Hero Factory 2010

[Ratbat]

Loving the villains. Granted, Von Nebula doesn't have elbows, but I think it works for his hunchback design. Rotor looks great. Corrodor's looking much better. My definite favorite is Meltdown. He's balancing toxic waste tanks on his shoulders.

[Strakk]

Apart from the bike (the best) and the orange titan, the others look really bad.

I was expecting a lot from Von Nebula but he looks silly with that building (especially the head).

The little sets have a good building but I absolutely hate the helmets.

The canister (boxes now?) sets are rather bad apart from some pieces.

The dropship isn't too bad but it's a lot overpriced.

I'm happy this isn't Bionicle anymore because it'd be the worst wave of sets ever.

[Aanchir]

Apart from the bike (the best) and the orange titan, the others look really bad.

I was expecting a lot from Von Nebula but he looks silly with that building (especially the head).

The little sets have a good building but I absolutely hate the helmets.

The canister (boxes now?) sets are rather bad apart from some pieces.

The dropship isn't too bad but it's a lot overpriced.

I'm happy this isn't Bionicle anymore because it'd be the worst wave of sets ever.

Every wave of BIONICLE was the worst wave of sets ever. As soon as something's revealed, people hop aboard the hate train. Does that mean LEGO should have cancelled BIONICLE after 2001?

*realizes he's baiting a bunch of people to say that yes, they should have*

Drop Ship is a bit hard to judge, since we haven't seen what (if any) functions it has. It's heavy use of paneling, though, is consistent with Hero Factory's overall smooth aesthetic, and I've always loved stickers. Did anyone notice the System paddles on its control bars? As much as I loved the Rockoh T3's controls, BIONICLE never went to such great lengths for detail.

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The Furno Bike has some hot pieces-- I may or may not get into Hero Factory, but if I don't I'll certainly get some of them off Bricklink. The Antroz claws mesh well with the Bitil wings on its sides, and again the smooth aesthetic of the theme is maintained. Nice placement of the launchers as well. Wish those Mata Red Av-Matoran feet were used on the Stars Tahu and the new feet were given to a more appropriate set, like the Rahkshi.

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Von Nebula looks awesome. I'm not a real fan of the almost-totally-black color scheme, but it certainly gives him a Lord of Evil vibe. The Hydraxon faceplate works well with the Mantax pincers on his cheeks and again contributes to the smooth HF aesthetic.

The piston design shows that there are still brilliant techniques that MOCists haven't used to death. The thighs lack some of the smoothness encountered elsewhere on his design, but then again he's got other rough areas like his chest, so it's still consistent when considering this set on its own.

Technically he has what could be called elbows if you visualize the upper arm's central axis bisecting the "triangle" formed by the 3x5 Technic frame things. It certainly works a lot better than it seemed to in previous pictures (or, alternatively, seems to work a lot better than it did in the other pics).

I also celebrate the reuse of the Phantoka Makuta torso, which I was afraid would never be used again after 2008. Despite having a less versatile design than the Inika torso, its spacious structure and numerous attachment points seem to demand more innovative uses than standard canister sets and straightforward expansions of the same (Icarax).

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X-Plode still looks preliminary. Nevertheless, I like the spiky aesthetic (arguably Krika's front feet would be more consistent with the spikes than his back feet, but whatevs). The design of the spiky piece is clearer in some of these pics, and it looks hot. Not a great fan of the ankle guards used on Metru shins (kind of inconsistent stylistically), but at least it works. Lots of Mata Red parts here, if the pics aren't deceiving. The arm style is nice, although it'd be more proportionate with the shorter double-joints. Finally, I like this guy's use of a reversed Hero Factory canister set torso, with a spike-piece to fill out the back. It seems like an effective technique, and a great way for LEGO to make the most of their new molds.

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Rotor's pretty cool, despite not having eye-holes. I wonder if the symbol on his chest and arm is the new "bad guy" symbol. He's got a flood of nice orange parts, and that piece that's used on his flamethrower is appearing in a number of equally-good applications (seems to be quite versatile).

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I can't help but love Corroder. He reminds me of a Japanese tengu with his small but agile build, as well as his intriguing tools and (obviously) long nose. The Ben 10 parts give him some smoothness, but it seems almost at odds with the otherwise ridge-covered aesthetic he displays elsewhere. Overall, though, I'm very impressed with this guy, who manages to shine despite his small size and simple design.

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Meltdown's color scheme is sickening, but I think it's supposed to be. The canisters on his back look a lot grosser than on the box art, so I'm hoping they're preliminary. Love the use of those new and versatile panel pieces we saw on Rotor with the Mantax pincers. Makes for some great tools.

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Thunder is cool, but neither of his non-matching arms looks good to me, and they certainly don't look good together. Another intriguing use of the panel pieces on his tools. The feet look awfully small, even though I'm sure some people will love them as individual pieces.

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The canister sets, despite being largely cloned, are pretty hot. It'll be a disappointment, though, when the three elite torsos are reused and they lose their uniqueness. Lots of nice part recolors, like the silver hand joint for Duncan Bulk (what a disappointment you'd only get one from that set) or the black one for Jimi Stringer (the same). Natalie is not very blatantly feminine, even though the face isn't explicitly masculine.

