Used this for an army of snowmen that I was building. Great set to play around with

This set is sooo cool.

Crazy design inside out. I don't know if I like it but it's certainly interesting. I do love how the glider is implemented onto the mammoth though.

Lovely set, got it for Christmas 2014, was very fun to play with

I don’t know if it was true, but I’m reminded of an antisocial zoo elephant who liked to stomp on ducks to relieve its boredom.

@ecleme11 said:
"Used this for an army of snowmen that I was building. Great set to play around with"

CMF snowmen, or brickbuilt?

I was constructing a knockoff of Star Wars in 2017 and this was the basis for the AT-AT knockoff. I don’t own this set.

One of the few times in which calling a set 'barebones' is actually thematically appropriate

Fun set. It uses its skeletal-ness as part of its theming and features an easy way to get to the interior in the shape of a beefy flyer. The trunk also features a fully articulated blaster. Inside there's also a prison cell and a workstation of some kind.

It also uses AT-AT like movement in the legs. Fun to see lego's original spin on it for once.

@MCLegoboy said:
" @Miyakan said:
"I have this set, sitting in the garage. I should build it at some point. It looks like a fun set.

@MCLegoboy From what I've seen, Dark Brown doesn't have the same issues reddish brown does, so this set should be ok."
I have a few Dark Brown minifig heads I bought at a LEGOLAND a number of years ago, and the necks broke after a few connections to just studs. I think Dark Brown has a chance of being defective."

I too have had problems with dark brown, as well as with dark red, especially with pieces from 70599

@Miyakan said:
"I have this set, sitting in the garage. I should build it at some point. It looks like a fun set.

@MCLegoboy From what I've seen, Dark Brown doesn't have the same issues reddish brown does, so this set should be ok."

oh it has, trust me :)

There were some original designs which gave an alternative to licensed sets. The stories just needed a bit more depth and it would probably still be around today, but there was probably just too much choice out there and the marketing peoples focus was on the short term potential of movie tie-ins.

Super awesome set! Wish the Mammoth Tribe got more representation.

A really nice, cool set, with some nice features, and great-looking minifigs!
As pointed out above, it’s like a mammoth brown AT-AT!

I ended up with two of these, years after release.
Been trying to sell one - at a pretty low price - for like TWO YEARS!!…. And barely any interest anywhere!

I didn’t realize there was another Breath of the Wild set!

@HJB2810 said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
" @Miyakan said:
"I have this set, sitting in the garage. I should build it at some point. It looks like a fun set.

@MCLegoboy From what I've seen, Dark Brown doesn't have the same issues reddish brown does, so this set should be ok."
I have a few Dark Brown minifig heads I bought at a LEGOLAND a number of years ago, and the necks broke after a few connections to just studs. I think Dark Brown has a chance of being defective."

I too have had problems with dark brown, as well as with dark red, especially with pieces from 70599 "

Same. In my case it was one of the dark brown 1x12 long plates from 10228. It was pretty annoying to replace.

The Chima beast heads are fun to adapt to other purposes, but the Mammoth heads have a designed-in impediment: the tip of the trunk is frozen-decayed. (Which TLG chose to depict as exposed bone which ... is not how that appendage works, anatomically.) Across the pleistocene tribes, the frost-damage is otherwise depicted with trans-blue parts and with printing, which can be scrubbed off should a customizer so choose.

@HJB2810 said:
"I too have had problems with dark brown, as well as with dark red, especially with pieces from 70599"

I’ve had recent problems with yellow, but only with the Apollo studs. Two decades ago, it was white Technic saddle joints. And the first color I can recall being referred to as “brittle x” is blue. It’s definitely not even limited to the browns and dark-red.

@PurpleDave said:
"
I don’t know if it was true, but I’m reminded of an antisocial zoo elephant who liked to stomp on ducks to relieve its boredom.

@ecleme11 said:
"Used this for an army of snowmen that I was building. Great set to play around with"

CMF snowmen, or brickbuilt?"

