Lyichir

Not really. R.E.X. is a LOT more futuristic and polished than ANY of the pirate vehicles, which tend to be more ramshackle (with lots of wooden features). R.E.X. honestly has more in common with the Ninja vehicles (smooth, aerodynamic curves, blades, bright colors) than it has with any other villain vehicles, including the pirate vehicles.

I think they might actually be the pegasus wings from Elves, which are like the LotR eagle wings but smaller. It'll be nice to have those in a color other than gold and silver if that is the case. Anyway, these sets look pretty much exactly like what I was hoping for when the theme was announced. Great, cartoony builds with plenty of kinetic action features. I don't plan on getting any, but if the movie is good then I suppose you never know.

Really? I see a few new elements even in the cave itself... the most obvious being 93604 in Flame Yellowish Orange, for the lava pool.

This doesn't sound like something that would happen. Lego no longer uses pre-colored plastic—they use colored dye added to colorless ABS/PC, and one of the reasons they changed from using precolored granulate was specifically to avoid scenarios where a "bad batch" impacted the production schedule. Now not only do they buy the dye separately, but they buy it from multiple suppliers, so that if one has trouble with production they can buy from another supplier to offset it. And even if Lego did still use pre-colored plastic, there are plenty of other sets that use lots of red that are being released as planned, such as the Lego City fire sets, which would seemingly rule out a supply problem. I have no idea why a set like the airport fire truck might be cancelled, but I think it would have to be a much deeper problem than the model being underwhelming, as some have criticized this year's models for— it'd probably have to be a significant design flaw that would require the set to be completely reworked, such as an essential new mold turning out to not meet safety standards, or a critical structural or mechanical problem with the build. Alternatively, it could just be that not enough retailers expressed interest in the model to justify large-scale production.

Oh, I'm not saying to tell the story only through SHORT webisodes. But ideally I'd want something closer to an hour in length (~45 minutes plus commercials), whether that be in the form of a single webisode or a two- or four-part special. And it'd sure be nice to get some promotion for the debut next time, instead of just dropping it on Disney channel early in the morning with little to no advertising. There doesn't necessarily need to be three sets in the summer, since there's nothing stopping Lego from including the baby earth dragon in the same set as one of the other larger dragons. But three sets might be more likely.

Good eye! I guess that means there'll probably be a larger wind dragon in one of the summer sets as well? Probably a small earth dragon too, come to think of it. I wonder how many summer sets there will be in total? Unlike several themes, Brickset doesn't even have numbers for summer Elves sets yet, so it's unclear whether there will just be another two-set wave or if there might potentially be more sets next year than there were this year.

Ideally, I'd like a multiple episode story arc, if possible—cramming the entirety of the main 2015 story into a 30-minute TV special was part of what made this year's story feel so rushed. But that's getting more into media discussion. So back on the subject of sets, that dark castle looks really neat, but I can't help but think it's awfully small compared to this year's Sky Castle. I suppose that's to be expected (since I doubt it'll be any more expensive and probably includes the white dragon, who may be the largest dragon of the year), but it's still sort of a bummer.

Afraid to break it to you, but look at the other pictures—the shields are just printed on the playmat itself, one on each side. They can be scanned into the app, but it doesn't seem to actually include them as building elements.

Oh goodness, my wishlist for "spookier" Friends-style animals is so long. Bats! Ravens! Black Cats! Rats! I hadn't really considered spiders—mostly because even the standard Lego spider is already tremendously oversized, and Friends animals tend to be even larger. But I suppose it could work. On the other hand, I don't know how likely it is for us to see that many new animal molds other than dragons in this year's sets. I've definitely considered it—the unknown identity and status of the other Elven sisters has great potential for future stories, and the fact that Skyra appears to be estranged from all of them suggests that they all reacted to the first Emily's departure in their own (not necessarily healthy) ways. Which one do you think it would be, if that did turn out to be the case? I'm thinking the fire elf, based on the flame patterns on the castle in the distance.

Very interesting MOC! The landscaping is top-notch (calling to mind basaltic columns or similar crystalline structures). But with all the various subs in close quarters, it can't help but feel a little cluttered. I don't know what the best solution to that would be, other than to increase the size of the base (probably more difficult than it's worth) or to decrease the number of subs.

The flag doesn't look any more like Ronin than it does like Sensei Wu or the Mailman (the only similarities are the hat and eyepatch, and the eyepatch is over the wrong eye). It's possible that Ronin was once a part of this crew, but that assumes both that the flag, if it represents him, is wrong, and that the crew actually existed prior to Nadakhan's arrival (it's entirely possible that it's a newly formed crew of assorted rogues and ne'er-do-wells).

I think one of the sets stacks them and uses them for the grill of one of the cars, also.

