Review: 70124 Eagle Legend Beast
Posted by Huw,My favourite of last year's Chima sets was 70003, Eris' Eagle Interceptor, which sucessfully combined an organic eagle aesthetic with an aircraft design to produce something that was cool to look at and swoosh.
The Eagle Legend Beast is very much a miniature version of that set, which is perhaps not surprising given the same designer worked on both.
Not much to say about the box other than the eagle practically flies out of the picture.
The minifig is Eris who, like Gorzan in the Gorilla Legend Beast set, is the same as the 2013 version. This is perhaps a little disappointing, but I guess all the effort has gone into new species for 2014.
There's a good selection of new micro-joints, a couple of the new inverted curved slopes as well as a handful of 2x1 and 2x2 curved slopes. There is also a very nice new 1x1 beak/claw/tooth piece and printed 1x1 round tile eyes.
There isn't much to say about the actual build, which is straightforward. The finished model is impressive given the size of it and number of pieces. The talons are perhaps a little large but there's not much that could have been done about that considering the parts available.
The new joints have enabled the legs to be stable, compact and articulate although the hip joint (do birds have hips?) does not enable the legs to be moved backwards and forwards, only straight or splayed, which IMO is a shortcoming of their design.
It uses the same feather pieces as 70003 for the wings.
There's space on the back for Eris to perch, although, again, it was tricky or impossible to get her to hold her shield while seated.
I haven't applied the stickers but they are actually very nice, being a sparkly metallic gold and light blue. I should have mentioned in yesterday's gorilla review that the stickers in it are metallic silver.
Once again, I am impressed with this Legend Beast and can draw the same conclusion as I did for the gorilla (and probably will for the other three): there are a lot of new and useful parts; it looks suitably impressive once built, and it was a reasonable price, at £8.
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21 comments on this article
Nice to see the 4x1 inverted slope make an appearance in a cheap set :-) I'll deffo be picking all of these up today providing my Entertainer has put them out of course!
^ Ditto! If i've got to brave the city centre on the weekend before Christmas then I'll make it worth my while!
Great reviews Huw...may have to brave Whiteley to get 'em. Nice to see the eyes are printed as well.
After seeing the picture, I couldn't figure it out, what piece the beak has. So it's a new one :)
Oh I really like the look of this, nice scale for the model. Will definitely be picking this one up.
I see what you did here, dropping a sweet dev link. New layout? Has this been announced before?
^ Actually it was unintentional and it occurred because I authored the article on the new site :)
It's being tested as we speak and will open for public beta just after Christmas, with launch planned for February.
@one wag, 'brave' is the word: I've just been down there again and it is manic, with parking wardens and all. Probably best to wait until the evening.
^ The second 70003 link also takes you to the dev site. You might want to fix that ;)
As for the set, with a price on £8 I see no harm in picking this up. The harm comes when I pick up the rest of the Legend Beasts, which will no doubt cause me to start collecting bigger Chima sets too :D
I find this EAGLE better made than both the "one-piece-version" we got in Lord of the Rings 79007 Black Gate http://www.brickset.com/detail/?set=79007-1 but also the Creator 31004 Fierce Flyer http://www.brickset.com/detail/?set=31004-1
Great review Huw, these are really beautiful sets. There's so many really beautiful sets and parts coming out of lego at the mo its insane on the wallet when I add it up, but brilliant! But an £8 here and there can't do no harm surely......
Any news that these are in the US yet?
The Eagles have always been my favorite tribe, and despite the lack of vehicles, have not failed to impress me this year. The Eagle legend beast is awesome and the new design on Eris looks amazing, I'm hoping these come out in the states soon.
Eagles are my favorite faction, and this is a nice little model. So, I'll pick this one for the actually aestheticly appealing set rather than the pieces, although cheers for more joints and short slopes.
I dont care for Chima, but thats an awesome eagle model :)
Huw,
While the Eris' Eagle Interceptor was designed by Mark Stafford, this set was (according to the list update Mark posted yesterday) designed by Hans Schlömer.
I'm with icey and CCC. I prefer this eagle (in brown rather than dark blue) to the cheesy pre-made eagles created for Tolkien sets. I would have bought Orthanc and the Black Gate if the eagle had been like this.
Actually, the reuse of the Eris fig isn't indicative of a lack of effort, since there IS a new Eris minifigure in sets 70128 and 70139. There are a couple possible reasons the Legend Beasts reuse figs — it means more variety in the 2014 lineup, and makes the Legend Beasts a good jumping-on point for new fans.
This set doesn't have the new joints in very large quantities, but it is the only one of the Legend Beasts that uses all four styles! Funny how that happens. I agree that flipping the leg joints around, so the joint with a single ball is on the hips and the joint with a single ball cup is on the feet, would improve the model with regard to articulation.
Even with less articulation than many of the other Legend Beasts, I love this model's design! It feels very organic, and as CCC mentioned, it's way cooler than a molded eagle would have been.
I do like how this was put together. I like the LOTR eagles, but for scale, and buildability of LEGO, I like this version more. I'd love to see some of these pieces come out in reddish-brown too!
Thanks for the review. I don't know if I'll pick any of these up. I may just look for the pieces individually. But definitely something to keep an eye out.
Huw, what do you mean 'will be open?' I've already been able to visit the new site multiple times.
^ You, or anyone else can, and that's fine. I'm just waiting until after Christmas before requesting that more people help test it, while I add the finishing touches.
It's wonderful to see such great sub-£10 sets (that aren't City). Against all odds, I've got hugely into Chima in the last half of this year. These Legend Beast sets are all fantastic, Beautiful model with outstanding minifig, for £8? WOW Christmas has truly come early!