dviddy

Disagreed entirely. The new red splashes are important and vital to the shaping of the MOC. Well, with the exception of the red splotch on the back of the hand, which should have stayed grey. Otherwise, the new red parts create an awesome red cross-esque shape that is visually striking and distinct. With the exception of the hands, this iteration is better in every way. People have talked about the system not working or meshing appropriately, but I still maintain the only area it seems out of place is with the crotch armour, that flat straight angle with the studs on top is too visually jarring when contrasted with the rest of the slopes and lines on the MOC. It would take re-working, but doing something smoother there would be a good use of time. Regarding your comments on ItB, you will always get contrasting criticism, your goal as a MOCist is to find those you trust and respect the most, whose visual opinions and styles "get" yours the best, and to be open to criticism you would normally ignore. In the long run, I find C&C from those still actively engaged in the hobby to be of better use than those who have done little or interacted with parts little, and I find that sometimes the best advice comes from those who build in a more visual style than a more technical style works best for me, as I am always attempting to build for visual effect- not technical achievement. There are different mindsets when it comes to MOCing, find those you trust and follow them, while still making sure to leave an ear open for contrasting advice to try and adapt.

Right???? This weird "I don't believe it unless an employee says it!" thing is irritating- an employee -did- say it, hence the article. Ambassadors exist to be go-betweens for the company and the fans. Andrew has actual connections (more than I do and I have quite a few these days thanks to conventions). There would be no article had an employee not told Andrew this. There is most likely no name attached because most likely the email was forwarded from ine department to another until it reached a CEE team member who got it to Andrew, and the quoted employee is probably not on the "allowed to interact with online fans" list. A lot if TLG's communication is done at conventions and through Ambassadors, who then send these things out to the community at large. TLG is rarely a company that sends these sort of things out via traditional media and press releases. They prefer the community channels. If you are a LEGO fan and want those sort of info dumps, believing official liaisons or convention chatter is your only source for 95% of things.

You do know Andrew's source is a lego employee? It is not like bzpower is making it up.

The story talk is interesting, but Hero Factory was never supposed to have the story BIONICLE had. That story, regardless if our feelings, was a liability. For the story fans, Ninjago and Chima exist to pull support to TLG's core system, well, system. To be blunt, the constraction line exists to try and bridge a gap between traditional action figure fans and traditional lego fans. As long as people are "graduating" from Hero Factory into the wider system fields, constraction lines are successful. I talked with Keith, who leads the CEE team this past weekend at BricksCascade, and he told me that this system has been incredibly successful in that goal, much more so than BIONICLE. BIONICLE fans tended to be single-line fans, when they moved on from the theme, they moved out if LEGO. Not so with Hero Factory fans. As such, he said to expect this building system, whether HF sticks around or not, to be around under some theme name for a long time.

Disagree with everyone on the dishes not meshing stylistically- each Hero Factory piece on the MOC has two small, perfectly round holes, and the two on the chestplate, with the dark grey pegs in them pull the dishes in and give them a visual consistency. Not to mention that the way they are combined with the shape of the shoulders make them look like they are the hinges the shoulderplates rely on for movement, even though we can see the actual hinge you used to connect them. I think the dishes are the most appealing part of the entire build- they make the MOC for me. I would normally agree about the dark red being used well in such a small amount, but the visual balance with such a large chunk of the leg armour and the head being dark red and then only the fingers and that one sticker being dark red I think creates an imbalance. Something red on the chest would do wonders to bring that together- and honestly, even normal bright red might work. Simply adding a one-by-one round dark red plate to the stud on the dishes might do it too. Ideally I think having the system slope on the upper chest dark red would be the perfect fit, but I have no idea if that part exists in that colour, and if it did, if you'd possess it. While it'd require a re-working, as we talked about on Flickr, the ankles look structurally weak, and simply rotating the sockets ninety degrees would fix that. Though the overall boxy shape of the footprint clashes with the rounded shape of the armour bits. I think the pelvic armour works- moslty. The flat top that doesn't entirely cover the tapering end of the HF torso shell is awkward and jarring. I think that part is the right shape for the MOC, but I think some sort of belt or something on top of that part to add some smoothing would be ideal. I also think, as I also said on Flickr, that this time the head doesn't work. It is too high, too narrow, and doesn't mesh with the style of the MOC, what with the heavy-yet-stocky feel, and it definitely defies the nice tapering down to a V the entire MOC does otherwise. I think something closer into the torso and rounder (like Marvel's Juggernaut or that popular Gundam I hope you know which one because I don't) would work fantastically and really bring the MOC home. Also, maybe another torso shell on the back? It looks so weirdly exposed after the perfect armouring of the front.

