Random set of the day: Stringer 3.0
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 2183 Stringer 3.0, released during 2011. It's one of 26 HERO Factory sets produced that year. It contains 30 pieces, and its retail price was US$7.99/£7.99.
It's owned by 1,542 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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29 comments on this article
I don’t know a thing about HERO Factory but I’m 100% sure this beast is here for Omar and Brother Mouzone
Anyone know any HERO Factory lore for this guy?
Do we get Hero Factory lore? Or is that just a Bionicle thing?
Lore time: For whatever reason Jimmy Stringer has a high pitched country accent. Can you take this guy seriously now?
Lego Predator?
We tried to design Stringer 4.0, but we just kept tying ourselves up in knots
One year, my mom stocked up on the little 3.0 Hero Factory boxes to give out when my friends had birthdays. I had Stormer, Nex, and Rocka, and I remember hoping she would give me Stringer 3.0 (he lived in the closet for a while).
It never happened.
Oh look, it’s one of them Not-Bionicles!
this set also includes Stinger's amazing invisible clown friend
He was the bear-themed one, right? I kinda liked how this line was animal-themed.
@cr0004 said:
"I don’t know a thing about HERO Factory but I’m 100% sure this beast is here for Omar and Brother Mouzone"
Ey lock that door yo!
Dude. Seriously? Blacktron uses trans-red, not trans-green.
Lego, next constraction theme when?
I don't know much about Hero Factorty (got one as a gift) but they sure do look cool.
Arm tattoo. Hmm.
I'm not going to say it's Blacktron...
But it's trying. Very hard. Got the wrong shade of yellow. Got the wrong trans colour entirely. But he's got the right shade of black!
@Zordboy said:
"He was the bear-themed one, right? I kinda liked how this line was animal-themed."
I was all ready to make an eye of the tiger joke, but you're right; looks like this guy is a bear and its another in the line who is tiger themed
Hmmm...why am I getting RoboCop 2 vibes from this guy, as in: "Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you: 'Stringer 3'!!!" (Stringer 3 walks out, goes 'nuts', starts attacking the lab, feed cuts...)
This is after they stopped using first names in the set titles... originally this character was Jimi Stringer.
How do you tell the difference between Bionicle and Hero Factory?
@StyleCounselor said: "How do you tell the difference between Bionicle and Hero Factory?"
I feel like you're setting up a pun, but I can't think of a punch-line.
@cr0004 said:
"I don’t know a thing about HERO Factory but I’m 100% sure this beast is here for Omar and Brother Mouzone"
We do need a Lego ‘The Wire’ licenced theme series of sets.
@Miyakan said:
"Do we get Hero Factory lore? Or is that just a Bionicle thing?"
Jimi Stringer was a Hero made in the Hero Factory. He had a southern accent for some reason. He was part of the Alpha 1 team along with Stormer and Bulk, later joined by Furno, Surge, Breez, Nex and Evo.
When the Upgrade was introduced, Stringer apparently underwent it offscreen, as he did not appear in Ordeal of Fire.
Stringer then decided to play some kind of robot basketball with his good friend Nex for a bit.
Then he and the rest of Alpha team were sent to the jungle planet of Quattros to rescue Rocka, a hero stranded on the planet. For this mission, they were outfitted to look like animals for unexplained reasons. Their mission was successful.
Following this mission, Nex, who had seemed to be Stringer’s best friend, disappeared from existence.
During the Breakout, Stringer was assigned to track down and capture Voltix, which he succeeded at due to another new upgrade.
After this, Stringer followed in Nex’s footsteps and was never seen again.
@Zordboy said:
" @StyleCounselor said: "How do you tell the difference between Bionicle and Hero Factory?"
I feel like you're setting up a pun, but I can't think of a punch-line."
Ha! I wish. Just seriously have no clue. The attraction of both of those have eluded me. I have always been one of those 'that's not Lego!' guys. But, I'm trying to be more open-minded.
Hey, at least I now know what those 'H' parts are from that have popped up in some used part grab-bags.
@StyleCounselor said:
"How do you tell the difference between Bionicle and Hero Factory?"
Joke answer:
The amount of pages of lore. With HF it's 'dude was built in X versions and was there in Y waves and had the one personality trait of Z.'
With bionicle it usually literally starts thousands of years before the depicted set even canonically existed. That actually is the case usually.
Serious answer:
Good question. The themes are quite different, but to an outsider there's some overlap that can make it difficult, especially in 2010. I would say the year it came out? Bionicle ran from 2001 to 2010. HF ran from 2010 to 2014. Bionicle returned in 2015 and 2016.
If it's not built with the CCBS system it's either bionicle, the 2010 HF wave or one of the pre-bionicle and contemporary with bionicle constraction themes (Slizer/Throwbots, RoboRiders and Knights Kingdom).
If it's built with CCBS... well, a lot of themes have had CCBS. Good luck with that, but there's a big chance it's Hero Factory at least. Or a character you might recognize, like Batman, Darth Vader or... Laval?
Also, if it has a H shaped emblem it definitely is a hero factory hero. The villains are harder to define.
More in-depth: bionicle is about a 'biological chronicle'. Almost everything takes place inside or on top of a giant robot and the good guys protect workers and fight bad guys that are usually trying to corrupt or take over (it was inspired by someone's battle against cancer. The canisters represent pills). It's very narratively focused and focusses on a large cast of characters with three toa teams being the focus for roughly 2-3 years in each arc (2001-2003, 2004-2005, 2006-2008). The final 2009-2010 arc takes place outside the giant robot and is a soft reboot of sorts.
Hero Factory is about a giant motherflippin hero factory. They. Build. Heroes. (Actual tagline). The heroes fight intergalactic (super) villains. The 'plot' is very loosely setup and each year is mainly just a new setting.
@phi13: So that's why I was feeling the urge to make a Jimi Hendrix joke! I guess my subconscious held on to the forgotten first names longer than my conscious mind. Although now that I think of it, I can at least remember (Natalie) Breez' and (Preston) Stormer's first names. (I sort of remembered (William) Furno's. Before I looked it up, I was thinking Bill, which is a nickname for William.)
@Monopoly to be fair to Nex, he also appeared in Breakout in the summer wave alongside XT4. He just didn't appear in the special. And possibly tie-in media. Maybe the story as a whole? But man, they actually went and made a Breakout Nex. I'm proud that he got that far.
They should have learnt from Bionicle that brown and especially orange just don't sell for some reason XD
@BeforeJam said:
"Lego, next constraction theme when?"
Well, there were the Star Wars buildable figures a few years ago, and currently there are those Superhero ones, so there you go.
@StyleCounselor said:
" @Zordboy said:
" @StyleCounselor said: "How do you tell the difference between Bionicle and Hero Factory?"
I feel like you're setting up a pun, but I can't think of a punch-line."
Ha! I wish. Just seriously have no clue. The attraction of both of those have eluded me. I have always been one of those 'that's not Lego!' guys. But, I'm trying to be more open-minded.
Hey, at least I now know what those 'H' parts are from that have popped up in some used part grab-bags."
Hero Factory figures had a more sleek sci fi aesthetic compared to Bionicle figures which had a much more mechanical appearance.