Shakar

Once again, good work Gatanui! I'm looking forward for more set reviews from you in the future, your pictures are nothing short of gorgeous. Still not sure what to think about the short gun arm. It's not that bad IMO, since it creates a gun-arm fusion effect. However, Rocka made it work far better since the shortness was compensated by the width of the crossbow. I knew the rocket launcher attachment sucked since Toy Fair, and you just confirmed it. At least it moves up and down. Still, they could've used a more poseable design, not to mention a more aesthetically pleasing one: between the awkward Technic pieces and the red stuff, it looks plainly ugly. A good build they could have taken inspiration from, IMO, is Iron Man's gun mount. That is what I modeled the revamped attachment I'm going to use on my Bulk after. On the figure itself, while I would've wished for more silver (and I'm going to fix that on my set), I admit he looks very cool and he finally manages to truly live to his name. I really like the gold accents, in particular- I would've never thought of putting them, but they're such a great touch actually. Aside from the rocket launcher issues, the biggest problem has to be those out of place black feet, like Voltix. Seriously, what the hell? The boot look is completely thrown out of the window that way.

Figured as much. Otherwise the space between the foot and the shell holes woild be too small for the shin armour to connect...I guess?Ooh Bulk, can't wait.

Another great review Gatanui! I'm happy people are giving Voltix a second chance. Personally, I always liked him. His sole problems, IMO, are the lower arms (too short+lack of hands) and the black feet (which should be titanium metallic, that goes for the third one on his back too). Can you tell me which bone is used for his lower legs? The one with one hole (Stormer 2.0), or the one with 2 holes (this year's mid size sets)? He'd look better with the longer bones (as in, taller and more imposing), but with the shorter ones he would become an even better parts pack. Actually, is the belly bottom look he, Bulk and Core Hunter sport (thanks to the new armour piece) even possible with the Stormer 2.0 lower legs? I've been thinking about this for a while.

And so the legend of Evo and his hilariously formal lines continues.Reapa looks much more badass than the set.

Great review Gatanui! I always liked Stringer (well, once I got past the orange vs blue issue- I actually think I prefer blue now), but your photos made me like him even more. I just love how consistent the sonic theme is kept throughout the model (I'd argue he looks much more "elemental" than most Toa, but I digress), and of course the whole figure is very cool looking. My favourite photo is probably this one, he looks like a calm, observant warrior, ready to shoot down the enemy (much like he does at 0:16). I also love the last pic with Voltix. The sole problems are the lack of armour on the back (nothing a blue foot from PaB can't solve!), that mischievous red pin and the instability of the sonic blaster (Aanchir proposed a nice, alternate design in this photo comments). Can't wait for Voltix (from the pics, he looks great)! You mentioned you own 4 sets, which are the other 2? I saw Bulk in a Voltix photo, so which is the last one?

I can't believe somebody had my same exact idea to use megaphones on Reapa'arms o____o Anyway, very cool reapint. Though I'd replace those minifig arms on the hand with Exo Force robot arms and something other to give the fingers some shape/size (viking claws?).

I can see the new torso being used in tandem with a larger one with mid size sets, much like half of this year's Ultrabuild line sets (which, BTW, I hope is going to continue in 2013- they introduced so many nice pieces and building techiniques). And, like Aanchir said a few pages back, the new torso could possibly signify the return of small (5-6 Euro) sets. But I think the concept I mentioned above is more likely to be used in future sets than this one. Of course, the new torso also opens up to more slender, less humanoid creatures, like more insects or sea creatures. *coughIhopeRampantOceansisntfakecough* Or birds. What was the last bird constraction set we had, Gukko? I'm a bit mixed about the combiners, but I do think they're better than the Winter ones, and the Stormer-SD one at the very least looks pretty cool.

Yeah, Nex is arguably the worst one in the piece department. He would've been more worthwhile if he had 5M orange shells, but it seems he's destined to not have them or something. Out of extra sets, I was planning to get Stringer (a plethora of rare/new/cool pieces: narrow torso, amp armour, silver MTIS, silver plasma gun parts, black hands, blue Glat head), Voltix (lilac stuff, new lightning pieces, new boot/shoulder pad pieces, red redesigned ball sockets, narrow torso..) and Core Hunter (black Breakout torso, bandolier, black MTIS, sole set to include the new boot/shoulder pad armour in black, black Raw Jaw paws, red 3.0 claws)... ..but XT4 is also worthwhile (if only for the new torso, the rare black 6M shells, the yellow feet and the giant saw), so is Stormer (LOTS of stuff- the recoloured blades, the scout drones, the new ankle liftarm, the new double cup, SIX friction joints, the cool sticker sheet, the new feet, dark bley torso). So I'm thinking of giving up on extra Core Hunter and buy another Stormer instead. He seems like the more useful one in terms of parts.

How stable is that shell on the back of CH? In the quick MOC I made it moved a lot. Once the sets are out everywhere, I bet Voltix is finally going to get his deserved praise. Two people (we know of) got him so far, and both approved of him.

@ Gatanui So, which is your favourite?

So, I tried the Core Hunter design IRL, and I have to say: why? I can't understand why they didn't use the new liftarms in Stormer's ankles to attach the back armour. The Drilldozer bone creates an unstable, ever moving connection, not to mention that random uncovered ball joint. Even if you fill that with a 3M shell, it still looks akward. And I can't even tweak/fix that because only Stormer and Speeda Demon include that piece. Frustrating.

