Aanchir

Sounds cool and unique. One thing that struck me about it when reading the press release is that there haven't been a whole lot of families in major Star Wars media where the parents aren't missing, dead, or evil. So this is a neat change of pace. The battle droid on the poster also amuses me, because as a family of scavengers of course their droid would be pieced together from old, discarded ones. :P This is set to take place between Episodes 5 and 6, and there are going to be two sets this summer that tie in with it.

What surprises me about the Toys"R"Us shield dock picture is that the sword in that pic is a new color combination (Tr. Blue and Tr. Light Blue, rather than Tr. Blue and Silver Metallic like in the Fortrex). I don't think Toys"R"Us building events have ever had exclusive parts before (besides sticker sheets). But it might just be a preliminary image or a rendering mistake. The Nexo Power would also be an exclusive new element if it turns out to be printed like all the others, so maybe LEGO is just expanding their production budget for these sorts of building events.

Just noticed that apparently nobody here mentioned 30375 Sira's Adventurous Airship being revealed. It's an OK polybag with some creative techniques, but I wish it had some sort of controls. Interesting that it's the same "7–12" age range as the other small and mid-size Elves sets, since many polybag sets have lower age recommendations than the rest of the theme they're attached to. Her airship in the animated " " video is more impressive, with a ship's wheel, a more curved cockpit, and space for more cargo. But that'd probably be too big for a polybag set. It'll be interesting to see if anybody can MOC a more "show-accurate" version of her airship. Alternatively, maybe she might get a bigger and more impressive airship in a future year.EDIT: Whoops, didn't mean to double-post. I didn't realize my comment was still the last post here.

Loving these new trailers. The animation is still a bit rough at some points, but much improved from last year's mini-movie, which is good to see. The only thing that frustrates me is that it's not clear if they got any new voice actors to voice the new characters. Not knocking on those voice actors' skills — they generally do a good job ensuring the characters don't sound exactly the same. Still, it'd be nice to bring in some new talent as well. Sira's airship looks way cooler in the Sira & Tidus video than in the set. The set's not awful for a polybag (it's got some creative building techniques, in the very least), but it could really do with some controls. I hope maybe Sira appears in a future year of sets with a larger and more impressive airship. Maybe she and Aira could even build one together.

I think AT is more likely to stand for Adventure Time than A-Team. I feel like if they were going to make A-Team packs it'd be pretty redundant to make a Mr. T pack that isn't based on his character from that license.

Yep. The green Earth Dragon wings, the white Wind Dragon wings, and the blue and purple Water Dragon wings are the new, smaller style. The orange and pink Fire Dragon wings and the purple Wind Dragon wings are the older, larger style. And the Dragon Queen's brick-built wings with a separate plastic sheet for the membrane are the largest of all. The smaller style might still work OK on the fantasy era Castle dragons, even though it's considerably smaller than the style they used. Hard to tell until I have them in hand. But it certainly wouldn't work on the white Dragon Queen without pretty much a complete re-design to make the dragon's legs and body smaller.

Still, even if you deduct both that AND all the studs used as stud shooter ammo, you're still only down to 1048 parts. And it doesn't look like the rest of the set is substantially different. That's still, like, a 150-piece difference. To make up that difference I imagine they'd have to deduct the minifigures, accessories, and all of the smaller vehicles. I imagine the piece count discrepancy might have more to do with LEGO just having "sample" details for boxes of various sizes and only changing the details on the preliminary boxes that they're sure about.

What's wrong with the dragon queen's current wings? They might not match the other dragons' wings flawlessly, but I think they still look plenty solid and complete. Also, the white wings on the wind dragon are WAY too small for use on the dragon queen. They're the new, smaller type of wing used for the water and earth dragons, not the bigger type used for the fire dragon or fantasy era LEGO Castle dragons. The dragon queen is the biggest dragon of them all, so it makes no sense to give it the smallest wings.

