Lyichir

LDD may or may not be used directly by Lego's set or part designers, but it is still an essential piece of software for many of Lego's external partners. The Legoland model builders and animators for The Lego Movie (and presumably most of the sequels in the pipeline) both rely on specialized versions of LDD for those applications. TT Games uses LDD for model design as well, though I'm not sure whether they too have a unique build of the software or if they just use the consumer version. In all of these cases, it would make no sense to completely abandon the software unless, as some have suggested, Lego is developing a new digital building program to replace it.

I also loved the newscasters! They're hilarious, bubbly, and were a great way to frame the character introductions in the first episode. I would love to get them in sets, but I agree it's unlikely. Maybe I should put a custom together myself...

It's a good attempt, and probably does help the posability, but I don't really like the way it changes his silhouette. Part of what I love about Lewa's limb construction is how lean and elegant it is, while in your mod it flares out more and doesn't hug the arms to nearly the same extent. I won't necessarily keep my Lewa the way he was designed either, but I think the easiest way to mod him to improve his posability might be to just swap the Y-joints and Hordika necks in his shoulders. Even unmodded, I definitely disagree with a lot of people who seem to think the new Lewa's build is some grave error or that its flaws outweigh its benefits. Just like with the neck on last year's Lewa, I don't mind slightly limited articulation in the service of a unique look or better armor coverage. After all, it's not like all real-world armor allows a complete range of movement either, and all the points of articulation are still there—some of them just can't move quite as freely as they would with a more generic build.

I don't think it'd just be that it's too close to Nexo Knights, but also that it'd be too close to Nexo Knights too soon. Nexo Knights is a big bang theme, which means Lego will be pouring a lot of money into media in this first year, and will be expecting that investment to pay off. Later in the theme's lifespan, when it's proven its own sales potential, Lego might be willing to consider other, more similar licensed themes (somewhat like how Lego began the Ninja Turtles theme after Ninjago had found its footing), but this first year is crucial to them and they're probably going to want Nexo Knights to be the only real Castle theme for at least that long.

Because of the level of articulation in the "arms" with the propellors, it's not that hard at all. All you have to do is angle them slightly forward to get their center of gravity closer to the fig's own.

My thought about solid purple would be that it wouldn't be any [/i]worse than the other weapons that way, and that Onua still has solid purple on his torso print. I'd rather have transparent colors for it and all the other Toa weapons as well, but if Lego just didn't want to cast the drill in Trans. Purple for whatever reason (they've never molded that part in a transparent color, for starters, and the fact that an axle has to run all the way through it might look sort of odd), then solid purple would've probably been the next best thing. Instead we get silver, which is neither a new color for the part nor nearly as visually interesting as the weapons of the other Toa.

Currently I'm trying to stick with concepts I can actually realize with regular parts. So I want to stick with Ava's normal fig parts. With that in mind, the main way to do a robe-based design is to use a cape, and that in turn would severely limit my options for back accessories. My current idea is a back-mounted giant staff that can angle forward and spin like a drill. I'd love to maybe work in a cloak of some sort, but am not sure how best to go about that. I'm also thinking of giving her a hood as alternate equipment—a wizard or witch hat would be better, but I'd rather have something that can convincingly look like she wears it over her hair.

It's probably not the exact one from the game, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it took inspiration from it.

I'm fairly sure the "Dragon Queen" is in fact the Love Dragon, since that's the one character we know to be captured and Regana is pretty clearly an antagonist.

It's not really totally related to the sets, but since we've learned that we will not in fact be receiving an Ultimate Ava, I've been trying to come up with a design for one. There are a couple of issues to deal with for that, though. The first is that no armor or neck brackets will really fit with her hairpiece in the sets. The easiest way to get around this is to swap her hairpiece with another hair or headgear. I'm currently leaning toward the bob cut (used by Nya in Ninjago and appearing in Dark Brown in several sets including the Fairground Mixer). It has similar bangs to her hair in the show and other sets, and while it's shorter in both the front and back, her hair in the show is already shorter in the front and an armor piece like Ultimate Robin uses would obscure the back anyway, allowing you to imagine that she's just tucked it away. The harder challenge is coming up with what the actual content of the set would be. All of the Ultimate sets feature over-the-top armaments evocative of their weapons of choice, but Ava doesn't actually seem to HAVE a weapon of choice. So I have to sort of feel out what her trajectory in the story is and where it will lead her. The bios on the website seem to suggest that she'll have conflicts with Merlok over whether magic or technology is superior, and that character dynamic combined with her name (Ava Prentice) suggests to me that she might end up studying under Merlok directly. That leads me to the concept of a "technomage", potentially with some sort of hi-tech staff. But even that presents problems of its own. Most of the other Ultimate knights have weaponry that is functional in some respect. What do you do with a staff that doesn't feel repetitive? Most of the good launcher designs have already been taken by other sets. Also, if she does end up pursuing a different course of study, does she wear armor like the others? Originally (before I settled on the technomage concept), I had taken armor for granted, since as a freshman, she could wear the same silver armor as Ultimate Robin. But notably, unlike Robin or the other knights, she doesn't have an animal emblem. It's possible that she'll get one at some point, but for now, the cutout in the armor piece would look strange over her default torso. I could give her a neck bracket like Ultimate Beast Master, but that's more limiting than the great connection points on the armor and on top of that it would no longer hide the back of her hair so nicely. I haven't really come up with any finalized ideas but I figured I'd share. At the very least, I'm glad this new theme is inspiring my own MOCs and concepts.

