ZORK64

Oh that sucks. I hope the flood hadn't caused any serious damage. Odds are good that I'll be fully recovered 'til monday (thanks to the power of PEPSI!), so I'm gonna check for myself then. (And I'll also go looking for Transformers again, but that's of course totally unrelated to this topic)

I actually got some Pepsi right now here (though it's regular Pepsi, since it's cheaper). I suppose you'll let us know if you find something, right? Well, I asked a few weeks ago in my local LEGO Store (Nürnberg), and they said they'll be released around June, so I'm anticipating them anytime now. And thanks.

You know, if I wouldn't happen to be sick right now, I'd already went to town this week to check out if the new sets have finally arrived at German stores. Once I've recovered I'll go scouting, I promise!

I have to agree, the bulked up Rocka looks really neat. My only complaint would be that he looks a bit too thin/short around the waist/crotch area. I guess it's his thigh's fault, if they would be also a bit bulkier he would look better. But aside from that, fantastic work overall!

As far as parts goes, his weapon tool is actually recycled from a bunch of various pieces. The core is one of those shell pieces introduced with Fire Lord and his buddies, the speaker/cannon (was also used often as a blaster in the Star Wars sets prior to the rifles) and the antenna are pretty old LEGO pieces and the antenna on his right shoulder is actually a Mini-Fig Spear Gun (on a side note, one of the first LEGO action figures, the Sub Slizer, also used one of these). EDIT: Oh, I got outposted. Well, it happens.

Ah, my bad. I'll try to keep it in mind. By the way, Bright Green was also the colour used in sets like the original Lewa, right? I meant in comparison to the release in other countries so I wasn't aware that we got the Piraka far later.

Oh, actually I didn't, mostly because I didn't start to pay more attention to the worldwide releases of LEGO sets until the release of the second HF-line. I was also not too fond of the Piraka, to be honest (though I got 3 Avaks after they went on sales, and in retrospect, they weren't that bad, actually). Regarding the colours: I'd like to see more blue too. And azure. Lime is indeed blatantly overused, GL's medium green would be much appreciated. Gunmetal doesn't bother me that much yet, though.

Well, I live in Germany, so the sets are most likely going to be released far earlier around here. And before you guys get jealous I'd like to remind you that there are many, many other things which we get far later (if at all) here in Germany. The Transformers Prime toyline is a great example for this, since the First Edition toys never made it to us (with the exception of a 2-pack, though) and the Robots in Disguise toys hit shelves very slowly around here. The news of a Hero Factory movie don't bother me that much, but that's moslty because I don't care that much about the Hero Factory Fiction itself. But I sure would be happy if it turns out to be a entertaining and well-written movie (even if it's an action movie, it should be to a well-written action movie - the Transformers movies aren't, if you ask me).

Since I'm currently busy hunting down Transformers, I'll check almost every day my local Müller (which tends to put new LEGO often earlier than other stores, including the official LEGO store here). If I happen to spot any new sets I'll let you know (perhaps even in the form of a review).

I'm slightly more surprised that he has toes. (the only thing I'd ask about the underwear anyway would be why it's red instead of orange/yellow)

Ah, I see. Yeah, that's a really neat idea. If I had that piece, I'd try it out. That idea is pretty cool. I have tons of those Metru pieces around and while I already used them in various ways, I hadn't that idea yet. I would might object that they don't cover the lower part, but it should be easy to add another piece for that issue on the Metru chest one.

Given my skills in Soul Calibur V, you might be right with that assumption. But yeah, give me all kinds of parts in white, blue and azure and I'm a very happy AFOL. As for the current discussion, I'm not too fond of using 2.0 feet to cover up the backs of my heroes simply because the empty ball cup bothers me. I would rather go the extra mile and add some sort of backpack, maybe even out of more pieces. But Aanchir's idea sounds also interesting. However, I don't recall to posess the 33299, so I have to ask how the pieces are attached? Do you connect the shield with the 6553 and insert that into the center axle hole of 33299?

Ah, new pics of the sets, that's nice. My thoughts on them: - Stringer looks even more fantastic than before. I'm really looking forward to get him. - Bulk and Nex manage to look far better by know. They were both not that appealing to me yet, but I start to grow on them (especially Bulk because of his shoulder mounted cannon thing). - Voltix looks also far better now. Until recently, I only thought "Ergh, random pieces mashed together", but those finalized pics really make him look interesting although I'm not totally in love with purple (because you know, azure is so much more awesome than purple). But still, he comes with a whole bunch of nice parts. - XT4 might be a good parts pack. I also like the overall concept behind this guy, but the set itself looks a bit weird. But still, he comes with a fair share of grey bones, and I'm a total sucker for coloured bones, so yeah... - Stormer XL actually looks rather fat on his packaging. But since I'm also a total sucker for ice-themed sets he's still a must buy. - Core Hunter looks cool. But I'm not totally sure if I want him yet. - Speeda Demon on the other hand turns me totally off. I don't need any more lime, and I'm also not too fond of golden parts, and even all the neat purple parts make up for that. I might pick him up next year when his price starts to drop in a similiar way than it happened to Witch Doctor. Anyway, the summer wave looks fantastic and is on par with the winter wave. The only thing I might complain about would be the colours of this wave since the previous wave feeled a bit more colourful than this one. And you know, no azure in this wave (just imagine what Speeda Demon would look like in azure instead of lime green).

