Brickthing

Owing to my lack of knowledge about the character, I may have made some mishaps on details: Head Body Hope it's of use though.

I have to say though, as nice as the new Thornax launcher pieces are, it means that we only get one of the recoloured standard versions per set. There's a lot of asymmetry in the Heroes, but with the amount of nice pieces it might be worth getting doubles of each set.

Usually I'd pin it to the CGI messing with the colours, but could Evo's head be (Jaller) trans-orange instead of trans-neon orange?

I don't know if I've ever heard official confirmation, but I'm fairly sure that the incorrect/impossible positioning of parts in box art CG is intentional in order to make the set look better in it's particular pose and angle. I wouldn't be surprised if Furno's right elbow can't bend that far in reality. There were frequently floating/overlapping pieces in BIONICLE box arts as well, particularly the magical bending Matoran limbs.

I was surprised enough that LEGO got both licenses, so I agree with you that there's probably something in the contracts to keep the sets separate. The Avengers film is almost certainly the reason that Marvel sets are being released in the summer, and why we have the 3 specific characters that we have and not others instead. Along with the Marvel minifigures that were much less finished than the DC figures, the 2(/3) Marvel action figures were only shown to announce the upcoming partnership to excite retailers and probably add to the Avengers hype.

I think the main reason that there aren't any new Heroes in the winter wave is because there are only 5 Heroes instead of 6. Rocka and Furno are probably guaranteed to appear for now because they're the designated favourites, while the other three spaces are used for characters that missed the Savage planet wave. The new Hero/Villain format will most likely be carried into the Summer wave, and then there will be 4 Heroes (Stringer, Bulk, Nex & Stormer) who have missed a wave, making them likely to appear, leaving 1 spot open for Rocka, Furno or a new character. I'm hoping for Rocka to appear instead of Furno, but either way I think it's unlikely they'll leave them both out for yet another new rookie. (So much for my Purple hero wishes, but thanks to the Superheroes I can laugh my sorrows away... )

Due to the display rack punch-outs on the top, I think that the packaging will be resealable in the way that soup sachets are resealable; there will be a zip-lock seal slightly higher than the LEGO logo, and you'll need to cut everything above that (the "zipper") off to open the set. If LEGO wanted these bags to have the same functions as canisters, they'd be canisters, not bags. Despite being resealable, they probably won't be able to hold the assembled sets well, or be very convenient for storage.

This isn't going to turn into a flame war. Whether Breez's portrayal is right or wrong, it's simply a stereotype along with all of the other Heroes' stereotype characters. As a simple story made to sell toys, Hero Factory isn't trying to make any social commentary, so I don't try to draw any from it.

As far as I know, nobody has made such a list. You'll find however that despite their diverse non-blocklike shapes, many features of BIONICLE pieces fit perfectly into whole mm measurements, much more-so than you'd expect. If you want accurate measurements, you either need to take reference photographs/scans of the pieces or use a set of measuring calipers. For both of these you'll need the physical pieces at hand, unless you can convince someone else to do all that work for you. One exception to the above is using LDD screenshots to get accurate (but less detailed) reference photographs, but I don't think that LDD has many of the older pieces that you are looking for.

Right, I think that's the last of the 2012 discussion moved to the 2012 discussion topic. Let's keep the discussion from here onward about the current sets, HeroRecon 3.0 and whatnot.

If it's a question about the Action Figure forum, then there is already this pinned topic. If you have a question about one of the current lines (Hero Factory 2011/Superheroes 2012(/BIONICLE 2011)), then use the official topics for those. Otherwise, it's easier just to make a new topic for the question. Hopefully this answers your question, otherwise you can clarify in the Action Figure Forum Discussion topic where questions like this would belong.

I'll move this to the Action Figure Forum, where someone will be more likely to know any actual figures. (Pun not intended) As far as I recall, Hero Factory has done just as well/better than BIONICLE, and TLG is not looking to cancel Hero Factory and bring back BIONICLE anytime soon, if that's what you were driving for.

Feel free to make a review, whether or not I make one! I intend to review him sometime, but first I need to source the set from overseas - New Zealand doesn't import the larger Hero Factory sets.

