HF=Humanoid Figurines?

[fishers64]

By "humanoid figurine", I mean figures with two legs and two arms that are meant to stand on said two legs in a human-like fashion.

[Click]

Well, the first one, I answered yes, because of course they have way too many bipeds. Second, I answered no, considering the sets that aren't Bipeds or canisters always end up messy and way too simple for limbs, but too complex for the rest of it. The pieces are obviously meant for bipedal canister sets, and there isn't much else you can do with then, unlike Bionicle (although it's the same for most of the latter year pieces).The third, I answered other, just because Lego can really only pull off other sets if they add more pieces, or start using more technic and Bionicle pieces. I really like it when Lego does nice vehicles, but you can't really do those with HF's current selection of pieces.

[bonesiii]

Triple yes, but over-humanoiding is pretty common. At least there's some that go beyond it.

[BioGio]

Isn't the first question just a matter of fact? If there's a majority of humanoids, there's a majority of humanoids. There's no "belief" in that equation.

[Wotz]

Yes to all. Plus, I agree with BioGio.

[Aanchir]

Other, Yes, and No."Other" because yes, the majority of Hero Factory sets are bipedal humanoids. That's not an opinion, that's just how the statistics pan out. But as of this year, Hero Factory has a lot more non-humanoids than most action figure toy lines, including BIONICLE in many years. So I couldn't bring myself to vote "yes" as if to imply an unusual or unacceptable lack of non-humanoid figures."Yes" because TLG has demonstrated the building system's usefulness for non-humanoids several times with sets like Raw-Jaw (the closest "beast" character to a humanoid, but with decidedly non-humanoid posture and proportions), Fangz (not a personal favorite of mine), Scorpio, Jawblade, and Thornraxx. Then there's XT4 who's only borderline humanoid-- he has not even remotely humanoid proportions, but anatomically he is bipedal and it's only his legs and extra arms that would separate him from a humanoid build. And let's not forget the combi models from this year, the majority of which are non-humanoid.And "No" because honestly, I think TLG is doing well as it is. I wouldn't want to see fewer non-humanoid sets by any means, but really we've got plenty and I think we'll never need many more than we have now. The Heroes, being the characters fans are meant to identify with, should always be largely humanoid IMO, and a centaur or similar "hybrid" hero would need quite a story explanation to make much sense. And the villains are best when there's a mix of humanoid figures and non-humanoid figures. With that in mind, I think the theme will have the most reasonable balance if the theme continues to have 12-25% non-humanoids and 75-88% humanoids each year, just as it has been in the Breakout and Savage Planet lines.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Aanchir: Rachira of Time

[FrozenFlash]

I'm saying yes to everything.

[Baron Von Nebula]

Yes to all three. It's mostly because of heroes- I'm happy with the number of non-humanoid villains compared to humanoid villains. I can't think of any reasons why being a good guy requires being humanoid. In the story, it seems that almost all intelligent (non-animal) robots are humanoid, but there really isn't any reason for that. The current skeleton pieces could be used for non-humanoids, and I don't think anyone would complain if new torso shapes were introduced.

[Aanchir]

Yes to all three. It's mostly because of heroes- I'm happy with the number of non-humanoid villains compared to humanoid villains. I can't think of any reasons why being a good guy requires being humanoid. In the story, it seems that almost all intelligent (non-animal) robots are humanoid, but there really isn't any reason for that. The current skeleton pieces could be used for non-humanoids, and I don't think anyone would complain if new torso shapes were introduced.

Well, generally it helps people relate to characters if the character is anthropomorphized, whether in terms of physical appearance or personality. BIONICLE was no different in this regard. Non-humanoid characters can be good guys, but kids are less likely to identify with them on the same level-- even cartoon animals are often given human-like movement.Now, there's some flexibility of course. The Savage Planet wave demonstrated that you can put animal-like parts on a humanoid figure, and that could probably be taken even further by making a "mer-person" hero with a fishlike tail or even a "centaur hero" with four legs. But generally the more bestial or alien you make a character the harder it is for people to relate to them. And while it's perfectly fine for some movies and books to challenge readers and viewers by leading them to identify with a character that otherwise lacks that "human element", it's not usually the best idea to make things more complicated for your audience when the story you're trying to promote is driven almost entirely by toy sales.On a side note, I think that's one of the reasons BIONICLE couldn't keep going for as long as some people wanted it to. It was a great story, but one that was perhaps a little too ambitious for something that depended on toy sales to survive. If it had been a book series or a movie series with some merchandise on the side, it might have fared much better, since TLG could have promoted earlier story arcs just as much as they did the current story arc. But as it is, following the story was too much of a chore for many potential buyers, and without the story it was a much harder sell.

[Takhamavahu]

That first question isn't really an opinion think. count 'em up and see how many are humanoid. It's much more objective.

[WeatherDragon]

I answered "Yes" to all three. Hero Factory pieces and builds should be expanded, thus opening the doors for more epic ideas.

[Xalen: Shadowed Spirit of]

No, yes, and yes. Hero Factory has a majority of humanoid figures, yes. But look at any other action figure line (even BIONICLE) and you'll see that Hero Factoryoutpaces them by far. Even some of their humanoids are animalistic (3.0 Heroes, Corroder), or sport extra appendages or unusual anatomy. (XT4's chicken legs and extra arms, Speeda Demon's spare arms, Black Phantom's Saber Strikers, Jetbug's jet wings, claws, and mandibles, Meltdown's tentacle, Witch Doctor's legs, etc.) LEGO has proved HF easily capable of creating cleaner, better looking, and simpler non humanoids than BIONICLE with fewer parts, meaning more non humanoid sets, as well as easily being capable of creating extremely complex non humanoids and humanoids alike using just it's building system. (Erland from Hero Factory's part design, known as Front on the web, did a awesome MoC of a dragon using only bones and shells, but it was posted on a different forum.) And yes, because more interesting builds are always good.

[LewaLew]

Yes to all three. And so did BIONICLE, which must stand for Bipedal Individuals On Numerous Incidents Constructed by LEGO Everywhere.

[Zorrakh]

Yes to the first person. It does make sense why that's the case, since most of the sets actually are humanoid. Yes to the second. The designers wanted to have a more skeletal construction than with Bionicle, and when the new construction style was released and talked about the in videos on the website, they were showing all the various cratures they could make with the same parts and I have been looking forward to that (we've gotten a little bit of that, but I want more).I chose 'Other' for the third question because I belive they should have a nice mixture of both. I don't wish to have an entire wave of non-humanoids for Hero Factory (but I wouldn't mind it if they created another line using the Ultrabuld), however I don't want an all-humanoid wave. A nice mixture of the two would be nice for Hero Factory.

[unknown456]

Yes for the first 2. I put other for the third one because it doesn't make too huge of a difference to me.

[Emzee]

Yes for the first 2. I put other for the third one because it doesn't make too huge of a difference to me.

This is topic revival.

 

Thread closed.