Aanchir

I agree, personally. They look much less skull-like than the Glatorian heads did, and they don't have the exaggeratedly large chins of the 2.0 heads. They have much of the same smooth aesthetic of the current building system, and I think that's a very good thing. It almost makes me wish that the sets had printed heads. However, single-color heads do feel more "classic" and as such help ease the transition from full-scale figures to minifigures. Speaking of which, has anyone tried using eye colors closer to the traditional eye colors for the minifigures? Still need to watch the full episode myself but I'm making my judgments from the look of the male civilians in this episode (who use the same body type as civilians from previous episodes but a new head design).

Nah, Ghost is just an animation/VFX agency. Advance would be the ones responsible for the dubbing, and it doesn't surprise me if they used in-house talent. I haven't watched the episode yet, but I'm hoping the voices are at least on par with Hero Factory FM.

Yep! They also have the same hair in the show, even in flashbacks of Garmadon when he was younger. Young Garmadon's face was also near-identical to Lloyd's. I like that the creators of the show put forth a concerted effort to create a family resemblance. Speaking of resemblances, now that I have 70725 Nindroid MechDragon, I have to say I really love the Sensei Garmadon figure's face. It is very plainly the same character as Lord Garmadon from previous arcs — that much is conveyed by his forehead wrinkles and distinctively-shaped eyebrows. But he also seems like a very trustworthy, if gruff, mentor character. His robes feature some of the same calligraphy as Sensei Wu DX (black robes). Nya's car also has an amazing flick-fire mechanism. Sometimes the pieces get out of alignment resulting in odd failures where the flick missile just catapults forward slightly or even starts flipping backwards, but it's still a beautiful concept to have the flick missiles rise up from a concealed position and then shoot forward with incredible momentum. The MechDragon itself is a beautiful design. The saw blade mechanism is cool and unique, and it's got a very formidable physique. It fits together magnificently. My one big criticism of it is that the tail-swinging function is not as good as that of Epic Dragon Battle or Earth Dragon Defense. I think it needs more weight on the last tail section.

Very strongly agreed. I also wonder if the decision to put so many of the humanoid machines and beasts in the winter wave was a strategy to help kids who were used to humanoid figures get used to the idea of having machines and beasts instead of humanoid heroes and villains before transitioning to less traditional designs. I haven't watched the episode yet — I'm really getting behind; haven't watched Brain Attack either. But I watched the five-minute version without sound, which is enough to get me excited.

I almost never "completely dismiss a theme". I try my best to understand things even if they don't make sense to me at a glance, and give the LEGO Group's writers and designers the benefit of the doubt for as long as it takes to do so — even if it's a theme I have no intent of ever collecting myself. There are, however, individual sets I have completely dismissed and later realize I should have given a chance. This set seemed like a blocky mess to me for many years. Eventually, out of curiosity, I built it on LDD (this was after becoming a huge Avatar: The Last Airbender fan — my main interest was seeing if using modern parts and building techniques I could build a better one). I realized then that despite some of the figs being poor recreations of the characters and the catapults looking ridiculous, the set was loaded with excellent and even somewhat show-accurate details and play features. Even the brick-built hull is probably the best I could ever come up with with my building ability — I had thought something using plates similar to a Star Destroyer would be better, but a Fire Nation naval vessel is a much more complex shape than a giant wedge! Made me sad that the theme ended before it had time to cover more of the series or even get higher-quality remakes like Star Wars vehicles have been getting every five years or so. Seeing how expensive the set and minifigures are today also kind of shuts down any idea of getting one in the aftermarket.

It always somewhat bothers me when people call him a Mariachi. From my experience, mariachi bands tend to wear fine suits, not just a poncho and brown pants. A Google image search doesn't believe me to think that my experience is out-of-the-ordinary either. I see that he's called the Mariachi in at least some countries, like Germany, which baffles me a bit. Maybe the mariachi tradition is differently understood in countries that don't have the same level of cultural exchange with Mexico as the United States has. It still kind of baffles me every time I see the Maraca Man called a Mariachi, and I still hope one day we get a proper Mariachi with a black suit, tan sombrero, and maybe an acoustic guitar. But the Taco Tuesday guy, portraying a heavily "packaged" and "branded" version of Mexican culture, is actually further from that sort of costume. Not that I think the Taco Tuesday guy is a bad fig. That "packaged" version of Mexican culture exists in the real world, after all, so nothing wrong in my opinion with getting a fig of it (especially as a fig of a mascot character from a fictional movie — that's about three inherent levels of separation from reality). But I'd like to get something more authentic eventually.

Just was watching a My Little Pony marathon on the Hub network and saw a trailer I'd never seen before, focusing on Wyldstyle. It was fantastic and makes me even more excited for this movie! There isn't a character in the movie so far that I don't like.

I definitely agree. This building system is great, and has plenty of potential even beyond the Hero Factory theme. I fully hope and expect for it to continue to be used even after the Hero Factory theme. If it ever IS replaced with a new building system, I hope it'll be one that's even better, with all the advantages of this building system and then some.

