Aanchir

It should be noted that having the ball cup separate from the foot (like Metru or Inika feet) was often part of the reason those feet had such annoying protruding heels. The only feet without integrated ball cups that avoided the protruding heel issue were the Hordika foot, Kalmah foot, and Stars foot, which all had barely any heel at all (in other words, the opposite problem). I personally don't think it looks exceptionally casual. Frankly I think it suits Gali just fine. It also generally looks more like a boot than a sneaker to me. Now, the Toa Mata foot (my favorite G1 foot) looks more like a sneaker or running shoe to me. Probably because of the way the "toe" slopes upward. But I don't think either style of foot looks terribly inelegant.

I have to disagree. I didn't like the fire armor at first, but I quickly grew to love it. With as many different tribes as we had by that point, the Fire vs. Ice arc (and corresponding costumes and CHI colors) really helped to reinforce who was good and who was bad by giving the good guys a sort of a "uniform". Granted, it could have been made somewhat more diverse (it's a bit of a shame that some of the characters don't get personalized kneepads like Laval and Cragger get, or fire-themed headgear like Laval and Eris get), but overall I am about as happy with the red Fire CHI outfits as with the grey Outlands outfits. Anyway, it's a bit silly to think that something as basic as costumes could kill the line. Chima may be character-driven, but I'm pretty sure most kids would still make their purchasing decisions based on the actual buildable contents of the sets rather than on the characters' costumes. And I feel like the quality of those has remained pretty strong. If Legends of Chima is ending (which appears to be the case), it's probably just because it's worn out its momentum, as happens with most themes — not because of some dramatic failure by the designers.

For some reason I'm not as bothered by the current selection of feet as a lot of people... honestly, I like the "2.0" foot a lot better than a lot of BIONICLE feet just in terms of its heel not protruding so far back from the ankle. That was always something that bothered me about a lot of BIONICLE feet, hence why the Toa Mata foot was always one of my favorite BIONICLE feet — it didn't have that issue. If we did get any different feet in sets, I'd rather they be brand-new feet rather than just feet that trade the flaws of the "2.0" foot for flaws all the current feet have been fortunate enough to avoid. Anyway, there honestly aren't a whole lot of G1 BIONICLE pieces that I'd want to see back, as a lot of them either don't fit with G2 BIONICLE aesthetically or have practical limitations. For what it's worth, the Gali hook is one I've never really tired of, though. It's compact, it's simple from a molding standpoint, it's a versatile shape, and it has good connection points. I can't think of WHAT you might need it for anymore, but if the situation arose where you needed that shape for a model, bringing it out of retirement wouldn't be a bad call. And the Gahlok-Kal Shield is probably the most simple, versatile Bohrok shield, and a 5x5 circular dish is a useful shape to have. I also like the Gahlok Shield, but I have a feeling that in a lot of cases you'd want to avoid that overt fin shape unless you actually intended it as a fin. Generally, there aren't any shells I'd want to see back. Most BIONICLE G1 shells either had really specialized textures, really specialized connection points, or both. Even with the few I really like, it's hard to tell just when they would ever be useful for a set that there wouldn't be any modern Technic or CCBS alternative. One of the most useful BIONICLE joint pieces I know is the Vahki hip joint. I wouldn't mind those making a comeback. And finally, some of the parts that have continued to appear in sets since BIONICLE ended, like the Zamor Sphere, large aircraft wing, small aircraft wing, and insect wing have proven their usefulness. I would not mind if these appeared in BIONICLE again, although I think those two aircraft wing elements should be reserved for vehicles. I can't imagine them being fitting for G2 BIONICLE characters based on what we've seen of G2's aesthetic so far.

Just discovered through a Google search that the LEGO.com Videos page has videos for the Pegasus Sleigh and Sky Castle sets!

Incidentally, has everyone seen the cover for the book LEGO Ninjago: Build Your Own Adventure? Seems to be similar in concept to the "Brickmaster" books we've had before, but it's not a reissue of either of those. There's also a LEGO Friends one.

