These "HERO Factory" thingys are interesting, but i miss the original BIONICLEs....those were the good days....

I hope that hero factory is good as bionicle

At first I thought HERO Factory would be rubbish, but it will just be a new BIONICLE story, and the name has changed.
Nothing to worry about.

Funny, I always buy the green one!

Huw dont you mean William Furno?:)

I wish they would of continued BIONICLE. I think hero factory is going to fail.

They have the Building instructions for the Hero Factory sets on the HF microsite

@Huw Oh sorry!:)

How come, unlike bionicle, the heroes are matoran/agori size and the villains are toa/glatorian size??
It was opposite with bionicle in the start: the villians were smaller (bohrok) or the same size(rakshi/rahi).
Maybe the heroes will 'grow' as they get older?

Toys r us says bionicle hero factory. You just need to take off the "H" and you got another bionicle set.

@legobob How can you like bionicle and not like HF they're the same thing. I do agree with you though on the imagination part.

@ceroknight - I think its because when there is a villan/monster problem, they send out a team of heros, instead of a one-on-one type of battle.

When I went to Brickworld, LEGO Community Development Lead Coordinator Steve Witt said that Bionicle was never ment to have a continuing story, they knew that it needed an end. Not only that, but the sales for bionicle were going down slightly. It was just time for LEGO to move on.

Don't think that I don't miss bionicle, because I do! I am just saying that I understand LEGO's reasoning behind it, And I hope HF does well!

Yeah goofy that they put from the maker's of BIONICLE as lego has alway's been the "makers" of bionicle, big HAHAHA...
I picked up Mark Surge at my local Toy's R Us, I can't say it equal's bionicle, but it's not that bad of a set except for the darn legs which aren't very moveable...

@Huw and refriedbeans: It's short for William (Will) in the U.S. too.

I've never been a big fan of bionicle but it did have to end sometime. I guess this is as close LEGO can get to bionicle without it actually being bionicle.

@Ceroknight: I actually think that it's cool that they've finally started making the heroes smaller than the villains. Whenever I used to play with my toys (Bionicles, Legos, etc.), I always made the villains all really big, super hard to beat bad guys. That way, whenever I did (imaginarily) beat them, it was so much cooler, because the heroes overcame the impossible odds and beat a villain twice their size.

I'm guessing that that is Lego's thought behind making the heroes smaller than the villains; to make the victory over evil so much more fun for the kids that play with HF.

I used to buy the white ones and black ones. I'm an old fashioned G vs E guy. Haven't bought any in a while, have to check these out though, just in case.

@grelb32: thats true ... but it would be cool if LEGO brought back something like the Exo-Toa. That would make me want to buy HF ... I buy red,white and green(haha Italy) but this time maybe just Furno and Stormer ...

>> Yeah goofy that they put from the maker's of BIONICLE as lego has alway's been the "makers" of bionicle, big HAHAHA...

It's not "goofy" at all, it's pure marketing.

LEGO wanted to retire Bionicle and start fresh (so to speak) to inject some energy into the line, but they also want to reassure all the moms and dads going to the store to find what they know their kids like playing with-- which has been Bionicle. Even if the HF line *looks* the same, parents might still pass them over because they're looking for the Bionicle name.

By both changing the theme's name and keeping the "from the makers of Bionicle" moniker on it for a while, they accomplish both freshness and brand loyalty, ensuring a continuing profit.

@morgan19 i see what you mean.

I'm not a fan of galactic enforcer type sets...but it seems to me lego loves them though. (space police, Hero Factory, ben ten, star wars, even atlantis seems a little that way even though that's not galactic). They need to branch out a little.

@:Sky-guardian: What do you mean by 'Galactic Enforcer' type sets?

Science Fiction I think....

The villains look the best out of the lot, especially corroder and meltdown. Von Nebula is COOL ;) Are the pieces in the Bulk set silver or are they just grey. The packaging makes him look really shiny. Stringer is the same, he looks chrome more than black.

Thats nice but being BZP and all I knew that months ago!
But I didn't know you collected the red(Fire) characters

Still don't like them...

Good to know that some people have found the awesome sets. So the hunt begins.

@Captain Aardvark I mean a police force enforcing space.
@ceroknight That too.

The HF sets were in my local Lego Brand Retail store today (Milton Keynes, UK).

