How would you change HF?

[masterchirox580]

With HF seemingly on it's way out this got me thinking about how it could have been saved which then gave me the idea to make this topic, so if you had control over hero factory how would you have changed the theme?

 

P.S Please don't turn this topic into a giant rant about HF.

[Rahkshi Lalonde]

hmm, probably would've tried to tie it into a more linear, less forgetful storyline.

 

and, maybe it's just how i write, but one could probably expect a larger percentage of female characters with my involvement. :b

 

 

if sets are a concern here, i think a sleeker torso assembly and a few more shell designs wouldn't hurt it much, if at all.

[Aanchir]

You mean like, from the beginning? And assuming unlimited control of the franchise?

 

I'd have introduced the CCBS from the very start (something I'm sure the designers would have done if they could have), had a TV series with more episodes and more consistent character development, held more contests and events centered around fans creating their own characters and stories (which was a pretty big focus early in the theme's life, but fell by the wayside in later years), kept the Hero Factory FM podcast going longer, made the online games a little bit more adventurous and character-driven, and provided more ways for fans to get to know the design team (like some of the BIONICLE-related interviews that used to be on the LEGO Club website in the early days, or the designer videos in 2011). Oh, and made certain things about the TV episodes a bit clearer like when cliffhangers were meant as foreshadowing and when they were just meant as a "The end... OR IS IT?" twist ending.

[believe victims]

Well, first and foremost, none of the TV episodes would leave my purview unscathed. The ending of Rise of the Rookies in particular gets huge changes to fix its terrible black hole physics. Breakout and IFB get rewritten to lose their genocidal aspects.

 

If we throw appealing to children out the window, though, I have an entirely different direction to take Hero Factory were I able to change it, and, in fact, I'm working on just that.

[dotcom]

I would have kept Nex around for every wave. Every wave. All nine. Every set is Nex. Every character is Nex. Everything is Nex, just flirting with himself into infinity.....

[The 1st Shadow]

Don't forget Nex's brother, Evo! Sure Evo was there a lot more, but that was the best duo in the whole line.

 

There's a lot that I would change, most of which has already been mentioned above. Having the story be less random would be good. I get that they were trying to do it in a way that someone could just jump into a story and have it make sense on its own without having to learn about everything from before, but it didn't work out well. I feel like the only constants in the entire show were Stormer and Furno, with everything and everyone else deviating from one story to the next.

[Zidonaro]

I would add a completely different cast of heroes in each wave. Seeing the same guys over and over was getting pretty boring. Oh, and I would made new armor and foot pieces for each wave too. And change their silly names.

[Voltex]

I think, for the most part, I would leave the 2010 and 2.0 lines as they were (although I would definitely make changes to the stories and tv episodes). After that it would change a lot more; instead of 3.0 I would probably have continued the "2.0" line or done something like a "2.1", with Stringer & Bulk returning alongside Rocka and three other brand new heroes to take on some threat or another. Breakout would be at least a two year long arc, with multiple tv episodes. These years would focus on the twelve heroes already released. Following that two-year arc would have been Brain Attack (which, if we're assuming that 2014 is the final year of HF, would be the final year in this scenario). In the winter lineup you'd have the original Alpha Team corrupted by the brains squaring off against 3 of the 2011 heroes and 3 brand new heroes; and then the summer lineup would be this year's IFB, with the other 3 2011 heroes and 3 more brand new heroes venturing underground with mechs to take on the home of the brains.

 

Anyway, that's how I'd change it in the span of about two minutes.

[Banana Gunz]

I think Aanchir put it pretty well.

 

I also would've liked a more linear plot that fans could explore, follow, and expand. Some of my favorite parts were Rocka surprisingly being part of recon team and the idea that there was another plot going on behind the scenes with Black Phantom potentially releasing Von Nebula for some really cool showdown/plot arc. Some of the plot arcs were mildly interesting, but it never felt like the story was actually going anywhere and that it was just mission after mission.

 

There was also no central setting, and I would've made more maps and recognizable landmarks that mattered rather than planet 3753475, planet 275489305, and planet 385395839, all of which would have no future story relevance or appearance.

 

And more focused character development would've been great. HF had a lot of characters that if given proper care could've actually been really cool. I wish that they would be developed a lot more. Like I remember Mark Surge's original bio said he had a private fear of succumbing to evil and that he might be flawed, but the only time this was even partially explored was during Brain Attack, and it didn't feel like there was any real development in his character from that. 

