Hero Factory 2012

[Dorek]

Depends on which version you're looking at, doesn't it? I'm pretty sure in the comics Evo and Nex were just the first two heroes to get the upgrade, not built already as 2.0 models like on the show. And how do we know Rocka never had a 1.0 form?

Much as I preferred how the comic was going to how the TV show went, the comic is a non-canonical story outlier. Nex and Evo were made 2.0. Rocka was 2.0 as shown in Savage Planet, and his bio states that he's a new Hero modeled after Furno, so presumably he was also built as 2.0, as the standard now is.

Edit: Obviously there's no proof as of yet that the story is ending, but it's a possibility. What looks to be the reintroduction of old enemies, what has been described as an hour long "special" commissioned for 2012, etc. Lines aren't indefinite, and two years is a solid run, so it wouldn't at all surprise me if this is Hero Factory's last wave.

Edited September 17, 2011 by Dorek

[ice dragon]

What I said is purely speculation.

[Mesonak]

I still don't think these new villains are old ones morphed somehow; Splitface, apart from colors and lower-jaw, bears no resemblance to XPlode or Thunder whatsoever. As pointed out by Aanchir earlier, Thornraxx really doesn't take many design cues from any HF sets prior, and Jawblade isn't like anyone. The only one where I can see what you're talking about is Toxic Reapa, who screams Meltdown+Corroder. And honestly BP's similarity to other villains can most likely be attributed to bad design than anything else. :P

I don't really read too much into that 1 hour special deal; my guess is that they're just upgrading the TV special length for the January wave from 30 minutes to an hour. But hey, who knows? You may be right in which case I'll be sad.

[dviddy]

I don't think this is the end, TLG's been pretty adamant that they see no reason to end the line in all of their public statements recently. Might be the last hurrah for some of these heroes, but I doubt for the entire line.

[Dorek]

I see a lot of Thunder in SplitFace, but maybe that's just me. Thornraxx doesn't look like anything at first, but I see a lot of the same visual effects they used on Rotor (plus the orange), so that's what I see. Jawblade is his own shark, but Black Phantom, body rehash aside, definitely looks like he could be Von Nebula's cousin; those guys weren't built using the new system, remember.

Has there been a specific statement from TLG saying "this line won't end soon" or is that just optimism from how well the line seems to be doing? Not saying I want it to end (there's plenty more themes I'd like to see from HF), but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

[MakutaNocturn]

I don't think that 2012 is the end of Hero Factory. Do you read my translanation of the text which is under this photos? There is written that LEGO want to make their sale MUCH BIGGER. And If they get earn a lot of money, they will end this theme?

[vexorian]

I still don't think these new villains are old ones morphed somehow; Splitface, apart from colors and lower-jaw, bears no resemblance to XPlode or Thunder whatsoever. As pointed out by Aanchir earlier, Thornraxx really doesn't take many design cues from any HF sets prior, and Jawblade isn't like anyone. The only one where I can see what you're talking about is Toxic Reapa, who screams Meltdown+Corroder. And honestly BP's similarity to other villains can most likely be attributed to bad design than anything else. :P

I don't really read too much into that 1 hour special deal; my guess is that they're just upgrading the TV special length for the January wave from 30 minutes to an hour. But hey, who knows? You may be right in which case I'll be sad.

Compare the 1.0 heroes with the 4.0 heroes and for most the only thing in similar is the mask. I think everything is a possibility and things like reapa really suggest me a meltdown-corroder combo. Plus this is a prison breakout arc, so I'd say that even if the villains weren't mutations of previous guys they would still have to participate in the story somehow.

[Omicron Squad Leader]

I don't think this is the end, TLG's been pretty adamant that they see no reason to end the line in all of their public statements recently. Might be the last hurrah for some of these heroes, but I doubt for the entire line.

That would be fine with me. I'd love it if we got 5 fresh new Heroes in summer 2012 (I'm saying 5 because I highly doubt they'll switch back to 6 any time soon; it is a better sales technique). They've followed the exploits of the Alpha Team for 2 years now, how about we see what Omega Team is doing? Even this seems more likely than Hero Factory ending.

Edited September 17, 2011 by Omicron Squad Leader

[Tanma]

I personally don't think Hero Factory is ending. As others mentioned the theme is doing well, it doesn't make sense to end it. Now if the escapees are previous villains, then I could see this as an climax to the three prior parts. But that doesn't mean it must end. Bionicle reached a climax back in 2003, but it didn't end then. Then we reached another in 2005 with the end of the prequels, and in 2008 with the heroes losing to a now god like evil. So even if this is the dramatic conclusion to all the prior adventures, it doesn't have to end.

