LEGO® Hero Factory Recon Team

This is from the Ambassador's forum and posted by Andrew Arnold. (I have redacted his contact information as this may get shared broadly.)

************************

I've just got the go-ahead to post the full release - the site is now operational. This is free for you to send round to your LUGs



April 5, 2011

Join the LEGO® Hero Factory Recon Team
and create the coolest heroes


BILLUND, Denmark – Help LEGO® Hero Factory defeat the galaxy’s worst villains and monsters by designing and building your own Hero to join a new secret unit, Hero Recon Team.

You can build a Hero with the LEGO online creator at http://herorecon.lego.com/ choosing between a wide range of armour, weapons and facemasks from the LEGO Hero Factory range. Once you are happy with the result you can give it a cool name and use it in an online game, LEGO Comic Builder, or upload it to a gallery to show your friends.

But what makes Hero Recon Team really special is that you can buy the Hero you design and join the team as a Hero Recon Agent. Buying your Hero means you can give it Hero stats and skills, and get the exclusive Hero Recon Agents silver and black chest plate. Your Hero will be delivered in a cool box you design and containing a customized building guide, a Hero Recon Agent sticker and a special unlock code for the online game.

More advanced builders can use the LEGO Digital Designer to build a Hero and combine it with thousands of other LEGO elements.

If you live close to a LEGO store, you can build your Hero there using exclusive Hero Recon elements in the Pick-a-brick section of the store. You can also pick up a unique post card with a secret code for the online game. For a full list of stores check out http://stores.lego.com/

What is Hero Recon Team?
Hero Recon Team members search battlegrounds and the wreckage left by villains and monsters hoping to uncover clues. They report to Hero Factory designers, mission managers and hero team leaders, who can use the intelligence to improve all aspects of Hero Factory.

Hero Factory’s founder Mr. Makuro has assigned one of the Factory’s top heroes, Merrick Fortis, to help form and lead this new intelligence division. Because intelligence, observation and curiosity are characteristics prized above all else in Hero Recon Team, the department has adopted the slogan “Knowledge Is Strength”.


###

 
Further information
Andrew Arnold
PR and Communications Manager,
LEGO Community, Education and Direct


Notes to editors:
Hero Factory Recon Agents can be bought in the US, UK, Germany and 24 other countries. Prices will be $12.99, £9.99, €11.99 or equivalent for other currencies. The final cost of the custom Hero depends on the amount and types of Hero elements in the order. Standard shipping fees apply, and this fee will only be charged once, no matter how many items are included in the final order. Delivery takes about three weeks.

Hero Recon Team is a brand of LEGO customization presented by LEGO Design byME, which offers users the opportunity of building their own LEGO models and ordering them online. Users can create their own custom Hero from a wide range of different Hero Factory elements in the online Hero Creator or LEGO Digital Designer, a free software program where users can design their own LEGO creations, personalize their own box design and upload their creations in online galleries.

About the LEGO Group
The LEGO Group is a privately held, family-owned company, based in Billund, Denmark. It was founded in 1932 and today the group is one of the world's leading manufacturers of play materials for children, employing approximately 9,000 people globally. The LEGO Group is committed to the development of children's creative and imaginative abilities. LEGO products can be purchased in more than 130 countries.

LEGO, the LEGO logo and LEGO HERO FACTORY are trademarks of The LEGO Group. ©2011 The LEGO Group.

If you live close to a LEGO store, you can build your Hero there using exclusive Hero Recon elements in the Pick-a-brick section of the store.

Aha, so that's why the PAB at KOP had HF elements (as of last weekend). There are a half-dozen bins to the left side, specially outlined, containing mixed parts (chest and limb armor, hero cores) in the six HF colors (red, orange, yellow, lime, blue, white), the gunmetal accessories (weapons, headgear), and the black ball-joint skeleton elements. I did not see the skull segments (upper/lower). Were there feet? I forget. I wasn't interested in feet this weekend, but skeleton + armor + blades make a nifty segmented dragon-neck. There definitely weren't any of the dagger-fins (red, lime, purple) or trans-blue 4L bars (real blue, not the trans-light-blue used for lightsabers in the Star Wars sets).

"Hero Recon" sounds like an extension of the LEGO Factory operation, and is aimed towards the "Yay! Action figure! I can make it quickly!" kid-market that's been consuming Bionicle for the past decade. I don't see it as enticing to AFOLs; the mega-Bionicle builders will acquire mass quantities of parts in the usual frugal fashion and go beyond the minimal humanoid form. (I wonder if BZPower.net has assimilated HF?)

Meanwhile, I've been experimentally hybridizing Bionicle, Ben 10, Hero Factory and System elements. I'll have to photograph those.

I have as yet been unable to fashion a Cylon Centurion (old or new) via the Factory Recon system.

My first thought was that we could finally build a real 6 Million Dollar Man. But then I thought of a better Idea.

The 6 Million Peso Man

Cale

The online Pick A Brick now has an (almost) full selection of HF elements -- you probably got the email. In PAB's usual "who names these, anyway?" fashion, they're grouped under "Figure," except for the five categories that are minifig accessories.

The HF torso shell ($0.71) and medium-length limb armor ($0.32) are available in trans fluorescent reddish orange. Those might make interesting canopies for spacecraft, although the ball-socket would prevent a minifig from sitting beneath.

The tools, headgear and some armor (and the piece that looks like a Starfleet Runabout but, in usual shortsighted element design -- don't the Bionicle/HF designers talk to anybody else in TLG? -- has only the HFy2-signature paired pins on its underside for linkage) are in "titanium metallic" which isn't in the Exact Color dropdown. For the limb armor it looks like you're stuck with printing.

The blade-shape that first appeared in SP3 and PM is known as a "dorsal fin" and is available in red, flame yellow orange, green, lime and medium lilac ($0.13). The "Hero icon" ($0.15) is in six colors, but not the ones at the store PAB -- instead of white and orange, there's green and medium lilac.