Hero Factory 2010

[Vezon]

I opened up Corroder yesterday, but I was out most of the day so I wasn't able to share my thoughts:

Corroder is certainly an interesting figure. The first thing to note is that while it can stand on two legs perfectly fine, it looks really bad that way. It's very clear that Corroder was designed with the intention of being a quadruped. The guy looks infinitely better standing on three or four limbs.

The color scheme of black and lime green fits Corroder much more than it did with Breez in my opinion. It has the same lower arm piece as Thunder, which connects to the new weapon piece: Corroder's blade/shooter. The piece looks great, although I wish it had more than one connection point, since it can't be held like a normal weapon. One last thing of note is that Corroder comes with a whopping six of them. Pretty much the only other piece of interest is Corroder's helmet, which, like Xplode and Thunder's, looks fantastic.

Also, is it just me or does Corroder feel like a mix of all the Makuta Mistika? It has Gorast's color scheme, Bitil's general proportions,and Krika's quadrupedness (and I know that's not a real word). I don't mean that in a good or bad way, but just as an observation.

My only real gripe with the figure is that compared to the other Villains, Corroder feels a bit too simple, aesthetically. The only thing I find really interesting about it is how there's an extra lower arm/weapon on the back. It just feels like Corroder's lacking that extra oomph for me to love it. I still like the guy, but I wouldn't recommend it over Thunder or Xplode unless you're really into quadrupeds.

Later today I'll be opening up Meltdown, so I'll be sure to share my opinions then.

Edited July 19, 2010 by Vezon

[Phantoka_Chirox]

Hey guys I'm in France around the Bordeaux area. Does anyone know where I can get some Hero Factory sets?

They're not out yet but you can get some if they come out in Jou Club and TRU la dfense.

[VBBN]

The moment anyone who enjoys my reviews has been waiting for has finally arrived.

Breez- Wtf is this?

Surge- Who cares, OPEN IT!!

Breez- Come on, I can't hold this thing open all day!

Surge-Mrpphh humph murph!

Now the Heros regret openeing the package

Tomorrow I shall open Meltdown and review him, and Thursday I shall open Rotor and review him.

[Vezon]

I put together Meltdown yesterday, but I wasn't able to talk about it due to the site issues. So here are my general thoughts on the figure:

Simply put, Meltdown is fantastic. The posability is basically the same as Thunder's minus the giant claw arm. Instead of listing why the guy looks awesome, I'll just tell you to look at any image of it.

As for cons, I would list the exposed ball joint, except it's even more subdued than on Thunder. This is mainly due to the shape of the Skrall armor piece. There's also the stickers if you care about that.

The only other thing I can think of is that by following the instructions, the meteor blaster is incredibly loose and always falls downward. However, the figure comes with an extra piece that actually fixes it. It's an extra half axle (the piece that connects the ankle armor to the leg). The grey piece holding together the blaster and connecting it to the arm has two holes. The top has an axle in it, connecting the blaster to the arm, while the bottom hole is empty. What you want to do is detach the blaster from the arm and put the extra half axle in the bottom hole so that the half part is sticking out and facing the same direction as the regular axle above it. Then just put the blaster back in its normal spot for the arm. The half axle will fit into the hollow part, which will keep the blaster from falling down. Again, this half axle came as an extra piece with Meltdown, so you shouldn't need pieces from any other set to fix this.

In case you somehow couldn't tell, I fully recommend Meltdown. Here's a quick rank of the medium sized villains:

1. Meltdown

2. Thunder

3. Xplode

4. Corroder

Later today I'll be opening up Rotor, which is the final figure I bought on Friday.

Edited July 20, 2010 by Vezon

[Captain M]

Anyone notice this today?

Edited July 21, 2010 by Captain M

[dviddy]

Bink put that there because he loves us.

[Aethersprite]

Yay Meltdown and Rotor! Both are my favourite sets. I can't wait.

[VBBN]

To see my review of rotor, Go here!

To see my review of Meltdown, Go here!

