Aanchir

This guy's shoulder pauldron is clever, and the thigh shells are a nice new part, but overall he leaves me cold. In general, I do not find myself drawn to generic faceless troopers due to them having generally simple builds, boring color schemes, and not a lot of personality compared to protagonists like Obi-Wan, Rey, Finn, Chirrut, and Baze. And this guy is exemplary of all those issues. Even the First Order Stormtrooper felt a lot more striking due to their white/black contrast, and Phasma had shiny silver armor and a cape with bright red trim, but the Death Trooper doesn't have any of those things going for them. As a parts pack, this guy has a nice supply of black armor, but most of it is armor that has also appeared in black in other sets, only differentiated here by the printing on the torso and left shoulder. I feel like Director Krennic would have made a much more exciting "bad guy" figure, even though he doesn't do as much fighting in the movie, since he has more personality and a really distinctive outfit. I suppose he wouldn't have had as much play value, though, since the only weapons he wields in the movie are blasters too small to incorporate a shooting function like the one here. I don't mean to disparage the set designer with any of this, mind you. The autheticity of this figure is not at fault. It's just a character design that doesn't make for a very exciting action figure.

In the second image the parts actually shouldn't be the same height — Jamie Berard mentioned in a presentation called "Stressing the Elements" that the proportions of Technic bricks are fudged ever-so-slightly to accommodate the anti-stud underneath the Technic hole. In other words, the space between the centerpoint of the hole and the top of the brick is not quite half a module. On the other hand, the thickness of the blue connector in your picture is a full module, so its stud is raised slightly higher than the studs of the Technic brick. The discrepancy in thickness in the first pic does seem to be a genuine error, though.

Haha, this is hilarious! Great job!

Yep, this one.

The German first half 2017 brand catalog is live on LEGO.com! Elves is on pages 52–53, and includes box art and descriptions for the new sets when you click on them! The theme logo for the box art has been revamped (it's now white letters on a dark background, rather than bluish letters on a bright background), and as in previous years, in the background we get a sneak peek of the ultimate destination for the year — presumably, the Goblin King's castle. The goblin names are Roblin (41181), Barblin (41182), Jimblin (41183), Dukelin (41184), Fibblin, Smilin, and Bieblin (41185). The chameleon in the Goblin Village is named Hidee, and the panther is named Panthara.

The Vermillion baddies from the new Ninjago sets for 2017 are designed to resemble warriors made up of clusters of snakes in armor. They could maybe fit in with a "swords and sorcery" type fantasy setting. One of the new helmets is very Asian in style, but the other is more reminiscent of the troll helmets from Fantasy Era Castle sets. These sets also seem to introduce a new copper plastic color, replacing 139 Copper which hasn't been seen since 2008 or so. New parts in this color include some big constraction swords, which may not be useful to Castle builders unless you plan on adding some giants to your layout, but also the Uruk-Hai swords, which I think will be much more appreciated by medieval fantasy builders. In LEGO Elves, the goblin king's wyvern Ashwing might be more appreciated by Castle builders than the previous Elves dragons since its design is more fearsome. That's not out until March, though.

http://brickset.com/sets/70594-1/The-Lighthouse-Siege has a good supply of bricks for making castle-like structures. The set is more of an Asian-style building but most of the parts aren't specialized for that purpose. You can check the inventory yourself to see if it suits your purposes.

Reality check: the existence of this concept art is PROOF of how deeply they cared about the reboot. Every one of these drawings was a step towards making the sets and animations the best they could be. And this is just a fraction of the concepts that they went through while developing the reboot. Many other mask designs, animation styles, character designs, story directions, etc. would have been tested before arriving on what seemed like the best choices. That doesn't mean that nothing could have turned out better, because LEGO is neither omniscient nor omnipotent. Sometimes what they think would be best turns out not to be. Other times what they think would be best just isn't practical for one reason or another and they have to try a different approach. But that has nothing to do with a lack of care or effort. It's just the reality of being a creator in a world that doesn't bend perfectly to your whims.

