Lyichir

Keep in mind that even if the Nexo Knights TV series were to end, Chima still lasted one final year after its own series ended. I agree with my brother that whether or not Nexo Knights lasts a full three years, chances are that there will not be another Castle theme until 2018. That'd be in line with past Castle themes, which have tended to debut three years after the previous iteration's introduction whether or not their predecessor lasts for the entirety of the intervening time.

Given what I've seen in the Ninjago fandom, I don't think they necessarily even have to try. Even the serpentine generals seem incredibly popular among the theme's female fans, so I reckon unless the goblin king is severely ugly (like, say, the one from The Hobbit), he'll probably become fairly popular with the ladies.

That is stupid and ridiculous. The "Women of Nasa" project is designed to introduce people who are only familiar with the men in the history books (to a few of the many women who played critical roles in the history of space exploration. There's nothing "bigoted" about focusing a design on a certain demographic, especially when that demographic is often overlooked or sidelined in discussion of the history of space exploration. And insisting that Wernher Von Braun be included just because he paved the way for what came later is ridiculous—obviously a great many people's discoveries paved the way for modern astronauts, from Galileo to Newton to Einstein, but that's hardly reason to take a project focused specifically on major female figures in NASA's history and shift the focus of the project to a single man.

City Police gets a new station every year, not every three years. That's probably why the police stations tend to feature more variation—they have to be designed to stand out from the previous year's model that is likely still on shelves in many places, whereas the fire stations have to provide a more classic design since there won't be anything comparable available by the time they're released.

Dang it, every time someone bumps an update topic my heart does a little flutter before I realize it's just an existing topic for an existing update.

I think a part of it was also the fact that the main "base" in that year's sets was the Destiny's Bounty, and as such having the ninja operate out of that as a mobile base made more sense in terms of promoting the products than having them have another sanctuary, not based on a set, to return to at the end of each episode. Actually, you could probably make a case that rebuilding the monastery wouldn't make much sense story-wise either, since creating a new base of operations in the same spot where it had already been destroyed would basically be inviting the Serpentine armies to do the same to the new one.

That's what I was thinking. If that is the case, I'm already sort of dreading the comments about "They can make blind-bagged Nexo Powers and they couldn't give us mask packs?" (Never mind that Nexo Powers have a free game component, would be logistically easier to blind-package, and perhaps most importantly are being created in the second year of what seems to be a successful theme rather than either in the debut year of an untested theme or the second year of a theme that is failing to meet expectations). I do wonder if Nexo Power blind bags would contain one power or multiple powers, and whether they might possibly include a fig or some other buildable content along with the powers themselves.

Definitely still making it. 41999 was very deliberately a limited edition set with a set number of copies released. This set is no such thing—like most other D2C sets, it seems to be designed with a several year lifespan in mind and will likely remain available for at least two to three years (maybe longer, if sales continue to exceed expectations).

In all seriousness, did they even do designer videos for D2C sets back then? I don't believe so, but I could be wrong. In fact, I had kind of expected to see a video for the new Death Star for that very reason (since not only would it be able to go over the updates but also the returning features that had not been discussed in a previous video).

I think they were suggesting that that particular type of plant looks somewhat like a poinsettia, a type of flower frequently used as a Christmas decoration. Though of course autumn leaves work too. Frankly, I'd be conflicted about using that plant for ANYTHING—when you have a part that rare, removing it from the sprue might somehow devalue it, or at least give the sense of doing so...

Don't know why so many people are so unreceptive to the third-act twist in The Lego Movie. It was really part of what made the movie great, adding a whole other level of metatextual and emotional depth to the movie's otherwise frenetic plot. Mind you, I don't think every Lego movie has to have that as a central pillar to work (it could easily be saved mostly for the Lego Movie sequel and future "crossover" films). But it could easily work as a post-credits scene in the standalone movies, as both a gag (drawing back to show the events of the movie as the mere results of a child's creativity) and a way to tie the movies together (potentially even foreshadowing the events of the Lego Movie sequel as "Finn" ages and the context of his play changes).

Man, that gets me thinking—I certainly wouldn't mind if the "action" sets are like the Legend Beasts from Chima's second year. Heck, with the presumably robotic animals that would fit in the Nexo Knights theme, it'd have the potential for even stronger set designs.

I hope not. Firstly, because I love Emily as a character and wouldn't want the story to abandon her. Secondly, because it doesn't really feel like it makes sense—after all, there are plenty of adult characters in Elvendale itself, and plenty of adults in the real world, obviously, so why couldn't adults travel between the two? Besides, I would not be at all surprised if the characters never actually age as the theme progresses in the first place, like the vague-aged Ninjago characters or any number of other kids' shows that eschew a realistic timeline in favor of keeping the focus on a cast designed to appeal to the target audience. That would certainly be an interesting twist on the "Labyrinth"/"Outside Over There" storyline that seems to be going for. That said, if they introduce a smaller mini-doll figure for the goblins then it would not be at all surprising if they also introduced a younger child character as well.

