#8991 - Tuma
Dec 26, 2008 23:28:54 GMT -5
Post by Madaraki on Dec 26, 2008 23:28:54 GMT -5
"WHAT?! NOT GRESH, VOROX, OR TARIX!?"
Yeah, ah well. I finally made it out to TRU today in search of the final three Glatorian. I found and bought Vorox (ooh, foreshadowing), but unfortunately they were sold out of Tarix and Gresh. Not yet letting disappointment take hold, I decided to head to the Wal-Mart that was less than a mile away. THey'd been early with Transformers releases before, so I thought I'd try them for Bionicle.
No Gresh or Tarix, but I did find this little gem...
Yep, it's (NOT A) Tuma. Needless to say, I didn't let my surprise at finding a Titan set hold me back, and I grabbed it. He's the standard titan; $19.99 price tag, unremarkable square box, and takes about 5-10 minutes to build.
So first up; new parts.
LAUNCHERS AND AMMO. Yeah, we've seen them before, and unfortunately Tuma's repeating the holding styles of Strakk and Vorox here.
The two launcher halves lock into either end of his hand for what is now becoming an annoyingly basic weapon setup.
HEAD. Orange again. Don't get me wrong; I loved seeing a blue head on Strakk, but after orange with Skrall, Malum, and Vorox, I'm beginning to worry about my previously optimistic hope of different head colors.
HELMET. Like every other set for '09, the helmet plugs into the top of his head, and while it's smaller than previous titan sets, it's still noticeably bigger than the Glatorian helmets.
A particularly interesting feature is that for the first time; a helmet/mask has decals that go on it. He's got an almost Skrall-ish pattern along the top of the helmet, and two bright green lines (that look oddly like the colored portion of the wings) wind down the frontal prongs of his mask.
SWORD THINGIES. Like the ones that came in red with Skrall, glow-in-the-dark with Atakus, Tuma has four of them (light green) mounted on his back in a sort of "bug wing" style.
NEW JOINT PIECE. Unfortunately, I can't quite call it a neck joint anymore. It used to show up merely on necks and on Malum's shoulder-mounted launcher, but on Tuma we've got two of the things hooked into his hip area to give the legs a stronger bracing.
BIONICLIX DIALS. Yes, I said "dials" plural. Tuma comes with two of the things.
"T". I'm really not sure what to call it. It's a three-holexthree-hole T-shaped piece that's designed to fit pegs and whatnot. It's not really remarkable for anything other than the fact that it's a fairly basic piece that should be interesting to incorporate into other sets for body (hand?) designs and whatnot. Now if only they came in a cheaper set...
Now also, this set came with a fair number of previously-seen pieces (such as the new three-finger/one-thumb hands), although this time, they're all in the same bright green color as the central parts of Tuma's wings. We get two Mantax feet, two Inika feet, and five "Mahritoran" daggers. It's rather nice seeing a sudden rush of pieces for people itching to make more air-themed MOCs. They get a nice dose in this set.
Also of note; we get one Brutaka sword blade, and instead of silver, it's black. I personally liked his original weapons, so it's nice seeing this peice in a new color. Also, it's hooked into his hand with a connector and a dagger end, and the result is rather nice gladiator-ish type sword.
Construction-wise; Tuma's packing a lot of the features that became prevalent with the releases of Icarax and Takanuva 2.0. He's got two Av-Matoran 90-degree angle limbs connecting his torso to his shoulders for extra stiffness in the upper arms, and the two black joint pieces mentioned earlier link into his things for added support there. As they've been in titan sets since the Voya Nui line of things, Tuma's also got the piston "tendons" linking his thighs to his ankles.
Like most of the Bara Magna line thus far, Tuma still looks better when hunched over. I tried straightening him up and...
...Yeah. His hips/thighs are humorously large, his lower torso's a twig, and his upper arms give him a puff-sleeved impression. It's really quite amazing what hunching him over can do. The two-clawed feet combined with his forward-thrusting head and quad-wing design give him a sort of insecile look, like someone mutated a cockroach and gave it armor and weapons. In other words; keep him hunched over and everything will be alright.
Still, despite this obvoiusly superior positioning, it is worth noting that Tuma suffers from titan problems that have been seen before, and regrettably not corrected yet. Namely; his arms/legs are fairly thing as compared to the rest of him. It is easily possiblle to MOC a solution for these small shortcomings, but if you're someone who likes putting the original set on display for a little while; it's a disappointment. Furthermore, the chest area's fairly lackluster. He's got a two-pronged Piraka foot there, and while it flows with the body strucure nicely, it's still just one piece with no room for waist poseability and feels unimaginative.
The Bioniclix game makes its return even with the titan sets, and since Tuma's obviously supposed to be larger/deadlier, not to mention lacking a canister for -1 life shots, he's got two dials; each one fixed to the base of his upper wings. It's an especially nice feature, and sort of reminds me of the counter design on the larger Heroclix figures. Still, Tuma's ten life (as opposed to five for the other sets) is countered by the fact that he provides a MUCH larger target.
Size: Taller (slightly) than the Glatorian, as is expected.
Shorter than Jigura (an MOC)
And so we come to;
PROS:
CONS:
OVERALL: 5/10.
He's really not bad. The color scheme is good, and the accessory range is quite nice. Unfortunately, his design seems to magnify all of the problems that titan sets usually have. He's got some great MOC potential, but as a set on his own, he's not at the level of the superior titan sets (Brutaka, Nocturn)
And that's that for TUMA, the resident titan set of the Bara Magna line. Tomorrow night comes Vorox, and as soon as I can get them; Gresh and Tarix.
