Brickthing

When I was in a store today, people recognized them as new Bionicle sets. I would think that Bionicle's popularity would help Hero Factory rather than impede it, because people assume a successor to something will be of an equal or better standard. Speaking of the store I went to, I purchased Stormer and Meltdown, and I'm very impressed with them both. It's worrying that the recoloured yellow Metru limbs and ankle guards on Meltdown have different quality plastic, but the lime tentacle and Mahri tubes are fantastic. Stormer looks great, and the detail and quality of each new piece makes it well worth the low piece count. The piece designers did a great job on even the weapon arm (despite it being hollow), and the sleek curves and pistons (with no hint of organic designs) of the HF torso piece serves as a good indication of the direction HF is taking to differ from Bionicle.

Our first Roboriders review! Frost happens to be the only Roborider I purchased originally, while the others I have came years later in second hand lots. Although I think that the pieces involved with the wheel and frame adjustment are mostly useless, the white tubing and trans-blue spears made Frost worth it for me. It's an interesting coincidence that you got two of the same wheel in your set - they come randomly assorted out of a variety of patterns, so usually both wheels are different.

Hero Factory probably wasn't mentioned by Klaus-Dieter because he isn't interested in action figures. TLC is definitely working on 2011 Hero Factory sets, although I'm not sure whether they will certainly be released or if their future still hinges on the success of this first wave.

I think it is still the same as it was before, using pre-rendered 3D images rather than full-blown 3D as we expected. It makes sense, considering a 3D animated model of a Hero would never run smoothly on most computers without being heavily simplified. I'm not too interested in the game itself, but the music of both is fantastic, especially the 3 pieces in the Von Nebula mission. For those who like cheating, the codes found with the character bio pages a few days ago work as follows: Stormer - 3845230 - 5,000 Credits Stringer - 9011925 - Energy Boost Bulk - 7127725 - Upgrade Point Furno - 0012569 - EMP Boost Breez - 8845332 - Upgrade Point Surge - 4243569 - 2,500 Credits And the other codes:

You must have missed the end of 2008 and most of 2010 story, which deals with Mata Nui and his robot form, after he was woken up. This 2008 BIONICLEstory.com chapter might help clear things up. The first chapters and flashback chapters (21-23) of the Mata Nui Saga should also be useful. As Darth Vader said, Voya Nui was meant to be inside the Mata Nui robot as part of the Matoran Universe within him, but it burst out when the robot hit the ocean after falling from space (which the Matoran experienced as the Great Cataclysm).

Is it likely that the costume is a publicity item from TLG? It reminds me a lot of the Mata Nui costume last year. The costume is quite good, but the unnecessarily large head ruins Preston's heroic appearance.

Thanks for another great review. I'm pleasantly surprised that there is the new double joint in black - Rotor is a bit cheaper than the Thornatus for those 2 pieces. The dark-tan axles with stud, double pinned TECHNIC connectors, and orange pistons aren't new though, just for Bionicle/HF. I've said before that I love Rotor for the useful pieces and great model, so I won't re-describe that. The mask looks like a great new piece, and the lack of eye-holes doesn't detract from it. It's just a pity for the Glatorian head beneath, because you'll never see it and may as well be a socket like on Meltdown.

This is quite neat - it's always refreshing to see cartoon-styled MOCs rather than the usual robot/sci-fi inspired ones. Considering part limitations, my main suggestions to you would be to rebuild the legs with Yellow Technic tubes and swap the stud on the beak for a Yellow lever base.

I don't really mind - I didn't really like the serial that much. The title sounds interesting, but the story was unessential (although nice) interactions between a few characters, followed by a unessential death, followed by a trademark cliffhanger. Greg has said that post-set story won't be building up to yearly climaxes like set story did, so I'd like to see more events per chapter, rather than them setting themselves up for something big that will never happen. I also miss the days when one serial focused on one storyline, although there is still the chance that both The Yesterday Quest and The Powers That Be could turn out like this. Was it ever confirmed that Lesovikk and Hydraxon were in the MU robot after it's rising or if they were left behind on AM?

