Aethersprite

Why does Cap have his AOU torso in the BP set? Perhaps he changes costumes midway during Civil War, or Lego just wants to keep his Civil War costume exclusive to the airport set.

I've found that using a wet tissue/cotton bud to clean both connection points of the new torso piece elevates the problem of squeakiness. I've seen some recommend using certain chemicals to loosen the joint after it's been fixed, but I personally don't feel too comfortable exposing my sets to random chemicals. Who knows what side effects they might have.

How is the quality of the Sheng Yuan (SY) figures? I'm thinking of picking up Vision and Nick Fury, but eh, I'm not entirely convinced whether I should venture into the realm of "fake" Lego yet.

The prototype B-Wing seems to be a good candidate! I'd completely forgotten about it. Doesn't matter that Ahsoka wasn't in that episode, Lego has never cared about that. *ahem* Vader and Sabine? *ahem* Fifth Brother in Rex's AT-TE? *ahem*

I'd like to see more "armoured" characters - Boba Fett and Rex would be excellent.

I don't own Skull Warrior so I didn't realize their similarities in weapons; you're right! It doesn't really bother me, though - the bow and hook blade fit Umarak very well. I don't mind the lack of bow storage. I'm more irked by the fact that the Shadow Trap halves on his shoulders get in the way of any unification. Uxar, for one, has to fold his front legs out of the way into an awkward position to properly unify with Umarak. Of course, the obvious solution is to remove the Trap halves, but I feel like they add so much character to him that removing them really diminishes from his overall look. Other than this minor gripe, though, I think he's a great set! Definitely the best G2 villain design so far (and by the looks of it, the best villain design in the first 2 years of G2). EDIT: And yeah, the spring shooter would be a nicer function for a bow, but it's going to require a lot of System parts to integrate it to CCBS, or a new piece like Star Wars. It'd probably be too much work for Lego. The six-shooter looks good and works great; it's a gatling bow gun! Either way, I think both of them are amongst the best projectile launchers Lego has put out so far, so it doesn't really matter to me which was used.

I built Umarak today, and I must say, he's incredible! I've not been this impressed with a set since 2015 Onua. I must admit that I glanced over him when I first saw the prelim images; he looked generic and boring. But after building him, I fell in love! The colours go well excellently to evoke that "forest spirit" vibe, and the trans-green is used in just the right amounts. It blends in with the other darker colours perfectly. Also, I'm finally able to appreciate the waist articulation of the new sets. I only have Kopaka so far, and I felt like waist articulation didn't add much to him. For Umarak, however, it allows him to swing his bow around as you aim it. As an archer myself, posing him is a dream! I was starting to get tired of seeing bows in G2 sets but Umarak convinced me. Truly a great set. I was initially convinced to get him because his mask was simply gorgeous. But now that I have him, I've come to appreciate the set as a whole! He's a refreshing change from the abysmal Skull villains. I didn't buy any of them, so technically speaking Umarak is my first G2 villain (I bought MMvSG but sold Kulta and kept Ekimu, heh). Overall, highly recommended.

The test: If it's too good to be true, it usually is. Nope. Not buying that rumour for a second.

I really hope we get Vision, too. I get that Lego might want to keep him exclusive to the AoU Quinjet set, but it's quite disappointing not being able to get the full teams from buying all the Civil War sets.

Eh, that special Avohkii didn't look that good IMO. Like the Masks of Creation and Control, the MoUP is probably going to be all-gold. But assuming it's not for the sake of discussion - while I agree that the blended masks make them very hard to MOC with, I'd like to see something like Umarak's mask. Clearly separated colours in some parts (like the right side of Umarak's "mouth"), and blended in others. It's very unique, and looks superb!

NYTF has never denied photos for sets, only for sets that might be spoiler-ish for upcoming movies (like Rogue One, Doctor Strange, or the 4th Civil War set). We'll see them at NY.

Trans-lime heads confirmed from the new pics. Also, Lava Beast looks surprisingly good! That hand function is very interesting. It's a shame his legs are so horrible.

I doubt it's out yet. Wait for Promobricks to cover it! And I'm sure we'll see it on this thread when it comes out anyway.

That's awesome, but it's a pity Iron Man in the Civil War set is going to miss out on this piece by just a bit.

Oh, my. This might be the best wave of Ninjago yet! That Stealth Raider is gorgeous! I don't owe any Ninjago sets yet despite following the TV series (Jay's dragon might be my first), but looks like I'll be getting some of these!

Woah there - valid point, but this all just fun speculation on our part! We all know that 90% of what we speculate ends up wrong anyway. Part of me just wants the Beasts to have some bigger storyline significance than simply "oh, Umarak summoned these Beasts to help him".

Oops. I completely overlooked that fact about Kopaka's mask. Yeah, Storm Beast as Melum might make sense as well - the use of Metru blue, plus his claws could be analogous to Melum's. It's probably its tail that got me convinced that it's Akida.

Lava Beasts's "Edward Scissorhands" claws look to be derivatives of wings. He's the only Beast with clawed feet. Storm Beast has a tail, similar to Akida. Quake Beast has a very bulky build. Of course, it could be all just me reading too much into it! Also, I just noticed that the Toa masks that come with the sets are in their main colour plus trans green... That's quite disappointing. I thought they looked very ethereal and more corrupt in the prelims, where they were all silver and trans green. Plus, Ekimu comes with Umarak's mask in black and trans orange.

Huh. I wasn't too keen on the Beasts and really liked Umarak from the prelims, but after seeing these pics, I might be sold on Storm or Quake Beast! The trans neon yellow accents very well with their main colours, unlike the trans orange on last year's Skull villains. And yeah, seems like the Beasts are corrupted versions of Ikir, Akida and Terak.

Yeap, that's it. I'd keep a watch on that channel over the next couple of days. Pictures from Nuremberg are starting to stream in. Here's hoping we see Bionicle soon!

For Nuremberg's CCBS coverage, we'll usually get a group shot of the entire wave's sets (hence it won't be too detailed) and a video (by one particular YouTube channel, I can't remember what it's called). No good pictures, but it'll be our first physical look at the sets!

I would like to think that Huw is simply ignorant and doesn't care. I don't think he would go so far as to hate the theme; after all, he did bother to review 2015 Tahu last year (and posed his shoulder armour pieces horribly, IIRC). Still, 1) we're the only theme to have gotten leaked prelims for the entire wave, and 2) Nuremberg is in a couple of days and CCBS traditionally always gets decent coverage there, unlike other themes. Don't despair!

I have no idea who Hobgoblin is, but the Ghost Rider set sounds awesome! Sounds like a steal at USD$20.

Meh, we'll just wave our leaked prelims in their faces. Nuremberg is in two days. And yeah, most likely we'll get pics of non-licensed sets there, including Bionicle. I'm glad we're seeing more and more constraction pieces seep into brick-based licensed and non-licensed themes. It'd be gold to find out what these "brick elitists" think.

To be fair, we're one of the few themes to have leaked prelims. I wasn't expecting to learn much from London TF, but that tidbit on the Netflix series is nice!