Hero Factory

Hero Factory

Years:	2010–2014
Subthemes:	Hero Recon Team
Related themes:	BIONICLE Slizer/Throwbot Ben 10 Roboriders

Hero Factory is a constraction theme introduced in July 2010. It was replaced in 2014 by the rebooted BIONICLE. The theme is centered around a group of robotic heroes, who protect the galaxy from various threats. Though the first wave used pieces similar to its predecessor, BIONICLE, later Hero Factory sets have used the newly created Character and Creature Building System (CCBS). Since it is the successor to BIONICLE, the first wave of sets had a label that read “From the makers of BIONICLE” printed on their boxes.

Story[edit | edit source]

2010 - Rise of the Rookies[edit | edit source]

The storyline is based in Makuhero City.^[1] The largest building and trademark of the city is the Assembly Tower, a 589 meters high, 715 meters wide and 924 meters long tower, located in the center of Makuhero City.^[1] It is driven by “cold fusion” and it employs a total of 11,127 employees.^[1] This tower is the “Hero Factory” that constructs various robot heroes which are sent out when the Call Center receives calls from victims. They can report their emergency and call on a robotic hero. Founder of the Hero Factory is Akiyama Makuro.^[2]

Inside the Assembly Tower, these heroes are built every day. They are the product of work from design experts and robot construction specialists. These robotic heroes are fitted with solid fiber-carbide plating, Quaza cores and equipped with helmets and equipment to fight evil with guts and gadgets. Once constructed, they are placed in special hero pods and beamed across the galaxy and across time to defeat evil and solve their various missions.

The Assembly Tower in Makuhero City

The first evil leader is Von Nebula; he has a staff with the ability to create black holes. Von Nebula used to be a hero on Stormer’s team, but during a mission his cowardice nearly caused the destruction of a city. Blaming Stormer for his failure, Von Nebula swore vengeance on Hero Factory. He has some former-jail burg henchman who have banded together to help him, but that is unknown to the heroes. William Furno, the newest hero, is eager to defeat Von Nebula but is depressed when his firm-handed team leader, Preston Stormer tells him he isn’t experience to take on the most dangerous villain in the galaxy. He is joined by more rookies, Mark Surge and Natalie Breez. He is also joined by heroes Dunkan Bulk, and Jimi Stringer. Using Stormer's smarts and Furno’s talent, the heroes defeat Von Nebula.

2011.A - Ordeal of Fire[edit | edit source]

The first wave of Hero Factory sets in 2011 was called Mission: Ordeal of Fire. In a Hero Factory book given out with a LEGO magazine in December, it gave this description:
Sent out on a dangerous mission to save a refueling station, the heroes are attacked by vicious Fire Villains, who prove too fast and too strong. To defeat these notorious villains, the heroes must be redesigned and re-equipped with special new weapons and gadgets. But will the redesign work? The history of the Hero Factory rests on its success!

2011.B - Savage Planet[edit | edit source]

The 3.0 Hero Factory series is titled Savage Planet.^[3] It is set on a planet called Quatros, which has a core of quaza. The main villain is named Witch Doctor (who comes in set 2283), who is trying to extract the quaza. If he succeeds, the planet will die and break apart. The six heroes, Stormer, Furno, Bulk, Nex, Stringer and the New rookie, Rocka now with animal powers, must travel to Quatros and stop the villain from killing the planet. But there are savage beasts that attack them, Waspix, Fangz, Scorpio, and Raw-Jaw, who are controlled by the Witch Doctor.

2012 - Breakout[edit | edit source]

The fourth series is titled Hero Factory Breakout and features a villain called Black Phantom, who breaks into the Hero Factory tower - with the help of mastermind Von Nebula - and allows the other villains to escape. While all of the heroes are distracted by the escapes, Black Phantom stays behind to destroy the Hero Factory assembly tower. With the mission manager captured, and all of the other heroes out, Rocka is tasked to defeat Black Phantom before he can take over.

Breakout is the second series to include an XL hero (Preston Stormer), as well as the first series to include all of the original nine heroes (not including the Drop Ship pilot). Each set also contains a hero core with a secret code on the back, used for the Breakout online game. Breakout is also the first Hero Factory line scheduled to have two waves of sets, one in December 2011/January 2012 and one in summer 2012.

The December 2011/January 2012 sets had Rocka, Furno, Surge, Evo, and Breez, who didn’t come out until summer 2012 in the US, with Bulk, Stringer, Stormer, and Nex. Bulk, Breez, and Nex didn’t appear in the TV show for unknown reasons.

