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Set Review: 70129 Lavertus' Twin Blade
 Monday, April 21st, 2014 at 8:02pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager[Source: Sisen] Chima Month continues to roll on, and today it brings us another set review. BZPower Forum Assistant Sisen takes a look at 70129 Lavertus' Twin Blade from the LEGO Legends of Chima line. Will this set hover its way into your heart or will it crash and burn under a stinging attack? You'll have to read on to see and also to find out how you can win a copy yourself. Check it out! Presentation
The box of Legends of Chima set 70129 Lavertus Twin Blade contains the normal information such as set number, age range, etc. As reviewed by some of the others already, the box features the new thorny look for Chima. The box art contains Lavertus piloting his Twin Blade, with an inbound Scutter at port.
The top of the box shows the fearsome lion fig to scale, next to some artwork of the two creatures locked in battle. The back of the box shows some alternative artwork of the Twin Blade prowling after Scutter with stolen Chi. You can also see how the Twin Blade mechanism provides playability, but I'll get to that later in the review. Building
Building the set honestly took twenty minutes maximum. The construction is fairly straightforward and not hard to grasp at all. Constructing the minifigs was fun and the new Scorpion style figure offers some interesting playability. Set Design
Let's take a look at the sorted pieces here. Keeeetorange! There's a lot of that yellow orange in this set. I'm particularly fond of the radar dishes in the set, better known to Bionicle fans as Kopaka's shield. Besides the shield pieces, everything else in the Keetorange is a plate, wedge, or slope.
There are two of the newer dual barrel pistols in black, which have only been featured in a few other sets. Some of the other cool pieces include these smaller rotor blades that have axel and pin connector, which have only been used in a few Technic flight sets. They look pretty cool and seem like there could be potential usage outside of flight based designs. The real piece de resistance is this triple connector, which is extremely useful or so I've thought when building. There's also this universal joint and it serves some interesting functionality.
Plus you have some of these reddish brown claw type deals that have been used sporadically throughout some other lion related Chima sets. Pretty cool stuff and they're semi-flexible. Typical to Chima sets, there is a fair bit of smaller trans-light blue pieces to embody the Chi elements. The axe clip is pretty rad and makes any weaponry cool-cool. The clip has shown up before in some previous sets but not widespread. Now that building is done, let's take a look at the figures. Lavertus only appears in one other set, which is his Outland Base. The figure in the other set dons different-colored silver armor from this pearl gold, but beyond that there appears to be no differences. If you specifically want him then you'll want to snag this set, but even more important is the fact that Scutter is limited to this set alone.
The detail on our lion is exquisite. There are robe and armor type printings not only on the front and back of the torso, but the legs as well! Even cooler is the fact he has two expressions to utilize. However, you really don't see the difference between the expressions whilst donning the lion head.
The real gem of this set has to be Scutter, the level of intricacy on the minifig is pretty impressive. The figure itself uses approximately twenty five pieces, for one figure! There is no additional print on the head, but the mask, fangs, and poseable tail make this scorpion character come to life. One minor gripe is the tail can't be completely positioned like an actual scorpion strike. The detail and print of Lavertus is astounding, but the work on Scutter is just as superb.
There isn't much to say about the Twin Blade itself. It is a cool ship with neat playability potential. Personally, everything Chima does feeds my Thundercat nostalgia. Ships like the Twin Blade play right into that and satiate my inner geek. My only gripe about the set design is mentioned here shortly. Playability
Overall there is a ton of playability with the set, especially if you add in some other sets to swoosh down at or fight against. It is interesting to note that there is no form of projectiles on the Twin Blade, so I guess utilizing the blades as weapons is a valid form of attack? The only con to the playability is the way the brown claws surround the cockpit. They are very easy to knock off, and can take some time to replace the way they are attached.
If you want to see the playability of the set, I highly recommend you watch the video embedded above or take a look on the YouTube channel. It is hard to capture an interactive playability with stills. Final Thoughts
This is a wonderful set with only a few minor downfalls. Had the LEGO group not graciously provided it, I definitely would have purchased it myself. Beyond the LEGO Monsters, Chima has really done well to capture my attention. Lavertus Twin Blade is a lot of fun with some great figures, so if you are on the fence about picking it up hopefully this review will help make your decision.
Thanks everyone for reading - I hope you all enjoyed the review. And thanks to Sisen for taking the time to put it together! If you haven't already, make sure you watch the video to see how you can win a copy of the set. And of course, keep checking back on BZPower for more Chima Month coverage and other LEGO news!
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