Hero Factory 2013

[MakutaDreadscythe]

As for the whole Nex/Breez thing, let me just say that it's a ship I do not put much stock in. Breez was established in 2010 not to have any romantic interest in her teammates (in fact, she quite detests being a shipping magnet just by virtue of being a female Hero), and while romance is messy and prone to change, I have to say Nex's interest in her seems decidedly one-sided (let's not forget that he was already been established as a real flirt as early as his first appearance in Ordeal of Fire, in which you could see him flirting with Daniela Capricorn during the press conference).

And it is for this reason I am sad that Nex is not in the next wave. He's one of my personal favourite characters for being a tech kinda guy.

On yet another side note, how many enemies did anyone get rid of in the Brain Attack endless wave at the end? My record is about 3234. (I was bored, reaaaaally bored.)

[Cirkit]

Three things.

One:

I totally dig Jet Rocka. Box reminds me of the 'Phantoka/Mistika' Bionicle era just a bit. Rocka himself kind of does look like a black Buzz Lightyear, but I like that about the set. Also appears to have two of those massive Technic-guns on his back, firing big rubbery missiles. Nice.

The idea that he's being sent into space to fight the Brains as they attack isn't so far-fetched. I could see it working rather easily, but someone would have to be up there to assist Rocka- one Hero against an army of brain-aliens doesn't seem like much, but one in a jet-suit like Rocka's evens the odds a little.

Two:

The other sets from what we can see in the picture look okay. Laughed at Zachattacx's 'polar opposite' joke.

Ba-dum-tiss.

It looks like there's gonna be two kinds of ice villain this wave. I see a taller dude with skinny legs and one eye just above the Ice Monster seen in the trailer. Just above that I see something that looks like it could be Surge, but the blades remind me of the energy swords used by the Covenant in 'Halo', and Surge looks a little hunched over for some reason. Maybe it's the pose.

That dragon thing.. it looks bony but it could work.

Can anyone tell what that thing is below the blue dragon, just above the beer bottles? It looks black with a yellow blade.. hmm.

And Three: Aanchir sums up the Breez/Nex thing well. Nex as a flirty tech adds a new dimension to his character I think.

It would be surprising if any reference to this romance idea was brought up in the story.. be it as realization or as something in the media which both Heroes shrug off. Could be funny.

I hope Hero Factory keeps going throughout the New Year. Things are only just starting to heat up!

[Mesonak]

Three things.

One:

I totally dig Jet Rocka. Box reminds me of the 'Phantoka/Mistika' Bionicle era just a bit. Rocka himself kind of does look like a black Buzz Lightyear, but I like that about the set. Also appears to have two of those massive Technic-guns on his back, firing big rubbery missiles. Nice.

The idea that he's being sent into space to fight the Brains as they attack isn't so far-fetched. I could see it working rather easily, but someone would have to be up there to assist Rocka- one Hero against an army of brain-aliens doesn't seem like much, but one in a jet-suit like Rocka's evens the odds a little.

Two:

The other sets from what we can see in the picture look okay. Laughed at Zachattacx's 'polar opposite' joke.

Ba-dum-tiss.

It looks like there's gonna be two kinds of ice villain this wave. I see a taller dude with skinny legs and one eye just above the Ice Monster seen in the trailer. Just above that I see something that looks like it could be Surge, but the blades remind me of the energy swords used by the Covenant in 'Halo', and Surge looks a little hunched over for some reason. Maybe it's the pose.

That dragon thing.. it looks bony but it could work.

Can anyone tell what that thing is below the blue dragon, just above the beer bottles? It looks black with a yellow blade.. hmm.

Right above Frost Beast is Stormer, and then right above Stormer is Surge. Right below Dragon Bolt is Evo, and Aquagon is nowhere to be seen, though I believe it may be him below Evo.

Edited January 2, 2013 by Mesonak

[vexorian]

So, no actual titans this year.

Not going to do wonders to convince me there is no decline in the theme.

