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    Discuss This Story ReviewThursday, September 29th, 2011 at 7:10pm by Jason, BZPower Reporter

    The 3.0 Heroes are still fighting the tainted animals on the Quaza planet, and today we'll look at the most fearsome beast on the prowl, Scorpio. With eight legs and a deadly tail, this monster is out to cause trouble for the Heroes, but is Scorpio worth adding to your own collection? Read the following review by xccj and find out.

    Presentation
    From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.

    Image of Scorpio Box Front Image of Scorpio Box Back Image of Scorpio Box Opened

    Scorpio fills out a lot of the box. It's quite a lot to take in, and (I'll say it right away) the mix of red and lime is already very contrasting. In the image, Scorpio seems to be crawling towards you and shooting a red zamor (or whatever they're called now) at you. It's not quite as menacing a pose as some of the other critters, but it does show how big this thing is. Scorpio is a huge beastie. And if that's not enough for you, more Scorpio creatures can be seen in the background, ready to cause some trouble.

    The back of the box features the beginning of the Hero Factory jungle story. First the Witch Doctor takes over everything, then Hero Factory is called and informed of the problem. They build a couple Heroes up, launch them towards the planet (that's falling apart?) and then Stormer faces off against Scorpio on a large bio-mechanical root. Well, maybe that's not exactly canon, but it's what you get off the back anyway. Other information is placed on the edges of the box, including a weird skull logo, an actual-size image of Scorpio's head, and multiple paragraphs of small text in various languages.

    Overall, it's an exciting box. I do approve of the story-telling images on the back, which turn out better on the larger box. But, as usual, the set is what we're really after.

    Building
    Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?

    Image of Scorpio Building 1 Image of Scorpio Building 2 Image of Scorpio Building 3
    Image of Scorpio Building 4 Image of Scorpio Building 5 Image of Scorpio Building 6

    Okay, I had a big surprise while building this set. I enjoyed it!

    No, this isn't a "well, it's okay if you're a kid but kinda bleh as an older builder" kind of enjoyment. I genuinely really liked how this set was constructed, much more than any of the other Hero Factory sets I have purchased so far. I was extremely impressed on how the body is designed; it primarily uses pieces from the new ball-joint system, but it creates a very solid structure to which all the limbs attach to. Okay, to be fair, there is nothing spectacular about the construction of the limbs or anything, and it certainly pales in comparison to some of the glorious Rahi from Bionicle's golden age, but I still managed to enjoy the building process all the way through. That is a major plus for this set!

    Set Design
    Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.

    Image of Limb Pieces Image of Armor Pieces

    Scorpio contains a lot of pieces. 104, actually. Most of them are from the new ball-joint system, but there are a few good old technic elements contained within the structure. There is a wide variety of limb joints in this set, mostly in red and black. A nice addition is the piece with the two pegs that was previously only available in Drilldozer. Scorpio also has lots of armor, which is mostly black but also has some silver and lime pieces. The neat addition here is Stringer's black bear claw piece.

    Image of Special Pieces

    Scorpio also has some more pieces that stand out. He contains two blade pieces seen in other villain sets, but it's always nice to get more of these. He also has some Quaza spikes (like all the animal villains) and a few smaller red spikes pieces, which have popped up in many other Hero Factory sets. Two elements unique to Scorpio are the lime green spike and shield pieces, which use the peg attachments to snap onto the armor. All in all, a good selection of elements for any MOCist wanting to use the new ball joint building system.

    Image of Head Pieces

    Scorpio's head consists of two pieces. The first is a #6 armor piece in black with some interesting printing on the top. The second is a lime-green bug-like head with some nice eye and jaw details. The head isn't quite as detailed as some of the other Hero helmets, and it isn't even unique; a yellow version is used in the Waspix set. But it's what we've got.

    Image of Scorpio Side Image of Scorpio Front Image of Scorpio Back

    Overall, Scorpio has a scorpion look to him. (Surprise! I bet you had no idea, especially with that name!) The first thing that jumps out to me, as I mentioned earlier, are the colors. Scorpio is mostly black with a few hints of grey and silver. However, he has two primary colors, red and lime green, which do clash horribly with each other. I suppose it kind of works: the red is mostly contained to the inner body, while lime green is on the armor decorations. Yes, it has some consistency to it, and color theory tells us that red and green should work together. But I really wish two more similar colors had been used instead.

