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Set Review: 71315 Quake Beast
 Wednesday, June 29th, 2016 at 4:12am by Jason, BZPower ReporterAfter a slight delay, it's time for us to bring you the final summer 2016 Bionicle set review. Today, BZPower Reporter Xccj takes a look at 71315 Quake Beast. Is this a set that rocks, or should he be tossed into the mud? Read on or watch the video review to see. First I would like to give a big shout out to LEGO for providing these sets for us to review. Of course, the thoughts and opinions in this review are my own and not LEGO's, but I appreciate getting the chance to review this beast of a set!
Presentation
We get the same box style that previous Bionicle sets have come in, and the front features Quake Beast racing forward, swinging his mighty spiked fist. The background is eerily green, complete with stalactites and stalagmites, with an erupting volcano in the distance. Onua Uniter can also be seen, although he's not looking so good. You have the Bionicle logo and Mask of Control on the top, and Quake Beast's name is the lower right corner. The back of the box has a lot to show off too. It highlights some of the play features in the set, like his swinging fist and pop off mask. There's also a lineup of all the villain sets from this summer, and shows the combiner model they can make. Underneath that is a comic showing Quake Beast facing off against Onua, and then beneath that is a scale image of the infected / poisoned Mask of Earth that comes with Quake Beast. Building
The build is a little different than your standard CCBS character, due to his unique action features. But it's nothing too complicated, and easy enough to put together in a short amount of time. Set DesignNow that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.
Quake Beast counts in at 102 pieces, plus a few extras. He's mostly made up of blacks and grays, but there's still a nice selection of trans purple elements and a few trans neon green too. He includes quite a lot of technic elements that go into his intricate build, so that's nice. Some of the trans purple elements include the limb piece, shell armor, ribcage shell, and the claw piece. The coolest piece, however, is the new crystal spike armor piece. It has a nice design, and has a socket built in to fit over a standard ball joint element. It's a cool design, and although all the summer sets include it, Quake Beast has the most in a single set with three trans purple elements. However, it is a bit bulky, and I almost would've preferred an armor attachment element with two pins, like most of the other CCBS armor additions. But I suppose this design works best with the trans colors. Some other interesting pieces include two of the sword elements in lime green and silver, two shadow trap jaws, the head piece now in trans neon green, and the new body piece that doesn't have ball joints for the shoulder or neck, which was first used in the Star Wars Buildable Figures. The chest armor piece is not a new mold, but it has a custom printing of purple crystals on it. We also get two new masks; the infected mask of earth and Quake Beast's head. The beast head mold is used on all the beast characters this summer, but Quake Beast gets a uniquely purple and trans neon green color combination. (It's also the only solid purple element in this set.) Quake Beast also includes a jaw piece in gunmetal gray. It also has a crystalline look, and has two axle connections.
When he comes together, Quake Beast rocks the asymmetry, with one massive right arm outshining his more meager left one. This works for him although it is a design LEGO has used before, such as with Bruizer from the 2013 Hero Factory wave, who also had some interesting rocky armor. Quake Beast does have some messy bits to his design, like the random sword spikes on his right shoulder and the green spike on his left knee, but I think it works with his look. The trans purple and trans neon green contrast each other well over the black and grays, giving him a solid color scheme. (Yellow is traditionally the best color to contrast with purple, but the neon green is an adequate substitute.) Quake Beast has some custom limb designs in his legs. (It seems like the designers were trying to incorporate as many custom limb designs into the 2016 Bionicle sets as they could.) In Quake Beast's case, I think they pulled it off, as the technic design is fairly compact and actually works for making him a shorter character. (The red axles do stand out against the main color scheme.) And on top of it all, the legs are sturdy enough to hold him up, which is always a plus. His two arms have very contrasting designs. His left arm is a pretty standard CCBS design, and ends in a clawed hand. I wasn't too thrilled when they first used this design in the 2014 Hero Factory monsters, but I have to admit that it works a little better here, thanks to the inclusion of a thumb with the connection a bit further down than the main fingers. But all the same, I might've preferred one of the larger CCBS claw elements instead. The claws can provide him some grip, like on the mask of earth, but are also fairly fragile and break off easily, so beware. The main point of interest is Quake Beast's large right arm, which looks like it's supposed to be made of living crystals or something. It's extra-long, is armored by three of the purple crystal pieces, and ends in a giant spike piece instead of a hand. Unfortunately, the crystal pieces don't do a good job of fully encompassing the CCBS limbs, so it looks less bulky from some angles. The spikes on the shoulder add a bit of extra flair; I think he could've gone without them, but they're not too bad.
The spare mask in this set belongs to Onua Uniter. I'm not sure the black and trans neon green mask works well on him, because the green looks off against his purple and gold highlights. But it's a nice collectable, and it'll be interesting to see how (or if) it shows up in the story. Playability
Quake Beast has a couple of standard play features. First off, he has a modified Shadow Trap on his shoulder, which can hold the infected Mask of Earth. However, unlike the Shadow Traps from the Creature sets, these don't have a click hinges in the middle, so they're only held together by a rod, thus making them quite loose. While they'll clamp together nicely when empty, they don't do a very good job of holding onto the mask, which falls out quite easily. The second feature involves the mask, which still has a pop off feature, similar to most humanoid Bionicle sets. However, Quake Beast has an interesting addition, because his jaw piece is attacked to his eye stack. This means, if you lift up his jaw, his mask / face pops off. I was expecting something more similar to the monsters from the 2014 Hero Factory sets, so the fact that moving his jaw just breaks off his face surprised me. I mean, how is he supposed to laugh maniacally now?
But the main feature here involved Quake Beast's right arm. It utilizes the gearbox that came with last year's Toa. But the unique bit is that it's rotated to the side, so instead of a forward swivel motion with him arm, it's a lateral motion. Given Quake Beast's large arm, this function allows him to swing it forward in a mighty punch. It is a bit chunkier than other gear functions, but it works adequately well, and definitely makes Quake Beast stand out. Finally, the trans neon green spikes behind his spiked fist are set up so that they can spin. In theory anyway; the connection is right next to the ball joint, so it catches easy when spun.
Beyond that, Quake Beast is your standard CCBS character, and is very posable. You can set him up against Onua Uniter and his creature Terak. He's not quite as large or well armored as they are, but he can still deliver a powerful punch. Final Thoughts
Quake Beast has his certain charm, with his purple and green color scheme, unusual arm swinging action feature, and crazy asymmetry. I wouldn't say Quake Beast is the best CCBS out there this summer, but he's still a worthy monster to face off against the Toa. And he can throw a really mean punch! However, one of the major drawbacks to Quake Beast is that he is not as widely available as some of the other sets. However, he is readily available from shop.LEGO.com, so that's a reliable place to purchase him if you'd like. He is priced at $14.99 USD. Thanks again for reading another BZPower set review. Stay tuned to BZPower for even more LEGO set reviews, and make sure to like and subscribe to the Youtube channel to keep up with all our updates. And again, a big thanks to LEGO for sending us these sets to review.
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