Shakar

Thanks for the links, everyone. I haven't played the game yet, due some problems my computer apparently has. But the Story section is pretty cool. I'm happy BP actually does have a reason behind the breakout (his box art sort of hinted at his plan). But now that he's been solidified as the breakout mastermind, I wonder about Speed Demon's story role..maybe he's some sort of big minion a la Rotor? But if that were the case, seeing the Big Bad as a Winter set is a bit weird. Am I reading too much into this? Also, I like that there is a good story explanation for a rookie like Rocka to duke it out with the arc's Big Bad. And Stringer..yeah, I'm kind of getting used to the blue, although I still greatly dislike how his (and Nex's, most likely...still not sure about Bulk) chestplate colour doesn't match the helmet colour. And that sound pattern on the chest, aside from the fact it looks lovely, gives me some hope that the Summer images we've seen are very early prototypes.

LegoPictureHQ (on Youtube) is posting a few more videos, one about the Summer Ninjago Booster Packs for example. I wonder if we will get to see Speed(a) Demon this time?

That definitely makes sense, thanks. It's weird for them to not show the printing on the piece- they did that with the other parts. I guess this can be closed now. I'll wait a bit before reporting the topic however.

Hello, and happy 2012! I was browsing the Pick A Brick online shop when I found out two weird pieces (apparently I can't link you to them, so I'm just going to tell you the names): 1)Shell A 4M Ball Snap Ø10.2 2)Shell A 4M, No. 7 They both seem like black size 4 Hero Factory cladding pieces, yet they have different names and different prices too. I'm confused, they seem like the same exact piece to me. I don't see printing (which would obviously raise up the price) in the more expensive one, either. Could anyone clarify? Am I the only one who sees the same picture for both pieces? I kind of feel like I'm going crazy..

Hello! Not sure how much it's related, but are they continuing the LDD project? If so, when are they going to do the next update? I'm pretty anxious to build with the new pieces, as I have some real life future MOCs to plan out. About Splitface, I've always been a bigger fan of the titanium metal half and Omicron's picture just confirmed that. As far as the red half goes, I'm not too fond of the shoulder pad(s) on the hip(s), as much as I appreciate having three of those pieces (and in a set-exclusive colour, too). And then there's the launcher part which is in titanium metallic, which really kills the whole "half-half" look IMO. I didn't have many problems with the titanium metallic chestplate (I love it quite a lot, actually) in the regular set, but in the 100% 85% (yeah, random percentage ) red Splitface it stands out too much. I never planned to make three different Splitfaces anyway, however I think I will end up buying buy three copies of him regardless: one to keep as the original (with some minor tweaks, as usual) set, the other two will be useful for an oooooold (2004 more or less) MOC idea of mine I never fully managed to turn into reality.

They're available everywhere else, too. Actually, I checked only Italy, but if they're available in Italy of all places they're surely available everywhere else as well. :laugh: I kinda regret my Ebay purchase (Surge-Rocka-Thornraxx-Breez) now, although half of the sets I bought aren't available yet...still, I probably would have bought two other sets and I would have spent less (the small sets are 8.99 Euro instead of 9.99 this time, which is great!). Even the shipping costs would have been lower. Anyway, seeing the Winter line on S@H so early? I'd never excepted that- they usually show up not before halfway through January. Just noticed Thornraxx and Breez are available too, just pictureless...well *self censoring* then.

I agree with everyone, Green Lantern looks great (minus the head, but that's not your fault). I would really like to see how you attached the shoulder armour.

True- which is why I believe in the rumour about an eighth 20 Euro Villain to rival Stormer, regardless of how reliable is the source of said rumour (not that I don't trust it, just saying it makes sense by Lego's logic). But 10 sets wouldn't have been so bad to me...one more 13 Euro Hero and one more 9-10 Euro villain would have been cool. I guess I'll have to wait for 2013 to see a new Hero.Yeah, I miss Aanchir as well.

I agree with you, and that's what I thought as well. Indeed, this year I didn't buy Scorpio and half of the 3.0 Heroes and I used the money I saved to buy doubles of 2.0 sets and Hero Recon Team models for MOCing purposes. And this year I plan to buy at least 2x Thornraxx, 2x Splitface and most likely many more extra things, not to mention some LOTR stuff, and then there's the Collectable Minifigs series 6 and (especially) the sweet series 7. So..less sets is actually a good thing. The possible downside, which is why I said I'm worried is that..Lego never makes small Summer waves, unless the theme is ending/not going well.

Am I the only one who is...worried about the number of Summer sets? Even if we do get this Speed Demon or whatever his name is going to be, 8 sets is awfully small for a Summer wave.

