Lyichir

Meh... this doesn't impress me that much after the epic Castle Giant Chess Set released back in 2008.

That's a new ammo belt piece introduced this year in Hero Factory. It also appears in the Ninjago set 9449 Ultra Sonic Raider.

I'm sorry? I know absolutely nothing about different types of molding machines and how they compare to one-another. If you could update the first post with some background information, I'm sure it would help a lot of clueless members like myself!

The objective wasn't clear back then because they are, to some extent, making up the guidelines as they go along. Remember that Cuusoo is still in a beta stage, and they haven't yet worked out the kinks. The way I see it, each project that fails to pass review sets a precedent and allows LEGO to continue to tweak the guidelines until they have a system that is easy to use and understand, and results in actual sets a majority of the time.

Color me impressed! I'm still only 2/3 of the way through Level 2, but Levels 3 and 4 are looking excellent!

All of those sorts of tracks do that. They work much better on carpet or other "soft" surfaces.

Emphasis on "sells a lot". I'm sure the main reason LotR seems to be the only Castle-ish theme this year is because LEGO wanted to be sure of LotR's sales potential, and didn't want self competition to spoil its big launch. Space themes all but ended when Star Wars rolled around, but after half a decade of just Star Wars, space themes were back in force. Now that Star Wars has proven that licensed themes can coexist with similar non-licensed themes, I'm sure it won't take LEGO nearly as long to bring back non-licensed Castle themes. Also Ogre, if you have evidence for what you seem to be hinting I'll be very excited!

The axle and pin connector, yes. It appeared in the set "Witch Doctor". But the dark brown treads are still new. EDIT: Beaten!

What do you mean? There are no Fire sets for the upcoming summer wave at all. What Fire sets there were this year came out around the same time as the Forest Police sets. Unless you mean the Advent Calendar. But in that case, I think it's more an issue of "it was Police themed last year, let's mix things up." Personally, if they're going to give us new Police and Fire sets yearly, I hope they continue to mix things up with things like the Forest theme of many of this year's sets.

New color? From what I can tell it's still just dark bluish grey. Still an awesome set, though.

Bolded for emphasis. Perhaps some geisha engaged in acts of prostitution. Well, so do some college students. And some businesswomen. If the Kimono Girl is meant to be a geisha (and I do believe she is), that in no way suggests that there is anything about the fig that goes against LEGO's guidelines. I reckon the reason LEGO used the term Kimono Girl was probably to avoid controversy like the debate going on here: Geisha are misunderstood in the west, and the western understanding of the term is often very different than its actual traditional meanings. I'm surprised by what a fuss people here are making over LEGO's purported "double-standard". On the other LEGO fansite I participate regularly on, BZPower, fans are much more understanding of the reasoning behind LEGO's decisions. It may be because members there skew closer to the target age range LEGO describes. As such, they're often more in touch with both modern kids and modern parents (Yes, I know that many AFOLs here are parents, but having a parent who shares your LEGO interest is the exception rather than the norm). Personally, I can understand LEGO's justification for both projects which have failed review, and think it's no stretch to take their explanations at face value. And I'm glad they've put these guidelines out for the sake of future Cuusoo proposals. This is one of the many steps which will help to bring Cuusoo out of its beta stages and make it into a fully-developed service.

They're actually Technic motorcycle wheels, I believe. Specifically these ones.

I also voted "somewhat". There's a lot of licenses I like, but don't buy; but every now and again I buy a licensed set because I love the source material (and of course if I like the set). Actually, it often works the opposite way for me: when a licensed theme comes out and I'm not already a huge fan of the property you can be sure I'll at least look into it. For instance, I was first exposed to Avatar: The Last Airbender through ads for the sets. I never got any of those sets, but I DID watch a few episodes of the show, and I've been a fan ever since.

I dunno about that. IIRC the ring piece is molded to include some of the inscription specific to the One Ring. I can't imagine that used as a wedding ring!

I was wondering if I could start a topic for discussion of a review that isn't posted here. I reviewed a set on The Ninjago Wiki, and as a staff member there I have a vested interest in having the review exclusive to that site, to draw traffic. Nonetheless I'd like to get feedback and answer questions, and I can't think of a better place to do that than here on Eurobricks. I vaguely remember one member posting a link to a review they hosted on their own personal website, but I can't recall whether that was in its own topic or in a topic about the set he was reviewing. I couldn't find any answers to this question in the guidelines, so I posted it here. Sorry if it's in the wrong place.

If you think Ninjago was supposed to make sense, you haven't been paying attention. As a huge Ninjago fan, one of the things I've loved about the theme from the start was the zany anachronism. Samurai X was my first spinner of 2012, and I was very impressed. I intend to get other spinners throughout the year, particularly those of the NRG-ninja (which are the only sets so far to include those figs).

