Review: 2067 Evo 2.0

[LuxorV]

Set name: Evo 2.0 (Nathan Evo)

Set Number: 2067

Price: ? $, 9.99 Euro

Pieces: 31

Year of release: 2011

Links: Peeron, Bricklink and Brickset

The Box

Front

The new wave of Heroes from Hero Factory use the same Hero Pod as the 2010 ones, only with a standardised orange top. Personally I prefer this solution, as it makes them look more like a set of standard-issue vehicles from the Hero Factory garage.

The box art for Evo 2.0 is very cool, way more action packed than that of the 2010 sets. It introduces us to the new enemies in two ways: the burning/exploding background (we enter the Fire Lord’s era) and the 4 silhouettes of the villains in the upper left corner.

Back

The back shows a possible combination of the Evo 2.0 and Furno 2.0 sets to form a bigger robot, again on a fire-y background. Unfortunately, unlike the first Toa sets, these do not include instructions for this combination model. Either it is there just for inspiration or the instructions will be available on-line.

On the right we also see a 1:1 scale picture of the Hero Core and a small image of Evo sliding in his Hero Pod.

Top

As said, the top of the box is the same of the 2010 wave, only in orange.

Top’s inside

The top piece has a code printed on its inside. We’ll see later what this code is for (not a hard guess, I’m sure you’ll agree).

Size comparison

A simple shot to make a size comparison with the Villains’ boxes. Like we often see, the Heroes are smaller than the bad guys, but they make up for that with number and team work.

Contents

Inside

As expected with this kind of box, the parts are not into plastic bags, and the instruction booklet (we’ll see it better later on) is slightly bent to follow the Pod’s curvature.

Recoloured parts

The only recoloured part in this set is the Spike Flexible 3.5L in Purple. This is a good part with many uses and it’s good to see it becoming available in more colours than the up-to-now standard Light Bley.

New pieces

Being this one of the first sets to use the new socket-and-ball parts, it is really full of new molds. Just consider that out of 31 pieces in this set, 30 are new!

Connectors

These new parts are very interesting for a number of reasons.

First of all, they all have a ball at one end and a socket at the other one. This is no real news, but it means that they mark a fundamental step from the BIONICLE based line of 2010.

They all sport a new set of small holes (three per side with respect to the front/back orientation of the parts) on the ball end. I think this is meant to reduce shock stress upon connection. Indeed, they snap in place more easily and with less effort.

Old connector?

As far as I can see comparing this piece with my Glatorian sets, this is also a new mold. The socket ‘lips’ are slightly more robust, and it looks more resistant than the old ones.

Head

The head is made of 3 different parts: face and socket connector, head-gear piece and half-helmet. The face part is a solid Purple, and I must say it looks way better than expected. We are used to trans-coloured head parts from the BIONICLE line and the 2010 Heroes, but the new ones look far more interesting and robotic, in my opinion. Being this part Purple, I can’t help but see it as a good piece for a War Machine MOC.

The head-gear piece, in its turn, very strongly reminds me of a cow catcher from an old locomotive or a bulldozer’s front blade, making this Hero look like an unstoppable close combat fighter.

Armour & Co.

The new connection system is not limited to the limbs/main body parts. The new armour is designed to fit on the new frame only. This means that it connects to the body via the ball-and-socket joints, and it does not have any technic styled connections.

The limb armour pieces come in 3 sizes in this set: small (3 studs long), medium (5 studs long) and large (6 studs long). In the picture above you can see the smaller size and the new feet. I’m not sure whether I like them or not. I think the flat portion with the line of three holes just behind the front is not very nice to the eye; on the other hand it provides some of the few technic connection point in the set.

The body armour is composed of two parts plus the Hero Core. The outer armour part is very similar to the 2010 ones, only it connects via a couple of ‘studs’ of the same diameter of a lightsaber blade bar. Below this, attached to the body frame with the socket-ball system, is a sort of undercoat like that of the Middle Ages knights (at least, I like to picture it that way).

The Hero Core is again solid Purple. Now, while I like the overall look of it, I sometime think a trans-coloured version would have looked better, as in a ‘shine with energy’ way, like the 2010 Cores.

