Lyichir

Yup. That's actually a small part of why I got two of the sets I got (the UltraCopter and Toxikita's Toxic Meltdown). I'd like to get Invizable too, but I'm not so fond of his set, so unless I can find it on sale I might just get him secondhand. But in general, Ultra Agents wasn't a "big bang" theme like Ninjago, Chima, or The Lego Movie. So I don't know if Lego really expected to get much more than two years out of it. After all, the original Agents theme didn't last much longer than that, either.

This is a little off-topic, but does that imply that you use natural light for your photos? Because I was afraid I was one of the only ones doing reviews without a decent lighting setup. Our "photo studio" consists of a ream of newsprint that we drape over the end of my bed as a backdrop, and bright (but not too bright) sunlight from the window. Makes it a real pain to try to do reviews in inclement weather.

No, Kopaka's shield has always been two panels as far as I can remember. It was a surprise that they're stickered, though—pretty much all the product shots have them facing away from the viewer. I certainly don't mind, since Technic panels are ALWAYS stickered and the ones on Kopaka genuinely look good.

That'd definitely affect the figures' faces (and pointy ears, where that applies), but many of the characters wear full-body clothing (like Link) or have non-human skin tones (Ganondorf, Zoras, etc.). And of course, Lego is about more than just figs—the parts would probably be as useful for Castle MOCists as themes like Lord of the Rings.

Why is everyone assuming those figures represent actual figures in future sets? Just because they're a part of the story doesn't mean they'll appear physically, and previous "Big Bang" themes like Ninjago and Chima have featured plenty of characters and even species that showed up in media but never appeared in actual sets. I doubt the mushroom and plant people will feature in sets, and I definitely don't see them representing a major villain faction.

I only bought a few sets that stood out to me. The theme didn't initially appeal to me, since I was a big fan of the original 2008 Agents theme and many of the sets (like the Ultra Agents Mission HQ) felt like less-impressive versions of sets from that previous theme. It was only some of the second-year sets (like the UltraCopter and especially the Ultra Agents Ocean HQ) that really won me over, and even then, I was less interested in the story and characters than in the neat builds and useful parts. And of course, it didn't help that the theme had steep competition—when presented with the choice between Ultra Agents and themes like The Lego Movie, Ninjago, Elves, and Bionicle, there just wasn't that much room in my budget for the former.

The Sky Shark isn't my favorite of the new sets, but it reminds me positively of Aquasharks, one of my first themes. It also has a fairly unique build. All in all I'm not sure I'll get it, since all of the important characters in the theme are in the four larger sets, but it does appeal to me more than most of the other smaller sets.

Is Ninjago any different? I know that's also a Spring release, at least in the U.S. I had hoped that the release of those pics might mean that other Spring pics might show up, but if Ninjago is a January release in France then I guess my hopes were misguided...

In case anyone's interested, listings on Amazon.fr for the Ninjago sets were just added yesterday. Hoth Bricks has all the pics as well as links to all the listings. Here's a quick list of what I think might be interesting to Pirates builders: The "Djinn Blades" with elemental blades and ninja icons on 1x1 round tiles might not be that usable as swords in the Pirates theme. But the hilts with skull molding could be interesting detail pieces—perhaps they could be used for some macabre furniture for an evil pirate captain's cabin? There are new cutlass pieces with jagged blades and skull molding on the hilts, as well. Those could be more useful for pirates builders, and seem to come in White and Titanium Metallic (Pearl Dark Gray on Bricklink). There are large tattered pirate flags (probably plastic film as opposed to cloth), but no sails, unfortunately for ship builders. Another probable bummer for traditional Pirates builders—the monkey seems to be Silver Metallic rather than Dark Stone Grey (Dark Bluish Gray). It might still be usable, though—maybe it could be a rare silver monkey statue, especially if you swapped the arms and legs to silver as well. The palm tree in Tiger Widow Island is still a really neat build, even if the parts aren't new. Also, Medium Nougat (Medium Dark Flesh) minifig heads as coconuts! Earth Blue (Dark Blue) Captain's Hat in Misfortune's Keep, in addition to the Earth Green (Dark Green) bandannas and epaulets on some of the figs. Finally, plenty of old-but-useful Pirates elements like anchors, muskets, blunderbusses, and cannons, along with all sorts of basic bricks, wedges, and slopes in colors like Dark Orange, Reddish Brown, Dark Brown, Silver Metallic, and Black.

As far as I'm concerned? Ninja Bike Chase. The bikes may look okay, but they're not as impressive as past bikes in the theme, and don't even seem to have any interesting functions.

I don't know if the ones you have are the same as the ones I have, but the finalized Ninjago pics are a lot bigger—the finalized Ninjago pics from Amazon are all 1500 pixels wide, while the biggest Elves pics I've had have been 920 pixels wide at the widest. On top of that, the Elves pics we have are just the front of box pics. The Ninjago pics we got also include out-of-box pics and the back of the box pics, which could shed some light on aspects of the sets we haven't seen yet (like what the interiors of the Starlight Inn and Secret Marketplace include).

