Aanchir
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Everything posted by Aanchir
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True, but then again, how do we know that the same thing won't happen with LEGO Dimensions? It's true that normally markdowns on LEGO products only happen when they don't sell too well and stores need to clear shelves. But these are not just a LEGO product, but a WB Games product. And it's fairly normal for lots of electronic devices (like video game consoles) and digital media (like video games or DVDs) to have a high starting price with plans to reduce that price after they've been on the shelves for a while. You can almost think of that high initial price as an "early adopter surcharge". That's not how LEGO usually does business, but if they're going to imitate the starting price of other toys-to-life sets, then I imagine they'd also think to imitate their business model on other levels. That could in turn be part of the reason that the "fun packs" and "team packs" do not include new molds or even a lot of new prints: the LEGO Group knows that the price of the sets is going to go down as time passes, so they can't design them as if they're going to get $15 for each set sold.
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Interesting idea. I'm not 100% happy with what I did with the mask, so I might end up trying some different things out. Oops! I considered some other names but it was hard to come up with something suitably scary/aggressive that couldn't easily be twisted into innuendo.
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If people want to ship, let them ship. It's just one of the many ways that people engage with stories. And yes, it sometimes gets silly, but that's part of the fun. It only becomes a problem when people have a hard time keeping their heads on their shoulders and start insisting in complete seriousness that their OTP must be "canon". So far there hasn't been any info to suggest romance doesn't exist in this universe (and plenty of info to suggest that characters can have progeny, which eliminates the main reason romantic relationships were denied to the Matoran species in G1). So while nothing in the story has really teased the likelihood of any particular ships, I see nothing wrong with letting your imagination run wild. Me, I'm still going to wait for some more shippable moments in the story. But heavens know I had plenty of ships I supported back in G1 (Kopaka/Pohatu, Onewa/Krahka, Gali/Takanuva, etc), even when I knew most of those could not be canon, so I'm sure I'll eventually discover one or more I support.
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Just to be clear (because you seem to be pretty puzzled about this), toys-to-life figures are not just a toy plus DLC. In most cases, the NFC data functions almost like a memory card that can store your character data even after it changes within the game, so you can use the character you trained in your game to help a friend out on his game, or even trade characters you've "trained" for a friend's characters. This is something that can't be done simply with DLC or unlock codes. It's not entirely clear how LEGO Dimensions might implement this functionality. We still know very little about the actual gameplay, so it's hard to say for sure whether characters will be able to "level up" like in Skylanders or Disney Infinity. One thing my brother theorized is that maybe you will be able to rebuild your in-game vehicles into alternate models and store them back on the vehicle chips. I'm sure we'll find out more about the actual gameplay at E3 next month, and then it'll be a lot easier to evaluate how much value the whole "toys to life" platform really adds that ordinary toys and simple paid DLC would lack.
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My only frustration with Skull Scorpio's legs being Titanium Metallic is that it means we're still waiting for those large leg pieces to be available in the same color as the smaller size. If they had been Black or Silver Metallic then you might be able to use the two sizes together to great effect, but it's not so easy when there still aren't any colors that both sizes come in.
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Not sure what you mean about the Round Shell Detail not coming back... while I don't necessarily foresee it being used in BIONICLE, it's evidently still in production since it appears in the Darth Vader set. All in all, I wouldn't be surprised to see the shoulder shell details OR the leg shells from the new Star Wars sets in future BIONICLE sets, but I don't know if they'd be a defining motif for any team of characters in quite the way the Nuva armor was. Some people have made a fuss about the G2 BIONICLE sets not having enough detail, but truth be told, many of the actual new parts introduced for BIONICLE specifically (like the heads, the piston shell detail, the new fractured shell detail, and the various weapons) look extremely detailed compared to most of the new parts we're seeing in the Star Wars constraction sets. I know the first set of Toa upgrades in G1 actually involved smoothing their designs out, but I don't think the G2 Toa need that kind of smoothing out nearly so much.
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It had also shown up somewhere else before, but I can't quite remember where. I think it might have been the mobile app's level select screen. Good to hear that it IS accessible in other regions, though. I'm betting that the "not available in this region" message only applies to the intro video, which only comes up the first time you visit the site (unless you clear your cookies, I guess).
