Aanchir

Pretty sure that's just concept art, and beyond that, concept art of a particular model: Evo XL Machine. Lights and ammo belts on the shoulders, beefy arms, blaster in the right hand, bulky left hand? The only difference is the legs, and that could just be preliminary or a stylistic decision.

Incidentally, if the British HF prices correspond to US prices the way that sets typically have in the past, then Queen Beast vs. Furno, Evo, and Stormer will be between $40 and $60. No matter what the exact price, that makes it the most expensive set since Drop Ship. But of course, as we know, it also includes a machine for Evo, so not all 217 pieces will be used for the Queen herself.

Oh, I don't know, maybe the random, lowbrow, and petty insults against other MOCing communities that have nothing to do with this topic? The creation of an entire topic to make fun of sets without telling anybody anything they couldn't figure out from looking at pictures and inventories of the sets? The embarrassingly juvenile amounts of hyperbole? The perfectly meaningless number ratings? The complete lack of thought or consideration for why these sets were designed like they are? Even if you think these sets are utter garbage, they're still not as awful as this topic. The sad thing is that a number of your posts lately, like this one and this one, have been just as spammy and frivolous. I don't know why you're surprised that people have doubts about your age or maturity.

No. The person writing that Toy Fair review is using overlord as a common noun, not a proper name. So it's AN overlord, specifically the overlord of that theme. It's not THE capital-O Overlord from Ninjago. Same way the green ninjas from the old turn-of-the-century Ninja theme are both green ninja, but neither of them is THE Green Ninja from Ninjago.

They call him Nektann because the whole point of the set was to pay tribute to the Piraka sets, and the name Nektann doesn't have any significance to anyone but die-hard fans of the story (except maybe people who played the VNOG, who'd just be confused why the name of a four-legged robot is being used for a humanoid character). Same reason why they didn't just call it "Skakdi" — nobody who hasn't read the books or serials will know what a Skakdi is. This is a nice set, although it has the worst piece count of the Stars and a terrible price-per-piece by today's standards.

Dragon Bolt is probably my absolute favorite. Beautiful color scheme, wonderful play value (to borrow a term from LEGO Space fans, it's very "swooshable"), a great parts selection, and a quite innovative overall design. Picking favorites has never been easy for me, though. I don't know if I could tell you my second favorite. Furno Jet Machine is a fantastic design with great parts, but so are some of the Breakout villains like Toxic Reapa, Thornraxx, and XT4. Breez, Bulk, and Evo from the Breakout series are also definite contenders. So is Breez from the Brain Attack series. Overall, I don't think any of these sets are fantastic on all counts the way Dragon Bolt is, but they are still wonderful designs in several ways.

I don't know if it's fair to say these were the worst BIONICLE sets of all time, though. For what they were trying to be, it would have been difficult to design better ones. Small sets, especially polybag sets, perform a couple major functions: they enhance the collections of people who are already fans and they serve as an introduction to the brand for people who are not. This is incredibly difficult with constraction sets, which tend to have larger pieces than System sets. Why do you think the only Hero Factory polybag/impulse sets have been accessory packs rather than actual figures? I agree the 2006 and 2007 ones look rather lackluster. But 6126, 6127, and 6128 are beautiful designs in my opinion, considering the size and budget constraints they were working with. I'd actually almost say that those three as well as 8026 are better designs than the actual Matoran sets from 2004 and 2008, since they are more complex and use existing parts in more creative ways than the formulaic designs of the Matoran of Metru Nui and Karda Nui. This topic hardly qualifies as a review. It's just a juvenile, lowbrow stream of insults towards the sets and towards users of MOCpages and the Custom BIONICLE Wiki. I have no love for the Custom BIONICLE Wiki (I don't really think it's a topic that needs to be presented in wiki format, since a forum or image hosting site is generally better for posting MOCs), but it is absolutely irrelevant to discussion of these sets. And the MOCists there who you consider such poor designers are probably kids — the kind of kids that BIONICLE has been aimed at from the beginning. No need to insult a community like that in what is ostensibly supposed to be a review.

Are you referring to how they look in the leaked catalog image? To me, they looked to be Transparent Blue, similar to the sword pieces from CHI Laval and Aquagon.

Because they both had dark-colored masks with holes in them and an angry expression, and because Stringer was missing from the second wave of sets. No joke.

It's the same type of plastic as any other beam, so there shouldn't be any issues with color. Personally, I like having certain parts like that color-coded, especially when they're still common neutral colors. Single-color skeletons can work for some models, but often they end up feeling a bit boring, whereas a little splash of Dark Stone Grey on the joints of a larger figure adds detail and creates visual interest.