Mostly the minifigure ones that had the 1x2 brick for legs, although I replaced that with actual legs

Chima was certainly interesting - I think they were making an interesting pitch at the time to work in their new original IP space, and see what stuck. Post-BIONICLE, and a few years into the immensely growing popularity of Ninjago. I think they eventually started to realize Ninjago was more malleable overall, and went for that.

Never bought any sets, as it was the perfect time for me to ignore LEGO stuff (BIONICLE cancelled, was firmly a teenager with little to no time or income). I see these at times and think about them though, a few years younger and I probably would have liked these a fair amount. I liked the shaping for the mammoth quite a bit.

I'll be intrigued to see young Chima fans waxing nostalgic in the next 10ish years - I'm surprised I don't see it more for Ninjago yet - give it a few years I guess.

@Atuin said:
"I actually preferred Chima over Ninjago. The overall weirdness of crazy machines was much more fitting to an entirely fantasy setting.

I think the theme just appeared at a bad timing. Too many good licences and the Lego Movie up at it's time probably didn't help with sales.

Also Star Wars had a lot more focus on sets in the same price range that were somewhat desirable and a lot of novelties like Friends, Mixels and Dimensions might also have been factors against it."

A lot of it had to do with how they positioned it with Ninjago as well. I remember when Chima came out Ninjago was supposed to end. People were upset about it being replaced, and many of them including myself didn't give Chima much of a chance because of it. I think there are only so many people who will buy original themes and Ninjago had most of them.

@PhantomBricks said:
" @Atuin said:
"I actually preferred Chima over Ninjago. The overall weirdness of crazy machines was much more fitting to an entirely fantasy setting.

I think the theme just appeared at a bad timing. Too many good licences and the Lego Movie up at it's time probably didn't help with sales.

Also Star Wars had a lot more focus on sets in the same price range that were somewhat desirable and a lot of novelties like Friends, Mixels and Dimensions might also have been factors against it."

A lot of it had to do with how they positioned it with Ninjago as well. I remember when Chima came out Ninjago was supposed to end. People were upset about it being replaced, and many of them including myself didn't give Chima much of a chance because of it. I think there are only so many people who will buy original themes and Ninjago had most of them."

Completely forgot about that.

Certainly true, I remember being very reserved about Hero Factory myself because it replaced Bionicle (despite the fact I stopped collecting Bionicle since like 2004).

Yay, another theme that fell prey to bad marketing decisions (like Hidden Side which got down-rated because of it's superfluous app gimmick).

62 sets from a single theme in one year. Is that a record?

No, Star Wars beat that in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019 and City in 1999.

@TBOC said:
"I'll be intrigued to see young Chima fans waxing nostalgic in the next 10ish years - I'm surprised I don't see it more for Ninjago yet - give it a few years I guess."

He already does. All him of him.

@ElephantKnight said:
"I was really disappointed in the mammoth minifig headparts. The bone trunk was so annoying. Made the piece so much more useless. Look at my username, you'll understand my disappointment."

Why did they go with such obviously wrong anatomy?

@Norikins said:
" @ElephantKnight said:
"I was really disappointed in the mammoth minifig headparts. The bone trunk was so annoying. Made the piece so much more useless. Look at my username, you'll understand my disappointment."

Why did they go with such obviously wrong anatomy?"

Well, Halloween was yesterday. Some of the decorations you could have bought locally included a spider skeleton, an octopus skeleton, and a “Grey” skeleton that was neon green and clearly had the same bone structure as a human skeleton excluding the skull.

@Norikins said:
" @ElephantKnight said:
"I was really disappointed in the mammoth minifig headparts. The bone trunk was so annoying. Made the piece so much more useless. Look at my username, you'll understand my disappointment."

Why did they go with such obviously wrong anatomy?"

Well, all the birds have two legs, two arms, and two wings...

Very fitting!

I don't know why, but these past few days I've been going through my Chima phase all over again, the last time I was in one was probably back during 2015 when the last wave came out. This is actually specifically one of the sets that I've been trying to find a good deal on on FBMP/eBay! Love the AT-AT aesthetic mixed with the Mammoth tribe.