Hero Factory parts have revolutionized the way I build entirely. I've been in the BIONICLE MOCing community since its inception, and largely helped guide and shape its movements via BZPower and other MOCing forums. I've been mixing BIONICLE and system successfully for a decade now, and still I can say that the Hero Factory building system has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me and my MOCing habits. I have always wanted to build characters, first and foremost. Even my animal MOCs (like the newest Vayland Dragon, the Lion, or the Horizon Dragon) have some sort of character to them, something that gives them some sort of attitude or personality. I've never been interested in nameless grunts or mechs or vehicles things like that- it is just not my style. What captivated me about BIONICLE from the very beginning was the ability to have characters with expressive personalities. I fell in love with the way Kanohi masks conveyed personality, and it may be an odd quirk for a veteran MOCist, and I've taken lumps for it amongst my peers for years, but this is one of the reasons I still default to a Kanohi for humanoid MOCs. I actually make up little stories about many of the MOCs I build, and my recent MOCs based on my friends from BZPower all fit into a unified continuity I will probably never share online, but it explains their armour choices, design purposes, etc. Everything except HH's height, lol. When the Hero Factory system debuted, I was ecstatic because unlike most people in this thread, apparently, I hate the texture of BIONICLE parts for armour (though I think for organic MOCs like animals it works really well when used correctly), as I prefer a visually clean and smooth aesthetic. The HF shells match the system aesthetic so well. I love that, and unlike everyone else here, shells with more textures make me wince. Too many BIONICLE parts were over-designed, and I find them hard to use when attempting to match them to my aesthetic. Which, was one of the biggest reasons I worked so heavily with system bits before. What I've found with HF shells and parts is that, while some of the arms or legs on my MOCs have gotten "simpler", they allow me to unify the design principles more effectively, and focus on a lot of areas I was less concerned with, or paid less attention to before. Character-defining movement, armour motifs, etc, are far more accessible with HF parts. I do not think I would ever or could ever have built Hahli Husky or Janus before HF parts became available. The minifig-accessory ports are far more useful to me than if they contained only axle holes, as the smaller size allows for smaller detailing, and also a greater connectivity with more detail-giving system accessories. Honestly, what I think HF has really allowed me to do is stop over-designing overly-complex limb designs in order to achieve the same shapes. It has actually cut down on my reliance on system parts, as well. As I said earlier, I think it allows me to focus more on aesthetic flow, and while I've been pretty obsessed with proper colour layering and blocking for, well, a decade now, it has allowed me to play with colour theories and how those affect visual design a lot more openly as well. Really, I said this somewhere else recently, but I think HF parts finally allow me to build the action figure looking MOCs I've always wanted to build. Things that look like solid action figure toys you could pick up at the store. I think this is one of the reasons I don't dabble much in system or in vignettes or other things some of the other high-profile constraction builders have been doing lately, and another reason that where complex, small-part heavy designs that are en vogue in the community currently don't attract my building desire much (though I did build Sarge in a similar style, I suppose). I'm not really focused on complexity, realism, or fatihful adaptations to other media very often. I want to build toys of characters.

I like Kanohi as faces and I also like Kanohi as armour and I think pieces can always be used for something other than intended, but also have a big bin of parts that I, personally, think are useless to me and the way I build. I like BIONICLE parts (especially that there are so many big chunky parts that make great structural parts on larger MOCs) but find myself using less and less of them as I progress with time, because I just enjoy the HF aesthetic so much more. The peices mesh with system parts aestheticall so much better it's unreal. I feel like I can finally actually make the action figure character MOCs I've always wanted to build. This is an exciting time. If a new theme appears, I'm not particularly keen on the story, it is secondary to my usage, but I hope it's not terrible at the same time? A super-successful Ninjago type theme but constraction would be great- but I'd never expect it again. I just want some more great parts that err on the HF side of things aesthetically.

They either remake the mold or redesign it. Rolling my eyes at your skepticism. Those are all TLG employees who make convention rounds, and are official mouthpieces for the company.

Jamie Berard (set designer, designed the Parisian Cafe), Kevin Hinkle (the Americas Community Team Rep), Kelly McKiernan (no longer with the company, but the former LEGO webmaster), Jim Foulds (no longer with the company, but the former Communuty Team Lead), and Steve Witt (who is also no longer with the company but held Kevin Hinkle's position at one point), and various other designers I've talked to, have all said that in order to keep molds that have been officially retired a company secret TLG buries them, or at least used to (and they specifically mentioned the original Kanohi lineup being buried in concrete under a warehouse or the company HQ, I can never remember which). I go to a lot of conventions, and these things are usually in the random talks LEGO reps give.

Nearly certain that Znap was worldwide- I have several znap parts from childhood I have no idea what to do with.

Just an FYI, most BIONICLE molds have been officially retired, which means buried in concrete under a warehouse. That is why the Rahkshi star had a new head and back mold instead of using just a new back mold.

