Lyichir

It's in many of the Fun Packs as well. So far I only know of it coming in Black and Light Bluish Grey, but then again you don't typically need that many colors for axles. I do think that it's much more useful for Lego Dimensions (which includes small models that have to be rebuilt into multiple vehicles), though. As far as larger City/Town vehicles are concerned, I can only think of a few applications where this would be a better fit than existing axle pieces—perhaps it would help for building cars with odd-numbered widths? Join the crowd, buddy. This year I've been majorly invested in both Elves and the revived Bionicle, but of course LDD hasn't updated with the new parts from either theme (or any other parts from this year, for that matter).

If you're looking for alternate sources for historical parts, don't forget about Elves, either! It was a good source of rare and unique parts this year and will probably continue to be one next year.

The answer is almost certainly that modding (which is far easier on PC than on any other platform) could easily bypass the entire need for the figures, rendering one of the game's primary revenue streams null and void. You could argue (as many do) that locking digital content behind physical goods is a bad business practice, but if it weren't for the figure packs eating some of the production costs (especially as far as future updates are concerned), I'm pretty sure that the game itself would have to be made that much more expensive.

Maybe... but we've gone through this whole song and dance before, with Star Wars (and with Disney breathing down Lego's neck to prevent The Force Awakens products from leaking, that made for a far more compelling case). Just because new parts will be released several months in the future (as is literally always the case) isn't a compelling reason to assume that that's a valid excuse for an update to be delayed, particularly since those parts could just as easily be reserved for a later update instead of delaying an update that's already more than half a year overdue. I'm sure Lego has their reasons for the delay—perhaps the next update is a more substantial update, and they're building in new features or compatibility with other software such as Lego Worlds. But it's time to stop assuming that every new part seen in future sets is a harbinger of the long-awaited parts update, because if the update only consisted of new parts there would be no reason why they couldn't add the plethora of new parts released this year on their own.

I'm fine with stickers in Technic sets, though as the OP notes, some are better than others. I certainly wouldn't want the sets to go entirely without stickers, that's for sure—they're pretty much essential for complex sets like the Unimog, if only to label what functions are controlled by each switch. And while sets like the 24-Hours Race Car look fine without stickers, the stickers really help the car to look more like a real race car would by adding things like numbering and sponsorships. The biggest problem I have with stickers in Technic sets is the choice of whether or not to apply them to rare or uniquely-colored parts. But in that case, printing would be even worse—at least stickers give me a choice. Do they really give you grief over the stickers? Growing up, I kind of always thought of the stickers on sets to be an adult thing—I'd give the sets I'd build to my dad to sticker just so that they could be applied as expertly as possible. Plenty of professional-grade model kits feature stickers or decals, so I don't see why they would make Lego seem any more childish than it would otherwise.

I can't see them stopping supporting either. All they would have to do is continue to patch in new content as it's released, which I don't think would be that much more difficult for the PS3 than for modern systems. And they have a three-year plan for Lego Dimensions—I can't really picture them releasing the game across both systems if they didn't intend to continue supporting both for the projected lifespan of the game.

It would probably not be considered an illegal build. Keep in mind that, unlike many other pieces, the "leaves" on the bush piece are designed to be slightly flexible. So despite being rigid and causing a collision in LDD, in real life there wouldn't be undue stress on any of the parts in question.

I think the KK2 comparison is apt—really, as far as I'm concerned one of the most promising aspects of this theme is that it seems to be a lot like what KK2 could've been. Mike Rayhawk has shared a lot of concept work for KK2 on his website, and it seems like at least initially, the theme was intended to have more of a science-fantasy flair like this theme. There were transforming castles, and the technological-looking armor from the action figures and art actually seemed to represent a more high-tech sort of "power armor". Ultimately, I get the impression that these promising aspects of the theme ended up slightly "neutered", in a way—instead of going full science fantasy, the theme tried to have it both ways. The Lego Magazines tried to educate kids about historical castle facts and terms using the sets, despite the decidedly NON-historical nature of the theme, and the promising concepts of elaborate transforming castles were instead reduced to a fairly disappointing castle on a BURP with sections that rotated to change their color. I think the "jellybean knights" might be remembered more fondly today if the theme had embraced its the zaniness inherent in its concept, like Ninjago would later do, instead of rejecting those aspects and trying in vain to pass as a more ordinary historical fantasy theme.

