Hero Factory 2011

[The Crazy One]

Lovely photos! I'm more convinced than before that Rocka is female and wearing a lioness headdress rather than a lion helmet. As lovely as it is, I can't help but notice how similar the headdress is to Nitroblast's head.

I have to say, I almost want Rocka to female. My one doubt though, is whether Rocka XL is female, as though normal Rocka could be passed of as female, I feel RXL means Rocka is probabley male. Just my feeling, but I hope Rocka is female.

I don't see a similarity apart from the length really when compared to Nitroblast / Jetbug head.

[Kenta]

Wait, there's an age requirement on EB? I joined when I was 15, I'm 17 now.

Anyway, Furno and Nex are really growing on me, for some reason. The only flaw I see with Furno is his lack of armour on his thighs, but otherwise he looks pretty good. The helmet is fantastic, and his wings are starting to look better. Not sure if I'll get him though, don't really like his reuse of weapons. As for Nex... Well, I can't explain it, but I'm starting to like him.

The age restriction is actually 18 but if you act respectfully towards members and follow all the rules, they will gladly welcome you into their community. The new pictures of Furno and Rocka are very good, thanks for the pics Front. I'm hoping they can stay at Savage planet next year only maybe going to a oceanic part so it can fullfil my dream of a shark helmet/mask and possibly a octopus again only not as ugly and humanlike as Kalmah.

[Front]

Yet two more pictures taken at LEGO WORLD 2011 in Copenhagen.

The largest Evo 2.0 ever made:

Edited February 26, 2011 by Front

[Omicron Squad Leader]

On topic: I love the detail on Rocka's helmet

Off topic: Any BZP members know why the forum is down?

People were having trouble logging in, so the admin's took it down to make sure no one is trying to hack accounts or there's a glitch in the system.

[Omicron Squad Leader]

Also, after close inspection it turns out that Nex and Stormer now have the bodies WITH the ball-joints on the shoulders while ROCKA and BULK have the two bodies without.

I wonder if they are doing it in a set-number order? For example:

Ordeal of Fire:

Stormer - without the ball-joints

Furno

Evo

Nex - without the ball-joints

Surge

Breez

Savage Planet:

Rocka - without the ball-joints

Nex

Stormer

Bulk - without the ball-joints

Stringer

Furno

You see? One with, two without, one with, two without...

[Aanchir]

Also, after close inspection it turns out that Nex and Stormer now have the bodies WITH the ball-joints on the shoulders while ROCKA and BULK have the two bodies without.

I wonder if they are doing it in a set-number order? For example:

Ordeal of Fire:

Stormer - without the ball-joints

Furno

Evo

Nex - without the ball-joints

Surge

Breez

Savage Planet:

Rocka - without the ball-joints

Nex

Stormer

Bulk - without the ball-joints

Stringer

Furno

You see? One with, two without, one with, two without...

I'm fairly certain it's more of an aesthetic consideration. Seems silly to base the set's pieces and looks on the set number they assigned, or vice-versa.

In other news, I observed that we've now brought the number of colors in Hero Factory to a total of 30! Originally, there were 25 colors. In early 2010, three colors were added (28 Dark Green, 168 Medium Lilac, and 316 Titanium Metallic), and now in the summer two colors are due to be added (297 Warm Gold and 48 Transparent Green). Not all the colors have appeared consistently (notably, many first-wave Hero Core colors haven't made appearances this year due to the far lower need for transparent colors), but so far no colors from the first wave have been retired from the palette so there's still hope of seeing them again.

I'm curious whether at any time any of the new colors due for release this summer will appear in Hero Factory sets, but I'm not sure what they'd be used for. The color used for uniforms in Alien Conquest (either 321 or 322-- not sure which, and until the sets are out I doubt any LEGO employees like Nabii or Front will be allowed to share the specifics) seems like the most likely to make an appearance, since it is vibrant and fairly gender-neutral. However, it hasn't even been spotted in non-minifigure parts yet, so it's far too early to start expecting appearances in Hero Factory.

People who are as nerdy as I am about colors are welcome to download my Hero Factory Color Chart (LXF file opens with LDD versions 3 and 4).

[Fugazi]

However, it hasn't even been spotted in non-minifigure parts yet, so it's far too early to start expecting appearances in Hero Factory.

I think that the 'Alien Conquest' blue shade will also show up in non-minifig parts -- albeit timidly -- in some of the upcoming Cars sets. See for instance the 2x2 tile in this picture: link.

Edited February 28, 2011 by Fugazi

[Aanchir]

I think that the 'Alien Conquest' blue shade will also show up in non-minifig parts -- albeit timidly -- in some of the upcoming Cars sets. See for instance the 2x2 tile in this picture: link.

