93 replies to this topic

[Hapori Tohu]

This morning I was at the Jacob K. Javits Center to check out the 2012 LEGO lineup. We're starting off our coverage this year with probably the favorite line amongst our members - Hero Factory! Read on to check out what's coming later this year!

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[Sumiki]

Voltix looks terrible, but I can't wait for Thornraxx. Speeda Demon, while afflicted with stupid name syndrome, also looks sweet.

Overall, not extremely impressive, but not disappointing either.

[Toa Xemnas of Crystal]

Love those pics! I think Stringer is my favorite hero of this wave, mostly due to his weapon. Also, XT4 looks spindly... not good at all.

[Takanuinuva]

All the sets have me interested. Here is my takes on each of them

Nex: nice helm resembles his 2.0 helm very closely. Wish his chest was orange instead of white.

Stringer: First orange then keetorange and now blue. Seems like someone can't decide on a secondary color XP.
Anyways his design is cool as well. I really hope he has a silver ice shield.

Bulk: this one has me confused. I can't tell if his chest armor is in silver or gunmetal since his 1.0 helm has the lighter silver and the 3.0 paw pieces on his shoulders seem to be that color as well. I'm hoping for a silver 4.0 chestplate and with stringer I hope that ice shield is silver.

Stormer XL: New titan build yay! Now about the set. Cool design. Now thanks to those grey extra friction extenders we won't be seeing any more double connected limbs in titan builds anymore. Feet design is interesting. Dont' like the sword that much. Silver shoulder and arm parts look like they would make cool jetpacks. And Stormer Xl appears to have stickers on his chest and on some of his right leg armor pieces. I can tell its stickers cause I see sticker boundaries on his chest.


Now on to the villians

Core hunter: Really sweet design. I hope I see a black ice shield in there. Head kinda reminds me of kopaka mata's old mask. The use of the black 3.0 claw hands as shoulder armor is cool too

XT4: This one is kinda hit and miss. I think he has new parts for his torso. but that may just be the skinnier 2.0 torso part that was on Stormer 2.0 and Rocka 3.0. The weapons are wierd. He looks like meltdown but horribly disfigured. Still he has some cool parts so I'll still pick him up

Voltix: Talk about electric. This guy captures the (I can control electricity) vibe. While the colors are a bit jumbled. The varity of parts makes him a must buy for me.

Speeda Demon: Wow just Wow. I'm loving the bike design. Its like Furno's bike but turned evil. The figure on the bike. (I assume is the one named Speeda Demon) Looks just cool. The green and gold works well together. Shame that Lego didn't decide to pit him against Furno. I would love to see those two bikes clash together.

These sets are definitly getting my money. I can't wait for summer


On an unrelated note This is how I would have put the matches between the heroes and villians

Black Phantom Vs Stormer XL: Titan build vs Titan build

Speeda Demon Vs Furno: Clash of the bike riders

Voltix Vs Surge: electricity battle

Core hunter Vs Rocka: The Newbie vs a hero core collector

Xt4 vs Nex: No problems with this matchup

Jawblade Vs Stringer: Sound would be a good weapon to use underwater

Thornraxx Vs Breez: No problems with this matchup

Toxic Reapa Vs Evo: No problems with this matchup

Splitface Vs Bulk: Bulk`s 4.0 design seems space like

Edited by takanuinuva, Feb 12 2012 - 07:31 PM.

[Evex_Wolfwing]

GUYS GUYS!

I just realized.

Core Hunter's head looks like a Collector's from ME2.



Messing around aside, I really like the villains this time around, though the Heroes seem rather lackluster.

