Aanchir
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Tahu, Gali, Kopaka, and Lewa all clearly have armor on their lower backs. Tahu uses a Bright Red shell, Gali what appears to be a Tr. Blue or Tr. Light Blue shell, Kopaka a white shell, and Lewa one of the same beast talon pieces that appear on his shoulders. It seems likely to me that Pohatu would also have some kind of armor on his lower back — there's no reason I can think of why he shouldn't. Onua's a trickier one to pin down. As a bulkier character in general, it would not be tremendously surprising if the designers had to cut corners somewhere in his design, as was the case with similar characters such as CHI Gorzan (who had a pitiful 4M shell armoring the back of his massive torso). But on the other hand, he appears to have the highest piece count among the sets we've seen, so it's not impossible that some of those pieces go towards armoring his lower back. Regarding that mock-up of Onua's arm function, I do not believe for a minute that it's accurate to the set. For one, in every preliminary image we've seen, the Onua set uses friction joints to connect his upper arms to his shoulders — therefore, it seems downright implausible that he'd just use a single regular ball joint to connect the shoulders themselves to the gearbox. And also, the gears themselves seem suspect. I find it incredibly unlikely that the sets use anything but knob gears in their gear functions. As for colors, that mock-up uses Medium Stone Grey for both the upper arms and shoulders where the prelims appear to use Dark Stone Grey, uses black for the upper leg beams instead of Tr. Bright Bluish Violet, uses what appears to be Gold or Metalized Gold for the armor instead of Warm Gold, uses black 5M shells for the lower legs instead of Medium Lilac ones, and uses what appears to be Cool Yellow for the gears instead of Bright Yellow. It's hard to draw conclusions on the final Onua set until we get clearer pictures, but a mock-up that misinterprets so many parts of the model is not going to help a great deal with that. On a side note, looking at one of the prelims, I just noticed how his shoulders are attached. There's a Y-joint attached to each shoulder of the torso beam pointing forward, a 2M axle attached to the each of those pointing upward, a Hordika neck attached to each of those pointing back, an additional Y-joint attached to each of those, and finally the armor attached to those Y-joints. Very clever design. It seems to fill in the top of the torso very nicely, and it should allow no shortage of articulation.
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Well, in Hero Factory's case, part of the point of pairing villains with heroes in 2013 was so there could be color-coordinated combi models. Since we now know that the Toa combine with the Protectors, this is not a pressing issue for the new BIONICLE (though offering alternate combi models that combine a summer set with a similarly-colored set from the first wave would not be a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination). As for 2012, the whole point of the year was to have the heroes go on solo missions against individual villains, and the designs reflected that in many ways: Breez was designed for air battle, Furno for water battle, Evo for swamp battle, Surge for space battle, etc. In the new BIONICLE, there might very well be some justification for having a villain to go with each character's "biome": if the villains have elemental associations, then putting them in a matching biome could help reinforce that. However, it's worth noting that in the old BIONICLE, promotional images and videos of the villain sets were often depicted with backdrops associated with their color even if they didn't share that biome's element or specifically target the corresponding biome in the story. The Bohrok-Kal are a good example. Pahrak-Kal was depicted in Po-Wahi, Nuhvok-Kal in Onu-Wahi, Lehvak-Kal in Le-Wahi, etc.
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Even if they're more finalized than the previous watermarked images we've seen, they're not as finalized as the unwatermarked ones. The skull spiders aren't all colored correctly, the lightning pieces on Kopaka are not blended, and Kopaka, Gali, and Pohatu are missing their chest printing.
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I don't watch the TV series, but everything I've seen/read about Mungus and his family has been adorable and hilarious (such as his bio, and the LEGO Club Magazine comic that had him and Sir Fangar setting up a trap for Cragger and Laval in the Fire Lion).
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Not really a huge surprise... it was the only IP from LEGO to last ten years. If LEGO City were a fully developed IP rather than just a toy line with some books and merchandise on the side it'd probably have a considerable lead, since it outsold BIONICLE in many of the years when the two themes coexisted. And if Ninjago manages to continue for another five or six years it might easily surpass BIONICLE's original 2001–2010 sales (after all, in its first year it was able to surpass BIONICLE's 2001 sales).
