Hero Factory 2012

[Vinyl Scratch]

I'm actually starting to like those new canisters

I'M STILL CALLING EM CANISTERS.

[Dorek]

Agreed, both points. I really would like to see some Mistika-esque vehicles, as those were some of the best Bionicle brought. Though, if TLG's stance on HF is anything to go by, it will probably be a Rocka Car.

Hey, as long as it's a good build, I'm okay with it; we haven't seen four-wheel builds yet in BIONICLE or HF (Kaxium doesn't count), so I could definitely get on board with that. The Furno Bike is a great set, and Drop Ship is definitely on my wish list (they go on eBay for like, 20 bucks, so I'm probably gonna get that one of these days) so I'd love to see their take on something four-wheeled. It would be a lot less anachronistic than anything in Ninjago =P.

Yeah, in the summer I think there will still be 5 "normal-sized" Heroes, but a titan-sized one too. (Probably not using the "XL" suffix.)

I'd actually be okay with XL as a moniker; it wasn't officially used with Rocka, so really it could just be used to denote any larger than average Hero. But yeah, we might see another one of them.

[Rocketbilly]

I was checking the 2012 listings on Amazon.fr and noticed that they've been updated with images of the packaging for all 10 sets!

We've already seen Evo, Rocka, Toxic Reapa and Black Phantom's, so I haven't included them.

The transparent cladding on Furno's shoulder looks odd to me. Since you can see through it, it looks like it's not really attached, and just floating there - or am I seeing things?

[Bfahome]

The transparent cladding on Furno's shoulder looks odd to me. Since you can see through it, it looks like it's not really attached, and just floating there - or am I seeing things?

Nah, that's a rendering error. It's one segment up from where it should be.

[Rocketbilly]

Nah, that's a rendering error. It's one segment up from where it should be.

Ahh I suspected so. Do you reckon they'll fix it before the sets are shipped out? It doesn't seem likely to me.

[Shakar]

Speaking of Furno, does anyone know what his left arm is supposed to represent (its function, weapon, etc)? That description in French talked about a "spear launcher", but I assume they referred to the minifig weapon piece mounted on the gun.

Also, the discussion above about his transparent cladding piece reminded me how much colours he has. Seriously- black, red, silver, white, yellow, transparent orange (that..is orange, right?) and transparent neon green...and that's not counting the dark bley spear, the Zamor sphere and the usual blue pins. The other Heroes have a limited number of colours, he instead is such a mess.

Edited November 20, 2011 by Shakar

[Darth Nihilus]

Speaking of Furno, does anyone know what his left arm is supposed to represent (its function, weapon, etc)? That description in French talked about a "spear launcher", but I assume they were referred to the minifig weapon piece mounted on the gun.

I think it's a harpoon launcher. Makes sense, him fighting a shark and all. Plus, almost every underwater them to date has had at least one harpoon launcher in it.

Also, the discussion above about his transparent cladding piece reminded me how much colours he has. Seriously- black, red, silver, white, yellow, transparent orange (that..is orange, right?) and transparent neon green...and that's not counting the dark bley spear, the Zamor sphere and the usual blue pins. The other Heroes have a limited number of colours, he instead is such a mess.

Agreed. He's even more of a mess than Surge, and that's saying something.

[Aanchir]

Ahh I suspected so. Do you reckon they'll fix it before the sets are shipped out? It doesn't seem likely to me.

I doubt it'll be fixed-- Surge 2.0 had the same problem in his official render.

I personally don't have much problem with the new Furno's color scheme other than thet transparent red/transparent fluorescente reddish-orange cladding. Eye color IMO doesn't factor into color scheme for the most part, especially since in his case it can just be treated as an approximation of the yellow on his torso print. Other than that he has red and a bunch of neutral colors.

[Brickthing]

Nah, that's a rendering error. It's one segment up from where it should be.

I don't know if I've ever heard official confirmation, but I'm fairly sure that the incorrect/impossible positioning of parts in box art CG is intentional in order to make the set look better in it's particular pose and angle. I wouldn't be surprised if Furno's right elbow can't bend that far in reality. There were frequently floating/overlapping pieces in BIONICLE box arts as well, particularly the magical bending Matoran limbs.

[Front]

I would like the box art to be as honest as possible. But doing things on a computer don't prevent that things can be positioned wrongly. Or so it seems.