CORE HUNTER IS ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL

[Valyou]

Probably the worst wave so far, in my opinion.
Nex is just weak. The helmet looks strange, and the white torso armor piece just makes it look awful. Why not orange with some white on it?
Stringer, as good as the combination of black and blue looks, is just not Stringer.
Bulk looks like someone just took Stringer's helmet off and put on a Bulk 1.0. on him instead, and also gave him two silver bits of armor for no reason but to make him look worse.
XT-4 looks a little interesting, but there's just too little armor on him.
Core Hunter looks nice indeed, but likely I wouldn't get him.
Voltix... What is up with that color scheme!? The red-purple-black color scheme looks decent and was quite a dare to use, but then there's all these weapons that have even crazier colors.
Speeda Demon, hate that name, but he looks awesome, quite a daring color scheme, and it looks great. I don't quite understand the hands holding those giant golden swords, but it's not a problem for me.
Stormer looks pretty impressive, even though I think I'm the only one that likes how he looks.
Breez, Stormer, and Speeda Demon are the only three I'm getting this time around.

[Dorek]

That was really fast; normally you guys wait until you've posted all other LEGO sets to post the Hero Factory (and BIONICLE) ones =P.

Anyhow, I'm digging all of these sets, for sure. The Breakout wave is definitely one of the most impressive waves of HF.

[an cool dude]

Ooh, thanks for putting these up first! That was a pleasant surprise to see, lol. Now that we've gotten the final pictures of them, I'll express my final comments.

Speeda Demon looks fantastic, but I'm not going to pick him up mainly because that price tag is too high for 124 pieces, which Stormer XL also has. I mean, I'd be willing to pay a little more for him because of the purple and Speeda himself looks great, but not $10 more. Pass.

Stormer XL still looks goofy to me. Those legs are all small at first then get all uneven and weird feet, and then those shoulders start at an odd place and his arms are the same length as a standard Hero's arms. And pinhead. Pass.

Core Hunter looks generic, but that is made up for by his excellent color layering and awesome helmet. Plus those nice Black 3.0 paws. He still seems a bit bland, though, so I'll pass. Oh, and my sister called dibs on him. xP

Bulk looks pretty good. I like that he's finally bulky, after the swooshiness of his 1.0 form and the sleekness of his 3.0 form. I like that rocket launcher and chest design, and the seeming lack of silver strangely doesn't bother me. Picking him up.

Voltix looks great, as always, but I think I'll replace those upper legs with some longer red ones. Maybe even give him more purple. We'll see. I love his crazy color scheme because it looks like a colorful bolt of electricity, which he is obviously utilizing. Picking him up for sure.

Stringer looks good. That guitar gun is cool, as are those unique shoulder pieces and transparent torso. But I don't buy sets for parts, so Stringer looks a bit... lacking. I wish that they had given him more transparent armor to match, because otherwise the torso looks a bit out of place. Pass.

XT4 begins to look great again. I, personally, love his spindly design with that gigantic buzzsaw and claw laser. He looks like a rouge welding drone who could just rampage everything in his path. Picking him up.

Nex just looks lackluster. Nothing really that special, but I'm glad he has a hand, even if it's black. Pass.

Breez and Thornraxx both look fantastic and if Lego is going to release them in other countries early why can't they do it in North America. >_>

Overall, a great wave. I like all a sets a fair amount, so I call this wave a success.

Edited by Squishypony, Feb 12 2012 - 10:02 PM.

[Zarohum]

These looks so much better than the prototype pics I saw. And I take back everything I said about Stringer's color scheme now that i know he has trans blue. Pure awesome. But Bulk... the silver helmet doesn't really fit with the gunmetal.

Who was the cool dude they put in charge of this, who put hero cores on the villains?

[Waffles]

While I'm not going to get any, they aren't disappointing. The lack of large amounts of purple in Speeda Demon is a letdown, but if you've got money it may be worth it to buy the set in mass amounts.

Also, Speeda Demon is a really bad name.

[unknown_user2596]

Thanks for the pics. Though all they do is justify the fact that Core Hunter and Bulk are the best sets of the wave, followed by Stormer XL.

Also looks like XT4 has a new micro-torso piece.