[Vezon]

Last night I put together Rotor, and after having some time to think, I'm ready to share my thoughts:

Rotor is pretty much everything you could want in a "humanoid" $20 Titan. It has a great look, a pretty interesting build, very good posability, lots of good parts, and a nice gimmick that sets it apart from every other Titan we've seen.

The color scheme is great, with the black to orange ratio being near perfect in my opinion. The only thing I'd change would be making the Skrall armor on the thighs orange instead of black. It still looks fine as is, though. As with the medium sized Villains, you either like Rotor's lower arm design or you don't. I like them, personally, and to me they make sense because they feel very robotic, which fits the character quite well. There also seems to be mixed reactions to the helmet. While I was unsure about my opinion when looking at images, I think it fits quite well in person. To the people saying it just looks silly, however: You do realize you're talking about a figure with a giant propeller on its back, right? The only other things to mention are that the feet look a little bit small compared tot he rest of the figure, and that there are stickers (which, again, I don't mind).

Rotor's posability is very solid, and although the hip braces limit hip movement a bit, they're designed in a way that allows for a much wider range of articulation than previous hip braces (Tuma).

Then of course is the reason for Rotor's name; the giant propeller on the figure's back. Despite not having any gears, the gimmick works very well. In addition to spinning the propeller, there's a joint on the back that allows you to move the stabilizer back, as well as moving the propeller forward. Also the whole thing just looks awesome, giving the figure a lot of character and separating it from all of the other Titans in terms of aesthetics.

Something important to note is that various people with Rotor have been saying different things about the color of the Av-Matoran jet pack on its arm. Some have said theirs are normal silver, while others have said theirs are the new darker silver. Mine is normal silver, by the way. It doesn't really matter which you get since that's the only type of silver piece that comes with the entire figure, so there's nothing for it to match with in terms of color. To those here that do have Rotor, could you say what color your jet pack is?

Overall, Rotor is a fantastic figure. Out of the Hero Factory sets I have so far (all the Heroes, all the medium Villains, and Rotor), Rotor is easily my favorite. Even if you're not planning to get into Hero Factory, I still think that you should at least get this guy.

That's the last of the sets I bought on Friday. The only Hero Factory set left on my list from the summer wave is Von Nebula, which I should find either this weekend or the next.

[VBBN]

Podcast 3 is up.

[---Vertea---]

Preston Stormer- what do you think of your hero factory action figure?

"It's a little small..."

[Destructive Soul]

"Dancing With the Heroes..."

I'd actually like to see that.

[lightningtiger]

Though I don't visit the action figures area that much I just though I'll post that Toyworld stores in Oz are starting to carry Hero Factory figure sets and some of the vehicle sets too. Oh, yeah Kmart(Oz) too have the figure sets as well !

I'm a conformist! !

[Captain M]

Walmart seems to have none of the new sets yet. :/

[Zip]

Walmart seems to have none of the new sets yet. :/

They have it online though, but I doubt that's what you were looking for.

[Zarkan]

Just posting to thank VBBN for those great reviews of Meltdown and Rotor. Out of all the Hero factory villian sets, these are the only two that I can actually see myself getting, though I'd likely ask for them as gifts rather than buy them on my own. It's too bad that most of the other sets aren't nearly as cool as them, IMO, because a line like Hero Factory does have potential. It just seems like most of the sets could fit right in with Bionicle, whereas Meltdown and Rotor actually do their own thing.

On the other hand, though, at least the other villians still feel like they are part of the lego system, unlike the smooth'n'shiny protectors of Makuhero City. Seriously, the more I look at those gun-arms, chest pieces, and leg armor molds, the more I'm reminded of Neo Shifters and Megabloks than Lego. Is it really too much of a pain to add a few more technic pin holes and to ditch the asymetricality?

[VBBN]

Just posting to thank VBBN for those great reviews of Meltdown and Rotor. Out of all the Hero factory villian sets, these are the only two that I can actually see myself getting, though I'd likely ask for them as gifts rather than buy them on my own. It's too bad that most of the other sets aren't nearly as cool as them, IMO, because a line like Hero Factory does have potential. It just seems like most of the sets could fit right in with Bionicle, whereas Meltdown and Rotor actually do their own thing.

