Hero Factory 2011

[Aethersprite]

I love the Hero Factory story-- it's very serious, but parts of it are rather tongue-in-cheek, kind of like the Artemis Fowl novels. For instance, check out the last paragraph of the page for Surge's Ice Spear Blaster, the last sentence of Evo's bio, or the Speed-Build video starring thus far my favorite character, Zib.

I agree. I noticed that on Evo's bio before but didn't mention it. Maybe that's why he's not joining the rest of them on Savage Planet.

[vexorian]

I don't know what criteria Consumer Service use, but I think the missing gold legs on that set was intentional, and only got "fixed" after consumers complained, "fixed" by making sure that sets produced later had the legs.

I suspect Consumer Service may have a hard time finding golden robot legs, they were not used in sets since then. If you feel you should have legs, I guess it can't hurt to ask them politely, telling that you just opened the set.

I cannot say whether it was intentional or not. What I can say is that the box has two pictures of complete meca-one including one that suggests that you can take him out of the mech. And I also found many claims online that consumer service was sending them, but that was in 2006.

I think I will just try getting them from bl, I doubt they have any left. Just wanted to know if there is an usual threshold for these requests.

Edited January 26, 2011 by vexorian

[Aethersprite]

A friend of mine from overseas mentioned the quality of the plastic feels cheap - do the Heroes and Villains use China plastic? Sets won't be arriving in my country until February, so sadly I haven't had a chance to purchase any... Yet.

[Aanchir]

A friend of mine from overseas mentioned the quality of the plastic feels cheap - do the Heroes and Villains use China plastic? Sets won't be arriving in my country until February, so sadly I haven't had a chance to purchase any... Yet.

Was the friend familiar with BIONICLE/Hero Factory style sets? I ask because I've heard this charge levied against BIONICLE sets in the past. For some people, any plastic softer than ABS "feels cheap", and this includes the softer plastics that have been used for masks and various other parts since at least 2002.

The so-called "China Plastic" rarely has criticisms levied against how it feels. The main complaint levied against it tends to be about the parts seeming translucent, "milky" or discolored (I can confirm that I've encountered this problem ever-so-slightly in some of my collectible minifigs-- specifically, my Maraca Man's pants, although thankfully it's not nearly as bad as some of the pics I've seen of poor-quality Series 1 minifigs). There was a bit of a flap a long time ago about the collectible minifigure parts feeling lighter than they should, but that was disproven by someone here who was thoughtful enough to investigate further with a precision scale. In any event, your friend may have been using "feels" to mean more than just physical "feeling".

I tend to hate the word "cheap" being used for poor-quality parts, because it tends to imply that poor quality is a means of cutting costs. I've even heard Piraka spines and other rubber parts called "cheap", when in fact rubber parts are more expensive, materials-wise. Other people use the term "cheap" to refer to any time they don't like a set's design, whether or not more money could have had any impact on the design quality.

As for whether the parts actually come from China (which IMO tells very little about their quality), I suppose you'll be relieved to know that the parts are made in Denmark, Hungary, and the Czech Republic (based on a close look the images in Nex's BZPower review). That's it. Three time-tested European countries. They even cut Mexico out of the whole equation! So your Hero Factory 2.0 parts should be of decidedly European quality, if that's any relief.

[Siegfried]

This is going to be completely OT, but how about asking for replacements a long time after the release date? I guess that for practical purposes there should be a limit. For example, I am among the sad fans that got no Meca one legs in his Striking venom, but I opened the sealed box yesterday.

I believe that was a marketing mistake; he's show somewhere (the box?) as a full fig but he wasn't supposed to be. It's not really a missing part... and I didn't request the legs even though I bought two of that set.

[vexorian]

But the softer plastic still looks low quality. Scratches on it also look a lot worse, and colors tend to mismatch slight from ABS. No matter where it comes from or why they put or if it is more expensive. It is not optimal. Metru feet for example, horrendous pieces. And I am still not very happy about the different yellow tone in Meltdown's shin guards.

I believe that was a marketing mistake; he's show somewhere (the box?) as a full fig but he wasn't supposed to be. It's not really a missing part... and I didn't request the legs even though I bought two of that set.

