Aanchir

The other day I went to a comic store. They didn't have anything I was specifically looking for, sadly, but I did pick up the 10th anniversary edition of Neil Gaiman's "Marvel 1602", which remains an amazing story (I'd read it once before, but didn't own it for myself in any form). Lots of great interviews with the creators (author/artist/colorist/letterer) transcribed in the back of the book as well!

What does the number of people working on those scientific projects have to do with anything, necessarily? I hardly think that the people working on those projects are the only people who support them, or the only people who will buy the eventual set. And while those science-oriented projects make up most of the projects that have both reached 10,000 supporters and passed review, that doesn't mean that they're the only ones that could do so. Plenty of projects have reached 10,000 supporters in less than a year, including the Modular Western Town. The reasons it failed review do not necessarily prohibit other non-licensed projects that reach review so quickly from passing. After all, the Exo-Suit coming out later this year reached the review stage in less than a year — and passed. If you allow for some growth in the userbase since the days of the Modular Western Town, as well as our improved understanding of what can and can't become a feasible product, then it should be even easier for non-licensed projects to reach 10,000 supporters than it was back then.

Something I've come across with the new Hero Factory armor (15339) is that the armor is slightly thicker than the amount the minifigure head is raised when equipped with a torso accessory. This results in certain headgear colliding with the armor that wouldn't collide in real life, such as 15344, which requires the head to be raised slightly to snap on securely. This problem is not limited to new parts, either. 85961, 71151, and 15344. I was thinking about this problem and how it might be solved. The easiest solution, though not the most accurate, would be to fudge the collision boundaries of the headgear that collides. But I realized — wouldn't it be better if instead of the neck stud having a predetermined connection point for heads when a neck accessory is attached, the top of the neck accessory were recognized as a connection point? I know that in real life, the head is attaching to the neck stud and not the neck accessory. But doing this could potentially solve many problems. Not only would the boundaries of the minifig head and headgear no longer overlap with parts like 15339, but there would no longer be a big gap between the head and paper-thin capes like 10904, 42450, 50231, 56630, 12857, 99464, and 97690. Furthermore, this would let certain neck accessories be stacked, such as for figs like like the Space Police commander. Alternatively, the neck stud on a minifigure could be treated like a Technic axle, allowing connections all along its length. However, this would not allow for such minute differences in height as between certain accessories. Anyway, another problem is that the Stormer minifigure's helmet (15345) and armor (15339) collide. since the head has to be raised a full .8mm (a quarter of the thickness of a LEGO plate) from its default position for the helmet to attach without colliding, and at that point a connection between the neck stud and head is no longer recognized. In real life the helmet should fit even with the head pressed all the way down. I believe the knobs on the sides of the helmet are colliding with the armor's "collar", which they shouldn't do.

I doubt it will be. Generally when Dorling Kindersley advertises a fig as exclusive, it actually is. Even the Luke Skywalker fig from the updated LEGO Star Wars Visual Dictionary is substantially different from the classic one it's meant to resemble, since it has back printing (something the original Luke Skywalker fig lacked). I will be a bit frustrated if it turns out to be Lloyd, as I was hoping for a character like Sensei Wu or Nya who hasn't appeared much this year. But since the cover isn't final I guess it's not yet possible to tell.

It's a separate card about the thickness of a trading card. The European versions of the sets don't come with the unlock card at all, from what I've heard.

I don't think the Serpentine would make the mistake of working with Pythor. His mad plan to unleash the Great Devourer already threatened to doom them once, and I don't think Skales would ally with someone who is so significant a threat to his own leadership. Do I think the Serpentine are trustworthy? Of course not. But I also think that their attempts to reform themselves seem genuine and in-character for a faction that has seen all their attempts at world domination come back to bite them. Perhaps one day they will muster the resolve to become a threat to Ninjago once more, if given the means and the opportunity. But I don't think Skales would kowtow to an entity as dangerous as the Overlord, or even to Pythor.

