Lyichir

Well, they did buy "ameribricks.us" and redirect it to the site. Any future plans for that URL? Seems an awful waste to just have it redirect back to Eurobricks. Maybe you could make it an alternate homepage, with all the content and links the same but having the Ameribricks banner? I don't know if that's feasible, I'm no web developer.

Well, I for one thought it was funny. Hypothetically, there was something there for everyone. Europeans (and other non-Americans) could laugh at us silly Americans, while we Americans could laugh at their silly stereotypes of us. Unfortunately, too many non-Americans took offense at the very idea of the site's name changing, and too many Americans took the hyper-patriotic pseudo-American rhetoric as an insult. I think the moral of the story is that colorful plastic bricks for kids, and their associated global fandom, are serious business. So, if the banner remains even though the cat's out of the bag, does that mean this'll be our themed month for the rest of April? I'd love to see what people could cook up for an America-themed contest or soforth.

That's awesome! Unlike a lot of older two-tone bricks, which usually occured when a mold was switched over to a new color, it almost looks like what happened here was that the mixing of the dye with the plastic was uneven, resulting in part of the brick getting substantially more dye. I can't honestly say I've seen that before (especially with a transparent part, which makes it especially noticeable).

I don't have a problem with that. Their stuff, while not usually all that innovative, is pretty consistently fun. Chima fans will enjoy this the same way Batman fans enjoy Lego Batman, Star Wars fans enjoy Lego Star Wars, et cetera, et cetera. Plus, those environments look gorgeous. So colorful! Reminds me somewhat of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in that respect.

I don't know whether the problem is with part 43093 or part 93571, but I found a bug involving these two parts. Namely, that the cross axle section of 43093 does not fit completely into either end of the side connections of 93571. This means that, with two of these inserted as far as they will go into 93571, the length of the construction is slightly more than four modules; a huge problem when trying to integrate with system. For comparison, 43093 fits snugly into either end of 59443 without issue.

Please stop with the random bolding and underlining of phrases; it's hard to read and feels like you're yelling. And "Season 1", (or rather, the rest of season 1), if it is indeed to debut this summer as the American commercials have stated, will in all likelihood continue to have the crocodiles as the main villains. There are a number of reasons for this. For one, the crocodiles continue to have an antagonistic role in the sets. The show exists to sell the sets. Thus, if any major shifts are to occur in the allegiances of the main tribes, I wouldn't think it would occur until near the end of this year's story or the beginning of next year's, so that there's as little dissonance as possible between the sets and the story. Secondly, no outside threat has arisen that could convincingly replace the crocodiles as the main antagonists. So far, the villainous tribes consist of the Crocs, the Wolves, the Ravens, and MAYBE the Beavers. If the crocs (who have so far been shown as the most capable military force on their side) were to defect, you'd be left with only the Wolves and Ravens as threatening antagonists, and the Ravens, who have been established as only at war for the profit, would be soon to defect to the winning side. On their own against five tribes, the Wolves would have no chance. Congratulations, Chima is over! All that money that Lego poured into making Chima a successful and long-lasting theme? Wasted! But hey, at least the Crocodile tribe could be redeemed with minimal effort and their epic struggle to do the right thing could be reduced to an apology and a change of heart. Do you see what's wrong with this? Eliminating the main antagonists of the show this early would totally ruin the story. You hate that the Crocs are presented as an evil faction. I get that. But that's how it is, and if they all turn good over the course of an episode or two, before the war the theme presents has even climaxed, it will totally ruin their character development. Cragger would turn from a tortured character, torn between his frustration with the Lion tribe and his former friendship with Laval, into an uninteresting good guy who got over all his issues before the show had a chance to give him a convincing motivation to do so. And in the absence of any serious conflict, the show would become superfluous. Perhaps you could make a new threat appear out of nowhere, with no foreshadowing and no set-up. But that's not good storytelling. Finally, complaining about the airing schedule for the episodes is pointless. Yeah, it's a shame that we have to wait to get the show in English-speaking countries. But whining about it being unfair isn't going to make the episodes come any faster.

Love the people continuing to insist that it should be "Earthbricks" or the like to truly be more inclusive. That would make a lot of sense...

There's no absurdity there. There would be if the plastic were ending up in landfills; but what kind of monster would throw away Lego?