Not yet, although it seems that it will exist alongside the Marvel/DC Heroes theme. When there is more significant information about it you'd be able to find it in a Hero Factory 2012 thread.

Welcome to Eurobricks! You can introduce yourself here if you'd like to. That's a fantastic detail that I hadn't noticed. It's seems more of a technicality than a design feature, so I'm not sure if it was intentional, but I agree that it's brilliant!

Set name: Bulk 3.0 Set Number: 2182 Price: $7.99USD , 9.99 Euro Pieces: 30 Year of release: 2011 Peeron Bricklink Brickset Calling Bulk! Assist Rocka and Stormer, put an end to the Witch Doctor’s destructive plans. If he removes jungle planet Quatro’s Quaza core, it will break apart. He must be stopped! Use your wolf animal power to track down Witch Doctor and use your wrist-mounted blades to keep his vicious beasts at bay. The Box Front With his shining silver armour, Bulk 3.0 stands in front of the camera, demonstrating his “I’m ready to slice some vines and villains” pose. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to have noticed the four Raw-Jaws closing in on him from behind. Such a shame – I thought the Heroes had learnt their lessons from the 2.0 series about ignoring villains while posing for promotional material…. In Bulk’s defense, he wasn’t part of the 2.0 wave. Anyhow, Bulk 3.0 brings no exception to the stylish looking canisters of the 3.0 wave. He isn’t as colourful as other Heroes, but he still pops off the shelf compared to other LEGO sets thanks to the bright Greens and Orange highlights. If you look closer however, Bulk’s Silver thigh shell is orientated differently than on the actual set. I’m assuming that this is promotional trickery rather than a mistake, because the proper position of the shell wouldn’t look as nice from the box-shot angle. Back The back of the canister continues with the simple and sweet layout of the 2.0 canisters, but as an improvement it is easier to read the large amounts of legal text against a green background. Bulk 3.0 can combine with Furno 3.0 to form my favourite combiner of the new Heroes, who looks like an upgraded Hawkman Furno, complete with wrist blades and chicken legs. Unfortunately I don’t have Furno 3.0, but ZORK64 has pictured the combiner here in his review of Furno 3.0. Contents Instructions Bent around the insides of the canister is an instruction booklet, which features the same image of Bulk, alongside rearranged text and logos. On the first pages of the instructions there are explanatory diagrams for using the eleven character code printed on the inside of the canister lid. Even though the concept of unlockable Chibi heroes in an online game isn’t as wonderfully exciting as the original Kanoka Club, I love the effort to have a unique code for each set. I didn’t take a photo of my code, but the first four characters are 2182… Bulk’s instructions specify the numbers of shells when adding them, so that you don’t mix shell sizes up. Unlike some of the other sets from this wave, Bulk has a slightly more valid reason to include these help-tips, because Silver 4M and 5M shells are reasonably easy to mix up at a casual piece-grab. The back of the instruction booklet has the inventory and numerous pages advertising the website and, other sets and the Hero Factory 1.0 DVD. It’s a shame that the Savage Planet DVD wasn’t scheduled early enough to be included instead, because it seems quite promising but could do with the advertising. I think it’s quite wise to show Furno 3.0 and his opponent Waspix in the back of the booklet, to remind you of the fun you can have by buying Furno and building the Hawkman combiner. Pieces Bulk 3.0 comes with a great array of parts, and almost all of them are new or uncommon. Recoloured pieces include an Orange Hero head and core, Silver Hero feet and chestplate, and Dark Grey A5 bones. The Silver hands, Silver 4M shells, Black torso armour and smaller torso bone were only available in one or two sets each, and Bulk has them all. The Silver 5M shells were previously only available from the Hero Recon Program. The only pieces that aren’t new/uncommon are the black Exo-force arms and B5 bones, but most people will find those useful for their collections. Because the 3.0 Heroes are very similar to the 2.0 design, there aren’t too many new moulds, but Bulk has a fairly nice selection of them. The new spike piece looks very different in Silver, and has a rubbery material and texture that makes it look like a rapidly prototyped piece. This is appropriate for a jungle weapon carved out of bone or rock, but having smooth metal weapons would make more sense for advanced Heroes, jungle themed or not. The other new piece that isn’t unique to Bulk is the armour covering piece. I’m not entirely sure what to call it, but it’s very useful both for attaching clip pieces and as a detail piece, so I’m glad that Bulk includes two to try out in a cheaper set, as opposed to getting them from the more expensive Scorpio/Rocka XL. Bulk’s helmet is meant to represent a wolf, and it does it so well that I feel daft pointing it out in words! It conveys a sense of speed and agility, which doesn’t match the character I thought Duncan Bulk was, buy hey, as a wolf Hero, the helmet is fantastic. Some sort of cheek camera makes the helmet asymmetric and more robotic than it would have been otherwise, but you barely notice the detail if you prefer not to. Bulk’s ID shell is very nicely printed, with Orange, Black, White and Metallic Silver colours. The wolf head isn’t as stylized as other animal badges, with a black nose and forward facing ears that don’t match Bulk’s helmet, but it’s clear Bulk’s animal “totem” is a wolf. In this instance the wings around the Hero name are less appropriate than on other Heroes, because they look like the feathers of a chicken that the wolf is trying to eat. The undersides of the pieces show their rod connection points. There isn’t much space inside Bulk’s helmet for anything