Aanchir

Same universe doesn't at all mean movies have to have the same tone. Just look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Some of its movies like Guardians of the Galaxy have been much sillier in tone than others like Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Even this article noted that "Ninjago likely would be an action-adventure movie with comedic elements, as opposed to Lego Movie's straight comedy."

It may look like it has, but in fact we now have confirmation that it has not. The Brickset inventories for 30292, 70749, and 70754 (which are sourced directly from LEGO Customer Service) show that both his costumes are still Bright Blue, same as they've always been.

No need to settle for fuzzy images. You can see detailed images for those three sets on page 84 of this catalog.

I just tried this solution out. It's ridiculous and astonishing that the eye stalk in question does fit in such a bizarre way. I agree it doesn't make enough of a difference to really be worthwhile. Still, it's an interesting technique for people to keep in mind.

I have a feeling people wouldn't be nearly so hard on Lord of Skull Spiders if it weren't the only dedicated villain set for the wave. In general, a lot of the criticisms center around it being a poor excuse for a "main villain"... but really, do we even know enough about this year's to assume Lord of Skull Spiders is truly the main villain and not just a "Disk 1 Final Boss" like the Morbuzakh? And we never even got the Morbuzakh as a set in the first place — the closest thing the first wave of 2004 had to a "villain set" was Ahkmou! Compared to that, I think that it's great to get an adversary this size at all, even if it's not a match for all six Toa working as a team. A lot of the people who have gotten Lord of Skull Spiders since the sets actually started showing up in stores have reported that they really like the design and consider it a worthwhile purchase. Perhaps thanks to these sorts of negative reviews they simply didn't go into the purchase with inflated expectations. Personally, I think the set is definitely a formidable monster, and could definitely be a threat to an individual Toa. Incidentally, I've gone ahead and built the Lord of Skull Spiders on LEGO Digital Designer now that the instructions are available online. Its size is about 25 modules long by 12.5 modules tall by 22 modules wide. In other words, it's about as long and half as tall as an average Toa is tall. For comparison, that's about the size an adult gray wolf would be relative to a human. I imagine a lot of people would have second thoughts about whether they could beat a poisonous spider the size of a gray wolf in single combat, let alone if it commanded an army of smaller spiders whose bodies alone were around a foot long!

I suppose that the cheek vents, forehead vent, and mouth hole of the new Mask of Jungle could be compared to the stylized Mata Nui Online Game version of the Pakari, but it doesn't really resemble the physical mask much at all. And I think that its angular chin and playful, smiling expression really do help it resemble the classic Kanohi Miru in some respects. It might not bear the closest resemblance to Lewa's original mask, but I think that it suits Lewa as a character just fine, with its angular jawline and playful grin.

With the three Toa I have (Gali, Kopaka, and Lewa), the mask pops off the face about as easily as a Toa Mata mask. It actually attaches even more securely to some other Technic parts since those don't have the grooves for sliding it on and off. From what I've heard, Onua's mask seems to be considerably looser than the others. Whereas the Skull Spider body attaches VERY tightly (probably more so than any of the other masks released to date).

The Ninjago 2015 sets are on shop.LEGO.com in Great Britain now! http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/Ninjago-ByTheme That means lots of great hi-res images! I like the "Condrai 2000" label on 70745 Anacondrai Crusher's engine.

I'm expecting it to be a considerably bigger "flagship set", maybe $70 or more. Presumably it will have all four keys, just like how the Portal to Atlantis set from LEGO Atlantis had all five treasure rings or the Temple of Light set from LEGO Ninjago had all four elemental blades. I'm guessing Aira's Pegasus Sleigh will also include the air/wind key, since that's not present in any of the other current sets. I wonder if the pegasi will be built from regular LEGO Friends horses and Lord of the Rings eagle wings. My brother had considered the possibility of doing that with a Reddish Brown LEGO Friends horse, but we don't yet have any eagle wings! But it would be awesome if the LEGO Group did this themselves using white eagle wings!

