Hero Factory 2013

[Vinyl Scratch]

I am actually surprised people hating Scarox. Personally he looks sweet.

Also I just noticed Pyrox has a nose ring.

[Dorek]

name='Aanchir' timestamp='1350353189' post='1409917']

Scarox and Waspix both are bug-like villains with four arms, which is still more of a resemblance than I can see anywhere on Pyrox-- unless you're talking about the helmets only (and looking at the pic of the bag rather than at the out-of-package pic where the difference in the helmet is obvious), in which case I can maybe see where you got confused? It seems like overkill to call one set a rip-off of another based on the helmet alone, though, when the rest of the sets have almost no resemblance to one another.

Anyway, even looking at the packaging pic and ignoring the lower jaw, Pyrox looks much more like Malum than Waspix IMO. Same color scheme, eye shape, and twin horn motif. Personally, I love Pyrox's weapon. It's not huge, but it's unique-looking and the design feels very energetic. His color scheme doesn't seem too inconsistent to me either, but then, I felt the same way about Voltix.

I'm talking about face only. The way I saw it, the helmet looked like a barely modified copy of Waspix's, although closer examination reveals it to be much more awesome. Scarox and Waspix are both four armed, but that's the only resemblance I see between them.

Voltix's color scheme was inconsistent, but well layered. I suppose Pyrox has the opposite problem; the colors all match, but there's no real attempt to make them match well.

Pyrox's weapon is aight, but much like Bulk's, it doesn't feel fleshed out enough. Just seems like a gimpy copy of the Roodaka/Keetongu weapon, minus the functionality. The whole thing might feel a bit more put-together in different angles, or maybe Pyrox just has a really awesome face and not much else.[/b]

Edited October 16, 2012 by Dorek

[Ceroknight]

Not the biggest fan of the Heroes, their helmet..

Furno XL...doesn't work for me..but the cape will come useful...

The villains look alright though..

[DraikNova]

I am actually surprised people hating Scarox. Personally he looks sweet.

Same here.

Pyrox's weapon is aight, but much like Bulk's, it doesn't feel fleshed out enough. Just seems like a gimpy copy of the Roodaka/Keetongu weapon, minus the functionality. The whole thing might feel a bit more put-together in different angles, or maybe Pyrox just has a really awesome face and not much else.

I agree.

In a way, Scarox is this year's Voltix. In my opinion both a great design and parts pack, but generally considered horrible. The same thing goes for Pyrox and Core Hunter.

[TheRedGuy]

Is is me, or is Pyrox's claws transparent?

[Dorek]

I believe they are, same as Scarox's "fangs".

[Shakar]

In a way, Scarox is this year's Voltix. In my opinion both a great design and parts pack, but generally considered horrible. The same thing goes for Pyrox and Core Hunter.

Voltix, however, does have a more coherent and clever design, despite some minor flaws (black feet/back, no hands). Scarox's torso looks like a stuffy Technic-fest, which issototally against HF's spirit and aesthetics.

Many people who hated Voltix (personally, I never did) like him now: IMO that's because his apparently chaotic colour scheme required, at least for some people, a closer, in hand inspection in order to be appreciated. But Scarox's flaws (stumpy arms, awkward torso) are clear and hard to excuse....even more so if you think of the brilliance this year's 9 Euro villains showed.

Speaking of colour schemes, I've been thinking of the ones of the Heroes, and I think I realized one thing. Breakout Heroes, unlike the 2.0/3.0 Heroes, didn't follow the same scheme of colour distribution, each of them did their own thing (going from Heroes with few colours like Evo, to colourful ones like Bulk). The 2013 Heroes, however, do follow one plan: that is, they somewhat tried to imitate the 2011 Heroes:

2011 Heroes: solid primary (armour) colour+solid secondary (core/eyes) colour+tertiary (torso+headgear and weapons, in most cases) colour, either metallic silver (ie Furno), titanium metallic (ie Rocka), or white (Surge, with silver headgear, and Nex, with titanium metallic headgear).

2013 Heroes: solid primary (armour+Furno and Rocka's helmet) colour+transparent secondary (visor+some armour) colour+tertiary (torso+weapons+some armour pieces) colour, either metallic silver (Furno and Breez), titanium metallic (Rocka and Bulk).

So, it's mainly the idea of dividing between silver and t. metallic seems that seems pretty common to both lines to me. Of course, 2011 Heroes (especially the 2.0) showed far more consistency. 2013 Heroes don't abide to their scheme at the same level: Breez's helmet is silver and she has a random t. metallic shoulder pad, Bulk has silver feet and orange hand(s?), Rocka does seem to have some silver...and Furno just can't decide between silver and t.metallic.