[MakutaNocturn]

then I could see this as an climax to the three prior parts.

You don't want to know what is climax xDDD

[K-Nut]

Eh. There's not much I like here. I do like Rocka and Furno. Evo is one of my favorite hero after Bulk but I don't really like the mask. I'll probably get all the Heroes. I never liked Surge or Breez's old masks. The villains are OK, and I might get Black Phantom, though. These are some of my favorite Hero designs because of the bulkiness. My nitpick is, no Stormer? No new hero? I would've liked to see Stormer like this, but I can always MOD his 2.0 version. But Rocka is so bada**, I might get two! I really like the Steampunk version of him. I also see on Furno they leaked in some System parts.

[Kalhiki]

Personally, I hope the villains aren't fusions. Fresh new characters is always nice to have. Plus, I don't want BP to be a "once good now evil" type of character. This has been used in all three waves of HF, and it's getting old.

By the way, a little off topic, but has anyone else noticed this strange similarity?

Kalhiki

[Tanma]

Personally, I hope the villains aren't fusions. Fresh new characters is always nice to have. Plus, I don't want BP to be a "once good now evil" type of character. This has been used in all three waves of HF, and it's getting old.

By the way, a little off topic, but has anyone else noticed this strange similarity?

Kalhiki

Fresh characters can be nice, but I personally want returning villains along with heroes. One thing that annoys me about Hero Factory villains is that they come out of nowhere, no foreshadowing and no character development on screen. Von Nebula did have a bit of foreshadowing built into his reveal, but his motives didn't really add up. I would like to see villians who have more depth, who were defeated once before, but that taught them something. Maybe even a villian who is starting to have doubts in criminal activities.I do agree that the fell from grace theme is old, you think that they would build firewalls into Heroes and their aids to prevent corruption of ethics.

[Bfahome]

By the way, a little off topic, but has anyone else noticed this strange similarity?

Oh wow.

LEGO you so crazy.

[ZORK64]

As always, be aware that it's not the same turquoise (Bright Bluish Green) as in 2001 BIONICLE, since that one's discontinued. It's probably Dark Azure (or maybe Medium Azure? We still haven't seen any definite uses of that color in next year's sets, even though it's likely used some places in the Friends theme).

Well, I'm also fine with azure. It's a colour TLG uses not often enough for action figures (I think the last set with turquoise ore azure I got was those Rahi lizards... darn, I forgot their name!).

Also, I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to call him the third mosquito-like monster. Jetbug wasn't remotely mosquito-like—if anything, he was beetle-like, judging by his heavy armor, bulky wing-jets, and his Spanish name Coleóptero. And Waspix was obviously more wasp-like than mosquito-like. The last mosquito-like villain I can think of is Gorast. And before that, Nui-Rama (incidentally, I get a serious Nui-Rama vibe from Thornraxx.

I think I should stop writing posts at 11 PM after work. I actually meant "insect-like" monster. But anyway, I like his design... and quite frankly, insect-like monsters are always cool. So yeah.

But do you have enough Transparent Fluorescent Green?

That's the only thing that makes Toxic appealing to me. That and his black-coloured shoulder armour.

EDIT: Also, am I the only one who thinks Black Phantom's face looks like a Piraka?

Edited September 17, 2011 by ZORK64

[Cyrix]

On second thought, I have really taken a liking to Furno and Rocka.

Also, a bit of a far-fetched theory, but maybe HF 2012 will be aimed towards a higher age group? It's something that they definitely could do, as there'll be two constraction lines running at the same time next year. It might be the best choice, too, because the Super Heroes line will probably attract the attention of many kids; they're popular superheroes. This might divert attention away from HF, so LEGO has to appeal to a different crowd to continue its prosperous sales. This might also explain some of the more Technic/smaller system pieces making an appearance.

Once again, just a theory to throw out there. And like I said before, we can't really accurately judge 2012 yet considering that these are only preliminary pictures. Also, I wonder what the new chest pieces and height differences will mean for the future of Hero Recon Team?