In the original story, most BIONICLE characters would die about the same way as any real creature would die: old age, illness, injury, etc. They were biomechanical rather than completely robotic. They had extraordinarily long lifespans and metal armor for protection, though. As for limbs being swappable... hard to say. Most characters COULD separate their limbs, but we only really saw this a couple times in the story: once at the very beginning, when the Toa had to assemble themselves after drifting ashore in their canisters, and again in 2003 when the Matoran learned to rebuild their bodies to be bigger and stronger. It's not clear exactly where they got the parts to rebuild themselves, though, or whether they could just swap parts with others, since officially the limbs of biomechanical characters would include organic muscles and the like. It could be that their bodies might "reject" parts from other characters' bodies, the same way a human body can sometimes reject a blood transfusion or organ transplant. Other BIONICLE creatures like Bohrok, Rahkshi, and Vahki also got disassembled and re-assembled at various points, but they weren't ever really alive: Bohrok and Vahki were fully-mechanical robots and Rahkshi were mechanical body armor for the Kraata slugs. Also, certain characters could fuse together into larger characters (either naturally or with the power of some magical device), but this was usually treated more like a magical fusion and less as them taking themselves apart and putting themselves back together in different ways. As for the mask powers, this chart describes most of them from the old story. Most of the older masks had fairly intuitive names (the Mask of Shielding creates a force field, the Mask of X-Ray Vision lets you see through things, the Mask of Speed grants you super-speed, etc). Later years introduced more complex mask powers like the Mask of Kindred, which lets you share the powers of nearby creatures, or the Mask of Disruption, which lets you make other characters' powers go haywire. In the new story, most of the masks just grant the characters greater control over their elemental powers. Though there are still some masks with unique powers, like the Mask of Creation, Mask of Control, and Mask of Time. We don't know a whole lot about what these masks are capable of.

...Actually, it looks to me like the torso, hips, and legs are all just Medium Stone Grey... it still looks awesome to me, but perhaps not what you were expecting.

Oh, okay, I understand now!

I just played Gali's campaign. It was fun! In one level I got a combo of like 150-something, which was awesome. There's this cool special attack you can do with the special attack button that darts back and forth attacking everything in the area, but I'm having a hard time figuring out just what I have to do to replicate it (though I've managed to do it quite a few times now). The BIONICLE website has now been updated so it doesn't include this info anymore (which stinks — at least BS01 has a record of them) but I'm guessing the two different types of special attack correspond to the Toa's "signature moves" that used to be listed on the site. So the shockwave-type special move Gali has would be Wavestorm, and the dash special move would be Tidal Charge.

I actually think it could be really cool if an Exo-Force reboot (or another theme in the same vein) used mini-dolls like the Friends and Elves sets. Their more human-like shapes and faces would be ideal for the Exo-Force theme's anime-inspired art direction. There would be less of a discrepancy between the art direction and the products themselves than there was with the old sets and comics. Now, I know that kind of thing is extremely unlikely to happen, since an Exo-Force reboot would almost certainly still primarily target boys, and boys still generally prefer the classic minifigure. But a guy can dream...

My brother and I got most of the last Ninjago sets from our wish list for Christmas! This means we have all the 2014 figs but Cyrus Borg, and all of the sets we wanted most. The Battle for Ninjago City set is definitely a beauty, with lots of fantastic role-play potential. Its quality makes me optimistic for next year's Ninjago Temple D2C set, which will probably be even a cut above this one! I'm glad that next year is bringing a minifigure of Kai in his stone armor, like the Lloyd and Zane in that set! Hopefully stone armor versions of Cole and Jay will follow! And even more importantly, Nya in her new outfit that she's been wearing since episode 27! Her Samurai duds are great, and I love that next year's Nya fig has her goggles, but her regular outfit from the latest season is very elegant, and the previous plainclothes version of Nya from 2011 is starting to feel terribly out-of-date (It doesn't even have back printing)!

Yeah, it's a bit ridiculous to say you hate a game that you've never even played, no matter how you slice it. Give it a try, and THEN you can say whether or not you hate it. Otherwise, saying you hate it is just making a huge assumption.

Yeah, I sure hope so. It just worries me a bit. It's normal for themes to start big and get smaller, but much rarer for themes to start small and get bigger.