 

I also would've added more female heroes. Like seriously, it's even worse than Bionicle and there is not single gender rule in place to make an excuse. We have gotten ONE female protagonist in five years. Not another hero, not one villain. No one else except that silly reporter. When there was news of Rocka coming out, I was actually really excited because I was hoping he would be a woman. It's not even a problem that there's less woman than males, it's just that there's barely any woman at all.

 

Better developed villains are also something I would've done. They were always cliche and many had much motivation except being bad and doing evil things. Being bad guys also seemed like the central point of their personalities, like there was nothing else interesting about them.

 

These are all the things I can think up of off the top of my head. Hope y'all agree!

[Manducus]

I would change the sets. The villains just seem so... naked and scrawny.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Councilor Manducus

[Lenny7092]

I believe Aanchir said pretty well.

 

Anyway, if I control the Hero Factory franchise, I would:

1. Make one TV season have at least 10 to 13 episodes during each wave to include more adventures.

2. I want Bulk, Stringer, Surge, Breez, Evo, and Nex to appear every episode from their first appearances in the TV series onwards.

3. I want Vapor, Thornraxx, XT4, and Core Hunter to appear phylysically in the TV series, in the episodes in their respective waves and add more episodes for these villains if needed.

4. Add more episodes for the unresolved cliffhangers and other things to resolve them, rather than leaving them unresolved.

5. Have the franchise explain the origins of the villains more, rather than just leaving them as thugs causing trouble.

6. I would love to see Corroder betray Von Nebula because if he wants to do it, then he should do it at a certain point, rather than just an obedient thug to him.

7. In the IFB episode, bring back the whole Alpha 1 Team's personalities from Epsiodes 1-10, rather than leaving them as just a group of soldiers doing their heroic job.

8. Continue the Hero Factory FM podcast and the Secret Mission books.

9. Give the characters more character development, like personalities.

10. Make Rotor look like his finalized set instead of a prototype in the TV series (you can tell be looking at his silver shoulder armor pieces). It would make him look cooler in my opinion.

11. Since we see the villains holding more weapons than their sets and have their own vehicles in the TV series, have the sets have these things.

12. Put episodes 8-11 in a DVD or two just like the Rise of the Rookies and Savage Planet ones.

So, there.

Edited October 14, 2014 by Lenny7092

[Zeb]

1. CCBS would have been introuduced from the start with the cool shell add-ons from 2012 & onward, and the bones would come in more colors than just black and grey.

2012's cliffhanger would have been resolved in 2013 or at least tied in.

Evo would have had stayed like his 2011 personality.

Invasion From Below would have had voice actors closer to the originals and kept some style consistency. (As interesting as the taking helmets off was, it seemed inconsistent with how the hero's heads had appeared throughout the entire series. Even after 2.0 the movie look of the heroes was consistent with earlier vesions.)

Change the IFB ending. Breez should have succeeded in negotiating with the Queen Beast, and the heroes wouldn't have been so ignorant of Breez's warnings.

The website should have had a better 2013 design. That timeline was just messy in my opinion. And the removal of a lot of the older content as time went on was annoying. The 2014 video archive section only has a fraction of the content of previous years.

They should have never used the Glatorian heads in Breakout, or they should have at least changed the design to reflect the CCBS and not crack and break.

The 2011 heads should have been backwards compatible with axle helmets. Actually, the whole pin-helmet thing should have been redesigned to be more backwards compatible.

The theme would have ended with a big story twist that tied together 2012, 2013, & 2014 (if their plots hadn't already been fully resolved.) and ended with an epic battle between the heroes and Von Nebula or something.

[Pohatu: Uniter of Stone]

Replace it with Bionicle of course.

 

But still have CCBS.

Edited September 29, 2014 by RahkshiToa88

[Manducus]

Above user likes to cause a rant.

 

Know what can make HF even better? Introducing more heroes. Not to the point where it was like the last few episodes of the original Transformers series where there were so many characters introduced that it turned into a ubiquitous mess. Those Nebulans.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Councilor Manducus

[fishers64]

Mostly what Aanchir said. (Psst! Lego, you need to hire this guy. He knows his stuff.)

 

I would have left RoTR largely the way it was storywise, but I would have put CCBS in from the very beginning to establish a new direction for a new theme (everything is NEW. We're going for level 47.) I would have put a lot more planets and exploring of them into the TV series, and gave the villains some more personality instead of making them generic mooks. I would have retained the stories of Ordeal of Fire and Savage Planet, but I would allow for additional episodes to explore the pasts and schemes of other villains as well that never made the TV series. Also, the Villain Factory idea would be executed and explored to its full potential instead of being chucked out the window.  