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The similarities to the movie versions of the masks are part of why I'm not too bothered by the new versions. They're faithful to the originals from the sets in many ways, but some of the things that are changed considerably (like the altered chin shapes for Gali and Tahu) really make them more expressive, in my opinion. And let's not forget that Lhikan's Hau, which was widely beloved by many people, was arguably even more different, with no large mouth cavity, no "nose" separating the front surface from the forehead, long, pointed eyes instead of round ones, and much larger vents in the cheeks (and like the new one, there were only two vents in each cheek). All things considered, I can see why some people might not like the new Hau. The mouth and chin closer resemble those of the Pakari Nuva than any previous physical version of the Hau, and it's easy to see that the gold one looks a bit ridiculous at that angle. But in general I think the designers did a pretty fine job. It still resembles the Hau closely enough that you can tell what it's supposed to be, and I think it suits Tahu as a character just fine. I'm sure it's one of those things that will be less controversial once the sets are actually out, especially since more people will be judging it against previous finished versions of the Hau and not against the preliminary version of this one.
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Frankly, I don't think continuing the storyline now will be any easier for him than it's ever been. He's still busy with his other jobs for the LEGO Group, and what's more, it will be difficult to ever conclude the old serials in a way that pleases everybody. Some people just want him to wrap it up as quickly as possible (which is fairly ridiculous, IMO — if you're not looking for a lot of effort or quality in the ending why not just write your own?), while others were extremely disappointed with how rushed and anticlimactic the theme's ACTUAL conclusion was, and will want anything but that kind of hasty resolution for the serials. Beyond that, part of the point of keeping the story going was to help temper fans' bitterness and disappointment with BIONICLE's cancellation. That's a battle that, in my opinion, was lost before it had even begun. A lot of the people who were most disappointed with the ending NEVER wanted the old story to come to an end (given the number of people clamoring for a continuation, many of these people still don't), and keeping the story going forever in the serials was never a viable option to begin with. Pleasing everyone — the people who wanted a nice, neat conclusion as soon as possible, and the people who wanted no conclusion ever — would have been completely out of the question. I don't know how long Greg actually planned to keep writing the serials, but evidently it was longer than was realistic.
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No problem! It created a bit of confusion, raised some people's hopes and lowered others', but in the end no harm was done, and little things like this help keep us on our toes as a community.
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Well, I guess that answers that question. The image is made to look like it's from exoforce.ru's "news" page, but no such article is there. It's hard to imagine that only one person would be able to see the site and grab a screenshot before such an article got taken down. Just another person toying with the hopes of fans who are desperate for evidence of a continuation.
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Hmm, not sure whether to believe this myself, either. I've never been in the camp that keeping the same continuity is impossible (the Legend of Zelda games provide a good example of how you can do a continuation without the new stories being dependent on those that came before), but it is risky without a doubt. And the more I hear from old fans about WHY they want a continuation, the smaller and less realistic the potential rewards of a continuation start to seem. If the LEGO Group thinks they can manage one without alienating new fans, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But it's an ambitious task for sure, and one that I'm not sure can ever measure up to what so many people expect from a continuation.
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Not all parts are created equal. Bulk Drill Machine had more parts than Splitter Beast, but was priced at $15 rather than $20, because a lot of those parts were tiny Technic and System parts that were inexpensive to produce and ship. Seems like a similar case here. Tahu has a lot of bigger parts, so even without having a lot MORE parts than the others he might not meet the same price point. Lord of Skull Spiders seems to have a lot of smaller parts, and thus a lower price point. I agree that Tahu has a disappointing piece count, but there's no reason to think the prices we've seen are not trustworthy.
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It is a good likeness, but I'm not really interested in debating this. I know how foreshortening works. You've told what you think it looks like and I've told what I think it looks like, and in the end one of us is going to be proven wrong, but I don't really have any preference one way or the other. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but the only thing that will tell me what to expect for sure is a clearer image or video of the actual set.
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I guess we'll see soon enough. After zooming in on the image I'm expecting 6M beams but I won't promise any eating of hats in the event that I'm wrong. It'd definitely be efficient to use the same beams for the arms and legs, and it wouldn't be terribly out-of-character for an agile jungle-dweller like Lewa to have ape-like proportions, but it just doesn't look like that to me under close inspection.
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I've looked at the picture myself and I have a feeling that the "hole" you're seeing in the back isn't actually there. At first glance there appears to be a hole but I feel like it's more likely a shadow or reflection. In fact, if there WERE a hole there, I feel like it'd be too close to the ball cup (remember that that the beam remains straight for about half a module after the last ball or hole before it hits the curve for the ball cup).
