Hero Factory 2013

[Kalhiki]

I'm pretty sure remolds of the Glatorian heads are in the works. I'd imagine by the 2013 wave they'd be out.

Personally, and I've said this before, I'd like to see more 1.0 styled Heroes again. In other words, more detailed cladding. They did well with Breakout, but if there were pieces reminiscent of the 1.0 ankle guards and chest armor, I'd be even more happy.

What else... More involved builds would be cool. I'd also like to see a figure with waist/mid body articulation, whether it be Hero or Villain. And some new Hero Cores. Either color the most recent kind, or give us new transparent ones.

Oh, and a new Hero. At least one new one, and then keep a couple of the original Heroes.

Kalhiki

[Speedza-Demon]

I hope we get some more Glatorian Head colors. I'm sick of the Trans-Orange most of the current heads have, it sticks out like a sore thumb on Core Hunter and a few other sets! I would love for a real Translucent Red!

[Shakar]

I think the reason they don't use tr red is because it doesn't glow as well as the neon colours (like the tr reddish orange they use). Not that I wouldn't love to see it.

That said, I agree. 2012 brought a fourth colour, 2013 might as well bring a fifth one to the range. Aside from red I'd like tr yellow or tr purple.

Edited September 11, 2012 by Shakar

[lemmyfan396]

I also would love a new color,or a geen hero?

I also would love trans purple,or trans red...

[DraikNova]

For the next titan build, I think it should be something Kardas-sized with as much articulation as an average selfMOC. Most of all, I hope they return to the old hero core and head system.

[Bfahome]

I'm hoping for more variety of shell colors. I need the size 4 shell in lime.

[DraikNova]

And I want a size 5 shell in purple and the Hex Shield in trans purple or trans (light) blue.

[toatyger]

What I really want to see is some small imlulse buy sets like an araknix drone, or aset that is nothing but a hero cuff, hex shield, and cannon. They would be a good thing to put on shelves around christmas I think.

[Shakar]

We definitely need at least one more colour for the Hex shield- it's such a lovely piece. Some shade of Tr. Blue would probably be the best, as it would follow the sort-of-parallel between eye colour/shield colour Rocka and Breez estabilished. A blue shield on Stormer would look great and it would fit him.

And yes, we need 4M shells in more colours. They are tragically underused- they come in just 3 colours! It's a pity, they're so useful. Then there would be the 8M shells (Drilldozer/Waspix) but it seems the designers gave up on those..

Edited September 11, 2012 by Shakar

[Kalhiki]

An easy way to get a lot of Hex energy shields. I want to make a Stegosaurus with those.

And some more transparent shells.

Kalhiki

[The Dor]

I'm hoping for more variety of shell colors. I need the size 4 shell in lime.

This is exactly what I had expected out of the "new" system when it was introduced. A more system-like base for the action figures, wherein all the basic pieces came in a variety of colors. I've been so far disappointed by the current selection.

I'm also hoping for the return of 2.0/3.0 headpieces, since I feel that system worked quite well and would have loved to have seen it expanded upon. I would also love more pin-based accessories, such as the fire piece of 2.0 and the spiny shield piece of 3.0.

[TheRedGuy]

There is definitely going to be TMNT stuff and its based on the Nickelodeon franchise, there's Chima replacing Ninjago which is kinda like Avatar with humanoid animals, but there'll be fly wheel type things rather than spinners along with sets and Hero Factoryish figures, Star Wars has the Rancor pit which connects onto the bottom of Jabba's Palace from this year. There will be more Batman and Spiderman sets including DKR Batman chasing Bane in the Bat. Plus there's Iron Man 3 stuff set for release as well as Man Of Steel stuff. There's Hero Factory Brain something I've forgotten because Hero Factory bores me, but basically it looks like they have brain slug type things on their heads. There's more friends stuff with counter display bags. There's a pretty cool looking city set that's like a museum heist or some such thing that's a bit more detailed and aimed at the 6-12 bracket. I think that's everything interesting well everything that interested me, there's a little bit more Ninjago coming out to but that's the last of it no more spinners.

