In the July-August issue of the LEGO Club Magazine you can get a glimpse of the second wave of the LEGO Hero Factory Invasion From Below sets. I thought to talk about these a bit today as they are quite interesting with more of the underground monsters and minifig-size heroes. 🙂
The description in the LEGO Club Magazine is as follows: “Hero Factory has taken the battle underground, challenging the might of the Queen Beast in her lair. But are SURGE, ROCKA and EVO in time to save their teammates, STORMER and FURNO, from the powerful and vicious Queen? Never before has Hero Factory faced such monstrous foe… or fought harder to save, not only the galaxy, but themselves. It’s mechanized might against brute power, in a battle only one side can hope to survive.”
The monsters themselves are like in the first wave of LEGO Hero Factory Invasion From Below sets; creatures that remind me of the 2013 movie Pacific Rim. And in fact if you consider that normally Hero Factory heroes are large constraction figures, the fact that they were shrunk to minifig size may be an indication of how large these monsters are. Then there are all those sinister looking plant/cocoon elements that swallows up the heroes – I can see these being reused in interesting ways as plants, underwater vegetation, or even alien life-forms.
Also, there are going to be more of those little jumper bugs that are actually really fun; you can push their backs and since their legs are a more springy plastic, they will jump at whomever you aim that at. 🙄
The heroes, as I have mentioned above, are now minifigure size and ride various mechs. I’m not a big fan of constraction type LEGO sets so I’m not the most qualified person to talk about them, but they do look more interesting than the previously released large hero figures with a large variety of unique machines.
What really interest me in the new LEGO Hero Factory sets is the minifigures. I absolutely love these small robots and find them very valuable in my LEGO collection. They are very sturdy, with their limps attached to a LEGO skeleton torso, and the limps themselves have several attachment points for tools and weapons.
Also, as we have discussed previously (see here: LEGO Hero Factory Minifigs are Awesome!), although they are slightly taller than regular LEGO minifigs, their accessories are fully interchangeable. So those sweet helmets and armor pieces they wear can be used on regular minifigs, and also you can use regular minifigure armor, helmets and other accessories on their bodies.
And thirdly, with the various color options the LEGO Hero Factory minifigs blend in well with other LEGO Space sets as robots. I’m planning to use the white ones (STORMER) as medical robots, the yellow ones (EVO) as mechanics, the red ones (FURNO) as warriors, and the lime-green ones (BREEZ) as scouts. The golden one (ROCKA) can be used as some kind of a leader robot or something. In the first wave they didn’t have SURGE (the blue hero), but in the second wave we will get him in two sets. I’m particularly excited about this as I plan to use this minifig as a robot in my LEGO Classic Space collection. There is also a silver-armored hero, BULK, who appears in two sets and is going to be great as a generic robot.
There are going to be seven sets in the second wave of LEGO Hero Factory Invasion From Below line, and I will list them here – along with their price – for your convenience:
- #44023 LEGO Hero Factory ROCKA Crawler – $9.99
- #44024 LEGO Hero Factory TUNNELER Beast vs. SURGE – $9.99
- #44025 LEGO Hero Factory BULK Drill Machine – $14.99
- #44026 LEGO Hero Factory CRYSTAL Beast vs. Bulk – $14.99
- #44027 LEGO Hero Factory BREEZ Flea Machine – $14.99
#44028 Hero Factory SURGE & ROCKA Combat Machine – $24.99 - #44029 QUEEN Beast vs. FURNO, EVO & STORMER – $34.99
The new LEGO Hero Factory sets should be available later this year. I have a strong feeling this will be the last wave of LEGO Hero Factory, as according to several sources, LEGO Bionicle is coming back. As Bionicle and Hero Factory are quite similar, I doubt that LEGO will run both themes at the same time. The currently available LEGO Hero Factory sets are listed at the Online LEGO Shop. Give them a try – you may like them even if you are not into constraction figures. 😉
What do you think? How do you like the new LEGO Hero Factory sets? Do you like the smaller heroes, the large mechs, and the monsters? Do you collect the heroes and use them in other LEGO themes? What do you think will be the faith of LEGO Hero Factory when LEGO Bionicle comes back? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below!
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I think you are referring to Crystal beast, not a hero, but I didin’t real look into the heroes, just the set names.
I wasn’t sure about that myself. There are two heroes however that are some shade of gray or silver. That’s what I was referring to. Hopefully someone who is more familiar with Hero Factory can clarify. I only remember the main heroes.
The heroes are as follows:
Red- Furno
Blue- Surge
Green- Breez
Black- Stringer
Gray/Silver- Bulk
White- Stormer
Gold- Rocka
Orange- Nex
Yellow- Evo
Thanks for the list! I wasn’t aware there was an orange one too! 😀
Yay bionicles r cooler
Sorry for going a bit off topic, but the full-color image of the leakes 2015 Bionicle display is out and it is pretty safe to say that this is real, granting that one of them uses the new rapid fire stud shooter shown in the Wookie Gunship…
http://images.brickset.com/LEGO-Bionicle-2015-21_20140726.jpg
Courtesy of brickset.com
I actually would really like a Bionicle fan to write an article about this, as I don’t know much about the theme, however I do know that this is a historic event! 😛
Hey admin,
I would be happy to write an article about it! However, I have not posted an article on this site yet and perhaps you could PM me at legozebra@gmail.com for instructions?
Thanks!
Legozebra
I have sent you a PM. 🙂
By the way, during the original era of bionicles, they DID have a few, really cool ‘system’ sets that also featured minirobots. I’m not sure if they will be coming back and they mostly appeared when they were interacting with an environment, however that’s something to think about.
Oh, I would love that to happen! I’m well aware of the mini robots from the original BIONICLE, and always hoped that LEGO will reintroduce them in the new storyline. I’m hoping for something like the LEGO Hero Factory mini heroes. 😀
Honestly, these sets look like a rival competitors attempt to copy LEGO. I am quite disappointed, as these builds like as if they were assembled by a 2 year old.
I’m not a fan of Hero Factory for the sets, but they do come with some very interesting parts and accessories that are great for MOCs. Plus I love the new mini heroes! But I do know what you mean as far as the somewhat messy nature of the constructions.
And new Bionicle sets. Should be interesting news for Fikko. I wonder whether the convoluted backstory would be rebooted…
http://brickset.com/article/11884/bionicle-set-to-return-in-2015
I have emailed Fikko about it when this was first just a rumor. He was going to look into and and perhaps write on the topic. I would love to hear his thoughts on the subject in detail.
I really want to write that, but my hands are in a knot- I’m away from my laptop since, well, I’m in Rome, and I have a slew of homework for when I get back…But please, reserve for me the honor! My article will probably be long, convoluted and a testament of my love for Bionicle- but I’ll be great, seriously.
I would love you to write about it. You have some time as they are supposed to be out in 2015. 😉
I actually didn’t care for Hero Factory until this year’s sets. I guess b/c the Splitter Beast set has FURNO, who has the elemental Fire Blade. This wave isn’t that interesting for me, though.
My brothers and I have collectively 2 Bionicle sets, but I’m not interested in the theme, so I won’t bother with new Bionicle. 😕