Aanchir

I'm still the other way around... a lot of the machines impress me, but I haven't fallen in love with any of the beasts besides Tunneler Beast. I suppose it's partly because I really love new and creative builds, and the beasts either don't deliver on that or aren't the best in terms of execution. Queen Beast has an incredibly novel build, but in some respects is a bit lackluster. The back is incredibly bare-bones, and the torso very column-like. The front legs have very limited articulation. Flyer Beast and Crystal Beast are both fairly mundane humanoid builds lacking any kind of back armor (though to be fair, Flyer Beast has wings and a brick with ball cup that would have made back armor less feasible) Jaw Beast is quite nice, breaking up the monotony of a humanoid build with decidedly NOT humanoid posture and proportions. Still not certain if it's a must-buy: I'll have to decide how I want to get the Stormer mini-robot, since I'd rather avoid duplicates if possible. Splitter Beast might be the best of the humanoid beasts, with lots of great pieces, great detail, and just enough uniqueness in its build to break up the monotony of yet another humanoid build. It would be on my "to buy" list from the get-go if it weren't for its minifigs: Furno and Evo, two of the year's most common minifigures, both of which my brother and I already have courtesy of the refreshingly creative Furno Jet Machine and Evo XL Machine. Even though the beasts don't excite me nearly as much as the machines do, I imagine I'll wind up with several of them, and perhaps I'll grow fonder of them once I own them. Certainly they are all pretty good parts packs. Even Flyer Beast, one of my least favorites, includes lots of Medium Azur beams and ball cups, as well as four Ben 10 tail pieces, four of the new talon pieces, a black torso shell, and two of the larger foot pieces.

Which machines are you referring to specifically? Evo Walker's legs are appropriately spiderlike, albeit without a whole lot of articulation. The same is true of most of the other multi-legged machines like Bulk Drill Machine, Breez Flea Machine, and Evo's machine from the Queen Beast set. Of the bipedal machines, Rocka Crawler is too small to really need bulkier legs, and the thin legs on Furno Jet Machine and Rocka Stealth Machine make those sets look more nimble. The only sets that are really crying out for beefier legs are Evo XL Machine, which mainly just suffers between the knee and the shin, and Stormer Freeze Machine, which in some respects is crying out for beefier everything — the whole thing strikes me as a bit of a gappy mess compared to the other, more elegant mid-size machines. Some more variety in the bulkiness of the legs could be cool for sure, but I don't feel like most of the sets on their own need to be bulked up. Look at LEGO Exo-Force — it had the exceptionally beefy Assault Tiger and Golden Guardian, but it also had the lean and limber Chameleon Hunter and Sky Guardian. All of those sets have narrower upper legs than Furno Jet Machine or Rocka Stealth Machine, and Chameleon Hunter coupled that with long and narrow lower legs. In previous years, even the massive Supernova had thinner upper legs than most of this year's Hero Factory battle machines, and the equally large Silent Strike had upper and lower legs just four modules wide. Considering that these models were about eight inches tall not counting wings and fins, versus Furno Jet Machine which is just over seven inches tall including its jets, it doesn't make for a big difference relative to the overall size of the battle machine. Come to think of it, the Exo-Force battle machines have a lot in common with this year's Hero Factory battle machines besides just structure. The mid-size battle machines like Grand Titan and Stealth Hunter were $15 and a little over seven inches tall. Of course, they had more pieces on average — they WERE System sets, after all.

LEGO Battles: Ninjago wasn't as bad as the graphics made it look. The reason it used simple sprites instead of more complex graphics is because as with LEGO Battles before it, it needed to be able to handle lots of independent characters and structures at any given time, and more advanced graphics would have cut down on that ability. Contrast the usual LEGO games, which are action games rather than strategy games, and don't usually have to handle any more characters than what you see on the screen (not to mention are often on more powerful systems than the Nintendo DS). I'm glad this new game has better graphics than LEGO Battles: Ninjago, but even if that game looked like a game made over a decade ago, those graphics belied a pretty decent game that had a lot of thought put into it. It even more or less followed the events of the official story, albeit with some key differences (the floating ruins in particular resemble the vast ancient cityscape described in the books more than the single narrow column portrayed in the TV episode).

