Lyichir

Lego tends to use 1HY (first half-year) and 2HY (second half-year). But needless to say those terms aren't quite self-evident to newcomers.

I wonder if Lego fans in the southern hemisphere ever get confused by the references to summer and winter sets... :P

It does use categories (the same ones used by Lego's customer service database and Brickset), but those categories are far from intuitive. Most CCBS shells are in "Figure, Accessories", but even I sometimes mix that up with categories like "Figure Accessories, Upper and Lower Part" (Mostly non-standard minifigure parts like the parts to Herofigs, Battle Droids, etc.), "Figure Accessories, Upper Body" (minifigure neck wear), "Figure Parts" (Mostly old Bionicle parts plus a few early CCBS parts), and even "Figures, Accessories" (only used for a few Duplo figure accessories). There is no one category for CCBS parts—things like weapons can even be split between multiple categories in some cases. In short, while there's some categorization, it's almost more confusing than having none at all.

Personally, one of the things I've really liked about the sets this year has been the use of silver as a neutral color. For the figures' hands and feet, it spreads the color of the new heads throughout their color schemes a bit more, and on some of them gives the impression of their hands and/or feet being unarmored (which is a neat look for figures like lava-surfing Tahu or jungle boy Lewa). That's not to say I would necessarily mind new foot and hand colors, though I think gold would seem a little gaudy, especially considering it isn't the main color on any of the six Toa. (EDIT: Just realized this was the main action figure topic as opposed to the Bionicle topic. I'm totally fine with other colors of hands and feet for other themes, INCLUDING gold since it's practically a necessity for a C-3PO figure). They weren't taken off due to any sort of "protest", but the truth isn't actually that far off. From what I've heard from sources including Kevin Hinkle, the community manager for the Americas, they were taken off due to confusion from mainstream fans of traditional Lego. It was easy for parents or novice Lego fans to see a neat-looking armor part and order it, only to discover that it didn't fit together with little Timmy's collection of basic bricks at all. Cue confused/angry calls and emails to customer service about why Lego would sell parts that don't attach to anything else. I'd love for CCBS parts to return to Pick-a-Brick, but to do so they'd have to address this issue in one way or another. I had hoped that when they started labeling certain parts on the physical walls with "Great for [theme XYZ]", that could be the way to do it—just label the CCBS parts with "Great for Hero Factory/Bionicle". But that wouldn't really fix the online issue, and that's where the issue would be most problematic due to not being able to physically examine the parts you're ordering to figure out what they're compatible with. The online Pick-a-brick would need to be updated to provide more information about each part, and unfortunately it's probably just easier to continue providing only basic bricks that have obvious compatibility with traditional Lego.

Well, I for one DO hold ill will toward Nekchir after that fiasco. I was even willing to give him the benefit of the doubt after he gave a quasi-explanation for the "Aanchir's cousin" megablocks. I have to wonder, was that a lie, too? Or was he actually trying to ape my brother's positive reputation just to troll? Either way, I know one user I'm literally never going to trust again. At this point I feel either Eurobricks needs to tighten its leak policy to disallow discussion of leaks at ALL (as Lego consistently recommends and Eurobricks constantly ignores) or, failing that, create some sort of rule to prevent this sort of trolling. There's absolutely no reason for a moderated discussion forum to allow one user to define the discussion on multiple topics for more than a week based solely on lies and misdirection.

It really doesn't, and the part I linked doesn't even need a connection like that, since there's enough friction for the mask to hold steady without flopping down (and if that weren't enough, the perpendicular connection itself can hold the mask's position as if it were the head's "jaw"). The best explanation I've come up for the parts they used with is that they wanted to make it easier for Skull Grinder to remove the mask from its stand using only his weapon. But even then, you'd have to hold the base of the stand so that it didn't just lift up the whole construction, and at that point a sturdier connection would hardly make a difference.