 

Evo would retain his characterization, and all of the cliffhangers would be resolved or made clear that it was a "going nowhere" twist.

 

I definately would have put more emphasis on cool stuff and funny videos like in Ordeal of Fire, and put more thought into the games. The ones we got were okay, but I would aim for better.

 

And I would kick that sloppy timeline website design into the garbage can. That would not have happened.   

[Hasreadit]

I would have liked a dystopia or making the Hero Factory system corrupt and the Heros have to make harder decisions. Basically a blurring of the lines between good and evil

[believe victims]

I would have liked a dystopia or making the Hero Factory system corrupt and the Heros have to make harder decisions. Basically a blurring of the lines between good and evil

 

I'd say there were plenty of morally questionable decisions made in Hero Factory; the writers just didn't seem to notice

[Manducus]

 

I would have liked a dystopia or making the Hero Factory system corrupt and the Heros have to make harder decisions. Basically a blurring of the lines between good and evil

 

I'd say there were plenty of morally questionable decisions made in Hero Factory; the writers just didn't seem to notice

 

 

Invasion from Below

Edited October 8, 2014 by Councilor Manducus

[Timageness]

1: CCBS would've been instituted from the beginning.

2: I would've started the story of the Hero Factory itself in the first episode, and not with Furno, Surge, and Breez's introduction. This would've given more characterisation to people such as Thresher and Mr. Makuro.

3: The HF would've been created due to a real crisis, not just an increase in crime. In this case, they'd act more like a S.W.A.T. team or GSG9, and would actually work with planetary law enforcement more frequently.

4: Characters would've been fleshed out better.

5: There would've been more female heroes.

6: Villains would've been more realistic; if local law enforcement can't contain the situation, the heroes shouldn't be able to stroll on in and easily defeat them in the most ridiculous manner possible, all in under thirty seconds.

7: If cliff-hangers were present, they'd somehow tie into the next season.

8: Von Nebula would've been a planet-eater.

9: Recon would've got more spotlight.

10: New heroes would've been released every two years.

Edited October 8, 2014 by timageness411

[Dralcax]

Give it an actual cohesive plot and not just the random fantasies of a child in cartoon form. Change the story around quite a bit to give civilians some screen time and make them more than just something for the Heroes to save. In fact, make the Heroes normal robots who volunteered to have a core implanted, having Heroes all be factory-made and completely perfect is boring and doesn't send a good message to children. Rotate out the characters a bit, Furno and Stormer get boring after a while. The characters also deserve more interesting and unique personalities, and far fewer plot holes.

[Tahu3.0]

well hears one dont leave a cliff hanger in every episode

[Toa Green Ninja]

You mean like, from the beginning? And assuming unlimited control of the franchise?I'd have introduced the CCBS from the very start (something I'm sure the designers would have done if they could have), had a TV series with more episodes and more consistent character development, held more contests and events centered around fans creating their own characters and stories (which was a pretty big focus early in the theme's life, but fell by the wayside in later years), kept the Hero Factory FM podcast going longer, made the online games a little bit more adventurous and character-driven, and provided more ways for fans to get to know the design team (like some of the BIONICLE-related interviews that used to be on the LEGO Club website in the early days, or the designer videos in 2011). Oh, and made certain things about the TV episodes a bit clearer like when cliffhangers were meant as foreshadowing and when they were just meant as a "The end... OR IS IT?" twist ending.

This. All of this.

 

The first wave of Hero Factory was the weakest, in my opinion. And it was all because of the lack of the CCBS. And the story could have been a lot more in-depth.

[Prime Axiom]

 Storyline wise, I would reveal the Hero Factory universe for what it really was. A dystopian world where the general populace is kept is brainwashed into a state of decadence by the monotonous robotic overlords. When all seems lost, a mysterious gold and white hero wielding the powers of light arrives and saves the dying world.  

[Manducus]

 Storyline wise, I would reveal the Hero Factory universe for what it really was. A dystopian world where the general populace is kept is brainwashed into a state of decadence by the monotonous robotic overlords. When all seems lost, a mysterious gold and white hero wielding the powers of light arrives and saves the dying world.  

 

Are you seriously just going around every HF topic downplaying the line and talk trash about it?

Edited October 14, 2014 by Councilor Manducus

[Prime Axiom]

 

 Storyline wise, I would reveal the Hero Factory universe for what it really was. A dystopian world where the general populace is kept is brainwashed into a state of decadence by the monotonous robotic overlords. When all seems lost, a mysterious gold and white hero wielding the powers of light arrives and saves the dying world.  

