Refia

To be fair, all signs point towards Bionicle being deader than dead. BZPower being down since forever does not help much, all the so-called 'great projects' never bear any fruit, and even Greg's lost his interest if we are to go by the quality of recent updates. No, Bionicle won't last into 2012, that much is clear for me. And frankly I don't mind. Rather it being dead with decency than be continued on so poorly as this year.

Ah, I suppose it's my mistake. I only have Jetbug, Fire Lord and Witch Doctor, and seeing Waspix and Scorpio, I thought Fire Lord was an exception to have eyes. Genuine lack of research on my part. Though if I have to be honest, two sets that have this problem are still two sets too many, but we seem to agree on this. =) I think Witch Doctor would already improve a lot if he just had some red eyes staring at you from under that cool helmet. It's a small, but important, misstep. I do agree that Witch Doctor's legs look a bit odd. Due to the way he is constructed, it looks as if his knees are higher than they actually are, and it indeed gives off the impression that he's always bent them. It's just my opinion, but this doesn't really bother me if I have to be fair. Maybe because I'm just glad those painful stick-legs from Fire Lord are gone, but a titan with strong, armoured upper legs was a welcome sight. Witch Doctor looks bulky, at least from the front, and gives you that impression that he's powerful. Fire Lord... not so much. Takanuva did seem to have the best hip articulation of all the Titan sets that used it. Tuma's system really didn't work, and Von Nebula wasn't much better. I liked the ingenuity of Mata Nui's piston system, and it did remind me of the Toa Mata, but it wasn't very pretty to look at. I feel the same about Takanuva's hips, or Fire Lord's for that matter. It looks weird to see that extra arm there. It's why Witch Doctor pleases me so. LEGO finally managed to build a system that reinforces the joints, but is also subtle about it and doesn't jump in the eye. It doesn't distract, and it doesn't look weird. It's simple but effective. I tend to agree that his shoulder mobility is not as great, but I'm willing to let it slide for the same reason of his hips: it looks so damn fine. Takanuva, Tuma and Mata Nui's shoulders all worked fine, yes, but it looked so awkward. Witch Doctor managed to fix this. He got rid of the awkward look while retaining the stability of double joints. I find it a great step forward, and I would love to see this system repeated in future titans. In my experience, what tends to limit Witch Doctor's shoulders in posing is more his spikes and loose armor than his joints. But that's just my impression and experience. I think Witch Doctor was an interesting experiment, and certainly ended up giving us an very cool villain and set. I also have Fire Lord, and I've said somewhere before here some time ago that I think everything above his hips looks great (especially if you use his jetpacks as shoulder pads like in the instructions). His torso I fully agree with. It felt great, streamlined and armoured, making this guy appear as a heavily armoured, walking fortress. At least until his legs came along to ruin everything. I'm also bothered by the feet, of both him and Rocka XL. Uncovered balljoints just look painful to me. Why couldn't they cover those up with those smallest HF armour plates? It's personal, of course, but when I see a balljoint, it needs to be used or covered, not left in plain sight. When I said that I don't think the HF system doesn't work for titans, it's not because I think it's a bad system, mind you. When it comes to singular joints and limbs, like on Heroes and villains, it looks fine, even great. But for titans, at least since Takanuva 2008, you always end up with double joints for reinforcement. And when you use the HF system for this, you inevitably end up with gaps, I think our current titans proved this enough. Not to say Takanuva didn't have gaps (I have not forgotten his craters in his lower legs). But with a technic build, it's easier to work around and cover. HF's system here is limited, I feel, mainly because of it's lack of technical aspects. Not using technic bits is a hindrance, not an asset, I feel, and I'll explain why if I can. I think it's mainly because of the size and bulk of the parts. When you work with a snap-and-join system, even for armour, your parts become big. You can't avoid this, you need balljoints and sockets and those take up space. Such parts are great for building a skeleton, the bone structure of your set, with. Even for titan sets this could work, I've seen the potential for it in Fire Lord. But then, once your skeleton is done, you need to add meat to the bone, flesh it out. And with such bulky, huge parts as the HF system, there's only so much you can do with this, you're limited by both size and your number of available balljoints. The lack of technic aspects rears its head here. While titans in bionicle certainly have had their ups and downs, there are some beautiful examples of why I feel the technic is better suited for titans. Take Brutaka, which I think is one of the, if not THE best Bionicle titan. There are so little gaps on this guy, he is so streamlined. And this is not, I feel, because of the large, Bionicle-specific parts and armour, at least not just because of that. It's the small parts here that do it, that finish it up and fill the gaps. Look at those golden Bohrok eyes. Small parts, but they can add so much difference. Hero