Hero Factory 2012

[Shakar]

So, I ended up getting XT4 yesterday. I quite like him, tough I didn't like the assymetrical placement of the weapons, so I switched out the upper right arm with the lower one (the claw+laser arm). And I didn't like the tubes sticking out of the stomach, so I solved it by connecting them to a ball socket I attached to the middle ball joint of the Waspix bone.

Finally, I gave him a narrow shoulders medium size torso: not that I disliked his look, but the new small torso was a bit "wasted" on him. I really wanted to have one readily available.

Which brings me to the main reason I wanted XT4 so much. My, the new small torso. The pics just don't do it justice, nor can my words describe just how cool it is. It's just fantastic. Like, "I want a dozen of them" fantastic. This is THE ultimate small torso, far superior to any attempt shown by Lego so far. It's small and full of holes- in other words, crazy versatile. I can't believe they finally made this.

[DraikNova]

You're right. Using it you can even make a MOC with twelve arms!

[exxtrooper]

Don't know if this is the right topic for this, but does anyone know when the summer sets pieces will be available on Pick-A-Brick? I'd really want to get lots of the purple pieces from Voltix.

[Shakar]

IIRC, Savage Planet parts started to appear on PaB in late September.

I hope they add the new Breakout II parts, and hopefully Ultrabuild Super Heroes parts too. I want lots of friction sockets, hole-ball-hole liftarms and double C socket joints. And a few XT4 torsos of course.

Speaking of PaB, I bought another black/green Breeze katana (from Black Phantom's weapon), once again the blade was lime green instead of bright green.

Edited September 9, 2012 by Shakar

[DraikNova]

I too hope they add those parts. I want to order a Voltix's purple chestplate and a golden "Villain Core" to add to the sides of my SD bike.

[Rocketbilly]

I too hope they add those parts. I want to order a Voltix's purple chestplate and a golden "Villain Core" to add to the sides of my SD bike.

That would look awesome!

I'm going to get Speeda Demon soon, I can't wait.

[gundamsandwich]

That would look awesome!

I'm going to get Speeda Demon soon, I can't wait.

Where are you getting him from? I ordered him from Lego shop at home as that seems to be the only place in the uk where he can be bought for retail price.

[DraikNova]

I'm probably going to go to Germany, where they have him relatively cheap.

[Rocketbilly]

Where are you getting him from? I ordered him from Lego shop at home as that seems to be the only place in the uk where he can be bought for retail price.

He's at Tesco too.

I think I was right when I predicted he'd be a Tesco exclusive since that seems to be the only place besides Shop at Home where you can find him.

[DraikNova]

Weird. When I was in Germany I saw him in both toy stores, one of them called Karstadt and the other a LEGO brand store.

[Gatanui]

Weird. When I was in Germany I saw him in both toy stores, one of them called Karstadt and the other a LEGO brand store.

He's available everywhere here, or at least I have seen him in all stores I've checked that have Hero Factory sets.

-Gata

Edited September 11, 2012 by Gatanui

[DraikNova]

However, in the Netherlands, I´ve not seen one store that has him. He´s not even in the catalog.

Edited September 11, 2012 by DraikNova

[Rocketbilly]

However, in the Netherlands, I´ve not seen one store that has him. He´s not even in the catalog.

Odd! by "the catalogue" do you mean the offical LEGO one?

[Gatanui]

He's not on the Dutch S@H website either. As I said several pages back, my guess is that the Furno Bike didn't sell well enough in the Netherlands so they decided not to sell Speeda Demon there. He doesn't even appear on the Dutch HF website products section. Same happened here with the Drop Ship, actually.

EDIT: It appears Belgium and Luxemburg have the same issue.

-Gata

Edited September 11, 2012 by Gatanui

[Aanchir]

Hey there, guys. Haven't been on here since I got up to my new college a few weeks ago, but just wanted to share my thoughts on Hero Factory Secret Mission #1: The Doom Box, which I picked up the other day.

In general I think this book series should have everything that people disappointed with the Hero Factory TV series have been wanting. Based on what I've seen in this first book, it adds a lot of depth to the universe. New planets are introduced that are extremely distinct from those we've seen before (for instance, a bank planet), the adventures pick up some of the detective story and police procedural elements that have been largely absent in the show, and we even get some character development and backstory for characters who have had very little of it in the show. Characterization is generally good. For instance, Bulk, while he still has a reputation as a dullard, is shown to be quite competent in knowing when to think things through and when to go at it with brute strength before his foe can react. It's not so much that he's always methodical as that he knows when it's in his best interest not to be.

Now, as for its faults, I think its biggest fault is trying to work in too many characters. While Core Hunter is the only major villain in the story (sadly, this story does not incorporate the other villain sets this year left out of the Breakout episode, though they are mentioned to be still on the loose at the beginning), every hero character featured this year makes an appearance in some capacity. And IMO, this leads to the attention being divided up too much between the characters. Nex and Evo are only featured very briefly, filling a role that Zib could have just as easily performed, and although Surge gets character development, it ends up feeling shoehorned in since his role in the story is no more important than any of the other heroes for most of the story.

By the way, on a cosmetic note, the cover looks quite stylish. I know some people feel it looks a bit too much like a kids' book (which, to be fair, it is), but IRL the letters of the "Hero Factory" text on the side are chrome-colored which makes it feel more refined than a lot of kids' chapter books for merchandise-driven franchises. It's definitely every bit as exciting as the BIONICLE books were.

In general, though, I had a positive impression of the book and look forward to more. The next one is going to be a prequel arc involving the formation of Alpha 1 Team under the leadership of team leader Thresher, and based on the preview in the back of this book will go into some depth about Hero Factory's role in the universe, as well as why villains seem to be a dime a dozen. And I hope it's to the same level of quality as this book.

[DraikNova]

Odd! by "the catalogue" do you mean the offical LEGO one?

Yes.

Interesting, are there any more spoilers you could reveal about the story?

[Aanchir]

Well I think I just found the weirdest thing. Yes, it's an official LEGO project (much like the Hero Factory video project earlier this year), but it's still downright bizarre.

On the other hand, looking at Cleatus there I do have to agree that he looks like he'd fit in just fine in the Hero Factory story and design style. I have to offer my compliments to whoever at TLG saw that and had the initiative to get Fox Sports on board with a project like this. Hopefully there will be some quality submissions for this project that will meet the storytelling potential of this random-but-awesome idea.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Aanchir

[DraikNova]

He looks kinda like Stringer Breakout, but having never seen Fox tv, I can´t really judge if he would fit into HF.

Edited September 15, 2012 by DraikNova

[MakutaNocturn]

While he looks kinda like Stringer Breakout, I want to know what Cleatus is. I mean, is he a television show character?

It's a robot promotioning rugby.

[DraikNova]

Oh well, I guess in the HF universe he will promote Roboball.

[Gatanui]

Wow. This is simply weird. That robot should totally become a HF set, though.

-Gata

[Dorek]

Bizarre... but... okay, I guess?

[DraikNova]

If it means us getting more trans blue or solid blue cladding, I´m okay with it.

[Aanchir]

If it means us getting more trans blue or solid blue cladding, I´m okay with it.

It's just a fan video contest; it won't actually lead to any Hero Factory products except on the off chance that the winner is so inspiring that LEGO takes a dive and does a full co-promotion with all that that entails.

[Dorek]

Got Stormer XL. He's a pretty sweet set. Although I gotta say, I don't get why his back doesn't use the short torso; it wouldn't give him gorilla arms.