Aanchir

I'm sure it might be doable, but it wouldn't be very efficient since at this scale you couldn't just use the same head mold for all the characters (unlike with, say, minifigures). So you'd be effectively doubling the number of unique molds needed for each character. Also, with a character like Rey whose headgear fits really snug against her head, having a separate headgear piece could result in it looking awkward and bulky. At that point you might as well just have two separate heads (one with headgear and one without) and swap them out. I'm not bothered by Rey's gear mechanism.

Oh my gosh, Airjitzu Battle Grounds is better than I could ever have hoped for! :D Sensei Yang, two of his pupils, new Airjitzu launching mechanisms, AND Airjitzu versions of Lloyd and Nya! Pinch me, I'm dreaming! It's a beautiful looking set to boot!

I think those alternate sorts of volcanoes would have a hard time fitting in LEGO City for the same reason we're unlikely to ever see a Bright Yellow or Bright Yellowish Green fire engine in LEGO City: they don't fit the iconic image kids have of what those things are supposed to look like. Even if more variety is realistic, it's not authentic to how kids see those things in media. Plus, having so many different types of volcanoes might make the theme less cohesive since you'd be somewhat unlikely to see that such varied geology all in extremely close proximity — with the current range it's easy to imagine all the volcano sets in one specific area of LEGO City, but to get as many types of volcanoes as you're describing they might have to be spread across a whole island chain or mountain range. The lack of a base camp set could have to do with the fact that fixed volcano research stations are generally situated a bit of a distance from the volcanic activity (out of necessity; you wouldn't want a research center to be right in the path of an eruption), whereas mobile research stations can more easily get right up close to where the action is. A fixed research center would thus be a lot less appealing to kids than one with built-in action play potential.

There's a "non-ultimate" version of Lavaria appearing next in Jestro's Volcano Lair, which comes out next month. That version has the same face and legs but lacks the cracked lava pattern on her torso. Since you didn't really like the lava pattern on the torso I figure you might appreciate that!

I don't really have any preference between mini-dolls and minifigures. I think the actual "built" portions of the Elves sets are generally strong enough designs that they would be good buys no matter what type of figures they include! I don't think there are any Elves sets I'd really consider "duds". Nothing of the sets' playability or display value is really lost if you swap the mini-dolls out for minifigures, other than the ability to fit two characters side by side in the front or back of the Pegasus Sleigh. I think the mini-dolls themselves can be surprisingly lovable once you have your hands on them. They have all kinds of great molded and printed details, and feel considerably more "lifelike" than minifigures (and a good match to the human-like characters used in the theme's promotional material). Proportion-wise, they're about the size of a generic battle droid from LEGO Star Wars — in fact, the battle droid torso, arms, and legs could make a good mini-doll android. And of course, their hair and hand-held accessories are fully compatible with classic minifigures (capes, unfortunately, are not, due to the mini-doll's thinner neck stud). Even if you just think of them as a "novelty" rather than a part of an actual collection, I think they do add to the sets.

Mind you, 76056 is maybe 40% vehicle and 60% scenery, whereas 70589 is like 90% vehicle and 10% scenery. So even though they're the same price point, it's not really fair to compare them based on the vehicle portions alone. There is a marked difference in complexity, though — 76056 is aimed at ages 6–12, while 70589 is aimed at ages 8–14. The target age range for Ninjago sets generally skews higher than the target age range for DC Super Heroes sets of the same size, aside from D2C sets (76023 The Tumbler is aimed higher than any Ninjago set even though 70751 Temple of Airjitzu is the same price with more pieces — probably due to the Tumbler's heavier use of Technic and large number of hinged segments).

Good for you! I got to go to Billund twice last year and had a fantastic time. :) Hope you do as well, and can bring us back some interesting info!

Zusammengebaut posted a showing the Heartlake Performance School box in detail!The school bus opens from the top and left side, and seats one driver and four passengers. The school rooms include a downstairs atrium/hallway with lockers and a cafeteria, a second floor bathroom, classroom, and a third smaller room I can't quite identify (computer lab?), and a third floor performance area. The school as a whole feels a bit more sparsely furnished than Heartlake High, though I suppose that's partly due to just how much more floor space there is to fill (around one and a half times as much). It's worth noting that there's a cafeteria table on the back of the box that's just sitting outside — maybe if it were placed inside the place wouldn't feel as empty.

Most colors that changed significantly in 2004 actually aren't still referred to as the same color. For instance, "classic light gray" was 2 Grey, "light bluish gray" is 194 Medium Stone Grey. "Classic brown" was 25 Earth Orange, "reddish brown" is 194 Reddish Brown. "classic pink" was 9 Light Reddish Violet, "bright pink" is 222 Light Purple. Generally, when a LEGO mold is replaced just from being worn out, it keeps the same Design ID. However, I don't know if it would be the same for a remake of mold that's been out of use for years. It's hard to determine from past examples without knowing which re-introduced parts were literally replacements of previously destroyed molds and which were merely old molds taken out of storage. It's also tough to determine because when parts are actually redesigned slightly, sometimes they keep their previous Design ID and other times they do not, and I do not know what conditions determine this.

