Mesonak

^Ditto. Also, very nice pictures of Black Phantom, Front! Looks like a very well made set. On that note, he and the other sets I ordered should be arriving in the mail in the coming days, and I'll be sure to give my opinions when he arrives. :D

Thanks for letting me know - fixed. And it's on the main page of http://herofactory.lego.com.

There are three things that struck me after watching that video. 1. ALL villains escape. Not just the Breakout crew. Among others, I spotted Witch doctor, Von Nebula, Fire Lord, Jetbug, Meltdown, Corroder, Xplode, Nitroblast, two Fangz (which makes no sense), and hilariously enough, a reused Furno 2.0 model. Whether they will be brought up in the plot is another question entirely, but it's nice to know they're out roaming around too. 2. Stormer's new form, likely to be a summer set. Things I've noticed are a new "ice-like' armor accessory, Hulk's chest piece with an awesome looking ice pattern, size 4 shells in white, snd size 4 shells in blue. Looks like a good set, much better than Hulk. 3. The purple armored villain. Of note are what look to be new armor shells, the new chestplate in purple without printing, and purple Mahri tubes. Looks like a cool set. Overall, my feelings on the clip itself? They increased my expectations for Breakout, so let's hope the actual movie doesn't disappoint. EDIT: Uploaded a snapshot of both the Purple Villain and Stormer "4.0" for those that wish to see. EDIT #2: Added a picture which shows some of the new villain's design elements, such as his back attachment, head design, and red armor on the lower legs.

Well, there is a "Buy $49 worth of merchandise and get free shipping" deal as well. It's just a matter of if you have that money to spend or not. Regarding Walmart, yeah, Walmart notoriously gets the sets the last of any major retail store. Usually, for me at least, it goes Toysrus first, Target second, everyone else third... and Walmart last.

She does. Green 1.0 foot. Not too sure how I feel about that, but hey, it's armor.

It's not that the color itself is new, but that that piece (with the remolded sockets) has never appeared in the color "red" before. :) Great review, have to say. Very in depth, with good quality photography. Seeing the set reviewed in this manner actually made my opinions on Jawblade change a great deal; I'll consider picking him up at some point.

Huh, so all of the heroes' chestplate designs will be printed... Not too sure how I feel about that. I'm very glad to see that the old chestplate does work with the new torso armor, and looks pretty awesome too. Makes me excited for all the possiblities. Evo looks great as always, and the Toxic Reapa/Evo combiner actually looks pretty awesome. Welcome change after viewing SplitSurge.

Any chance of pictures and/or a review? They'd be much appreciated by many

Surge, Jawblade, and Toxic Reapa were initially posted on the website, and the day after, Rocka, Evo, and Black Phantom were added. They were then taken down two or three days later.

I'd say we're pretty satisfied; it's just the fact that this IS the time of year when new pictures are released, and as such, they're prime candidates for discussion and theories every December. -Mesonak

Savage Planet pictures were leaked early Christmas Morning 2010, and that time has remained roughly consistent over the last few years for new set pictures. Pictures of other themes were leaked several days earlier. So, hopefully history will repeat itself. I'm actually very eager to see the summer wave, mainly because I'm interested in seeing if it's going to be a continuation of the Breakout theme featuring the unused heroes in the Winter lineup (Stormer, Stringer, Bulk, and Nex) as well as a new character, or if it will be a new setting and theme entirely. Only a matter of time, now.

That's likely TRU's usual markup, from all reports they will be $14.99 elsewhere. Honestly, I'm not too sure if I'll be picking these up. I think it would be in my best interest to bricklink the specific parts I want from all three rather than paying for the actual sets. I'll have to think it over. :/

Recently found some early pictures of the sets in their packaging on a spanish shop site; compiled them into my gallery here, along with the finalized packaging. Not really anything extraordinary (and they're all really bad quality), but what the hell, I'll post them anyways. Some notable things are that Furno doesn't have his tubes, his trans-red armor piece on his right shoulder used to be normal red, some sets (Evo) use the old Hero Core design, Surge's gun used to be bright yellow, none of the heroes have their now-present chest detailings, and there are minor coloration oddities here and there with pieces. Also, the "Breakout' game image used to be a cool image of Rocka with handcuffs instead of Black Phantom smashing through a wall. Kind of interesting cause it's also like that on his box here. Interesting how I never saw that. Regarding the whole "Breakout: Sold Seperately" discussion, that's probably just Toysrus's way of letting consumers know that the game is not included in the set. There's also a good chance the people that wrote the description for TRU's site don't know that Breakout is a game you play online. Course if it turns out to be a retail release I wouldn't mind in the least. Would probably be a better game for it. Finally, the sets are gone from TRU. Not sure why, but yeah. Also, Tank Arm? That's awesome.