Factory, for better or worse, has no parts this size it can use, for the simple reason that such a small part with a balljoint is impossible. Even using the new two-pin system would not fully work, since none of the HF limbs have these pins, only the armour plates do (as far as I know), and so it won't do to fill up the gaps. With Technic parts, you can go small, precise and detailed. With the snap-and-join system of HF, you will always hit the obstacle of size. At least I think so, I fully welcome LEGO to prove me wrong and will stand down if they do. But as it is now, HF's system means larger, bulkier parts, which, while great to build your skeleton for, can't add "the meat to the bone", if you catch my meaning. You can add some layer, but inevitably will end up with gaps. Fire Lord's torso manages to avoid this, but his lower legs, as well as Witch Doctor's arms and legs, say otherwise, at least I feel so. It's why I feel integrating more technic aspects in HF should not be seen as a bad thing. In small Hero sets and the small villains, it's not needed at all, the new system works perfect there. But Titans, they need it, in my opinion, if only to fine tune the sets and perfect them. Let me add to my previous point of above here as well as adress what you said of HF not relying too heavily on technic. It's not that I feel that the Technic should be the main build with the HF parts dressing it up. The Technic parts should sustain, support and finish the design the HF parts started. If I can use my skeleton analogy again, the HF parts should be the skeleton, and the Technic and HF parts should 'add the meat to the bones'. And I feel Witch Doctor accomplished this, at least partially. When I look at him, I see a Hero Factory set. No matter the technic bits, this guy is no Bionicle set. I don't feel that the Technic parts and bits he uses take away from his identity as a HF set. There's also, of course, a personal preference speaking here, in that I feel much more satisfied after building a set with Technic build like Witch Doctor than I feel after snapping together Fire Lord. I suppose it's psychological and personal. The snap-together build is, like you said, simple. And for me that's just it. I don't want my titan sets to be simple, if I wanted that I'd buy a hero who looks just as good. I want something meaty to build when I pay down 20 (or 40, in WD's case) euros for a set. Fire Lord did not deliver this. I did not feel satisfied building him, there was no challenge, and I feel he was overpriced (should have been 15 euros, as I said before). Witch Doctor gave me back that good feel that I missed. The technic aspects and ingenuity of the ball joint system, seeing how it all came together, that was so much more satisfying than snapping Fire Lord together. It's why I feel Witch Doctor is worth his high price. You could say "well, get a technic set then and enjoy!", but I said before: I don't like vehicles that much. I like building action figures out of LEGO, and I like a satisfying build. Witch Doctor was a heaven's sent for me in this way. Of course, this is a personal opinion, and other people will feel different. It's probably just my opinion, but I found Brutaka (and Axonn to some extent), Maxilos, Takanuva, Tuma and even Von Nebula to all be very satisfying and great titans. Brutaka just looked fantastic, Maxilos had a great custom build, Takanuva brought us many new and good inventions, and I found Tuma to just look good, even if his hips weren't that great. I even liked Von Nebula, despite his lack of elbows. Toa Mata Nui was the least good of the bunch for me. Hydraxon was just okay, too, and I didn't get Rotor. I'd like to point out that I liked the 2004 titans. =p Don't get me wrong, I feel the new building style has potential for great sets, too, if anything Witch Doctor proved that. It would appear we just differ on how this new style needs to be used. You seem to prefer a pure HF-style, while I am merely of the opinion that a more Technic x HF mix would benefit future titans more. I do agree it will be hard for any set to match Brutaka (Takanuva came close, but his colour scheme was less appealing, even though he was a fantastic set). Witch Doctor is great, but he lacks the streamlining and the perfected fine-tuning that Brutaka had, as you said. (Don't think I'm ignoring Axonn, I just feel he's less a titan and more a Toa-set on steroids, kinda like how I feel Fire Lord was not much of a titan and should be priced less. I do love Axonn, however. And Vezon and Fenrakk, of course, but Rider + Beast don't count as 'titan' for me. I see titans as big humanoid figures. Which is also the reason why I didn't mention Fero and Skirmix in my list of titans before.) I've never been much of a MOCist, to be honest. I don't like taking my sets appart, and in my country we never could get our hands on those wonderful Bionicle-parts-boxes. If I had I probably would build more, but as it is, even though I have a lot of sets, I prefer to not take them apart (can't get it over my hear =p). So I just stick to buying and building the sets that catch my interest (even if they don't look that great , like Fire Lord. He isn't fantastic by any means, but I don't regret buying him), and then discuss or talk about it when the topic is brought up. It's part of the reason I am hoping for more Witch Doctor sets: I like building new sets with some challenge, I don't have the parts to MOC, and rebuilding sets you've already built is just not fun. I need fresh bricks to keep me going. ;)

