Superheroes 2012

[Aanchir]

What I'm trying to figure out is why people assume Hero Factory will be going away. These sets are coming out next year. We have almost no knowledge of next year's sets, so there's no reason to assume a lack of Hero Factory 2012 news means the theme is doomed to be replaced. At the same time, Hero Factory going away remains a possibility, and it'd be a darn shame if that were the case.

I certainly hope that Hero Factory, if it doesn't have sets in early 2012, will in the very least only be taking a brief hiatus. Keep in mind that even the Ben 10 line didn't displace BIONICLE entirely, and coincided with the release of the BIONICLE Stars, so I highly doubt that Hero Factory will disappear so abruptly if sales for the theme have been impressive at all. And TLG has often had multiple constraction themes running at the same time: in the case of Knights' Kingdom II, both constraction themes were able to remain successful without cannibalizing each other's sales.

From press releases, there will be six constraction-based sets: three from Marvel, and three from DC. There are obviously the four we've seen: Batman, Green Lantern, the Hulk, and Iron Man. Ones we have not seen include the Joker (no idea how they'll pull that off even in a cartoon style-- he isn't as much for skintight costumes and muscle suits) and Captain America.

Anyway, I'm largely impressed with these sets. Batman, Green Lantern, and Iron Man look great. Heavily stylized, of course, but no worse than some of the other action figures and toys currently on store shelves. Hulk is the big letdown from what we've seen so far. His color scheme frankly doesn't work for him. He needs darker skin and possibly purple (268 Medium Lilac) or dark blue (140 Earth Blue) pants to be a great likeness of the character, and it would also make him a little less eye-searing. And all the Titanium Metallic makes no sense at all.

There are some useless parts, of course. The head pieces can't really be used for anything other than the characters they're meant to depict. And Green Lantern's glowy power ring effect piece seems like it'd be really hard to use, given its size, awkward shape, lack of connection points, and lack of symmetry. But other parts, such as Hulk's huge chest piece, Iron Man's new torso shell piece (also used on his shoulders), and of course the abundant recolors, all look very useful indeed.

[JPS97]

I have to admit after I the things i've seen lego churn out this has got to be one of the worst. Sure it may offer us a few new pieces but other than that I am disapointed. Plus, if Hero factory is replaced with this, I think lego will get a number of mad fans. Personally aanchir I think some are thinking this just from what happend with bioncle. New line comes in. Bioncle has one more release. Old line goes out.

-JPS97

[Omicron Squad Leader]

While I'm not very partial to Marvel/DC comics, I do like the look of these quite a lot; namely Iron Man and the Green Lantern. As I'm fairly positive that Hero Factory will not be discontinued for this, I'll be happy to pick some up, even with the atrocious prices they are sure to be assigned.

[vexorian]

Please let us avoid creating any premature HateDumb by speculating that this will replace Hero Factory. It does not add up. Ben 10 existed at the same time as the stars and HF, afterall. There's no reason for HF to be replaced with this. It is possible that HF gets replaced with a different LEGO-owned action figure line, but that's another topic.

If you remember, Bionicle was not replaced with Ben 10, it was replaced with Hero Factory.

Second, these are superior to any previous attempt from both LEGO and megabloks to make buildable figures of licensed heroes. The linked HALO stuff look good until you realize they are probably 3 pieces each with completely specialized pieces that are only useful for their designated job in a HALO figure. Whereas these figures are at least going to be build-able. Plus it is easy with HALO as the guys are supposed to have armor which is supposed to look mechanical.

Third, note that they may as well still be in prototype phase. Some molds and features may be missing.

Fourth, they look silly and they will forcefully look silly in the end, but there is market for these silly things. Megabloks has gotten away with selling Iron Man and Spider man things that look much worse than these and had less pieces. These toys are not meant for your demographic.

And Iron Man looks great anyways.

Edit: They should have tried to do only figures that are supposed to look inorganic. My ideas would have been:

* Batman in Bat armor : Actually, it is almost like this is the intention with the current Batman prototype.

* Mr. Freeze.

* Brainiac

* Iron Man.

* War Machine.

* Iron Monger.

* Apocallypse

* Sentinel

Well, something like that.

