Omicron Squad Leader

I'll sum this up quickly: I have all the sets apart from Takutanuva, Ultimate Dume, Voporak, Vezon & Kardas, Umbra and Hydraxon.

There's a very interesting post in the news section of herofactory.lego.com: http://herofactory.lego.com/en-us/news/readmore/default.aspx?id=347093 It tells us that Savage Planet will air in the US on September 5th (Labor Day) and we've got a new picture of the film to boot. I hope someone records and posts the movie on the internet for those of us who don't live in the States.

While I'm not very partial to Marvel/DC comics, I do like the look of these quite a lot; namely Iron Man and the Green Lantern. As I'm fairly positive that Hero Factory will not be discontinued for this, I'll be happy to pick some up, even with the atrocious prices they are sure to be assigned.

Ordeal of Fire is definitely being included with the Savage Planet DVD.

I was looking at some of the videos on the Hero Factory website when I came across one called "Ordeal of Fire Episode Recap". In a nutshell it was a short commentary on some of the scenes of Ordeal of Fire, explaining the story. The interesting thing is that at the end it says "Look out for the DVD Autumn 2011". This leads me to believe it will be an extra on the Savage Planet disc.

Am I the only one who doesn't mind Witch Doctor's laugh?

Hello everyone. Today I will be doing my first review here on Eurobricks, and what better way to start my critiquing saga than by taking a look at a brand-new set? Specifically, the Hero Factory product, Scorpio. So here we have the box, baring the usual additions such as the age range and set number, as well as a pretty generic image of Scorpio, with a rather fabulous background behind it. The back is also what's to be expected; a battle between a Hero and a Villain taking up most of the space, in this case Scorpio fighting Stormer 3.0. We do have a new comic strip along the top for this wave however, depicting (in a very basic way) how the Savage Planet story began. The back also tells you how to shoot the launcher and, like the front, shows the set number. Now, the parts. I admittedly did open and build this set before taking these pictures, so the pieces are not bagged up. I have however categorised them into bone elements, cladding and Technic & miscellaneous parts... With the torso piece being separate, for some reason. Here are the pieces as they are shown in the instruction booklet, doesn't seem like much, does it? Let's now take a look at some individual parts that really stand out. Firstly, the head itself. It is a very nice sculpt, with an extensive amount of detail and precision. Though I can't help thinking it looks more like a wasp's head. Speaking of a wasp's head, here it is side-by-side with Waspix's. The green stands out quite a bit more in my opinion, and I'd have to say I prefer it. ble Moving on to some other parts of interest, here are the two new armour plates included in this set, both in lime green. You can acquire these pieces from other sets, but Scorpio is the only one to have them in this colour. I think they look pretty good, especially the one on the right. Ah yes, here they are, the corrupted Quaza spikes, available in all 5 villain sets. I really like the blend of black and red, or, the spike and the Quaza, but they seem quite flimsy at times. What I don't understand is, why does it take 3 Quaza spikes to control a relatively small, agile creature like Fangz, but a mere 2 to control a huge beast like Scorpio? These parts have a wide array of uses, which is evident in the sets, they serve as wings, tusks, blades and pincers (the latter being what Scorpio uses them for). Great for MOCing, I'd say. Here we have the paw-like piece that has been featured several times in this wave. It looks very sleek, and has a number of connection points that talons, Exo-Force robot arms and more can attach to. I thought I'd take a look at these together. First and foremost we have the biggest Hero Factory torso in solid black. Although this recolour was almost inevitable, I'm still very glad that we've got it. Secondly we have the grey bone element. Unlike the aforementioned recolour, this one seems quite pointless to me, other than to keep the skeletons somewhat original. Next we have Scorpio's unique armour plate, which I have to say, looks pretty awesome. The red and green contrast very well, and the design is fairly good. Finally we have the size 5 lime green cladding. Good for MOCing, is all I can say. Now let's build! Come on... Come on... And... We... Are... DONE! To be honest I wasn't expecting much from this set. But now I have it right here in front of me, it's simply great! Size comparison with Rocka XL and Aldy Witch. I think this image alone is an insult to Scorpio's height, which I think that can be excused; he's a hexapod! Waspix got her head back. At least normal Heroes don't tower over him too much. Ratings Building experience: 4/5. Parts: 5/5. Playability: 5/5. Value for money: 3/5. Overall: 4/5. I'd recommend you to pick up Scorpio any day, unless you don't have Rocka XL already, who in my opinion is slightly better, but I digress. I hope you enjoyed this review; I may post more in the future.

