Spinlyn's Cavern

This set is one of the non-vehicle based sets from the 2014 release of the Legends of Chima. As the story has moved to the outlands where dark and mysterious tribes have stolen the chi from mount Cavora.

Initially I was a bit sceptical about Chima, but I must confess I am now a real fan. This set as a continuation, does not disappoint.

Box/Instructions

The box and instruction images have been given a Outland twist. The face in the top corner is still there, but with this set there is a sinister spider queen, Spinlyn.

Parts

The parts that have been used in this set are diverse, with many dark grey and black pieces, very useful for caves and mountains. There is also a lot of transparent bright green pieces, if I'm right many of these haven't been released before. There are lots of nice olive green round plates of different sizes really useful. Lastly along with the standard chi there is a hidden golden chi.

Minifigures

There are three mini-figures in this set, the new Eris and Rogon, and the spectacular Spinlyn.

Eris has a new torso and leg pattern and she looks battle ready.

Rogon is also battle ready and has a highly detailed head, I particularly like the dark green waist band it really adds to Rogon's overall look.

Spinlyn... What can I say simply the best mini-figure in all of Chima. Her head looks very regal with the three gold stripes and the peripheral orange eyes like jewels in a crown. Her main eyes have an almost hypnotic gaze to them and are incredibly well designed. There is a wonderful balance between charm and black widow seducer. Her torso is detailed with a golden spider chest plate/necklace. Her lower body is made up of six of the new spider legs made for this new wave and a dark brown meteor cleverly used as a abdomen.

Why six legs? Well she has two arms making eight limbs, perfect.

She also has a nice little detail inside her abdomen, but I will leave that for you to find out when you buy the set!

The build

The build itself provided some surprises the top spider web is the door to a cell to imprison a mini-figure. Clever technic beams hold the tower together and are conveniently hidden. Great build overall.

The completed model

Once built the model is a decent size for price. If I'm honest, I see the value for playability in Rogon's bike, but, I would have rather another rock formation than a bike made from limited parts. It has charm though.

The front of the model, the caverns entrance looks very much spider styled with red jewelled eyes and long leg like structures. This part can be detached from the main body of the cavern, I'll tell you why later. The front entrance has wonderful dripping ooze, a flick fire we and a mirror, clearly Spinlyn is vain.

The tower part of the model is at the end of a short path dotted with the olive green round tiles, and it looks amazing! At the base of the tower is an alter holding a standard chi that flips to reveille and fire a hidden web like the one in the main entrance, very nice. The top of the tower is a cell concealed behind a web which can be flick fired toward the entrance to catch enemies. There is a hidden gold chi to the side on a web that holds the weapons of the prisoners.

The final and crowning glory of this set is is the white web strand that can be lowered from the top. It has two purposes, the first is for when the two parts are separated it can be attached to the entrance and Eris and Rogon can zip wire to freedom. The second purpose is to lower Spinlyn down with incredible style like a real spider!

Summary

A great addition to the Chima collection and a stunning combination of style and function.

Honestly, I bought this set for Spinlyn, I have been greatly satisfied and impressed bey the quality of her and her spooky cavern. Well worth the money.

Set #70133 Spinlyn’s Cavern: This set is a bit different, at last I get to review something from Legends of Chima that is more of a fortress/base build compared to all the vehicles. For a cave it’s pretty open, but we’ll get to that eventually, let’s start with the basics in this review.

Box/Instructions

Despite being exclusive to the LEGO store and Wal-Mart the box design hasn’t changed to indicate this. Instead you see the same box design found on all the other LoC sets. This is both a good thing and a ho-hum thing. It’s good because the design fits with all your other LoC boxes (if you keep them), it’s ho-hum because I would have enjoyed seeing a unique twist on the box design to show why it’s a limited release available only from two locations. Something forcing me to keep the box, honestly as an AFOL I shouldn’t recycle them, since if I ever sell they’d be better to price with the boxes, but I don’t have space and LEGO boxes are made for recycling.

Anyway the front of the box shows an awesome looking action shot, with Rogon charging the spider queen Spinlyn and Eris flying through the air alongside him. The back showcases all of the fun play features of the set, as usual this is a fun looking design and I do enjoy it. With Chima ending it will be sad to see it go, however I did prefer the original blue and green design to the Fire vs. Ice design that took over the box designs as the Theme progressed.

You have three numbered bags in this set, which is broken up between two numbered manuals. The first manual is very thing as it is for bag number one, the Rogon Rhino Rock Bike thing. The cavern is broken up between bags 2 and 3 and is in the much larger, thicker manual. I prefer the larger one as far as the design goes because the thicker pages mean less likelihood of creasing, tearing or being damaged. The thinner manual is a bit of a waste of printing and there’s no reason why it couldn’t have been all in one manual.

That being said the steps are easy to follow, the sticker placement (yes this set has a lot of those) is concise and clear, and the cross-promotional images are perfectly enjoyable as always. Spinlyn’s face in the upper corner of the manual and box is suitably creepy, really young children might be frightened by her, heck the image even creeps me out a little, but then again I’ve always feared and hated spiders.

Parts

This set has a lot of pieces, over two hundred. Are any of them rare? Nope, but they are all useful for MOCs. You get a lot of grey and lime green pieces and three of the black tail-like pieces that originated in LEGO’s constraction line, if I’m not mistaken. Two webs and some string are also included. You definitely don’t want to pass up this set if you’re looking for useful pieces.

Minifigures

In this set you get three minifigures. Two common and one rare.

