Aanchir
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They're also Silver Metallic (Flat Silver on Bricklink).
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Not sure quite what you're referring to. The only Silver Metallic shell she has is her torso shell. The shells on her lower arms and lower legs are Titanium Metallic. Unless you're talking about the piston shell detail on her shoulders, which is also included in Pohatu, Lewa, and several of the Protectors. And yes, I've noticed the dearth of Hero Factory parts on Bricklink. It's frustrating sometimes.
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Well, Onepu's purple mask WAS used for the original Matoran Nui, so there would be precedent for using the Protector of Earth's mask on a fusion of all six Protectors.
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Yep, right now "Powered Up" modes is the most official term we have for these modes — The instruction manuals for the sets literally use the term "Power Up" (in multiple languages) to describe the process of combining the sets in this way. There might still be other official combi models, even fusions, but if there are they haven't been revealed yet.
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Actually, Onua's is hardly the only one that alters his appearance. Lewa's "Powered Up" form involves adding the Protector of Jungle's shoulder and torso armor to his shoulders and the vines from the Protector of Jungle's feet to his feet (although the latter is not shown in the images on the boxes or instruction manuals). Also, Gali's "Powered Up" form involves the shells on her upper arms being replaced with the turbines from the Protector of Water, and Pohatu's "Powered Up" form involves placing the shoulder armor from the Protector of Stone on his lower right arm (kind of unusual, to be honest). Also, the "Powered Up" forms for Gali, Kopaka, and Pohatu all involve actually combining their weapons with those of the Protectors, not just holding them both as separate weapons. And interestingly, in the actual instructions, Pohatu wears his Jeterangs differently in "Powered Up" form than in regular Adrenalin Mode. In Adrenalin Mode, both halves of the boomerang are angled backward, whereas in his "Powered Up" form, the boomerang is straightened out front-to-back (with the glowy Bohrok eyes facing backward and the exposed axle of the other half facing forward).
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The thing is, the "powered up" forms of the Toa are not supposed to be fusions. They literally just represent the Protectors granting the Toa some of their equipment for their quest. Now, I agree, they're not very elaborate or creative as far as combi models are concerned. I definitely hope that there are more complex combi models in store that involve more rebuilding. But for what these "powered up" models are supposed to represent, it would be ridiculous if they required you to completely disassemble both characters. Kopaka's "Powered Up" form is my least favorite of all six. Despite involving more rebuilding the others, it just looks piecemeal with the saw blade randomly attached to his spear. And it almost seems like more of a downgrade than an upgrade, since his shield completely disappears. It seems to me like it would have made much more sense to attach the saw blade to his shield and attach the blaster to his spear. My favorite of the "Powered Up" forms is definitely Gali's, which doesn't require her to discard much of her own equipment and combines her shark fins with the Protector of Water's elemental torpedo blaster to great effect. Not really. They look shiny, as with all the other parts, but they clearly don't resemble the transparent 1x1 round plates from the other boxes, which have more complex highlights and shadows since light passes through them instead of just reflecting off of them. In the image of the blaster on the back of the box, the fact that the other protectors' studs are transparent and the Protector of Earth's studs are not is especially obvious.
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Ninjago: Masters Of Spinjitsu TV Show Thread
Aanchir replied to Lance's topic in LEGO Media and Gaming
I'm pretty sure that's the real cover. It's listed on the websites of various reputable retailers like Barnes & Noble as well. The American DVD covers for Ninjago are generally not the best, IMO, using inconsistent art and images. Just look at the current DVD cover for the original 2011 TV special (bizarrely branded as "LEGO Ninjago & Friends"), which uses a picture of Jay in his ZX costume from 2012. And before that, the "Season One" DVD set showed grown-up Lloyd on the cover, with some errors on his torso pattern. And of course, the original DVD for the TV special and the "Season Two" DVD set used 2D illustrations/key visuals for the front cover while the "Season One" DVD set and both Season 3 DVDs used CGI front cover illustrations more like the actual series. Speaking of DVDs, does anybody know of if the Ninjago "Season Two" Blu-Ray set has the same sound issues as the DVD set? -
This design looks pretty good on a functional and aesthetic level. One criticism, though — there's no way to produce such a part using injection molding, because there's no way to mold the inside surface of each bar in the center. With 3D printing it would be possible, so you could produce a custom part like that, but it's not something the LEGO Group could really mass-produce for use in sets.
