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Do you like Brain Attack?


fishers64

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Title says most of it. I'll admit, I don't like this wave of HF that much, and prefer to think of it as not existing. The sets strike me as ugly for whatever reason, the story seemed really flat (we're fighting brain creatures until Stringer turns bad, could have predicted that), and the online game sends you around in circles. I do like the name though for it's meta properties (this is what happens when you try to inject brainy mystery into a different story, ha). So what do you think of it? Is this particular wave flawed compared to previous waves? An improvement?

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I thought that this was the 2nd worst wave yet, set-wise, and the worst according to story.

 

The bad guys look horrible in my opinion, with their masks like they are. They also seem pretty jumbled together versus the last few waves. The heroes look okay if you don't mind the fact that it's Knight's Kingdom in HF form, but as heroes, they look lame, and their weapons are horrible. Breez's spinning blades on her staff? Really? (As a side note, these sets are somewhat useful for parts.)

 

As for the story, it's very disappointing. In the Breakout TV special, it lead me to believe that the plot would actually continue in the same direction, with an unknown enemy constructing Villiain Factory. Alas, this was not the case. "Brains" are made and take over animals who then transport themselves somehow to Makuhero City to fight with the heroes. A dragon comes out of nowhere, and Surge is taken over when he could have escaped. Very disappointing.

 

So no, I don't like Brain Attack.

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I like Brain Attack in it's own sense, mainly because the brains slightly remind me of the krana. But other than that, the set design hasn't improved much, along with the bags. I mean, canisters at least had a role playing feature or something.

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I myself have not really liked Brain Attack, story-wise. I understand how LEGO did make the storyline similar to the Bionicle Bohrok storyline to appeal to Bionicle fans but they sorta downgraded the storyline imo. Since Hero Factory is aimed towards younger children, the cool mysterious in-depth Bionicle storyline for the Bohrok/Krana we got, was downgraded to a simple one one for Brain Attack were evil little brain creatures infect random inhabitants from different planets and they go to destroy Makuhero City! While the brains appear to have been sent by a bigger villain it still doesnt interest me. Also in order to destroy the brain they basically just hit the brain and they would basically be defeated. In Bionicle, at least the Toa had to defeat the Bohrok to collect the krana and then discover the Bohrok nest and go down there to defeat all of them and the Bahrag along with the Exo-Toa and then BAM! They turn into Toa Nuva by falling into a mysterious pool of silver liquid ! But I still do understand how Hero Factory is aimed at younger children and that might be a bit hard to comprehend. And on a side note, Surge reminds me of Lewa as he is really the one who gets mostly into trouble and appears to be the youngest out of all of them and also got his brain infected just like Lewa and the krana too.

Now Brain Attack set wise, I didnt like it either and I didnt really see much of an improvement with the basic build of the sets either. The same clip-on armor doesnt really appeal to me and many of the sets to me, did not look interesting and look way to easy to build. I got to admit tho that I have bought Furno-XL and Breeze because I thought that they did look cool, but now they are just in my bin mainly used for pieces because I lost interest in them (And I dont usually take apart sets). Some of the sets came with some pretty cool pieces (like the pieces used to make the fire sword) but those were really kept at a minimum in the sets and I didnt want to spend 10 dollars on a set with 6 pieces that I liked when I can get them for like a couple cents on Bricklink. Couple things I did like about these sets is how they did include more Technic parts then usual, but again that was kept at a minimal because of Hero Factory being aimed a a younger audience. Also how the smallest sized sets like Evo are actually taller then the 2.0 sets. Im sure that a lot of younger kids are pleased with this line, just not me as I am used to having a more complicated build throughout the entire set, just not for a specific part of the set like the covering of the back or the build of the weapon.

I would not be surprised that if LEGO continues the basic bone build with clip on armor for next years Hero Factory set line.I also liked Breakout much more because of the set improvident from 3.0 to Breakout, the storyline was better imo and every single member of Alpha Team was released back then, with Brain Attack, the team look incomplete.

Also wouldnt this topic go in the Hero Factory discussion?

Edited by AdaptingChaos
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Well, I like that most of the sets have something going on with them, some kind of function or something. Some are better implemented than others, but having sets that do something besides just sit around is an improvement in itself; it harkens to the early days of Bionicle, where all the sets, even the McDonald's Tohunga, had some kind of action feature. I really like the visors, although I dislike the sometimes ugly faces underneath. The hero core clamps are conceptually cool, and they look decent sticking out like in the show, but the execution was disappointing. The brain slugs themselves look sort of cool, and giving every villain a unique one was an okay gimmick. The problem with the sets is that the brain slugs lead to overemphasized heads and puny-looking limbs; all the villains look goofy and unintimidating. The sets generally have formulaic and simplistic builds (the 2.0 system was novel at first, but now it's starting to get as repetitive as the Inika build), and like the Phantoka and Mistika, the overuse of silver and gunmetal is ugly and boring.