Despite for Bulk, Breez, and Nex not appearing in the TV show, there’s a second trailer where Bulk is knocked down by Voltix, and Nex being knocked down by Speeda Demon, and Breez didn’t appear in the trailer but in the FOX Sports Cleatus.

As far as the television series is concerned, it is the first part to have recurring villains, one of which has a main role as the ‘mastermind’ of the Breakout. Voltix seems to be the ‘breaker-outer’ of the villains, since he was the one who allowed Von Nebula to break himself out of his own black hole staff, creating a black hole and allowing the villains to escape.

2013 - Brain Attack[edit | edit source]

The Brain Attack logo

The 2013 storyline is about a mysterious factory that produces brain parasites to turn creatures of the Hero Factory universe evil. The brains go to different areas on the planet, infecting ice beasts, lava critters, desert crawlers, jungle ogres, rock monsters, sea beasts, and one brain infects an electrical dragon. Meanwhile in Makuhero City, the heroes are going around in the public, signing autographs, giving away robo-balls, and giving interviews. Surge complains to Breez that he wants action and doesn’t want to be a puppet. Suddenly, the code red alarm goes off, and the heroes rush back. Zib explains that the brains are forcing the hosts to destroy Hero Factory, and they need upgrades. After getting their upgrades, Furno sends Evo into the service canals to combat a wave of Aquagon, sets Surge to guard the Factory (much to Surge’s annoyance), and sends everyone else into the streets. After much trial and error, Bulk finds out that the brains can be removed if they are hit on the spikes. After knocking all the brains off, they notice that Surge’s signal is inside the Hero Assembly Tower, so they head back. Dragon Bolt rams into Hero Factory, causing a mass evacuation. Rocka is left to the job of fighting the dragon, while the heroes find Surge. Inside, the heroes find that Surge has been taken over by a brain and has made an army of drones to destroy the factory. As the heroes fight them, Rocka equips himself with 44014 Jet Rocka, and goes after the dragon. He manages to remove the brain, and Breez removes the brain on Surge’s head, and they shut off the drones. As they walk into the street to help out, Breez asks Surge if this experience changed anything about how he feels to help. Surge replies that since he now knows what being a real puppet is, he won’t turn down anything he can voluntarily do. But in the factory, there are more brains lying in wait for innocent minds, and they latch onto a repair crew, giving the heroes a new challenge to deal with.

The Winter releases were 44000 Furno XL, 44004 Bulk, 44002 Rocka, 44006 Breez, 44003 Scarox, 44001 Pyrox, 44005 Bruizer, and 44007 Ogrum, with 44008 Surge, 44010 Stormer, 44012 Evo, and 44014 Jet Rocka, 44009 Dragon Bolt, 44011 Frost Beast, and 44013 Aquagon being released in the summer. The Heroes resemble knights and their helmets have a transparent covering over their eyes. The villains have special parasite heads, holding parasite brains which have many similarities to the Krana and Kraata from BIONICLE. These brain creatures are either transparent orange, transparent yellow, trans-green, transparent lime green, transparent light blue, transparent blue, black, or glow in the dark, with red spikes and eyes. They have six legs and a long spiky tail. The villains’ heads connect via BIONICLE mask connection. There is also a new head that a normal helmet can connect to and a mask can connect to. There is a new online game which involves you as a partially-customized hero and an Alpha team hero as your sidekick.

2014 - Invasion from Below[edit | edit source]

Unlike previous sets, these included Hero minifigures, who used mechs and other vehicles to fight the larger enemies. The storyline was about the team of lego hero factory creating mechs to defeat a species of mole-like creatures who were found after some construction workers dug a tunnel and were captured.

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List of Hero variations[edit | edit source]

