Zarkan

Well, for those who enjoy Batman: The Brave and the Bold, count me in as the latest fan of the show. I was initially skeptical of the whole idea, since I'm not a fan of pure comedy animation, but once I started watching it, I realize it's really a great blend of humor, action, and character. Sure, there's an odd episode or two that isn't up to the usual quality, but generally it has everything I expect of my favorite shows. Looking foward to buying the second half of season one when it comes out in a couple of months. I also want to add that I've finally reconnected with was actually one of the very first animated shows I ever watched: the hilarious Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Well, technically, it was only the hour-long pilot for the show, as the regular episodes have unfortunately failed to surface on DVD, but it was still really fun to see it again after so many years. I'm not usually one to laugh constantly at most television shows, but BLoST's brand of humor is so over the top and tounge-in-cheek that it's hard not to guffaw at a lot of the dialogue and situations. Wayne Knight's performance as Zurg has to be the highlight, but the voice acting in general is great and funny. It's really such a great expansion of what little we knew about the Star Command mythos from the Toy Story movies, and actually feels like a show that would have aired in-universe. Oh, and I'm still enjoying Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The last episode I watched "Widow's Sting" is easily the best yet, and it's the first I would say comes close to matching The Spectacular Spiderman in quality. Considering that the latter is still my favorite show of all time, that's quite a feat in my eyes.

It may have been a joke, but that almost looks better than the official back armor - or lack thereof. At least this guy looks like he could take more than one hit on his back before he was blasted apart into pieces.

An excellent creation, I must say. The mechanical eye has to be my favorite part, but the entire MOC fits together nicely. My only complaint is a minor one - there's some obvious gaps in the upper torso, though they don't mar the overall look much. Overall, a great job.

That was... not what I was expecting. While he looks almost nothing like Stormer, I have to say I quite like the creation - if only because it's one of the first MOCs that shows the potential of the new constraction figure building system. the top-heavy body with the spindly legs is a really great contrast, and I love how you seamlessly incorporated System and even Ben 10 parts.

Guys, I think a lot of you missed what I was saying about Hero Factory's "storyline." I said right in my post that I didn't necessarily expect it to be complex - there's a huge difference between "complexity" and "progression," and the former isn't a necessary component of the latter. To give an example of what I'm talking about, look at one of the two good Transformers shows we've actually had, Transformers Animated. Overall, the storylines were simple enough that any young kid could understand and enjoy them, but they also had good enough characterization and plots that adult fans of Transformers were able to appreciate the show as well. The important thing was not that it was complex, but that the show raised the stakes as it got higher. There was a real sense of progression between the begining and the end of the show, and that was what (among other things) kept it from becoming stale by the second season. That's the point I'm trying to get across: the problem I have with Hero Factory is not that it doesn't have a complex storyline, but that it barely even has a storyline at all. The heroes and villians are all incredibly one note and in many cases are practically cyphers. The plots are all exactly the same: heroes go to planet and stop villians from stealing/destorying/taking over something, wave done (and this is not a generalization). And this is really disapointing to me, because Hero Factory has the potential to have a really great storyline without being complex.

