Lyichir

The way you phrase it makes it sound like we're paying for the name alone—we're not. The kinds of "Lego" you could get from a 3D printer, or a clone brand, are very decidedly inferior in quality. So much goes into design, testing, and precision molding that other companies and individuals just can't match. That's where so much of the cost comes from—not just a surcharge for the brand name, but also the promise of quality that that name carries.

Actually, you're wrong. A gearbox would only be HALF as functional as the function on Storm Beast, because like Skull Basher, Storm Beast's function allows for two distinct movement options rather than just one. By moving the tail from side to side, you can indeed swing the arms alternately, as if a gearbox had been used. But by moving the tail up and down, you can also swing both arms in the same direction simultaneously. And without a large and complex transmission-like function (which has never been seen before in Bionicle and probably could not be achieved on a figure this size), there's just no way to build a gearbox that can do both of the above.

Are you sure? Looking at the keychain the hair pretty clearly looks Dark Orange, not Medium Nougat like the hair from that polybag. Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference, but not here—the image of the keychain shows the hair to be much more vibrant than Medium Nougat.

In other media so far, she seems to use the CMF Dino Tracker hair, despite that not really matching the ponytail used on her helmet at all. Kind of odd that they did a new recolor for Aaron's hair but not for Macy's. Could that mean that we might see Aaron helmetless in another set? I'd be very surprised to see them do that sort of exclusive recolor just for a keychain...

To be honest, this list doesn't surprise me much. Friends and Ninjago are both huge hits. Star Wars was bolstered by the tremendous hype around the first new movie in years. City, like always, is one of Lego's most successful themes, and Duplo is, well, Duplo. As far as the sets are concerned, my biggest surprise would be at the City Police Station from 2014 outselling last year's Swamp Police Station (perhaps its more traditional subject matter is what pushed it over the top). Apart from that you have some of the flagship sets from other successful themes, Mindstorms (which is probably due largely to its use in education), and the Frozen Ice Castle set which, while slightly late to the party, still managed to capitalize on the high demand for all things Frozen.

Hm, tough call. My favorite Uniter is Lewa but my favorite Master is probably Gali. But Uniter Gali and Master Lewa are also both pretty decent. It's hard to say which pair I'd prefer.

I had seen a prelim cover for this on Amazon, but this is more finalized! Good to know that the owl it comes with is in fact Owlyver, since the prelim cover wasn't clear which of the two owls we've gotten would be included. The color correction on the pieces in that book seems a little off—the Reddish Brown parts also look a little faded. So the leaf is probably just Medium Lilac (Dark Purple) like some of the others in this year's sets.

You could probably make that into an interesting fanfiction. But for the official story it'd probably be considered to be a bit too sci-fi to fit G2's "back-to-basics" approach. Heck, a plot like that would seem pretty out-of-left-field even in G1.

Ha, that's actually a really nice idea I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere. Come to think of it, there are a lot of Elves parts that might look good in a Winter Village set... the only reason we haven't seen them used in one of the sets yet is probably just because we haven't gotten an "original" Winter Village set since the theme's debut. :P

A member on BZPower pointed out a possible grounds for rejection for the particle accelerator that hasn't really applied to most other projects—it could be a potential safety hazard. Improper construction or modification of the model could essentially turn it into a railgun that could hit someone in the eye with the ball (and we know how Lego is about that). Decreasing the speed of the ball could potentially eliminate that issue but would also severely inhibit the effectiveness of the function. Ultimately Lego might not consider the risk to be worth it, especially since it is already a somewhat niche project in the grand scheme of things.

Not entirely sure what you'd want reddish brown for... the hourglass piece itself is just transparent blended with trans-pink—the gold parts on the top and bottom are just regular 1x1 plates. Tan (or even white) for the center would be very good for historic builds, but the exterior color basically has to be a transparent color if you want to be able to see inside.

In terms of "battle and action stuff", The Queen Dragon Rescue set includes a crossbow being manned by the evil-looking fox (and which, unlike the one in the Elvendale School of Dragons, appears to actually be used AS a weapon that shoots evil magic of some sort). On top of that, Ragana's Magic Shadow Castle also includes a catapult being manned by Aira. While the sword in the smithy may technically be the first dedicated weapon to appear in the series, this catapult is the first time we've seen one actually being used in a set by one of the main "heroic" Elves characters.

Actually, based on that picture, I think it might be more likely for it to also use the same Tr. Fl. Reddish Orange screen, possibly with printing. That visor has been printed before, and note that the King's Mech's visor in that picture has silver detailing that was absent on the set itself, making it look far more "covered". The same may well apply to this new mech. Besides that, it's a little hard to get a read on what the set itself might look like. In that shot it seems very similar to the King's Mech, but I'm hoping the actual set is a little bit less similar in terms of its build and detailing if only to help me justify getting both.

Luckily, it's easy enough to replace—in fact, if you have the Protector of Stone, you can easily just swap the 5M "A" beams used on his upper legs for the ones for the 5M "B" beams used on Umarak's ankles and essentially improve BOTH sets.

I think the much more likely explanation is that the writers have no sense of scale, as with G1 and the totally implausible scale of both the Mata Nui Robot and Spherus Magna. Visually, it makes more sense to have Okoto take up a large portion of the planet's surface in that shot, considering that it is the focus of the shot and otherwise would be much less visible. It may not make as much sense geologically, but I doubt any of the writers or artists were all that concerned about their fantasy island planet adhering to real-life geological principles. Kalhiki's point above is also valid. A lot of the travel across Okoto in last year's animations was limited to brief snippets or montages, when it was even shown in the first place. The other side stories we've gotten suggest that there was plenty of time spent just getting from place to place in last year's story.