Edited July 21, 2011 by vexorian

[Nav]

I would have liked to have seen TLG do this with Lego system instead of HF like action figures.

[vexorian]

HF is more suitable as it is more flexible for action figures and allows more poseability .

Construct-A-Buzz almost couldn't move and its piece count required a large price. The result was a figure that can't move, was sort of flimsy and was also a tad small for the price. I think TLG just took the route that enabled selling the most.

[Zarkan]

I'm sorry, but these figures are so bad, they're absolutely hilarious. The Hero Factory building style does not work well with human superheroes, that's for sure, and I can only imagine how ridiculous the Joker is going to look. Ah well, at least the parts are good.

[Barrage]

Bleh on the actual sets. Bleh, Bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh. Yay for the parts! Wonder when these will be released? I really want the medium green pieces, and the gold "Villain Cores" are sure to be useful.

EDIT: Also, as these are prototypes, I'm pretty sure all the gunmetal pieces on Hulk will be the same green as his chest piece in the release version.

EDIT#2: Anyone notice that there are two ball joints sticking out from the backs of both Green Lantern and Batman? Is that a new piece or just not a widely used one?

Edited July 21, 2011 by Barrage

[Aanchir]

Bleh on the actual sets. Bleh, Bleh, bleh, bleh, bleh. Yay for the parts! Wonder when these will be released? I really want the medium green pieces, and the gold "Villain Cores" are sure to be useful.

I keep hearing the word "medium green", and it always makes me cringe because I have no idea what color it's supposed to refer to. I'm assuming it means Mata Green (28 Dark Green), which is two full shades away from the actual Medium Green (29 Medium Green), a long-discontinued color. In between the two colors is 37 Bright Green, another color that's been used a lot recently, even if it hasn't made any appearances in constraction sets.

Needless to say, there's a lot of room for confusion with LEGO's color naming system, so I don't really often insist people use one particular naming system. But there are instances where people could be a lot clearer. For instance, the color introduced in Prince of Persia is Medium Dark Flesh (Bricklink) or Medium Nougat (TLG). Just calling it "nougat" causes confusion, because there is no Bricklink or Peeron color by that name, while TLG has a separate color called 18 Nougat (which corresponds to Bricklink's Flesh). Similarly, calling the green in these sets "Medium Green" will only cause confusion among LEGO fans who are more familiar with the color Medium Green on Bricklink or in TLG's color palette, rather than the BIONICLE fan term.

[TheRedGuy]

....Ughh.

Are you kidding me, Lego?

I really don't understand the people that actually says that it's good. All of them look NOTHING like their original counterparts. I'm sorry, but these are just..... Crap. The only thing that impresses me is the recolors.

Atleast it's not replacing HF.(Hopefully.)

Edited July 21, 2011 by TheRedGuy

[Bfahome]

I'm going to echo most people in this topic and say these look sorta goofy but the parts open up some possibilities.

[SpiderSpaceman]

EDIT: Also, as these are prototypes, I'm pretty sure all the gunmetal pieces on Hulk will be the same green as his chest piece in the release version.

yeah I came to that realization this morning. I approve the set in that case

Muscles!

[Aanchir]

....Ughh.

Are you kidding me, Lego?

I really don't understand the people that actually says that it's good. All of them look NOTHING like their original counterparts. I'm sorry, but these are just..... Crap. The only thing that impresses me is the recolors.

Atleast it's not replacing HF.(Hopefully.)

The Batman in The Dark Knight looks almost nothing like his original counterpart in Detective Comics from the 1930s. For that matter, neither does the Batmobile in any Batman movie. Frankly, though, there are a lot of toys out there today that feature more stylized depictions of superheroes, often with costumes they never wore in other media. This is normal for makers of action figures, and I don't see a real problem with it (sometimes it's even fun to see an interpretation of a classic character designed more for play value than for practicality). The TV show The Batman was one I enjoyed greatly, even though it radically re-imagined the design of villains such as Bane and the Joker.

Now, depending on how Joker is pulled off in these sets, I might have different feelings about him. That remains to be seen, as I'm not totally sure how a good purple suit might be made using Hero Factory parts. And he's not nearly as musclebound as the heroes who have been seen so far.

