Hero Factory 2011

[Dino_Bot]

Oh those are cool.

Really cool.

[Brickthing]

All right Im sorry i didn't know, that's just how i talk.

Are u sure its not a ben10 torso? whats the height on these new guys any way?

Thanks, it helps to keep posts readable and clear. Watch your spelling a bit closer as well (such as "u" and "whats"), and capitalize your "i"'s.

I actually kinda like the pick-axe, but even so I think that it would be the most minor of Fire Lord's flaws. I will of course withhold my final judgment until we get better pics, but currently I see no appeal in this set.

I'm not sure if there is enough space, but I would have preferred his hand used a 3L bar, from the collectible minifigs. The pick-axe looks strange because it's not part of a regular hand.

[Phantoka_Chirox]

The villains.. The rusty armor! Seriously.. They look cheap and messy. I just hope that they're prototypes.

[Aethersprite]

The villains.. The rusty armor! Seriously.. They look cheap and messy. I just hope that they're prototypes.

They remind me of what I thought of the Phantoka/Mistika sets of '08. Thought they were really sloppy at first, but they grew on me eventually and I absolutely love them right now.

[Aanchir]

The villains.. The rusty armor! Seriously.. They look cheap and messy. I just hope that they're prototypes.

I'm pretty certain they are prototypes; the texture seems similar to prototype parts we've seen in the past.

But even if they are finalized sets, they're not under any circumstances finalized images. If these are finalized sets, then those "textured" bits will probably be the same sort of speckled-color as a lot of the troll armor in the recent Castle theme, which in a finalized photograph would be much, much more attractive.

The only problem I have with the villains is the chaotic nature of their color schemes. Fire Lord, for instance, has dark red, bright red, bright orange, black, dark stone grey, light stone grey, black, dark silver (not sure the official name of the new dark silver), transparent fluorescent reddish orange... it's really rather ridiculous.

[rex us eon]

So does any one know how tall the hero's are? From studying these picks, i have realized that the outer side of fire lords leg is 2 upper arms. Witch means that hes probably twice as tall as a hero witch is normal for a titan but how tall is he?

[Mesonak]

I'm pretty certain they are prototypes; the texture seems similar to prototype parts we've seen in the past.

But even if they are finalized sets, they're not under any circumstances finalized images. If these are finalized sets, then those "textured" bits will probably be the same sort of speckled-color as a lot of the troll armor in the recent Castle theme, which in a finalized photograph would be much, much more attractive.

The only problem I have with the villains is the chaotic nature of their color schemes. Fire Lord, for instance, has dark red, bright red, bright orange, black, dark stone grey, light stone grey, black, dark silver (not sure the official name of the new dark silver), transparent fluorescent reddish orange... it's really rather ridiculous.

Which is exactly why I'm betting the color schemes are prototypes as well.

-Mesonak

[rex us eon]

Does any one know when these sets will hit stores? I have heard winter 2011. Is that true? i cant wait for theses sets!!!!

[Phantoka_Chirox]

Does any one know when these sets will hit stores? I have heard winter 2011. Is that true? i cant wait for theses sets!!!!

Official Release date will be January 2011, but they'll probably show up in stores (US?) by December or better yet, the end of November

[rex us eon]

Official Release date will be January 2011, but they'll probably show up in stores (US?) by December or better yet, the end of November

So that means that we should be seeing better pictures of theses guys soon. Right?

[Phantoka_Chirox]

So that means that we should be seeing better pictures of theses guys soon. Right?

Better pics of the Glatorians from a couple years back were found on October. Hold on to your butts!!

[SpiderSpaceman]

No, from the general shape it's pretty clear (to me at least) that it isn't a Ben 10 torso. Also, as can be seen on Surge, Breez, Evo, and Furno here, there is a joint with the square bumpers right next to the shoulder joint, which is not on the Ben 10 torso, or any torso that's been previously released.

I kinda think it's not two pieces of armor on a torso, but one piece of armor on a jointless torso, that black joint parts are then connected to - like the glatorian neck beams, except a shoulders beam and a hips beam. Just a possibility. It would kinda fit with the other new joint parts - since we get long and short socket to ball beams, maybe we get long and short ball to ball beams as well.

[Aanchir]

I kinda think it's not two pieces of armor on a torso, but one piece of armor on a jointless torso, that black joint parts are then connected to - like the glatorian neck beams, except a shoulders beam and a hips beam. Just a possibility. It would kinda fit with the other new joint parts - since we get long and short socket to ball beams, maybe we get long and short ball to ball beams as well.

I'm not sure what you're saying about it being "one piece of armor on a jointless torso". If you're talking about the torso armor (the part that covers the groin on the heroes and fits underneath the brightly-colored chest armor) being the same piece as the torso (the part that the shoulder and hip joints are attached to), that's very unlikely. For one thing, the shoulder and hip joints are all black, while the torso armor is always white, silver, or dark silver. Plus, you can see the torso armor used in places other than on torsos on the villains. Jetbug, for instance, has it in yellow on his upper arms. Likwise, Nitroblast uses it in dark silver on his upper arms.

Furthermore, while your theory about the torso makes some deal of sense if you ignore the villains, it doesn't make sense when you compare the Heroes' piece counts with the "inventories" that Bfahome and I did a few pages back. Having an individual piece for each shoulder joint as well as the hip joints would drive up the piece count far beyond having a single jointed torso piece with a separate torso armor piece and chest armor piece on top.