The shape is fine; I think my brother was referring more to the COLOR—or lack thereof. The silver drill winds up being so much less vibrant and colorful than the other Toa weapons. Maybe if the drill could've been Trans. Bright Bluish Violet (or even Medium Lilac, like the shells on last year's Onua) it would've looked better.

Do you have set names like you did for themes like City and Friends? Or do you know how many summer sets Elves will even get?

It was in Ninjago for last year's ghosts, but it's new in that color.

Just so you know, the pyramid pieces are silver (Silver Metallic), not gunmetal (Titanium Metallic).

The Nexo Knights site has updated! I haven't checked everything yet, but the character pages are great and even includes characters we haven't yet seen "in the brick" like Whiparella, Flama, Burnzie, and General Magmar (including set-styled images of all of them). Burnzie Flama Whiparella General Magmar

A "big red monster" could just as easily refer to Burnsie, who is closer to the same size as Sparkks (the lava monster pulling Jestro's evil mobile) and has appeared in the TV series and animated shorts. Which isn't to say that that's the monster they were referring to, but we still might get one, the other, or both.

Huh. That's actually a much better theory than the many theories I've seen that the MoUP is one half or the other of the Mask of Time (which would imply not only that the mask was originally incomplete but that completing it was forbidden). Still, I don't know how likely it is—the fact that the Protectors even know what the Mask of Time is would seemingly imply that it was forged while Ekimu was still there to guide them. Also, the Temple of Time, which seems designed to house the mask, is allegedly the oldest place on Okoto—if the Mask of Time's creation was so recent, that wouldn't seem to make sense (unless one half of the MoUP went BACK in time when it was shattered).

I had worried that that would be the case... it's kind of ironic that these allegedly more "Technic-based" figures would be harder to combine, while the 2015 Toa were surprisingly well-suited for it. On the other hand, at least you have more friction joints to work with this time (one of the biggest challenges I faced last year when MOCing a Wairuha was how few friction joints the component sets offered for supporting a larger build or appropriately-sized weapons).

People's discussion about wanting a more "crater-like" volcano castle got me thinking... I wonder if it'll use the new "corner BURP" element used in the Lego City Crook's Hideout and Prison Island? I haven't yet seen many good pictures of that from the front and back, but expecting a huge amount of landscaping without any BURPs is probably unrealistic, and from the looks of it that new one could be good for shaping a volcanic crater.

I'm not going to rule out Ultimate Robin until we know for sure that that solid silver armor won't be appearing in any other sets. I'm definitely going to try to keep myself from buying too many of the sets in general until I have a better idea what Summer has in store...

Favorite game: Lego City Undercover. It's amazing what TT Games can come up with when they're not bound by a movie license. This game was amazing—good graphics, great characters and worldbuilding, and gameplay that is better than any other Lego game I've played. Least favorite game: Lego Rock Raiders. Perhaps it had more to do with the computer I was using than with the game itself, but the game itself was basically unplayable for me back in the day due to all the awful glitches and crashes. Of modern games, my least favorite would be The Lego Movie Videogame for 3DS—I actually returned the game after I booted it up only to find that the game looked more like the Nintendo DS or Game Boy Advance titles than anything from a modern system, and seemingly featured no original dialogue or cutscenes.

Nexo Knights is interesting because like the first year of Ninjago, there's a sort of nature/mysticism vs. technology theme, but UNlike that, the "good guys" represent technology/progress while the villains represent a darker, more arcane sort of magic. Most of the Lava Monsters would fit in fine with a more traditional fantasy aesthetic, including the larger brick-built ones like Sparkks or Infernox. Those sorts of villain-focused sets may not represent traditional castles but they'd probably be great for augmenting your collection. Besides that, there aren't a lot of SETS that would fit in perfectly, but partswise, there's still plenty to choose from. The new 1x1 pyramid slope appears in Warm Gold and Silver Metallic in several of the sets, and the new pentagonal 2x3 shield tile appears undecorated in several sets in colors such as Bright Blue, Black, and Silver Metallic. And keep in mind that even parts that aren't traditional "castle" parts can find use in Castle MOCs—tread links like in the Fortrex can add great detail to a circular stone tower, for example. "NPU" (nice parts usage) isn't just for Space builders, and using atypical parts in new ways is a great way to make your models stand out.

Actually, I think that might work... swapping out the horns for vine pieces and such could give them a unique enough look. That all assuming that we even GET a plant wave, of course. I still think it's entirely possible that those other monsters are just meant for worldbuilding and don't foreshadow future sets.

This is one of the sets I cherished in my childhood. Looking back, the dragon knights weren't the best faction—their armor was quite gaudy—but Majisto remains awesome, and this set managed to pack a lot of detail into a small but atypical build. In other news, this review has inspired me to see if I can remake this set as an Elves model. Gonna go ahead and get started on that now...

Man, I hadn't even thought about the possibility of a Nexo Knights chess set! The scurriers and squirebots really are perfect for pawns. I hope we'll see one before the year is up!