The small, small hope is that Aquagon is a titan.

Also, what if the thing we think is Dragon bolt is actually aquagon? It has blueish in the color scheme.

Edited January 2, 2013 by vexorian

[DarkSurgeXL]

So, no actual titans this year.

Looking at the screenshot again, Dragon Bolt is actually a titan.

On a sidenote, seems like Dragon Bolt is going to get black (well, that seems dark blue to me) brain slug, while Frost Beast is going to get a blue one. I really hope for light blue brain slug for Aquagon.

[Jetrax99]

Looking at the screenshot again, Dragon Bolt is actually a titan.

On a sidenote, seems like Dragon Bolt is going to get black (well, that seems dark blue to me) brain slug, while Frost Beast is going to get a blue one. I really hope for light blue brain slug for Aquagon.

The light blue one comes w/ Frost Beast. Video says so.

Also, what makes you think that small bag can fit a titan? Rocka comes in a box! A box! A bag just won't fit a set his size.

Dragon Bolt could be a titan. Seems those a merely paper printouts of the front of the packaging, so his/her/it's package could've been shrunk down to fit the page.

Edited January 2, 2013 by Jetrax99

[Aanchir]

So, no actual titans this year.

Not going to do wonders to convince me there is no decline in the theme.

The small, small hope is that Aquagon is a titan.

Also, what if the thing we think is Dragon bolt is actually aquagon? It has blueish in the color scheme.

I'm going to assume that when you say "No actual titans this year", you're referring only to the summer sets. Because Furno XL is a titan set by any definition.

Though to be honest, we don't know that Jet Rocka won't be titan-sized. He does seem to come in a box, which would be overkill if he were just a standard-sized Hero and a moderate-sized jetpack. Also, as DarkSurgeXL points out, Dragon Bolt/Aquagon (whichever that one on the right is) also seems to come in bigger packaging than the medium-sized sets, so is probably at Furno XL's price point or similar.

Edited January 2, 2013 by Aanchir

[DarkSurgeXL]

The light blue one comes w/ Frost Beast. Video says so.

Oh, mixed up the two :P

So Aquagon is getting just ordinary blue one, and Frost Beast gets the light blue one.

[zipper588]

I can't help but think that what looks like an epic lightning-broadsword for Surge might end up being a spinning-lightning weapon similar to what's on Pyrox.

Still cool, just not as much.

Regardless, this lot already seems better than Brain Attack Wave 1, which for some reason I really didn't like. Besides Furno XL. And Pyrox.

Hooray fire!

[vexorian]

Jet Rocka's box suggest it will be large, but by the proportions it seems rocka will be similar to speeda demon.

Looking at the screenshot again, Dragon Bolt is actually a titan.

On a sidenote, seems like Dragon Bolt is going to get black (well, that seems dark blue to me) brain slug, while Frost Beast is going to get a blue one. I really hope for light blue brain slug for Aquagon.

What screenshot? The only part of the video that I could catch that has HF stuff has only one box: Jet Rocka's. You can see both the front and back of the box though. The rest are all bags and one is repeated.

I tried to use a super resolution program (photo acute) on multiple stills from the video, but it turns out it is very difficult to do it. Is this actually an improvement of the picture or not? I have no idea, if you think it is better, I can try doing it with the rest of the pictures:

I suspect that interpolation does a better job. This is what happens:

Edited January 2, 2013 by vexorian

[DarkSurgeXL]

Jet Rocka's box suggest it will be large, but by the proportions it seems rocka will be similar to speeda demon.

What screenshot? The only part of the video that I could catch that has HF stuff has only one box: Jet Rocka's. You can see both the front and back of the box though. The rest are all bags and one is repeated.

I'm talking about the bags also. Surge, Stormer and Frost Beast are medium sized sets. Aquagon and Evo are scout sized sets. And, if you look at the Dragon Bolt's bag again, you will see that his bag is actually wider, than the medium sized once. The same situation is with Furno XL, being a titan sized set, he is still sold in a bag.