Surge and Nex, who showed white in 2011, have yet to appear and might display a recoloured white torso if they return in summer along the other 3. Nex is more likely to do that due to his Breakout form, whereas Surge might not since his Breakout form dropped white.

I do have a few more predictions about the Summer wave based on the Winter line, but I think it's a bit too early to post them...right? If anybody is curious to read them I'll post them however. Anyway, I just wanted to share some analysis about the new Heroes. I hope I didn't bore anyone.

There's one cool thing I wanted to do with the text but I didn't manage to. I've yet to get fully used to the new reply style...

Edited October 16, 2012 by Shakar

[DraikNova]

I hope 2013 summer features a new hero. Preferably with a similar amount of trans as the winter wave sets, plus the long-awaited recoloured Hex Shield.

[Aanchir]

Voltix, however, does have a more coherent and clever design, despite some minor flaws (black feet/back, no hands). Scarox's torso looks like a stuffy Technic-fest, which issototally against HF's spirit and aesthetics.

Many people who hated Voltix (personally, I never did) like him now: IMO that's because his apparently chaotic colour scheme required, at least for some people, a closer, in hand inspection in order to be appreciated. But Scarox's flaws (stumpy arms, awkward torso) are clear and hard to excuse....even more so if you think of the brilliance this year's 9 Euro villains showed.

Agreed on this point, though I think it is worth noting that opinions on Scarox could change if it becomes apparent that the Technic mess on his back serves some purpose other than a clumsy way to create attachment points for his extra limbs. Perhaps somehow it allows his extra limbs to fold back behind his body like Brutaka's fold-out blades (doubtful, but possible). The main reason I dislike his design is that the Technic seems superfluous, and additionally it seems very much as if corners were cut in the rest of his design (i.e. reduced length and articulation in his arms, reduced armor on his legs, just to allow for this pointless complexity. I know a lot of people like Technic connections, and on sets like Witch Doctor it can work well, but complexity for complexity's sake is no substitute for genuinely thoughtful builds.

As for Scarox's value as a parts pack, I can't see much of anything interesting on him besides the 4M warm gold shells, warm gold blades, and Tr. Fluor. Green claws. So even in that respect he feels inferior to XT4 who had rare 7M "B" beams, a new torso beam, feet that were new in bright yellow, and a saw blade that was new in silver metallic.

Overall I very much want to believe there's some hidden value in Scarox's design, because currently the helmet and recolored parts are the only things that makes him remotely interesting to me, and his flaws seem inexplicable. But I'm just not seeing any reason why the designers would create a set where any really thoughtful design elements would be hidden behind clumsy proportions and seemingly thoughtless connection methods. Perhaps it's just bad photography, but if so it really sets a new low for Hero Factory packaging and promotional images.

[Antrozek]

a bit out of topic, but do we have any news on the "summer" episode of HF? I need my dose of animated D.Bulk

[Jetrax99]

a bit out of topic, but do we have any news on the "summer" episode of HF? I need my dose of animated D.Bulk

Nope. Nothing yet. Probably never will.

[Shakar]

Since we got the Savage Planet episode in late September and we've yet to hear anything about this one..looks like we're not getting it this time.

[Dorek]

Maybe there never was one, and it was all a hoax.

[Jetrax99]

Maybe there never was one, and it was all a hoax.

Yes!

[Kalhiki]

Hm. I didn't realize at first, but Ogrum as tusks.

In all honesty, some of the figures I previously didn't really like are starting to grow on me. Bulk, Ogrum, and Scarox aren't so bad.

Kalhiki

[Cirkit]

I hope it wasn't a hoax- I want to see Breez, Matt Thornraxx, and Core Hunter in action!

Orgum has tusks.. what is the point of that I wonder?

Wonder what Stormer's role will be in the 'Brain Attack'? Will he be corrupted with a brain slug, or back in XL form again?

Oh, and Bulk needs more Bulk, even if just another shoulder pad, and Breez needs less silver and more red accents.. Nuff said.

[Aethersprite]

Has it been confirmed that Legends of Chima will have HF style figures? If so, that's another thing to look forward to.

[Gatanui]

Yes!

I'm quite sure the summer episode of this year has always been a hoax.

-Gata

[Jetrax99]

I wonder if they'll do something with time travel in the future. *listening to Doctor Who theme*

Also, in regards to Stormers role this year, honestly, I wanna see them kill him off.

Replace him with a new hero.

[Shakar]

I hope it wasn't a hoax- I want to see Breez, Matt Thornraxx, and Core Hunter in action!

