70795 Mask Maker vs. Skull Grinder is the flagship set of the Winter wave of LEGO Bionicle 2015 and retails for roughly £25. It features 171 pieces and sees Ekimu, the wise Mask Maker defend the powerful Mask of Creation from the insidious leader of the Skulls, Kulta the Skull Grinder.

As with all Bionicle, you start with the skeleton and much like Skull Slicer and Skull Basher, Grinder is doing something different, namely the huge shoulder pads added to his base skeletal form. It’s nice to see the design team changing things up a little because after 7 or so figures with the exact same action feature assembly, it was starting to get stale.

Once fully armoured up, Grinder stands at an impressive 8” tall and certainly looks the most robust of the Skulls. His menacing demeanour is evident in the gruesome façade he wears (and also shares with Skull Warrior). His weapons include the standard Hook Blade but also the impressive Mask Stealer Staff, which he wields one-handed. Much like other Bionicle figures with the arm-swinging action feature; his posing his somewhat limited, especially given how top-heavy the staff weapon is.

The Mask of Creation is simply that; an ornate mask accessory, etched with mystical runes and held aloft by a simple stand that doesn’t quite work for me. I like the idea, but the execution feels off but maybe that’s my copy. The mask fits very loosely to the stand and will often slump down, sending the whole assembly toppling forward.

The Mask Maker takes the form similar to that of that of the Protectors I previously reviewed. His base skeleton is near identical in that respect and so are his armour pieces but the new golden pauldrons make him stand out amongst his peers.

His default mask is much the same as the Protectors as well, with the same faded translucent plastic effect. He comes equipped with the Hammer of Power, which also features a stud launching gimmick (a disappointing amount of extra studs this time around it must be said) and an awesome rotating Saw Shield.

“But Sharp-O,” I hear you ask, “Why does the Saw Shield look incomplete? Did you screw up the simple building process?” No, no, dear readers, t’was not an error on my part… For the first time in my decades of dealing with LEGO products, I finally had a set that was missing a piece. A vital piece in fact! So I did what anyone who finds themselves missing a piece should do…

I went to LEGO’s Customer Service page and went through the Missing Bricks process! It was incredibly easy to use and simple to find this set and the helpful guide easily helped me find the piece I was missing. Within 10 working days, the piece had been delivered to my door FREE OF CHARGE in this awesome little baggy ala CSI: Legoland. It’s an amazing service and I highly recommend people use it should they find their sets have missing or broken pieces.

Now, Ekimu is fully loaded for his battle with Kulta and I have a neat story for my review!

Standing them side-by-side, the size difference is staggering. The Mask Maker only clocks in at around 5” tall and Grinder towers over the little dude. We all love an underdog though, right?

All in all, the 70795 Mask Maker vs. Skull Grinder set is an absolute blast to build, play with and I definitely feel you’re getting a ton of play value for your £25! Two fantastic figures with lots of play value plus all the cross-play you can get with the other LEGO Bionicle sets means that this is highly recommended! If you have any thoughts on the LEGO Bionicle line this year, please leave your comments below and I’ll catch you all next time for another Mint in Box!

Sharp-O is back with more LEGO Bionicle to review new Skull enemies from the Summer wave of LEGO Bionicle 2015!

70790 Lord of Skull Spiders is the primary antagonist for the first wave of Bionicle 2015 figures and retails for around £12.99. He’s pretty fearsome looking! He is the guardian of an ancient city on Okoto and the Toa masters must get past him, and his legions of Skull Spiders, if they want to gain entry!

His packaging is in the same hexagonal prism shape as all the others which I haven’t really mentioned until now but I like it. It gives the line a unique profile on the shelves.

His accessory is a Golden Skull Spider mask but unlike every other release, it does not feature an limbs. In-universe, this is how the Lord controls the smaller Skull Spiders.

While his piece count is larger than the Toa and Protectors, coming in at 145 pieces, the Lord is a rather Spartan build, most of which is building the lever mechanism for its crushing action feature!

Once all his pieces are on, this action feature makes more sense, as he can grip and crush the Toa and Protectors with just squeeze of the lever. I would like to have seen something else included, maybe some sort of string or web missile but for what it is, it works great!

I do love how modular the Technic line can be when put into something with a little more character than detailed vehicles with moving parts. All of the Lord’s exoskeleton is made for body pieces that the Toa use and that means you could probably create a bipedal Lord of Skull Spiders which would be awesome and probably a little more intimidating than his current form. It’s not bad, it’s just… small. He feels less like the big bad and more like a lieutenant and given the Skull warriors that are coming out in the second wave, which are more or less the same size as the Toa, this may be the case.

70790 Lord of Skull Spiders is probably the weakest out of the Bionicle sets I was sent to review but that’s not to say it’s bad, it’s just “okay”. I would have liked to have seen a couple more action features to add to his threat level but the crushing action feature works well and he is a giant spider (with only six legs though, eh?) so that makes him pretty creepy.

Be sure to take part in the #BionicleMaskHunt competition! More information can be found here and I’ll catch you guys next time on Mint in Box!

Be sure to take part in the #BionicleMaskHunt competition! More information can be found here!

I give my opinion on Gali the Master of Water and The Protector of Water from LEGO Bionicle! (Also, turns out I’m a dumb because Gali is, in fact, still FEMALE in the reboot. My bad!)

For more LEGO Bionicle, go here!

Today we mark the return of the Bionicle legacy with Tahu and his partner, the Protector of Fire! I apologise for the raspy voice, I was getting over a severe throat infection at time of recording but I hope you still enjoy the review!

For more LEGO Bionicle go HERE!

They also include greenish Skull Spiders!