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Thighs slightly longer than calves are actually realistic. Just look at images of human skeletons. Generally the femur is either the same length as or slightly longer than the tibia. I have yet to see an image or diagram of a human skeleton where the tibia is longer, which is what longer lower legs would generally imply. I'm not tremendously bothered by proportions not matching real human proportions, but there are times when it does start to look ridiculous, particularly if the wrists are lower than the knees. That starts to look gorilla-like, and if that's the impression you WANT, then great! But for your average hero that's necessarily the kind of build you want to go for. Proportions definitely don't have to be human like, but that doesn't mean the differences they have from human proportions don't matter or don't give the model a different impression than human-like proportions would. For what it's worth, I don't think any of these sets' proportions are terribly bothersome. It looks to me like Lewa's lower arms are 6M rather than 7M.
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Looks to me like his arms are just 5M or 6M, which isn't that bad. Even if they were how you've depicted them, they don't dangle any lower than the original Toa Nuva arms tended to (though perhaps you're referring to the elbow placement).
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On the gold one I see an obvious "rim" around the eyes that echoes the shape of the original Kaukau's scuba visor. Gali's new mask might be my favorite Kaukau to date, definitely better than either version of the Kaukau Nuva that we got in sets.
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But... his hands were never black... unless you mean the fingers of his left hand as a Toa Mata. I think silver hands and feet work just fine for him, myself. I'm really disappointed about his piece count, though. That's quite low for what is supposed to be a $20 set (though admittedly better than Stormer XL, who had the same piece count for $25).
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I won't complain as long as they're fluorescent. To be honest I kind of like color-coded eyes for heroes and villains, particularly if they can be kept consistent. The BIONICLE movies used red or blue eyes for most of the heroes and green eyes for most of the villains and I think it was very effective. And I actually thought the color-coded eyes of the 2006, 2008, and 2010 sets — much better than the Toa Mahri, who used the same eye colors from those years but without any kind of rhyme or reason, or the Barraki, whose eyes didn't follow any kind of rules, weren't designed to be backlit, and weren't even fluorescent.
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No Ignika on the packages. No surprises there... to me, it basically screamed "obvious placeholder". The Hau looks different than I expected, but not bad. Pohatu's piece count was not a typo, which is a bit of a shame, but for what it's worth he looks fantastic. Still not sure what that piece on his back is for. He uses full 2M pins for his boomerangs, which makes me wonder if they snap to some other part of his body. Gali's design looks great, and the new pose shows off her build a bit better. Her axe blades DO work as flippers, and don't look half bad! Her mask looks much better now that we can see it more clearly, and echoes her classic visor. Kopaka has the 6M wide shells on his legs with printing. That's a first! His legs are still a bit strange, but in general I think he looks nice. Lord of Skull Spiders is indeed the final name for 70790. The legs are joined together, which rules out a walking function if the size didn't already, but I can easily see them being designed for a "grabbing" function or maybe a jumping function. Lewa, Master of Jungle is also finalized, but hard to complain when his design looks fantastic. Love his new mask. Even the non-traditional color scheme ends up feeling very natural. Looks like he uses traditional Dark Green (Mata Green). The Skull Spider legs are in fact a new piece, albeit one that resembles the earlier claws from Savage Planet. They look pretty great! Some Skull Spiders like the one with Pohatu have stingers. More like Skull Scorpions that way, but that's not a bad thing. The chest patterns look a lot different than I expected! I had anticipated a more geometric look, but instead they're very irregular, like body paint. I look forward to seeing the other sets!
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More mature in what way? If you mean not having to learn the exact same lessons about teamwork over and over again I can definitely agree. That really started to wear on me in the early days of BIONICLE. "You're more powerful as a team than you are individually! Every single one of your major victories reinforces this! So why is it taking so long to sink in?" A lot of people call the Ninjago storyline childish compared to BIONICLE, but at least when the characters have trouble working together as a team it's for a better reason than forgetting everything they've been through. But I do think that they should start out with at least SOME of their original flaws and overcome them gradually. As cool as it was to FINALLY see the team working as a well-oiled machine in 2008, I think new fans would have more fun watching these characters with sharply contrasting personalities develop from reluctant allies to dependable teammates and close friends.