LEGO has posted another teaser, and confirmed a date for the final announcement: January 4th. Based on the new teaser I'm thinking it's going to be a new version of LEGO Mindstorms. The video appears to show some sort of Mindstorms sensor module. And that would make sense, since we are just about due for a new version. Previous installments have been released every three or four years on average (RCX in 1999, RCX 2.0 in 2001, NXT in 2006, NXT 2.0 in 2009, EV3 in 2013).

BZPower has posted the digital edition of the art book! Lots of stuff to love in there. It really makes me thankful for all the thought and hard work that went into these past two years of Bionicle. BZPower and BS01 have also both announced that they've received hard copies of the art book, but it's still up in the air how they'll be distributing them (raffles, contest prizes, or what-have-you).

Helpful insights, and you have a good point that other toy figures don't always put a lot of emphasis on articulation. In fact, critics of the mini-doll often compare them to Polly Pocket or Playmobil — which, despite having similar limits on their leg and arm movement, are pretty successful toys in their own right. Even for me, I've found typical play tends to have fairly low demands in terms of movement compared to stop motion… when playing with classic minifigures as a kid, I wouldn't necessarily be making their legs move individually. It's just too much work to do that every time I wanted a figure to take a step. More often, I'd sort of "hop" them from place to place, and the main purpose of moving the legs would be to change them from a sitting to a standing position, which mini-doll legs are fully capable of. If the amount of articulation were a tremendous issue for kids, I don't know if even the classic minifigure would be as beloved as it is. Truth be told, its movement is very limited, which becomes increasingly apparent as competitors like Mega Bloks, Kre-O, and Ionix introduce minifigures with ball-jointed shoulders and legs as well as other advantages in articulation over the minifigure. But I think the simplicity of the minifigure and mini-doll (limitations and all) is actually a part of their enduring charm. Mind you, I do like more articulated toys that you can put in lots of different poses. I would love if at some point LEGO released full-size "doll" sets, sort of analogous to the action figure/"constraction" sets that are generally aimed at boys. It's tricky to think of how best to realize this, though, since you'd want to maintain emphasis on creative building. To some AFOLs, even the existing Character and Creature Building System used in Bionicle sets is more specialized than they feel LEGO should be, and a more lifelike figure of similar height (i.e. with fewer hollow spaces) might demand parts with even more specific shaping. Even so, it's something I'd love to see, particularly considering the gorgeous character and costume designs in themes like LEGO Elves.

Thanks for the review! This is a unique and imaginative set that makes great use of brightly-colored basic bricks to recreate the show's iconic characters. I'm not an Adventure Time fan, but it's a good fit for the LEGO spirit of imagination. And perhaps if this sells well it might pave the way for other sets inspired by modern cartoons. I'd love a set of LEGO Steven Universe figures (whether as minifigs, brick-built figures, or some other format). There will always be people who think being judgmental snobs gives them the right to lash out at fans of sets and Ideas projects they don't care for. Perhaps after enough disappointments they'll learn some perspective. The LEGO Ideas team has done a great job delivering widely beloved sets, even if they haven't all been my cup of tea, and I'm glad to see that continue!

Finally got around to seeing Rogue One (loved it!), and I can say that it boosted my interest in the Baze Malbus and Chirrut Imwe buildable figures. They were both really likable characters, and the figures are really good likenesses of them. Both figures blend System and constraction to great effect for the neck/collar area of their costumes. They have a good selection of new recolors as well, even though some come with specialized printing or in limited quantities. The Shoretrooper has more interesting colors than many previous trooper-type sets, but has a number of somewhat specialized prints and a very specialized helmet. I still feel much more drawn to the figures with human faces, which seem to have more character and more versatility. Last year's Jyn Erso figure is also still somewhat appealing to me, and I haven't gotten it yet, but Baze and Chirrut have more interesting outfits, IMO. Also she's got that hat, which I can't even remember if she wore in the movie? Certainly she didn't for most of it. The head would have felt both more recognizable and more versatile without the hat. The main character I'm disappointed NOT to see as a buildable figure so far is Saw Gerrera, who would make for a very distinctive build.