Wow, really?! Europe usually gets bad prices when it comes to licensed themes, so I was excepting something close to the Toys R Us price tag. But this is great. I may actually pick one or two of them now, thanks!I checked the Summer HF sets again, and no one seems to feature them other than the two I mentioned- maaaybe two of them in lilac them are used on Voltix's shoulders, but I don't know. Peraphs Speed Demon will include some of them, but I doubt they're going to make a white Villain. But I'm going OT now.

Vinyl, look closer- Core Hunter already has Rocka's bandolier attached to his gun arm.

Overpriced parts packs, that's what I consider these sets to be. Buying Joker, Green Lantern and Ironman for the lilac/bright green/red/gold parts just isn't worth it. I probably would have bought Joker for 15 Euro or so, but 17-18 Euro is just too much. I could care less about the other 3. Anyway, I hope PaB adds some of these pieces to the list. One thing, Captain America's lower legs use a new part. A few Summer Hero Factory sets feature it, like Core Hunter and I think Bulk as well. It's a nice new part- it can be used to make some fine boots, like those guys show.

Splitface looks great, I just agree with Legojang when he said some parts should have been black. Nothing hard to modify, however. I really think I like the gunmetal side more- I'm going to buy at least 2 of him! >:3 @Omicron: thanks for the pics! Personally I'd just like some more pics of Splitface- Thornraxx, Surge and Breez (the sets seen in video reviews only) are going to be in my hands in less than a week, and we already have very clear pics of the other 6 sets. On the summer sets again. So yeah, I focused too much on criticizing the negative things in the previous post (hey, a Virgo is a Virgo). I'll try to analyze the pics with a more optimist mind: Stormer XL: Talk about an Ascended Meme! I like him for the most part, I just wish he had some more one of the shields from Rocka and Breez(e) in tr. dark blue or tr. medium blue. Having that piece only in two colours is a waste, I think. I didn’t notice it previously, but he has some sort of tri-blade giant sword- NICE! Anyway, he looks great. Definitely getting him. I love the three villains, they definitely are on par with Black Phantom's gang- I hope Speed Demon is just as good as BP himself, if not better. Voltix has GLORIOUS PURP-ER, LILAC and some great recoloured pieces, Xt4 looks creepily cool and has a bizarrely awesome name, and Core Hunter is just BADASS REINCARNATE. I feel the Heroes are a..waste. The Winter 2012 wave introduced great pieces (the shoulder pads, the shield, the ammo belt) and created/solidified great concepts (the extensive use of tr. colours, the creative customization of the guns like seen on Evo/Furno/Rocka). These guys have…none of these things. Nex is probably the worst of the trio. The proportions are horrible- yes, he uses Evo’s and Surge’s structure, but each of them had at least one bulky and tall shoulder that made them look fine. Nex’s arms are puny and he has a long looking torso and a fairly long helmet- in other words, he looks bad. And the white…I’m happy for its return because I liked Nex 2.0’s colour scheme far more than Nex 3.0’s, but it’s slapped on so randomly it’s hard to appreciate. Bulk..not bad, but not as badass as Bulk 3.0 either. And the colour scheme is awful- silver, white, tr. orange, tr. green…yuck. PLEASE LET THE WHITE PARTS BE STAND INS FOR SILVER, MORE FINALIZED PARTS, THANKS LEGO. I never had anything against white, but 2012 Heroes, with its inappropriate presence in their armour, are making me hate it (save Breez, but I’m beginning to have doubts even on her). Stringer is the best of the trio, at least I can say that. He looks good and he doesn’t seem to have any white in him, thank God. I’m very happy he wields a silver gun, but I think a gunmetal one would be better for him- which is absolutely perfect, I’ll just switch his gun with Surge’s so both will improve. But…the blue. What. The. Hell. I wish it were a prototype, but the Zamor whatever-name-they're-going-to-come-up-with-this-time- is blue, and he has a tr. medium blue head. :/ I am most likely going to get the Heroes, but I will modify them far more compared to the light mods I plan to give to the Winter Heroes.

I can sum up my thoughts as: awesome villains+Stormer, lame Heroes. What's up with the messy colour schemes? What's up with the chest plates not being coloured like the helmets (And I thought the white on Furno into was bad, at least that one is replaceable)? Why they didn't use all the awesome new pieces like the round shoulder pads and the energy shields (I wanted at least a tr. blue shield on Stormer : ( ) ? Why there are only 8 sets? I'm disappoint.

I'm all for seeing the leaked Summer stuff pics in a few days, but before that I would like to see a Splitface review, otherwise it would be overshadowed by discussion about the leaked pics I saw the Thornraxx review again. I love his build, very clever and original! For those (like me) who are curious about how 2.0 chestplates look like on the new torso cladding piece, see here (forgive me if something similar has been already posted). I must say it looks much better than I thought- very exploitable combination, I think. EDIT: I had forgotten to insert the link.