LEGO Ninjago Magazine issue 1 from 2015 used stock art of Kai ZX from 2012 on its cover, and LEGO Star Wars Magazine issue 1 from this year used art of the Clone Wars version of Yoda, who hasn't been in a set since 2013. So I don't think the publishers of these magazines are overly concerned with the timeliness of their cover art. They probably just want to start each series off with an iconic character, and Tahu Master of Fire (who was used extensively in last year's promotional imagery) fit the bill for the Bionicle theme. Side note: that Skull Scorpio mini-model doesn't really look like a Skull Scorpio at all. Might be more a case of poor naming than poor design, though. If you want it in the United States you're definitely going to have to import it. After all, if they wanted to bring any of these magazines to this country they'd probably start with the more popular themes like Ninjago, Star Wars, and Friends.

That wouldn't surprise me, honestly, given that a) they're polybags and b) some of Supergirls parts appeared in the LEGO Customer Service inventory for at least one of the Starter Packs. It could potentially be distributed as some kind of gift-with-purchase. As polybags, no matter how they are distributed, they will probably be more limited than the regular retail fun packs — but people have panicked about polybags before (shirtless Darth Maul at NYTF 2012 and classic Mr. Freeze at NYTF 2016 being two examples that come to mind), and I don't know if they've ever ended up remaining exclusive to one in-person event. Sets that are truly exclusive to one specific event like Comic-Con, Toy Fair, and the LEGO Inside Tour are generally marked with the name of the event, because if you're giving people something they could not have gotten except by being at that event, why not let them know that?

Well, in the Force Awakens wave, at least, the characters without armor were much more interesting sets than the ones with it (Rey being perhaps my favorite of the entire Star Wars constraction range so far), so that doesn't worry me at all. That's not to say armor itself is bad, but a lot of armor in Star Wars tends to be fairly bland and monochrome. Of course, there are exceptions to that, like Boba Fett or Sabine Wren or certain more specialized clone troopers, who have nice colorful armor. I wouldn't mind if Rogue One had some more characters like that (in the picture linked above, one guy is wearing what appears to be red armor, and I could really dig that). But I don't really feel drawn to characters like the First Order Stormtrooper, Captain Phasma, and Kylo Ren who wear fairly generic trooper armor in all one neutral color. I also generally prefer non-helmeted characters to helmeted ones. A Star Wars helmet is generally just going to stand out as a Star Wars helmet no matter what sort of MOC you use it on. An actual human head sculpt can be used for all sorts of different sci-fi and fantasy characters. Sadly I still have yet to use Finn or Obi-Wan's head sculpts in MOCs (in fact, I haven't made many MOCs at all this year… ), but I still would love to have more variety of human head sculpts for MOCing purposes.

Yep, same as all CMFs. What specific quality issues have you encountered?

I mean, not really. It'd just cost around as much as a new mold of similar complexity. For the LEGO Group's standards of quality, that tends to be upwards of $20,000 per mold. When certain molds wear out that haven't become irrelevant/obsolete (like basic building elements or minifigure parts), LEGO generally DOES go ahead and replace them. But things like 2001 Bionicle masks and weapons or old monorail track are probably never going to show up again — not when that kind of money could be better spent on new part designs.

Looking great! Darnit, now I'm a bit bummed out that I didn't wait a day to report on the description for BZPower! I feel kinda bad about flooding them with Ninjago news this past week and not reporting a lot on other themes.

I think he meant "why do we have to wait until all the other store exclusive sets have been revealed to see Airjitzu Battle Grounds?" Very neat info! I don't particularly care if the book is canon, because I've enjoyed the other chapter books and graphic novels regardless of canon or non-canon status. Though hopefully it won't outright contradict the canon story.

I don't know about more expensive with each new wave, because when you factor for inflation it's kind of astonishing how high the price per piece really is on some of those older sets. 7190 Millennium Falcon from 2000 was 663 pieces, six figs, and 1936 grams for $100, which today would be around $143. 75105 Millennium Falcon from last year was 1329 pieces (around twice as many), seven figs, and 2244 grams for $150. Likewise, 4477 T-16 Skyhopper from 2003 was 98 parts, one fig, and 212 grams for $15, which today would be around $20. 75081 T-16 Skyhopper from last year was $25 for 247 pieces (two and a half times as many), two figs, and 428.5 grams for $25. So yes, prices have gone up somewhat, but by just about any metric, the contents of the new sets are a better value dollar for dollar. I collected the classic LEGO Star Wars sets as a kid myself, but things like this just make me feel like I got into it at entirely the wrong time. Granted, these are U.S. prices. I don't know what those classic sets cost in euros. Back on-topic, I'm glad the videos posted yesterday finally show us just what it looks like to convert General Magmar's Siege Machine from tank mode to tower mode. It's a nice, smooth transition. The summer lineup looks great overall!

Branding-wise, it'd be in the same category as 40165, 40155, 40154, 40153, and 40118. Brickset just calls these "miscellaneous". I'm not sure how LEGO refers to them internally. On shop.LEGO.com they're tagged as "home", but so are "themed" products like last year's Pirates Chess Set (which, notably, was numbered in sequence with these) and various extended-line products like magnets or drinking cups.

