Tag: Horizon

The Tremortusk: The Biggest Build of My Year, Piece for Piece

Toys & Collectibles Review · Purchased May 27, 2024 · $782.99 CAD via Vonado

A large brick-built model of a Tremortusk, the armoured four-legged machine from Horizon Forbidden West
A comparable large-scale Tremortusk build. Photo: MOC Brick Store

Some builds test your patience. This one tested my table space, my wrists, and eventually my patience too, in that order.

The Background

Like the Thunder Claw covered earlier in this series, the Tremortusk is an unofficial fan design rather than a licensed LEGO product, this one modeled after the massive armoured machine from Horizon Forbidden West. The specific design lineage traces back to well-known MOC creators in the Horizon fan-building space (versions of this build by designers like Kaelfros are widely recognized within that community), running into the thousands of pieces in its larger configurations, making it one of the most ambitious machine builds the compatible-brick space has produced for this franchise.

Purchased the same day as the Ghost and Star Wars Hangar, this was the most expensive single item in that particular haul, and by piece count, arguably the most demanding build in my entire 2024 collection.

Living With It

This is not a build you sit down and finish in one sitting, or realistically even one day. The Tremortusk’s four-legged stance, articulated tusks, and heavily plated shell require careful, methodical assembly, and I found it genuinely benefited from being broken into several shorter sessions rather than one marathon attempt, both for focus and for hand fatigue with a build this dense.

The payoff for that time investment is real. Once complete, the sheer scale and weight of the finished model communicates the source creature’s intimidating presence in a way smaller builds simply cannot. Leg joints held their pose under the model’s considerable weight without sagging, which speaks well of the engineering behind the design even though it is an unofficial, fan-originated build rather than a professionally tested LEGO Group product.

If I am being fully honest, this is the one build in my whole collection where I would genuinely recommend clearing your schedule before starting rather than assuming you can knock it out over a single weekend the way I did with some of the other large sets in this series.

What I Liked

  • The single most impressive and imposing finished build in my entire collection
  • Strong structural engineering, held its pose under real weight without sagging
  • Genuinely challenging and rewarding build process for anyone who enjoys the assembly itself
  • A machine design that has no official LEGO equivalent at any scale

What I Didn’t

  • A serious time commitment, realistically multiple sessions rather than a single weekend
  • Physically demanding to assemble given the sheer part density
  • Among the most expensive single items in my entire 2024 spending

The Value Verdict

Rating: 5/5

If you love Horizon and want a genuine display centrepiece, this delivers more presence and engineering ambition than anything else in my collection. Just go in with realistic expectations about the time commitment, this is not a weekend project, it is closer to a small ongoing hobby of its own for however many sessions it takes you.

Where to Buy

Vonado’s Horizon “Thunder Claw”: Building the Machine LEGO Never Made

Vonado Review · Purchased February 11, 2024 · $427.99 CAD via Vonado

Thunderjaw Horizon building block set
A Thunderjaw compatible-brick build. Photo via FantasMall.

Some of the best entries in a compatible-brick catalogue exist specifically because the official license holder never got around to making them.

The Background

LEGO has released exactly one officially licensed Horizon product: the Forbidden West Tallneck set (76989), a mid-size build that came out to solid reviews but left an obvious gap for fans of the game’s other, more aggressive machines. There has never been an official LEGO Thunderjaw or any similarly named “Thunder Claw” set. What I bought is a fan (MOC) design manufactured and sold as a compatible kit through Vonado, filling a hole in the official catalogue that LEGO itself has simply never addressed.

This arrived as part of the same large February order as the Star Wars sets earlier in this series, and at $427.99 it represented a real step up in both price and ambition from those smaller builds.

Living With It

Machine-creature builds like this live or die on articulation, and this is where the set earns its price tag. The legs, head, and tail all have genuine poseable joints rather than being fixed in one aggressive dinosaur-esque stance, which meant I could actually pose it in a way that matched reference art from the game rather than settling for whatever the instructions defaulted to. Getting that kind of mechanical complexity right, with joints that hold their pose under the model’s own weight instead of drooping, is a genuinely harder engineering problem than a static ship or building, and it shows in both the piece count and the build time, which ran closer to a full weekend than a single evening.

The tradeoff for all of that is durability handling: with this many articulated joints, this is not a set you want younger hands or a curious pet handling roughly, since the connection points that allow posing are inherently a little less rigid than a fully fixed structure would be.

What I Liked

  • Fills a real gap, there is no official LEGO equivalent at this scale or price
  • Genuinely impressive articulation and poseability for a brick-built creature
  • Shell and plating detail translates the source game’s design language well
  • A satisfying weekend-length build rather than a quick evening project

What I Didn’t

  • Poseable joints mean less structural rigidity than a fixed-position build
  • Not something to display somewhere it might get bumped or handled roughly
  • A meaningful price jump from the smaller sets earlier in the same order

The Value Verdict

Rating: 4/5

For a Horizon fan, this is close to essential specifically because nobody else has made it. LEGO’s own catalogue leaves this exact machine on the table, and Vonado’s version fills that gap with a genuinely well-engineered build. Just budget real assembly time and a stable shelf for it once it is done.