Just two? I can't say I'm not a little disappointed. This theme seems to have all kinds of potential, but I'm a bit worried by how few sets there are, since that might lead the LEGO Group to invest less in its story media. At least we know we have an animation of some kind and a mobile app to look forward to... still, I hope it gets a more sizable profile in future years. I guess I shouldn't complain, though. It's already got more sets than what we've seen from some of the LEGO Group's evergreen themes like Castle and Pirates recently... still, Ninjago it ain't. Anyway, those two set names do sound exciting! And they are consistent with the things we've seen in the teaser video and box art that seemed like hints of what to expect in the future.

Eh, I can't really agree with that. Kopaka's traditionally had a sword and shield, which is much more knight-like than ninja-like. Also, Kopaka has always had a very cold, guarded, reticent personality while Tahu's always had a more hotheaded, brash, assertive personality. I think the set designers made the right call in making Kopaka's design more defense-oriented and Tahu's more attack-oriented. Furthermore, I really like that the writers have given Kopaka a "Frost Sphere" shielding power to further reinforce that defensively-minded attitude.

I agree that doesn't sound like it's going to be a MNOG-style point-and-click adventure game. But on the other hand, I wasn't really expecting one from the new BIONICLE. Hoping, perhaps, but not expecting. Action games would probably be a better fit for selling action figure sets. There's still hope that the LEGO Elves app might be a point-and-click adventure game!

In episode 27, Nya got a new costume for when she's not in her samurai getup. However, she hasn't yet appeared in this costume in the sets, and a lot of people (including myself) are waiting to get a physical release for it.

On one hand, I loved Pohatu's special feet too. On the other hand, they were always a really weird concept for a weapon, and one that didn't make a whole lot of sense outside the context of that set's kicking function. What's more, Pohatu's current feet are really big and powerful-looking on their own, so an add-on to make them look even bigger and more powerful-looking might be overkill. Perhaps there could have been some kind of solution for them, but it's a problem I've struggled with in my own Toa redesigns/revamps, so I'm not sure if the LEGO Group could have come up with any really sensible solution of their own. It's worth mentioning that he can attach his boomerangs to his feet, and the animations actually show him wearing this way while he walks, with the "wings" pointed forward. It's different from his classic foot attachments, but it might be an acceptable substitute depending on your personal preference.

It's possible that the villagers haven't had a source of new masks since Ekimu and Makuta were knocked out, but their population has been stable enough that they've been able to survive by passing down the masks they already had, and maybe using some masks that Ekimu and Makuta had created but never gave to the villagers.

Generalizing things as a "winter wave" and a "summer wave" can be misleading, because it's normal for set release dates to vary somewhat by theme and region. On BZPower right now, there are people complaining about the fact that the first wave of 2015 BIONICLE sets is taking so long to show up in Great Britain and Europe, since the sets are already showing up in some shops in North America and will be released on the online LEGO Shop January 1. So it's not as though North America gets all sets later than other countries.

I think it's definitely an aesthetic consideration in most cases. Protector of Jungle's Tr. Bright Green shells are newly molded (design ID 14533 instead of 90640), so they're not just reusing Brain Attack ones that they had left over. And I hardly think Pohatu and Protector of Stone use the silver metallic shells "wherever possible". On the contrary, Protector of Stone only uses one Silver Metallic shell, and he and Pohatu each have a Silver Metallic left arm similar to CHI Panthar's Silver Metallic right arm. From my understanding, it would actually be cheaper in many cases to use MORE of the new recolors, since it would be simpler from a logistical standpoint to use the same color shell more widely than to have so many differently colored shells in production all at once. However, including shells in multiple colors in a single set adds variety. If all of Pohatu's 4M shells were Dark Orange, the set would be a lot more repetitive both in terms of the building process and the overall look. But by spreading these parts out in creative ways, he appears to have metal boots and a fully metal arm much like Evo from 2012 (which I consider a much more interesting set design than Evo 2.0). You see this even in instances where neither part or both parts are new recolors. Protector of Water uses both Tr. Light Blue and Tr. Blue 3M shells, neither of which is new. Lewa uses both Bright Green and Flame Yellowish Orange 4M shells, both of which are new. If the goal were creating artificial scarcity for new parts, these sorts of design decisions wouldn't make a lot of sense. But if the goal is to create variety in the designs, these decisions make perfect sense.