Aanchir

The two premiere episodes are now available on YouTube! https://youtu.be/t69mijohc00 https://youtu.be/qqgM73rXHRg There are full credits at the end, but unfortunately there's just a "voice cast" section rather than specific credits for which actors played which characters. Still, good to see some familiar names!

I think Nya would probably have light blue Spinjitzu, possibly with darker red streaks in it. Making it recognizable as water is important. Yes, I know Zane's Ice Spinjitzu was pink when his robes were pink, but sometimes clarity is more important than consistency. Regardless, this is mostly TV show discussion. Back on the subject of sets, I wonder if we'll see more "gimmick" sets in the summer, and if so, whether they'll be more Airjitzu fliers or something new. Since we've already gotten summer set names, it's starting to seem unlikely, though. Kind of a shame as I had hoped to get Airjitzu variants of Nya and Lloyd. I guess the Nexo Knights "Ultimate" sets are going to be the extent of that impulse-priced "gimmick" category for this year.

I save boxes, but usually flatten them unless I am reusing them or have plans to reuse them. As a child, I'd cut out the pictures, since those were the main point of saving the boxes for me back then — images of alternate models and the like weren't available online. Nowadays I realize cutting out the pictures just makes it harder to keep the boxes organized, so I just unfold and flatten them. I don't have a permanent place for these flattened boxes currently, they're mostly just in a trunk in my room.

I'm not tremendously bothered by Tahu's color scheme, although it could have used more red. I like the Dark Azur accents. I do think he has too many clashing textures, though. For a "Uniter" of fire his own design could stand to be a lot more unified.

The Toa Metru had 23 pistons in their entire bodies. The new Toa have 21 pistons in their torso shell alone (Tahu's arms, legs, and back add 14 more). I don't think the situations are anywhere near as comparable as you make them out to be.

That makes sense! I had wondered if we'd get anything like that as soon as I saw the poster for the fair on the bulletin board in the new LEGO Friends supermarket set (alongside a flyer for the adventure camp).

Those are the Ninja handbooks published in Europe. In Germany, Spain, and several other countries there's one for each ninja, while in the UK the Kai and Zane books and the Cole and Jay books are compiled together into "2-in-1" handbooks. Some of the stories in these books are the same as in the first four Scholastic chapter books published in the United States (these particular illustrations are from the short story "In His Footsteps", for instance, which appears in the chapter book Kai: Ninja of Fire), but the American chapter books don't include these illustrations.

I liked the Legend Beasts, so I wouldn't especially mind that. However, Ninjago has a good thing going with its dragons, and I'd sooner like to see dragons for characters who either haven't had them in a long time or haven't had them ever, like Kai and Nya. Now, if there's a theme where I'd like to have "ridable" versions of the characters' icons, it's Nexo Knights — a ridable robo-dragon for Macy or cyber-bull for Axl would be pretty sweet!

I don't get the joke, apparently. The "her" in The Brick Fan's product description is evidently referring to Dogshank, and the two uses of the word "her" in the LEGO.com product description can't be mistaken for references to any other character. Oh, also, Brothers Brick has a review of the Zeppelin Raid set.

Christian told us about this during his presentation at BrickFair New Jersey in October — didn't realize that you were the engineer in that scenario! Glad he was able to come up with a solution that worked for everyone!

Dorek's Uxar review is live! Love this set. Can't wait to get it. It and Lewa are probably the best Toa+Creature combo, in terms of having an elegant, unified appearance and cool functionality.

I would expect it to be a new one, mainly because LEGO Ninjago has gotten a brand-new app each year (sometimes multiple new apps a year). Also, the actual name of the current app is LEGO® BIONICLE® Mask Of Creation, so changing the symbol to a different mask but leaving the name the same would be quite odd.

Yep, pretty much all LEGO themes besides the really small ones get both a winter and a summer wave. Presumably, all those sets we don't have pics or descriptions for are from the summer wave.

Good review. I feel like Kopaka's color scheme would've been more balanced if the Vorox/Skrall armor shells on his shoulders had been Warm Gold and the shells on his forearms had been Silver Metallic. I like how his shoulders somewhat echo his shoulder armor from the 2015 set, and it's nice that you can now more easily tell he's a fairly lean hero in bulky armor rather than a muscle-bound hero like Onua. However, the upper arms still feel rather piecemeal to me, rather than having a smooth, solid look like CCBS tends to provide. Lewa and Pohatu, to their credit, have much simpler arm construction that results in a less jumbled look. Kopaka's sword is nice, but I'm not totally digging his new shield. I feel like the blaster feels tacked-on and just takes away from the shield's consistency. I'd rather if the set had skipped the blaster and maybe added two more Technic panels to help the shield more finished. The stickers do add to it quite nicely. Melum looks alright and has a neat "bear hug" function, though its shoulders are kind of gappy. Overall, I have really mixed feelings about this set, though its design doesn't bother me as much as the new Tahu.

You guys... Dogshank is a girl! Also, while Lasha in the one Juniors set is named, the Venomari character in the other Juniors set is just described as a "snake villain". The Australian LEGO Shop has listings for all the new Ninjago sets, which are coming to Australia January 1.

