Lyichir

The show technically ended last week, and yes, Chima's show will replace it next year. There are a number of reasons why they're ending it; the stated reason has been that Lego doesn't want Ninjago to fall into "the Bionicle trap," by which they mean keeping the theme going until it stops being sustainable, and as a result having to give it a hasty conclusion instead of the epic finale fans want. But another possible reason my brother Aanchir has speculated is that perhaps they want to end the theme while it's successful so that they can later point to it as a "success story" when pitching future television series. I expect Chima will be able to follow up on Ninjago's success, since unlike with Ninjago, Lego now has more experience with TV tie-ins and other aspects of modern toy promotion.

It's not really new; it's been in some Star Wars sets this year already.

I don't think it would have looked that good "flattened" against the minifig head anyway.

There's actually slightly more to it than that. Any piece that tapers to a long point has a greater chance of breakage than a more solid piece. This of course poses a danger to kids (since the point at which it breaks could have a sharp edge, and if they get stabbed by the piece itself part of it could break off inside them!), but it also means that the piece could more easily break as part of the molding process. That's why, for instance, certain hair pieces have to be made out of a more rubbery plastic: the Exo-Force hairpieces were some of the first, but others like the "mad scientist" hair from Agents continue to be produced with this in mind.

As much as I love this proposal, I feel it has an uphill battle to actually getting produced. For one, it's primarily a theme proposal. It's not impossible for Cuusoo to result in a full theme, but it hasn't happened yet, and the staff have explained that Cuusoo is currently only equipped to produce individual SKUs. Also, while the creator has tried to assure supporters that it would not conflict with the Galaxy Squad theme, I can't help but think that this would have had a much greater chance of success if it had been produced this year, when there were no space themes for it to compete with. Of course, the slow pace of the approval process could very well mean that Galaxy Squad could be over and done with by the time this is approved, but I wouldn't bank on it considering that Galaxy Squad is looking less and less like a one-wave theme. Still, I wish it luck in the approval process. Of all the non-licensed theme proposals I've seen, this one is the most polished as well as one of the ones I feel is most consistent with Lego's aesthetic and brand identity. And if this is successful, it would open the door to all sorts of theme proposals through Cuusoo.

Just got My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic #1 last night. First actual comic book I've bought (as opposed to a trade paperback or graphic novel) since getting Axe Cop: Bad Guy Earth more than a year ago. I actually got two copies. One was one of the standard six variant covers featuring one of the "mane six" (the six main characters of the show), while the other was the subscription variant cover by Jill Thompson. The former is for Aanchir and me; the latter is probably going to be a gift for my Uncle, who is a huge comic nerd with a 10-month-old daughter, and a big fan of Jill Thompson's work on series like The Sandman.

Actually, I believe it was relocated, not demolished. I'm in a design history class this semester in college, and it's always a treat to see buildings which I recognize from the Lego Architecture line. We went over Frank Lloyd Wright a month or so ago, and this was one of the buildings we looked at. I can't wait to see what the set looks like!

That comic probably isn't 100% canon. It's just a crossover that teases the next year's sets. Besides, it's a common sci-fi scenario to stop an alien invasion by making an attack on the alien homeworld or base. Particularly with bug-like foes, an attack on the "hive" is the best way to cripple the "swarm" so that they can't replenish their numbers and keep the invasion going.

I believe you mean "nostalgia". Anyway, yeah, functions are hard to judge without seeing them in action. But particularly in the case of the Epic Dragon Battle and Fire Temple, seeing videos of them in action at Toy Fair was enough to turn them into must-have sets in my eyes.

The Legends line, from what I've heard, wasn't very successful at all. And I'm not at all surprised. The Legends rereleases didn't appeal to new fans much since they looked boring and old compared to modern sets, and they didn't appeal to older fans much because they were not very authentic (since they had to replace older parts and colors, which in the case of some sets like the regrettable King's Castle completely changed the look of the set).

