Aanchir

I've actually seen a pretty compelling post from a fan of the show who was involved with the film that the movie's poor quality was more due to meddling by Paramount executives than by M. Night Shyamalan's involvement. The original post is gone, but it and some follow-up posts have been copied and pasted here. I know next to nothing about Shyamalan (haven't even seen any of his other films) so have no idea how accurate the post's assessment of his character or ability is… but given that the A Series of Unfortunate Events movie 13 years ago had a similar chain of events (potential all-ages franchise starter with critically acclaimed source material and a screenplay approved by the original creator, ultimately squandered due to interference from Nickelodeon/Paramount executives), I don't have a hard time believing that the same type of executive meddling could've doomed both films. Jumping off of that point, for anybody who enjoyed the A Series of Unfortunate Events books (or liked the concept of the movie but not its execution), the Netflix series that launched last Friday does a much better job with it than the movie did! As actual movies go, I think the last I saw was Rogue One on Christmas. I've wanted to see Loving and Hidden Figures, but I've been too busy this month preparing to go back to college.

Market Street was part of the LEGO Factory theme, which consisted of fan-created sets. It was designed by Dutch AFOL Eric Brok rather than professional LEGO designers like Jamie Berard or Astrid Graabæk (who designed the other modular buildings). And it had a few unusual quirks that set it apart from the other modulars, like more varied/modern minifigure faces and the ability to rotate each of the floors. A lot of AFOLs argue that it shouldn't count as a part of the Modular Buildings series for this reason (and also because it's a very rare set and they don't want to have to admit their collection is incomplete). But Jamie Berard does consider it part of the series.

I guess? When I hear "rare throwbacks" I generally think something more along the lines of Benny's Spaceship or the Classic Spaceman Minifigure, not a complete wave of sets. And besides, rare for now doesn't mean rare forever. After all, a person in 2005 might have felt just as hopeless about the future of non-licensed space themes, without any idea that there'd be four new ones to look forward to (plus several stand-alone space sets like Star Justice, Benny's Spaceship, and the Exo-Suit) all within the next decade.

Yep, and so was the Temple of Airjitzu (which first appeared in the Ninjago TV show in 2015, shortly before the set's release). Among licensed themes, I can only think of borderline examples — the Darth Maul bust came out after Episode 1, but before Episode 2, and the Republic Dropship with AT-OT Walker was released as a Clone Wars set early in that show's run (although the vehicle itself had appeared in Episode 3, four years prior). Can't think of any strictly licensed D2C sets that came out the very same year as their movie debut. But of course, there's a first for everything…

The 2015 Pirates wave came after the theme was on hiatus for five years. Castle and Space have barely even been gone for three. LEGO has decided to do something new and different with Nexo Knights, but I don't at all see how that equates to giving up on their classic themes forever.

I have to disagree there. His gun could maybe stand to be a bit larger, but a rapid stud shooter would make the barrel of his gun nearly the size of his head! The movie prop is big, but not nearly THAT big.

I sure hope there IS a girl-oriented sci-fi theme in the works! Realistically, though, LEGO probably wouldn't launch that this year since they just launched DC Super Hero Girls and would probably want to give that some room to breathe. Kind of like how they didn't launch Disney Princess and Elves back to back.

The difference there is that Bionicle was one of the LEGO Group's most successful themes for several years (and one of their ONLY successful themes in 2003), while monorail sets were never successful at all. The constraction category may be somewhat niche today, but the mainstream success it had in the past gives LEGO some incentive to keep exploring new possibilities for it in the future, which is something that can't really be said for monorail. My feeling is that LEGO is most likely to try coming up with an entirely new theme to try and fill the niche Bionicle left behind, rather than rebooting one of their other constraction themes. But I don't expect anything of that sort until at least 2018, because Bionicle G2 was seemingly discontinued on short notice, and new themes tend to take at least two years to develop. For comparison's sake, LEGO began developing Hero Factory in 2008 or so, and began developing Bionicle G2 in 2012. It also wouldn't entirely surprise me if LEGO continued to dabble in constraction sets for other popular themes, like Super Heroes and Ninjago.

It is on my wish list and I've been impressed with the reviews I've seen, but my anticipation for it is sort of overshadowed by my anticipation for the larger Dragon's Forge and Dawn of Iron Doom sets. Its function is very similar to that of the classic Space Police set [url=http://brickset.com/sets/6895-1/Spy-Trak-1]Spy Trak 1[/url], but with the entire cockpit integrated with the tilt steering mechanism.

That was probably mostly because 128 of the Fortrex's pieces consisted of the tread links and rubber anti-slip pieces, which added a lot to the piece count but added comparably little to its weight or cost. Jestro's Lair had a piece count somewhat more typical of its weight and price point. It is interesting that the Knighton Castle seems like it'll be bigger and more expensive than Jestro's Volcano Lair, particularly since other aspects of this year's Nexo Knights range seem to have been sorta downscaled (such as how Jestro's Headquarters is a $90 set, rather than sharing the $100 price point of the Fortrex). It's rare for regular retail sets to be priced above $120, but not unheard of — City, Star Wars, and Friends have all had $130+ sets. It makes me wonder if Nexo Knights might be doing better than many have suspected. We may hear more about how it's been doing in March when the Annual Report is released. I hope that like Jestro's Lair or Ragana's Shadow Castle, the Knighton Castle will feature plenty of details to make it feel "livable" to an extent that traditional LEGO Castle sets rarely are.