Edited September 17, 2011 by Cyrix

[Aanchir]

That is and has always been Transparent Fluorescent Yellow. I am very happy to finally get some legit Transparent Fluorescent Green, apart from Atlantis sets, from Black Phantom and a glat-head to boot. Let alone Rocka's shield.

Technically, no, Transparent Fluorescent Green is the official name of the transparent color used in M:Tron and Blacktron II. Its Bricklink name is Trans-Neon Green, even though I agree it's way more yellow than green. Transparent Fluorescent Yellow was a short-lived color used for eye colors in early BIONICLE sets (specifically Gali, Gali Nuva, and Nokama). The transparent color introduced in Atlantis is Transparent Bright Green.

Your MOC is millions of times better than the 4.0 set as it's that horid red that ruins it. That 2-headed villain a frame over is awesome by the way, too bad there were only 2 helms ever made to fit that head-type. One of which was Toa Mahri Hewkii "mask". WHile other hate on it, I like it and that double mask variated for that head-type

Oh, that's not my MOC! That's just one I've found on Flickr (can't remember if the builder has a membership here on Eurobricks). Personally, I think the red is an important part of Breez's color scheme, even though I agree it's not as well organized as some of the other colors in the new Breez's color scheme (in that it's used for her outside armor accents and weapons but also used for the "skeleton" of the set).

While everyone else hates on the BlackPhantom set, I kind of like it other than a fixer tip.:

*as Phantom implies stealth which requires agility, those bulky, clumsy legs don't fit and neither does that eye-gouging red.

Give him nondoubled legs, perhaps claw-feet and change ALL of the red parts to darkpurple. He'd then be awesome from what I can see. I never got any of those expensive boss-sets he's being compared to, as they were either/both expensive and/or overwrought with horrid red parts.

Those are some pretty major changes. I hope the actual set will change significantly enough by the time it comes out, although I am confident there will be at least a few changes since it seems to be the earliest prototype of any of the images. Even Fire Lord changed significantly between his appearance in the retailer's catalog and his final appearance in the set.

My main problem with the set currently is that it doesn't really appear unique. Besides the arms, weapons, and chest armor, he just feels like a rehash of ideas used in Fire Lord and Rocka XL. And while I was a big fan of Fire Lord, that doesn't mean I just want to see the design thoughtlessly repeated without any real innovation. Even if he uses the same build in the end, I want to see some more unique armor styles for his legs and feet.

*A fixer tip for Breez that would/could make it nigh perfect. Change ALL red parts to Magenta.

While I won't deny that a Magenta and Lime color scheme would look TOTALLY AWESOME , I like the red because it's been a standard since her 1.0 form (even though there it was only her Hero Core, and it was Transparent Red rather than regular red).

*For Evo. At least make the ammo/ball darkpurple if they do anything else.

I can sort of see why they didn't do that... TLG seems to like it when their zamor sphere colors are reusable for lots of different sets, as seen in the reuse of several colors for this year's Ninjago dragons. Purple wouldn't be as versatile, since it doesn't have any obvious elemental affiliation, nor is it a typical color for non-fantasy ammunition. With that said, purple zamors would have been cool in Ninjago if there had been a skeleton dragon, something I'd really like to MOC sometime.

In general for all 1.0 rookies, at least swap helms around to give us variant colors of those helms. I'd love either a Blue or Lime variant of fruno's helm, as I'm sure fans of red would like red versions of Breez's and Surge's.

I don't really have any opinion on this. I didn't get any of the first wave's sets, so all these helmets still are fresh and new to me (at least from a MOCing perspective; obviously I've seen enough pics and videos of the first wave's heroes to know what the helmets look like). Also, again, I like that the characters have some design and color scheme continuity with past forms. Swapping the colors of the helms would probably spoil that.

Personally, I hope the villains aren't fusions. Fresh new characters is always nice to have. Plus, I don't want BP to be a "once good now evil" type of character. This has been used in all three waves of HF, and it's getting old.

By the way, a little off topic, but has anyone else noticed this strange similarity?

Kalhiki

Great observation about Meltdown's face! I never noticed that myself!

Well, I'm also fine with azure. It's a colour TLG uses not often enough for action figures (I think the last set with turquoise ore azure I got was those Rahi lizards... darn, I forgot their name!).

Tarakava!

That's the only thing that makes Toxic appealing to me. That and his black-coloured shoulder armour.

Is his shoulder armor black? It's hard to tell in the pic-- it might be Titanium Metallic, like Evo's. If it is black, of course, that's really awesome.

