ZORK64

Oh, I'm actually surprised that polybags are more common in Europe than in the US. I didn't knew that yet. But okay, I think I know the order in which I'll review the sets now: 1) Polybag 2) Stormer 3) Frost Beast 4) Aquagon 5) Surge 6) Dragon Bolt If anyone is not happy with this order, let me know it. ^^

I bought them at my local LEGO store. You get a polybag with every HF purchase for free. As far as I know, you'll also get them when you order the bags at S@H, but I'm not sure since the only thing I order online are Pick a Brick bags. In fact, I got even two polybags, because I made two purchases: When I first went to the LEGO store, I decided to buy only Stormer, Surge and Dragon Bolt, but some time later I had to buy something else at a store near the LEGO store, and so I thought "Ah, why not?", went in there again and bought Frost Beast and Aquagon. I'm actually surprised that nobody requested Dragon Bolt yet. I almost thought that everybody wants a review of him first. Not that I'm complaining about this - the suggestion to start with Stormer and Frost Beast is a good idea actually, since it allows me to pitch them against each other then. But yeah, I'll write a review for the polybag first.

Okay, the new Hero Factory wave is finally out in Germany. It contains a few white sets, it contains blue sets (one of them is very large!) and it contains sets with limb pieces in new colours. Oh, some of them also have wings. These are all things I totally love, so I went a bit crazy with this wave: Yes, I'm about to review all these sets in the upcoming days. This is also the reason why I'm posting this here: Which set should I review first? Are there any sets you really want to know everything about as soon as possible? Because in this case, I'll review these sets first and the less interesting later.

It looks like the new HF sets will be released next week in Germany. So you won't have to wait any longer for reviews. (unless you are waiting for a review of Jet Rocka)

Gorzan is mostly black, which is very versatile, while Cragger is mostly dark green (and some olive green) which are both nice but yet still rare colours (especially olive green). If you already own Ogrum, Cragger is a great opportunity to get more newer pieces with dark green. As far as set design goes, I'd also recommend Cragger thanks to stuff like his moveable jaw and tail. To be fair though, I don't own Gorzan, so I can't say much about him.

Well, I guess we'll see leaks of the first 2014 wave in a few months anyway.

The reason for the Samus = Breez comparison is the overall design of Breez' Breakout armour. She got the bubbly shoulders, and the shape of her feet and torso armour (both front and back) increases the likeness even more.

Since I own Cragger and Eris, I can say that Cragger's red blades are made of a similiar plastic as Eris' blue blades. The blades are not really transparent, but it's not traditional solid plastic, more a very slightly translucent plastic, similiar to Stormer XL's blades.

Well, it was rumoured that Hero Factory might end because of that stuff about TLG doesn't want to keep too long on a single theme, and Brain Attack would had been the 3rd year for it by now. So it wasn't a rumour like "HF is done after BA.", more something like "Is it possible that HF will end soon? I wasn't also aware of any plotholes or cliffhangers in the story, since I don't pay attention to it at all. On a not so related side-note: I don't understand why apparently everything nowadays needs zombies. Granted, I question this mostly because I don't like those brain-munchers in the first place, but even if it would be something that I like (like... uhm... dinosaurs), I wouldn't want that included everywhere just for the sake of having it.

I'd be also very happy if someone from Star Wars or Lord of the Rings made a minor cameo. Or a tiny shoutout to one of the constraction lines. That would be awesome. But anyway, this film looks really interesting! I'm looking forward to it!

Do we even know if Hero Factory will have another wave? As far as I recall, there were already rumours that it might end after Brain Attack...

I'd go with the premium set too, be it just for Nintendo Land. Also, it can never hurt to have a larger hard drive.

While the head looks weird to me, the overall design is pretty neat. I especially like the flow of the Barraki armour on this one.

I visited my LEGO store today and asked again when the new Hero Factory sets will be released, and they were able to tell me a release date now (they didn't knew the release when I asked the first time, which was in May). Anyway, according to the catalogue (which I also got there), the new HF sets will hit shelves in Germany in August. It is however possible, that the LEGO store get the sets earlier - most of the new Lord of the Rings sets for example are already on their shelves, while they are stated to be released in July. So odds are somewhat good that I can get my hands on Surge, Stormer and Dragon Bolt in the next 2 or 3 weeks. Oh, since I have the catalogue here, I can already tell you guys their prices in €... Frost Beast, Stormer and Surge are each 12,99€, while Evo and Aquagon are each 9,99€. Dragon Bolt is apparently a bit more beafy than Stormer XL or Furno XL, he costs 24,99€. And Jet Rocka will be yours for 34,99€. While I passed on most sets of the first Brain Attack wave, this wave contains more sets I want than I don't. Stormer, Surge and Dragon Bolt are sure buys, and I'm also thinking about Frosty and Aquagon.

