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Aanchir

Eurobricks Ladies
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Everything posted by Aanchir

  1. Aanchir
    I won't dispute Ninjago being weird — that's a big part of its charm for me — but all in all, "evil biker gang" is probably one of the more conventional threats the ninja have faced.
  2. Aanchir
    With regard to the Destiny's Bounty, something else I think is worth noting is its sheer heft. According to BrickLink the set weighs around 15% more than the Imperial Flagship. Granted, this is the net weight of the entire box, so includes things like the manuals (Destiny's Bounty's manual is much longer than the two Imperial Flagship manuals). But holding the set in your hands you definitely get the sense that you're getting a fair value in bricks. The Ninjago Movie theme also includes a nice new map that could be useful to Pirates builders. https://brickset.com/parts/6199331/flat-tile-2x2-no-344 On that note, there's another neat map in the Jungle Explorers subtheme of City: https://brickset.com/parts/6195319/flat-tile-2x2-no-339
  3. Aanchir
    I don't think it's fair to blame the amount of complaining in the community on collectors and licensed themes, especially when your own comment sounds pretty "hard to please" itself. Even with the increasing number of character-driven themes, I can hardly think of a lot of modern sets that just include "some token bricks", and frankly in the days before licensed themes there were lots of sets with even more emphasis on figures and less emphasis on building than many of today's most character-driven sets — https://brickset.com/sets/6247-1/Bounty-Boat and https://brickset.com/sets/6021-1/Jousting-Knights are almost entirely figure parts and accessories, whereas today's low-priced sets like https://brickset.com/sets/70606-1/Spinjitzu-Training or https://brickset.com/sets/76072-1/Mighty-Micros-Iron-Man-vs-Thanos have far more actual building elements for similar overall prices.
  4. Aanchir
    What do you mean same name spellings? Those two characters don't even use the same names in Ninjago as they do in UA. Toxikita's Ninjago look-alike is only ever named as Tox, which, okay, could be a nickname. But Invizable's counterpart in Ninjago is only ever referred to as Paleman. I'm pretty sure Tommy Andreasen (one of the co-creators of Ninjago) has gone on the record saying Ninjago and Ultra Agents do not exist in the same universe, and that this was just a case of reusing those two character models.
  5. Aanchir
    Gorgeous! I love the curves of both the woman and the robot hand! Both feel very smooth and naturalistic, and as someone who really delights in building those sorts of curves I really admire that achievement! The woman's outfit is also really striking, especially with that really pronounced jacket collar. And the wheels as the hinges of the robot fingers are quite a nice detail. Incredible work!
  6. Aanchir
    Thanks! A few people I'd shared WIP pictures with were also surprised about how tall she was when I exhibited her at BrickFair. I probably ought to take some pics with a set or minifigure for comparison, but in the meantime, here's a pic of my BrickFair table if you want to compare her with some of my previous MOCs (the one standing next to her is 12 inches/30.5 centimeters tall, or around the same height as the Witch Doctor and Karda Nui Takanuva sets). Also, something I learned after building this model is that BrickLink's Stud.io software is pretty good for giving you height and weight measurements for your models! Granted, if you have to use placeholder parts (like I did for the thighs and fingertips, which use parts that aren't on Stud.io yet) then it still demands a bit of adding and subtracting to get the correct weight.
  7. Aanchir
    The ghost leaders in Possession (Morro, Bansha, Soul Archer, Ghoultar, and Wrayth) also had arm colors that roughly corresponded to the ninja, though it wasn't heavily emphasized and they didn't have any elemental angle to them. And in terms of the TV series there were literal anti-ninja in Season 2.
  8. Aanchir
    I'm sorry I didn't get to see you and say hi! I tried to track you down after I saw your selfie on Flickr but I couldn't manage to find you and nobody I spoke to had seen you around. I hope you had a good time though!
  9. Aanchir
    It's https://brickset.com/parts/6158469/3-2-shaft-w-5-9-ball plus either a 1x1 round brick for the big toe or a 1x1 cone for the other toes.
  10. Aanchir
    Noticed today that for some reason the Guilds of Historica got inadvertently moved from Historic Themes to Action Figures? Very confusing but hopefully an easy issue to fix?
  11. Aanchir
    I was actually very impressed with the number and quality of MOCs on display, especially in the Steampunk, Bionicle, and Mecha categories. A lot of the Bionicle builders whose work most impressed me were ones whose stuff I don't see so often in the communities I frequent, so it was a good opportunity to make connections. I didn't wind up buying too much at the event, but that was mostly because I want to break the habit of buying more and more loose parts when I still haven't used a lot of the ones I've bought previous years, and also because I have a lot of new sets on my wish list I want to save my money for.
  12. Aanchir
    It'd be a little bit wider and would have a bar at the bottom rather than clips, but what about just using 2x 24093? It even already comes in Tr. Brown, albeit with printing.
  13. Aanchir
    Nope, just an original creation that I decided deserved a short backstory. Glad you like it!
  14. Aanchir
    She's a modern enough girl that she probably got them in a yard sale/job lot or as hand-me-downs. I definitely burst out grinning and had to pause the video when I saw this scene!
  15. Aanchir
    PAIGE (Prototype Artificial Intelligence, Gynoid Expression) was created by robotics student Letta Arkwright to simulate the kinds of social competencies she struggled with in her own day-to-day life. PAIGE is powered by a digital brain with an unprecedented social learning engine. As PAIGE teaches her creator to relate to others and to understand her own emotional needs, she is also learning for herself what it means to be a person. This model of PAIGE uses over 830 pieces, stands 18.1 inches/46 centimeters/57.5 modules tall, weighs about 24 ounces/672 grams, and has 36 points of articulation. Her mouth, eyes, and eyebrows can be adjusted and/or swapped out to display different emotions.
