Dorek

It's not so much laziness as it is a money issue; if you have a limited budget to develop certain things, you gotta make calls as to where that goes. I much prefer Recon updates to Hero Pad challenges, so I'm happy with it. The comics, however, I would like to see more of. Mostly just Comic 4. I know some people who know some people, so hooooopefully, we'll be able to see that sometime in the future. Witch Doctor is a pretty fun set; if you have some VIP points, it becomes a very good deal (since everywhere BESIDES the LEGO story prices him at 35, as opposed to 30 >>), and well worth the price. Can't speak for Rocka XL, but I would like to buy him at some point; Fire Lord, as an overall design, is really not that bad, and with some aesthetic improvements, makes Rocka XL look pretty interesting.

Of course, smaller children are more into it than I am (six months is about their attention span =P) but doesn't it get a bit exasperating seeing the same character every six months? I guess I still prefer the BIONICLE approach to waves of canisters featuring different characters; 2008 really rounded that out by having a batch of heroes and villains (not capitalized, so I'm not talking about HF =P). They're doing good with having a new wave every six months, but seeing the same character in his fourth (fifth if you count the bike) incarnation is a bit wearisome. By buying a BIONICLE set ;D Of course, we don't want that, but considering the snappish pace of the series, I think it could afford to introduce new characters; if we had a brand new team summer 2012, then it could easily go back to Alpha 1 in 2013; one of the many reasons I love Recon Team is because it's a new set of Heroes (only a few officially, but still). And yet, they don't interact with any of the main characters, which is something I'd like to see. A year is somewhat overkill, but for a wave or so, it's doable. I love that they didn't call them 4.0; that would have been a real turn-off for me.

I dunno, at this point I've reached the "why buy William Furno AGAIN?" point; as long as he looks damn fine, I'll keep buying him (I skipped 3.0 because it'd be cheaper just to order the spare parts and modify the 2.0 set), but every line (excluding the first one) so far there I have held off buying the Heroes until we see next wave's models, just so I know what to get and what will re-appear in an improved form. Obviously "4.0" uses an improved style, so I'll be getting quite a few of those (and I tend to get most of the villains, obviously) but I imagine a parent has similar thoughts: "Mommy, I want the William Furno set!" "Sure Timmy, let mWaitaminute... this sounds familiar..." Familiarity can only go so far. I like that we see the same characters all the time (helps keep the show grounded) but at six month intervals, that doesn't leave much time for set expression, so it's a little tiring to see the same character appear over and over. Adding in new characters doesn't really help, because all that does is give you mix and matchability with your set waves. Personally, I'd like to see a new set of Heroes, a new team, new dynamics, which can leave the door open for the current team to come back; if we have this one rotating team of nine dudes for another year or two, that's gonna get kinda boring. As I've said since the beginning: I'll buy Hero Factory if I like the sets, but repeating the same characters over and over is going to get pretty old pretty quick.

I dunno, similar prototype images (I'm thinking 2.0; didn't see much 3.0 prototype stuff, if any) haven't changed terribly drastically, so I can't imagine BP ending up looking that different. The armor will be smoother, obviously (when do final products ever have that sandpaper quality you see in prototype pics? Never that's when.) and there might be a few armor and/or tweaks, but overall, I don't think it'll end up being terribly different.

Much as I love the Iron Man heads too, I'm hoping these old masks/helmets are remodeled in the new style; provides much more possibilities in terms of already existing pieces. Since Black Phantom appears to have an Iron Man head, though, it's not out of the question for the helmets to be the same molds. We'll see. As for BIONICLE, there's plenty of time to get caught up =P. It's mostly good stuff when you read it as a whole, but when you consider the wait time between each chapter, it becomes horribly depressing.

I really like the look of this line; Hero Factory piece compatibility aside, it offers a lot of accessibility and appeal to a broad spectrum of people, and there's something about the simplicity, the blatant Action Figure vibe, that really interests me. Also purple. Like, hella purple.

Probably a generic insectoid; there's only three legs, so I can't think of anything in particular that he specifically resembles.

Just because his name is fire based doesn't mean he really has anything to do with fire =P. He doesn't have a fire-based weapon in 3.0 or 4.0, so he's perfectly fine being underwater. Heck, Jawblade has some weird versions of his previous fire blades, so there you go.

They'll probably overhaul the system for "4.0" (we're really gonna have to stop calling it that...), introduce the new body styles, then add in anything that still fits proportion. If the heads are indeed in the new style, it'd be cool to keep all of the previous head options. Recon is pretty successful, so I doubt it's going anywhere.