I'm not convinced that little rant was totally true… designer Mark Stafford explained here & here that Chima was in development before anybody at LEGO even knew that Thundercats was being rebooted, and that nothing from Chima originated in a failed LEGO Thundercats theme. Also, this gallery of early Chima concepts seems to bear little direct resemblance to Thundercats. If any discussions happened, they never involved anyone on the Chima design team.

True, but we had no way of knowing the set would be a historic site/monument from the set name alone. The set name "Ninjago City Invasion" is just as vague, so there's no way to know that the same thing won't happen with that one.

I see no reason that you couldn't use last year's Amusement Park sets in a City setting. From my experience, it's pretty normal for fairground or amusement park attractions to be bright or even psychedelic colors. The Bizarro, the Raptor, and the Joker are some particularly colorful coaster examples. I remember having a hard time understanding a lot of complaints about the Creator Expert Ferris Wheel's colors as well. Maybe these sorts of rainbow-colored amusement park rides are more of an American thing, while rides elsewhere have more constrained color schemes? IDK.

If Ninjago City in the movie is anything like it is in the show, buildings there would likely have a more modern metropolitan look than a medieval look. Even before all the upgrades in Season 3 ("Rebooted"), Ninjago City felt more like NYC or modern Tokyo than classic Edo. That said, the "Battle for Ninjago City" set from the Rebooted wave was surprisingly traditional in its style compared to what we'd seen of Ninjago City in the show. So another surprise like that is certainly possible.

Not sure just how well those would work. I can think of a few disadvantages those would have compared to sets based on current themes… they wouldn't be able to reuse parts and figures from other current sets as easily, and they wouldn't tie in with themes that kids already follow and collect. Mind you, there HAVE been Castle and Pirates chess sets in the past, but only based on the then-current incarnations of those themes. However, it could be interesting to see advent calendars based on other current popular themes like Ninjago. Put Sensei Wu in a Santa suit and a red conical hat, and BAM! Santa Wu!

March 14! Also, not sure if it's been brought up, but Season 4 is finally on Netflix!

The BrickHeadz we're getting this year may not be the same as the SDCC ones. Also, if it is the "New exclusive LEGO theme" teased on the February calendar, it'd make sense for them not to show up in the brand catalogs, since unlike Shop@Home catalogs, those don't show exclusives.

I was thinking in terms of the long black claws and horns, jagged spines, slit-like pupils, and sickly-looking colors. Its face print may not be as aggressive as 2007–2013 Castle dragons, but the overall design is certainly a lot less friendly-looking than the previous LEGO Elves dragons. While we're on the subject of Elves, the new teaser video on the homepage shows sneak peeks at what are probably some of the summer set contents: the Goblin King's castle and another new dragon (which appears to be Earth Blue in color). The castle seems to use a neat technique for its parapets.

Like a lot of people, I'm guessing BrickHeadz. That's a theme that we know will be a March release (based on a teaser in the manuals of the SDCC BrickHeadz), so an early release for VIPs in February would make sense. And it's the only spring release we know of that could qualify as a new, exclusive theme.

Interesting! Out of curiosity, what was it about Battle Suit Lance that appealed to you? I'm not surprised you found something to like in a Nexo Knights set, but that one's not what I would have thought of as a dedicated Castler's ideal first set. Unless it just came down to cost… but even then, I'd have sort of expected a set like Ultimate Lavaria to be more enticing.

Instruction uploads today at LEGO Customer Service include a new Nexo Knights polybag, "30377 Motor Horse": https://mi-od-live-s.legocdn.com/bigdownloads/buildinginstructions/6188114.pdf It features a King's Guard/Soldier (2015 version) on a wheeled mechanical horse.

LEGO Customer Service has added building instructions for new sets, including a new Ninjago polybag "30426 Stealthy Swamp Airboat" featuring Cole: https://mi-od-live-s.legocdn.com/bigdownloads/buildinginstructions/6196192.pdf All in all it's a charming little build with quite a bit of play value (spinning propellor & two stud shooters). Cole has his new costume but with a scarf and hair instead of shoulder pads and a full hood.

This new factory is the LEGO Group's own, and they have much better oversight than to allow that to happen on their watch. If it were simply a case of outsourcing production to another company I would understand that concern more, although even in that situation, LEGO has plenty of experience making sure things like that don't happen.

As a prison rather than a police station, it doesn't have as much in the way of offices as most police station sets. But it has a lot of play value with all the different ways to escape, and it's nicely furnished for a prison, with beds, a toilet, etc. The overall footprint, not counting the dock, is about 600 studs in area. That's around the same size or bigger than the footprints of the Forest Police Station and Swamp Police Station, but it's also considerably heavier than either of those two sets and has a much higher piece count. By comparison, it's much smaller than any of the "normal" police stations from LEGO City. But as a $90 set, it also has a $10 to $14 lower price than most of those after adjusting for inflation. All in all, if you like police sets, I say go for it! Especially if you see it marked down.

Minecraft pics recently surfaced. There's nothing really historic-looking in the way of new parts, but the design of the potion bottles in 21133 might be of use to some builders. Transparent minifigure head (any color) plus 1x1 plate with 3.2mm shaft and 1.5mm hole (accessory holder) as the neck plus a normal 1x1 round plate in Reddish Brown as the cork. Very easy design to replicate. Also, it looks like it hasn't been mentioned here, but the Nexo Knights set 70358 has a character named Robot Hoodlum whose torso uses a 1x1 tile with a Forestman shield pattern. Obviously I don't expect anybody to buy the whole set just for the tile and its spare, but if the set gets parted out on BrickLink it might be something for Forestmen fans to be on the lookout for. The new Nexo Knights monsters are sort of like living gargoyles which could be good for fantasy settings, like the lava monsters before them, although I know some might be turned off by their blue and purple color palette.