Hero Factory 2010

[Darkness Falls]

I'm unsure if those limbs are unbendable- in the Furno Bike, Furno has fully extended limbs, which makes me think that's either a new piece or the limbs are bendable.

I think it would be awesome if they gave us two sets of limbs- bent and straight. But that's just me. All of the impulse characters look really cool- I'm bound to pick up a few. I'm a little upset there seems to be a lack of articulation on them, though.

Not gonna lie, Xplode, Thunder, and Meltdown look absolutely awesome, as does the Dropship. With the armor of these figures, I can't wait to see Van Nebula and Rotor in more detail.

[ShaddowCroc]

Y'know, call me a criminal or what-have-you, but I'm getting more nostalgia from these sets than I did from the Stars.

Six elemental heroes with larger villains to fight? Sounds pretty great to me. If only the actual story to go with those sets were better . . . And the names. Eugh, the names.

(I'm still really interested in the collaborative fanmade story idea for HerO Factory . . . )

Also, they seem to have Glatorian heads!!! <3 :D

[Bfahome]

Thank you. I meant all of the little gimmicks they have to throw in with the new Bionicle. Back in the day, arms moving up and down were all the charm of the Bioncile sets. Now, with the specialized shoots and moving parts, and all of the specialized weapons and armor... it's just too much.

Well recently the vehicle sets (which are expensive, not gonna lie) have some interesting action features. Rockoh's wings flipped down and a trigger on the side shot the Midaks; Jetrax's engines folded out and its cockpit opened (if you consider that a feature); Axalara's landing gear could retract, its back claws/wings/whatever extended, and the front opened to reveal Midaks; Thornatus' front wheels could extend and you could open its cockpit (again, if you consider that a feature). The first three had gear systems, some rather complex. So they hadn't completely died yet.

[The Alchemyst]

Haven't you learned economics? Specialization is good.

Jokes aside, I don't see what's bad about specialization. The old sets had it [unique weapons, colors, masks, builds in some cases, and other small differences]. And for the parts, well, using them in a MOC just makes it that much more impressive. :P Plus for MOCing the various parts and weapons from each set are absofrigginlutelygreat.

[Phantoka Kopaka Nuva]

Y'know, call me a criminal or what-have-you, but I'm getting more nostalgia from these sets than I did from the Stars.

Six elemental heroes with larger villains to fight? Sounds pretty great to me. If only the actual story to go with those sets were better . . . And the names. Eugh, the names.

(I'm still really interested in the collaborative fanmade story idea for HerO Factory . . . )

Also, they seem to have Glatorian heads!!! <3 :D

I agree with you. The sets are great, but the names? Seriously, what happened to the BIONICLE story team? Why did they start to use human names now? BIONICLE-style names are much cooler.

I may not be getting these, but my brother will probably try to get one.

[Brickthing]

I agree with you. The sets are great, but the names? Seriously, what happened to the BIONICLE story team? Why did they start to use human names now? BIONICLE-style names are much cooler.

I may not be getting these, but my brother will probably try to get one.

I'm guessing that kids will relate better to human characters than Toa.

Which makes me realize that if they had Vakama Hordika dress-ups there will definitely be Hero dress-ups...

[Mesonak]

Time for reviews. Yay.

Preston Stormer: Pretty cool. Color scheme and weapon are nice, but the helmet (Face? Mask?) reminds me of Ackar's for some reason... o_o

7/10.

William Furno: Pretty nice. Mask/Helmet/Face could pass as a Kanhoi easily. Also weapon is awesome.

8/10.

Jimi Stringer: I was hoping for Thok's weapon in black. Oh well. Didn't expect to see orange on this guy. Also, his helmet is the best of all the small sets, IMO. Oh yeah and BLACK GLATORIAN HANDS YES

9/10

Natalie Breez: Looks like the offspring of Jetrax Antroz and Gorast. IMO at least. Weapon's nice though.

6/10.

Duncan Bulk: Silver. Wow. Meh, he's pretty cool. Face is great. One question though: Silver Glatorian hands? O_o

7/10.

Mark Surge: Tarix, Berix, Hahli Inika, and Gali Mistika fell into a pool of Protodermis and out came this thing. Weapons are nice though, and head is WANT.

7/10.

Thoughts as a whole: Pretty decent. I think the arms may just be bendable, and I think the torsos are ugly. I'm not gonna be picking up too many of these: Probably just Preston and Jimi.

XPlode: Epic. Red Skrall armor FTW. Also his head is <3 Looks very spiky, well built, great color scheme. My favorite by far.

10/10.

Corroder: Ehh. Too cluttered. Head's nice but he's pretty bland overall.

7/10.

Meltdown: Kalmah and Bitil after falling in Toxic Waste. AKA Win. Yellow Metru legs and head are <39

9/10.

Thunder: From a distance, he looks like Vezon. Except he fails more. My least favorite.

6/10.

Thoughts as a whole: Great. Thunder and Meltdown use Ben 10 joints and Corroder uses the same arms as the small sets, which makes me O_o. I'll probaby pick up all of these except Thunder.

Other sets are too blurry to comment on.

-Mesonak

Edited January 10, 2010 by Mesonak

[80 Dollar]

I love that we get new and recoloured pieces. The sets themselves are not impressive at all...