I bought this set two days ago. I have one question: why did I get two red tubes alongside the two white ones with my Witch Doctor? O.o Set wise, I think Witch Doctor is the best Titan we got since 2008 Takanuva. He's not as good, but I think that's more because the new HF system is difficult to work with for titans than because of some design flaws. Design and look-wise, this guy is gold, and succeeds in many levels. He looks menacing, evil, and though there might be flaws, there is nothing that stands out so glaringly it ruins his overal look. Unlike Fire Lord, with his stick legs. Witch Doctor succeeds when it comes to looks. Personal tip: turn the meteor blaster around so it looks as if he has a giant-claw hand. Much more appealing, IMHO. The colour scheme also is fantastic. Red, black and white blend nearly perfectly in this guy. 2009's Titan Mata Nui could take lessons from this guy. The grey parts stand out a tiny bit, but don't distract too much, so I don't mind. I do dislike the empty head, though. Seriously, LEGO, what's up with this new tradition of the villains having empty helmets? Give them some eyes, please! It doesn't look good. When it comes to the build, I was surprised by the ingenuity of it. The way Witch Doctor joins at the hips and shoulders is nothing short of marvelous, IMHO. LEGO has finally perfected that double-joint build they've had going since 2008 on their titans. Witch Doctor's double joints look far more pleasing to the eye than a pair of Av-Matoran arms on his shoulders or at the hips. It functions better than Tuma's hips, too. He has full range and motion at the hip. The shoulders can't be lifted up too much, but it's okay, Fire Lord couldn't move them at all. The many red balljoints did end up hurting my thumbs though. <_< One thing I'm baffled about is the assymetry of the hip. Why one side uses a 3-length plusrod with a flat head and the other side a 3-length plus rod with a studded head, I don't get. It doesn't serve any purpose that I can figure out. Of course there are some flaws. From the back, you can see just how skinny Witch Doctor is in his body. Not so great design there, LEGO. The gaps in the shins and arms are a major flaw, too. I do like that Witch Doctor ditched the stick-legs of Fire Lord and managed to armour the upper leg, too. the lower legs and arms, however, have the same gap-problem as Rocka XL and Fire Lord. In my opinion, this is a limit of the new HF build system. It works great for small sets. But you can't build Titans with it. They either look like stick figures, like Fire Lord, or a strange mismash of technic and ball joints like Witch Doctor. I did enjoy the Witch Doctor build, because of the technic aspects. I miss the Bionicle-style titans. I bought those because I liked technic builds but do not like vehicles, I like building figures. With HF, LEGO took this away from me and gave me a poor replacement. HF titans aren't much to write home about. A titan is meant to be a meaty built, IMHO, hence the higher price and parts-count. Both Fire Lord and Rocka XL did not deliver a satisfying build. They are snap-snap-snap-done builds, like the smaller sets, and they look terrible (I exagerate here a bit, Fire Lord looks okay if you ignore his legs, but I'm not a fan of Rocka XL. Besides, they both don't hold a candle to the high quality of titans we got with the last 4 years of Bionicle, IMHO). Witch Doctor was almost a return to the good old days for me. Almost. It had far more technic bits in it, which I loved. And in fact, the most glaring faws, such as his gaps, are caused by the new HF system. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a fine system, for small sets. It doesn't work well for titans, and I don't see it working in the future either. So, in conclusion, I think 40/50 is very fair for Witch Doctor. I think he's a great set, especially considering what we've had for titans recently, and he succeeds very well in ways of look and design. His build is satisfying, the new double joints at shoulders and hips are ingenious, but he is prevented from achieving perfection by the limits of the new HF system. If LEGO continues down this road they started with Witch Doctor, though, I'm sure it can only become better from here on out. If it means paying more for titans from now on, I won't mind. I feel Witch Doctor justifies his prize, which I can't say of Fire Lord (should be 15 euros) and Rocka XL (how can they ask 5 euros more for an exact replica of Fire Lord?!). PS: All of the above is strictly my opinion. None of it is fact.

