“Ring, ring! Ring-ring! Someone answer the phone, I’m getting impatient!” – Vex-Span
“This is the Hero Hotline, what is your situation?”
“Yes, I’m calling to file a complaint against the Hero Factory.”
Lucy’s digital eyes rolled and was about to retort that this was an emergency line, not the complaint center. Only for a clawed fist to shove itself out of her headset, pushing said headset off her cranium as the hand gripped it. A one-eyed head pushed itself through the headset speaker, followed by the top end of an old phone it was holding.
“And I’d like to make it personal,” he said with a villain’s scoffing laugh.
She barely got a scream before he pulled himself and her inside the headset, which clattered against the floor.
Vex-Span, the infamous military recruitment agent and telemarketer. Many know his voice from the constant calls to sell useless junk, get people to donate to various false charities, and many other such annoyances. Few, however, had seen him in person, until he attacked the Hero Factory.
Using his tech and resources, he flooded Hero Factory’s call center with false reports until the tower was empty. When all Heroes were seemingly gone, he merged out of the phone calls and captured all the call center workers and mission managers. He dragged them all into the Inioxospace, the old analog cyberspace, to hold them hostage and cripple the Hero Factory.
Aside from being able to traverse through both inioxospace and cyberspace, Vex-Span can use his giant phone to call anyone, and any device, in the known galaxy. The phone can be used as a blunt, hammer-like weapon to smash foolish heroes, or send sonic screams and shockwaves. His rotary-dial shield can slash through Hero armor with its claw, block standard energy projectiles, and can be used as a grinding wheel. The attached Meteor Blaster is infected with malware that scrambles any bot’s communication systems and focuses all nearby bot callers to them.
…
And if you would like to see how such a villain was defeated, then you’re in luck! Sign-ups are still open. Come to Hero Factory: Dropped Calls (Sign ups/Discussion) and be among the Heroes that vanquished this foe.
Turnaround:
Alt Lighting Version
Phone Action:
Designer’s Notes:
…So, this guy did not go to plan at all. As some of you are aware, a couple years back I launched an RP called Found In Webs, a survival horror game set in Metru Nui. It was Halloween, I was in the horror mood, and wanted to do something with Bionicle again. G1 Bionicle, however, was not the only Lego theme I had considered during my brainstorming. I had another idea for a game involving Hero Factory.
I mainly had a mental picture of the villain in question. Some robotic humanoid coiled in wires, like the old curly ones attached to landlines. Getting that to work on a MOC is…difficult, without a lot of rubber bands. So I shelved the idea and that RP until this year.
Primarily because I was, once again, in the spooky and HF mood. This time, however, I figured rather than the villain being wrapped in these cords I would, instead, focus on the phone. Go a Rotor route - a hunched over humanoid with a large telephone on the back rather than the rotor blades. This evolved into it being a four-legged character with more square feet to give the illusion of the old phone bases. Though he was still supposed to be this taller titan, like Rotor. But as I built it…Well, you’re seeing the results.
A lot stubbier and shorter than Rotor, but I think it fits better. Originally both the arms were going to be normal and there was a separate cord attached to the phone. But having a long noodle arm for the phone cord portion made more sense. At one point, his head was going to be the rotary-dial, but all my attempts looked too large. And making it smaller looked both too small and silly. So, menacing mono-eye and lore secrets for my HF stuff it is. I do still have a customized head I built for an alternative to the cycloptic one, but we’ll save that for another future villain.
HeroFebruary - Dropped Calls
Hello everyone! This is later than intended.
It’s that time of year again for HeroFebruary! To build and write any and all things related to Hero Factory, Bionicle’s overshadowed little brother. If you need any help generating some ideas for what to build, I hope this provides it.
What sort of villains and dangers were the denizens of the galaxy in while Hero Factory couldn’t answer their calls? Perhaps a gang of robotic dinosaurs attacking an asteroid belt mine as vengeance for that one meteor which, allegedly, wiped out the dinosaurs? Maybe it was one of the false calls made by Vex-Span about giant chickens with laser eyes. Or some awful bandit who was kicking cats up trees. Maybe you want to build some Heroes instead who went out to handle these silly problems.
Whatever it is, this is the time to build it.
As always, comments and criticism is always appreciated.
