Hero Factory 2013

[Cahillrebel]

On the discussion for the visors. It seems that Stormer and Surge do have a printed design on both of the visors. Actually, Evo's package also kind of made the illusion he had print on his too but I doubt he does. I just want a closer look on the visors.

[Shakar]

Anyway, the color schemes of these sets seem promising as far as combi models are concerned. It's a bit disappointing that Dragon Bolt is Bright Blue rather than Earth Blue as some of the animation screenshots and that one production render of him looked, but at the same time Bright Blue is often a terribly underused color in Hero Factory, and I appreciate more of it (even if there are very few conspicuous new parts-- those that stand out are Bright Blue Exo-Force robot arms and Savage Planet claw/spike pieces, not to mention Dragon Bolt and Surge's new masks). The number of new Transparent Blue and Transparent Light Blue pieces also helps to fill out that part of the spectrum.

Most definitely. Cool colours, especially blue, have been sadly underused in HF for the longest time; it's good to see this year uses greens and blues so often. I can't believe we're getting tr. blue cladding in two different shades!

I'm disappointed Surge doesn't use tr. yellow, however. Tr. neon green just doesn't work as well to me..

On the discussion for the visors. It seems that Stormer and Surge do have a printed design on both of the visors. Actually, Evo's package also kind of made the illusion he had print on his too but I doubt he does. I just want a closer look on the visors.

I think it's because Evo is less expensive. Printing makes the piece price jump quite a bit. Think of the PaB Breakout torso shells: the printed ones were a whopping 2.17 Euro, the unprinted ones they're selling now cost only 0.75 Euro.

The Heroes with printed Heroes visors cost 13 Euro or above, the ones with unprinted visors are 9 Euro sets. That being said, I would have liked if Jet Rocka had used a printed visor.

EDIT: Just noticed I had wrote Heroes intead of visors....

Edited February 4, 2013 by Shakar

[MakutaDreadscythe]

Honestly Frost Beast is an insta-buy for me, if anything because he reminds me of the yeti from Skifree.

I don't know where that came from either.

[DarkSurgeXL]

Man, those sets are gorgeous! I'll be buying all of them, except for maybe Jet Rocka.

One of the reasons I don't like him is his colour. On his box art he looks fantastic, but in the real life he looks a little bit goofy to me. Maybe that's just the pose. I want to see him with his wings straighten, maybe that's when I'm going to change my opinion on him.

I wonder if Dragon Bolt's brain slug is somewhat a general slug? He is sort of "the odd one out" of three types of Brain slugs. Maybe that's to point out his electric accesory.

Surge is awesome, though his weapon is similar to Pyrox's one. Still love his looks, he and Stormer are my favourite sets so far from the Brain Attack line.

All the others are great.

[Omicron Squad Leader]

Evo and Aquagon are pretty meh, but Stormer and Surge are looking good, Jet Rocka is certainly interesting, and Dragon Bolt is fantastic.

Oh, and Frost Beast is sexy as hell.

[Shakar]

Wow, how come I didn't notice it? Aquagon uses tr. blue, but Evo uses the same colour as Stormer's visor.

It's not so tragic though, Laval uses bigger tr. blue shells (5M I guess), so we're still getting tr. blue shells in two sizes.

[DraikNova]

These all look like disappointments to me. For one thing, big parts like Dragon Bolt's head never work in "basic" blue. Then they make the wings small, add those lightning pieces and use yellow blades. The only good things there are that we're getting blue savage planet claws and the use of the chima claws. Then they make the brain slug a sloppy, goo-like disaster and one of the potential best action figure sets ever becomes this mush. Let's hope there are some minor changes and it looks better in the plastic as it were.

Surge looks like a great parts pack, although the blue and the trans lime doesn't work that well next to each other. His trans-neon helmet looks glorious. I for one am very happy with the change from yellow to neon green.

Now, Rocka hasn't improved or worsened to much, and the blades help his look slightly. I'll probably buy him for extra parts. The printed H looks rather nice too.

Stomer looks like a great little set and a great parts pack too. His trans-light blue looks great and he has a solid look. I wish they had used the Chi pieces instead of the barakki eyes though.

