Aanchir

Everybody seems to have their own idea of what it is LEGO did wrong in the early naughts that led to them nearly going bankrupt, but it feels like very few people actually know all the facts. Trying to do stuff kids really wanted isn't what caused that crisis at all. In fact, one of the problems is that they didn't listen to kids and instead stuck to a "designers know best" attitude, releasing sets without first taking the time to optimize them through research and focus testing. Actually listening to kids, including kids who they didn't take seriously as potential LEGO buyers before, helped them to create the Bionicle theme, one of their most unequivocal successes of the time, and the only successful theme they had in 2003 when they nearly went bankrupt. Bionicle was not remotely a "classic theme", but if the LEGO Group hadn't taken a risk and invested in it then they would not have survived the decade. The development process for Bionicle provided a roadmap for future innovations, including "big bang" themes like this one. I encourage you and any AFOL interested in learning about this period in the LEGO Group's history to read the book Brick by Brick by David C. Robertson. It's an amazing book that goes into great detail about what the LEGO Group did wrong in the late 90s and early naughts, what they did right to recover from that crisis, and what they learned from the experience that continues to guide their more recent innovations.

Here's one from the ToyArk gallery.

Besides Fortrex being unmistakeably a castle, it also wouldn't surprise me if there were more castles coming. Other "big bang" themes like Atlantis, Ninjago, Legends of Chima, and Elves have always had their biggest sets for the year released in the summer, and I don't expect this theme to be any different in that regard. Have you noticed that the magazine teaser we saw earlier this month has the Fortrex rolling away from what appears to be an even larger castle?

Actually I think it's not a chair, but a tooth! Some real great creativity on display throughout the next two series!

This. I find it a bit ironic that so many people are complaining about Nexo Knights being more sci-fi than they expected. The more sci-fi it is, the better chance it has of NOT being in direct competition something truly historic. Back when this theme was still in Historic Themes, somebody also brought up the possibility that Nexo Knights could coexist with a Vikings reboot. That still seems like a pretty viable idea to me! With so many pre-industrial cultures and time periods to choose from, there's got to be at least one that the LEGO Group could use this opportunity to explore. Let's also not forget that LEGO Ideas is still out there as an avenue for medieval European sets, and a LEGO Ideas set based on medieval history might actually stand a better chance without the prospect of a full Castle theme springing up in direct competition with it.

It wouldn't entirely surprise me if there were another LEGO Ninjago video game for handheld systems. However, now that Ninjago is getting so much representation in LEGO Dimensions, I don't know whether LEGO or TT Games will see as much need for it to have a game of its own. It's worth noting that Shadow of Ronin was not announced until December of last year, so there's still hope for another Ninjago video game being announced. Besides that and LEGO Marvel's Avengers (which we know is coming next year), it's probably still too early to make any other solid predictions. The only high-profile new licensed theme we know of for next year is Angry Birds, which is itself already a mobile game franchise. I would not rule out a LEGO Angry Birds app of some kind, but I don't expect anything more than that on that front. I also have no idea how long LEGO plans to wait before releasing another LEGO Star Wars game, but they might wait for the whole sequel trilogy to be near completion. Oh, there's also the Merlok 2.0 app for LEGO Nexo Knights. I guess that's something.

Wow! Today's episode of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", was amazing! I wasn't sure whether to expect anything special for today, the fifth anniversary of the series premiere. But it turned out we got a heartwarming musical episode with six songs and an incredible resolution! Now that Amy Keating Rogers is no longer on the writing staff for My Little Pony (having moved on to working as a writer for Disney), her episodes will be greatly missed. She will have one more episode airing after this one, but I think it's safe to say that this might be one of the most gratifying episodes she's been involved in during her time on the series.

They do have such a limit, but it varies from theme to theme depending on the number of different sets and the quantity of each set that they plan to produce. Incidentally, this is why LEGO Ideas can't include new molds, since its sets are released individually in relatively small quantities. As the LEGO Group continues to grow they can afford to produce more new sets per theme in greater quantities, and consequently, to produce more new molds per theme. The first year of LEGO Ninjago had at least 24 new molds, and that's counting the pre-assembled spinners as one piece rather than counting up each molded piece individually. The first year of LEGO Legends of Chima had at least 29 new molds, not counting the molds from the constraction sets and again counting the pre-assembled Speedorz chassis as one piece. So far, if I'm correct, only 29 new molds have been observed for this theme so far? The 30 parts from this post, minus the four that were actually pre-existing parts, plus the king's sword, Axl's axe blades, and Macy's plume? That's not so bad. I'm sure there will be more in the second half of the year, but I still don't expect it to be a huge increase from what we saw in Chima and Ninjago.

