So where does Legends of Chima rank in the Great Hall of Dead Lego Themes? In this sprawling afterlife, we’ll no doubt find it polishing armour and sharpening swords, still an apprentice to the more illustrious and celebrated.

It’s impossible to know precisely why one theme makes less impact than another. But amongst the many factors, I’d suggest Chima lacked well-defined forms for many of its models. The contrast with Ninjago - Dragons! Mechs! Bikes! Jets! Oriental forts! - is obvious. Chima vehicles were somehow clumsier, vaguer, more curious and confusing than they should have been, not embodying the relevant animal shapes and prowesses sharply enough. So the model under consideration here, I believe, is a delightful exception.

It might not have come to my attention if not for a large secondhand lot I acquired. Discovering random models, sometimes those you never knew existed, is part of the appeal of sorting through the chaos of used Lego. That is, when you’re not discovering new and inventive ways in which kids mutilate bricks. Whatever violence to plastic you can imagine, think of far worse. You’ll see why often Lego might be better looked after by a gang of gorillas …

And these particular gorillas, armed as they are with chunky looking fists and hammers, know how to smash. That is SMASH! With their lurid tribal war paint and leafy vestments, we have a faction ready to populate Lego’s version of Planet of the Apes. Give these nature warriors some horses perhaps and watch them elegantly rampage.

But don’t forget the bananas and of course the star of the show - the oh so very butch Gorilla Striker. Mounted on one shoulder of this mechanical beast is a fearsome banana bazooka, with its sinister chain of yellow ammunition. What’s more, the banana skins sloughed off by this weapon of fruity destruction enable that cruellest of battlefield comedies - the slapstick tumble, right when the enemy is charging with serious menace.

But just what exactly have you created here Gorzan? A gorilla mech that’s clearly been working out in the gym between deployments, giving the word torso its widest application. This may be the most top-heavy mech in the Lego canon. Concealed inside the hinged mouth behind decorated flaps is an array of missiles, fired by pushing axles on the back, and threaded beneath is a simple gear setup that enables the arms to be rotated 360 degrees. By raising and shaking them, while emitting your best impression of a demented primate howl, you can revel in the sheer power at your fingertips.

I love the shaping of the mighty shoulders, and the meaty fingers, ideal for crushing the life out of devious bird men like the poor interloper Rizzo, given here a small craft mounted on a tree platform. Pressing a branch will punch it off, whether for flight, or more likely, during obliteration by banana blast. Beneath the canopy are some bombs and the ubiquitous dark brown catapult element. But let’s not kid ourselves - these feeble explosives won’t even scratch Gorzan’s hyper-muscular brute. Allow Rizzo to exhaust the supply in a futile bombardment, then take off and dive in, so he can be imperiously swatted out of the sky, leaving a cloud of bloodied feathers spinning to the ground like so much bird brain confetti.

Given very sturdy feet, a cockpit framed by dark eyebrows, a shining silver underbelly, hollow 'engine exhaust' eyes and two looping blue-veined POWER cables, the overall effect is the perfect fusion of gorilla attributes and mech engineering. Gorzan clearly understands the art of war.

This is a resolutely FUN build. It exemplifies a spirit of playfulness that should be at the heart of the Lego experience. As the expense of Lego is always an issue, an occasional dip into the second hand market to acquire affordable models from yesteryear is desirably cheap fun. If nothing else, the colossal mechs of today could do with a good headbutt in the private parts by an older more diminutive cousin to remind us that size isn’t everything. In this era of Lego giganticism, that’s a pretty useful lesson.

So let’s summarise briefly why one should, or perhaps should not, purchase this retired war ape.

Yes! If you …

• have a special affinity with our primate relatives and can easily imagine yourself swinging from tree to tree
• want just one Chima model to grace your collection
• need to role-play some savagery in your Lego play pen
• desire a quirky and original model sure to surprise and amuse all
• have read Dian Fossey’s famous book

No! If you …

• would sooner donate the required funds to wildlife conservation
• hate the personification of animals
• think dead Lego themes are best left buried
• can’t bear the sight of yet another Lego mech
• prefer that Eric eats a banana

Gorzan would like to add that he’s working on Gorilla Striker 2.0 and is planning on entering it into the next round of the Bricklink Designer Program. I said don’t be silly, and stop trying to transcend your fictional status.

