Alright, here we go!
I’m SO happy to have been able to get this set. It’s FANTASTIC!
The minifigs alone are practically worth it. A Promethean Knight, Watcher, 2 crawlers, UNSC Marine, and a Spartan Soldier. WOOT, it’s a ready made Firefight!
Cauldron Clash: Set number 97118
Technical Specifications:
Build Time: 20 minutes sorting, 1 hour 15 minutes build. Total 1 hour 35 minutes.
Set Piece count: 518
Minifigs: Promethean Knight; Watcher; 2 Crawlers (standard); Green Spartan Warrior; Marine w/white helmet/goggles
Weapons: Railgun, DMR; detachable Scattershot and Forerunner sword from Knight
Accessories: N/A
Special Features: 3 ramps can slightly swing up and down, though only meant to be in the down position.
Price/Value: $45 US
The price is good for the piece count, though there are a lot of smaller parts, especially clear orange and red. No complaints from me though, I LOVE transparent toys and those certainly fall within the realm of it, for me.
Normally I would include pics you can click on to make bigger. However, since I upgraded my WordPress, there is a kink that won’t allow me to upload new pics. While that’s being addressed, I’m still going to link to the images, however, they will be on my Flickr account temporarily, until the above issue is resolved.
Stick through the entire build in photos as there is a special custom of this set at the end.
Now on to the pics!
Box Front
Great art as always. Only issue is it’s a mirror image of how the set is actually built.
Box Contents
Contents of big bag from upper left in previous pic.
The pieces sorted out.
The Promethean Knight unassembled
Watcher unassembled
The base of the set in a few steps.
The center bridge being added.
Bridge trap assembly
Center Ramps added.
Side Ramp added.
Bridge “block” added.
This isn’t in game. It’s a little something extra added by Mega Bloks.
The tower.
I found this part of the build to be fun. Though there is some repetition at the top black bloks, it’s a very nice design. I really like that it is tall. That’s something Forerunner design is known for.
The completed main set sans figures.
Green Spartan Warrior w/Railgun
It’s neat how the set includes the clear parts to make it seem like the Spartan is using a jet pack. Too bad it doesn’t actually come with a jet pack. Maybe that will be in a future set. Still, it looks cool.
The two crawlers, shown in different poses.
These crawlers are awesome! While only having 5 points of articulation (one at each hip and one at the head), it’s plenty. The legs are just slightly soft so as to allow it enough give in the knees that they won’t break easily. (Of course if you try to force them into certain positions, they will break, so don’t force them…)
UNSC Marine
I’m impressed with the amount of paint apps on this figure. It looks like the in-game character at this scale. Well done Mega!
Promethean Knight and Watcher
The Knight is the real GEM of this set. Mind you there are a lot of other good points to the set, but this, IMO, is the BEST of them. Not only dos it have awesome articulation (shoulders, elbows on big arms, the extra set of arms, hips, knee, and head), but it also has room for the Watcher in the back AND the Knight’s back opens up just like in the game. WOW! Mega knocked this figure OUT OF THE PARK! The Watcher is cool in it’s own right as it’s top and bottom wings can also pivot. That’s something I didn’t expect.
The completed set w/minifigs.
Now that is a very cool set!
The leftover pieces after the build.
But wait!!!
I had an idea for this set from the first time I saw it. I just knew I could find a way to add it to one of the standard battlescape bases and make it stand out even more. So, I set out to do just that, and I’d say I succeeded. The following is the process of customizing the above set to fit onto the battlescape with LIMITED customization. In fact MOST of the set remains intact as Mega had intended, just a little bit of switching parts around.
As with any custom I make, I do my best to make the custom from ONLY the parts in that set so there is no need to buy other sets to make the custom. Other than the actual battlescape base itself, ALL of the rest of the pieces are from the Cauldron Clash set. SO without further ado, here is the custom:
Set in basic disassembly
As you can see at this point, the set is still rather intact. I’ve removed the base ground plates and the transparent orange and red pieces form the baseplates.
The NEW underside of the main platform.
Views of the platform on the battlescape.
This was my first go at the repositioning of the legs of the platform. It works okay, but isn’t quite stable enough on the baseplate, so I fix that later.
The new longer main center ramp.
For this section, I simply moved the original center ramp further down and connected the lower ramp to the main bridge first. The 2X6 dark grey plate that connects those two ramps was taken from the dark grey pieces that were underneath the ramp originally.
The parts leftover…
These were the additional parts leftover after the custom.
The set now on the Battlescape.
As you can see the side ramp is completely intact. As is the tower. Even the lower platform is intact as is from the directions. I just turned it 180 horizontally to fit on the battlescape.
Revised underside of main platform.
As I mentioned, the first go at the platform is okay, but I wanted more stability. So I added 2 2×6 plates and 2 2×2 plates and took off 1 each of the 2×2 rounded bloks from the two legs pictured. This gave the platform MUCH more stability. Again, those parts are from the set itself so no additional sets needed for this modification.
The final pieces left over.
On the left were the pieces I already had left from the original build. On the right are the additional pieces after the custom build. I’ll likely find a way to incorporate the transparent pieces for an extra lava-like appearance.
The FINAL Custom!
Alternative view.
Finally, I took the battlescape apart (only takes a few small screws). From there I painted ONLY the green part to look like a lava flow going under the bridge and ramp.
I think this looks pretty darn good if I don’t say so myself…er, wait, I just did, LOL.
Summary: This is a great set. The minifigs are fantastic in sculpt and articulation. Mega did an amazing job of scaling the characters down to minifig scale and still get the details in them. The structure itself is cool and definitely one that I plan on getting extras of to make a much larger Forerunner lava base. The sorting and build time is fast and can be done in one sitting. At $45, it’s a decent price. Though when built may seem just slightly lacking. Fret not as you DO have a lot of extra pieces left over and can add to the lava (as you can see from my left over pieces).
Overall Rating: 9.5 out of 10 medals. Maybe a few dollars less or another Knight and this set would have got the perfect 10 from me. Still, it’s definitely worth getting and I HIGHLY recommend it!
To view larger pics from this review, please check out my flickr account.
UPDATE I’ve added on the left over pieces to make a new ramp, terminal and lava flow. See below!
Add-on ramp. It includes a hinge.
Add-on terminal. You would access this from the “ground level.”
The lava flow now has the orange and red translucent bloks over it to add more color.
The full customs with the three new add-ons using up all of the left-over pieces.
alt final add-on view
-Sal
Wow that custom battle-scape looks brilliant. I think it would look better if you painted the white terrain a shade of grey, like the tone of the Forerunner structure. I don’t think I’m going to collect Mega Bloks anymore, as it’s far too expensive in the UK, but I still love seeing the new sets. I’m still going to hang on to a few of my rarer set and figures though.
Anyway, nice review. 🙂
I thought about that too, however if I gave it too much color, it might mute the more brilliant colors of the lava flow. The white areas are Forerunner structure and not natural terrain. So I wanted to keep them separate. Thanks for the kind words.
-Sal
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