Yay, I'm still opening Lego Ben 10 and today is the turn of Humungousaurs. Today is also the penultimate day of July and thus it's also the penultimate day of Jambalaya July. Next month is Animated August and I've got a whole lot of goodies lined up for August... and September and October. Yes, I'm anal enough to prepare the next 3 months, especially since I can't wait to open some of those stuff! However, today we turn to Humungousaurs of Lego Ben 10 fame, duing this mini Lego Ben 10 week of Jambalaya July.
Yes, that picture means I'm guest blogging today again. This time, it's over on my buddy's Wes Grogan's Is It Fun? site. Head over there to read it and to agree or disagree with my rating on whether it's fun or not.
Edit: Well, Is It Fun? is suspended. Here's the original review.
It’s been a while since I’ve guested here. “I” in that sentence being me, Novelty, from Toy a Day. And I’m actually doing a mini-theme week there, or rather here, or rather, well, everywhere this week. This is the fourth Lego Ben 10 review this week, and this is the fourth site I’m posting the review. And it has been a fun ride so far, but Is It Fun? is always fun to write for. And for today, I’d be looking at Humungousaurs.
This is Lego’s attempt to produce a box that would attract the Action Figure crowd. It still has Lego’s photo of the toy inside on the front, instead of a bubble (which would show a whole bunch of parts instead of a complete toy, so it’s a good idea that Lego is sticking with the photo). The back of the box shows the “action features” – i.e. it’s constructed from bricks, and can be combined with the other sets to form bigger creatures Modulok-styled. It also shows which of the other sets are available, and currently, that’s all the sets available. Somehow, these sets are just shelf-warming (to borrow and modify an action figure term), so there might not be a second Wave/Series of these guys next year.
Inside the box, there’s a torso piece (actually it’s two pieces preassembled into one), a baggie of parts and an instruction manual. Inside the bag of parts, there’s another bag with just the head. I guess that’s to protect the head in transit. After all, the head is usually one of the few unique pieces of the set, although with this one, there’s another piece that’s unique as well, but I’m jumping ahead of myself. The construction was easy, but had an extra step because of the special piece – the shoulders of Humungousaurs is made of a soft rubbery like plastic that sits on the shoulders (where else?). So, that has to go on first before the head snaps on, and because it’s Lego, with it’s micrometer moulded accuracy, it took me a while to figure out how the shoulder piece goes on. Otherwise, most of the other pieces snap on as usual.
Wes usually talks about the individual body piece just like a mad necrophile. I’ll just restrict the review here to the two other pieces that are unique to Humungousaurs – the head and the arms and fists. I’ll start with the latter. On most f the other Lego Ben 10 figures, the arms and the first are made of separate pieces, which means theat the wrist is articulated. I have no idea why Lego decided to make Humungousaurs arms and fist as one piece – the wrist articulation is lost here. Lego also took the easy way out and made a “bilateral” fist, which means that there’s no left or right hands on the piece. It’s literally one size fits all, and is rather disappointing since it means that not only are we left with two less points of articulation, but also fists that looks like scoops. Oh, and the fist is not only hollow, but is literally scoop shaped. That’s really poor design on Lego’s part.
The other unique piece is the head. It’s sculpted nicely with an open mouth. The teeth is painted white and the quality control is good – there is no sloppiness here. Mattel should probably go visit the Lego factories in some former Communist country to see how Lego ensures quality control for their paints… and then import that system to the Communist country where their figures are made. But I digress again. The ridges on the top of the head give the head a rather nice texture and improves the overall look of the sculpt. Still, I think there is something missing from the headsculpt that makes it less like the cartoon, but don’t get me wrong, I’m still happy with it.
OK, so Lemonjuice complained that there were too few pictures in my guest spot on Hobotastic yesterday. The one above was taken specifically for him. I think that’s gonna hurt.
Overall, I still like Humungousaurs. I like the way the entire line is built up – with disguised Bionicle parts – like the way they can be posed thanks to the lightweight and hollow ABS building blocks, and like the gitd eyes and symbols. Did I mention that the Omnitrix symbol and the eyes gitd? I didn’t? Well, they do.
