Lyichir

The Chima Lion Chi Temple features an interesting part: a piece like this but with a clip like on this piece instead of a click hinge. It also features the 1x2x2/3 curved slope mentioned by the topic starter, but in dark stone gray.

That new bug crawler looks absolutely fantastic. Looks to be both the most functional and most attractive bug vehicle in the theme. The big blue tank/ship also looks good. And if you look carefully, it looks like despite the color, Billy Starbeam's piloting the tank section.

A student who has gotten all A's throughout elementary and middle school can still fail a year of high school. Perhaps "failure" is a strong word, but sales certainly dropped off as time went on, and as Lego recalculated the expenses versus revenue of the theme they found that some of its success had in fact been overstated. In any case, there's no reason why Lego would bring back a theme that had so many counts against it when they can stick with themes that were designed to learn from their predecessor's successes and failings. The flaws that played a part in Bionicle's end (particularly the burdensomely dense backstory) can't be dealt with easily without taking away what made Bionicle what it was, and if that's the case why not just call it something new and call it a day?

Some pictures have already shown up of sets from other themes. And one of them was from Joe Meno of Brickjournal, so you can bet he'll share more soon.

If they have such plans, they're not making them public. But I would expect not; everything I've seen suggests that Hero Factory has been successful, and Lego is about to release an action figure line around their Chima theme this summer. I don't expect them to bring back a third, failed action figure theme on top of the two they'll have going.

I wonder, do you reckon the gold minifigures might lower the aftermarket prices for the ordinary figs in these series? There's a slight chance that they might since sellers might buy more in bulk just to try to obtain the golden figs, but probably not given the scarcity of these golden figs.

A nice thing about the Poptropica project is that it's proposed by the creators of Poptropica, which nicely defuses any potential licensing issues. It really is one of the most polished sets I've seen on Cuusoo, and I say that as someone who knows next to nothing about Poptropica. My only worry is that this project may have a great deal of trouble getting the requisite number of supports, given how I think Poptropica's userbase trends younger than Minecraft's or Zelda's.

While I'm in no way defending that kind of behavior from Apple, keep in mind that most of Apple's lawsuits are connected to patent law, not trademark or copyright law. Because of the significant differences between even the most similar characters between the two brands, it's unlikely that any sort of legal action against Lego would be successful. I have no doubt that Chima is inspired in part by Thundercats (and similar shows and media), but really it's the same sort of semi-vague "inspiration" that Adventurers took from Indiana Jones. It hardly infringes on any copyrights.

I think it's sometimes a mix between safety, aesthetics, and stability. In the case of the newer spear, the rubber end not only makes it safer, but allows for sharper angles and a sharper point (both without posing a hazard and without being too fragile to produce efficiently). Safety does play a more important role in some parts, though. In particular, the old spear was remolded completely in the rubbery plastic in Hero Factory two years ago, which makes sense to me remembering how my little brother played with Bionicle many, many years back (specifically, crashing them haphazardly together to simulate battle). The old spear may not be that sharp, but could still cause injury if jabbed into flesh with enough force.

This Is THE BEST. Normally I don't like video reviews that much, but this was AWESOME. My only question was this: did he already have the costume, or did he design it specifically for this?

Does it split into multiple modules like most of the Galaxy Squad vehicles? I'd hope that it would.

I don't think it's a certainty that Space Marines will be rejected. Modular Western Town wasn't just similar to a planned theme, but similar to a licensed theme. The terms of the Lone Ranger license might very well stipulate that Lego not release its own Western sets during the theme's run. With Space Marines vs. Galaxy Squad, Lego can set their own terms, and they have shown willingness to release Space sets which exist outside their ongoing space themes before, when they released Star Justice and Space Skulls alongside Mars Mission.

I think the "sexism" they're rejecting it for is the implicit suggestion that the current unisex torso is not good enough. People can draw their own conclusions as to whether that's enough justification, but personally it doesn't bother me that this project was rejected; it's trying to eliminate a problem that is really hardly a problem, with a solution that flies in the face of the economy of design in the structure of the classic minifigure. The breasts on these are the most detailed part of the entire figure, and the only parts which eschew basic geometry, which has its own unfortunate implications.

I actually prefer the extended height. Those parts are typically used for long, elaborate dresses, so it's not unrealistic to think that the figs might be wearing heels under the dress! I agree that the solution for the Wedding Favor set leaves much to be desired, although I think that was less to shorten the fig than to give the dress a "train" that trailed behind the fig.

