Superheroes 2012

[wildcat]

i want a hall of armor collection as minifigures

[K-Nut]

I like Iron-man and Green Lantern, but with the stuff coming out in 2012, (Superheroes, Star Wars, Dino) I probably won't get them. Batman is OK but Hulk is

[ZORK64]

But more than anything I want War Machine! It would just be a recolored Iron Man, but still!

Me too, although I'm not that much into the Iron Man Franchise, but simply because it would mean all those neat Iron Man pieces in silver.

[The Crazy One]

I really want these recoloured parts, but set wise I highly doubt this sets would ever be reassembled in my collection.

[RedStar]

Wait a sec. Do these pieces of crap replace HF this year? Or is it like Ben 10 + Bionicle?

[Aanchir]

Wait a sec. Do these pieces of crap replace HF this year? Or is it like Ben 10 + Bionicle?

We got confirmation from TLG at Brickfair that the Super Heroes constraction sets will coexist with Hero Factory.

Of course, that doesn't stop some people from wanting Hero Factory to end in place of these. I've seen some very desperate comments by BIONICLE fans on Facebook and other sites that "The Hero Factory line is being discontinued for this Super Heroes theme; this means BIONICLE could come back!" The logical gap in that sort of comment is glaringly obvious.

Meanwhile, what would be ideal for anyone who likes some of the parts in this series but doesn't like the sets themselves would be if the online Pick-A-Brick included some of these Super Heroes parts in its Spring update. I think the presence of Hero Factory parts in DesignByMe and Pick-A-Brick isn't going to end anytime soon, especially not with the success of Hero Recon Team, so it's always a possibility. But that's pretty far in the future to concern ourselves with at the present.

Edited August 24, 2011 by Aanchir

[Perry the Platypus]

Wow. Just wow. While the pieces are great recolors to use in Hero Factory MOCS, the sets don't appeal to me at all. I will probably only pick up Iron Man and Green Lantern. I swear, these don't even look LEGO. Iron Man so far looks the closest to his movie versions.

Edited August 30, 2011 by Perry the Platypus

[Aanchir]

Wow. Just wow. While the pieces are great recolors to use in Hero Factory MOCS, the sets don't appeal to me at all. I will probably only pick up Iron Man and Green Lantern. I swear, these don't even look LEGO. Iron Man so far looks the closest to his movie versions.

Careful, now-- that's what some people say about all BIONICLE/Hero Factory sets.

[RedStar]

Isn't it the time when new 2012 are supposed to be leaking? I hope there will be some new creative stuff like the 2011 heroes and the unique use of balljoints.

[Aanchir]

Isn't it the time when new 2012 are supposed to be leaking? I hope there will be some new creative stuff like the 2011 heroes and the unique use of balljoints.

Depends what you mean by "supposed to". Leaks are never supposed to happen, and while I appreciate the anticipation (I'd also like to see some images of what to expect next year) it's getting downright tedious reading pointless posts all over the place asking when pictures will show up. When they happen, they'll find their way here, just like they always do. Might be sooner or later than usual, but they're leaks. If they were predictable then companies would be able to stop them from happening in the first place.

Really, the Super Heroes action figure sets are some of the ones we have the least reason to be hoping for pics of. After all, we've already seen most of them. There are some cool pieces, like a 2M joint piece consisting simply of a socket and a ball. The ball is locked in place, meaning the real function of this isn't as a joint but as a lengthener for the beam pieces used in Hero Factory.

You can see this piece in the pics of Batman and Green Lantern in the first post (on their hips) It seems like a potentially useful piece, but it isn't used all that creatively here, and I'm sure we'll see more interesting uses of it in the Hero Factory theme.

That seems to be the most revolutionary element the Super Heroes theme is contributing. There are other new pieces in the Super Heroes sets, but most seem to be just different types of shell pieces or weapon pieces. There certainly won't be such a radical change in the building system as there was this year. Hopefully, though, TLG's designers will become more comfortable with the building system and will come up with new and creative ways to use it for Hero Factory set designs.

[LegoLegend8867]

you have got to be kidding me, this is gonna be ben10 all over again, but still cool lol

[VBBN]

you have got to be kidding me, this is gonna be ben10 all over again, but still cool lol

Ben ten was overpriced, with very little useful piece, a ton of reused molds, and even more simplistic than these. As parts packs, these have redeeming quality. Ben 10, did not.

[Vinyl Scratch]

I will surely get Iron Man.

So much glorious pieces recolors

[vexorian]

Ben ten was overpriced, with very little useful piece, a ton of reused molds, and even more simplistic than these. As parts packs, these have redeeming quality. Ben 10, did not.

Many Ben 10 parts were very resistant and very interesting. Some of them like the diamond things I even miss right now. And the most important ones were added to HF later. Their smooth feel was a good predecessor for HF and I have seen a great MoC using system and Ben 10 bricks to make a medieval Dragon that looks much better than LEGO's most recent tries at it.

Now Superheroes are way more compatible with HF (for better or worse (ie how they look too inorganic)). But I wouldn't make judgments about them being good parts packs yet. The main reason Ben 10 failed there was because they were too overpriced for you to purchase them for parts. And we still don't know what the price of the Super hero figures will be. I kind of fear that since they will be licensed sets and for a more popular concept than Ben 10, the prices may actually be as bad as Ben 10...

[Aanchir]

Many Ben 10 parts were very resistant and very interesting. Some of them like the diamond things I even miss right now. And the most important ones were added to HF later. Their smooth feel was a good predecessor for HF and I have seen a great MoC using system and Ben 10 bricks to make a medieval Dragon that looks much better than LEGO's most recent tries at it.

