Hero Factory 2014 Discussion

[Dorek]

Some of that had to do with a confusing rollout (and probably just some surplus stock), but yeah, we might not see these. Would be a shame; I'll hope for a holiday season promotion. This lil' beast is so cute!

[Mesonak]

Woah; that Beast is awesome. HF polybags had a lot of potential. ;__;

[TheGreatSpirit]

Where do I find these polybags? I haven't seen them in stores.

[Bfahome]

Okay we have a winner, all other polybags can go home now.

Where do I find these polybags? I haven't seen them in stores.

Russia.

[Mutant Orc]

I found that Breez polybag today in a Toys R Us by the way (if anyone;s interested). I also found that they had a fair amount of the HF IFB wave one and two sets. They also had a promortion where you got a Geoffrey Giraffe with any £15+ purchase of Lego.

The sets I got (Crystal Beast, Tunneler Beast and Breez Flea Machine) are ok sets, a little gappy in places or oddly proportioned, but nice all the same. I got them mainly for MOC and MODing purposes. I think theyre worthe getting for the parts really, more than the designs.

EDIT- Actually, the designs are nice. Their looks are growing on me, I'm rather fond of Tunneler beast

Edited August 17, 2014 by Mutant Orc

[TheGreatSpirit]

I found that Breez polybag today in a Toys R Us by the way (if anyone;s interested). I also found that they had a fair amount of the HF IFB wave one and two sets. They also had a promortion where you got a Geoffrey Giraffe with any £15+ purchase of Lego.

The sets I got (Crystal Beast, Tunneler Beast and Breez Flea Machine) are ok sets, a little gappy in places or oddly proportioned, but nice all the same. I got them mainly for MOC and MODing purposes. I think theyre worthe getting for the parts really, more than the designs.

Is this just in Toys R Us? It would be great if it were in other stores as well.

[Leewan]

Is this just in Toys R Us? It would be great if it were in other stores as well.

And in other countries, BTW.

[Mutant Orc]

Is this just in Toys R Us? It would be great if it were in other stores as well.

I've only seen it in a TRU, but I haven't been to a Smyths or anything recently so I am not aware if they have them or not.

The giraffe is exclusive to TRU.

And in other countries, BTW.

I know what you mean. It's annoying when promotional items and polybags don't always get distributed everywhere. It's more annoying when they suddenyl arrive without warning and dissapear gain before you have the chance to get them.

[Chimaninja454]

I have bought the Tunneler Beast vs. Surge, but I haven't built it yet, but I'll definitely build it today when I'm back home! :)

[SmoothJazz]

I won Queen Beast in BBCC 68 on BZPower, and just recently opened and built it. It's a really great set, with an intuitive design and cool parts. To be honest, I think it beats Dragon Bolt for best non-humanoid titan in HF.

[Aanchir]

Interesting detail about the beasts for this summer... they're all female. Certainly a pleasant surprise, since the last year of sets with two female villains was 2002, with Cahdok & Gahdok.

Sadly the bios for the beasts from the first half of the year didn't establish any genders. Like the LEGO Shop descriptions, they just referred to them as "it".

Edited August 20, 2014 by Aanchir

[Mutant Orc]

Interesting! I'd never had spotted that, I haven't read those bios before. It's an interesting detail although slightly strange; most creatures that have a matriarchal society only have one or two females, the drones are male, with just the one ruling female. That's the way it works with ants and bees isn't it??

Although, the beasts aren't proper insects or reptiles or anything really. So I suppose we can't flaw the multiple females. Quite nice that the genders are balanced, although aside from the Queen, everyone could have been 'its'.

[Flobnomdob]

I appreciate that Lego's done this really- they never advertised this in any way (solely for them being strong female characters- woah), they've just mentioned it in passing. The beasts don't look female, or any gender, so why shouldn't they? I was always a tad bored by the idea of the beasts just being a 'mutated ant colony' with a queen and wanted something more original. This is perfect.

How about some more female Heroes next time, ay?

Or, female BIONICLEs. I don't mind.

[Mutant Orc]

Hrm, I'll doubt they'll introduce new HEROES. They already have quite a few, and they have some rather ignored ones e.g. Stringer. They seem to have cut down on HEROES not increased. And LEGO will be appealing more to boys I think with these rather action heavy, 'fighting' sets, so it's unlikely they'll include more females. Normally it's only one/two a theme isn't it?? Unless they change the gender ratios in every theme I don't think we'll see change in just this one area. It could happen some time in the mid future though. Anyway, I'm sure character speculation doesn't belong in this topic!

