He may not have a scratched-up two headed coin to toss around, but his head is certainly two of something. The menacing Splitface is the next Hero Factory review for this series, who takes a fancy to mix-matching his armor every morning upon waking. What is up with that, you ask? Read on to find out!

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

You guessed it—this set, like all the other 2012 HF sets reviewed so far, comes in a bag. And guess what! There is not a piece count on there. But not to fear, because everything else is—name, logos, set number, and the back even has all those small-print legal details.

The front is quite shocking, after all it features a character who is two colors, split down the middle. In the bottom left we see the faint image of Surge pursuing his two-faced target. (Hey, that would make a good name for a villain, “Two-Face.”) On the back we see the a demonstration of the Zamor launcher and the notion of the code found on the back of the Hero cores, which Splitfact comes with.

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

There is a large amount of pieces that come with Splitface, most of them in a nice red or gunmetal color. More on those later.

Splitface is pretty tall, but once again has a pretty basic hero build. Limbs, armor, though there are a few clever additions. His right arm has a pretty spiffy claw on it, and the round armor covering his left side sure looks awesome. A very nice new piece that attaches and blends well with the old armor.

And then his head gets attached. In my haste I did not notice there was a neck piece, but attaching that just makes him look weird. Luckily giving him a hunched neck is very menacing and lets him look normal again. Well, as normal as a someone can be that has two different colors down his body. Overall, quite fearsome and cool, very dangerous, and slightly out of the ordinary.

Unfortunately, instructions for the combiners were not yet online at the time of writing this review.

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.

Splitface comes with a nice assortment of new and interesting pieces. Most notably are the domes, in red in this set, and his face is especially intriguing. It is actually the same piece just in two different colors—clever way for LEGO to save money on new molds. So, in theory, two Splitface sets could be bought and a solid-colored face could be used in a MOC. The pieces attach to the technic holes on the side of the standard Iron Man-esque head.

One of the biggest setbacks that I first thought of when seeing Splitface was that there would be a lack of symmetry not in looks, but in technic/Bionicle/armor pieces that these constraction sets are known for. Usually there is at least two of everything: limbs, armor, feet. Splitface does a good job in easing my fear, giving two gunmetal pieces seen on his leg, three of the red armor pieces and domes seen on his left side, and even stays even with the bone limbs underneath it all.

It is worth noting, however, that he only comes with one color of each face piece, some of the gunmetal pieces like the feet and armor, and the chestpiece design is painted on rather than being a sticker that could just as easily not be placed on. So for all the neat pieces he has, most of which come in twos or more, there are a few drawbacks.

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.

Splitface himself is pretty menacing. He is out to terrorize the galaxy with his claws and laser-equipped Zamor launcher. All the more reason to toss in the tiny Surge, right? Luckily the Heroes come with handcuffs, and Surge can make a nice addition to playability with weapons and capturing. But I would guess that Splitface is pretty strong himself.

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

I was not too excited for Splitface when I first saw pictures of him. But building the set soon made me change my mind. He has some great pieces, most of them coming in doubles where you would hope, so there is no worry for having an odd number of building pieces (mostly). Plus, he looks pretty cool, in a mean, menacing, way. He has it where it counts in all the right places.

Pros
What's to like?

• New pieces!
• Looks cool.
• Split-color scheme not a problem at all, especially when collecting pieces
• Clever design.
• Buy two to have a one-color head!

Cons
What's not to like?

• Still standard Hero build.
• Long neck.
• Some single pieces because of lack of symmetry.
• Buy two to have a one-color head. :(

All in all, one of the better choices for the latest round of Hero Factory sets. Nice pieces, cool-enough build, and a face only a mother, of builder, could love.

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