Dorek

I didn't notice Queen Beast having a crown before, go figure =P. Makes it even cooler.

The minifig is actually silver (you can see it best on the actual packaging) but the orange color scheme is pretty interesting.

Bulk's is a lot more... orange than I expected.

Looks like it matches the translucent elements to me, but considering that it was some metallic color in the episode, it probably will be warm gold. Ooooh well. Anyhow, the flea reference seems like it would refer to the general shape, as well as its "jumping" ability.

I like the quirky look of the machine (trans-anything chainsaws are always welcome) but I think I'll save my money for the Surge/Rocka set.

I'm really digging the cocoons, it's a great touch. It looks like the Hero minifigs fit directly in too, so that's awesome. It all depends on what happens whenever we next see Nex in the story, and what he's like (if we ever see him again :U). If you ignore Ordeal of Fire, his personality shift is less drastic, but when you consider all of the appearances... yeah it's pretty whack. Sooooooooooo much this. I only have so many hours in the day.

I'll just sit here and wait for people to slowly revise their opinion on Queen Beast, flip-flop once hi-res pics come out, then change again once the set is actually released... No but seriously boxes. Sweet. I love the bags for their compactability, but there's something very satisfying about getting a set that comes in a box. Maybe it's just the sound. Anyhow, the summer wave is shaping up to be pretty appealing in the large set department. Plus, Toyfair soonish.

Tarix was the bomb no hating. Umbra was surprisingly fun, despite the atrocious color scheme, but there's still a lot to criticize.

They're known under the umbrella term of "Battle Machines" as it is, so I much prefer Combat Machine.

He's had that banner up for a while. I imagine after the episode is released officially, he'll start showing us concepts or whatever. We're not even at the end of January yet, when you think about it, and yet we have most of the year laid bare before us.

Darker sets such as Stringer have a history of not selling as well, but obviously that doesn't explain Nex getting the shaft, per se. Perhaps he just wasn't a top seller, or maybe he'll pull an Evo-like comeback in 2015. I don't mind the omitting certain characters on the whole (Breakout was ridiculously crowded, even with the characters not included in the main story), and last year gave us an acknowledgement of all the Heroes at one point or another. Given more side-material (books, etc) I'm sure we'd see the characters again, but we're probably not going to see much of that anymore, which is a shame. Lol, I was just talking about that elsewhere. It's a pretty glaring error, despite not being very important, but ah well. I just like that Advance cared enough about the universe to acknowledge their full names, even if those names don't get used anywhere in the story or sets anymore.

>watches the episode again >Rocka is labeled as Daniel Rocka in the credits once more SUPER OFFICIAL NOW

Is there any official statement to that effect, or just more speculationfuntimes?

Daniel Rocka would like a word with you. I'll say what I've been saying for the past few years now: we need a final wave that features ALL the gimmicks!

It really doesn't cost that much getting them in advance. Ebay, bricklink, any halfway decent private seller can get them to you for only a few bucks extra, and buying in bulk tends to shave the costs off even more. And yeah, in LegoJang's case, he makes a "living" doing the reviews, so it's worth it for him to import (not a fan myself, but he seems to have a following).

Part of it might have to do with hyping up the actual episode (ignoring that they've already released it in a certain format), which will likely air on television around that time. Or it could just be a random sales move. Obviously they're shaking things up with the genre and such, and maybe that extends to how they want to market the line.

How is Evo XL not an XL? The set is huge, and comes with all these great features. It's definitely the set I'm most interested in.

Runtime, honestly. I bet Advance would have loved to include the combi-models, but settled for including them in the comics (which are available in HQ on every website but the american one, by the way. amaaaaazing).

For this episode in particular, I think you could pass it off as a joke, maybe explain why you see a Jumper in Makuhero City at a later date. But the "villain factory" points are pretty specific lingering plot threads, I can't imagine they'd abandon it.

I actually thought the soundtrack was pretty good, if a bit understated. Honestly, my biggest complaint would be too much dialogue. It's sort of the dilemma of forcibly inducting me into the new voices (which I did get used to by the end, so I suppose it works) vs letting the dialogue constantly remind me that these aren't the voices I'm used to. The whole episode was just a mass of exposition, which really interfered with the phenomenal art direction. Aside from that, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The voices weren't so bad, the sound effects were great, and the story hit all the right beats and even included nods to previous arcs. It was kind of silly that the battle machines were ultimately pretty disposable, but I guess that's what happens with a 22 minute runtime.

I guess it's time for me to get back into the loop. I'll watch the episode soon enough, but first... NEW AND RESPONSIVE WEBSITE AHHHHH SO MUCH BETTER

I don't mind waiting, personally. But it'll be interesting to see how this also affects the summer sets release as well (and it's going to be funny seeing Toyfair where none of the sets are actually out).

Ah, but was it the new HF-era claw, or the old BIONICLE one?

Huh, Chima's getting ultrabuilds again? Sweet. I might actually have to buy some this time. Or hope to win some if EB does another contest... :D

I was not trying to use my lack of parts breaking as evidence, and I can see how that might have gotten confusing; they were meant to be individual statements ("I have not had any joints break", fact, and "the problem was massively overhyped", opinion). I'm just saying that using personal anecdotes (on forums which do not in any way represent the majority of consumers, fans, etc) as a basis for calling something a "problem" is just as faulty. Obviously the lime joints issue was something acknowledged by LEGO and proven as a direct result of something. The "increased" reporting of breakage of redesigned joints could result from plenty of other things, none the least of which being the increased scrutiny on these parts resulting from the aforementioned lime joints issue. I'm not even saying that the parts aren't necessarily not slightly more prone to breakage; I just think that the reports were taken far out of context and fabricated the appearance of an event greater than it was, something I'd like to not see for these Hero Factory joints.