Lyichir

What I love about the stud shooters in the Defenders is that even if launchers like that work their way into more sets in the future, they're not bulky. They're everything the Cordak Blasters should have been, and I hope any subsequent launchers are just as compact and versatile.

I... I think Skylar's a girl ninja. Words cannot express my glee. The new sets all look fantastic!

Are you serious? The Toa were battling darkness for the MAJORITY of the previous theme, in one form or another, and started on the tropical island of "Mata Nui" (What a weird name!). What conclusions could you possibly have jumped to that suggest that the new story is any worse than Bionicle's original story?

The boundaries on 11302 are way out of whack. It's hard to describe, so see this image. As you can see, not even a Technic axle will occupy the module directly beside middle of the part, despite an obvious gap between 11302 and the axle. This seriously limits the usefulness of 11302 on LDD, since the flat edge it one of its primary features.

Personally, I like Onua's proportions. The wide shoulders of the old Bionicle were a problem because for many years, they were the standard, and only a few characters diverged from that. In these sets, only the dwarf-like and muscular Onua has such ridiculous proportions, and they help to make his physique stand out from the rest. All in all, I love the diverse proportions these sets offer much more than I would have expected to before seeing all the sets together.

Yup, it is. Odd that Bricklink doesn't include a picture of the underside, seeing as that's really a bigger difference than the gills. Here's a comparison pic my brother made, from when the new shark first appeared on LDD (before it even appeared in sets). As you can see, it's a lot easier to attach!

From what I can tell, LOSS's legs are all attached together and geared so that pulling a lever on his back makes them grasp whatever he's above. Here's what I came up with on LDD, based on the pictures. I think he uses two of the "gearboxes" from the Toa sets.

I think you're more the exception than the norm, actually, given the massively positive reviews the movie got. Those reviewers, at the very least, are not five-year-olds. Personally, I loved the whole thing. Unlike Clutch Powers, which was fairly mediocre except for the Lego subject matter, The Lego Movie quickly became my favorite movie of all time. I can't wait to get these new sets!

You and me both! The only set I can see them working in is a set of the Western racecar—it could come with two of the horses in pursuit so that they could have one with a red light and one with a blue one. Maybe next summer, if we're lucky...

I don't see a problem with the idea that digital MOCs should be clearly labeled as such. I'm a HUGE fan of digital creations, and since much of my collection is inaccessible, most of my own building is done digitally. Digital MOCs are no less creative than physical MOCs, but there are different constraints, and so it's a good idea to know what you're looking at. For instance, digital MOCing allows for builds too colossal to be constructed in real life, which means that obviously the creator is not limited by their physical resources, but at the same time it means that the amount of time and work put into the design may be vastly greater than what would even be feasible for a physical model. The UCS Helicarrier on Lego Ideas is absolutely a work of art—but in real life it would likely be the size and weight of a full-size coffin, something supporters should be aware of before considering its viability as a purchasable set. Also, digital MOCs are not always able to be built with real parts, since they allow for customized parts or prints as well as parts in colors that aren't available. That's not a bad thing, necessarily—it allows a builder to simulate the kind of detail Lego can afford to put into official sets using new, decorated, or recolored parts, which is not physically feasible for most fans outside of the most skilled customizers. But it DOES mean that a person who looks at the MOC and wants to borrow a part of its design should be aware that doing so with official, physical bricks may well be an impossibility. When I build digital MOCs for Lego Ideas, I often build them with the knowledge that a limited number of recolors and custom prints might be not just viable, but necessary for accurately depicting licensed characters and settings, and that Lego would have the capability of introducing those parts if my project were to succeed. But if I wanted to build these models in real life, I'd need to use expert customization techniques to achieve the same result, or make do with existing parts and prints. Finally, not all digital MOCs are created equal. Building digitally frees the builder from real-world constraints like part durability or gravity, and as such even a digital model which uses only existing parts may be fragile if built in real life, or might not be able to stay together at all. Most good digital builders take that into account in their designs, imposing constraints on their models that the software itself does not. But not all builders comprehend or care about applying real-world limits to their digital creations, and as such knowing which MOCs use stable and reliable connections and which may supported solely by skyhooks and prayers is important for those viewing any model, and knowing whether it's digitally or physically constructed is a big part of that.

The number of spiders on Lewa's boxart can't POSSIBLY hint at him being mind-controlled by a skull spider at some point in the story, right? There's no way that Lewa, of all characters, could allow such a thing to happen. What are the chances?

Seven flowers wouldn't make much sense. At that point, they might as well just include two of the four-flower sprues.

Technically the cop-bike IS the Copper Chopper—they were "released" from the unnamed twin-rotor helicopter, but many assumed Bad Cop was referring to the helicopter itself. The Double Decker Couch set has loads of great new figs and prints (Finally, a smiling President Business!). I wonder if Emmet's car is any different from the Toys 'R' Us variety? It might at least feature a printed or stickered tile or slope for the car radio. I'll definitely be getting this one, since even though it'll net me another Emmet's car, I'll get a Double Decker Couch (my little brother got the Sea Cow, so I'm couchless) and all those spectacular figs. Batman and Super Angry Kitty is a decent enough set for its size. I'll get it since I lack a Lego Movie-style Batman fig, didn't get any of the sets with Micro-Managers, and no amount of Unikitties is too many. Bad Cop's car is a decent set, too. Finally, Wyldstyle gets new face prints, and the new Good Cop is the first one since the previous Bad Cop set. I might as well get this and complete the trio, whether or not I get this year's Bad Cop's Pursuit in the near future. The one main character who's absent from all three sets is Metalbeard. I keep putting off purchasing Metalbeard's Duel, and since my little brother has the Sea Cow (as I mentioned before), that set is my only chance to pick up Metalbeard. Need to buckle down and buy it before the year is through.