I see a lot of Thunder in SplitFace, but maybe that's just me. Thornraxx doesn't look like anything at first, but I see a lot of the same visual effects they used on Rotor (plus the orange), so that's what I see. Jawblade is his own shark, but Black Phantom, body rehash aside, definitely looks like he could be Von Nebula's cousin; those guys weren't built using the new system, remember. Has there been a specific statement from TLG saying "this line won't end soon" or is that just optimism from how well the line seems to be doing? Not saying I want it to end (there's plenty more themes I'd like to see from HF), but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

Much as I preferred how the comic was going to how the TV show went, the comic is a non-canonical story outlier. Nex and Evo were made 2.0. Rocka was 2.0 as shown in Savage Planet, and his bio states that he's a new Hero modeled after Furno, so presumably he was also built as 2.0, as the standard now is. Edit: Obviously there's no proof as of yet that the story is ending, but it's a possibility. What looks to be the reintroduction of old enemies, what has been described as an hour long "special" commissioned for 2012, etc. Lines aren't indefinite, and two years is a solid run, so it wouldn't at all surprise me if this is Hero Factory's last wave.

Exactly. It's why they decreased the set sizes to begin with; smaller sets are called "impulse sets", and generally sell much better than their larger boxed counterparts. By varying sizes for each, you create a more interesting purchasing atmosphere.

He's not a fish, he's a SHARK. That makes him awesome. And I'm still thinking that this is going to be the last line. It's funny how people are saying "1.0" MoC's when they were never like that in the story. Also, Evo reminds me of Dekar.

Oh, also this. Really, I don't think I've seen anything that hasn't explicitly said he's another member, just wording that could theoretically be interpreted otherwise. Nex and Evo are definitely Alpha 1 members. Aside from Nex returning for 3.0 (and now Evo for 4.0 =P) Nex and Evo are grouped into a classification called "Rookie 1"; the obvious intention is for that to be paired with the Alpha 1. The way we treat that on BS01 is mostly as a catchall designation for any rookie under the supervision of Alpha 1. Maybe not right at the moment they're sent to assist (they were only created several hours before, looking at it) but they're definitely supposed to be members. The whole point of the HF story is the exploits of the Alpha 1 Team; any other Heroes that appear are peripheral, or if they're in the TV series, they're related to Alpha 1 somehow.

They just mock him because he's newer than they are, and because Rocka was deliberately modeled after Furno. I don't recall them ever actually calling Furno a rookie explicitly, even in jest. Rookies can be on assignment by themselves, apparently, but there would be no point in having the designation "rookie" if you weren't still under supervision. Greg doesn't have much to do with HF (so hopefully he wouldn't even answer the question) but I love that we don't have anyone to turn to. If we have conflicting pieces of information, it's up to us to decide what are the true courses of events; I love being part of HS01 because I can get a halfway decent discussion on this sort of thing, and eventually come up with a good sequence of events as to how things go. Obviously certain things end up being somewhat interpretive, but the simplest answer is find the most corroborating sources, and adapt the interpretation from that.

Actually... HF.com news post. Granted, this could TECHNICALLY be interpreted differently, but his bio reads: So yeah, Rocka is pretty clearly an Alpha member. If he wasn't, why would they have been the ones to go rescue him? Even if it's because of their service record, there's no mention of his other team, and we have yet to see a rookie not under any kind of supervision. Edit: Also, about the whole rookies debate: Granted, it does seem like they aren't fully fledged Heroes, but A. I have yet to see them still called rookies by a reliable source (the back of the SP box is all I can think of, and it also calls Stormer a rookie, so there you have it) and, more importantly, they aren't at all called rookies in any of the TV shows post-2010.

Never been a Metroid guy, so that might explain it XP. I'm just never a fan of using double weapons when the joints can't angle down properly (Icarax is another prime example; however, his are reversable with zero difference in stud with or anything of the sort, which is what I did) One would be fine, two is overkill. I'm all for reusing parts, but only if they don't suck =P. As a piece, it had a certain amount of architectural intrigue, but it's ultimately very limited in terms of movement and overall functionality, so it was probably my least favorite piece from the 1.0 line. The 2.0 foot has issues, sure, but I'd prefer a full range of motion for feet rather than an attempt to mimic real foot limitations (and get it wrong at that). It's not a bad set as it is, but it's just weirdly bulky and overarmored, and I don't get why a lot of people seem to like it. Metroid probably has a lot to do with that, though =P Never! Jawblade hunting in the waters around the Factory itself? Gorgeous.