You should have tried getting the legs, because it seems that customer service was definitely giving them in 2006, and new lots of the set did bring it. I also checked customer service's site and when it shows you the list of pieces to pick for the missing pieces form, the legs are there. So, I gave it a try, can't blame me for trying.

It was definitely a marketing mistake, but a rather bad one, it is not cool to do it and thus I feel that it was fair to ask for a replacement for the legs seeing how the box seems to be designed to say "look kids, this has the golden robot!".

Edited January 26, 2011 by vexorian

[Brickthing]

Just a friendly bump that this topic isn't the place for Exo-force or missing piece discussion, unless it's also linked to Hero Factory.

[Aanchir]

But the softer plastic still looks low quality. Scratches on it also look a lot worse, and colors tend to mismatch slight from ABS. No matter where it comes from or why they put or if it is more expensive. It is not optimal. Metru feet for example, horrendous pieces. And I am still not very happy about the different yellow tone in Meltdown's shin guards.

I can respect that opinion. I was just pointing out how for a non-BIONICLE fan "low quality" can mean something entirely different than for a BIONICLE fan, who might be used to the variety of plastics used. Certainly with the actual rubber pieces like Piraka spines or even the hoses used in some System sets, ABS would never even be a possibility. And yet these, too, have been criticized as a cost-cutting measure by some ignorant BIONICLE fans.

From what I've heard from Front, the Hero Factory 2.0 armor pieces will be ABS, so should be the standard hardness. Tool pieces and helmet accessories are likely to be a softer plastic, but I can't verify this since I don't own any sets yet. And a select few pieces, like the spears or Mahri tubing in Stormer 2.0, will be rubber.

[CabooseBM]

From what I've heard from Front, the Hero Factory 2.0 armor pieces will be ABS, so should be the standard hardness. Tool pieces and helmet accessories are likely to be a softer plastic, but I can't verify this since I don't own any sets yet. And a select few pieces, like the spears or Mahri tubing in Stormer 2.0, will be rubber.

I own plenty of HF2.0 sets, and I can assure you that you are correct in this post.

(At least one copy of every set, plus doubles of Furno/Stormer/Surge and Drilldozer/Jetbug.)

[SpiderSpaceman]

From what I've heard from Front, the Hero Factory 2.0 armor pieces will be ABS, so should be the standard hardness. Tool pieces and helmet accessories are likely to be a softer plastic, but I can't verify this since I don't own any sets yet. And a select few pieces, like the spears or Mahri tubing in Stormer 2.0, will be rubber.

there's a little bit of color discrepancy between surge's ball snap armor and his other blue parts

[Front]

there's a little bit of color discrepancy between surge's ball snap armor and his other blue parts

The blue chest armor is the usual "weapon" material, and in some colours this just not match ABS and PC very well. In e.g. white sets like Stormer it's not that visible.

[dviddy]

You guys know that TLG uses more than just ABS and rubber, right? I believe at Brickfair '08 the designers from TLG who visited from Denmark said that they use somewhere around 15 different plastic types in different amounts and it's impossible with a lot of colours to get perfect consistency. That was what the big flap over purple was about, TLG dropped the old purple and is using purple more sparingly because it was impossible to get acceptable colour matches. TLG isn't using 'cheap' plastic for these parts. I've had the new sets since early November- they are the same plastic quality as everything else we've ever gotten minus lime sockets.

[Bundalings]

Same plastic, it's the molds that are so epic...

And the problem with purple wasn't just because of the plastic types. I have a lot of purple from a couple years ago (still this new shade) and some of the pieces vary in shade from cheese to cheese. They're better now, though.

Edited January 27, 2011 by Bundalings

[SpiderSpaceman]

The blue chest armor is the usual "weapon" material, and in some colours this just not match ABS and PC very well. In e.g. white sets like Stormer it's not that visible.

You guys know that TLG uses more than just ABS and rubber, right? I believe at Brickfair '08 the designers from TLG who visited from Denmark said that they use somewhere around 15 different plastic types in different amounts and it's impossible with a lot of colours to get perfect consistency. That was what the big flap over purple was about, TLG dropped the old purple and is using purple more sparingly because it was impossible to get acceptable colour matches. TLG isn't using 'cheap' plastic for these parts. I've had the new sets since early November- they are the same plastic quality as everything else we've ever gotten minus lime sockets.