Set #70008 Gorzan’s Gorilla Striker: If you can only get one Legends of Chima set from 2013 this might be the one to get. It’s not as large as some of the other sets, doesn’t have as many Minifigures, but what it does have is just gorgeous. It’s a very well thought out and designed set and we’re going to cover all of the reasons why in this review.

Box/Instructions

Box: I never noticed this before but the box design image includes a strand of Chi energy leaving the Chi orb from the I in Chima and entering the character’s eye in the image on the upper corner of the front of the box. That’s an interesting design choice and really completes the entire package of the set showcase, the play features on the back of the box and the Minifigure lists in the corner. Honestly I’ve spoken so often about these boxes and there isn’t much to say after the twelfth time or more. But it’s these subtle new features to the design that really jump out at you when you take the time to review every single box.

Instructions: The instructions are massive, and there are no cardboard protectors for them. With a box this large and a manual this massive I was expecting there to be honestly, it baffles me why there wasn’t. Still the instructions are pretty impressive, the build is split up by the number of bags for the parts in the set and the cross-promotional images and Minifigure checklist are massive, so you can really study them to see all the little touches in the picture. You know, if you like that sort of thing.

Stickers: The lack of cardboard is a real nuisance here because this set uses stickers for details, the potential exists for that sheet of stickers to be bent, curled, creased, mangled or otherwise useless depending on how everything is packed together.

Parts

This set includes a lot of great parts. Some of the best in my opinion are the blue car hood pieces first introduced with LEGO Cars. They are not printed, as the detail work for the mech is done with stickers, so if you’re looking for some more blue hood pieces for some MOC cars in your LEGO City display than this is where you’ll find them. A lot of black pieces also, some rare, some common, sounds like a trading card pack. Er anyway, if you’re looking for a large number of interesting and useful parts look no further than this set.

Minifigures

Gorzan: Nothing new about the printing on Gorzan, but he is only available in this set with this heavy brown shoulder armour. His accessory is the large fist-like hammer. Nothing else to say about him really.

Grumlo: Unique to this set this gorilla tribe member is an old and wisened elder. He has a double-sided torso print, leg printing, a double-sided facial print and the unique head piece we’ve come to expect from Chima Minifigures. The heavy shoulder armour in brown is a new colour and unique to this set, and he has the large fist like hammer as an accessory.

G’Loona: A young female member of the Gorilla tribe, she can only be found here. Her torso is double-sided, her head piece has printing on it including two flowers and she has cute buck teeth. Her facial print is double-sided. Since she’s using the short legs here there is no printing, which really makes her stand out as a bit lacking. Without the additional printing on her short legs she seems to be missing something when put next to the other gorillas who all have visible toes printed on their feet.

She has two large fist accessories that I believe were first introduced in this Theme. I love the look of them, she may be young and she may be short, but if she hits you with her solid metal fists of doom you’re going to feel it. Great accessories with tons of other uses.

Rizzo: This member of the Raven Tribe is menacing Gorzan and his friends in a small vehicle. His printing is the same as seen in Eri’s Eagle Interceptor, he has the same torso, legs, facial prints and head piece. The only difference is his accessories, here he has a weapon built out of a translucent red axe head, or half of one anyway, a black Lightsaber hilt and one of those black gun/handle pieces. You can build two of those weapons.

The build

Four numbered bags give you each section of the build for this set.

Bag 1: This builds all four Minifigures and the small raven tribe assault outpost/vehicle thing. The build is very minimal with less than 50 pieces I’d wager, and it includes a very poor representation of the Raven Tribe as far as vehicles go. There is nothing difficult in this bag to build.

Bag 2: This builds the main body of the gorilla mech. It’s a solid and more involved build than the first bag, with nothing too difficult or tricky to build. The geared mechanism is simple to figure out so I don’t feel like younger builders would need any assistance. The build for the gorilla face is just tons of fun, with each step slowly completing a whole that truly captures the look of a more cartoon ape compared to one you’d find in real life. It honestly reminds me of a looney toons character.

Bag 3: Here you get to build the two arms, and this one might be a bit tricky, when it’s time to put everything together on the Technic axles to complete the play feature mechanism. That’s the only difficult step I foresee here, mainly because I always find it tricky to fit the Technic axles in so that both sides remain even.