I gotta say, I'm really not getting what everybody loves about Breez. Of her three sets, 2.0 is the only one that has ever appealed to me. The weird tribal mask is just... odd... and her newest incarnation is ridiculously overarmored, and looks like she belongs in a shonen magazine (as a boy) more than in Hero Factory. She has some cool design elements, like the feet jets, but a dualhanded sword never works with those hands, and reusing 1.0 feet? Not smart. Surge seems a little cluttered, but I like some parts he has, so I'll wait to see different angles of him. Evo is cute and compact, if a little uninteresting. Rocka has a cool design, but the constant chains throw it off a bit. And Furno is just being a boss (literally; he's the highest ranked member there) with baller jets and tubes. Lack of a weapon disconcerts me slightly, but give him one of Breez's swords, and problem solved. Also, is that a green Iron Man head in Black Phantom? Praise the lawd!

I can't imagine a prelim design like that changing too drastically. Looking at 2.0 prelim stuff, they're very close to their final designs. The most drastic thing is the Fire Lord having a hand using exo-force robot arms and orange large horn barbs (not very playable, but I built it on my set, and it does look preeeetty cool). Yeah, Surge and Evo are smaller, but the whole differing canister size thing is too cool not to love. S'all good. You're still my only hope so far, but I'm in no hurry. Seems like Toxic Reapa is getting a lot of love, and he's even a small set. Don't get me wrong, he's definitely one of my favorites, but it's easier to get things right with smaller sets. Plus, the new lime green limbs, if those are staying, definitely help his cause. I'm defnitely looking forward to Jawblade; hands aside, that design looks very interesting, and that shark head is wub. Thornraxx has his appeal too (not in the name, obviously); three limbs interests me. Also teal. Split-Face is a brilliant concept, but we'll see how well it's pulled off. I like Black Phantom for the skeletal style, even if the body is a rehash of Fire Lord, and that mace is tight. I hope the sandpaper style of his armor stays, but I know that it never does...

I dunno, I can see the system being employed. They did that with BIONICLE canister sets in later years, like Nuparu Mahri's back "air cylinders". With the excessive use of pins in the new HF style, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they got more system additions.

*stops buying Savage Planet sets* Very interesting pictures, I must say. Not entirely sure how I feel about the reuse of the 1.0 helmets, but if they're in the 2.0 style (bars instead of pegs) I think it would be fun to have the ability to play around with that. Dunno if anybody's thought this, but personally, I think all of this points to the end of HF, or at the very least, a culmination of the previous chapters. There's the obvious breakout theme; paves the way for the reintroduction of old villains, which is clearly evidenced by the resemblance they all have to past enemies: Thunder+XPlode=twoface, random fangz hound lookalike, Corroder/Meltdown combo, and Thornraxx is Rotor and something else, not to mention Black Phantom, who is clearly a Von Nebula/Fire Lord Hybrid (and maybe Witch Doctor, with that weird blaster?). Something I had wondered a while back when they announced a one hour TV special for 2012 was when they would feasibly end the series, and a two year, four story wave run seems respectable. More than likely the villains all fuse together somehow, break out (which is a story theme I had decidedly hoped they would apply, though admittedly I would have liked a few other themes beforehand), forcing the HF to turn into awesome bounty hunters. Any which way, I'm definitely gonna be picking a lot of these up. Shame Black Phantom has another body rehash of Fire Lord (even though I've personally grown to like it a lot) but it makes sense if it is indeed a VN/FL fusion in-story, and those armor pieces are glorious. Some of the Heroes are a little over the top (Breez and Surge) but Rocka and Furno are solid, interesting designs. The villains all look really interesting, and I absolutely love the differing canister sizes. HF already broke the mold on that one by having the Heroes be smaller sets and varying villain box sizes this year, but taking it one step further is so cool. Also, this whole line is a parts heaven.

Well, we have the box image itself that says 45 minutes, and the only thing that says 88 minutes is a product page that is a lot easier to change than box graphics. Since they typically don't list bonus features in the actual runtime, that leaves either 43 minutes of mystery material, or more likely, that the Amazon.com product page is wrong.