Pretty sure that's regular bright blue, comparing the edges to his Medium Blue body. The top is really reflective, so that might be misleading-- safer to compare a flat surface on one side to a flat surface in a known color on the same side.

Another new color (323 Aqua) will be debuting in the Cars sets, and can be seen on Flo and whatshisface the stoner hippie van in the "Flo's V8 Cafe" set.

On-topic, I'm really hoping Hero Factory 2.0 parts wind up on LDD eventually, so I can brainstorm what Stringer and Bulk might look like in version 2.0. I'll probably doodle up custom helmet accessories for them, but I'd rather MOC the rest of them with LDD due to its similarity with real-life building.

Edited February 28, 2011 by Aanchir

[SpiderSpaceman]

Pretty sure that's regular bright blue, comparing the edges to his Medium Blue body. The top is really reflective, so that might be misleading-- safer to compare a flat surface on one side to a flat surface in a known color on the same side.

Another new color (323 Aqua) will be debuting in the Cars sets, and can be seen on Flo and whatshisface the stoner hippie van in the "Flo's V8 Cafe" set.

On-topic, I'm really hoping Hero Factory 2.0 parts wind up on LDD eventually, so I can brainstorm what Stringer and Bulk might look like in version 2.0. I'll probably doodle up custom helmet accessories for them, but I'd rather MOC the rest of them with LDD due to its similarity with real-life building.

Shouldn't you pass that through the pipeline? Through our EB-LDD mediator? : that ol' wanted parts topic. We all want those.

[nex]

On-topic, I'm really hoping Hero Factory 2.0 parts wind up on LDD eventually, so I can brainstorm what Stringer and Bulk might look like in version 2.0. I'll probably doodle up custom helmet accessories for them, but I'd rather MOC the rest of them with LDD due to its similarity with real-life building.

Agreed. Plus, it might even be updated with 3.0 parts so we could MOC Evo, Breez, and Surge.

[Destructive Soul]

I received the March-April 2011 Lego Club Magazine in the mail today. It comes with an nicely illustrated Ordeal of Fire comic, the ending of which is really reminiscent of the Toa Nuva's transformation. Just a heads up.

[Brickthing]

I received the March-April 2011 Lego Club Magazine in the mail today. It comes with an nicely illustrated Ordeal of Fire comic, the ending of which is really reminiscent of the Toa Nuva's transformation. Just a heads up.

Would you mind making scans, if you're able to?

[Aanchir]

My brother and I got Fire Lord yesterday, our first Hero Factory villain set. He seemed to be the best value of the villains-- my favorite villain is Jetbug (or was-- Fire Lord makes it a bit of a toss-up), but since I'm at college with a limited parts pool I figured I'd want a set that had more compatible colors with the sets I already have. Plus, I bought him at a Wal-Mart that didn't seem to have any villains but Fire Lord and Drilldozer in stock.

Anyway, he meets a lot of my expectations, both good and bad. His leg structure is often criticized, but I found that it doesn't bother me too much (just as it didn't in photos). They're a little gappy when seen straight-on against a light-colored background, but many poses conceal this very well. However, his legs and arms alike have somewhat awkward posability, with a limited range of motion (as had been pointed out in reviews). From a straight, standing position, Fire Lord's legs can angle about 30 degrees backwards or 60 degrees forward. They can twist a fair amount from the hips, allowing a range of poses, but can't really be bent into a kicking position (although that would look awkward with Fire Lord anyway). His arms can angle out from his body by about 30 degrees, forwards by about ninety degrees, and not backwards at all. The upper arms also cannot twist, but that's made up for by the way the lower arms are attached at the elbow (not by a traditional knee joint).

Good points (IMO):

• [*]The torso structure is brilliant. Although it's probably to blame for the awkward arm posability, it's definitely the most filled-out part of his body, and integrates Technic seamlessly with the Hero Factory bone pieces to produce a unified look. It's kind of messy-looking from the back, but not much-- it's mostly black, and the only color that really seems to detract aesthetically is a light gray 3M beam between his shoulder blades.

[*]His head is fantastic. I kind of wish there were a cavity in his helmet to allow light in, since the Glatorian head underneath seems awfully dim compared to Heroes' brightly-colored heads (even being a fluorescent color doesn't help it in the light of my college dorm-- looking at it under a cooler-colored light source helps). I wish we could see a really effective head design for villains-- most of the summer villains seem to use just a shell with no head piece at all behind the eyes, and the use of Glatorian heads, while acceptable, really feels out-of-date on the winter villains. Nevertheless, Fire Lord's helmet is very menacing, especially with his two bright red horns (amazingly useful pieces that I hope to see plenty more of).