Just so y'all know, LEGO has uploaded pictures of the Pegasus Sleigh to their cache (no pictures of the Sky Castle just yet). This gives us a better glimpse at the inside of the dragon's cave as well as the sleigh's Technic function. And you can get a better look at the different printing between Starshine and Rufus. Main pic Alt1 (Box) Alt2 (Azari and Aira in sleigh) Alt3 (sleigh trunk) Alt4 (sleigh in flight) Alt5 (dragon cave) Alt6 (dragon atop windmill) Alt7 (cave hinged open) Alt8 (sleigh function) Alt9 (windmill/scenery)

Not really. The lowest layer (black and gray) has to be imagined in some places, but this is pretty much always the case. Look at the Toa Metru. They didn't actually have Dark Stone Gray parts underneath their lower leg armor, but that doesn't stop Dark Stone Grey from representing that lowest layer of their bodies.

You can practice at launching them better or learning new launching techniques. There's no reason a person can't be invested without a competitive element. A lot of the fun I had with the spinners was more experimental than competitive. "Let's see how long I can get this character to spin on their head", or "let's see whether I can get this to spin on an incline", for instance. Some of the experimental aspect of these is limited because you really can't customize them much (it'd be an obvious safety hazard if you could just attach whatever parts you wanted to them), but you can still change where you launch them, what direction you launch them, or even if you remove the propellor part entirely and spin them upside-down like an egg. Speaking of upside-down, if you spin them upside-down, they are about as effective for battling as the classic spinners, with the exception that the figures themselves can't be knocked out due to them being sealed in the pods.

Seems pretty consistent to me: grey and black inner layer, blue middle layer, metallic outer layer. In clothing terms, you could think of her as wearing a blue bodysuit with metallic gloves, boots, torso armor, and shoulder armor. I'd consider Kopaka's color scheme a heck of a lot less consistent, seeing as it can't quite decide whether gold is the outermost layer (torso, shoulders) or a middle layer (upper arms and lower legs). That's not to say that Kopaka's color scheme doesn't work. Color layering is a useful technique, not an inviolable law. But Kopaka is certainly no champion of sensible color layering. And I'm generally not one to flip out over MOCs that use multiple types of gray or silver together, provided they distribute them sensibly (a MOC where the entire upper half uses the new gray and the entire lower half uses the old gray would be quite awkward).

Nah, don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing any of those other sets, or saying that you're looking at Gali all wrong. Just pointing out that the "three main colors" rule (or analyzing a set based on the number of colors in general) can be a bit of an oversimplification. After all, Queen Beast also had at least four main colors when you get right down to it (black, Tr. Flu. Green, Tr. Light Blue, and Medium Azur). And if you conflate the Tr. Light Blue and Medium Azur as one color, I think that Tr. Light Blue and Dark Azur are close enough to one another that you ought to extend Gali that same courtesy. Speaking of Gali, just today I saw a video from TTV that I think really effectively reinforces why she's my favorite of the new Toa: This is the first of their "Product Showcase" videos but it definitely makes me enthusiastic to see more! Amazing presentation quality, detailed coverage, and no chatter/gossip. Obviously it performs a different function than a review, because there's nothing there that will give you a sense of how enjoyable the set is when it comes to building and play or other opinions of that sort. Still, it does an amazing job showing off the set's beauty from every angle, and in a variety of poses, showing that it doesn't take any trick photography or super-specific poses and angles to make her look her best. To think that some people don't think she looks feminine!

Well, they CAN clash in midair if you don't fire them at the same time (I think the commercial for them shows a person knocking one out of the sky with his own, though I'm sure that wouldn't be easy). But to answer your question, no, it doesn't seem like the Airjitzu sets have any emphasis on fighting. In the very least that's not a function that they're being advertised with. If there is any competitive element to them, it's more a matter of seeing who can fly theirs higher or keep theirs spinning longer.

C'mon, don't give me another reason to cringe at BS01 set reviews. I have enough of those as it is... Nah, in all seriousness, I won't hold it against you if I end up disagreeing with your conclusion in the review. It wouldn't be the first time I've disagreed with a review and certainly won't be the last. And at any rate, your Pohatu review is easily the best review the site's had, in terms of picture quality and actual, meaningful insights. But you're still totally wrong about Gali. :P As I see it, Gali has an excellent color scheme. After all, it's just Dark Azur and Tr. Light Blue plus a few shades of grey and Bright Yellow accents. Even if you count every neutral color separately, you end up with just eight colors for her entire body (not counting colored pins and axles). Applying the same rules, that's the same as the number of colors as Makuta or the Gukko (not counting Jaller) from 2003, or Evo XL Machine (not counting Evo) or Queen Beast from last year. Actually, Evo XL Machine has TEN colors by those rules.