Now Superheroes are way more compatible with HF (for better or worse (ie how they look too inorganic)). But I wouldn't make judgments about them being good parts packs yet. The main reason Ben 10 failed there was because they were too overpriced for you to purchase them for parts. And we still don't know what the price of the Super hero figures will be. I kind of fear that since they will be licensed sets and for a more popular concept than Ben 10, the prices may actually be as bad as Ben 10...

Well, to be fair, while the overall price might still be bad, the price per piece might be better since these sets use several more reasonably-sized parts, as well as more reused molds in general. And since an AFOL is more likely to look at price per piece than overall price, these still might be able to be a lot more successful among AFOLs than Ben 10 was (being a much-simplified version of previous action figure themes rather than on par with them in complexity).

I agree that Ben 10 paved the way for current Hero Factory designs in a number of ways. It turned down Technic-based building in favor of ball joints and accessories with 3.2 mm bars. It was the first theme to implement new, sturdier ball joints in its part designs. And it had an aesthetic, much like the current Hero Factory sets, that could be compatible with System parts stylistically. As you mention, a brick-built dragon built with Ben 10 parts would fit in with minifigures a lot better than the BIONICLE-intensive Vikings dragons.

Now, with that said, this Super Hero theme's success overall depends not on the AFOL market but rather on whether children invest in it. And that will depend on whether the heavily-stylized characters satisfy them. It's not like the superhero action figure market has consistently failed in the past when it attempted to give characters improbable armor and weapons.

[ice dragon]

So Lego is now expanding it's borders to cover the superhero action figure collector, huh? While I like the concept, the sets just don't do it for me. If this line fails, I think it will be because the blockiness and overall aesthetic will alienate the action figure collector, and the overly stialized pieces will alienate Lego collectors.

[dviddy]

The biggest problem with Ben 10 is that it didn't advertise it's compatibility with BIONICLE. It made itself look like a self-contained building system, and while those of us in the community know it wasn't, the average consumer looking at Ben 10 toys didn't.

[vexorian]

So Lego is now expanding it's borders to cover the superhero action figure collector, huh?

Not at all. It is to expand its borders towards the market of buildable super hero figures. It actually has quite a following. The megabloks monstrosities that are as blocky but with more <insert that tiresome argument> designs turned out to do well in sales. So I think it may even be a request from Marvel/DC to do these sets.

[_shaddow_]

Wanna see all the Super Heroes sets ? Here you go :

http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Mr-Z/Temp/lego_itp_069.jpg

Was playing with the number in the link, and I found this. As you can see, each hero has the new extension piece on their tights, and cap has got new knee armors.

Enjoy !

[Mesonak]

Superheroes 2012

All the sets look roughly the same as their Comic-con incarnations. The Joker has purple armor; two size 3 armor plates, 2 size 5 armor plates, two of the Surge/Breez/Evo shoulder armor pieces, and two Ben 10 tails in glorious purple.

Also a trans-red engine piece.

Captain America is the definition of mediocrity.

EDIT: Haha, beaten

Edited September 13, 2011 by Mesonak

[ZORK64]

Captain America looks (aside from the head, something seems missing there...) quite good.

But Hulk has still silver shoulders. ZORK not happy about weird Hulk colours!

Though I'm also worried about the price tag, they're after all way more easy to bend in than Ben 10 was with Bionicle. Ben 10 looked stylewise completely different to Bionicle, but there weren't much sets to experiment with that new style (besides, all of them were blatantly overpriced). I'd actually like to see more of the Ben 10 pieces again in new colours (thus I'm happy that every once in a while a few Ben10 pieces get reused and recoloured for Hero Factory).

But I still want Lobo. XD

[Vinyl Scratch]

Joker looks decent.

But what the hay is going on with Captain America's arms and head? He looks like Stan Smith from American Dad.

[Mr. Gundam]

Hmm, There's a couple things I don't get by some of these designs...

I thought they were gonna use new 'shell T' piece on everyone, not just the Iron man and Joker. They did great job building joker's coat, but I can't understand why not making those for grey pieces purple as well(It was only four more! ) Probably, the same reason why Hulk still has Sliver back. I like the hulk design except the legs. Wish they chose thicker pieces and bigger feet. Captain America got those things sticking out the sides of his abdomen that comes over in front of the shoulders. Pretty Weird Looking

Overall, Iron man looks like he has the most new pieces. but I'm surprise by the amount of extra pieces used to create the sets. I wonder if this is to avoid the uniform look HF has? I tell you one thing, his does give me an impression on what the some of 4.0 Heroes who have a higher price than the others might look like.

[vexorian]

Everyone except Hulk look good/better. The Joker I don't know because it is hard to see exactly what's going on there.

With Hulk I am still hoping that silver is preliminary.

Edited September 13, 2011 by vexorian

[Aanchir]

Batman and Green Lantern look the best here. Joker looks good, but I can't say for sure whether he is because we haven't seen him from all angles. The Marvel figs all disappoint, and I'm not sure whether that's because they're still prototypes (and thus, not likely to be "near-finalized" character art) or because they're just not attractive. Hulk is OK still, even if the Titanium Metallic armor is inexplicable and he feels incomplete without fingers. But Captain America seems to be going for a more complex build than other "human" heroes, and I haven't the foggiest idea why.

I wonder if any of the "new" pieces here (for instance, the ones on Cap's knees, Hulk's chest, the various superhero torsos, or Joker and Iron Man's torsos) will show up in the Hero Factory theme. I think some of them would work great!

I'm sure the price of these will be high, and I'm not a huge comic book fan, so I doubt I'll invest in these. I'm not the silly kid I once was who would buy any set that had BIONICLE-compatible weapons in new colors! But I'm not too badly disappointed. Batman and Green Lantern in particular look like this building system was made for them.