Hero Factory 2012

[Dorek]

It's just that many more characters you have to include in the TV episodes, y'know? With BIONICLE, not including characters in the comics was our biggest worry; they would find their way into the story somehow (and sometimes the reverse ocurred; Klakk was made an extremely important character in 2008, similar to Click in 09, because they wanted to sell Brickmaster subscriptions). With Hero Factory, you have to include all the Heroes and Villains, if only for a short while. They couldn't do it with Vapor for whatever reason (except as the briefest of cameos), so they probably decided it wasn't worth it.

Although it's still sad, since 2010 was when they had the most time to play around. The subsequent episodes seem to be proportional to the sets in the wave.

[averick]

I think i figured out something about Toxic Reapa's torso i have a feeling that his chest is connected by, that new extra arm joint we find on Waspix, i thinking that the head is probably connected to a regular ballcup then a small neck joint attaches to the middle ball on that pick then we have the 1 sized armor attached to the palls on the sides.

any way thats my theory

[Aanchir]

I think i figured out something about Toxic Reapa's torso i have a feeling that his chest is connected by, that new extra arm joint we find on Waspix, i thinking that the head is probably connected to a regular ballcup then a small neck joint attaches to the middle ball on that pick then we have the 1 sized armor attached to the palls on the sides.

any way thats my theory

I think that seems pretty likely. That was mostly what I was expecting as well.

Of course, since I don't have Waspix or Toxic Reapa, it's hard to get any feeling for how the torso as a whole will look. I certainly hope that it doesn't look too gappy from certain angles or anything...

[Kalhiki]

My main fear is that those armor pieces will be moving a lot. I like keeping my sets looking symmetrical when I can, so positioning those armor pieces so they're equal will be difficult.

Oh well, Reapa's amazing looking anyway, so I'm sure I'll be happy.

Kalhiki

[Rocketbilly]

Well, the 2012 sets for other themes are showing up on S&H now, as I'm sure many are aware, though I don't recall seeing the Hero Factory sets. Are they being released slightly later than others sets like before? or can we expect to see them when the site has finished its update?

[Omicron Squad Leader]

A few new images, some of you may have seen them already:

Evo 1

Evo 2

Evo 3

Toxic Reapa 1

Toxic Reapa 2

Toxic Reapa 3

Rocka 1

Rocka 2

Rocka 3

Black Phantom 1

Black Phantom 2

Black Phantom 3

Black Phantom 4

Edited November 10, 2011 by Omicron Squad Leader

[Mesonak]

Yeah, just saw those on BZP. I'm guessing none of the other sets' pictures are out yet? I was looking for Thornraxx and Splitface to no avail.

Black Phantom's upper torso worries me, and so Does Reapa's entire torso. But other than that, looking good so far.

-Mesonak

[Omicron Squad Leader]

I'm guessing none of the other sets' pictures are out yet? I was looking for Thornraxx and Splitface to no avail.

Nope, not yet; I think we'll have to wait until they appear on Shop@Home for the rest.

Black Phantom's upper torso worries me, and so Does Reapa's entire torso. But other than that, looking good so far.

I think it's pretty obvious now that Reapa uses a Waspix joint to accommodate two of the 3-long plates on his chest, as well as the bone piece used to attach his head. There is a separate bone underneath to attach the last 3-long. It does look a bit awkward, but I still love Reapa as a whole.

Edited November 10, 2011 by Omicron Squad Leader

[Darth Nihilus]

The first thought that came into my head when I saw these pictures is: God, Toxic Reapa is fat.

The second thought was: What are Game Points?

The third was: Man, Evo looks uglier than hell on the bag.

Overall, the best two sets of this wave look to be Rocka and Splitface. The rest, meh.

Edited November 10, 2011 by darthnihilius

[Aanchir]

Yeah, just saw those on BZP. I'm guessing none of the other sets' pictures are out yet? I was looking for Thornraxx and Splitface to no avail.

Black Phantom's upper torso worries me, and so Does Reapa's entire torso. But other than that, looking good so far.

-Mesonak

Just dug through files on LEGO's cache, and there are no images for those set numbers. I'm assuming these images, although probably taken from Brickset, are ultimately from cache.LEGO.com, even though it bothers me that the largest size I've been able to find at cache.LEGO.com is 840x630, smaller than the Brickset images. And the Brickset images for 2012 sets currently available are still smaller than those you can see with the zoom function on the shop.LEGO.com product pages!

Anyway, Toxic Reapa's torso looks like it might be gappy from some angles, but I've been saying this since pics first surfaced of that unconventional armor structure. Black Phantom looks excellent, even though his fourth image clearly shows off the continued flaws in Fire Lord's leg design. The blade at the end of his mace does look to be Transparent Fluorescent Green rather than straight Bright Yellowish Green. Of course I expect this will be a quality of the render only, and the piece itself will be the same material as William Furno's Dual Fire Shooter, and thus won't have that same glassy transparency.

The biggest news from these images, though, is from the packaging images. First, of course, is the confirmation that the packaging for the small and medium-sized sets is resealable. This is excellent news because it does away with any misgivings I might have had about canisters going away (assuming, of course, that the material is sturdy enough to be reused without tearing). We also have piece counts for some of the sets now. I, for one, am impressed. Hope images of the rest of the sets surface very soon!

[Rocketbilly]

Wow, these images make some of the sets look even more appealing - can't wait for reviews to show up, though - I really want to see the new set packaging!

Edited November 10, 2011 by Rocketbilly

[Bfahome]

Reapa doesn't look as good in that new image, but I'm thinking that's because he isn't hunched over or otherwise posed as I imagine him.

[Bundalings]

I don't get the zipper. I thought when the images were really low quality that was an actual zipper - now I see it's just... a picture of a zipper. ?

