Aanchir

The same color blending effect is visible on the blades in the Fire Lord set. I think the difference there is just that the transparent bright orange is a more "high-energy" color. It's easy to imagine that the flames are heating those "vent" areas to a glowing orange. With the red this effect doesn't seem to work quite as well.

You're not alone in recognizing that there isn't much difference between the final set and the preliminary images everybody hated so much. But that just goes to show how even without signficant changes between preliminary and finalized images, people can get an bad impression from the prelims just by virtue of sloppy cropping, inaccurate textures, and poor rendering or photography. In the case of Black Phantom, if you look at some of the Technic holes on his legs in the preliminary image you can see that they were cropped badly, making them appear far gappier than the finalized set's legs. And while it might have been obvious to some people that the texture of the preliminary helmet was just because it was a rapid-prototyped part and not because it was intended to be some awful new material, other people didn't recognize this at first glance. Since part of the final set's appeal is the uniformity of its smooth, shiny, jet-black armor, this sort of thing could make or break the set in many people's eyes. There are things that bother me about the set as well. While I appreciate the blades on his back, they are a bit unusual, and I don't like how the transparent green parts fail to match. Also, I am a bit frustrated that while he improves on Fire Lord's build in some ways, his legs and feet are almost identical, with his "butt suspension" even more obtrusive than Fire Lord's. In general, I tend to be willing to accept small faults like this, considering the set's budget and the number of improvements it does make. But that doesn't mean that I ignore them.

The cuffs are Titanium Metallic, the same as all the other sets. That color appears darker than gunmetal to me IRL. So I'm guessing it's just the lighting that makes them look lighter (you can compare them in the instruction booklet to the swords which use Silver Metallic, which I guess is the "herosteel" color you're referring to). Anyway, great review! I'm very fond of Breez's set design. The color layering is a bit wonky on her upper legs and lower arms, but in general I like her color scheme and how it's organized. I also like many of the design decisions like the bubble shoulders (very Samus Aran), the 1.0 Hero feet, and the chest pattern. In general the design reminds me of this MOC that I find so impressive. The main thing I would change upon getting the set would be to adjust her thigh shells so they both face forward. I think having them face to the side makes her look bowlegged, and having them at different angles from one another is just a bit wonky-looking on a figure this tall. Actually, the height is another thing I'm unsure about in general, and I'd want to see how she would look at a more traditional Hero height as well. Admittedly in these pictures she looks a lot better than I had feared she'd look. Like the MOC I linked, I'd also find some 3M Technic beams to fill in the gaps in the feet. The combi model of her and Thornraxx is very weird, and essentially looks like a mutated Thornraxx. It's nowhere near as imaginative as the combi models for Rocka and Black Phantom, or Surge and Splitface. Your combi is much more unique-looking, although the color scheme, as mentioned, is craaaazy. Thanks so much for reviewing this set!

My younger brother has the same frustration, although I do remembevr a lot of parts where the pistons could be used as attachment points for clips, including Lewa's axe and the Vahki back/chest piece. Does the top have the same gappiness in the midsection that the bottom has? I saw a video review, and I found this greatly reduced my interest in the set. Thankfully your review has greatly restored my interest in this set! This feature is just plain awesome. Overall, this is a great review of a great set! I look forward to getting it!

Well, we have various pics of Stormer from the Breakout video clips, as well as this one which, while preliminary, has somewhat clearer detail. A tank isn't the sort of vehicle "Speeda Demon" brings to mind, for me, but I have to admit that would be an awesome type of vehicle to see in Hero Factory. Whatever his design, I'd expect the box to have the same icy backdrop as Stormer's, and admittedly most of the vehicles the name brings to mind for me are street vehicles that wouldn't make any sense at all in so much snow and ice!

So many people are saying that, it confuses me. It's a decent MOC, but the color scheme is a bit disjointed and I thought people usually preferred non-humanoids over humanoids. I think the official Surge/Splitface combi model is one of the better ones, myself, even if it leaves lots of unused pieces. Sometimes I wonder if TLG deliberately makes some of their combi models have a lot of unused pieces, to encourage kids to make their own creations with the leftover parts and any other parts in their collections. But it's more likely to avoid the "throwing on extras" effect that sometimes occurs in MOCs and combi models, where parts are added not because they're helpful to the model but rather just so that those parts get used somewhere.

