Aanchir

Djinn blades seem consistent with the episode titles for the next season, which bring up wishing several times. Since Nadakhan is mentioned by name in an episode title and only appears in the largest set, he's probably the sky pirate captain. Love the pirate names! Yep, it's a custom. The person who made it also made a more humanoid version of the Preeminent. She's quite a talented customizer!

It existed, but not in basic bricks, arches, or wall panels. Kind of like how when Yellow Castle was made, basic bricks didn't come in grey (though I don't know if it was for the same reasons).

Dark Forest was an extremely tiny, limited-release theme (I think mostly exclusive to North America). To me that indicates that even BEFORE Dark Forest, the LEGO Group's considered Forestmen extremely niche. After all, even in the late 80s and early 90s there were fewer sets with Forestmen than other factions that they coexisted with. Brickset's Forestmen tag lists 9 classic sets, their Black Knights tag lists 12 classic sets, their Black Falcons tag lists 16 classic sets, and their Crusaders tag lists 24 classic sets. And those were the days when LEGO kept factions around for more than one year, so if Forestmen sets were selling as well as those other factions, they'd have had plenty of time to develop and release new Forestmen sets to capitalize on that demand. I don't think "bad designs" can be solely blamed for Dark Forest's mediocre sales or the LEGO Group's reluctance to bring back the forestmen. Many late 90s themes had bad designs and sold poorly as a consequence of that. But that hasn't stopped LEGO from revisiting concepts from that time period like underground exploration (Rock Raiders/Power Miners), undersea exploration (Aquazone/Aqua Raiders/Atlantis) bug-shaped spacecraft (Insectoids/Galaxy Squad), ninja (Ninja/Ninjago), and Egyptian exploration (Adventurers/Pharaoh's Quest). Perhaps Forestmen as a concept just didn't have the mojo these other concepts had. Robin Hood and his merry men are still fairly well-known, but they aren't as much of a fixture in pop culture as they used to be, at least speaking from my experience in the United States. Maybe in Great Britain where his legend originated, it's a different story... I remember Robin Hood appearing as a character on Doctor Who a season or so ago. I have no idea how popular he is in mainland Europe, which is a big market for the LEGO Group, or Asia, which they're trying to expand their foothold in.

The cover to the LEGO Elves activity book has been revealed! I really like how the LEGO bracelet it comes with is constructed. I'll have to give this book a look when it's released towards the end of this month.

I'm sure there exists a video like this for Nexo Knights. However, videos like this generally aren't supposed to be revealed to the general public as far as I'm aware, so whether we end up seeing it is just luck of the draw. Maybe somebody who has a copy of the video will upload it, and maybe not — but we don't know who or where or when.

Actually, almost all of the Dorling Kindersley deluxe hardcover guide books include exclusive figures, with just a few exceptions. The LEGO Friends Adventure Guide and Character Encyclopedia include two mini-dolls that are made entirely from pre-existing parts. And the LEGO Ninjago Visual Dictionary just included a Zane Rebooted minifigure that also appeared in other books and one actual set. Otherwise, every such guide book (including the other Ninjago guide books) has had an exclusive minifigure. So far, though, other publishers' guide books and activity books never include exclusive figs or even exclusive parts.

Well, 14-year-olds are on the tail end of the recommended age range for these sets. They're not expected to be the theme's core audience any more than twelve-year-olds are expected to be LEGO City's core audience. But for what it's worth, when I was 14 I was enjoying plenty of silly cartoon series. All we've seen of the story so far are teasers: just one or two trailers and a few character videos poking fun at how Nexo Knights differs from traditional LEGO Castle. I don't know if those would be a really good reflection of what the actual show would be like. It's not unheard of for teasers of kids' series to focus on the sillier parts of the series. I mean, just looking back, the Ninjago teaser site back in 2010 was utterly ridiculous, full of trivia about "famous ninja" with names like "Yello Beez" and "Hiz Shadoh", not to mention quizzes like "Is Your Mother a Ninja?". I don't think many people looking at the upcoming Ninjago sets and story teasers back in 2010 would have really expected it to be something 14-year-olds would take seriously.

