Lyichir

Quick question—had we seen the alt build for this set yet? I hadn't noticed any pics of it, despite paying pretty close attention to this topic. If anyone's interested, you can get a pretty good look at the back of the box (featuring the alt build) in this video, at about 4:50.

Not just that, but the story was not unified worldwide and various markets were left to decide the role of the sets themselves. The meteorite may have been mutagenic in the Slizers storyline, but in the Throwbots' case the four new sets in 2000 were actual new characters, rather than mutated forms of the previous ones.

Your specific words were "character bloat". My point was that even if the creatures WERE more common species instead of unique individuals (which would not necessarily be a bad thing), the specific creatures the Toa united with would probably still be distinct characters—in other words, there wouldn't be any fewer characters overall, and therefore, no less "bloat". I hadn't realized that you considered the unity feature itself to be a flaw as well, and were expressing your preference for fundamentally different wildlife sets. As for the Bohrok-Kal, I DID assume you were talking about the story, considering you were comparing them specifically to the one-of-a-kind role of the creatures. The fact that their sets were underwhelming is part of why I emphasized that, outside of their story role as unique, "elite" Bohrok with actual personality, they didn't really have anything going for them. Their individuality wasn't a flaw; rather, it was really the only thing that justified their existence.

I think that'd be a bad idea. The result would be one wave with no big monsters and one wave with no enemy vehicles. If you split the waves between the two villain types, it'd make far more sense to have a little of both in each wave.

She's not an air elf. She's 100% an Earth Elf, but loves flying. From all indications, her airship is mechanical rather than relying on her own magic (the book doesn't go into much detail about her airship but does say that it makes engine sounds).

Showing up at the same time in the story doesn't necessarily preclude them coming out at different times in the sets. In the second year of Ninjago, the Venomari and Constrictai were mostly relegated to the summer wave despite showing up comparatively early in that year's season of the TV show. If the book actually has story context for these monsters appearing (as opposed to them just being monsters the Book of Monsters hypothetically COULD create), I'd say their chances of appearing in sets are greater than I'd given them credit for. It's still far from a sure thing, though.

Another benefit to the "camo" stickers is that it makes that much harder for clone brands or knockoffs to come up with a lookalike, particularly if the actual set will appear in a color that's fairly unprecedented in Technic. If the actual car was going to be, say, purple, and it was shown at that early Toy Fair, you might end up seeing a clone brand coming up with a similarly sized and colored car—not necessarily a Porsche, but similar enough that a parent could choose it over the official Lego one if they had to choose based on price. Of course, they could have done the same without the stickers (just leaving it black and mentioning that the color was subject to change), but the stickers send a clear message that look, the final model is going to be a completely different color—don't get too attached to this one.

I am extremely confused by your comment. Specifically the idea that the creatures cause any sort of "character bloat" Even if the creatures represented species with large populations rather than one-of-a-kind legendary beings, surely the specific creatures that the Toa unite with would represent distinct characters anyway? Otherwise, rather than the Toa forming a unique bond with their respective creatures, the creatures would be reduced to glorified power-ups, with Tahu being able to unite with any creature of fire that happened to be handy in a given fight. Instead of animal companions which the Toa could foster unique relationships with, they'd be interchangeable wildlife that the Toa could unite with "just because". To me, that seems much less interesting in terms of storytelling. Also, I thought the Bohrok Kal were quite interesting in the original story, considering they were the very first team of distinct villain characters. Other characters like the Piraka and Barraki would do that better, with more unique and diverse personalities, but considering the "Shadow Toa" hardly got a spotlight in the story, the Bohrok Kal were one of the first decent attempts to give each Toa a distinctive individual foe, rather than just swarms of mooks and a few larger villains which they would face as a team. I don't know if I'd consider them better than the Bohrok, but the fact that they represented one-of-a-kind characters rather than swarms is hardly a reason why they were worse. In fact, it was one of the only good things the Kal had going for them. It'd have been even harder to tolerate a second wave of Bohrok if it had just meant another, stronger swarm of mindless mooks.

Sorry, must have missed that.

C-3PO, R2-D2, Han, Leia, Yoda, and perhaps Emperor Palpatine are at the top of my list. Droidekas and other Battle Droids, Count Dooku, Darth Maul, and Mace Windu could also be neat, but are lower down on my list due to either being less distinctive characters or being relevant to fewer movies. One thing I haven't seen anyone here mention that'd be awesome is VEHICLES. Sure, most Starfighters and the like would be too large when scaled up to the action figure sets. But imagine Luke, Leia, or a Scout Trooper on a Technic-based Speeder Bike! Or Count Dooku on HIS speeder bike! Or... okay, admittedly, it'd be hard to manage much anything larger than a speeder bike. Maybe a Battle Droid on a STAP? It's too soon to do Rey again, but her speeder might have been cool too... it's a shame that I can't even build one for the existing figure, since her chunky headgear prevents her from being able to be posed correctly on it.