Yeah, ah well. I finally made it out to TRU today in search of the final three Glatorian. I found and bought Vorox (ooh, foreshadowing), but unfortunately they were sold out of Tarix and Gresh. Not yet letting disappointment take hold, I decided to head to the Wal-Mart that was less than a mile away. THey'd been early with Transformers releases before, so I thought I'd try them for Bionicle.
No Gresh or Tarix, but I did find this little gem...
Yep, it's (NOT A) Tuma. Needless to say, I didn't let my surprise at finding a Titan set hold me back, and I grabbed it. He's the standard titan; $19.99 price tag, unremarkable square box, and takes about 5-10 minutes to build.
So first up; new parts.
LAUNCHERS AND AMMO. Yeah, we've seen them before, and unfortunately Tuma's repeating the holding styles of Strakk and Vorox here.
The two launcher halves lock into either end of his hand for what is now becoming an annoyingly basic weapon setup.
HEAD. Orange again. Don't get me wrong; I loved seeing a blue head on Strakk, but after orange with Skrall, Malum, and Vorox, I'm beginning to worry about my previously optimistic hope of different head colors.
HELMET. Like every other set for '09, the helmet plugs into the top of his head, and while it's smaller than previous titan sets, it's still noticeably bigger than the Glatorian helmets.
A particularly interesting feature is that for the first time; a helmet/mask has decals that go on it. He's got an almost Skrall-ish pattern along the top of the helmet, and two bright green lines (that look oddly like the colored portion of the wings) wind down the frontal prongs of his mask.
SWORD THINGIES. Like the ones that came in red with Skrall, glow-in-the-dark with Atakus, Tuma has four of them (light green) mounted on his back in a sort of "bug wing" style.
NEW JOINT PIECE. Unfortunately, I can't quite call it a neck joint anymore. It used to show up merely on necks and on Malum's shoulder-mounted launcher, but on Tuma we've got two of the things hooked into his hip area to give the legs a stronger bracing.
BIONICLIX DIALS. Yes, I said "dials" plural. Tuma comes with two of the things.
"T". I'm really not sure what to call it. It's a three-holexthree-hole T-shaped piece that's designed to fit pegs and whatnot. It's not really remarkable for anything other than the fact that it's a fairly basic piece that should be interesting to incorporate into other sets for body (hand?) designs and whatnot. Now if only they came in a cheaper set...
Now also, this set came with a fair number of previously-seen pieces (such as the new three-finger/one-thumb hands), although this time, they're all in the same bright green color as the central parts of Tuma's wings. We get two Mantax feet, two Inika feet, and five "Mahritoran" daggers. It's rather nice seeing a sudden rush of pieces for people itching to make more air-themed MOCs. They get a nice dose in this set.
Also of note; we get one Brutaka sword blade, and instead of silver, it's black. I personally liked his original weapons, so it's nice seeing this peice in a new color. Also, it's hooked into his hand with a connector and a dagger end, and the result is rather nice gladiator-ish type sword.
Construction-wise; Tuma's packing a lot of the features that became prevalent with the releases of Icarax and Takanuva 2.0. He's got two Av-Matoran 90-degree angle limbs connecting his torso to his shoulders for extra stiffness in the upper arms, and the two black joint pieces mentioned earlier link into his things for added support there. As they've been in titan sets since the Voya Nui line of things, Tuma's also got the piston "tendons" linking his thighs to his ankles.
Like most of the Bara Magna line thus far, Tuma still looks better when hunched over. I tried straightening him up and...
...Yeah. His hips/thighs are humorously large, his lower torso's a twig, and his upper arms give him a puff-sleeved impression. It's really quite amazing what hunching him over can do. The two-clawed feet combined with his forward-thrusting head and quad-wing design give him a sort of insecile look, like someone mutated a cockroach and gave it armor and weapons. In other words; keep him hunched over and everything will be alright.
Still, despite this obvoiusly superior positioning, it is worth noting that Tuma suffers from titan problems that have been seen before, and regrettably not corrected yet. Namely; his arms/legs are fairly thing as compared to the rest of him. It is easily possiblle to MOC a solution for these small shortcomings, but if you're someone who likes putting the original set on display for a little while; it's a disappointment. Furthermore, the chest area's fairly lackluster. He's got a two-pronged Piraka foot there, and while it flows with the body strucure nicely, it's still just one piece with no room for waist poseability and feels unimaginative.
The Bioniclix game makes its return even with the titan sets, and since Tuma's obviously supposed to be larger/deadlier, not to mention lacking a canister for -1 life shots, he's got two dials; each one fixed to the base of his upper wings. It's an especially nice feature, and sort of reminds me of the counter design on the larger Heroclix figures. Still, Tuma's ten life (as opposed to five for the other sets) is countered by the fact that he provides a MUCH larger target.
Size: Taller (slightly) than the Glatorian, as is expected.
Shorter than Jigura (an MOC)
And so we come to;
PROS:
- Good deal of new/new colored pieces.
- Good structure design (when hunched).
CONS:
- Poor structure design (when standing upright).
- Lack of bulk on forearms/lowerl egs.
- No new way of holding the launcher.
- Needs better torso armor.
OVERALL: 5/10.
He's really not bad. The color scheme is good, and the accessory range is quite nice. Unfortunately, his design seems to magnify all of the problems that titan sets usually have. He's got some great MOC potential, but as a set on his own, he's not at the level of the superior titan sets (Brutaka, Nocturn)
And that's that for TUMA, the resident titan set of the Bara Magna line. Tomorrow night comes Vorox, and as soon as I can get them; Gresh and Tarix.
