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    Discuss This Story ReviewSunday, September 16th, 2012 at 1:02pm by Andrew, BZPower News Manager
    [Source: DeeVee]

    Today we look at the last of this year's Hero Factory sets, 6221 Nex. Blog Leader DeeVee picked up this orange hero and felt compelled to share his thoughts. Read on to see if he's a worthy addition to your collection!

    Presentation
    From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set.

    We've talked a lot about how these sets come in bags more reminiscent of Capri-Suns than of the canisters we're used to. So I'm not going to elaborate on this, the last set review of the summer Hero Factory wave. You guys get it by now. It's not a box, or a canister. It's a bag. It has a zipper symbol on it, but you still cut it open before you can ziploc it closed again. It has a picture of Julius on it. He is still orange. Also, he is white again. The top of this wave's bags are this golden orange. It looks nice.

    Julius comes in one of the smaller bags.

    6221 Nex Review 16

    The legal disclaimers are there. I think they're still great and I still love them. I think they love me too!

    Building
    Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it?

    6221 Nex Review 12 6221 Nex Review 11 6221 Nex Review 10 6221 Nex Review 09 6221 Nex Review 08 6221 Nex Review 07 6221 Nex Review 06

    Julius is not an overly complicated build, of course. He's a smaller set price-point, so don't expect anything crazy. He is what we've come to expect from Hero Factory sets. And as much as I love the parts, and the overall look and feel of Hero Factory sets, I'm getting as bored with these builds as I did with the Inika build. After a while, no matter how cool the parts or overall look, it'd be nice if the sets shook things up a little more. He snaps together quickly without any major hassle.

    Set Design
    Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here.

    6221 Nex Review 14

    Julius comes with parts. They are made by LEGO. Most of them are things we've seen already. I'm really really ready for orange cladding in more sizes. Please?

    6221 Nex Review 15

    Here is an image of all the interesting or new parts Julius comes with.

    (He's a little sparse)

    I know the orange modified Zamor sphere launcher thing isn't unique to Julius, coming also with Bulk as it does, but it's nice and it's orange and I like orange. Go Pokes, and all.

    His chest plate is the new style with abs, and is in white, with orange decaling to look like circuitry. I like this. It is neat.

    6221 Nex Review 13

    His new helmet is a good callback to his 2.0 form's helmet. It looks nearly identical, with circuitry patterns on top, and no awkward head-mounted buzz-saw. Which really, why would you have a buzz-saw attached to your head? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Julius, you so silly.

    I like that the designers worked hard to make his helmet a good callback to his "original" one, since the Heroes from the very first wave got to use their original helmets too. I guess my biggest problem with Nex and Evo as well is that the original Hero helmets don't look anything like their 2.0 helmets, and so it seems weird to me that these two have helmets that look like their 2.0 helmets? I guess there's a little wiggling room on whether or not they were created as 2.0 heroes or if they were just the first to get the upgrade, so maybe it makes sense? But I wish more originality had been put into them like was put into Rocka's. His new helmet was awesome and I love it.

    Anyway. Other fun parts are another clear hose with green going through it, and a few system parts.

    6221 Nex Review 01 6221 Nex Review 03 6221 Nex Review 04

    Julius is... well, he's about what you'd expect. He's not the worst Hero from the Breakout wave (I'd give that to Nathan Evo, ugh). But I don't know how I feel about him. I love the orange and white combination, and I loved it more in his original 2.0 set. The white chestplate is a nice call-back to his original, but the larger orange breastplate of the 2.0 set versus the smaller orange splash in the tech pattern I think balanced things out a little better. This seems a little in your face, and I don't think it works as well. I do think the use of the white shells for the lower legs helps it out drastically. I think if he didn't have that gunmetal arm it'd work out even better.

    Speaking of which, I don't like the gunmetal arm, at least, not from the elbow down. I like the rounded armour on the top, and I like the gunmetal to be like "this is a powerful armoured arm!!!" But it worked better on Evo, where it ended in a blaster. Julius'... well, I don't know what it is? I've been kind of treating it like a laser cutter thing. I wish he had a hand inside of there instead of that part that is attached to the wrist ball-joint. That kind of armour connection just looks awkward and it really messes with his overall look. Is this a lower arm or a hand attachment? I don't know, because the part is so awkward.

    That said, I love that he has a hand inside the blaster. They could have skimped on that. They've done it before. I just wish it was orange. I also love the system harpoon used for an antennae on his arm. That looks great. And I love the hose running from his back to his laser cutter thing and into the system megaphone.

    Also, great use of little system parts.

    I don't dig the empty backs on the smaller heroes, now that we've gotten larger sets that cover it, the back is especially glaring.

    Overall, he's really kind of bland. He's vibrant, though! So much lovely lovely orange!

    Just in the same parts you already had it in if you've bought any other Julius.

    Which is a shame.

    Shame.

    Playability
    The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with?

    6221 Nex Review 00 6221 Nex Review 02 6221 Nex Review 05

    He's a Hero Factory set, that Julius. So he's got a pretty nifty range of motion. That said, posing that laser cutter arm thing is awkward and I don't like it.

    He has the launcher, of course. And all of you out there should by now know how I feel about them. I don't like launchers on principle. I think they're too gimmicky. But since TLG thinks they are necessary, I'm glad we get the simple ones like these.

    Final Thoughts
    Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it?

    Pros
    What's to like?

    • Nice updated helmet
    • I heart orange
    • Good movement range

    Cons
    What's not to like?

    • Just kind of... there
    • Lack of new shells in orange
    • Laser cutter hand/arm thing???
    • Too much white, I think
    • Not sure about the helmet's design consistency with other Breakout sets

    From this wave, I'd get Jimi before I get Julius (and I did). He has a GUITAR and SPEAKERS. Man he's cool. I don't hate Julius. In fact, he's been one of my favourite Heroes since his 2.0 form debut. I've actually done all three of his reviews. But this version just doesn't do it for me like the last two. I don't think he's a bad set, he's certainly better than Nathan and maybe Mark too. And he's certainly balanced better colourwise than Voltixx. I guess in the long run it depends on whether or not you want them all, or if you want the orange for something, or if he's your favourite tech-head. (He's the tech-head, right? I assume so with all the circuitry?)

    That wraps it up for this review, and for Hero Factory for this year. Be sure to thank DeeVee in the Talkback as well as ask any questions you might have. We've still got more reviews in the works, so check back for them, right here on BZPower!

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