Review:70791 by KZN02
Review: 70791 Skull Warrior
Spooky scary skeletons! (credit to IrrantionallyRational, for the goofy Skeleton pose)
The Box
The box is exactly like the winter wave in the beginning of this year, the front portraying Skull Warrior firing its Freeze Bow at who is very likely Kopaka as he's grabbing for his drained Golden Mask, while the back portrays other summer sets and a combination model that can be built out of all of them, a 1:1 scale comparison, the various action functions this set has, and a comic featuring the Skull Warriors and the Toa.
The Bits
The box consists of the instruction manual and two bags of parts.
This set has 102 pieces, pieces of note ...
Here's most, if not all, of the new pieces.
There's the drained Golden Mask of Ice, which is the same mold as the one from the Kopaka set but with trans-blue on the top.
The Skull Warrior's mask, which is in a dark grey color. You can definitely get the impression this character is a bad guy instead of a good guy.
The new limb piece (five of which are in this set) lacks a ball joint in the middle of it like similarly sized pieces, but has a gap in the middle to resemble the ulna and radius in the lower arm and the fibula and tibia in the lower leg. It really works for the skeleton motif of the summer sets.
The ribcage torso introduced in this wave is in a trans-blue color. Like other torso pieces, it has two holes on the top so chest pieces can be attached on it. There are 4 pairs of rib bones, though where the chest piece attaches would cover the top pair.
There's a new blade piece, which makes a wicked weapon, and has a gap on one end that's used in the mask-pulling function (more on that later).
A new armor piece in dark grey (this set has two of them), which is much larger and a bit more detailed from other armor pieces introduced earlier. Not sure what else to say about it other than it looks intimidating.
The rapid shooter piece comes in a trans-blue color. The only other set that has this exact piece is the Skull Grinder vs Mask Maker set.
The chest piece comes in an exclusive print for the Skull Warrior, with a chain and exposed rib bones, more than making up for what it covers on the ribcage torso. Feels very cobbled together, which fits the skeleton theme.
The friction extender actually is different for this wave. The left is one from the Kopaka set while the right is from the Skull Warrior set. The main difference is the color of the rubber piece, but the reason for this change is beyond me, so maybe someone can tell me what's up with that.
The Build
The set is the familiar structure from the winter wave, a torso with the gearbox mechanism on the back, the usual limbs and weapons attached, head with an eyestalk that can be pushed to remove the mask. A couple notes is that there's a section on the left side of the torso where weapons can be stored (much like Onua in the winter wave) and that the yellow gear on the back extends a bit further than most other sets. More on those later.
Again, there are 13 points of articulation on the set. There's limited clearance between the right shoulder armor and the torso depending on how you angle the right arm, so that's something to be careful about.
As a whole, the set is asymmetrical with the limb and armor pieces (armored right shoulder and left knee, frostbitten limbs), kind of resembling an ice zombie that wouldn't be out of place in last year's Chima ultrabuild sets. Otherwise, the mismatch fits in perfectly as skeletons recently risen from their graves with some of their parts rotting off and such. I guess one possible issue someone would have is the placement of the new bone pieces on the upper arms and legs if one adheres to the proper skeleton anatomy.
The set mostly consists of dark grey, silver, black, trans-blue, and trans-orange, with a couple of light grey, grey, red, and yellow on some miscelleous places. The trans-blue works to give the impression of an frostbitten zombie while the trans-orange implies some sort of evil energy is flowing within it (especially in the eyes).
The extra pieces out of the set are mostly the extra studs to be used as projectiles for the Freeze Bow. If you do lose a couple, make sure you don't find them with your bare feet.
Weapons
The main feature of the set is the Freeze Bow. It's quite a large and heavy weapon, but the Skull Warrior can stand and hold it pretty well with both of its hands. The use of the trans-blue curved limb pieces work well to portray an icy bone bow weapon, despite having no visible bowstring (not like LEGO bothers to do that for large bow weapons anyways). The rapid shooter part works just as well as they did with the Protector sets (mainly the Protector of Jungle's), which is fired by spinning the black gear in the middle of the weapon. The Freeze Bow can be mounted on the back, which one can figure out from the back of the box despite the instruction manual not telling how. The before-mentioned extended yellow gear is made this wave for the set to give clearance for the Freeze Bow being mounted on the back.
The Ice Spear (the same name as Kopaka's Ice Spear, good job differentiating them LEGO) is another weapon the Skull Warrior has when not using the Freeze Bow. It's to be used with the gearbox action as portrayed on the back of the box to attack enemies. It's longer than Kopaka's, though it holds it from the middle while Kopaka holds his a bit under the middle. Of note, as mentioned earlier, is the gap on one end of the blade, which is used in the mask-grabbing action. It fits very well over any masks on heads and reminds me of bottle openers.
Drained Golden Mask of Ice
Going from the comic, Skull Warrior wearing the drained Golden Mask of Ice kind of looks odd with the gold on the otherwise mostly dull-colored color scheme, but the trans-blue works well enough to balance out just how well they flow together.
The drained mask on Kopaka on the otherhand looks really great; the gold works well with the chest and shoulder armor while the trans-blue flows with the eyestalk from the top. You kind of get the sense of early 2003 where Kopaka lost his elemental powers as noted from the color change on his mask. This is a nice throwback.
Issues
If there's a problem with the set, it's how often Skull Warrior would fall on its back (I suggest Skull Warrior should drink more milk, but I don't think it has a digestive system). Given the small feet with no heel support, if you mount the Freeze Bow or Ice Spear on the back, you have to carefully pose the legs and feet to compensate for the extra weight so it won't fall backwards. There doesn't seem to be any issues of it falling forward due to the toe claws though.
There's still the exposed ball joints on the torso behind the chest piece like a couple of winter sets, which may be an eyesore when viewing from the size, but I think at this point, mostly everyone should have gotten used to it. The back is unarmored and uncovered, but since it's a skeleton, you probably expect only to see the ribcage anyways.
The Brass Tacks
Should I get this set? Yes |
Good for people who like:
|
Not for those looking for:
| |
| Other Comments: I guess this set could literally send chills down your spine? –KZN02 |
The Skull Warrior set is a pretty good set at $15, it can serve as a basic mook for Master sets to fight against, especially if you have the money to buy a couple of them. I guess you can overlook the issue of it falling on its back if envision your Master sets can mow them down by the dozens by the Law of Inverse Ninja Strength.
And so begins the zombie skeleton apocalypse our Toa heroes must confront?
| 2015 Set Reviews (2HY) | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70791 | 70792 | 70793 | 70794 | 70795 | ||||||||||
| Review #1 | By Dorek | By Dorek | By Dorek | By Dorek | By Dorek | |||||||||
| Review #2 | By KZN02 | By SPIRIT | By SPIRIT | By Cholie | By Swert | |||||||||
| Navigation |
| Characters | Sapient Species | Locations | Flora | Creatures | Rahi | Objects | Powers | Vehicles | Society | Events LEGO | TECHNIC | BIONICLE | Hero Factory | BS01 Wiki | Policies | Sources | Saga Guides | Timeline | Media | Sets |