[Wind Elemental]

Out of all of these sets, I think Core Hunter is the best villain. XT4 has too many empty spots and Voltix has a really weird color scheme. By the way, what kind of villain calls himself Speeda Demon?

[BioGio]

Bulk is actually rather impressive on a closer inspection, although at first glace I thought he looked mediocre--he's really the only set that I have substantially conflicting thoughts on. I'm probably most impressed by Stormer and Core Hunter (even if it's somewhat generic); Speeda Demon is also really interesting, but the bike is rather average in construction. Stringer would have been really good had the transparent pieces been more of the focus. XT4 is definitely a . . . fun idea for lack of a better word.

As for the sets that I actually dislike, I think that Voltix is the only one. It's just too uncoordinated, although that makes it a wonderful source of pieces for MOCing. Nex really doesn't inspire any specific emotions or reaction for me; he's just a bit too ordinary--like the 2.0 Heroes.

I surely won't pick up Nex, but my buying habits will otherwise be mostly dictated by whatever the stores nearby have.

~ BioGio

[Overmegasixwave]

Well, I have to say, since this'll be my last year collecting Lego stuffs, this is a pretty neat wave, despite initial concerns.

Nex is my least favorite of the bunch. I just do not really at all like his helmet. I get that with he and Evo, the designers tried to homage the 2.0 headgear, but Nex's does so far too much. Something a bit more subtle like Evo's design would've been more appreciated, I think. Also what up with the white torso armor? Also also not really a fan of the light grey skeleton pieces. Also also also, only size three shells? He doesn't look all that formidable (plus I'd have liked another source for the orange size five ones).

XT4 is pretty neat, though I'd have liked it to be yellow-orange as opposed to yet another yellow set. Oh well. I actually think the light grey skeleton pieces work well with it, though maybe the lower arms could've also been in that color. His torso is really really ridiculously small, but I'm not sure whether that looks as bad as it sounds.

Stringer's neat. Nothing really wrong with him.

The Core Hunter is pretty sick, if not pretty standard fare. I love love love his mask and the nice black recolors. I might stick all the spare hero cores from the Breakout villains on his little ammo belt thing or something.

Bulk is really cool, though I don't care for all the gunmetal. Luckily most of it can just be swapped for silver shells.

Voltix makes me glad I bought the Joker so I can replace some black and gunmetal with purple. Otherwise, he's got a really neat and eccentric color scheme that I like. That said, a new mask would've been nice.

Stormer's head is really small and his arms are really short (and low). Uh. Maybe I'll see about just giving him the Hulk's design?

Speed Demon is an expensive if not pretty nice set. I don't like the use of the size three shells on the longer skeleton pieces and also the lime shoulder piece on his chest, but otherwise, the rider's pretty solid. Pretty indifferent to the reuse of the Black Phantom helmet here. The bike's neat, though kinda pretty similar to Furno's. Oh well. Really, I was hoping for an Umbra-esque titan, but I guess this guy's not too bad.

Edited by Sky-Byte, Feb 12 2012 - 08:00 PM.

[Bulik]

oh boy. I can't wait to use stringer's trans-blue chest armor

[Baron Von Nebula]

Nex: Very similar to his 2.0, but different colors and a launcher. It's nice that the smaller sets get launchers now though.
XT4: Reminds me of a Buzz Droid, for some reason. I'm assuming he'll be like a scout for the villains or something: he looks to small to be a threat on his own
Stringer: While he has the skeleton of a 2.0, it's refreshing to have new colors. Strangely his blaster looks bigger/better than Evo's, although they're the same size. I think it's because it is shaped like a blaster and not like an extension of his hand.
Core Hunter: In my opinion, the coolest-looking HF set yet. The helmet is a nice-looking piece, and the red/black color combination is always epic. Kinda makes me think of a futuristic, bounty-hunter looking Stronius.
Bulk: While he has a neat weapon and good colors, I think he should be "bulked" up more. His shoulders and knees in particular should have armor. Why the hero-cuffs are around his arms and not in his empty hand is beyond me.
Voltix: He's unmistakeable as an electric villain, but I think he should have one less color. For example, if he had yellow instead of red: yellow-black-purple/blue would look better.
Stormer: I guess it's about time he was a titan. His weapon remind me of the baton-thingy he had as 2.0. I don't think it would be more effective than just punching villains, though. He appears to have new/exclusive feet.
Speeda Demon: This guy has a great color scheme. It's also good to have a villain vehicle. His bike looks the same as Furno's was structurally, but I reason that it is bigger/different to fit his size. Speeda looks to be a 2.0 build, so this bike should fit many other characters.