I guess those lasers match with his Zamor whatever that sphere is supposed to be this time (plasma?). They would've looked better in tr bright green, however. I'm disappointed with CH's back armour attachment..wouldn't the new O hole-ball joint-O hole liftarm have worked better? Or maybe not, I don't know. Man, the shots are so random, and he goes over so many little details..it's frustrating. I'll wait for better reviews.

Wow, Bulk is beautiful. The rocket launcher attachment is better than I thought, but I'm still going to revamp it my way. Next is Core Hunter. I guess he'll get the highest number of views It's up..did he really say the claw weapons are new?

I removed that piece entirely. I get what they were trying to do, but it just looks...bad. Too wide- heck, it would look bad even on a female figure I reckon. This the problem of maaaaaaaaaaaaany video reviews. They focus too much on the box (Why should I care? Just show the front, the sides and the back. One minute tops) and the pieces (just show the new ones, no need to show, say, blue 5M shells) and not enough on the building and the model.

Amazing reviews. I was nearly drooling at Stormer's back box shot. Stringer looks so nice. The combiner looks pretty cool too- Voltix helmet with Stringer's blue Glatorian head looks amazing. Back on Stringer, the clash between solid blue and tr. blue is worse than I thought. Ah well. Speeda, with his arms posed like that, kinda looks like a chinese dragon. I guess they were going for a eastern look for him, what with the giant katana and the horns. I like how the bike looks, but I wish it had some form of kickstand like the Furno Bike did. Seeing it falling off repeatedly was annoying. Stormer..eh, I haven't watched the whole video yet. But I am happy he uses stickers- maybe I'll try to buy an extra sticker sheet off BL so I can decorate the rest of his body. Whaat, did he call Stormer's build "horrible"? I realize not everybody is going to like it, but come on, it's pretty clever using two torsos like that. Anyway, I think he looks amazing. I was surprised the dark bley torso has wide shoulders, unlike Hulk (the "secondary torso bone" had narrow shoulders). Oh look, he posted Voltix too! I think he looks wonderful, haters gonna get electryfied hate. Yeah, I'm editing this post as I watch the reviews. It's a wonderful flow of unrestrained thoughts.

Just make sure to do picture reviews- there are already lots of people doing video reviews over YT, and pic reviews provide lots of pretty pictures to save in my folder.

So it is 100% confirmed, Stormer XL is 19.99 Euro and Speeda Demon is 29,99 Euro in Europe. Sets are showing up, good. Hopefully they'll pop out on Ebay soon at the very least..and maybe on S@H too (but, seeing the 3.0 sets delay compared to Germany, I fear that won't happen). I wish we had pics with secondary poses for the sets, especially for sets like Stormer and XT4. At this point, I guess I'll wait for some good reviews to pop out.

The villain is pretty cool, though. But a "sworn enemy of Black Phantom"? Lol no. He's pretty pathetic compared to His Black Armoured Horned Mace Weilding French Highness.

All right. The left arm is slightly different due to a mod I'm thinking of doing. And of course, I had to come up with some pathetic replacements for the shin guards and the helmet. As for the back armour, I realize that method wouldn't be stable IRL, but as far LDD is concerned that will do until we see what the real set uses (likely going to be the new hole-ball joint-hole liftarm from Stormer XL, but I digress). BTW, I didn't see the pic (I choose to not load pics on my phone) on your previous post. Cool stuff! How did you colour the torso?

Most definitely. Jetpacks, giant guns, trans. visors, creepy tentacled abominations and what rti not. Sorta like the Toa Phantoka as far as Heroes are concerned, but better. I know HF can pull it off. And totally unrelated, the more I see Core Hunter the more I think he'd look better with 1.0 feet. I tried building a sample of him with LDD, he looks good IMO.

Those look great. I already got an extra Reapa however, and I'm not sure if I need another one for now. I'll wait for a sale. I really hope they do the same thing with Glatorian heads.

I loved "Hero Factory Ride Along". Maybe because it reminds me so much of Death Valley, for some reason. With a title like that, I thought "Heroes Don't Get Paid" would have been really funny, but it was rather mediocre. Haven't watched the rest yet.

Yeah, I got mixed up. I'm talking about the tr. orange hue the Barraki eye from Stormer 2.0 comes in. I'm pretty fond of that colour and I'd like to see more of it, especially in Hero Factory.

4L bar in trans yellow and tr. flame yellowish orange. I'm surprised those don't exist yet, especially the former. I was going to say trans clear and tr. reddish orange too, but they do exist, it's just that they're absurdly rare. So, I'd like those ones to become more common. Also, this in bright red.

Story wise, I'm ambivalent. BIONICLE had an epic story full of myths, but I agree it became increasingly hard to follow. The books never appeared in Italy, at that. And I didn't like the movies that much, though I haven't seen the fourth one. HF story is certainly less dark and epic, but I appreciate its lighthearted feeling that makes it closer to most other Lego themes. Setwise, 2010 HF < BIONICLE, 2011 HF = BIONICLE (2011 HF would've won if I liked 3.0 as much as 2.0), 2012 HF utterly stomps BIONICLE for the reasons others have stated. As far as building systems are concerned, HF's beats BIONICLE's. No doubts whatsoever. On a whole, I say that I prefer HF these days.