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Shoot, I didn't realize that this site is region-locked. Well, I guess the least I can do is copy and paste some of the interesting information that isn't on the main LEGO Elves website:
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I'm a fan of Skull Slicer. Sure, he's bonier than the others, but I like the variety that offers. This way Slicer seems quick and agile (almost like a ninja) compared to a heavily-armored powerhouse like Basher, and the sheer amount of movement in the arms lends to that effect. His colors are also generally well distributed.
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Actually $150 for the Star Wars sets. Three $20 sets (Cody, Jango, and Luke), a $25 set (Obi-Wan), a $30 set (Vader), and a $35 set (Grievous). The BIONICLE lineup this year is pretty affordable, especially when you compare it to other themes like Ninjago. Based on what we know now, the summer Ninjago wave will run you about $380 if you want all 24 new minifigures. And that's just nine sets, four of which are $10 Airjitzu sets. In other words, just five of the summer Ninjago sets add up to more than the total cost of all 18 BIONICLE sets this year. With that said, a lot of BIONICLE's appeal has always been that the figures are priced affordably. Only vehicles, Rahi, playsets, and a handful of titans ever climbed above $30, and this year stays true to that with an average price of $15 per set.
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Additionally, the "Characters" link tells us a bit about the abilities of each type of elf. And the "Explore Elvendale" link gives info on a lot of locations, including the Sky Castle. There are lots of great images on this site as well. Thanks for the tip!
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BIONICLE: Exclusive Gali Mask - Inside Tour SPOILERS
Aanchir replied to CroGo's topic in LEGO Action Figures
Yep, it is certainly a beautiful mask (my favorite, in fact) in a beautiful color. I will be going on the LEGO Inside Tour next week and I hope I'll be getting one as well. But for the sake of those who don't get to go on the Inside Tour (many of whom will probably have more practical uses for the mask than I would), I also hope it will be distributed on a wider scale through some other means, such as at San Diego Comic-Con or as a promotional polybag. -
(All pics link to Flickr) Function Video (5 seconds) I was realizing the day before yesterday that the 2015 Toa have one strategic advantage over the 2015 BIONICLE villains: none of the villains appear to be able to fly. So I thought I'd even the odds. Obviously, I had to use a few placeholder parts, but I still think it conveys the general idea I was going for. Skull Ripper includes 87 pieces total, and so I imagine she would hit about the same $15 price point as the other skull villains. Skull Ripper's torso features the same Technic function as Skull Basher's, but here it serves two very different purposes. From a standing position, it allows Skull Ripper to stab an opponent with her talons. In flight, it allows her to flap her wings. Ideally, I'd prefer Skull Ripper to use Tr. Blue instead of Tr. Light Blue, but from a practical standpoint I found that I had a more useful range of pieces in Tr. Light Blue. Thoughts, comments, criticism? Please share! This is my first MOC I've completed to my satisfaction in a few months, so I'm very proud of it, but I'm sure there's room for improvement!
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Yes indeed. Basher's function is basically built like Dragon Bolt's flapping wing function, and does exactly as you describe (with the added twist that they swing horizontally rather than vertically). My brother reverse-engineered it by looking at Toy Fair pics and I actually used it in a recent MOC.
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I don't mind the reuse of masks one bit. It seems to me like a happy medium between the BIONICLE theme's tendency in the early years towards completely cloned faces (Bohrok, Rahkshi, Vahki, etc.) and the tendency in the later years to have specialized faces for every villain character that only ever got reused for store exclusives and playsets (Visorak, Piraka, Barraki, etc). It is a bit odd that the faces of Basher and Scorpio are the same color — you'd think Basher's could have maybe been Titanium Metallic — but still it's nice to have versatile masks in versatile colors instead of everything being either completely generic or completely character-specific. I generally like the orange accents. They add a bit more color, which is nice since the villain colors are otherwise limited to one transparent color and a bunch of neutral colors, and they match the evil red eyes.
