Dorek

That's not actually an answer to the question; what about it didn't you like? Personally, I disliked the pacing (the producers already admitted they would have preferred a lengthier runtime, but humorously blamed The LEGO Movie for eating the budget) and to a certain extent the ending (the reversal of which is documented in that making of movie). Also, bummer about those prices. It's always a little sad to see the markup, but it could be a retailer-specific price. I'd wait for S@H prices before being absolutely sure.

Perhaps they'll delay them? We just saw it with Hero Factory, after all.

I was wondering why they were absent from the event catalog. A bit of an oddity, but it's not like we don't know what they're going to look like =P

The ones from the catalog are very opaque, but I don't think that tells us much, since it could easily go both ways. I'm kind of partial to the solid ones, myself.

Got the catalog for ToyFair; nothing new, the images are much more finalized than the ones from 2012. Bit of a shame, but ah well. Breez's machine looks a lot less streamlined with the anchor loaded.

Well yeah, he's on the other end of the spectrum; worth it for the parts if not the build. I prefer a nice balance.

I like the Rocka Crawler for how quirky it is but I don't think it justifies the price tag (after Pyrox last year, I'm somewhat leery of that). Everything else seems pretty on the up and up. I should check my local stores for some winter sets. Edit: Also, looks like the US finally updated their site in full. It's exactly the same as whatever European version people were using, but at least you don't have to manually change the language.

In a sense a lot of specialized parts become "redundant", but that doesn't mean we won't see them again either. I doubt many people expected to see the 1.0 helmets again, but then they showed up for Breakout. (still rooting for a wave that draws from past years)

The smaller sets aren't as interesting, but anything Drill Machine and up seems pretty boss. Definitely going to have to pick up most of these.

I like the idea that they can just do such a drastic shift in styles without any warning, and I'm interested to see what else they can and will come up with. I'm not as enthused by some of the mechs from the first wave (which are either disappointingly humanoid or Evo Walker), but I think all of the beasts are fantastic, and, somewhat typically, the summer sets are where we really start to see the system flex its muscles and show us what its capable of. As disappointing as it is that the sets were delayed in NA, it's nice to have a lot of this information officially available to plan some purchases. I'm definitely interested in the LOC ultrabuilds too, but they have their own ups and downs, just like this wave.

I really like Surge's machine for some reason, maybe because it's just so atypical from the other mechs (which is, of course, why I'm sure a lot of people dislike it as well). I love that it's called a "combat" machine, because it seems like the furthest mech from actually having any combat capabilities.

Well, unlike the Brains, a recolored Hero would require a bit of explanation somewhere (either for who the Hero is or why an existing Hero is a different color), and since this likely isn't going to be given any story context, it's easier to go with a Hero they have.

Since they could really only go with existing Heroes for the polybag, I think Breez is a good choice, since she doesn't have a winter vehicle of her own. It's a pretty cute set, and I hope it's as widespread as last year's Brain promotion.

So they uploaded the episode to HF.com, as announced by Faber (the British site, obviously, and some nice concept art on Faber's blog). I'm glad they're actually keeping track of the number of episodes they have.

The club scoop is pretty old (did I mention it? Seems like something I should have mentioned...) but the last three wallpapers are new; it was only up to 6 until just yesterday. Nothing much interesting in the new ones, though it is funny how Splitter Beast's model uses the "exo-force arm plus claw piece" combination, instead of the single claw piece it has in the set.

Considering that Flyer Beast already has a gimp arm, it's probably for the best =P. But yeah, it mostly just created a cool look as opposed to being supremely useful as a piece. I always liked that it paired well with the Hero chest plate, but then they stopped using that shortly after anyway and went with the Breakout torso armor (which ALSO pairs very well with the old chest plate). Couldn't say about Knights Kingdom, never got into that.

A good carpenter never blames his tools~ It's true that it covers up some connection points, but I just loved the overall look it had, and wished they had explored it a bit further. It was a nice compromise between the overly specific armor pieces of 2010 and the new plating system.

I doubt they'd be in just yet, but who knows. You can always call the store and find out.

I rest my case.

TRU does tend to get them a bit earlier, but there were a few sites that uploaded them ahead of the release date (possibly before being informed of the date change?), so I wouldn't put much stock in it. I imagine around mid-to-late February is when we'll start seeing stores get them in. It's always funny to me how street dates for LEGO aren't taken nearly as seriously as, say, books or video games.

It wasn't the FANG part bothering me so much as the "ar", which was at various times "er" and "ur". The pun was the easy bit. Still cool!

I have seen at least three different spellings for Sir Fwhat's-his-face, so I have no idea what it is anymore. I still want the set, though. Even if I did thing it was a snake at first.

If you want a specific blue-back jumper color, you can always mix and match from the first wave =P. So was the possibility of GITD discounted? I'm pretty sure the jumpers aren't going to glow, but those cocoon pieces...

I'm digging the "white walkers" vibe from the ice sets, for sure, and you definitely can't go wrong with capes. Laval's head mold seems to be exactly the same (redder hair?), which is an interesting choice, but emphasizes the minifig roots these guys have.

Well, you don't see the cocoons until they go underground, which is technically the midpoint of the year; it hearkens back to the BIONICLE way of developing two separate waves with their own features, even if the story is continuous. We just happen to get the entire thing at once because that's the way the episodes go. Next year they should totally do mini-episodes to actually keep things fresh.