Hero Badge

One of the most anticipated parts of these new sets is the ‘Hero Badge’ piece. Some said it had to be a normal armour part with sticker, few hoped for a printed part. I can assure you this is printed, and very nicely too. The text includes the Hero name and version number, and a very small and almost un-readable code number below it. The design in the upper part of the print reminds me of a stylised version of the Hero Factory Tower, or a sort of sonic boom effect. Being it on every Hero’s ‘Badge’, I think I’ll go for the first interpretation.

Weapon

One of my favourite parts in this new Heroes is represented by their weapons. In this set, we can see the shield/spears design common to 4 of the Heroes. It is somehow reminiscent of the Bohrok and Bohrok-Kal shields, but more complex and cool looking.

Another great plus is the use of new spear parts, re-cast in the soft rubbery plastic, so that kids do not hurt each other while playing. I can see may applications for this parts in System MOCs, where a bit of flexibility helps to achieve better looks.

Instructions

Cover – It reproduces more or less the same design of the front of the box.

First pages – Here we have a set of figures explaining us how to use the code we found on the inner side of the box top piece.

Back cover – We have the usual ‘enter our survey to win LEGO’ add.

Random page – The instructions are standard fare for a Hero Factory type of set. Unfortunately, as in may other cases, the Black and Dark/Gun Metallic Grey can hardly be told apart.

Pieces count – Really, not much to say here.

Building

Start

His build starts off with the torso and limbs. No cracked joints yet! This new system works really well.

Then we add the armour and weapon. Just one more step, and we have the…

Finished set

Front

The armour fits very nicely, and the asymmetrical look of the upper legs is a neat touch. The head, while pretty massive with the head-gear piece, is still very posable, as well as the shield.

I must say this pic looks very much like a Evo 2.0 still needs to be activated. He’s an empty shell waiting for the spark of robotical life.

Back

The new armour helps in giving these Heroes a better look, but the back angle is still a weak spot. On the other hand, having an open back armour lets you grab the main body frame to move your figure around with fair ease.

Posed

And here we go, ready for action! Do you wanna play hard, kid?

Bonus images

I’m gonna smash through that wall right away!

For justice!

This is one of my favourite poses, and it allows us to see the last new piece I left out from the list in the previous parts of this review: the hand has 4 fingers, instead of the standard 3 of the latest BIONICLE and early HF sets. My only wish is that TLG would include a second hand piece in each set so that we can have a complete Hero even when the shield is removed.

Final comments

Overall, Evo 2.0 is a fantastic figure. Sure, he's not the biggest set there is, but he makes up for it with his huge shield and head-gear, possibly one of the most impressive in this early 2011 HF line. The fact that it uses a new connection system reduces the chances of MOCing a bit, but I’m sure that all the people interested in this series will soon have enough parts for that too. His design, while standardised with that of the other Heroes, is still pretty unique and the colour scheme is excellent.

Colours scheme - 10/10 (No complaints whatsoever.)

Parts - 8/10 (I greatly appreciate the new system, but there is to consider it limits the blending with last year sets of the same theme.)

Design - 10/10 (Fantastic looking)

Articulation - 9/10 (He has a greater motion range then older sets.)

Quality - 10/10 (As far as I can see, the new solutions introduced to limit the breaking of socket joints work very well, and all the parts are of great quality.)

Overall: 47/50 Excellent

More pictures can be found in this Brickshelf gallery (once public).

Special thanks to TLG and the Hero Factory team.

As always, questions, comments, and pic requests welcome!

[Aanchir]

Nice! Our first Hero Factory 2011 review!

Love your pictures, although it'd be nice if they linked to larger versions. Some of them are kind of hard to see at that size. The rubbery spears were unexpected. Can you tell me if you really mean "rubbery" like the Piraka spines or Mahri tubing, or just soft like BIONICLE masks? From the picture, I'd guess at the former, but some people have a rather annoying tendency to refer to anything softer than standard ABS as "rubbery".

The dark silver color is called 316 Titanium Metallic. Since Hero Factory is a new theme, I'm going to try to get people familiar with the color names sooner rather than later. I'd be kidding myself if I thought it would catch on, but at least we'd have some folks who were well-informed. And with some of the Hero Factory parts appearing on LDD, knowing the color names could be fairly beneficial (especially if more begin to show up with future updates). On that note, the purple color is 268 Medium Lilac.