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A lot of people in other topics are talking about the summer set pics and listings that are showing up on bestbuy.ca, and I thought it'd be good to share that that includes LEGO Elves listings! Not a whole lot of new information, but there is some: namely, Skyra's owl is named Nascha and the dragon is named Miku. Also, the play scenario for the Pegasus Sleigh set differs from that in the show (naturally, because the dragon's mouth doesn't actually open, nor could it fit the key if it did). In the set, the key can be hidden on a hook in the cave. Finally, on a strange note, Skyra doesn't appear to have a last name.
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Ah, sorry. I'm having a hard time keeping up. I'm on my phone because my internet went down right when I pulled up the pics (for unrelated reasons).
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You left out the most interesting tidbit of all (as far as sets are concerned, anyway): there will be two combi models! One for Grinder and Scorpio and one for the other three sets. And actually the U.S. prices are $30 for Grinder and $15 for the rest. I don't know why people are just now making a big deal over prices... U.S. and Canadian prices have all been known since New York Toy Fair in February.
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Yes, those are the actual Canadian prices. All the USD and CAD prices can be seen in this NYTF report. The fact that 70730 and 70731 are missing from both this and the Toy Fair report suggests to me that they're store exclusives in North America. It's cool that Wrayth, Bansha, Soul Archer, and Ghoultar all have titles, and that the other ghost minions are divided into three Ghost Ninjas and three Ghost Warriors. It's also interesting that the new Wu figure is identified by two different names (Master Wu in 70734, Battle Wu in 70738) despite both appearing to be the same figure.
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I can't make a lot of recommendations because I don't have a whole lot of Legends of Chima sets, but Laval's Fire Lion and Eris's Fire Eagle Flyer have great functions. To be honest, when I first saw the fire-themed vehicles and costumes for the second half of 2014, I was not sure what to think. However, I've really grown to like them, as they create an impressive amount of visual unity even among vehicles with such different creature motifs. I am, however, a bit disappointed that even with two full waves of "fire and ice" sets, there weren't any particularly interesting new wolf and raven tribe vehicles. All Razar and Worriz got were a couple piddly little bikes in 30265 and 70145. Gorzan didn't fare much better, with only a tiny "fire CHI power vehicle" in 70147. Maybe bigger and better fire CHI vehicles for them are something I can work on MOCing some time.
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Flamy the Fox comes in 41074, the dragon comes in 41077, and the owl comes in 41078. The bit about differently colored owl and fox in next year's Friends sets is currently just speculation, but I agree that it's not unlikely given that they're not strictly fantasy creatures, and it would give the LEGO Friends designers an opportunity to introduce two new animals without introducing entirely new molds.
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Yep! If you need reference: Regular packaging — "1 of only 1500", not individually numbered VIP event packaging — "### of only 100 made!", individually numbered Same mask, different promotions, different packaging.
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This is a beautiful mask (the Mask of Water is already my favorite BIONICLE mask), and makes me really happy that I'm going on the LEGO Inside Tour this month! It would be nice if the mask is distributed through other channels for the sake of other fans, and it very well might be — note the case of the NYCC Masks of Fire that were numbered "out of 100 made" in their VIP event packaging but which we know at least 1500 of were made total. The numbering in that case seemed to refer to the whole package, not specifically to the mask. For all we know it might even be used as an exclusive at another event like San Diego Comic-Con. All in all, this has been a good year for masks. In total there are eleven shapes of G2 masks in 34 different color varieties. That means that on average each mask comes in about three colors — that's the most mask recolors we've had in any year of BIONICLE since mask packs went away in 2003! And who knows what other recolors might turn up by the end of the year? It's also been a good year for new molds in general, what with 27 new molds total (not counting basic Technic parts). That's 1.5 new molds per set, which is pretty close to the ratio for the BIONICLE theme's first three years.
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Nah, just an alternate universe Tanma. Main universe Tanma is still alive, as far as I know.
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The connection points are compatible in terms of being based on Technic pins, but my point was that other than the click-joints used in some 2002 and 2003 titans, there are not any BIONICLE parts that will work ideally with those figures' parts. For instance, using Galidor limbs on a BIONICLE torso is generally a lot less practical than using G2 BIONICLE limbs on a G2 torso, because there's nothing to allow the limbs to "click" into a fixed pose like they would on the original figure.