I think the Hagemans did confirm that at some point, though I forget whether it was on their twitter or during their SDCC panel. It's worth noting that the appearance of Kai's father in that storybook is almost exactly how he appeared in the stylized flashback sequence from the pilot. The Master of Fire's appearance in the later flashback from the Tournament of Elements might be a retcon, or it might just mean he started growing his facial hair differently as he got older.

Speaking of classic space logos... does anything about this screenshot of the Nexo Knights Merlok 2.0 app catch your attention? No guarantee that'll be showing up as a printed shield in a set, since the Merlok 2.0 app is designed to scan shields from not only the sets but also books, TV episodes, and LEGO.com. But it's a shout-out that I for one appreciated, and that I will be looking out for in future sets and media!

Merlok 2.0 app is available in Denmark. Whether or not you're interested in the app, I think a lot of LEGO fans will get a kick out of one of the Nexo Powers on the top row in this image.

Not a perfect comparison. In Star Trek the two universes are separate, but still connected by way of the Spock from the old universe traveling to the new universe. We have yet to see any indication of such a connection between G1 and G2 Bionicle. A better comparison might be the difference between G1 and G2 Bionicle to the difference between Batman: The Movie from 1966, Batman from 1989, and The Dark Knight from 2008. They are all official Batman movies featuring Batman, The Joker, Police Commissioner Gordon, and Gotham City, but they are not the same version of Batman, the same version of The Joker, the same version of Police Commissioner Gordon, or the same version of Gotham City. Everything that happened in the G1 story still happened in that story, but so far none of it affects the G2 story. Likewise, nothing that happens in the G2 story affects anything that happened in the G1 story. They are separate, and the G2 story just happens to be the one that is currently ongoing.

The Kalmah armor piece DOES have cavities much like these ones. And just like on this part, they're directly above the section of the piece where the side beams are a full module thick rather than half a module thick. They're just not nearly deep due to the space between the front of the piece and the cross axle holes on the sides being much flatter (just half a module thick rather than two modules). And on the Kalmah piece there's only one such groove on each side because it doesn't have the ridges breaking it up. If these ridges were not present on the Piece of Unification, then there would have to be either an even more conspicuous single cavity on each side, or the section of the part between the front pin holes and the 1-module-thick side beams would be solid plastic and would not cool properly. The Takadox and Carapar armor shells likewise had large cavities above the side axle holes to allow the part to cool properly. The difference in that case is that the cavities were in the SIDES of the piece rather than the front — the front surface fully covered these cavities in Carapar's case and partially covered them in Takadox's case. Perhaps that might have been a preferable option for the Piece of Unification, but it is essential that the part have cavities of some kind so it doesn't end up with walls a full module thick. The designers had to make a judgment call based on the physical demands of the molding process.

I like the new Gali's color scheme, asymmetry, and to an extent even her torso shell, but you're right that she's not nearly as outstanding as the 2015 version. I think the awkwardness of the proportions has more to do with the length of the torso beam than the torso shell. Her legs are also a bit awkwardly proportioned, with her thighs feeling much more gappy than the 2015 version's, and her arms are a bit too short considering how high the shoulders are placed. I wonder if her legs might look better if the crystal add-on were moved to the front of the leg instead of the side. She's still probably my second favorite of the new Toa designs after Lewa, but after seeing this review, perhaps not so close behind him as I'd thought. I think the gold masks look alright on both the 2015 and 2016 Gali. They're sort of supposed to stand out. And Gali's combination with Akida certainly looks very elegant. Gali's mask is very nicely designed, but I agree that the eyestalk would be better in a different color, ideally a fluorescent one. Good review overall.

"Absence of Mixels sets" makes this leak sound even sketchier to me, since it seems pretty clear at this point that Mixels is getting at least two (and probably three) new waves in 2016, same as it has for the past two years.

The child doesn't have to "crave for" the Nexo Powers that appear in the episodes, because the show is literally giving the child those Nexo Powers for free. The reason it zooms in on the design isn't to market it, but rather to give kids an opportunity to scan the power right from their TV into the Merlok 2.0 app. I sort of wonder whether the Nexo Powers from the show will even appear as shields in the sets, or if they'd rather keep those exclusive as an incentive to watch the show.... I guess we'll see. I also think it's a bit early to assume all fights in the show will follow exactly this formula.

Oh my goodness... I have kept saying that whether I would collect the sets would depend on how much I liked the story. I guess after seeing the two-part premiere of the series today, there's no longer any doubt in my mind that I'll be collecting Nexo Knights! The series has so much action and humor and heart. It spoke to me WAY more than the first three episodes of Legends of Chima did. So yeah, seems to be off to a good start. :) I wonder if we'll get an "Ultimate Ava" set in the summer like the "Ultimate Robin" we're getting in the first wave. :)

Nexo Knights is looking great so far! Fantastic humor and characterization. It's definitely getting off to a better start than Chima did, in my opinion. It's got moments of cheesiness but I think they work in its favor. And it's done a good job making all the characters charming and lovable in their own way. :) Now watching part 2 of the premiere!