Recently I reviewed all six of the Hero Factory 2.0 heroes. Here is a recap and some of my final thoughts on the new 2.0 heroes. First, check out my short reviews here:
The 2.0 heroes are an improvement over the 1.0 heroes. Where the 1.0 heroes were little more than a continuation of the Bionicle Stars set the 2.0 heroes adds extra articulation and introduces a whole new system to build with. One of the best changes is the 2.0 heroes have much greater articulation, being able to bend at the elbows and knees.
The ball and socket system seems to emphasize a more standard way of building. Indeed it feels much easier to switch parts and armor around without having to figure out how they will fit together. Pieces can go on the arms, legs or anywhere there is a ball connector. There is also a double peg connector used mostly to connect accessories to the armor pieces and to connect the 3 head pieces together. There are circular connectors used to connect pegs. Finally, there is the cross post connector which is used mostly for the weapon pieces in these sets. Unfortunately this also means the hero sets don't feel very complicated because the main and most used connector is the ball and socket connector.
Perhaps due to the more standard way of building the heroes have a lot of the same molds. Armor, helmets and weapon molds all appear in more than 1 set. In fact, excluding Stormer's ice power cord, the only unique piece in each set is the heroes' face mask. Everything else could be found in multiple sets using different colors. This left the 2.0 heroes looking like clones of each other. They don't have the personality that the 1.0 heroes do. It would have been nice if some of them had different chest armor. Hopefully future sets will introduce more variety.
The lack of personality might also be due to the fact that there is very little collateral material to give the heroes a personality. While the 1.0 heroes had an animated mini-series and comic books the 2.0 heroes as of this writing only have a short animated trailer. Perhaps LEGO plans to release more animated shorts or comics which will give the 2.0 heroes more character. Or perhaps LEGO is doing this by design so that fans can create their own stories and personalities. There is word of a Hero Recon event (
http://herorecon.lego.com/) which, because the "Design By Me" logo is linked to it, many people speculate that this will allow people to create their own heroes and perhaps allow them to purchase their custom heroes. If true I think this would be a very cool feature. We'll have to wait until April 2011 to find out.
Overall I like the 2.0 hero sets and look forward to seeing additions to the new building system. I feel the main highlights of the 2.0 hero sets are their better articulation and new building system. This is something new from LEGO that we have not seen for a while and I feel has a lot of potential.
The 2.0 heroes are an improvement over the 1.0 heroes. Where the 1.0 heroes were little more than a continuation of the Bionicle Stars set the 2.0 heroes adds extra articulation and introduces a whole new system to build with. One of the best changes is the 2.0 heroes have much greater articulation, being able to bend at the elbows and knees.
The ball and socket system seems to emphasize a more standard way of building. Indeed it feels much easier to switch parts and armor around without having to figure out how they will fit together. Pieces can go on the arms, legs or anywhere there is a ball connector. There is also a double peg connector used mostly to connect accessories to the armor pieces and to connect the 3 head pieces together. There are circular connectors used to connect pegs. Finally, there is the cross post connector which is used mostly for the weapon pieces in these sets. Unfortunately this also means the hero sets don't feel very complicated because the main and most used connector is the ball and socket connector. 
Perhaps due to the more standard way of building the heroes have a lot of the same molds. Armor, helmets and weapon molds all appear in more than 1 set. In fact, excluding Stormer's ice power cord, the only unique piece in each set is the heroes' face mask. Everything else could be found in multiple sets using different colors. This left the 2.0 heroes looking like clones of each other. They don't have the personality that the 1.0 heroes do. It would have been nice if some of them had different chest armor. Hopefully future sets will introduce more variety.
The lack of personality might also be due to the fact that there is very little collateral material to give the heroes a personality. While the 1.0 heroes had an animated mini-series and comic books the 2.0 heroes as of this writing only have a short animated trailer. Perhaps LEGO plans to release more animated shorts or comics which will give the 2.0 heroes more character. Or perhaps LEGO is doing this by design so that fans can create their own stories and personalities. There is word of a Hero Recon event (http://herorecon.lego.com/) which, because the "Design By Me" logo is linked to it, many people speculate that this will allow people to create their own heroes and perhaps allow them to purchase their custom heroes. If true I think this would be a very cool feature. We'll have to wait until April 2011 to find out.
Overall I like the 2.0 hero sets and look forward to seeing additions to the new building system. I feel the main highlights of the 2.0 hero sets are their better articulation and new building system. This is something new from LEGO that we have not seen for a while and I feel has a lot of potential.
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