Lyichir

I find it interesting that while the movie uses actual iPhone tiles, marketing materials (like some graphics for store displays I've seen at Target) instead brand them as "Phone!" (with an exclamation point at the end instead of a lowercase "I" at the beginning). Probably a matter of either not wanting to pay for that usage or perhaps not even being allowed to use that branding on displays advertising non-Apple products.

I think these guesses are quite heavy on the main characters... I mean, the Lego Movie series only featured one version each of Wyldstyle, Emmet, President Business, and Bad Cop, while even with the vast number of Batsuits in the Lego Batman Movie series, there was only a single version each of Robin and the Joker. I expect the prolific number of Batman variants there to be the exception, not the norm. So for this series, while I could certainly see us getting multiple versions of a few main characters (for instance, two Lloyds), I don't necessarily expect two versions of every single ninja in this series. It's also worth keeping in mind that the CMF variants are pretty much necessarily going to be different from the versions that appear in the sets. In other words, I don't expect to see any of the main characters in their standard costumes, since those will most likely be used heavily in the sets themselves. At the same time, I'm not sure what sort of alternate costumes we're most likely to see, either. Unlike the various Batsuits in The Lego Batman Movie, which despite their zaniness are still iconically Batman-related, giving every one of them their civilian duds in the CMF series would result in a large part of the series being uncharacteristically mundane. For that reason, I expect to possibly see either downgraded ninja costumes (perhaps training suits, like the Kendo versions from 2012) or upgraded ninja costumes (like the kimono, NRG, or Airjitzu costumes). As you can see, I'm not really keen on going into specifics, considering there's still so much we DON'T know about the movie (it's not even clear at this point whether the aquatic enemies commanded by Garmadon in the movie will be his only army or one of many). I can tell you one specific fig that I already highly suspect will appear in the CMF series: the "disguised" variant of Garmadon (with a conical hat and cloak) shown briefly in a fight with Sensei Wu in the trailer. The pajama version of Lloyd is also a possibility, but it's hard to tell whether it might be considered too similar to the "Sleepyhead" fig from a previous CMF series (several parts of which were already repurposed outside the CMFs for the Pajama Emmet polybag).

I assumed x105 was being sarcastic... y'know, since that helmet is one of the only parts of that battle pack that'd be considered usable in a traditional Castle MOC.

No, sorry. I was talking about The Brick Show's video of the new sets from Toy Fair:

Depends on what you count as a "minifigure". The swaddled baby doesn't really have discrete parts, and works reasonably well as a mini-doll baby given that only its face is visible (and printed with more Friends-esque eyes in this set). Classic minifigure heads have also been used to stand in for mini-doll faces in the Friends theme before (such as busts for displaying alternate hairstyles in salon sets).

I don't see lavender, just magenta (Bright Reddish Violet) and dark purple (Medium Lilac). Still cool to get Technic parts in those colors (one of which I believe hasn't ever been used in Technic before)!

Yeah, we've had a lot of new pictures and video, so let me share a few thoughts... The new curved 2x2x5 wall panels (which appear in The Goblin King's Fortress and Rosalyn's Healing Hideout) have a square cutout at the base and the top, allowing for building opportunities not offered by the traditional macaroni bricks (in addition to providing a more seamless look). These parts are essentially halved versions of 85941. The rear of the Goblin King's fortess might offer some insight into the story. In particular, there's a portrait of the Goblin King as a younger child alongside an older elf woman. That might provide some clues as to his motivation for turning evil, or for constructing the portal. Farran and Aira are still both unaccounted for in the summer sets. I can only hope that the mysterious fourth set listed on Brickset includes them...

So pictures have started to show up from Toy Fair of the Elves sets. The Goblin King does include his evil amulet (gold with a green gem, as opposed to Emily's silver one with a blue gem) in the castle set.

Every time I start to lose interest in Nexo Knights, they pull me right back in... That Colossus is amazing and reminds me of an old Atlantis MOC of mine (albeit much better). It seems to use all the Forbidden Powers on its head as a "crown"! Knighton Castle is also fantastic. I love that we're getting such an impressive new location-based set, and I'm excited to get a version of King Halbert without his armor. Even the smaller stone monster vehicles in the other sets look great.