I've been watching it at this site. The first several episodes are fairly simplistic and don't appear to be building up to anything, which is a bit irritating since it makes it hard for me to introduce the show to other people (like my parents) without either starting at the beginning and having them lose patience or starting at one of the later, more impressive episodes and having them feel lost amidst all the lore that built up in the intervening episodes. To be honest, I might not have been as enthusiastic about the series myself if I hadn't already stumbled upon enough spoilers to know that yes, it does gradually build in complexity as the series goes on. The show is kind of unusual in that even the episodes that feel like "filler" add to the lore, introducing new characters, explaining little bits about what gems are and how they function, etc. So while it drops you in without much introduction, you find out more and more as you watch. If there's any real turning point in the series, it's probably about midway through season one ("Mirror Gem"/"Ocean Gem"). That's when it really becomes clear the series is building towards something bigger. But there are plenty of episodes even before that represent meaningful milestones and tell engaging stories in their own right. In my opinion it is definitely worth watching the series all the way through.

If we look at the target age ranges for non-exclusive $100 Castle sets, they actually stay fairly consistent aside from the upper limit: 7094 King's Castle Siege | 2007 | 7–12 7097 Trolls' Mountain Fortress | 2009 | 7–14 7946 King's Castle | 2010 | 7–14 70404 King's Castle | 2013 | 7–12 The recommended age ranges on smaller sets don't follow the same pattern, though. At the $10–12 price point, 6918 Blacksmith Attack, 7949 Prison Carriage Rescue, and 70400 Forest Ambush are all aimed at ages 5–12, but the similarly priced 7091 Knights' Catapult Defense and 7040 Dwarves' Mine Defender from Fantasy Era are aimed at ages 6–12. Likewise, at an intermediate $50–60 price point, 7947 Prison Tower Rescue and 70403 Dragon Mountain are both aimed at ages 6–12, but 7093 Skeleton Tower is aimed at ages 7–12 and 7036 Dwarves Mine is aimed at ages 7–14. So at these price points, the 2010 and 2013 Castle sets were aimed at about the same age range, but Fantasy Era sets were aimed at a higher age range. The target age range for Nexo Knights jumps ahead of even Fantasy Era, judging from what we've seen. The $100 70317 Fortrex is aimed at ages 9–14, and the $60 70316 Jestro's Evil Mobile is aimed at ages 8–14. This is part of why I feel like it's more of a replacement for Chima than a replacement for Castle. Themes like Chima and Ninjago regularly hit these price points, while non-exclusive Castle sets haven't hit the 8–14 age range in many years. The last non-exclusive Castle set I know of to hit this price point was 8877 Vladek's Dark Fortress. I don't know if any non-exclusive Castle set has ever hit the 9–14 age range. Note that I'm careful to specify "non-exclusive". Obviously, sets like 10193 Medieval Market Village and 10223 Kingdoms Joust are unmistakeably aimed at teens and adults. I don't expect Nexo Knights to get a big exclusive set like this for a few years, if at all. Look how long it took Ninjago to get one (though I'd say the Temple of Airjitzu was worth the wait). And even moreso than Fantasy Era Castle or Ninjago, I have to wonder whether LEGO would even be able to create a Nexo Knights set that has the "groundedness" AFOLs tend to expect from a display model. Oh, and I don't think the Juniors Knights' Castle really says anything about the audience for the 2013 Castle range. It reuses that theme's heraldry, but has a much different color scheme that makes much more use of Bright Yellow and Dark Azur than Bright Blue and Reddish Brown. Not to mention, there have already been Juniors sets based on Super Heroes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, City, and Pirates, and next year there will be Juniors sets based on Disney Princess and Ninjago. Needless to say, the Juniors sets are not reflective of those System themes' overall age range, any more than Duplo sets based on any of those themes would be.

From what we've seen of the pirates so far, it seems like they are very much a "ragtag bunch of misfits", many of them assembled from factions the Ninja have faced before. So I don't think the pirate leader being a ghost would be out of the question.

In Ninjago and Legends of Chima, the main characters generally did stay the same from year to year, but they also regularly got new costumes from year to year. So I don't think the possibility of different armor colors is out of the question.

I don't know how much credence there is to the notion that Kingdoms was "cut short" to make way for the Lord of the Rings. The 2011 lineup was already much smaller than the 2010 lineup (four sets, down from 11), and that's often an indication of a theme that's already on its way out. Compare also the 2010 Power Miners lineup (four sets, down from 18) or the 2011 Atlantis lineup (five sets, down from 19). There's no reason to think refocusing on civilian medieval life was meant to extend the life of the theme. Yet at the same time, I don't think we can say the Kingdoms theme failed — if it had, it might not have gotten a second year of sets in the first place. Its performance just wasn't exceptional. I also don't think there's any reason to assume Nexo Knights was motivated by poor castle sales. If anything, it seems to me that Nexo Knights was motivated by needing some new, novel concept to replace Chima and the designers deciding "Spastle" is that concept. 2016 is the perfect opportunity for them to launch such a theme, since there are currently no ongoing Castle or Space themes that it would be competing with. Plus, having a new "big bang" could just be a higher priority to them right now than having a traditional Castle theme. Considering that two of their recent "big bang" themes have gone evergreen (Friends and Ninjago), it's clear that the "big bang" has really become a big part of their business.