Ever since the first info about Hero Factory 2011’s theme surfaced, something has been bothering me about the entire setup, but until just tonight, I wasn’t able to put my finger on it. Now, I think I’ve realized what my real problem is with this second wave, as well as the just-recently-revealed third. What it all boils down to is that – and I think I can actually say this objectively for once – there is simply not as much effort being put into Hero Factory as a whole. Now, I realize there has and always will be a huge debate regarding how well it’s predecessor maintained its quality (if at all). However, no matter what you think about Bionicle’s storyline, it’s impossible to deny that from 2001 on, there was a rather concentrated effort in making it surpass other Lego lines in storytelling and presentation. In regards to the former, there was a real sense of progression thanks to the extended story bible created in the planning stage. Just look at the first three years for example, if you can’t stand anything beyond that. 2001 was the introductory year, which pit the heroes against simple beasts before winning their first major victory against the big bad. Then 2002 rolled around, and the stakes were raised, with foes that possessed actual powers of their own and a pair of arch-villains instead of just one. Next came 2003, which (disregarding the rather unnecessary Kal storyline) saw the introduction of even more powerful villains and resulted in an ultimate showdown with the original big bad. Add in a host of minor characters and developing relationships between the heroes, and by and large you had an overall effort that greatly exceeded anything TLC had done before. Now, look at Hero Factory in contrast. In the beginning, it seemed like the line was going to go a similar route as Bionicle, with an introductory year that lead into more intense (if not more complex) storylines and raising stakes. That’s the impression I got from the line, anyway – since Hero Factory was supposed to be a replacement for Bionicle, I reasoned that it would try to keep much of what make the latter line such a success. Perhaps I was wrong, because it now seems like TLC has gone in the opposite direction – AKA, the direction they generally go in with their modern themes. Instead of Hero Factory being an entire brand like Bionicle was, it’s simply yet another construction line by TLC with a “storyline” that can be best summed up as an excuse plot. There’s no real progression through waves – each set line uses the exact same basic concept as the previous, with only the set designs actually changing. There’s your setting/mission, there’s your six heroes, and there’s your villains. Bang, the storyline planning is done for the year, and it likely will never progress beyond that. This formula is identical to what TLC uses for practically every one of their lines that lasts beyond one year: Castle, Space Police, and Power Miners all were exactly the same way, and so are most of the others I haven’t listed. Perhaps this is why some suspect that Hero Factory won’t last beyond two or three years. A line like this simply can’t last long without it getting exceedingly stale, and as soon as the sales drop, TLC will just replace it with some other constraction figure line. It wasn’t like this with Bionicle: when the sales got bad in certain years, TLC didn’t just throw it all away – instead they tried to salvage the line with new set designs and marketing concepts. There was a real sense that they had invested a lot of heart and soul into the line, and they weren’t just about to abandon it when there was still untapped potential. As much as I’d like to think Hero Factory will get more interesting in, say, 2012, I kind of doubt TLC feels any more loyalty to it than any of their other modern lego lines. And since only City and Star Wars have lasted beyond three years without complete re-brandings, I can’t say it will even last long enough to do so. Does anyone else agree with this sentiment?

I know, it's just when I see people saying this like "he rocks" or "that design looks as bad as Fire Lord" based on poor-quality pictures, I can't help but chuckle. Not saying that everyone in this topic is doing that, but it still is kind of funny to read all these sizeable posts when we can barely even make out half of the molds the sets are using. Then again, this is still a far cry from some toy fanbases, especially since there's a mixture of positive and negative comments. I sure can't say the same thing about a certain action figure line filled with "trukks" and "munkies," anyway.

Waspix? Raw-Jaw? Fangz? Rocka XL? Lol, what? I think Hero Factory's set names have really jumped the shark this wave - in retrospect, it kinda makes the problems I once had with some of the Bionicle names seem rather minor in comparison. However, unlike the rest of you, I am in no rush to judge these sets based on these ultra-blurry images. I think it's a mistake to assume sets like Witch Doctor will be awesome when it's too hard to tell whether the construction is solid. Who knows, he could be one of the best titans we've ever gotten, or he could be another Fire Lord-sized failure - it's simply not possible to determine this for sure from the images, as opposed to some of the images for themes like Alien Conquest and Star Wars.

Classic-Space inspired good guys with U.F.O inspired bad guys? If Ninjago hadn't been coming out next year as well, I would have declared this theme the most unusual hybrid of 2011. However, I honestly think I like Alien Invaders better overall, as it isn't saddled with an overpriced trading card game gimmick and seems to have more advanced set designs. Plus, you can't really beat the return of the original space color scheme - I was hoping TLC would take inspiration from one of their previous sci-fi lines, and sure enough they have. I still doubt I'll purchase any of these sets, but between them, Kingdoms, POTC, Star Wars, City, and even Cars, it looks like the summer 0f 2011 is a lot better than the first half of the year.