I would not, but that's partly because a) I already own the Fire Brigade, and b) I wouldn't buy a set that big and expensive unless it had a compelling reason for being that big and expensive. But really, I think the Ghostbusters Firehouse is exceptional for what it is. So I don't think it's fair to ask "would you buy this set if it were something different?" If the Ghostbusters Firehouse weren't a likeness of a specific building in specific scenes of specific movies, it naturally wouldn't need to be nearly as large as it is. It could be made much smaller, like the Fire Brigade, instead of needing space for a such a massive car, a lab, etc. It wouldn't need to have differently colored inside and outside walls, It wouldn't need to have as many minifigures, and a lot of the money put into furnishing it as accurately as possible could be used more efficiently on more generic furniture. You could add non-Ghostbusters-specific play features like sliding garage doors. You could even position it differently on its base and remove the fire escape so you could connect it to other modular buildings on two sides. But these same changes that would make it a better value as a Creator Expert set (a smaller overall size, fewer rooms, fewer minifigures, more economical furnishings, same color inside and outside walls, sliding doors, different position on its base) would make it a worse value as a Ghostbusters set. It's a lot like asking "would you buy Fire Brigade if it were a Ghostbusters set?" To which I think my answer would also be "probably not" — not because it would somehow be a worse build or display piece than it would be as a Creator Expert set, but because it would fail at being what it was intended to be.

The British edition published by Ladybird came out this month. The American edition published by Scholastic comes out in June.

I don't think it has to be a choice between replacing the main characters every two years and having characters who don't look like their past selves. Besides the 2.0 and 3.0 versions in 2011, most new versions of Hero Factory heroes managed to be very recognizable for who they were. LEGO Ninjago's main characters also tend to do a good job staying true to their past appearances without feeling like a straight rehash of their previous forms. Even the new 2016 Toa, in spite of whatever flaws they might have, are unmistakably the same characters as their 2015 counterparts — and the 2015 Toa, in turn, were fairly recognizable for what G1 characters they were based on. The 2008 Toa may not have been very recognizable for who they were, but LEGO has done a much better job keeping their characters recognizable in recent years. So I don't think it's unreasonable to think the 2008 Toa could have been more recognizable, particularly if they'd had the opportunity for their appearances to change gradually from year to year instead of having to go straight from 2002 design standards to 2008 design standards without any new designs in between.

There's nothing boring about that at all unless the characters are badly written. Harry Potter fans didn't seem to have a problem reading about the same main characters for seven books over ten years. The Animorphs chapter book series stuck with the same main characters for over 50 books released over 5 years. LEGO Ninjago has gone over 5 years and 64 episodes with the same main characters and is still one of the LEGO Group's strongest original themes. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic has managed to keep the same main characters for over 5 years and 100 episodes. If the characters of all these franchises can have so much staying power, why do are so many people so convinced that Bionicle's main characters can't make it more than two or three years without wearing out their welcome? It's strange to hear such a dire view of the Bionicle story from actual Bionicle fans. Personally, yes, I'd generally rather play with characters I know and understand and care about, and who I've gotten to see grow and develop, than with random newcomers who show up to take their place. Not that new main characters can never work in an established series, but they generally have to work a lot harder to prove themselves than characters who have already secured a place in existing fans' hearts. Particularly if those existing fans blame the new characters for the series' most beloved characters being shoved out of the spotlight. Bionicle G1 was able to get away with it in part because aside from 2009 (which only shared one main character with previous story years), every year's main characters WERE established characters, even if they'd originally been introduced as supporting characters. Even so, I do not know if its frequent cast-switching was the wisest strategy.

I love it too! I think I first read it in middle school and it really resonated with me. I never saw the cartoon, though. I think the LEGO Ideas project looks pretty cool but before I heard about this movie I wasn't sure what its chances would be like. I hope the movie might help it pass review. :)

An animated theatrical film was released in some countries last year and will be coming out in the United States this March. Not sure if that might make a big difference in its chances.

Umarak is awesome, though I kind of wish he used the spring shooter like we see in this year's Star Wars buildable figures instead of yet another rapid-shooter. The spring shooter would feel a lot more "arrow-like" and, more importantly, less like a rehash of Skull Warrior's weapon. As it is, not only do Umarak's weapons feel a lot like Skull Warrior's, they almost feel like a DOWNGRADE of Skull Warrior's weapons in one key respect — he can't store his bow on his back when he's using his sword. On the plus side, his gear function makes more sense with his bow than Skull Warrior's did, since as you say it can be used to help him aim.

