Aanchir

My brother and I built the Pegasus Sleigh recently. It's a fantastic build! The function is just as fun and satisfying as the functions of the 2012 Ninjago vehicles. It'd be REALLY cool if some time in the future LEGO Dimensions got LEGO Elves fun packs or a team pack with Naida, Aira, the Adventure Ship, and the Pegasus Sleigh! I wonder what kinds of other vehicles we might expect from LEGO Elves in the future. I know there's probably not as much room for vehicles in a fantasy theme like LEGO Elves as in a science-fantasy theme like Ninjago, but the two we've gotten so far have me craving more fun and rewarding builds like them! Not sure when we'll be getting the Sky Castle. It's a must-have on our wish list, but we're waiting for some kind of sale or deal that will also let us get some of the Ninjago sets from our wish list at the same time. On another note, I just finished reading the first LEGO Elves chapter book by Stacia Deutsch. It's a great read! It goes into a lot more detail than there was time for in the 22-minute TV special, including a lot of detail about Emily's family. The scenes in the Sky Castle are also a lot more action-packed and really give us a better sense of how powerful Skyra's magic is. I often skip the LEGO Ninjago chapter books that are just straight adaptations of the TV series, but in this case I feel like the adaptation has a LOT to offer beyond what was already seen in the TV special.

The Hageman brothers tweeted a new press release about the new live show LEGO Ninjago: The Realm of Shadows at LEGOLAND Malaysia. It has two new pictures that give a sense of how the puppets are constructed and operated. The show will be 20 minutes long and will feature six puppets. It seems like a really clever idea, and I can only hope this show will later show up at other LEGOLAND parks! Perhaps when LEGOLAND California gets their Ninjago expansion...

The Darth Vader set uses both the square ones AND the round ones for his shoulders. Kinda surprised me too! Not in a bad way though. Those are useful pieces.

Agreed, more colors for that part could be great, especially darker neutral colors like black or titanium metallic. For a while I was hoping that the summer 2015 sets might use those (back towards the beginning of the year, before we really had any clue what the summer sets would be like).

No, the new ones are just four and a half studs long.

Usually in the countries that don't get them in the summer they don't call them summer sets, as far as I know...

True, and the Hagemans have also hinted at Jay and Nya's relationship being explored further during the next season. I'm not going to make any bets, although I will point out that sometimes the LEGO Group's box art choices have as much to do with helping the sets stand out from other themes as with what the theme's story happens to be. An all-blue banner might be too close to LEGO City, so if the banner were Jay-themed then they might want to work in some sort of gradient like they did in 2013 and the second half of this year. For all we know the banner could even be Nya-themed. However, I sort of doubt it since she was practically the star of this year's story and yet they didn't put her on the banner. They might be reluctant to give a female character the most prominent spot for a theme that is still, on the whole, being targeted towards boys.

I don't think a dragon would necessarily require a high price point. I'm thinking some of the smaller Ninjago wyvern-style dragons like the ones in these three sets — I don't think a constraction-based dragon with that general "look" would be impossible to create at a $10 price point. You probably wouldn't even need too many new molds.

I can't imagine why it would. It's the exact same width as the new heads, and the holes in the sides are actually larger (you can stick a 3.2mm bar into a cross axle hole, but you can't stick one into the holes in the sides of the new head pieces). Granted, it does require a more complex mold than the actual pieces used due to having holes pointing in perpendicular directions. So naturally it's a more expensive part than the parts that were used, at least taken individually. However, the price for 92907 on Bricks & Pieces is 45 cents, while the price for 6632 and 74695 is 15 cents each, so it still seems as though 92907 would be cheaper than two of 6632, one of 74695, and one of 32062. But the consumer prices might not be 100% proportionate to the production costs.

*sigh* Well, I'm glad I didn't pay any real attention to the "leaks" he was sharing (some of it was very sketchy, and what wasn't was not substantial enough to draw any meaningful conclusions). Doesn't make me any less disappointed, though. At least he fessed up, but pulling the discussion of so many themes along by a string for four days is just going to end up confusing people in the long run. Hopefully this will be the only reminder the Eurobricks community needs this year to be a bit more skeptical and not latch so tightly onto mere rumors.

When Wyldstyle is describing how President Business erected walls between the different worlds, one of the worlds in the montage (northeast of Bricksburg) is Vladek's Realm. Vladek himself didn't make an appearance in the movie, though. The unicorn shield is from the 2006 Knights' Kingdom sets, and was carried by Sir Kentis.