On a more relevant note, I recently received the Queen Beast set. It's a decent set actually, but there are a few flaws with it (that the box art does nothing to detract from), but overall I think it's worth purchasing. I wrote out my opinions in a longer form for a Brickset review, it hasn't been uploaded properly onto the site yet, but this is a link to the page where it can be viewed for now- http://brickset.com/reviews/47913.

Edited August 20, 2014 by Mutant Orc

[Dorek]

I saw that they were female as part of some fun fan theory where those with jaw underbites are all female, and those with overbites are all male. No canonical bearing, but it makes a fun piece of trivia to speculate about.

That said... we do kind of run into the 2013 problem of whether or not those names reflect an individual (as I eventually decided for the 2013 beasts =P), or if that particular species is just all female. The latter is certainly not impossible.

[Aanchir]

I saw that they were female as part of some fun fan theory where those with jaw underbites are all female, and those with overbites are all male. No canonical bearing, but it makes a fun piece of trivia to speculate about.

That said... we do kind of run into the 2013 problem of whether or not those names reflect an individual (as I eventually decided for the 2013 beasts =P), or if that particular species is just all female. The latter is certainly not impossible.

I'd say each name refers to a particular type of beast, not an individual. After all, the Jumpers page says "Two jumpers can even combine and turn into the mighty Splitter Beast." That doesn't seem like something they'd say if there was only one Splitter Beast...

[Dorek]

True, but Crystal Beast, for instance, says "The Crystal Beast stands guard inside the treacherous crystal cave and she only has eyes for one thing: capturing the heroes with whatever means available and trapping them inside cocoons." which makes it sound much more like an individual, or at least casts doubt on whether or not they all can be female.

Obnoxiously nitpicky, yeah, but characteristic of the way they write the story bios. I'll probably just write it like the whole species (technically subspecies) is female... seems easier =P

[Aanchir]

True, but Crystal Beast, for instance, says "The Crystal Beast stands guard inside the treacherous crystal cave and she only has eyes for one thing: capturing the heroes with whatever means available and trapping them inside cocoons." which makes it sound much more like an individual, or at least casts doubt on whether or not they all can be female.

Obnoxiously nitpicky, yeah, but characteristic of the way they write the story bios. I'll probably just write it like the whole species (technically subspecies) is female... seems easier =P

I dunno, I interpreted it the way a nature documentary might describe the actions of "the tiger shark" or "the trapdoor spider" when only referring to an individual. It does raise the question of whether they're all female, though.

[Bfahome]

It might vary between them. Crystal Beast may be the only Crystal Beast.

I dunno, I interpreted it the way a nature documentary might describe the actions of "the tiger shark" or "the trapdoor spider" when only referring to an individual.

The saber-toothed tiger was one of the most vicious of all the prehistoric carnivores.

[Dorek]

Well, then you see more than one Crystal Beast in the episode (conversely, while only one Splitter Beast actually appears, the website implies that it can happen more than once), so... I like Aanch's interpretation of the nature documentary =P.

[Bfahome]

Oh.

Well then.

[BuilderMax]

In terms of trying to classify where all the Beast fit within the species. I think its interesting to assume some sorta metabolism stage/ranking system and special class/type. Despite Jumpers come in various colors, which indicates that they can metabolize into certain Beast. But for instance, Crystal Beast and Splitter Beast B (The Big One Of course) are in Warrior/Guardian stage/rank. They have to prove royalty to the hive and only worthily one can be picked by the previous Queen to become new ruler over the hive. As for special class that are those outside the ranking system for special occasions we have for instance Flyer Beast, that specializes in combat in sky/air.

[Aanchir]

High quality versions of the 1HY package illustrations on Matt Betteker's Coroflot portfolio. So now we know who to thank for this awesome artwork!

On a related note, Christoph Röttjer has added the Chima constraction sets, the Super Heroes Constraction sets, the Hero Factory theme, the BIONICLE sets he worked on, and the CCBS to his portfolio. The last of those would be good to link to whenever someone asks you "what does CCBS stand for?"

Edited August 23, 2014 by Aanchir

[Dorek]

Augh logos!

Very cool, though. I especially like a lot of the mask/helmet concept work, it's always fun to see those in the design stage.

[Leewan]

Very interesting, thank you Aanchir ! Is that a Wolverine sketch on the SuperHeroes page ? Also, there seems to be a #7 armor on the CCBS page. It's intriguing, I wonder why they never used it. I like the comparison pic where CCBS bones are shown with their brick equivalent. The SH chestpiece looks good in silver, I hope we'll eventually get it at some point. BTW, I like how those pictures illustrate the "layers" concept, with add-ons over armors over skeleton. Very effective.