Well, Ninjago is definitely going to try and maintain its strength for at least the next two years, since it has a movie planned for fall 2017. I am not sure how the theme's story will be handled, though. We heard that the movie will have a story that diverges from the TV show, which seems to suggest a new continuity. And LEGO has generally avoided having multiple concurrent continuities in order to prevent confusion (unlike, say, Transformers and TMNT, which have separate continuities between their movies and cartoons). So could LEGO be planning a "grand finale" for the current Ninjago story leading up to a cinematic reboot? Conversely, could the delayed release (originally 2016, now 2017) mean that LEGO is trying to rewrite it to have a shared continuity in the wake of the growing success of the current story? Anything's possible... But for a Ninjago movie to be successful, it would have to be written as an entry point for new fans, which means it couldn't require fans to already be familiar with the story and characters. Even with Ninjago's popularity on the upswing, that'd be a huge risk. Maybe LEGO will try the multiple continuities thing for a change. As far as the sets are concerned, I think there's still room for growth. After all, even with more minifigures than ever before, it's important to remember that kids aren't always completionists. Some are happy enough to have the main characters in one costume each, or to have a handful of enemies for them to fight, rather than needing EVERY bit-part minion or EVERY main character variant. Also, there's room for other types of sets, such as a constraction series like Chima had for the last two years, or battle packs like Chima has this year. I would not be the least bit surprised if the year the movie comes out we get a CMF series like we got for The LEGO Movie, since that offers a low-priced entry point for new buyers and a chance to include more minor characters and costumes in physical form.

Sure, I put together a list for my own purposes a while back: 70730: Airjitzu Zane, Chain Master Wrayth (legs), Ghost Warrior Pyrrhus 70731: Deepstone Jay, Blade Master Bansha (slime tail), Ghost Warrior Pitch, Ghost Warrior Ghurka, Ghost Warrior Wail 70732: Deepstone Kai, Deepstone Jay, Chain Master Wrayth (slime tail), Scythe Master Ghoultar (slime tail), Ghost Ninja Ming, Ghost Warrior Cyrus, Evil Green Ninja, Samurai Nya 70733: Deepstone Cole, Ghost Warrior Cowler 70734: Deepstone Cole, Bow Master Soul Archer (slime tail), Ghost Ninja Hackler, Ghost Warrior Pitch, Master Wu 70735: Deepstone Kai (no shoulder armor), Scythe Master Ghoultar (slime tail), Ghost Ninja Attila, Ronin 70736: Deepstone Kai, Deepstone Jay, Chain Master Wrayth (slime tail), Ghost Ninja Spyder, Ghost Warrior Cowler, Ghost Warrior Yokai, Evil Green Ninja 70737: Deepstone Zane, Deepstone Jay, Blade Master Bansha (legs), Scythe Master Ghoultar (slime tail), Samurai Nya 70738: Deepstone Cole, Blade Master Bansha (slime tail), Bow Master Soul Archer (legs), Scythe Master Ghoultar (slime tail), Ghost Ninja Spyder, Morro (cape), Deepstone Lloyd, Ninja Nya, Master Wu And of course the Airjitzu figs include the figures that are in their names. Airjitzu Wrayth has legs and Airjitzu Morro has no cape.

I don't expect to see a Shade minifigure because his torso is nothing but a recolor of the Roman Centurion minifigure. Figs with recolored decorations of that sort almost never show up in sets, certainly not in the same year they first appear, because usually if there are any plans to put a new fig in a set they give that fig a new design to begin with. Karlof and Griffin Turner are perfect examples.

Sorry about that guys! Descriptions for the sets can be seen in Hungarian at kockashop.hu. I got that link from a comment on Brickset. That site also lists the number of pieces in each set. 70730 has 298 pieces, 70731 has 386 pieces, and 70732 has 1069 pieces.

