Hero Factory 2010

[the last chronicler]

Hero Page translation:

-A futuristic story where hero factory must regroup the greatest heros in order to stop the attacks of Von Nebula and his band of badguys(?) that menace the country.

-A complet assortement of products, that cover all situations possible. (Then something about how it's colectability favorizes the system that made Bionicle popular.)

-6 robotic warriors, with there own personallity and identity, a unique medium for kids that identifies them to these new heroes!

My french is't perfect, so this may not be 100% correct, but it's very close.

[Brickthing]

Small sets - I'm liking all the new dual-colour weapons, and the black hands on Jimmi. They seem to have a new Ben 10-like torso for their unique chest plates to fit on which look horribly proportioned.

Judging from the helmet style, names and H's on the chests, the main characters are humans in HERO power suits that protect them, enhance their strength and such and grant them elemental abilities (Fire, Ice, Air, Electricity, Brute Strength? and Lava?). They will probably be fighting to protect their city from the baddie Canister sets.

The new arms look too fragile to be bendable, and are probably fixed around 135 degrees. The leg armour looks interesting, although very specialized.

Canister sets - Hopefully these will be Glatorian priced, because they don't have anymore pieces than them. I see plenty of great recolours, such as Red metru legs, Red Skrall armour, a Lime tentacle , hopefully Yellow Metru limbs and ankle guards (although they're probably Yellow-Orange), and maybe dual-coloured Zamor. These sets look like they've got the same torso as the small sets, and unfortunately they've got Ben 10 limbs (great for less part breakage, but bad for mixed styles of joints, lower part count and hollow limbs). Hopefully all the decals are stickers, so that I don't need to apply them.

Storyline-wise it looks like the baddies can use Explosions, Acid, Radiations and Thunder (Lightning?) in order to destroy the city, I guess using the Zamors to shoot their element. Looking at their faces, Xplode and Thunder are probably dim brutes, Corroder is the sly one, and Meltdown is just plain creepy.

Other sets - I still can't judge the first two, but the Motor cycle has an Orange Bohrok plate and the Dropship looks pretty nice. From what I can tell, the pilots are at the same quality as the small sets, and hopefully are their own distinct characters.

Von Nebula looks like the ringleader of the baddies, and probably has a power related to black holes. I can't tell if Rotor is a goodie or a baddie, and the two vehicles look like goodies with vehicles from the Hero factory that will come as re-enforcements.

Overall, the thing I'm most pleased about is that all the new faces use Glatorian heads, and a lot of them (Xplode, Corroder and all the Heroes) look similar enough to Glatorian helmets that they could be given a place on MOCs in Bionicle story as additional Bara Magna or Bota Magna characters.

[_shaddow_]

From the Hero page :

LEGO HERO FACTORY, a concept that will dynamize the buildable (? not sure) action figure.

· A futuristic story where Hero Factory must gather the best Heroes to thwart the attack of Von Nebula and his band of criminals who menace the peace.

· A complete product assortment, an offer covering all the buying occasions. Little canisters that will favorise the collection effectand which already done the success of Bionicle.

· Six Heroes with robotic appearance, possessing their own personnality and identity. A unique way for the kids to identify themselves to these new Heroes !

From the Villains page :

· Four criminals for a battle scenario between good and evil, four different missions to reproduce, ideal to make born the imagination of kids.

· A very attractive Christmas offer with two vehicles : a motorcycle and a ship !

· A priority launch for LEGO who will benefite from a strong marketing support. Strong investments from the summer to communicate the story : a strong internet visibility, two TV campains and the diffusion of four cartoons LEGO HERO FACTORY of 22 minutes on a TV chain.

Sorry if there is faults, my english isn't perfect.

[ultimate antrozek]

· A priority launch for LEGO who will benefite from a strong marketing support. Strong investments from the summer to communicate the story : a strong internet visibility, two TV campains and the diffusion of four cartoons LEGO HERO FACTORY of 22 minutes on a TV chain.

Sorry if there is faults, my english isn't perfect.

I hope the cartoons/anime aren't in CGI. that would suck.

I prefer the classic hand-drawed animations instead of GGI animations or Macromedia flash animations

Oh. and the arms are articulated

[Kiotu]

Are those bendable legs on the Impulse sets that I see?