Everything I've seen so far indicates that Robin is more like Nya than Lloyd. His expertise is in gadgets and technology, after all, and his immediate answer to the question "how can I fight alongside the knights" in the webisodes was "build a suit of power armor". Based on some of the spoilery show descriptions I've glanced at on Google Play, the similarity to Nya might very well be even stronger. I have no doubt that at some point he will fight alongside the other knights and maybe even become a knight himself, just as Nya found a way to fight alongside the ninja even before becoming a ninja herself. But nothing so far seems to imply that he will have extraordinary significance and rise above all the other knights like Lloyd did as the Green Ninja.

I think there's probably hardly anyone who knows me who doesn't know I'm a LEGO fan. No "coming out" was ever really necessary because it tends to be one of the first things people learn about me.

I don't feel like I get any weird or judging looks in stores most of the time. However, I have autism spectrum disorder, so it's possible I just have a hard time reading those kinds of social cues, body language, etc. I'd be happy to keep it like that. While I care a lot about what people think about me, if complete strangers are able to keep their thoughts about me to themselves then I'm not going to worry about what their thoughts might be. I'd rather focus on maintaining a positive reputation with people I actually know and care about, not with people I might never see again. I have felt judged for liking Bionicle in my first year at college, but it was less because people cared about me liking LEGO and more because my general social awkwardness made me an easy target for bullies and me liking LEGO is one of the few things those bullies actually knew about me. I've never really tried to hide my love of LEGO, and college didn't change that. All the teasing in college changed is that it made me go out of my way to avoid confrontation — keeping the door to my dorm room closed at all times unless I had a guest over, taking the long way to the dining hall so I didn't have to go past the smoking area where those bullies tended to hang out, etc. But I'd still proudly wear LEGO T-shirts around campus. Frankly, being open about my interests makes it easier to figure out which people are open-minded enough to be friends with and which people I'd be better off avoiding. I got picked on a fair amount in grade school too, but usually it wasn't for liking LEGO — people had much better and crueler ways to pick on me at that time, like writing disgusting smut about me and my family in my science notebook, making fun of the way I talked or the way I dressed, pretending to flirt with me to make me feel flustered and trick me into saying something embarrassing, etc. Liking LEGO was probably one of the things I was LEAST ashamed of back then. As for online judgment/bullying, most of the people I interact with online are other LEGO fans, and only one has been enough of a fool to try and argue that it was OK for HIM to like LEGO but not for ME to like it (he tried to argue this because he was 13 or so and I'm 24, but I don't think he managed to convince anybody of anything but his own immaturity).

Don't take this as a criticism, but you're the first person I've heard criticize Nexo Knights for being "too much Castle". Most of the Nexo Knights critics I've seen feel like it's not Castle enough.

It's a fairly popular surreal adventure-comedy. I've only seen a couple episodes, but It seems pretty fun. I still manage to keep putting off getting into it, though.

Frankly, LEGODalekBuster523, I think you have to listen to what other people are saying. There might be SOME potential for future Doctor Who packs, but it's probably very limited. In the United States, Doctor Who is still fairly obscure. It's more well-known over here than pretty much any other BBC shows, but I guarantee you NONE of its characters (not even the Doctor himself) are as well-known in this country as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Joker, or even some DC Comics characters who HAVEN'T been in LEGO Dimensions like Catwoman or Batgirl. I knew absolutely nothing about Doctor Who until I was a teenager in high school, and I don't think I ever actually saw an episode of the show until I was at least 20. In fairness, the show was on hiatus for most of my lifetime, and the only people in my entire family who were Doctor Who fans BEFORE the 2005 reboot are my aunt and uncle who live in Connecticut. But a show that only started to get mainstream attention over here after 2005 is still nowhere near as recognizable to Americans as characters like Batman and Superman who have been an unavoidable part of American pop culture for over half a century. If you asked an an average joe in America what a Silurian or Sontaran is, they'd probably either shrug their shoulders or guess that it's some alien from Star Wars or Star Trek.

Not always. But the Nexo Knights readers and chapter books from Scholastic seem like they will be, as will the U.S. edition of The Book of Monsters.