else aside from a Hero head, but I’m sure people will find a good simple way to convert the helmet into an actual wolf head. The underside of the armour plate shows just how beautiful the trans-green colour is. I really hope that an unprinted version of this shell colour becomes available in the future. Build Bulk’s build is simple and almost symmetrical, but there’s a bit more to do than on other 3.0 Heroes with the 3 piece weapons on his arms. As with other 2.0 style Heroes, the build is enjoyable by seeing your Hero come together through a series of satisfying clicks, not by the complexity or challenge. Completed Set Although most of his pieces and design is the same as the 2.0 Heroes, Bulk 3.0 has a very different theme and feel; that of a fast metallic hunter. He has no upper arm armour, but I think that improves his look rather than detracting from it. He features all the articulation of a 2.0 Hero plus the movement of his wrist blades, although the 5M shells on his arms limit his elbow bending to the pictured position or greater. Bulk copes with Open Back Syndrome the best out of all the Heroes so far, because the same coloured torso bone and shell hide the cavity between them. Without the 3D depth seeing the set in person, you can almost fool yourself into believing that Bulk has a covered back like the beautiful Ben 10 torsos. Bulk’s wrist blades are interesting weapons made out of great pieces, however they end up protruding quite far out from his arms, more than would be “ergonomic” in reality. The Gunmetal colour and action poses help conceal the fact that the blades make Bulk almost as wide as he is tall. Conversely, the blade construction allows his weapons to curve around his fists, allowing him to take on some wicked poses. The Exo-force clip and Gunmetal piece hold well, but the rubber blades fit very loosely. Bulk will not lose his weapons while idle or even when he his being shaken around violently by a giant hand, but they will come out easily with a light tug or twist to the blades. Blade attack! Bulk is coiled, ready to strike… Heigh-yah! By printing these two photos, you can make your own Duncan Bulk Action Flipbook™!! Headshots Bulk’s helmet is a very important element of his thematic design; without it, he is just a standard futuristic Hero, but with it he becomes a jungle warrior with hints of ancient Aztec flavor. If single blades aren’t enough, Bulk can hunt a few Hydruka borrow claws from Nuparu. Bulk realizes that because his fists are Silver, they themselves must be weapons… Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 10/10 – Bulk 3.0 is perfectly faithful to his 1.0 incarnation, and that faithfulness resulted in a lovely colour-scheme of Silver, Orange and Black. The Dark Grey bones match the Silver shells, while the Black torso bone matches the Black torso shell. Bulk’s wrist blades feature three colours, but the colours blend together well. Parts - 10/10 – If you love Silver, Bulk will be a wonderful set for you. If you don’t mind Silver, there are still a lot of interesting pieces, such as the Gunmetal armour covering pieces, the Orange Core/Head, the torso armour and the smaller torso bone. Bulk seems like he is a bit smaller and uses less pieces than other Heroes with the new shield/fist shells and large helmets, but when you compare the part assortment Bulk has an equal or larger amount of shells and useful accessories compared to the other Heroes. Design - 9/10 – The 3.0 sets could probably be considered clone sets like previous Hero waves and many BIONICLE waves, but they each manage to perfectly suit their different animals through slight differences in their design. Bulk isn’t the most extreme example of this, but he successfully gives the impression of a fast and lean wolf warrior. In line with Duncan Bulk’s strong and hard-hitting character, I would’ve thought Stormer 3.0 should’ve been the wolf, but the odd animal choice doesn’t detract from an excellent wolf Hero. My main design grumble with Bulk is the size of his weapons’ wrist mounts, but that is offset by how good his weapons look in combat. He is essentially punching his enemies with both fists, with the added effectiveness of long sharp blades. Articulation - 9/10 – Bulk has 15 points of articulation, if you don’t count the spike pieces turning in the Exo-force arms. There is a good enough range of articulation for Bulk to take on many great poses, but unfortunately the choice of shells limits his arms and knees when they bend. The knees can still bend past 90°, but the left leg can bend further than the right because of their different armour configurations. And that annoys me. Quality - 8/10 – Bulk’s sockets, ball cups and quality of pieces are all amazing, and his printed armour piece looks very nice. The print colours are slightly misaligned on my piece, but by less than half a millimeter. You can only see it if you’re scrutinizing the piece for the slightest mishap. The only feature that lets Bulk down is his loose blades. I’m not a part designer, but surely that could be fixed by making one bar slightly thicker and the other thinner to compensate? Although this way is better for MOCing, because both connection points are useable despite being slightly loose. Overall - 46/50 – I’m very pleased with Bulk 3.0. He is a wonderful source of pieces and a great wolf-like action figure. Personally he doesn’t feel like the same character as his 1.0 form, but it’s still good to finally have him (and Stringer) in the updated 2.0 form. I’d recommend Bulk if you want good MOCing pieces or the armour detail pieces that otherwise come with the more expensive sets, or if you already have one or two Savage Planet sets and want another, simply because other Heroes and Villains have more interesting new pieces such as shield/fist shells and the claw/spine pieces. Why hello, little jungle tribesman! Your feeble 10 year old plastic is no match for my brand new blade! Aarrgh! I take it back! Noo, not the face!

