Aanchir

Interesting thing I just noticed on Amazon. The ninth LEGO Ninjago chapter book from Scholastic, titled The New Ninja, is coming out in December. Chances are that like most of this year's chapter books, it'll just be an adaptation of events from the TV series. However, as bonus material, it includes the winning entries from this year's LEGO Ninjago fan fiction contest from the LEGO Message Boards! I think this is incredibly cool. The LEGO Group has published the winning entries of MOC contests in Bionicle guide books from the past, but this will be their first time publishing the winners of a story-writing contest. It celebrates a type of creative expression that many parts of the LEGO community tend to ignore, and I think that's wonderful. Here are the winning entries, if anybody's interested. :)

Seeing as this is a graphic novel, and those usually tell side-stories or interquels, I don't think the "epic trilogy" is going to correspond to a particular TV season. As the description says, it takes place BETWEEN this year's TV seasons.

I'm just kind of disappointed that it seems to be the same old LEGO monkey, more or less. Not that the LEGO monkey isn't a great animal. It has lots of articulation compared to many others. However, it really seems due for an update, and with it having been so long since the last time one appeared in sets, I was hoping it'd get one. Printed eyes, in the very least! I'm a sucker for LEGO animals with printed eyes, and with even the LEGO shark having printed eyes as of this year, it'll be a shame if the LEGO monkey doesn't. LEGO "humans" have printed eyes, as do LEGO chimps, so why not LEGO monkeys? Granted, this doesn't give us the best glimpse of Monkey Wretch. It's obviously an illustration or render rather than a physical fig, so we don't know just WHAT it'll look like in the actual sets. It doesn't give us a very good angle on the eyes, either, so maybe I'm getting worked up over nothing and they WILL be printed. As for the colors, I understand that grey and orange is very specific. But you could always just swap out the arms to make an entirely grey monkey, unless it turns out to have some kind of robot pattern printed on its back. Grey is a pretty normal color for a monkey, all things considered.

I've gotta say, I'm REALLY impressed that of the six Lava Monster characters revealed on the new interactive map, three of them are female. Ninjago has had a pretty poor track record when it comes to giving us female villains. Other than Pixal and Skylor (who were really morally ambiguous supporting characters) and Bansha (the first "true" female villain minifigure in Ninjago), there haven't been any in over five years. Legends of Chima had a better track record, but it usually gave us at best two new female heroes and two new female villains and two new female villains per year. So for this theme to give us THREE female villains, one female main character, and at least two female supporting characters in its first year is a lot better than I could have anticipated.

This is a great discussion to read along with. LEGO dragons are of particular interest to me, since the first Castle theme I really got into was Dragon Masters (the American name for Dragon Knights). I think themes like Dragon Masters and Fright Knights played a considerable role in shaping my love of fantasy. I used to feel this way as well, to an extent. I was fine with brick-built dragons in the Creator theme, or dragons with brick-built bodies in the Ninjago theme, but I felt there was no substitute for a dragon with a molded and printed face. After all, I expect most LEGO animals to look at least as lifelike as LEGO minifigures. Stick a brick-built LEGO seagull from LEGO Creator next to a molded one from the Collectible Minifigures and it's obvious which one seems more "alive". Some of the recent LEGO Ninjago dragons have led me to change my tune, though. The Titanium Dragon, Master Wu Dragon, and Morro Dragon achieve a level of lifelike (or in Morro Dragon's case, death-like) brick-built detail that I could never have dreamed of seeing in a set five to ten years ago. They do so both by taking advantage of both AFOL-level creative part use and elements that didn't exist until recently, like small curved slopes and the various tooth and joint elements from the Mixels theme. They're still a bit blocky, of course, but I personally feel like minifigure animals and monsters should be a bit blocky, so as to fit in with the minifigures themselves. I'd almost go so far as to say these Ninjago dragons have spoiled molded dragons for me. I will agree with those who have said Smaug has a stunning level of articulation, but the number of new and specialized elements he uses starts to seem a bit outrageous when you look at what is now possible in other themes! Granted, a lot of that has to do with IP constraints — a LEGO Smaug has to not only look lifelike, but also look like the movie's depiction of the character. That's a constraint that creatures from themes like Ninjago and Legends of Chima can't be held to, since LEGO maintains full creative control of those properties and the sets themselves are the source material. So in a licensed theme, a certain number of specialized molds are practically inevitable. I know the Ninjago dragons are probably not of much interest to many of the people in this thread, who are looking for Western-style dragons to use in medieval layouts. But they show a glimpse of what is possible with recent parts and building techniques, as does this year's Creator dragon mentioned in a previous post. I look forward to seeing how next year's Elves dragons do when it comes to fitting in with figures and animals that are decidedly less blocky by default, since I've been struggling for a while to figure out how an adult version of the LEGO Elves baby dragon might be built!

Hey guys, we've got some new minifigure and set pics thanks to a sticker book cover that recently got added to Amazon.com! Here's the listing!

