Aanchir

Since there ARE nine machines, perhaps Nex and Stringer were planned to appear but cut for some reason. Maybe budget constraints, or maybe Nex and Stringer just haven't been as popular with the target audience as the others, or maybe the writers wanted to keep the cast of characters small and the set designers went along with it. In any case, as I mentioned before regarding Breez, it'd be easy enough to make new decals for the windscreen of different heroes' machines, so all it'll take are new decals and palette swaps on the "extra" machines to create machines for Nex and Stringer. Making actual figs is the hard part... but it's probably easier than making Brain Attack versions would have been. Anyone with 3D modeling experience (Brickthing?) want to take a stab at it?

Can't be Breez's walker. The colors are pretty clear in the scene where we see it attached to the flying machine, and also Breez's walker doesn't have big feet like that (as can be seen clearly when we see it from behind at . This doesn't mean it CAN'T attach, but we've seen nothing to suggest that it does.I wouldn't be surprised if the claw can extend in a somewhat similar fashion to the claw from 7065, with a lengthy Technic "arm" that collapses flat. It's probably for picking up jumpers. Huh, looks like you're right. I guess in the episode that scene is probably connected with the scene where we see Surge rescuing Rocka at .

Well, that image isn't the same scene I was talking about at all. The one that deploys from underneath the flying machine, and forms the flying machine's second cockpit, definitely has four legs. Watch starting at . This machine, the flying one, is the one with Surge's name written clearly on it, and if you pause as it passes to the right you'll see a very clear second cockpit and four legs ending in Stormer XL feet. The four-legged machine that deploys from the flying machine has square shell detail pieces like Evo XL Machine uses.When you see Surge's flying machine right-side-up and from the front at 0:27, it only has a single cockpit and no legs, so clearly there is a four-legged machine that detaches from the bottom of it. Looks like that might be Stringer in the cockpit as well! It'll be so great when we have proper NAMES for these sets so we can stop confusing each other... EDIT: On second viewing, the one you were talking about IS probably the same mech (same leg armor, same printed shell), but it sure isn't humanoid. You see it at 0:28, and its legs are stretched out to what, based on the angle of the "arm", would be sides. If it IS humanoid, then it has a ridiculously bowlegged stance, but I expect a more crablike mech at this point.

It's not entirely clear — he may or may not be the second pilot of Surge's machine, which can split into a flying machine and a four-legged walker. There's a hero <a href=" who MIGHT be Stringer, but who could just as easily be Bulk, and the latter seems perhaps more likely now that we've seen Bulk clearly in another shot. I will also be a bit disappointed if Stringer and Nex sit out another year, particularly in the sets. Until 2014, Hero Factory sets were quite good about not having a hero sit out from the sets for more than two waves. In the show, I can respect the creators' desire to keep the cast of characters small and manageable, but in the sets there's not as much of an excuse, especially now that there is the potential to include at least one hero in every set.

The LEGO Group can and probably does think of all KINDS of ideas for LEGO City. But Fire and Police are the two that have enough proven success to feature in every new year of sets, whereas other ideas like Farm, Coast Guard, Construction, Mining, Cargo, etc. tend to be on more of a three– to five-year cycle, depending on how much success they have. As long as Fire and Police sets continue to sell better than any other LEGO City subthemes, they will continue to be a ubiquitous presence in each year's catalog of sets. And I don't foresee that changing at any point in the near future. Obviously, no matter how tired the AFOL community is getting of Fire and Police, someone is out there buying new Fire and Police sets each wave. The best chance of seeing greater diversity in LEGO City is to do away with the concept of each wave "focusing" on one or more subthemes. So you might get a police station one wave, but no police cars or helicopters, or you might get a hospital, but no ambulance. This is not far from what is currently happening with the Great Vehicles sets, which are pretty much independent of the other sets each year. Unfortunately, there's a fatal flaw to this mode of thinking: kids love when there are multiple sets in the catalog that "go together". A kid who has a fire truck will want to buy a fire station for it to report back to. A kid who has an airplane will want an airport or air control tower to go with it. The smaller sets help drive the sales of the larger, "flagship" sets from the same subtheme. So while having a real variety each year is possible with smaller sets like the Great Vehicles, generally the larger sets sell better when there is a wide selection of corresponding sets to meet a diverse range of price points.