[CabooseBM]

I could care less about what the figures look like, I'm far too busy drooling over the pieces available. Beautiful! Just Amazing!

[refriedbeans]

I recently asked the Lego company (on Facebook) if the Hero Factory line would continue and they said the company did not have any plans of ending the brand. So calm down.---(Link)

Edited July 21, 2011 by refriedbeans

[averick]

did any one notice the upper thighs of bat man have a new piece ?

[Front]

did any one notice the upper thighs of bat man have a new piece ?

Brickthing noticed it earlier, and if you look carefully you'll see it on all four heroes.

[Oky]

http://www.megabloks.com/Shop/MEGA_Bloks/Halo/ODST_29709/

I mean when compairing to the Halo line. I don't like those, but at least they look better than these "Heros" with marvel prints on them.

I gotta say, I actually kinda like the look of the action figures MegaBloks made, despite their ridiculously large ball joints. In a way, their Iron Man looks better than Lego's.

[lightningtiger]

I don't often visit this forum here, but two things......this is aimed naturally to 10 year old kids not us grown up kids and second, when does Mega Bloks make anything better than Lego....oh, come on !

Actaully, I prefer these over the Ben10 characters and perhaps you can build a two headed Iron Man/Batman combo ?

[dviddy]

I am going to buy a ton of these. If only so TLG realizes that back armour was totally a good idea, and should give it to the HF Heroes as well.

[The Dor]

Brickthing noticed it earlier, and if you look carefully you'll see it on all four heroes.

I'm not seeing it on either Iron Man nor Hulk. Any insight into what this piece actually accomplishes? It looks to me like a simple way to extend the bone.

Anyway, these guys look mostly good, aside from Hulk looking a little oddly constructed, and Batman's ridiculous looking "wings". I'm sure the finalized versions will look much smoother, and I'm quite eager to see the Joker and Captain America sets. As it stands, I'm probably going to be getting all of these guys. Still hoping that Hero Factory will keep going, though.

[exxtrooper]

These don't even look like lego.

Edited February 10, 2019 by exxtrooper

[dviddy]

These don't even look like lego.

They don't look any different than the current HF sets, but with comic book character heads. You're overreacting, and you're being just as ridiculous as AFOLs who still refuse to admit BIONICLE was (and is) not only a real LEGO brand, but also system compatible.

[Ratbat]

The Green Lantern one looks fantastic. I like that Lego included a blast piece with him. Iron Man and Batman look okay. Hulk looks good with the exception of his head. It's a little too childish for me.

[Brickthing]

I gotta say, I actually kinda like the look of the action figures MegaBloks made, despite their ridiculously large ball joints. In a way, their Iron Man looks better than Lego's.

MegaBlok's version looks a lot more accurate, but at the cost of every piece being an Iron-Man specific piece. With the LEGO Iron Man, only the head piece is specific to Iron Man (two if the chestplate is printed rather than a sticker), while the other pieces can be used for other purposes. LEGO's done a pretty good job at making a recognizable Iron Man without extremely specific pieces.

Another difference is that MegaBlok's Iron Man looks based off the more detailed film incarnation of the suit, while these LEGO Heroes are based of comic versions. Of course, that would've justified Yellow instead of Gold, but I guess Gold was decided to be cooler and more familiar to the kids.

I am going to buy a ton of these. If only so TLG realizes that back armour was totally a good idea, and should give it to the HF Heroes as well.

All the back pieces used look like existing pieces, none of which fit on a HF Hero without condemned TECHNIC pieces. It's an awesome improvement, but would LEGO think it's worth making a new piece specifically for covering Hero backs?

I'm not seeing it on either Iron Man nor Hulk. Any insight into what this piece actually accomplishes? It looks to me like a simple way to extend the bone.

Iron Man may be using it somewhere else in his body (it's not on his thighs), but the Hulk could have it on his thighs. In the context of all these Hero sets it seems redundant, because it is turning B5 bones into slightly more flexible versions of existing B6 bones. This combination of pieces will probably be more useful than a B6 bone, because you get two bones instead of one bone with a mostly useless pin hole.

For MOCing amd other purposes though, these B2 bones are similar to A3 bones, which by simply extending the bone, make other shapes and configurations possible. These bones could replace A3 bones in titan sets, making them more compact.