Random set of the day: Evo 2.0
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 2067 Evo 2.0, released during 2011. It's one of 27 HERO Factory sets produced that year. It contains 31 pieces, and its retail price was US$7.99/£7.99.
It's owned by 2,243 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $48.40, or eBay.
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21 comments on this article
What what about Evo 1.0?
Laker-bot
@Maxbricks14 said:
"What what about Evo 1.0?"
It's a little funny that there wasn't one when he's seemingly named after evolution. Maybe he should have been Intelligent Design-o. Ido?
My favorite hero factory protag as a kid, although I never actually had this set.
@RogueWhistler said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"What what about Evo 1.0?"
It's a little funny that there wasn't one when he's seemingly named after evolution. Maybe he should have been Intelligent Design-o. Ido?"
Clearly not. Look how little purple he has on him!
Warrior Hero Bumblebee.
One of my favorite Hero Factory sets purely for its color scheme. Later versions of Evo got rid of the purple core and eyes, but they were so stand out and cool. Modern LEGO has a lot more purple, and it was already getting common by the time this set came out, but it was still rare enough that it felt like something special.
LORE TIME
The HERO Factory was a grand facility that developed robotic Heroes to defend and protect the galaxy, functioning as super powered police for a wide range of robot inhabited planets. While its robotic agents were impressive, as the years went on their flaws started to show. The standardized 1.0 model was small, not very flexible, and many missions required radical new abilities and powers that either made gearing up a long and difficult process, or left the agents under-tooled for a threat.
And so Akiyama Makuro set to work developing an upgrade for his creations. They would possess a more flexible skeletal structure that was easier to lengthen and shorten and armor shelling that could be swapped out for environmental resistances, in addition to more tools and weapons that could be attached to the side of this armor rather than wielded in the Hero's hand. They dubbed this upgrade system the "2.0" line of Heroes.*
While most of the 1.0 Heroes were eventually upgraded to this 2.0 build, the first two to be created from scratch using it and demonstrate its capabilities were named Nex and Evo, being the "Next Evolution" of the species.
Shortly after Nex and Evo's reveal Alpha Team found themselves in trouble. A group known as the Fire Villains were in the middle of raiding a tanker station to steal and smuggle its fuel, setting the facility ablaze in the process. During the fight Hero Surge was captured by the gang, and the others were forced to retreat. Heroes Furno, Stormer, and Breeze volunteered to be the first 1.0 agents modified into 2.0 models in order to be fitted with heat resistant armor and ice-firing weapons. Nex and Evo joined Alpha Team, and together the five were able to save Surge and capture the Fire Villains.
Some time later a mass Breakout occurred at the Hero Factory. In order to recapture all the escaped convicts, each Hero was given a custom loadout of gear and sent to recapture a specific threat. Evo was sent to the swampy bog-world of Z'chaya. There he recaptured Toxic Reapa, a poisonous and acidic creature who had returned to his homeworld to steal cocoons of his own kind and breed a toxic army of minions.
During the Brain Attack Evo mainly dealt with Aquagon's in the city's sewers, freeing them from the mind-control Brains that had seized them. During the Invasion Form Bellow Evo was the first to see the giant creatures escape onto the surface, and he was given a much larger mech than his teammates that he used to fight the Kaiju.
One of the particularly interesting (and odd) traits of Evo is his complete personality shift in the show. During The Ordeal of Fire he was an incredibly calm and collected sort. Often meditating and studying his foes, waiting for a moment to strike and then dispatching them efficiently. After Breakout he shifted to be much more talkative and clumsy than before, being a brash rookie similar to Furno and Rocka in previous episodes. Adding to this confusion, Evo and Nex were given opposite character bios on LEGO.com for the Ordeal of Fire than their actual behavior in the episode. Combine that with Nex not doing much after Ordeal of Fire and Evo wound up a very inconsistent character that you can't really pin down.
In his 2.0 form Evo wielded a Multi-Tool Ice Shield. Not only did his have two barrels to fire ice blasts (like them all) but also a utility claw to grab, lift, or tear heavy objects. He was also supposedly the weapons expert of the team but I don't remember this coming up very much.