I agree that white printing on red parts can be terrible! In fact, sometimes I can't see the difference between the two colors at all! (In all seriousness, it can be a problem. Not a huge problem, but enough that it might be worth it for Lego to consider applying a second coat of white on the necessary parts)

Probably more expensive, and would look more obviously like a disembodied head. The real question is why they didn't use this piece, considering it works much, much better and was already included in the set to boot. The "new green" was introduced back in 1993, a full eight years before the Bionicle theme even debuted. Green Lantern may have been the first Constraction set to use it, but it's far from a brand-new color. I also doubt that Lewa would've used Bright Yellowish Green (lime) regardless of his primary color, considering that for the most part the new Toa only feature three main colors in their color schemes—a primary color, a transparent secondary color, and a metallic color. If anything, the question is why Lewa didn't use Tr. Bright Green like the Protector of Jungle, but I figure the Flame Yellowish Orange was considered more visually appealing due to how vibrant it looked compared to Tr. Bright Green. It's also possible that they considered using Warm Gold on Lewa, but switched it to Flame Yellowish Orange to limit gold accents to the $20 Toa.

It's illegal either way, but the difference—a big difference—is that descriptions alone are far harder for employers to trace to their specific source, and for that matter are much less likely to go viral and get Lego's attention in the first place. Yes. The constitutional right to not have your speech restricted by the government (and ONLY by the government). It has nothing whatsoever to do with online communities like Eurobricks, which are free to set their own rules about what speech is or isn't allowed.

Freedom of speech means one and only one thing: that the government can't limit what you can say. It doesn't mean that an employer can't fire you for breach of contract. It doesn't mean that online communities can't set limits on what can or can't be discussed. And it doesn't mean that people won't be held to certain expectations of whether or not their speech is appropriate. That said: while describing leaks may technically constitute breach of contract for leakers, and go against Lego's expressed wishes for online communities they partner with (despite Eurobricks' continued allowance of said discussion), I wouldn't necessarily say that it's "as bad" as leaking the pictures themselves. Most of what's been discussed in this topic would not be of great use to Lego's competitors, since it mostly amounts to "what kinds of creatures are the Creature sets" or "what colors do the Toa use" or "what kinds of weapons do they have". There's very little there in the way of concrete information that a clone brand could take advantage of to give their own product lines a leg up on the competition—and even the most concrete information we have (pricing) is not substantially different from this year's products, to the point where it could have easily been inferred through guesswork alone.

Hey Nekchir: considering I can't contact you through PM or any other means, I just wanted to say sorry for casting doubt on you earlier. When I saw the "Aanchir's cousin" thing in your sig, I thought you might be trying to fake some sort of connection to us in some sort of attempt to improve your credibility before sharing these leaks. I didn't realize that it was just a joke about rumors on 4chan. With that, combined with a reminder that the retailer's catalogs are available in the wild (and the fact that they've beefed up security to prevent leaks this year), I have little reason left to doubt what you have to say. The new sets sound quite promising, and while I'm not going to badger you for pics that could potentially endanger your career, your descriptions make me that much more excited for when legitimate pics finally surface!

Okay, I am super-duper skeptical of these descriptions. They SOUND plausible. In fact, they sound extremely promising. But I have no idea who Nekchir is, and the fact that he claims to be our cousin weirds me out and makes it hard for me to trust him about any of this other stuff. And if retailer catalogs were already making the rounds, you would normally expect leaks from a variety of sources, like we've gotten in previous years. Instead... we seemingly only have accounts from one member. I haven't seen similar leaks anywhere else on the web. Nekchir, if you could give us anything to go on that'd help convince me? Because I'd really like to believe you, but I'm getting a lot of red flags that make it hard for me to do so...

Yes, but the source doesn't change the fact that it's just one member's opinion–even if they are a news reporter for a major fansite, that doesn't mean their opinion aligned with the entire userbase, let alone the entire fandom. It's no more universal or relevant than Huw's obnoxious editorializing on Brickset. Now, granted, you could use that to argue that BZP has changed since back in those days, and you'd be totally correct. As the site's userbase (including staff) has matured, the news in turn has started being presented more professionally. But even then, it's not a question of "dumbness" but rather of a more journalistically responsible separation of news and opinion.

Not 100% sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's printed (that's a road sign piece that has been printed many times before, and sticker sheets are not that much more economical unless there are other unprintable parts that need stickers already).