Not the first time. Most notably, the most recent Star Wars Podracer set featured loads of Transparent Technic beams to link the pods and engines together. I seem to recall a LOT of complaints about another red and black villain when we first saw the color display pic. Now that Lord of Skull Spiders seems to use Trans. Orange instead, everyone wants it to be Trans. Red. Funny how people's opinions on a set change depending on whether they're considering the look of a set as a whole versus its component parts.

I had kind of suspected this once I realized that there would be no point to gearing both arms separately if one of them didn't even hold a weapon. It doesn't even have a large fist like the Ultrabuild Hulk—just a regular HF hand. If you mean the parts that were mistaken for "hair", they seem to just be IFB "tails", attached from behind. Otherwise I'm not positive he has any shoulderpads at all.

Do the retailer catalogs normally have that kind of information? Because from what I recall in past years, they usually have little more than small, blurry preliminary set pics (and since we've seen large, clear preliminary set pics I can't imagine catalog photos being all that enlightening at this stage).

Even as a Bionicle fan I recognize the merits of a well-sorted collection—I keep most of my Bionicle parts separate from my ordinary parts so that when I'm trying to find regular Lego I don't have to dig through my huge collection of Bionicle parts, and vice-versa. However I doubt that was the point you were trying to make. So to address your larger point... it doesn't matter that you don't like Bionicle. This news isn't about you, in that case, and not all Lego news needs to be. This announcement (and the subsequent teasers) have been a great gift to the Bionicle fan community, which has gone a long time without news of this magnitude. So I don't see why fans of other themes can't let us just have our day in the sun.

Well, in terms of part design, the CCBS still has more in common with Technic than with anything else. The connections are the same, the parts are molded out of polycarbonate rather than ABS, and the parts have to be designed for rough action play rather than just being built and taken apart or bearing vertical weight. So since the design principles and testing have to be more similar to Technic than standard Lego. And if that's the same they probably get Technic designers to design those parts. And if the designers are the same, is it any surprise that their documentation shares the Technic branding?

I still wouldn't be so sure. Notice that the distance from the nubs to the ball cup seems to be greater than the distance from the nubs to the top of the head. In other words, there could still be a one-module distance from the side holes to the top (like the Brain Attack heads), and the ball cup has simply been lowered by half a module (which would probably make the new masks work even better with the Brain Attack heads, since the chin wouldn't poke down below that of the masks). I do expect that it probably won't fit the Glatorian heads—it seems to fit quite snugly to the new head, and the Glatorian head poked half a module farther forward than the Brain Attack heads, so unless the proportions of the new head are more like the former than the latter, then there's no way both would work. As always, I could be completely off-base, but from this peek at the new heads I like what I see. I see a lot of neat molded detail, but a much more human-shaped head than the trapezoidal Mata head or nearly-rectangular Metru head. And this picture at least seems to confirm that the diameter of the side-nubs is about one module, strengthening the case for the masks attaching to regular Technic cross-axle holes.

Agreed. Single-piece gearboxes like Bionicle used to use can be problematic—they make it easy to "trap" pieces between the sides. Luckily, the new sets seem to use new gearboxes made up of multiple parts, so that the gears are mounted on several parts. I still can't tell exactly how it works, but from what I can see it'll likely be a great deal more useful than a one-piece gearbox attachment could've been.

It's not. If it were, at least a set list would have leaked by now... and it hasn't, even when all the other themes have. Since there's basically no chance of Lego bringing it back AFTER Bionicle's gotten going, Hero Factory's pretty much a closed book by now. Cardboard IS biodegradeable. Expose it to the elements enough and it'll completely dissolve.

Not from the looks of it. Not by a long shot.

Yup. But that's not the meaning Lego intended it to have by a long shot. The actual meaning is "Great Face"—as in, the face the island was vaguely shaped like (its features represent facial features, like Mount "Ihu", Ihu meaning nose), as well as the face of the Great Spirit Robot concealed underneath.

Was gonna post this earlier, but then Eurobricks DIED. But now it's back, and I don't know if it's still on topic, but I'm posting it anyway! Everyone keeps arguing about the connection for the new masks, and I STILL think that the nubs can snap on to 2M Technic cross-axle holes like those on Y-joints. Such a connection would have some serious advantages. It could work on some older heads (Brain Attack, I'm sure would work—Glatorian head sticks out further in the front, so no telling). It could be held in figures' hands (snapping around the Glatorian or Hero Factory hands the same way as a head). It could attach to all sorts of incredibly common parts, unlike the Knight's Kingdom faceplates or even the Beast jaws, all while not having to be jammed in a figure's mouth to attach it. And, as many HAVE speculated, it could conceivably be loose enough to knock off, which would go hand-in-hand with the gear functions of the new sets. At this point if the masks don't attach like I think they do I'll be quite disappointed, since I can't think of any other way that they could possibly be as versatile.

From my experience, Toys 'R' Us has greatly reformed their pricing structure in the past year, at least in the United States.. Sets in most themes seem to be priced at MSRP, and for any that aren't, Toys 'R' Us has instituted a price-matching policy where they'll match any price (even a discounted price) from a competitor if you bring proof of the price change like a newspaper insert or flyer. Sales tax in the U.S. are applied after the base price. Some states (like New Jersey) have a higher sales tax, and some (like New Hampshire) have none at all. Some local governments also institute additional sales taxes, but from my experience as a U.S. resident that's not the norm. EDIT: Ninja'd by my twin brother!