MegaBlok's version looks a lot more accurate, but at the cost of every piece being an Iron-Man specific piece. With the LEGO Iron Man, only the head piece is specific to Iron Man (two if the chestplate is printed rather than a sticker), while the other pieces can be used for other purposes. LEGO's done a pretty good job at making a recognizable Iron Man without extremely specific pieces. Another difference is that MegaBlok's Iron Man looks based off the more detailed film incarnation of the suit, while these LEGO Heroes are based of comic versions. Of course, that would've justified Yellow instead of Gold, but I guess Gold was decided to be cooler and more familiar to the kids. All the back pieces used look like existing pieces, none of which fit on a HF Hero without condemned TECHNIC pieces. It's an awesome improvement, but would LEGO think it's worth making a new piece specifically for covering Hero backs? Iron Man may be using it somewhere else in his body (it's not on his thighs), but the Hulk could have it on his thighs. In the context of all these Hero sets it seems redundant, because it is turning B5 bones into slightly more flexible versions of existing B6 bones. This combination of pieces will probably be more useful than a B6 bone, because you get two bones instead of one bone with a mostly useless pin hole. For MOCing amd other purposes though, these B2 bones are similar to A3 bones, which by simply extending the bone, make other shapes and configurations possible. These bones could replace A3 bones in titan sets, making them more compact.

I hadn't even considered the reason that Iron Man's torso armour had those holes, but now I'm very intrigued. Seeing as Batman is the superhero that absolutely must have a utility belt piece, this goes to show just how preliminary these sets are. So the final sets will have a lot of changes, and there is lots of hope for the weaker sections of these sets.