I do agree with that—the lavender rocks and stone of some of the new sets is a great change that helps to make this year's Elves sets look that much more magical than last year's. But the grey and tan steps don't look too shabby for those who want a different color.

You were originally going to skip Kopaka? I'm honestly surprised, since you typically seem to love the big, burly figures, and 2015 Kopaka definitely fits that mold.

What they've specifically said is that they will not release another starter pack, meaning that the current starter pack will continue to be used and people who bought the first one will not need to replace it. It's still entirely possible that they might expand the story as paid or (ideally) free expansions. And even if that does end up costing money, it won't have to come close to the $100 buy-in for the starter pack itself. I don't know exactly when we'll get more news on the future of Lego Dimensions, but considering the last currently known set of packs comes out in May we'll presumably learn more either around that time or earlier.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree, then. As you've said, the point of shelf appeal is to stand out—and I think the diverse and unique Skull Villains do that a heck of a lot better than six identical Bohrok. Plus, when the argument gets to the point where someone accuses a set of "looking like it was built like a five-year-old", you know there's absolutely no reasoning with the other side. Personally, I've never seen a five-year-old's MOC that looked anything like Skull Scorpio, because novice builders tend to either copy what they've seen in sets or just slap on as much detail as they can without any regard for aesthetics. You know what you don't ever see from five-year-olds? Models with extremely conservative use of detail and incredibly effective functions that have never been seen before on any other set. EDIT: Also, I just realized that no one has clarified what exactly would make "Bohrok equivalents" some sort of magic bullet that would turn the new Bionicle into a success. The Bohrok were successful sets, no doubt about that. But that was largely a consequence of WHEN they were released rather than any sort of intrinsic quality that modern sets lacked. The Bohrok were the first canister villains, and helped to follow through on the initial success of Bionicle by creating a set of affordable, collectible villains (as opposed to the Rahi, which were much more expensive). Their design, while well-polished, had very little to do with their breakout success, and I don't see any reason why the Skull Villains themselves have any less collectibility other than the lack of canisters and randomized Krana (sales gimmicks that would not just be a huge step backwards for modern sets but which would also lack the novelty they had back in 2002).

You're going to have to share some examples, because without knowing what the sets are being compared against it's hard to tell how feasible those would be as sets or whether their improved costs might come with other unforeseen drawbacks. Take your mention of "ridiculous numbest of recolors and specialized molds". I'm not sure I even agree with that, since even as someone who reviews sets with an emphasis on those parts the number doesn't really seem excessive. But a set WITHOUT many of those sorts of parts would be a hard sell even if it were a fantastic build. New parts offer fans building opportunities they couldn't get without the set, while even the most impressive use of older parts might just inspire them to do the same with the parts they already have. The trick is to provide a useful and impressive selection of new parts without breaking the budget, which, yes, might mean that some corners might have to be cut. But that's preferable to the alternative, an amazing, solid build that just doesn't have that essential shelf appeal.

Eh... I'll grant that the Bohrok were coherent designs. However, that came at the expense of actually being interesting, diverse, or versatile. Bohrok parts were designed for the express purpose of being good for building Bohrok, and to this day a greater percentage of the Bohrok's parts were brand-new than any other series of sets. But to take advantage of this narrow-focused design philosophy, they were all identical apart from their colors and the design of their shields. I think you'd have a hard time marketing a set of six identical sets today, let alone twelve. The Skull Villains, by contrast, are diverse, with entirely unique builds. And while they may be less "coherent", they're designed with that in mind, with zombie-like designs that feature bony limbs with patchy armor. Altogether, I'd take a new set of figures like that over something like the Bohrok any day. Also, we will never, ever stop seeing MOCs that are better-looking than set. It happens in System. It happens in System. It happens in Technic. Heck, you could probably even create a Duplo MOC that looks better than sets at a similar scale There are a ridiculous number of constraints on set designers that MOCists just don't have to work with—making sets easily buildable by the target audience, making them sturdy and stable for long-term play and display, making use of a specific palette of available parts rather than having decades' worth of parts at their disposal, having a specific budget to shoot for... the list goes on and on. I don't think it's an "embarrassment" that sets sometimes fall short of the lofty standards of AFOLs who don't even have to think about some of those factors.

I dunno. I was focused on the animal on his emblem, and the fact that shape-wise a hawk is much more unique than a griffin (which is not shaped that differently from a dragon, bull or horse). I'm thinking a big hawk with helicopter blade swords for wings would be pretty cool and well-suited for Clay.

I doubt it. That visor is a completely different shape than the one in the pictures above, which is more helmet-shaped.

I don't even know where you're getting the impression that Nexo Knights is unsuccessful, considering it's only been out a few months and I haven't seen any evidence that it's failing to meet expectations. Chima was also far from a failure (it wasn't as successful as Lego intended, but part of that is probably due to running alongside Ninjago instead of replacing it as planned, and it still lasted three years). And the new Bionicle isn't trying to repeat Ninjago's success in the first place—it's not even a Big Bang theme like those other themes. To be honest, I don't even know what you mean by a "Bohrok equivalent" or why you'd think it'd be some sort of magic bullet for the new Bionicle. The Skull Villains are pretty much unquestionably better sets than the Bohrok, and the last thing we need are more clone sets made up of overly specialized parts.

I'd love to see an Ultimate Ava, considering that so far she's the only main character who hasn't gotten an Ultimate set. Besides Jestro, I guess—he could use one too. Besides that, I'd also like to see a robo-dragon for Macy, a robo-bull for Axl, a robo-hawk for Clay... you get the idea. Oh, and more characters from the show, like Alice Squires. And that farmer bot (who would be a great inclusion in a Mill Village Raid-esque set, which would be another great thing to have). And spider globlins!