I imagine it's a combination of the Technic, the many SNOT techniques and hinged sections, and the sheer size of the set. 41075 was also marked 8–12. And to be honest, that's not an unusual age range for an action/adventure set of this size. Even some of the smallest Elves sets are marked ages 7–12, so it follows that an $80 set with even more complex functions would get a slightly higher age recommendation. What surprises me more is that ALL the Elves sets, from the smallest to the largest, have a maximum age recommendation of 12. Does the LEGO Group think it's more likely for teenage boys to enjoy themes like Ninjago than for teenage girls to enjoy themes like Elves? A part of me understands their hesitation, since they're much newer to the girls' market. But I feel like they should try and increase that maximum age recommendation in the years to come, seeing as the minimum age recommendation is already higher than it is for themes like City, Castle, Friends, and Disney Princess. Anyway, the LEGO Elves website has a new holiday webisode, featuring a teaser for next year towards the end!

Yeah, Sean and Steph aren't primarily Bionicle builders, though they are known to use all kinds of different parts in their creations, including Bionicle and Hero Factory parts. I think it's quite cool how this contest inspired people from both the Bionicle community and the LEGO community as a whole to step outside their comfort zone and try building something that LEGO fans rarely build (a wearable mask).

Doubtful. The winners would have to sign a release of some sort permitting LEGO to use the mask designs, and if the LEGO Group intended that to happen they'd probably have put it in the Terms and Conditions. But yeah, I'm really impressed with the winning entries! If anyone's wondering, the grand-prize winners were Siercon & Coral (Sean and Steph Mayo).

The Nexo Knights website has some new pics from the TV series (or at least, pics I hadn't seen before): The five knights Knighton Castle Aaron, Macy, and Merlok Aaron and Macy Macy, Clay, Aaron, and Axl Joust The site also now has wallpapers, but they're not really new images, just the same images of the individual knights previously released as posters.

It's not necessarily that a company wouldn't want a LEGO depiction. They might just not be able to come to an agreement as to HOW. For instance, they're are some projects like The Legend of Zelda that really need new molds to work. A company that is protective of their IP would not want a toy of their characters to look wildly inaccurate or "off-model". Yet if new molds aren't in the budget, they aren't going to necessarily just shrug their shoulders and say "meh, use a generic bandanna". There are all kinds of potential scenarios where both sides might be unable or unwilling to reach an agreement.

The head molds look excellent. Finn's looks a bit off, but I'm pretty sure it will look better in the final set (versus a render with exaggerated highlights). I'm glad Rey's face is showing. It'd be more useful to me if she didn't have her mask, but at least the designers didn't assume a female character wouldn't sell unless her face was hidden, which was a very real concern of mine. Note: the characters without shooting weapons all appear to have gearboxes! Lots of nice recolors too. Other than the somewhat knobbly knees of the hero characters (which make me wish a 7M shell existed), I'm extremely impressed with this wave!

Nope, this is the only Bionicle teaser in the November-December magazine. Once 2016 actually gets started we can probably expect some more in-depth features on the sets.

I got a US copy of the set. I believe mine came with just the old (fully transparent) version of the numbered bags. From what I've read, the LEGO Group is transitioning from one style of numbered bags to another, so for the time being, some sets have the old style, some have the new style, and some have a combination of both.

The hole on top is designed for accessories like the one you just posted a picture of, not hats specifically. There ARE a couple hats designed to fit those kinds of holes, though: this nurse hat from the medical accessories prepack and this hat from The Lone Ranger sets (also available in red from the LEGO Movie Minifigures series). The solution you suggested, using a small accessory like that star to keep a regular minifigure hat in place, might work as well!

I'm talking about just the three summer sets. I don't think there have been a whole lot of availability issues with the rest of this year's Ultra Agents sets.

Maybe it only sold poorly in Europe, then. It's also worth noting that in the U.S. they appear to be Toys 'R' Us exclusives.

I'll be there! This will be my first time attending a BrickFair outside of my home state (Virginia). I've previously attended BrickFair Virginia for six or seven years and BrickUniverse in Raleigh, NC this spring. MOCs I'm exhibiting will include: Mini Robot F Mask of Storms The Great Mask Tournament Lady Kaguya Caitlyn Gauss XL Delwyn Buckler Blacktron Vivisector Kit Martello ...and more! I'm really excited to get to see Christian Vonsild (one of the Bionicle designers I met on the LEGO Inside Tour) again. :) I also look forward to seeing a few people I know from BZPower who I normally only get to see at LEGO conventions.

Yep. Their only song for the latest season was "The Ghost Whip", the Weekend Whip remix used for that season's opening titles. I think that's fair, though. They released several songs for the first half of the year.

I don't know if that generalization is really accurate. Back in 2012, the LEGO Group had a very hard time meeting demand on Friends sets (as mentioned in this press release). Even further back, the LEGO Group was heavily criticized by retailers like Toys 'R' Us for not being able to meet demand on the top-selling Bionicle sets for Christmas 2003 (a big mistake for them to make in a year when almost every one of their themes other than Bionicle was failing). LEGO shortages are nothing new, they're just becoming more widespread these days since demand is increasing faster than the LEGO Group has been able to increase their supply chain.