I went to Tesco and bought Will Furno, Duncan Bulk and Preston stormer

Whoo! theyre coming at long last! but I'll never understand why the "scout class" bionicles always have fixed joints. what if i dont want to pose them while their arms and knees are half bent?

Hope hero factory is not going to fail.You know i like the red ones in the story

Ive never been into bionicle, but some of the badguys look pretty cool, at the very least I guess its possible to integrate some of the cooler looking pieces into regular lego builds. Ill have to pick some up when they go on sale like old Bionicle often did.

On a side note, on the Toysrus Canada website, they are listed as 'Lego Bionicle - Hero Factory'

@legbob: I like the fact that Lego made a new story now. Whenever I played with my Bionicles, I really struggled to be creative about what I played. Gresh and Mata Nui were always the heroes, and everybody who was a bad-guy was strictly bad-guy (same with the good-guys). Thus, after a few times of playing the same plot with the same figures, I got bored. However, with these new guys, there's absolutely no plot. Meaning, I can pretend that these people are whoever I want them to be. I can make the red guy the main hero, or I can kill off the white guy early, or XPlode can become a good-guy in the end and help them kill of Von Nebula, etc.

But anyways, I think it's cool that they're making a new plot, because now, there's so much left to your imagination, that I doubt that it will be near as easy to get bored with the same old figures as it was with Bionicles.

@legobob I think that's the reason they switched it There was no where else to go... But Yes HF has very little history and HF emergency phone line?????? What kind of plot is that?!?!

Really Bionicle was really never that good after the first few waves. Now that I look back on it, they were never very good in the first place with all the over-specialized pieces that were only useful for a few situations most of the time (yes, I realize people have come up with tons of ways to use these pieces). I agree by looks, or at least without the 'H' on the front, it's exactly the same as Bionicle in my book, especially since I never bothered reading the story and didn't bother following it.

I honestly dunno if this is going to fail....but it looks cool though!

@legobob: I think HF will have a better story soon. They just haven't told everyone what it is yet.

looks okay, but the heroes hardly have any pieces!

Today I got all of the Hero Factory sets- Von Nebulas amazing!!

I accept that Bionicle had to end at some point, but they cannot compare Hero Factory to Bionicle. The Bionicle plot is far more intricate and epic, and the sets were better. From what I've seen of these "heroes" they are a simple block body piece, with one pice arms and weapons, THEY ARE NOWHERE NEAR AS GOOD AS BIONICLE!!!

Another thing with Hero factory is the heroes only have a weapon on one arm. And they think they're top of the line.

I'll have to unforuantly wait until august for the sets

even though i am a bionicle fan, i will probably get one of the heroes (i always collect at least one set from the current bionicle theme, and though it isn't bionicle it re-placed it so i will keep with my tradition) but the villians are the ones that are cool, cuz they are bionicles with a differnet label (i mean even the main bad guy has hydroxans mask, only in black, how is that not awesome?) and remember, lego has to appeal to 4 differnt fan groups, little kid, pre-teens, teens, and AFOL's. its hard to make a theme that ALL age groups like. HF is obviosly for the littler kids, as technic is more for older teens and AFOL's.

As figures i prefere bionicles, but their names also suffered from overcomplication

Guys,shhh dont tell legobob about this beacause he thinks lego hero factory is bad but did you know that Von nebula was once a good guy and mark surge is convinced he was biult with a flaw and fears he might end up in the side of bad?It's true.

The Hero's part count. What is the big deal? The first Bioncle sets couldn't move like the HF sets can! Besides, next year the Heroes will be probably upgraded! Not to mention, with Bionicle's lowering sales, a new theme had to be rushed onto the scene, so they didn't have a lot of time to make new molds!

I still like Bionicles! hmnf! But this new series looks promising. But I read the little brochure that came with my magazine and they put SO much backstory into it! To be honest I hardly understood the Bionicle story! ;P

@ Sky-guardian I agree why does legobob not like HF and likes bionicle.They are like the same thing

If it's a factory that makes heroes, why don't they just make a million so they don't even have to worry about the bad guys? I think the bad guys are cooler in design and the heroes sound like they have big egos, kinda lame. These guys could actualy be bionicles just remove the giant H on their chests, and it will look like the belong in the bionicle series.

they should make a set with the actual factory that makes the heroes!

I think they look better than the last few waves of Bionicles (except the Stars) so I will probably pick one up to see if they are as cool as the pictures! :)

they should continue the bionicle saga and say hero factory is "future bionicles"