[Brickthing]

The biggest news from these images, though, is from the packaging images. First, of course, is the confirmation that the packaging for the small and medium-sized sets is resealable. This is excellent news because it does away with any misgivings I might have had about canisters going away (assuming, of course, that the material is sturdy enough to be reused without tearing).

Due to the display rack punch-outs on the top, I think that the packaging will be resealable in the way that soup sachets are resealable; there will be a zip-lock seal slightly higher than the LEGO logo, and you'll need to cut everything above that (the "zipper") off to open the set. If LEGO wanted these bags to have the same functions as canisters, they'd be canisters, not bags. Despite being resealable, they probably won't be able to hold the assembled sets well, or be very convenient for storage.

[Omicron Squad Leader]

I got the latest UK LEGO Club Magazine today and saw that on the "next issue" page there was a small picture of "Breakout" Furno in the Hero Factory bubble. This just seemed odd to me as I've never seen LEGO advertise future sets in picture form this early for Bionicle or Hero Factory, preview or not.

[Lyichir]

Due to the display rack punch-outs on the top, I think that the packaging will be resealable in the way that soup sachets are resealable; there will be a zip-lock seal slightly higher than the LEGO logo, and you'll need to cut everything above that (the "zipper") off to open the set. If LEGO wanted these bags to have the same functions as canisters, they'd be canisters, not bags. Despite being resealable, they probably won't be able to hold the assembled sets well, or be very convenient for storage.

If most of the joints are the new style, I wouldn't care as much about storage. Part of my past desire to store built sets was due to the fact that I feared disassembling or reassembling sets for fear of part breakage. With the newer, more durable joints I wouldn't have that issue.

[Bfahome]

Due to the display rack punch-outs on the top, I think that the packaging will be resealable in the way that soup sachets are resealable; there will be a zip-lock seal slightly higher than the LEGO logo, and you'll need to cut everything above that (the "zipper") off to open the set.

I'm not too sure about that. It looks like you can just open them from the top (it'll be glued or otherwise shut originally, or course) without cutting.

But there's not much to go on.

[Aanchir]

Due to the display rack punch-outs on the top, I think that the packaging will be resealable in the way that soup sachets are resealable; there will be a zip-lock seal slightly higher than the LEGO logo, and you'll need to cut everything above that (the "zipper") off to open the set. If LEGO wanted these bags to have the same functions as canisters, they'd be canisters, not bags. Despite being resealable, they probably won't be able to hold the assembled sets well, or be very convenient for storage.

I don't particularly care if a set has to be partially disassembled to fit in the package. If the package can be re-used to store the set in any form, then I'm generally satisfied with it. It's not like Hero Factory sets are particularly difficult to re-assemble anyway.

I think your assessment of how the packages open is also how I expect things to be, though. And I'm fine with that. It seems plenty convenient for the way I use my canisters, which is a place to keep the sets for storage or travel. I'd probably have been just as OK if TLG had introduced a similar "locking flap" box to those used for many extremely large sets (for instance, the Neptune Carrier), only at a smaller size.

[Dorek]

Fun new images. They're all looking pretty good, though Toxic Reapa does look a lot more gappish. Evo looks like a bamf. I'm okay with the new packaging style too, it'll be a lot easier to manage. Rocka still looks to be one of my favorites of the line, as does BP.

Evo appears not to have a right hand, though, which is odd.

[Kalhiki]

Still feel the same for them except for Reapa. Hope it's just poor posing.

Packaging is interesting. Can't wait to get my hands on the sets to see what it's like.

Kalhiki

[Aethersprite]

Wow. I love the way they designed the handcuffs such that 1) the Heroes can actually hold them (coupled with the way the hands are engineered), 2) there's a clip to attach to the Heroes' thighs, and most importantly 3) they can actually cuff arms together (but we'll see how this works out when we get more pics/reviews).

[Darth Nihilus]

Evo appears not to have a right hand, though, which is odd.

Toxic Reapa has no hands, which is, er, more odd. All he has are 3-long armors with green flame pieces on them.

[Bfahome]

Lack of hands doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

They are robots after all.

And it only makes Reapa look cooler.

[Aanchir]

Additionally, from what we've seen, this won't be a situation where like in the first and second waves hand pieces in certain colors will appear for the first time in sets that only contain one. The characters who have actual hand pieces either have two (i.e. Jawblade) or have hands in colors that have already appeared in previous waves. And for that matter, all hand colors seen so far appear on the online Pick-A-Brick, so you're not even forced to buy a set you didn't want in the first place just to get pieces you feel are "missing" from these upcoming designs.

I wonder what we can expect from the online Pick-A-Brick in upcoming waves, given that Design byME (which shares its palette) is going away in January. Naturally, Hero Factory parts are almost certainly here to stay since Hero Recon Team has been extremely successful and will be continued. We will likely even get new Hero Factory parts to tie in with future Hero Recon Team updates. However, since Pick-A-Brick may or may not still be limited by LDD functionality, I can easily imagine us getting things like sphere launchers on Pick-A-Brick if TLG has any intention of doing so.

[Dorek]

I get that it's normal not to see hands all the time, and that they are robots, but Evo has a left hand, and if I'm understanding the design of the new launcher piece right, there's no particular reason not to use a hand piece (as opposed to the generic Y joint he seems to use) on his right hand. I just think that it's an odd design choice. I'll probably equip him with regular hand, but we'll see.

As for PAB, I imagine that they'll still update that. It's a lot cheaper to get parts from there than from LDD, which is probably part of the reason they discontinued the models. Plus, they're also keeping Recon team, and if they intend to update that (which I assume they would) then we should get new parts. Not sure about the actual palette, but if they still have the budget for software updates, I can only hope that they'll add patches to the program itself.

Edited November 11, 2011 by Dorek