Hero Factory 2014 Discussion

[SmoothJazz]

Went to the Lego Store today, and found summer HF sets. They had Queen Beast, Crystal Beast, Drill Machine, and Combat Machine. I bought Crystal Beast.

[Zorglorfian]

Gonna go tomorrow and get the remaining sets I want from this year (Rocka Crawler, Breez Flea, Crystal Beast, Tunneler Beast, Queen Beast). Any chance the Breez polybag made it stateside? Thanks!

[TheOneVeyronian]

The summer Hero Factory sets are now available from both eBay and Amazon Marketplace for immediate dispatch in the UK if anyone just can't wait to order them. I've just bought my first Crystal Beast and hope to share my planned modifications soon

[Dorek]

Looks like the site is more or less fully updated, although I'd like to see a new background at some point.

Bulk's back to being a dumb-dumb, I see.

[Kalhiki]

Saw a commercial for the Combat Machine and Queen Beast. With that and all the sightings, I'm confident they're out. Hopefully I'll find them this weekend when I go shopping.

[Aanchir]

The US LEGO Shop has all the HF summer sets listed as "Coming Soon on 1 August 2014". Basically the release date we were expecting, but it's good to have lots of high-quality official images in advance.

[SmoothJazz]

They were released early at Lego stores, apparently. I found them on Sunday the 20th, and bought Crystal Beast.

Here is a picture:

Edited July 24, 2014 by SmoothJazz

[Kalhiki]

Any sightings at TRU (or other stores, for that matter)? I'm going tomorrow and hope to pick up some of the sets. Considering TRU usually gets sets earlier than other stores, I figure chances are good.

Otherwise, I'll be going to a Lego Store on the first and I'll pick some up then.

[EVO97]

Today I was at Walmart, looking to see if they had any of the new sets, and I saw that the price tag below each set on the shelf was red, meaning that Walmart won't be getting any new shipments of those sets. This might mean that they were clearing shelf space for the summer sets, but I'm worried that Walmart won't be carrying HF at all any more.

[Kalhiki]

I saw IFB Wave 1 at Walmart, like... Once? Then they re-organized and I haven't seen anything Hero Factory since.

Moreover, Target has a select few Wave 1 sets (some machines and Splitter, if I'm not mistaken). TRU has everything. Seems that's where to go for Hero Factory (aside from Lego Stores, of course). Luckily they're not marked up.

What's worse is that I live around multiple Walmarts and Targets. And they're all like this. Walmart with zip, Target: barely anything. And it's sad because I used to be able to go anywhere and pick up the sets. Now I have to go all the way to TRU to buy them (and TRU is the farthest away).

[Dorek]

Might have had to do with the delayed line(s); spring is fairly low point for retail in general. We'll see if this late release strategy paid off for them...

Also much love for the updated shop pages and their amount of images; quite frankly, I didn't expect it, since the past two years have been just box images and the box image pose on a white background. Any additional views need to be gleaned from outside sites. Hopefully they continue this trend.

[Takanuinuva]

My local Walmart only carries the small Hero Factory Sets. So I have to go the City to get the larger ones.

[dviddy]

The US LEGO Shop has all the HF summer sets listed as "Coming Soon on 1 August 2014". Basically the release date we were expecting, but it's good to have lots of high-quality official images in advance.

I bought several of the line from the Portland, OR LEGO store this past week. I like them!

(And to top it off, the employees were telling me they expected this to be the last wave of HF ever, since "BIONICLE is coming back".)

[gundamsandwich]

I bought several of the line from the Portland, OR LEGO store this past week. I like them!

(And to top it off, the employees were telling me they expected this to be the last wave of HF ever, since "BIONICLE is coming back".)

I'm sure they did, I was at the Lego shop in Glasgow and they told me that BIONICLE is coming back and it's going to be really dark and a continuation and use the old system.

If you can't tell I'm joking.

[dviddy]

I'm sure they did

They did indeed. Though the relevant part to this topic is the "last wave of HF" part.

[Kalhiki]

Nothing at the regular stores. Not a bother for me as I'm going to the Lego Store on the 1st. But if anyone was hoping to find them at TRU, Target, or Walmart, don't get your hopes up.

[Dorek]

Broken release dates tend to vary as it is; you might see it at your local place, you might not. I haven't checked yet, but maybe I will this weekend...

[DraikNova]

I found all of the sets at my local intertoys. I didn't get any of them, because I'll be visiting a LEGO store soon anyway. Hilariously, the Queen Beast was marked up to 46.99 .