Orgum has tusks.. what is the point of that I wonder?

Wonder what Stormer's role will be in the 'Brain Attack'? Will he be corrupted with a brain slug, or back in XL form again?

Oh, and Bulk needs more Bulk, even if just another shoulder pad, and Breez needs less silver and more red accents.. Nuff said.

To make him more evil? Ogrum, like his name suggests, seems to be inspired by folktale ogres. As I said earlier, he's strikingly similar to oni, which are pretty much the Japanese version of ogres and are very often drawn with a big spiked club and large white tusks.

We don't know anything about the slugs yet ("Brain Attack" does seem to suggest a parasite nature on their part, however), but I'm not sure if I'd like Stormer to be corrupted again. Another Hero would be interesting, though.

As for his set form, I don't think he'll be an XL since there seems to be only one per year and he was one this year- I think the large Summer set will be the bad guys' leader (make the Queen, Lego, the Queen! ) and Stormer will be a 13 Euro Hero like Breakout Furno.

Has it been confirmed that Legends of Chima will have HF style figures? If so, that's another thing to look forward to.

I hope so. How come we have no pictures of the sets BTW? Isn't LoC to debut in Winter?

I hope 2013 summer features a new hero. Preferably with a similar amount of trans as the winter wave sets, plus the long-awaited recoloured Hex Shield.

I think we lost the chance to get a 10th Hero at this point. Summer 2012 was the perfect chance to do it, but now..

Assuming that:

1)HF continues in Summer (it better be, I don't want another Exo Force ending )

2)They don't ax any of the other 5 Heroes

3)They keep following the "1 Hero vs 1 Villain" scheme they introduced with Breakout and they're following in Winter 2013.

We'd get 6 Heroes and 6 Villains= a 12 sets HF wave, which is something Lego seems no longer willing to do..

[Mr. Gundam]

*Looks back at the bag photos*

O no you might be right, Gatanui

I want to know, Shakar.

Messing with LDD gave me a rough idea on Bruiser long arm. If you use two Beam 8 5M Ball/CUP piece (one for the design shell 5x7; other for Shell 3M). you'll have enough space to get the look right. Not sure if you want me to take a picture. The Angle of the picture does no justice for guessing.

Just to shoot out some idea's for the summer, I'm expecting the same models like breez,bulk, and rocka. Don't think their add a new hero since they line up all the good guys last year.

DraikNova you brought good point. Why didn't they build back the hex shield??? We're familiar with it, don't have to make recolors, same purpose as new shield, and only need three pieces. O well, Bad guys still awesome can't wait for Orgum

Huh? Legends of Chima will have HF style figures. Will they make new pieces??

[Aanchir]

DraikNova you brought good point. Why didn't they build back the hex shield??? We're familiar with it, don't have to make recolors, same purpose as new shield, and only need three pieces.

Perhaps because they were trying to go for a very new and different aesthetic for the 2013 sets so they didn't feel redundant. Thus, circular shields for most of the Heroes.

Granted, the only "new shield" is Furno's, and the Hex Energy Shield would be very small on him. Breez uses the saw blade piece from XT4 and various System sets, and Bulk and Rocka both use the shield from the ultrabuild Captain America set.

[Aethersprite]

I'm sure we'll see Furno's shield piece reused for the summer, maybe in Stormer. I do hope we see some cool unique vehicles, like the Bionicle ones in 2008/2009.

[Aanchir]

I'm sure we'll see Furno's shield piece reused for the summer, maybe in Stormer. I do hope we see some cool unique vehicles, like the Bionicle ones in 2008/2009.

The 2008/2009 BIONICLE vehicles were pretty great, but I'd personally rather see things like the 2010 Hero Factory vehicles. Which isn't to say I want to see more bikes, but I'd like to see some things that fit into more conventional sci-fi like a hovercar (or just a HF-style car for that matter), more varieties of spacecraft, etc. A mech of some kind would also not be a bad thing, although the problem with that (as demonstrated by the Exo-Toa) is that a moderately-sized mech tends to require its pilot to have a fairly generic build.

[Jetrax99]

The 2008/2009 BIONICLE vehicles were pretty great, but I'd personally rather see things like the 2010 Hero Factory vehicles. Which isn't to say I want to see more bikes, but I'd like to see some things that fit into more conventional sci-fi like a hovercar (or just a HF-style car for that matter), more varieties of spacecraft, etc. A mech of some kind would also not be a bad thing, although the problem with that (as demonstrated by the Exo-Toa) is that a moderately-sized mech tends to require its pilot to have a fairly generic build.

Ahem. http://ignikamarcus.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d5grkdl

I made this in LDD.