What's this? Another set review? It is indeed. Today Gatanui looks at 6222 Core Hunter, a nasty looking baddie from the Hero Factory summer line. Too see if this set is as awesome as it looks, read on!

Red alert! CORE HUNTER is on the loose somewhere in Makuhero City and is trying to disable as many heroes as he can get his claws on. His plasma shooter, multi vision mask and razor spike armor are dangerous, but his hero core remover tool must be avoided at all costs. Cuff him or he could disable all the heroes and bring chaos to the galaxy!

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

The packaging continues to be the same one as the winter sets had, apart from the golden top I haven't thrown away yet just to include it in this picture. The packaging size is somewhat blown out of proportion in size compared to the small-sized sets, but I guess an oversized packaging is better than an undersized one, so that's okay. Core Hunter is featured in a very good-looking pose, although it doesn't make sense that he's flying as he has nothing to fly with. The city background, supposedly Makuhero City, looks nice, though, and you can even see Bulk, also flying without anything to fly with.

The back shows Core Hunter in a standing post and promotes his launcher function and his core remover pincers. Do they work? We'll see.

Apart from that, the usual legal stuff and the Breakout game screenshots. As usual, the components are made in Denmark, Hungary, Mexico and the Czech Republic.

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

As usual, the build is nothing challenging, although more so than the small sets are. Still, there are more interesting builds this year and there are no remarkable surprises. Be sure to connect the new Captain America armor facing the right way, though.

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.

Core Hunter has 51 pieces, which is less than every other mid-sized set of this year apart from Splitface, who has 50. Still, the price point is pretty decent compared to what we've got in some previous years.

Sadly, Core Hunter has only one new mold and piece, namely the head, if you don't count the Captain America armor piece. There is no remolded Glatorian head piece either as many including me had hoped there would be, but maybe it will come in later production batches. The helmet is a great piece, though. A downside is that not all eyes can glow as shown on the packaging and CGI, but it manages to look very menacing.

The recolored pieces make up for the lack of new pieces. The two Captain America armor pieces are fantastic (perhaps the most useful pieces to be connected to cladding so far) and even more so in black. Then there is the new torso armor piece in solid black without any kind of printing. Then we get three of the Savage Planet paw pieces in black and a total of six Savage Planet claw pieces in red. There is also a black MTIS piece. As far as I know, Core Hunter is the only set so far to have it and it's great. I'm sure it looks much better to fill the hollow back than the silver MTIS they use in the TV episodes, but I haven't tried.

These four pieces are not new, but they are rare and always welcome.

Let's get to the actual design of the set.

Core Hunter is tall, spiky and massive. There are no annoying gaps and the only thing looking off is an exposed ball joint on the back. Overall, he looks very complete. The color scheme is as good as perfect. Not even the gunmetal pincers and launcher pieces look disruptive. The Zamor sphere may do so to you, but it doesn't to me.

The ammo belt is a nifty addition and it's perfect to show off your or Core Hunter's collection of Hero Cores. For starters, he comes with one Hero Core like all other sets this year, so I suggest attaching it there so it doesn't lie around.

This doesn't mean the set doesn't have any flaws, though.

Core Hunter's arms are so ridiculously short it's not even funny. This means he can't be properly cuffed and that the weapons will often stand in the arms' way when posing. I guess LEGO wanted to save costs by using the shortest available bone pieces, but even the small-sized sets have longer arms. This could have been done better and unfortunately, he's not the only set with this flaw. The short bone pieces are some of the rarer ones, though, so that can be considered a plus. They are also used for the neck, which even manages to look good and not too long.

Another flaw to some may be how the back armor is connected. The connector piece is rare and always nice to have, but Stormer XL has a new piece which would have allowed the back armor to stay in place. It would have been good to have that piece in a smaller set.

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?

The additional articulation point from the neck increases playability and poseability.

Core Hunter wouldn't be Core Hunter if he didn't have a core hunting tool. The two pincers from Jetbug are used for this and at first glance, they look simple, but effective. Funny how LEGO makes a play feature out of unintended piece flexibility in this set.

However, if you try actually removing a Hero Core with the pincers, you will soon be frustrated. If the Hero Cores are already harder to remove than other pieces because of the two pins of hard plastic, it's as good as impossible with these pincers. All you can do is squish the pincers together, but you won't be able to remove Hero Cores with them, and that's a minus. Actually, if you pull hard enough you will end up removing the entire chest armor, like poor Core Hunter did on our photo. At least the tool looks nice, and personally I didn't have the pincer pieces before, so that's something.

Apart from that, Core Hunter is fun to play with and allows for many different poses.

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

Pros What's to like? Fantastic color scheme Solid and non-gappy design Many rare, useful and recolored pieces Cons What's not to like? Short arms Core remover doesn't remove Cores No remolded Glatorian head

Overall, Core Hunter is a very good set. He has some flaws, especially if you look for them, but he looks very good and is one of the best sets this year. Don't be fooled by the list, as I feel the pros outweigh the cons. If you are looking for a mid-sized set, Core Hunter should be one of your choices. The only other mid-sized villain this year I have is Voltix, but he is so different that it's your taste that decides here. Although, you could simply get both like I did, makes it easier.

And that makes yet another villain caught 'n cuffed by Bulk who's gotten smarter since the last time you met him!

And that's it for Core Hunter. Be sure to thank Gatanui for the review and ask any questions you might have over in the Talkback. And of course keep checking back for more Hero Factory and other set reviews right here on BZPower!

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