Ironically, mine looks pretty similiar. However, he got a blue head and core, Stormer's 3.0 helmet, an he got only white armour (except for the hero core armour, which is silver).

I used HRT only once because it was the only way to get a few parts which weren't available in Pick-a-Brick anymore in early 2012 (like the 2.0 shields in white). The idea itself was fun (same goes for the nice packaging and such), but the HRT did lacked a few options to make heroes more unique. But since I usually buy sets for the sole purpose of MOCing, I'd be more happy to see some of the older HF parts return to PaB (mostly recolours, like blue and white hands, which were absent in both the sets and PaB).

If I wouldn't save my money for other stuff, I'd already had got Iron Man. I'm also surprised that the review index hadn't been updated in the past months. The reviews for all the new HF sets from the past wave weren't indexed yet.

Yeah I know, this review comes so late it doesn't make any sense to write it, but just like with Breez, I took the pictures back then, so I will write this review better late then never. However, this time, I can partly justify the delay of the review. I didn't bought Witch Doctor right after his release because he was too expensive in my eyes. But thanks to clearance sales in various toy stores around January/February, I happen to find Witch Doctor for 20€ instead of the original 34,99€. Since I still spot him in various stores for that price, a review seems still to make sense. Witch Doctor (also known as Aldous Witch) corrupted the animals of the planet Quatros with his skull staff to help him mining all quaza of the planet, and only the Hero Factory can stop his evil plan which would eventually destroy the planet! Set name: Witch Doctor Set Number: 2283 Price: 34.99 Euro Pieces: 331 Year of release: Summer 2011 The Box Surrounded by his loyal minions, Witch Doctor fires his red energy sphere at anybody who dares to buy him. Thanks to the size of the box, there are many neat details to spot in the background, like the temple (which is also featured in the animated episode) or a oddly coloured Raw-Jaw. The back of the box shows the typical comic-like scenario, which ends this time with a showdown between Rocka XL and Witch Doctor, and the very bottom shows his launcher. One thing I'd like to mention about boxes is that you're always supposed to open them at the bottom, which confuses me. Why am I supposed to open it at the bottom, not at the top like the canisters? WD's box is the tallest box of the 2011 summer wave, which makes sense since he's also the largest (and most expensive) set of this wave. His box is a bit narrower than Rocka XL's, though. Inside the box ...are many plastic bags and the instructions. The building instructions, which feature a slimmed down version of the box image. A random instruction page, which should make clear that this guy is not your average 2.0 hero... The parts According to HEROsector 01, Witch Doctor contains 331 parts (I think you understand why I didn't counted them myself). Alongside various armour shells and bone pieces he comes also with a lot of TECHNIC pieces, similiar to the various titans of BIONICLE. I think this pretty piece originates from the TECHNIC line, mostly because it looks like an engine block to me. Either way, a very nice piece for MOCing purposes. This piece has probably also a TECHNIC background, but I'm not entirely sure. Witch Doctor's skull mask (which comes twice because of his skull staff) is the only HF piece that is exclusive to this set. The shape of the skull got something Alien-like going on. It looks menacing and creepy, if you ask me. It connects the same way like the heads of the smaller box sets of the same way. The build Witch Doctor combines the building system of the 2.0 bones with the building style of older large sets, like Von Nebula or the many BIONICLE titans. It takes notably more time than any other 2011 set of Hero Factory, but the instructions do a great deal by leading you through every single step of the build. The torso The build begins at his hip... ...and continue with the torso. The instructions reflect the higher complexity of the build by giving more detailed overviews on various sections, as demonstrated on this picture. The completed torso section. The legs After the torso, the build continues with the feet. That chunk of red balls are the ankle joints. The core skeleton of the legs is built with the HF limbs. I put one section of the upper leg on the ground so you can see it a bit better. This chunk of red balls... ...become the hip joints! After both legs are built and attached to the torso, they get armoured. The arms The arms themselves are a bit easier to build in comparison with the legs. They start with a simple skeleton, which is then covered by various pieces of armour and stuff. The claw/launcher, which is attached to his left arm. It ironically mimics the flip around-option of the tools of the 2.0 heroes, since one side is the launcher, while the other one is a massive claw. The skull staff also uses many of those red balls for it's skeleton. Then, we attach all the stuff to the torso (alongside with a few horns)... After that, he gets his head and voilà - Witch Doctor is completed! The finished set Witch Doctor is huge, monstrous and evil. And he looks pretty cool while being all of this. His colour scheme of white, red and black (and some bright grey here and there) works pretty good, thanks to his decent colour scheme. Front (Sorry for the blurriness here). His rear looks a bit hollow, but not as bad as the rear of a few other sets. In short, it's okay. From the side, his head looks even more Alien-like. His head flipped upward, just so you know. WD's legs look a bit chicken-like, if you ask me. He feels also a bit like a chicken walker to me when I posed him. Aside from his odd knee joints, his legs are both stable and fairly poseable despite WD's humungous size thanks to the odd joint system. His shoulders are also relying on this system. And it works a bit better than the shoulder support on Fire Lord or Rocka XL. Playability If you want a really huge bad guy for your heroes to fight, Witch Doctor is the right guy for the job. Or if you got Rocka XL, you can play the clash of the titans! Here a size comparison with Stormer 3.0, Rocka XL and Black Phantom. Witch Doctor is currently the tallest Hero Factory set - and it seems likely that he won't lose this title in the coming wave. Final thoughts If you suffer a lack of white shells (and shields), bones or TECHNIC pins or are looking for a really large set, Witch Doctor is the perfect choice. I admit that his initial price was a bit harsh, but since he went on sales, odds are good that you might find him for a much cheaper price. And if you happen to do so, go for him, because even if you don't like his design (which was also one of the reasons why I didn't bought him first, to be honest) he comes with just so many pieces that he's also a great parts pack for MOCists now.

