wghost

A reasoning I can agree with. Never came into my mind, but good point. It's not a meme for me at all, but I keep reading all over they're different - and I think it's reasonable enough for us to expect quality bricks for these prices. Personally, I did not have any parts in hand of said hybrids, but I've heard about weak Atlantis parts as well (such as harpoons) made in Europe (?), so I don't think it's just a 'meme' as you put it - rather a serious issue without specific countries, I think. PS: I don't really get the 'kink' part but I really hope it's just a colloquialism for something innocent. (I'm only aware of its offensive meanings which in Chinese context would be just as derogative and unwelcome.)

For the same reason Pirates of the Caribbean is listed under the Pirates subforum instead of Licensed.

The surface is not so polished/bright and the material is kinda different (you can tell it by touch) - which means less durability and less fun in my vocabulary. OK, you beat me. OMG. I guess the majority of experienced buyers based in Australia purchase from the US. I have no information about the brick quality, but in other well-selling/licensed themes (such as SuperHeroes and Ninjago, like you mentioned) hybrid minifigures started to appear so it's very likely they will find their way into LotR as well. On the other hand, personally I would expect the standard LEGO value for my money and wouldn't be happy with hybrid products (especially when "cheaper" means unaffordable still). Either way, licensed sets are always more expensive than regular brands, so as it is now, it's nowhere to be called cheap.

These sets are really nice, I have to admit. I just love the new horse design and all of the principal characters are pretty accurate. I think the accessories really help to give the sets the specific LotR feeling too (e.g. helmets, faceprints, the One Ring, Uruk Hai swords and stuff). All in all, it's evident a lot of work and caring have been put in them - that's absolute love on my part. However, I have two main objections against the theme: 1. The quality of the bricks - as it happened to the SuperHeroes line, I'm afraid the poorer part quality may affect these as well. Which would be a huge con having the: 2. Horrible prices. At least in my country, where LEGO prices are calculated according to the EU standards - in a country where salaries are can't be compared to EU states. This means one could order the whole theme from the US with shipping and still spare the prices of a couple of sets, at least. (Comparison: The Battle for Helm's Deep would be 175-180 USD, The Mines of Moria would be 95 USD here/current conversion rates.) So you would get easy-to-damage bricks for your whole wallet - and that's absolute no on my part.

And it's a ToyFair meaning every new printing is shown with stickers. Pretty sure gonna be printed.

Sure, go ahead. Thanks! Thanks for the comments/opinions - yeah, the torso IS gappy. wghost

Hi everyone, I'm quite a newbie at MOCing (I'm usually just modifying my sets), but last time I've tried to design a Hero Factory bear in LDD. My initial idea was to use solely the elements of 2 Stringer 3.0 sets - given the inventory of them I tried to mimic the structure of Raw-Jaw to have a simple yet effective build with a quadrupedal, bearish outlook. My initial concept was to have a larger hind leg section than the shorter frontal area as opposed to Raw-Jaw's design where the emphasis is more on the arms rather than the legs. Unfortunately, when I was in the middle of all the LDD fun/creative process it suddenly crashed and my PC cannot open the program anymore. What I have from a previous save is a rather schematic model without even posing - yeah, it's bland. What I would appreciate are comments, criticism, further ideas and planning with my file. I hope this thread is legit and is not against the forum rules. Thank you in advance! http://www.mediafire.com/?x009dwi5jme2ey0 EDIT: the frontal paws were supposed to have three claws on each one but the LDD didn't let me to apply all of them.

The preliminary thing was especially controversial for me because you cannot really rate a set horrid early on and later excellent without sufficient change in the design itself - or at least I would like think so. :) At first it seemed poor to me seriously and because of the appeal change I noticed among the fans (and in my view as well) lead me to believe it was because of the CGI alone as I was not counting the bad quality of leaked images as a factor. (I ignored the material of freshly moulded parts to begin with as I was aware of the reason behind them, so that was not my main problem.) So I think you're right on that matter, Aanchir, and it's nice to read I'm not the only one who noticed the things mentioned.

Thanks for the rev! One of my favorite villains in this wave: translucent-transparent neon green and lime are amazing just as the shoulders and the new torso structure are, mask is nice and whole proportion really gives character to Grim Toxic Reapa. A fun little set, would be great to have one.

Thanks for the review! My favorite hero of the new wave: color scheme, asymmetry, cannon arm and the mask all look really nice. I especially like the lack of purple: though I admit yellow works with it (complementary colors and stuff), but black/gunmetal and yellow is a geat combination too. I would like to buy this set, that's for sure.

In the BZPower review of Jawblade the same 'misprint' can be seen. Anyway, thanks for the review, creative set here. I'm not fond of the arms as they take away from it 'sharkness', but nice new head-mould and the use of blades as fins is clever. I think I would replace the front arms with the blade-fins to have a more sharkie-look, but it could turn out bland - never tried it in LDD.