Where to Buy

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores, a Short, Stunning, PS5-Only Send-Off

DLC · Purchased April 20, 2023 · $20.24 via PSN

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores
Photo: Guerrilla Games / PlayStation

The Setup

Burning Shores is the story DLC expansion for Horizon Forbidden West, taking Aloy into the ruins of Los Angeles to confront a rogue AI and a new antagonist faction. It’s PS5-exclusive, no PS4 version, and adds a new map region, story missions, and machines.

The Review

Some of the series’ best-looking set pieces yet, and the emotional final act to Aloy’s storyline landed better than I expected. New machines and combat scenarios feel fresh rather than reused. It’s short for the price (5-8 hours) and locks out anyone still on PS4, and the middle section drags a bit with fetch-style objectives.

What I Liked

  • Gorgeous new environment and set-pieces
  • Strong emotional final act for Aloy’s arc
  • Fresh new machines and combat scenarios

What I Didn’t

  • PS5-only, locks out PS4 owners of the base game
  • Short for the price
  • Middle section drags with fetch objectives

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Where to Buy

The Official Tallneck: LEGO’s Own Take, Six Times Smaller and Just as Charming

Toy Review · Purchased November 25, 2022 · $87.99 CAD via Amazon.ca

LEGO Horizon Forbidden West Tallneck 76989
Horizon Forbidden West: Tallneck, 76989. Photo: LEGO

The Setup

The real deal, finally: LEGO’s official 1,222-piece Tallneck set (76989), licensed directly from the Horizon Forbidden West game, complete with a posable neck and legs and included Aloy and Watcher minifigures.

The Review

Having built the unofficial 7,401-piece “plus-size” version back in June, it’s genuinely interesting to compare notes on the official set. This one is a fraction of the size, but LEGO’s design team clearly put real thought into making the posability and screen accuracy work at this scale — the proportions read correctly, the neck and leg joints move naturally, and including Aloy and a Watcher minifigure gives it a sense of scale and story that the giant unofficial version, with no minifigures at all, couldn’t offer.

It’s also just a better build experience end to end — printed manual, genuine LEGO color consistency, and none of the clutch-power quirks that came with the clone bricks. It’s not going to dominate a shelf the way the giant version does, but as one of LEGO’s first major video-game licensed collectible builds outside Minecraft and Super Mario, it’s a well-executed, faithful little model that I’d recommend over the bootleg version to anyone who just wants a genuine, well-made Tallneck rather than a room centerpiece.

What I Liked

  • Genuinely well-designed posability and screen accuracy for the scale
  • Includes Aloy and Watcher minifigures the unofficial version lacks
  • Better fit, finish, and build experience than the clone-brick version
  • Faithful, well-executed licensed build for the price

What I Didn’t

  • Doesn’t have the scale or shelf presence of the unofficial version
  • Retired, so availability is already inconsistent

The Verdict

Rating: 4.5/5

The version I’d actually recommend to most people — a faithful, well-made official build without the compromises of the clone-brick giant.

Where to Buy

The Shell Walker: Rounding Out My Unofficial Horizon Collection

Toy Review · Purchased November 11, 2022 · $100.00 CAD via Jooooooy.com

Horizon Shell Walker brick build
Horizon Zero Dawn Shell Walker MOC. Photo: reseller listing

The Setup

Roughly 1,700 pieces recreating the Shell-Walker, a turtle-like combat machine from the Horizon Zero Dawn games. Like the plus-size Tallneck from Vonado earlier this year, this is an unofficial fan MOC — LEGO’s own real Horizon license didn’t cover a Shell-Walker toy for years after this, so this is the only way to get one at any real scale, purchased through Jooooooy rather than Vonado this time.

The Review

This rounds out a small but genuinely fun unofficial Horizon collection alongside the giant Tallneck, and the Shell-Walker’s boxier, more armored silhouette translates into brick form more cleanly than the Tallneck’s long, thin neck did — fewer awkward angles to fake with clone bricks. At this scale it’s a satisfying, absorbing build without tipping into the multi-evening commitment the Tallneck demanded.

The usual bootleg trade-offs apply — PDF instructions, clone bricks, and the color/clutch inconsistencies that come with this whole product category — but this one felt like a slightly cleaner build experience than either the Vonado Tallneck or the Jooooooy Han Solo slab, landing somewhere comfortably in the middle for quality control this year.