Sure they can! I wasn't suggesting they stop doing new modulars altogether. But an updated version of the Café Corner might be a nice thing to do as a one-off thing for the 10-year anniversary, to celebrate how far the series has come. After that they could obviously go back to doing new buildings (maybe returning to update the Market Street once the series hits the big two-oh).

Never felt soft and weak to me—I love grabbing my Toa with him. And the comment about his feet getting out of alignment strikes me as funny, because, while that is a valid concern, one of the most common complaints I saw was that his legs were mostly unposable, and adding additional joints would only have compounded that problem.

How, specifically, did the function of Lord of Skull Spiders not work as advertised? I saw plenty of people who were disappointed by his function, to be sure—but that largely came from the false assumption that his mask was for grabbing and removing masks like the 2001 Rahi. The only promotional or marketing material that I've seen which even comes close to that assumption is the back of the box, which shows him gripping the included mask with his forelegs (probably due to wanting to demonstrate the set's function with its contents)—and even then, that's something the set can do perfectly well so long as you're not actively trying to lift or move the mask, but rather just pose the figure with it.

Intellectual Property, I would assume—meaning that it will be explicitly based on a real, branded automobile instead of some generic supercar. Personally, the set I'm most excited about is the Bucket Wheel Excavator, simply because that's a subject the Lego Technic theme has never before depicted to my knowledge (and one that should look damn impressive if done right). Speaking of which, has there ever been a Lego Technic police car before? I can't recall any, but I'm not an expert on older Technic sets or B-models.

They're all printed. Not that much of a surprise, considering that apart from the new torsos and heads, every decorated part we've seen is a part that has been printed in the past. The only stickered parts in this year's Bionicle sets were parts that had never been printed before.

Yes. VERY YES. I mean, that's not to say I'd be opposed to some of the creatures having more traditional CCBS-based builds (in fact, I expect that ALL of them will use standard CCBS connections to a greater extent than that mock-up, regardless of whether they have functions, since the mock-up is way more complex and Technic-based than I'd typically expect of a small, introductory-priced constraction set). But Lord of Skull Spiders was a fantastic set, and to get a whole assortment of function-based creature sets like him would be a dream come true. Flapping wings! Swinging tails! Large, Snapping jaws! And yes, probably at least one monkey or similar creature with a more traditional gear function. There's plenty of opportunity, and while I'd probably enjoy less functional, more posable CCBS creatures plenty, I'd go nuts for a bunch of creatures with unique and distinctive functions.

I don't think that one comment should be considered indicative of all Bionicle fans in that era. There have always been (and will always be) fans who are smart and fans who are... not so smart. Lord knows that the sentiment that "Bionicle was better back in the good ol' days!" hasn't just gone away over time. In fact, there are probably fans now who would consider 2007 to BE the good ol' days, back when we had leg shells that attached with good old fashioned Technic pins instead of this newfangled CCBS, and we didn't have to worry about the arms swinging around crazily with gimmicky gear functions.

Definitely. I always fall back on this incredible MOC as an example. It was designed by Christopher Raundahl, one of the lead designers of the CCBS and a longtime Bionicle designer as well (he was the designer of the ORIGINAL Tahu and Kopaka). My brother reverse engineered it on LDD a while back, and based on that model he estimates that the original would contain 225 pieces and cost $50–60 at retail. So in essence, the only thing stopping Lego from designing and releasing larger sets is skepticism that the market could support a Constraction set that size (probably well-founded, considering they have years of sales data to guide them and all we have to go on is what we would like as individual mega-fans).

They shouldn't grind up against the knob gears. They don't do so on Gali, Tahu, and Pohatu, which have gears positioned similarly relative to each other.

With 2000 pieces, including a fair number of large plates and a veritable bounty of minifigures, I would say so. There are several current sets at that price point (such as the UCS TIE Fighter and Tumbler) that offer far fewer parts and figs.

http://www.heraldica...ders/wom-kn.htm Not that female knights were the norm, by any stretch, but to say they didn't exist would be gravely inaccurate. Besides that, as CM4S stated, there's hardly anything "historic" about this theme, so there's no excuse for culturally regressive treatment of women.