This is the sort of thing I have trouble with, though. If the first movie was so spectacular, then the second movie doesn't have to match it to be good or enjoyable. It's sort of the same way I feel about a lot of the shows and movie series I enjoy. Obviously I don't expect every installment to be of the same quality, but that doesn't mean the weaker installments are bad. Far from it. Anyway, people tend to forget that even The LEGO Movie wasn't purely the work of Phil Lord and Chris Miller. The original story for it was developed by Dan and Kevin Hageman (who then went on to write the LEGO Ninjago TV series) before being handed over to Phil Lord and Chris Miller for refinement. Lord and Miller gave the movie a lot of its punchy and subversive wit, but they were not the original writers and were not responsible for the movie's overarching structure or ints central characters. If they could create something brilliant from the Hageman brothers' initial groundwork, what's preventing a new set of writers and directors from doing the same using the first movie's universe and characters as their foundation? Some people have made a big deal of the fact that the writers currently handling the sequel to The LEGO Movie don't have nearly as many outstanding screenwriting credits to their name as Lord and Miller do. But keep in mind that the Hageman brothers were complete unknowns when they started working on the initial story treatments for the LEGO Movie, and when Lord and Miller took over, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was their ONLY theatrical film credit. Jared Stern, one of the writers working on the sequel, has worked on the story and screenplay for multiple Disney films, including Wreck-It Ralph, which is very similar to The LEGO Movie in a lot of ways. And while Michelle Morgan has pretty no screenwriting credits for family films to her name, that's still better than the Hageman brothers' credentials when they began working on The LEGO Movie (i.e. no screenwriting credits at all).

Relevant to your search term, if you have one. Not sure how that's measured exactly. I'm sure how many times the search term appears in the project description is one factor, but I'm sure there are also others. If there is no search term, the "sort by: relevance" button displays projects in the same order as "sort by: ending soon". As for the "Projects of Interest"... that doesn't show up on the LEGO Ideas home page for me at all, whether I'm logged in or not.

The thing about movie franchises, though, is that new installments can attract a brand-new set of fans. Unlike LEGO sets, which are rarely available on store shelves for more than two years, successful movies are easy to continue publishing so that people who missed their original premiere can still enjoy them. And that prepares them to enjoy new installments. Not saying this is what I want The LEGO Movie franchise to become, but look at The Land Before Time as an example of a franchise with impeccable staying power. There were thirteen installments released between 1988 and 2007, plus a 26-episode TV series released in 2007. Of course, unlike The LEGO Movie, only the first movie got an actual theatrical release, with the rest being direct-to-video or direct-to-DVD releases. It also shouldn't be forgotten that The LEGO Movie had plenty of adult appeal, even among adults who hadn't played with LEGO in years but still had plenty of nostalgia for their childhood LEGO experiences. So even if kids were to grow out of playing with LEGO, they could still enjoy the film franchise and even seek share it with a younger generation of kids.

Technically, it probably would, as would the System-based action figures from the Knights' Kingdom theme according to this file. Though it's interesting that the file (and the 2004 Annual Report) both consider BIONICLE the start of the constraction category, rather than mentioning the earlier Slizer sets. In any case, I don't think Galidor is ever likely to come back. It was a tremendous flop that never had an especially significant fan following, unlike BIONICLE.

These are neat! They have awesome building techniques, distinctive color schemes, and lots of personality!

Looks like a Krader-style spinning waist built from this, this, this, and this. Nothing too complicated as far as I can tell.

It should be automatic. However, some people seem to be getting it before others for who knows what reason.

Yep! That's also a good trick (and one that works for Stormer's helmet, though it leaves such a big gap that the head no longer registers as "connected" to the body). With a lot of things that tool works great, but when working with minifigure neck accessories (which frequently have problems like this), I prefer to make more minute adjustments that don't result in such a big gap between the base of the head and the shoulders. Here's an LXF with all the mini-heroes and jumpers. I will update it if it turns out the Hero Core decoration is available, and if the other heroes' helmets are added in a future update.