I also recently bought 70150 Flaming Claws (sealed) and 70151 Frozen Spikes Fire vs. Ice (used) for $5 each, along with 70141 Vardy's Ice Vulture Glider (also sealed) for $40 which I'm super happy with!

All in all, I'm glad that it's possible for me to build a new Chima collection expanding on the sets that I never owned as a kid :)

@lemish34 said:
"A really nice, cool set, with some nice features, and great-looking minifigs!
As pointed out above, it’s like a mammoth brown AT-AT!

I ended up with two of these, years after release.
Been trying to sell one - at a pretty low price - for like TWO YEARS!!…. And barely any interest anywhere!"

Hey, I live in Sydney, Australia and I'm actually interested in buying one of these if you still have them, depending on exactly how much you're selling them for. I really liked this set from reading the catalogues when I was a kid :)

@PurpleDave said:
" @HJB2810 said:
"I too have had problems with dark brown, as well as with dark red, especially with pieces from 70599"

I’ve had recent problems with yellow, but only with the Apollo studs. Two decades ago, it was white Technic saddle joints. And the first color I can recall being referred to as “brittle x” is blue. It’s definitely not even limited to the browns and dark-red."

Could this, then, be an underlying issue with plastic quality instead of colours that we had assumed?

@Torrent_Studios said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @HJB2810 said:
"I too have had problems with dark brown, as well as with dark red, especially with pieces from 70599"

I’ve had recent problems with yellow, but only with the Apollo studs. Two decades ago, it was white Technic saddle joints. And the first color I can recall being referred to as “brittle x” is blue. It’s definitely not even limited to the browns and dark-red."

Could this, then, be an underlying issue with plastic quality instead of colours that we had assumed?"

Well I guess all three of those are browny-coloured so it could be the actual brown, with was then mixed with other colours to make dark brown and dark red.

@PurpleDave said:
" @TBOC said:
"I'll be intrigued to see young Chima fans waxing nostalgic in the next 10ish years - I'm surprised I don't see it more for Ninjago yet - give it a few years I guess."

He already does. All him of him."

What's happened to that dude? He must have got a girlfriend.

@HJB2810 said:
" @Torrent_Studios said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @HJB2810 said:
"I too have had problems with dark brown, as well as with dark red, especially with pieces from 70599 "

I’ve had recent problems with yellow, but only with the Apollo studs. Two decades ago, it was white Technic saddle joints. And the first color I can recall being referred to as “brittle x” is blue. It’s definitely not even limited to the browns and dark-red."

Could this, then, be an underlying issue with plastic quality instead of colours that we had assumed?"

Well I guess all three of those are browny-coloured so it could be the actual brown, with was then mixed with other colours to make dark brown and dark red."

I too have had issues with all 3 colors. Brown the worst followed by dark red and dark brown. I've never had any other colored piece fracture. (knocks on wood, for luck, it turns out to be Lego piece decorated with wood print, immediately cracks in two)

@StyleCounselor said:
" @HJB2810 said:
" @Torrent_Studios said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @HJB2810 said:
"I too have had problems with dark brown, as well as with dark red, especially with pieces from 70599 "

I’ve had recent problems with yellow, but only with the Apollo studs. Two decades ago, it was white Technic saddle joints. And the first color I can recall being referred to as “brittle x” is blue. It’s definitely not even limited to the browns and dark-red."

Could this, then, be an underlying issue with plastic quality instead of colours that we had assumed?"

Well I guess all three of those are browny-coloured so it could be the actual brown, with was then mixed with other colours to make dark brown and dark red."

I too have had issues with all 3 colors. Brown the worst followed by dark red and dark brown. I've never had any other colored piece fracture. (knocks on wood, for luck, it turns out to be Lego piece decorated with wood print, immediately cracks in two)"

I also find flat dark gold has a few issues with being brittle, even though it definitely doesn't have brown ABS in it. 1x1 studs in this colour seem especially liable to break in my experience.