I like that there's four mid-size villains, six smaller canister heroes, two larger villains, and two vehicle sets. It's good to see that LEGO dropped the large $80.00 sets like Axalara-- as awesome as they were, I've heard they weren't selling that well. Anyway, the current line seems a lot more within the reach of the target audience and has the added bonus of taking up less shelf space.

Can't wait to see what sort of marketing LEGO has in mind for this theme. Despite having a simpler story than BIONICLE, it's not clear whether it'll have the same multimedia approach which early BIONICLE favored.

[Bfahome]

The Furno bike is definitely orange people. It's such a pity that there none of the other primary Bohrok pieces are avaliable in orange.

Well at least there were limbs. :|

You could probably still do some awesome revamps with it, though.

[Front]

Thank you Aanchir for your in depth analysis

[Zip]

Actually, there's a trigger on the bottom. When pulled, two arms swing down that can be used to 'grip' one of the Hero sets. Release the trigger and they will 'drop.'

Story-wise I'm guessing it's used to drop off heroes into hostile territory or something like that.

But yeah, the name makes sense.

Tidbit from Black Six about the Drop Ship here.

[cheesey skrall]

I think that the new panel peices (LIKE IN THNDER, MELTDOWN, ROTOR...) are printed. Its easy to see this on thunder.

[Bfahome]

Tidbit from Black Six about the Drop Ship here.

Awesome.

[The Dor]

Another gallery has opened, with more high quality pictures here.

Missing pics of Meltdown and Thunder, but other than that great pics.

EDIT:

I think that the new panel peices (LIKE IN THNDER, MELTDOWN, ROTOR...) are printed. Its easy to see this on thunder.

You can see on the pics of Rotor and Corroder that they are stickers here, here, and here.

Edited February 15, 2010 by The Dor

[Zarkan]

Gosh, I'm just shocked at how horrible Xplode is. How the designers thought that his armor and body actually looked good is beyond me. He's probably the worst canister set ever - and, as someone who never thought a set would take Gali Mistika's place in that catergory, that's not good.

Other than that, the new armor on the Heroes still looks way to big. It doesn't help that the limbs are really small in comparision, either. And the arm/gun pieces are possibly the biggest wastes of ABS I have every seen on a product made by lego.

Oh well, at least Rotor and the two vehicles are looking decent. But considering that we could have gotten the Element Lords this year if things had gone as they were originally planned, that's not making me feel much better.

Edited February 15, 2010 by Grevious

[Wrinkledlion X]

Aww, Rotor has eyes molded into the plastic... And now that cool grid-thing is just a regular mouth.

[jala12]

I'm not liking what I see of Xplode. I thought he would be taller from the earlier pics that we saw. Instead, Corroder and Meltdown have now piqued my interest. The only set I get the feeling I will definitely be getting is the Furno Bike. That thing is just insane.

[Aanchir]

I think that the new panel peices (LIKE IN THNDER, MELTDOWN, ROTOR...) are printed. Its easy to see this on thunder.

I certainly hope not. I very much prefer stickers. And yes, I know I'm probably part of a minority here at Eurobricks.

[The Dor]

Guys, I just realized there are some cool new pieces that I hadn't seen before! There's a shortened piston axle (with a cap on the end, like used on the legs of titans and such), and a neat piece that attaches Corroder's launcher to his upper arm as seen here. Maybe the one attaching to his arm isn't new, but it's certainly new to me xD

Also, Corroder is definitely awesome.

[The Alchemyst]

Gosh, I'm just shocked at how horrible Xplode is. How the designers thought that his armor and body actually looked good is beyond me. He's probably the worst canister set ever - and, as someone who never thought a set would take Gali Mistika's place in that catergory, that's not good.

Other than that, the new armor on the Heroes still looks way to big. It doesn't help that the limbs are really small in comparision, either. And the arm/gun pieces are possibly the biggest wastes of ABS I have every seen on a product made by lego.

Oh well, at least Rotor and the two vehicles are looking decent. But considering that we could have gotten the Element Lords this year if things had gone as they were originally planned, that's not making me feel much better.

Worst canister goes to Pridak. Looked terrible, flopped everywhere and decent pieces were the feet and 5long double sockets in white.

[Trexxen]

Guys, I just realized there are some cool new pieces that I hadn't seen before! There's a shortened piston axle (with a cap on the end, like used on the legs of titans and such), and a neat piece that attaches Corroder's launcher to his upper arm as seen here. Maybe the one attaching to his arm isn't new, but it's certainly new to me xD

Also, Corroder is definitely awesome.

Ironically enough, the 4l Technic Beam w/ cap is not new (it was used in some Atlantis sets, among other things I'm sure - I have some nearby right now), while I'm fairly sure that other part is at least new to Bionicle/Hero Factory, if not COMPLETELY new.

I'm actually a fan of Von Nebula; his nearly-all-black with hints of blue color scheme is really nice, and those new armor parts with the spikes look like they have a lot of awesome uses. =D Aside from him and obviously Furno Bike, not a lot stands out to me, and even the bike will likely be a no-buy things to the absolutely atrocious price-to-part ratio.