Well, be sure to check back with us Action/Adventure Theme folks once we have finalized Ninjago pics! The next wave of Ninjago sets seems like it'll have pirate-themed baddies. Granted, they're sky pirates, so probably no ships that'll please the classic crowd, but there might at least be some useful fig parts and building techniques for use in MOCs! A fully transparent figure is something LEGO has tried in the past and has never been able to manage. Polycarbonate (the material LEGO uses for transparent parts) has too much friction against other polycarbonate parts. That's why we have transparent arms but no transparent hands, transparent legs but no transparent hips, and transparent heads but no transparent torsos. There would be structural issues if those "in-between" parts were transparent as well. Making a fully transparent figure would, in the very least, mean substantially redesigning most of the basic figure parts, if not all of them! In this pic, we can see that Merlok 2.0 is represented in the Fortrex set by a stickered panel. Even to me that seems sort of lackluster, and I hope there might be other sets in the future that have him as a fig of some variety. Perhaps it might have been better if the transparent portion were his body and the outlines were opaque instead of the other way around. But all in all I feel like that does a poor job conveying the idea of a hologram.

If "childish" doesn't refer to what age range the theme is aimed at, then it really has no meaning at all. Because there is no strict definition for what makes a theme's personality or tone "childish". Nexo Knights is playful, maybe. Goofy. Experimental. Tongue-in-cheek. Character-driven. But none of these things are the exclusive domain of childhood. Kids don't automatically lose their imagination or sense of humor when they grow up. There are plenty of adults who still enjoy toys and entertainment with all of these qualities, and who have expressed great enthusiasm for this theme! Some adults were even building their own genre-mashing "Spastle" MOCs long before this theme was announced. Actually, LEGO Elves technically is a big bang theme. It was identified as such in preliminary online listings for the chapter book. However, it's probably smaller since it's directed at a demographic the LEGO Group has less experience with. Nexo Knights is taking the place of Legends of Chima, and as such LEGO is confident enough to invest a similar amount in its development. LEGO Elves isn't replacing anything — it's effectively charting brand new territory, and that means it has to work harder to prove itself before LEGO is prepared to invest so heavily in it.

Yeah, that's what I figured. I also wonder if there might be a larger castle in the summer that it can link up to when unfolded. That'd be incredible!

I mean, LEGO Castle and The Lord of the Rings coexisted. So did LEGO Ninjago and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In fairness, both of those are examples where one theme was licensed and another was non-licensed. But overall I don't think LEGO strictly limits themselves to one theme per category, especially if they can count on one or both of those themes being strong enough that a competing theme won't be a problem. I never said you used the word "childish". But it was you who replied to a theme where I argued against calling Nexo Knights "childish" saying you disagreed with my position. So it sounded to me like you were trying to defend the use of that word to describe Nexo Knights. Sorry if I misread that. I don't think there is any strict definition for what is "sophisticated" or what are "adult design sensibilities". That depends entirely on which adult you're asking. When I look at Nexo Knights, I see a lot of sophisticated building techniques — the brick-built "face" and intricate hinged wheels of Jestro's chariot, for instance. These are the kinds of techniques I've also admired both functionally and aesthetically in vehicles from other themes like Ninjago and Legends of Chima. These kinds of techniques, which use slopes and hinges extensively to create a more complicated shape than could be achieved with basic bricks, are part of what bumps up the age range for these sets. By contrast, typical LEGO City or Castle vehicles and buildings tend to be constructed with traditional studs-on-top building on a rectangular grid, resulting in much more ordinary shapes. Ironically, the things many AFOLs consider "childish" are only such because they aren't familiar from those AFOLs' actual childhood experiences. I've never seen 497 or 375 called childish, despite their building techniques, functions, and overall shape being utterly simplistic by today's standards. Yet the much more complex and detailed 70003 and 70010 are regularly called "childish". Not because they're less sophisticated in any way, but simply because they're less conventional.