Yeah I should have put more into my post, but I meant to factually address the "what kind of plastic is it?" - that it's not a single type. and I understood that some parts need to be the one type and some need be another. I knew the reasons, just didn't put any effort into the reply.

Edit: I know I sound like someone making excuses to save face, but cross my heart, that was my intention. I'm bad at expressing.

Edited January 27, 2011 by SpiderSpaceman

[InfiniToa]

LEGO's rarely up and "switched back and forth between colors", as far as I remember. In my lifetime most colors that have been replaced have had one replacement that's remained constant. For instance, Bright Yellowish Orange (the color of the Gukko's beak and a few bricks in some 2001 Harry Potter sets) was replaced with Flame Yellowish Orange (Keetorange). Likewise, there was the whole Grey/Bley fiasco in 2004, but once the transition was made there was no switching back. And the old brown color-- 25 Earth Orange-- was replaced with 193 Reddish Brown at around the same time (although BIONICLE sets and minifig skin colors used a separate color, 217 Brown, that coexisted with Reddish Brown parts until it was discontinued in 2006).

The closest I can think of to "switching back and forth" is with silver, which tended to be 131 Silver until 2006 when they replaced this color with the new 296 Cool Silver. Most people I know of thought Cool Silver seemed cheaper, and obviously LEGO agreed there was a quality issue because the very next year LEGO went back to using 131 Silver as the standard. As of summer 2010 LEGO has discontinued 131 Silver for good and introduced the generally better-quality 315 Silver Metallic in its place. This is the silver seen in the Hero Factory and Kingdoms themes, as well as in 2011 sets.

There were also several other silver colors-- for instance, Chrome Silver, 298 Cool Silver Drum Lacquered (BL's Metallic Silver, used notably for the Agents set Turbocar Chase), and Silver Flip/Flop (a silver color which to my knowledge was used only for the silver Kanohi in 2002 Kanohi/Krana packs). None of these, however, actually replaced or was replaced by whatever silver color was prevalent at the time-- they were just alternate varieties.

On a side note, there's one other color out currently that can arguably be considered purple-- Bright Reddish Violet, which Bricklink calls Magenta. It was notably used for the character Lotso in the Toy Story 3 sets. Anybody think that would be an OK color for a Hero Factory set, or is that out of the question?

Apologies for the confusion, what I attempted to say, but completely misrepresented, was that TLG hasn't ever had a single purple color, the myriad of them from Belville, the purple(s) from Harry Potter, the original purple used in slizers, and now "medium lilac" I believe you called it(?). I just certainly hope that I don't have to adjust to another.

[Aanchir]

Apologies for the confusion, what I attempted to say, but completely misrepresented, was that TLG hasn't ever had a single purple color, the myriad of them from Belville, the purple(s) from Harry Potter, the original purple used in slizers, and now "medium lilac" I believe you called it(?). I just certainly hope that I don't have to adjust to another.

Yes, but all in all it's not like this is any different from the myriad blues LEGO has had. Even on the 2010 palette we had Bright Blue, Sand Blue, Earth Blue, Medium Blue, and Light Royal Blue. That doesn't even include the many discontinued shades like Light Blue, Medium Royal Blue, Royal Blue, Dark Royal Blue, Dove Blue, Pastel Blue (a.k.a. Maersk Blue), and several I can't recall off the top of my head. Purple hasn't really had any more variations than any other hue-- the main difference it's had is that it's been used so rarely anyway that none of its iterations is as "standard" as the blues we have around today.

Mentioning "the purples from Harry Potter" opens an entirely different can of worms, because the first year of Harry Potter used a number of colors that were rare in other non-Belville themes. Needless to say, back then there were a whole slew of colors that we never saw much of. In recent years LEGO has cut down tremendously on their color palette, so I think it's safe to say that the introduction of one or two new purple colors wouldn't cause any of the sort of chaos you seem to remember.

I have very little foreknowledge of what colors LEGO may introduce in coming years (I can attest that on LDD there are two shades of lavender that have materialIDs but have yet to appear in sets), but chances are none will be superceding Medium Lilac's position that it's established for itself over the past seven or so years.