EDIT : The Drop Ship and the bike kinda are...but still way too blurry. I don

Edited January 10, 2010 by 80 Dollar

[vexorian]

I don't get how you guys manage to count the number of parts used in the torsos by just seeing pictures. Anyway, I do think that even two parts for a torso are too little, they should use 5 or 10 ...

Y'know, call me a criminal or what-have-you, but I'm getting more nostalgia from these sets than I did from the Stars.

Six elemental heroes with larger villains to fight? Sounds pretty great to me. If only the actual story to go with those sets were better . . . And the names. Eugh, the names.

(I'm still really interested in the collaborative fanmade story idea for HerO Factory . . . )

Also, they seem to have Glatorian heads!!! <3 :D

We are AFOLs anyway :) The story and names are just devices to sell to kids we just care about the sets and honestly, I think I am going to buy 3 explodes, one for display and other two ones to make nuclear MOCs ^^

Edit: Von Nebula and Rotor still look like win so far with the slight resolution increase. I wonder when are we gonna get good pics of them...

Edited January 10, 2010 by vexorian

[lightningtiger]

I'm not normally in this area, but I read most of these posts quickly and you know what ?

One figure stands out '22 minutes' because thats how long an action cartoon is on CN, just add 8 minutes of adverts and promos and you have a half hour block. This theme is being created for TV, well thats my theory anyway.

[vexorian]

I am not sure that's a good move though. I mean, the main story idea is cliche enough, but with only four 22-minute episodes and the main objective of selling toys I can't expect the episodes to be really good or interesting and that does not sell...

[The Crazy One]

I think the smaller sets have bendable arms and legs. If you look, you can see pieces in the joints, and they look like they have them in different poses.

[VBBN]

The limbs will not be bendable. Yet

[God Iron]

These look really great, cheesiness aside.

I can't wait for these so many great parts. Dibs on Jimi Stringer also, incase anyone forgot!

[JimBee]

The earlier years of Bionicle seemed to be more about gimmicks than the recent years, though. From the Mata, to the Rahi, to the Bohrok, to the 02 Titans, most of Bionicle's earlier sets revolved around gear functions. To be fair, sets like the Bohrok and Rahi had some good ones. However, all that gears did for the Mata and Nuva were raising their arms, which you could already do with one finger. In addition, that gimmick hinders their arms a fair bit.

I suppose you're right. I am by no means an expert at Bionicle, I can only remember the Rahkshi and before. I remember seeing all of these shooting mechanisms, specialized weapons ans parts, and even light-up parts... I just think Bionicle lost it's charm after that.

[80 Dollar]

The bendable/unbendable arm problem could be solved by Front...if we ask him nicely. :)

[Bfahome]

I think the smaller sets have bendable arms and legs. If you look, you can see pieces in the joints, and they look like they have them in different poses.

The Toa Nuva's legs looked bendable too.

[Omicron]

The Toa Nuva's legs looked bendable too.

And we are deceived. :P

-Omi

[ShaddowCroc]

Oh God, I remember getting Lewa Nuva, thinking "OMG BENDABLE LEGS SO COOL!!!!111" then being disappointed when they weren't bendable. x'D

Thankfully we got bendable legs in '03 and then got bendable everything in '04.

[toatali]

Review time!!!

Preston Stormer: Looks cool, nice mask

William Furno: Awesome weapon, but he looks like he has eyebrows

Natalie Breez: Is that supposed to be a girl?

Jimi Stringer: Cool mask, weird weapon, BLACK HANDS!!!!!

Mark Surge: Too awesome for words

Duncan Bulk: weird weapon, cool mask

Xplode: Awesome mask, you can see a mouth behind the teeth?

Corroder: Nice mask, nice weapons

Meltdown: Too AWESOME for words

Thunder: Ok... mask is a bit like Vezons

[Zaktan of the Shadows]

The main characters are impulse sets this time...? I'm not liking this new direction, but at least the sets look nice.

-GRESHIOS

[The Crazy One]

The Toa Nuva's legs looked bendable too.

True, but that was a long time ago. Lego has advanced, but I am not getting my hopes up.

@Zaktan of the Shadows: Hmm....I bet we get main character canisters in the next wave.

Edited January 10, 2010 by The crazy one

[The Alchemyst]

Preston is what I'll name my first born son.

Zaktan of the Shadows said:

The main characters are impulse sets this time...? I'm not liking this new direction, but at least the sets look nice.

-GRESHIOS

Well that's what we have this year.

Oh and hey, does Thunder have a black Thornax launcher? Or is it just the shadows?

And I still think there's some sort of disk holder on the Canister sets. Like on Thunder's huge weapons, both of Meltdown's hands and both of Corroder's hands as well.

[Brickthing]

The main characters are impulse sets this time...? I'm not liking this new direction, but at least the sets look nice.

-GRESHIOS

They're not really impulses anymore - even if they're the same price as the Stars, that's still around the cost of the original canisters.

True, but that was a long time ago. Lego has advanced, but I am not getting my hopes up.

They've done it quite a bit with the Agori-build sets such as the Stars. The bending seems more obvious in these pictures, but still doubt it.

Oh and hey, does Thunder have a black Thornax launcher? Or is it just the shadows?

I'm pretty sure it's just shadow. Black launcher parts would be cool, but I don't think they'd make sense on Thunder.

[_shaddow_]

Thunder isn't the only one to have a black (yes black) thornax launcher, meltdown has one, too.

EDIT : in fact, i think the thornax launcher is black for all the bad guys.

Edited January 10, 2010 by _shaddow_