Lyichir

There may be other plastic varieties which could work for transparent minifigs. However, it's absurd to suggest that Lego should have to bulk order an entirely unused variety of plastic for what would remain incredibly limited use, even if they used it for all the see-through characters across their many product lines. That'd be a massive investment compared to using traditional materials, due to the way economies of scale work, and why bother when many seem to be perfectly satisfied with the well-designed figs that are currently in use? It's a matter of investment versus reward, and by sticking to the tried-and-true minifig designs of old, Lego can devote more of the budget to the actual building elements.

Conversely, I wonder if Ninjago's extension may have harmed Chima in the long run. If it had truly been ending, perhaps more fans would have jumped ship to Chima. But with one wave of Ninjago left in stores and another due this winter, Chima is far from the only option for fans of zany action themes. Not to say I've seen any conclusive evidence that Chima has been a flop, of course; I can't think of many themes that haven't had that alleged about them due to steep sales or hearsay from store employees at one point or another. I doubt we'll have a good picture of how Chima has truly done overall until much later this year, if not next year.

I think the current packages are amazing. They're reusable for storage of complete sets, can collapse for easy archival when empty, can come in a variety of sizes, and are distinctively decorated. Are they cheaper than earlier canisters? Probably. But "cheap" doesn't have to mean "bad". By using a more economical method of packaging, Lego can put more of a set's budget toward the set itself. It's no surprise the company responsible for the design of the new resealable bags won an award for them. If I had to mark a "low point" in action figure set packaging, it'd probably be the Toa Mahri. Their packaging was bulky, couldn't be resealed easily, was mostly flimsy and disposable, and couldn't stack. The only nice thing about it was the fact that the only non-disposable part of it could be integrated with technic builds. Yet I can count the number of times I've actually used that functionality on one hand.

I don't think it would be a bad idea to let Lego know what you think of the Chima show. However, it's not like there's an easy fix (short of possibly replacing the writers), whereas the sound issues with the Ninjago DVD ought to be a relatively easy fix. But this is all getting a little off topic, since there's other topics for both the Ninjago and Chima TV shows. More on topic, as nice as the recent hi-res pics we got of the summer Chima sets are, I can't wait until we get some alternate views. There's so much complexity in all of them that a single box pic and a single out-of-box pic don't really do them justice.

The set designers are more aware of the fan community, and their naming conventions, then you'd think. Space Police and Alien Conquest contained clear shoutouts to Classic Space as the fan community understands it, and one could argue that the multicolored uniforms of Galaxy Squad are descended thematically from the many colors of Classic Space figs. But of course the date of the theme's "end", as well as the number of sets considered to be a part of it, are both questionable statistics that may not prove to be accurate (or even relevant) to someone on the inside of the company. The initials idea is probably more plausible. Maybe the designer's initials and their birth date? The date of their first set? 89 sounds more like a date than anything else to me; it's too low to be a set number and seemingly too high to be some quantity (such as number of sets the designer has designed, etc.).

Okay, the high res pic of the Advent Calendar box reveals some subtle humor. The box for the Clone Trooper helmet reads "Kamino Hat Co.", whereas the Droid box reads "The Jawa Trading Co." Personally, I still can't get over the suggestion I read when we first got pics at Toy Fair: the boxart would be a great deal more morbid if little Boba was unwrapping his dad's helmet!

The first thing that springs to mind when I hear "CLS" is Classic Space. According to Brickset, the last Classic Space sets were released in 1988 (although sets may have continued to be sold up through '89), and there were 89 sets in the "theme". I don't know if either of these is the explanation; the beginning and end points of Classic Space are fuzzy and vague, with the final Classic Space sets almost indistinguishable from the succeeding Futuron sets, so I wouldn't consider Brickset's categorization foolproof.

I found a couple of boundary errors involving part 98102. Firstly, parts ought to fit directly to the left and right of the hinge; they currently don't. Secondly, at the cockpit's widest point, parts ought to fit directly to either side provided that they are six modules apart (since the cockpit is only six modules wide). However, these don't fit either. The part render is fine, but the boundaries are apparently too big, at least at these points.

I see nothing wrong with the stopwatch; after all, a stopwatch is essentially flat, so a new piece just for that would probably be overkill. The slingshot, on the other hand, is disappointing. Even if there were no actual sling attached, a "forked stick" piece could be used for all sorts of things, even as a structural element. So in general, I have no problem with objects printed on tiles, save for when a new part would be astronomically more useful. Take the printed "sock" from the Harry Potter sets, for example: how useful would a sock mold really be?