And by the way, to those of you that noted the Jimi Stringer/Jimi Hendrix thing, and the speakers/sine wave motif, two more things point to sonic power for him: One, the "barrel" of the weapon looks a LOT like a conventional conical speaker, and most importantly, two, the card shows his name as "Riff". <_<

So folks, it looks like the black hero figures went from the power of rock to the POWER OF ROCK! =D

~Trexxen

[Bfahome]

Ironically enough, the 4l Technic Beam w/ cap is not new (it was used in some Atlantis sets, among other things I'm sure - I have some nearby right now), while I'm fairly sure that other part is at least new to Bionicle/Hero Factory, if not COMPLETELY new.

The second is also used in the new ARC-170 fighter, and is supercool.

[Brickthing]

I certainly hope not. I very much prefer stickers. And yes, I know I'm probably part of a minority here at Eurobricks.

In the case of Bionicle, I want my sets to stay in good condition for much more than a few years, which Tuma's stickers don't allow. But in the case of Hero Factory, I'm glad that they're stickers, because I'll be getting the sets mainly for MOCing.

[kentaiscool]

this might make xplode look okay http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulnomad/4357929987/

and for jimi stringer http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulnomad/4358664610/

and full gallery http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=hero%20fac...=42115329%40N08

hope you guys like them

[The Alchemyst]

I have changing opinions on Stickers...

If I'm buying a set for parts, and I need them in blank, stickers are fine.

But when I'm getting it for the design of the set, or the design on the pieces, I'd much rather have them in print.

Then again, that probably goes for everybody. >.>

[Phantoka_Chirox]

no news on 00ber anime HF TV show with 22 minutes of awesome bif bam pows?

[Aanchir]

I have changing opinions on Stickers...

If I'm buying a set for parts, and I need them in blank, stickers are fine.

But when I'm getting it for the design of the set, or the design on the pieces, I'd much rather have them in print.

Then again, that probably goes for everybody. >.>

Not necessarily. I pretty much like stickers regardless, except in two conditions: places where they cover multiple parts (this has been a problem since my early childhood, with that Pizzeria set's sign) or places where they simply won't stay stuck (1x1 and 2x2 round bricks are the worst offenders here). And to be perfectly honest, I would rarely prefer printed parts in those situations anyway.

Part of it is probably that takes the construction aspect of LEGO, and expands it, so you not only put together the model from its parts, you in a sense put together the patterned parts as well. It also could have to do with my childhood-- back then, my dad would always apply stickers for me, and I get a strong sense of fulfillment being able to apply them straight by my own effort.

[vexorian]

Well, it is not that hard to remove the printing on printed pieces, but it is way too easy for stickers to go bonkers. I am really afraid of what will happen to Tuma, he is eventually going to lose 50% of his personality :( I don't really think putting stickers is really a great building experience...

Anyway HF is starting to give me a roboriders feeling. Let me explain it to you. Slizers were awesome in every conceivable way. But TLG decided to cancel them and make roboriders instead. At first it looked like they were annoying car things but at least had tons of useful pieces for making new throwbots. So I got them all... but overall the sets weren't really that good, and honestly I think it would have been better not to spend on them all and instead wait for a year and use the money on a rahi...

Edited February 16, 2010 by vexorian

[Zaktan of the Shadows]

The impulse sets, as &lt;insert that tiresome argument&gt; and clonish as they are, are still decent and pretty. I'll pick one up. And a pure-silver impulse set? Crazy. Shame about the limbs though, and with such good impulse sets with the BIONICLE Stars, it'll be hard to think of something better. But Stringer... is amazing. And is it just me, or did they remove the idea of human names and just went with the element name? YES! (oh wait, nevermind <_< )

And for the villains, these new pictures showed a lot. The box pictures are epic and the weapons have really nice technic-esque designs, but the overall design is... meh. The torsos are ONE PIECE. They use Ben10 and Av-Toran limbs... and well, it makes them even less interesting than Inika. Still, I really love the looks. They have a menacing and manical feel, but don't go over-the-top. And XPlode looks really nice. Re-use of Thornax launchers is... adequate.

Titans/Vehicles? Awesome. I really love the dropship - fantastic colours and really amazing technic design. Also, the driver doesn't feel tacked on, which is a major plus. Pure win. And recoloured Crotesius helmet?

You have to love the Furno bike. The variation of Will Furno looks decent, and the bike has an aura of technic nostalgia. I remember bikes like these back in 2004, and the orange Bohrok headpiece adds so much. This is a plethora of amazing orange peices.

Von Nebula is okay. I like the blue-black colour mesh and design looks enjoyable and clean (leg pistons actually PART of the leg!) but I can't help but feel he does not bring anything new, especially with that Hydraxon helmet.

Overall Hero Factory looks adequate.

-ZotS

[80 Dollar]

They use Ben10 and Av-Toran limbs...

Yeah the Ben10 leg pieces on Thunder and Meltdown are a bit frustrating because you can't take the leg piece and the armor piece apart...or can you?

Edited February 16, 2010 by 80 Dollar