Hero Factory Stormer 2.0 Review

Stormer is the team leader of the Alpha Team in LEGO's Hero Factory line.

Design
Like the other Hero Factory 2.0 heroes Stormer's armor and weapons have been upgraded.  Changes from the original version include: new ball and socket connectors, new head design, new Hero core design, new armor, new weapon and bendable elbows and knees.

Ball and Socket System
With Hero Factory 2.0 LEGO has introduced a new ball and socket system.  Nearly everything from body parts to armor are connected with ball joints.  Gone are most of the small connectors and cross connectors that were used regularly in Bionicle sets.

New Head Design
The 2.0 heads are now 3 pieces.  In Stormer's case he has 4 pieces: blue jaw, grey visor/mask, white helmet and clear orange lens.  The new heads are nice in that they have 3 colors.  However, the do not stand up to rough play as well as the previous Glatorian head and mask used in the first version.

Hero Core Design
The new Hero core (the "H" on his chest) is now opaque and smaller.

New Armor
Stormer 2.0 comes with 5 pieces of leg and arm armor that can attach to any of the ball joints on the main skeleton.  One of the pieces is grey and has a print of his name.  Stormer's chest armor, also connects by ball socket, and is made up of 3 pieces: grey under armor, white over armor and Hero core.  This gives Stormer a nice 3-tone look.  Also, Stormer's hand has 5 fingers instead of 4 now.

New Weapon
Stormer's new weapon is a shield with two ice spears, ice tubing and utility attachment.  The ice tubing is easily detachable so you will need to watch out during rough play.  Unlike the original Stormer his weapon is also detachable and made up of several components that can be switched or enhanced with other parts.  This is an improvement over the original who's weapon was a permanent part of his arm.  The downside is Stormer 2.0 has no right hand!  All 2.0 figures with shields come with only 1 hand.

Better Articulation
By far, the best improvement over the original Stormer is that Stormer 2.0 is able to bend his elbows and knees.  He has 13 points of articulation, just as good as the Toa Bionicles.  The designers did a great job designing the armor so that it does not hinder movement.  Stormer 2.0 also has slightly longer legs than the other heroes.

Stormer 1.0 vs Stormer 2.0
I feel Stormer 2.0 is better than Stormer 1.0 because of his improved articulation.  I also like the new ball socket system that makes it easier to mix and match pieces.  It seems that LEGO improved the socket design as well because they are no longer as thin as before.  They feel sturdier and are easier to attach and detach.  Hopefully this will prevent breakage as sockets are connected and removed over time.

There are some things I feel are missing from Stormer 2.0 and all the 2.0 Heroes.  They all use the same armor molds.  The only mold that is different is their grey eye piece/visor/mask.  The rest of the differences are simply color or piece combination variations.  Because of this it feels like the new heroes have no personality.  Compare this with the original heroes who had unique masks and in some cases unique chest armor.  If not for the name and color it would be difficult to tell that the 2.0 heroes are the same as the 1.0 ones.