In addition to the confirmation that we're not getting a story pack for Dimensions, the mere fact that there HASN'T been a full Ninjago console game (unlike Batman, who has already gotten several) before could be reason to believe that we might get one for this movie. Of course, if that were to happen we probably would have heard about it by now...

They almost inevitably will—both are positively gigantic. The dragon in particular is substantially larger than anything we've ever seen before in the theme (including the D2C Temple of Airjitzu, and possibly even including some of the largest sets Lego has ever released in ANY theme). Kai's mech is less outrageously huge but still far bigger than a single-occupant mech like that would necessitate, especially for a set that is presumably going to be similar in scale to several of the other ninja vehicles in the same wave. The real question is how much smaller they each will be. Even reduced in size I could still see Lloyd's dragon being one of the largest sets in the wave and the biggest dragon we've ever gotten in the Ninjago theme.

I got the book today too! Among other thoughts, my brother pointed out that if "Nightwing" gets released in a potential third wave of sets, the askew, goggled headgear piece (pictured in the book) might conceivably be able to be reused in a future non-movie-based Bat-Mite fig. Another thing I noticed is that two of the unused concept Batmobiles look suspiciously similar to two of last year's "Day of the Departed" Ninjago sets (specifically, the Rock Roader and Titanium Ninja Tumbler). Knowing that that wave of sets had to be hastily put together to replace the sets for the delayed Ninjago movie, and that development of the Lego Batman Movie had probably progressed well beyond those early concepts by that point, I sort of wonder whether those two Batmobiles were reworked into or at least provided heavy inspiration for those Ninjago vehicles. The book also confirms my suspicion that the guard robot from the "Batman in the Phantom Zone" polybag was going to appear in the Phantom Zone proper in an earlier draft, rather than merely guarding the Phantom Zone projector in the Fortress of Solitude.

Well, not so much "will never happen" but more "a fan campaign will have zero effect on whether or not it happens". I don't know what it will take for Lego fans to finally get the message that petitions, letter writing, or similar efforts are almost always ineffective at getting Lego to release new products or media. Lego does occasionally respond to that kind of fan input, but usually that is either addressing a specific, critical flaw (a defect or safety issue in an existing set, for instance) or a more general request (such as the desire to see more female characters in sets across the board). A couple hundred people signing a petition to make more of a certain theme is a drop in the bucket and is effectively meaningless compared to the much more concrete and actionable data Lego gets through the actual sales and buzz around existing sets. Frankly, if the demand for further Doctor Who sets based on existing material were great enough to justify the release of additional sets, we would already be seeing them. The rapid expansion of the Minecraft theme after the overwhelming support for the original Ideas project is evidence enough of that. I'm not saying that the theme is effectively over and done with—it's entirely possible that Lego will bring out another new set, say, when a new Doctor is introduced for them to base it on, or the franchise is otherwise revitalized with some dramatic change or influx of new media. But the demand for sets based on the classic material has not changed significantly since that original set's release, so if that demand wasn't sufficient then it certainly won't be now. As for video games? TT Games has limited resources to work with. I'm sure a lot of the people there would love to work on a full Doctor Who game, but unless there are more sets in the pipeline to promote I doubt Lego has any interest in devoting so much of their effort to a game like that when they could be creating games that promote huge, ongoing themes like Star Wars or Super Heroes, or new themes entirely. You don't "need" it, you "want" it. And you have no power over whether it happens or not. Don't set yourself up for disappointment by thinking that your own individual actions will be enough to change Lego's internal business decisions.

So, for future reference, if we want more LDD updates the secret to getting them is sending the LDD team ice cream.