Jawblade, Surge, and Toxic Reapa are on Toysrus.com, being sold in stores and online, for $9.99. An increase in price from what I had expected, but hopefully it's just TRU's usual markup.

Couldn't be farther from the truth; apparently, the spinners sold incredibly well. It is the game that they're selling them for, after all, not the figures. So if kids like the game, its understandable why they would sell well.

I sincerely hope I'm misunderstanding your post, because it sure sounds like you just swore off from buying any Hero Factory 1H 2012 sets because of a one pin hole altered Thornax Launcher that looks almost exactly the same as the Thornax Launcher and functions identically. Please tell me I'm wrong?

The good thing is, regarding Reapa's lower legs, it's not that difficult to fix. I plan on adding his lower arm armor to his lower legs using the two of that piece I picked up from Drilldozer. I think it will improve his overall look. Also, a theory of mine regarding Reapa's hero core is that since the codes for the "Breakout" game are printed on the back of the hero cores, perhaps all of the villains (who have points for said game advertised on their packaging) contain a hero core in order to have their points? It would make sense.

I'd be lying if I said I was impressed by either of them, but I still do have reserved hope due to the fact that the posing (and lighting) in these pictures is sub-par at best. I think Reapa will actually look very good when posed correctly (hunched, not straight) and without the obnoxious white hero core. Jawblade, sadly, has not caused my opinions toward him to shift. Ever since the first pictures were released I've praised his design (albeit very cluttered), but lamented the lack of recolored/new pieces and the dull color scheme. Looking upon the finalized set, my opinions haven't changed, though I do spot the recolored Furno blades and red sockets. There's not enough there to catch my interest, but as usual, I'm going to wait to have the sets in-hand (or for decent pictures to surface) before I condemn anyone.

The color isn't keetorange, it's the same color that Evo 2.0 used earlier this year. I will admit though, the recent CGI picture of Evo does make it look like the keetorange color. But the rest of the pictures released thus far, combined with the pieces released in the set (size 4 yellow armor only, hand) are already available in normal yellow, but not in keetorange. Regarding the whole gun arm conversation: I prefer the arm as it is designed now, because it symbolizes to me that it is an entirely robotic arm complete with launcher in place of hand, not just bulky armor and a hand holding a gun.

Yeah, just saw those on BZP. I'm guessing none of the other sets' pictures are out yet? I was looking for Thornraxx and Splitface to no avail. Black Phantom's upper torso worries me, and so Does Reapa's entire torso. But other than that, looking good so far. -Mesonak

I assume he means that the remolded sockets will be released in later production waves of the winter sets, like with Jetbug, which is a shame, but understandable. It does mean however that I will hold off on purchasing several sets until the sockets have been remolded, because the news that the Shadow Matoran feet and possibly the Glatorian heads would be getting a redesign at all made me want several sets I were previously indifferent towards. :) Would you still be able to acquire the remolded sockets through customer support upon release of the sets, or would that not be possible until they have become widespread?

Yeah; they're sets in the summer wave, so it stands to reason we won't see finalized pictures of them... until we see finalized pictures of summer sets. Like at ToyFair.

Wow. That does not give me a good feeling; I've enjoyed all of the comics thus far, but I hope that the rest of the comic isn't as badly paced as the first page. HS01 also has a picture of the cover right here. Interesting, though not one of my favorite cover designs. -Mesonak

Agreed. That would be. Make it happen, Lego. And yeah, we're all waiting for the shaky-cam footage. Not necessarily because anybody thinks you're making it up, but mainly because it would be definitive proof and would be enough to verify it. -Mesonak

Black Phantom uses a standard bone piece with one pin hole in red, with a new gray "extender" piece used on the Ultrabuild heroes' upper legs - Check Batman, Joker, and Green Lantern's upper legs and you'll see this piece. it clips onto the end of the bone piece to slightly extend the limb's length. I'm sure there are other uses for the piece as well and I can't wait to try it out. -Mesonak