I dunno about that... Firstly, I'm not even sure they're solid white. Based on some pictures they seem like they might be Aqua (matching the Earth and Wind Dragons' jaws) or perhaps White blended with Aqua. And Aqua is not used anywhere on the Queen Dragon, from the looks of it. Secondly, I think they're the new, smaller variety of wing used on the Earth and Water Dragons, rather than the larger variety from older dragons that is also used on the Fire Dragon. That size difference could make them look weird on the Queen Dragon considering that it is the largest of the dragons, and even has a larger head than the others to match.

(Picture links to Flickr) A concept for a Nexo Knights pack for Lego Dimensions. It includes Clay Moorington and a Rumble Blade that can be rebuilt into two other vehicles. I've done a fair number of Dimensions concepts largely because I adore the little microscale builds, but I'm still learning! This is the first model I've successfully designed two alt-builds for, and a big part of that was figuring out what sorts of parts are conducive to that. In this case, lots of SNOT parts were a must, 3x1 plates were preferred over even-numbered lengths due to the odd-numbered width of all three models, and I ended up using the CMF weightlifter's weights as wheels due to needing them to be bounded on both sides (for the bikes) and wanting to be able to use them as building elements themselves. I wasn't really conceptualizing this from a gameplay perspective. Presumably, the first two would be ground-based vehicles (possibly with flight capabilities as well) while the third would be purely a flying vehicle. The second vehicle could probably use tow bars as well. Beyond that, I'm not sure how their capabilities would differ specifically. Clay, for his part, could probably reflect lasers with his sword and maybe could have some tech-related skills as well (such as using techno-panels like Benny or maybe even using his Squirebot as a drone like Doc Brown or Cybermen). In future models, it might be worth my while to consider adding parts to the base which can be used for elemental effects, like the 1x1 "electric" studs in the Delorean model from the Back to the Future level pack. As I said earlier, I'm still learning! Obviously, there are some parts that could not be placed due to the limitations of LDD. The minifigure is almost entirely bare, but would include Clay's normal helmet, armor, sword, and shield in an actual product. I'm not actually sure what Nexo Power the shield would have—maybe a blue one with Clay's falcon emblem (possibly functional in the app, possibly just ornamental). If all the parts were included, the pack as a whole would be 47 parts, which is a fairly typical piece count for a Dimensions pack. Comments? Questions? Feedback is much appreciated!

I think you just pointed out a good reason why we probably won't see both (at least, not at the same time). You don't want the hero and villain factions to match—you want them to contrast with one another. Two dark-colored factions would blend together too easily, regardless of how many glowy lines you added.

I agree that some of those figures look a bit... dour, for Nexo Knights. The current story has the vibrant Lava Monsters versus the equally vibrant knights, and I would imagine that only helps their shelf appeal for kids. I'm still not sure I expect any of those monsters from the books to represent future waves. Anyway, that got me thinking about another question—what do you think future knights and their vehicles might look like? A lot of themes try to do something different with their color schemes or motifs in their second (third, fourth, etc.) year to try to differentiate them from what's come before. Power Miners, for instance, replaced the orange in the sets' color schemes with blue. Atlantis swapped its Trans. Bright Green windscreens for Trans. Yellow. Even Chima started using Trans. Bright Orange, rather than Trans. Light Blue, as the unifying color for the good guys (and conversely, started using Trans. Light Blue for the new ice villains). Changing up the villains is easy in-story—there's no rule that all the monsters created by the Book of Monsters have to be lava monsters, and there's plenty that could be done with monsters that draw from other elements or environments. For the knights, the possibilities for change are much less obvious. Perhaps the transparent color unifying the sets could be changed, but that might make for too dramatic a change in the look of the sets. I suppose they could make Trans. Yellow work—that wouldn't be too far from how the weapons and things look in the show, and I'm sure it'd make the Spacers happy. Alternatively, they could change the SOLID colors of the builds, perhaps emphasizing the primary colors of the knights more on their respective vehicle. Of course, nothing has to change, and even if something does, it doesn't necessarily have to be colors. Still, it's fun to speculate!

It does not. Unlike that plume (and various other accessories in themes like Friends), Macy's plume (actually a ponytail) ends in a 3.2 mm bar, the same sort of attachments as minifigure weapons. There's no easy way to attach that plume to other headgear.

I still fail to see what's wrong with getting the same Toa characters every year. They are the MAIN CHARACTERS. There is really no good reason to have them unavailable for buyers for any length of time. It's true that in 2003, Bionicle went without new versions of the Toa Nuva. That was, in short, a mistake. 2002 to 2003 was Bionicle's peak and it STILL was less successful than it could have been, because apart from Takanuva there were no new Toa for kids to buy. And Toa have always been more successful than villain sets. Also, people keep talking as if 2017 is the end of the new theme, when in reality that's far from a given. We know that they had a three year plan from the start of the theme. So did the original Bionicle. So did Ninjago. And both of those outlasted that original "end date" significantly. Lego creates these plans with the possibility of both failure and success in mind, and adjusts accordingly as the theme wears on.

