Hero Factory 2012

[The_Box]

I know this has nothing to do with the new sets coming out but when I was stocking LEGO at my TRU, an over abundance of certain sets surprised me. There were roughly 6-8 cases of Corroder and Xplode each. One case included 6 sets each. These came on the truck we received Saturday morning.

What is the reason of this? Is it because these 2 characters are shown in the intro fro the Breakout videos?

I want to see if anyone else is seeing this at their local TRUs.

[SoupOrFishOil]

I know this has nothing to do with the new sets coming out but when I was stocking LEGO at my TRU, an over abundance of certain sets surprised me. There were roughly 6-8 cases of Corroder and Xplode each. One case included 6 sets each. These came on the truck we received Saturday morning.

What is the reason of this? Is it because these 2 characters are shown in the intro fro the Breakout videos?

I want to see if anyone else is seeing this at their local TRUs.

I saw it the other day. There weren't that many though, but there were more of them than any other action figures-like three of the new Evo and Toxic Reapa, One new Surge, and one Ultrabuild Joker.

[Kalhiki]

*cough*

Umbra Picture

Yeah, something like that. Would like it if there weren't skates, but rather one large wheel on each foot. But, there'd have to be a toe or heel to keep it stable.

Kalhiki

[Aethersprite]

Who cares about the lines? All I noticed in the comic was Stormer XL's back assembly. Not that there's much to look at, anyway.

Edited January 3, 2012 by Lockon Stratos

[The_Box]

I saw it the other day. There weren't that many though, but there were more of them than any other action figures-like three of the new Evo and Toxic Reapa, One new Surge, and one Ultrabuild Joker.

Yeah, we barely have any new sets. In general, out of the 2 dozen or so cases of Lego we got on this truck, I think only about 4 or 5 were of new sets. Plus, the only reason I'm not grabbing the ultra-build Joker (which is basically the only superhero set we've had for a while) is because of the markup we put on it.

[Bonehead74]

I think that Speeda Demon should look like this:

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/FireFrenzy/Bionicles/MOCs/Omega/p1100350small.png

Edited January 4, 2012 by Bonehead74

[Phantoka Kopaka Nuva]

So the second Breakout comic is out.

Not my favorite. It's nice to have a single story drag out and give a chance to showcase the beautiful art, but the dialogue was just as cheesy as indicated, and the moral is kind of dumb. Funny ending, though.

And it WAS written by Greg, so... I dunno. Mixed feelings.

Where's part 1???

[Studs Not On Top]

I know this has nothing to do with the new sets coming out but when I was stocking LEGO at my TRU, an over abundance of certain sets surprised me. There were roughly 6-8 cases of Corroder and Xplode each. One case included 6 sets each. These came on the truck we received Saturday morning.

What is the reason of this? Is it because these 2 characters are shown in the intro fro the Breakout videos?

I want to see if anyone else is seeing this at their local TRUs.

Last week they had about eight Xplodes. You might be right about the movie appearances, though it's odd that LEGO is reproducing old sets.

I also saw Toxic Reapa at TRU-- for $11 USD! I really hope that's not the official price.

Looks like Stormer XL was used in the new comic. I'm surprised by the number of summer references so early in the year.

[Ceroknight]

Where's part 1???

A few pages back

[The Crazy One]

Last week they had about eight Xplodes. You might be right about the movie appearances, though it's odd that LEGO is reproducing old sets.

I also saw Toxic Reapa at TRU-- for $11 USD! I really hope that's not the official price.

Looks like Stormer XL was used in the new comic. I'm surprised by the number of summer references so early in the year.

Maybe leftovers rather than reproducing.

[Phantoka Kopaka Nuva]

A few pages back

Link please?

[Nightcruise]

Link please?

So apparently there's a new comic of sorts in an upcoming LEGO mag; BZP member unknown_user2596 posted links to it.

