Hero Factory Set Prototype Leak Analysis 

The text at 7:41 is actually in Dutch, not German; but it doesn't really say anything relevant to the HF story. It is targeted at shop-owners mostly, I won't translate it line by line but essentially it boils down to announcing that there are new villains, that they have "significantly more elements (pieces?) and a nice design" for the same low price so they can still be bought using pocket money or can be seen as an impuls buy; and that the colorful design, flames and sharp claws make Fire Lord the cool bad guy every boy would want.

the breakout heroes were meant to fire their handcuffs from their guns, that's what you can see in bulks weapon.

Bill Dozer is Evo, Mac Brainy is Nex

Greg Farshtey mentioned in an interview that at a meeting he had in denmark in september 2008, he was told for the first time that Bionicle would be cancelled, then everyone at that meeting was immediately told to start brainstorming ideas for a new constraction line. The chosen idea was what became hero factory. Also, if you look closely on some CCBS pieces (it's easiest to see on the silver torso recolor from the Bionicle G2 skull villains) you can see they have "©2009" engraved in them. As others have said, I'm pretty sure Bill Dozer and Mak Brainy are Evo and Nex, respectively. I remember Evo being described as "heavy artillery" in a promo vid back in the day and his color scheme and mask are vaguely reminiscent of construction equipment. Most if not all of these images have been around for a long while now. I think Mesonak of TTV even mentioned seeing those images of Fire Lord with the claw before the ordeal of fire wave even released. speeda demon in particular is often seen as evidence that the Bionicle creature "Baterra" was meant to be as a set at some point. Aside from the exaust pipes, the helmet has a strong resemblance to how the baterra were depicted in comic artwork. All of the pictures with the kitbash-y prototypes on the white background are breakout protos. The last two pictures you showed are from a designer's portfolio website.

the piece on core hunter's shoulder actually appears to be a recolored meltdown head

Core Hunter's shoulder has the Toxic villain from Rookies it seems. Recolored from Yellow to Black.

Considering Nex and Evo are the tech specialist and artillery lore wise, I think it's safe to assume Bill Dozer and Mac Brainy were their prototype names, but the designers probably forgot or never bothered to remove those names from the magazine. Also, the cannons for the 4.0 heroes look like they were made to shoot hero cuffs, judging by the chain attached to them.

I kinda wish we actually got some of the parts in the Storma and Speeda demon prototypes, because they look pretty interesting.

core hunter's staff is made out of sawblade claw piece that was used by Splitface for example

It's always really interesting to see stuff like this. Especially the whole "Mac Brainy" thing.

The core hunter prototype is my favorite one

3:02 Team Fortress 2 + Hero Factory Team Factory? Hero Fortress?

Proto core hunters shoulder pad is a gray version of the head of the yellow acid villan from year 1 whose name I'm forgetting.

I've seen Speeda Demon's head on a 3d model site as a thing you can print

Bill Dozer and Mac Brainy sound utterly ridiculous as names. So glad those were changed (since Mac Brainy was the tech guy apparently, I assume he became Nex and Bill Dozer became Evo). Also my best guess is that Surge was meant to be more involved with the Ordeal by Fire special since I want to say the tie-in comic shows him returning with the other heroes. Personally I think how he's portrayed in the special is a lot more interesting compared to the how the comic plays out (although from what I can tell, the comic was left with a cliffhanger, possibly after the creative team realized that the comic was going to deviate wildly from the special?) Also, Fire Lord's claw would have been really cool. Not sure why they didn't go with it in the end.

Never understood why this "leak" was treated as a big deal Mainly cus they've been available online for years, hell I actually kinda used the weird red and orange Nex (maybe it's Nex idk) as inspiration for one of my MOCs, and I made that before the pandemic

I'm pretty sure the thing on proto-core hunter's shoulder is a pearl grey version of meltdown's head.

Prototype xt 4 has a bohrok kal levahk hand also kinda wish they kept the original speeda demon helmet design it looks so cool and also nex prototype helmet looks awesome

bulks gun has ,instead of an orb,seems to have a pair of cuffs,which looks like the same thing stormer has

Just got this in my rec, that's my furno prototype at 11:14 lmao. Still have it

Perhaps the biggest thing with Firelord is how he actually has plates covering his thighs.

That’s a recolour of meltdowns head on core hunters shoulder

Preston Stormer - Commander and Natalie Breez - Close Combat are listed in the grey section above the other names at the top of the Ordeal of Fire poster, so Bill Dozer and Mac Brainy were 100% the initial names for Evo and Nex. I guess the poster mock-up was put together from assets from all over the production cycle?

Ur wrong Fire lord does have that shield piece on his weapon in the final version.

The guy you showed at 20:29 was supposed to be Mac brainy the replacement for stringer because stringer was such a filler

Nice to see ppl still talking about Hero Factory to this day.

I’m your hundredth subscriber

I kinda like how (I think) there's a pickaxe to form a pinkie on Fire Lord's claw, I think I might build that claw hand out of my own parts.

Pretty sure Core Hunter's shoulder plate is Meltdown's head. Not positive but that green thing on Nex 4.0 looks like Rockah 4.0's shield

sorry mate but the weapon Proto-Stringer uses is the same one on the Stormer XL prototype and proto-Speeda Demon also uses the 2.0 head element so it is definitely just an early-stage Breakout Stringer

Hey, I really enjoyed learning so much about the HeroFactory prototypes here! I run a channel that specializes in LEGO lore, I was wondering if you'd be interested in voicing a character for an upcoming video?

damn, you are a real invasion from below hater. It had some good sets

Hey, Invasion From Below is not crap. I think Invasion From Below is fine the way it is because Invasion From Below was at least tries to be different, the only thing i did not like about Invasion From Below is the fact it ended with a cliffhanger and we never got another storyline continued because Hero Factory's storyline just feels so incomplete and to make things matters worse Hero Factory was cancelled and to make things even worse that Invasion From Below ends with a fucking cliffhanger and also Invasion From Below's cliffhanger ending is pretty much similar to Brain Attack's cliffhanger ending. Hero Factory's storyline to me just feels really unfinished and incomplete just like how Bionicle G2's storyline was so unfinished and incomplete and it also ended with a cliffhanger and never continued the storyline because Bionicle G2 was cancelled due to low sales of Bionicle G2 sets and nobody buy them which is really a shame.

Sad to see Bionicle and Hero Factory not last long enough. I blame fortnite for this. I wish we can all step back and not fall into this capitalism abuse. Its getting out of hand. 😕🐵

What is your discord? I'm around on HeroPedia

the speeda demon helmet is actually a recycled design of the batera's head from bionicle seen in the comics but with this one having wings on it's sides it's crazy how old designs like that get recycled later on even if just for a prototype