Well, think about it this way: young kids are often interested in things based on their parents' recommendations. They make friends based on parental connections, they watch TV shows and movies based on their parents' approval, and in some cases they dream of growing up to be just like their parents. But after several years of this, kids who grow up in this more traditional environment will often want to branch out to things they haven't seen or experienced, things their parents might not entirely understand, sometimes even things that are a bit subversive. Their interests become a bit more fickle, and they're more likely to hop on "the latest trend". They're not quite the stereotype of the "rebellious teenager" who listens to music their parents hate and hangs out with friends their parents don't approve of, but they appear to be moving in that direction. I feel like LEGO themes like Ninjago help to give older kids something that doesn't feel as "old-fashioned" as the more traditional themes like Castle, Pirates, or City. Bear in mind I'm not talking about kids vs. teenagers or anything like that. All these themes are geared chiefly towards preteens, it's just the difference between, say, six-year-olds and eight-year-olds. So perhaps some of these kids who eat up themes like Ninjago at age 7 or 8 might swing back to more "serious" interests by age 12 or 14 (whether or not those includes LEGO). LEGO hasn't been afraid to try and target that slightly older demographic. The Lord of the Rings sets were aimed at ages 8–14 even at their lowest ($13) price point, and The Battle of Helm's Deep was aimed at ages 10–14 (higher than any non-exclusive Ninjago or Chima set). But the older kids are, the tougher it is to effectively market a toy to them. Their attention is liable to be even more divided than it was when they were in that 7–14 sweet spot. AFOLs and TFOLs are a dedicated audience, and one that can articulate its interests a lot better than the 7–14-year-olds who collect LEGO Ninjago or the 6–12-year-olds who buy LEGO City. But we're also a much smaller audience. Even with enjoying LEGO as an adult becoming a much more respectable pastime, we're still a niche subset of our particular age range, whereas I'd say the majority of six-year-olds and eight-year-olds can probably be viewed as potential LEGO fans. So it's understandable that there aren't nearly as many sets aimed at the serious-minded teenage or adult customer.

I think it would be poor storytelling to reveal the Toa's backstory and memories to the Toa without directly revealing them to the audience. If the details of those backstories aren't important enough to tell the audience, then why reveal them at all? Plus, confirming that the Toa are the same Toa and nothing more than that raises more questions than it answers. If the Toa are the same as the G1 Toa, then why did they fall from space, and how did the Mask of Time help summon them? Why are the Toa's mask powers, weapons, elemental powers, and even personalities different than they were in G1? Did coming to Okoto mean abandoning all the friends and allies they were sworn to protect on Spherus Magna? It just creates a whole host of problems, when it would be easier and more useful to give the Toa new backstories that can actually be explained to the audience without a huge infodump. I'm sure a G1–G2 link could be pulled off. The Legend of Zelda series, for instance, often manages to reference the events of previous games without going into elaborate detail. However, your suggestion (to me) doesn't seem like a very good way to do it.