Ah, so we are getting a Black Pearl set as well? Excellent, that makes 2011 the very first year we'll be getting two full-sized pirate ships.

One change I've noticed revolves particularly around the Town theme. Until the City rebrand in 2005, yearly waves of town sets generally involved a few big ticket items (ie. fire and police stations) and a bunch of other random sets. Once 2005 rolled around however and the entire line was rebooted, we immediately saw a much more organized apporach. Set waves were now arranged around specific subthemes, with the end result being a wider range of sets based around a similiar subject but less overall variety. Sets that didn't conform to the theme were often made store exclusives, or were incorporated into the overall marketing theme in some other way. An example of this latter practice is the summer wave of 2009, which featured a larger variety of subjects than average that were all labeled as "Traffic." I'd say the most noticeable result of this change is the much larger influx of Fire and Police sets. Whereas in the days of classic town we usually got a police station or fire station every few years, plus one or two other vehicles, now we get a whole wave organized around one of those two subthemes. 2011 is proving to be the most blantant example of this, with no less than NINE sets based around the Police theme in some way. But in general, this principle applies to City as a whole.

Something tells me Klaus-Dieter is going to be very happy... But seriously, this is a great move for Kingdoms, and I'm glad to see we're getting more interesting subjects this time instead of just a retread of Fantasy Castle. The Mill set in particular looks absolutely amazing, with two new animal molds and the return of the highly wanted pitchfork. I sense that this is going to be massively popular with AFOL Castle fans, but I think it also has potential as a general success across the market. I can't really judge the other three sets, since the pictures are so small, but from what I can tell they look fairly solid. In any case, the mere fact that we're getting Civilian sets in a regular line rather than as exclusives is a cause to jump for joy.

Ah, cool. Little ol' P. Squiddy does deserve more attention, methinks, as do the rest of the Space Police III aliens. They really are brilliant figures for the most part, and it's nice to see that at least some AFOLs are embracing them.

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that when I saw they were using skeletons for villians again, I was rather disapointed. But now that we have close up pictures of the minifigs, I have to say I'm warming up to the idea a lot more. It seems they've actually gone and given the skellies personality this time, complete with different heads and pieces of armor. In fact, I'd say they have far more personality than the ninjas, which are exactly the same aside from color. At least the ninja*ahem*spinjiztu master looks nice.

This creation is awesome - great detailing, subdued but well thought-out color scheme, and some hilarious figure designs. I have to ask though... what exactly gave you the idea to use Squidman instead of a normal ninja master?

Um... I really don't know what to think. That alien design is just... well, I'm not sure how to describe it. All I can say is, I don't think these guys will be the next blacktron.

That bank looks absolutely wonderful - the color scheme is very unique and striking, and the armored car is exactly like I imagined it. I'm especially glad that the interior of the bank has a vault, and the way the set designers incorporated a criminal is brilliant. We're even getting several green suitcases and what looks like a new printed tile of some sort; overall, it looks like a complete deal, and if I hadn't already revamped my old Town Jr bank to look a lot like this very set, I would pick it up for sure. On the other hand, the police chase is okay, and it will probably be a good present for kids, but just... what is the deal with that trike? I thought we had gotten over the age of silly unrealistic "touches" like that - a recolor of the modern City bike in blue would have been a much better conclusion, and would probably push at least a few older buyers to pick up the set just for that. As of now, it's a fun playset for young lego fans, but hardly up to the level of what we've come to expect from the theme. So, a hit and a miss, which pretty much describes City 2011 as a whole for me. For every set that I like, there's one or two sets that I'm either indifferent on or just don't like at all. This is in stark contrast to the last few years, where there's only been a couple of genuinely bad sets IMO.