I hope none of the above. I really disliked those molded fronts for trains. For aircraft I can sort of see the justification (it'd be hard to make a sleek jet plane nose with lots of pieces, and anyway I feel like it was worth the sacrifice to be done with 4-wide commercial airliners), but for trains I generally prefer to see more things brick-built whenever possible. I was quite fond of 7938 for using a more creative design for the front end, though for the new passenger train I hope to see something brand-new. I am, however, a fan of the classic Metroliner. Not quite as clever as a train with a brick-built front, but I can't help but like this as it's very similar to the trains I've often been on in real life.

Back when we got our first pics of the Mixels, I counted how many parts were visible or otherwise able to be extrapolated from what we could see, and I came up with an estimate of between 50 and 60 pieces per model. Since they're probably going to be four or five dollars apiece, I think it should be a good value for money. Sadly, the product pages here don't list part counts, unlike the product pages for some of the other unreleased sets on that site.

I almost wonder if the redesign of the joints in 2008 was intended not to deal with breakage but to deal with wear over time. Having recently noticed how loose some of the joints from my 2001-2007 sets are, it would make sense to me if the redesign was intended to deal with that issue more than with the fragility issue. After all, as Dorek continues to point out, breaking joints didn't become an extremely noticeable problem until 2007's fiasco with lime green parts, and I imagine the work of redesigning the joints might have begun before then. But it could have taken place well after decreases in friction on older parts started to become apparent. If the joints were in fact made tighter by the redesign, then it's no surprise that fragility became a more serious issue (though not as serious as with the lime green joints previously). They would be under more stress when being attached or detached, as well as under more constant stress for as long as they remained connected. This would explain why the redesign apparently failed to deal with the breaking joints issue — it may not have been designed to deal with that issue at all. Something I noticed even before 2007 was that the 7M double ball cups from 2005 and 2006 tended to break more easily than my 5M double ball cups. It wasn't usually catastrophic, but it was part of the reason why I was not entirely convinced by the rumors that the later breakage were a result of newer joints using "cheaper plastic". Not only was there no evidence of those claims, but it wouldn't explain the failure of my 7M double ball cups prior to that time. In hindsight, it also does not explain why the new joints are sturdier despite the only apparent changes being in geometry and surface finish. Structural insufficiencies in the geometry, on the other hand, would explain the issues neatly and explain why the 7M double ball cups tended to break even before the lime joints fiasco or the 2008 redesign. After all, those parts had one trait in common with the redesigned joints that they did not have in common with other pre-redesign joints: the lack of "grooves" in the sides. Perhaps these "grooves" allowed the earlier joints to expand and contract more easily. But at the same time, that would also allow the friction to decrease more easily under time. Removing these grooves, then, would keep things in more constant compression — but without room for the plastic to expand and contract at the critical point when a joint is connected or disconnected, it could lead to immediate breakage at those times, when the ball cup is under the most stress. Anyway, that's just me fleshing out the theory I had at the time. I'm not sure how it relates to the new, sturdier joints, which also lack these grooves in the side. But at the same time, there are other changes in the geometries of the new joints, like much thicker supports, that could compensate for this issue. In any case, I'm still convinced that the fragility of 2008-2010 joint elements, and of the 2005-2007 7M double ball cups before them, was an issue of geometry, not an issue of material quality or production errors like the lime-green joint fiasco of 2007. Perhaps Front could lend some of his engineering expertise, and maybe give us confirmation of whether fragility was known to be an issue in the 2008-2010 ball cup designs?

This song has been stuck in my head all week! It's beautiful, maybe the best song for Rainbow Dash the brony community has generated to date. The is also fantastic, even if it lacks those energetic electric guitars.

You're correct! I never saw them myself in real life, but several pre-assembled minifigure blister packages from 1979 are on Brickset: http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=0011-2 http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=0012-1 http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=0013-1 http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=0014-1 http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=0015-1 http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=0016-1 The last of these doesn't show the package, but I did a Google image search and it's the same general principle.

I'm guessing that when planning the theme, TLG's marketing people just decided five Legend Beasts was the number to have. It's not their usual number for similarly-sized sets like that (multiples of three or six are more typical), but perhaps that's all they perceived demand for within one year. I'm definitely hoping for more Legend Beast sets in the future.

If you're willing to wait, I'd recommend the Legend Beasts. There are five of those and each is presumably going to be about $10, so you should be able to get at least four, maybe all five if you can cover shipping/handling charges with some other means of payment. Since you're a Hero Factory fan I think system-based "articulated figures" would really suit your tastes. But they're not out yet in the US — they're probably coming out in March along with the new Hero Factory sets. That's maybe the best use of $50 I can think of within those themes. Garmatron is a somewhat nice design, but functionally it's rather boring. It's a big box with a prison, treads, and a single cannon. Zane's ice spider adds some play value but not a whole lot. 70502 Cole's Earth Driller is a set that I was massively underwhelmed by when I first saw it, but it's a fantastic set. It has the same "planetary drill" function as 8960 Thunder Driller, which remains amazing. That and Kai's Fire Mech would be a good pair to get together, since they're both fantastic designs and would get you two of last year's Ninja.