Well, I think LEGO was more worried about kids building realistic tanks and war machines — things that would be too reminiscent of WWII for Danish and German households. They probably wouldn't have cared about kids just taking a castle and plunking it down on a set of wheels/treads. That's the kind of creativity they generally tend to encourage. I actually WAS into Wolfpack. Sort of. There wasn't much to be "into" when there were literally just three sets. Forestmen were before my time, aside from the "Dark Forest" subtheme introduced in North America around 1996 or so. Again, just three sets, and I don't think I actually ended up getting any of them. I was mostly into Aquazone, Exploriens, and Time Cruisers that year. My childhood preferred Castle themes were Dragon Masters (the American name for Dragon Knights), Royal Knights, and Fright Knights. 6048 Majisto's Magical Workshop is still a top-notch design in my book, even if it's a bit gimmicky and had a poor price-per-piece. Fright Knights definitely hasn't aged well (most of my childhood favorite themes haven't), but I can't pretend its named characters, magic, and dragons didn't fire up my imagination at the time. I'm a sucker for character-driven fantasy themes, and these three themes first helped introduce fantasy elements like wizards, witches, dragons, skeletons, and ghosts to LEGO Castle. Yes, I know ghosts technically originated in the Black Knights sets, but again, those were before my time, and I hardly knew about them except from posters and stuff I picked up at yard sales. Anyway, I agree that a faction like Wolfpack or Forestmen could be interesting! But I feel like as "renegade" factions, they work most effectively as a "third party" that functions independently of two main knight factions. And no Castle theme since Fantasy Era has really been large enough to support more than two factions. In fact, it's much more difficult for ANY theme to support more than two factions anymore than it used to be, on account of sets not staying available as long as they used to. Back in the day, my big Castle poster advertised years and years of Castle themes. But today, sets tend to be available for two years, tops, and by the time they've been around one year stores are already looking to clear out their old stock to make way for new sets. So LEGO can no longer just introduce sets one year in the faith that they'll still be out there next year when they introduce a new, competing faction. Forestmen and Wolfpack have mostly gone the way of M:Tron and Unitron, two similar-sized Space factions that came out around the same time. The way LEGO themes are released today, there's less room for independent "third parties" not strictly allied with one of the two main competing factions. Maybe if Nexo Knights gets bigger it might be able to support some sort of futuristic Forestmen or another renegade faction. I wouldn't count on it, though, unless that faction were specifically allied with the good guys or bad guys. Even Legends of Chima, with as many distinct tribes as it had, made it pretty obvious that some factions were "good" and some were "evil", and while those factions would occasionally switch sides, there was little middle-ground. Likewise, Ninjago had its own "renegade" character this year, Ronin, but it was abundantly clear (in the sets, at least) that he was on the side of the ninja.

Hmmm, perhaps I will have an opportunity to expand the themes I collect next year, then. I guess we'll see. Currently I don't have an actual job, though, and LEGO is an expensive hobby. Reviewing sets for New Elementary (as I've been doing as a guest for the past couple years) can take some of the bite out of the cost of that hobby, but perhaps the best way to take advantage of having fewer Ninjago sets to collect would be to not fill the gap with additional sets, and instead focus on MOCing and other things that will help spice up my creative portfolio. After all, becoming a LEGO designer is still my ultimate career aspiration, and I came closer than ever before to that goal this February when I was invited to a designer recruitment workshop, but I haven't done nearly as much MOCing since then as I had hoped in the beginning of the year.

Personally I've got no problem with Nexo Knights, and I can't even say for sure whether I'd have any interest in a "traditional" Castle theme — not with more interesting themes like Ninjago eating up so much of my budget. But looking at what I'd like in Castle sets, if I were still collecting them? First and foremost, I'd want a castle people could live in. Other than some versions of Hogwarts, most LEGO castles have been pretty meager in this regard. Interior-wise, you get a dungeon, a throne room, a treasury, a gatehouse, and maybe an armory or smithy. That's all well and good, but it's only a start. What about a master bedroom for the king, with a grand four-poster bed? What about a library where the kingdom's knowledge is stored? What about a banquet hall for royal gatherings, and a kitchen where food for those gatherings can be prepared? Maybe stables for horses? When I was a kid, one of the books I most enjoyed consulting when building LEGO Castle creations was Castle by David Macaulay. And it made it clear to me that a castle wasn't just a military stronghold or seat of government, it was a home. And yet official LEGO castles never really reflected that. The closest I ever got to that in an actual toy was this admittedly awful Mega Bloks "Lion's Kingdom" set, which had giant prefab walls that folded into a storage case. And yet, at the same time, I have little doubt that LEGO could release a castle with these kinds of amenities if they would be willing to break it up into sections, as they've done with gatehouse sets in the past. A regular $100 castle would be much improved if there were also a $40 or $50 keep sold separately, with living space for the castle's inhabitants. Or they could even bump the price up from the typical Castle price of $100 to a more liberating $120–200 price point. And ironically, as much as some Castle fans hate them, Ninjago, Elves, and Nexo Knights have come closer to this vision than any other non-licensed castle themes that I know of. Battle for Ninjago City was able to include a cot and kitchenette, despite some of the price being eaten up by a giant walking siege engine. Skyra's Mysterious Sky Castle has a dining area, a lava-powered oven, and a spa/master bath. It's not clear whether Fortrex is hiding any extra amenities (the chefbot suggests a kitchen but that might be too much to hope for), but instead of an extra gatehouse its expansion unit is said to be a library. A library! Even if it is just a six-stud-wide tower with a couple bookshelves, that's better than any previous LEGO castle not named Hogwarts. I'm not a traditionalist at heart. I respect the LEGO brand's roots, but the sets of my own childhood were not so great in hindsight, and while the sets that came before them often had more building value, they were usually even further from my vision of what makes a great LEGO set than those I had a chance to own. The beloved Black Monarch's Castle didn't even have a throne room! But my ideals for what a great LEGO Castle should include are rooted in reality. So surely you can understand my disappointment when decidedly unrealistic themes like Ninjago deliver on these ideals better than any supposedly "realistic" Castle theme has ever been able to muster. If given the choice between a traditional LEGO Castle theme that fits firmly in some real or imagined period of history, and an exciting "big bang" theme that can convince me its characters have actual lives beyond the battlefield, I'll much sooner choose the latter.

