Hero Factory 2010

[Phantoka_Chirox]

there's a really cute 15-second CGI animation at the homepage of www.lego.com! Nothing big though.

[Bfahome]

I like it. Kinda like the one(s) with the rock monsters back when Power Miners launched.

Here are the two flash videos:

http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTemplating/PortalDictionary/otherfiles/1033/download00A4920D1BDFD6850FCDD223C8C1E971.swf

http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTemplating/PortalDictionary/otherfiles/1033/download56A1679F0D90268BB4FF6EC10DBBC893.swf

[Aanchir]

Liked that comic, and was impressed with all the familiar names. We had Greg with the script (like his writing or not, you have to admit that he's done a fairly good job with the BIONICLE comics since the very beginning), Carlos D'Anda for the cover art, and Sean Derek with the story (if the name doesn't ring a bell, she's the script writer for The Legend Reborn. The art was OK in some places and disappointing in others (the angular depiction of Furno's mask/face reminded me unpleasantly of Stuart Sayger's depiction of Jaller Inika, with that beak-looking mouth).

Also just listened to the latest Hero Factory FM podcast, and it was hilarious. I'm certainly going to keep listening to those as they come out.

LEGO.com frontpage animations are cool, too. Thanks for being so quick with the raw flash files, Bfa!

Can't wait to see the other online content for Hero Factory. I'm thoroughly impressed so far.

[Front]

Von Nebula

At the end of the day this is my favorite of the 2010 Hero Factory figures sets.

I hope you like the pose, photographed with extreme wide-angle lens.

Front

Edited July 27, 2010 by Front

[Zip]

You made it look good.

DV has some competition!

[Aanchir]

Von Nebula

At the end of the day this is my favorite of the 2010 Hero Factory figures sets.

I hope you like the pose, photographed with extreme wide-angle lens.

Front

I was wondering when you'd start wowing us with your photographic magic! And I have to agree, Von Nebula looks good in this pic-- not just in design, but also in artistic composition. The white background is a good choice, and makes his color scheme stand out a lot better than a dark background would.

On a slightly-related note, I'm still not sure if I'll be getting any HF sets. But I keep telling myself that, and it sounds more and more forced every time. One thing I'd love to do if I had a HF torso would be to put Von Nebula's face and torso armor on a Hero body to sort of hypothesize what he'd have looked like when he was on Preston Stormer's hero team. The parts seem like they'd fit just fine, and I'm curious whether he could actually be made to look heroic with that fierce glare his face is stuck with.

[Aethersprite]

BZPower has links to pages on the HF website where you can download some posters of each of the heroes in Tiniseltown Toons-ish CGI. TV series/Movie please?

[Aanchir]

BZPower has links to pages on the HF website where you can download some posters of each of the heroes in Tiniseltown Toons-ish CGI. TV series/Movie please?

Well, as has already been observed, some of the commercials use that style (despite being made by Ghost). The commercial with Meltdown is a good example. So I think LEGO's free to use that style no matter what animation studio they're working with. I could be wrong, though.

And you're right, it's possible that they're from the TV series (I can't make a guess until I check those posters out myself).

[Bfahome]

Well, as has already been observed, some of the commercials use that style (despite being made by Ghost). The commercial with Meltdown is a good example. So I think LEGO's free to use that style no matter what animation studio they're working with. I could be wrong, though.

And you're right, it's possible that they're from the TV series (I can't make a guess until I check those posters out myself).

I imagine most of them are, since they all appear to be "in-universe" and mostly with other characters.

Also, I like these depictions, especially of the way Stormer's helmet's "jaw" flips up, Surge's weapon, some of the silver accents, and how the hero cores are silver except for the area around the "H" which is the glowy color.

Not sure how I feel about the utility belts yet (if that's what they are).

[VBBN]

Read the comic, makes me dislike Rotor's eyes all the more because they werent cut out. If they looked like they did in the comic(maybe even stickers or something), he would loook far better.

[Bfahome]

So yeah. Edited July 28, 2010 by Bfahome

[VBBN]

So yeah.

Hah yeah I just reported those to BZP a little while ago. Just made a few heros, gonna go try out the Von nebula mission.

[Zarkan]

Well, the hero creater is as fun as we all thought it would be, but for some reason they've ditched the CGI from the preview screenshots and have replaced it with photographs. This is disappointing, as it doesn't look nearly as polished as it could have. Also, it seems that TLC is once again snubbing the usage of purple in their action figure lines, as it doesn't appears as a possible color choice. Strangest of all, however, is that the icons for Dunkan and Stringer's armor pieces are reversed! How did the programers manage to screw that up?

