Hero Factory 2011

[Bfahome]

I don't keep my sets in their boxes. I keep them on the floor in tubs and the loose parts in drawers. Helps consolidate things. Also yay for less unnecessary packaging.

[Zip]

He said SAVE for Star Wars and Hero Factory... Seriously I wish people would read things properly, unless you're referring to other summer sets. Also, out of curiosity, are you sure they had the new Ninjago sets?

The Ninjago section was way too crowded for me to get a good look at. I do remember seeing a few glimpses of some battle arena/tower sets that i haven't seen before, but they're probably just hard-to-find items that are available now.

[Mesonak]

Found larger box art of the summer villains on Amazon, including Witch Doctor.

Instead of linking to them all here, I've compiled the transparent CGI images here and the finalized box art here.

Now all that's left is the heroes' canisters.

-Mesonak

Edited May 10, 2011 by Mesonak

[Aanchir]

Found larger box art of the summer villains on Amazon, including Witch Doctor.

Instead of linking to them all here, I've compiled the transparent CGI images here and the finalized box art here.

Now all that's left is the heroes' canisters.

-Mesonak

Interestingly, the bad guy boxes tend to show more than one of the same set, suggesting that these monsters are indeed entire species rather than being unique.

Still not happy with Waspix's feet. We're so close to being free of the old-style joint! And furthermore, there's that one style of Ben 10 foot that hasn't been used since said theme. In my opinion it might have worked equally well to the Av-Matoran foot.

Also, Raw-Jaw's Quaza spike seems silver at the tip. This might just be a bad render (like how some of Witch Doctor's parts aren't actually connected), or it might be evidence of the first ever three-color co-injected part. Given that the CGI pic only has two colors, I'm leaning toward "bad render". But in any event, Raw-Jaw remains my favorite "bad guy" set from the next wave.

Lastly, the backgrounds to that box art are amazing. Someone at Advance deserves a pat on the back!

Edited May 10, 2011 by Aanchir

[CabooseBM]

I really hope they get rid of canisters soon.

Pure waste of plastic, those.

EDIT: Admittedly, they are good at catching the eye. But I already know I'm going to buy all of them, so still useless to me.

Edited May 10, 2011 by CabooseBM

[Zarkan]

Crap, so they decided to keep the tiny Witch Doctor staff instead of the much larger (and cooler) one on the prototype box art. Oh well, he still looks like a decent set, even if some of his minions are much cooler.

[perplexingArticulator]

I for one see a reasonable idea in returning to the compromise used by the Av-Matoran and Agori packaging - cardboard 'canister' bodies with plastic cap and base. As far as one can like packaging, I quite liked those - still different and somewhat eyecatching, yet conservative on the plastic. Or were they somehow even worse than canisters in terms of efficiency/costliness?

[Omicron Squad Leader]

Found larger box art of the summer villains on Amazon, including Witch Doctor.

Instead of linking to them all here, I've compiled the transparent CGI images here and the finalized box art here.

Now all that's left is the heroes' canisters.

-Mesonak

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/JNBproductions/Art/furno_3.0_can.png

A little small, but there you go.

Edited May 11, 2011 by KielDaMan
Removed Confidential image.

[Jagersmann]

C'mon they are just awesome, even with all that CGI they are even better. Hahaha Have you already found the mistakes in the art of the boxes?

[Aethersprite]

Thanks for the pics! If you look at Witch Doctor's boxart, there's a yellow Raw-Jaw to his left. Hmm...

[Antrozek]

some raw jaw wowowowo

Im so getting this guy

[krystalKING]

I can see witch doctor in rocka XL's background,maybe he corrupted her? (I view rocka as female.)

[Jetrax99]

I can see witch doctor in rocka XL's background,maybe he corrupted her? (I view rocka as female.)

Nope, Rocka's actually confronting Witch Doctor in his lair. Witch Doctor will most likely lose to HIM.

[Aanchir]

It'd be OK for Rocka to be a girl, but frankly the set makes more sense as a guy to me since the helmet/headdress resembles a male lion. Could be just a female character with a "masculine" personality, but that would be way too heavy symbolism for a kid's plastic toy.

As much of a shame as it is, there simply don't seem to be any females in the next wave of HF. But then again, that was the same as pretty much every BIONICLE "villain wave" up until Gorast first showed up. So as much as I hate the gender imbalance, we're not actually moving backward unless 2012 turns this into a trend. In my personal opinion, a bigger problem with the next wave of Hero Factory is the color imbalance. I'm very disappointed that Scorpio is the only set with a "cool" primary color, and that warm and neutral colors dominate most of the designs. Then again, I was a big fan of the vibrant and systematic color schemes of the 2.0 heroes, and Stringer and Bulk couldn't really have come back without messing that up.

[Cap'n Kopaka]

I like to think that Rocka is more of a lioness than a lion despite the mane-type thing. I mean, isn't the name "Rocka" counterintuitive to English speakers at least? When I hear the name I immediately think female because of the fact that it takes "Rock" and adds the "-a" suffix.