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Well, its weapon is called the "Air Elemental Flame Bow". But we haven't gotten much in the way of story information for the Protectors — not even their genders. I think part of the reason the video review came under such scrutiny is just bad timing. The review got posted around the same time that BZPower went offline for maintenance, so at first a lot of people couldn't even access the main, text and photo review. Once that was accessible I no longer had any need to watch the video review, because as you say, you took some great photos and went into as much depth as anybody could possibly ask for. I actually think it's alright on an aesthetic level (I like it a lot better than Kopaka's, which involves awkwardly integrating the saw blade into his spear and completely ditching his shield/skis for some reason). But it is one of the least impressive in terms of its improvements on the original set, since all it adds is the Protector of Earth's shoulder armor and drill. Granted, there's no real way Onua could wield the Protector of Earth's blaster without dismembering his ally. Gali's "Powered Up" mode is definitely still my favorite.
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This one was Sisen's, not DeeVee's. I thought the video was pretty good quality; the biggest mistake was filming it in portrait orientation rather than landscape. I think Black Six has already done what reviews he's going to do, and has sent the other sets to other reviewers. The text review is here, if you want to see the set in more detail.
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It's basically the forerunner to the current friction joint, and as such it was only ever used in sets that needed the extra friction (in other words, titan/warrior sets). In any case, a Mata head with eyestalk will work the same with that as with a regular Y-joint, since it has two axle holes perpendicular to each other (the one for the mouth and the one for the eyestalk).
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I don't know that there is any totally efficient way. You could use a 3M double ball cup to attach a Toa Metru head, or a Y-joint and 2M cross axle to attach a Toa Mata head, but either solution would either give them an extremely long neck or a considerable forward hunch. I don't know if there's any purist solution that would be much more compact than that.
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I'm not normally of the opinion that we need dedicated hand pieces with full articulation, but at the same time, I don't feel like the thumb position is a big enough issue to merit a new hand design on its own. So if there were a dedicated new hand design, I think articulated fingers would be a higher priority than thumb position.
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I don't believe there are any actual connection issues (after all, the Iron Man constraction set and the Core Hunter set both used them together). Though I personally don't think the combination looks quite as nice as with the 2.0 or Brain Attack torso shell. Especially since the width of the chest plate makes the extremely narrow hips of the Breakout torso shell that much more apparent. You're definitely welcome to try this out yourself once the sets are out. I don't think there should be any connection problems, so it's purely a matter of how you like the aesthetics.
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Lewa's definitely a great set! Gali's still my favorite, of course, but Lewa's raised shoulders and long arms really work for him. They give him a sort of a simian look which looks great in all kinds of poses. Also, his color scheme is amazing! And his Adrenalin Mode is even cooler than I anticipated.
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I'm not sure (I have an unprinted one of those in white from Pick-A-Brick back in the day, but I forget where it is, and besides that I don't have Kopaka together right now). But I CAN tell you that that chest plate won't work for Onua without some other modifications. Any type of 8x5 chest plate would collide with the Y-joints on the shoulders of his torso beam, which are used to attach his shoulder armor.
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It doesn't surprise me one bit that this set had to cut some corners some places. He's already got the highest piece count of any of the Protectors (and a higher piece count than Pohatu). So I can see how back armor might have pushed the set over the allotted budget.
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Good review! The Protector of Stone is a very cool design, even though it's not all that unlike the Protector of Jungle. The weapon is nifty, and I love the color scheme. It's interesting the way the shells on the legs are aligned. They sort of force the figure into a bit of a bowlegged stance, but I don't think it's a bad look for him. One thing that puzzles me is the eye color. It definitely looks cool, but it's a bit puzzling why the designers didn't use Tr. Fluore. Green eyes like Pohatu. It can't be that they thought matching the eye color to the mask color would be a bad thing, because the Protector of Ice DOES have eyes the same color as the transparent portion of its mask.