Frost Beast? Slightly dissapointing set-wise, but as a parts pack a great value, as he has even more trans-light blue than Stormer. White Savage Planet paw, too.

Evo, formerly one of my wave favorites, has degraded as well. He doesn't look half as good with trans-light blue as he would with plain trans-blue.

[Cirkit]

It's official- Surge has become a total badMegablock

Those wings, those trans-blades, and that helmet.. too good.

It's a bummer that his armor isn't going to be trans-yellow like it was initially thought to be. I was really looking forward to that.

I'm impressed by the new images, and even more surprised that Dragon Bolt comes in a bag, instead of a box! Why didn't Jet Rocka come in a bag?

Speaking of, Rocka with his new jetpack looks incredibly awkward not in-flight. It has the shape of a jet-pack, sort of, and wings, and guns, but head on and without the wings out it just looks bulky and, well, awkward, like I said.

However, the box art is interesting enough, and in-flight I get reminded oddly of Buzz Lightyear. Nice.

The Dragon looks huge, glad the blades are yellow instead of gold. The brain is interesting too, as it has yellow spikes. Does this mean the eyes will be yellow too?

I can't see Frost Beast so well, but he looks like an interesting enough guy. Blades are cool, and all that blue is mouth-watering.

I don't eat LEGOS, I just like the colors

Stormer looks well equipped to take on the beast. White fur and flick missiles are a plus.

I agree with 'Vinyl Scratch' about Evo and Aquagon- they are simply gorgeous.

Can't say much more about that.

It's a great looking wave, can't wait till they hit stores and the reviews go up everywhere.

[DraikNova]

I'm going to have to seriously MOD Dragon Bolt. Good thing I'm going to be taking apart Ninjago set soon, and they have about ten large gold blades in them.

Despite my rant, I'm still kind of excited. I hope LEGO does another dragon soon, having learned from this one. And this time in dark green and trans dark green.

[Mesonak]

Hmmm.

Well, I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not disappointed that they scaled down Dragon Bolt (or rather, scaled him up for the show's purposes). At the same time, I always knew that would happen because releasing a set like what was shown in the TV show would be quite expensive. The set still looks nice now, but the wings could use some improvement IMO. The two different types of pieces used don't exactly mesh well together. Regardless, I'm still very pleased with this guy, especially if he can squeeze into a $20 price point. Surge just looks great, though his lack of trans-yellow saddens me greatly. Best version of him so far IMO.

Jet Rocka looks crazy top-heavy and awkward when standing up normally, but very nice when in "flight-mode". Like the design of this guy.

Evo and Aquagon look nice, even if they're both a little generic. I like them enough to definitely aim to pick them both up at some point.

Frost Beast looks more than a little awkward, and I will be swapping out his torso plate with another color because all that white just looks very strange. Rest of the set looks real nice though, a large plethora of recolors. Stormer stands up pretty well to the rest of the heroes; loving that weapon.

Overall I quite like this wave. Couple disappointments here and there, but all the sets stand out and are very original. I'd call that a success.

Edited February 4, 2013 by Mesonak

[ZORK64]

OH MY GOD THIS IS THE BEST HF WAVER EVER.

Two white sets, two blue sets (and one of them is really large) and a whole bunch of other nice things... it's like LEGO read my mind. There are even a few wings here and there.

Stormer looks awesome (though his sword isn't blue, but yeah, there are plenty of sets he could borrow one from), and Frost Beast looks also pretty cool. Both are sure buys for me.

Surge manages to become even more awesome than Stormer because he got wings. Also, that helmet is a masterpiece. Dragon Bolt looks a bit too small in comparison for his head, but I still like him and he looks like a great parts pack. Again, two insta-buys for me.

Evo doesn't interest me that much, but his design is well-thought and looks decent. Aquagon on the other hand really got my interest by now, even if it's only as a fantastic parts pack, so I'll go for Aquagon.

Jet Rocka looks kinda bleh, if you ask me. It's a little bit better with the wings extended (I really don't understand why he isn't shown with flipped out wings there), but still very chunky. Depending on his price, he still might be a good parts pack, since Technic parts are also helpful for building large and massive torso constructions.

Heck, LEGO will make even more money out of me this year than they did in the past year.