[Smitty]

I love they way they made Preston's shoulders wider.

[xccj]

Awesome pictures, Andrew. Looks like an interesting wave of Heroes coming out this summer. And it is nice to finally see purple pieces getting used in Hero Factory (at least more than Evo's spike). Can't wait to see more coverage.

[DeeVee]

STRINGER HAS SPEAKERS ON HIS SHOULDERS.

[Hastur the Unspeakable]

I get a little ticked whenever I think about this wave (specifically, how they reduced the number of sets again just so they wouldn't have to come up with a new hero). Which is rather odd, I suppose, since most of the actual sets are pretty awesome.

Bulk: Best hero, hands down. This is the first time he has really looked "bulky", and it is beautiful. The color scheme is a bit odd, but it works very well. The printing on his torso is quite cool, and the shoulder-mounted rocket launcher suits him perfectly.
Stringer: Not half bad, but the guitar gun and transparent torso are what really sells this one.
Stormer: Again, not bad. Some of his proportions are slightly off, and his weapon leaves something to be desired, but none of this is too big a deal.
Nex: Weak. His helmet is far too similar to the 2.0 version, the white torso is overpowering, and he's woefully under-armored. The laser is nice, though.

Voltix: Definately the worst of the villains, but still not bad. Two simple changes could make him far better, though: just give him actual hands (run the cords to his forearms), and eliminate one color from his palette (I'm thinking axe the red).
XT4: Pretty cool. The lack of armor is somewhat off-putting, but it gives him a marvellous spindly look. The weapons are cool, as well.
Core Hunter: AWESOME! Excellent color scheme, amazing helmet, wonderful parts selection, and looks very menacing. Possibly the best of the villains--and I say "possibly" only because there's also...
Speed Demon: (I refuse to call him "Speeda". I mean, "Toxic Reapa" was one thing, but...seriously?) Yay, a vehicle! The colors are great, the overall asthetic is even better. Also, reuse of the BP helmet works far better here than on Voltix, since lime green is much easier to differentiate from black than gunmetal is (though it would probably be easier to tell with the latter in real life, so this might not be much of an issue).

Overall, the only thing I can honestly say I'm disappointed about is the number of sets. Oh yeah, and Nex. Sorry, Nex.




"But as long as I'm here, I get to bust heads!"

Edited by The Main Man, Feb 12 2012 - 09:45 PM.

[Makuta_of_Oz]

Glad this is over and done with.

Is that a black MASK I spy on Core Hunter? That could be a sign!

[BioGio]

Is that a black MASK I spy on Core Hunter? That could be a sign!

Where? I'm not seeing it, so I'm inclined to think that the difficulty in photographing black has made it harder for one of us to see something.

~ BioGio

[Element lord Of Milk.]

Oh-ho! Nex DOES have a hand!


~ELM~

[Makuta_of_Oz]

Is that a black MASK I spy on Core Hunter? That could be a sign!

Where? I'm not seeing it, so I'm inclined to think that the difficulty in photographing black has made it harder for one of us to see something.

~ BioGio

Where do Toa where masks?

His "helmet" looks to me like a mask because the top of it doesn't appear to touch the heads.