Also, thank you for that corrected photo, vexorian, it looks better by now:D

Edited January 2, 2013 by DarkSurgeXL

[CabooseBM]

As for the whole Nex/Breez thing, let me just say that it's a ship I do not put much stock in. Breez was established in 2010 not to have any romantic interest in her teammates (in fact, she quite detests being a shipping magnet just by virtue of being a female Hero), and while romance is messy and prone to change, I have to say Nex's interest in her seems decidedly one-sided (let's not forget that he was already been established as a real flirt as early as his first appearance in Ordeal of Fire, in which you could see him flirting with Daniela Capricorn during the press conference).

Man, if there's any shipping going on, I'd bet all over on a Furno/Rocka bromance.

[Jetrax99]

Man, if there's any shipping going on, I'd bet all over on a Furno/Rocka bromance.

Careful, HF fangirls are already vying for a Furno/Stormer bromance.

Personally, I prefer Furno/Breez. She seems to show affection towards him the most.

On a side note, I think the Breakout episode has pretty much establised that Furno acts as a second-in-command for the Alpha Team.

[VBBN]

Well slap me with a brain slug and call me sally

That has to be some of the worst quality prelims we have ever seen, but I guess that's to be expected with them being so under wraps this year with prelim images.

Jet Rocka: My hope is that it's like the exo toa in the respect that you can swap out heroes, like a jetpack. It does carry a Buzz lightyear vibe, though that could just be the angle of the photo. Afterall, I did think that in prelim pics of Gorast that she had kopakas mask as her hands...

I've seen a lot of complaints about Rocka being released yet again, people saying he is the "bumblebee" of the line or something. I'm going to drop some stats in here, I do hope those with this opinion read the following. This will be his fifth version from the time span of 3.0-5.0, whilst Furno who was at first a "poster character" for this theme has had 6 versions from the span of 1.0-5.0, so to be precise he has had 3 versions in the span of 3.0-5.0. One time we saw furno have 2 versions in the same year, that bring Furno 1.0 and the Furno Bike. Rocka has had two years already where he had 2 incarnation. Rocka 3.0 and Rocka XL, and now Rocka 5.0 and Jet Rocka. Now I'll go even crazier and compare all of the heroes.

Firstly using a 1.0-5.0 basis:

-Furno: 6

-Rocka: 5

-Stormer: 5

-Bulk: 5

-Surge: 4

-Breez: 4

-Nex: 3

-Stringer: 3

-Evo: 3

-Dropship Hero: 1

Now let's start this from the point into which Rocka was introduced, which was at 3.0-5.0

-Furno: 3

-Rocka: 5

-Stormer: 3

-Bulk: 3

-Surge: 2

-Breez: 2

-Nex: 2

-Stringer: 2

-Evo: 2

-Dropship Hero: 0

Now here's some comparison of the top characters, Furno, Rocka, Stormer, and Bulk:

-Furno has had 1 XL and 1 large set(furno bike)

-Rocka has had 1 Xl and will have presumably 1 large set based on the look of the Jet Rocka set.

-Stormer has had 1 XL and no large set

-Bulk has had no XL and 1 large set(Bulk and vapour.)

As it stands, Furno still takes the cake with the most sets released overall, after this year Rocka is 1 set behind rocka, whilst missing 1.0 and 2.0 incarnations. In terms of speed into which they were released, Rocka has had 2 years of having 2 versions in the same line of sets, Furno has had 1. So yes, since the time of his release, Rocka has had 2 more versions pushed out than other characters have had in their time of release. Just thought I'd throw out some statistics to show the relase of heroes that we have gotten. It's not to say I don't like that we are getting rocka, because I do generally like his design, and the way that I have my figures is I compress them. i take elements from each incarnation and place them together into one, for example my rocka:

(Not bad for a quick cell phone pic)

I take elements and add them to it to make what I personally feel is a good version of the character. Now do mind his arms, I needed what he previously had for Tyrant 2.0, so I'm stuck with those bits right now, but again this will be fixed when I get my Brain Attack sets. So really I don't mind more versions, I just wish some characters had this many versions, so I have a huge amount of choice as to picking what I think is a good version of a figure.