I'd disagree with that assessment. All of the summer sets are great in my opinion, but, if anything, I'd consider the Gorilla Striker to be one of the weaker ones. It has loads of functions, but doesn't conceal them all that well, with the back being a mess of knobs and triggers, and none of those functions are really original or unique. Eglor's Twin Bike, on the other hand, has a fantastic transforming function; Worriz' Combat Lair is modular to the max and has an ingenious way of launching the two small trikes on the front; and The Lion Chi Temple is just generally an amazing structure with a few clever functions and maybe one of the best water features in any set to date. The Gorilla Striker is still great, but I wouldn't consider it a standout, especially amongst the stellar wave of sets it's releasing with.

The sculpting on this is really exceptional. I especially love the part choice for the mouth! Have you considered trying to make one in the classic Aquashark colors?

Love the fig (high-quality like most Star Wars figs, and with a hilarious facial expression to boot), but I wish Lego would finally change Han's hairpiece. In recent years Lego's made more accurate hairpieces for Luke, Anakin, Obi Wan, and even Leia (and she's used a unique hairpiece from the beginning). The classic male hair just doesn't look scruffy enough for Han, and it's not an issue of budget; there are now existing hairpieces which would be a better fit for him than what he's used since the theme's inception. So unless focus groups only recognize him as Han when he has the classic hair, it baffles me why they haven't given him something better already.

Don't see how complaining about Furno is justified, since this year is the first year he's been at an XL scale or otherwise stood out from the other heroes (unless you count the Furno bike). Until now he's just been one of many ordinary heroes in the sets, even though he's essentially the main character of the series as a whole. And you could consider this year's Furno XL as him "getting his due", since two other important heroes have each appeared in an XL form once, and this year is just his turn.

That is fantastic! Never seen Duplo customs before, but these are good enough to potentially start a trend. What materials/process did you use to make these? I hope you used child-safe paints! :P

I agree that Crominus and Crunket wouldn't condone Crooler's actions; my point was simply that if Crominus and Crunket were to side with the Lions after escaping, it wouldn't be out of gratitude for the Lions dropping the Chi. There are many very good reasons for them to ally with the Lions, but Laval's accidental role in their potential rescue is not one of them.

Croc Hideout is nice. I'm a little disappointed, though, that four out of five of the figs are also in the Croc Boat. LOVE the little Lion swamp boat. It'll be interesting to see what's on the interior of the Croc fortress, since there's no rear-view pictures.

Rock Raiders was essentially a space theme, or at the very least a comparable Sci Fi theme. In fact, I believe the initial concept had them fighting against the Insectoids before Lego decided to make the theme self-contained. But even the final story took place in deep space; specifically, the Rock Raiders had gotten stranded on a faraway planet and had to mine for materials to repair their spaceship. A much more ambiguous example would be Aquazone; initially conceived as the Space theme SeaTron, by the time the sets ended up on shelves it simply took place in an ambiguously-situated ocean with surprisingly-earthlike fauna.

I considered the possibility that Crominus and Crunket could happen upon that Chi and use it to escape. In fact, if the show is to mirror the sets, then all they need now to escape would be a Speedor (which that Chi could power). But even if they did escape using it, I don't think it would be motivation for them to join the Lions on its own. Without knowing the facts, there's no way for him to know the Lions were responsible for them getting that Chi. And if they DID know all the facts, I don't think it'd make them that fond of Laval; after all, his intentions when dropping that Chi were far from wholesome. Even though the loss of the Chi may have kept it away from the Crocodile tribe, all it did was escalate tensions between the tribes, and it was a blatant disregard of the rules that had allowed the tribes to live harmoniously for so long. I'm not saying that they won't join the Lions if they escape, mind. It's just that this mostly-accidental favor would be unlikely to be the impetus for such an alliance.

There's one in the Dolphin Cruiser too. Gender diversity!