I think by "Mr. Know-It-All" 3rdeye88 was referring to Darth Vader, not you. Doesn't make the name-calling any less rude or petty, of course, but at least his random grudge is not directed your way.

Breez's color scheme has shifted a lot over the years. The original Natalie Breez set was primarily Bright Yellowish Green and Black. Breez 2.0 was Bright Yellowish Green and Titanium Metallic. Breez was Bright Yellowish Green and White in Breakout, and in Brain Attack she featured all sorts of colors (Bright Yellowish Green, Titanium Metallic, Silver Metallic, and Transparent Bright Green). And in Invasion from Below she has Silver Metallic body armor, but her machine (Breez Flea Machine) uses mainly Titanium Metallic. So there's about as much precedent for her using Titanium Metallic as using Silver Metallic, and to be honest I really think Titanium Metallic suits this particular model better than Silver Metallic would. Anyway, love this machine. It's brilliantly beefy and well-armored. Its color scheme is very nicely distributed as well. I somewhat think that a melee weapon would suit her better than a projectile weapon, since in Ordeal of Fire she was the team's close-combat specialist. But the gun is still mighty fine.

I'd love more Transparent Bright Green weapon/blade pieces, myself. We have lots of Tr. Blue and Tr. Red ones from last year's Chima constraction sets. But in Tr. Bright Green all we have is the sword from the end of Black Phantom's mace and the sword from Rocka in the Brain Attack series.

I think it would have been cool to see some spider and scorpion tribe characters as action figures. But those tribes are probably not likely to appear prominently in future story arcs. Check out the concepts on these two cards that showcase what those kinds of characters might have looked like.

To sum up, you might want to avoid ball cup pieces from sets released between 2007 and 2010. Ball cup pieces from prior to 2007 were mostly reliable when new, but could become compromised after years and years of use (particularly frequent assembly/disassembly). Any ball cup piece introduced after 2010 should be almost 100% reliable, but they still go through more "shock" during assembly and disassembly than any stud-to-stud or Technic pin connection, so instances like this topic describes of breakage from normal use might still pop up. If you need an illustration... Ball cups that look like this or this (tapered sides, rounded front edge) are mostly reliable, but might be slightly risky due to age (these parts all tend to come from pre—2008 sets). Ball cups that look like this or this (tapered sides, flat front edge) are EXTREMELY risky. They shouldn't cause problems if they're already built into a model, but they are highly prone to breakage during assembly and disassembly and should be handled with extreme care. Ball cups that look like this or this (flat sides, rounded front edge) are almost 100% reliable, and failures are extremely rare. The ball snap, a different type of socket featured mainly on the back of Hero Factory shells, has less friction than a ball cup but tends to be about as reliable as the third type listed above.

The eagle one isn't quite as stylish as Eris's Eagle Interceptor last year, but I feel like the action feature somewhat makes up for its less elegant shaping. I'm actually more fond of the eagle one than the vulture one... it feels a bit more cohesive and streamlined thanks to the smooth lines and color blocking. But of course, the vulture one is probably limited by greater parts constraints since it's at a lower price point.

I'm not fond of the legs. The upper legs look puny compared to the lower legs, especially with tiny 4M shells that fail to cover the knees. The arms also look incredibly scrawny compared to the massive body. The placement of the printed shell on the chest is also a bit distracting. The torso build is quite nifty, though. I prefer the official model in many respects as a set, but don't mind this beefier version as a MOC.

I have to agree with DeeVee here. The LEGO Group is already going to greater lengths to inform and engage with the community than any major toy company I know of. Sure, they probably can find ways to improve how they do that in the years to come. But to act as though we're entitled to a press release or direct dialogue with a LEGO employee for each and every development that might interest us is absurd, especially since secrecy is a big issue for a company the LEGO Group's size — not every employee can be authorized to engage directly with fans, and those who can are not always qualified or available to satisfy fan requests. In the meantime, a lot of fans are perfectly happy to get news from the LEGO Ambassadors, and to have a channel through which they can request this kind of information at all. Is the program 100% reliable? No, but it's reliable enough to be trusted for info that we don't need to get any more than the LEGO Group needs to provide it. Bear in mind that this is a hobby, and we don't really stand to lose anything we currently have if these products don't get released.