I've read that the Coelophysis, at least, is a more rubbery material. Not that that's necessarily an inferior material-- from what I've read it's actually more expensive for TLG to produce parts in that material than to produce them in ABS.

Splitface is a very well-designed set, and there are many parts of him I like: The tasteful, well-balanced asymmetry The brilliant design of his claw hand His stylish color scheme (unlike many who I'm sure have grown tired of red Hero Factory parts, I can't get enough of them! His simple but effective laser blaster The only design decision on Splitface I don't understand is why his laser beam is Transparent Fluorescent Green rather than Transparent Bright Green, which would better match his face color and Zamor Sphere. Perhaps the fluorescent color was chosen because it is glowier, but in that case I wonder why it wasn't also used for his head piece. Not sure if I'll be getting Splitface, as he's one of the simpler villain designs next year, but he's also one of the more stylish ones, so he's somewhere on my wish list for sure. Also one ironic thing I noticed is that even without all the comparisons to Two-Face, his name in French is exactly the same as Two-Face's. I wonder how they got away with that.

Technically, the translucent blue used here is the same color as the transparent blue of a Kaukau. The difference is that because this piece is not polycarbonate, it doesn't have that glassy look that we typically associate with transparent pieces. The instructions don't make any distinction based on what material a part is, only its color. But thankfully TLG has taken to exercising great care when rendering the box art of sets so that they can't be accused of false advertising in this regard. Anyway, great review! I had been kind of meh about Surge for a while, but after seeing several reviews including one video review he's one of the Heroes I'm most looking forward to getting, along with Breez. Evo and Furno are also on my list, but my twin brother got the 2.0 Evo and Furno sets, so I think he's going to want those himself. Changes I would have made would have been to give him back armor like Rocka and to change the lightning bolts on his chest to bright yellowish green, as well as possibly giving him bright blue hands instead of bright yellowish green ones. I have a fondness for lime and blue, but the fact that his arms and hands are almost completely lime is a bit overpowering. Overall, though, I like his depiction in this set. His color layering maintains the "boots and tights" superhero look that Furno and Breez have, but without the white that for some reason so many people seem to hate. Additionally, extrapolating from that, his lime arms and hands make it look like his shoulders are muscular and his costume lacks sleeves, which for some reason I feel suits his personality. Maybe I'm just generalizing based on his penchant for street slang in Ordeal of Fire, but he just gives me the impression of a slick, athletic basketball roboball player. Thanks so much for the review and the excellent photos!

Actually, the reason I'm most familiar with is to make the building easier. Brightly-colored pieces are easier to distinguish between, both in the building instructions and in the pile of pieces builders tend to work from just after opening a set. If it were a matter of cost, then all interior pieces would be colored the same (cheapest) color, not an assortment of vibrant colors. Anyway, this review is very good, and gives me a great perspective on the new set. It would be great to see a side by side comparison of where this set is stronger or weaker than the previous set. But overall, TLG has demonstrated IMO that they will continue to improve on older set designs even when those set designs were groundbreaking in their own ways.

It has been used in non-metallic colors before: in Dark Stone Grey for Carapar, in Earth Blue for Krekka, and in Earth Green for Toa Mahri Kongu. All the ones from the Rahkshi, though, are in metallic (pearl) colors. The Rahkshi are the only sets in which many of those colors appear. Metallic Black and Metallic White appear in the widest variety of sets-- Metallic Black, for instance, is the color of the Kanohi Kraahkan from the original Makuta set.

Ummm... no. They didn't. They're clipped to the outside of his right leg. The only reason they look like they're between his legs is because they dangle behind it. Stormer XL is pretty awesome, but I'd have to see the final set to gauge whether I like the design. It'll definitely take some warming up to since I'm already a bit iffy about the medium-sized Hero sets.

It was probably left online so that people could access the Kek Powerizer Tech Support. The LEGO Interactive site (the old site for LEGO video games) was also online as of October of this year. Since it's been taken down now, I can only assume the Galidor site will follow in time.

Just asking for general tips is a bit broad. Are there specific types of things you're interested in MOCing? Is there a certain size of model you're most comfortable with? Identifying those things could be the first step to actually producing MOCs that make you happy.