 

Are you seriously just going around every HF topic downplaying the line and talk trash about it?

 

 

 

 Of course not. I mean, credit where credit is due. Hero Factory did allow for a time period which allowed Lego to innovate the CCBF system. The titans, at least, had interesting builds sometimes. Again, credit where credit is due. HF allowed for the invention of a powerful building system, even if the actual aesthetics of the sets were not to my liking. 

 

I'd be lying if I said I was able to get into the storyline. Which is why I would change almost everything about it. Especially with the core theme of what it means to be a hero. 

[Ride Another Day]

Back to Bionicle. That's what I would do. HF didn't seem to capture me as good as Bionicle did. I felt it needed a better back story like Bionicle had.

[Xan]

Fix the god awful black hole physics in the rise of the rookies finale.

[StoaxTheHistorian]

Continued with the story about the dark maker they brought up in Breakout and Brain Attack.

[J46 Nui]

I'd have the greater evil(s?) that was controlling other villains in the books, Breakout, and Brain Attack actually have some sort of pay off. Maybe the confrontation of that evil would be the conclusion to the HF story. I sort of wanted an actual conclusion to the story, even if I was not that into it.

[Xabla]

I think that they should:

 

>Finish Breakout

>Finish Brain Attack

>Introduce CCBS with Rise of the Rookies

>Actually had a female character at all. Like the rest of the Heros that were not Stormer or Furno, they weren't in it all.. This  equals no female characters at all!

 

> On a much larger, more courageous note, make the entire THEME Breakout. The Theme could of been about fighting ESCAPED villains, with much more depth.

[Smudge8]

Lots of good things have been sugjested already.

 

I agree that it would be good to put the CCBS system in the first wave, but I really like the 'upgrade' concept as well so I would keep things the way they are in that department.  I agree that Evo should have kept his origional personality.  As well as introducing more new heros more often, but not to many.

 

It's almost a consensus that the show should have had more episodes, so here is how I would try to specifically leingthen each season WITHOUT changing each wave's theme.  Not including the obiovios stuff like more fleshed out villans.

 

1st season(Rise of the Rookies)  First of all I would give Thunder and Vapor their own episodes.  Thunder's would be esspecialy interesting cause it said in his character bio that he could roll up into a ball.  It also said in Corroder's bio that he had kind of a Starscream type of thing going on, so I would emphisise that.  I would also include Thresher instead of Bulk in the Bulk vs. Vapor set.  In the show he would have retired from active duty and spent his time traning rookies.  As for plot I would make it so that, rather than hitting and running on the Hero's Von Nebula's team would be actually doing something.  The Idea that comes to mind is that Von's staff isn't powerfull enough to make a full sized black hole, so they are collecting parts to make a machine that can.

 

2nd season(Fire villans)  Not sure how I would stretch this one out.  I doubt that the fire villans would have a bigger plan.  They just steal the fuel because they are adicted to it and they have the power to take it.  I would probubly have some sort of problem for the old heros in that they are the old model and are being replaced, with more emphasis on the danger of getting upgraded to the new build.

 

3rd season(savage planet)  Best way I could think to stretch this one out would be to make it so that there is more than one quaza mine on the planet.  I would have a whole episode specifically about when Furno and Rocka get to each lead a team.  The final battle would be more or less the same, Rocka XL vs. Witch Doctor, and than the problem of getting the quaza to the center before the planet dies.  I would wan't to have it be a 2 episode finale.

 

4th season(breakout)  Make one episode for each hero's mission, including episodes for Thornraxx, Core hunter and XT4, as well as some other villans for other heros to fight.  The final battle in the actual fatcory would be made into 2 epsiodes.

 

5th season(Brain attack)  Probubly copy some material from the books.  This season would be the brains popping up in varios places and coming up with plans to destroy hero factory.  I like the Idea of the set villans being controlled versions of the first 6 heroes and having a team of rookies go against them, however I would also have one of the heroes be Thresher, come out of retirement untill they can get the alpha team back.

 

6th season (Invasion from below)  Basically, no genocide.  Not sure what else I would do.

[Xabla]

Lots of good things have been sugjested already.

 

I agree that it would be good to put the CCBS system in the first wave, but I really like the 'upgrade' concept as well so I would keep things the way they are in that department.  I agree that Evo should have kept his origional personality.  As well as introducing more new heros more often, but not to many.

 

It's almost a consensus that the show should have had more episodes, so here is how I would try to specifically leingthen each season WITHOUT changing each wave's theme.  Not including the obiovios stuff like more fleshed out villans.