I don't agree serious equals grim and dark. I just wish the TV series stepped away from the toddler humor. It's for kids, sure, but you don't have to treat them like they're... eh, well, not sure how I can put this nicely. if you want an example of moments I'd rather not see that would help the series tremendously (IMHO, of course): Furno escorting Rotor to the Hero Craft after he arrested him... It was just cringe-worthy. Better yet, just scrap Rotor entirely, he was just painful to watch... >.< I liked Breez's "Is Green still my colour?" much better as an attempt at humor, to be honest. Of course, I have yet to fully watch Ordeal of Fire, so I have no idea if it's level of humor is any higher than Rise of the Rookies' one. Personal opinion, of course. A very valid point, though when I said "how they dealt with him" I wasn't really referring to how the makers of the series dealt with him, but the heroes... You have this powerful looking figure in this wowing Black Hole... and then... good lord I barely can write it down. No fight, just Stormer tackling him and sucking him into his own staff... That was just... pathetic. And I won't even bother with the final battle between 4 heroes vs the 4 villains. Sad, sad, sad.

Very true. Bionicle 4 didn't fare much better, so it's the company that's making these movies that's to blame, not the story. I'd love a more serious HF show with some better action than constantly shooting at air and horrible melee battles at such a slow pace a snail could dodge the blows (example: Xplode vs Stormer in ROTR ep 1). One of the greatest letdowns I had with HF so far is Von Nebula. I loved the guy's voice in the show, the buildup to him was probably the best part of the show. But then that entire last episode of Rise of the Rookies had me cringing from start to finish. After I watched how they dealt with Von Nebula... I died a little inside. I don't think age is an excuse either. Call it ridiculous, but when I was a kid watching saturday morning cartoons, we had Digimon on TV, and the action and story of that show can give HF a run for its money. Digimon people!

I'm surprised anybody still cares about a more-than-dead franchise's story. It was alright, and another one kicked the bucket. In the past, maybe it would have bothered me how easily Greg gets rid of people, but Bionicle is so dead by now that I just can't be bothered. One can't afford any interest in the story, since updates take forever. Any excitement you might feel disappears over the next two months (at best) it takes for the next chapter to surface. Sad, but true. On to the next character to be scrapped off the list of the living.

Sure I can. If you want me to be completely honest: I wish we didn't have these serials at all, since the update rate is, ehm, not very good at all, to put it nicely, and you'd think that for a long wait we'd get exceptionally good stuff... but, ehm, no, that's not really the case either. I wish Bionicle had ended with some dignity. These serials simply burst from the fanservice, and Greg's "making things up as they go" is far from a writing style I can appreciate. It's a mess, to put it simply, and I have the feeling we're in for more serial cross-overing like in summer 2008. And we all know how that worked out. I wish Greg put some effort into this, but, if I can still be honest, reading these chapters honestly gives me the feeling and impression that he'd rather not be bothered with this anymore. I guess you could say that's my problem and that's just me, and yeah, it is. It's my feeling that these post-mortem serials are average at best. And idiot I am, I still check out every time a new chapter comes up in the vain hope that this time it'll be better. It reminds me a bit of how Mutran used to talk, but he's dead, so it can't be him. Or actually, it can. Greg brings characters back from the dead as he sees fit.

The Powers That Be 4 is up. And it's the incarnation of filler. We learn nothing, except that Greg proves once again that he's good at Necromancy and bringing back the dead, a name for the purple beings and the fact that Axonn, Brutaka, Helryx, Tuyet, Arthaka, Miserix and Vezon (I doubt it) are all gonna die. I could have guessed that. I don't like where this serial is going, to be honest.

So they are seriously gonna keep that ouchy green color of the ID badges?! 0_o Who came up with that idea?!