The pictures looked like you were going to tell a story with them, so you should finish that. I'd love to here your insights, thoughts and information you've discovered from having the set in hand that can't be gleamed from photos.

Do you mind editing the first post to include the tribute? That way it only takes one set of clicks to read what the topic is about.

Rotor, Meltdown and the Furno Bike are my favourite sets. All three have an amazing assortment of old pieces in new useful colours, and the actual sets are look great too. It's a pity Rotor wasn't a set earlier, because would've made a great BIONICLE Scarecrow character.

From the pictures, I think Thunder is probably the weakest set, because he looks like a silver Hordika remake while all the other sets have some unique and excellent qualities to them. Von Nebula may have a very awkward arm design, but the set has some great pieces and overall looks very menacing.

Female robots should look female because they're meant to be female. It makes more sense here than in Bionicle because people being saved by the Heroes need to be able to relate to/understand them, so the Heroes are built to be masculine or feminine like real people. In Bionicle, the only reason there are females is because the GBs felt like it.

Thanks for the review, the pictures show the set sharp and clearly, although I recommend you use a card backdrop rather than carpet as it's slightly distracting. I have mixed feelings about this set. Although the silver pieces look really good (especially the sleek helmet!), the chest armour and weapon arm don't match the character of Dunkan Bulk. The rivets on steel panel detail is nice, but those two pieces seem the thinnest and have the most hole out of all the Hero Factory armour/arms, which isn't appropriate for the Hero that is supposed to be the strong bulky robot. Is this visually a problem when you have the set in hand?

Because this isn't based on an official Licensed LEGO theme, I'll move it to the Other Themes forum.

I'd like to credit that hilarity to the web content writers, but I think those scrolling messages take suggestions from the Hero Factory support form on the website.

They only seem to be cycling through ones we've already seen now, but I found the Stormy and Windy background: Anyone fancy a curry? How many backgrounds do you suppose there are? I'd guess 20 because it's a nice rounded number, leaving only 2 more to find.

Is there any indication in HF media that there is a traitor at all? It might be too big of a plot element for HF's story, and we just had a traitor plot take up all of last year in BIONICLE. Although I like the idea of a Hero being captured and reprogrammed to work as a spy given that they're robots and all...

Greg has said that the male Psionics Toa is a mystery to be dealt with in the future, and that Psionics Matoran/Toa are meant to be female. Considering that BIONICLE probably isn't allowed to suggest the idea of sex-changes, Orde must have been a male of a different element, and some event caused him to change Psionics powers. It was confirmed a few years ago (regarding using Matoro's mask of Astral Projection) that a Toa's element/powers is bound to their spirit, so spirit shifting to change Orde's element wouldn't work. I'm guessing he found some kind of elemental stone, or a Psionics Toa or the Dark Hunters he was captured by switched his element through mental manipulation/experiments. Greg also said that the reason the names are in caps was because MS Find & Replace did that when he put the names in.

On the Rahkshi hand, the top section of the plus axle hole is longer than the bottom section, rather than on Mata Nui's hand where they are the same. Thanks for the photo Bfahome - it turns out that my Tahu's hands are that new version, while all my other Stars' hands are the old version. My Rahkshi has the old version unlike yours, so it must be a low priority change. I'm guessing it's because axles could get stuck in the original versions, so they were changed to have less friction.

It's probably more likely that Meltdown's tubes are trans-clear blended with lime to match the lime tentacle. Either way, your Mahri tubes are special in their origin, not their rarity.

Could you describe specifically where that it? Comparing Takanuva's hands to a Vorox, they seem the same. I'm glad that they are making new molds though - if they weren't trying to refine the joint we'd be stuck with more and more nice pieces that break if you try and MOC with them - I already have a canister full of 2008-onwards joints that I don't want to risk breaking.

I'm glad you did make it - it's a pretty good MOC. Although the trans-boulder idea is good, the trans-orange colour and shapes it creates for the knees and chest doesn't match the rest of the MOC, like they're there just for novelty of using the pieces . The rest of Tahu is excellently made though, especially the way you incorporated designs and pieces from both versions of Tahu. I'll have to try recreating that hand!

I'm agreeing with the online instructions, since I'm 99% sure they are for the final set.