 

I will say the premise of alien swarms that infect people is vaguely interesting, and the whole extraterrestrial thing could be unique and interesting in Hero Factory. Unfortunately, from what little I have seen, there is almost no real story or plot and the whole thing goes nowhere interesting. Unlike Breakout, nothing of any consequence occurs. Now, keep in mind, I haven't read the books or subscribe to the magazine (it doesn't seem like there's much Hero Factory content in there anyway) or played the game, I just saw the episode, so maybe I'm missing something big. On Eurobricks everyone was talking about Mirror World, so maybe there's a greater narrative that's lost to me. But the episode was very uninteresting and unentertaining.

 

To me, this whole wave feels like filler. One-off "story" that affects nothing, only one theme and one half-hour show for the whole year, no comics, less sets than before, still the same group of characters with a lot of Rocka, etc. Maybe money was tight this year from investing so much in Chima so Lego kept it tight with Hero Factory. Maybe Lego's getting ready to pull the plug on this line, so they're investing minimal energy into it. Possibly, due to the half-hour ghost animation special coming next year, the whole "future of Hero Factory" thing that was on the Faber Files or something, and the movie that's in talks, Lego has something really big planning for Hero Factory and this is just to hold us over until they unveil it next year. We'll see, I guess.

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The first wave is pretty disappointing but in my opinion the second wave has some of the best HF sets so far with lots of cool pieces. The episode was pretty nice as well, but I too agree I had expected more story-wise, especially after hinting at the villain factory I'd thought we'd see something along those lines. Here's hoping LEGO is simply holding it out for a big-bang release, maybe next year.-Gata signoff.png

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I'm personally fond of Brain Attack so far. I haven't watched the episode for this year yet, and wouldn't be surprised if it were just as mediocre as those of past years. But I've loved the story as told in the books, which add up to a grand space adventure with post-apoc, disaster, and conspiracy elements.As far as the sets are concerned, while there is less diversity compared to Breakout, a new theme had to be established or one year would begin to blend into another. The new masks/helmets for the heroes are excellent, resembling their old faces but tying them together with the motif of the new visors. The Heroes follow their elemental themes well, and their weapons/shields give them an almost medieval flair. As for the villains, there is once again plenty of diversity, and a few of them (Dragon Bolt, Scarox, and Bruizer) feature the best non-launcher play features in action figure sets since the golden age of gear functions.In terms of new parts, Brain Attack excels. A large number of the parts have a less mechanical appearance than most Hero Factory elements, allowing them to be reused in more organic models like the Chima constraction sets. The more mechanical-looking parts, such as the H-symbol shield, the torsos, and the visors are still cool, though. And this year has been fantastic for recolors, with shells being introduced in amazing colors like Dark Red, Earth Green, Dark Stone Gray, and Tr. Bright Green. In addition, many of the sets use the previously underused four-module shell, among other useful parts.

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I'm quite fond of Brain Attack's story. Whether or not you like the concept, all you have to do to appreciate its novelty is look back at the blandness of the Hero Factory predictions/hoaxes from 2011. Back then, a lot of people expected Hero Factory to do as they felt BIONICLE did, simply using a new elementally-inspired setting for each consecutive year. Instead, Hero Factory has been exploring entirely different types of story. This year it's a combination alien invasion/zombie apocalypse story, which is radically different from previous story arcs. Greg Farshtey's Hero Factory Secret Mission chapter books have made fantastic use of the horror-movie tropes which characterize these genres, and have added a level of mystery and intrigue which fans of post-2005 BIONICLE stories will surely love.I haven't seen the TV episode, because it currently isn't available in very high quality. (C'mon, LEGO, what's stopping you from putting an HD version on your official YouTube channel?) I have not heard many good things about it. But at the same time, even within the trailers, I've seen some good things about it. It has a lot more melee combat than previous Hero Factory episodes and even the BIONICLE movies, which had a lot of complaints about characters usually just blasting energy at each other and missing. It's got some quite awesome and a bit unnerving transformation sequences for the "brainified" villains. The streets of Makuhero City are full of awesome easter eggs (which are part of the reason I'm holding out for a higher-quality video). So as a visual spectacle, it should be more than satisfactory. As far as storytelling is concerned... well, I never watch any of the Hero Factory TV episodes with particularly high expectations.I haven't played the online game either. It seems a lot less interesting than the Breakout game, and I had a somewhat bad experience with that game where it erased all my hero points and upgrades during the summer 2012 update.The sets feature villain designs with compelling, well-executed elemental motifs and even a handful of clever action features. Dragon Bolt is perhaps the best Hero Factory set I have ever owned in terms of sheer elegance and play potential. The hero designs are also quite stylish, with an emphasis on medieval-inspired melee weapons among many of them and well-integrated action features on Stormer and Surge. The heroes' new masks are great designs that really echo their previous mask designs, with Breez's in particular being the most feminine mask ever released in an action figure set. Neither the heroes nor the villains are as diverse as those from the Breakout wave, but they still stand out from one another reasonably well, and have great pieces.Overall, the Brain Attack arc isn't flawless. I'm not a huge fan of Jet Rocka, even if the jetpack is pretty novel, and I would love to eventually get back to a simpler "heroes vs. villains" arc like the ones in 2010 and 2012. But I think all things considered, this arc has a lot going for it, just as Breakout did before.

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