Hero Factory 2014 Discussion

[Infernum]

I'm watching the episode right now, and it's infinitely better than I expected after reading the last few pages here. . The voices are fine, visuals are epic, and the only thing that I don't like is how forced some of the lines seem. Still not too bad, though.

Bulk's machine is great, but why the heck does Breez say "Activating fruit rockets!"?.

You can also see, at 20:38 the face we thought was a bigger beast, and it's the queen. For some reason her face changes from black upper and azure lower, to both being azure.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Infernum

[Zenerius]

Here is some information I collected while studying the new summer sets in the movie.

Surge and Rocka Combiner Machine (?)

This is my favorite besides Bulk's Drilling Machine.

-Does not include any gold, except for Rocka

-Has two unique blue printed pieces

-Splits into a jet and a four-legged walker

Bulk's Drilling Machine

I like this one, it has a good design and a nice drill.

-Has a movable drill (Can be positioned back and forth, or retracted)

-Has at least 1 unique printed piece (There might be another, I just couldn't see it)

-Has four legs

Breez's Anchor Machine (?)

This one is interesting. The bone structure is strange, though.

-Has a large, three-fingered claw on the back (Possibly the anchor/grappling hook?)

-Has an odd bone structure

-Has the superhero Ultrabuild armor add-ons in green

-Has three legs, each one having Bulk 3.0's armor add-ons

Rocka's Climber Machine (?)

I kinda like this one. It has a unique structure for the arms, but it doesn't have a cockpit canopy... (From what I know)

-Has an arm structure that uses Bulk 3.0's armor add-ons with exo-force arms and chainsaw bits at the end

-The only bipedal mech in the summer wave (Could be wrong, but I haven't seen any other machines that are bipedal)

-Has no cockpit canopy, leaving Rocka open for attack

Evo Spider Machine (?) vs. the Queen Beast (?)

I really like this set, it is probably going to be my favorite beast yet.

Evo Spider Machine:

-Six-legged walker

-Has a goo-blaster thingy in the bottom

-Has a unique printed piece (I think there are two, but I couldn't get a good enough look.)

The Queen Beast:

-Has four legs

-Includes parts to construct the cocoons, both on the tail and a pair in her hands

-Has articulated fingers and a staff

-Has new skeletal wing parts, not the same as Flyer Beast's

Tunneler Beast

I have mixed thoughts about this one. The red color scheme is new though, so I guess it's nice.

-Has articulated fingers (I think all of the beasts of the summer wave have these! Hooray!)

-Has 6 legs

-Has a primarily red color scheme

-Includes the leaf armor add-on that the Queen Beast set has (The Queen Beast set uses them to construct eggs)

Crystal Beast

This is a pretty cool beast. Not sure if I'll get it though.

-Has articulated fingers

-Uses a primarily azure color scheme

-Has a black quaza spike with a yellow accent attached to the head

-Has unique chest armor printing

This is all of the summer set info I managed to collect. If I forgot to write a set down or missed a bit of information, then please tell me.

[Aanchir]

To quote "some critics":

1. "How the hell do you survive falling into a pool of acid, or at least being drained away to the same location as one? Besides, whether or not YOU, PERSONALLY, think they did or not does not change the fact that their status ranges from ambiguous to flat-out deceased.
   
2. Even on-camera when Breez tells the other Heroes to drop the bridge, we see Beasts in the crystal cavern fall into the acid.
   
3. "All we saw fall into the acid were cocoons" OK buddy, if infanticide isn’t enough for you, I don’t know what is."
   

Just sayin..............................

I had forgotten the part where the bridge was dropped, but as for the big fall in the climax, Bulk obviously survived just fine, and from what we saw in the fight scenes the beasts are remarkably sturdy, so the possibility for survival was most definitely there. Obviously the heroes thought so as well, since they went ahead and sealed the cavern in accordance with Breez's promise.

We don't even know if there were actual developed jumpers in those cocoons. I saw the cocoons more as eggs than as infants. But even setting that aside, I think talking about "infanticide" in the context of underground monsters is sensationalizing things a wee bit. The creatures were intelligent enough to commmunicate with Breez, sure, but the same could probably be said of most animals in the Hero Factory universe. I agree, the finale wasn't without any loss or ethical missteps, and it would have been nice if someone in the episode like Breez had commented on it after the fact, but it seems downright ridiculous to treat this as if the heroes have committed some kind of war crime.

Bulk's machine is great, but why the heck does Breez say "Activating fruit rockets!"?.

Her line is actually "activating boot rockets!"

And as for the unresolved cliffhangers at the end of this episode and the last one... has anyone considered that they might be to encourage further storytelling from fans? After all, that way there's room for kids to create their own "Invasion from Below" and "Brain Attack" stories without having to set them between the beginning and end of each episode. Since the Hero Factory theme has had a really strong focus on getting fans to create their own characters and stories I think that might be the most likely function those cliffhangers are meant to perform, besides of course a suspenseful "stinger" at the end of the episode.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Aanchir

[Infernum]

Her line is actually "activating boot rockets!"

Oooohhhh, that makes a lot more sense.

[Zenerius]

"Activating Fruit Rockets!" would have been the greatest quote in Hero Factory history.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Zenerius

[exxtrooper]

So I think it's safe to say we won't be seeing clear images of the sets before toyfair (in new york?) unless some underdog takes blurry pictures of a catalogue?

[Infernum]

It still sounds like fruit to me. .

is this new? New to me... https://imageshack.com/i/0nb0uqj

[DraikNova]

Nope, we've already seen that.