Firstly, I think it's worth mentioning that not all figs need printing on all printable surfaces. A figure whose legs aren't detailed is often better off without leg printing. If a figure's back lacks detail, or is covered by a cape or armor by default, then back printing shouldn't be considered a necessity. Now that that's out of the way... you are correct that Lego's capability to implement things like leg printing, back printing, and dual molding is limited. Lego didn't just up and replace their previous printing machines or leg and arm molds once they had developed new techniques—that would be phenomenally expensive. Rather, they have printing machines and new leg and arm molds that supplement their original equipment—and the quantity of those new machines and molds is far more limited than the old standards. As such, while it may not cost substantially more to print the legs, arms, or backs of figures, that capability has to be prioritized according to demand. So in the case of a figure like C-3PO, it's much easier to justify the added detail for a polybag figure that is both more limited in supply than cheap Star Wars sets and is meant to help drive demand for other sets. In Boba Fett's case, it's likely that it was easier to justify the high-detail printing for an expensive UCS set than for a smaller set that will be sold through all major retailers and as such is being produced in much higher quantities. It's not just about making those more limited figures more valuable (though that probably is part of it), but also just a consequence of Lego's production lines for those detailed figs—every moment spent producing one figure is time that that machine is incapable of producing a different figure, and as such it's much more practical to use those machines for more limited runs than it would be to devote them to figs that'll appear in cheap, common sets.

Zane's symbol pretty clearly looks like a cat, like it always has. I don't see how the symbols have been "messed up"—personally, I appreciate the variety.

Hey all. In case you were interested in seeing more detailed views of the new sword elements from Ninjago, Brothers Brick has good pics of them on their Flickr. Here's the new cutlass, and here's the hilt to the "Djinn Blade".

So because you didn't get any responses within a single day, you just erased whatever content this topic had? Seems a little immature to me. The topic title sounded slightly interesting, but since I was two days late I guess I'll never get to know what this topic was about.

It doesn't seem like you spent any time in your review on the new parts specifically. I had hoped this would maybe give me a better look at the front and back of the new corner BURP, since none of the set pics show it from behind.

I hope so! He's adorably dopey and would be a great addition to another set with Jestro and the Book of Monsters. Maybe the rumored volcano lair?

There is a significant difference between the Ninjago pilot (which began as an independent TV special that told a whole year's worth of story) and this premiere (which is just the first two episodes of what will be an ongoing story). Frankly, I feel like this premiere was a LOT better than the Chima premiere, which rushed to establish the conflict without actually spending enough time on worldbuilding or making the characters compelling. Heck, I'd probably consider it better than the first two episodes of the Ninjago series proper. This premiere may not have told us everything about the characters, but by establishing wonderfully flawed heroes and villains I feel it did a good job making the audience care about them.

Good review. The Earth Blue shells also still bug me. Parts-wise, they're nice to have as a very rare color for CCBS, but I think I would've preferred white ones with stickers like he had this year, with the recolors going toward gold shoulders instead. As it is the gold parts on his legs feel slapped on, and the Earth Blue shells make his arms look very discontinuous.

I mean, Castle fans in general didn't make much of a fuss about the fleshies in Lord of the Rings. Unlike Nexo Knights (which forced Castle fans to really examine what made castle themes castle themes), the debate over fleshies is basically old news. People who like them like them, and people who don't either reject them or grudgingly accept or modify them. That said, regardless of when Nexo Knights ends, I seriously doubt it would be to make way for a licensed theme. Lego has never directly replaced a "big bang" original IP with a licensed equivalent. And Zelda specifically doesn't really have any more in common with Nexo Knights than it does with Elves, so I don't see why any theme would have to end to make way for it.

Keep in mind that this year's Hero Pack still used the prototype Mask of Creation that we had seen on the very first Bionicle 2015 leaks. These sorts of polybags seem to be cranked out well in advance, to the point where they don't necessarily get the finalized branding. I doubt Brickset would add the image unless they had a high degree of certainty that it was legit, though I have no idea what their source for this image was.

You are essentially accusing the series of ignoring questions it just hasn't gotten around to yet. No one should expect all of the series' questions to be answered within the first two episodes, and to be honest it seemed pretty clear to me that there were plenty of questions the writers was quite purposefully being coy about. Merlok obviously isn't telling the knights everything, not about the Book of Monsters, the other wizards, or even himself. The Book of Monsters is also obviously using Jestro and probably has no intention of being forthright about its ultimate motives. The other characters' motivations and backstories will probably be developed more as the series goes on as well, especially once they each start to get "focus episodes" instead of just a pilot that has to establish them as an ensemble cast. A good pilot episode shouldn't try to spell everything out to you—it should leave you wanting more, and I think these episodes did a great job of it.

Personally I'm hoping he's a small set. Partly because I don't see the point of making the wise mentor character into a main hero (I hated when the Rahaga were restored to Toa form in the G1 story, and if it happens to Ekimu he could risk overshadowing the Toa), and partly because the Creatures provide some great parts for new smaller sets, and I'd love to see Ekimu updated without dramatically changing his role in the story. I do have high hopes for Ekimu this year, regardless of his size. One specific thing I'm hoping for is the Vorox armor in gold, which would be a great color for it and would be a cool choice to replace the Chima armor from this year's set. Also, it probably wouldn't make much sense, but it'd be hilarious if Ekimu could unite with the Toa like the Creatures can.