Featured set of the day: William Furno
Posted by Huw,
LegoDavid proves that one man's junk is another man's treasure...
I first began to appreciate LEGO in 2010, and Hero Factory was one of the themes I was most into at the time. It was a period when Bionicle had just ended and Hero Factory was just starting. I remember getting a few of the first wave sets, but the one that stood out to me above all the others was 7167 William Furno.
Red was my favourite colour, and still is to this day, and this set was very visually appealing to me because of the great colour scheme, cool weapons and an awesome helmet piece. The set was incredibly affordable, retailing for only 8$, which is mind-blowing looking back on it now. I really wish LEGO still made affordable sets like this.
The only problem with the set was that the sockets that were easily broken, but that was a problem most of the late Bionicle and early Hero Factory sets suffered from. Thankfully it was solved a year later in 2011 with the introduction of the new CCBS (character and creature building system)
Other than that, the set is pretty much perfect to me. Sure, some Bionicle fans would argue against it, but I don't care. It's one of the first LEGO sets that I ever owned, and the set that got me into Constraction.
Although a lot of Bionicle fans disliked Hero Factory because it replaced Bionicle, that never really bothered me. I love both Bionicle and Hero Factory, they are two of my favourite LEGO themes of all time, and I really hope one of them will return some day.
I would highly recommend getting this set. It's quite cheap on the secondary market, and you get a lot of really cool pieces, and it's just a cool set in general
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23 comments on this article
I can agree that Hero Factory sets definitely weren't as bad as people remember them to be. But coming as a replacement for one of the themes with the richest stories and best character designs, it's obviously going to be disliked by many. I have this Furno set myself, and I must say I have always liked his design ever since he came out, but if I had to choose between him and Tahu, you can guess who I'm going with.
It's a shame Hero Factory didn't last longer than it did. I really enjoyed the concept. Though I didn't pick up many of the sets (there were others I had my eye on when I was younger), but they really did seem to try and improve the builds as time went on. The villains were also pretty cool! While the story wasn't nearly as fleshed out or deep as Bionicle, I really appreciate the attempt to keep things simple for the sake of play.
Also, does anyone else remember how the website had the fake news station? That was always fun to listen to. I hope they try something like this again sometime. It had just enough flexibility for a kid to make their own stories, and the continuity wasn't too deep for someone to just hop right in. Still, this line had the mother of all bad timing. I wonder how it would have fared if it didn't come right as Bionicle got the axe.
@LegoDavid
You say you wish LEGO would produce more sets like this; have you checked out 76140, 76141 & 76146? Iron Man, Thanos & Spiderman Mechs.
These are very comparable in size and build. They're IP characters instead of fantasy based creatures, but overall a much better build. Instead of approximately 20 pieces for $8, you're getting 150 pieces and a minifig for $10. It's a much, much better deal.
Hero Factory was amazing idea- making own brickbuild heroes that you can customize.
But BOY they failed horribly. Why they decided to make them so...non customizable?
@lordofdragonss said:
"Hero Factory was amazing idea- making own brickbuild heroes that you can customize.
But BOY they failed horribly. Why they decided to make them so...non customizable?"
I have a feeling they started off on the wrong foot with the Bionicle Stars method of doing things. Still, the vehicles were neat. Shame those didn’t stick around.
There's something deeply amusing to me about a guy with "Furno" for a surname being called William.
I loved the hero factory sets!
Writing as a BIONICLE fan who was really dismayed at the end of that theme in mid-2010, Hero Factory never angered or upset me for the reasons many others were. The only thing that upset me about Hero Factory replacing BIONICLE was something endemic to the last BIONICLE sets: the super-simple character builds. First the Stars, and now the first wave of Hero Factory heroes were all built around a measly 9 points of articulation. You didn't even need the instructions to put the sets together. Just snap the limbs and head on, and you're practically done! That's why Bill Furno and his ilk was able to come out at so low a price point. They weren't radically bigger than a BIONICLE Matoran (or Agori) set, so $7 was the going price.
After almost a decade of advancements in the constraction world under BIONICLE, this seemed like a massive step backwards. It totally soured any goodwill I had towards this theme when it debuted, even though there were larger figures (the villains) more on par with the designs of the larger BIONICLE canister sets.
Then, the following year, Lego totally pulled a fast one and revealed the new CCBS pieces with Hero Factory, and I was flabbergasted! Why didn't they debut with all those new limb joints!? I bought the blue one (forget its name) right after New Year's and was amazed at how they mostly kept the same scale, but with new pieces to give the tiny figure all the articulation of the giant Glatorian Legends of just 2 years prior. And now with none of the joint cracking!
So you see, timing is important when you're a kid and discover a particular Lego set for the first time. But I hope the next time Lego rolls out a character-based constraction line, they really knock it out of the park with innovation in parts and set design that neither BIONICLE nor Hero Factory ever saw. Won't that be something?
I did appreciate that Hero Factory was more simple and down-to-earth than Bionicle, but with the first wave, I felt that it was too similar (build-wise) to late Bionicle waves, and that Bionicle was just better. I did like the later waves of Hero Factory a lot, though, once it came up with a more unique build style.
I think this is one reason why the Bionicle reboot flopped. Going with Hero Factory pieces instead of Bionicle ones was kind of awkward.
@Robot99 said:
"I think this is one reason why the Bionicle reboot flopped. Going with Hero Factory pieces instead of Bionicle ones was kind of awkward."