Edited February 4, 2013 by ZORK64

[howie28]

@Cirkit: Dragon Bolt has a glow in the dark brain slug. I don't know if it is just the hard plastic bit or the whole thing, but you can see it on the bag.

[DraikNova]

/\ If only they could make it a GitD and blue blend. Anyway, for next year I hope they make some sort of "Pro" set, geared more towards AFOLs and with some more complicated builds.

[Gatanui]

Any chance the GitD brain uses the same kind of GitD blue Takadox did?

LEGO is so mean...now they're forcing us to get at least Stormer, Surge, Evo, Frost Beast and Dragon Bolt.

-Gata

[Aanchir]

These all look like disappointments to me. For one thing, big parts like Dragon Bolt's head never work in "basic" blue. Then they make the wings small, add those lightning pieces and use yellow blades. The only good things there are that we're getting blue savage planet claws and the use of the chima claws. Then they make the brain slug a sloppy, goo-like disaster and one of the potential best action figure sets ever becomes this mush. Let's hope there are some minor changes and it looks better in the plastic as it were.

No idea whatsoever what you mean by "big parts like Dragon Bolt's head never work in "basic" blue". They should work just as well in that color as in any other non-metallic, non-transparent color. I also don't see how the brain slug is "sloppy", even if its eyes and spines don't have as much contrast with it as the rest of the brain slugs with their red eyes. And I recall a lot of people hoping the blades would be yellow, since it's already extremely easy to get gold ones and some people dislike the superfluous use of metallic colors on sets. I'm personally fine with Dragon Bolt's wings in either color.

Stomer looks like a great little set and a great parts pack too. His trans-light blue looks great and he has a solid look. I wish they had used the Chi pieces instead of the barakki eyes though.

Actually, as far as I can tell he doesn't use the Chi pieces OR Barraki eyes. He's got regular 1x1 round bricks on both the package and the display model. Not sure why there was a change from the version seen in the episode trailer, but maybe it'll change back in the final set.

I'm impressed by the new images, and even more surprised that Dragon Bolt comes in a bag, instead of a box! Why didn't Jet Rocka come in a bag?

Probably because it's a larger and pricier set. Even if the same size bag as Furno XL and Dragon Bolt worked for him, I imagine they'd want the packaging to be visibly larger just so it stands out as a "premium" set.

Speaking of, Rocka with his new jetpack looks incredibly awkward not in-flight. It has the shape of a jet-pack, sort of, and wings, and guns, but head on and without the wings out it just looks bulky and, well, awkward, like I said.

However, the box art is interesting enough, and in-flight I get reminded oddly of Buzz Lightyear. Nice.

The Dragon looks huge, glad the blades are yellow instead of gold. The brain is interesting too, as it has yellow spikes. Does this mean the eyes will be yellow too?

Pretty sure that's Glow White, the somewhat off-white glow-in-the-dark color that debuted in Monster Fighters. It'd have to be for the glow-in-the-dark feature advertised on the package to work, since the translucent portion can't be Glow White (an opaque color). It looks yellow because all of the pics seem to have a slight yellow tint to them; possibly related to the lighting of the display area.

/\ If only they could make it a GitD and blue blend. Anyway, for next year I hope they make some sort of "Pro" set, geared more towards AFOLs and with some more complicated builds.

They probably could... currently, I already think it's White Glow and a transparent color; maybe Transparent Fluorescent Green. Changing it to a transparent blue color wouldn't be too hard, though it's not certain whether it would glow as well.

I doubt they'll make a set marketed towards AFOLs any time soon, except perhaps through Cuusoo. Quite frankly, AFOLs who like action figure sets are not a massive presence within the community, and those there are are mostly satisfied buying existing sets, whether for display or as parts packs.

Also, appealing only to existing LEGO fans is a risky maneuver. One reason for the more adult-oriented sets is to capitalize on non-FOL adults who have a lot of nostalgia for the LEGO sets of their childhood, and adults who played with action figure sets as children are just a smaller pool to draw from than adults who played with the DOZENS of System themes on the market throughout their childhoods.