Even more technically, they're only gargoyles if they spit water when it rains. Ones that don't spit water are called "grotesques". I think the bat people are more likely to be mutant slaves of Dracula or something. You know, because of the whole bat-vampire connection. But that's just my opinion.

Hmmm, you're right. I hadn't noticed him in that lineup. I'm a bit worried how he'll look with the blue, based on that pic. I had hoped that having his entire torso piece blue was just preliminary, but here it looks finalized. The way his color scheme is arranged seems out-of-place next to Stormer and the first-wave heroes. I'm more than a little disappointed that not one but two summer heroes appear in the TV special from the looks of things, and yet Breez gets dropped. I just don't understand the reasoning there. And it makes me worry that perhaps there will only be one TV special for the 2012 sets, and that Breez, Nex, and Bulk will be completely omitted. Of course, it's also entirely possible that for some reason TLG and the scriptwriters decided they wanted a team of six for this special, and the heroes here were chosen just for color scheme reasons. But that still doesn't totally make sense to me, since it leaves unanswered the question of how a TV episode would then advertise the omitted heroes, unless they plan to reuse three heroes between the episodes. If they were to do that, the reused heroes would probably be Stormer, Furno, and Rocka... but would they really do something like that and take the spotlight away from the new sets they plan to advertise? I've basically lost touch with TLG's reasoning with this thing. I just pray that whatever it is doesn't depend on Breez being completely removed from the TV episode or episodes for 2012.

I'm going to be bothered by Stringer's color scheme from a continuity perspective, but I'm sure he'll still look OK with it and fit his motif well enough. It's not as though orange is a color closely associated with sonic/musical powers. On that note, I hope his chest pattern, along with the others in his wave, does, in fact, reflect his original element/theme. That's a trait I liked about the first wave of Breakout. Breez is the only possible exception, but her chest pattern is awesome enough and matches her set design well enough that I don't mind.

Received Kai's Blade Cycle and Jay's Storm Fighter as Christmas gifts, and I'm very happy. Both of them have brilliant action features, although at first they can be a bit glitchy. Kai's Blade Cycle always seems to need certain parts adjusted, since the pressure of the parts against each other can weaken connections or cause certain parts to collide after a lot of use. Jay's Storm Fighter is better, but with both sets it helps to wiggle the hinge points as much as possible before use-- on Jay's Storm Fighter in particular, one of my wings tended to have more friction than the other, but now I've got it so both wings open completely at about the same speed. Another thing about Jay's Storm Fighter-- if the nose is angled up, the wings tend to open all the way. If the nose is angled down, they don't without some assistance from the Hand of God, since they have to open against the force of gravity. Also, I love the shop.LEGO.com images of the new sets, but I'm disappointed that there are no pics of the Destiny's Bounty fully transformed, with the tail spikes and engines angled down. The 360-degree spin of Destiny's Bounty is great, though. It really shows the set to be cohesive from all sides, and it remains near the top of my wish list.

Great review! I really like this set, and look forward to getting him. His color scheme works really well IMO, although I think I'd have preferred his hands in bright blue, perhaps along with his sphere. I'd also have liked if the lightning bolt pattern on his torso were in bright yellowish green rather than bright yellow, although others might disagree. For me, the 2.0 color schemes hold more nostalgia than the 1.0 color schemes, since the 2.0 sets had their colors so organized and consistent. Which isn't to say I dislike the variety in how today's color schemes are arranged, such as Surge's lime shell pieces. If I were to get this set, I'd also happily add a bright blue foot to a Pick-A-Brick order in order to add some back armor. In general, though, I like how imaginative this set is despite being at the lowest price point, and I definitely think the design suits Surge's personality a great deal.

I'm not hugely convinced the purple is still needed in his color scheme, but if it is added he does feel a lot more like his previous version. After adding it, I think it helps even further to change his head color to Transparent Fluorescent Blue (the color used for the original Preston Stormer, Vapour, and several 2009 BIONICLE sets) and change the color of his Zamor Sphere to blue. Acidophilus did in his revamp, and I think it makes the purple flow with the set's color scheme a lot better!