There's no way it's entirely random. There is thought that goes into it. For instance, I guarantee that the LEGO Group makes sure that no series is too close in color to any of the previous two series so as to ensure buyers don't become confused. Likewise, I think some colors like pink and brown are probably avoided entirely due to certain associations ("girliness" for the former, and... other things for the latter). And some series get very specific symbolic meanings — Series 10 used gold to signify the "Mr. Gold" gimmick, and the LEGO Movie series uses the same dark blue color as for the other LEGO Movie sets.

Two of those arranged how? One on top of the other, they'd be far too tall and narrow to really convey the appropriate look. Next to each other, they'd be close to the right height and width but entirely the wrong shape. I think the best way to get the right shape and size would be if instead of using a proper transparent windscreen, you created a rollcage-like frame out of Technic angle connectors. A rule of thumb I've been using is that a typical 2011-2013 hero figure is about 3.5 times the height of a 2014 mini-hero figure. As far as I can tell this is pretty much true of any hero figure around 22.5 modules (7 inches/18 centimeters) tall, in the very least. With that in mind, the ideal windscreen/rollcage would be about 20 modules tall, 14 modules wide, and 14 modules deep.

That'd be an interesting challenge. I wonder what the best way to build a windscreen for a model that size might be. The windscreens in the Invasion from Below sets are around the same size as a hero. Even the biggest single-piece LEGO windscreens aren't nearly big enough. So you'd have to do something more elaborate if you wanted to maintain accuracy.

Keep in mind that a lot of the most useful parts from the summer Breakout sets, such as the XT4 torso, the 3M double ball cup from Stormer XL, and the 3M beam with center ball joint from Stormer XL and Speeda Demon, were not evident to everyone from early pics of those sets. So it's possible that there are similar "hidden treasures" in the summer Invasion from Below sets.

"Concepts" as vague as these are not under copyright and are not even POSSIBLE to copyright. Even Pacific Rim was borrowing a lot of its kaiju and mecha concepts from other media, such as Japanese mecha anime and giant monster movies (a genre which, in Japan, is called — guess what — "kaiju"). There's a difference between plagiarizing other media and referencing or drawing inspiration from other media. In this case, the LEGO Group is definitely doing the latter. As for similarities between Half-Life and Brain Attack, I don't entirely see it. Half-Life didn't invent the idea of mind-controlling parasites, not even ones that latch onto a person's head. And physically, the headcrabs in Half-Life and the brains in Hero Factory barely even resemble each other on a superficial level. Headcrabs are fleshy, blob-like creatures with four long legs and no tail, while the brains in Hero Factory are brain-shaped creatures with six short legs, bright red eyes, long tails, and lots of spikes.

Thanks! I pulled up this topic the other day to show this model off to somebody in real life, and realized that I never added the new photos I took of this model with weapons. So let me share these now. In accordance with her magnetism theme, Caitlyn now carries a repulsor shield and mass driver cannon! Also, I've finally finished building Caitlyn Gauss on LEGO Digital Designer! Some parts aren't snapped together securely due to a lack of patience on my part (anyone who's used LEGO Digital Designer for a complex Hero Factory creation surely knows how difficult ball joints are to manipulate using the hinge tool). However, it should still be clear enough for anyone to tell how the model is assembled. Click here to download the LXF file!

Well, it really depends on your perspective. All things considered, Ninjago only had a half-year hiatus before returning. In contrast, Adventurers had a two year hiatus between Dino Island and Orient Expedition, and Alpha Team had a full year hiatus between Mission Deep Sea and Mission Deep Freeze (yes, I know it had one set in 2003, but that set was nothing more than a promotional, limited-release polybag containing a single minifigure from the previous year). Since we don't know the LEGO Group's inner workings, we don't know whether Adventurers and Alpha Team were intended to be finished for good prior to each theme's grand revival, or the LEGO Group planned a hiatus for these themes, like we see for Castle pretty much every other wave.

Actually, most of them use Medium Azur, not Dark Azur. But still, I have to agree. We don't even know for certain that these blue jumpers will be appearing in sets, let alone what shade of blue they'll be when/if they do appear.

That could just mean that Chima was overstocked and Ninjago was understocked. This is part of the reason anecdotal evidence like this is unreliable. The LEGO Group was promoting Chima very, very heavily, and so it's natural that retailers would have high expectations for it and order sets in large quantities. However, it can still be a knockout success if it didn't entirely live up to those expectations. I've also heard some statements that Chima has performed better in the UK and Europe than it did in the US, though that might also be purely anecdotal.