  16. Aanchir
    My sources for the global top sellers are these two pages: https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/events/annual-result-2015 https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/events/annual-result-2016 According to this press release, the top selling themes for the US in 2015 were Star Wars, City, Friends, Super Heroes, and Minecraft. There wasn't a press release like this for 2016 since that was when sales growth in the US flattened, so I don't know if those same themes retained their positions. And again, since we don't know if the global rankings treated Super Heroes as one theme or two, we don't know whether that was a factor in the discrepancy. AFOL stands for Adult Fan of LEGO — basically, us! While we are generally the most vocal and visible LEGO fans online, we make up only a small fraction of LEGO sales, most of which are made up of sets bought by or for kids (or "KFOLs"). LEGO sends periodic surveys out to fan sites like this one to keep track of how many of us AFOLs there are and what our purchasing habits are like.
  17. Aanchir
    For the past two years, the five top-selling LEGO themes globally (in no particular order) were Star Wars, City, Friends, Ninjago, and Duplo. Super Heroes didn't even make the list, though granted I don't know if LEGO was counting it as one theme or two separate themes (DC + Marvel). If they counted it as two separate themes, it is less surprising for it not to make the list since unless you count them together, the DC and Marvel Super Heroes lines don't have nearly as many sets as those other top sellers. The five top-selling individual sets for 2015 and 2016 also didn't include any Super Heroes sets, but did include City, Star Wars, Friends, Mindstorms/Technic, and Disney sets each year. I get the feeling that the popularity of the Super Heroes theme among AFOLs is greater than its overall popularity, and that conversely, Ninjago is more popular among the general population than among AFOLs specifically.
  18. Aanchir
    Oh wow! That is so beautiful! You are clearly a master customizer! I can't wait to see what else you create! I hope that Elves isn't ending this year, and to be honest I'm still sort of questioning it. It wouldn't entirely surprise me if it ended, though.
  19. Aanchir
    Population-wise, China's a bigger market with more room for growth. I think it will be a big focus in the LEGO Group's push for business growth in Asia. Arguably, it already is, what with them putting both their first Asian LEGO flagship store and their newest factory there. Mind you, they're not necessarily looking strictly for Chinese IPs, but they are probably looking hard at which IPs are popular in China, regardless of where those IPs originate.
  20. Aanchir
    Bionicle's end almost certainly would have been planned before Nexo Knights launched, or at least, not long into its run. While Nexo Knights sold reasonably well, I don't think it surpassed expectations, and other themes like City, Star Wars, and Ninjago all sold better than it. So it didn't have any great degree of unanticipated demand. Furthermore, I don't think Nexo Knights has that much more overlap with Bionicle in terms of genre, aesthetic, or target audience than Ninjago does. My understanding is that it sold well in 2006 but failed to meet expectations in 2007 and 2008.
  21. Aanchir
    Did you even read the creators' responses? Because while trying to allay fans' fears, they have generally been quite positive about the design changes. For reference: https://twitter.com/brothershageman/status/889301426773532672
  22. Aanchir
    I don't mind the idea of the ninja's designs becoming more like the movie. From when we first got a good look at the movie hairstyles and faces they felt to me like what the ninja might've looked like from the start if LEGO had an unlimited design budget for new hair pieces and a better idea of who the ninja would become as the series went on. Not much about the original faces from the 2011 sets actually reflected the characters' personalities. And of course, besides Kai, their hair was just pulled from figs that preceded them. But the movie versions' hair and faces could be specifically tailored to them according to their personalities and backgrounds. After hearing that Lloyd would be getting a new VA I was actually wondering if there'd be a time skip. Sensei Wu's fate in Season 7 definitely opened the door to that since it meant he could reunite with the ninja at an undetermined point in the future. I get some Batman Beyond vibes from the SDCC teasers, what with an evil gang claiming to be the successors of a powerful villain who opposed the heroes in the past.
  23. Aanchir
    I feel like LEGO dedicates plenty of attention to new building elements, to be honest. I'm often amazed at how many fantastic new building elements have come out in the past five or so years — new brackets, new hinges, new wedges, new curved slopes, new round plates, new detail elements, etc. "There could be more" is a rather poor argument for them giving building elements more attention, because there could ALWAYS be more, and even if they introduced only building elements and no minifigure elements there would still be a plethora of potential new building elements they wouldn't have the budget for. Also, frankly, I don't think the need for a lot of the new building elements you suggest is in any way urgent — if LEGO can make do with existing building elements and a moderate number of new building elements and still come up with impressive new builds, surely fans can as well. I don't particularly care if the number of new minifigure elements each year is truly necessary. Necessary or not, I think it's nice and generally doesn't cause any meaningful problems.
  24. Aanchir
    Is this really that unexpected, though? It would have been strange for the series NOT to have some version of the main characters. And while Kai, Wu, Garmadon, and the two Lloyds are very similar to versions that come in other sets, the LEGO Movie series had a similar situation with Hard Hat Emmet, Scribble Face Bad Cop, and President Business. Meanwhile, the Cole, Zane, Jay, Flashback Garmadon, Pajama Garmadon, and Misako figures are all very different from the versions of those characters that appear in other sets.
  25. Aanchir
    "slightly lower prices" only applies if you don't adjust for inflation. In today's money the Imperial Flagship would've been around $203, over $40 (25%) more than the Bounty. So it's not a huge surprise that the Bounty is smaller. The higher piece count speaks more to its level of detail than its size.
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