[InfiniToa]

Yes, but all in all it's not like this is any different from the myriad blues LEGO has had. Even on the 2010 palette we had Bright Blue, Sand Blue, Earth Blue, Medium Blue, and Light Royal Blue. That doesn't even include the many discontinued shades like Light Blue, Medium Royal Blue, Royal Blue, Dark Royal Blue, Dove Blue, Pastel Blue (a.k.a. Maersk Blue), and several I can't recall off the top of my head. Purple hasn't really had any more variations than any other hue-- the main difference it's had is that it's been used so rarely anyway that none of its iterations is as "standard" as the blues we have around today.

Mentioning "the purples from Harry Potter" opens an entirely different can of worms, because the first year of Harry Potter used a number of colors that were rare in other non-Belville themes. Needless to say, back then there were a whole slew of colors that we never saw much of. In recent years LEGO has cut down tremendously on their color palette, so I think it's safe to say that the introduction of one or two new purple colors wouldn't cause any of the sort of chaos you seem to remember.

I have very little foreknowledge of what colors LEGO may introduce in coming years (I can attest that on LDD there are two shades of lavender that have materialIDs but have yet to appear in sets), but chances are none will be superceding Medium Lilac's position that it's established for itself over the past seven or so years.

In regards to your mention of the various blue colors, I simply did not mind it because they were, at least in my eyes, all official versions of blue. I am bothered not by having multiple colors, as much as I am by the fact that there was not an continuous purple to deem the "official purple."

I also believe I may have overstated the frustration I have towards purple as a whole. I believe the "chaos" (as you referred to it) might be unworthy of its title. I would describe my experiences with purple as a "moderate discord." It comes short of chaos by great lengths, and if it appeared to be at that level, then I certainly apologize,as it was not my intention.

Edit:

I guess, in summary, my problem is thus: Purple isn't used enough, and so I do not like that TLG has only given, what I view as unofficial versions.

Edited January 28, 2011 by InfiniToa

[Aanchir]

In regards to your mention of the various blue colors, I simply did not mind it because they were, at least in my eyes, all official versions of blue. I am bothered not by having multiple colors, as much as I am by the fact that there was not an continuous purple to deem the "official purple."

I also believe I may have overstated the frustration I have towards purple as a whole. I believe the "chaos" (as you referred to it) might be unworthy of its title. I would describe my experiences with purple as a "moderate discord." It comes short of chaos by great lengths, and if it appeared to be at that level, then I certainly apologize,as it was not my intention.

Edit:

I guess, in summary, my problem is thus: Purple isn't used enough, and so I do not like that TLG has only given, what I view as unofficial versions.

Well, "official" is a bit of an odd name to use for this sort of color. But if there were ever an "official" purple, I'd say it was the Nui-Jaga purple. Officially, it's called Bright Violet, and so is analogous to most of the other "standard" colors (Bright Red, Bright Blue, Bright Yellow, Bright Orange). Of course, this is not a perfect system for deciding what's the "standard". After all, the "standard" green is not Bright Green but Dark Green-- Bright Green is a slightly lighter color used mainly for certain plants and baseplates, as well as the witch's head from Collectible Minifigures Series II and the lids/baseplates for this year's "My First LEGO Set" and "My First LEGO Duplo Set" (you can probably see these on store shelves if you're not familiar with the color).

I haven't found any examples of Bright Violet in post-2003 sets, making me think it may have been discontinued when the color palette was so hugely altered in 2004. Bricklink lists a few parts later than 2003, but these are cloth parts that don't seem to genuinely match the plastic color in question. So the Shadow Kraata may be one of the last pieces in this color.

Here's a chart that demonstrates some of the most common shades for the "standard" LEGO color spectrum. Needless to say, it's not a perfect system, because many of these colors have been retired, only a few of which have been replaced. There have been far fewer Violet colors than most other colors, and the purple colors that have existed were mostly post-2004 colors with more obscure names (including the aforementioned Medium Lilac, which is as close as we have to a "standard" having been used prominently from 2003 through this year).

