulk Drill Machine, which offer more than 100 parts for just $15. And Tunneler Beast's still got a much better price per piece than a Vahki, Piraka, or Visorak, even without adjusting for inflation!

 

The claws might not work very well but I think the point (as with Hydraxon in BIONICLE) is to look expressive rather than to actually grab things. I think they work just fine for that. But of course, Queen Beast has much better claws, since those have proper thumbs made from Technic connectors. I wouldn't be afraid to mod Tunneler Beast with claws more like those. As it is, though, I can see why the thumbs on this set are so pitiful — the set is already pushing it in terms of piece count, if the other $10 sets are anything to judge by.

 

This set is a great sign of how far Hero Factory has come! A deliciously non-humanoid design that relies mainly on basic beams and connectors to create its unique structure. I wish more of the beast sets this year were so unique — Crystal Beast and Flyer Beast feel rather boring by comparison.

[Makaru]

A deliciously non-humanoid design that relies mainly on basic beams and connectors to create its unique structure.

On behalf of The Lego Company, we ask that you refrain from consuming Lego Products. While non-toxic, Lego is not intended to be consumed or digested.

 

We apologize for the confusion, and we hope to see your continued support!

[believe victims]

For once, I agree with Aanchir that this is a neat set that I fully intend to acquire. The hands have bugged me too, but mostly because they're too flat in the wrong direction. Hydraxon got hands right, so much so that for a while you couldn't go ten minutes without a new MOC with that hand design popping up. It wasn't perfect, but it had a very hand-like structure.

 

These, meanwhile, are very tall and narrow hands with odd structure. I wish they could have done a better job with that, especially with those weird, ineffective thumbs.

[Makaru]

Hydraxon got hands right, so much so that for a while you couldn't go ten minutes without a new MOC with that hand design popping up. It wasn't perfect, but it had a very hand-like structure.

In all fairness, that hand design existed in the MOCing community LONG before it was used "officially" on Hydraxon.

[The Swimming Beard]

I don't see why they couldn't have simply used a T-piece on the hand instead of that new technic piece. It would give the hands a more natural look.

[believe victims]

I don't see why they couldn't have simply used a T-piece on the hand instead of that new technic piece. It would give the hands a more natural look.

 

Because sets are more likely to plug a new piece than to use an old one. Obviously there are exceptions, and if I did not say there were exceptions someone would come along and list the exceptions because having exceptions somehow makes general rules not apply, but more often than not, if a brand spankin new piece fills a similar function to an old piece, unless there's a mighty need to use the old piece, the new piece is preferred.

 

This is done to make sure new pieces get into circulation more rapidly, I imagine.

[dviddy]

 

Hydraxon got hands right, so much so that for a while you couldn't go ten minutes without a new MOC with that hand design popping up. It wasn't perfect, but it had a very hand-like structure.

In all fairness, that hand design existed in the MOCing community LONG before it was used "officially" on Hydraxon.

 

Yeah it did. I used it in 2006!

[Lyichir]

 

I don't see why they couldn't have simply used a T-piece on the hand instead of that new technic piece. It would give the hands a more natural look.

 

Because sets are more likely to plug a new piece than to use an old one. Obviously there are exceptions, and if I did not say there were exceptions someone would come along and list the exceptions because having exceptions somehow makes general rules not apply, but more often than not, if a brand spankin new piece fills a similar function to an old piece, unless there's a mighty need to use the old piece, the new piece is preferred.

 

This is done to make sure new pieces get into circulation more rapidly, I imagine.

 

I think there's probably more to it than that. The new piece, being attached with a Technic axle, is much more secure. Personally, I sort of disliked Hydraxon's hand solution because of how it would flex out of position easily (with the pneumatic connector twisting side-to-side), and the way that the middle two fingers were pushed almost to the edge of the pneumatic connector by the Y-joint it was attached to. Good poseability is a two way street—you want the figure to have good articulation, but at the same time, on a model intended to be played with, you don't want connections that flex in the wrong ways (or easily come apart). The new piece may look slightly odd when used for hands, but for a bestial model I think it's fine, and purely in terms of stability it's vastly superior, with the fingers connected firmly to the hands and the hands being impossible to bend out of shape.

[Mesonak]

Well, this set is just fantastic. It'll probably be one of my first purchases from this wave.

 

-Mesonak