Lyichir

Having built it on LDD, it's definitely got a very different build from the Storm Fighter. Personally I prefer the Storm Fighter and will be waiting on the Ninja Charger to get Kai, but really it's a matter of preference.

There's been a hidden disco room in a number of the other Lego games, starting with Lego Star Wars. Does the one in this game play a remix of Everything is Awesome?

I agree with this. Mattel's goal in purchasing Mega Bloks isn't to revamp the brand or put Lego out of business. They simply aim to fill a hole in their portfolio (that of plastic building blocks), one that their two biggest competitors (Hasbro and Lego themselves) have already filled. Lego's success in the past few years has been atypical for the industry in these economic times, and Mattel wants a piece of that pie. I think the biggest change we can expect for Mega Bloks in the immediate future is one of distribution. Mega Bloks already boasts a comparable level of shelf space to Lego in the Americas, and Mattel has the resources to push it into developing markets like Asia as well. And, of course, Mattel will be able to more easily make Mega Bloks lines based on their own properties, similarly to what Hasbro does with Kre-O. As for Lego? I don't see them being any more threatened by Mega Bloks than they were when it was independently owned.

Wouldn't that be "I don't apply stickers at all"?

This is a shame but it doesn't really surprise me. The end of the subscription model suggested that it was struggling, and even I began to lose interest after Level 3 (not because of the sets suffering, but because of the implicit push to get the most out of one level before "graduating" to the next). I'll miss the MBA series and the way it taught you to think like an actual Lego designer, and I hope something similar in its aims might replace it.

That is perhaps the best lava I've ever seen in Lego. Well done.

Maybe, but I think it's much more likely to be pre-blinding Vitruvius. I think pre-mutilation Metalbeard just uses the CMF pirate captain torso (in fact, I think the "beard" is the same piece as the set, just attached to the top of the "neck stud").

I don't believe the order in which the countries appear has anything to do with the contents of the set. It's not an ingredients list.

Personally, I thought those might represent the four Ninja once they become elderly Spinjitzu Masters like Sensei Wu. The Temple in the show did have tapestries depicting their past adventures... maybe it showed some of their future as well!

If the sets are sold to retailers like last year's were, they're sold as "bundles" including packs of about three different set varieties. If that's the case, some stores may only buy one "pack", so they won't have the full variety all at once.

I might give this a shot. I designed a "dream house" in an architectural drawing class in high school but my ideas were more ambitious than my design skills allowed for. Maybe in LDD I'll be able to finally create what I had envisioned!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/101931462@N02 Here they are. They've been taking some liberties but have made great progress so far!

The age range actually has a valuable purpose, though. It helps gift-givers know what sort of set is appropriate for what age of kids, and believe it or not the upper and lower bounds are important for that purpose. A 16-year-old kid isn't necessarily going to want a Duplo or Juniors set, and even a set like those in the Cars theme might be below their building level. For a non-FOL, this sort of thing isn't necessarily evident based on just looking at the box—Worriz's Combat Lair and Big Bentley Bust-Out are both $70 sets, and the latter actually has a higher piece count, but it's aimed at younger builders, with simpler building techniques and large, specialized parts. That's reflected in the age range, with the Combat Lair saying "8–14" and the Cars set saying "7–12". Obviously it stinks when a parent takes that as gospel and refuses to get a set they want if they're older than the recommended age range, but it's supposed to be just that—a recommendation—and just because Lego can't control what people do with that information shouldn't mean the information shouldn't be there for people who need it.

Are you the one who's been posting your progress and reference pics on Flickr? If so, I've loved what I've seen! I think it would indeed be hard for us mere mortals to build, but I think it could still work as a set. Lego has the prerogative to change the design both to simplify it and reinforce it, and they can potentially put rare colors of a piece back into production.

I've seen it suggested that Lego might buy out Hasbro a few times, but I don't see that as a likely occurrence for two reasons. Firstly, Lego is not THAT much bigger than Hasbro. They're bigger, for sure, but they only surpassed Hasbro last year and the two companies are still relatively comparable in scale. Lego's certainly not in a position to buy out Hasbro, at least, not at this point in time. Secondly, and more importantly, I don't think that Lego would even be interested in buying Hasbro even if they were able to do so. Lego has built its success by focusing on their roots as a building toy, and buying out a general toy company like Hasbro would represent a kind of diversification that I don't see Lego committing to. As much as I'd love to see Lego My Little Pony or Lego Transformers, buying out Hasbro would mean not just committing to creating Lego versions of those properties, but also becoming responsible for maintaining the traditional versions of those toys—in these cases, animal dolls and action figures, respectively. And that's just the products that would make the most sense as Lego products. What would become of Hasbro's other toys like Mr. Potato Head, Lite-Brite, or Lincoln Logs? Luckily, I don't see the reverse (another company buying out Lego) happening anytime soon, either. Being such a large, privately held company gives Lego a large amount of self-determination. They can't be bullied into a deal that would result in short-term gains by shareholders, and they're able to plan far into the future for how to maintain and grow their brand's strength.