I liked Knights' Kingdom II... sort of. I collected the action figures for the whole run, but only got the playsets for the first year, so I missed out on most of the playsets that were actually really good (I'd trade the Castle of Morcia from 2004 for Vladek's Dark Fortress from 2005 any day). Loved the characters, but my interest in the story diminished when they changed up the cast in 2006, so kinda glad that ended up being its final year. I've never been much for historical accuracy, though. I like it when themes are wacky, colorful, character-driven, and a bit otherworldly or anachronistic (that much is obvious when you look at my three current favorite themes: Bionicle, Ninjago, and Elves). Don't get me wrong, that's not to say I don't appreciate more grounded, traditional, non-character-driven themes like Kingdoms, City, or Pirates for their design quality. I just don't feel a lot of temptation to actually buy them for my own collection. Even as a young kid, I had some more traditional themes I really liked (such as Islanders, Launch Command, and Wild West), but the themes that really got me excited were the more whimsical ones like Dragon Masters (the US name for Dragon Knights) and Aquazone. So far Nexo Knights seems right up my alley (even moreso than Knights' Kingdom II), but it isn't really hitting all the right buttons for me quite like Ninjago or Elves did. That could still change, especially as we get more set design and story details! But even if it does I can't guarantee I'll have room in my budget to collect Nexo Knights with that same degree of passion.

So? Licenses can change a set's cost to the LEGO Group, but not its material and play value for the consumer. So if those licensed sets are worth $200 to the consumer, I don't see why this one wouldn't be. Plus, the "10 cents per piece" threshold for good value is generally one that I've seen AFOLs agree on for LEGO in general, not just for licensed sets. The Ultra Agents Mission HQ and Battle for Ninjago City both have a very similar price per piece. And plenty of non-licensed sets like Arctic Base Camp, Sydney Opera House, Town Square, and Maula's Ice Mammoth Stomper actually have a worse price per piece.

Legitimate or not, it's DEFINITELY not something that was just created for the LEGO Club, because it's backed up by the official product description: "This ancient champion has been animated by the dark magic of the Skull Spider Mask, fusing him with his razor-sharp hook blades." The much more obvious (and plausible) scenario is that the animators simply made a mistake by not having Skull Slicer fused to his hook blades. As for him taking off the Skull Spider mask, though, I'm not sure if that can be considered a mistake or inconsistency. What we know about him is that the Skull Spider mask is what brought him to life and put him under the Lord of Skull Spiders' control. A lot of people have assumed that this means it's also what's keeping him alive and under the Lord of Skull Spiders' control, but nothing has stated that outright. It could be that when the skull spider mask revived him, its energy and consciousness entered his body and he no longer needs to be wearing that specific mask to remain alive and linked to LoSS. I mean, even G1 Lewa retained some of his psychic link to the Bohrok swarms after being freed from the Krana back in 2002. Technically, we don't even know whether his mask is a skull spider or a proper mask like the golden one LoSS uses... or if there is, in fact, a difference.

As far as I know, this is not true and I have seen nothing backing it up. The creators at NYCC said that they had plans for three years. That does not at all mean that they intend to end it after those three years are up — just that they haven't made any plans for what to do with it after that point. If it doesn't sell well for the first couple years, they MIGHT end it at that point. Otherwise, they will probably continue it. Not having plans beyond three years does not mean it has an "expiration date" in any sense of the phrase. Just that it hasn't been around long enough for them to make any plans beyond that point.

Off-topic, but I've just now been made aware of your sig (I had signatures disabled for some reason). lolwut? I don't believe I know you outside of Eurobricks? Anyway, for those who are worried about not getting a proper castle, relax. As a "big bang" theme, this theme is basically guaranteed to get a summer wave, and THAT's when a theme like this would ordinarily end up getting big flagship sets like a castle. Just look at when the flagship sets for Atlantis (Portal of Atlantis), Ninjago (Fire Temple), Legends of Chima (The Lion CHI Temple), and Elves (Skyra's Mysterious Sky Castle) came out.

I'm guessing Nya's Spinjitzu would be blue (probably a lighter blue than Jay's). At San Diego Comic-Con, the Hageman brothers said that there might be other characters learning Airjitzu in the future, so I'm pretty sure Nya might be who they were hinting at.

I just noticed that the LEGO Elves site now has a character page for Skyra! I wasn't sure whether to expect one since there was none for Johnny so I didn't know if maybe they were only going to have pages for the main characters. There's also a new video, but it's just scenes cut from "Elves Got Talent" with audio from "If You Dare to Believe". And a new quiz themed sort of around "Elves Got Talent". The first LEGO Elves chapter book comes out next week! I definitely plan to get it, along with the new Bionicle chapter book and maybe the new Ninjago guide book that are coming out the same day.