The updated version looks much, much better! Now THIS is a revamp! IMO your version is immensely better than the set in many ways. If I were to get the set, I'd happily change the sphere and head color the same way you have, and perhaps add some purple spikes to the arm if I were to buy some extras. The only change I'm still uncertain about is the additional torso armor, but overall the end result is at least as good as the original set, and the changes make him feel a lot more like his previous version.

That new mini-comic is the cheesiest I've read since I think the "Dinosaurs" comic from 2001. I have to agree, the comics are really slipping, and I'm hoping that my suspicions are correct and this one is NOT based on the TV episodes. If it is, all my hopes for the upcoming TV special (besides of course its Totally Legit CGI) have finally been dashed. Or maybe not. After all, the Savage Planet(z? 2?) comic was miraculously even worse than the episodes, since it lacked any of the meaningful character development moments and had a lot of the corny dialogue kept in. The Surge vs. Splitface and Furno vs. Jawblade videos look OK... dialogue seems cruddy and the fight scenes are somewhat slow, but at least there are lots of cool effects. It's getting to the point where those are the only redeeming quality of the episodes... but hopefully I'll be proven wrong. In the very least if I go into this with low expectations, I might be less disappointed than I was with Savage Planet... Yeah, I'm getting the feeling Breez and Thornraxx will both be completely absent from the new Hero Factory TV special. If there's a summer special, I hope those two get their chance in the spotlight along with all the summer Hero Factory characters. The Hero Factory Breakout game looks interesting. The graphics seem only OK, but hopefully the gameplay is more satisfying than the games we've had so far. I am hard to keep entertained for a long time when it comes to video games, though, so even if the gameplay is somehow worse, I'm sure some people will be able to enjoy it more than me. I notice that the common collectible items in it are 4M bones, rather than the studs common in many LEGO games or the gears in BIONICLE Heroes. Overall, 2012 Hero Factory is a mixed bag, but the sets are exciting, and for me that's what counts the most.

I think it's more a case of both the writers for Ben 10 and LEGO being inspired by a very obvious three-letter pun that's been used for decades. A gold ninja would be crazy-cool, though I would rather them stick with the vibrant primary colors they've currently got. On a related note, I wonder if the green ninja will be regular green (TLG's Dark Green) or Bright Green. I'd perhaps prefer Bright Green, myself. TLG's been using it a lot more in several recent themes, and I'm fond of it. On a related note, I wonder if there will be any sets with the classic ninja cowl in green or if that will remain a collector's item. Sadly I think the latter is more likely the case, since everything we've seen of the Green Ninja (besides Sensei Wu's scroll and the packaging of the spinner sets) shows him in the ZX form.

I really like the white, myself. It reminds me of this lovely MOC (which ironically managed to predict several aspects of the new Breez including the white Hero Core, 1.0 helmet, and 1.0 feet). Granted, one thing I very much dislike about the new Breez is that her armor (in most of the pics I've seen) has the two white leg shells at different angles-- I would have had both with the System pin holes facing forward. Additionally, I would probably prefer her without any lower arm cladding, since that way her color layering is slightly more consistent. In general, Breez is one of my favorite Hero sets from the next wave, but like other people I'm not totally happy with her. My pet peeves just seem to be different than many people's.

Not too fond of this revamp, personally. I think the asymmetry of Evo's "tank arm" is one of the best things about the set, making him very unique compared to other heroes both past and present. Additionally, I feel the spikes detract from his streamlining, especially the ones on his feet which don't even match his color scheme. And finally, I had a soft spot for the regular Evo set's proportions. The longer legs are something that bothers me a bit on the new "medium-sized" Hero sets, so I'm happy that the sets aren't going through a comprehensive BIONICLE-style size increase as the years go on. In some ways the titanium metallic armor piece on the back bothers me, but then again it looks great as a backpack, jetpack, or some other type of Hero gear. Speaking of which, what happened to his hero cuffs? Changes I don't mind and even kind of like include giving him back his old Hero Core, even though it means doing away with that lovely techy pattern on his torso. The purple spikes on the tank arm also aren't as obtrusive as those on the knees and feet, even though it would be even cooler if a purple Zamor Sphere existed to match! I am also glad you left the tank arm as it was. One last question: do you have a transparent fluorescent blue Glatorian head, and if so, how does he look with that? I think that would much better match the color of his Hero Core and accents than the transparent fluorescent reddish-orange one does.