Maybe reveal other sets? They only had two sets on display today (Jestro's Evil Mobile and Fortrex). So there are still plenty more they could reveal. Arguing that "my toy for seven-year-olds is more grown-up than your toy for eight-year-olds" doesn't make sense any way you slice it. It's perfectly fine if you don't like Ninjago or Legends of Chima or Nexo Knights! But saying it's because they're "too childish" when it's really just because you prefer other themes is just putting down adults who DO prefer those themes. It comes off as a wee bit pretentious. There's nothing wrong with adults liking something aimed at kids. Most of us wouldn't be AFOLs if we didn't. But there's no sense in arbitrarily designating some sets "more childish" than others even when they're aimed at older kids. "Nexo Knights is too goofy for me"? OK. Nexo Knights IS goofier than most Castle themes. "Nexo Knights is too unconventional for me"? Also OK! "Nexo Knights is too childish for me"? That would be OK if you were comparing it to themes aimed at older kids like Lord of the Rings. If you're comparing it to themes aimed at younger kids, or even at kids the very same age, you're just misrepresenting the facts. Again, sounds just like what people said about Ninjago. Not to mention, LEGO designers actually seek feedback from kids who aren't their own offspring, something many AFOLs struggle with. LEGO doesn't put out a theme like this without any kind of concept testing. And that doesn't mean just showing kids the sets and asking them to play with them — that means testing several different concepts with kids from the very beginning and seeing which they respond best to. I can't say it often enough: any AFOL who wants real insight into how the LEGO Group's development process has evolved over the years should read Brick by Brick. Chapter 10 on the development of LEGO Ninjago is particularly relevant here because it too is a "big bang" theme and was probably developed similarly. EDIT: I actually misread the Nexo Knights recommended age ranges! Fortrex is aimed at ages 9–14, not 8–14. That's an even bigger difference from past Castle sets. Lots of great close-up photos from NYCC over here.

On other sites I've seen a lot of excitement for this theme from nostalgic adults who grew up on 80s cartoons and LEGO sets, and who see this as sort of a mash-up of old-school LEGO Space and LEGO Castle. And the two sets that we've seen so far (the $60 Jestro's Evil Mobile and the $100 Fortrex) are both aimed at ages 8–14 and use fairly advanced building techniques. So can we please quit pretending that Nexo Knights is somehow more childish than other non-licensed Castle themes have been? The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are literally the only "castle" themes EVER that were aimed at an older audience than this one. And a theme being wacky and imaginative only makes it "childish" if you truly believe adults have no sense of humor or imagination.

I'm not sure if anybody's linked to the press release yet. But that has a lot of details about this theme's sets, story, and app. I don't see anything about this theme that looks "cheap". On the contrary, it looks like LEGO put quite a bit of time, money, and effort into the new set and character designs. Definitely a lot more complex and imaginative than anything LEGO Castle's had in over half a decade.

For me, stickers are generally fun to apply. Plus, in many themes they allow for a wider range of decorations on a wider range of surfaces without driving the price up. Printing tends to be used sparingly, and chiefly for parts that will be appearing in multiple sets and on surfaces that will be printed in multiple sets. For instance, a Technic beam/liftarm has never been printed, so if you want to have a decoration on a part like that, a sticker is mandatory. There are also other uses of stickers that can't be achieved through printing. Printing can be done with metallic inks but it can't achieve a mirror-like reflective surface. But a sticker printed on metallic foil can. Sometimes stickers can also allow for more colors on certain surfaces than the LEGO Group's printing machines can allow. And the colors of stickers tend to be bold and vibrant, whereas printing can appear faded when printing a light color against a dark surface unless it's printed in multiple coats. There are times when stickers frustrate me, of course. I don't like having to apply a round sticker that doesn't have any markings to help you line it up right, especially if the shape of its edges don't match the shape of the part it's being applied to (like the classic space stickers on the tail fins of Benny's Spaceship). Also, naturally, applying a sticker to a part it's not likely to stay attached to like a 1x1 round brick is bad news. And STAMPs (Stickers Across Multiple Pieces) are awful, full stop. But overall, I'm quite fond of stickers, and their potential in MOCs has little to do with it.