But this is Is It Fun? and the verdict for Humungousaurs from me is:
Yes, that picture means I'm guest blogging today again. This time, it's over on my buddy's Wes Grogan's Is It Fun? site. Head over there to read it and to agree or disagree with my rating on whether it's fun or not.
Edit: Well, Is It Fun? is suspended. Here's the original review.
It’s been a while since I’ve guested here. “I” in that sentence being me, Novelty, from Toy a Day. And I’m actually doing a mini-theme week there, or rather here, or rather, well, everywhere this week. This is the fourth Lego Ben 10 review this week, and this is the fourth site I’m posting the review. And it has been a fun ride so far, but Is It Fun? is always fun to write for. And for today, I’d be looking at Humungousaurs.
This is Lego’s attempt to produce a box that would attract the Action Figure crowd. It still has Lego’s photo of the toy inside on the front, instead of a bubble (which would show a whole bunch of parts instead of a complete toy, so it’s a good idea that Lego is sticking with the photo). The back of the box shows the “action features” – i.e. it’s constructed from bricks, and can be combined with the other sets to form bigger creatures Modulok-styled. It also shows which of the other sets are available, and currently, that’s all the sets available. Somehow, these sets are just shelf-warming (to borrow and modify an action figure term), so there might not be a second Wave/Series of these guys next year.
Inside the box, there’s a torso piece (actually it’s two pieces preassembled into one), a baggie of parts and an instruction manual. Inside the bag of parts, there’s another bag with just the head. I guess that’s to protect the head in transit. After all, the head is usually one of the few unique pieces of the set, although with this one, there’s another piece that’s unique as well, but I’m jumping ahead of myself. The construction was easy, but had an extra step because of the special piece – the shoulders of Humungousaurs is made of a soft rubbery like plastic that sits on the shoulders (where else?). So, that has to go on first before the head snaps on, and because it’s Lego, with it’s micrometer moulded accuracy, it took me a while to figure out how the shoulder piece goes on. Otherwise, most of the other pieces snap on as usual.
Wes usually talks about the individual body piece just like a mad necrophile. I’ll just restrict the review here to the two other pieces that are unique to Humungousaurs – the head and the arms and fists. I’ll start with the latter. On most f the other Lego Ben 10 figures, the arms and the first are made of separate pieces, which means theat the wrist is articulated. I have no idea why Lego decided to make Humungousaurs arms and fist as one piece – the wrist articulation is lost here. Lego also took the easy way out and made a “bilateral” fist, which means that there’s no left or right hands on the piece. It’s literally one size fits all, and is rather disappointing since it means that not only are we left with two less points of articulation, but also fists that looks like scoops. Oh, and the fist is not only hollow, but is literally scoop shaped. That’s really poor design on Lego’s part.
The other unique piece is the head. It’s sculpted nicely with an open mouth. The teeth is painted white and the quality control is good – there is no sloppiness here. Mattel should probably go visit the Lego factories in some former Communist country to see how Lego ensures quality control for their paints… and then import that system to the Communist country where their figures are made. But I digress again. The ridges on the top of the head give the head a rather nice texture and improves the overall look of the sculpt. Still, I think there is something missing from the headsculpt that makes it less like the cartoon, but don’t get me wrong, I’m still happy with it.
OK, so Lemonjuice complained that there were too few pictures in my guest spot on Hobotastic yesterday. The one above was taken specifically for him. I think that’s gonna hurt.
Overall, I still like Humungousaurs. I like the way the entire line is built up – with disguised Bionicle parts – like the way they can be posed thanks to the lightweight and hollow ABS building blocks, and like the gitd eyes and symbols. Did I mention that the Omnitrix symbol and the eyes gitd? I didn’t? Well, they do.
But this is Is It Fun? and the verdict for Humungousaurs from me is:
Final Verdict: Sorta Hollow yet Fun
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