Bag 4: To complete the mech build you get the contents of this bag to build the legs. And of course the lower body. This build is very quick, as is to be expected with completing the main model. The legs themselves are slightly repetitive, since you’re building the same thing twice, and they use stickers for the details, but the build in this bag is fairly straightforward.

The completed model

Raven Tribe Catapult/Flyer Combo Model: This is a really weak looking model. I honestly can’t understand how such a tiny thing could ever hope to match the might of Gorzan’s Mech, or why LEGO thought to include it as the antagonistic model for Gorzan to face. I think the most fun element here is the bombs, these little bombs are built with stem pieces for carrot tops plugged into Technic style balljoints. And they look really cute, though I know they shouldn’t be.

The play feature is that you can launch the bombs, or you can press down on the lever to launch the small Raven vehicle into the sky. It isn’t much of a vehicle, the wings are non-existent and its size is really disappointing. I like most everything the Raven tribe has to offer, but this is just pitiful.

Gorilla Striker: In contrast this giant mecha is the real selling point of the set. It has a suitably impressive look to it through the design, and it stands out as a really great looking build. It does have a few minor issues, the opening mouth panel that reveals the horde of flick-fire missiles likes to pop off the joint more often than not, and the arms are limited in poseability due to the fact that you can spin on a knob on its back to have them swing up and down in tandem. Still it’s a great solid model.

Gorzan looks so strange sitting in the control seat, and that isn’t just because you can barely see his head poking out behind the eyebrows of the mech. His arms have to remain at his side when he’s sitting in it, so he can’t look like he’s piloting anything. The banana cannon is a really fun looking weapon too.

Overall opinion

I strongly recommend this set, you’re definitely going to fall in love with the gorilla mech and it stands to reason that as this is the only set that features a Gorilla tribe vehicle picking it up is definitely a must. All of the Minifigures in this set are unique as well, except for Rizzo of course. The use of stickers for the details is a bit of a drag, however I didn’t find it too bad, printed elements are always welcome from LEGO, but not always needed. It was a 2013 set though so now it’s definitely not too easy to come by, I got the last one on the shelf from the retailer I picked it up from and it was on clearance, if you’re lucky enough to find one and haven’t already done so, pick it up.

This set immediately catched my eyes when i first saw it. It looked very unique, from the "mech" design to the color scheme etc. Perfect for someone bored by the ever repeating City or Star Wars theme that want to try something different!
I built it yesterday and i must say that it's a great set, up to all expectations.

The minifigures are in line with the Chima theme: double expression head covered by the animal mask, fantastic details and big weapons. You get 4 minifig, and the three gorillas look distinct enought not to be repetitive. Thumbs up!

The catapult tree is a more than decent add on, with useful dark red foliage and two launching system (one for small berry bombs, the other to launch the ship), but it's probably something that will get obscured by the glory of the mech. The raven aircraft is somewhat boring, but useful as an enemy that receives punches from the gorilla.

Then there's the gorilla mech. Here's where things get serious. This model is great, unique in every way. The color scheme, based on black, azure, brown and gray, stands out among the usual, and gives you plenty of useful stuff for mocs. Many azure parts.
The build makes crazy use of the SNOT technique, there is something like 40 brackets of all sorts in this set! You'll keep changing directions every few pieces. The entire shoulder assembly (which make use of the round bricks to give the awesome muscular and brute look) is attached sideway. The feet are laid horizzontaly. The front panel is attached 90° with an hinge. Very interesting!
The thing that surprised me the most are the functionalities. The main mechanism, and the one that surprised me the most, is that the arms are not attached with ball joints like we are used for other mechs, but instead are connected to the body with technic machinery, and a differential box connect the arms to a knob on the back of the model! Turn the knob, and the gorilla rises and lowers his hands, crushing everything :) There are FOUR more lever that, when pushed, fires the six flick missile in the front. They're exposed by lowering the aforementioned front panel.

The look of the mech is great, many interesting parts are used to achieve the effect, such as the mentioned round black bricks (first seen in black here), but also the azure "car hood" parts used in the shoulders and feet. The fat fingers are a pleasure to see and contribute to the gorillous look. The air-intake/eyes are funny too.