[TheOneVeyronian]

I've noticed that Argos in the UK are starting to sell the new sets too. But honestly, who told them it was a good idea to only stock Bulk Drill Machine and Surge and Rocka Combat Machine (with Queen Beast as online only, and the others completely nonexistent)?

Anyway, I received my Crystal Beast in the post yesterday, and while I think it's a half decent set, I've already been busy modding it with the little stash of transparent shells and bones I'd been hoarding for it. I think VBBN's remark in the review gave me the inspiration to give it a mace rather than the grabber that came with the set

Hero Factory - 44026 Crystal Beast MOD (2) by TheOneVeyronian, on Flickr

[DraikNova]

The other color tr. blue doesn't work. I think it would look better if you just used the basic torso shell like the set does. Apart from that, it looks pretty great. Are you planning to replace those grey bones with black ones? I think the added contrast might look nice. Also, maybe you could flip around the shells on the lower legs so they cover up the pin holes better?

Edited July 27, 2014 by DraikNova

[TheOneVeyronian]

The other color tr. blue doesn't work. I think it would look better if you just used the basic torso shell like the set does. Apart from that, it looks pretty great. Are you planning to replace those grey bones with black ones? I think the added contrast might look nice. Also, maybe you could flip around the shells on the lower legs so they cover up the pin holes better?

You see, I thought the all-black front didn't really work with the trans limbs, I would have preferred a trans-colour torso shell here to make it more "crystal" in this case. Unfortunately the only trans one is the dark blue variety, and it's literally a stand-in until we get a greater palette of translucent torso shells, if ever. The black one's already gone into another MOC, so that is also a possible reason for using it . The leg shells are actually that way to bulk out the bottom of the legs, as an exposed axle didn't look right. This is why I prefer using 5M shells on 7M bones a 5M bone would have thrown the beast back out of proportion, the very thing I was trying to fix.

Good point about the grey though, I don't know why LEGO didn't bother with using black in the first place... especially considering the torso, neck and feet were black in the first place.

[Kalhiki]

You could throw in some of Stringer's dark blue transparent shells to balance out the body. May look cool with two shades of blue as well.

As it is, though, the added trans parts look great. And the mace is very fitting. Good job!

[Leewan]

Yeah, replace the grey bones with black ones. And if you want to add some tr. dark blue, you could use 5M shells on the shins, they would be better at covering the pinholes than 4M shells, and it could be interesting to have two shades of tr. blue next to each other. And by doing that you could use the 4M shells on the thighs. You could also use tr. dark blue on the forearms, it would work just like the shins, but at a smaller scale. :)

Can we see the beast's back ? I spot 4M shells behind the shoulders.

[TheOneVeyronian]

Yeah, replace the grey bones with black ones. And if you want to add some tr. dark blue, you could use 5M shells on the shins, they would be better at covering the pinholes than 4M shells, and it could be interesting to have two shades of tr. blue next to each other. And by doing that you could use the 4M shells on the thighs. You could also use tr. dark blue on the forearms, it would work just like the shins, but at a smaller scale. :)

Can we see the beast's back ? I spot 4M shells behind the shoulders.

Do you read my mind or something? What you outline is basically what I've just been doing to improve it further. I've put some 5M dark blue shells on the shins, 3M dark blue shells on the lower arms (you said forearms but I thought lower arms just to match the shin colours) and swapped the bones for black (so much better imo). Unfortunately the thighs still have the 3M shells since I used one of the liberated 4M shells in place of a 3M one on the back, and now it's either raid my Frost Beast or I've basically run out of loose ones

And yes, those are 4M shells behind the shoulders. I promise I'll get more pics of it up on my Flickr soon, but I've had hardly any time for photographing them recently...

[Leewan]

Do you read my mind or something? What you outline is basically what I've just been doing to improve it further.

Well, that's the most logical solution to me, so I guess it makes sense that we had the same idea. ^^

(you said forearms but I thought lower arms just to match the shin colours)

Forearms, lower arms... isn't that the same thing ?

Also, I think you can improve the weapon's design. I have nothing against a mace, even if I think a staff fits better the slenderness of the set, but it's a bit "weak", IMO. You don't have to use the same design as Mungus' one, but the hollow space between the two spiked parts bothers me, to be fair. Maybe you could build something out of system to fill it ? Or, if you want to go for something simpler, use something similar to Black Phantom and Gorzan's weapons.

Oh, and you could create a MOD topic, it could be nice.