Today I bought Stormer 2.0 (the only 2.0 Hero I don't dislike), Jetbug (the only villain I don't dislike) and Fire Lord. I wasn't even planning to buy Fire Lord until two days ago. But when I saw the comic, he looked quite awesome, to be honest, and I liked his character. So, against better judgement because I've read and seen reviews of this guy, I bought him as well. Stormer 2.0 is good. Aside from the new feet, which I really don't like, I have no complaints about this guy aside from the ones all heroes share: lack of individuality between em, generic look, uninteresting weapon. But the new building style is cool, and, look-wise, there's nothing wrong with him. A good set, though some personality would make me like him even more. 8/10 Jetbug is good as well. He looks appealing, has Bionicle-ish characteristics and pieces, and he doesn't have the, to put it bluntly, horrendous double-arm like Nitroblast or Drilldozer. The magma badge is a very nice piece, as are the transparent armor pieces. The only downside to him that I don't like is the head. The double-sided mask isn't very good, IMHO, and quite distracting. It also makes the head long, and hard to pose. But that aside, this is a good set, the best of the mediocre villain bunch. 8/10 Fire Lord is... a mixed bag. Visually, everything above his hips is plain awesome. He looks so well-armoured, a walking fortress, especially if you use his jetpacks as shoulderpads like in the manual. Put him in front of a light in a dark room and watch his eyes glow! His weapon is generic, but fits, and those magma armor pieces kick megablocks. This guy could have looked great! Then why, oh why, LEGO, did you have to make his legs so atrocious, look-wise? The shins are passable, the gap isn't as bad as with, for example, Takanuva 2008. But those thighs! Holy bricks, how can those twigs even support his mighty armoured upper body?! He NEEDED some armor there. Like DESPERATELY. ANYTHING to bulk that twig-stick-leg up! That, or he needed a different design of leg altogether, something more technic, like Von Nebula. I know you've made a new system, LEGO, but for this guy's legs, it doesn't work! There's no shame in using an older technique if it ends up looking better! And could his feet get any more generic? I find unused balljoints unappealing as it is, but unlike Meltdown, who hides it well, Fire Lord shows his uncovered ankles in broad daylight! It couldn't have taken the designer anything more than a minute to come up with these. They're literally only seven pieces each! The mobility of his arms at the shoulders is horrendous as well, but I don't play with my sets, and he still can get into some poses, so that doesn't bother me as much as his legs. So, conclusion for Fire Lord? His upper body would get a 9/10 for me, but his legs drag it down. This guy can't get any higher than a 7 from me, and then I'm being very easy on him. A very critical person would give him a 6 or even a 5 at best.So unfortunate, because the upper body of this guy is really good. Do I regret buying him? Not really, I never really regretted buying a set before, and I won't start with it now. But he's definately very average, and it's all because of his legs. Too bad, LEGO! Luckily, Witch Doctor seems to solve a lot of the problems with the legs, so let's blame Fire Lord's shortcomings on the designers not yet being used to the new system. Such a shame. Also, for some reason, whenever I look at Fire Lord, or more specifically, his helmet, I am reminded of Sauron. 0_o