With only one character per box? Don't necessarily like the sound of that... it'd be great for people who buy their own boxes, but awful for people who get them one at a time from stores (if anyone at all got to the fig you want before you could, you'd be out of luck until the store put out another box).

This is a fantastic idea. It reminds me of the days of my youth when I would try to build huge, complex, and realistic castles based on diagrams from books on medieval architecture. And the modular system is a great idea—comparable to the rearrangeable nature of the Minecraft sets, but much more refined. I've supported the project and wish you success! One thing that I noticed that your project uses the retired double arched doors. Unfortunately, no such part exists for current hinge designs, apart from the doors designed for the large prefab "Juniors" arch piece. Still, it's hardly a deal-breaker—at worst, the set would instead be forced to use a more complex brick-built door, which might turn out more interesting anyway.

Actually, that's one of the things that makes me most excited about it. I had little interest in the original, but considering how good they've done with other subject matter they've revisited (last year's Final Flight of Destiny's Bounty and this year's Ultra Stealth Raider), I have little doubt that a new take on the Blacksmith Shop could feature similar levels of improvement.

I do think the rumored D2C ship is more likely to be a ship other than the Black Pearl. While the Black Pearl is indeed the most recurring ship in the series, I'd think it'd be more likely to appear as a standard retail set again for that very reason. Also, IIRC many of the other ships in the series are actually larger than the Black Pearl—I would imagine Lego would want the D2C set to be at least somewhat in scale with whatever ship or ships are released alongside it at regular retailers, which would necessitate that it be a larger ship to suit its higher price point. The Flying Dutchman is a good guess for what the D2C ship would be, because it has already appeared in multiple movies (despite presumably not reappearing in the new movie), and is one of the most distinctive ships in terms of its appearance. Also, its ramshackle structure would necessitate a very complex build instead of relying upon traditional boat hulls, making it well-suited to an adult-focused D2C set.

Probably not a rule, but considering that Lego City police vehicles are typically blue and white, it's not surprising that they tend to pick a contrasting color like red for the crooks' vehicles.

Maybe. But it could just as easily be a case where Nexo Knights has been performing well worldwide, or in traditionally successful regions for Lego (Europe and the Americas) and as such hasn't had the opportunity to contribute as heavily to regional sales growth in developing markets.

I finally got around to completing my Bionicle G2 collection today, since I managed to pick up Ikir and Terak at Toys R Us and Barnes & Noble, respectively. Built Terak when I got home, and I'm still super-impressed with him—he's everything Melum could've been if he hadn't been hit quite so hard with the budget stick. I'll probably save Ikir for a little while longer, though, since he's the last new Bionicle set I'll be able to enjoy, at least until the theme makes another return some day.

If we were indeed getting action figures, I would consider it more likely that they'd contain regular Nexo Power shields, but instead of being used on the shields themselves, they'd be used on the knights' armor (where the minifigure versions normally have their animal heraldry).

Lego would probably take a huge hit if they switched all minifigures to mini-dolls. They'd also take a hit if they switched all mini-dolls to minifigures, considering how successful the mini-dolls have made themes like Friends and Elves. Luckily, they're not planning to do either. The idea that all Lego figures have to or should be designed for some "majority" is ridiculous, since the whole point of Lego having themes in the first place is to have different things catering to different interests. And it's especially absurd when you consider that that "majority" was primarily male before Lego Friends started to bring more girls into Lego's consumer base. Lego Friends found its success in appealing to a market that previously WASN'T interested in Lego, and the new figures played a huge role in that.

A new theme performing better than any theme in its final year is far from unusual. I would be more interested in knowing whether it had a stronger LAUNCH than Chima (which did well upon release but still fell short of lofty expectations). Of course, I doubt we'll ever get those sorts of specifics.

This latest batch is great as well! If you're taking requests/suggestions, I'd love to see Aang and Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Not that I'm denying that both themes will return at some point (I think it's practically inevitable for both), but I don't think CMF representation is really a good way to judge whether a theme is ready for a comeback/debut. It's true that sometimes the CMFs include figures from popular past and present themes, but I've never really noticed that any of the figs seem to have been designed to foreshadow future themes, and I also get the impression that sometimes they're also used as an outlet for figs that couldn't really sustain a theme of their own or otherwise don't fit neatly into any current themes. For instance, there have been a great many Western-related figs in the CMFs, but so far there's no Western revival in sight and hasn't been for a long time. There have also been plenty of figs related to themes Lego has never done before and may never do (Roman history, Greek mythology, the American Revolution, etc.).