Aanchir

The other day my brother and I started watching Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir. It's a lot of fun, if a bit formulaic at times. Unfortunately as soon as we got through the first twelve episodes on YouTube we learned that the show's presently on hiatus in the U.S., but the creators confirmed on Twitter that it's not pulled or cancelled, so that's good. Looking forward to more episodes! Now that Adventure Time is going to be getting a LEGO Ideas set, I really ought to stop putting off watching it. I've been meaning to for years now, but always manage to find some excuse not to.

It's a fairly surreal American adventure-comedy cartoon on Cartoon Network. It's very popular with kids and adults, has gotten lots of praise from critics, and has won a pretty impressive number of awards. It takes place in the magical Land of Ooo and stars Finn the Human, an adventuring boy, and Jake the Dog, his talking, shape-shifting companion. I'm kinda surprised how many people aren't aware of it, since I'm not even really a fan of it (never seen a full episode) and yet I've run into references to it on a pretty regular basis. On the other hand, I'd never heard of the Caterham Super Seven before these results were announced. I guess it's probably more well-known in Great Britain or among car buffs. It's a very well-designed project, though. I can see it becoming a cool set. Congrats to both project creators!

They're not fake, even if they don't qualify as sets. They're just as real/official as any other LEGO licensed products like the storage bricks, display cases, and lunch boxes. They look pretty great too! I love that they actually imitate the trapezoidal minifigure shape instead of just being form-fitting, and that they even include shaped "gloves" to make your hands look like minifigure hands! The printed faces are also spot-on. I wonder what other character costumes might be available later this year.

Don't forget the blended flame pieces used by Tahu, Narmoto, and Ikir! Those are one of the most plentiful Tr. Red constraction parts in recent years, even if they're blended. Also Barraki eyes, which have used that color in Bionicle G1, Hero Factory, and even Bionicle G2. In that case, I honestly wouldn't mind if the piece were used more plentifully in fluorescent colors, though non-fluorescent colors are probably more versatile in non-constraction themes since they are good colors for colored lightbulbs. I like Transparent Red, but generally not as an eye color... which is what it's most often been used as in constraction. It doesn't really glow very well. It may work alright for figures like the Bohrok, Vahki, Shadow Traps, and some Rahi where the eyes bulge out from the face, but generally not for characters who wear masks and thus really need the eyes to glow for the color to be very visible.

Everything I've heard suggests that Elves has been doing really well. Maybe not well enough to become an evergreen theme like Ninjago or Friends, but certainly well enough that we're likely to get sets in 2017. Remember also that Elves caters to a demographic that is still underserved by other LEGO themes. It's presently their only in-house, girl-oriented fantasy theme, so I doubt they'd discontinue it unless they had a new theme ready right away to replace it. I'm not sure what we might get next. Looking at the map of Elvendale, I wonder if the story might move to whatever is beyond the Desertlands to the west, beyond the Forest of Deep Secrets to the south, or even out to sea in the east. It's not unreasonable to expect more new characters, though I think the main cast of five lead characters will stay fairly stable.

The Adventure Ship, Pegasus Sleigh, and Sky Castle are all great sets, IMO. The Treetop Hideaway is nice too, but I wouldn't rank it as highly as those other three. Crystal Hollow is great if you want something more impulse-priced.

The LEGO Elves special was everything I expected it to be and more! A huge step up from last year's TV special, which I already thought was great in its own right. Fantastic writing, animation, voice acting, humor, action, and music. I loved all the new characters and locations. It makes me excited to see more webisodes, and to get my hands on some of the sets! Disney Channel inserted some commercial breaks in odd places but other than that I've got no complaints. I hope this special is later put up on YouTube like last year's was, though I'd also be content with it just being put on Netflix.

I doubt we'll find out Ekimu was evil all along. That's partly wishful thinking, because I really don't like twists like that, ones that take a likeable character and make you feel bad or deceived for liking them. Case-in-point: Velika. Once a wise and charmingly cryptic storyteller, revealing him to be a secret great being wouldn't have had to be a bad decision... except that Greg also went ahead and made him a sociopathic serial murderer. That's not to say I can't see Ekimu becoming an enemy or a threat. People can do bad or risky things for what they believe to be good reasons, particularly when they believe there to be a greater threat out there. It's not impossible to imagine Ekimu trying to gain power to "protect" Okoto from Makuta, until his own power puts Okoto at risk. But I don't see it being an imminent risk at the moment. More of a long term thing.

Yeah, loving Nya's throwback outfit. Lloyd's isn't bad either, though it's by far one of the plainest (no extra armor like on Jay's outfit, extra ropes like on Cole's, or extra belts like on Kai's). All it's got going on in the front are differently colored sleeves. But that's not totally bad since Lloyd never got a standard 2011-style outfit, so this sorta fills that niche (albeit with differently colored sleeves and back printing). The room looks nice too of course. Love how the bed's headboard is inspired by the Temple of Light set. I wonder if Ninjago-themed rooms will be coming to any of the LEGOLAND hotels in the U.S. It's probably safe to say that these versions of Nya and Lloyd will be the ones in the Samurai X Cave Chaos set. Skylor's "throwback" outfit might end up showing up in some promotional capacity. Maybe a polybag set like the Dareth vs. Nindroid polybag from 2014, or as the bonus fig in the updated Character Encyclopedia, or in a new Target holiday minifigure gift set.