BIONICLE and Hero Factory sets at Toyfairs have usually used such prototyped and painted pieces, but these are especially rough and possibly missing altogether. But this is nothing compared to some of the preliminary minifigures. In general there seem to be a similar/slightly less quantity of pieces than the villain sets of the past two waves, so hopefully they will stick to the same price range. Probably not though.

With the announcement of Superhero Minifigs, I'd been hoping that something like this would come along as well! Firstly, I hope that these aren't the only four action figures for the first wave of sets, as this will likely replace Hero Factory temporarily at least. I'd have suspected Superman and a regular Batman, but the Blue Batman gives me doubts. I'm very excited about the very concept of this theme, and I'm sure it'll be very popular and successful - it's like Ben 10 but with real pieces* and a hook on the AFOL market . As a whole I'm not sure that there are quite enough new pieces to properly represent the superheroes (such as using 2.0 Hero feet and armourless forearms), but the likeness is definitely there.*I personally love Ben 10 pieces, but many people disagree... The biggest thing that has me excited are all the recoloured and new pieces! Mata Green, Gold Villain pieces, 2 new torso pieces and what looks like a 2M bone on Batman's legs. I suspect that there are new finger pieces for Hulk as well, or at least hope.

Fantastic LEGO set news keeps appearing from ComicCon thanks to our own ComicCon photographer and Phantoka_Chirox, who share with us photos of the new LEGO Heroes theme! LEGO Heroes will include both Marvel and DC Universe characters, in action figure form! Click here to see the photos and discuss them in the Action Figure Forum.

I don't have the yellow pieces to make that, but here is a poorly Photoshopped representation: I'm not sold on the Red, Yellow and Black colour scheme for a set, which might be best left for on flags.

Thanks for sharing those images. I enjoy seeing art from early in the conceptual stages of sets, and these images are especially nice. The vast open environments remind me of Karda Nui, and the jungles of Avatar's Pandora. It's interesting to see that animal villains was one of the primary ideas that has stuck right through, before the concept of Witch Doctor and animal-themed Heroes emerged. It's hard to tell from the detail of the art, but I'd say that this concept art could have been made before Hero Factory was even launched, going by the Hero cores and feet that match 1.0 designs. In response to wishing some of the pictured designs were released, this concept art looks like it was made very early on, with the purpose of setting the tone/theme of the Savage Planet wave. All of the Heroes and Villains would be quick "filler" characters, made to populate the scene, and the artists wouldn't have spent much thought about whether/how they'd become actual sets. None of the heroes resemble existing Heroes, and it probably was established at the time that each wave would primarily use existing characters.