The page isn't appearing for me either, with any of my 6 3.0 Heroes.

Indeed I do. I bought them from Amazon.co.uk. I don't know if they're in any stores yet. Anyway, I've taken the pictures for my Scorpio review, it should be up in the next couple of days. I might review Stringer too.

Hi. Just pointing out that on this website it can grind some people's gears if you don't use the correct grammar. Please just take this into consideration.

By the way, the HeroPad has been updated with the 3.0 version of Creep Crushers (now called "Jungle Crushers"), for those who don't know. It also has been updated with new posters/rewards, including one with more screen-shots of Savage Planet.

The truth is, I can't find many good points regarding Aldy's biography, although the motives I can stand; as Aanchir pointed out, Fire Lord's was a thirst for raw power, whereas Witch Doctor held jealousy towards the Heroes and coveted their Hero Cores. Something that slightly bothers me when considering this is that it always links back to power. Of course you could say "All villains' motives link to power", well when it comes to villains' reasoning, there is 4 main categories: reward/wealth, power, belief or revenge. Von covered the latter, while Fire Lord and Witch Doctor both link to the power category, it all comes down to originality. I, like Meso, am not following Hero Factory for the story (my favourite saga so far being "Ordeal of Fire"), for every basic concept or character it tackles HAS been done before... A LOT. Yes, it is supposed to be basic, but not unoriginal. I merely find it hard to construe that LEGO would use such a simple idea for a voodoo-based individual. These are my demerits of the subject (Hero Factory). The pretty obvious merits are the sets, really. In my eyes they are as good if not better than BIONICLE's once were. I am a big collector. I am demeriting Witch Doctor's basic concepts, but meriting Hero Factory in general. The TV show, I am relatively fond of, it's not too bad. Also, I live in the UK; the official release date is July 1st, which is when Amazon starts shipping them, I cannot perceive if they will come out at Westfield on that exact day, though.

You have proven my prediction wrong! I agree. It all lies with the television episode now.

I'm not a HF-Hater, by the way, lol, I am actually a big fan, I just thoroughly prefer Bio's storyline and characters. It is okay to criticise something you like, right? Also, how did you get to post your Furno 3.0 review early? I thought it wasn't allowed until July 1st?

