Hero Factory (Brand) (2024)

This article is about the toy line. You may be looking for the organization or the location.

Hero Factory is a LEGO building toy line that ran from summer 2010 to the end of 2014. It is the replacement theme for the BIONICLE line, and borrows certain aspects of its predecessor. Hero Factory was cancelled and replaced with the return of BIONICLE in 2015.

Story

Heroes are mass-produced in the soaring Assembly Tower of the aptly-named “Hero Factory”. The organization sends Heroes to catch villains, save citizens, and avert disaster across the galaxy, based on calls that come in to their Call Center. Fans of the line can actually call the Hero Factory at 1-888-4-HEROFACTORY.

Origins

The Hero Factory toy line is an attempt by LEGO to succeed BIONICLE in the constructable action figure—“constraction”—market. Hero Factory is designed to appeal to a more flexible audience than BIONICLE; while BIONICLE was more focused on story and much darker, appealing to the age group of 9- to 16-year-olds, Hero Factory is much lighter and more humorous, intended to appeal to a far wider age demographic.

Media

Much like BIONICLE, Hero Factory has a comic series to promote the sets. The comics may be seen on HeroFactory.com, though some of the comics have also made it into print. A straight-to-DVD movie, which was split into four episodes for television broadcast, was also created. There is also a podcast under the name of Hero Factory FM that is released roughly every week to tell the Hero Factory story in a goofy and humorous way.

Universal Studios may have been planning on making a live-action movie based on the toy line,^[1] but given the discontinuation of the Hero Factory line, it's unlikely that this movie will be created.

Sets

July 2010

Heroes

• 7164 Preston Stormer
• 7165 Natalie Breez
• 7167 William Furno
• 7168 Dunkan Bulk
• 7169 Mark Surge
• 7170 Jimi Stringer

Villains

• 7145 Von Nebula
• 7147 XPlode
• 7148 Meltdown
• 7156 Corroder
• 7157 Thunder
• 7162 Rotor

Vehicles

• 7158 Furno Bike
• 7160 Drop Ship

Limited Editions

• 7179 Bulk & Vapour

January 2011

Heroes

• 2063 Stormer 2.0
• 2065 Furno 2.0
• 2067 Evo 2.0
• 2068 Nex 2.0
• 2141 Surge 2.0
• 2142 Breez 2.0

Villains

• 2192 Drilldozer
• 2193 Jetbug
• 2194 Nitroblast
• 2235 Fire Lord

July 2011

Heroes

• 2143 Rocka 3.0
• 2144 Nex 3.0
• 2145 Stormer 3.0
• 2182 Bulk 3.0
• 2183 Stringer 3.0
• 2183 Furno 3.0
• 2282 Rocka XL

Villains

• 2231 Waspix
• 2232 Raw-Jaw
• 2233 Fangz
• 2236 Scorpio
• 2283 Witch Doctor

January 2012

Heroes

• 6200 Evo
• 6202 Rocka
• 6217 Surge
• 6293 Furno
• 6227 Breez (If you live outside of the United States of America)

Villains

• 6201 Toxic Reapa
• 6203 Black Phantom
• 6216 Jawblade
• 6218 Splitface
• 6228Thornraxx(If you live outside of the United States of America)

July 2012

Heroes

• 6221 Nex
• 6223 Bulk
• 6227 Breez (If you live within the United States of America)
• 6230 Stormer XL
• 6282 Stringer

Villains

• 6222 Core Hunter
• 6228 Thornraxx(If you live within the United States of America)
• 6229 XT4
• 6231 Speeda Demon
• 6283 Voltix

January 2013

Heroes

• 44004 Bulk

• 44002 Rocka

• 44006 Breez

• 44000 Furno XL

Creatures

• 44005 Bruizer

• 44003 Scarox

• 44001 Pyrox

• 44007 Ogrum

Summer 2013

Heroes

• 44008 Surge
• 44010 Stormer
• 44012 Evo
• 44014 Jet Rocka

Creatures

• 44009 Dragon Bolt
• 44011 Frost Beast
• 44013 Aquagon

2014

• Hero Factory Hero Minimodel
• Evo Walker
• Jaw Beast vs. Stormer
• Stormer Freeze Machine
• Furno Jet Machine
• Rocka Stealth Machine
• Flyer Beast vs. Breez
• Splitter Beast vs. Furno and Evo
• Evo XL Machine
• Rocka Crawler Machine
• Tunneler Beast vs. Surge
• Bulk Drill Machine
• Crystal Beast vs. Bulk
• Breez Flea Machine
• Surge and Rocka Combat Machine
• Queen Beast vs. Furno, Evo, and Stormer

Trivia

• According to a blog post written by Christian Faber (one of the series' concept creators), Hero Factory was initially envisioned as an entrance to a wide and expansive universe, and its purpose was to satirize superhero stories. There was to be a dark secret behind Hero Factory, which would have been revealed gradually, eventually turning the series on its head. The supposed lesson was that Heroes aren't simply built or manufactured, but they become Heroes by achieving great deeds. The series' tone was to be based on The Incredibles (2004). This proposal was completely dropped by The LEGO Group, and the Hero Factory series was released as a simplified and heavily sanitized "good vs evil" story, exactly the thing its creators have set out to criticize. However, fearing that the blog post was worded too emotionally and could easily be misconstrued, the post was later redacted. ^[2]

• The sets from each wave started to be worked on 2 years prior to release of the wave. Several images of set prototypes from the early develepment of the some sets were leaked online.

• A theatrical live-action CGI movie adaptation by Universal Pictures was considered to go into production in 2012, to be written by Michael Finch and Alex Litvak and produced by Mark Gordon and Bryan Zuriff of the Mark Gordon Company along with Ben Forkner and Dean Schnider of Film 360, the production side of representation firm Management 360. No further news came of it since, and with the cancellation of the Hero Factory toy line and cartoon series, the movie seems to be also canceled. It is unknown if the project ever moved beyond its planning phase. ^[3]

• In The City of Lanterns 2022 set from the Monkie Kid theme, the Hero Factory logo can be seen on a sign near the train track. ^[4]

• According to a comment made by Christian Faber on his Instagram, Invasion From Below was meant to be a small story to be used as a bridge to the real plot of the series that was to come next.
• In Duckbricks' recent Video with Christian Faber unboxing alot of LEGO History, publicly unreleased Hero Factory Concept Art has been shown, along with the theme's original name and logo which was Makuhero, It was supposed to resemble the word "make-you-a-Hero"

Videos

References

External Links

• Official Hero Factory Website