*All an elaborate in-universe explanation for the the abandonment of the Inika Build (2006-2010), Kardatoron/Agori Build (2008-2010) in favor of the more unified yet simplified Character and Creature Building System (2011-2018). Even
*All an elaborate in-universe explanation for the the abandonment of the Inika Build (2006-2010), Kardatoron/Agori Build (2008-2010) in favor of the more unified yet simplified Character and Creature Building System (2011-2018). Even more Techinc based constraction figures shifted to use CCBS for ball and socket joints rather than BIONICLE ones from this point on (compare Von Nebula to Witch Doctor, for example)
I thought it was Bumblebee for a second as it loaded onto my phone. Had to do a double-take.
Evo? Directive?
I likèd this one for the color, as it could allow better combos with Waspix than the white Stormer 2.0. I got one way later, but put that one for sale. In fact I had two at the same time at one point.
I like the use of the larger angular panel for his shoulder. Not all 2.0 builds used the shells well, but this one did.
@Zeitgeist said:
"So many specialised pieces. And yet, I kind of like it."
Not really. The headgear is the only piece that wasn't reused. The 2.0s were the least specialized constraction wave since probably the Vahki in summer 2004
@Zeitgeist said:
"So many specialised pieces. And yet, I kind of like it."
Honestly, I found Hero Factory much more interesting than the endless Bionicle repaints. The Hero Factory heroes were all pretty similar, but they offered some really great villain sets.
By far the weakest HF wave ever and the worst hero sets. Bland, uninspired, blocky, and mediocre. However, this is one of the better ones from a horrible wave and HF found its CCBS footings in later years. They had to start somewhere, after all.
@GSR_MataNui , thank you for the lore to help understand why this is Evo 2.0 when there wasn't a 1.0 version. The 2.0 line of Heroes was the first build where Evo showed up.
@Brickalili said:"Evo? Directive? "
Classified.
@Zeitgeist said:
" @ShilohCyan said:
" @Zeitgeist said:
"So many specialised pieces. And yet, I kind of like it."
Not really. The headgear is the only piece that wasn't reused. The 2.0s were the least specialized constraction wave since probably the Vahki in summer 2004"
I don't think I used the word "one-off". Or "specialized", for that matter."
"One-off," no. "Specialized," yes, unless you're seriously claiming that "specialised" means something different because it uses an "S" instead of a "Z."
@Zeitgeist said:
" @ShilohCyan said:
" @Zeitgeist said:
"So many specialised pieces. And yet, I kind of like it."
Not really. The headgear is the only piece that wasn't reused. The 2.0s were the least specialized constraction wave since probably the Vahki in summer 2004"
I don't think I used the word "one-off". Or "specialized", for that matter."
If you're counting the most basic CCBS parts as specialisczed, then nearly every piece used today counts too, like anything with a curve.
The fourth set of Hero Factory figures ("Breakout") mostly had the heroes go back to their original helmet designs. Since Evo and Nex didn't have 1.0 designs, their Breakout helmets were based on their 2.0 headgear, which I think is a nice idea. I'm not sure what the Breakout mask they came up with for Rocka, who was introduced in the 3.0 line with animal masks, was based on, though.
The 1.0 heroes have pretty clear elemental themes (fire, ice, air, electricity, sonics... and metal, I guess?). Inasmuch as the 2.0 additions have "elements," Nex seems to me to be computers and Evo construction. Again, though, I have no idea what Rocka's would be.
My first Hero Factory set, and only one of three I obtained during the original run (my budget mainly went to Star Wars when Bionicle ended, obviously). I collected most of them afterward on the secondary market.
@whiteghost said:
"By far the weakest HF wave ever and the worst hero sets. Bland, uninspired, blocky, and mediocre. However, this is one of the better ones from a horrible wave and HF found its CCBS footings in later years. They had to start somewhere, after all."
Sure it's one of the weaker HF waves because CCBS had to start somewhere. But considering that these were only slightly larger than the Av-Matoran and Stars builds and had all the articulation of Inika builds (and sometimes even more articulation than that) it's a pretty impressive start.
This was my first Hero Factory set. I loved the new action figure style and the interchangeability of armor and weapons. Bionicle never interested me in the way Hero Factory did. My brothers and I would regularly swap the secondary colors to try new combinations. 2.0s were probably my favorite due to the customizability of the helmets.
Regarding Evo in general, I definitely loved how armored he was compared to others and his mask looked the coolest to me. Him having purple made it a pretty easy choice since it was so rare in our collection.
The 2.0 heroes were pretty basic compared to what the building system they introduced would eventually allow for, but this was still easily my favorite of them. Great color scheme, cool weapon, and a nice armor configuration compared to some of the other sets it released alongside.