She has the wide torso? Ha ha, I knew they'd do that. Will update the post with more comments. Woooow she looks awesome. So does Thornraxx. Sooo happy that I bought them (along Rocka and Surge)! Can't wait for them to arrive and to open them for Xmas to open them. Only Splitface is left...

Oh well. The sole things I liked in that list were the presence of at least two new Heroes (PURPLELILAC HERO! ahem, sorry) and the absence of Furno. Everything else I was fairly neutral about, due to how non indicative the names were (except something like "Flashfreeze", I guess). And I really don't want a Titan Stormer: I want him as a 12,99 Euro figure. By the way, am I the only one who would like to see a dark red Hero? He would be a fine replacement for Furno, I think. Not necessarily a permanent replacement, their presence could be alternated each wave. I was all for the return of bright red back in 2009 with Ackar, but right now I really miss dark red, and after the bones in Black Phantom I would love to see dark red cladding pieces. EDIT: I meant "the absence of Furno", not "Stormer". Sorry.

Do you mean a Glatorian/Hero hand (yes, I know the latter has one more finger)? Yup. Look at Breeze, who is the only one who does that. That's clearly a lime hand that is shown.

Don't worry, he looks cool. I'll repeat it, BP has an amazing colour scheme. I'm glad you guys chose dark red over bright red and tr. bright green over tr. neon green. The sole things that seem off to me, aside from the small use of tr. neon green (which isn't that bad, afterall), are the dark bluish grey friction joints in upper arms and the titanium metallic shells in the feet. But aside from those, he's a beautiful flow of colours. Also, the weapons are very creative and well made- props to whoever thought of them. And of course, great work on the photos.

I subscribe to the ideas of Western, Underground (imagine to quantity of transparent pieces thaat could bring!) and Swamp. To elaborate further on Swamp. Yeah, Bionicle already did it with the Mistika and it had some nice concepts and pieces (and some beautiful box art!), but overall that line was a disappointment to me, especially as far the Toa trio was concerned. I feel that Lego could reuse the base of the Mistika wave: Heroes with swamp/flying equipment (toxic proof equipment similar to Evo's, turbines, wings, jetpacks, visors..) against insect-like villains. More about the villains: rather than the usual insects (scorpions, wasps, mosquitos, etc..) I would like to see Lego using some really cool bugs they never used much, if at all (too lazy to check, sorry): moths/butterflies, mantises, rhino beetles, dragonflies.. Or (and I would absolutely love that) they could mix it up and have some of the villains being insect-based, with others being plant-like abominations. Heck, some of them (the Big Bad, for example) could be insect-plant hybrids.

I swear, Breeze is a mystery to us mortals. No S@H pics of her, no out-of-box picutres either (so far)...the fact that I'm so curious is one of the reason I chose her to be part of my Ebay purchase. That, and the fact she really grew on me over the time.

I initially dismissed this theme as "just another line for little girls", but having learned that the hairpieces are compatible with minifigs made me ecstatic. I can only hope they begin to use these new hairpieces in regular minifgs, or that at least they become available on PaB, because I sure want some samples of them.

@ Aanchir: my guess is that they don't want to spoil the Summer wave- they're just giving us some sneak peeks. Lego is good at doing it. Thank you for the S@H links! Splitface looks awesome. Forgot to say- Furno looks much better in the movie. Some of the cladding is different (notice the size 3 cladding piece with a Villain core on the right shoulder and the slightly different looking lower arms), and they changed some parts of the colour scheme (he has orange eyes to match the tr. orange cladding piece and the white is turned into a very cool rusty silver). I love these changes, and I will use some of these ideas to modify my future Furno.

Don't worry for that. I saw the combiner shot in a Rocka review over Youtube, so I don't need it anymore. Thank you anyway. :)By the way, I'm very glad that you're reviewing Thornraxx. He looks marvelous in that pic you posted- I really don't regret that he's part of my recent Ebay purchase (won't open the sets till Christmas though!). So he's black..I was hoping for titanium metallic (the head in that colour would've been useful for a MOC I'm planning to build), but black is fine too. That Thornraxx/Arachnox drone head piece is awesome in whichever colour. Overall, his colour scheme is brilliant. One thing I'm VERY happy to notice is that he indeed includes a size 4 (or is it 5? Can't tell properly) cladding piece in orange! I was kind of angry at Lego for having ignored orange during 2011 (having produced orange cladding pieces in size 3 only), and seeing this problem being fixed is great news to me. EDIT: I just saw that video. I'm not sure if I like Stormer being that bulky :/ but that purple villain looks great. Anyway, doesn't that suggest that the Breakout theme will continue in Summer and will be an year-lenghth storyline? I hope so- this theme has lots of potential.