Mesonak

My personal opinion is that Stormer's retired or something, settled into a teaching job while Furno takes his place as leader of Alpha Team. Seems fitting, considering the direction the story's been going the past three waves.

I still fail to see how a dog/hyena can translate into a shark. Nor how a beetle can translate into a mosquito. <_<

If I recall TLG was asked by someone at Brickfair and responded with something along the lines of "The DC and Marvel Superhero theme is not replacing our Hero Factory line, and there is no end to Hero Factory being forecast currently." Then, multiple people have asked customer service with a general consensus of "Hero Factory is a big seller for us, and there's no reason for us to discontinue the line at present time." -Mesonak

I still don't think these new villains are old ones morphed somehow; Splitface, apart from colors and lower-jaw, bears no resemblance to XPlode or Thunder whatsoever. As pointed out by Aanchir earlier, Thornraxx really doesn't take many design cues from any HF sets prior, and Jawblade isn't like anyone. The only one where I can see what you're talking about is Toxic Reapa, who screams Meltdown+Corroder. And honestly BP's similarity to other villains can most likely be attributed to bad design than anything else. :P I don't really read too much into that 1 hour special deal; my guess is that they're just upgrading the TV special length for the January wave from 30 minutes to an hour. But hey, who knows? You may be right in which case I'll be sad.

I don't get why people call him "another Thunder". All of the qualities of Thunder that you mentioned are not qualities that only Thunder possessed. If we're going to name a set that had metallic colors, was bulky, had "finger-ish things", and had a meteor launcher, then Fire Lord is a Thunder clone. The only thing that even looks like Thunder is the face. Honestly, this is just as bad as calling Jawblade a Fangz repeat when the only thing similar is the head color and that he has trans-red. It makes no sense.

The picture's still available for viewing here, if anyone hasn't seen it. Best to save them in case they're deleted from there too.

I think that's just part of the cover art; notice the zipper motif on the Hero's page. If it is true, however, that's awesome.

I took precautions and backed them up; priority number one this time of year. Heroes Villains

Doing some translating of the text on the catalog pages; just finished with the heroes. It speaks of a new online game, Breakout; you purchase heroes or villains and get points that can be applied towards things in that game. It speaks of new functions in the sets, such as the thornax launcher and handcuffs, as well as the new packaging which is designed to "catch the eyes of consumers and provide a better means of presenting the new functions". Also of note is "Five different missions - each of the heroes battling with a specific villain." Will translate the villains pages now and amend my post. EDIT: Villain pages say nothing new. Well then.

Doubt it; they look more like a type of bag to me. Looks like they'd be ideal for hanging up on racks at stores or sitting down on shelves. I welcome the change.

@Aanchir: If that is the case, then I'm only more excited for Thornraxx. I welcome that color being added to the Hero Factory palette.

First off, I can't thank you enough for the pictures. Right off the bat I can tell you that I did NOT expect the heroes to be designed like that, that's for sure. It's too early to tell if i like the change or not. I welcome the return of their original helmets/glatorian heads, and I can't put into words how much I love Evo and Rocka's new helmets. As far as their actual designs go, I did not expect a third new Hero Core for this wave; that kind of hit me out of left-field. But I love the larger heroes' complexity and color schemes, and I love the pieces on Surge and Evo. Namely Surge 1.0's weapon recolored into a glorious light blue. As for Evo... I can't help but feel a little overwhelmed at his design. Little to no new/recolored parts, and an overall bland design. Though I still adore that helmet. This wave of heroes may be my favorite yet; I loved the animal motif that was present in 3.0, but these guys bring a new sense of originality to the table, while still keeping the system that began with 2.0. Unfortunately, that won't be the last time that I mention 2.0. Black Phantom is do disappointing it can't be put into words, though I should have gussed that any $20 titan couldn't live up to Witch Doctor; whether you hate him or love him, his grandiose design overshadowed those with the Fire Lord design. I had my hopes that they would perfect the design and make a titan worth getting excited about, but alas... few redeeming qualities here, except for his shooter, which I love the design of. I thought the same about Fire Lord when the prelim pics were first revealed, and I've later grown to love Fire Lord as a set and as a character, so I suppose we'll see. I'll hold out hope. As for the minor villains, though, I'm impressed to put it mildly. Everything is here, from complexity of design to uniqueness of themes (really, a shark with fists and swords isn't exactly a cliche ), to new and interesting pieces. Before I give my opinions on these, I wish to point out that Thornraxx has teal limbs and sockets. Purple in Joker and teal in Thornraxx? This is going to be many peoples' dream come true. As far as designs go, I'm impressed; the only one that doesn't strike a chord with me is Splitface. I adore Thornraxx and Toxic Reapa, and the design of Jawblade is spot on. Overall, I had feared that this wave would pale in comparison to Savage Planet, but so far, after looking at a hanfdul of preliminary pictures, I already love the theme, the unique designs, and their parts. Oh, and the cuff piece is awesome. EDIT: After looking at Phantom's profile shot closely, is it absurd to hope that his head remains Mata green?