Often in these situations it's a matter of how many sets will use the element in question, not how many of that element appear per set. The Earth icon appears in at least 3 sets, and will also be used for the bracelet that comes with the activity book. 2x2 round cushions do appear in several Elves sets, but they have different colors and patterns depending on the color scheme of the set in question. One thing I love about the cushions in LEGO Elves is that the printed creases on each sticker make aligning them fairly easy, moreso than with some other round stickers I've had to apply in the past. The stickers for the bakery's sign, for instance, were a lot tougher for me to apply straight because they don't have markings pointing in all four cardinal directions.

Huh, and here I was in the camp that a Nexo Knights reveal at NYCC would be really unlikely since it isn't a theme with an already established fanbase. Guess I might very well end up eating my words. It even seems like they MIGHT be making Nexo Knights their sole focus, which would be an even bigger surprise since I didn't expect them to focus on a single theme for a second year in a row. Maybe their Bionicle booth last year was more successful than I had considered, and they want to extend that same level of hype to a different new theme this year. The booth as a whole seems like it'll be roughly the same size as their NYCC booth was last year. I was wondering whether the LEGO Group's presence at NYCC this year might be bigger than last year since last year's NYCC exceeded SDCC in total attendee count. But it now occurs to me that the higher attendee count might also make floor space more expensive, which could give the LEGO Group an incentive to keep things a bit more low-key than at SDCC. Tomorrow I guess we'll find out for sure what the LEGO Group's plans this year entail!

I think the stickers in the Exo-Force sets were probably meant to imitate the "do-it-yourself" nature of some Gundam kits. The theme definitely used stickers extensively, and is one of the first themes I remember that actually numbered its stickers on the sticker sheet and instruction manual. I also quite liked how when there was Japanese text on the stickers, most of the sticker sheets would give a translation for it... that's something I sort of miss with Ninjago, though my brother recently learned that Google Translate can be fairly effective at translating some of these. In general, I find it kind of ironic how many AFOLs do dislike stickers, since when I was growing up, "grown-up" themes like Technic and Model Team were some of the only ones that used them extensively, and I trusted my dad to apply whatever stickers I encountered in other themes. Even in recent years, many of the sets with the most printed parts tend to be from more kid-oriented themes like Juniors, whereas Technic decorations are almost exclusively stickered rather than printed. There were a lot of really awful STAMPs (Stickers Across Multiple Pieces) back when I was growing up, too. These days that's only ever an issue with sets like the latest two Maersk sets that would otherwise have to mutilate a brand name or logo.

Finally started watching Steven Universe this past weekend, and I'm now all caught up. Man, that's a great show. A great balance of action, humor, and sentimentality. Not to mention it does a great job weaving character development and world-building into a series of eleven-minute episodes. Even the ones that seem like what you'd call "filler" in a typical action cartoon manage add depth to the world and characters. There are also lots of great themes about family and friendship. The diversity of the cast is also much appreciated, and there are some great songs.

Probably not... just because he didn't use it against Skull Grinder doesn't mean it doesn't exist. That does mean the box images of the Mask Maker vs. Skull Grinder set are non-canon, but that's not the kind of thing you expect to be a canon snapshot of the story anyway. I don't believe Pohatu uses his dagger at any point in the webisodes either... the only canon use of it is in the chapter book.