I'm okay with that, and I like the ancient armor pieces idea itself. It ties in with a lot of stuff that happens in the episode, and stuff we know, but it totally downplays any storyline connective tissue it might have; it's just "ohay look, armor pieces, aren't we so lucky". Every mention of the "ancient race", that logically are the ones that made this armor, the temple itself, and the Skull Staff (which gets no mention), is totally peripheral and completely ignored by all the characters. Personally, I thought the teleporter was what Rocka was going to use to become XL, but ah well XP. I just think it's weird that, even at the size that he is, the Skull Staff is what let him do anything and everything, and there wasn't much mention of how Stormer deduced that. As I said, hit and miss. RotR had some great lines, even if they were childish, but I very much liked the sniping between Rocka and Furno, as well as Rocka delivering that patently (and admittedly) awful line to Witch. Obviously there were some low points (cattle and chocolate milk come to mind) but it was slightly more understanding dialogue. Yeah, the coloring was a bit whack, but I thought they used it mostly right in the backgrounds; appropriate shades of dark greens and blues at the right moments, even if the characters didn't always fit in. Yeah, Waspix vs Furno wasn't exactly a high note, but I thought they handled the non-humanoids very well, all things considered, and every fight with Witch was crazy awesome. I've always liked Henry Winkler (c'mon, he's the Fonz. What's not to love?) and he really brings this great exasperation that I think fits Zib. I'm less of a fan of David Carr's interpretation; very dry and stuffy, which also suits Zib to a point, but there's no soul to his lines (which, I guess, is to be expected from shorts and podcasts, but still). But hey, not everybody can like everything. His timing (and overall lines) weren't as great in this one, to be fair. He was made much more of a stock character, which isn't too fun. I'm perfectly okay with Stringer being a redneck, but any and all "Earth" references should be cut out, unless it's clever pop culture references like HeroBook. TEW was just great overall; good music, animation, voice acting, characterization, etc. Haven't watched Clutch Powers or Ninjago to really compare, but I'm usually okay with what they have. It's a balancing act; the younger the audience, the more room they have to work around and just have fun with things, but to a point; today's tween generation is pretty cynical. Unfortunately, there is none. Amazon's product page is lying; the back of the DVD box says "45 minutes", which is the length of the episode, and doesn't count OoF. Presumably they just copy/pasted it from RotR.

Absolutely loved the HRT update; Fortis 3.0? Heck yeah. Gotta order him from the Recon Team. Good to see they took away his signature chest armor. He can suffer like the rest of us. Anyway, I had mixed feelings about the episode. I actually liked the humor. Very self-aware, satirical, which is way better than the campy one-liners that plagued RotR. The story had it's hits and misses. The ending was my least favorite part; Rocka becoming XL was mostly predictable (although the way it actually happened was astoundingly trivial and completely exemplifies the deus-ex-machina concept that people often misapplied to previous related features, and in general was just poorly executed), and every iota of Witch Doctor's power coming from the staff was very disappointing. However, the journey they take to confronting Witch, as well as the rivalry between Furno and Rocka, were all very enjoyable plot points. The animals talking was okay; makes sense, allows for some extra dialogue, but not completely necessary. The animation was also pretty solid. More glossy than RotR, and OoF for the most part, but a lot of the color went into the background, as opposed to the characters, and I kinda miss that from the first episodes. The fight scenes were also very well choreographed, even if they were a bit short. When they actually bothered to use lighting at all, it came off very well, though it was avoided more than it should have been. The voice acting was also pretty good; Witch Doctor is a fine step up from "I AM THE MIGHTY TUMA", and Tatasciore brings his A-game to that. I was also moderately surprised with Tom Kenny as Rocka; less squeaky than I would have thought, although his voice still cracked at some cringe-worthy times. Stringer was disappointingly southern, but Stanton did better when he had dialogue with other people, as opposed to one-liners (cattle wrangling should never be mentioned again). Chris Duncan (Dunkan Bulk lol) was much better this time around, really got a chance to play with that deep voice that works, since he was given more lines. Olsen and Schneider do their customary work, which is good, and Henry Winkler always cracks me up at Zib (even if his dialogue in this episode was less than stellar). I enjoy Jason Canning's Australian Nex for some reason; he would be a lot more generic without the accent, and I think it gives a personable touch. So, on the whole, it's no masterpiece, especially when you look at RotR as one whole miniseries, but dedicating a solid hour to it helped avoid a lot of the rushed feeling of OoF, even if it didn't feel like the stakes were as high (which they pretty much were).

Maaaaaybe. I don't know why I didn't get it; some crazy mixup, or alternatively, I threw it away, but I would have noticed something like that, I hope. TLG isn't above omitting paperwork things from my orders/magazines, so I'm not terribly surprised.