Ugh, you got my hopes up for that blog. Maybe their "mission statement" is to expose YouTube hoaxes, but looking at it the majority was hating on The Brick Show for the sake of it. Now, I'm no fan of The Brick Show. In fact, I dislike video reviews in general. But insulting them over posting a Harlem Shake video (which, last I checked, EVERYONE has done, up to and including most of the Legoland Parks)? That has nothing to do with exposing fakes. Taking potshots at a Let's Play video? Pointless and petty. If someone makes a site that REALLY focuses on debunking false Lego rumors or hoaxes, I'd definitely follow it. But there's no way I'm going back to that ridiculous hate-shrine. But yeah, we're not likely to see real 2014 Ninjago news just yet. In fact, I think the first news we're likely to see about it might be news regarding the show, which I heard might be returning before the end of this year (possibly featuring next year's sets).

I think you're being not just very opinionated, but very picky. Fantasy Castle was excellent. But Kingdoms was also neat. They were different, sure, but Lego has to reimagine their themes every so often to have something "new" to market to a new audience. Fantasy Castle was very diverse due to its high-fantasy premise, and Kingdoms did an about-face and provided fans with a very "realistic" Castle theme, with both more realistic military fortifications as well as an emphasis on pastoral life which no other castle theme has matched. Then came Lord of the Rings, which had a more grim aesthetic by virtue of its source material, and now a new Castle theme is showing up, seemingly deliberately designed to contrast with that aesthetic and appeal to the younger builders who might prefer simpler builds and brighter colors. It's not entirely unlike the cycles art goes through, with new art movements arising largely out of a rejection of the current "mainstream" art, until they themselves become mainstream and another art movement arises to challenge them. Obviously I'm not saying you ought to like every single change Lego makes to its Castle themes. But there are reasons for those changes. I remember AFOLs in the era of fantasy castle who felt that theme was "kiddified" and desired a return to a Castle theme with realistic architecture and human enemy factions instead of rickety-looking towers and undead skeletons or trolls. And you know what they did? They waited for that to cycle around again, and it did. Your solution to your problem (buying Lord of the Rings sets) seems to be the perfect solution; the Lord of the Rings theme seems to be more up your alley than the current Castle theme, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Lego is giving you options! If you like the darker, high-fantasy type of theme, Lord of the Rings is the theme for you. If you like a more innocent sort of fantasy, Lego is releasing a new Castle theme to appeal to those sensibilities. And if you really despise the "kiddie" appeal of the new theme, but don't like licensed themes for whatever reason, perhaps the next Castle theme after this one will be closer to what you're looking for.

Not trying to mini-mod, but wouldn't this would fit better in the "Special Lego Themes" subforum, like the Volkswagen, Lamborghini, and Ferrari sets? All of those are licensed, but nonetheless have more in common with the Racers or Creator themes than the movie or TV licenses that the Licensed subforum revolves around.

It'll depend very much on how it's presented. The way I see it, Mewtwo's relevance in the context of the series as a whole has plummeted since his debut, despite attempts in the latest generation to make him more interesting by giving him a signature move. If this features even slightly in the story of X and Y, it could return Mewtwo and Mew to prominence. As far as the design goes, I see nothing wrong with it. It wouldn't surprise me if it's a "Mewthree", since it shares aspects of Mewtwo's appearance with slightly more Mew-like proportions.

I still fail to see what's bad about the voice acting. From what I can tell, the actors are doing wonderfully with a sub-par script. Laval's voice is wonderful, as are LaGravis', Gorzan's, Razar's, and many others. As for the kid-like characters, what's been presented so far has in many ways been presented as a coming-of-age story. If the writers know what they're doing they'll develop the characters to be more mature as the series goes on (although given the poor form of the first few episodes, whether they know what they're doing is very much up for debate).

Having built what I could figure out of the Hive Crawler on LDD, it continues to amaze me. I love a model packed with detail AND functions, and like many sets in the Agents theme, the Hive Crawler has that in spades. It's also amazing how the alien sets in Galaxy Squad manage to use so many colors in their color schemes while still looking fantastic. Bright Yellowish Green, Dark Red, Sand Yellow, Olive Green, Warm Gold, Titanium Metallic, Trans. Red, Trans. Medium Reddish Violet, Trans. Bright Bluish Violet, Trans. Fluorescent Green and all the assorted neutral colors manage somehow to work harmoniously. And if the color scheme ends up looking the slightest bit gross; well, that's okay, they're bugs, they're supposed to look gross. I had planned to be big into Chima this year, but with the lackluster show I've lost some of that enthusiasm. I'll still probably get some of the better sets, but maybe I'll also have to make room in my budget for some Galaxy Squad!