So in the event of the continuation of BIONICLE, do you see HF getting canceled?
And if so, do you think it will get a proper “sendoff” wave?
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it should be cancelled. proof: this years special sucked
It did. There is no story, and nowadays the sets aren’t even worth the price. They are just lego Pacific Rim sets.
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We have to remember that lego said they want multiple constraction themes running at once. there is a possibility we will see both hf and Bionicle on the shelves at the same time.
Now comes the question if over the years 1 of them sells better than the other ,what then?
I don’t particularly think that Hero Factory will be discontinued just because of Bionicle, but more that Hero Factory is just falling apart.
The sets were pretty awesome up to Breakout, Brain attack was okay, and IFB was pretty bad.
HF went to having awesome TV episodes(Rise of the rookies), to having Invasion from below ‘webisodes’ that were only really enjoyable to laugh at.
I think if LEGO kept on the same road they were on during 2.0 to Breakout, HF would have been WAY better.
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I concur. The road to Breakout was a steady slope upward, and everything else has faltered in every way imaginable. I AM enjoying Invasion from Below sets, however, even if the TV show as incredibawful.
As far as the theme itself goes… it’s canceled. Time to face facts. BIONICLE is all but confirmed and we’ve heard absolutely nothing about HF. It’s done, RIP in Peace, close up shop, etc.
Us Hero Factory fans can go cry in a corner and sob over the three consecutive unresolved plot cliffhangers (four if you count the books). ;________;
-Mesonak
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I concur. The Invasion from Below sets are the first ones that I feel are worth my money. And not just for parts either. The mechs and battle machines actually look pretty good. I like Surge & Rocka’s crawler-thing. I might get it one of these days. I can’t exactly say what I think HF’s future will look like. 
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Poor Meso. How many loose ends did BIONICLE have when it was cancelled? Too many to count, right? Several characters trapped on Bota Magna, the Toa Mahri kidnapped, etc. etc. Didn’t Lesovikk kill Karzahni at some point? Or was that resolved?
A lot, obviously. That stuff was all contained to side-serials that, while obviously canon, took place after the main story had already been wrapped up. They have about as much importance as the unresolved Galactic Conspiracy plotline from the HF books.
The rest of HF’s cliffhangers and unresolved plot threads, though, are deeply woven into the main story. The events of the TV specials and the books are pretty much the only story that HF has; the books were supplemental. HF’s TV show plotlines not being resolved would be equivalent to Mata Nui’s death in 2007 or Makuta’s takeover in 2008 being left unresolved. It’s terribawful, and of course it doesn’t have as much importance as BIONICLE’s story did because the story quality is not as good, but it’s still a shame. HF was a theme that had a lot of promise and to see it get undercut at every turn causes me physical pain unparalleled by anything.
-Mesonak
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Too many cliffhangers to resolve things. I believe HF will continue while Bionicle is running, but it would be terrible. Probably one last line to “attempt” to warp things up.
Hero Factory, while a line most of here on the Message boards aren’t the biggest fans of, did help pioneer a new skeleton building system which WILL be used in the new Bionicle sets, and rightly so. It was a fantastic toyline idea that wasn’t executed as well as it could’ve been thanks to a core demographic - children. The problem with the marketing material is that it seems to make out that all kids are idiots, they can’t comprehend complicated relationships or plots of evil that are a bit more cunning than “take over the world”.
I hope it gets a much more appropriate and dark ending, simply because the entire series has gone without that and since they’re not putting all their eggs in one basket, they could try and see how a more interesting story would go.
I feel as though Lego will give HF a winter-wave send-off and save Bionicle for the summer. While there are a lot of flaws with the HF story, the building-style was quite good. However the downfall of HF was how it was portrayed story-wise. The books weren’t advertised, the comics were discontinued. Me, personally, I buy stuff because I love the characters. I don’t by many sets just for the pieces (which explains my massive Lego LOTR collection), I buy sets because I enjoy the story and love the characters. I just didn’t get that with HF after they discontinued the comics.