Your welcome. Yes I agree, those are the only ones that interested me out of them all. They have their own thing going for them due to very unique designs, but in this case, unique is actually pulled off. It seems Xplode and Nebula tried to have unique designs, but the execution of the figures is not very good.

On the other hand, though, at least the other villians still feel like they are part of the lego system, unlike the smooth'n'shiny protectors of Makuhero City. Seriously, the more I look at those gun-arms, chest pieces, and leg armor molds, the more I'm reminded of Neo Shifters and Megabloks than Lego. Is it really too much of a pain to add a few more technic pin holes and to ditch the asymetricality?

While I agree, I also disagree. I agree because I would like some added technic holes and such to MOC with, I love using pieces in ways not used before(i.e using the ankleguards on Rotor as a new Vahi), but many of these pieces are hard to do so with. On the other hand, I am always reminded of the movie I Robot. The old robots were scrawny and weak, whilst the new ones were smooth, tougher, and far superior. I much prefer the smoother and more solid look the heros have, verses the look that the Agori and Phantoran had. And when you think more of megablocks and Neo Shifters than lego, is that a terrible thing? Sure, MB may have horrid quality, but they have decent designs and such. Thats an issue of quality versing design, whilst lego has the issue of design vs execution. With that said, the weapon arms are a joke and I hope lego has learned their mistake. Thats the only thing keeping me from buying the Bulk and vapor set. Honestly, a 25$ profit to a store is lost because of one piece lazily designed. It's not a big number, granted, but that puts it into perspective.

Anyhow I don't know if I should get two more villans or if I should buy a second rotor to part out. He's a fantastic parts pack likemost of the villans, which could be their saving grace come december when they go on sale (If they go to $5 each, I'm buying two of each) Legomationstudio is gonna do a giveaway for a meltdown, I suppose I'll enter that, I'm all for a second,if nothing else for the mata yellow.

[vexorian]

And when you think more of megablocks and Neo Shifters than lego, is that a terrible thing?

Design-wise? definitely. They are almost build-once things. The ultra super specialized pieces just work for one thing if any at all, and it is very hard to disarm them. Nothing when compared to their dragons though.

I don't really think the heroes are any close to them though (luckily). In fact, even ben 10 sets do better.

Edit: Not to get brand-defending... LEGO did a ton much worse with Galidor, hope we never go back to something like that again.

Edited July 23, 2010 by vexorian

[Bundalings]

Someone cosplayed as Preston at Comic Con... pretty impressive costume.

Edited July 23, 2010 by Bundalings

[Brickthing]

Someone cosplayed as Preston at Comic Con... pretty impressive costume.

Is it likely that the costume is a publicity item from TLG? It reminds me a lot of the Mata Nui costume last year.

The costume is quite good, but the unnecessarily large head ruins Preston's heroic appearance.

[Aanchir]

I was just looking at recent additions to the Bricklink Reference Catalog, and marvelling at the HeroFactory-ness of the skull-and-crossbones on Corroder's sticker sheet. The head is almost Glatorian-head-shaped! The bones have ball joints! Utterly brilliant design, IMO.

[The Dor]

Remember the couple of pages of comic we got a while ago? Well, the whole thing is now up on the HF website.

[Refia]

I must say that the artwork of the comic is very impressive, I dare say better than most of the Bionicle comics we got. It's set-styled, but at the same time it works away some of the flaws of the sets, such as the hollow weapon arms, and Xplode's helmet is his actual face, which looks great. Story is like an episode of a superhero cartoon, but it works. Good stuff.

[Phantoka_Chirox]

Are the Hero factory out in Europe yet?

Edited July 24, 2010 by Phantoka_Chirox

[Phantoka Kopaka Nuva]

WOW. Greg worked on the HF comic script. No wonder why it sounds so familiar.