Invasion from Below Most Watched Video of LEGO.com 2014

[Hapori Tohu]

Hero Factory has never been one of LEGO's most succesful themes but still enough to have this year's episode, Invasion from Below, be this year's most watched video on LEGO.com, as is said on the LEGO.com frontpage on the 'Recommendations' category. The episode had some issues (the ending bothers me particularly) but overall it was probably pretty decent. Let's see if we see a BIONICLE video there next year...

 

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[Aanchir]

I was a bit surprised when I spotted this on the LEGO site! It's well-known that Hero Factory is nowhere near as successful as BIONICLE was at its peak, but evidently it still commands a lot of web traffic on LEGO.com.

 

This episode was definitely one of the weakest in terms of storytelling, but Ghost did a beautiful job on the animation, and Advance really hit the ball out of the park with their creative location designs. It's great to see how the partnership between those two companies and the LEGO Group has continued to grow since the early days of BIONICLE.

[Pohatu: Uniter of Stone]

Not sure how to feel about this. 

While it had good animation, I disliked this video for the following reasons.

1. Why did they decide to change the voices for the heroes all of the sudden? Seriously, Lego kept them the same for the ENTIRE RUN OF THE LINE- except the last wave? 

2. The jumpers/beasts are portrayed as the bad guys, even though they're only defending their home. I know a certain Toa who wouldn't agree with the motives of the heroes.

3. Queen Beast is flushed away in acid. Bionicle had plenty of worse moments, but they always had some sort of justification. Here, the Queen Beast is only guilty of protecting her homeland from invaders. 

4. The egg cocoon in the dropship. We know Hero Factory is over now... but they decide to give us another cliffhanger!

[emily]

I was a bit surprised when I spotted this on the LEGO site! It's well-known that Hero Factory is nowhere near as successful as BIONICLE was at its peak, but evidently it still commands a lot of web traffic on LEGO.com.

 

This episode was definitely one of the weakest in terms of storytelling, but Ghost did a beautiful job on the animation, and Advance really hit the ball out of the park with their creative location designs. It's great to see how the partnership between those two companies and the LEGO Group has continued to grow since the early days of BIONICLE.

It goes back much further than that - as you know the Advance-LEGO relationship is long standing, but as it turns out Ghost was/is actually mostly made up of staff from SPU Darwin, LEGO's original in-house digital content developer before it went defunct in 1998.

[Toa Smoke Monster]

Funny that one of Lego's most watched videos is one I've never seen. I might need to change that....

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

Pretty cool. I mean even on Youtube Hero Factory videos have a lot of numbers. The highest view count for a Hero Factory video is over 3 mil, and there are couple at that as well. Bionicle's most viewed video is less than 2 mil.

 

Well, that being said, I'd say it's definitely a testament to the digital age we live in. It might not have been super widely known in Bionicle's run, and if LEGO keeps it up Bionicle may end up surpassing Hero Factory in views (which is in itself already still pretty impressive) 

 

-NotS

Edited December 10, 2014 by Nidhiki of the Shadows

[CaT in Rogue]

Ah yes, this episode.

 

......

 

It seems like Lego forgot what 'storytelling' and 'pacing' were while making this episode.

 

Then again, those are also some big problems with the previous episode, so it's not exactly a new thing.

[Lenny7092]

I noticed that. I am quite surprised that the episode is called the most watched video of the year, even though that the story was terrible. I do like the animation and action, however. Well, I think it would be a good idea if Lego could survey the viewers for what they think of the episode.

The episode is sadly the least favorite episode that I watched. Still, there are some terrible story parts here and there, like replacing voice actors, heroes never feel sorry for the creatures, and the unresolved cliffhanger where there is a cocoon in the Heroes' Dropship. Well, it's sad to see Hero Factory ending and without finishing the unresolved parts of it, like the cocoon thing, but what it matters is that Bionicle is coming back. You know what happens to franchises: when a franchise gets cancelled, there would be a reboot of it later on. The same thing happened to Bionicle and the Spider-Man movies.

Anyway, speaking of Hero Factory ending, I can agree with you guys that it looks like it's now ending, but I don't think we have prove about that. I mean, where did you guys get that idea? Just asking. I have been trying to search for new Hero Factory in 2015, but I don't see a sign on any of them.

[fishers64]

For some reason I see this video being viewed like 1000 times by Random YouTube Critics who want to boost their channel views by bashing it. If something is a popular target for dislike/criticism, it's still popular.  

[Sumiki]

I always thought this episode was the oddest of all the Hero Factory videos and the implications of the ending made me very uncomfortable.
 
The only reason my feelings are mixed is because of fishers' point about the criticism boosting its view count. I know that I was one of those views.

[Aanchir]

I always thought this episode was the oddest of all the Hero Factory videos and the implications of the ending made me very uncomfortable.

 

The only reason my feelings are mixed is because of fishers' point about the criticism boosting its view count. I know that I was one of those views.

"Hate-watching" is definitely a real thing, but at the same time, it does seem to indicate that even people who didn't like the video or even the Hero Factory theme at all cared enough to want to find out how the episode went, for better or worse. I don't see nearly as many people "hate-watching" the LEGO Friends TV episodes that are available online, perhaps because most people who dislike that theme prefer to ignore it entirely.

 

I'd also go so far as to say that many people who bothered "hate-watching" the Hero Factory TV episodes were probably BIONICLE fans — people who had reason to expect better of the LEGO Group and of constraction themes in particular. Certainly I know many of the AFOLs I know from other sites wouldn't even give the Hero Factory TV episodes the time of day, because like BIONICLE, it's "not real LEGO" to them, and they would not expect anything more than a 20-minute toy commercial from it in the first place.

 

If BIONICLE fans are still keeping close enough tabs on the Hero Factory theme to spend 20 minutes "hate-watching" a video for a theme they might not even like, that could potentially bode well for the BIONICLE theme's return reaching new and old fans alike.

[Torchbearer]

I don't see why everyone has a problem with the cocoon in the Drophip. Yes, it's a cliff hanger, but it's a single Jumper. What's it going to do inside HF's own bas- oh wait. I just remembered Breakout. Ha ha.

[Master Inika]

If you ask me, the LEGO Friends episodes are better than IFB. At least there's no genocidal implications there.

[General Scales]

Wow, that was terrible! lol I only checked it out now because I was thinking "is it really that bad?" There was some decent action, and the animation was good, but the story and voice acting was lame. Also, that ending with the somewhat innocent creatures dying was pretty mean spirited of Lego.

[Nidhiki of the Shadows]

So I checked this out. Wanted to see why everyone dislikes it so much.

 

Yeah, that ending is awful and just sends a terrible message. What were they thinking?

 

-NotS

Edited December 14, 2014 by Nidhiki of the Shadows