[Shakar]

I forgot to say..the Queen's chest printing is orange in the episode, but blue in the set. Odd. Crystal Beast's chest printing looked the same orange in some shots and green in others. I wonder if the two things are related...

Edited January 11, 2014 by Shakar

[Zenerius]

How do people even get their hands on a catalogue?

[just2good]

How do people even get their hands on a catalogue?

I don't want to veer off topic, but if you work at a small retail chain, I believe you have to see through it to determine which sets you're going to order shipments of.

[Zenerius]

I don't want to veer off topic, but if you work at a small retail chain, I believe you have to see through it to determine which sets you're going to order shipments of.

What exactly do you mean by "see through it"?

EDIT: Oh, I think I know. You have to look through the catalogues to see which shipments of sets you would like to order to put in the stores.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Zenerius

[just2good]

What exactly do you mean by "see through it"?

Like, a LEGO represenative gives them the catalog to look at for a short bit. The store owners or whoever manages the stock browses through the catalog.

Anywho... while the Summer 2014 wave of these from what we've seen doesn't really impress me, I can't wait until the "winter" wave come out in the Spring here in the States!

[Zenerius]

Yeah. I wish I lived in the United Kingdom because the new sets are released right on my birthday. I'm going to the Lego Store next week, but I doubt they will have the new sets. What do you think?

[VBBN]

Kinda surprised they didn't put the combo models in the episode, as they seem to be pushing them a lot in the instructions, but I suppose it wouldn't be all to easy to fit those into the timeframe..

[MakutaNocturn]

Once a manager of a little shop gave me such catalogue to look because I asked for one. I mean I wanted a normal catalogue which are probably in every Lego shop but that guy probably didn't know what I mean. These sets look cute but I don't know if cute enough to spend money on them. Maybe there will be a new fresh wave of stop motions with these minifigures on YouTube?

[Zenerius]

Kinda surprised they didn't put the combo models in the episode, as they seem to be pushing them a lot in the instructions, but I suppose it wouldn't be all to easy to fit those into the timeframe..

I thought the same. When I saw the combiner comics in the instruction booklets, there was an all-out war between the hydra beast and the monstrosity that is Evo's XL machine with multiple limbs. It made me think that the heroes would become so desperate enough to construct combiners, but that never happened in the special. Honestly, I'm quite okay with it, since the episode is already better than what I had in mind.

Edited January 11, 2014 by Zenerius

[Dorek]

Runtime, honestly. I bet Advance would have loved to include the combi-models, but settled for including them in the comics (which are available in HQ on every website but the american one, by the way. amaaaaazing).

[ShadowWolfHount]

Man if we have something like that in Hero Factory, it's be awesome but no, we don't all we just get is mini-comic and art pictures. Plus that one picture you link Dorek, i think there a Zombie on the upper left in a window.

Edited January 11, 2014 by ShadowWolfHount

[BrickBuilder3213]

I see "Von's Gym' next to the Hydra Beast in this picture. X3

[Leewan]

(which are available in HQ on every website but the american one, by the way. amaaaaazing).

I noticed yesterday that the battle scene is full of references to HF designers (Christoph Games, Brian's Coffee...), and there is even a reference to Matt Betteker's blog (look at the logo on Jaw Beast's arm), so I assume he's the one who drew the comics. I really appreciate those little references and "winks".

BTW, do somebody know who designed which sets ?

Edited January 11, 2014 by Leewan

[ShadowWolfHount]

I see "Von's Gym' next to the Hydra Beast in this picture. X3

I think that where Von Nebula is hiding but that unlikely because you can just use a paper all to stop him :P

[DraikNova]

Von's Gym...HF, stop being sillier than the LEGO movie, you're doing too good a job for a supposedly serious theme.

Also, looking at the stills, Tunneler Beast appears to use a short torso, the Waspix piece and one of the Stormer 3-length pieces, which are used for the middle pair of limbs and a 3-length red armor piece respectively.

[Gatanui]

Like, a LEGO represenative gives them the catalog to look at for a short bit. The store owners or whoever manages the stock browses through the catalog.

Anywho... while the Summer 2014 wave of these from what we've seen doesn't really impress me, I can't wait until the "winter" wave come out in the Spring here in the States!

Pretty sure they keep them. I was actually given one two and a half years ago. ^^

Von's Gym...HF, stop being sillier than the LEGO movie, you're doing too good a job for a supposedly serious theme.

Also, looking at the stills, Tunneler Beast appears to use a short torso, the Waspix piece and one of the Stormer 3-length pieces, which are used for the middle pair of limbs and a 3-length red armor piece respectively.

Nobody ever pretended it was a serious theme. At least not as serious as BIONICLE, though most likely more than, say, Ninjago.

-Gata

Edited January 11, 2014 by Gatanui

[Bob C]

I don't want to veer off topic, but if you work at a small retail chain, I believe you have to see through it to determine which sets you're going to order shipments of.

Why are the pictures so blurry? I thought that if you're a retailer you have every right to share the sets?

Once a manager of a little shop gave me such catalogue to look because I asked for one. I mean I wanted a normal catalogue which are probably in every Lego shop but that guy probably didn't know what I mean. These sets look cute but I don't know if cute enough to spend money on them. Maybe there will be a new fresh wave of stop motions with these minifigures on YouTube?

This happened at a store in India, they had the 2h2012 retailer catalog out for people to look at. If only they did that in the US (maybe they do in small toy shops but where I live there's not a single toy store)