I also have to raise issues with some of your criteria, since most of it seems rather arbitrary. For instance, take the Vampire and Monster, which you have classified as Romanian and German, respectively. Is this technically accurate to the characters they represent? Yes. But that's not the be-all and end-all of the fig's inspiration. You could just as easily classify them as English (since they both come from English literature), or American (since the depictions are largely based on the ones from the golden age of Hollywood). Yes, there are some where the national origin is unambiguous, like the American Football Player or the Egyptian Pharaoh. But trying to assign a nationality to all of them is arbitrary and not very useful. The Gorilla Suit Guy could be from ANYWHERE, since it's clearly a guy in a costume and not a real gorilla. The surgeon is not necessarily from India, since he's a modern surgeon and not an ancient one (although many people of Indian descent do go into medicine). Santa Claus is a worldwide icon, and even though his earliest depictions lived in Finland, the modern depiction, which the minifig resembles, lives at the North Pole! And since so many of the figs have no clear nationality (especially "City" themed ones like the skaters, mechanics, and so forth) and you have forced one on them anyway, any statistics which could be gleaned from this are meaningless.

All these party poopers need to relax. If it is a joke, (it is) I don't think it's getting old. On the contrary, I think it gets better and better as the days wear on. Everyone expects a joke on April Fools. Then the joke becomes that it wasn't a joke, and people begin to get worried. And maybe, just maybe, when all is said and done, the joke becomes that it was in fact a joke all along, and everyone gets to smile and laugh. The only thing that's getting old is the people who can't play along, who will look very silly when this is all over. So, does Ameribricks have any very American contests, sweepstakes, or other events planned?

Hmm, if Mark Stafford told you otherwise that's more reliable. Part of what I was saying was assumption based on how Lego treated past story themes like Bionicle, as well as how most other companies handle merchandise-driven TV shows. It's typically very much a two way street, but the toy company (if not the designers themselves) has a lot of input. For instance, I have little doubt that it was someone at Lego who decided "Okay, last year the Ninja were fighting skeletons. This year they'll be fighting snakes, because we've looked at market research and kids really like snakes". Then I imagine that idea would go to the show writers, who would come up with storylines, then that would go back to the set designers, who make sets based on some of the writers' ideas. Essentially, the core concept would probably fall to Lego. And if that's the case, Lego would likely be the one to decide if the crocs could become good guys--since that's highly dependent on whether toy-buying fans of the series could see the crocs as good guys, and whether they could come up with a reasonably threatening "bad guy" to replace them in the conflict. The only exception I can imagine would be if the toyline were going to end anyway; in that case, I figure the show writers would have more freedom to end the show as they saw fit, since that year's sets would probably already be out and what would be left would be to advertise them while wrapping up loose ends. I feel like I'm just starting to ramble, and certainly a lot of this is based on assumptions. If Mark Stafford has indeed said that Lego (and not just their set designers) are not very involved in the story, then all that's out the window. But from my experience observing other shows similar to Chima or Ninjago, I can't picture Lego handing off the entire story process to the TV writers, especially since the show exists to support the sets and not vice-versa.

If the beavers are evil, they're probably the least intimidating "bad guys" yet.

In all seriousness, I wouldn't mind a Eurobricks event in America. If the stats about the userbase are true, it'd be a great service to the community to have two events. But of course I don't know the stats about Eurobricks event attendance; if the American delegation to those is significant enough, then of course such a change could make the European events too small to be sustainable (which I wouldn't wish on them, even as a red-blooded American).

I saw the episode on Saturday, and really liked it! Hadn't ever seen a full episode before, just partial episodes (some of which were awful). I guess it's about time I actually started following this series. Pity my cable here at college doesn't carry BBC America.

What a beautiful set! I hope they continue to do this in subsequent years!

And to find an heir to the factory without going into the outside world. But yeah, I don't mind Mr. Gold. I'll be interested in seeing what sort of gold minifigs will show up in future series, if this is indeed the start of a trend; perhaps we'll see a Mrs. Gold at some point?

I don't know how necessary the piston in the leg is... the Hero Factory system is fairly sturdy, especially if you use multiple joints and friction joints the way you seem to be doing. I suppose you could keep it for aesthetic reasons, but I think it would be better if you armored over that section. The head looks pretty awesome, although the lack of eyes (and neon green shells elsewhere) distract from its elegant shaping.

Any part is good for MOCing if you use them creatively enough. The Chima swords don't have any connection points besides the handle and the space for the lightsaber blade. And the Lion sword has a lion face on the crossguard. You can still use them creatively (one raven vehicle uses the Croc sword as a mix of blasters and talons), but they're don't have any hidden versatility that I know of. What I DO think are useful for MOCing are the new large tooth/claw pieces (used for the beak of Razcal's Glider, among other things). You can always try out parts like these on LDD to see if you can find a use for them before you get them.