That's more or less what the LEGO Group DID say when they officially announced it. The original rumors that it was a new castle theme were just that — rumors — and they surfaced long before the LEGO Group made any kind of announcement. I don't think even the retailer's catalogs which weren't meant for public eyes identified it as a castle theme or the successor to past castle themes? Every bit of official copy we've seen about the Nexo Knights theme seems to emphasize that it's a brand-new experience rather than identify it as a part of a much older category. A memo to a store manager (as mentioned in this topic's first post) is not an "announcement", and even if it were, we never got to see said memo, the store manager just recalled its contents second-hand. So it's easy to assume the actual message might have gotten distorted.

Yeah, I don't think a G1-G2 connection is out of the question. I do, however, think many of the specific connection theories I've seen are troublesome in one way or another. For instance, the idea that the G2 Toa are the G1 Toa in the past or future begs the question of why their personalities, mask powers, and elemental powers are so different than in G1. Not to mention why other discrepancies between G1 and G2 exist, like the inhabitants of Okoto being neither Agori nor Matoran. The most likely way for the two generations to coexist would be some alternate universe scenario. But even then, most fans proposing that do so in the troublesome context of the Toa being plucked out of the G1 universe and thrust into the G2 universe, or worse, having some reality-crossing interloper like Vezon or Takanuva randomly pop up just for the sake of a contrived cameo.

Point number 3 is kind of irrelevant. Why couldn't it be a brand-new character? Kozu was a brand-new character when he first appeared in sets. Assuming we've seen all the ghosts that exist is like assuming we've seen all the Serpentine that exist, which next year's sets already show is not the case. Plus, whether or not Garmadon survived the Cursed Realm's destruction, he lost his extra arms quite some time ago. Why would the Cursed Realm being destroyed make him grow them back? Particularly since with the Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu no longer in the picture, he no longer has any need for them. All things considered, I think the four-armed ghost being a brand-new character is a lot more likely than it being any known character. The new samurai bigfig and at least one of the new Serpentine minifigs are brand-new characters, so there's no reason to think a new four-armed ghost minifigure would have to be a returning character

Setting aside that LEGO is clearly doing better financially than Playmobil or any other toy company for that matter, have you considered that a lot of the motivation behind these sorts of "mashup" themes and sets might be to offer kids something that other toy companies can't? There are plenty of toy companies, Playmobil included, that have sets inspired by real life, whether modern-day or historical. Any company can create toys based on these concepts. But a set like Destiny's Bounty from LEGO Ninjago, Flying Phoenix Fire Temple from LEGO Legends of Chima, or Fortrex from LEGO Nexo Knights is considerably more unique. And by the time any other toy companies consider releasing something along the same lines, the LEGO Group will likely have already moved on to different sets combining different concepts and play features. This kind of strategy enables the LEGO Group to remain a leader in the toy industry rather than a follower. Instead of sticking to concepts that have been in the cultural consciousness for decades if not centuries, they're synthesizing disparate concepts to create products that many kids today have not previously seen or even imagined. And with Ninjago and Legends of Chima, it appears to have paid off. With that said, I think it's a mistake to assume the LEGO Group has completely given up on more traditional Castle themes. They're just setting them aside for the time being to experiment with something new.