[*]His flame jets/shoulderpads. I've seen a lot of photos where these are folded behind him like a jetpack, but they're ridiculously awkward as such (they stick out too far off the back, and don't fill it out the way they do with Jetbug's which are designed to work as such). All the official pictures I've seen show them used instead as shoulderpads, with some pyrotechnic wizardry going on at the sides. He looks much better and more cohesive this way in my opinion.

[*]His weapon. Really simple, but really stylish. I kind of wish Furno's blades had been re-cast with a titanium metallic (post-2010 pearl dark grey) base, but the weapon still works brilliantly. In fact, both of his lower arms are simple but effective.

[*]His feet. I've seen a lot of criticisms about his foot design, but they're very supportive, fairly cohesive, and really just nicely-designed in general.[/url]

Overall, I'm very impressed with my selection. No, he's not perfectly-executed. But as far as giant villains using the new build system are concerned, he's a step in the right direction.

[Sulfurix]

His flame jets/shoulderpads. I've seen a lot of photos where these are folded behind him like a jetpack, but they're ridiculously awkward as such. All the official pictures I've seen show them used instead as shoulderpads, with some pyrotechnic wizardry going on at the sides.

In the premotional video on the Herofactory site he uses them as a jetpack to chase the Heroes 1.0.

Edited March 3, 2011 by Sulfurix

[Aanchir]

Today's the first time I've seen the Hero Factory 2.0 animated "quick link" under Popular Products on the LEGO.com home page. Featuring our good pal Nex 2.0! Love these main page animations LEGO's doing these days... so much cooler than the glowing eyes, shiny swords, and other simple animations we still get on the main Products page.

[Bfahome]

Today's the first time I've seen the Hero Factory 2.0 animated "quick link" under Popular Products on the LEGO.com home page. Featuring our good pal Nex 2.0! Love these main page animations LEGO's doing these days... so much cooler than the glowing eyes, shiny swords, and other simple animations we still get on the main Products page.

If you quickly move your mouse across all three animations, it looks like Nex and Hipjaw are about to fight.

[Aanchir]

If you quickly move your mouse across all three animations, it looks like Nex and Hipjaw are about to fight.

It'd be even cooler if the Racers one were to the right of Nex. Grrr...

Anyway, I'm going to start brainstorming Breez and Surge 3.0 now. (I'll start by picking an animal to base each one on, then design helmets and name badges). Something my brother pointed out is that since the 5M armor shell used for the "name badges" is pretty flat on the printed surface, designing a decal or sticker for a custom Hero could be easy (ideally a decal since a sticker couldn't match a transparent or metallic background, which a decal with transparency could). It'd be really great if the Hero Recon Team site allowed you to do that (basically select a pattern from one of the 2.0 heroes, two colors, and a custom name). It's probably unlikely, given that I expect the Hero Recon Team parts to be pre-made and picked from bins in a Dutch facility the same way other DesignByMe purchases are. But it would be a great offer if you could have a custom namebadge for the heroes you designed.

[ZORK64]

Speaking of Hero Recon Team, there are a few displays promoting the Recon Team in my local LEGO Store. However, I still can't find anything new about it on the LEGO-site.

[Pro_Ice]

New Store Calendar says that Hero Recon Team is released on the 5th of April and Hero Factory pieces will now be part of shops' Pick a Brick.

And the pics from Toys'n'Bricks:

Front

Back

[Aanchir]

New Store Calendar says that Hero Recon Team is released on the 5th of April and Hero Factory pieces will now be part of shops' Pick a Brick.

And the pics from Toys'n'Bricks:

Front

Back

There's something there about designing a Hero Factory comic online, too. Sounds interesting! And since there's a store discount involved, I'll definitely be checking that out!

Still not sure whether Hero Factory parts will be added to DesignByMe mode of LEGO Digital Designer-- after all, it's not quite necessary if Hero Recon Team has its own online design function separate from LDD. But the store calendar also reminds me that since Hero Recon Team will probably be packaged in the same place as DbM purchases and Pick-A-Brick orders, that means that online Pick-A-Brick might be available (in addition to the now-promised in-store Pick-A-Brick). Depending on whether the exclusive co-injected silver and black chest piece is included in either type of Pick-A-Brick, that piece might become a lot more accessible.

On a side note, that last parenthetical digression in the last paragraph has waaaay too many hyphens.

Just over one month away, now! I can't wait!

[VBBN]

New comic was okay, better than the first few. Any yeah the ending was pretty Nuva esque. Fire lords eyes were really creepy

[Antrozek]

hnnng I need scans

[prateek]

Apparently Lego is going to start putting Hero Factory parts in their PaB wall in the stores, according to the April 2011 calendar.

[Aethersprite]

Any news on when Ordeal of Fire will start airing?

[Brickthing]

Any news on when Ordeal of Fire will start airing?

Nope - I read that it hasn't even been finished yet, if it's being completed at all. So far all suspected airing dates have shown the first series instead.