EDIT: Also, am I the only one who thinks Black Phantom's face looks like a Piraka?

If you ignore the Glatorian head behind it, then yeah, it sort of does!

[Mesonak]

I see a lot of Thunder in SplitFace, but maybe that's just me. Thornraxx doesn't look like anything at first, but I see a lot of the same visual effects they used on Rotor (plus the orange), so that's what I see. Jawblade is his own shark, but Black Phantom, body rehash aside, definitely looks like he could be Von Nebula's cousin; those guys weren't built using the new system, remember.

Has there been a specific statement from TLG saying "this line won't end soon" or is that just optimism from how well the line seems to be doing? Not saying I want it to end (there's plenty more themes I'd like to see from HF), but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

If I recall TLG was asked by someone at Brickfair and responded with something along the lines of "The DC and Marvel Superhero theme is not replacing our Hero Factory line, and there is no end to Hero Factory being forecast currently." Then, multiple people have asked customer service with a general consensus of "Hero Factory is a big seller for us, and there's no reason for us to discontinue the line at present time."

-Mesonak

[K-Nut]

Seeing as pics have come up for 2012, I figured a discussion thread was in order.

Heroes

Villains

Let's Discuss!

[Tanma]

Evo is my favorite, at least based on his pose. The gunmetal arm looks almost like a mechanical prosthetic, like his first right arm was ripped off. His helm reminds me of Dekar, and thanks to its color scheme could be used for Iron Tribe MOCs. Not to mention he is pretty compact, which fits his heavy armament. The only issues I have with him is his colors. The yellow and gunmetal is fine, both are good colors and were in his first form. But his white emblem feels like an eyesore, and the lack of purple is most disturbing. As other members mentioned, his first scheme had violet and continuity would be nice. They have had purple translucent pieces in the past, would it be so hard to make a purple Agori head? Despite that he is still the preferred set for me.

[Rocketbilly]

. Also, I wonder what the new chest pieces and height differences will mean for the future of Hero Recon Team?

I've been wondering the same thing. Personally, I don't think Recon Team will continue. Which is a shame.

[Aanchir]

I've been wondering the same thing. Personally, I don't think Recon Team will continue. Which is a shame.

I think that depends entirely on how long it remains successful. As of right now, it's still the ninth most popular item on LEGO.com, far surpassing regular Design byME orders. So I don't foresee it going away any time soon.

At some point, they'll probably have to drop certain parts from the service; they can't just keep adding a majority of the new pieces from every wave without at some point narrowing the parts palette. But they've still got plenty of time before they have to start doing that.

[Aanchir]

Wonder if the mods could move all the 2012 discussion from the 2011 topic into this one...

Anyway, I wouldn't think a purple Agori head would be any good. They've had purple transparent pieces before, but not all transparent pieces are equal, and in particular all colors the Agori head has come in so far have been of the fluorescent variety (Transparent Fluorescent Blue, Transparent Fluorescent Green, and Transparent Fluorescent Reddish Orange).

There have never been any Transparent Fluorescent Purple colors-- the only other transparent fluorescent colors I know of besides the three used so far are Transparent Fluorescent Red (Tahu's original eye color) and Transparent Fluorescent Yellow (Gali's original eye color), both discontinued.

That's no excuse for not even trying to use purple anywhere in Evo's color scheme. Transparent Fluorescent Blue would have been a better match than the eye color they chose, but for whatever reason it doesn't appear anywhere in the upcoming wave. In the very least they could have put some purple somewhere on his torso print, like they did with red for Breez, yellow for Furno, and white for Rocka.

Breez is my favorite hero, followed by Evo. I can't really pick a favorite among the villains; I think they're all very creative besides the hopefully-prototype Black Phantom.

[K-Nut]

The only villain besides Black Phantom I like is probably Splitface. He looks like the Tommy Lee Jones representation of Two-Face.

Edited September 18, 2011 by K-nut

[MakutaNocturn]

GOD! IT'S ALL IN POLISH! HOW CAN I MISSED THIS?!!! I have been looking for this in 5 news agents and I didn't find this small... ARGH!!!

EDIT2:YEAAAH!!! THERE IS JOKER!!! AND A DINO THEME!!! NEXT YEAR WILL BE THE BEST OVER LAST 6!!!

EDIT3:JOKER HAS GOT PURPLE HF PIECES!!! :D

Edited September 17, 2011 by MakutaNocturn