I'm just now noticing that all three store exclusive sets include ghost warriors/ghost ninjas that don't appear in any other sets (Ghost Warrior Pyrrhus in 70730, Ghost Warrior Ghurka and Ghost Warrior Wail in 70731, Ghost Warrior Cyrus and Ghost Ninja Ming in 70732). It's possible that some of them might be made from mixing and matching parts from other ghosts, but if not then people who plan to get all the minifigures in sets will have to add all three of those sets to their wish list! Ironically, though, Evil Green Ninja appearing in 70732 means that if you're just going by minifigures, 70736 Morro Dragon has become skippable. The total number of new minifigures in the summer 2015 sets (not counting promotional figures, variants of the individual ghosts, the new Nya with black shoulderpads, or the Skreemers) is now a whopping 29.

It shouldn't be too much of a surprise. They work in design, not showbiz, and are usually not very used to being in the spotlight.

Well, on a species-wide level, some people would argue that the reason romance exists in any form (whether among individuals who can procreate or those who can't) is that having romantic feelings and being able to care for others on a deeply personal level strengthens our ability to support a population. In some species there's nothing romantic at all (as we understand it) about mating, so we know that our "human-ness" is part of what gives us the ability and inclination to feel romantic feelings towards others. It's not a huge leap from there to assume that we are genetically predisposed to feel romantic feelings towards others, and that this genetic predisposition came about through evolution. Even so, it's kind of irrelevant to G1 Toa and Matoran since no reproduction means no natural selection. Thus, unless you think romance is a net LIABILITY for the species that would force it into extinction (which is a remarkably cynical way to think of things), then there's no reason the Matoran couldn't exist WITH romantic attraction as easily as without.

This site has pics of all the Airjitzu sets, with individual pics of the minifigures for all of them except Cole, for some reason. The Airjitzu Ninja look pretty awesome. Also, I love how Morro's costume greatly resembles the costumes of the 2011 Ninjago minifigures, since I believe he's supposed to be a former student of Wu's who didn't pass muster or something like that. It weirds me out that Airjitzu Cole comes with a pair of sausages...

Kardas was a rather unusual set in general because even though it sold for $50, the sets used to make it sold for $70 all total. Seriously. The first titan bundle (Takutanuva) was priced equivalent to its component sets (the $30 Takanuva set and the $20 Makuta set), but then for whatever reason the price for the next three year's titan bundles stayed the same even as the net price of the component sets continued to increase. Don't ask me why. However, maybe if you subtract the extra pieces not used in the model (there WERE a lot of them) and the Vezon figure you'd arrive at something closer to actually having a $50 value. G1 BIONICLE did have one $50 single figure set that wasn't a combi model: Toa Mata Nui from 2009. So that might give a better idea of the level of bulk you might expect from a $50 single-figure set. How different was that set in height and weight than Kardas, I wonder? I don't know that I've ever seen a comparison.

Just got a giggle from realizing that the Klinkers Max has a BIONICLE-style gear function! It's like... Klinkermax, Master of Mixels! XP

This is the Ultra Agents topic...

Onua might almost be there in width, but certainly not in height. He's actually one of the shortest of the new Toa, only slightly taller than a typical Toa Nuva set. Generally it's rare to get a figure the size of Witch Doctor at any less than a $30 price point, and the only $30 BIONICLE set this year is Skull Grinder vs. Mask Maker (which has to split its contents between two figures). Skull Grinder himself is only around the same height as Tahu (27 modules). But I can definitely see there being room for a $30 or $35 titan in the future. Even in BIONICLE G1, $30 single figure sets were rare, with most $30 or larger sets being a character and vehicle or character and steed. But the fact that General Grievous is a $35 single figure set similar in size to Witch Doctor or the 2008 Takanuva tells me LEGO still sees sales potential in figures this size, at least every now and then.

Greg always explained it as that if an entire species was unable to reproduce then there was no biological justification for romance. Which, to me, is overthinking things, not to mention thinking of things strictly in logical terms rather than in terms of their storytelling merit. I think even Greg knew that — he wasn't afraid to include "flirting" in the BIONICLE Adventures story arc, like between Matau and Nokama or between Onewa and Krahka. So I'm almost tempted to say the romance ban might have just been something he talked up in order to avoid having to answer shipping questions, rather than something that he strictly adhered to in his own work.