LEGO BIONICLE Maxilos & Spinax Once just a guardian robot, Maxilos has been taken over by an evil intelligence determined to destroy the Toa Mahri. Aided by his energy hound, Spinax, Maxilos uses his twin-bladed black fire sword and shoulder-mounted Cordak revolving blaster to seize control of the Pit. 256 pieces. Box measures 15.12″H x 11.34″W x 2.83″D.
Customer Review: bought as a gift
I bought this as a gift. Amazon is great as a source for toys because many times you can’t find a certain item in stores. The boy loved that I was able to find this particular bionicle.
Customer Review: Spinax is good, Maxilos is poorly designed – won’t stand
Maxilos is a strange model. The designer clearly over-engineered his lower legs, which are very sturdy, but left the hip joints at nothing more than a standard ball and socket joint. This kind of joint is used all over the Bionicle “kingdom” and it works great for smaller models. But Maxilos is simply too heavy and his hip joints can’t deal with the load. He constantly falls over unless you balance him perfectly. In this way, he’s fine for display, but horrible for actual play.
You can tell that LEGO understood the problem with the hip joints because they fabricated a brand new socket piece that is supposed to counteract the issue. They look like the standard socket piece, but they have a rubber-like material infused into them that is supposed to grip the ball within the joint. These new pieces completely fail. They actually make the joint weaker.
I am still looking for a solution to the problem, as my son is quite disappointed by this set that he had bought with saved money. There are a couple of possibilities: 1) You can engineer a LEGO solution on your own by adding some kind of support rods across the hip area, 2) You can try to swap out the hip socket with another, old style piece, or 3) You can try to deform or interfere with the smooth operation of the existing joint using glue, rubbing sand into the joint, etc.
Good luck!
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