On another note, you should all look forward to having heads in a colour not used before for that particular piece. It's my favorite transparent colour

[Omicron Squad Leader]

I would like the box art to be as honest as possible. But doing things on a computer don't prevent that things can be positioned wrongly. Or so it seems.

On another note, you should all look forward to having heads in a colour not used before for that particular piece. It's my favorite transparent colour

A new... Iron Man head?

[vexorian]

Speaking of poses. This one:

Makes Evo look much better. I wasn't going to get him until I saw him in that pose.

[Aethersprite]

Are there new pics for the other Heroes/villains? And yeah, Evo looks to be a great HF troop builder / sidekick for Rocka.

[Kalhiki]

I noticed something on Evo in that picture: The cladding on his upper right arm can't be positioned like that.

But still. Evo looks great. I'm not really sad to see the purple go because the gunmetal just works so well.

Kalhiki

[Aanchir]

I would like the box art to be as honest as possible. But doing things on a computer don't prevent that things can be positioned wrongly. Or so it seems.

On another note, you should all look forward to having heads in a colour not used before for that particular piece. It's my favorite transparent colour

Hmmm, that's a surprise. Not sure what to expect. I'm fond of how the eye/head colors tend to use fluorescent colors from the palette, and the three fluorescent colors currently on the palette have all already been used for that head piece (tr. flu. blue, tr. flu. reddish orange, and tr. flu. green).

It's possible for another eye color to look good-- just look at the Bohrok, Visorak, or Toa Metru, who used several non-fluorescent eye colors-- but it might not have that same glowiness that makes the eyes really shine. I suppose how good it looks might depend on how much light the helmet allows in based on its design.

[Brickthing]

Speaking of poses. This one:

Makes Evo look much better. I wasn't going to get him until I saw him in that pose.

Usually I'd pin it to the CGI messing with the colours, but could Evo's head be (Jaller) trans-orange instead of trans-neon orange?

[Rocketbilly]

Hmmm, that's a surprise. Not sure what to expect. I'm fond of how the eye/head colors tend to use fluorescent colors from the palette, and the three fluorescent colors currently on the palette have all already been used for that head piece (tr. flu. blue, tr. flu. reddish orange, and tr. flu. green).

It's possible for another eye color to look good-- just look at the Bohrok, Visorak, or Toa Metru, who used several non-fluorescent eye colors-- but it might not have that same glowiness that makes the eyes really shine. I suppose how good it looks might depend on how much light the helmet allows in based on its design.

What about tr. Bright Green? I think that would look good, though could possibly replace tr. fluore. Green

[Shakar]

Glatorian head in a new colour? GREAT news, thank you Front. A tr. yellow head would look great on Furno- sorry, I really dislike the neon green head+red helmet combo- but I guess the chances to get it are slim, since he clearly has green eyes in the official pics. I would love to see tr. purple (in the future, of course) or tr. bright green as well. Wait, what if Furno's head were in that colour? It's tr. green for sure, but the CGI makes hard to determine which type of green it is.

Edited November 20, 2011 by Shakar

[vexorian]

I would kind of prefer versions of the 1.0 helmets that fit the new heads. But oh well.

[Dorek]

New color? Scooooooore. This line actually has some awesome recolors. I can't wait until they start appearing in stores. Shouldn't be too long, now, only a few more weeks.

[dviddy]

Especially since other themes are starting to show up. I bought some 2012 Ninjago sets at Toys R Us this past week, and they had the new Dino stuff too. Should be real soon.

[King of Nynrah]

YES! New colour BIONICLE pieces in the 2012 range! I look forward to obtaining all the new colours of Glatorian head, Thornax launcher half, and PDG Vezon chain links. :D

[Omicron Squad Leader]

New color? Scooooooore. This line actually has some awesome recolors. I can't wait until they start appearing in stores. Shouldn't be too long, now, only a few more weeks.

I'd say a couple, well, for those of you in the US, I'll have to wait until late December here in the UK.

[Brickthing]

YES! New colour BIONICLE pieces in the 2012 range! I look forward to obtaining all the new colours of Glatorian head, Thornax launcher half, and PDG Vezon chain links. :D

I have to say though, as nice as the new Thornax launcher pieces are, it means that we only get one of the recoloured standard versions per set. There's a lot of asymmetry in the Heroes, but with the amount of nice pieces it might be worth getting doubles of each set.

[Shakar]

And March here in Italy. Luckily there's Ebay/S@H.. I should probably be able to buy a few of them for Christmas, if that German Ebay seller shows up like last year.