On a side note, I have njo550 which is one of my rarest Ninjago minifigs but unfortunately one of his legs has broken off so I need to buy a new set of legs. Thankfully the Wu from 71718 has identical legs and is a much cheaper minifig so I should be able to pick on of those up soon.

@Torrent_Studios said:
"Could this, then, be an underlying issue with plastic quality instead of colours that we had assumed?"

Most colors have never had any problems. If it was just the plastic, this should have been a problem across the board. We also know from LEGO employees discussing the Mixel joints that different color pigments can have a huge effect on material quality and fit (which makes sense, if you understand how they color plastic).

Old school, when they bought pre-colored plastic, they could have received entire batches of one color that were bad, and it would have only affected that one color. With in-line coloring, a bad batch of plastic should have impacted a broad range of whatever colors they ran with that batch. And with in-line coloring, a potential issue is color saturation. If you've ever watched paint being mixed, they take a can of white paint and add a small amount of pigment to get light colors. They add a lot more pigment to get dark colors, because they're using the same pigment for light or dark, and the latter just takes a lot more to achieve.

Whatever the case, they said they figured out what caused the problem, and how to solve it, and waited an unspecified amount of time before making any announcements, so everything produced from 2018ish until the present should be safe.

@HJB2810:
Transformers have famously had problems with pearl-gold plastic turning brittle. I recently read about a problem somewhere in NE US where cement is prone to be contaminated with a specific chemical that, over a couple decades, causes the concrete to start spalling really badly, to the point that houses are having to be raised up so they can replace foundations that were poured less than a quarter century ago. Given how pearl colors are produced, I have to wonder if something similar might be happening there.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Torrent_Studios said:
"Could this, then, be an underlying issue with plastic quality instead of colours that we had assumed?"

Most colors have never had any problems. If it was just the plastic, this should have been a problem across the board. We also know from LEGO employees discussing the Mixel joints that different color pigments can have a huge effect on material quality and fit (which makes sense, if you understand how they color plastic).

Old school, when they bought pre-colored plastic, they could have received entire batches of one color that were bad, and it would have only affected that one color. With in-line coloring, a bad batch of plastic should have impacted a broad range of whatever colors they ran with that batch. And with in-line coloring, a potential issue is color saturation. If you've ever watched paint being mixed, they take a can of white paint and add a small amount of pigment to get light colors. They add a lot more pigment to get dark colors, because they're using the same pigment for light or dark, and the latter just takes a lot more to achieve.

Whatever the case, they said they figured out what caused the problem, and how to solve it, and waited an unspecified amount of time before making any announcements, so everything produced from 2018ish until the present should be safe.

@HJB2810:
Transformers have famously had problems with pearl-gold plastic turning brittle. I recently read about a problem somewhere in NE US where cement is prone to be contaminated with a specific chemical that, over a couple decades, causes the concrete to start spalling really badly, to the point that houses are having to be raised up so they can replace foundations that were poured less than a quarter century ago. Given how pearl colors are produced, I have to wonder if something similar might be happening there."

We had a similar problem here in the UK about a year ago with loads of schools being shut because of a type of concrete called RAAC that was pretty unsafe.

@HJB2810:
The issue I read about is due to pyrrhotite contamination, and some of the articles I'm seeing claim there are tens of thousands of homes in the Connecticut/Massachusetts area that have foundations that are nearing the point of collapse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PyrrhotiteIssues

This explains the particular issue with pyrrhotite contamination. And there's no visible difference between contaminated and uncontaminated cement, so the only way to make sure you won't have this problem is every batch has to be tested before it's released. Only, in the case of one former quarry in Connecticut, they weren't, so they produced a lot of cement from that quarry before the problem was identified.

Hmm. Maybe just go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhotite and click "Issues" in the sidebar. Didn't think about the fact that the number sign in the URL would cause problems.

@PurpleDave
I often find Brickset doesn't go to the specific section of a wikipedia page and now you have enlightened me as to why. I never even thought it might be the hashtag but now I know, it makes perfect sense.