Splitter Beast is not too great in terms of price-per-piece. It has 108 pieces for $20, and 24 of those parts go towards minifigures and minifigure accessories. But when you look at what those pieces are, it definitely stands out as a great way to accumulate "beast" parts. Both of the new foot styles (two of each), two heads (built in the reverse of one another, so it gives you the potential to build a single all-black head or claw), three of the new talon pieces, two black "paw" pieces, and a bunch of useful shells and beams. Really, the main reason I'm not certain I want to get it is because the only mini-heroes it comes with are the two my brother and I already have: Furno and Evo. But it's definitely a set we're keeping in mind for later in the year. Really, none of the beast sets besides Tunneler Beast have been super-duper enticing for me. Splitter Beast, Flyer Beast, and Jaw Beast are all cool, but in terms of construction they're somewhat run-of-the-mill — not as daring and non-traditional as past villains like Jawblade, Toxic Reapa, Thornraxx, and XT4. Crystal Beast is likewise a generic humanoid with very few assets to boast other than its unique color scheme. Queen Beast is nice, but a little bit bare-bones in some areas, and she'd get me at least two duplicate heroes and a second machine for Evo (lovely design, but I don't know that we need another after Evo XL Machine). I know I want some of the beasts this year just to try MOCing with them, and have weighed my options to see which machines I might skip in favor of a beast. I'd be happy to get Tunneler Beast either in place of or in addition to Surge & Rocka Combat Machine. But I'm not really sold on any of the other beasts as either sets or parts packs. They have a lot of the same parts between them, and I'd prefer to get the heroes they come with in the machine sets in most cases, so it's very difficult to decide which of them would be the best for my collection.

Since the jungle adventure subtheme was revealed, I've been thinking a lot about what kinds of adventure stories might be possible within LEGO Friends, and what kinds of stories would be better for separate themes. Let me just go over some of my ideas: One fantastic Friends subtheme would be a mystery-solving subtheme like the Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books, perhaps also taking inspiration from cartoons like Scooby-Doo. It's definitely possible to create spooky and suspenseful subject matter without things getting too grey and gritty. Colors like blues, greens, and purples could be used together with colors like Sand Yellow (Dark Tan) and Reddish Brown to really convey a sense of spookiness. This sort of subtheme would also allow you to incorporate action features like traps and secret passageways: A bookcase that swings open to reveal a secret room, a staircase that abruptly turns into a slide, a trap door underneath a doormat, or doors that open and shut by themselves. You might even be able to incorporate some "bad guy" characters into this sort of subtheme, though it's not completely essential. Animals like mice, black cats, crows, and owls can provide a sense of spooky atmosphere while still providing a sense of cuteness. Some of these could even be recolors of existing LEGO Friends animals. A mountain expedition subtheme for Friends would allow for all sorts of awesome subject matter. A cozy mountain lodge, a research station at the mountain peak, a sheer cliff with ledges for climbing, a hot air balloon, a camping area with a campfire and tents, or a cave occupied by bears. Animals could include bears, eagles, goats, etcetera. Snowshoes, sweaters, coats, and scarves would be the prevailing fashion choices in the upper parts of the mountains, while lower on the mountain characters could wear short-sleeved shirts and shorts decorated with expedition gear like climbing harnesses. There are two main categories that would need their own themes and could not really fit into the modern-day world of LEGO Friends: sci-fi and fantasy. Fantasy is a big one to capture, in my opinion. Disney Princess somewhat fills the historical fantasy quota, but it seems to be aimed at a slightly younger demographic than LEGO Friends, and its storytelling scenarios are not very adventurous. Fantasy franchises have the potential to be hugely popular with teens and tweens. Look at how much older girls have loved Harry Potter, The Twilight Saga, and toy lines like "My Little Pony Equestria Girls", "Monster High", and "Ever After High". Toy companies seem to be realizing that older girls want toys that are a little less everyday and run-of-the-mill than your typical Barbie doll. This is a market that I think the LEGO Group could easily cash in on with a well-written story theme. Sci-fi franchises are not so well proven among girls. The Hunger Games has caught on brilliantly with girls, and has helped inspire a love of archery among girls of all ages. Companies like Nerf have capitalized on this with their new "Nerf Rebelle" toyline. But you don't see a lot of companies capitalizing on the sci-fi category in girl-oriented toylines. And while this gives the LEGO Group a chance to break new ground, it also means that there are less successes and failures in the industry for them to learn from. Those there are, such as "She-Ra", are not recent enough for their lessons to be especially relevant to today's market. This is of course speaking of Western markets. Japan has a wealth of girl-oriented (shoujo) comics and cartoons that cover a number of genres, including sci-fi and fantasy. But shoujo media hasn't really caught on in the west to the same extent that franchises like Pokémon, bolstered by toy and video game tie-ins, have experienced. The last shoujo cartoon I've seen on a standard American cable network during a timeslot aimed at kids was probably Hamtaro, and before that, Cardcaptor Sakura. Sailor Moon was fairly popular in my early childhood (at least relative to other anime series), but there hasn't been a subsequent sci-fi shoujo series to gain such widespread appeal in Europe and the Americas to my knowledge.