 

1st season(Rise of the Rookies)  First of all I would give Thunder and Vapor their own episodes.  Thunder's would be esspecialy interesting cause it said in his character bio that he could roll up into a ball.  It also said in Corroder's bio that he had kind of a Starscream type of thing going on, so I would emphisise that.  I would also include Thresher instead of Bulk in the Bulk vs. Vapor set.  In the show he would have retired from active duty and spent his time traning rookies.  As for plot I would make it so that, rather than hitting and running on the Hero's Von Nebula's team would be actually doing something.  The Idea that comes to mind is that Von's staff isn't powerfull enough to make a full sized black hole, so they are collecting parts to make a machine that can.

 

2nd season(Fire villans)  Not sure how I would stretch this one out.  I doubt that the fire villans would have a bigger plan.  They just steal the fuel because they are adicted to it and they have the power to take it.  I would probubly have some sort of problem for the old heros in that they are the old model and are being replaced, with more emphasis on the danger of getting upgraded to the new build.

 

3rd season(savage planet)  Best way I could think to stretch this one out would be to make it so that there is more than one quaza mine on the planet.  I would have a whole episode specifically about when Furno and Rocka get to each lead a team.  The final battle would be more or less the same, Rocka XL vs. Witch Doctor, and than the problem of getting the quaza to the center before the planet dies.  I would wan't to have it be a 2 episode finale.

 

4th season(breakout)  Make one episode for each hero's mission, including episodes for Thornraxx, Core hunter and XT4, as well as some other villans for other heros to fight.  The final battle in the actual fatcory would be made into 2 epsiodes.

 

5th season(Brain attack)  Probubly copy some material from the books.  This season would be the brains popping up in varios places and coming up with plans to destroy hero factory.  I like the Idea of the set villans being controlled versions of the first 6 heroes and having a team of rookies go against them, however I would also have one of the heroes be Thresher, come out of retirement untill they can get the alpha team back.

 

6th season (Invasion from below)  Basically, no genocide.  Not sure what else I would do.

I agree with your last one. Thank our saviors, "the heroes"

[Takametru007]

The thing I wish was done differently is the last year, especially since Lego knew it was going to end then. 

 

Instead of the Invasion from Below, I think they should've revealed that the true mastermind behind the Breakout and Brain Attack - was Von Nebula! He makes his glorious return, using the data stolen from Hero Factory to build a Villain Factory (it's corny, but what isn't in HF?). 

 

It would be the ultimate showdown, like a Mata-Nui vs Makuta moment, and would have given a more cohesive end to the story, with Von Nebula meeting his final demise.

[Mallow Toa of Smashing]

Keep the cheesiness, because that's kind of what Hero Factory is all about, but instead of being too tryhard, embrace it. Be self aware about it. Be funny about it, not "totally rad dude!" about it.

 

Add more female characters, as has been said before.

 

A story that actually flows well and doesn't feel like a fanfiction of something written in the span of two minutes.

 

Better character development. I felt like almost every character in Hero Factory was flat.

 

More variance between the sets, kind of like how the Toa in Bionicle 2015 are all pretty varied in certain ways. I guess this was fixed in IFB, but I lost interest in Hero Factory long before then. Up until then, they still had a case of Piraka Clone Syndrome.

 

More colors. Seriously. Where are the metru colored shells? I think I recall the only green in Hero Factory being lime.

 

Make the villains more aggressive looking, not bony creatures that crawled from the bottom of a ravine.

 

More weapons, or transforming weapons. I feel like this would make the sets have a bit more play value, and it would allow for a variety of different dynamic poses.

 

Tone back the over-reliance on shooters. It seemed like every Hero Factory set had to have a shooter shoe-horned into it in some way.

 

That's all I can think of for now.

[J46 Nui]

I forgot to mention it in my first post, but I really wished that they kept the Hero Factory radio show running longer. I had more fun with that show than most of the other story stuff.

[UnderscoreChronix]

1. Stop giving Rocka all the cool stuff.

2. Focus on other heroes more, such as Bulk, Stringer, Nex and Breez.

3. Stop making "XL" sets.

4. Replace IFB with a good finale, where Dark Maker, Von Nebula and their alliance have created a "villain factory" of sorts, and release all nine heroes as sets all looking good, and nine "dark heroes" along with Dark Maker. 

5. More episodes. Minimum of 2 per year, rather than a rushed 20 minute one.

6. Less cheesy one-liners and more character development.

7. Have one year where the story focuses on a different team of Heroes, similar to the Toa Inika of '06. Just to freshen things up a bit.

Edited March 6, 2015 by -Chronix Master of Stuff-