The idea that set proposals on LEGO Cuusoo can't have new parts is not a change in policy — it's been established for several review cycles. No project that absolutely needed new molds was going to pass review in any event, and any proposal that used new molds would have to have them substituted for existing molds in order to stand a chance in review. The "change" is that they're now expressly prohibiting new part proposals or proposals that use custom or third-party elements — in other words, they're basically trying to prevent people from getting their hopes up about projects that would have no chance of passing review and becoming actual LEGO products in their current form. I understand that this is a disappointment and that it would have saved you and a lot of other LEGO fans a lot of trouble if this policy were in place from the very beginning. But this is part of the reason why LEGO Cuusoo is still in open beta — even the people creating and running the platform are still learning what the platform is or isn't capable of. Early on, perhaps they thought that new molds would be a minor setback, but it turned out that was not the case. Then, perhaps they thought that it would still be just fine to allow new molds in projects as long as the set designers redesigned the models to do without them during review — but it turned out THAT strategy just slowed down the review process and led to Cuusoo users having unrealistic standards for what kind of project would be achievable. And while LEGO does save money compared to some other companies — which probably plays a role in how they can have as many molds as they do — this does not change the fact that LEGO Cuusoo products are simply not produced in large enough batches to offset the cost of new molds. In many other themes, new molds are common practice, but that's because those sets are being produced in batches of half a million sets at minimum, while Cuusoo sets are produced in batches of 10,000—20,000. In other words, even the smallest initial batch for a standard LEGO set will be 25 times the size of the largest initial batch of a new Cuusoo set. So let's suppose, for argument's sake, that a single new LEGO mold costs $100,000 (The LEGO Group keeps the exact cost of their new molds a secret, but this post by Mark Stafford, a LEGO designer, suggests that a cost of $100,000 per mold severely underestimates the actual cost of a LEGO mold). In that case, if half a million sets or more are produced that use that mold, that mold is adding at most twenty cents to the production cost of each individual set. That doesn't even count the possibility of that mold being used in multiple sets (as most new molds are designed for), which will reduce the production costs of each individual set even further. In contrast, if 20,000 sets or fewer are produced using that new mold, the cost of that single mold adds at least five dollars to the production cost of each individual set. If you're not convinced, you're not convinced, but the reality is that it boils down to simple math. A model that is only going to be produced in small batches, but which absolutely needs new and specialized molds, is not a sound business case. It will be safer, and clearer to project creators, to prohibit new molds entirely than to accept some projects with new molds and reject others on a case-by-case basis according to the perceived usefulness of those molds.

They DO have stickers, but not ALL their decorations are stickers. Specifically, the eyes/faces and the minifigures are printed, but all the other decorations like the armor on the wolf or the mouth and scales of the crocodile are stickers. I think many people will actually like this as it will make them more versatile as parts packs. Lots of delicious curved slopes in useful colors, etc.

Or if it has enough parts to make all three, make that clear. The rule is meant to prohibit projects for more than one SET, but one set that includes multiple models is perfectly fine, and there are many such sets released on a regular basis (for instance, a set with a building and a vehicle).

Yeah, I encounter kids crazy about LEGO Ninjago both on- and offline, and have heard all kinds of anecdotes from parents about how crazy their kids are about it. It's hardly something parents are pushing on their kids. A lot of kids and adults love the TV series, the toys, and the books (several of which, such as the first few graphic novels and the Character Encyclopedia) have shown up on bestseller lists. I hardly encountered ANY other BIONICLE fans in real life back when that theme was running, except at LEGO conventions. Certainly I didn't see anyone wearing BIONICLE t-shirts out and about. Seeing kids in Ninjago t-shirts when I'm out shopping or dining at a casual restaurant these days is a much more regular occurrence. As a BIONICLE fan, I couldn't help feeling like I was a part of something somewhat niche and exclusive. As a Ninjago fan, I'm much more aware that it's a real, honest-to-goodness craze. If we can get a constraction theme that gets kids anywhere near as excited as Ninjago does, then I'll be incredibly pleased.

Intertoys.nl has LOTS of new pics of the new sets! 70123 Lion Legend Beast 70124 Eagle Legend Beast 70125 Gorilla Legend Beast 70126 Crocodile Legend Beast 70127 Wolf Legend Beast 70128 Braptor's Wing Striker 70129 Lavertus's Twin Blade 70130 Sparratus's Spider Stalker 70131 Rogon's Rock Flinger 70132 Scorm's Scorpion Stinger 70136 Banana Bash 70137 Bat Strike 70138 Web Dash 70139 Sky Launch The Speedorz pages give us no new pictures, but all the pages DO have full descriptions and piece counts (click "info" above the alternate images). This is good because I've been looking for reliable piece counts for the Legend Beasts. My estimate of the 110-piece Wolf Legend Beast was not too far off the mark, but I didn't realize how much higher some of the piece counts would be. The lion has 120 pieces, and the crocodile has 121.