I have yet to see it described as such in any official capacity. Not every multimedia theme is a "big bang", and to my knowledge LEGO has never had more than one new line they've considered a "big bang" per year (it used to be even less frequent). The exact definition of "big bang" is a bit elusive. According to Brick by Brick pages 263–264, "The moniker refers to a homegrown LEGO theme that's built around an arresting story, one that shows a high potential for creating a worldwide sensation and generating lucrative revenue streams from the Web, television, and spin-off products, just as Bionicle had done for the better part of a decade. A Big Bang is also a big bet. LEGO launches a big bang about every other year, and when it does, nearly every unit within the company, from manufacturing to logistics, marketing, IT, and beyond, goes all out to get behind the line and deliver a hit. If the Big Bang is a big bust, à la LEGO Universe, it lets much of the air out of the company's earnings." Nabii also gives a bit of insight into which themes are considered "big bang" themes over here. When did I ever say or imply that I had proof? None of us have proof of why Bionicle wasn't mentioned or whether it should have been. None of us know the LEGO Group's criteria for what themes they mention in their reports. We're all just making guesses and sharing suspicions.

Jurassic World was a new theme and (from what I've heard) a much bigger hit than it had any right to be, and yet it didn't get a mention. Neither did Speed Champions, for that matter. As I said, LEGO Elves was a "big bang" property, albeit not as big of one as Ninjago or Nexo Knights. Not to mention that it's a part of their increasingly successful girls' category. Until recently LEGO struggled to even reach that demographic, so continued growth in that area is a big deal for them. Of course they're going to want to brag about it. I have no idea what the current state of Bionicle is. Nor do I know what the LEGO Group's specific expectations of it in 2015 were. But I don't necessarily think that it's the sort of theme that LEGO would make a point to mention in the 2015 Annual Report unless it exceeded their expectations.

They are new this week, and pretty hilarious, but Eurobricks has a separate topic for LEGO Elves media in the LEGO Media and Gaming subforum. So discussion of those can continue there!

Google has cached versions of the removed character pages: EDIT: Nevermind, for some reason the cached links literally just stopped working for me. Ragana Elandra Gust Also, the LEGO Club website has a new article that reveals Ragana's full name is Ragana Shadowflame. And to top things off, there are two new character videos on YouTube: one for and another for !

Whose hopes? Obviously I had high hopes for Bionicle, but expecting it to displace themes like City, Ninjago, and Friends in one year was nowhere on my mind. If anyone expected that then I imagine they were not aware of just how massively successful those themes are. City in particular has been the best selling non-licensed theme for years now.

Didn't really like this latest episode ("The Golden Castle"). Pacing felt a bit ehh, and I don't think the characterization was anywhere near as good as in "Fright Knight". This writers last episode "The Power of Merlok" also didn't totally wow me, but I still feel like it was a lot better than this one. The rest of the episodes this season are by other writers so hopefully I'll enjoy them better.

The new LEGO Elves TV special "Dragons in Danger to Save" will be airing in the United States this Sunday, March 6 at 9:00am EST! :D It's one hour long so it shouldn't feel as rushed as last year's TV special "Unite the Magic".

Generally when talking about individual themes, the annual reports only mention highlights like the top-selling themes, "big bang" themes like Elves, and new product categories like Dimensions. As usual, this year's annual report kept mum about the sales for other themes — even entirely new ones like Speed Champions, Scooby-Doo, and Jurassic World. Frankly, I'm impressed that this year's report even told us the five top-selling sets in order, since that's something the LEGO Group doesn't always disclose. At most they might tell you the single top-selling set (like in 2012, when it was Olivia's House from LEGO Friends).

No, I do not. Frankly, if they'd kept it running back then, I'm not too confident that it would even still be around today.

Not really too surprising. It wasn't a "big bang" property like Elves or a whole new product category like Dimensions, and I don't think any of us expected it to outsell the likes of Ninjago, Friends, or City. The Annual Reports generally focus on those kinds of highlights.

In general I just think Tiger Widow Island has great figs, great architecture, and great landscaping. Plus it offers a pretty well-rounded play experience. I wouldn't say it's as good a set as Temple of Airjitzu or Master Wu Dragon, but it's a nice set in its own right, and a lot of its appeal is from stuff you can't find in the other Skybound sets.

Howla from last year's battle pack was unique also. I wonder if we'll get a battle pack this year, and if so what kinds of figures it'll include. And would it tie in with Skybound, or the subsequent story arc? It's tough to predict, what with Skybound sets continuing into the second half of the year.

Presumably so, yeah. Otherwise I imagine the list would routinely be dominated by "impulse" items like collectible minifigures, Mixels, and City starter sets.

Oh, awesome! That section wasn't there when I checked the site this morning! The comic's a bit rudimentary (some of the text boxes aren't pointed at the characters very well), but still a cool way to convey the story for people who haven't read the book or seen the TV special (the latter of which isn't even out yet). The App section has been updated too! When I checked earlier the video wasn't there and the app wasn't on the U.S. app store yet, but now both those things are fixed!

No. All we know is that when Bionicle G2 was launched, they had planned far enough in advance to carry it through 2017. If it's successful enough it will probably keep going beyond that point. LEGO might even already have plans for it beyond that point. We don't know at this time.

Two brilliant new webisodes have been released on the LEGO Elves website! They take place after the events of "The Dragon Queen", but I don't think you need to have read it to enjoy them. "Safety First" "The Dragon Whisperer" The characters page has also been updated. The five main character pages have new images, and there are brand-new character pages for the three new elves and the two adult dragons. Ragana's cat is named Jynx. I still kind of wish the LEGO Elves site had pages on all the animals and baby dragons!