Set name: Scorpio Set Number: 2236 Price: $24.99USD , 19.99 Euro Pieces: 104 Year of release: 2011 Peeron Bricklink Brickset Come in heroes! We don’t want to alarm you but a huge scorpion is headed your way! With heavy spike-plate armour covering its body, power pincers, tail shooter and corrupted Quaza, this beast is going to make stopping Witch Doctor a little bit harder! A little bit harder? I’m paying $25USD for this thing! (Well… this particular Scorpio set was generously given to me for reviewing purposes, thanks to the wonderful LEGO Hero Factory team! ) Scorpio is probably the least anticipated set of the Summer wave, but at the same time it is also the most interesting. Instead of being a Titan or a Vehicled-Matoran, Scorpio is built like the smaller $13 villains, but with more limbs, spikes and mass. There are roughly 20% less pieces than previous sets of the same price, but will the set design and selection of pieces make up the price? The Box Front Due to his lower scorpion stature, Scorpio fills his box proportions well as he launches an attack on an unseen target. The artwork here is no exception to the wonderful Jungle box art of this wave, with this box including Venus Waspix Traps and three more Scorpios assembling in the background. Due to the lighting, one Scorpio appears to have a Yellow and Orange colour-scheme. I’m being taunted with unfulfilled dreams. Scorpio is the only set of this wave that has some appropriate jungle colours of Lime green, but the bright Red prevents him from blending into his box. And prevents camoflague like a Scorpion probably would find useful in a jungle, but that’s a discussion point for later. Back The back of the box has the same comic of all the box sets this wave, although in higher clarity than found on the smaller Villain boxes. After seeing the same comic over and over I slightly wish that the comic was varied between each box by being more specific to the different sets, but this comic gets it’s job done of explaining the Savage Planet premise. I think Scorpio and Stormer both look good in the picture, although Stormer is jumping in a very “un-Rhino-like” fashion… On a non-specific note, those punch-out tabs bother me. They often don’t suit the design style of boxes, especially for Hero Factory, and nobody has thumbs like those. Side The top of the box has production details, distribution information and an actual size diagram that isn’t actual size. The proportions look a bit of as well, but the best way to check that is to open the box and find the actual piece for comparison! Contents (The actual piece is in there somewhere) Immediately after opening the box, I’m already starting to feel better about the low piece count – Scorpio’s box is filled nicely with poly-bagged parts, showing that there could be more large pieces than there usually are in Titan sets. Along with the instructions, there is a small bag full of armour detail parts, a very large bag of bones and shells, and a Fire Lord sized torso piece in Black. This piece is also included in Rocka XL, and I’m sure it will be very useful for creating larger Heroes/Villain MOCs of any colour. Instructions A carefully selected building page showing the new convention of showing which shell size to use. Shell sizes are to Hero Factory as Axle lengths were to BIONICLE. The lime backgrounds work well, although the clean Hero Factory logo doesn’t project a jungle atmosphere that would be appropriate for building a dangerous forest scorpion. As you could probably predict, the sets displayed at the back of Scorpio’s manual are the only two more expensive sets than him, and they look darn good in their action poses. I hope the giant ruins/temples in the background of this image get explored in the TV movie. The inventory looks surprisingly short, but let me reassure you that most of these pieces come in quantities greater than four pieces per entry. But rather than making you squint at the figures here, I’ll show you all the pieces included below! The Swarm of Pieces If you didn’t know there were fewer pieces than usual for a titan set, you probably wouldn’t suspect it. This is mainly because there are only 9 Technic pieces – the rest are Hero Factory bones, shells or weapons. There are also a lot less weapons than Rocka XL (7 compared to 17), so the majority of the pieces are bones and shells. There are a lot of bones and shells: Shells 4 Silver Size 3 Shell 14 Black Size 4 Shell 3 Recoloured Lime Size 5 Shell 3 Recoloured Black Size 6 Shell (One with printing) 1 Black Torso Shell 1 Gunmetal Machinery Shell 1 New Black Shield Shell Bones 4 Black Bone A 3M 4 Black Bone A 4M 7 Dark Grey Bone A 5M 1 Red Bone A 6M 17 Black Bone B 5M 6 Red Bone C 5M For bones and shells, Scorpio offers a solid range and generous quantities, compared to similar sets Fire Lord and Rocka XL that offer specialized/larger bones and shells. For MOCing, Scorpio is a valuable set for strengthening your collection, although it won’t stretch it in new directions with new pieces. Along with the aforementioned recoloured pieces, these are the only new pieces in Scorpio, 4 of which are exclusive colours to this set, but none are exclusive moulds. I don’t like that Waspix’s eyehole-less head out of all the new heads was the one to be recoloured, but