Hero Character	1.0	2.0	3.0	Breakout	Brain Attack	Invasion from Below
Natalie Breez	7165 Natalie Breez	2142 Breez 2.0		6227 Breez	44006 Breez	44020 Breez vs. Flyer Beast and 44027 BREEZ Flea Machine Hero
Dunkan Bulk	7168 Dunkan Bulk		2182 Bulk 3.0	6223 Bulk	44004 Bulk	44025 BULK Drill Machine and 44026 CRYSTAL Beast vs. BULK
Nathan Evo		2067 Evo 2.0		6200 Evo	44012 Evo	44015 EVO WALKER and 44021 SPLITTER Beast vs. FURNO & EVO and 44022 EVO XL MACHINE and 44029 QUEEN Beast vs. FURNO, EVO & STORMER
William Furno	7167 William Furno	2065 Furno 2.0	2191 Furno 3.0	6293 Furno	44000 Furno XL	44018 FURNO JET MACHINE and 44021 SPLITTER Beast vs. FURNO & EVO and 44029 QUEEN Beast vs. FURNO, EVO & STORMER
Julius Nex		2068 Nex 2.0	2144 Nex 3.0	6221 Nex
Rocka			2143 Rocka 3.0 and 2282 Rocka XL	6202 Rocka	44002 Rocka and 44014 Jet Rocka	44019 Rocka Stealth Machine and 44028 SURGE & ROCKA Combat Machine and 44023 ROCKA Crawler
Preston Stormer	7164 Preston Stormer	2063 Stormer 2.0	2145 Stormer 3.0	6230 Stormer XL	44010 Stormer	44017 STORMER FREEZE MACHINE and 44016 Jaw Beast vs. Stormer and 44029 QUEEN Beast vs. FURNO, EVO & STORMER
Jimi Stringer	7170 Jimi Stringer		2183 Stringer 3.0	6282 Stringer
Mark Surge	7169 Mark Surge	2141 Surge 2.0		6217 Surge	44008 Surge	44028 SURGE & ROCKA Combat Machine and 44024 TUNNELER Beast vs. SURGE

Sets[edit | edit source]

Original

Hero Factory 2.0

Savage Planet

Breakout

Brain Attack

Invasion from Below

Other

Set Collections

Books

Combiner Models

Clothing: See LEGO Pre-Spring 2011

Hero Factory Chequered Shirt
Hero Factory Denim Jacket
Hero Factory Jeans
Hero Factory Knit Cardigan
Hero Factory Pants
Hero Factory Socks
Hero Factory Sweat Cardigan
Hero Factory Sweat Pants
Hero Factory Sweatshirt (Silas 202)
Hero Factory T-shirt (Tom 200)
Hero Factory T-shirt (Tom 201)
Hero Factory 7169 T-shirt
We Build Heroes Sweatshirt

Notes[edit | edit source]

The skyline of Makuhero City

The villains' Meteor Blasters are very similar to Thornax Launchers.
Before Breakout came out, the skyline of the Hero Factory homepage changed to match the time of day and Makuhero city weather.
A Hero Factory Comic was published in the July - August 2010 BrickMaster magazine and on the Hero Factory website. Another was released in September with Corroder as the main villain.
As with BIONICLE, there are six main heroes released per line (this tradition did not continue with the Breakout waves and beyond). The colour scheme of the heroes and villains (red, blue, white, black, green, brown) is not continued in the Hero Factory theme, instead colours like silver, gold, orange and yellow are introduced. However, in some instances of BIONICLE, like 8696 Bitil & 8989 Mata Nui, the figure has a different colour than the basic one. (i.e. brown to yellow)
A four episode TV series was released in the week of September 20 2010.
A Direct-to-DVD movie was released November 16 2010, titled 2856076 Hero Factory: Rise of the Rookies.
The 2.0 Heroes have four-fingered fists instead of the 2009/2010 three-fingered fists.
Unlike the 2010 heroes, the 2011 hero's arms can bend at the elbow.
In the fourth wave, Breakout, every set comes with a new type of Hero Core (even the villains) which come printed with a code on the back for use with the new online game.
The Breakout series is the only series to date with all the Hero characters.
The 2012 hero cuffs use chain elements originally from 8730 Toa Hewkii and 8764 Vezon and Fenrakk.
Universal Studios is making plans on developing a live action Hero Factory movie. [1]
Starting with the Breakout series in 2012, heroes and villains came in an all-new bag-like container, rather than a box or canister like the previous sets.
"Makuhero" is a pun on Make-a-hero.
2014 saw the release of the first Hero Factory Minifigures. Up until then, characters had only been produced as the larger, articulated Ultrabuild figures. These do not contain the same pieces as most minifigures. They are more similar to the droids and robots from the Star Wars and Exo-Force themes.
Preston Stormer and William Furno are the only characters to be released every year.

Online Games[edit | edit source]

Gallery[edit | edit source]

On training missions, the rookies go into environments that are produced by the Hero Factory
A Hero Factory helmet being pulled out of a data-pad
A hero being assembled by machine.
William Furno getting his initial Hero Core charge
The inside of Hero Factory, specifically, mission control (from the online games)
Two sets and one combo model of the Hero Factory 3.0 line of late 2011
The fire villains taking on the heroes
The Assembly Tower
Concept art for Stormer.
Concept art for Breez.
LEGO Shop.com Hero Factory Brain Attack Logo