What I Liked

  • Boxier, armored design translates into brick form more cleanly than the Tallneck did
  • Satisfying build without demanding a multi-evening commitment
  • Fills a genuine gap since LEGO’s own official Horizon license hadn’t covered this machine yet

What I Didn’t

  • Same PDF-only instructions and clone-brick compromises as the rest of this category
  • No official licensing or affiliation with Horizon or LEGO

The Verdict

Rating: 3.5/5

A satisfying build that fills a real gap in official Horizon merchandise, with a cleaner build experience than some of this year’s other bootleg purchases.

Where to Buy

  • Discontinued/varies by reseller — search “MOC Horizon Shell Walker”

The Plus-Size Tallneck: Vonado’s 7,401-Piece Answer to “What If It Was Bigger”

Toy Review · Purchased April 14, 2022 · $450.00 CAD via Vonado

Giant Horizon Tallneck brick build
Plus-Size Tallneck, C7809. Photo: HeroToyz

The Setup

LEGO’s own official Tallneck (76989, more on that one later this year) is a nice little 1,222-piece set. This is not that. Listed on Vonado as an “Ultimate Collectors Series” Tallneck, it’s actually an unofficial, fan-designed “plus-size” clone build (item code C7809) that runs a full 7,401 pieces — roughly six times the official set’s piece count — with no LEGO branding or affiliation anywhere on it.

The Review

This is, without question, the single biggest build I’ve taken on from Vonado to date, and it shows in every part of the experience: multiple evenings of dedicated building time, a PDF manual that takes real effort to follow at this scale, and a finished model that genuinely dwarfs the official LEGO version sitting near it on the shelf. The posability holds up well across that much bulk — the neck and legs articulate believably, and the machine reads as unmistakably a Tallneck even from across the room.

The trade-offs scale up right along with the piece count. There’s no printed manual, no minifigures, and the clone bricks show some color and clutch-power inconsistency across a build this large — more noticeable here than on smaller Vonado sets simply because there’s so much more surface area for it to show up on. At $450 for something six times the size of LEGO’s own official take, it’s a genuinely different proposition than the official set — less a toy, more a room centerpiece.

What I Liked

  • Genuinely massive, impressive scale that the official set can’t match
  • Posability holds up believably across the whole model
  • Unmistakably reads as the Tallneck even at a glance from across the room

What I Didn’t

  • Multi-evening build with a PDF-only manual that’s hard to follow at this scale
  • Color and clutch-power inconsistency more noticeable across this much clone brick
  • No minifigures included, unlike the official set
  • Takes up a serious amount of shelf or floor space once finished

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

The biggest, most ambitious build in my Vonado collection so far — not a toy so much as a statement piece, and it earns that distinction.

Where to Buy

  • Discontinued/varies by reseller — search “C7809 Plus-Size Tallneck 7401”

Horizon Forbidden West: A Bigger, Better-Written Sequel That Still Won’t Let Me Climb Freely

Game Review · Purchased February 20, 2022 · $335.99 CAD via Amazon.ca

Horizon Forbidden West key art
Horizon Forbidden West. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

Six months after the events of Horizon Zero Dawn, Aloy pushes further west into a post-apocalyptic America to track down a mysterious blight threatening what’s left of the ecosystem, navigating a whole new set of tribal politics along the way. The sequel arrived as one of the bigger PS5 showcase titles of early 2022, and it’s a significant step up in scope from the original.

The Review

The core loop of stealth takedowns and precision ranged combat against the game’s robotic creatures is still the star of the show, and it’s meaningfully expanded here — the Pullcaster grappling tool and Shield-Wing glider both open up traversal in ways the original never had, and the sheer variety of weapons and elemental weaknesses to exploit keeps big machine fights feeling fresh well into the back half of the story. The writing is a real step up too; Aloy and the surrounding cast get far more room to breathe than in Zero Dawn, and the story has some genuine, well-earned turns.

The frustrating holdover is climbing: despite all the new traversal tools, you’re still restricted to pre-marked handholds rather than anything resembling freeform movement, which stands out more now that the rest of the traversal kit feels so much more open. Melee combat is also still the weak link — functional, but clearly the least-polished part of the moment-to-moment gameplay. Visually and technically, though, this is one of the best-looking, most content-dense PS5 games of its era, and the machine fights alone make the $60+ price tag an easy justify.

What I Liked

  • Machine combat is as good as ever and meaningfully expanded with new tools
  • Pullcaster and Shield-Wing genuinely improve traversal variety
  • Much stronger characterization and story writing than Zero Dawn
  • Massive amount of content — side quests, collectibles, exploration

What I Didn’t

  • Climbing is still limited to pre-set handholds, not freeform
  • Melee combat remains the weakest part of the combat kit
  • Some new systems (base building, arena) feel unnecessary

The Verdict

Rating: 4.5/5

A genuinely huge step up from Zero Dawn in almost every category that matters, and easily one of the best PS5 exclusives of the year.

Where to Buy