I think it looks better in Lime because the shadows are darker on Lime plastic than Yellow plastic. The headpiece’s shape reminds me of Gelu’s helmet, albeit a buggy and cartoonish version of it. The Quaza spike, tusks and shield shell are available in other sets as well, but they’re good pieces to have more of. There are five Lime spine pieces and six Lime armour plating pieces, which I’m sure will be useful in a Lime titan that I intend to make. It’s nice to have both pieces in good quantities and the same colour, but I think the widely available Black and Gunmetal alternatives will be more useful due to their less specific colours. The printed armour of this set is similar to Waspix’s bug printed, except it is on a Size 6 shell and it is less obviously “buggy”. Scorpio only has one of these pieces compared to Fire Lord’s 4, Rocka’s 2 and some of the cheaper villain’s 3/4, but conversely the biggest set, Witch Doctor, has none. Undersides, and a clearer shot of the printed shell. There’s a nice silver detail by the rod holes that matches the pattern of the headpiece that will cover it. Despite the same connection, Scorpio’s headpiece does not fit on Hero heads, and is too big to look good even if you used a clever combination of pieces to attach the helmet to the head. Build Scorpio’s build is different to any set that you’ve ever built before, because it uses smaller HF ball joint pieces to build a bigger creature. It reminds me of MOC experiments with 2.0 pieces, only you have enough C-bones to do what you were trying to do. You begin with the torso, and that TECHNIC piece and the blue pin attaching it that are the only TECHNIC pieces used in the torso, are mainly there to provide guidance for the next step. Which is folding the torso over itself to thicken the body. Using ball joints for body geometry rather than articulation reminds me of Gadunka’s body, which was another unconventional but enjoyable design. At this stage Scorpio shows off how robotic the new system can look, even without pistons and gears. Because of his eight limbs, all of the exposed ball joints down the sides of the body will be used. The most ingenious feature of the set has also been completed in the above set, which is adding the Red C Bone to the tail base. This re-enforces the tail so that it can stand upright, and forms a ring of bones with the lower tail and body, which can be squeezed to cause the tail to swing forwards – it’s an action feature made out of ball joints! This tail swing isn’t enough to strike a victim in front of Scorpio, but it allows a fun flick from idle-Zamor launcher mode to targeted-and-ready-Zamor Launcher mode. Each limb is different, so that they are the correct length to reach the ground from different starting heights on the torso. I really like the front and back legs, which tie together with a Quaza spike and a diminutive “Quaza” spike. It’s a real shame that the red spikes didn’t have black blended into the base, instead of being standard red spikes that we received so many of in the previous wave. The middle legs annoy me, because they use Lime shells and Dark Grey bones instead of matching the other two leg types. They have a purpose though, because the Dark Grey bones make contact with the ground to improve stability, and the Lime shells spread colour a bit more evenly around the model. Plus, they’re Lime size 5 shells. By now it is clear what Scorpio is going to look like, but the instructions are having trouble clearly showing Scorpio in a fixed isometric view. It’s still easy to follow along and build though. Up until this point I think Scorpio is looking pretty awesome. The arms and head of Scorpio are then built, to be added to the body. The arms are double jointed thanks to small 3M A bones, which makes the much easier to pose and move. Almost there… Done! Completed Set As I’ve said many a time before, Scorpio isn’t your average titan set. Instead of a taller-than-usual biped armed with thematic weapons, this set is an eight limbed creature with an energy ball tail. Scorpio isn’t a true scorpion either, because it has fingered hands instead of pincers and a protruding neck and head; a scorpion-man, in a fashion similar to BIONICLE Rahi. While making this review, I found Scorpio a lot more difficult to photograph than normal Hero Factory sets, because of his size and clutter of limbs. His scorpion-like form is easier to see in person, but the tail looks very good everywhere, with segmented sections that make the Hero Factory shells look like they were designed to make scorpion tails. The “stinger” shooter is exactly the same as used on Jetbug, and it’s a bit big, but it serves its purpose with a menacing vibe. From most angles the torso construction is obstructed by legs and armour, but from a side profile view you can see straight through the body, as a result of being made out of bone pieces. There are plenty of TECHNIC holes on the torso bones, so you could fix this problem with TECHNIC pieces, but that defeats the set’s efforts to get away from TECHNIC/BIONICLE. In this image you can also see why the legs are different lengths, so that they all reach the ground easily from their respective positions on the body. None of the legs are re-enforced, but with six legs they don’t need to be, as they hold up Scorpio’s weight very well, with strength to spare for if not all the legs are making contact with the ground. The two shorter legs in the middle only have two points of articulation each, which makes it easier to touch the ground and support Scorpio, despite their inconsistent appearance. I’m not sure why I included this photo, but it’s here. From this angle you can see the Gunmetal machinery shell, which is one of two Gunmetal pieces in the set and introduces mechanical panel motives to an otherwise tribal-aesthetic set. It’s out of the way though, and will bring you one piece closer to that Hero Factory spaceship you’re planning on making. ROOOAAAR!!!