Oh. My. God. This, is frigging GOOD. All of these new sets are nothing short of fantastic, especially the heroes. Nevermind that they use the same (awful) foot piece as the 2.0 ones, the rest of the more than makes up for it. Individual helmets again! Already a great move that was desperately needed, but LEGO went a step further and made the new helmets the incarnation of awesome! Animal themed and looking great while doing so? Hell yes! Savage Planet is the best thing to happen to Hero Factory so far. Rocka 3.0: Gold! And I like the helmet. It's a lion, right? Despite liking the helmets, there are a few where I'm not sure what animal they're supposed to represent. His paw-ish weapon looks good, too. Only the white Hero Core seems a bit off, somehow, but that's a minor complaint. A bigger complaint is the Hero-label piece. I HOPE with all my heart that that colour (green) is NOT final, or else, yeowch. That would be bad. Regardless, a good set. Nex 3.0: Little complaints about this one. Wolverine-ish weapon? Looks great. Helmet is good, colour-scheme is even, an all around solid set. Not sure what animal his helmet is supposed to be, thouh. Stormer 3.0: This guy shows why that green piece MUST be temporarily, because otherwise... I like the individual helmet, again, though this one is my least favourite of the bunch. It's cool what LEGO tried, with a Rhino and all, but I feel it didn't work out entirely. His weapon is a tad too much like his 2.0 one. A good set still, but probably my least favourite of the 3.0 heroes. Bulk 3.0: THAT HELMET IS AWESOME! I have no complaints about this guy (aside from the standard green Hero-label piece). Colour scheme is perfect, design is perfect, weapons look okay, the set oozes with personality... Top notch! Easily one of the best of the 3.0 Heroes. Stringer 3.0: That weapon is fantastic. The helmet is great, too. All around this set is great, with a very consistent colour scheme that just works. Tied with Bulk for the best set of the new line. Furno 3.0: Hawk-helmet for the win. I like that they gave him a bow that looks like a bow. These action figure sets so rarely get bows as weapon. I believe the last one to have a bow was Kongu Inika, and I use that term very lightly since I never thought Kongu's crossbow looked very bow-ish. Good colour scheme (but PLEASE get rid of that green piece, please!), but don't his thighs lack armor? Another great set. Waspix: Ooh, I like this one. Reminds me a bit of Bitil. Or rather, this guy is a cross between Bitil and Gorast turned Hero Factory. I like his claws. Are they a new piece? (Or are they from Ben 10 sets?) The helmet is good, too. The transparent yellow pieces are good, I think MOCists will love them. All in all, this guy is a big leap over Jetbug, or all 20 villains for that matter, for they all looked rather messy. Waspix is smooth and clean and knows what he wants to be, and succeeds as of such. Raw-Jaw: I'm not sure what to think of this one. I blame the bad pose. He looks okay and shows promise, but I'm not a big fan of the helmet (for a change! =p ) or the enormous tusks. The idea they tried here is good, but I need more pictures of him to see if it worked out in the end. So, jury still out on this one. Fangz: Now THIS is the real deal. Props to LEGO for an original villain design. Gone is the bipedal bad guy with weapons and a helmet, here comes the wolf-ish creature with an awesome head, back spikes to die for and a colour scheme that works. Minor complaint is the spears on his head, they don't seem to work well as tusks, but aside from that, I love this guy. Great job, LEGO. Scorpio: This guy holds promise. Lots of promise. But I need to see more of him, because the current picture isn't enough to judge him. I think what bothers me is the lack of claws on his legs except for his front pair. And his body seems hollow. The colour scheme works, though, and I think this set is like raw-jaw: a set with promise. But for this one, I'll wait till I see a review to judge. Rocka XL: Ah, an interesting case here. Rocka XL takes the building template established by Fire Lord and lifts it up to the next level. The upper thighs still look like twigs, though the new armor piece on them goes a long way to help limit the damage. The claw-hand is awesome, but those Hero-ID-labels still throw a wrench in the colour scheme. Make them silver and gold or something, then they'll work. Please somebody tell me that this green is only temporarily? =/ The lower legs suffer from a Titan Mata Nui syndrome: too bulky, while the arms are, in comparison, small. The set looks good, and I like what they were trying here, but I can't seem to decide whether or not they fully succeeded. Again, I'll need a review to make final judgement. Witch Doctor: Epic Win. Without a doubt THE winner of the third Hero Factory wave. This guy is perfect. He creates a new Titan design with the new building system and makes it work. The feet look proper, the legs are great (no more stick-thighs, yay!) and the design is just kickass! The spikes, the helmet, the colour scheme, the staff, all those subtle design touches... It's just fantastic! This guy is great, there's no going around it, he just is! Probably the best titan in YEARS purely going from how he looks. He just oozes personality. You can feel the wickedness, the evil voodoo-ness... Fantastic. Simply amazing. For making this one, LEGO, I fully forgive you for not making a single set I loved during the 2.0 wave. =P Amazing. Can't say it enough. Simply amazing. Those are my thoughts for now.

The next chapter of "The Yesterday Quest" is up and reveals quite a stunning twist that I never saw coming. And as you may have guessed, of course, the usual cliffhanger ending is present.

I'm very happy with Witch Doctor's legs. It's good that they fixed the "stick upper thigh" problem that Fire Lord suffered from. The bad news is that they moved the "stick limb" illness to Witch Doctor's lower arms. But at least there it's less glaring. I hope for more pictures to fully judge him, but from what I've seen so far, I might actually want to get him.

Or maybe they'll just go the Titan Mata-Nui route and not include Rocka XL in the story at all.

The larger pictures show that the heroes have individual helmets (flipside or not) again, which is a move I fully support and welcome. Already 3.0 is a step above 2.0. Congrats, LEGO. Another thing I noticed now, and which I hope is just my eyes deceiving me, is Rocka XL having the same upper tigh problem as Fire lord. I pray it isn't true. Apparently Scorpio says "Scorpion" on the box. Remains to be seen which of the two is correct.