There have been, for quite a while, multiple Zelda projects that don't run afoul of ANY issues related to these guidelines, or any other known issues projects face during review. The Zelda Master Sword and Pedestal proposal is the best example. The Legend of Zelda Heroica project need only remove the Heroica logo from its main image to be in line with these new guidelines. This recent project is based on sprites from the game, and might be viable considering that a LEGO mosaic of Link made up entirely of 2x2 bricks was recently for sale at a store in my hometown for over $100. And the Hylian Shield project is entirely in the clear. It even adheres mostly to building techniques that could be approved in an official set, meaning it would not need to be completely redesigned for production. The only Zelda projects that these guidelines will effectively kill off are those that are dependent on new molds, and those would never stand a chance in review even without these rules codified. Chances are that when review comes, this means that any project that demands a Link minifigure will fail review, but this hardly means that a successful Cuusoo project based on the franchise is impossible. And if a non-minifigure-based project PASSED review and became a set, and that set was successful enough, it could easily pave the way for a minifigure-based Legend of Zelda theme, just like what is in development for the Minecraft theme.

But in the meantime, they'd be hurting their brand's reputation in several markets, particularly those with recent or ongoing military conflicts. Even a historical military theme could cause controversy — for instance, anything featuring Nazi iconography would be impossible to sell in Germany, one of the LEGO Group's largest markets, and would be an inherently controversial product in MOST Western countries. War in general is an incredibly divisive subject, and with good reason. Even people who approve wholeheartedly of their nation's military engagements are not always fond of toy and media companies using those conflicts to turn a profit. Beyond that, to be quite honest, kids and parents alike aren't as INTO realistic war toys as they used to be. Toy soldiers and "army men" are still around mostly as novelties, but the really trendy toys these days tend to focus on larger-than-life fantasy and sci-fi conflicts, much like a lot of major LEGO themes like Ninjago and Obviously there are a lot of AFOLs as well as potential AFOLs who might take an interest in a military theme. But the AFOL community as a whole is a minuscule segment of the LEGO Group's market, and I don't think a military theme would do a whole lot to change that. LEGO is, by definition, a toy, and as such kids are the market segment where it stands to generate the most profit. I think the idea that ANY new theme would be enough to double the LEGO Group's revenue is balderdash, even more so if it's a new theme that's inherently controversial.

Where are you getting this idea from? I know a lot of passionate Ninjago fans of all ages, and I know a lot of AFOLs who are passionately against Ninjago and all it represents, and I knew a lot of adults when I was a BIONICLE fan who felt that it was just a fad and didn't care much about it at all. I don't think there's NEARLY as much of a difference as you think there is. I have no idea what you're talking about with the "blind bag" thing... have you forgotten that BIONICLE was the LEGO Group's first foray into the blind-packaged collectibles market, and that lots of BIONICLE fans were desperate for the LEGO Group to bring back the collectibles? I think there are lots of AFOLs who would consider Krana, Kraata, and Kanohi "cheap, useless toys to compete with blind bags."

Additionally, the following ten parts are already in LDD, but need multicolor to be added: 11302 (Bricklink [1|2]/Brickset) 11439 (Bricklink [1|2|3|4]/Brickset) 32558 (Bricklink [1|2]/Brickset [1|2]) 53562 (Bricklink [1|2|3|4]/Brickset [1|2]) 57539 (Bricklink [1|2|3|4]/Brickset [1|2|3|4]) 57557 (Bricklink [1|2]/Brickset [1|2]) 57558 (Bricklink [1|2]/Brickset [1|2]) 61804 (Bricklink [1|2]/Brickset [1|2]) 64272 (Bricklink [1|2]/Brickset [1|2] 64297 (Bricklink [1|2]/Brickset [1|2] Additionally, parts 98588 and 11164 should each be able to support THREE colors each, not just two. See here and here. 98588 ALWAYS has three colors, while 11164 only has three colors in one set (44009 Dragon Bolt). EDIT: Sorry about the double post. I thought it was removing some of my links because there were too many links for one post. It turned out to be due to a formatting error on my part.

