Name: Von Nebula
Theme: Hero Factory
Pieces: 156
Minifigs:
Price: $19.99
Price per piece: $.12/p
LEGO Description:
Ummm, I don't know how to put this lightly but Von Nebula is awesome. He's like Megatron from Transformers. Not the stupid piece of crap Michael Bay Megatron, the one from the original series that turned into a gun. Look at the picture LEGO has for him.Cause mayhem and chaos with the powerful Von Nebula!
Galactic Alert! Mission Control Center reports that the mysterious LEGO HERO FACTORY Von Nebula is ready to attack! He is heavily armed and highly dangerous. Beware of his spiky armor and his deadly staff, with the power to generate black holes. He is out for revenge against the HERO FACTORY! Mysterious leader of a group of powerful villains Von Nebula will stop at nothing to get his revenge! Use the staff to make living black holes to swallow surroundings! Stands over 9' (22cm) tall
How can you ever hope to stop that Hero Factory!?! He's unbeatable! Keep in mind that I hated Bionicle and I hate HERO FACTORY too but I love this guy. This is begrudging praise right here.
So onto the review.
First off here is the haunting face. Excuse the blurriness, I'm making due with a camera phone at the moment and it will not focus worth a damn. It's the standard mask over a transparent color to achieve a glowy eye effect. It looks pretty good too. There's just one problem.
Much like my dear grandfather before his passing, Von Nebula nods off and falls asleep...a lot...He can't keep his head up to save his life. Seriously trying to take the last picture was a lot of me lifting up the head and immediately taking the picture before it slowly nodded down. Even asleep though, he looks pretty cool.
Here is his hand. There's not much to say here. It's a claw that was actually used in earlier Bionicle sets, but it is menacing and sinister so it fits in nicely here.
Here is his weapon. On the box (which I do not have anymore, I moved) it shows a tornado coming out of it. Yes, those blades do spin but you have to make them spin yourself by either flicking them or blowing them. It could have been more impressive looking, but LEGO went really minimalist for it. It's just a Technic rod.
The little ball is more interesting. It's two pieces fitted together to form a sphere. I could think of quite a few uses for it, especially since making anything round with LEGO is quite a hassle.
The holder leaves quite a bit to be desired. From a certain angle it may appear that Von Nebula is actually holding the staff/scepter/weapon in his hand but from any other angle it just looks like it's shooting out of his arm magically.
Here's a look at his backside. None too impressive. He looks pretty bare boned and has no padding on that behind. Probably uses a stadium seat wherever he goes. Three notes here: First that the spiky arm pieces are a single piece, second that the smooth plates behind the head are two separate pieces and third that both his arms and legs are double jointed to support more weight.
Here's a close up of just that. It makes him thicker and more impressive I think.
His legs are also reinforced. There's a sort of pneumatic system set up for his legs. Here his leg is bent and his foot is tucked under his leg like he's crouching.
Now his leg is pushed forward with his foot out. It works very well.
And here he is in his entirety. I really enjoyed this set. As you can imagine, he does have a few big pieces but a lot fewer than you would expect. The feet are one piece, the chest is two larger pieces combined with a lot of smaller pieces, the arm guards and shoulder blades are two large pieces as well, and the legs have a large piece each. The rest are actually smaller pieces made together to form a larger piece.
Now here's the rundown.
Would I recommend the set? Yes. I hate HERO FACTORY and Bionicle. They're too much like crappy action figures and the piece count has been suffering for years. Von Nebula doesn't have that problem! He has a ton of tiny Technic pieces and building him was actually a bit challenging. I messed up many times a long the way. He's very impressive and is very pose able.
Is he worth the price? Most definitely. The price per piece might be a smidgen higher than is ideal but it's because he has some very large pieces. The larger pieces are not a problem in this set though because he is built up with so many small ones. He's quite complex, like a good Criminal Minds episode.
Go out and get this guy. He could use a good home!