I'd personally prefer if Rey weren't masked, just by virtue of giving us a female human head element to use in MOCs. I have little use for the many helmet and mask elements from the Star Wars constraction sets, but the human head elements are generally generic enough that they could be used to create original, non–Star Wars characters.

The official ID of the color is 315 Silver Metallic. BrickLink calls it Flat Silver, though this name is also used for some older silver parts from before this particular color was introduced. Silver Metallic is what Bricklink calls a "pearl" color. Unlike 309 Metalized Silver (Chrome Silver on BrickLink) or 298 Cool Silver Drum Lacquered (Metallic Silver on BrickLink), "pearl" colors are not treated with any kind of coating on their surface. Instead, a reflective additive is molded into the plastic itself along with the usual colored dye. A side-effect of this is that parts like this can have a "marbled" effect, especially near the injection point. This is fairly normal for parts in this color. You see this a lot on metallic-colored Bionicle masks. So rest assured, the bricks in your set are "normal" and not defective.

It's hard not to care about aesthetics, but to be honest I kind of care less about size than I used to as a kid. That's not to say I don't love huge sets, but I'm less likely to love or want a set just because it's huge than when I was a kid. And in fact, some of the sets I loved as a kid like 6195 Neptune Discovery Lab appeal to me a lot less now that I realize that their inflated sizes don't make up for their fairly simplistic designs. It's easy, as a kid, to get stuck in a "bigger is better" mindset, but sometimes creating something beautiful at a smaller and more manageable scale is an impressive feat in and of itself. This year, one of the themes I've really enjoyed collecting is LEGO Ninjago. And truthfully, some of the sets I've enjoyed from that theme, like 70751 Temple of Airjitzu and 70738 Final Flight of Destiny's Bounty, are pretty huge sets! But another set that really stands out to me as an outstanding design is 70734 Master Wu Dragon. It's just a $40 set, but it uses all kinds of creative building techniques to create a unique-looking design. Another of my favorite sets from this year is 70786 Gali - Master of Water from the LEGO Bionicle theme. This is just a $15 Toa set, and it's actually shorter than some of the old $10–13 Toa sets from 2006–2009. But her build, color scheme, functions, and proportions are much more appealing to me than any of those sets from that time period.

That wouldn't really be effective. "Big bang" themes have less in common than some people might think. For instance, Friends is considered a "big bang" theme. It's not an "action theme" by any stretch of the imagination, but it was rolled out with a similar character-driven, multimedia, high-investment marketing approach. Plus, we don't really know enough about the LEGO Group's internal classifications to know which pre-2010 themes would be classified as "big bang" themes.

It wasn't common when I was growing up. "Western" was still a theme that party stores might offer for birthday parties or Halloween costumes, but I don't think I ever got invited to any Western-themed parties. Heck, the movies Toy Story and Toy Story 2 have a lot to do with Western-themed toys and media falling out of fashion. Yeah, this is a good point. The whole westward expansion movement in this country's history was not really one of our most stellar moments. And it's tough to portray that period of history without getting into that controversy. You don't want to sugar-coat the way settlers displaced natives, often violently, but at the same time, erasing the natives from the picture entirely creates much the same problem. The original Western theme seemed to try to position the Indians as a "third party" to the settlers and bandits, the same way the Forestmen were to the knights or the M:Trons were to the Space Police and Blacktrons. This somewhat averted the "Cowboys vs. Indians" problem — it didn't present the settlers and Indians as BFFs, but didn't present them as vicious enemies either. They were separate factions occupying nearby spaces, and how they interacted was largely up to kids. But it was problematic in other ways. For instance, the Indians and even one of the bandits were given large, exaggerated noses and pointy, highly detailed eyes that made them resemble cringeworthy racial caricatures. Plus, the Indians were extremely historically inaccurate. They were given tepees like the Plains Indians and totem poles like Pacific Northwest Indians, but set in locations that resembled the Pueblo Indians. Now, obviously, a lot of this was just reflecting previous misrepresentations of Native American culture in media, but that doesn't make it right. Castle has things a lot easier, I think. That's not to say there was no racism in the Middle Ages — far from it — but the more grounded Castle themes manage to mostly avert that by focusing on clashes between factions that are just "ambiguously European". You generally can't peg one Castle faction as Englishmen and one Castle faction as Frenchmen, for instance. And the more fantasy-oriented Castle themes just pit these "ambiguously European" races against "ambiguously European" fictional archetypes like wizards or trolls. The Western genre doesn't have this kind of literary tradition that allows you to easily distance it from the racial politics of the time. Western heroes generally didn't fight magical monsters, unless you count folk heroes from "tall tales" like Paul Bunyan, and there aren't a lot of "ambiguously American" archetypes to turn into factions.