Very nice! I love me some meaningful names. Well, as others have said, this is fantasy, not history. Fantasy means freedom to imagine things in terms of what makes for the best storytelling, not just in terms of what used to be realistic back when society was more ignorant. Specifically, this seems like it's futuristic science-fantasy — it has robot horses, for crying out loud! So there's no reason to expect it to adhere to gender roles that even in the present day are centuries out of date. I'm really pleased that it seems like one of the main characters (not just a supporting character) will be female. Obviously this isn't some bold new stride for the LEGO Group — Legends of Chima also had one female character among its main heroes — but it at least indicates this won't be a step backwards when it comes to gender representation. I hope there are also some female supporting characters and villains in order to help avoid "token girl syndrome". Again, Legends of Chima was somewhat good about this — even though only around a sixth of its characters were female, it still had enough VARIETY of female characters that no one character had to be a stand-in for girls and women in general.

So has everyone here seen the King Nixel model that's made by combining all nine of this year's Mixels?

I don't see why that wouldn't be a good enough source, considering that DeeVee is incredibly trustworthy about this sort of thing and has been in close contact with a number of LEGO employees. But because you asked, here's what I've got: "In 2001, its inaugural year, Bionicle's sales exceeded $160 million and the Toy Industry Association declared it the year's 'Most Innovative Toy.' In 2003—the year the rest of LEGO came crashing down—Bionicle's soaring sales accounted for approximately 25 percent of the company's total revenue and more than 100 percent of its profit (as the rest of the company was tumbling to a net loss), making it a financial anchor in turbulent times.... At one point in 2003, the DC Comics Bionicle books, with a circulation of 1.5 to 2 million copies every other month, were the world's most widely read comics." —Brick by Brick, pp154–155 "As it turned out, Bionicle racked up its peak sales in 2002 and then began a long but very profitable return to earth." —Brick by Brick, p177 So no, no quotes that specifically refer to 2001–2003 sales nearly outselling all subsequent years, but it isn't at all difficult to believe.

I can definitely see Nintendo letting LEGO use some of their properties, since they're already planning to include Donkey Kong and Bowser in a future version of Skylanders. It's being handled in a pretty cool way, too, since those two figures can "switch" from working as Skylanders figures to working as Amiibo just by rotating the base. Granted, those two are only going to be compatible with the Wii U version of the game, and I'm not sure if WB Games would be as keen on introducing platform-exclusive characters to LEGO Dimensions.

Parts-wise, Slicer is nothing exceptional (except insofar as he has large quantities of Tr. Bright Green 5M beams and Silver Metallic 5M bones, which might interest some people as a parts pack). But he has a lot of personality. He's easily the most skeletal of the skeletons, which I think does well to set him up as a match for Lewa's agility just as Skull Basher's lumbering build helps set him up as a match for Onua's incredible strength. And while his legs and arms are repetitive, I feel like that helps the color blocking feel more consistent. My biggest issue with Slicer is that the chain weapon can be a bit awkward. It's hard to wrap the claws securely around a mask, and if you're not careful the chain can easily become tangled up with his other arms.

I kind of have to disagree there. The "fantasy-era" Castle that ran from 2007 to 2009 is a very different theme from Kingdoms which launched in 2010. The former was heavily fantasy-inspired, with exaggerated shapes to its castles and lots of fantasy races like undead skeletons, trolls, dragons, and dwarves. The latter was much more conventional, with two human factions, realistically-shaped castles. And Knights' Kingdom II, which preceded both those iterations, was radically different from any other Castle theme, with a much more character-driven story. I would call any of those new themes a "radical re-imagining" of the version of LEGO Castle that came before them. They wouldn't have to exist in the same world. The events of the movie could potentially be written so they could take place in either world, which doesn't require the two worlds to be one and the same. And what's so idiotic about the realms? We already knew the Ninjago universe had more than one realm since the pilot, which had characters crossing over from Ninjago to the Underworld. If you don't include that, we also have the realm of darkness where Wu and Garmadon reunited in the first season. The only thing the latest two seasons have done is enumerated the realms and set up a few other ways to travel between them. Gee, you sure are cynical. I guess I should stop being surprised about that.

Only one of this year's Toa even uses gunmetal for anything other than weapons, and none of the Protectors use it at all (aside from the skull spider legs). Is that really too much gunmetal in your eyes?