That is a good question. On the one hand, I doubt they'd really expand the release schedule all that much, especially since even if the new movie is successful, it'll probably be a few years before a sequel drops to reignite interest. On the other hand, Lego clearly has faith in the theme if the giant Firehouse and now a new movie tie-in are being released, so I wouldn't be surprised if even in "off years" they try to release a set or two as long as sales of the existing sets remain strong. And that's not even getting into Dimensions, which could probably supply new figs occasionally outside of traditional sets.

Interesting... but not necessarily the best idea. Swapping the hero and villain waves isn't as bad as eliminating one or the other, since you'll still have both heroes and villains in a given year. The problem is, when making that transition, you inevitably wind up with a six month period when the only sets to be found reliably on shelves are the winter villain wave and the last year's summer villain wave—sets from more than a year back are not stocked nearly as reliably. I think Lego has had a pretty winning formula for the past two years. Start with a wave of larger heroes and smaller companions, with tiny villainous minions (Skull Spiders/Shadow Traps) in some/all of the hero/companion sets, and one larger villain to command them. Then release a wave of villain sets in the summer, with one "special" hero (Ekimu in both years) to round it out. Am I totally satisfied with the sets we've been getting? Not necessarily—I'd love some larger figures as much as anyone, and maybe even vehicles or playsets. The theme in general still has a lot of room for growth. But I don't think there's any fundamental issue with the release strategy as a whole that would merit shaking things up beyond additional set releases to each wave.

Firstly, two waves of villains in a year would likely be too much—it didn't work well in 2003, despite that year basically following your formula by making the smaller sets "good guy" Matoran. Secondly, it'd be hard to consider smaller Toa sets anything other than a downgrade—kids who already had the 2016 Toa would probably not be lining up to get smaller, weaker-looking versions of them. Thirdly, I'm pretty sure that while small sets do generally sell the best, solely on account of their price point, hero sets ALSO sell better than villain sets. Your formula basically amounts to combining two separate groups of sets that are both already predisposed to sell well, while making the larger sets that actually NEED a sales boost that much less desirable on account of all being villains.

I think what's confusing people is the idea that Lego is treating it as licensed in the specific case of Bricks & Pieces. In that case, it makes sense—minifig character designs are developed hand-in-hand with outside partners, occasionally show-only characters like Misako are developed for actual sets years after their actual TV debut, and some figure designs are intended to have a degree of exclusivity to certain sets that would be undermined by offering their parts for sale individually. That's enough to merit the same sort of rules as with licensed fig parts. That said, Ninjago as a whole is not a licensed theme, nor will it ever be. The property and all its associated trademarks are owned by Lego themselves.

I remember hearing a statistic once that red cars tended to get stolen more often, but it might have been apocryphal. Chances are the actual reason is that red is a loud and aggressive color that better identifies the driver as a potential bad guy. It also contrasts vividly with the typical blues and whites of police cars. Darkening the color is just a variation on that that can potentially play up the "evil" angle even more.

Technically, they're different cars (make, model, customization) and different proton packs. Also, it's a reboot—of COURSE it's going to use elements of the original, because that's the POINT of a reboot. And because there is no link between the two, there doesn't have to be any coincidence involved, because a character in one continuity's chance of coming up with an idea is totally independent of the same thing happening in a different continuity. You might as well ask why guys named Bruce Wayne always seem to turn to superheroics, even in stories that don't connect to one another. The answer is because they're telling the same basic story, just with different interpretations. EDIT: Better comparison—why does BBC's Sherlock not know about the original Sherlock Holmes, and why do his adventures mimic the literary character? Isn't it a huge coincidence that there'd be two great detectives who are separated by time? No, it isn't—the Sherlock Holmes stories presumably don't exist in the universe of BBC's modern day adaptation. It can't be a coincidence if the two stories don't coincide.

The airship actually appears, which is part of why I'm surprised it's not yet depicted in a set. She uses it to guide the Earth Dragon to the Dragon Sanctuary (which, interestingly, is NOT visited by the main characters). It isn't described very clearly, though, apart from apparently having an engine based on the sound it makes. But please, tell us about your hunch. I'd love to see Sira's airship and a hood/cloak for Farran in a set, but unless there's a D2C set or store exclusive waiting in the wings I have no idea whether we'll get them, at least not this year. And there don't seem to be any conspicuous gaps in the set numbering or other rumors to suggest that there's any sort of exclusive in store...

Darn it, you really had my hopes up!

In all likelihood, "Kre-O" would probably cease to exist and future Hasbro licenses would be given to Mega Bloks in the event of such a merger. But even then, it probably doesn't make much of a difference to Lego whether they're competing with one larger sub-par brand or two smaller ones. The biggest difference would probably be that Mega Bloks would earn more clout to use when negotiating licenses (since it'd be a larger brand with more products to its name), but even so, I doubt it'd make much of an impact in Lego's dominance of the building toy market.