Page 1

Page 2

The dialogue is getting worse and worse, but the art is fantastic as ever (still Damaso, so... sweet). Plus, it offers a conclusion for entering the club-code (unfortunately, LEGO doesn't seem to have uploaded it yet XP), which is a promising new technique for them to use. If all comics were distributed in such a manner in the future, that could be pretty cool.

There you go.

[The_Box]

Maybe leftovers rather than reproducing.

The warehouses ca't have that many leftover. That's insane!

They're at a whopping $15 a piece too!

@ Studs Not On Top: I bought my Toxic Reapa during the BOGO 50% off a while back (2-3 weeks ago) and it was only $10.

[CabooseBM]

Maybe leftovers rather than reproducing.

Yeah, the 2010 villains are really shelf-warming, it seems, the other boxed villains are too, but not nearly to the same degree.

[Studs Not On Top]

Yeah, the 2010 villains are really shelf-warming, it seems, the other boxed villains are too, but not nearly to the same degree.

Could be-- I have seen these villains around TRU for a while. They must have brought out a new case when all of the other HF sets were gone.

Any Breakout sightings at other stores?

[SoupOrFishOil]

Yeah, we barely have any new sets. In general, out of the 2 dozen or so cases of Lego we got on this truck, I think only about 4 or 5 were of new sets. Plus, the only reason I'm not grabbing the ultra-build Joker (which is basically the only superhero set we've had for a while) is because of the markup we put on it.

I almost got it (even though I still don't like it) until I saw the markup. And there was only one left, so I guess people were paying that price (Poor uninformed shoppers )

Edited January 4, 2012 by Superficial Username

[Play With Fire]

Any Breakout sightings at other stores?

I bought Black Phantom, Evo and Toxic Reapa at Target. All of the sets minus Breez and Thornraxx were there.

[Perry the Platypus]

What's up with the lack of Breez and Thornraxx? Does LEGO not like them or something?

[Phantoka Kopaka Nuva]

What's up with the lack of Breez and Thornraxx? Does LEGO not like them or something?

Probably to fit in with the TV series. Breez and Thornraxx was probably not finished in time for the studio to start animating, so they're probably left behind. There's still the summer episode though, so no need to worry.

[Nike2032]

Just a heads up: The Breakout game's available to be played over here.

All I'm going to say is this. The graphics are horrible, the control scheme is awkward, and the camera is one of the worst I've seen in a game, HOWEVER.

The amount of content that they packed into it was a bit shocking. I didn't expect every level to contain secrets and collectibles, not to mention a fully functional upgrade and ranking system. Seems like something I could invest some time into.

'Cept it still looks like they're working on some bugs; game doesn't save yet, even if you're signed in with your Lego ID. Oh well.

Plus yet another (now clear) picture of stringer: http://herofactory.lego.com/en-us/story/default.aspx - I wonder why they're showing so much of him.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Nike2032

[Vinyl Scratch]

Plus yet another (now clear) picture of stringer: http://herofactory.lego.com/en-us/story/default.aspx - I wonder why they're showing so much of him.

This helps that rumor that Breez/Thornraxx and Stringer/Voltix were supposed to be switched :|

[Aanchir]

Well, the new website updates are pretty cool. I'm happy that the Gadgets & Weapons page is back to highlighting most of the characters' weapons, as opposed to summer 2011 when the only new "gadget" mentioned was the Skull Staff. As always, some of the descriptions are a bit tongue-in-cheek, although few seem as laughable as the description given for Von Nebula's Black Hole Orb Staff. The exception is the little bit of potty humor in Black Phantom's Arachnix Drone's description, which might not suit everyone but which I find hilarious for some reason.

Splitface is confirmed to be schizophrenic, and some of the gadget descriptions are a bit surprising-- for instance, the Laser Cutters wielded by Toxic Reapa are identified as his arm weapons, when I was anticipating them being the blaster thingies on his face. Additionally, Jawblades weapons don't just resemble Furno's weapons-- they are Furno's weapons, stolen on a previous mission and modified for underwater use. The electricity shooter's description is very similar to that of Surge's original weapon, suggesting it might also be the same weapon with slight modifications.