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I also feel the look suits him. And again, one of the things that really sells me on his new design is that even with such different physiques than they've had in the past, he and Pohatu are still the shortest of the six Toa, just as they were in 2001 and 2002. That's a huge thing for me, especially after the Mistika version managed to screw that up and make Onua one of the tallest.
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Perhaps not female specifically, though I have felt for a long time that Akamai and Wairuha have a sort of masculine/feminine duality, and this build was in some ways meant to reflect that. My original concept was more overtly feminine, but its joints had a hard time supporting the weight of its weapons, and this would cause them to collide with the lower gearbox, so I had to basically start over from scratch, this time using just two friction joints for the legs and two for the shoulders. It turned out just as well, because the new design for the torso and legs also makes the model taller and allows it to use more of the set's pieces (the earlier concept used about 160 pieces, this one uses 180). The wings are more decorative than anything else. Maybe they might be able to reduce the speed of descent for better jumping, kind of like a velociraptor's feathres. I don't know for sure. When I go to make Akamai, which probably won't be until January (Unlike VBBN, I don't have ALL the sets!), I plan to aim for a more overtly masculine build, in accordance with the build differences from Akamai Nuva and Wairuha Nuva. This is my original concept, though I will probably rethink parts of it to better match the new Wairuha and to optimize the proportions. Interesting! Looks good, although the legs might pop off more easily than the arms on the sets since they don't use an axle with stop. Pity the only 3M axle with stop also features a stud. I suppose a non-purist solution could involve sanding the stud off of a pair of 3M axles with stop. I also feel like the side view still looks awkward, but there's only so much that can be done about that. I do wonder, with the hips that narrow, is there any issue with the legs colliding with the ball joints of the torso beam when you use the gear function?
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Part two of my BIONICLE parts preview for The New Elementary is up! You can check it out here! There will be full set reviews coming in the next couple of weeks. Folks who tuned in to the last night (or watched it after the fact) got to see some of the sets that I received and will be reviewing (many thanks to the BZPower staff for having me on as a guest)!My twin brother and I also spent some time MOCing with some of the aforementioned sets today. I'd say our time was productive! Credit to Meiko for the photo. I'll probably make a topic eventually, once I have some more photos. And yep, DeeVee, the video definitely needed some polishing, but the photo and text review was top notch! Great work!
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From my experience, the plastic of the Protectors is pretty much no different than any other set. Is there any particular part that gives you that impression?
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Awesome! This series continues to show lots of personality! Such wonderfully silly expressions!
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I think it fits fine, to be perfectly honest. When I saw Pohatu at NYCC, the Transparent Fluorescent Green reminded me of mineral veins running through rock — uranium ore has a similar fluorescent yellowish-green color. Besides that, the color generally looks more yellowish than greenish anyway. If anything I'd compare it to Chartreuse Yellow like these tanker trucks. Doubtful. If anything I'd think Tr. Flu. Green would be more expensive because it needs a fluorescent additive (remember that the LEGO Group doesn't buy pre-colored plastic granulate anymore, and mixes their own dyes). I don't see why everybody seems to ignore the most obvious reason why the LEGO Group would use this color — because they thought it was the best color for these two sets. Now, if Transparent Fluorescent Yellow were still in production, maybe they might have chosen differently. But I don't think there's any reason to think that the LEGO Group is using Tr. Flu. Green as a cheaper alternative to some more ideal option, particularly when it's only being used in these two sets and could have been changed to another color at no added cost.
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Good review. A few corrections: she's not the only Toa to use four eight-tooth gears, just the only one to use four of them in the center (and to support just one swinging arm). Lewa also uses four eight-tooth gears, but under his arms, and they provide friction for both arms. Also, she uses Bright Yellow, not Flame Yellowish Orange (Keetorange). I think the spikes on the legs are sort of meant to resemble fins. They suit her all right, to be sure. The color scheme is also very well organized. I really think her weapons/equipment look great in both Battle Mode and Adrenalin Mode. They're a far cry from her classic hooks, but I feel like the Battle Mode version of the weapon really does echo her Aqua Axes from the 2002 Toa Nuva version. Gali's chest plate pattern is very elegant, and her mask is beautiful in both Dark Azur and Warm Gold. She's definitely my favorite set of the entire wave! And for that matter, my favorite Toa of Water ever to appear in a set!