Mesonak

Hah, don't be. I remember thinking Malum was a titan for the longest time back in BIONICLE's days.

From the initial source that first revealed the names of all of the sets from this theme and others. Very trustworthy guy.

No, Voltix is the same size as the other $12.99 villains and heroes. *yawn* Well, now that we finally have reached the end of the rope in regards to pictures, and have seen all the sets from (most) angles, I think I can finally round up the sets and give judgement on the wave in general. Nex - Despite my initial thoughts from the prelims, he's turned out to be a very solid set. I enjoy his weapons while others do not, and I enjoy his orange and white color scheme which harkens back to his 2.0 form. The helmet, like Evo's, is a faithful recreation which I enjoy immensely, and the torso printing makes his white torso much less glaring. My only major complaint is hardly major at all, considering how easily fixable it is; his lack of a hand joint holding his gun. I believe this marks the first HF set which has not had at least one hand joint. Kind of disappointing. But a good set overall. Nothing extraordinary, but vastly under-rated by many. XT4 - Speaking of under-rated by many, I think this guy beats out Nex in that category. A set with pieces galore, a strict three-color scheme, with a plethora of interesting design choices and very inventive weapons. I can't find anything to complain about with this guy (unlike some) except his head design. I'm not impressed by that. Other than that, he's fairly good. Stringer - Quite outstanding, though not without his share of flaws. To address the obvious, OMG TRANS-BLUE CHEST WANT ... Now then, now that's out of the way. Stringer's "gun-guitar" is possibly one of the coolest weapons I've seen yet, and his seeminly unique shoulder armor definitely gives the set some points. Add onto the fact that the color layering is nice and balanced, and I can't really find... well, anything to complain about. Being a large Stringer fan, I'm glad this version of him has managed to live up to the others. I have but one flaw, and that is that I wish his normal cladding matched up with his torso armor in terms of coloration. Voltix - He's interesting, to say the least. At first glance, I would write the figure off as trash except for the three glorious purple pieces. But upon closer inspection, he isn't all that bad - His color scheme, bar several accents colors, keeps it down to a three-color minimum, and if you look at it that way, really isn't terrible. I love the lightning pieces shooting out of his head, and he does have a certain charm with him. I doubt I'll get him, though. Bulk - Very nice. His design is solid, the cannon's good, the bulky shoulderpads definitely help his character. But the color scheme is a major detriment; far too many colors clash, leaving silver, his dominant color, to only be featured in several pieces. Regardless, the actual design of the set is good. Core Hunter - Fantastic. Still hard to make out details, but Nuremberg gave me a great hint to how he will actually be built. The pieces are excellent, his armor layering and color arrangement makes for a very good aesthetic vibe, and he looks very bulky and imposing, which is a good thing. Can't wait to get him. Stormer XL - ....And unlike most, my positive opinions ground to a halt when I look at this guy. Overly simple design, lack of interesting pieces, mediocre printing on only one leg, ugly, off-setting feet, stubby arms, etc. I suppose the design is... inventive... (at least in the torso), and some pieces are nice... but I fin liking this set very difficult. Couple the piece count with the (as predicted) $25 price tag? No thanks. Speeda Demon - Very good looking set. Solidly constructed, with a plethora of recolors and an interesting (though familiar) build. The problem? $35. I get that Witch Doctor was priced at $35 at.. Target... (I don't recall him being that price anywhere else, at least when I bought him), but with him, it was excusable, considering his piece count. With this guy? ...I'm not impressed. Will be skipping unless on sale. Overall this wave is good, though I feel the larger sets are disappointments and the wave itself does not live up to the caliber of sets produced in the winter wave. Looking forward to (ironically) Breez and Thornraxx the most out of all the "summer" sets.

Nope, you're not alone. I think Nex is a fairly good set. On par with Evo and Stringer while being slightly superior to Surge. At least, in my opinion. Currently the only two downsides in my eyes are the white torso (which is far less of a problem due to the orange printing), and the fact that he lacks a hand joint. Other than that, a fairly solid set.

It's a similar issue with Breez; she can't either. I assume they just store them on an armor piece, and if you want them to hold their cuffs, just remove one of their weapons (or, in Nex's case, his blaster). In the TV show they'll likely depict him as having a hand underneath his laser, but in the set... yeah.

Love the way you did Furno giving a thumbs up. Genius.

Try giving him the (convenient) black 2.0 shield. Another reason why I'm ecstatic that the 2.0 shield is being recolored into silver and black. Both are neutral colors that work with any character to create back armor.