That's what I figured based on the picture. I like the solution they came up with. It's a lot nicer than the Technic angle connectors from this year's Pirates sets. The only flaw I could see is that the "trunk" is much less textured, but I think the use of the bush piece near the top more than makes up for that. That's why I used the term "quantum leap"—as in, it's a massive leap forward without there having been any significant developments in the intervening years. A lot of the time, design developments in Lego have a tendency to be evolutionary—just look at the incremental updates to things like Star Wars ships or Lego City vehicles. As far as I'm concerned, this tree design is revolutionary—it eschews past design techniques in favor of a design that draws more from actual flora than from the sorts of fake palm trees you mentioned.

This sounds vaguely similar to a problem I've been experiencing at least since the last update, whereby any attempt to save a file on my Mac results in the program crashing and a tiny, corrupted, unreadable file being the only thing that saves. Whether or not it's the same problem, I don't have an actual fix... but you might get some use out of the workaround I've been utilizing. Does the same thing happen when you try to save an existing LXF file that you have modified? If not (and it saves without issue), you can probably avoid the problem by duplicating and renaming an existing file, and starting the model over from scratch. It's a clumsy solution, and requires you to plan ahead if you want to start a new project, but it's the best I've come up with to allow myself to continue creating new models in LDD for the past year.

I was wondering, could someone who has seen the pics share about what sort of colors we might be able to expect from next year's sets? I haven't seen much mention of that in this topic, but as a Bionicle builder primarily, one of the aspects of Technic sets that interests me most is new part colors (especially for panels and the like). Are there any colors that stand out as new or different from the norm, like the Bright Green from this year's 24 Hours Race Car? Or is it mostly more of the reds and yellows and blues we're used to? Myself, I wouldn't mind more purple—as far as I can recall we haven't had a purple Technic set since Cyber Slam/Competition, and I'd love to see some Technic panels in the newer Dark Purple/Medium Lilac! This year's Bionicle sets also featured the debut of Dark Azur in that theme, and while it's never appeared in Technic, I can picture a car or truck in that color looking fantastic. And the small part of me that keeps crying out to make Bionicle playsets and scenery would sure appreciate Technic panels in Dark Bluish Gray/Dark Stone Grey—while it may not be the most exciting color, it's a perfect fit for Bionicle scenery that simultaneously evokes ancient ruins and futuristic technology. I doubt it would work that well as the primary color for a Technic vehicle, but it'd be nice to have an alternate choice for tipper beds and the like that typically use Light Bluish Gray/Medium Stone Grey panels.

Pretty sure they meant "ridiculously" as an intensifier (as in, "really, really detailed") rather than as a criticism (as in, "absurdly or unrealistically detailed"). It's a very good tree, but it's a quantum leap ahead of what we typically expect from Lego as far as palm trees are concerned (especially since the discontinuation of the last dedicated "palm trunk" piece).

The reason for the "butt gears" is almost assuredly to free up space for the Creatures to combine with them, but I don't see why that would be reason to believe that the function is still an arm-swinging function. Looking at Kopaka's build, the shoulders seem to attach to Y-joints inside the body—if there were an arm rotation function, the axle would have to be significantly below the shoulder, under the underarm, and I can't see that working well. Tahu's a similar case—there's no space for an axle and gearing between his shoulders. In general, the amount of gearing that would be necessary to transfer rotation all the way from the hips to the shoulders would be ridiculous, and I just don't see any way that it could be done and still have it resemble the pictures we've seen, even with new parts. I think waist rotation is much more likely.

I'm sure there are some of the old Classic Castle designers still at Lego. But then again, it wouldn't surprise me if some of them worked on these very sets. Just because a designer worked on one type of set 30 years ago doesn't mean that they're limited to that sort of subject matter, or that they're unwilling to innovate and push the boundaries of what can be done with those classic themes. Just as an example, Niels Milan Pedersen (one of the longest-serving designers I'm aware of) designed the original Lego horse which first appeared in sets in 1984 (as well as other classic animal designs like the crocodile and octopus), and since then has gone on to design for themes such as Fantasy Castle, Atlantis, Space Police III, and even Galidor. It wouldn't surprise me if he's contributed to the lava monsters and other unique figure parts in this theme, too.