That version of the part seems to be meant to represent the Gold Ink/Chrome Gold versions of the gold bar that come in a prepack with similarly colored gold coins (which are categorized in LDD under Design IDs 96904–96907). The reason the individual part number is not recognized in any databases is because databases derived from Lego's customer service site (like Brickset) include it only as part of the prepack (Design ID 15629), while sites with their own individually programmed databases like Bricklink most likely lump it in with the non-chrome versions (despite those versions having a different Design ID number).

I'm of two minds about those stickers on that 10x6 windscreen piece. On the one hand, the perfectionist in me is getting convulsions at the thought of applying small, non-rectangular stickers like that evenly to a domed piece like that. On the other, this is the first time we've gotten that piece in a solid color and possibly the first time we've gotten it unprinted at all, so the fact that it uses stickers instead of a print definitely adds to its versatility.

That's not the new fig. I made the same mistake when I first saw this news. Zoom in on the image. The Wonder Woman actually visible in the "window" on the front of the book is decidedly a different design.

I've seen a lot of people misinterpret this app as having an age limit due to the widespread news about its child safety features, but it does not—the safety features are all about moderation combined with built-in features that protect kids' identities and prevent user-to-user harassment. I've joined the app myself using the existing Lego Club ID I've had since I was nine years old, and find it to be decent overall.. I wish the usernames were a little easier to select (you get assigned a name randomly and can "reroll" to pick a new one before saving one permanently, but since there's no way to reselect a previously assigned username it's often easier to pick one that's merely acceptable instead of risking losing it in pursuit of one that's "perfect"). The character customization is also less robust than I'd like (for instance, you can customize a minifigure or mini-doll but each hairpiece is limited to certain colors and there doesn't seem to be a single male mini-doll option). As for the actual functionality of the app itself, it mostly combines features that were already available on the Lego website (theme galleries you can post creations to, quizzes, building challenges, videos, etc.) with Instagram-like features like a built-in camera and stickers that you can customize pictures with. So nothing too robust. I've heard rumors that by completing challenges like the quizzes and building challenges you might be able to unlock additional content, but I haven't managed to do so with any of the quizzes or sticker challenges I've completed and haven't done any building challenges yet. I've also heard that there might be content like videos that are exclusive to the app (one of the main reasons I downloaded it in the first place), though so far I haven't seen anything noteworthy. Still, I've enjoyed what little I've gotten out of it for what it is. And it's probably even more fun for its targeted demographic and might be easier for today's kids to engage with than the Lego website itself.

I'd actually almost think the opposite—the black-suited agents of Ultra Agents, Alpha Team, or the CMF Spy in many ways seem a lot more archetypal in terms of appearance than the vibrant blue and green suits of the classic Agents theme. And the classic Agents had names as well—this one in particular is Agent Chase. Again, not complaining, since the original Agents is one of my all-time favorite themes.

Wow, nice! I had read about that but the initial press release was vague as to whether these were the original Lego Agents, Ultra Agents, or even the Alpha Team-esque Spy from the CMFs. I wouldn't necessarily have minded any of those others but ultimately I'm glad it's the former!

Spoilers for the Lego Batman Movie follow...

Great review of a great set! One thing I didn't see you mention is the clever method of using an angled tile to allow the disks it shoots horizontally to "skip" over the front of the vehicle when in the lowered position (though, as you mention, the front occupant might get in the way depending on how you have them positioned) One of the main things I love about this set is the sort of symmetry it has with Axl's Tower Carrier (which is very similar in size and structure to this vehicle in lowered position). It really helps the two feel like they belong to the same universe despite their vastly different aesthetics and functionality.

Interestingly, these seem to be either the versions from the movie and/or prototypes of the set. There are a few notable differences between these and the product pictures, and while some could just be part of how the vehicles convert after separating, I can see a few differences (like the covers on the side-mounted guns of the Batmobile) that are decidedly different between the two.

These are at least slightly more likely to be printed than those, considering the same decoration seems to be used across multiple sets (the village in the winter and the castle in the summer). But they could still very easily be stickered.

I'm still not ruling him, Condiment King, or Clock King out in a 2018 wave. TLM got one last wave after the year the movie was released, and TLBM seems like it may well be poised to be an even bigger hit.