Aanchir

Also, while the liftarm construction of Bruizer's arm limited posability, it also made sense since it meant you didn't have to "reset" the position of the arm every time you bashed something with it. His function was fairly compact instead of the mechanism sticking off the body as awkwardly as Quake Beast's. And yes, Bruizer's face was goofy. To me, that was an asset, not a flaw. It had a lot of the same charm that I loved from the Power Miners rock monsters. Quake Beast also has other faults, like his function's lack of range, and the annoying tendency to bash himself in the head with his own shoulder armor. Overall, Quake Beast has some good ideas to his design, like his more dwarfish stature, bestial leg construction, and having his one overgrown arm almost entirely covered in crystals. But although simpler, Bruizer's design felt a lot more effective to me.

Not quite — Bowser and Donkey Kong have previously been released as both Amiibo and Skylanders SuperChargers figures.

Kinda disappointing that we're not getting Ron and Hermione (unless one of those two packs turns out to be a team pack, but it's more likely to be a level pack and a fun pack or two fun packs). What sort of mini-build would Voldemort have, I wonder? I guess it'd be a creature like Nagini or something, because he isn't really associated with any sorts of vehicles. Harry's mini build would probably just be the Hogwarts Express. If they did additional packs for Ron and Hermione, the Weasleys' Ford Anglia and the Knight Bus could both be potential vehicles.

Do you seriously believe a person can't like stickers for SOME things without wanting stickers for EVERYTHING? That's ludicrous. It's like arguing that transparent pieces suck because nobody wants all minifig torsos to be transparent, or that unprinted parts suck because nobody wants all minifig torsos to be unprinted, or that glow-in-the-dark parts suck because nobody wants all minifigure torsos to be glow-in-the-dark, or that rubber parts suck because nobody wants all minifigure torsos to be rubber. Now do you see how silly your post sounds?

I seem to remember a lot of LEGO Universe TV commercials! And LEGO Worlds isn't an MMO so shouldn't face a lot of the same challenges that LEGO Universe and LEGO Minifigures Online did. One way that LEGO Worlds has been promoted is via a building contest on LEGO Rebrick. In fact, that was the very first contest they ran when they relaunched the site.

I love Umarak's new design — it's like the Ganon to the previous Umarak's Ganondorf. It does a great job signifying Umarak transformed by the Mask of Control's power into a form befitting the darkness in his heart. A lot of the Hunter's design cues, like his leg, foot, and torso construction, are still evident here, but pushed to monstrous extremes. And the "Ultimate Umarak" combi model pushes those same design elements (claws, feet, torso volume) even further. I don't see what you mean about the claw function having "no friction at all". The friction pins used to attach the thumb are more than strong enough to hold the claws open or closed, from my experience. I don't think they really need any more friction than that since compared to Ekimu's hammer or a lot of last year's Bionicle weapons, the weight of the claws is negligible (though some added friction might make more sense on the combi model, since its claws do struggle to stay open against gravity). I also agree with some of the other commenters that the Bohrok eyes on the underside make it fairly easy to open and close the claws, so I don't think any other sort of "switch" is necessary. There are admittedly some weaknesses to the design. Like all the beasts, he suffers from his lower jaw matching his chest plate more closely than it matches his upper jaw. While it being Titanium Metallic makes some sense (matching the unifying Shadow Trap motif of all this year's enemies), it has an unfortunate tendency to blend in with the chest. I also agree with Jetrax99 that the horns might've been stronger if the angle connectors had been recolored to Warm Gold, though this set already has three new molds and four recolors, so I can understand if that was over budget. The gaps in the neck are also kind of unfortunate, as is the neck's general rigidness. As a parts pack, Umarak the Destroyer main boast is being the first set to have more than one of the "ribcage shells", which is still rare in all colors, and generally having the highest piece count of any Bionicle G2 set to date. Overall, whether or not he's the titan set people were waiting for, he's very definitely a titan set. He's around as large by weight and piece count as Makuta, Brutaka, or Axonn, and has considerably more pieces than Icarax, Hydraxon, or Nidhiki. Plus, unlike some recent parts-intensive CCBS sets like Evo XL Machine, Surge & Rocka Combat Machine, and even Umarak the Hunter, Umarak the Destroyer doesn't have any tiny ammo pieces inflating his piece count. While he's a little gappy, he's still certifiably huge and fearsome. It'll be interesting to see how the 2017 sets can manage to up the ante!

Looks to me like it's just teasing that the new sets will appear in the September issue of the magazine, and it's just phrased a bit confusingly so it sounds like it could be talking about the sets themselves being out in September.