I disagree. Recent planes still require a decent amount of creative building. The main difference between the new planes and those of the '90s is that the new ones seem more airworthy; the old ones were blocky and awful. I had the plane from the Launch Command theme, and I'm happy never going back to that era.

I've hypothesized that the large number of official comments on things like the Minecraft proposal were largely due to those being some of the first to reach those milestones. Still, I was expecting them to still comment when projects reached the halfway point. Perhaps they've just been busy lately; after all, a lot of projects are getting closer to 10,000 all at once. In fact, this is the first time we've had two projects pending review at the same time.

It would actually make perfect sense for a zombie fresh out of the ground to wear lipstick, seeing as most people are fancied up before their funerals (which includes makeup as well as the formalwear the zombies in this set are depicted with). That said, I think LEGO made it purposefully ambiguous, so that people who want to see it as blood will do so, and any complaints about it can be defused by saying it's just lipstick.

We'd been doing that with our LEGO parts. But with the project of sorting our LEGO having taken the better part of a decade, parts have been reorganized so often that it became a hassle to keep relabeling the drawers, and thus the labels have become mostly meaningless by this point. It's an attractive idea to just "label" the drawers by sticking an example piece from the drawer on the front, even if that concept doesn't work nearly that well in execution.

No. I think the fandom-based models will genuinely drive sales. Maybe not everyone who voted for the Minecraft set will buy it. But many will, and on top of that Minecraft fans who didn't vote for it may end up buying it as well. On top of that, what would be the result if licenses were banned? Not only would these massively successful projects be stunted, less traffic would go to the Cuusoo site as a whole. It'd be interesting to analyze how many people joined to support the fandom of their choice, but stuck around to support projects like the Modular Western Town (which might never have gotten as many votes if only AFOLs voted for it). Another issue would arise if, as some have suggested, licenses to certain companies were banned. How do you decide which companies would license and which wouldn't, without actually going to them with an idea? The way I see it, even licensing with a competitor like Hasbro wouldn't be completely impossible given the right scenario, but if Cuusoo disallowed products based on their intellectual properties it certainly would. A bigger question exists, too: how is LEGO supposed to put the burden of checking an intellectual property's owner on project creators? Let's be honest: LEGO arbitrarily closing projects because they personally know there's no chance of licensing with the rightsholders would create a wave of distrust in the community, and stifle creativity. Even if they compiled a master list of "companies we will not work with", not every creator would check before trying to propose a project. The way I see it, Cuusoo does best with most limitations eliminated, besides those needed for legal reasons. If projects start failing because LEGO cannot negotiate with the rightsholders, the community will take notice and stop supporting those sorts of projects.

I feel that would be LEGO shooting themselves in the foot. Licenses have been one of the main things driving traffic to Cuusoo. True, most of the projects that have succeeded have done so on the basis of their licenses. But eliminating that would simply cause fewer projects to succeed whatsoever. For reference, the Modular Western Town, the most successful project to be 100% original, has only gotten 3/4 of the way to 10,000 so far. Subtract the number of users who joined to support a license but stuck around and supported that project, and I'd reckon you'd have even less. Never mind the fact that licensing doesn't necessarily mean a lack of imagination. How different are projects based on real landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and projects based on icons from the silver screen like the Back to the Future Delorean Time Machine, when it all comes down to it? Imagination is not just about concepts, but how those concepts are executed. Personally I think the licensed projects which have had the most success (like the Winchester or the BttF Delorean) are extremely creative and well-made.

I'm still not totally excited about the new box graphics for the second half of the year. The picture of Lloyd ZX lacks the iconic simplicity of the "ninja eyes" pattern used for last year and the first half of this year. Moreover, it calls to mind the unappealing, cheaper-looking redesign of the Exo-Force character art in its third and final year. The sets themselves look great with the possible exception of the Bite Cycle, which fails to do anything new with its design, and lacks the finesse of the larger snake vehicles.

I'm pretty sure the demand for the Market Street is greater in today's aftermarket than it ever was while LEGO themselves were selling it. And even then, that's a market of primarily AFOLs. In comparison, the Winchester had trouble getting enough support until a large number of non-AFOLs flocked to support the project. Shaun of the Dead fans might not spring at the model if it doesn't have the same film connection, and in fact might boycott the set out of righteous indignation that the model has been "sanitized".

To an AFOL a simple name change might seem trivial, but as we saw, a large number of the votes came from non-AFOLs who were fans of the source material. Changing the name could turn these people off from purchasing the set, which means that the 10,000 supports would be more like 5,000, if not less. LEGO couldn't risk making a move that would cut demand for the set so drastically. I wonder if some way of regulating content will be worked into the Cuusoo guidelines now. Cuusoo is still in a beta stage, after all, and this is a learning experience. But it could be hard to regulate; different countries have different rating systems, and different types of mature content could be more or less acceptable than others.