Kinda hoping that we'll get official Elves pics soon, considering we just got Ninjago pics the other day... though it might be that that was just a fluke.

These figs are great. My favorite is probably the classic Queen, but there are a number of stand-out figs! Maybe they're not trying to be mythologically accurate? It's not like the actual minifigure came like that, and it's really not anyone's business what other people do with their fig parts.

Plain green? I don't see any Bright Green or Dark Green in that picture. Are you sure you're not mistaking the Dark Stone Grey and Silver Metallic parts from the reverse side of his wings for green parts? Speaking of which, his wings almost look like they're Trans. Fluor. Green in that picture, rather than Trans. Bright Green like the other Jungle sets use. But it's probably just the photography. I guess I'll find out when the review goes up.

I think it might have more to do with the sales of the Ronin R.E.X. and Enter the Serpent than with the Temple itself... the latter in particular I've seen discounted at a fair number of places.

I mean, they're doing Sky Pirate baddies in Ninjago next year, with jetpacks, zeppelins, and flying fortresses... Then again, that's just adding pirates to one of their most successful themes, not creating an entirely new theme. But then, steampunk sky pirates are all the range even in AFOL MOCs. It never ceases to amaze me how much the AFOL community adores mixing themes when they're the ones doing it, but hates when Lego starts to do the same...

I loved seeing this at BrickFair VA and NJ this year! I was especially impressed by how you integrated Technic and even Bionicle into the build. I see a lot of that sort of ingenuity in Space MOCs, but it's a much rarer sight in castles!

Interesting! I love the bed, especially the ingenious storage space underneath. But I'm not so fond of the result on the ship's profile—it's slightly less streamlined. And I think the added Trans. Blue under the Windows doesn't work as well as more Medium Azur would.

I was more worried about if you needed more than one gear's worth of friction. Though I suppose you might be able to add a third gear on the front, depending on how much clearance the new torsos allow.

Now that we know more about the torso beam for the Uniters, you could probably start conceptualizing how to adapt some of these gearbox designs to fit the new torso. Because the new torso lacks ball joints, additional gear functions don't necessarily need to be set back the way they do on current torso beams. Here's a basic design I've come up with on LDD for adding a 2015-esque gear function to the new torso—it's not that hard at all, though adding additional friction might be slightly trickier with this design.

I personally don't mind the look of the friction extenders there, but if they're just there to lengthen the lower legs, you'll be able to do away with them soon—next year's Kopaka features 6M bones in Trans. Light Blue.

I'm sure the reason for the plethora of blacksmiths is that blacksmiths played a much more directly essential role for knights and military than other professions like, say, a cobbler, or a cooper. It's like saying "Here—we know he's not wearing armor or using a sword, but he can MAKE those things for the knights!" Unfortunately, kids just aren't that interested in the more mundane aspects of medieval life, so unless you can make that as relevant and interesting to them as the classic knights and kings and wizards and jesters, it's hard to justify a lot of emphasis on the peasantry. Which isn't to say that Lego hasn't done admirably at that with rare sets like the Mill Village Raid. But scarcity works in their favor. On another note—yesterday I finally finished the game The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D after having it for a while. Out of curiosity, how would the Castle fans react to a Legend of Zelda theme if it somehow took shape after so many failed Lego Ideas projects? Would it scratch that medieval fantasy itch? Or would its "videogaminess", pointy-eared heroes, and tendency to feature ruins and dungeons over actual castles be a turn-off? Personally, I think it would be pretty cool.

This is incredible! You've definitely done a fantastic job expanding upon the set without sacrificing the bright, cartoony colors that make the Friends theme so appealing.

Are there complaints about that? I've seen jibes, but not much in the way of actual complaining. I think it's pretty much accepted that for the waist rotation function you need to have that gear, and if you're willing to sacrifice that, then it's as simple as removing the gear entirely—the gear driving the function isn't the source of the part's friction or anything like that. I think the more prominent advantage this new torso beam will have is the lack of a neck joint—like the lack of arm joints on the Uniter torso beam, it allows you to vary the proportions by instead using standard Technic parts like the Hordika or Glatorian necks (or a more specialized part like these sets use).

I figure it has more to do with not wanting the set to include both "A" and "B" beams in the same color. Those two parts are very easily mistakeable, especially to someone new to CCBS, so if all of his bones had been Trans. Bright Bluish Violet I think there would be a lot of issues with builders accidentally using the wrong bones on the wrong limbs (or parts of his limbs). Note that this is similar reasoning to why both "A" and "B" bones alternate between Dark Stone Grey and Black in most modern sets—it ensures that two different types of bone in the same size will be easily distinguishable.