They weren't on display, apparently, and were even left out of the press information for the lineup.

You will not get numbers or graphs, as TLG does not disclose that sort of information to the public. As has been mentioned, this is the number that TLG themselves gives at every major speaking engagement with AFOLs. They gave it at BricksCascade in 2013, BrickfairVA 2013, and again at Brickcon 2013 (and probably all the others, those were just the ones I attended personally). I don't know how they come upon that number, but they do seem to do a great deal of market research. I'm sure they have more than just guesses to back that up. Five percent is not insignificant, which is why we see sets purposefully targeting AFOLs, but it is not enough market share to push us more into the focus of product design.

The AFOL community, in its totality, globally, makes up less than five percent of TLG's sales.

Thank you! I am particularly fond of this MOC, though it took me far longer to complete than I'm proud of.

Agreed, though the MOCing community came up with that design well before it came out on Hydraxon. I've always liked that design (as the basic pioneer of it in the community), but I've come up with a pretty compact and well-proportioned four-fingered hand I'm excited to mix in with the new mixels joints when available. The new HF sets are available in US LEGO stores for sure, I picked several up the other day here in Oregon. I really dig the minifig designs a lot!

Well... that's a lot of gold. I desperately wish for a bit more colour variety. Oh well.

I saw "worst BIONICLE sets of all time" and then didn't see Umbra or Tarix????

I'm excited the first wave of these apparently were successful enough to get us a second wave. (As far as shelf-warming goes, having worked in retail at a Target, stock often gets replenished nightly, even if it's just one or two sets from the backroom, so while it may look like shelf-warming, the possibility exists that the sets are just being cycled in after a purchase.)

I know- Maddison Swift was named after BZPower staff member Nukaya (who is my girlfriend and is sitting next to me on the couch, haha). But I don't think it really "counts" without representation in the main story and in set form. Few fans are aware of those side characters.

Hero Factory, in my view, stands head-and-shoulders above BIONICLE as a toyline, plain and simple. The building system is revolutionary, and has transformed the way I build entirely. The aesthetic is a radical departure from the over-designed and busy BIONICLE parts, and much more in line with system parts. I've always wanted to build MOCs with a smooth, texturally sleek, angular-yet-curved-smooth aesthetic, and the similar design aesthetic (not to mention the minifig accessory holes everywhere!) lends mixing with system parts a smoother and easier integration as well. Though, ironically after all that, because of that aesthetic in HF sets, I've found my need for large system chunks in my MOCs to have declined rapidly. The new building system takes care of so many of those former needs. I look at MOCs from just three years ago and I can't believe the connections I relied on. This system is better. As much as I loved following the BIONICLE story, it was bloated, over-blown, twisted, and relied too much on the whims of a singular fanbase and writer, whose skills at writing multiple character interactions and juggling multiple storylines all at once was... merely adequate. (Though Greg's willingness to communicate so openly with fans will always be beyond admirable, and his love for the story and line was always obvious. From what I understand from other LEGO employees in Enfield, Greg continues to talk about the line and the fans in an exceptionally positive manner, and that says a ton about him in a great way.) We've been discussing this on BZPower, but BIONICLE's overly-involved story, dispersed as it was through five different media outlets, made jumping on in a non-reboot year very very difficult, and was a liability in the long run. I'm proud that TLG has taken the goods from BIONICLE's story and applied them to other themes (to Ninjago's immediate and obvious success). I like the more superhero-episodic nature of Hero Factory, and it's clear it was designed, as Aanchir said, for play experience especially. It's easy to make your own stories when every second of your heroes' lives aren't already accounted for. Both themes need more prominent female characters (especially heroes), though. One female hero for the entirety of Hero Factory is simply unacceptable.

The actor has said his character has a crazy hairdo, speculation from everyone is that the fin will be CG. Could make for an interesting LEGO piece for sure.

Chima's actually doing quite well, according to TLG reps at conventions. It hit and exceeded all its goal projections, though not the "stretch projections". Ninjago came back for reasons entirely unrelated to Chima, such as the TLG callcenter being so swamped with calls from parents complaining about the line's cancellation, and getting emails upon emails upon emails complaining about it. It's TLG's most successful line ever. Apparently TLG has never received that kind of backlash or vocal outcry at the cancellation of a theme in its history as a company (sorry BIONICLE fans), and they received close to 20k calls a day for several weeks about it.

The official response on the sales of HF I've gotten from the few TLG employees I've talked to at conventions has always been "it does what it needs to do."

I was going to say, obviously you found them, but I'm in Portland, OR, and I've found both Ninjago and Hobbit sets at my local Fred Meyer. Can corroborate with you that the prices seemed cheaper than I had anticipated.