LEGO: Legends of Chima: 70222: Tormak's Shadow Blazer

Pieces: 311

Release Year: 2015

Price: US $29.99

Box/Instructions

The box for this set is a normal width and height that one might expect for such a set. However what stood out to me was the depth at which the box was. It was alot larger depth wise than what I was accustomed to in my LEGO experience. I noticed this on another 2015 City set. LEGO must be making boxes that are much deeper than in the past for some reason as there was plenty of room within the box had it been a normal depth. However this is a moot point and the boxing as expected was suburb and showed the play features and action shots very well.

The instructions come in one booklet. It had great graphics to depict the bricks as it standard with most instructions. I however was upset that the instructions were rounded in two directions quite a bit from being rolled up in the box.

Overall: 4/5 Great quality, as usual.

Parts

The set comes with some unique parts and some newer ones that have been introduced to the Chima line. One of the pieces to not is Gorzan's breast-plate. It is one of the new Gold breast-plates that can be found in each of 2015's Chima sets, a different one in each set. Thus this is the only place to get this piece and one must get all Chima sets from the 2015 line to get them all. The flame "wings" on Gorzan are also fairly unique as we only see them in conjunction with the other gold breast-plates in Chima. Another pieces to note is the sloped piece for the Tiger parts head. It is found in this set and 70224: Tiger’s Mobile Command and it is printed! (The panther side is sadly a sticker). The set also comes with one of the new disc shooters and comes with three snow discs to shoot. It also comes with two of the new spring loaded shooters with an extra projectile and two flick fire missiles.

I will note that I am impressed with the new shooters. The disc shooters do very well and as they take a regular LEGO piece to shoot they are great to have and can be integrated into alot of MOCs. The spring loaded shooters are also a great pieces to have. It seems like half of the 2015 sets have them. But they are a great design and can be shot either way. These two additions make for some great pieces!

Overall: 5/5 great selection of pieces and some new shooters that are great fun.

Minifigures

Like most Chima sets the minifigures are the draw for me.

Gorzan: Appears in nine total sets, three of those being in his red "fire" outfit, and this being the only one with the Gorzan gold breast-plate and fire "wings." He of course wields another hammer as we see him with one in most of his sets. Again, being a Chima minifigure he is of superb detail and is one to collect since he is only available through this set.

Sykor: Shows up in three other sets, with two of those being ones with limited distribution (LEGO and TRU exclusives). Thus this is the set to get Sykor in. He is another great Chima minifigure and is eye catching to me as apart of the saber tooth tribe which look great all-around. One thing I did notice was that he did not have any of the translucent blue appendages as normal with most of the Ice Tribe members. He does sport a trans-light blue breastplate though. He wields a combo sword-axe which looks great!

Tormak: He shows up officialy by name in one other set (70146), but he is a Tiger there and is a panther in this set, thus he can be counted as a truly unique minifigure in this set. I noticed that in the set 70146 his color as a tiger is of the traditional orange seen in LEGO whereas the other tigers that came out in 2015 in set 70224 have a darker orange color. I am assuming this is so because Tormak is really a panther and looked like a tiger for some reason (also the nature of this set's vehicle gives it away). (now I am not familiar with the TV series as it was probably explained there). Besides all of that, he is one of my favorite Chima figures. The detailing is great with the black base and some dark blues for muscles and such. He also dons the spiked pauldrons that are only in two other sets where Shredder is the only other character to wear them. His weapon is another sword-axe combo and is a great one as well.

Overall: 5/5 Great cast of characters in this set! I count two unique figures only available to this set. With another semi unique one since Gorzan has his gold breast-plate.

The Build

The set comes in two bags with the big silver wheels coming separate. The build starts with the minifigures and the disc shooter and then moves to the vehicle. The first part of the build is fairly repeated since both sides of the vehicle are the same. The building of the panther and tiger heads is a nice break as they are similar but not totally the same in build. The rest of the build is fairly straight forward and simple.

Stickers: The set comes with a small pallette of stickers. The most notable one is for the top of the panthers head. What threw me off was that the tigers head plate was printed but not the panthers piece. I really wish LEGO would have printed it. But it was nice to see only limited sticker use where some Chima sets can get sticker crazy. I just refuse to put the mon and keep them with the instructions.

Overall: 4/5 nothing that stands out. The limited stickers help out so that the set isn't reliant upon them to look good.

The Completed Model

The set is a great one no doubt. The transforming part of the set like all the other Chima fire vehicles is great. However one thing noted is that the front tires do not effectively touch the ground. The tiger's or panther's head piece will be touching the ground on a flat surface. Thus it skids forward, unless on carpet or such. This to me is a big oversight and could have easily been fixed in the design phase as no doubt it couldn't have gon unnoticed. I would have to say the rest of the set looks great. The claws on the front look amazing and the two heads in their own rights look great for fit in with the vehicle. The turning of the wheels to flip the vehicle is also not as fluid since it has to totally tumble over. It just isn't a smooth flip since the front of the vehicle is so wide.

Overall: 2/5 High playability for me here. The drawback however is the two design flaws in the wheels not touching the ground and the flipping of the vehicle awkward. Highly playable though, don't get me wrong.

Price

Price for this set is US $29.99. Piece count is 311 with 3 minifigures.

Price-per-piece: $0.096. This is under my typical $0.10 benchmark I hold for all LEGO sets and is not a bad P/P ratio in the Chima line. The fact that Chima is LEGO owned and not licensed helps keep the P/P down. Thus this set is at shelf price a decent buy.

Counting in Minifigures: One Minifigure at five pieces (head, helmet, torso, legs, and pauldrons), one minifigure at six pieces (head, helmet, torso, legs, breast-plate, and chi), and one more at nine pieces (head, helmet, torso, legs, breast-plate, two wing clips, and two fire wings). I count a minifigure at $3.00. Thus the rest of the set would come out to $23.99 at 291 pieces. Price-per-piece: $0.082 which is great in any case.

Overall: 4/5 good P/P that is standard.

Overall Opinion

This set is a great one. The only two drawbacks are with the design as noted above. However, even with these it one: looks great and two: has great playability. So whoever get this set whether it be a younger fan or an older one, it is sure to please. The fact that it has two unique minifigures and one semi unique makes the set worth it for me already. Throw in the disc shooter and the spring loaded shooters and LEGO just sweetens the deal.

Overall: 5/5 A great set for a decent price. You definitely get alot out of this set in value in pieces or in playability, whichever you are concerned with.