There are also 2609 and 30159. But neither of those nor any of the older magnet parts are available on LDD to my knowledge. I'm mostly an LDD builder and greatly prefer it in most cases, but if you're intent on using discontinued parts like these LDraw might be a better option for your purposes, since LDD tends to favor newly-introduced parts when updating the bricks palette.

The lion cub uses the same mold as the tiger cub from earlier this year. In fact, that element's name calls it a lion, rather than a tiger, despite the tiger being released first.

I think the opposite (prices decreasing) might happen in some cases, particularly regarding individual parts. Neo Classic Space is already a fairly popular "fan theme" and a lot of the demand for parts like Trans. Yellow windscreens is driven by that and similar themes popular among spacers. If a new Classic Space-based theme came out, there would be a new source for those sorts of parts in sizeable quantities. Even though the new parts would obviously not match the classic ones (particularly Trans. Yellow windshields, which would mostly have to be modern varieties instead of the retired ones used in the original Classic Space), fans new to Classic Space building would now have more options other than buying the limited and expensive original sets.

Of course it was, considering it used mostly "weirder" and less traditional lines that wouldn't fit elsewhere in the movie. But it wasn't disparaging those themes so much as showing just how wide the variety of Lego worlds was, and it certainly wasn't using "failed" or maligned themes, as I've seen suggested repeatedly—Bionicle and Fabuland were both 10-year themes with sizeable fanbases, and Friends is one of Lego's most popular and successful current themes, even among AFOLs.

I find it odd that there's an option for "neither" and not one for "both". I apply most stickers in sets I get, and I find that there are pros to both types of sticker. For instance, clear-backed stickers can occasionally be harder to apply cleanly, but they're essential for decorating transparent parts (the alternative, a solid-backed sticker that doesn't cover the full surface of a part, may be better looking if you get it straight, but it can be incredibly difficult to do so).

I know how the mini-Visorak launch best, because the new jumpers launch best in much the same way (I have both on hand). But the new jumpers, by virtue of being larger and using a springier material for the legs, easily get three times as much air as the mini-Visorak on a good launch, and don't "misfire" nearly as easily as the Visorak.

He will, but so far there's no word of him appearing in any set under $100. So he'll probably remain desirable even once both sets that include him are available.

Templar Studios was the developer of the original Mata Nui Online Game. And yeah, I'd agree that no other theme has ever had a better vehicle for worldbuilding than that game. Even Bionicle couldn't match it in later years.

Alien Conquest was an excellent theme, but I don't think it should be brought back, either as the same theme or as a different theme, for a few more years. There are plenty of other Lego space concepts to explore, and Alien Conquest was a fairly solid theme even without a second year. So give it a few more years, until the current Alien Conquest sets are long gone from stores and enough new parts and building techniques have been introduced to justify revisiting the theme, before returning to the "alien invasion" concept. As a point of comparison, look at the Agents theme. It had a marvelously comprehensive first year, but when it continued for a second year it stumbled because the best ideas had largely been used and it was hard to escalate the stakes the second year without largely making the theme a parody of itself. But now, this year, they're returning to the "secret agent" concept with Ultra Agents, which is free to revisit the ideas of the previous Agents theme without it seeming like repeats to consumers, and with a few years' worth of new part designs and concepts.

I haven't played many of the recent Traveller's Tales games, but my favorite of the ones I have played was the original Lego Batman. I especially loved that after foiling the villain's plans in any given chapter, you could play the same scenarios from the villains' point of view from Arkham Asylum. I didn't like Lego Battles as much, but I did like that it maintained that formula (so, for instance, after beating the Mars Mission levels you could play the similar levels as the aliens). I liked a lot of the older Lego games, particularly Lego Loco and Legoland, but I don't know if they ever came close to the newer games in terms of depth of gameplay or quality. I've also enjoyed a number of online Lego games, especially the Junkbot series and the Mata Nui Online Game.