I imagine Samurai X will have the same design she has on her characters page, regardless of what the prelims look like. That new design, with printed torso armor and the ZX Ninja shoulderpads, is very definitely the sort of thing that is likely to have been designed for a set. Sounds like the sets should be pretty cool. Looking forward to better pics and information from Toy Fair!

And I figured you still had my contact details from back when I won the Ultimate Battle contest for Ninja Month. I can send a new PM if you need one, but the contact details are the same.

The writer in the credits is Adam Beechen, the same person who wrote "Brain Attack". He has a pretty good resume when it comes to animated TV episodes (including episodes from some childhood favorite series of mine like Static Shock, Teen Titans, and Jackie Chan Adventures), so it's kind of a surprise to me that he wrote "Brain Attack", which I found underwhelming when I finally got around to watching it. Though I ought to mention something — as much as it bugs people to have the heroes talking about their weapons and gear in the last two episodes, I was personally impressed that the identities of the weapons and gear actually mattered. Prior to "Breakout", while the heroes' weapons had unique visual effects, they were more often than not used to exchange generic energy blasts. Thunder in "Von Nebula" and Stringer in "Savage Planet" even had to be given projectile/energy weapons that had no basis at all in the actual sets. The multi-tool ice shields in "Ordeal of Fire" were never used as multi-tools or as shields, and didn't even fire ice most of the time. So I'm glad that the actual identities and powers of the weapons in the last two or three episodes had some actual importance, even if it was a bit patronizing that the heroes had to explain those identities and powers to the audience whenever they used them for the first time. The basic plot outline would also have been handed down from Advance, as with any of the other episodes.

I didn't have any problem with the new voice actors and animation style. I'd be fine with either studio in terms of voices, and I actually prefer Ghost's animation style in some respects — the heroes' faces don't look as skull-like, and the settings are far more colorful and memorable than those from previous episodes. I would, however, like better and more memorable music in general. Even the old Hero Factory theme music isn't anywhere near as catchy as the theme from the BIONICLE movies or the Ninjago overture. The music from the most recent episode is downright forgettable.

I can think of a couple reasons we don't see Forestmen in sets today. The first is the issue of good vs. evil conflict. With today's castle sets, there are typically two main factions: a defending faction, which represents peace and order, and an invading faction, which represents disruption and chaos. Pretty easy to see a simple good vs. evil divide there. The Forestmen throw a wrench into that. As bandits/outlaws, they are pretty clearly anti-establishment. So unlike the dwarf and troll factions from Fantasy-Era Castle, or the civilians of Kingdoms, they can't form a neat alliance with one of the existing factions. They are a very morally ambiguous third party. It's no surprise that even back in the day, comics created for LEGO magazines tended to differ on whether the forestmen were treated as enemies or allies of the heroes. But this is not an insurmountable obstacle in and of itself. I think a bigger reason we don't see forestmen is that the media that inspired them, i.e. tales of Robin Hood and his merry men, is not currently trending. When kids think about medieval adventures today, they're most likely thinking about castles and armies and knights and wizards, and maybe even fantasy creatures like elves and goblins, not roguish forestmen. Naturally, this might vary by country. I get a feeling that stories of Robin Hood have at least traditionally been a lot more popular in Great Britain, where the historical context of the stories was better understood, than here in America. Perhaps that is still true today. But overall, as cool as the forestmen were as a faction, they're not necessarily what kids today want or expect from a medieval theme. A third issue is one of production schedules. Back in the day, sets were typically kept in production or on store shelves for a few years at least. This meant that there was plenty of room for offshoots of the existing themes, we got the Forestmen subtheme in LEGO Castle, or the Islanders subtheme of LEGO Pirates. After all, the core foundations of the theme which were established the year before — be they castles, pirate ships, or fire engines — would still be available, but there would also be plenty of room to diversify and keep the catalog fresh for people who had already bought the previous year's sets. Today, partly due to pressure from retailers who want to rotate their stock regularly, most themes are only produced and distributed for about a year to a year and a half, with the exception of big flagship sets like pirate ships, police stations, fire stations, train sets, and castles which might be kept on store shelves for longer to maximize profits. And this means that often, the sets for each theme have to focus a lot more tightly on the aspects of the theme which consistently drive demand. For LEGO City, this means Police and Fire. For LEGO Castle, it means knights, castles, and occasional fantasy creatures like dragons. There is still some room for expansion, like with Mill Village Raid, but not as much as there used to be back when sets were kept in the catalog for longer. Not trying to say forestmen CAN'T come back. I'm just listing some possible reasons why they haven't been around for a while.

I don't think the slight gap looks too bothersome, considering that the unicorn horns are just decorative ornamentation anyhow.