Really neat MOC! I'm kind of surprised you have two samurai in black masks instead of one in Zane's silver mask. Curious what your reasons for that were, but it doesn't detract from the model. The horse barding is nice but I'm also really liking the little bit of landscaping you did. If this scene were displayed on a flat baseplate it wouldn't be nearly so impressive. But the curved slopes are enough to make it feel more like actual scenery and less like a mere display base. It'd be cool if LEGO made some new tall, narrow flags like those ones they had in the classic ninja sets! Lately they've been getting good mileage out of standard flag pieces, tiles, etc, but those old-school ninja flags were pretty neat in their own right.

There are no commercials yet because LEGO hasn't finished developing it yet — it's still in "early access" (sort of an open beta). LEGO probably doesn't want to advertise an incomplete product. Once it's finished in "early access", then we can expect to start seeing more advertisement, especially as it gets released on more platforms.

I find an even easier way to attach those fans to an axle is to just use a typical Ø30mm tire and a corresponding wheel. Seems to offer more than enough friction to function without slipping.

I like stickers and find them enjoyable to put on. I'm not bothered by large stickers as long as they line up with the edges of a part (generally with a 1mm or so margin on each side). Applying stickers with round edges on a part with straight edges can be kind of obnoxious especially if there are no obvious markings to make it easier to line it up straight — a good example is the tail stickers on Benny's Spaceship. They're cut in the shape of the Classic Space logo instead of the shape of the pieces they go on, so lining them up the same on all four fins was really tricky.

I was wondering why I hadn't seen this topic recently. Why in the world was this moved to Culture and Multimedia? Shouldn't it have been moved to LEGO Media and Gaming? Glad to see so many endorsements, though. I felt like Tournament of Elements was a strong season for the most part, but I felt like it had one of the weaker finales. A bit disjointed IMO.

It's not a Krazi look-alike, it's the actual Krazi in a new costume. And he's probably there because Samukai isn't a part of this current wave, even if he may be appearing in this story arc.

I think the masks that come with the beasts look great. Tahu's especially, since it has great contrast. I haven't tried seeing what they look like on the corresponding Toa yet, but I can see them looking amazing on MOCs! The colors do seem a bit peculiar story-wise, considering that at this point of the story (midway through the year) the Toa already have their golden masks, so you'd think the masks the beasts steal from them would be recognizable as such. That said, the differently colored masks with Tr. Flu. Green blends do a good job conveying a feeling of corruption/sickness.

New key visual from the instruction manuals! Hope we get a downloadable poster version of this one soon!

I've been loving 2016. The Ninjago, Nexo Knights, and Elves designs this year have been outstanding, and while this year's Bionicle sets don't wow me quite as much as last year's, they're still better by leaps and bounds than the old-school Bionicle sets in a lot of ways. Other themes I'm not so committed to collecting that have really wowed me this year include Technic, Creator, City, Mixels, Ghostbusters, Minecraft, Marvel Super Heroes, and even Angry Birds. I'm not even a real fan of Angry Birds, but who'd have thought their rickety, ramshackle feeling and wacky cartoon action could translate so well to LEGO? Really the only theme this year that I think has been pretty "meh" is Disney Princess, and I've felt the same way about it for a while now. So I feel like LEGO is still doing a pretty good job bringing forth imaginative and well-developed sets, even if some of them (especially City and Star Wars sets) can be pretty pricy.

I was about to say just this. Those two sets are great designs and offer some of the most desirable figs for the story arc they tie in with. If you're not deeply invested in Ninjago then there's no need to worry about getting every ninja variant. And unlike licensed figs, which can command a heavy premium in the aftermarket, Ninjago minifigures that appear in smaller sets don't tend to be tremendously expensive on BrickLink, should you ever decide you want to fill in the gaps in your collection. Even as a die-hard Ninjago fan I don't mind missing out on sets I'm not so psyched about (like last year's Jay Walker One, Chain Cycle Ambush, and Blaster Bike) if I can get the figs by other means. Also, if Ninjago's not your top priority, there's no need to rush. Sets as big as these two tend to stick around for a while and sometimes even get marked down later on in their life, so you could just keep an eye on them in anticipation of a sale or deal that makes it worthwhile to take the plunge.

My brother suggested something like that and then I joked that that'd make him "the e-book of monsters".