I'm not sure how many sets of Galidor were released in Germany (I do know the release was very limited - they were exclusives for Toys"R"Us), and I missed pretty much all of them (they weren't even mentioned in the catalogues - unlike the video games which I don't even know if they were released at all). As far as I can judge from pictures, Galidor looked... interesting. The very lifelike characters were a interesting idea (since they were also compatible with LEGO, at least to some extent), and I remember a mecha MOC on MOCpages who used a large piece from Galidor for the Cockpit, and it looked pretty good.

Whoops miss that one. But yeah, the other limbs are still custom ones. And the way how the upper legs are incorporated into that design makes that MOC even better IMO!

Samus looks good, but yeah, you should alter even more things about her to get the resemblance right. The entire equipment of the left arm has to go, same for the Hero core, the lime green and the rockets at the ankles. The head looks good, but in case of a Cuusoo figure it should have a new head which resembles Samus helmet far better. But overall, good design. And btw, the reactions about the mention of Galidor made me laugh.

I agree with MakutaDreadscythe, go for Black Phantom. He's definitely worth the money.

These are truly amazing. I was surprised to see that they don't use the 2.0 bones. It's overall a good design, and I can't really pick a favourite. However, Breez lacks a weapon IMHO.

Well, that explains why I didn't found the HF sets yet. The only thing I noticed so far are the Ultrabuild heroes, but yeah, I don't spend that much attention to City or Monster Fights (but I'm really looking forward to Lord of the Rings).

The new HF sets are already in Germany? That's ironic, I live in Germany, but the place were I learn this aren't the German toy stores, but it's Eurobricks. And the same thing happened to me last year as well! Anyway, odds are realistic that I'll get at least one of the new sets tomorrow (either Stringer or Stormer XL) since I'm already out toy hunting (for Transformers) tomorrow anyway. In that case, you can expect a review from me (though I also wanted to write one for Witch Doctor - I'm awfully lazy when it comes to reviews).

The Visorak and the Piraka were actually among the waves I pretty much missed (though I bought 3 Avaks a few years later when a toy store put him on sale for only 2 bucks). But I do remember I wasn't too fond of the design of the Bohrok-Kal and the Rahkshi, though the latter were still a great breakthrough because of their knee joints. I had also actually mixed feelings about the Toa Nuva. The nice silver armour they got was lovely, and it's definitely a piece I always enjoyed to use. On the other hand though, the Toa Nuva didn't feel as individual as their original forms to me. That's also something I appreciate about the Breakout wave. While each one of them looks really unique, they got some tiny details which clearly identify them as the member of a team. Besides, the villains who aren't really a team, offer a great deal of many creative and innovative designs. If there is anyone out there who really doesn't need to apologize for his rambling, than it's you Aanchir. I always enjoy to read your posts, since they're well written and interesting. You know, if I would feel a bit safer about the English language myself (and have enough ideas for things I'd like to write about), I'd probably also ramble as much as you.