Set Review - Chi Battles 70113

For a while (and maybe still) LEGO S@H has been very generous with their Chi Battles Pack.  Any time you made an order they'd throw one in.  It's like they couldn't get rid of them fast enough.  So I received 5 of these packs in total before my buying spree ran out.

What am I going to do with 5 of these?  Not much.  Chima is not really my thing.  Probably because I'm not an 8-12 year old boy.  Nonetheless I took a look at these things as a parts pack.  There's a few useful bits and bobs but not really enough of anything unless you like the trans blue Chima rocks.  Maybe you like some palm leaves or Asian hats or Zamor spheres?  Of course, now, if you have five of them then maybe you'll have something.  Can't think of what but maybe something.

The animal heads are headgear that go over standard heads.  This headgear alone is worthwhile as you could plop them down on any standard head for some crazy minifig modding.  At this point it adds 5 animal heads you could use though the wolf head might not be much more interesting than the Monster Fighters Werewolf. 

And so with that this post takes a turn towards critiquing and praising the ripcord riding cycle happy fun time flywheel.

This thing is pretty cool.  I kept two and my daughters and I had a rip roarin' time sending them up and down the hall.  It was all fun and games until we tried to build a car on top of it.  What a disappointment.  These things can barely manage a load.  That's probably why the Chima sets only load them up with a couple of pieces that minimize drag but increase stability.

I added a rear extension with a couple of small city wheels.  Performance?  Crappy.  Then I tried a larger axle and a set of wheels.  A little better but still crappy.  Believe it or not the rubber of the tires adds way too much drag.  Most of the problem came in tearing itself apart.  So then I constructed a lightweight Technic frame to hold some wheels.  Crappy.  The problem is that the flywheel seems to be set to handle exactly 13.1g of add-ons.  Beyond that and the performance both in distance and straight run diminish exponentially.

I wonder about these Chima packs in general.  LEGO has been giving them away in S@H orders.  They also have several sets discounted on their website.  The larger sets are likely selling well but these battle packs seem to be a bust.

But if you gotta catch them all, try these: