Gatanui

I'm quite sure the summer episode of this year has always been a hoax. -Gata

I wouldn't be too sure about that, actually. The colours are hard to make out on these pics. It could still be trans bright green. It's hard to see on Breez as well. -Gata

Scarox is a 10 EUR/USD set, actually, and has always been marked as such. Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm fairly certain these are finalized pictures. ;) -Gata

That's his left hand. :P Why even the right hand has only three and not all four fingers is beyond me. -Gata

Those weren't official prototypes, they were cheap 3D models made by the TV channel that broadcast those horrible ads. Okay...this is weird. Breez: Breez looks quite nice. Nice transparent cladding, I am quite fond of her weapon and the new main torso piece is beautiful. The large amount of silver doesn't even bug me too much. However, why the heck did they give her only size-3 cladding on the lower legs, which are of the longer length? O.o Bruizer: Not too bad, actually. A highly coherent and successful rock look. I'm not a great fan of that much grey on one set, but the overall design is quite appealing. Bulk: Seriously, that drill is one of the most ridiculous weapons I've ever seen. Plus, he looks bland and has a weird nose. Transparent cladding is great, though. Furno XL: Now that's more like it! :D Transparent cladding, awesome shield and awesome cape. I'm also glad he didn't get a mega chest like Stormer, it wouldn't have suited him. What does bug me, though, is that he doesn't look like he's worth 20 EUR/USD. Ogrum: Seriously, that thing is SO UGLY. Admittedly, the dark and trans-green cladding and the brown pieces are quite nice, but his face and his mace are awful. He looks way too organic for a HF figure. Pyrox: What's this even? Funny horns, strange face and horrible pose? Black Ben 10 piece, trans-orange Savage Planet system claws and the (dark?) red cladding are good, though, but not good enough for me to like this guy. Rocka: Simply and plainly wonderful. I realize the design is "sword" of generic (sorry for the lame pun :P), but the trans-green blade and cladding and the golden shield and cladding are gorgeous. One of the best HF Heroes ever and an instant buy. Scarox: This set shouts Waspix all the way through, but considering it's a small set as opposed to Waspix it's considerable they managed to pull that of. Gold pieces are nice, as well as the trans-green fangs. Overall, though, I still find this wave kind of disappointing. Not sure I'm going to buy more than two this time around. Lots of great recolours, but the number of actual new molds is sobering. Still, it could have been worse, I guess. Maybe the story will turn out convincing. -Gata

Here's hoping this won't turn out like the BZPower forum upgrade, where the forums were offline for over five months. Good luck. -Gata

Retailers actually get to keep their catalogues, or at least it has been that way so far. The logistics to get the catalogues back would probably be way too complicated and not worth their cost. Agreed. The last time we got this was 2010, actually, so it's not even been that long. -Gata

At this point, it's not like it barely matters anymore, really. -Gata

Looks like we'll have to get used to getting finalized pictures at the same time as all other kids in the world again. -Gata

This was fake information from the start. There is a book called that way which is (most likely) totally unrelated to anything of next year, as it features Core Hunter and other characters of this year. -Gata

Inorite? Stealing is much better. j/k Thanks for the link. There is a story about Toxic Reapa as well. -Gata

Wow. This is simply weird. That robot should totally become a HF set, though. -Gata

Wait what? Only eight sets? Supposing they make LoC action figures, it makes sense, though. And it's just as much as the winter 2012 wave in the US and Canada. It appears all Heroes except for Furno XL (obviously) are small sets and all villains but one (Scarox) are mid-sized again. The names and Hero choices are interesting, to say the least. I really hope some villains will use black or blue. I guess this means no Von Nebula, at least in this wave, but Villain Factory could very well be possible as there isn't any theme derivable from the names. Pictures should really be around the corner now. -Gata

I think the point is that the image has been removed. -Gata

Obviously LEGO is planning some big stuff for this theme, else I don't think they would have bothered to ask us to remove the links. -Gata

LOL, nice one. Not complaining, though, given the circumstances. What we got was much better than nothing. -Gata

I'm sure the piece count is preliminary. Maybe motorbikes that work with ripcords. -Gata

A prototype for next year was seriously sold on eBay in July and nobody bought it or even noticed? That's so awesome and awful at the same time. As far as the sets go, this looks interesting, to say the least. The story has the potential to become very interesting. Not sure about the animal heads, but these are still blurry prototypes, so I won't say anything bad about them (yet). ;) The packaging could easily be mistaken for a Ninjago spinner. The way LEGO is making the transition from Ninjago to LoC is really clever. I can already hear the kids saying "Ninjago is so out, don't you have LoC sets?". I'm not sure I will like this more than Ninjago, but still, I think I actually look forward to it. If the rumors about HF-style figures being made for this theme, I only hope they won't look like robots with creepy animal heads. -Gata

He's not on the Dutch S@H website either. As I said several pages back, my guess is that the Furno Bike didn't sell well enough in the Netherlands so they decided not to sell Speeda Demon there. He doesn't even appear on the Dutch HF website products section. Same happened here with the Drop Ship, actually. EDIT: It appears Belgium and Luxemburg have the same issue. -Gata

He's available everywhere here, or at least I have seen him in all stores I've checked that have Hero Factory sets. -Gata

Nothing else to talk about here. -Gata

Ha, no worries, personally, I was a great fan of the Arctic theme. -Gata

Apparently the human eye is more sensitive to purple shades, so even slight discolourations which are unvoidable for any LEGO colour are far more glaring on purple pieces than on other colours. -Gata