The rotation changes his appearance from a more primitive, bestial look to someone that looks extremely powerful. (and Lego’s posing didn’t help either.)
As for my favourite Dark Hunter, it’d probably have to be one of the ones that got a more expanded story role, like Lariska, Ancient, or The Shadowed One.
Although I also like Shadow Stealer. His build is really simple and goofy, but also has pretty unique parts usage and looks consistent. And his backstory’s pretty cool.
First off, I absolutely love Tyrant’s design, he has plenty of features but manages to retain some sort of set/combo model design that LEGO would’ve actually put out there. His build is also quite nice in terms of stature and and looks. I’d also like to commend the inclusion of a technic blaster, I think it was a really fun add-on for more playability. This guy is also relatively easy to build and not demanding in parts. As for his story I think there are a lot of possibilities with it as he hasn’t been mentioned since his supposed disappearance in the Silver Sea. In my eyes, he’s like a seventh Barraki in terms of personality, power, and influence.
Guardian’s a close second but oh boy that red Kaukau’s not making it easy to recreate him. As far as honorable mentions go Shadow Stealer, Devastator, Ancient, Eliminator, Krekka and Nidhiki, Lurker, Seeker, Silence, and Savage are prime examples of good looking dark hunters with solid backstories which of whom I also like.
The Dark Hunters I like are Vanisher, Tyrant, Guardian, Devastator, and Firedracax. The rest of the MOCs range from mediocre (Charger) to bad (Subterranean). But my overall favorite is easily Devastator.
In all honesty, I really like this model because of the parts usage with his size. Organically pulling together many smaller parts and creating a beast. He’s also proportionally great, well articulated (for his size) and pretty stable.
Eliminator is a close second, with a well rounded design and fun to handle.
If Piraka are included, then Hakann. I always liked how he looked as a set, and personality wise he can be fun to read about too. He’s just constantly looking to betray everybody and completely unashamed about it, lol.
After Hakann it gets a little complicated. I really like Reidak personality/story-wise. I’m not sure if it’s unpopular how easily the Piraka managed to defeat the Toa Nuva, but I honestly like how OP Reidak is. The concept of an OP villain is always interesting to me, it makes the story overall much more engaging imo. I also like the idea of this big strong villain who’s kind of casual about things, and also surprisingly intelligent. The thing is that I like others more than him set-wise, I think he’s ok but I prefer other Dark Hunter sets over him.
Nidhiki is kind of the opposite, his personality isn’t that interesting to me but I really like his set, probably just as much as Hakann’s. So if Piraka weren’t included, it would probably be him.
I’d also like to mention Voporak, because I think his power is really interesting and like Reidak, I like the idea of this really OP villain. Set wise he seems pretty cool too.
My favorite is Conjurer. It’s a clean build that looks really cool and elegant with an awesome color scheme. I just don’t like how the air katanas on the front of his torso are being slightly bent.
That’s probably the only one I’d be interested in rebuilding myself (with a few small changes).
I also quite like the look of Tyrant and Shadow Stealer, though the latter falls flat when it comes to his build.
Edit: just watched a video review on Conjurer and dang, that image did a good job making him look great… There’s quite a lot of flaws I really didn’t expect. It’s still a good model though considering that it’s a kid’s entry to a building contest.
Another one I quite like but forgot earlier is Charger, he’s neat.
If you’re referring to Duckbricks’ Dark Hunter reviews, please never use them as reference
a related rant I’ve wanted to get off my chest for some time
Duckbricks’ Dark Hunter reviews are genuinely some of the most incompetent reviews I’ve ever seen. Many builds use the wrong colour parts due to seemingly being rush jobs with no time or effort put into actually portraying the builder’s intended colour scheme (most noticeable with Gatherer if I recall correctly). A shocking amount are straight-up misassembled, Conjurer included - most notably, his thighs are on upside down. He 3D-prints certain elements like Lhikan blades, then fails to account for or consider the weight difference this creates compared to the real pieces.
Often, areas of misassembly are presented as legitimate flaws with the model, for example with Kraata-Kal’s tail. The original build has a technic stopper bar attached to the Rahkshi back and a rubber band wrapped around the tail tip for a spring-loaded striking feature. Duck attaches the stopper bar backwards making it totally useless and omits the band entirely - then goes on to complain that the Rahkshi back opens too easily and that the end of the tail is floppy, despite those flaws solely being a result of his inability to build the models properly.
He also seems to suffer from obscenely loose ball joints, more so than any I’ve ever seen, then complains when none of the models can stand. Having a built quite a few Dark Hunters myself, I can safely say that if you use normal, stiff ball joints then a lot of stability concerns aren’t much of a problem. I’ve seen Gringat bringing up the same thing in his comments before.
The one bad thing with his reviews that isn’t directly his fault is that a lot of the instructions he used, while being the only ones available at the time, are incredibly inaccurate and outdated now. Vahki6 was a pioneer in reverse engineering these designs, but in the past couple of years many have done it better and more accurately than him. Amphibax is one of the more extreme examples, with a more accurate torso build that genuinely makes him great and is a vast improvement on the frankly ridiculously overengineered design Vahki6 used, and that Duck subsequently reviewed.
Where I can’t give him leeway is with Darkness, who has 100% accurate instructions made by his creator that have existed since 2006, yet Duck still built him wrong anyway - attaching his legs to his body with blue pins rather than an axle, then going on to criticise the build for having loose hips.
TLDR, Duck’s reviews are awful and I hate that they’ve caused so many fans to dismiss all the Dark Hunters as unstable messes. Some of them definitely are, but his ineptitude makes them all stoop to the same lows
As for my own favourite
I don’t want to cast judgement purely based on looks, so only out of the 10 or so I’ve built I think Amphibax is my favourite. He’s super simple but super cool! Very unique posture captured with minimal pieces
Funnily enough I didn’t watch Duckbrick’s review, rather this one that doesn’t seem to have any mistakes:
I did watch the Duckbricks review for Charger and didn’t notice any mistakes. There’s a few differently colored parts, though he mentions that in the beginning.
Oh nice! That Conjurer review is actually the one I would’ve recommended, it’s way more professional and offers a good look at the build process
As for Duck’s Charger review - having just rewatched it, it is better than most he’s done, and honestly I’m surprised he brought up the specific part substitutes at all. Figures where even more parts have been replaced receive no such courtesy (though even here he did fail to mention that his thumbs and the Rahkshi back on his head have been substituted too :P)
Main issues with this one pertain to missing parts, Charger’s Rhotuka launcher is missing from his back and the 1x3 beam that holds the two halves of his jaw together is also missing. As usual, Duck also seems to suffer from incredibly loose joints, mainly in the legs and feet this time, which is presented as a fault of the model rather than of his own strangely deteriorated sockets. The fact that Charger is specifically designed to be able to wield his weapon two-handed is never brought up, despite this allowing him to hold up the heavy thing much easier.