A lot of stop-motion videos like this on the LEGO YouTube channel are commissioned from fan animators by the LEGO Group. It's quite possible that the person who made this one got an off-brand hat in their collection by accident (for instance, in a used lot).

I'm not sure what it would mean to translate that style to sets. The sets we got were already pretty intricate builds in their own right, and imitating Matt Betteker's concept art style kind of feels like it would make the individual pieces less versatile. Unless you just mean that you wish the sets had included more scenery instead of just figures. That could've been cool, I guess, even though it might've driven up the prices. The Facebook post says new "play experience", so there's no telling what it could be. It could just as easily be a new website or app as a new set or theme. Regardless, I don't think it really pertains to the 2016 Bionicle sets, so better to discuss that in its own topic.

To some extent I agree that Ninjago tends to repeat itself every now and then, but on the other hand, I feel like the sheer number of Ninjago sets means it can afford to do that. For instance, I bought the Skeleton Bike in 2011 and Kai's Blade Cycle in 2012, but skipped the Chain Cycle Ambush set last year and don't currently have Desert Lightning on my wish list, either. Furthermore, I skipped Destiny's Bounty and Ultra Sonic Raider in 2012 (in part because my younger brother got those sets), but did buy Final Flight of Destiny's Bounty last year and Ultra Stealth Raider this year. I don't have a problem skipping sets if they don't excite me or feel similar to something I already have, and as a kid I felt the same way (it honestly surprises me sometimes looking back and seeing how many sets from themes I enjoyed as a kid I didn't get). For every Ninjago set that comes out that feels like a concept we've seen before, there tend to be three or four that are more novel/original. On the other hand, if I were a newcomer to Ninjago and had missed those earlier bike sets, I might've felt much more excited for newer sets like them, and would appreciate them being available — sort of like how I felt about the Destiny's Bounty and USR redesigns. I agree, Destiny's Shadow is a pretty original idea for a set. As far as boats go, we've had the two versions of Destiny's Bounty and the speedboat and ghost ship from City of Stiix, but we haven't had a skiff/river boat like this, particularly one that flies! It looks like it'd be a great companion piece to Final Flight of Destiny's Bounty.

Well, that doesn't seem like a bad price to me at all! At the current exchange rate, $60 CAD is actually less than $50 USD.

Not sure whether it's even a product. The description of it as a "new play experience" is vague enough that it could just as easily be describing a new app or website.

Yep! Same with Nya's throwback outfit (which is otherwise only in the $120 Samurai X Cave Chaos set). Great little polybag set overall! EDIT: Also I notice that its floor layout matches up with this year's Wu-Cru Training Dojo polybag! It'd be really cool if they continue releasing polybags like this with different training equipment.

While there may not be a non-compete clause, LEGO generally does have their own concerns about introducing too many similar themes that might cannibalize each other's sales. I believe I've read comments from designers of themes like Space Police III, Alien Conquest, and Galaxy Squad about the challenge of making sure new space sets and themes aren't too "Star Wars-ish". If a new theme is too similar to an existing theme, there's a risk that instead of drawing in new audiences, it will just divide the existing audience up into smaller slices. All things considered, though, this should not be a huge concern as long as we're talking about individual Creator sets. LEGO Creator already has sets focusing on sci-fi subject matter like robots and mechs, and fantasy subject matter like monsters and dragons. I see no reason they couldn't extend that to include other LEGO Space subject matter like spaceships, moonbases, and moon rovers, or other LEGO Castle subject matter like castles, carriages, and siege engines. The bigger question is whether those sorts of sets would actually offer what LEGO Space and LEGO Castle fans feel like they're currently missing out on, or whether the limitations of the Creator theme would leave them feeling underwhelmed.

That's awesome! I hadn't heard about that. Definitely bumps that set up on my wanted list (which previously was mostly just the battle suits for the time being).