Source

Kraata?

[Aanchir]

Source

Kraata?

Not totally sure what to think of this claim because it could easily be referring to regular helmets in a prototype stage. Back in BIONICLE's infancy, before I was even involved in the online BIONICLE community, there were rumors about the organic-looking "Kranohi" (actually Kanohi Nuva). Similarly, I can remember how people complained about the "rubber masks" of the Toa Mahri and Mistika Toa Nuva shown at Toy Fair (actually just preliminary parts that came from a rapid-prototyping machine, much like our first glimpses of the Savage Planet characters' helmets).

SInce we seem to be getting closer to seeing actual preliminary images from retailers' catalogs, everyone ought to be wary about drawing conclusions before the sets are released. Don't forget that our first glimpses of the 2011 Hero and Villain sets were in an early prototype stage, with Evo's head and core depicted as blue in some pics and the villains having significantly different designs. And just last year, people complained about how terrible and gappy Black Phantom was in preliminary images, then celebrated the actual (largely unchanged set) for "fixing" problems that had only been a result of poor photo-editing in the first place.

The press guide distributed at Toy Fair this year had preliminary versions of this year's summer sets which were vastly different than the final sets in many ways. If images like that are the first to surface of next year's sets, then they will hardly tell us a thing about what to actually expect (besides some general ideas of what characters will be equipped with-- after all, the preliminary Stormer XL still had a sword, a gun, and scout drones despite having generic 2.0 torso armor and triple-jointed arms).

By the way, having read "The Doom Box", I think I can pretty much put to rest any rumors that there will be an episode based on it. In general the book, while excellent, simply does not mesh with the most important aspects (from a marketing and storytelling perspective) of the TV episodes. For instance, it only features one main antagonist-- Core Hunter-- though Splitface and Speeda Demon also make appearances in one scene, as prisoners rather than antagonists. Also, every hero on Alpha 1 Team is involved in the mission to stop Core Hunter. Thus the synopsis on IMDB is bogus, and probably written by someone who had only read descriptions of the book and not the book itself. I have no doubt that the other episode summaries following that one are just as fake.

If there is another TV episode, I imagine it will tell a brand-new story and not one from the Hero Factory Secret Mission series of chapter books, though it's possible there might be a novelization of a new episode if this year's Hero Factory books prove successful enough.

Edited September 12, 2012 by Aanchir

[DraikNova]

I want a pack with a Hex Shield, a Plasma Blaster and an Arachnix drone, all in one color. (for example, one pack would contain a trans-light blue Hex Shield, a solid blue plasma blaster with blue zamor and an Arachnix drone completely in blue, while another would have a trans-purple Hex Shield, a purple blaster with purple sphere and a purple Arachnix).

[Omicron Squad Leader]

By the way, having read "The Doom Box", I think I can pretty much put to rest any rumors that there will be an episode based on it. In general the book, while excellent, simply does not mesh with the most important aspects (from a marketing and storytelling perspective) of the TV episodes. For instance, it only features one main antagonist-- Core Hunter-- though Splitface and Speeda Demon also make appearances in one scene, as prisoners rather than antagonists. Also, every hero on Alpha 1 Team is involved in the mission to stop Core Hunter. Thus the synopsis on IMDB is bogus, and probably written by someone who had only read descriptions of the book and not the book itself. I have no doubt that the other episode summaries following that one are just as fake.

You do know that the main plot of a book can be slightly altered for its adaptation for TV, right? This happens with many, many shows, so I wouldn't rule it out completely, just yet, especially as the Ninjago stuff on IMDb turned out to be correct. (The synopses didn't, I know, but they were added months after.)

[Aanchir]

You do know that the main plot of a book can be slightly altered for its adaptation for TV, right? This happens with many, many shows, so I wouldn't rule it out completely, just yet, especially as the Ninjago stuff on IMDb turned out to be correct. (The synopses didn't, I know, but they were added months after.)