I very well might try that! Though chances are it'll be some time before I have four of them, unless they turn up on Pick-a-Brick or some Bricklink seller starts offering them at a really low price. I sort of feel like having the hands and feet in a slightly different color from the armor improves the look, though, and the other major part of the color scheme (Bright Red) would probably be too garish. Silver Metallic might work if I had more of the paws and fingers in that color. Glad you like this MOC!

Thanks! She's supposed to be a female character (hence the hourglass figure and curved waist), hence why I gave her a feminine name (Caitlyn). But she's definitely not the most explicitly female action figure MOC around.

Absolutely. All the civilized tribes of Chima are humanoid, including other originally-quadrupedal ones like the lions, wolves, crocodiles, and rhinos. And I don't see how any non-humanoid mammoth could wield an ice mallet.

Ah, OK, I misunderstood the post I was replying to. The only "slight difference" I see is that the white diamond-shaped feathers of the final fig's torso decoration are not visible on the leaked one. Could mean the one leaked in october was preliminary, but I think it's more likely that it was just a quality control issue. That might partially explain how this fig got leaked in the first place — perhaps it was a "reject" that was nabbed by someone working in quality control, knowing that nobody would miss it. The matching legs, head, and headgear were then covertly snatched up to increase its resale value. Alternatively, the leaked fig is in fact identical to the final one and the differences are just a matter of shoddy photography. The video in this post is the only place I've been able to find a pic of the leaked minifigure. If you can link me a better photograph that might rule out that theory, but in that video the white feathers on Eris's face, a feature that should be consistent on ALL Eris minifigures including 2013 ones, are not visible either. So it's possible the video just didn't have enough contrast to differentiate White and Light Royal Blue.

The "Mines of Moria" set still shows a lot of interior scenery of the Mines of Moria, though, so I don't think that's an especially good example. Nobody's under the impression that "Battle for Ninjago City" will contain the whole city, just bits and pieces like the "Mines of Moria" set.

Brief set descriptions. Some of them cut off partway through though. 70206 CHI Laval 70207 CHI Cragger 70208 CHI Panthar 70209 CHI Mungus 70210 CHI Vardy 70211 CHI Fluminox 70212 CHI Sir Fangar What we can tell from this: At least two of the sets, CHI Fluminox and CHI Sir Fangar, have a launcher function. These are notably the two largest sets, by piece count, and they also seem to be more expensive — probably $20 rather than $15. Every set has a "playable CHI function" which seems to involve a CHI orb popping out of their chests. This presumably means no more printed CHI orbs. Possibly similar to the competitive component of the 2001 BIONICLE sets, except instead of knocking off an opponent's mask you try to knock out their CHI orb. Like CHI Cragger, CHI Panthar and CHI Sir Fangar have movable jaws. New tribes include ice-themed mammoths, vultures, and saber-tooth tigers and fire-themed phoenixes. "Legacy characters" like Laval and Cragger also seem to be aligned with the fire element, suggesting the ice characters are going to be the summer sets' new villains.

One new mold that I haven't seen discussed in detail anywhere but which has amazing potential is 14301 Flex Tube 12 M. It's basically like 30527 but with sturdier 3.2mm connection points rather than single stud/anti-stud connections. This is great news in my book because my memories of that piece deal largely with it popping off when you don't want it to! Legends of Chima introduces 15071 Gun Base 1X2X2/3 W.Knob/Shaft, an amazing new weapon piece that I think a lot of other sci-fi builders should pay close attention to.

Neat to have confirmation that the Green Ninja will be in the Dropship set. I wonder if he'll be the exact same as the 2012 "Lloyd ZX" minifigure or if he'll have Lloyd's new single-sided head design from the 2014 Ninjago sets. I don't think either would be a disappointment. I know a lot of people were hoping for Green Lantern, but I'm slightly surprised to see that Batman even shows up in one of the sets — I certainly didn't expect TWO licensed characters in one set! I guess all things considered I should have expected Batman since he's the only licensed character to appear on the LEGO Movie site's characters page. From appearances, the Dropship is the ONLY set that includes any characters established prior to the LEGO Movie (unless you count Benny). Kind of a funny decision there. Sadly this doesn't tell us for certain what figs come in every set. Emmet's construction mech obviously includes Emmet, and I believe it has Angry Kitty as well. But it's got to have at least one bad guy — either Lord Business or some of his robot goons. Also, is "twin wrecking balls" supposed to be understood as innuendo?

They were also used in Black for Von Nebula, and in silver in the Atlantis Seabed Scavenger. However, it's still been over three years since they last appeared in a set.

I thought I might be able to help since I own this set and could assemble it without difficulty, but I honestly don't see where your problem is. It doesn't appear that you made any mistakes in the assembly, so those parts SHOULD fit together. I don't see anything that would cause an obvious collision. Have you checked that all your other parts are pressed together securely? It might take a bit of wiggling around for the studs to find the anti-studs, but they should nest together nice and firm once they are lined up. Failing that, there's another option: just remove the red hinge top from the bottom section and attach it to the top section, then try to put the top and bottom sections together again.