There was never a time that Hero Factory sets weren't supplied to LEGO stores. But taking Bionicle sets off the shelves of some stores reminds me of the time in 2011 when constraction parts were briefly on the Pick-A-Brick wall but then removed because average customers didn't understand them. The Star Wars constraction sets are priced even higher, though, and they seem to be doing alright (for now). For that matter, System themes are routinely priced much higher than Bionicle. This year every Bionicle set is $25 or less. The average price of a set is $15.58. For comparison's sake, in this summer's new Ninjago wave, the only way to get all six ninja in their new "throwback" costumes is to buy a $100 set and a $120 set. In last year's Ninjago range, the cheapest way to get all six ninja in their "deepstone" costumes was to buy the $200 Temple of Airjitzu. Compared to that, $110 to get the six main Bionicle characters doesn't seem outrageous. The buy-in price for Bionicle is still extremely low compared to most other LEGO themes. Some people will blame recent things they dislike for Bionicle's decline. The CCBS, for example, or the simpler story. But Bionicle's declining sales are not unique to the reboot. Considering that both G1 Bionicle and Hero Factory experienced declining sales throughout their lifespans (and declining search interest, when you look at Google Trends, I have to wonder if what we've been seeing isn't just a steady decline of relevance for the entire constraction category. I have certainly had doubts about that over the years due to the LEGO Group's continuing efforts to expand the constraction category, not to mention the Star Wars constraction sets' strong performance. But even those haven't been around long enough to know for sure if that's more than a momentary spike. In contrast, System themes have experienced steady popularity over the years, despite being largely unsuccessful in the early years of Bionicle. It makes me wonder if the success of Bionicle in the early years might've hinged on a lack of other strong LEGO products to compete with. This would explain why many LEGO stores now have a hard time selling Bionicle. People who come in aren't just choosing whether or not to buy Bionicle. They're choosing whether to buy Bionicle or other LEGO themes.

All the printed elements from the minifigure cubes have remained exclusive to those, and I don't expect that to change. Chances are that parts made especially for promotional minifigures like the ones in those cubes are made in shorter production runs than typical minifigure parts. However, I do agree that sooner or later they should get around to making Kai a new face with dual expressions for his standard set appearances. The old 2011 face print is starting to feel kind of stale, especially since it's the classic Ninjago face that feels least accurate to the character's appearance in the show. On another note: I'm kind of disappointed that it's still not standard to get both headgear and hair for ninja characters. When the Final Flight of Destiny's Bounty set had both headgear and hair I hoped that might be a sign of things to come, but since then every set has had just one or the other. I am grateful that we're finally getting Zane's hair in silver in two sets this year, though, so at least all the ninja's hair pieces exist once more.

Good review! I'm looking forward to picking up this set as it has good figures and is a fantastic upgrade to the Ultra Sonic Raider. That's not to say it's flawless. The Ultra Sonic Raider's flyer had more vanes for the wings, which made the upper flier portion feel more flightworthy even if it wasn't so streamlined. Also, the sheer novelty of "ammo belts full of knives" will be missed. But it makes up for all that in my eyes by the fact that it now separates into four vehicles instead of two! The transformation function of the center "bike" module in particular was an amazing surprise. And as a whole, none of the modules feel "incomplete" when separated, compared to the last version of the USR where the lower module was quite bare-bones and insubstantial without the flyer attached. Out of curiosity, how much space is there in the cockpits of the center bike and flyer modules? Would it be possible to seat two minifigures in each so you could have all six ninja in the vehicle? Or is there only space for the four ninja who come in this set? The windscreens in this set are large, larger even than the windscreens of the original USR which COULD sit all four ninja, so sort of a shame if they didn't take advantage of that. If not, it would be cool for Lloyd and Nya to get their own special vehicle in the future! The stickers and prints for the new USR look great, incorporating the symbols of all four ninja just as they did on the last version (though the bubble cockpits look like they could use a second coat of white ink). Using the printed tiles from the Airjitzu sets to identify which module goes with which ninja is a nice touch, and the subtle red and blue accents on the two tread-bikes take that even further. All in all, the design feels a lot more advanced and less ramshackle than it did in the past, which makes sense since we haven't seen it in a long time and I'm sure Nya has been tinkering with it in her spare time for the past three seasons! Another nice feature of the old USR that this one lacks was storage for each ninja's signature weapon. However, the ninja haven't really had their own signature weapons for a few seasons now. I kind of wish they would return to using distinct weapons more often in the sets and show (a sword for Kai, shurikens for Zane, nunchucks for Jay, a scythe for Cole, daggers for Nya, and I guess dual swords for Lloyd). Speaking of weapons, the new design for the villains' weapons in this wave is quite neat and spooky. Nothing so far has really clued us in about what they signify but it really adds to the whole "throwback" feel of this current wave. The Chenosaurus is clever, and quite nice to get since the Anacondrai faction in the first half of 2015 didn't have a whole lot of vehicles to call their own. The snake motif is kind of lost due to its dinosaur-like gait, which is sort of a shame since Fangpyre Mech in 2012 actually had arms yet still felt more snake-like due to its oversized head and the grafted-on look of its mechanical arms and legs. But it's still a cool and slightly goofy design, which suits Chen nicely. What's really most amazing is that we're finally getting Chen's chair in a set, since it was an iconic part of LEGO Ninjago Season 4 but never appeared in the Tournament of Elements sets. I only have one minor disappointment with that, which is that it would've been really nice if it had stickers on the arm rests to represent all of Chen's beloved buttons! The ninja's new costumes look fantastic. They're a great throwback to their previous costumes especially their original and ZX suits. The printed sword holders on the back are nice details which go well with their new shoulder armor/sword holder accessory (which, I must say, looks really cool in Silver Metallic and Dark Brown). These are the first versions of the ninja in a while not to use their secondary symbols that appear on the Airjitzu tiles and cockpit patterns in this very set, but I'm not bothered by it. The new face prints for Jay and Cole look great. Now it's just Kai who needs updated face prints! It's kind of peculiar that Chen is the only character in the entire wave who uses exactly the same design as he did in his original appearance, especially since he's the one character who we SAW transform in the show! Kind of a disappointment that he didn't get a new Anacondrai design with a purple skin tone, since all it would take is new face and torso prints. Eyezorai looks different than he did in the show. The lack of a mohawk is kind of expected (that was sort of silly that he kept that in the show to begin with), but his outfit is also totally different than the one the human version of him wore. He's also got legs instead of a tail, but I don't mind that as it always seemed odd to me that all the Anacondrai in the sets and show had snake tails, whereas only the generals of the other Serpentine tribes had snake tails. Even though he's lost his leather jacket, he did keep his signature snake-tooth necklace and metal eye, which I appreciate. And we can't forget Sensei Yang! He and the lantern he carries appear to be very important to this season due to their prominence in promotional materials, along with Sensei Yang's Temple of Airjitzu. Sensei Yang has a special connection with Cole, this story arc's main character, since he's the one who turned Cole into a ghost. I am fairly sure that will be important to this story arc. Yang's design looks slightly different here than it did in his previous appearance in the show, but I think the new design is better, with a cool belt and an ectoplasm trail to really capture his ghostliness. His lantern, including the new tassel element, is a very nice design. Great review overall! Thank you for showing us this set in such detail!