    I covered some of the design when I discussed Scorpio's construction. But I'll say it again; the build of the body is ingenious. It uses mostly the ball joint pieces, but still comes out with a solid and well angled body, with plenty of ideal attachments for the legs at various angles. The tail attachment is also reinforced. The construction of the legs are all fairly standard, but one thing to note is that the legs are all different lengths based on where they're attached to the body. The body is slanted, so some portions are lower to the ground than others, and the legs that attach to these portions are shorter. This all helps to give Scorpio a consistent height.

    Scorpio is also well armored. When looking at the Heroes, I am disappointed that they often have bare limb joints without any armor pieces. But all the stops are pulled out on Scorpio, and almost all the joints that could have armor pieces attached have them. Scorpio has armor everywhere: on all his legs, his back, his tail, and even his underbelly. This covers him up much better than those Heroes, who are completely unarmored in the back. One thing to note; the body construction does leave a hole if viewed from the side; but it's a minor thing when compared to the rest of Scorpio.

    Playability
    The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?

    Image of Scorpio Pose 1 Image of Scorpio Pose 2 Image of Scorpio Pose 3

    Scorpio looks good when he's on all six legs (or eight, if you use his fore-arms as legs). All the legs have decent mobility for bug-like limbs, and as mentioned earlier, come in different lengths to allow for a uniform height. It's quite easy to get him into good crawling positions. But if you want to get him in a different pose� well, that's probably not going to work out.

    Unfortunately, Scorpio is a little clunky to play with. If you want to move his legs, you have eight of them to deal with, as opposed to our biped Hero friends. This can be cumbersome during play. What I would recommend is getting him into a solid stance on his back legs, and then play with his fore-arms, head, and tail. If you're moving all his legs, then you're too busy adjusting them to have fun role playing.

    However, the tail offers more fun. It is reinforced, so its movements are slightly restricted. But this is a good restriction; instead of having the tail flail around on a ball joint, it's sturdy and aimed towards Scorpio's opponent up front. The ball joints do allow for a nice stinger motion. Plus, on top of that, you get a zamor / round ball launcher at the tip of the tail, so you can always fire that at your role-playing opponents. I feel that the tail offers a much sturdier launcher than some of the humanoids who carry them in their hands, and even if this isn't a new or particularly exciting action feature, I think it works on Scorpio.

    Indeed, Scorpio doesn't offer the best mobility, but he's got enough bulk to take a few hits from a Hero without sustaining massive damage. So that's a plus if Scorpio is in your army.

    Image of Scorpio Facing Stringer Image of Scorpio Fighting Stringer

    Final Thoughts
    Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?

    Pros
    What's to like?

    • Amazing body design using the new ball joint pieces
    • Vast amount of pieces
    • Can get into a good crawling pose
    • Tail good for role-play

    Cons
    What's not to like?

    • Red and lime green color scheme is no good
    • Multiple legs make it cumbersome for role play
    • Costly

    Scorpio turned out to be a surprising good set. I will admit, when I first saw it, the main image seemed too cluttered to really capture my attention, and the red and lime green color scheme also didn't help. But I really enjoyed building it, and it comes with lots of great pieces. It has a limited amount of poses and isn't great for role play, but his standard pose works nicely and his tail and front arms can be moved for attacking. He has his drawbacks, but if you can look past those, he's pretty awesome.

    Scorpio is my second favorite Hero Factory set from this wave (after Bulk 3.0) and if you have the budget for him I would recommend purchasing him. He makes for a worthy creature for our Heroes to fight, although we don't necessarily want to be rooting for him.

    Again, I would like to send a big thank you out to Lego for allowing us to get a look at these new sets early. I hope this review helped you form your opinion on Scorpio, both the good and the bad, and we've still got a handful of sets left to review, so stay tuned for more!

    Image of Scorpio Vs Heroes

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