One issue with Nintendo potentially releasing Gen III games on the eShop is that so far, Virtual Console releases for the 3DS have not been capable of multiplayer, which is integral to Pokemon games. Perhaps they could release a non-VC version of the games like Four Swords Anniversary Edition. Or, hopefully, they could rework the multiplayer to work wirelessly; after all, Nintendo has modified a Virtual Console port at least once before, when they gave the Wii port of Pokemon Snap the capability of transferring photos to the Wii (to replace the printing at in-store kiosks around the time of Pokemon Snap's original release)

I completely disagree with your assessment of Bruizer. His right arm is beautiful, and possibly the best action feature we've seen in an action figure set since before gear functions disappeared from Bionicle. Yeah, it doesn't look perfect from all angles, and yeah, it's not poseable outside of its function. But those are small sacrifices to make for such a unique and functional build. You don't need much articulation in your arm when it's big and heavy enough to club people with. The use of the Savage Planet shell to cover up that function is both innovative and attractive in the unique appearance it gives him. As for your criticisms of the rest of his build, I think his simple build only accentuates his distorted, mutated appearance. Finally, you hardly touched on his unique rocky aesthetic or his gorgeous color scheme. I typically expect more from reviews than blanket condemnations.

It'll be interesting to see what characters are released as "Ultrabuilds" if the line continues. I'm sure we may be seeing bears and rhinos, of course, but I wonder if we'll see any other characters of the races we've already seen. After all, those characters could potentially reuse the head molds from this first bunch, seeing as they share the same head molds in minifigure form. The question is, would those be "new" enough to move product? Would people who had already bought an ultrabuild Cragger shell out to get Crominus or Crooler as well?

I imagine it might work better with a zoo than with a school. A zoo is typically outdoors, so a builder could easily include or not include specific segments at their own discretion. But with a school, you have the issue of the parts on their own being less useful. After all, you can't easily plunk a single classroom on a city block. It wouldn't look right on its own, since it would probably lack exterior doors or any sort of facade.

The Western figs exhibited some of the worst of racial characteristics in Lego's history, in my opinion. The eyes with whites, the prominent noses... Lego was at that point still struggling to update the identity of the minifig. Nowadays yellow-skinned figs have returned to a sort of racial ambiguity; look at the Native American or Asian figs in the Collectible Minifigures to see how far Lego has come. I have no problem with fleshies in licensed themes, but putting them into other themes opens a whole new can of worms. As it currently stands, people of different races can theoretically identify with whichever fig they choose. But if Lego assigns races to figs in non-licensed themes, it limits that capability, meaning Lego will have to establish racial diversity for its own sake in themes. People already take issue with "token girl" characters in themes such as Ninjago or Atlantis. What will Lego do to avoid having to add "token black" or "token Hispanic" characters to its themes? And if that character has any specific character traits (such as nerdiness or athleticism), will their race be enough for kids of that race who do not exhibit those traits to identify with them?

That's pretty much what Lego has said, besides not naming the Lone Ranger theme outright. Any declined project can be resubmitted provided it was not declined on the basis of something that will not change (such as brand fit or licensing issues). Hopefully, if and when this project is resubmitted, it will be modified to account for its size, since it seems most supporters were only willing to pay for the value of one or two buildings.

From what I've heard, part of the reason Lego switched from pre-dyed granulate was specifically because it had previously had to be sourced from a single company. This meant that any issue in the supply chain (for instance, an accident or problem at the Bayer plant that caused a shortage of granulate, or a decrease in quality) would impact Lego's own production. By dying the plastic themselves, Lego can buy extra dye or plastic from one of their suppliers if another fails them. Color variation is still a slight issue, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was back in the days of the first Knight Bus. And this way Lego can be more in control of whatever issues do arise, so that they can take steps to rectify them instead of having to rely on their suppliers to work out their own problems.

I think the Bionicle similarities are overstated. Alien parasites (even ones which mutate their hosts) are a staple of science fiction. Hero weapons have had elemental powers since the beginning. Hero Factory is still very much its own story. Meanwhile, I'm excited to see a storyline that might focus on other aspects of Hero-ing than just fighting bad guys, such as public safety (although to be fair that's what I was hoping for in the second wave, too, and we only ever got shades of it).

This kind of part is very useful for action figure sets like Hero Factory or the upcoming Chima line. In these, variation can be created between similar weapons by combining two or more weapon elements in a new way (the alternative is often doing like Bionicle did too often and creating unique weapon molds for an entire set of characters). So far it's been used in two sets, with more due for the summer, and in previous years this part's existence would have been beneficial as well. Cuusoo models, on the other hand, have a limited production run, and their development takes place outside Lego's normal schedule, limiting how much new parts can be used outside the single Cuusoo model. That's on top of the fact that many molds designed for Cuusoo projects (at least those who have been rejected for this reason) would have limited use outside that one set due to depicting highly character-specific accessories like fantasy hairpieces or weapons. I think they might bend their rules if the new piece a Cuusoo model featured were a basic sort of part like this which could be adapted easily to other themes, or a piece which would be in high demand as a stand-alone piece (akin to various Power Functions parts which can be purchased individually).

My point was that there were no new sets planned. Obviously the current sets will continue to be produced and sold for a little while, since they've only been out for a single wave. But lasting until next winter? Personally I doubt that. Just because they're in the very first 2013 consumer catalog doesn't mean they'll be lasting for all of the rest of this year.

This isn't really news. We knew the theme would be ending, and the catalogs have shrunk so there's not as much space for sets from the previous wave. The current Monster Fighters sets will probably remain available well into this winter, so I don't see what the fuss is about.