Yesterday I talked about the biggest vehicular set in the LEGO Legends of Chima 2013 theme–Worriz’s Combat Lair 70009–but I cheated a bit, as I purposely sidestepped talking about the focus of today’s spotlight: the real largest LEGO Chima 2013 set, the Lion CHI Temple 70010! The Lion Tribe’s Lion CHI Temple was front and center in the series premier of the Legends of Chima cartoon, and it will also be the centerpiece of this year’s LEGO Chima toy collection…

UPDATE: The LEGO Legends of Chima Lion CHI Temple 70010 is now available for the discounted price of $75 plus no tax and free shipping via Amazon!

The LEGO Legends of Chima The Lion CHI Temple 70010 will be the first (and only) Chima set to break the $100 barrier in 2013. While the LEGO Chima theme has consisted primarily of vehicle sets so far, the 70010 Lion CHI Temple is a good, old-fashioned gigantic playset full of action features!

The Lion CHI Temple gives me a real nostalgic vibe, reminding me quite a bit of the Thundercats Lair from when I was a kid in the stone ages (AKA the 1980’s). I do kind of wish the set for more monochrome, as it doesn’t appear to be nearly this colorful in the cartoon, but all of the bright colors definitely gives this set a fut vibe.

The turrets on the Lion Temple walls definitely mean that seizing this sanctuary will be a tall order, reminiscent of Helm’s Deep from Lord of the Rings! You also get little vehicles for the Lion Tribe minifigures and Crocodile Tribe minifigures to utilize, and I was happy to see that the Crocodile Tribe vehicle is one that we’ve seen the design for in the LEGO Chima cartoon series already.

The Chima Lion Tribe’s Lion CHI Temple is going to include seven minifigures: King Lagravis, Longtooth, and Laval of the Lion Tribe; Ewald of the Eagle Tribe; Crawley and Cragger of the Crocodile Tribe; and a Razar of the Raven Tribe minifigure.

Personally, I think it’s a huge letdown that this set isn’t going to include even one exclusive minifigure! Typically, LEGO would give fans purchasing a $130 set at least one exclusive figure as a reward for buying such an expensive set, so the lack of any kind of exclusive in this set is a big disappointment.

The only “rare” figure included with the LEGO Chima Lion CHI Temple 70010 set is the Lion Tribe King Lagravis, but he’s not much of an incentive to buy this set, as the King Lagravis minifigure is also going to be released in the low-priced Speedorz Royal Roost 70108 set in the summer.

The 1,258 piece 70010 LEGO Legends of Chima The Lion CHI Temple set is part of the LEGO Chima Summer 2013 wave of sets and is scheduled to be released in July 2013 at a cost of US $119.99.

UPDATE: The LEGO Chima Lion Temple 70010 has now been released and is available for the discounted price of $75 plus no tax and free shipping via Amazon! This is very likely to sell out as we approach Christmas 2013, so if you want a good price on the LEGO Legends of Chima Lion CHI Temple, you might want to order one before we get too close to Christmas.