On the other hand, the Hero Factory game isn't nearly as good as it could have been - in fact, I'd say it's downright boring. I've enjoyed most of the Bionicle games we've gotten over the years, as they've offered unique and varried gameplay. The Hero Factory game seems to offer nothing beyond clicking the mouse button mindlessly and defeating hordes of the exact same enemies over and over again. Additionally, the usage of stop motion animation makes the game look and feel really clunky, and the music seems to be either glitched or simply really poorly composed. I honestly can't see myself playing this again anytime soon - and I didn't even complete the first mission.

Edited July 29, 2010 by Grevious

[Brickthing]

Well, the hero creater is as fun as we all thought it would be, but for some reason they've ditched the CGI from the preview screenshots and have replaced it with photographs. This is disappointing, as it doesn't look nearly as polished as it could have.

I think it is still the same as it was before, using pre-rendered 3D images rather than full-blown 3D as we expected. It makes sense, considering a 3D animated model of a Hero would never run smoothly on most computers without being heavily simplified.

I'm not too interested in the game itself, but the music of both is fantastic, especially the 3 pieces in the Von Nebula mission.

For those who like cheating, the codes found with the character bio pages a few days ago work as follows:

Stormer - 3845230 - 5,000 Credits

Stringer - 9011925 - Energy Boost

Bulk - 7127725 - Upgrade Point

Furno - 0012569 - EMP Boost

Breez - 8845332 - Upgrade Point

Surge - 4243569 - 2,500 Credits

And the other codes:

5559993 - Attack Boost

1212131 - Health Booth

3098721 - 1,000 Credits

6655932 - Upgrade Point

[Aanchir]

I like the design of this program, but it bothers me that the colors are so hard to identify. Part of that's probably a consequence of the same color palette being used for transparent parts like the eyes and Hero Core as for the main body. But still, I wish the colors were easier to identify.

Another problem is that using the colors seems to just apply a filter to the part you put it over. I wish the parts were rendered in each color individually so that it would be more realistic. Playing Mission: Von Nebula now to see how the hero is rendered in that.

[80 Dollar]

So yeah.

Now I want my golden Hero...well, maybe next year...

[The Crazy One]

I quite liked the presentation of this game. I just wish you could order the Heros you made.

[Captain M]

For some reason they took down the new game.

[Bfahome]

For some reason they took down the new game.

Yes, for some reason they took down the game that lots of people were playing even thought it hadn't yet been officially released.

I can't imagine why.

[The Crazy One]

Yes, for some reason they took down the game that lots of people were playing even thought it hadn't yet been officially released.

I can't imagine why.

Nice sarcasm there.

When is it official (re)realeased?

[Aanchir]

Nice sarcasm there.

When is it official (re)realeased?

Presumably when it's added to the "Fun Zone" page. Possibly some time next week, since I believe today (August 1st) is the "official" release date for Hero Factory sets.

[Captain M]

Yes, for some reason they took down the game that lots of people were playing even thought it hadn't yet been officially released.

I can't imagine why.

[Aanchir]

Hero Factory sets were recently added to service.lego.com's Building Instructions database, and, for those of us who are even nerdier, the Replacement Parts service. I personally spend a lot more time than I should just browsing through sets I like on the Replacement Parts service and downloading images of nifty printed parts and other cool parts.

Here's a link to the Hero Factory theme at Brickset, which is the site I use to get building instructions. Just click the instruction booklet icon under the set number for links to the PDF instructions on LEGO.com.

And here's a link to the replacement parts service, if you're into cool 3-D renders of the individual parts.

[The Crazy One]

And here's a link to the replacement parts service, if you're into cool 3-D renders of the individual parts.

Whatever rocks your boat man.

I went to Toys R Us in Oxford, and found the Dropship and no other sets. So I bought the Dropship, and to be honest, it's nothing special. Some cool parts, and the cannister drop action is cool, but the set just doesn't interest me to much. Shame. £34.99.

[Aanchir]

Whatever rocks your boat man.

I went to Toys R Us in Oxford, and found the Dropship and no other sets. So I bought the Dropship, and to be honest, it's nothing special. Some cool parts, and the cannister drop action is cool, but the set just doesn't interest me to much. Shame. £34.99.

Did you apply the stickers? I'm still waiting to see some detail pics of the sticker on the nose so I can tell for sure what it's supposed to be. Even if you didn't apply the stickers, a high-res picture of the sticker sheet would be appreciated.