No, that's a non-bendable leg with an armour piece over it that makes it look like it bends. =P

I'm liking the look of most of these. Hopefully the prices aren't too bad, I might pick some up. They're all pretty good, just wish they didn't have lame names. Were people here going to do that 'unofficial' BIONICLE Story 2010 using these sets? 'cause that'd be win.

-K

[_shaddow_]

Oh. and the arms are articulated

This is what i think too, as the arms are bended differently on some characters, and i don't think TLG would bend it so much, it's too obvious.

Edited January 9, 2010 by _shaddow_

[Brickthing]

This is what i think too, as the arms are bended differently on some characters, and i don't think TLG would bend it so much, it's too obvious.

They did it quite badly with the Mata, Nuva and Stars, so I wouldn't be surprised if they do it again. I can't really see how they'd be properly articulated from these pictures either.

[Ikki o' Moopyville]

Great, now LEGO's taking sides in the abortion debate.

LOL Ahahaha, really cracked me up there.

Man I love those faces and pieces they have. Not bad!

-Ikk

[Bundalings]

These look great, actually. The small sets I am iffy on, due to the H on their chests and the terrible names, but the larger ones look really good, even though I can't tell anything about Von Nebula and Rotor due to blur. A pity the arms aren't articulated, and it doesn't look like the legs will be either. The legs still look very cool...

The bodies on the little guys are so darn huge, though. I hope it's for a reason like... the brains of humans are in there, controlling the robots. Or something. Hence the awful names. Still can't figure out what the heck Jimi Stringer does. Kinda strange that there's no Water, and instead we have Strength and... Stringer. But maybe Preston can control Water as well as Ice.

All the faces on these things look great... I am especially fond of Preston's and Meltdown's.

Wasn't William Blaze the name we saw for the red guy earlier? 'Cause I can see the word Blaze on the Furno Bike. Actually, it just looks like they changed Blaze to Furno for the French release or something, 'cause you see both interchangeable... Anyway, it looks like Will is on the bike and Mark is on the Drop Ship, which, BTW, looks fantastic. Tan or yellow, I can't tell. I hope tan. :3

These can't come out soon enough.

Edit: I just noticed that all the Heroes have different bodies, not just recolors.

Edited January 9, 2010 by Bundalings

[Bfahome]

I think they just changed Will's last name to "Furno" to have the "inferno" pun.

[Brickthing]

I think they just changed Will's last name to "Furno" to have the "inferno" pun.

From a quick Google translate, it looks like Furno carries the Fire-related pun across more languages than Blaze does. The Agents characters have multiple names for the puns to work in different languages, but hopefully this is an all-language change to keep the Heroes' names simple.

[Mesonak]

My love for these sets just increased tenfold.

Though I pray the biohazard symbols on Meltdown are just stickers.

Oh yeah and XPlode wins.

More reviews later.

-Mesonak

[vexorian]

My love for these sets just increased tenfold.

Though I pray the biohazard symbols on Meltdown are just stickers.

Oh yeah and XPlode wins.

More reviews later.

-Mesonak

I hope it is printed as stickers are evil and I really want the biohazard symbol to last. (you can remove printed stuff manually if you want anyway)

[Bundalings]

With Silver taken up by "Bulk", doesn't that mean we won't have much silver on the rest of the sets? Awesome.

[Kiotu]

So what are the elements? It looks to me like Fire, Ice, Air, Electricity, "Insects" and "Strength"...

-K

[The Dor]

Ok yeah I like these.

SMALL SETS / HEROES:

Awesome. Awesome. People in mechanized suits? Hell yeah. I love the helmets on 'em. And the new limbs and new torsos. And it seems the legs are just the arms w/ new armor. And it's likely the torso is *2 pieces yaay*

CANISTER SETS / BAD GUYS:

A little under-armored it seems. Corroder and Meltdown both seem to use Av-Toran or the new prebent limb pieces. And they all seem to use the new torso. Thunder and Xplode are the only ones with armor for it though >.< Speaking of which. Xplodes construction intrigues me. The most unique out of the set of 10 (canisters and impulse)

The others I cannot see well enough to make good opinions on.

[Artahn]

Well, the basis of the story is kind of... unoriginal. I could easily have seen this go in a waaaay different direction, but I won't tell anyone about it (since Lego isn't taking it, I'm going to see what I can do to make a book off of it...)

[Holy Diver]

I hate all of them, exept for Meltdown.

[The Alchemyst]

Are those bendable legs on the Impulse sets that I see?

Loving all these guys, especially Xplode. Also loving Drop Ship.