Seems to me more like it's the vines that were seen in the picture of the forge here. So hard to tell if it's foreshadowing or just a sign of Ekimu having to clean up a little before he could reforge the Toa's masks. 2003 was an exception, I think. The Toa Nuva's release came very late in 2002. Additionally, from what I've heard, sales in 2003 were hurt by the lack of new Toa (and by other ways the LEGO Group failed to keep up with demand). Really, it's just common sense to have new Toa sets available every year, because most stores want to stock as much new product as possible, and having to keep old sets in stock for more than a year gives them less space to do so. So after a year they do their best to clear out whatever they have left, and if there aren't new Toa out to replace the old ones then that means no Toa in stock at all. Which means the characters in the forefront of the story would suddenly just be distracting buyers from the current sets, the ones the theme NEEDS to promote in order to continue. Everybody seems to worry new Toa every year will make Bionicle feel like Hero Factory, but anybody who knows the first thing about the toy industry should be able to tell that keeping the main characters on shelves year after year is one of the biggest things Hero Factory did right. Transformers does it. My Little Pony does it. Barbie does it. Ninjago does it. This isn't coincidence, it's a valuable lesson that toy companies learned from years of experience. And "swimming against the flow" just to stand out isn't brave or revolutionary in this scenario, it's just ignorant. The fact that it took so long to get the Mistika/Phantoka, without any intermediate designs in between to help transition the sets from their 2002 to 2008 forms, is half the reason the sets were so poorly received in the first place! If the Phantoka/Mistika had been new forms for the Toa Mahri that most closely resembled them, do you honestly think there would have been nearly as much bickering about their designs? But instead the Phantoka/Mistika sets came out after many of the original Nuva elements had been retired and the Bionicle theme's construction style and aesthetic (as well as kids' tastes) had experienced six years of change. It shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody that their designs had more in common with the sets that immediately preceded them than with the previous, long-obsolete versions of the characters they were supposed to be. Not to mention, Bionicle G1 came up with all kinds of elaborate or contrived excuses for every single new character design. Random mutations, magical transformations, etc. Bionicle G2 can definitely take a simpler approach if it needs to. LEGO Ninjago's four original main characters have each had at least eleven different minifigure designs in just five years. How? The same way as anyone in real life changes their look — they literally just change their clothes for different situations (plus, sure, two or three magical transformations to spice things up). This isn't really all that different from how Hero Factory handled things, just less mechanized. There's no reason Bionicle G2 can't just give the Toa new masks, armor, and weapons for new quests. All it'll take to keep it from becoming routine is to come up with new explanations of where that armor comes from and what it's for. Maybe the Toa find ancient magical armor sealed in an underground vault, like Exo-Toa from 2002 except without so much of a disconnect between the armor's size and usefulness. Maybe they receive magical armor from Ekimu that lets them channel ancient elemental spirits. Maybe they build their own new armor in a cave, with a box of scraps! New designs won't feel so contrived if the explanation for them isn't so overwrought in the first place.

From the one non-leaked picture we've seen, it looks like it's actually a custom one built from parts including an antenna (2569) and a 2x2 parabolic dish (30063). Though of course, he might have different styles of lance in different sets, just as Ghoultar from LEGO Ninjago has different styles of scythe in different sets. In any case, the old-school lance (at least, a remolded version of it) appears in two Ninjago sets this year as a flagpole, and there's no indication it's going away any time soon.

I'm a bit unsure about the prospects of an NYCC reveal. Most of the themes LEGO reveals at Comic Con type events tend to be themes that already have appeal with an audience, ideally an all-ages audience. For instance, the Super Heroes and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themes were both revealed at Comic Con, because there are people of all ages who are familiar with and fond of the brands in question, even if each instance was the theme's first time being depicted in LEGO. Likewise, Bionicle is a brand that a lot of people grew up with, so LEGO could expect at least some of their NYCC audience that year to be receptive to the news of a Bionicle reboot. While it was effectively a "new" theme in terms of one that had been absent from LEGO's slate for several years, it was not something nobody but AFOLs who keep up with every leak and teaser had ever heard of. But the situation with Nexo Knights this year is more like the situation with Ninjago in 2010 or Legends of Chima in 2012. It isn't tied to a specific brand people are already familiar with, although it takes some cues from various 80s cartoons. And whenever it does debut, I think it will take some time for adults to warm up to it. So I don't know that revealing it to mostly adult pop culture enthusiasts at an event like NYCC makes a whole lot of sense. More realistically, I think we can expect a magazine teaser (which we've already seen in Australia, and will probably see in other countries by November) and perhaps a teaser site on LEGO.com. I dunno, maybe LEGO will surprise me and reveal Nexo Knights at NYCC. But it seems to me like the kind of thing that wouldn't be represented at these events until it's already been released and had time to gather an audience of its own, rather than something where they can count on nostalgic adults and teens getting excited as soon as they first hear the name.

Since Mixels costumes are already confirmed, that's not really a concern. Brickset categorizes Mixels as a licensed theme, but it is not really a licensed theme any more than the LEGO Movie is — all the character designs come from LEGO designers and LEGO and Cartoon Network share the rights for the brand as a whole.