Bionicle is dead and burried, what do you expect?

I'm not going to judge the heroes until there are better pictures. I just hope they'll improve upon the 2.0 line. Get rid of the 2.0 feet (which, for me, were awful) and bring back the 1.0 line style of helmets. That's all that's needed to improve for me personally. Villains, hmm, they appear more interesting than the fire ones, but again, gonna wait for judging them. For now, I'm having a positive feling about them. But now we get to what is really exciting me: Scorpio, which appears to be a pure HF-Rahi, something I definately appreciate. I hope that its build will live up to its looks. With Doctor appears much better than Fire Lord, but I hope, I pray that the build will be dramatically improved when compared with what I've seen of Fire Lord. In general, I'm feeling carefully optimistic about the summer wave of 2011. Hopefully it will live up to it and make me forget the entire 2.0 line of HF, which I didn't like. That's all.

Is there a rule that says how much arms and legs a set has to have? A centauros-style set would be nice for a villain set in the future, IMHO. Or even as a hero, now that would be original. ^^

Is it me, or is Fire Lord's hand that holds his launcher bent at an impossible angle when the animation's done?

Correct. That is why there's an instruction booklet delivered with them, and why the sets have a set-design. The parts you buy are for building the figure, first of all. If LEGO wanted own creations to be more important, why bother with set-design? Just group together random parts and put them on the shelves. Saves set-design, instruction-booklet printing and the like, which would make the sets cheaper, too. But as it is, these sets exist to build the figure first and foremost. That's how I saw it since the day I began buying LEGO.

Do with your sets what you want, but don't tell me how I should treat mine, okay? Better leave them like they are then take them apart to become one of the many complaining about snapped joints. I don't like taking sets apart, that's not what I bought them for. They're decoration for my room, and the building a fun passtime, the first time around.

LuxorV asked me to post this here as well. Here are my detailed reasons why I dislike Furno 2.0: If you want, I can go in detail as to why I dislike the other heroes and villains as well. Or the biggest letdown of them all: Fire Lord. I'll reply by PM. And I apologise, Aanchir, for how I've behaved, I shouldn't have attacked you.

Will you people stop saying you love it over and over again then, too? And I don't have much with MOCs. I'm not good at it, and I hate taking my sets apart. That's not what they were made for.

So basically what you're saying is: "You're all allowed to have your opinion, just don't post it if it's negative, because we don't want to hear it". Repeatedly saying you love HF = okay. Stating you dislike it twice or thrice = GET OUT HATER. Ban me if it makes you happy, but that's how your post and his come across to me.

Fine, Hero Factory II is lovely. Happy now? Sorry for saying how I really feel about these sets. How stupid I was, to think I was actually allowed to have my own opinion and be allowed to say it without people like you looking down on my fingers and calling me a relentless hater. Stupid me. Newsflash: not everybody's going to word his opinion nice. Get used to it. Bashing the line relentlessly? I've been atcively searching for things to like in the sets, it's not my fault I can't find them. I've given the sets the benefit of doubt for as long as we didn't have actual pictures of the sets themselves. Now we do so I can make my final judgement about them, and when I post it, here you are complaining about me doing so. It's a forum, I'm free to say what I want about these sets. And if I don't like the sets, didn't like the prelims or the leaked pictures and said so every time, that's not relentless hating, that's giving my opinion about the sets with every new piece of information we get. If you don't like that, that's your problem. It's also your very own problem if you feel I'm forcing my opinion down your throat. I don't care if anybody shares what I think or not. I care when somebody like you comes along and feels offended when I don't put my opinion all sugary, and then blames me for being a relentless hater in the hope that the others will agree so you can pester me away together so only the nice people who are all rainbow and sunshine about the new sets will remain. You might wanna note that so far, I've only posted in the Furno topic and the HF 2011. Yeah, really relentless hating there. I'm such an anti HF fanatic I don't post in every HF topic to proclaim my hate! Le gasp! I've stated why I don't like this set, why I don't like the news sets, why I think them horrible, with many of my ow, personal reasons, but I've always founded my opinion with an explanation as to why. That's not blind relentless hate, that's giving my opinion, and you may want to get used to that. If you can't see my posts for what they are: my opinion, then you're the one with issues, and not me. "Horrible" is as much an opinion as "OMG BEST SET EVER GO AWAY HATERZ!".