Actually, Lego does write the core of the story (with the TV writers only determining what goes into individual episodes). As the producers of story themes, Lego decides what the main events of each year of story will be, as well as basic character traits of the minifigures they design, as well as designing all the "props" that are needed for the sets. And I have no doubt that storylines from their TV shows have to be cleared by Lego before they air. Not that sending them this laundry list of grievances would be likely to do any good. Good Cragger Fan, I'm going to put this as lightly as possible: you're better off letting them tell the story they want to tell. The show hasn't even started in full yet, and you're already calling for the main antagonists to be neutralized, which would be a storytelling disaster. If Cragger and the Crocodile Tribe are going to turn good, it'll take time for it to be pulled off in a convincing way, and your complaining isn't going to make it happen any faster. If, in a worst case scenario, the story doesn't unfold how you like, write your own story! Pretty much every fandom has space for fanfiction, and it's incredibly easy to come up with your own stories with a creative toy like Lego!

Unrelated to the loss of clutch power, but I learned that if you want to have less trouble getting parts unstacked, offsetting larger plates by one stud is a useful method. Not as space-efficient, but typically worth it!

The reason Europeans call sidewalks pavements... is because they still live in tiny villages, with unpaved roads! And thatched-roof cottages! And... castles? Happy April Fools Day!

To be fair, the "dimple" eyes are more well suited to less expressive creatures like sharks than to say, horses, and the shark having those sorts of eyes makes them more similar to the standard fish mold introduced a few years back. If nothing else, the new shark on LDD is fantastic simply because it can connect firmly to a baseplate or similar large studded area without having to raise it with a 1x2 plate.

Having watched all three episodes for the first time, I have mixed feelings about the series. Pros: The animation is top-notch. The battles seem much more dynamic than those in Ninjago, with many factions engaged in several scuffles (compared to most of Ninjago, which typically featured waves of enemies advancing on relatively few "heroic" characters. The voices are typically really good. Every time Laval speaks my heart melts; he's so kawaii. The core story is compelling, and I'm eager to learn more about the dense mythology of Chima. The characters are really fun; even characters who mostly serve as comic relief like Gorzan, Razar, and Plomar. Cons: The writing is generally awful, and this tempers my enthusiasm for all other aspects of the series. The dialogue feels like it's talking down to the audience, with characters frequently stating the obvious or reiterating plot points which have already been explained thoroughly. Even the most amazing voices can't redeem poor dialogue, and it also affects my enjoyment of the story. The pacing varies wildly, and I feel it was a mistake for the show to try to pack the entire backstory into the first episode (compare Avatar: The Last Airbender, which only delved into the main character's backstory in depth halfway through the first season). Overall, the show was decent enough for me to want to keep following it. But it's definitely got some serious flaws. It remains to be seen if this will be remembered as a rocky start to a series which got better over time, or a sign of how the rest of the series would unfold.

The bear from Lego City is already a good deal bigger than minifigs, and I think the hair could be done with printing (if anything).

I agree. I loved Avatar: The Last Airbender, and while it foreshadowed Zuko joining the main cast as a hero since pretty much the beginning of the series, it had him have to work and struggle with himself to get there. Many fans were expecting him to turn good when given the choice at the end of Season Two. But the writers brutally subverted fan expectations instead by having him aid his sister instead. That kind of thing is great. It fueled his internal struggle for most of the rest of the series. One thing I love about Chima is the potential for that sort of factional change. Each faction has its own separate motivations, which means the line of battle could change direction as the series progresses. Perhaps if Cragger turns good the rest of the crocs would follow him and ally with the Lions; perhaps they would have become too entrenched in the war by that point and would remain opposed to the Lions. Perhaps if Crominus returns he'll call for an end to the war, or perhaps he'll see the spoils of war as an opportunity that simply hadn't been available to his people during peacetime. Meanwhile, you have tribes like the Ravens whose allegiance is volatile due to being beholden only to the highest bidder, as well as tribes which have not yet picked a side. Personally, I don't expect the croc tribe as a whole to ally with the Lions any time soon; that would shift the balance of power to predominantly favor the side of good and thus could bring the series to a premature end. However, there's the chance that singular members of the crocodile tribe could defect to the side of the Lions, and as new tribes are introduced it opens up the potential for the currently engaged tribes to shift their allegiances. I regrettably haven't had the opportunity to watch any of the show yet, but I plan to rectify that this week. Hopefully that will inspire me with ideas for MOCs and such, since I've recently had a dearth of inspiration.