That is true, but I think it's hugely implausible that any TV episode would be based on one of these books. The more likely scenario is that a book like this could be based on an unreleased TV episode, and my post was mainly trying to point out that this doesn't seem to be the case with this chapter book.

If there were to be an episode based on this story, it would have to be radically different. It's true that the titles here may be correct, but frankly IMDB doesn't have an especially good track record about these things. Sure, the Ninjago episode titles were accurate, but in the meantime IMDB has never successfully predicted anything about the HF show as far as I know, to the point that it wasn't even known originally that Savage Planet and Breakout would be two episodes each. The idea that it would have information about a TV episode supposedly airing this month when no more reputable source backs it up makes me a bit skeptical. Not to mention that the plot synopsis seems like something anyone could have written just by reading the plot description of the book and making flailing assumptions that the other not-yet-featured 2012 villains would be showing up in it.

In general I've become quite disillusioned with IMDB's predictive abilities. While I don't completely distrust any non-official sources of information (some rumors shared here and on Brickset have turned out to be true even if they have an unconfirmed "friend of mine" source), I am always wary when info magically appears on IMDB (or for that matter, Wikipedia) without any record of where it originally came from. For some reason there are people who enjoy making up nonsense to see how many people they can fool, and I don't enjoy being a victim of that kind of charade.

[DraikNova]

IMDB listed supposed summer 2013 episodes before summer 2012, so I wouldn't trust it.

[Dorek]

In general I've become quite disillusioned with IMDB's predictive abilities. While I don't completely distrust any non-official sources of information (some rumors shared here and on Brickset have turned out to be true even if they have an unconfirmed "friend of mine" source), I am always wary when info magically appears on IMDB (or for that matter, Wikipedia) without any record of where it originally came from. For some reason there are people who enjoy making up nonsense to see how many people they can fool, and I don't enjoy being a victim of that kind of charade.

Daniel Rocka. That is all.

[DraikNova]

You're quite right. I think that's all we ever got from IMDB that was correct.

[Aanchir]

You're quite right. I think that's all we ever got from IMDB that was correct.

I think he was making the opposite point. Daniel Rocka showed up on IMDB and Wikipedia, then on an actual official DVD, then was announced as an unofficial name that someone manufacturing the DVDs mistook for official. It really shows one of the more serious consequences of falsified information, in that it's more likely to create lasting confusion than to actually officially fill a void in the story.

[DraikNova]

Wow. That's a big mistake.

[Aanchir]

Wow. That's a big mistake.

Agreed. And I get the feeling that if Rocka was ever going to have a first name, that whole debacle made it a lot less likely to happen now. If TLG gives him a first name that isn't Daniel, then kids who thought the name "Daniel Rocka" was official will think TLG is contradicting themselves, which reflects badly on the company. Whereas if they just keep calling him "Rocka", kids can keep believing whatever they happen to think regarding the first name issue.

While we're on the subject of Rocka, does anyone think there'll be new Hero characters next year? I personally like that we stuck with the nine we have this year. But I wouldn't be opposed to more Hero characters, especially if they add more diversity in personality or gender.

If there are new heroes, it could also be cool if instead of being brand-new characters they made sets of some of the heroes on other teams like Lucas Valor, Nate Slick, or Emily Wise. But on the other hand there are probably people who would rather have those characters' designs be left up to MOCists' and artists' imaginations.

[Dorek]

I'd like to see more Recon Heroes, but thaaaat's just me. I think we'd probably get new Heroes. Maybe a collection of the younger Alpha 1 guys have their own team of rookies to train, or something. Continue the same trends.

[DraikNova]

I honestly hope we continue with what they did in 2011: adding one new rookie every wave.

[Kalhiki]

I want a new Hero. Not only is the build for Heroes getting monotonous, but having the same characters over and over is equally getting annoying.

Make the new guy purple. Or some other cool color.

Kalhiki