Well, there was grey (as seen in some of the helmets), but LEGO was reluctant to use it for actual building elements out of fear of kids building tanks and other war machines. Personally, I have a hard time sympathizing with complaints that Castle sets today are too colorful. I feel like bright colors make the sets feel "more LEGO", and that the sets would be a lot more boring if you swapped all the blue accents from sets like #70402 or #70404 with another color like Dark Stone Grey. Granted, I've always been drawn to brightly-colored sets — some of my favorite childhood themes were Aquazone and Bionicle, and some of my favorite themes today are Bionicle, Ninjago, and Elves, all of which use bright colors extensively. The Lord of the Rings sets may have felt authentic with their use of neutral browns and greys or desaturated greens. But they also felt somewhat dull to me color-wise. Just because today's color palette makes more realistic color palettes possible does not mean they're any more desirable than they were in the 80s and 90s. Even in non-fantasy themes like City or Friends, "realism" is not a strict objective. I've seen a lot of people bring up that factions like Wolfpack and Forestmen are more interesting to them than the typical lion or dragon heraldry. However, there have NEVER been a whole lot of sets from either of those factions. If LEGO ever thought these could support a Castle theme as effectively as the more iconic heraldic symbols, don't you think LEGO would have made more sets of these factions in the first place? As it stands, Forestmen and Wolfpack have always been characterized as small bands of rogues and bandits — they have never been on equal footing with the Castle theme's bigger factions like the Lion Knights, Black Knights, or Crusaders which all used lion and dragon heraldry. Now, Black Falcons are another story. I could easily see LEGO reviving or re-imagining that theme's heraldry as one of the two main factions in a future Castle theme, especially since they've used falcons, hawks, and eagles for iconic characters in other themes like Knights' Kingdom II, Legends of Chima, and now Nexo Knights. There are officially 16 realms in the current LEGO Ninjago canon, and a lot of people seem to be really committed to making other LEGO themes a part of that sixteen-realm framework. So far, none have been, except Legends of Chima as a joke/cameo. Assuming any use of the word "realm" identifies a theme as a parallel dimension to LEGO Ninjago is silly any way you slice it. If a crossover happens, it happens, but I don't understand people's desire to start linking themes together based on such tenuous evidence.

Really the third time, if you count Ninjago. For that matter, I seem to recall some people in the Historic Themes subforum assuming "Legends of Chima" was referencing a Native American tribe when that trademark was first disclosed. The Historic Themes subforum has something of a track record for latching onto any kind of rumor that might be a historic theme and then getting very disappointed when it's not.

I voted yes, it's a castle theme. Easily the least traditional castle theme to date, but a castle theme. And yes, I love what we've seen so far! It seems so fresh and imaginative, with lots of advanced building techniques and creative functions and wacky re-imaginings of Castle concepts. It's got a lot of the same magic that drew me to themes like Bionicle, Ninjago, and Elves, but at the same time, it feels wholly unique from these themes. I might get some of the sets. I know I won't be buying everything — I don't think I can commit that strongly to a theme this big and expensive, especially when I'm trying to manage how much stuff I bring into the house so I can hopefully organize the stuff I already have. But I bought at least a handful of Chima sets that interested me, and I expect this theme to be no different in that regard. Ideally, I'd like to at least get enough sets to get the five main characters. How much more than that I get will probably depend on how much I enjoy the story. And yes, I absolutely love the trend towards media-driven themes. So many of my favorite themes growing up were the ones that pushed things in that direction. Themes like Aquazone that took place in invented worlds not grounded in such familiar tropes and archetypes as Space or Castle. Themes like Bionicle that turned character-driven storytelling into a core component of their brand direction. Even in themes that were less story-driven, I ate up every silly little character blurb or story that came to me in the LEGO Mania Magazine. This year, my three favorite themes have been Bionicle, Ninjago, and Elves. If Nexo Knights has a solid story behind it, with a good balance between drama, action, humor, and heart, then it could easily join them in next year's roster. That's not to say that there's no place for less story-driven themes. There's a reason why themes like City and Creator are regularly among the LEGO Group's top-selling brands. But as much as I appreciate the designs in these themes, I have little interest in collecting them. And while I love the LEGO City mini-movies for their simplistic humor and charm, I don't fall in love with their characters the way I do with the heroes of LEGO Ninjago, LEGO Bionicle, or LEGO Elves. And when I do build City or Creator type models, it's the subjects I'm imitating from real life that inspire me, not something inherent to those themes. Whereas when building Ninjago or Bionicle models, it's generally the world and characters LEGO has created that inspire me.

Another theory I've seen is that perhaps his regular torso DOES have regular arms, and they're folded up inside the armor/upper body. It looks like there might be enough space for that.