Hm, that new skeleton vehicle is pretty lame, and the Fire dragon is just a (worse) clone of the Ice Dragon. However, the Earth dragon is looking pretty darn nice, and the new temple is absolutely amazing. It's nice that this theme is looking a lot better, even if a few of the sets are rather bad. However, the whole game aspect is still unsettling to me, especially because of the absolutely OUTRAGEOUS prices. That starter set is the absolute worst offender - 57 pieces for 20 dollars might just be the worst piece-per-price value we've ever had in a system set. That's nearly 40 cents per piece, and that includes the utterly commonplace molds that make up the "arena." I don't care that the packaging is really fancy - this is an utter rip-off in every way, and I'm extremely disapointed in TLC for moving in such a terrible direction. My hope is that the game-based sets fail but the playsets succeed, moving TLC to drop the former if the theme gets a second wave. It could only be an improvement, as far as I'm concerned.

So, I watched the first two episodes, and while I generally enjoyed it, I still think Animated is vastly superior. The robots on Prime don't have nearly as well defined personalities, and the new kid characters don't really add much to the plot like Sari did. However, the animation is very good - the fight seens in particular are the best I've ever seen in a CGI show - and the voice acting is well done. I'm particularly liking Steve Blum as Starscream; I knew the guy would do a good job, and yet I'm actually a bit surprised at the approach he took. He's a lot more subdued than expected - and the same goes for Frank Welker's new take on Megatron. I'll continue watching, but unless they can make this show more interesting (bringing in some more actual Decepticon characters would definitely help), I can't see it garnering the same love I have for the previous incarnation.

Egads, the Police station looks horrible from the back. The interior is so empty and boring compared to the last two City stations, and the way the back is designed seems more catered around playability than asthetics. Quite a shame, really - from the first few shots, this looks like it would be the best lego police station yet, but now its sunk way down on my personal list.

Oh my... these are incredible! So many awesome new acessories and molds, so many great subjects, and even some clever reuses of parts! I hope I'm not the only one who noticed that the Werewolf is reusing the series 3 Elf hairpiece in brown and dark brown. Simply brilliant, as is the rest of this line.

What I was referring to was the fact that you can clearly see the faces of the other two heroes when looking at the back of the sets. Please don't tell me you seriously think that is a good thing. And that is because....why? If a theme is doing really well, why should they cancel it, especially if the company still has ideas left for what they can do with it? The very reason TLC was defamed so much during the infamous "dark ages" was because they discontinued all of their core themes like Classic town and Space in favor of experimental themes that were often of inferior quality. This same principle applies to other kinds of entertainment, particularly TV shows. I've lost count of how many times people have gotten upset when quality programs get canceled prematurely in favor of new ones (see: The Spectacular Spiderman, Firefly, and a whole host of others). There's no reason to hold to such an absolute concept as "nothing should last for longer than a few years, no matter how good it is."

Right... because that worked out so well for the 2011 villians: Also, I would personally not use Slizers as an example of how Bionicle should have been. There's a reason why the former line was discontinued so quickly, you know.

I realize this, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. With so many shared pieces, these heroes simply don't have nearly as much personality as any previous constraction figures. Are they good parts packs? Oh, certainly, but as display pieces they fail. With that said, I'm looking forward to seeing how MOCer's use these new pieces to make some designs with actual character. TLC's provided a good starting point, but none of what we've gotten yet is personable enough to stand alonside some of the great Bionicle lines or even the 2010 Heroes. On the contrary, I think that looks WAY better. It combines the best aspects of both Stormers into an ultimate version.

I'm sorry, I'm normally fine with different points of view, but I can't let this slide. To say that Bionicle would have been better off without unique Kanohi, weapons, and armor pieces is absolutely ridiculous. One of the biggest complaints about bionicle sets has always been that they are all too similar to each other, and those unique molds are the main things that kept them from being 100% clones of each other. Do you honestly think that Lewa, Pohatu, and Onua would have been improved if they looked exactly like Tahu bar colors? Are you actually suggesting that the Bara manga sets would have been better off without the unique elemental-flavored armor and weapons? I honestly can't fathom why you'd hold such a belief.