It could be nice, yeah. I imagine part of the reason that the LEGO Group is sticking to baby animals is that it's easier to use them in a wide range of sets, though. The baby animals can be used for the animal packs (which don't have to be tied to the current subtheme in any way) or in playsets at pretty much any price point, whereas larger animals (like, say, the Friends horse) would be mostly constrained to larger sets, since they'd take a massive bite out of the budget for smaller ones. Also, with smaller animals it's easier to repaint them to create a different animal, like the lion cub/tiger cub this year or the parrot/canary from previous years. With larger animals there'd be the possibility for (and thus, an expectation of) more specific details. Kind of like how "bigfigs" like the Hulk from LEGO Super Heroes or the Cave Troll from LEGO Lord of the Rings can't really use a standardized design as easily as traditional minifigures. With the level of detail expected at that scale, certain factors would stand out such as whether the characters have the correct number of fingers and toes. It'd definitely be great if there were some larger animals, but I think the LEGO Group is trying to get the most out of each and every mold so they don't eat up so much of the budget for each set.

Personally, I'm less bothered by the blue and more by the fact that her arms are exposed but her legs are not. It gives me the odd impression that she has white sleeves instead of white feathers. When the white was more spread out it was a little bit easier to decipher, in my opinion.

That one really is funny! I'm quite impressed. "Pothole" was also funny, but a bit short and simple. I didn't find "Murp" all that funny... it felt a little bit rote, as though it was just there to convey the message that "sometimes mixing doesn't work out so well".

Links to high-res images from Tesco: 41032 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 41033 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 41034 Pic 1 Pic 2 41036 Pic 1 Pic 2 Pic 3 Pic 4 Pic 5 Pic 6 That should be everything! Be sure and tell me if any of the links are broken and/or duplicates.

I know, right? My brother says it's probably RFID. I say it's witchcraft.

Full-res images if anyone wants them: Fire Eagle Flyer box pic Ice Vulture Glider box pic Ice Vulture Glider alternate pic Those stylized feather/wing pieces will be great in Dark Red and Dark Brown! I also like the new transparent claw pieces and Fire CHI. Also, Eris's crown is now red to match her new costume! I'm not super impressed with the sets, but they're nice-looking designs, and the Fire Eagle Flyer has a great function.

Yes, but when you have to list that many sources of inspiration, it's hard to call it derivative. You might as well throw Homestar Runner, The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, Neopets, and Skylanders into that same pot. Every franchise's ideas come from somewhere, so if drawing inspiration from this many sources were enough to establish that something is derivative, everything would get that label. It's not like a story being derivative is something to be ashamed of, of course. Anything that tries to fit into an existing genre can be considered derivative, but that does not prevent it from being great at what it sets out to do, possibly even better than any attempt that came before. But with all its disparate sources of inspiration, Mixels isn't the kind of thing that stands out to me as "derivative", unlike things like "Pacific Rim" that are knowingly trying to draw from a singular genre or category.