Alright, opinion time. Stormer XL looks absolutely horrible. After finally getting a clear, finalized look at the actual set, I know for sure I won't be picking him up. His design looks award, the legs are shoddy and the feet look absolutely ridiculous. The Hulk torso armor doesn't help. Speeda Demon looks excellent, but not enough of a departure from the Furno Bike for me to consider picking it up. An excellent array of pieces, however. XT4 is growing on me, though the grey limbs still look out of place. Looks to have a fairly inventive torso construction, so hooray for that. Nex still looks very well done. Bulk and Core Hunter... Bulk's color scheme still looks off to me, but it's not as glaring as I would have initially thought upon seeing the set from many different angles. His chest printing is also very fitting. Core Hunter, now that we finally get a good look at his design, looks... exactly the same as I presumed he would look. Outstanding. the recolors are many, the color scheme is consistent and very aesthetically pleasing, and the design looks fantastic. My favorite set from the summer wave. Finally, Stringer and Voltix... I'm impressed. While I would prefer for Stringer's regular armor plates to be consistent with his torso, it still looks outstanding. The shoulder armor looks cool, the "gun-guitar" is great, and finally, obviously, the trans-blue chest is glorious. Voltix has definitely improved in my eyes, and has ended up looking like an alright set. Overall, I very much enjoy all of these bar Stormer XL who is a huge disappointment. Currently, due to financial dilemmas, I will likely only be picking up Breez and Thornraxx (who I consider part of the summer wave at this point, and it looks like Lego does as well), as well as Stringer and Core Hunter. Now, bring on the NY Toy Fair!

Opinions in a bit.

So I found this. Not really all to terribly interesting, but regardless. Thought I'd share.

Unfortunate, though I can't say I'm entirely surprised (though for an altogether different reason0. I fully expected Recon Team would either be replaced or discontinued due to how far the Breakout series stretches from their pre-existing template; they would have to completely revise the program in order to accomodate the various different pieces and sizes of the new heroes. And with the parts from the older series being removed from P&B, it was only a matter of time. Never even ordered one.

I'd call Ordeal of Fire the worst, which is understandable, considering they were just getting used to using it. I only find fault with four sets in this wave: Bulk, Stormer XL, XT4, and Nex. Bulk due to his color arrangement (which is, actually, growing on me more and more), Stormer XL not because of the actual set, but because of the piece count for $25 (if he turns out to be $20 I'll have no problems), XT4 due to his spindly limbs, and we haven't even got a really good out of box picture of him yet, and Nex due to his color arrangement, even though I'm liking it more and more by the day. All of the other sets are great IMO.

They're usually the only people that cover Lego at the Nuremberg Toy Fair. We're going to have to wait until the 12th/13th for more pictures or video, sadly. Almost a guaranteed.

Judging from the preliminary catalog pictures, I assume he has the new torso. You can see (if you look at the catalog) the bottom of the torso, and how it's shape is drastically different than the original torso plate. And that's fantastic, because I've been wanting that piece in black for a while now, ever since I held it for the first time.

I predict some Bricklink sellers are going to be getting a lot of business soon At least the parts are still available there. A silver lining for some, I'm sure, though I know quite a few people are wary of buying from Bricklink.

You can't get Thornraxx's head piece, azure limbs, or wings from what I can see, but yes, everything else appears to be available from both sets. Quite good. I think I'll be making an order soon. Very disappointed that they removed quite a few older pieces and did not add any of the cladding from the Ultrabuild range, but oh well. I ezpect we'll see many parts removed from Recon Team soon as well.

Fun fact; contrary to what everyone thinks, just because it started today doesn't mean we'll necessarily see coverage from it immediately. We didn't see coverage from the Lego section last year until the 6th, and even then, it only featured some select few themes, minimal amounts of sets, and no pictures; just shaky-cam footage.

Yeah, all Targets (that I've seen, at least), are selling him for that price. Bit ridiculous, but at least now I know not to buy Splitface from Target if I want him.

I think it's pretty interesting that I think Iron Man is better than any Hero Factory set released in the summer except Core Hunter. Just personal preference, but still. Just love how he's built, bar the silver claw used as back armor. Would have preferred it in gold (even though I never got Nex 3.0 and haven't got Furno, so I don't have that shell in silver... so I can't call it a flaw...).

Sadly, that's basically how the majority of the System community views HF (and how they always viewed BIONICLE) - Too unimportant to care about. Ironic, since HF is actually (arguably) easier to use with System due to its aesthetic style and whatnot. But that's a completely seperate discussion. The likelihood of any fans of HF giving us reports from the Fair is very unlikely. Though, honestly, it's not like we're going to see much this year, considering all of the sets will likely remain exactly the same (just look at the Breakout wave one prelims ). Regardless, looking forward to the Nuremberg Fair, where we'll hopefully see some pictures.

Not at the London Toy Fair, no. Photography is prohibited. And while thee's always the chance of someone sneaking pictures, I'll hazard a guess that the licensed themes will be under lock and key. We'll likely get detailed descriptions, though.

The only reliable clues that there will be a Pirates vs. Ninjas line for Ninjago came from a listing on imdb.com, for the third season of the Ninjago TV series, set to (supposedly) debut in 2013. Here's the purported season's episode list, if you're interested. Based on that, you can safely conclude that if there were any "Pirates vs. Ninjas" sets, they would be released in 2013. I'm not sure how reliable it is, but I suppose there's no way to know for certain until later this year.

Could you please deeplink the picutres so we can see them? Just click them until all you see is the picture on a white background, and copy the URL from there.

The trans-blue armor piece is in there for the same reason a silver Black Phantom helmet, a black Surge helmet, purple bones, a dark red torso, etc. are in there. Lego added a wider variety of pre-set color options to the normal LDD mode now that you can't buy anything. Why? Not sure. But we likely won't be getting those pieces (at least in the summer wave).

-BZPower.com, December 10th, 2011. It's fine if it gets delayed until tommorow, however. Not too sizable of a delay. Eagerly awaiting it.