Action Figures vs. Mini-Heroes?

[EVO97]

I was just wondering which style the Eurobricks community prefers. Do you like the new mini heroes, or do you prefer the old action figures? I like the Mini-Heroes a lot, but this has always been more of an action figure oriented theme. I'm hoping that next year, LEGO does Mini-Heroes vs larger villains, as opposed to beasts. Sorry if there has already been a thread about this or something similar, but I'm new here and still haven't really figured out all of the site features.

[Jetrax99]

Action Figures. Full sized heroes allow for more detail. And awesome weapons.

[BrickBuilder3213]

Mini-Heroes. Allows us to create a minifig-scale world for the heroes and provides customization in the form of swapping out limbs, heads and helmets to create more heroes and some custome villains.

[Lyichir]

Personally, I'd love it if the minifig-scale sets continued even if we went back to traditional action figures. In fact, I'd love it if there were actual location-based playsets like Bionicle used to have, alongside larger Hero sets. For the time being, if I had to choose one, I'd pick the mini-Heroes. I don't want to say goodbye to them until they've been used to their full potential.

[Aanchir]

I love both, honestly. Mini-heroes are a godsend when it comes to location and vehicle designs (I've never been any good at designing custom BIONICLE or Hero Factory vehicles, and these could very well change that), but full-size figures are still obviously superior when it comes to character design, since you can equip such a variety of gear to them.

I'd love to see the mini-heroes used further. An arc with mini-villains who get their own, more brutal looking battle machines could be incredible, as could an arc with submarines and aquatic monsters or villains, in the same vein as LEGO Atlantis. But full-size humanoid figures are nice too. I agree with Lyi — having the two coexist kind of like the BIONICLE figures and playsets or the Chima constraction figures and playsets would be fine by me. Or, we could just stick with one or the other. I'm sure there is plenty of fun and creative building potential to be had either way.

[Freddy Bricker]

Agreed, I want these mini-heroes to be around for quite some time. If they were to create play sets however, I wouldn't want them to be basic looking buildings and whatnot. I'd be expecting at least a few Technic pieces for design rather than function (I know buildings are done with bricks, but I would still love to have a building structured with Technic pieces). I also like the way these sets came out more so than other years, of course I haven't psychically held very many HF sets, though I didn't enjoy the most that I did. Also, I feel body and hand-held detail comes out better in full-scale action figures, but faces come across better with smaller characters.

On another note, I wish HF or any other theme would introduce more ways to builds faces for females. I find it very hard to design a female characters who doesn't share a face with a pre-existing character when brick-building one is so hard. This is part of the reason why I prefer the mini-heroes. They tend to have more potential for faces.

[CabooseBM]

I'd like the Minifigures to stay so LEGO can emulate Transformers 4 with Heroes riding Dinosaurs ala Pacific Rim and Invasion from Below.

That would be awesome.

Edited February 16, 2014 by CabooseBM

[just2good]

Mini-heroes. They made me buy my first constraction set in twelve years last Tuesday!

[LegoPanda]

there was a similar discusion back in 2005 about the mini to a hordika, those where pretty fun to have, but ugly and useless. the updated ones in 2006 and 2007 where better, and these are pretty much the same with minor changes. they are good, but i still think action figures are better

Edited February 16, 2014 by LegoPanda

[DraikNova]

I like the use of minifigs. But using the mechs allows us to have both at the same time, so I don't see the problem here. Like CabooseBM has said, making the minifigs ride kaiju, or even just letting Breez do that and letting the others just fight as minifigs to allow for more impressive villain builds, would be awesome.

Edited February 16, 2014 by DraikNova

[VBBN]

It depends entirely on what direction the theme of the story would take. If we had another year of Mechs vs Beasts, I'd be entirely uninterested. If we see the return of the minifigures, I want it to either be in the form of vehicles, playsets, or something else in a similar range (for example, spaceships to introduce a space aspect)

The main problem is that there would still be a lack of parts that the larger figures utilize; Helmets, weapons, hero cores, etc. While Chima can provide parts in new colors or new armor plates, it is stylized for those figures. A crocodile head isn't nearly as useful as Core Hunters head, for example.

Of course I'd be interested in seeing both co-exist. We could have a main line of heroes and villains, then a few playsets on the side of a relatively higher pricepoint, similar to how Bionicle had it. To cross the themes, there could always be a regular sized figure thrown in to the playsets, like a large villain or a "super sized hero" Similar to

If I had to chose, I would vote to out the minifigures and keep the contraction sized heroes. At the same point, I would like to have enough parts to actually make use of some of the stuff we've had this year. if another year means our missing figures, more canopy and seat colors, and possibly some more inspiring large creature heads, I don't think I would be all too disappointed.

[Logan McOwen]

I definitely prefer full sized figures set-wise, but the concept of the minifigs is still really fun.

[ZORK64]

I personally also prefer Action Figures. While I have been buying a few Minifigure sets in the past (mostly Lord of the Rings), the only LEGO I actually bought during the first 2000s were BIONICLE sets. But since I own one of the Invastion from Below Sets, I really dig the Minifigure-design of the Heroes too.

Edited February 20, 2014 by ZORK64

[DOTM Shockwave]

I also prefer the action figures, but after handling the mini-heroes, I wouldn't mind getting another wave with them.

[Pate-keetongu]

I... Prefer set with mini-heroes but not designed for mini-heroes. I like to have those minifigs as they have some useful parts but I don't really need the contrainer/cockpit pieces. In other words, this year's bad guy sets are rather awesome.

Well, bad guy sets are always better, at least on Hero Factory.

[Shakar]

Now that I own all 5 mini Heroes released so far, I can properly form my opinion on this.

I... Prefer set with mini-heroes but not designed for mini-heroes. I like to have those minifigs as they have some useful parts but I don't really need the contrainer/cockpit pieces. In other words, this year's bad guy sets are rather awesome.

This is probably the closest to what I think. I absolutely love the mini-Heroes (way better than the Bionicle minifigs IMO!) and I think Lego had a genius idea when they decided to mix constraction with minifig scale. The minifigs themselves look great and are a lot of fun to mess with.

But I love when new Hero sets come out because I like updating my Heroes' gear, and the Machines, while cool sets, provide little new stuff to equip my Heroes with (except the gorgeous printed shells!).

So, I'd like if there was a way to return to full size Hero sets while keeping the minifigs. The only way I can think of is flipping the scale: full size Heroes fighting mini robots inside evil mechas. That could be cool and might provide for some really cool parts, especially since the cockpit and minifig parts wouldn't be new anymore.

[vexorian]

Miniheroes because they are with scale with other minifigs, and make their mechs look large.

[korpen4444]

I like both. Action Figures for their detail and equipment, minifigures for their pure awesomeness! I mean, they're just so cool! Plus, I can collect them all much easier with the occasional two per set.