I've been wondering about this set and though I still have issues with it, it can definitely be seen as an improvement over Fire Lord (obviously) and Rocka XL as the building structure is more refined (I had no problem with the build initially either as I'm rather a layman in that field). My main problems are still the tubed blades on the back (I suppose they were added to make the torso larger and more menacing, but it's somehow unorganized and random - am I the only who don't get them?) and the Arachnix drone; but they can be easily removed. I start to appreciate the mace as a kind of new weapon (I remember what a hit it was to have a mace/club with Stronius instead of a run-of-the-mill blade thorough the years of Bionicle) and ignoring the dual function (which would work in a smaller set, but Black Phantom is too large for the 'sword' part, so it appears rather short, I think) makes it a nice weapon to have. On the antlers/head add-ons: I would like to compare it to Voltix later when we have finalized images of the summer wave, but it's not as obtrusive as I thought earlier. However, as it appears now the translucent lime/neon green appears strange next to dark red and there are not so many parts included in the set in translucent lime, so I'm wondering if it would work better replacing those parts to translucent red/orange (the sword/blade part is not available in that color, I know). And a question for experts: aside from the glorious CGI, better posing and finalized new parts I don't really see too much difference between the finalized model and the preliminary leaked images (and for me that's a key issue because of the comments I've been reading stating how horrid it looked - I myself thought it seemed pretty bad as well). Especially the legs look identical which were the main problem for the majority of offenders as they seemed to be too thin and under-armored. I'm not really into building specialities as my main interest is the overall look, so it would be great to read other opinions about the shift from the prelim to the final model. Thanks in advance. Because of the things stated above, I deleted my vote as I'm really confused about how would I rate this set. As of now, I don't think I'm buying Black Phantom, later inspections and upcoming sales might change that.

I don't think I can say many new things about Surge as most of my remarks have been said already: it's a cool figure with nice aesthetic (both color- and design-wise), with maybe a bit too much lime. So instead of analyzing, I must say that your image in your Splitface review thread where Surge is cleaning his weapon is awesome: showing the posing capabilities of the new building system and having a funny shot at the same time. Good job! (I especially like your same-pose building sequences in your reviews where you capture how each set is built.) One last question: do you plan to have all these review images - Breez, Thornraxx, Surge etc. - uploaded in HQ as well?

Thanks for the review! As a set, I like the original build, all the fancy pieces and the fact it's non-humanoid. Did I mention the fancy pieces? (Now that's what I call a parts pack!) The overall look still bugs me a little but (no pun intended) as the head seems a bit large compared to the body, but the innovativeness is definitely a welcome. (Ahem, and those parts. Ahem.) For its price tag it's a recommended buy for casual builders/followers and die-hard HF fans as well, I think.

Thanks for the review! Now it seems it's a really nice if not an excellent set, I like all the little details here (back armor and feet mirror the first wave, weapons color-coded to red as opposed to the lime armor plates, well-armored body structure, small rockets, back covering). I'm not sure if I liked the white or not, but overall it looks really pleasing. (In fact, it looks so cool it makes me want to own it where otherwise I'm completely uninterested in buying this set.) PS: And your own combiner is surprisingly great! :)

Thanks for the review! Dunno, it doesn't work for me at all. The complete design is messy and somewhat lacking: I don't get the arm-thingies on the back and the 'antlers', the spider drone is farfetched and the torso is not really buff enough compared to the legs. The mace is okay but the dual function looks silly. Given these the aesthetics seem incoherent. Nice color scheme and streamlined torso, though. All in all, it nowhere gets near to Witch Doctor and the like in my opinion. (I'm aware of the difference part- and price-wise, but still.)

Thank you, Luxor!

Great review, thanks! I would like to see a high-res image of the combined model with Jawblade, though. Anyone, pls?

Thanks for the photo, it really helps me to imagine Raw-Jaw with the yellow parts. However, after reading your comment I can't really think of something other than a flag. XD So, for now I'm not sure, maybe I keep its color scheme, who knows. But I really appreciate your help, thanks again.

Just out of curiosity: any idea how would it work replacing Raw-Jaw's dark gunmetal grey pieces (chest-shoulders) and silver Hero torso (back) with yellow ones from Waspix and Evo 2.0? (I was always a fan of more elemental-looking, colorful sets.) Opinions, LDD screenshots and possible real-life images would be appreciated.

Oh, I see, it makes sense now. :) Thanks!

I bring the discussion here as I think it fits into this topic, but the quotes are from another thread. Umm, did you change your mind or your previous statement referred to another set? (I could understand that, I'm lost in the fancy fantasy set names too.):) Just out of curiosity, because you said you didn't like it, and it would be informative to read different opinions about a set. I'm not sure if the Technic-like system and elements are essentially wrong on Witch Doc judging from my viewpoint. I have to admit, I'm viewing Hero Factory as a clear successor of Bionicle rather than a new theme, so for me the technic parts are welcome because of the connection to the previous toyline. Of course I have to wait for HQ real-life images of the set to form a relevant opinion on it, but as far as I can tell now, I have no problem with the technic elements and the blockiness aesthetically/design-wise. (I can't say anything about movements and such, so I believe you guys about it.)

Well, it's just me, but I think it pulls off the gorilla design really well and combines it with a little more (although the tusks may seem awkward, I admit). On the other hand, the set which I find the least appealing is Fangz: it's like another quadrupedal feline/canine creature (like Spinax and Spikit) with few interesting parts, a completely unoriginal build and a simply bad-looking head in my opinion. Yeah, I think my main problem is the head, other than the aforementioned body structure. To be on topic, I think Raw-Jaw and Waspix are really cool, I consider to purchase these two sets. Raw-Jaw is quite similar to a Lava Ape from the good old Voya Nui Online Game (there's even a concept art which shows even closer design connection), and I plan to use the parts of Waspix to improve my Bitil set (but I think the yellow insect/bug idea is rather worn off by now looking at Bitil, Jetbug and Waspix). By the way, I have no problem with Witch Doctor and Scorpio either, it's just they are too expensive for me right now. The heroes, however, are total no: their structure is too similar to their 2.0 version and their animal design is hard to blend with older sets and Bionicle. Though I'm really into their weapons, they are clever and catchy. Too bad the whole lineup of them reminds me some animal-themed Super Sentai series. All in all, compared to Bionicle, I think the new building system principles are nice, but I'm not fond of the new aesthetics.