Unfortunately, all pre-2012 gadgets and weapons have been removed from the page entirely. The same applies for bios of pre-2012 Heroes, which is odd because we know many of them will be returning (and because the Savage Planet villains were not themselves removed). Perhaps most embarrassingly, Evo's bio is STILL switched with Nex's.

Product page animations are a mixed bag. Some are a bit jerky, especially the villains. The hero animations are mostly good, though, as is the animation for Thornraxx.

Can't check the combi model building instructions at the time being since I'm still avoiding PDFs, but hopefully soon I can check those out.

There are lots of nice downloads including two posters and five wallpapers. Unfortunately, while the wallpapers are well thought-out enough to have the corresponding heroes and villains on their respective backgrounds, they neglect to make the characters to scale with one another. Only Furno's and Jawblade's ends up looking quite good, with the shark looming ominously behind Furno-- meanwhile, Evo's/Toxic Reapa's looks exceedingly static and all the others make it seem as though the characters are firing their weapons at each other and missing by a longshot. For some reason, with all the other removed content, none of the older downloads have been removed, which some people might appreciate.

So overall there's a mixed bag-- some good and some bad. It seems, sadly, I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up for a huge amount of meaningful web content this year-- but hopefully Hero Recon Team will update soon and ease that pain a bit.

[Shakar]

Thanks for the links, everyone.

I haven't played the game yet, due some problems my computer apparently has.

But the Story section is pretty cool. I'm happy BP actually does have a reason behind the breakout (his box art sort of hinted at his plan). But now that he's been solidified as the breakout mastermind, I wonder about Speed Demon's story role..maybe he's some sort of big minion a la Rotor? But if that were the case, seeing the Big Bad as a Winter set is a bit weird. Am I reading too much into this?

Also, I like that there is a good story explanation for a rookie like Rocka to duke it out with the arc's Big Bad.

And Stringer..yeah, I'm kind of getting used to the blue, although I still greatly dislike how his (and Nex's, most likely...still not sure about Bulk) chestplate colour doesn't match the helmet colour. And that sound pattern on the chest, aside from the fact it looks lovely, gives me some hope that the Summer images we've seen are very early prototypes.

[Shakar]

Splitface's animation shows him with a Hero Core....huh.

And I love that it's confirmed he indeed is half-organic. Awesome.

[Aanchir]

Splitface's animation shows him with a Hero Core....huh.

And I love that it's confirmed he indeed is half-organic. Awesome.

I'm kind of iffy about that myself... stylistically, yes, one side of him uses organic shapes and one uses geometric shapes with mechanical textures. But it kind of bothers me when something is simply described as "organic" with no qualifiers expressing that there's a mechanical component, just because some of the armor pieces like the spherical portions have rigid-looking mechanical details. Of course, it's possible that in the Hero Factory universe anything organic is just assumed to be techno-organic. In the case of Splitface's bio it just says "part-organic", not "half-organic", so I reckon we can assume there are mechanical parts visible on the surface of his red half, possibly to hold things together as in BIONICLE.

The hero core in Splitface's animation is probably just sloppiness on the part of the animators.

One thing I do like is that there is a special oxidizing compound on Jawblade's home planet. This helps explain what I had previously considered a bit of a plothole, which is that Furno has rust stains in some of the videos after his mission on Z'chaya, which didn't seem to make sense since he was equipped for a water mission and so should have had rust-resistant armor.

On a side note, since Breez is being sent against the most animal-like of the villains (and Thornraxx is said to be trying to recruit others from his hive planet to assist him), I wonder if her special connection to nature will be brought up again. It's a lot to hope for, but if it is that could be kinda cool.