I'm undecided on the large box Titans and bike thing until we get better pictures.

I hope so. But looking closer it could just be armor over some Av-toran limb.

That would suck.

First word that jumped to mind was Megablocks.

Lovin all the new masks. Small sets are pretty much good for their masks and weaps, waiting to see lower legs.

Looks like disk launcher on Thunder? Maybe they shoot the chest parts on the small sets?

One piece torsos, like Ben10 makes me sad. The canister sets will have... what, roughly 30 pieces each? >.>

Thunder looks boring.

Xplode and Corroder has some cool pieces. Design is kind of eh though [What's with the 4 oversized blades for Corroder?

Meltdown has like no pieces, but recolored [it better be marbled like that] PM drills, tentacles, and a nice pack of 4 yellow mantax claws. Creepy Pridak face and yellow metru legs.

Von Nebula is too blurry and dark.

Rotor: I see Inika pads, brutaka blades and a jetpack. And minimal orange. :[

Furno Bike looks okay? Orange Bohrok shield. Mr. Blaze suffers from Crotesius's monochromeness.

Dropship. So hot. Design is great, color of blue rider and yellow ship is great. Looks so goooood.

And backgrounds/Overall box designs are amazing. [Especially dropship]

[Bfahome]

Looks like disk launcher on Thunder? Maybe they shoot the chest parts on the small sets?

Doubt it. From here it looks like a big claw thing. Plus, two launchers in one set?

but recolored [it better be marbled like that] PM drills

Those are just tanks. Not PM drills.

Anyway, Meltdown and Xplode have the BIONICLE shin guard pieces yay. Looks like Rotor does too. So there should be at least one recolored version.

[The Dor]

I hope so. But looking closer it could just be armor over some Av-toran limb.

That would suck.

Lovin all the new masks. Small sets are pretty much good for their masks and weaps, waiting to see lower legs.

Looking at Bulk and Surge, I think it's pretty clear that the legs are just the new prebent limbs with armor on them. armor that goes down the entire leg <3

Looks like disk launcher on Thunder? Maybe they shoot the chest parts on the small sets?

I don't think so. But Thunder *does* have his torso armor on his "weapon" in his right hand.

One piece torsos, like Ben10 makes me sad. The canister sets will have... what, roughly 30 pieces each? >.>

One piece actual torsos, yes. But armored torsos for the small sets! And at 5! different pieces of armor to use! :D

Xplode and Corroder has some cool pieces. Design is kind of eh though [What's with the 4 oversized blades for Corroder?

This may just be me but the design for Xplode looks like a direction I want LEGO to be taking. Although Corroder and Meltdown seem to have the exact same design....

Furno Bike looks okay? Orange Bohrok shield. Mr. Blaze suffers from Crotesius's monochromeness.

Dropship. So hot. Design is great, color of blue rider and yellow ship is great. Looks so goooood.

And backgrounds/Overall box designs are amazing. [Especially dropship]

It also seems that Furno has different arms when he's on his bike. Stretched out. :D And Mata Feet.

Seriously Preston Stormer is looking like the best Impulse set so far, IMO. Cool armor. Cool helmet. Awesome icey color scheme. Blue Glatorian head. He might even have a spring controlled launcher. Woooo!

[JimBee]

Hmm... these look like an explosion of KK2, Ben 10, and Bionicle. Terrible themes to begin with, IMO (Bionicle after 2003), so mixing them was... bad, to say it nicely. I would really appreciate a line where you build figures like these, except without all the specialized parts and play features. So pretty much Bionicle 2000-2003.

[Vezon]

Hmm... these look like an explosion of KK2, Ben 10, and Bionicle. Terrible themes to begin with, IMO (Bionicle after 2003), so mixing them was... bad, to say it nicely. I would really appreciate a line where you build figures like these, except without all the specialized parts and play features. So pretty much Bionicle 2000-2003.

Last time I checked, gears were play features.

[JimBee]

Last time I checked, gears were play features.

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.

[Vezon]

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.

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.

Now look at any of the 2009 canister sets. What's their specialized gimmick that ruins the figure? Squeeze the trigger and a ball fires. That's it. The launcher is small and the mechanism is incredibly simple. I could understand the launchers of 2007 and 2008, but the Thornax in no way overly complex or overly obtrusive.

I don't even get what you mean by "moving parts," since the only Bionicle sets with moving parts are the ones with gears.

Edited January 10, 2010 by Vezon