Hero Factory; Rise of the Rookies: Ok its not a movie, but it is on DVD, does that count?

So, we have a four episode "season", actually to be fair I did treat the final four episodes of the G1 Transformers cartoon as a season so I guess that works here too, for the show that replaced Bionicle, and believe me it shows. Welcome to Rise of the Rookies, and from what I can see about the other Hero Factory... actually I can't call the rest of these seasons, they're one or two episodes each.

Due to it being a show, each episode has a mostly contained story, with each plot being "stop *insert bad guy here*" with some character development spread out for the four episodes, most going to William Furno. One other thing the episodes do, to give the illusion of it all building up to a big finish is the Von Ness sub plot, which falls flat at episode 4. They build up the idea of Von Nebula and Stormer having a strong history together, and that Von Nebula's revenge is because of something Stormer did. What was it for you may ask? Nebula ran away while Stormer saved the day. Truly, the best of reasons to become a super villain. Falling in a vat of chemicals that drive you insane? Pathetic compared to this. Now lets see how many people here get why I made that comparison in particular.

The characters themselves also feel rushed, to the point that I have more interest in the villains then the heroes, and even they're just evil for the sake of being evil. Is it because its just four episodes? Or is it because this is just to sell the toys? The Bionicle movies had that issue as well to a certain extent, but even they had unique personalities other then the token leader, the token rookie, the token wise tough guys, the token lazy one and the token girl (though at least Breeze is far better then other token girls I've seen before). Again though, like with Clutch Powers, what does knock it down is threads that go nowhere. They bring up that each hero is special in someway. Furno and Stormer are born leaders, Breeze talks to animals. Ok, what about the other three, what about Von Ness/ Von Nebula? How did Von Ness turn into Von Nebula? I can't help but ask these things because it looks like they want to have more depth to them, but the moment you look deeper, you see how thin they are.

In terms of presentation, the best way I can describe it is "What if Bionicle the legend reborn was more futuristic?" To the point that I genuinely think they reused the same assets when possible. Even the drone (which I want to see turned into a set for the record) is just Bionicle pieces. I see Hordika chest armour, Vakama's disk launcher, Cordack and Midak blasters, and more in there. Soundtrack's ok, it stands out but nothing about it is memorable. Its just kinda there. If you like Hero Factory, you'll probably like this, but for someone not as knowledgeable in the universe, its ok. Solid foundation, but nothing on top of it. See you next week for Lego Justice League: Cosmic Clash