Anyhow now that that tangent is done, some thoughts on the other figures from what I can barely see:

Surge: I'm liking the looks of that weapon, and from what I could see in the trailer his design should be farely nice. It also appears that he is a larger figure, which would be nice to have since his 4.0 incarnation was indeed small.

Stormer: I can't see much at all in that pic, but the trailer made him look decent, and white has always been my favorite color of set since Bionicle started, so anything with an Icy theme is welcome to me. I did like the looks of his shoulders, which seemed to have some nice spiked bits on them, certainly looking forward to CGI pics of that.

Frost Beast: I already love him, mainly because I like the general design he has, makes me think of the Piraka(the brain slug helps in that effect) and he looks like a polar opposite of Pyrox.

Evo: I can't really see much there, but I'm pretty sure that's him, with a green visor on his face. I'm pretty much expecting him to be breez/rocka/bulk but with slight variation of parts to the design, and with the staff he had in the trailer.

Dragon Bolt/Aquagon: My guess is that bigger bag is Dragon bolt. if you look thre is a small bag protruding from behind those bottles, so unfortunately I think Aquagon is a small set, will be interested in seeing his design. Dragon bolt is difficult to analyze, I'm seeing a surge-eque color scheme which suggests a combiner model between the two(which would make sense of course) Though with that said, since it seems characters are being paired with similar colored beings to combine with, my guess is that Aquagon will get paired with surge, whilst Dragon bolt gets paired with Evo. (Hence, two blue villains in this wave perhaps.) Regardless, I think I see some wings there, and that had me extremely excited to see his design. While I am more of a fan of humanoid-looking enemies, I don't think a dragon would be a bad exception to that.

[Bfahome]

Jet Rocka's box suggest it will be large, but by the proportions it seems rocka will be similar to speeda demon.

How do you take "future wave has the same size distribution as last wave" and end up with "no titans, it's in a decline"?

[vexorian]

I meant that the character in Jet Rocka will be the same size as the character in Speeda Demon's set. I don't know about you, but I do not think Speeda Demon is a titan.

When I made the post I didn't know that Aquagon/Dragon bolt were furno sized. But Furno is smaller and less exciting than Stormer. Aquagon seems to be a large set but like in Jet Rocka, it seems most of the detail will be spent on wings rather in actually having a large figure....

Lest we compare these three waves with the time we had Witch Doctor and large Rocka in the same wave...

Dragon Bolt/Aquagon: My guess is that bigger bag is Dragon bolt. if you look thre is a small bag protruding from behind those bottles, so unfortunately I think Aquagon is a small set,

Is that a small bag? It seems to be the same as the wider bag to its left. But it would be very odd for them to put the same bag twice. If we assume that it is a different small bag, then it seems that Aquagon and Dragon bolt will share a lot of features. Maybe Aquagon is some sort of hybrid between Dragon bolt and something else. Edit: sorry, wrong bag (I was talking about the bag behind the monitor). Behind the bottles, I think that the small bag is Evo.

I insist that Dragon bolt is probably the small set and Aquagon the large set, because that is what the set numbers suggest.

44008 SURGE

44009 DRAGON BOLT

44010 STORMER

44011 FROST BEAST

44012 EVO -

44013 AQUAGON

44014 JET ROCKA

My current theory would mean that 44008-44011 are medium sets, 44012 is small and 44013-44014 are large. It makes sense that the sizes appear in sequence, right? This would also explain the missing set from the screenshot, if the set is medium then it would be bellow Frost Beast in the medium set column, so it wasn't caught by the camera.

Edit: So behind the bottles (and bellow Evo) really is another small set! Then Aquagon would have to be small, to be next to Evo in the sequence. But then, Dragon Bolt would have to be the large set, and it would be odd to have it between Surge and Stormer... Ouch.