Thanks for the review! Planning on reviewing any of the other sets? If so, I look forward to seeing your future reviews!

[Front]

You should not show codes, they are unique !

lol

[Brickthing]

Love your pictures, although it'd be nice if they linked to larger versions. Some of them are kind of hard to see at that size. The rubbery spears were unexpected. Can you tell me if you really mean "rubbery" like the Piraka spines or Mahri tubing, or just soft like BIONICLE masks? From the picture, I'd guess at the former, but some people have a rather annoying tendency to refer to anything softer than standard ABS as "rubbery".

Unless it's different between colours, really rubbery:

Don't worry, the piece recovers from that by bending it in the opposite direction. It bends slightly easier than Piraka spines, although that could be to do with the thickness of the pieces rather than material.

[Front]

Don't worry, the piece recovers from that by bending it in the opposite direction. It bends slightly easier than Piraka spines, although that could be to do with the thickness of the pieces rather than material.

It's a wonderful material and is as suggested used for safety reasons. Expensive material too

[Baylego]

Great Review! I think this is my favorite 2011 HF set.

[Nuju Metru]

Thank you so much for reviewing! I think I'm in love with these sets. They just look so cool - Evo especially is fantastic, what with the Purple.

-Nuju Metru

[Aethersprite]

Great review! Didn't notice the new hands, they're great!

[Rocketbilly]

Fantastic, fantastic review, thank you!

I don't think anyone was anticipating these reviews, and here they are so out of the blue!

Anyway, you've made the set look 100% better than any of the pictures we've seen of them before this, and even then they still looked pretty great.

Far better than the original wave, I think.

I don't like how bendy the spears appear to be, but maybe they'll stay straight and not warp at all, in which case that's fine.

Besides, if it stops me from gouging my eyes out (and kiddies too, I suppose ) then that's accepable.

One thing, though - if it's not too much trouble could you please provide some sort of size comparison picture of Evo and Drilldozer?

No worries if you can't.

I expect they'll be similar heights anyway, I just wanted to see for myself.

Will/Rocketbilly

[SpiderSpaceman]

the heroes that are on top of my list are Surge (and I'll be salvaging weapons and armor off last year's model to combine) and Breez, but as this one is my school colors I'm obligated to buy it - and I don't mind in the slightest

geaux tigers

these sets are great. the helmet attachment solution really surprised me but I like it. I like the different textures across the head, I like the opacity of the head. and I am thrilled about the expensive soft plastic

[Geki Brick]

the heroes that are on top of my list are Surge (and I'll be salvaging weapons and armor off last year's model to combine) and Breez, but as this one is my school colors I'm obligated to buy it - and I don't mind in the slightest

geaux tigers

these sets are great. the helmet attachment solution really surprised me but I like it. I like the different textures across the head, I like the opacity of the head. and I am thrilled about the expensive soft plastic

Surge seems to be on everybody's top list...it is on mine! The headgear switching option is ingenious because now we can mix and max head gears. I notice that all the weapons are made up of 6 pieces: the shield, the pick, the buzzsaw, the gun body, spears, and light sabers. Everyone's weapon is a combination of these 6 pieces. So, if you get both Evo, and Furno, you can make use of their double picks (Furno) and double gun bodies (evo) and light sabers (furno) to make two Surge rifles from those two sets!

[Shine]

Very relieved to see that the holes in the armors pass all the way through the pieces. It provides a far more versatile way to attach them to things without having use the socket or bring stuff off the front.

Not real sure what to think of the new hand molds. What exactly has changed?

[Brickthing]

Not real sure what to think of the new hand molds. What exactly has changed?

The main differences are that they're five fingered hands now, and there are no mechanical joints on each finger. They're slightly smaller and look much more natural than the previous hands, and have a fabulous detail that the middle two fingers protrude further by 0.5mm at the knuckles, joints and tips, which would make the middle fingers longer than the other fingers if the hand wasn't clenched.

[Ceroknight]

Great review

Sorry, I might have missed this part but are they the same price as the 2010 ones?

[LuxorV]

Thanks for all the comments.

You should not show codes, they are unique !

lol

I fear it's a bit late for that

Great review! Didn't notice the new hands, they're great!