My thoughts, copied and pasted from Brickset: I love this jungle adventure series, as it really does a lot to make up for one criticism of the previous LEGO Friends and LEGO Disney Princess offerings: the idea that the storylines for the Friends tended to be incredibly domestic in their scope compared to the more adventurous boy-oriented themes, up to and including LEGO City. This really does a lot to demonstrate that even teenage girls brought up in a modern urban society can have opportunities to go on more dangerous sorts of adventures. Rockslides! Collapsing bridges! Helicopters! Ziplines! Dirt bikes! And of course, our good friend the inevitable waterfall. I slightly wonder if the saccharine air of domesticity in the Disney Princess sets might have helped allow the LEGO Group to push LEGO Friends in a bolder and more adventurous direction, since it fulfills that need for sets that enshrine more run-of-the-mill "dollhouse play". My favorite of the new sets remains the Jungle Rescue Base, which we have seen in-depth video of from Toy Fair. A lot of the LEGO Friends theme seems to be characterized by a sense of luxury. This set moves away from that while still maintaining the detail and creature comforts that the theme is known for. There are colorful beds, but they aren't large with decorative plush comforters like the ones in the Dolphin Cruiser or Olivia's House, nor trendy like the futon in Andrea's Bedroom. They are simple 2x6 cots. The only solid walls are around the outhouse/water closet, and the shower is placed outside. There's heated water and electricity (to power the ceiling fan that must be invaluable in these warm, humid climes), but it seems to be provided by a solar panel, not by "the grid". The animals are wild animals, not pets or zoo animals like the ones in previous sets were stated or implied to be. There's a slide, but instead of being for recreation, it's a cool way for the Friends to jump into action and quickly go from the observation deck to the motorboat waiting below. Don't get me wrong. The girls in this subtheme still all seem to be pretty affluent, to be able to take a trip like this. So there's still a bit of that sense of luxury/entitlement to the theme. But overall, the subtheme reminds me a lot of my January 2011 trip to rural Costa Rica, and as such it's perfectly believable that the teenage girls of the theme could be in this Asiatic jungle on a similar service learning/study abroad program. It's a chance for the girls to learn what life is like in a place far from the cushy, air-conditioned world of Heartlake City. What other adventures might await the LEGO Friends in the future? After giving it some thought, there are a lot of possibilities even without delving into sci-fi or fantasy territory. How about a mystery-solving theme in the spirit of Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, or even Scooby-Doo? That sort of thing could show us an eerier and more suspenseful side of Heartlake City. A mountain-climbing expedition is also possible. "Tintin in Tibet" is one of my favorite stories in this genre. It really shows how such an expedition can be presented as more than just another vacation. Don't know if I'll get any of these sets. None are quite a self-contained masterpiece like Dolphin Cruiser, Heartlake High, or Emma's Karate Class. Rather, these sets might have the most value as a part of a larger layout or collection that can really convey the scale and remoteness of this new locale. But maybe I'll change my mind in time.

But anyway, I think the series has a good range of character portrayals: heroes like Emmet and Wyldstyle, villains like President Business and his robot goons, and more neutral characters like Gail and Larry. In any event, the series has sold so wildly that any concerns about that kind of thing seem kind of negligible. Unless the series were produced in greater quantities it wouldn't be able to benefit from greater demand anyhow.

Unfunny is a matter of perspective. I don't think all of the jokes are laugh-out-loud funny, but I definitely enjoyed some of them. And I'm sure other people might find them even funnier. As for derivative, not sure where you're getting that. It's far from groundbreaking, but what does it seem derivative of? It is totally possible there's been another show that's a lot like it, but nothing I've seen comes to mind.

But to be fair, we don't know that there's nothing due later in the year. We usually get one or two LEGO Club Magazine comics per year, not to mention the possibility of other web-based media. But of course, it's true that the core media (the television episodes) are all wrapped up for this year.

I don't think so (the printed eye tiles actually came out last year, and this model seems to be purely a cartoon tree and not some zany and colorful fantasy creature like the Mixels). I think it's just supposed to make the tree cuter and give it a bit of personality. After all, you can always remove them if you want to use the tree as more realistic scenery.