Ah, I suppose we don't have very long to wait anyways >3<

Also I'm hoping the villains are named versions of members of the species, rather than those being the species names. Judging from stuff like Fangz and Raw-Jaw instead of, like, Saberwolf and Flame Ape or something, though, I'm guessing we're getting individual villains.

[Aanchir]

I like to think that Rocka is more of a lioness than a lion despite the mane-type thing. I mean, isn't the name "Rocka" counterintuitive to English speakers at least? When I hear the name I immediately think female because of the fact that it takes "Rock" and adds the "-a" suffix.

Ah, I suppose we don't have very long to wait anyways >3<

Also I'm hoping the villains are named versions of members of the species, rather than those being the species names. Judging from stuff like Fangz and Raw-Jaw instead of, like, Saberwolf and Flame Ape or something, though, I'm guessing we're getting individual villains.

The use of "a" for feminine names and words is Latin in origin, and actually occurs in a lot of languages more often than it does in English (let me also take the opportunity to say that it was a formation I generally hated in BIONICLE names unless the original name was from Latin or another romance language-- far too many fan characters had female names that ended in "a" for no reason). But personally, that's not the impression I get from the name Rocka at all. Instead, it reminds me of the word "rocker" with the end slightly corrupted, much like "gangsta". It doesn't at all strike me as a feminine name, and in fact the consonant and vowel sounds make it seem harsh and masculine to me. But those sorts of impressions are really subjective.

EDIT: On a side note, I wonder what Rocka's first name will be (assuming Rocka is, in fact, a last name in the same way as Nex and Evo).

You do have a good point that some of the names like Fangz would be extremely weird as species names. I can't easily picture a character saying, "Look out! A Fangz!"

Edited May 11, 2011 by Aanchir

[CabooseBM]

I can't easily picture a character saying, "Look out! A Fangz!"

Given the quality of the Hero Factory TV writing, I can.

[averick]

did any one notices that theirs a yellow version of raw-jaw on witchdoctors box.

[Aethersprite]

did any one notices that theirs a yellow version of raw-jaw on witchdoctors box.

Yeah, I mentioned it in my post on the previous page.

Not sure if it's just the CGI, but Rocka XL's legs suddenly look HUGE relative to his body. Maybe it's just me

[Aanchir]

Given the quality of the Hero Factory TV writing, I can.

Have you seen the latest one? I haven't, and I'm curious if the writing is as bad as the original four-part miniseries. The scenes from it that showed up on LEGO.com seem a lot more impressive emotionally than any scenes from the first four episodes, but then again since all of these scenes are from a single 30-minute episode they could easily be squished together to the point of meaninglessness in the actual thing.

[averick]

Yeah, I mentioned it in my post on the previous page.

Not sure if it's just the CGI, but Rocka XL's legs suddenly look HUGE relative to his body. Maybe it's just me

sorry i dident mean to post what u posted:( and i don't really see what u mean rocka legs look fine to me

[Jagersmann]

So, this set "Scorpio" has caught my eye. I don't know, but only I can say that the body building is really cool, and the whole structure is pretty strong. I know what are you going to say, but there are only a few pieces missing, but the basic building is this. Check it out! Sorry I can't upload the LXF file, you cand find it in my Brickshelf gallery: My link

Edited May 12, 2011 by Jagersmann

[Aanchir]

So, this set "Scorpio" has caught my eye. I don't know, but only I can say that the body building is really cool, and the whole structure is pretty strong. I know what are you going to say, but there are only a few pieces missing, but the basic building is this. Check it out! Sorry I can't upload the LXF file, you cand find it in my Brickshelf gallery: My link

Looking at this model greatly improves my appreciation of Scorpio, but that's in part because there's a major error. Between the two pairs of legs with silver cladding on the feet, the real set has two tiny and inconsistently-designed legs that almost look vestigial. You can make out the foot of one of them here. These two legs have black foot cladding instead of silver, and if the earlier preliminary picture at Gizmodo is to be believed, have bright yellowish green leg cladding instead of black. This eliminates any sort of consistency in the leg designs, severely diminishing my appreciation of the set.

Also, I believe the angle connectors on Scorpio's head ought to be number 5 (112.5 degrees) rather than number four (135 degrees).

Edited May 12, 2011 by Aanchir

[CabooseBM]

Have you seen the latest one? I haven't, and I'm curious if the writing is as bad as the original four-part miniseries. The scenes from it that showed up on LEGO.com seem a lot more impressive emotionally than any scenes from the first four episodes, but then again since all of these scenes are from a single 30-minute episode they could easily be squished together to the point of meaninglessness in the actual thing.

It's about the same level as writing, really.

Which is a damn shame, because almost all the other parts of the show are really nicely done.

[Darkness Falls]

I think Waspix might be the first lego figure I ever by multiples of- but I'll reserve that statement for when I actually get one.