Breez's is an easier fix though. The problem is that the head sits lower on the neck stud than is actually possible with that torso armor. To fix it, just nudge it upward slightly using the offset between parts 4070 and 6541. This is a useful technique for nudging parts by tiny increments, so let me try and explain as clearly as possible: [*}Step 1: Place parts 4070 and 6541 back-to-back (separate from your model), so the stud of 4070 is facing away from the Technic brick. Step 2: Prepare to attach the Technic pin 4274 to the Technic brick so the stud is also attaching to 4070. Step 3: As you're holding the pin, do you notice that there are not one but two connection points? It will appear to wiggle slightly as you move your cursor. This is because the anti-stud on the headlight brick is slightly lower than the hole in the Technic brick. This is the offset you want to take advantage of. Step 4: If you want to move a part UPWARD, like Breez's head in this case, place the Technic pin in the LOWER position. It should look slightly off-center in the Technic pin hole. Step 5: Use the "multiple selection tool" to select both the minifigure head and the Technic pin. Step 6: Pick up both parts and place the Technic pin in the UPPER position. Now it will be centered with the Technic pin hole. Step 7: To move the part upward again (not necessary with Breez's helmet), place the pin back in the LOWER position and repeat steps 5 and 6. Step 8: To move a part DOWNWARD, do the reverse of steps 4–7: start with the pin in the UPPER position and move it to the LOWER position. Hope that was clear. If it was not, I can create an LXF with all the mini-heroes. Notably, this does not work with Stormer. The collision in that case is much more problematic and probably a bug with the collision volumes of the helmet and armor, not a bug with the head placement.

The latest LDD update includes all the new parts for this current wave except the beast heads. But frustratingly, none of the decorations seem to be included (in the very least, they're not available with the decoration tool like the Mixels eyes are), and Stormer's helmet collides with his torso armor due to an error.

LDD is updated. It now includes all the Mixels joints as well as the decorations for their eye pieces!

That will be quite impressive on the LEGO Group's part. I've known a lot of sets' packaging to include out-of-date ads. Just think about the ads on 2009 Space Police boxes for "LEGO Space: The Video Game" (which I'm guessing ended up expanding in scope and becoming LEGO Battles, since the LEGO Battles site used the same "Space" logo as those ads) and the ads on 2012 Ninjago boxes for LEGO Universe, which was shut down permanently the same month those sets were officially released. Of course, both of those are examples of "the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing". Video games are handled by a completely different branch of the LEGO Group than development for either of those themes. Whereas LEGO Cuusoo/LEGO Ideas is the starting point for sets like the Exo-Suit and Ghostbusters sets, and that branch probably remains intimately involved throughout the development process. So the packaging for those sets very well might break from tradition and be accurate to a recent change that, until recently, was not known to the general public.

Oh! Because it's multilingual and works as an interpreter for local tourists!

When did we hear anything like that? I know that some early news reports made it sound like it would be an adaptation of the first story arc rather than a brand-new one, but that summary might have just been a placeholder. What I do know about it is that the Hageman brothers, who worked on The LEGO Movie and subsequently have been the writers of the LEGO Ninjago TV series, are currently on board to write it, and Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Chris Miller, and Phil Lord are all going to be producing it. I don't know if the movie could be in more trustworthy hands than those. I wonder when we'll start to hear more about it. Until then, there's not a whole lot more to talk about.

Well, the only difference between the two Jays is that one has shoulder armor and the other doesn't. The imbalance is kinda odd, but it makes sense with the story as far as I can tell. On a side note, I had a dream last night that the Visual Dictionary exclusive fig was confirmed to be Nya. I was a bit disappointed when I woke up.

Flickr user ACPin has a photo of Series 2 Mixels info from the latest LEGO Club Magazine.

Interesting. I wonder which kinds of products they might have in mind with this, since for the most part individual products don't have a long enough shelf life for a Cuusoo proposal to have a big impact, or at least that's what you think. Perhaps there are very particular products they are thinking of in this case, like road plate packs, which remain available for much longer than the typical set. Or perhaps they're not even sure what kind of proposals they're thinking of, and are just trying to prepare for any eventuality.

New York Toy Fair said August. Usually the sets might start to show up a month to a month and a half before then but won't be available through all the usual channels until within a couple weeks of their official release date.

Well, I don't know if that would be very well-proportioned anyway. I think the new mammoth head is probably slightly larger than the Orient Expedition elephant head, though I might be wrong. A custom solution might be much more appropriate.