I would be down for some Dragon Masters updates. There might be some room for that next year since Elves will presumably have wrapped up its dragon-focused story arc by then. But if they decide to do re-imaginings of classic themes for the anniversary, the older factions like Forestmen and Black Falcons probably ought to take priority over my own childhood favorites like Dragon Masters and Royal Knights.

Complexity on larger models is expected, but how you use it is still important. Ideally, you should be using complex building techniques to do things you couldn't do as well with simpler techniques, not just to make the model less straightforward. Also, there's a difference between something that's visually complex and something that's functionally complex. The new Toa's torso shells are visually complex, but functionally they're single-piece torso armor with just one measly connection point. By contrast, last year's gearbox piece was functionally complex (lots of connection points at different angles to allow you to construct a variety of gear functions), but visually very simple, without a whole lot of textures or decorations besides those which were absolutely essential. The Unity Piece from this year's sets is complex both visually AND functionally, while the new leg shell from the Star Wars buildable figures isn't especially complex visually OR functionally. A set could have "too much" functional complexity if its functions come at the expense of the visuals or playability, drive up the age range past the target age, or are just plain inefficient (i.e. using way more gears than necessary for a simple function). A set could have "too much" visual complexity if it has so many colors, textures, and motifs that it feels chaotic, cluttered, or busy rather than purposeful. Adding more and more complexity of either sort is usually not desirable. Even many of the largest MOCs and sets use complex detail selectively and strategically. Take the Super Star Destroyer, for example. It uses chaotic "greebles" on the top, but the surfaces around that are a simple, smooth repeated pattern, and even the textures on its edges are simple and subtle. If it had the kind of greebles from the top all over it, or used lots of different types of textures on every available surface, it would just be one huge mess. 2015 Tahu may not have had a lot of fire motifs, but he had a much more interesting silhouette than the 2016 version in my opinion. I also don't really see how the Uniter version feels that much more fire-based. It has the elemental crystal motifs that all the 2016 Toa have, but other than that all it does is swap a lot of the original set's bright red for transparent fluorescent reddish orange and warm gold. I guess it also adds the Dark Azur accents, which I'll admit are nice. Personality isn't just about how much a design has going on. In fact, if you have a lot of details competing for attention, they might make less of a statement altogether than if you have a few more unifying, defining characteristics. For instance, I feel like the 2016 Tahu might've been better if instead of using the "cracked" add-on from the Skull Villains AND the new crystal add-on AND the piston add-on from last year's Toa, he could have chosen just two out of three of those motifs and spread them out a bit more throughout his design. By contrast, I feel like the new Lewa has a lot more personality due to using the Vorox shell as a defining trait throughout his design. Overall, I feel like the 2015 Toa in general are more aligned with their elements than any Toa before them. And I don't for a minute think the elemental crystal motif that the 2016 Toa use throughout their designs hurts them. In fact, it's one of the best things they have going for them, IMO. It's a new (and IMO, brilliant) defining motif to show that the characters have been upgraded. But it doesn't necessarily make up for the ways I feel like some of the sets (namely Onua and Tahu) have less personality than the previous versions, or the way Pohatu and Kopaka's color schemes have become more jumbled (and Pohatu in particular has so little of his actual primary color) I think Gali and Lewa handled the upgrade best, but Lewa's the only one whose design I'd say possibly improved overall in my eyes. As nice as 2016 Gali's asymmetry and color scheme are, I don't like how bony her upper legs are compared to the more streamlined design she had in 2011, her eyes don't show all that well through her mask, and I can't shake the feeling her shoulders are raised a bit higher than they really need to be. The reason I say "possibly" improved even for Lewa is because I miss the dual-function weapons, though I recognize that it would've been difficult to pull off that gimmick for a second year in a row. And I feel the turning waist function in general is less exciting than the battle arm function of the previous sets. This isn't me just being contrarian — it's me actually thinking hard about what I like about the new sets and what I don't.

New LEGO Elves 2016 teaser videos have been released on YouTube! The titles and descriptions are in Italian, but only the last of them has narration, while the others just have English musical tracks... including a sample of a new song!