Oddly enough Barnes and Noble prices (at least at my local store) seem to be below RRP... but only by a few cents. For instance, LEGO.com's price for Tahu is $19.99, while my local Barnes and Noble has him for $19.95. However, from my experience, other than old sets that they put on clearance, a lot of their sales and deals (like the 20% off coupons they send you in the mail if you have a B&N membership) don't apply to LEGO purchases.

I've loved Ninjago since the start, but even when it was rumored to be ending in 2013 it didn't especially bother me, because it had told a solid story and I was lucky enough to have gotten to experience it from the beginning. The same will be true if they reboot it: I will have been lucky enough to experience the original continuity from beginning to end. The Ninjago movie is not coming as a surprise, so if it does launch a new continuity, it won't mean the original continuity being cut short before the writers have a chance to finish telling the story they've set out to tell. As for the quality of a rebooted storyline: if it has the same writers then I see no reason to be concerned. Perhaps there might be things they might choose to do differently in a reboot, now that they've seen how things turned out the first time. But these are writers who understand the world and its characters. It wouldn't be a case like the recent Powerpuff Girls reboot where the writers are trying to reinvent something that was not their invention to begin with. With the same writers at the helm, a rebooted Ninjago storyline could arguably even start off stronger than it did at the outset. Since this is the sets topic it'd be a mistake not to mention the sets, and I see no reason why a storyline reboot would impact those negatively. We've seen the Ninjago sets improve by leaps and bounds since the theme began, and a rebooted storyline could make the current quality of set designs its starting point. There's no reason to think a storyline reboot that picks up right where the original storyline left off would mean a changing of hands among set designers any more than among the writers. And even if there were a change in leadership, some of the newest members of the Ninjago design team like Nicolaas Vas have proven themselves to be immensely qualified designers in their own right. All in all, reboot or no reboot, the quality of recent Ninjago sets and storylines leads me to believe its future is pretty well secured.

Not up to trying to build this right now, but just using a bit of math to see if it CAN be done... Let's call the area of each of the gaps you're trying to fill "x". The smallest space you can fill with one brick/plate is a 1x1 plate, with an area of 10x. The area of any basic brick, plate, or tile (viewed from the side) is a multiple of 10x. The area of any brick, plate, or tile viewed from the top is a multiple of 25x. Clearly, using just basic bricks or plates you can't fill two spaces with a net area of 2x. In fact, even a headlight brick has a net area of 25x (30x with a 5x cutout). So you'd have to change the size or shape of the outline you're trying to fill if you want the shape to be entirely without gaps. If you're building a GBC module I'd say just don't worry about tiny gaps like this. They're small enough that they shouldn't affect the function, so they're really just a cosmetic issue.

I find Toys 'R' Us and Barnes and Noble to be the most reliable for Bionicle sets, though Toys 'R' Us prices are sometimes (not always) marked up.

That new battle pack looks pretty cool! The white figure is definitely Zane, because it has Zane's special power source. In fact, if I'm reading the label right (and I might not be, since it's very blurry), it is in fact Tournament Zane. Pretty neat! This would be the second time a ninja has gotten a costume that corresponds to one they never wore in the show, after Lloyd DX from the 2014 Target minifigure cube!

Probably depends on the size of the mailbox. In the sort of mailboxes I'm used to here in the United States, one of those bags would fit just fine.

Well, Hachette Book Group (the parent company of the publisher, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) doesn't have it listed on their website, and they do have Ninjago and Friends graphic novels for months to come listed. It wouldn't surprise me if the Bionicle graphic novels aren't doing as well as the Ninjago or Friends graphic novels, because it was sort of the odd duck in Little, Brown's LEGO graphic novel lineup to begin with. When the new line of LEGO graphic novels was announced, Ninjago and Friends had been selling like hotcakes for years, while Bionicle had only been back on shelves for three months after being effectively a non-entity in the toy and media industries for four and a half years. That all said, GK733 is right, if it was known to be cancelled back in December of last year, then the decision would've been made before the first Bionicle graphic novel was even out, so it wouldn't likely have been affected by either the graphic novel sales nor by the sales of this year's sets. Some other things to note: First, I think the Bionicle graphic novels might have been the only LEGO graphic novels by Little, Brown so far that had wholly original illustrations and stories. The Friends and Ninjago graphic novels so far are all illustrated by Blue Ocean (a German periodical publisher) and I believe they may merely be compilations of comics from the European LEGO Ninjago and LEGO Friends monthly magazines. So the Bionicle graphic novels probably cost considerably more to make. Second, besides the regular LEGO Ninjago graphic novels "Ghost Ninja" and "From Ghosts to Pirates" coming out this year, there's also a new series called LEGO Ninjago Dark Island Trilogy, written by Greg Farshtey and illustrated by Paul Lee (who previously worked together on one of the Ninjago graphic novels from Papercutz). Maybe this series absorbed the writing and illustration budget that would have been used for further LEGO Bionicle graphic novels?