Hero Factory 2013

[Kalhiki]

Whatever that head is, it's too gorgeous to not be in a set. I want it so bad.

Also, what are they using for its wings? They seem way too big to be anything practical (y'know, aside from this), and I sure haven't seen them before.

Kalhiki

[Jetrax99]

Let's see, head we've never seen before? Check. Helicoptor rotor blades? Check. Perhaps an upgraded Rotor? Could we finally be entering the "Villain Factory" arc? Purely speculation but that's what I see.

LEGO, why must you tease???

[ToaJaller78]

That's it: we were talking about how Stormer looked slightly different in the show compared to the set (and he isn't the only one either). The visor design being one of the most notable differences.

Actually, The animators animate off of the prototype. Trust me. Look at the SP paws and Stormer's BA helmet

[Dorek]

The wing pieces have been featured on helicopter Technic sets before.

Edit: Apparently, only one set, 9396

Edited February 18, 2013 by Dorek

[toatyger]

To be honest, that looks a lot like Blackout from the transformers movie to me.

[Vinyl Scratch]

That looks amazingly glorious. It's bloody fantastic. And if it's made by actual designers I'm really surprised they never did a set this epic.

That head/helmet is... Odd, to say the least. But it's unique. I wonder where it's from?

[Rocketbilly]

That looks amazingly glorious. It's bloody fantastic. And if it's made by actual designers I'm really surprised they never did a set this epic.

That head/helmet is... Odd, to say the least. But it's unique. I wonder where it's from?

I can't ever see LEGO releasing a set this complex. It's armoured from pretty much every angle, and I'd imagine the instructions to build it would be a nightmare to the average member of the intended age range, what with all the different angles involved and even those hoses could cause all sorts of headaces with the way they snake around.Obviously it wouldn't be a cheap setand I can't see LEGO releasing a figure like this for adult collectors,either. Action figure themes really don't seem popular with the adult collectors at all and I'm sure LEGO knows that.

[Shakar]

Actually, The animators animate off of the prototype. Trust me. Look at the SP paws and Stormer's BA helmet

Indeed, that was the point of my earlier post.

About the "prototype": it looks awesome. I wonder what's the plan behind it, because that surely wouldn't be released as a regular set, ever. It's like a Hero Factory UCS.

The head can either belong to CH or Rotor. But the giant rotor blades (first time I saw those pieces- they're pretty awesome) suit Rotor way too well.

I wouldn't mind updated version of the 2010 villains. Their looks and build already became obsolete in 2011, for obvious reasons.

Edited February 18, 2013 by Shakar

[Aanchir]

Let's see, head we've never seen before? Check. Helicoptor rotor blades? Check. Perhaps an upgraded Rotor? Could we finally be entering the "Villain Factory" arc? Purely speculation but that's what I see.

LEGO, why must you tease???

I can almost guarantee that it's not going to be from a future year. Perhaps by some miracle it could be a store exclusive this year (not likely), but besides that possibility, TLG puts forth a very concerted effort never to reveal sets (or even sketch models of those sets) to the public too long before they're scheduled for release, because otherwise a copycat brand could rush their own take on the concept to the store shelves before TLG has a chance to distribute the real deal, making it look to the average consumer like LEGO is the brand copying whoever had such a product on shelves first.

But that doesn't at all mean that a future set can't use concepts from this model. I'd love to see that foot design used in an official set. It's sturdy, cohesive, and doesn't require any hugely-complicated Technic building. And again, it would be stellar if an AFOL-oriented constraction model like this could be put on Cuusoo. While AFOLs might not be a significant audience for regular-issue constraction sets, a Cuusoo project would allow for a smaller production run so as to minimize risk, and a model this attractive could probably generate significant interest even outside the Hero Factory and BIONICLE fan communities.

Edited February 18, 2013 by Aanchir

[vexorian]

I don't know about that. I remember how many of the modulars were visible in the video showing the latest R2D2. It *could* be a tease.

[DraikNova]

I wish someone would give us instructions for the basic build of that monstrosity. It looks like it would be a perfect "base build" for almost any HF MOC.

[Aanchir]

I don't know about that. I remember how many of the modulars were visible in the video showing the latest R2D2. It *could* be a tease.

A glimpse in a short snippet of a video makes sense, either as a tease or as an accidental leak. That's very different than putting such a model in a display case where dozens of people will be able to come by and take high-quality photos.

Now, previously-unrevealed sets do sometimes show up at LEGO World, but those are sets meant for release this year. And that's part of my point: it could be a set meant for actual release, but that would make the most sense if it were meant for release later this year, and in that case it would probably have to be a D2C set or store exclusive (otherwise it would have been at at least one of the Toy Fairs).

Now, the possibility of it being a D2C set is one I hadn't considered, and it would be mind-blowing if that were the case, since it's been so long since BIONICLE had anything of that sort (and even then, most BIONICLE D2C sets were glorified "Super Packs" of already-released sets).

[DraikNova]

A D2C? Yeah right.

[vexorian]

I think the set would be around the same size as Witch Doctor in brick counts. The most likely thing that happened is that they were planning to release this thing until the pixies at the market research thing pointed out that even medium-sized sets like Witch Doctor are too large for HF's target market and they had to scrap their master piece.

But if it is released in 2014 I will be very happy. Expect me to try to reverse engineer the build though.

