Zip

I feel the same way, though it was towards the 2011 winter sets, when the 2.0 system was introduced. Back then, I was more hyped for the new sets than any of the ones we'd gotten since 2007. But now, after 2 years of rehashes, I'm bored again. I feel like the designers have exploited the building system to its utmost, and we can only go downhill from here. I was hoping that they would keep to the general trend of the late 2011 and early 2012 sets, which focused on bizarre, non-humanoid villains. But with the last two waves, it doesn't look like we'll be getting that again anytime soon.

I'm somehow under the impression that the villains are all plants. The first two sound like man-eaters (Venus Flytraps?), Thornrax=Thorns, black phantom sounds like a flower (female villain?), and Toxic Reapa sounds like a poisonous plant.

Spot-on. I honestly think that these look terrible. Especially that Hulk: In terms of action figures, Mega Bloks did way better.

Agreed, I find HF's premise to be pretty similar to Tiger and Bunny. Heck, the two protagonists are even the stereotypical "rookie hero" and "veteran hero" (no sidekicks). It's another superhero show, that unlike the "grimdark" Marvel anime currently out there, actually embraces the fun superhero feel of old. Right down to the puns. And yet, it can be very serious when it wants to (The Jake Martinez episodes... man). Hero Factory should take a few pages from this show for its plot.

Is it just me, or is Rocka 2.0's face reminiscent of Bumblebee's?

The Ninjago section was way too crowded for me to get a good look at. I do remember seeing a few glimpses of some battle arena/tower sets that i haven't seen before, but they're probably just hard-to-find items that are available now.

So I went to my Lego store in hopes that they'd have the new pick-a-brick Hero Recon section. Unfortunately, they didn't. =/ They did, however, have most of the summer 2011 sets, save for Star Wars and HF. I did look at the HF section though, and something astounded me- the villains were in new boxes, even the ones from last year. No longer do they have the giant cumbersome boxes, these new ones have shrunk to almost half the original size. The $13 sets' boxes are now the size of the Hero canisters, and the $20 villains' boxes are now the size of the original $13 sets'. All the backgrounds, however, remained the same, if a bit cramped. I didn't have a camera with me to take any pictures, but it's interesting to tell nonetheless.

Lucky for you man. I just bought a Rotor on clearance too, but he has the super-crackity old 2009-style joints from the first production wave (the ones without the round indentation that came with the later 2010 HF sets).

I feel a lot less enthusiastic about Witch Doctor. Those limbs (especially the arms) look godawful.

Creep Crushers is definitely one of the cutest, fun little games that I've ever seen from Bionicle/Hero Factory. Certainly much better than the last game.

...is with an even bigger fire. Bring it on, Fire Lord. I'll be ready. Gallery (Deeplinks 01-11.jpg) So, I got Stormer 2.0. Good set. Decided to mess around with it and a Ben 10 set. This is what I got. Yes, even basic Toamods will look good from now one once they integrate the basics of the new Hero Factory System. Oh, and he has a flamethrower, and those canisters on his back filter in combustible particles to mix together. Simply because a flamethrower is better than a slush shooter.

Both. The name is so ridiculous for a robot that it has to be awesome. Also, I have to agree with the Rahi canisters comment. We came pretty close with the Barraki, but never went all the way until now.

Witch Doctor has got to be the best name ever.

You actually can if you stick the axle through one of the holes. Pretty stable, too. Illegal method, but it works nonetheless.

I will probably be killed for this Eurobricks-style for even mentioning the name here, but Mega Bloks did have a similar system to that of the new HF sets called Struxx, made like two years ago. Front said something about the designers building large models with this system, so I'm guessing it looks something like this? Do you guys see how much potential this new system has? Titans can be larger and more flexible than ever now. I don't think Fire Lord is the pinnacle of the Titans, anyway. Let's see if summer 2011 will bring about what I posted.