The model has countless articulation points. In the box you'll get almost any kind of hinge: ball and socket, clips, clicky fingers (?), hingeplate, klick-joints, etc. You'll also get other interesting parts, like the new baby bow (1x2) in different colors, slopes and curves in many colors (including 4 2x4 slopes in azure!). You'll get the octagonal azure plate (unique to this set). You'll get 14 roof tile 1x2 slope. You'll get some technic parts. You'll get plenty round 2x2 bricks. You'll get bananas. Seven bananas!

Playability is granted by all the mechanisms on the mech, plus the catapult, plus the bombs, the aircract to act as a villain etc. Full marks!

So as you understood i really liked this set. From the minifigure, to the part selection, to the color scheme, everything. If i really have to find some defects, i'd say that the arms swing a little too much (the technic machinery doesn't have any kind of frictions), and the model is a little unconfortable to hold in hand (becouse of all the levers in the back), but this are really minor things.

Suggested to everybody, expecially if you search something new and refreshing or want to try out the chima theme.

This seems to be the largest Gorllia Tribe set that exists, and it comes to you in the form of a very unique giant mech. With the amount of rare figures and elements in the set, it was hard for me to pass up when I found it for a good price.

Box/Instructions

Nothing special to say about this. The box is about the size you'd expect, has great depictions of what's inside, and the instructions were great.

Parts

This set is just weird and rare parts galore. Bananas, tubes, huge thick rounded pieces, plating for the feet, sping-loaded gun.

Minifigures

It's a minifigure dream come true. First, there are two figures who are unique to this set: G'Loona and Grumlo. Yes, Grumlo appeared in an accessory pack, but not in any other boxed set. I liked G'Loona's figure in particular. She's colorful and fun. Rizzo also happens to be somewhat scarce, this being one of three sets he's in. Gorazan is by far the most common Gorilla, but that doesn't really matter since you're going to want the other two Gorillas. I assume Gorazan is the one that kids who watch the show would know the best, so Lego sticks him in most sets when they need a gorilla. I have no problem with that.

The build

Nothing too notable going on with the build. It's fairly symmetrical, so you'll perform many instructions twice. When I got this I had no clue what it was even supposed to be, exactly, so it was enough fun just seeing it for myself as I built it.

The completed model

This is where I will remove a point from the overall score. The model looks good at a glance, and has a lot of cool features such as a massive arsenal of missiles in its chest. However, it has some playability and stability issues. The hands are kind of awkward, and not as poseable as I'd like. The legs are almost completely useless, and I suppose you have to pretend that this thing can fly to really get it to move. I had some issues with the chest plate coming off its hinge, too. While that sounds like a ton of negatives, it's still a giant intimidating mech. If it had all these shortcomings and it were just another 4-wheel car type of thing, that would pretty awful, as there are so many of that type of vehicle already. But there is nothing else like the Gorilla Striker, so I can forgive it for its awkwardness.

You do also build a small island with some kind of launchable plaform for Rizzo. This is another one of those pieces that I like to try to attach to a base rather than keep it standalone. Come on, the Gorilla Striker could fall over onto this and win the fight. Hilarious to think that Rizzo would even bother to fight back with these odds.

Overall opinion

Despite my complaints, it's hard to not recommend this set to a Chima fan. It's eye-catching, weird, probably a good conversation starter, and there may not be another Lego build quite like it. Besides the unique factor, the Gorilla Tribe figures are not that well represented compared to most others, so to get three in one set of ANY type of Gorilla is cool.

This is LEGO set 70008 - Gorzan's Gorilla Striker from the LEGO Legends of Chima theme with 505 pieces, which came out in 2013.

The build is a lot of fun and there're a few stickers to worry about. This set also includes 4 minifigures, a catapult and a robot. The set is a good build. The catapult really works and on the other side is a tree, where the vehicle for the ravens is. There's another catapult, which allows you to shoot the glider off the tree. The robot has movable arms, legs, feet and hands. The chest can be opened to reveal the flick-missiles. On the top of the robot is a torpedo, which will shoot bananas. The arms can be moved up and down by turning the red bricks on the back of the vehicle.

Pro:

- Playability
- Minifigures

Contra:

- Stickers

All in all, this set is a great set and I would HIGHLY recommend you to get this. You can find this set on eBay and BrickLink for sure. Here is the link where you can check out the full gallery I made for this set on my website: www.klokriecher.de

Videos I made of this set:

Stopmotion

Review 1

Review 2

Speed Build