[Aanchir]

I think the set would be around the same size as Witch Doctor in brick counts. The most likely thing that happened is that they were planning to release this thing until the pixies at the market research thing pointed out that even medium-sized sets like Witch Doctor are too large for HF's target market and they had to scrap their master piece.

But if it is released in 2014 I will be very happy. Expect me to try to reverse engineer the build though.

There's no way Witch Doctor would be considered too large for the target market in terms of price point or complexity because Jet Rocka and Speeda Demon are both priced exactly the same, and both have fairly intricate Technic builds. But I can't imagine TLG releasing two standard-release sets at that price point any year unless sales at that price point were strong enough to indicate that the brand could support that. Generally, smaller sets sell better. That's one of the reasons why the last wave of BIONICLE sets were made so small; it meant a more substantial return on TLG's investment.

[vexorian]

They are not titans though.

From witch doctor to Speeda Demon and Jet Rocka shows that they are not trying to make actual Titans anymore. Vehicles are a departure from previous years that were all figures.

[Aanchir]

They are not titans though.

From witch doctor to Speeda Demon and Jet Rocka shows that they are not trying to make actual Titans anymore. Vehicles are a departure from previous years that were all figures.

Before 2011, there hadn't a year of "all figures" since 2006, so I think saying vehicles are a departure from previous years (plural) is an exaggeration. The choice to introduce more vehicle sets seems more like a matter of introducing variety (after all, with a dozen sets a year that are "just figures", how many more do you need?) than a matter of titan sets being too complex.

The fact that vehicle sets more or less replaced titans above a certain price point is really just a consequence of the fact that it's hard to make an impressive vehicle-plus-figure set at a $20-or-lower price point, so the vehicle concept gets pushed to the higher price points and "titan sets" get bumped down.

On a side note, I don't understand at all how Furno XL and Stormer XL fail to qualify as titan sets compared to, say, Tuma and Icarax, unless the qualification for being a "titan set" depends entirely on custom upper legs and arms.

Edited February 18, 2013 by Aanchir

[DraikNova]

While I agree that Furno and Stormer qualify as titans, I think it would be silly to judge that just on four releases. As a matter of fact, the first years of Bionicle didn't have any titans either and Hero Factory is still pretty new. It will have to become an established, well-marketed theme before we get (more) higher price-point sets. And I see a lot of possibilities in HF, seeing as it could reasonably switch character casts almost every year while not breaking the canon.

Anyway, I hope they'll reuse the Rocka sword mold in 2014. It doesn't have any traits linking it to just one character and is still a very slick and swordlike mold. Besides, I need tr. white and tr. red versions for my Ninjago MOCs .

[Gatanui]

That white robot has got to be one of the most purely awesome things built out of LEGO I've ever seen in my life, and definitely the best of all by far of what I've seen built with the CCBS.

-Gata

[ZORK64]

I'm usually a purist when it comes to LEGO, but right now, I'm totally amazed by the painted version of this giant MOC. But the built itself is also great, I think it would look better (read: more like the super-awesome painted one) if it would be white (okay okay I admit, I just want all those pieces in white).

The head itself looks... strange. But interesting.

It's also too bad that the rotor blades are featured in only one set, and an expensive one too. Well, I might order these from Bricklink one day. I like them.

[Shakar]

Anyway, I hope they'll reuse the Rocka sword mold in 2014. It doesn't have any traits linking it to just one character and is still a very slick and swordlike mold. Besides, I need tr. white and tr. red versions for my Ninjago MOCs .

Worriz does include a tr. red version, actually. It's just that the piece isn't very transparent to begin with, like Breakout Breez's blades (check Black Phantom or Stormer XL), Furno's original fire weapons, etc. It looks more like bright red, but it's still pretty vibrant.

[Kalhiki]

That white robot has got to be one of the most purely awesome things built out of LEGO I've ever seen in my life, and definitely the best of all by far of what I've seen built with the CCBS.

-Gata

Sadly, I doubt it would look as cool without all that painted detail.

But, yeah. I agree. They're both friggin' sweet. Really makes me wish I had more HF parts to build with (I don't like taking apart my sets).

Kalhiki

[mrfang2]

what if its an upgraded version of that drone stormer fought in von nebulas origin? you know, out of spite, von nebula models the heavy hitter villain bot' from the anti factory after the thing that made him go rouge in the first place to taunt stormer.

or it could even be the new von nebula, just built up to look like a show version we havnt seen yet.

[DraikNova]

Worriz does include a tr. red version, actually. It's just that the piece isn't very transparent to begin with, like Breakout Breez's blades (check Black Phantom or Stormer XL), Furno's original fire weapons, etc. It looks more like bright red, but it's still pretty vibrant.

Thanks for the reminder! Now I just need a white one and I could probably substitute Furno's silver one for that.

It's kind of funny how we've pretty much got the story and the sets wrapped up for this entire year and it's only February.

Edited February 18, 2013 by DraikNova

[Front]

The awesome gun-metallic character shown at LEGO-World in CPH was designed by Christoffer, who has been working on Bionicle/HF since day one.

I've been begging him to push this to a product, but it's hard to transform such an expensive build into a set. The painted version (white with green) is not to my liking though.

A few months ago I asked Christoffer if I could rebuild his character and post pictures on flickr and here on EB. He promptly suggested me to put it on Cuusoo too.

Maybe I should make a copy of his build, and show you all how it looks in detail. The only custom part in the character is the head, everything else is made of available parts.

Erland

Part Design