Here are twenty more useful constraction parts I'd love to see added. Parts with multiple Bricklink/Brickset listings have multicolored variants that should also be able to be generated in LDD: 87844 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2010. 87839 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2010. 87825 (Bricklink [1|2]/Brickset), last used in 2010. 61808 (Bricklink [1|2]/Brickset [1|2]), last used in 2010. 53544 (Bricklink [1|2]/Brickset [1|2]), last used in 2010. 43559 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2010. 44814 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2010. 47306 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2009. 47312 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2009. 47313 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2008. 57536 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2009. 60901 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2010. 60930 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2010. On a side note, this part has maybe the best official name ever. It's not a jetpack, it's a Rocket Rucksack! 60894 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2010. 60895 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2010. 60899 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2010. 32551 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2008. 32552 (Bricklink/Brickset), last used in 2010. 53548 (Bricklink [1|2]/Brickset), last used in 2009. 53549 (Bricklink [1|2|3]/Brickset [1|2]), last used in 2009.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean. It's not that I doubt there are girls who play with the sets "as-is" and don't take them apart. But I think there's a lot of that in all LEGO themes. There are always going to be LEGO Star Wars or Ninjago fans who are more interested in completing a collection than in building starships and dragons of their own design. I haven't taken apart any of my family's modular buildings or Taj Mahal. This is part of what separates LEGO collectors from MOCists, but there's nothing inherently wrong with either way of enjoying the LEGO brand. It comes down to preference. The counterpoint to this, then, is that there must be people who are willing to pay for those mini-dolls.

Just the initial batch. The size and number of subsequent batches is decided according to how well the first batch sold.

Actually, I'd say the MOST expensive molds (not counting pre-assembled parts like motors) would be things that require not only high precision, but also several different moving "sliders" in addition to the typical two-piece mold. BIONICLE had several examples like this one (the mold would require at least five sections), although sometimes it was fascinating to look at certain BIONICLE part designs to see how elegantly the designers avoided the need for sliders to reduce the overall cost of the molds. There are fewer of these nowadays, but some minifigure headgear that needs molded detail on every side could still be quite expensive, all things considered. Keep in mind also that in addition to the cost of producing a new mold, actually USING one includes additional costs including maintenance and the amount of floor space that production takes up. One of the main reasons that CMF parts are produced in China is actually for the amount of available floor space. The existing LEGO factories were already committed to producing parts for existing themes and just didn't have enough machines and floor space to spare to produce the large variety of parts needed for the collectible minifigures. Producing a new piece, whether that be a new mold or just a recolor, means you're using machines and floor space that could be used for another, more versatile piece. And regarding LEGO Cuusoo specifically, the reason new molds are infeasible is not that the cost of the parts themselves would be any higher, but that the sets aren't being produced in enough quantities to subsidize that cost. This is why there can be so many new molds in the CMFs — those are being produced in HUGE quantities. In contrast, event-exclusive minifigures like the ones distributed at Comic-Con are produced in very small quantities, and thus NEVER get new molds of any kind unless those are already being produced for standard-release sets.

Part of the reason for that is not that BIONICLE was selling a lot better than Hero Factory, but that the LEGO Group's other themes were selling a lot worse. BIONICLE gets remembered as a huge success in part because it was one of the LEGO Group's few successes back then, other than licensed themes like LEGO Harry Potter and LEGO Star Wars. But its sales peaked in 2002, and after that it was on a steady but mostly profitable decline. LEGO City swept the rug out from under it somewhere around 2006 or 2007, I think. This isn't something to fault BIONICLE for, necessarily. Almost all themes, besides evergreen themes like LEGO City, lose steam as they get older. The main thing that made BIONICLE different was that it was so ambitious — it had an incredibly deep long-term story it was setting out to tell. In contrast, when you look at today's themes, the ones getting a whole lot of third-party merchandise are ones like LEGO Star Wars, LEGO City, LEGO Ninjago, and LEGO Legends of Chima. Ninjago in particular was the LEGO Group's most successful new product release of all time. Chima was expected to be even bigger — it doesn't seem to have met those lofty expectations, but it's still been incredibly successful. Even if Hero Factory achieved the same sales BIONICLE achieved in some of its stronger years, it'd be a footnote in the LEGO annual report compared to LEGO City's perennial success or the powerful sales of these sorts of "big bang" themes.