Found some short set descriptions on Brickmerge.de that shed light on some (not all) of the new character names: The goblin in 41181 is Roblin The squirrel in 41182 is Mr. Spry The Goblin King's dragon in 41184 is Ashwing The goblin in 41184 is Jimblin The bears in 41184 are Blubeary and Lil' Blu Some sites have started sharing pages from the German 2017 catalog so I'm hoping somebody soon shares a picture of the pages for LEGO Elves! In the past the catalogs have been one of the best sources for upcoming story info this time of year.

Yeah, I meant collar as in the collar of her shirt/blouse, not as in an accessory like a choker/necklace. I guess I wasn't very clear about that! Regardless, I appreciate that bit of design continuity there. The official color name is Titanium Metallic (or Pearl Dark Gray on BrickLink). And I agree, it's pretty nice!

This is pretty adorable! It reminds me a bit of the Fikou spiders from the early years of Bionicle.

Great review! I was really excited to see this set in more detail and you certainly delivered! It's possible that Ray's outfit change (from armor to an apron) was to make it more obvious that he's a blacksmith. Or perhaps the story will explain it somehow (like Kai and Nya encountering their parents after they've basically retired from fighting). I love that both Nya's outfit and Maya's echo Nya's previous outfits — both figures have Nya's classic collar design, and Maya's outfit also includes a similar style of armor to the original Samurai X figure and a similar skirt to the original Nya figure. It's also neat that all the figures in this set have back printing and dual expressions. The color schemes and decorations of the new ninja costumes are excellent. The time blades are a cool piece, and I quite like their two-colored design. It's also great to see a new copper color on the LEGO color palette (looking at that final picture I think it's fair to say it's not the classic 139 Copper that we're used to from older themes like Fantasy Era Castle, but rather a brighter copper). I guess we'll know for certain what it's called when the inventories for these sets are added to LEGO Customer Service. Buffmillion is great in concept (a huge metal golem animated by a bunch of small snakes), and alright in execution. The click hinge tail construction works better than I thought it would, although the stickered patterns on the front sort of start and stop abruptly, leading me to wonder whether there could've been any way to make them feel more continuous. Its upper body also might've felt more continuous if it could've used some piece like this instead of abruptly expanding from two studs wide to four studs wide between the upper and lower body. The elemental fusion dragon may not be too groundbreaking in terms of building techniques but I still think it is a very impressive dragon in its own right. The heads, while somewhat basic compared to other recent dragons, still look great, and the way the colors twist around the midsection is delightful. My biggest disappointment is the way the wings are mounted, but I understand it might've been hard to mount them differently and still give them enough friction to hold a pose, considering their size. While those flap pieces used for the wings have been used on several other dragons, I still think this dragon's wings are very distinctive in their own right due to the combination of those pieces and larger plates. The forge itself is brilliantly constructed, and personally I don't think it looks so bad from the back and sides. Even the open top doesn't distract from the overall beauty of its design. It's packed with all kinds of great imagery associated with Kai, Nya, and their elements… the orange and blue gems on the sword hilts in the front, the orange and blue plates underneath the two anvils, the fusion blade, the chimney stickers, and their symbols on the wall scrolls. I'm glad to see that the chimney gets four different stickers and that they all look excellent. The chimney function is quite distinctive, although it's disappointing to learn that the gears are prone to jamming. The trading card, interestingly, is based on the Boomerang battle card rather than the Samurai X character card. It has a different power level, (SP300 rather than SP200), but it can still be identified as a battle card due to having only one set of colored bars rather than four, and as the Boomerang card specifically by Samurai X's pose. I'm glad they've kept these easter eggs going, as I have a lot of nostalgia for that card/spinner game. I kind of wish they could bring it back for real in some form. Great review overall. Thank you for providing such excellent pictures and descriptions! There's no doubt that this set offers an excellent value at $80. I don't really plan on purchasing anything this big for myself until after Christmas, but I'm definitely looking forward to adding it to my collection!