From my perception, a lot of AFOLs like this theme. And many people who dislike this theme don't like Chima either. Of the ones that both dislike this and like Chima, the majority probably just prefer original themes to licensed ones. Personally, I fall into that category; while I have nothing against this theme, I have no intention to collect it, whereas I'm very tempted to collect Chima sets. Also, there's no need to post Chima hate in topics that aren't even about Chima. I assume you're broken up about Ninjago ending, but there are productive avenues to express a love of Ninjago without bashing its successor. Honestly, it's like the Bionicle vs. Hero Factory crowd all over again.

I think you're the one who misunderstood me. My point was that I think newer themes (like Agents, Power Miners, Monster Fighters and Ninjago) were just better than old themes like Adventurers and Ninja, especially in terms of play features. I loved sets like Flying Ninja Fortress, Night Lord's Castle, and The Temple of Anubis (and believe me, I had all three). But their features (many of which were used in all three sets, like the rotating wall and trapdoor) just don't match up to amazing features like the splitting apart of the Fire Temple, the flapping wings and swinging tail of the Ultra Dragon, the plethora of hidden weapons in the Turbocar Chase, the crystal conveyor of the Underground Mining Station, and other unique and original set features in the modern era. And these modern features don't rely on overly-specialized parts like the rotating wall piece, but instead use unique building methods to achieve even better results. And if anything promotes creative play, it's seeing fantastic functions like these come together from ordinary parts.

Oh my gosh, I am in love with the insectoids' scorpion guns. NPU 2 da max.

I'd argue that the lack of builds on the back of the box in no way prevents kids from coming up with their own designs (and in fact, they can be more creative with those designs without fearing that they're cribbing from the designs on the back of the box). I feel that story-driven themes like Ninjago are excellent for creative play. In particular, invented worlds like the one in Ninjago divorce kids of the notion that what they build has to resemble something real or make sense in the real world, so that they can truly open their minds to more fantastic ideas. I can't believe you're arguing that action features have gotten worse over time. Agents was one of my favorite themes in recent years due in large part to its creative functions like alarmed gates, concealed weapons, etc. In themes like Adventurers, Ninja, and others from that era, you often saw the same features (trapdoor, spinning wall, etc.) repeated endlessly, often using the same specialized parts to do so! As for the Monster Fighters Castle, I was extremely tempted to get the set due to the magnificent looking functions, which called to mind Fright Knights as well as video games like Castlevania. And I don't even know what point you were trying to make regarding Star Wars. Kids have been playing with spaceships since before real spaceships existed.

The Ice-Sat V was my first Lego Space set. I kinda regret not getting any of the larger Ice Planet sets, but at that age I might have had trouble building them anyway.

I think they meant it as a stand-up comedy joke. You know, like the ones every episode of Seinfeld opens with (or closes with? Haven't watched it in months).

Themes like Mindstorms and to a lesser extent, Architecture, are still highly "educative." I think the Technic theme could be argued to have lost some of its focus on education, but that happened a log time ago (around the turn of the millenium at the latest). Meanwhile, Master Builder Academy does a better job of educating kids in advanced building techniques than any previous theme (which is less applicable to the real world, but still valuable to the fan community).

My best guess is that Lego took extra care not to leak the next series' parts, but didn't follow through to make sure parts from series after that weren't uploaded.

I felt the fights in Ninjago were one of the weaker parts of the show. The Spinjitzu helped cover for the fact that even when animated with a wider range of motion, minifigures are hard to make look convincing at any sort of martial art. But as the series went on they used their Spinjitzu less and less. I reckon Chima can do better, since swordfights are a lot easier to depict with minifigures than hand-to-hand combat.