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2015 The LEGO Movie rumors and discussion
Aanchir replied to just2good's topic in Special LEGO Themes
70819 Bad Cop Car Chase is definitely the best set in terms of its non-minifigure contents, since it includes two vehicles from the movie that hadn't been seen in any form in previous sets. Not to mention Bad Cop's chair, which should get a chuckle out of anybody who's watched the movie and realizes he brings that with him everywhere. It's great that Wyldstyle finally gets some new expressions, and that Good Cop is now available in another set (with a new expression for both him and Bad Cop, at that)! The Robo-SWATs are just more of the same, of course, but I guess army builders will like them. Though I sort of have to wonder whether the creators of the movie might have introduced more Robo-SWAT designs in the film itself if they knew the sets would have enough momentum for a 2015 wave. 70818 Double Decker Couch set will definitely be appreciated by many people for making both the couch and Emmet's car more widely available, though. Hopefully Emmet's car has a printed or stickered tile for his radio — it looks like it might, and that's one of the major things the Toys 'R' Us version lacked. Also, it's great to finally have a President Business minifigure who isn't angry. Ghost Vitruvius is a nice and unexpected surprise, especially considering he uses a new mold for his shroud. And the new Unikitty is of course fantastic, especially since like the SDCC version, she features a printed plate for her eyebrows which will increase the number of expressions that are possible for the previous Unikitty and Bizniz Kitty faces. And #70817, which we've already seen at Comic-Con, looks great. It's good to finally see that Batman has not one but TWO new expressions. I just now noticed that Super Angry Kitty's eyes are printed on the 1x3 plate for her forehead, so the entire 1x3 brick is used for her mouth decoration. I can picture some hilarious uses for that part, particularly with some eyes from the Mixels sets! The Micro-Manager is simple but effective, and is pretty good to include in a new set since when these come out all the previous sets with Micro-Managers (other than the Sea Cow) will be a year old. I still think it's kind of bizarre that Emmet's Constructo-Mech didn't include any of those... I guess they didn't want to drive up the price of an already big set. Random observation: the Piece of Resistance doesn't appear in any of these sets. All things considered, these sets look great in terms of both minifigure and non-minifigure contents. I wonder if we'll see any additional LEGO Movie sets in the summer, or if these three are their swan song for the time being. Certainly it feels like most of my character-related hopes for the theme have been satisfied. The only brand-new character designs I could really hope for in sets at this point would be Michelangelo, Shaquille O'Neal, and Robo-Wyldstyle. -
This set/url] already has Tr. Fluore. Green and Tr. Fluore. Reddish-Orange Technic beams, and three sets have Tr. Red ones. [urk=http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?S=7962-1]This set includes two different types of transparent liftarm. And this set introduced this year has Tr. Light Blue angled beams. So transparent Technic beams are still pretty rare, but definitely not a new phenomenon. The official name of that color is Tr. Bright Orange. Anyway, I'm fine with either type of transparent orange instead of Transparent Red, because I love fluorescent colors, especially in constraction themes. It's a shame that Tr. Fluore Red (Tahu's classic eye color) and Tr. Fluore. Yellow (Gali's classic eye color) are discontinued, but at least we still have the same number of fluorescent colors as we did back in 2001 thanks to the introduction of Tr. Bright Orange in 2004 and Tr. Bright Green in 2010, both of which are fluorescent. It's also a shame that there aren't a lot of current constraction parts in Tr. Fluore. Blue (Kopaka's classic eye color). Don't get me wrong, I love Tr. Blue and Tr. Light Blue, but unfortunately, neither glows brightly under a UV light.
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A couple days ago I finally got Breez Flea Machine, and I love it every bit as much as I expected! At first I was disappointed to find out that flicking the claw didn't seem to work, but I discovered that it works just fine if you unwind the winch completely before flicking the claw — the force of flicking it is not enough to unwind the winch on its own. The cocoons are awesome, as is the Breez mini-hero and the decorated shell unique to this set. My brother got Bulk Drill Machine, and while it's also a very nice design, I'm a little bit disappointed that the drill section spins independently instead of in tandem with the laser on the other end. It would be cool to be able to use the laser as a handle for rotating the drill and vice-versa. A single 24-tooth gear could have fixed this issue.
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I don't see anything about it that points to it being legitimate. Wikis are one of the worst places to find any kind of reliable new information, because unless there's some other source backing it up, it's entirely possible somebody made it up entirely. It's not that they're never right, but when they are, they're generally not the first place the info in question will turn up.