Review:70782 by Dorek

BS01 Reviews

70782 Protector of Ice

Review: 70782 Protector of Ice

The Protector of Ice (or Izotor, as has recently been discovered) faces an uphill climb in terms of making the typically drab white sets look good. Can he reach the summit, or is the set a wipeout?

The Box

As mentioned, white BIONICLE sets are often some of the most boring to look at, especially in terms of boxart, where they blend in with the background. However, the Protector of Ice manages to stand out through eyecatching use of blues, both in the set and in the CGI'd environments. The color palette actually reminds me of Kopaka Mata's box shot, which was certainly one of the more iconic G1 images, and set a standard that most Ice sets failed to live up to.

The box itself is just flimsy cardboard, though at least a Protector could probably fit in there (sans weapons, so in Power-Up leftovers mode).

The Bits

The pieces are much more akin to your average Ice set building experience: whites and greys, a bit of silver, and a blue secondary. The blue used here is a transparent blue, which is always appreciated; with both bones and hand joins available in the color, it definitely expands our ideas of how transparency can be used in the future, and is a welcome harbinger of the all-transparent future we are hurtling towards.

The Build

Since we've already reviewed the Protector of Fire, it's easy enough for me to say: dudes are twins. Bros, at the very least. Clones, to use BIONICLE fan nomenclature. The sets build almost identically, from their lack of elbows to their weird legs. However, there is one key difference; whereas Protector of Fire decided to take steroids for a tough upper body, Ice took shop class instead.

Yes, instead of making his upper body look ridiculously disproportionate to his frame, Izotor crafted himself two unique weapons, which he dual wields to take on the Skull Spiders.

Both weapons have their upsides and downsides. The click blaster is probably the lesser of the two; while the blade addition is snazzy, it also looks a bit silly (too oversized to be a bayonet, too undersized to be a proper stabbing tool) and also has the unfortunate design choice to be placed on a friction pin, rather than getting an axle adapted to it, and as a result tends to spin when any sort of pressure is applied, which in theory is a lot depending on how much you use the click blaster. Frills aside, the projectile launcher itself is darned fun, since those studs can get some distance in.

The rotating saw suffers the same problem of "why?", even if the "what" is pretty darn cool. It takes an offensive weapon and appears to turn it defensive, into a shield to ward off threats. However, with the right posing, it can also be used to slice and dice. Amusingly, this one is fixed to his hand, whereas it could have possibly benefited from being able to rotate like its counterpart.

The included Skull Spider is a drab silver, which makes it one of the more boring colors available (and seriously, when are we gonna get red ones). But that's okay, since it doesn't really fit properly on the frame anyway! Yes, the Skull Spider isn't much of a threat when he can't brain control anybody.

The Brass Tacks

Did we like this set? Yes	What We Liked: Trans-blue salvages the color scheme Two weapons Surprisingly poseable Armor placement makes it look good
	What We Didn't Like: No elbows Blaster attachment hinders usability *Silver feet? Yawn
	Other Comments: LEGO stepped it up with white sets this year. Let's hope 2016 can be a worthy follow-up. --Dorek

Despite handling a lot like the Protector of Fire (which would normally be a bad thing) the Protector of Ice poses and plays impressively well. He's livened up by the transparent colors, and the two weapons together make for a fun combination. He definitely feels equal to the sum of his parts, but that's not always a bad thing.

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