They couldn't have done that either way. At the time Bionicle G2 came out, pretty much all the old Bionicle G1 pieces were out of production... So it would have been physically impossible to bring back Bionicle with the old pieces.
And while there were a lot of reasons why the Bionicle Reboot failed, I don't think the pieces used for the sets was one of them.
I think the Hero Factory advertising campaign was the worst LEGO had ever done. They were basically condescending and targeting really little kids to build the heroes (no, not from your own bricks, buy the sets with the large juniorized limb pieces, and then slap a layer of large specialized armor pieces over them, which as mentioned above you didn't even need instructions to figure it out) and then the heroes will help you with your fake first-world-kiddie problems, like a monster under the bed. I don't ever recall knowing a Hero Factory fan over the age of 8 while the theme was running.
As Huw put it, one man's junk is another man's treasure...
Ah yes. I think I have this set, but I’m not here to talk about that. One time on Amazon I found a review where a grandparent said that the set was too “violent” for her kid. I don’t think having a fantasy weapon in a set makes it violent honestly.
In case you’re wondering: https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B003A2JCGS/ref=acr_dp_hist_3?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=three_star&reviewerType=all_reviews (please don’t comment, this review was from nine years ago)
What annoyed me about the first wave of Hero Factory was the fact that they were based on the same body format as the naffest builds of Bionicle; really basic limbs on body and nothing else. While it isn't a problem in Furno, other characters like Bulk had some of the worst pieces I had ever seen in constraction, with those full arm gun pieces that were hollow on one side. Of course, only the decorated side was ever shown in promotional material. Coming off a series of different bionicle weapons that looked cool and actually functioned, this was absolute rock bottom constraction for 10 year old me.
The first year of ccbs also had some very aesthetically questionable pieces (good lord those heads!), but from the 3rd year onwards, Hero Factory was a perfectly good constraction series, toy wise, in Bionicle's absence.
Hehe, agree to disagree. Hero Factory as a whole wasn't that bad of a theme; the CCBS system was good and they had a lot of neat sets and designs (and some boring ones too, but I digress.) Even the first year of HF had some decent larger sets. But the first wave of Heroes... boring, simple, generic builds. The masks were good and the trans Hero cores were fun, but the rest of the set was pretty bland, especially after we'd suffered through three previous waves of similar small figure designs in Bionicle the years prior. These weren't the best sets to represent the theme with. (That said, the first year's TV story was okay.)
I was 13 at the time and had just started getting into Lego with a few power miners, space police 3, and atlantis sets. Hero factory is what really pulled me in wholesale. It became everything I could do to try to save up and collect all the characters. I poured over the promotional magazine with biographies and stories of their adventures over and over. I'm not sure what it is but this theme's premise really connected with me.... looking back these sets definitely weren't perfect but they hold a special place in my heart.
Good article! I remember my brothers and I getting a few of the brain attack sets in 2013. Those were good times, but I think the line has grown on me.
Hero Factory was great. I feel like it gets a bad rep because it's "not Bionicle," which is completely unfair.
The thing I loved most about the theme wasn't so much the sets, but rather how free-form it was. With the basic premise of "Factory-built Heroes that fight villains across the galaxy," really makes anything someone creates just as canon as the official story. Pure creative freedom. Something I had a hard time finding when it came to Bionicle's deep lore.
So while it may be lacking in official story content, I found it incredibly enjoyable to just make up my own.
Sets weren't too bad either, and CCBS offered a quick and simple way to make and customize characters. I just wish Constraction lasted longer to give us more pieces to build with...
I didn't buy many of the Hero Factory sets, but I liked the villain sets. One of the lines (with Waspix and Fangz) had some absolutely gorgeous designs, that looked fantastic as malevolent giants laying seige to my Lego city.
I never got any Hero Factory sets, but Bionicle G2 made me fall in love with CCBS as a system; so I feel indebted to Hero Factory even if I never realized what it was offering until it was to late. I feel the early Hero Factory vehicle sets are also very underrated, even though I never got any they always looked neat in the Lego catalogs.
We also don't give enough credit to Hero Factory for keeping a lot of the art team of Bionicle. I am pretty sure Christian Faber was heavily involved in Hero Factory and his style just oozes through the early advertisements for the line.
The first wave of Hero Factory though as oft repeated already had an issue the last few years of Bionicle had though, brittle joint design! I try and avoid late Bionicle and early Hero Factory parts in my MOCs when I can due to that issue. Its not common to have a Lego element so poorly designed it breaks after a few times of use, but that seems to be the case with that socket design.
I was never into the Bionicle lore but I got a Toa Nuparu and a Rocka XL that I recieved as a gift. I don't complain though, they both look beautiful.
The comments thread seems a lot more about rehashing HERO FACTORY as a theme then discussing the set.... but that seems par the course with HF and Bionicle.
I always felt like HERO Factory was overhated. Sure it's story was nowhere near as deep or complex as BIONICLE, but the CCBS system fixed the brittle sockets that plagued so many later BIONICLE models. In my opinion the biggest flaw where the heroes. BIONICLE cycled out it's main cast every two years or so to highlight a new team, but HF stuck with the same 9 heroes for it's entire run, usually 6-7 at a time. It ended up in kinda the same boat as the Ninjago ninja for me, where I only buy the sets for builds and villain figs now and not the ninja themselves. Why buy a new Furno set when I already have three of 'em?