Yeah, at first I thought they were the old ones; it took me to have a good look at the finished set to notice.

One thing, though - if it's not too much trouble could you please provide some sort of size comparison picture of Evo and Drilldozer?

No worries if you can't.

I expect they'll be similar heights anyway, I just wanted to see for myself.

Yes, they are of similar height, given DrillDozer his hunchbacked; if DrillDozer's neck is extended in height, he is 3-4 centimeteres taller.

I'll provide pics as soon as I get some time

Great review

Sorry, I might have missed this part but are they the same price as the 2010 ones?

Price information are unofficial for now, but they seem to be between € 8.50 (same as 2010) and € 9.99.

[MightySlickPancake]

Great review . I think its a shame its just too standard with no 'special' parts (if that makes sense). Although the colour scheme makes up for it. Its not my favourite but it aint the worst by a long shot.

Thanks, CB

[indyman09]

Wow, they look a lot better than the previous versions. 2.0 really is better

Edited December 1, 2010 by indyman09

[Masked Builder]

Nice work here Luxor! I must admit that these Hero's are much better then at we got last year. I'm glad you found them!

[vexorian]

Definite grow of the beard for Hero Factory. I mean, this is actually so much better than bionicle in many ways. The new construction systems seems very interesting, and since it is based on those smallish parts a lot more flexible than Bionicle's. The only problem is the back side, but it seems that thanks to the color scheme, unlike Nex's it does not look as bad in this case.

I am also excited about the combiners, because they look great in the picture, and since all heroes are basically the same set of pieces but in different colors, you will be able to buy two of the same hero and make a combiner using only its pieces so that you have a consistent color scheme. I think I'll get two Evos and two of another hero for that.

[squidman85]

Don't sure about new spears.Hope other sets(not bionicle)will have standard spears.

[LuxorV]

Don't sure about new spears.Hope other sets(not bionicle)will have standard spears.

I'm convinced these new spears will be limited to HF/other Action Figures sets, as an additional safe play feature, like the soft plastic weapons of the Bionicle lines.

[prateek]

I love the colours, but I thought the spears would be trans blue. It is interesting to know they are a new plastic though.

[ZORK64]

HF 2011 reviews! My jaw just hit the ground!

Anyway, thanks for the review! Evo looks pretty cool, although I'm more interested into Surge (I've already read his review as well - and I have no idea why I don't post something there...).

Only downside would be the back, but hey, that's only another challenge for passionated MOCists, right?

[Front]

The main differences are that they're five fingered hands now, and there are no mechanical joints on each finger. They're slightly smaller and look much more natural than the previous hands, and have a fabulous detail that the middle two fingers protrude further by 0.5mm at the knuckles, joints and tips, which would make the middle fingers longer than the other fingers if the hand wasn't clenched.

I am the proud creator of this new hand, working close with designer Christoff (same team that brought you e.g. Gresh helmet, a real German-Danish collaboration team).

First of all we wanted a new hand that has a less Bionicle-feel to it. Look at the 2010 Buzz Lightyear action figure, and tell me if the Bionicle hand fits him. We can probably agree that it does not. It should also fit the more clean, less detailed look of the new Hero Factory 2011 launch. We switched a bit back and forth between three and four fingers, the designer wanted four from the start, and when I constructed it in CAD, I had no doubt that it was the right decision. Initially I was afraid that four fingers would result in too slim fingers, mind you they width of the hand has to stay at two modules, 2x8 mm.

Secondly we wanted a hand that is better engineered. The old one had too much material around the cross-hole, and everyone that makes molded plastic parts, will know that a common material thickness throughout the part, is important. Also we needed the new ball cup.

And to get to the subject that Brickthing noted. The outer fingers are shorter, seen at knuckles, joints and tips. This was something I came up with in the middle of the creation process (the hand looked very square and blocky on my screen), and as I presented it for the designers, they did not complain, asking me to try and model it. I did not get any complaints when rapid prototype elements was passed around. If you know the very experienced "Bionicle" designers, you will know that no complaints means you did a great job

Erland, Part Design

Edited December 2, 2010 by Front

[Ceroknight]

Price information are unofficial for now, but they seem to be between € 8.50 (same as 2010) and € 9.99.

Thank you, just one more though, How did you get this?