Edit: And there is no medium set bellow Frost Beast, so yeah, it seems Aquagon is a small set.

Tired of both Furno and Rocka to be honest, it does not help that their sets, except for breakout rocka have a tendency to be the low points of each wave...

Edited January 2, 2013 by vexorian

[Cahillrebel]

Is it me or does the armor on Jet Rocka look a bit orange?

[LuckyShot777]

Does anyone else think that Dragon Bolt kind of looks like a stretched out Vezok? XD It's probably just the spine and color scheme.

[VBBN]

I insist that Dragon bolt is probably the small set and Aquagon the large set, because that is what the set numbers suggest.

44008 SURGE

44009 DRAGON BOLT

44010 STORMER

44011 FROST BEAST

44012 EVO -

44013 AQUAGON

44014 JET ROCKA

My current theory would mean that 44008-44011 are medium sets, 44012 is small and 44013-44014 are large. It makes sense that the sizes appear in sequence, right? This would also explain the missing set from the screenshot, if the set is medium then it would be bellow Frost Beast in the medium set column, so it wasn't caught by the camera.

Edit: So behind the bottles (and bellow Evo) really is another small set! Then Aquagon would have to be small, to be next to Evo in the sequence. But then, Dragon Bolt would have to be the large set, and it would be odd to have it between Surge and Stormer... Ouch.

Based on that picture it's pretty definite that dragon bolt is the large set, not a small set, and the probability of there being only 1 small set the entire wave is highley unlikely, as well as the fact that not all figures would be on that wall. Why dragon bolt is pictured twice is beyond me, but somewhere there is Aquagon, and I am 99% sure that Aquagon is in th small set section. If not, then Aquagon is the large and Dragon bolt is the small, but if going by the likely hood of there being 2 small sets is true, then the set numbering places Evo and Aquagon next to eachother, designating them as being smalls. In addition, the grouping in that picture would put Aquagon right below evo, completeing the grouping. Otherwise Aquagon would be up next to Rocka.

In addition, take a look at current set numbers for the winter wave. They are all over the place, so I'm not sure grouping numbers is the best way to go about things.

And...I'm not exactly sure where you see Dragon Bolt and Aquagon as being similar because of "gon" That's one of the most far fetched comparisons I have ever seen, Dragon is part of a name whilst Aquagon sounds to be some sort of shaped figure. And in addition, It's not comparing Dragon and Aquagon, it's Dragon BOLT and Aquagon. Bolt being placed at the end dismissed that theory entirely. Waspix, XT4 and Scarox all share similar traits being the 4-armed beings with a color scheme that is fairly close, but names don't exactly match.

[MakutaDreadscythe]

Waspix, XT4 and Scarox all share similar traits being the 4-armed beings with a color scheme that is fairly close, but names don't exactly match.

Well, they all have X in their names. Coincidence?

[VBBN]

Well, they all have X in their names. Coincidence?

Mata Nui kill me now if this is how lego works

[Cahillrebel]

Well if you look at X, it has four lines coming out of the center that forms the letter itself. Maybe that is their inspiration.

[Shakar]

Well, they all have X in their names. Coincidence?

More like Lego likes this trope.

I never considered the idea Dragon Bolt could be a large set before, but it does make sense. A dragon essentially has six limbs+a tail, and with the average piece number of a 13 Euro set that is next to impossible to pull off- unless you use tricks like one piece wings (see Waspix). But Dragon Bolt's wings look fairly complex, so..

[LuckyShot777]

Frost Beast so far is probably my favorite. Everything about him just screams bionicle. He seriously looks like a more vicious version of Strakk.

[Bfahome]

Well, they all have X in their names. Coincidence?

Yeah, coincidence. "X" isn't exactly uncommon in names nowadays. XPlode, Toxic Reapa, Pyrox, Voltix, Thornraxx…