Brickthing

Farmers has all the new Atlantis sets, as well as the Ninjago Training Arena (with the tan skeletons ). There's only a 10% sale on LEGO right now though, so I'll be waiting until later for those sets.

Bionicle has finished producing new sets, but as most of you know the story will be continued on Bioniclestory.com by Greg Farshtey until at least the end of this year. The story updates haven't been the most frequent, so this topic will also serve as an updater to let you know when new serials are posted. That way you don't need to check BionicleStory.com twice a day anymore. Sahmad's Tale, Chapter 7 is up! Note: This topic is for discussing the serials, so please read the latest serial updates before scrolling down if you don't want to be spoiled! No spoiler tags need to be used in this topic.

Seeing as both Bionicle and 2010 are over, I don't think this topic serves much purpose anymore. I'll create a new topic for story updates, such Sahmad's most recent tale.

Considering Rocka XL has a different name that is linked to the increased size, I think he/she will have a storyline purpose. I can't really see the normal Heroes defeating Witch Doctor, purely due to their size differences.

Is there a particular reason for this? All of the half-circles having normal diameters would result in too much friction, but having the outer half-circles wider limits the number of rod-pieces that are compatible with the shield.

Not that I've experienced, although I haven't subjected either piece to heavy use that might wear them out. It's worth noting that the spears are held in by multiple semi-circle rings rather than a full circle hole. This means that the spear/minifig accessory needs to be long enough to be held by more than one ring to stay attached - Viking horns/teeth or shoulder spikes can't be attached.

Is that any different to the later waves of Bionicle sets? The Hero Factory sets use a completely new system of pieces, so I don't think they'll jump away from it quickly. The 3.0 sets seem to be doing exactly what Bionicle sets did, which is change thinks slightly and make a few improvements, enough to keep each new wave of sets "fresh".

He won't officially know anything about summer 2011 sets until they've officially been released. Same as how Greg can't discuss future storyline plans.

I love "Guess the number of jellybeans in the jar" games! Mainly from one of the Creep Crusher images, my guess is 17 y-joints - 3 at each hip, 2 for each ankle, 1 for each leg piston, 2 at each shoulder and 1 for the Zamor hand. I'm really pleased to see lots of individual red balljoints in Witch Doctor, both closed and recoloured Inika versions.

Wow, this is very early to be seeing non-leaked images of the next wave of sets. I'm really surprised that these images exist and (I'm assuming) were included in the game so early. The unique helmets look very promising, and although they're inflated in the images, I think they are accurate front views of the helmets. I hope there is a separate piece inside that connects the head to the helmet as with the 2.0 heads, although I doubt there will be. Stringer stands out the most for me, because of his (panther?) helmet and his colour scheme, which was last (properly) seen with Oohnorak. @Bfahome - they most likely all use Exo-force arms, because it wouldn't make sense to make a new similar piece that has the exact same purpose.

According to Stormer's official description, it's an "ice-spike-shooting shield and ice blade that freezes everything it touches". A truly multi-purpose tool that he can us to upper-cut people with the hook/ice blade by rotating his hand and tool 180O.

The old sockets do stand the chance of breaking after a few uses, but they're only 5 pieces out of 63 - there are many other useful pieces for MOCing, and the old sockets don't detract from the appearance of the finished set. Hopefully non-US batches and later US batches of Jetbug will have the new sockets. According to the instruction inventory, official images and the online replacement service, you would get the new version of the sockets. There is nothing to suggest that Jetbug is meant to have old sockets rather than new sockets, aside from current batches of Jetbug having them. The old sockets are arguably incorrect pieces that can be replaced by LEGO customer service, although it might be best to enquire first.

Only the joints in Jetbug sets are in the old style, while Nitroblast and Drilldozer sets have the new joint pieces.

Absolutely, we'd love to see some Throwbot reviews, and the lack of instructions doesn't matter. Instructions are avaliable from many places online, such as from Peeron. As The crazy one said, it's better if each set has it's own dedicated review, for reference purposes and for the unique details of each set, such as the slightly different parts and colours. If you're interested, think about joining the Eurobricks Reviewers Academy as well. They teach how to make great quality reviews, and there is also a good chance that another member might have the correct Throwbot instruction booklet, and could take that photo for you.

