dviddy

That's unfortunate, since they're amazing for MOCing.

Except that a decade ago the colours -weren't- more consistent. In fact, they were less, as TLG didn't have set rules like they do now in place for how each plastic type gets dyed equalized to all their factories. Before the grey to bley switch, TLG did not have set standards in place, and each factory was allowed to set those themselves to get the colours they were supposed to get.

Agreed on the Chinese thing, it's just a really common and uneducated complaint from the AFOL community, so it seems like an easy thing to assume when someone says something like that. But actually, TLG has always had that problem with colours matching. It's actually one of the reasons for the grey to bley switch. Red especially is near impossible to match between the differing plastics. One of the reasons people maybe didn't notice as much a decade ago is because TLG did not have such a large part selection, which meant less plastic types (they do not use just two or three types, they use more than 30), and the lack of such a large Internet community also meant these things were less noticeable on a grand scale. When you were a kid and not online and a lime socket or two broke, you'd think it was your fault and probably just a limited thing. But with the Internet and the large part selection, we were able to discover it was actually a huge TLG problem. Also of interest, part sizes vary intensely as well, with the smallest variation of plates being stacked to a certain height versus the tallest variation, you actually lose an entire plate between the two. It's just the nature of plastic.

Whose is that? If you're implying the poor Chinese quality thing again- you're wrong. The problem is that TLG uses more than 30 types of plastic, and it is just not possible to get them all dyed to be the same shades.

Just like Bionicle.

I wish you'd sent me those torsos. I honestly believe they are the single most useful piece from the entire first wave of BIONICLE, especially when building on a large scale. I'm struggling to find enough of them to finish my current several-feet large MOC.

Anecdotal evidence isn't a good reference for how Exo-force performed. TLG has donated pallets and pallets of the leftover stock to conventions, and apparently they are still one of the few themes with a large presence in the employee store, because even the employees aren't buying them. I know locally, at all of my places, Exo-force stuff piled up and up and up. Especially that jungle wave. (I also don't remember more than one store exclusive, but I didn't pay a lot of attention to Exo-force.)

Bionicle was actually slated to have another year in the original (as in the "this is successful let's keep going" plans that happened after the Bohrok) plans. It was cut short because TLG was ready to move on. Exo-force performed very very poorly which is why it just ended. TLG has a hard time giving the sets away. Seriously.

LEGO representatives seem pretty certain that there will never be another non-licensed theme that runs as long as BIONICLE did. They attribute a lot of the failures of BIONICLE down the line to the stagnation that happened when it just didn't end. Hence why Ninjago, even though it is insanely popular and is doing extremely extremely well, will be ending after 2013.

LEGO Star Wars has never had a cancellation date, but the license is renewed every several years, and every time that's announced, people freak out thinking that means it was going to be cancelled. TLG doesn't usually let themes be open-ended on their shelf life. Ninjago was planned to last three years, and then will be replaced. Specifically because of BIONICLE, TLG doesn't really want to see themes with no end-date on shelves anymore. TLG has said through reps at conventions that BIONICLE's open end is part of what caused its stagnation and they are trying to avoid that and keep things fresh. Hence why you see themes like Alien Conquest that get one year. It's not that the theme was poorly received, it's that it was designed as a fun one-year line and that was it. I wouldn't be surprised to see Hero Factory replaced with a different constraction figure line this time next year.

I don't understand the interest in XT4. I have him, he's boring, and his parts aren't all that interesting either. The small torso is welcome, but otherwise, meh. Debating doing the official BZP review of him. So spoiler, I guess?

Prices vary by region based on the perception of the regional toy market. Australia and a lot of European countries consider LEGO to be "premier" or "high-end" toys, and the market is therefore priced as such. In America, the market perception has LEGO as something fondly regarded, but LEGO is not viewed as a "high-end" toy. Ergo, lower prices, because LEGO sets are priced to move at whatever price the market can sustain and make TLG the greatest profit while maximizing sales. That's why prices are not standard across zones.

They are available on TRU.com and Amazon.

What in the world does MTIS stand for? I know which piece you're talking about but where did it get this nickname??

He'd better not hog all the rest of the reviews. I'm hoping to get some of the ones TLG is sending us soon to review for BZP too.

Super easy to do! I know you said you started one already but I might as well post this here for anyone else too. DIY lightbox It's what I used until my parents got me a professional one for Christmas a few years back. And you don't need powerful lamps, just a simple overhead light and a side light with close to equal wattages will do fine. It's really a matter of how you set your camera.

I don't mean to imply you're being overly casual! I just know if I had them I'd have basic photos done that day. But I don't wait on weather, I have a studio so that's a little different.

Trust me if I had them I'd be rushing to get photos for you guys. I don't know why anyone's being casual, it's driving me insane that there aren't any here in the US yet.

You can throw me in with the "people who hate video reviews of LEGO sets" thing. That's why on BZPower when we've done our big goofy staff Brickfair set reviews the video is really just entertainment. The review is in the text and pictures. So much easier and the reviewer's hands aren't constantly in the way.

I hate printed pieces and think they ruin the play experience. Stickers can come off, prints can't (at least not easily). I would much rather be able to have blank pieces than printed ones.

I obviously get sarcasm since I effectively used it in my response to you. You were not being sarcastic, considering you tweeted congratulations at him to boot. We are not going to ignore a hacker who is engaged in illegal activities. Because we have to, at the very least, fix whatever vulnerabilities he used to get in, and we also have to kick him out. Both are being worked on.

Yeah, it's super funny, you're right! Your personal feelings mean that thousands of other people should have to suffer!

The admins are working on it.

When you mass-produce as many parts as TLG does, variance happens. It's obviously not a big variance like the broken lime socket stuff was, so it's not really anything to be worried about. Remember some of the kanohi way back when being slightly ghosty every once in awhile? It's like with the system plates that TLG produces. There are enough measurable height discrepancies between every certain amount (I think it was 65?) produced that when stacked together, they are actually a full one plate shorter than that same amount of the "median" height plates. Man seriously, the parts production talk at Brickfair '08 ('09?) was like the best breakout session ever.

I'm pretty sure these were released to get rid of excess parts from the factories/warehouses. Stuff that didn't quite sell as well so they had all those extra parts for them laying around and wanted to get rid of them. I just remember the ones from right after the Vahki being filled with almost complete brown and green Vahki parts (and gold Vahis).