[an cool dude]

Is that a black MASK I spy on Core Hunter? That could be a sign!

Where? I'm not seeing it, so I'm inclined to think that the difficulty in photographing black has made it harder for one of us to see something.

Where do Toa where masks?

His "helmet" looks to me like a mask because the top of it doesn't appear to touch the heads.

It's defiantly a helmet. That's a Glat head underneath it, and you can see where it connects from the top.

[Vezok's Friend]

Stringer's Helmet looks like Darth Vader. Just saying. Cool sets, though what is up with the new Stormer...he looks bland, no greebles, nothing. And the feet look silly.

[Takua Nui of GoAnimate]

Hmm, can't say I'm extremely impressed. Some of the sets like Core Hunter and Bulk appeal to me, whereas others...well, let's just say I don't "dig" them.
The biggest disappointment for me is Stringer. He looks like a good set and the color scheme works out, but originally Stringer was orange. It made him look like a rock star. With blue he isn't a rock star.
I'm really liking some of the new pieces. Shoulder armor that resembles speakers? Armor that connects OVER the armor? ###### yes!

[Smitty]

Hmm, can't say I'm extremely impressed. Some of the sets like Core Hunter and Bulk appeal to me, whereas others...well, let's just say I don't "dig" them.
The biggest disappointment for me is Stringer. He looks like a good set and the color scheme works out, but originally Stringer was orange. It made him look like a rock star. With blue he isn't a rock star.
I'm really liking some of the new pieces. Shoulder armor that resembles speakers? Armor that connects OVER the armor? ###### yes!

He's got a guitar gun, how much more rock star can you get? Besides ever metal band has one or two slow somber songs.

[The Inquisitive Automaton]

Holy Gadunka. Speeda Demon looks cool. Like wicked-bad cool. Like I'm-gonna-buy-that-as-soon-as-I-see-it cool. I want that so much now. 0.0

Also, Bulk and Stringer look just as awesome, I like how Bulk actually looks...bulky. In his pose, everything looks great on him. Stringer likewise has a really nice colour scheme and a pretty awesome weapon. Dat transparent chest armour.

Stormer is fairly meh. The limbs seem too thin and too small. This makes the proportions seem wickety whack, which damages the overall look of the set. And the sword looks silly.

Core Hunter is a definite buy. The spikes and the colour scheme really makes him look wantable.

Voltix...Wow, those are some higgeldy-piggeldy colours. I mean...wow. That's a maybe. He looks good, but the colours are just a little TOO much.

And screw Nex and XT-4. Seriously. Ugly, ugly, ugly. XT-4 is scrawny, tiny and too scrunched up. Nex's colours are way too off and his mask looks ugly. And yet I'm probably gonna buy them anyway.

[Psycho Twi]

Must get Speeda Demon

[Takua Nui of GoAnimate]

Hmm, can't say I'm extremely impressed. Some of the sets like Core Hunter and Bulk appeal to me, whereas others...well, let's just say I don't "dig" them. The biggest disappointment for me is Stringer. He looks like a good set and the color scheme works out, but originally Stringer was orange. It made him look like a rock star. With blue he isn't a rock star. I'm really liking some of the new pieces. Shoulder armor that resembles speakers? Armor that connects OVER the armor? ###### yes!

He's got a guitar gun, how much more rock star can you get? Besides ever metal band has one or two slow somber songs.

What I'm saying here is that orange and black seems appropriate for Jimi Stringer's personality. His new color scheme is fine, and I HAVE noted the weapon and the speakers on him, but blue doesn't seem right for the character.

[The Inquisitive Automaton]

Woah, woah, woah. Hold up there, girlfriend. Is that some shoulder articulation on Stormer that I'm spying? I think it is.

[Aanchir: Rachira of Time]

Overall, I'm very impressed with all of these sets. Speeda Demon, for me, is probably the least impressive, since his bike is nowhere near as cohesive in design as the Furno Bike and doesn't even have a launcher function. The figure itself is impressive, but not terribly exciting compared to some of the other villains.