Really nice improvement! In comparison, her older design looks kinda naked due to having not really a skirt.

I picked several characters, mostly hobbits. My choices were... Frodo I might be wrong, but I think Frodo's potrayal in the book is a bit more determined and generally braver than in the film (which focused a bit more on Frodo's fragility). He manages to get the One Ring into the chamber of Mount Doom, and although the ring corrupts him there, others wouldn't even had made it this far in the first place. Sam It's one thing if you're just some guy who's destined to save the world (like Frodo above) or if you this guy's best friend, who joins his friend on his epic quest, helps him and also saves his life various times. He also delivers a can of megablocks-whopping to Shelob (the successor of a demonic monster spider from the dawn of time). And he does all these things without any specific strength, wisdom or other powers, but only with sheer determination. Merry There aren't many mortals who didn't despair in face of the Witch King of Angmar. And there are even fewer who managed to hurt him. This little guy did though, and he also played a major role in the scourging of the Shire. Eowyn Similiar to Merry, she faced the Witch King, but she's also the one who delivers the final blow, freeing the world from his foul existence. Bilbo He's even more of a laid back "normal guy" than Sam and Frodo, but he goes on an adventure, outsmart trolls, fights goblins and evil spiders and keeps his cool facing an old evil dragon (okay, he was invisible while doing the latter, but still). EDIT: I just saw that the question was "who's the most heroic", but for whatever reason I mis-read it as "who's the bravest". Oh well. In that case I'd added Gandalf and Aragorn to my choices.

Since Capcom pulled some dumb moves with the Mega Man franchise in the past years (they cancelled 3 Mega Man games in 2011), I'm absolutely super-happy that Mega Man made it into Smash Bros. this time. I don't have a Wii U yet, but I will definitely buy one to get this game. I loved the first 3 Smash Bros.-games , but since I was pretty happy with Brawl, I was unsure if I want/need another Smash Bros. game. Of course, Mega Man answered that question: "You need this". To clarify the questions about the roster: Back then when Brawl was announced they hadn't showed the entire games roster of recurring characters either, so it's very likely that the vast majority of veterans will join the new Smash Bros. as well. It could be possible though, that a few characters get replaced with more recent characters from their respective franchise - that was at least what happened between Melee and Brawl (Roy replaced with Ike, Young Link with Toon Link, Mewtwo with Lucario). I remember that Sakurai said somewhere that the number of characters in Brawl is pretty much the possible maximum of characters, and they want to focus more on polishing the gameplay. I think something around 40-50 characters sounds somewhat plausible though. Brawl had 35 characters (or 40, depending on your point of view), and I guess we can expect at least 3 more newcomers.

I especially like the first batch, Takanuinuva. They would be very useful to incorporate more Bionicle limbs into MOCs using the new system. The second and third batch looks also interesting, though I can't use of any particular reason for them right now. Well, except for the 1st and 2nd piece in the third batch - they could be very useful for giving titans double-jointed legs and elbows.

The codpiece is a wonderful idea Aanchir. Just like you explained, a piece shaped like Vakama's codpiece in that pic would also work great as an armour piece on a characters arms or legs, so it would be also versatile and a nice addition to the sortiment of shells. And of course, you gote my sympathy with mentioning waist articulation in that regard.

The thing is, it's usually the other way around with LEGO. In the past few years, at least the Summer wave was released earlier in Germany than in the USA. In fact, the same happened this year with the Chima Builds. Ironically, it was the other way around last year: While the DC Ultra Builds were already released in the USA, they didn't hit German shelves until may, alongside with the Marvel Ultra Builds. The Breakout sets were released a tiny bit earlier here, if memory serves me right.

I'd like to see a torso piece that would allow waist articulation. Other than that, I'm actually quite fine with the assortment of pieces we already have in Hero Factory. At least in terms of molds. There are still plenty of colours I'd like to see more often in Hero Factory.

No problem. That makes me wonder why they changed it in the final set though. I might try this mod on Cragger to find out (right now I'd guess it's because of the poseability, but I'm not sure about that).

I feel somewhat honored now. And at the same time, I'm getting impatient here because the HF summer sets are still not out here. I start to worry that they'll be pushed back to July. Argh. (well okay, maybe I'm wrong and they'll hit shelves in mid-June, but I don't know)

I wouldn'n necessarily say that kids don't want a complex story. When I was that age, I enjoyed stories who were to some extend complex. I remember that I started to dig a bit into the expanded universe of Star Wars, for example. However, a less complex story allows LEGO to appeal to a larger demographic. It's easier for newer fans to jump into it without reading tons of background information. Also, one of the key aspects of LEGO is to build your own things, create your own characters and stories, and a loose story like Hero Factory makes that easier, but I already talked about that here.

Some of the early commercials were also apparently set on earth or another planet with humans. I remember a spot were one of the villians interrupted a few kids playing basketball until the heroes showed up... or something like that.