I disagree that it would be better off text-only. Even if the pictures only give a vague idea of what the finalized set would look like, that's still a huge advantage. A strong presentation can help draw support from people who might otherwise be unable to visualize the concept presented. And from past proposals, the winning design hasn't been completely discarded, but rather just reworked. If the BttF DeLorean passes, the picture has given Lego's designers a clearer idea of what fans want, in terms of presentation, scale, etc. Conversely, an imageless proposal would give them no idea of what each individual supporter wanted out of the project, and they'd be left with only a vague concept.

Ninjago has almost nothing in common with the Ninja theme from the '90s. It's not a historic theme at all, but almost more of a love letter to the "ninja fever" that gripped american cartoons and movies in the '80s and '90s, drawing similarities to Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers. And while Friends may have a similar concept to Belville, in execution it's completely different. By your logic, every space theme has just been a retread of classic space; likewise for castle themes and classic castle. Why should Lego limit themselves to untouched ideas, when they can take old ones and either improve upon them or create a different take on the same basic concept? With Star Wars, my point was that the sets are an excellent gauge of Lego's improvement. Look at the original X-Wing set. Blocky, inaccurate, and no challenge at all to build. Compare that to the newest one, which uses SNOT and Technic parts to better depict the ship. Yes, one can argue that fleshies are less like the classic Lego aesthetic. Personally, I feel fleshies for licensed themes were a foregone conclusion from the moment they had to create a Lando fig, and had to reevaluate the idea that yellow-skinned figs could accurately depict characters of any race. As for your complaints about retreads, you're looking at things as a long-term collector, in asking how many sets of any one ship are needed. But kids who are new to the theme need just one: the newest one; and they get a much better set that way than if they had to buy the comparatively crappy original set off eBay. Also, when I mentioned new parts, I specifically pointed out new structural elements. Lego hardly introduces any <insert that tiresome argument> prefab parts today compared to 10 to 15 years ago. New parts in the past year included this, this, this, this, this, this, this... the list goes on and on. These parts don't replace standard parts, they augment them, allowing builders to do things they couldn't do before. That's improvement.

Nope. Star Wars. And not new. The new ones typically have element IDs starting with 602 or 603.

But one of the main goals of Lego Cuusoo is to turn non-consumers into consumers. While it's always possible that someone will vote for a proposal more because they support the idea of it existing than because they personally want it, there are also plenty of people who are in the midst of a Dark Age who might be drawn out of it by a proposal that embodies exactly what they want out of Lego. In fact, I'd reckon they'd be even more likely to buy such a set if they had the personal investment in it that a Cuusoo support represents.

"Lego isn't as good as it used to be" is an opinion, nothing more. Personally, I feel Lego's better than it ever was before. In terms of original themes, Lego continues to amaze with unique themes like Ninjago and Friends. In terms of licensed themes, one only needs to compare the Star Wars sets of today with their equivalents in the late nineties to see how much the sets have improved in both complexity and accuracy. In constraction themes, the Hero Factory building system has revolutionized action figure building. There are more useful colors of parts now than there have ever been, and next to no useless colors, unlike in the early noughts. The same can be said for parts, with the majority of new parts being versatile functional elements like new slopes, brackets, etc. I lived through the worst period of Lego, that being the late nineties and early noughts when juniorization ran rampant and almost nothing was standardized. At the beginning of this period, I didn't care, but as time went by I grew tired of the formerly "cool" parts from themes like Rock Raiders proving to be useless in the long run. I pretty much stopped collecting System sets and shifted to collecting Bionicle almost exclusively. But in the mid noughts, themes like Exo-Force drew me back in, and since then Lego has continuously gotten better and better, with the introduction of things like the modular buildings, the collectable minifigures, and more. To suggest that Lego is getting worse and worse is to ignore how much it has improved since those dark times at the turn of the millennium.

You must be talking about a different Exo-Force than I collected; I remember the theme for its complex and colorful set designs and its complex story which eschewed the traditional black and white morality of Lego themes. I love the look of these sets. My favorite is definitely the Vermin Vaporizer. Between this theme, Hero Factory, Ninjago and Chima, I don't know how I'll be able to keep to any sort of budget come next year!