Overall it just seems far more likely that there's a single torso piece (black) with a torso armor piece (silver, dark silver, or white) and a chest armor piece (the heroes' primary colors) on top. Of course, total confirmation probably won't arrive until the sets or at least officially-released images of them start to surface later this year (my bets for official images are on November, when the last 2010 magazines will start to show up).

[SpiderSpaceman]

I'm not sure what you're saying about it being "one piece of armor on a jointless torso"

Hang on, I'm gonna do a mockup and show ya.

[Aanchir]

TLG are doing the same thing with HF as they did with agents.

I don't see what you mean. The only thing in common is the use of the suffix "2.0", and they're this time adding it to the character/set names rather than to the theme name (from what we've seen nothing's calling next year's lineup "Hero Factory 2.0".

Plus, the 2.0 suffix makes a lot more sense in Hero Factory than it did in Agents. Besides the addition of body armor for the agents and the fact that unique villain designs (rather than consistent uniforms) became "standard", there was nothing really making the Agents 2.0 sets or story any different from the first year. It was still the same deal-- two factions with oversized vehicles engaged in a battle of good vs. evil.

Hero Factory, on the other hand, makes sense with the suffix, since we're dealing with mass-produced robotic characters-- naturally, an overhaul of their armor and body design can be explained in-story as them being "next-gen" heroes. Or in this case, heroes "2.0".

Of course, it would certainly become tiresome if LEGO were to make the wave after this one have sets like "Stormer 3.0" and so-forth, but naturally the creative minds at LEGO will come up with something that seems fresher than that. After all, action figure lines frequently rerelease the same characters over and over again with modified designs, changing the names just enough to make them distinct from the previous iterations. Transformers, Power Rangers, and Rescue Heroes come to mind as examples.

If LEGO follows this path, it will certainly make the franchise a lot more accessible than BIONICLE was, with a new and baffling (if awesome-sounding) name and story role for just about every series.

[The Crazy One]

^ Cor, took me ages to read that :P ^

It's seems Stormers weapon arm can flip, as seen in the two different pictures we have of him.

[vexorian]

Of course, it would certainly become tiresome if LEGO were to make the wave after this one have sets like "Stormer 3.0" and so-forth, but naturally the creative minds at LEGO will come up with something that seems fresher than that.

10 bucks they will go with "Stormer 3000". (In case there is a third wave).

Furthermore, while your theory about the torso makes some deal of sense if you ignore the villains, it doesn't make sense when you compare the Heroes' piece counts with the "inventories" that Bfahome and I did a few pages back. Having an individual piece for each shoulder joint as well as the hip joints would drive up the piece count far beyond having a single jointed torso piece with a separate torso armor piece and chest armor piece on top.

I think that seeing that the pics are probably CGIs or prototypes what we see in the pics and this discussion does not really matter that much.

What I can say is that the sites offering the heroes for preorder have piece counts - 30 and that's certainly higher than what we had in the first wave.

[SpiderSpaceman]

So OK, this was my theory, and looking back I'd say you're right, there's really a torso back there - but i was just thinking that since the arms and legs have come so far from an "all-in-one" design, maybe the torso has too. So I thought from a glance it was parts like these, plus a couple connectors:

assembled like this:

and giving the illusion of a "proper torso" when viewed from the front:

anyway it was just my theory.

but yeah looking at the shoulder pads on the villains, it's nowhere near the solidness it would need to be for a structural element, so yeah there's a torso back there.

Edited October 10, 2010 by SpiderSpaceman

[Aanchir]

^ Cor, took me ages to read that :P ^

It's seems Stormers weapon arm can flip, as seen in the two different pictures we have of him.

Good observation. The ability to flip the weapon arms is probably the reason they're attached to the hand joint, rather than to an arm joint as if they were armor pieces. Otherwise I'm sure people would have preferred the weapon arms attached as if they were armor, with an actual hand piece attached at the very end of the arm.

[Monasti]

Why are Furno's legs assymmetrical?

[Aanchir]

Why are Furno's legs assymmetrical?

A lot of their legs are asymmetrical. Arms too. For starters, one of the reasons is that all of the Heroes have at least one piece of armor in the same color as their torso armor (either white, silver, or dark silver). Furthermore, this unique piece of armor is printed on each of them.

In many cases (including Furno's legs), though, it's merely an aesthetic consideration. Obviously they wanted the heroes to be a bit different in design than one another, and this was their means of pulling that off. It'll be hard to tell whether it really helps the design until we see finalized pics, preferably of the physical out-of-package set.

[The Crazy One]

I will deffinatley change them around though. It's does look weird, as the only other aysmetrical ones are because of a name tag.

[Aethersprite]

A lot of their legs are asymmetrical. Arms too. For starters, one of the reasons is that all of the Heroes have at least one piece of armor in the same color as their torso armor (either white, silver, or dark silver). Furthermore, this unique piece of armor is printed on each of them.

In many cases (including Furno's legs), though, it's merely an aesthetic consideration. Obviously they wanted the heroes to be a bit different in design than one another, and this was their means of pulling that off. It'll be hard to tell whether it really helps the design until we see finalized pics, preferably of the physical out-of-package set.

Are you sure? Going by Lego's track record for this year's sets...

[Bundalings]

Huh, haven't been here in a while...

As figures, the Heroes don't look very interesting to me. Too similar. They look like they might have some cool pieces, though.

"Fire Lord" (Ozai?) looks like a terrible combo-figure. That's what I thought he was. Until I saw he gets his own box. Please tell me I'm wrong and that is indeed a combo figure. =/

[Front]

Please tell me I'm wrong and that is indeed a combo figure. =/

He is without doubt a figure combined of elements.