Stormer XL is very nice and has lots of lovely printed parts. I kind of wish he had the new Hero torso rather than the 2.0 one, but that's a minor quibble, and aesthetically he's very cohesive compared to Rocka XL. His sword was kind of bent out of shape at Toy Fair, but I'm sure in real life when he's not thrown in a box for transportation it will be much straighter and awesomer.

Voltix is epic. I think his color scheme works remarkably well. It's primarily a three-color color scheme, with some yellow electrical effects and red and blue electrical wires. I kind of wish the blue wires were solid rather than blended, though-- I think that would have worked far better.

Stringer is also brilliant, although it's a shame he wasn't posed holding his weapon like a guitar. The transparent blue and bright blue genuinely work well for him, even if orange is his traditional secondary color. His chest pattern is, of course, brilliant.

Core Hunter is pretty sweet looking, and one of the most intimidating villain designs so far. He's fairly generic in some ways, but he has very stylish weapons and armor, and the design is just as good at striking fear into Heroes as his name is.

Bulk is amazing-looking. The amount of titanium metallic sets him apart from previous incarnations, but it doesn't look half bad in real life. His chest pattern is incredibly stylish, and his design on the whole is very bulky compared to earlier versions.

XT4 is not an extremely imposing villain, but he has a very unique design and lots of great pieces including a new, smaller torso beam. I wonder if we might see the introduction of smaller sets in 2013 using this torso. I certainly wouldn't object to it.

Nex is OK. I really love his helmet, which now that I've seen it in real life strikes me as just as stylish as Evo's was. The forehead texture matches his chest pattern very well, although I might have preferred if he had an orange torso and white printing. The white really doesn't look too bad in real life, but the inconsistency with the earlier Breakout sets bothers me a bit, more so with Nex than with Bulk or Stringer.

Breez and Thornraxx are of course brilliant, even though it's very sad that they are summer sets in the United States. I suppose it might ease some people's concerns about the summer wave being unusually small, though.

Overall, the next wave of Breakout sets is very exciting, and shows that TLG has not even come close to running out of ideas for the new building system. I just hope that the 2013 sets don't disappoint after such a phenomenal double-wave of our much-loved Hero characters!

[Bfahome]

I'm a fan of Stringer, Voltix, Bulk, Core Hunter, and Speeda Demon. Not to the extent that I'd buy all of them, but I think they look cool.

XT4 is a bit too… stick-y for my tastes, Nex doesn't have very good color layering, and Stormer is just kind of weird.

I await future reviews with great anticipation in order to further hone my opinions.

[Felinuva Toa of Felines]

Why didn't they give Nex Orange hands?

My parents ordered my Hero Recon Hero and I gave it orange hands so i could give the orange hands to Nex in the summer.

well when I get Breez Rocka and Furno I hope i'll get some pieces off Pick-a-Brick to edit my 2012 heroes and my Hero Recon Hero.

Edited by Matoran Oneker, Feb 13 2012 - 11:02 AM.

[Manterax Prime]

Stringer = Cylon + Soundwave

Completely awesome.

[Akuna Toa of Sonics]

Voltixx is a mess, but everything else looks sweet, except Stringer's new colors.
STRINGER
Y U TURN BLUE

[TakuaTheAvrahk]

I'm already looking forward to these sets, especially Stringer, Stormer XL and Speeda Demon.

[A Toa Hero]

Pretty average overall. Gonna be grabbing Stormer, and maybe the Core Hunter.

And the Speeda Demon. I have to admit, an involuntary 'woa!' came out of my mouth when I first glanced it. It's definitely gonna be nect to my Furno Bike.

[TahnokVa123]

Speeda Demon, I love you! He is awesome, as well as Stringer and Stormer (although Stormer's head seems a bit small for his body mass) and Core Hunter is pretty amazing with his spikiness.