Along with the replacement creatures, there are also more small sets. BIONICLE never had small sets in the summer, while Hero Factory always has a line of small sets, so there can't be as many large sets in the summer. Personally I'd like to see vehicle sets built in the new system, because although the large creatures are a nice change from vehicles, the sets probably aren't forcing the new pieces to be used in creative ways.

A little something that I put together before and for Christmas , yet didn't get around to photographing until after Christmas. The outline and feathery stripes weren't originally intended, but I miscounted the amount of brown 4L axles that I had so I needed to replace some with black axles. Happy holiday season!

As I said earlier ( ), I bought three of the $13 Ninja Ambush sets. For the low price, you get two great minifigs and plenty of useful parts.

That's the same game that is advertised in the instruction booklet, so it's probably what the Hero canister codes are for. It looks like an interesting game, but I don't know what I'm more concerned about - the Hero tower in the background, or the cherries exploding from the villains... I think that is probably the case, but it's hard to tell from the quality of the recording. I liked the walls of parts in different colours in the background, which is more evidence for the build-your-own-hero direction Hero Factory is taking.

Yes and no. The main point that I think you are missing is that the Hero Factory story is intended to be episodic, and nowhere near as complex as BIONICLE. Complex multi-year stories can be hard to jump into for new fans, which is one of the reasons BIONICLE ended, and Hero Factory doesn't seem to be shaping up to be as intricate as BIONICLE. Plus, I think it's hard to judge how the Hero Factory story will develop in quality when we've only had storyline for 1 out of 3 waves of sets that we've seen. Because of the episodic storyline, I personally hope that each new wave doesn't raise the stakes, and changes the stakes each time instead. Although it's nice, there doesn't always have to be an overarching progression and build up of tension to tell good sub-plots - look at the development in The Simpsons. Although it doesn't have an intricate storyline, I'm fairly sure that Hero Factory will last more than 3 years. From 2.0, each wave seems to be based around a certain theme (similar the later years of BIONICLE), and there at least 3 years worth of interesting themes to choose from. BIONICLE clearly had a lot of care invested into it from the story bibles and characters, but so does Hero Factory, only in the form of the sets and their pieces. LEGO action figures have been completely redesigned into their own system of building over the course of two Hero Factory waves, unlike BIONICLE sets which often still remained TECHNIC sets at their roots. A massive amount of effort has been put into redesigning the way LEGO action figures are built, and I don't think that's something LEGO will quickly discard if sales drop slightly, just like they didn't discard BIONICLE (at first) when it was having trouble.

According to the website the sale ends today, but if she was sure about the continued discount that's good to know. (I can also confirm that Farmers has the Naboo and V-wing sets priced at $50.)

From another photo floating around on Flickr, it appears the new wave will be set on a "Savage Planet". Sadly, the Hero feet are not being updated.

Allow me to explain! I just got back from Farmers Albany, and they had all the new NinjaGo, Star Wars and City sets. No exclusives though, apart from a Police Helicopter. I myself picked up 3 Ninja Ambush sets with a healthy 30% off. You'd better hurry over CF if you want your Star Wars cheap!

Did you see any other new LEGO sets in Farmers? The last day for the sale is today, so I'd like to be able to snatch a few new sets at that generous discount.

Rocka 3.0 is about the same yellow that the preliminary canister Mata Nui was, so I'm hoping that he(/she?) will be Yellow-Orange. You could be right about Rocka XL though. Last time there was a set meant to be gold, there were only 4 gold pieces, but in this set there aren't that many gold pieces either. I can only count 4 different pieces that need recolouring in gold.

Obviously when better pictures come out we will change our opinions to suit, because as you say it would be a massive mistake to judge a set when you can only make out a few details, and the set is likely to change a bit anyway. There's nothing wrong with a fun bit of speculation using these pictures though, because otherwise we may as well forget the pictures exist until someone finds the final set in-store. I the Witch Doctor's case, he seems to be a giant skeleton robot, in which case massive holes and exposed machinery would suit the character. Unless there are some massive proportion or stability issues in the design, I think it's hard to go wrong with a set called Witch Doctor. That's true, and I've got the sneaking suspicion that I've seen it being used before, similar to XX being used as the piece count.