The problem with including guns in sets isn't necessarily that people who play with them will grow up to be violent. The problem is that it makes sets less appealing to people for whom that kind of realistic, modern violence hits close to home. The United States has a huge problem with gun violence. Parents who have lost family members to gun violence are not necessarily going to be keen on getting their children a Lego set depicting an actual shootout between criminals and police. Meanwhile, other countries have different scenarios—for instance, in England, Scotland, and Wales, police typically don't even carry firearms, and as such buyers there might consider Lego City Police carrying guns to be unrealistic (or at least, less relatable). Now, one might argue that a few lost sales from those customers might not be that big a deal in the long run. But consider this—how many sales do you think Lego City loses due to the lack of firearms? I can't really picture any scenario where a buyer would look at a Lego City set and think "I would buy this set if only it had guns, but since it doesn't, I'll pass." By omitting guns from Lego City, Lego avoids controversy that could lose them customers, while there's not much potential benefit to be gained by including them.

I would love for the Netflix series to continue using the current animation style, though CGI could also be acceptable if it's done well enough.

"Are you serious? Your betrayal threw the villages of Okoto into chaos. People died." "Yes, but everyone involved learned a valuable lesson!" "Except, you know, the ones who died." "I suppose. Pity, that."

This is probably the case, but I would agree that I wish they had done more with the pricepoint. Mask Maker vs. Skull Grinder had played around with the prices a bit with Ekimu being slightly larger, bulkier, and more complex than the $10 Protectors, and Kulta being around the same height as the $20 Toa but more skeletal and less bulky. I had kind of hoped for Kopaka and Melum to do something similar. As it is, I think Melum is supposed to be some sort of bear—but a bit of added bulk could have potentially made him feel more like one, instead of just seeming like a clone of Terak. And the new Kopaka almost seems to have a little too much going on for his own good, whereas with a slightly smaller, simpler build he might have potentially looked much cooler and less cluttered.

It may just be a failure to recall anything better, but I really adore the Skull Villain boxart from this year. While the overall setting (the ancient city) is the same, the specific locales are different and varied enough to really make the Toa's trek to the Mask Forge feel like a gauntlet. I had already wanted playsets before the Skull Villains were released just for the minifigures, but the amazing architecture on the summer boxes made me want them even more for the fantastic and unique architecture.

Considering one of the things supporters are required to include is what they'd be willing to pay for a set, it can certainly help if the project creator provides an estimate of what their model, specifically, would be worth. I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason why many large Ideas sets have failed is that supporters have lowballed their value. Lego may be willing to consider a large >$100 Ideas set, but if half the people who supported it stated that they're only willing to pay $50, it would be no surprise that the project would get rejected, since there'd be no way to be true to the initial proposal at a dramatically lower price point.

I assume he means Chewbacca's new bowcaster. It's essentially a new version of the classic crossbow piece that can shoot studs, so I could see how it might fit in an archery-related set.

Okay, so this was the first thing that occurred to me when you described the teacher at the school holding a "white thing"... couldn't it just be meant to represent chalk? Like, for use on a chalkboard? It's true that that piece might be a bit of an odd choice for that, but I can't think of much that would be better aside from maybe the lipstick piece.

I don't think reserving Lloyd for only the largest sets shows any dislike for him. On the contrary, I think Lego believes that he's a popular enough figure that his inclusion can help to sell some of those larger sets. This past wave alone, he appeared in four different large sets in both possessed and unpossessed varieties. As the "chosen one", he's still considered somewhat of a special character, like Sensei Wu, Garmadon, and to a lesser extent Nya and Zane, and as such it should be no surprise that he gets prioritized for larger sets over smaller ones.

To be honest, that's exactly what they I thought of when I read the names. The price of the Fun Packs, Team Packs, and Level Packs seems to be quite a sticking point for some people, so I could see the merit of $5–$10 "power-up packs" (that could potentially give characters abilities normally reserved for other characters or things like that).

The current name is a bit dated, isn't it...