The closest purple to Bright Violet out currently is, as I mentioned, Bright Reddish Violet-- the color Bricklink calls Magenta. I would not be opposed to seeing this color make an appearance in Hero Factory, although being slightly pinker than the classic Bright Violet it would be even harder to sell to a preteen male audience. As an eye/core color it would be vibrant and appealing, but it is scarcely even used in System-- the most prominent uses I've seen are of course Lotso from the Toy Story theme and the arms for the alien soldiers in the upcoming Alien Conquest theme. Since Hero Factory's color palette is so far fairly sparse (only 28 colors to date), I'm not sure if Bright Reddish Violet is going to be a likely addition any time in the near future.

[SpiderSpaceman]

Well, "official" is a bit of an odd name to use for this sort of color. But if there were ever an "official" purple, I'd say it was the Nui-Jaga purple. Officially, it's called Bright Violet, and so is analogous to most of the other "standard" colors (Bright Red, Bright Blue, Bright Yellow, Bright Orange). Of course, this is not a perfect system for deciding what's the "standard". After all, the "standard" green is not Bright Green but Dark Green-- Bright Green is a slightly lighter color used mainly for certain plants and baseplates, as well as the witch's head from Collectible Minifigures Series II and the lids/baseplates for this year's "My First LEGO Set" and "My First LEGO Duplo Set" (you can probably see these on store shelves if you're not familiar with the color).

And this took a bit of getting used to when I first found it out. I always colloquially called dark green "bright green", and earth green "dark green"

also i was surprised that the bleys are 'stone grey' because it seemed that the reason people disliked them was lack of natural stone-ish quality of the original greys. being chiefly a space fan, I didn't mind at all. I actually get irritated nowadays when I pull out old grey but I think I just have to suck it up and mix them with reckless abandon.

but back on topic everybody.

[Antrozek]

well this was a colorful conversation!

Have some Nex

Edited January 28, 2011 by Antrozek

[Jouster]

New Ordeal of Fire trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpckfngWppg

The only problem is that it's in french.Also it seems Surge is the one left behind and the one that gets shot by the villains.

[Phantoka_Chirox]

Awesome! A first look at the Movie version of the 2.0's !

[Front]

I've seen this particular movie in English, at work that is

But I must say that the French version is awesome. The speaker's voice is awesome. I will go back to Hero Factory head quarter and demand that all Hero Factory material in the future is made in French, and French obly.

[Antrozek]

omg surge no! you were always my favourite! even if I didn't even get HF toys you were always my favourite!

Surely they will found his body, but maybe the core still intact...or the 2.0 surge is a new surge

[Aanchir]

I saw the Hero Factory movie/miniseries yesterday. It was OK, but admittedly rather corny not nearly as good as BIONICLE: The Legend Reborn or The Adventures of Clutch Powers. Part of this might have been a consequence of the miniseries format-- since the four stories have to be separate, there was never an opportunity to go very deep into many of the concepts mentioned (such as whether the Hero Core alone makes a true hero). Also, being a brand-new line, there weren't really any "easter eggs" like those seen in TLR or Clutch Powers. Perhaps the upcoming movie/miniseries/whatever will be better than this one, but I'm not really expecting too much better from it.

The acting and writing for Stormer and Furno were both really great. Bulk and Stringer didn't develop much in the story, but they were also well-acted and well-written. The "lesser" villains were all really entertaining as well. It disappointed me, though, that Breez and Surge never really got any sort of character development. In particular, Surge had a sort of a "character arc" described on the website where he has to get through some angst/uncertainty over whether he's at risk of becoming a villain. That was never even alluded to in the film.

Also, Von Nebula's motivations weren't explored nearly enough. Naturally, he was made out to be a bad guy (he abandoned his partner and team leader), but what did Stormer ever do to him that made him so dead-set on revenge? The two didn't get along at all, but Stormer didn't seem to do any serious or traumatic harm to Von Ness. The story would have been better if it had gone into more detail about what Von Ness had endured after that fateful event.

The saddest part, for me, was that Zib had a different voice actor than the phenomenal voice actor on the Hero Factory FM podcast and (more recently) the Quick Build video. The Quick Build video was particularly noteworthy as it's the first Ghost animation for LEGO to have a lot of voice acting by an onscreen character. Does anyone know whom I ought to ask about the Hero Factory FM voice actors?