Rogon: Seen in Rogon’s Rock Flinger from this same wave of sets, the Rogon in this set is pretty much the same as was seen in the Rock Flinger. He has the same double-sided torso print, the same leg printing, same double-sided facial print and the same awesome head piece. His weapon is a massive Chi powered hammer, with a spike on the end. It’s a fun little micro-build using a clear tube, a gold handle for the Ninjago chain weapons, the large fist hammer and a clear blue radar dish with a small tooth piece.

Spinlyn: She’s unique to this set and queen of the spiders. Which means she’s a much different type of minifigure. She includes a double-sided torso with a single-sided facial print and an awesome spider head piece. Her bottom however is not the standard LEGO minifigure legs, instead you get to build her lower half. Much like a centaur Spinlyn is a combination of mnifigure and giant brick-built spider torso. She has unfortunately six legs instead of eight, making her rather inaccurate for an arachnid creature. She also has a large bulbous thorax which is a LEGO rock styled piece with cratered sculpting. (Hidden inside is a red spider, not sure if that’s meant to be her offspring, but it’s an interesting choice.)

Her accessory isn’t entirely a weapon, it is a spider topped spikey staff build that is meant to be her scepter of power, denoting that she is the queen. Due to the nature of her brick-built lower body she can actually stand quite tall, however her bulky weight is a hindrance for her mobility, since her cavern features a fun little play feature tying into this problem.

Eris: Again another repeat minifigure. The Eris here is the same one in the new silver armour on her torso print as what was seen with Braptor’s set. She has the same double-sided torso and leg printing, the same double-sided facial print and her typical gold shoulder armour.

Her weapon is rather strange looking. I’m not sure as to what they call it (I’ve put my Legends of Chima CE book on the shelf at the moment) however I do like the design. It’s a golden sai and two larger golden teeth attached to one of those funny multi-studded gun piece. I’m not sure how effective a weapon it would be, but it looks menacing.

All-in-all a great set of minifigures, even if Spinlyn is the only new one to the set.

The build

Bag 1: Rogon’s small Rock-Flinging Bike is a fast little build, considering his manual is so short I’m not surprised. The build for this vehicle is a bit odd, it’s a nice design, but honestly I don’t like the huge wheel on the back with the small wheel on the front. I get that it’s meant to mimic a charging rhino with head down, but the build is not very fun. Too many Technic elements are used and the controls for the bike include some ridiculous looking stickers, what are they there for?

Bag 2 & 3: Spinlyn’s Cavern itself is a much more satisfying build, incorporating numerous play features and a nice spider deign for the opening of the cave. The build is also quite quick, you have a lot more stickers with spider webs and spiders all over the place, you also get some nice spider tribe symbols on the front of the cave entrance. The only element of the build which may require some assistance is the winch because of the need to tie some string and fit it through a certain hole properly.

The completed model

Rogon’s Vehicle: Seriously not a fan of this. It’s a nice squat little vehicle, but the design just doesn’t interest me compared to the Rock Flinger itself. The huge tire in the back has only one positive, it helps keep the vehicle balanced when on display. The small rock flinging device is a bit awkwardly placed as well to use, but you do get two small tubes to fling with it. The best part of this build is the rhino head, I do like the way LEGO made a small rhino head including the transparent blue 1x2 plate for eyes.

Spinlyn’s Cavern: I really like the aesthetic of this fortress. It’s a very limited build, and all open, so it’s not much of an actual cave, so to speak, but it looks menacing and is loaded with interesting play features. The front entrance has six jewels and a few other pieces made to build up the image of a spider’s face. And the two sides include moveable limbs like two large spider legs. With dripping poison simulated thanks to transparent green antenna and Lightsaber blades.

On the left hand side is a small flick-fire weapon and on the right you have a mirrored sticker. Because Spinlyn is a vain and wicked creature who thinks she’s beautiful. You can angle the large legs anyway you want, which is great. This front section looks awesome, and can attach to the back via pins, making the cavern slightly modular. You could build some more walls and such to make it a more enclosed build if you wanted.

The back of the cave is a tall structure with two LEGO BURPs making the sides of a prison for Chima minifigures. It’s a prison that is open in the back, so you can fit Eris in with her wings still attached. The front of the prison is just a web with a spider attached, it’s an awesome prison door because it’s attached to a flick-fire element, allowing you to launch the web free to rescue the prisoner.

Below the prison is a Chi crystal pedestal, which is attached to an angled piece with technic pins. This is so you can move it up to launch another flick-fire missiles, these missiles have trans-clear radar dishes with web printing, so I guess Spinlyn is firing webs at her enemies. It’s a great looking shrine to the Chi crystal. The web on the right seems to have a fake golden Chi crystal on the back, unless it’s a real Chi crystal, either way the gold piece is unique to this set.

At the very top of the prison is the winch, this is designed to serve two play features. It allows Spinlyn to hoist her bulk around the cave, because she is so heavy due to her thorax. And if you deploy the winch between the top and the shorter cave entrance then you can use the included grey accessory piece to zipline from the top of the cave back to the entrance to escape.

Overall opinion

I really recommend this set. The numerous play features and the fun design of the cavern itself more than makes up for the awkward design of the rhino vehicle. On top of that I’m a fan of the Spinlyn minifigure, she’s an awesome and menacing looking buildable figure. Eris and Rogon aren’t unique, so there isn’t much really to draw you to this set for minifigures if you don’t like Spinlyn. However the large number of useful parts in the set and the awesome gold Chi crystal piece is definitely worth picking this up.