Neat to have confirmation that Cole's head piece is yellow. I wasn't sure whether it was yellow or some other color like Tr. Green or Tr. Flu. Green with yellow printing. Eyezorai looks pretty great, even if he looks very different than he did in the show. It's neat to have an Anacondrai who doesn't have a snake tail, since it struck me as odd that all the ones in the Tournament of Elements sets did… I guess they wanted to get a lot of use out of the snake tail mold to justify keeping it in production, as well as to make the difference between the human and Anacondrai forms of those characters as striking as possible. But I really liked how the classic Serpentine had different traits for different ranks. I think Jay's new expressions really suit him, myself! Now Kai's the only character still using his default one-sided head from 2011. He could use an update, though I'm not sure if they'd want to keep his scar (so the sets have more continuity) or get rid of it (so the sets are more consistent with the show). I mean, really, the best way to do both would be to just give him a scar in the show, but showing that on screen might be a bit too violent. :P Loving these new ninja costumes. They may not have the rad elemental effects of the Techno robes, but they are still a great throwback to the characters' classic and ZX costumes. And it's nice that they're all tying their belts differently. I like that sort of detail. It's kind of weird that Chen is the only villain character not to have gotten a new design. It would've been cool if they'd maybe given him a new face to represent the Anacondrai version of him.

Oh, adorable! I love that it can sit on his arm! Great use of System parts for its head as well, and its color scheme is reasonably coherent. Really nice!

The LEGO Elves site updated today! Mostly it's just reorganizing the content on the front page, but that comes with some AMAZING new art! Emily vs. Ragana Ragana Elandra in captivity Aira and Fledge Naida and the water dragon egg Azari and the Book of Dragons

Awesome news! Thank you for sharing! It's kind of funny — I think the LEGO Ninjago and LEGO Friends graphic novels from Little, Brown so far (other than the upcoming LEGO Ninjago Dark Island Trilogy) have been adaptations of the comics from the European magazines. This is the first instance I know where it's been the other way around. Well, aside from some of the old Ninjago magazines from 2012, which I believe had comics adapted from the Papercutz graphic novels. August 11th, huh? I guess this means the magazine will be roughly bi-monthly, like LEGO Club Magazine is in the United States. That's not as often as the LEGO Friends, Nexo Knights, Ninjago, and Star Wars magazines. But it's still more often than the LEGO Elves magazines, which are semi-annually. I guess it depends somewhat on the size of the theme. Is there a picture showing what Ekimu's Hawk will look like? I'm used to those kinds of teasers appearing in the other magazines. Thanks for keeping us informed!