® (Scorpions don’t roar even at this size, but I feel like Scorpio should…) Closeups of Scorpio’s head There’s no proper mouth function, but you can squeeze the outer mandibles like Barraki jaws. The head also moves independently of the outer mandibles, by rotating on the printed armour cup. Beware, my stinger tail!! Final Thoughts Colour Scheme - 7/10 – Scorpio uses the same Lime, Red and Black colour scheme as Breez 2.0, which I appreciate for the useful Lime pieces, but not so much for the Red pieces. All of the Lime pieces are new or recoloured, while all of the Red pieces are reused from the previous wave, aside from the Red Zamor sphere. The colour distribution of Limes and Reds isn’t very consistent on the body and tail, but the end effect of colour spread throughout the model works reasonably well. It’s a shame that the 5M A Bones are all unconditionally Dark Grey for this wave, because Scorpio would’ve looked better using Black versions instead. I’m glad that Scorpio uses a more “Jungle” colour than other 3.0 sets, even if Lime and Red aren’t the most accurate colours for a scorpion. Whether that matters in a Hero Factory set is the larger question. Parts - 8/10 – Scorpio is a parts pack, and doesn’t waste any time with TECHNIC connectors that you already have so many of. If you’re looking for Lime pieces, Black size 4 shells or standard bones, Scorpio beats any other Villain or Hero set for value for money. However, aside from Lime, Scorpio lacks special bones, pretty colours or massive weapon arsenals, so if any of those items interest you more, you’d probably prefer to pay the little bit extra for the Golden Scissor-handed Rocka XL. Design - 8/10 – As with the smaller Savage Planet villains, I enjoy Scorpio’s departure from the usual humanoids, and Scorpio is the best example of exclusively using the Hero Factory building system to create other types of creatures. In certain areas such as the back, Scorpio seems more like a MOC than a set, but overall Scorpio is structurally sound, easy to balance, and fits right into the Savage Planet jungle. I wish the massive hole in the torso wasn’t there, but I’m not sure if the existing pieces of the HF building system allow a better solution. Articulation - 10/10 – Does Scorpio have sufficient articulation points? I don’t have anything to compare to aside from the Nui-Jaga of 2001, and Scorpio has at least 37 which is clear over twice the amount of both the Nui-Jaga combined. The tail supports its weight well, while the legs are easy to manage and don’t collapse under Scorpio’s weight. The tail “action feature” is also a lot of fun, coupled with the waning but still enjoyable launcher. Scorpio is able to articulate in all the ways I’d expect whatever Scorpio is to articulate, and compared to the limited articulation of regular Titans, this set does very well Quality - 10/10 – There are no issues with the quality or colour of Scorpio’s pieces, at least in my copy of the set. As a ball-joint heavy set, Scorpio reminds me how pleasant it is to connect sockets that don’t run the risk of breaking, as a set like Scorpion simply wouldn’t have been possible with the sockets of a few years ago, or even the original socket style from before and during BIONICLE. Overall - 43/50 – Scorpio is a solid set, both for the creature you receive and the parts included within. I’m certainly more pleased with Scorpio than Fire Lord, although Scorpio can’t be fairly compared against other titan sized sets because it isn’t a titan. My main concern for Scorpio is that it hasn’t been portrayed nearly as important as other titan sets such as arch villains Von Nebula and Fire Lord, and “arch Hero” Rocka XL. I suspect that in the upcoming TV episode(s), Scorpio will be dispatched by a single Hero just as easily as the smaller villains, which is a shame when you paid two or three times as much for this villain. Still, I welcome Scorpio’s style of being a “canister” villain using twice the number of pieces, which is a field that has never been explored much by Hero Factory or BIONICLE sets. If you haven’t bought (m)any Hero Factory sets and would like to experience and test the new building system, I strongly recommend buying a Scorpio set or two. Here’s proof in a combiner! Red Lightning Hero and Red Bubble Shark! Scorpio’s scare is met by indifferent snores. Heellooo? Maybe his Quaza ran out. Oh, I see; he activated his bear power… High-Res Photo Gallery!

Yes, it is. It's probably a combination of the pictures and the fact that this plastic isn't ailed by the transparency issues that many BIONICLE pieces from around that time had.