Superheroes 2012 All the sets look roughly the same as their Comic-con incarnations. The Joker has purple armor; two size 3 armor plates, 2 size 5 armor plates, two of the Surge/Breez/Evo shoulder armor pieces, and two Ben 10 tails in glorious purple. Also a trans-red engine piece. Captain America is the definition of mediocrity. EDIT: Haha, beaten

I think those Dinosaurs are genius; while some will despite them for obvious reasons I enjoy that they look like actual Dinos. That fact alone really helps sell the theme for me. As a whole, however, the vehicles and locations don't impress me too much; I wouldn't say they're bad, just bland.

Parts packs for Hero Factory is all those things are good for; I welcome Joker's purple with open arms Switched the file names both forward and backwards; no Superheroes, or Hero Factory for that matter, yet; all the other themes have been uploaded. Hoping we'll see them soon!

Many thanks for the detailed descriptions; I wish we could see the pictures! The sets sound interesting; the dinosaurs, I'm sure, will be a disappointment for some, but they sound neat to me; of course I will wait to see pictures before I form an opinion, but right now, this theme interests me.

2.0 pictures came out late September last year, and pictures have been discovered roughly around that time for the last couple years. While Lego's obviously gotten better with keeping pictures from leaking, I doubt we'll see a radical change in the pattern.

From my experience, if a list can't be sourced, it's obviously fake. If set listings are on a shop site, however obscure it may be, they're legitimate. Obviously it's not full-proof (for the possible reasons you said), but this particular site has been reputable in the past, hence me believing it so easily. They've also appeared on www.shopping.de; don't feel like linking the individual names so I'll just link Jawblade While good that there's now two sources, still no pictures to be found.

I, unlike most of you, think they did exceptionally well. The majority of the combat was hand-to-hand, which is refreshing; lasers were scarce. I found the jokes and one-liners to be humorous, in stark contrast to their previous series where I did not enjoy them at all (Breez/Surge). The graphics were wonderful, I enjoyed the voice actors of all of the characters, and I found Witch Doctor to be refreshing in terms of his motives and intelligence. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but I consider it on par (and slightly better than) TLR as well as RoTR and OoF. Feels good to be in the minority

I question this as well; the first thing on my agenda when BZPower comes back up is to reach out to Greg (politely, of course) about why updates have been so inconsistent. I have this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that we won't see BIONICLE in 2012 if this pattern continues. =/

Thanks... I suppose They are the same; their execution has improved, however. I think the lines are delivered much better than in previous movies.

Hero Factory: Savage Planet has been uploaded to my youtube channel in high quality.

Well, many thanks for what you were able to provide us with; I'm sure everyone appreciates it.

Many thanks for the update! I was following you with bated breath already after your CM6 reveal

Yes; as I've said, a friend of mine is currently in the process of rendering/uploading a HQ version. It should be uploaded in the coming days, and when it is, I will post it here.