It's also harder in general to market story themes to adults, since generally the stories are designed to appeal to kids primarily. And since there is no generic "constraction" branding that would have crossover appeal with fans of existing constraction themes, it'd be tricky deciding how to present the set.

[vexorian]

Dragon bolt: wish all the wings were swords instead of the lightning pieces in the back wings. It is a bit small. Blue is a turn off. The reason it is hardly ever used is that it is a lame color. There, I said it. It looks all right and I like it, but could have been much better.

Surge is probably the best hero of the year, mostly because the wings actually give him a personality beyond "I have a visor".

Three white sets. Stormer and Frost Beast look similar for some reason and even have the same pose in the bag art.

Aquagon is useful for bricks.

Jet Rocka is underwhelming. Let us put another non-XL rocka in the same year, but also add a white technic constraction that seems strange. With the set size and box instead of bag, they could have put an actual titan, or made the "jet" more like Aero Booster. Or made it an "exo-hero". Instead we got this.

The only HF set I am looking forward this year is Dragon Bolt. Second constraction set is the Chima black crow because of the parts. Otherwise I might focus on system themes this year ...

[Cahillrebel]

Anyone else thinking that Dragon Bolt is the main infected creature in this wave since there is only one of him. He possibly helps lead the attack. Maybe that is why he has a glow in the dark slug.

[Infernum]

Wow! Love Dragonbolt, Stormer, and Frost Beast! Loving all the transparent colors! Jet Rocka looks odd though...

[howie28]

Anyone else thinking that Dragon Bolt is the main infected creature in this wave since there is only one of him. He possibly helps lead the attack. Maybe that is why he has a glow in the dark slug.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too.

[Mr. Gundam]

This is hands down the best Surge set of HF so far. These guys got me pretty excited for combiners they'll become.

[Cahillrebel]

This is hands down the best Surge set of HF so far. These guys got me pretty excited for combiners they'll become.

Yea, Surge looks like a veteran hero now instead of the rookie version. I actually like the weapon since it used the round piece used in the Joker Ultrabuild to attach the lightning/flame/ice pieces. I still don't get the silver drone on his arm though. I guess it is something like a shield piece except its smaller and lighter because of his lightning gun.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Anyone else thinking that Dragon Bolt is the main infected creature in this wave since there is only one of him. He possibly helps lead the attack. Maybe that is why he has a glow in the dark slug.

Only one of him as far as we know.

... Considering we first saw him in some kind of tunnel, what if he's... A revived skeleton specimen that was found below Makuhero City?

[Aanchir]

Jet Rocka is underwhelming. Let us put another non-XL rocka in the same year, but also add a white technic constraction that seems strange. With the set size and box instead of bag, they could have put an actual titan, or made the "jet" more like Aero Booster. Or made it an "exo-hero". Instead we got this.

Jet Rocka already is a lot like Aero Booster in terms of size. Not as streamlined as Aero Booster, unfortunately, but the same general idea, and probably executed about as well as it could be to remain functionally interesting and meet a moderate price point (I'm guessing $35, same as Speeda Demon).

Overall, I truly prefer getting a vehicle-ish set to getting yet another titan set. Not because I don't like titan sets, but because I'd rather not go a full year without some kind of vehicle/equipment set. Unfortunately, Jet Rocka maintains a flaw that bothered me about Speeda Demon, that being that it makes very little use of the actual HF building system, but then, I guess we've still got a while to wait before we see a model that can pull that off. It also has the exposed Technic beams with very little concealing them which bothered me when we first caught a glimpse of Speeda Demon, but then, I warmed up a great deal to Speeda Demon once I could hold the bike in my hand and appreciate how shapely and streamlined it was regardless of its exposed Technic understructure. Perhaps Jet Rocka will be the same.

[Cahillrebel]

The worse part about this Jet Rocka is that it is ALL white. I am starting to believe this was going to be a Jet Nex since he now is orange and white but was changed to Jet Rocka. I would rather have Jet Nex but we can slightly make a Brain Attack version of him and plug him onto the jet pack.

[DraikNova]

Only one of him as far as we know.

... Considering we first saw him in some kind of tunnel, what if he's... A revived skeleton specimen that was found below Makuhero City?

For some reason, that kind of would explain the GitD brain slug to me.