How was Fire Lord related to the Hero Factory? He was just a mining robot before he turned evil. Being a pre-existing robot in the same universe hardly reeks of repetition, in my eyes. Meanwhile, being power-hungry is a classic villainous motivation. We've known for quite a while that he was draining the planet's Quaza; what motivation did you expect him to have besides personal gain? Something different to what we encountered in the previous story. Even taking over the universe or possessing all of the beasts in the galaxy would have sufficed in my eyes; at least it WOULD be different to Ordeal of Fire's basic concepts. And I was referring to Fire Lord's meeting with Stormer when I said "related to Hero Factory", sorry for not clarifying this. It always bothers me when people take claim a character we don't know "had a lot going for him/her". It's just as silly as claiming a clearly unfinished sketch model for a set is better than the final set. Which is why I said "I'll wait until Savage Planet airs to make my FINAL judgement". I might come to like the character, in the end. Whether or not Witch Doctor is an interesting character, we never were given any reason to expect him to be a deeper or more original character than he actually turned out to be. We may have speculated about possible origins or backstory, but our speculation was never a part of the character in any form. We were not given any reason, no, but I expected LEGO to come up with a bit of a more original and enthralling backstory for the Doc' than this. Call me optimistic, but with all the brilliant twists BIONICLE managed to pull off (mainly engineered by Greg Farshtey), I expected better. Despite Hero Factory attempting to be "more basic". In a similar sort of situation, my twin brother expected Rocka to be a veteran hero who had been stationed on Quatros prior to the Hero Factory alert call, rather than a new rookie. But Rocka had as much potential to be a rookie as to be a veteran, and as much potential to be a boy as to be a girl. In that sense, any rough idea without any details will have more potential than the same idea when the details are filled in. If the details prove unsatisfactory, it doesn't mean the rough idea was more satisfactory than the final details. It just means there were other possibilities, perhaps better or worse but still no more likely than the one that turned out to be true. Rocka's biography doesn't let me down so much due to the following reason: There's truly only so much you can do with one single, generic Hero. But on Aldy's end, he is a huge new villain from a fresh environment with all the possibilities in the world; before this website update, we didn't know anything about him, least of all him turning out to be a mad old professor named Aldous, whereas Rocka, we knew at least he would either be a Hero or a rookie, a leader or a soldier, etc. The best in this sense that you could add to Witch Doctor is that we knew he would be bad, and we knew he would be big, other than that, LEGO had everything to work with. Sorry for the rant. I'm not trying to jump to Witch Doctor's defense or TLG's, but rather just trying to speak out against a personal pet peeve. None of the new information about Witch Doctor changes anything we knew or had reason to suspect about him before. It just cancels out all other speculation about his character. No problem, I don't see our ramblings as rants, more like intriguing debate, it's one of the best things about being a fan of anything, in my opinion. But I wouldn't say it doesn't change anything regarding the character, as we now do know his real name is "Aldous Witch", along with other titbits. I am just a bit let down, I was expecting something fresh/original for a character named "Witch Doctor", of all things. I am still very impressed with the set, though. He could have simply wanted to destroy Quatros, because he's an evil skeleton robot. However, all the arc-villains so far have been acting bad because of a perceived wrong-doing against them or because they were driven crazy - none of them are evil for the sake of being evil or because they deeply enjoy it. This is probably to keep the Hero Factory story from being too dark, and so that the Heroes can save the day and the villains without killing/locking them away forever, although this unfortunately wasn't the case for Von Nebula (yet?). Most of the speculation about Rocka and Witch Doctor's characters were based on the sets themselves, so it's slightly disappointing that the actual characters are more stereotypical origins that don't relate to specific details about the sets. We might find out reasons along the line, but currently there's little explanation for Rocka having golden armour and being portrayed as the main Hero, while our speculated reason of Rocka being a veteran stationed on Quatros would have. Well put. Thank you. Like Aanchir said, How the heck is Fire Lord related to Hero Factory? He was just some mining bot. He related to Stormer tough. Which is obviously going to happen to Aldous again. You know, like he once trained stormer? That was what I was referring to. He was someone from Stormer's past, just like Von Nebula. Sorry for not clarifying this separately. P.S. Expecting a post defending Witch Doctor from Meso in the next few minutes... (Nope!)

Good going, LEGO! You've now repeated one plot device 3 times, and another twice! Von Nebula, Fire Lord AND Witch Doctor (or Aldy) are all somehow related to the Hero Factory, and Witch Doctor is hungry for Quaza power, just as Fire Lord was thirsty for jet fuel! Great twists right there! Sorry for the overly sarcastic attitude, but this character had so much going for him, but to me it seems like he's been let down already. Going to wait for Savage Planet to air to make my final judgement.

I'm going to the US in a week, so I just hope they are released in time.

Well we didn't get pictures of Bulk & Vapour until late June last year, so there's still a small chance, I guess. I'd love to see a cage made completely of bone elements with a Hero inside and a beast guarding it, with a second Hero to fend it off. Would probably be about $39.99 though.

I personally don't believe Hero Factory will be discontinued so soon. Sales have gone up over 8% from BIONICLE to Hero Factory, so cancelling it now just wouldn't seem logical.

....I still prefer the other reviewer, this one seems too young.

You know what I said about them being released in June... ...Expect them in the US by the 10th.

Of course, that's why it's an estimate. I still am 99.9% sure they'll come out next month though. Alien Conquest and Pirates of the Caribbean's official release dates were both May, but they came out in April. So if Hero Factory's is July, it's natural to assume they'll come out in June, just like last year. Especially since it's 1 of the only 3 new waves yet to be released.

They came out June 18th last year, so I'm estimating around that time. June 15th prehaps?

I agree. Though I would like the 3 stud long armour on Furno's upper thighs, he would still have a relatively agile appearance and the piece count would boost from a pathetic 28 to 30.

All of 'em. They are a goldmine of parts and the sets themselves look amazing... Rocka 3.0 - 9/10. Nex 3.0 - 7/10. Stormer 3.0 - 7/10. Bulk 3.0 - 8/10. Stringer 3.0 - 9.5/10. Furno 3.0 - 6/10. Waspix - 7/10. Raw-Jaw - 9/10. Fangz - 8/10. Rocka XL - 8/10. Scorpio - 7/10. Witch Doctor - 9/10.