I funno. I have a hard time seeing them do a send off wave after switching to minifigure scale sets for IFB
I think Hero Factory brought this upon it self. If Lego put more effort to making it enjoyable to 8-12 year olds, maybe it would have been better. When Hero factory first came out, I saw kids buying it just as much as Bionicle. However, as the years went by, I saw less and less kids talking about it or buying it. Kids where bored of the on-going, hardly ever changing feel of Hero Factory.
Kids like new things, you know? Bionicle helped bring that for most of the years. Kids loved the idea of an island paradise in danger, a city that is as large as a Greenland-sized island, and a legendary Mask that gave and took life, having a curse on it. The whole mythos of BIONICLE attracted kids, and the fact that it changed yet stayed on the same formula made it interesting.
That is what Hero Factory is missing. Where are the diversity of characters we could relate to? Where are the various locations that we could easily see as home? Where is the importance and values of life? I have yet to find a way to feel bad about a Hero Factory character being destroyed. Why? 1) They are robots. They can be replaced and remade. 2) Heroes are born, not manufactured. 3) It’s what you do that makes you a hero… -Kopaka. Sure, we root for the heroes, but it does not matter like a Matoran does. You cannot replace a Matoran, but you can replace a Hero Factory hero.
Hero Factory was missing the feel BIONICLE had. Sure, they had marketing and TV shows, but they really had no reason to love characters besides them being a hero of the rookie rank or something. In BIONICLE, most of us cried when Lhikan died in Legends of Metru Nui. Why? Because we adored his belief in Vakama, and sacrificed himself to let the Matoran see the light of day once again. Of course, he would later be revived by the Red Star, but at the time, this death meant something to us. Hero Factory does not even let their characters die; Maybe come close to death, but never get killed. This factor of loss is something they lack.
And another thing is how good always triumphs. One could say this about BIONICLE, but one must realize that the characters in BIONICLE risked their freedom. The Matoran of Mata Nui had to fight off Rahi at Kini Nui so the Toa could escape. And Teridax did succeed in ruling the Matoran Universe. You see, in BIONICLE, we had the risk of Makuta actually winning, which would make us worry. Hero Factory lacks that. We always know the bad guys would loose in the end. But in BIONICLE, we where not sure if evil would triumph or not. We worried.
Anyways, I could discuss this forever, but I just wanted to point out Hero Factory brought their demise upon themself. Perhaps if they followed a bit of BIONICLE’s formula, I could have actually bought one of their sets…
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Yeah, I always loved seeing what was next. We went from a tribal nation to a vast city to that same city, but wracked with fear and shadows, onto a modern island with crimials as the enemies to a vast sea where warlords battled over a mask to high in the air, as Makuta and Toa waged dogfights over the fate of the universe, onto a vast desert with unfamiliar beings and species. The only Hero Factory line that stands out to me is Jungle planet, which was purposefully meant to be reminiscent of Bionicle’s first year. Also the lack of a solid villain also impeded Hero Factory’s success. Every year of Bionicle, with the exception of 2009 had Makuta’s presence. From the Zamor spheres the Piraka used, to Mata Nui’s body, Makuta was always there and he was always important. Another thing would, I agree, is the lack of a cost. The heroes are expendable. they were programmed. If they get destroyed they just push a few buttons and they’re back, and they KNOW that, Lhikan didn’t know he was going to be revived, but he sacrificed himself to save Vakama anyway. Also they never had to worry about whether they were doing the right thing or not, or what being a hero means, because they’re built in a factory.
Hero Factory had its chance to be Bionicle. They could’ve taken the premise from the first year and have Von Nebula slowly masterminding everything, which was implied in the later years, but they never went anywhere with it, breaking what could’ve EASILY been one of the most interesting themes in Lego’s history.
I don’t see HF getting a sendoff wave. As much as I love the theme, it feels like it doesn’t need one. To me, Invasion from Below is the sendoff wave. A horde of gigantic monsters erupting from underneath the surface, requiring the use of giant mech suits to defend the city felt like an epic final mission for Alpha Team. And having the characters finally produced in minifig scale was a great way to show that the theme has a legacy in LEGO’s history.
#terribawfulisathing
rip in pieces hero factory ;(
HF, you won’t be missed by many.
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i’ll miss it and continue to weep constantly over its wasted potential
;_______;
-Mesonak
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