Great review. Dragon Bolt impressed me from the moment I first saw pics of it from the Toy Fair in Nuremberg, and I knew it would be a must-buy. I built the set at Brickfair Virginia and had a great time swooshing it around the exhibition hall after public hours had ended. Seriously, there are a lot of Hero Factory sets I really like, but Dragon Bolt probably tops them all when it comes to how fun it is to play with. It is easily the most swooshable constraction set I've ever played with. Nui-Rama, the Gukko, and the 2008 vehicle sets all tried, but they just don't feel nearly as dynamic when you swoosh them around. I know some people dislike Technic functions that come at the expense of articulation, but really, I've never seen fully-articulated wings in BIONICLE or Hero Factory that I've been quite satisfied with, and I think anything short of wings that could be folded back or spread out like those of a real creature was a worthwhile sacrifice for a function that enhances the build so remarkably. I can see how the longer tail in the TV episode spoiled a lot of people, but overall I don't think Dragon Bolt really needed to be bumped up in price. He's plenty impressive as-is, and in my opinion if you CAN achieve something like this at a lower price point, there's no reason to design it for a higher price point. I don't mind the black lower jaw myself because really, his entire underbelly is black, and it's nice that the jaw matches that.

For Hero Factory sets, that's not all that unreasonable. It's a better price-per-piece than ANY $10 or lower Hero Factory set released to date. Not as good as some past $20 sets like Dragon Bolt, Black Phantom, and Fire Lord, but way better than the $20 Scorpio (just 104 pieces) or $25 Stormer XL (just 89 pieces), and still a better deal than buying any two small sets from previous years.

Mark Stafford (Nabii) explained the new mold issue in the comments here: "Cuusoo sets are produced in batches of 10/20,000 whereas retail LEGO sets are produced with a minimum of half a million sets each. Sales pay for the mold which is a very expensive item - until Cuusoo sets go on sale demand is considered hard to predict, so the rule of no new molds was introduced." The idea that LEGO Cuusoo as a platform cannot support set projects that include new molds is not new. However, the rule against "new part projects" IS new, as originally the LEGO Cuusoo platform had some guidelines set up specifically to handle royalty payments for such projects. Presumably, the understanding was that f a new part project passed review it would be incorporated into new sets that are produced in quantities great enough to offset the cost of the mold. But evidently the LEGO Group took a good hard look at what the platform is capable of and determined that new part projects cannot in fact fit into that. In my opinion, it's good that they're getting that out of the way before a new part project actually reaches review to minimize disappointment. The high cost of LEGO molds has to do with a lot of things: longevity, precision, the complexity of the molds, etc. The LEGO Group has not put out any specific figures but it's definitely really high. And certain pre-assembled components like motors require not only several new molds but entire production processes to handle them. Note also that it's not just the mold itself that is expensive — the space on the production floor is itself valuable and can't be wasted on parts being produced in extremely small quantities. Parts in new colors or with new decorations ARE entirely possible through LEGO Cuusoo, as past projects have demonstrated. So it's not like there's NOTHING you can do to make your project offer something builders don't already have. In any case, it is entirely possible to design a high-quality model that does not require any new parts, and in my opinion all of the LEGO Cuusoo projects to date have been high-quality projects in their own right. They might not be the kinds of sets that make every LEGO builder's dream come true, but they do open up new possibilities for what can and can't become a LEGO set. Before the Minecraft sets, there were NO sets based on video games (unless you count some expanded universe Star Wars sets), in part because the LEGO Group wasn't sure what games would have the right amount of powerful and lasting demand to offset any licensing costs. The LEGO Minecraft sets went on to sell like hotcakes, so evidently the demand was there. And think of it this way: with these guidelines in place, projects that are completely infeasible can be nipped in the bud, meaning that projects that are well-designed with a sound understanding of what is or isn't possible will no longer have to compete for attention with projects that are attractive and polished beyond what is actually realistic for a LEGO Cuusoo set. Building within these guidelines is not difficult, but now supporters' standards won't be artificially elevated beyond what a project built within these guidelines can achieve.

The colors on the real version are a bit all over the place but I guess you were working with some part constraints there. The LDD version looks a lot better sine you had unlimited quantities of parts in the colors you wanted. Overall, I quite like many of your improvements, such as the reduced height of Rocka (now pretty much any hero can use the jetpack regardless of height) and the larger windscreen. Minor LDD color nitpicking: You used 48 Tr. Green where you should be using 311 Tr. Bright Green. You used 208 Light Stone Grey (Bricklink's Very Light Bluish Gray, the color of Thok and the Mindstorms NXT sets) where you should be using 199 Medium Stone Grey (Bricklink's Light Bluish Gray). You used 283 Light Nougat (Bricklink's Light Flesh) where you should be using 5 Brick Yellow (Bricklink's Tan). 47 Tr. Fluorescent Reddish Orange is not a color those flames come in but it's an acceptable placeholder since they can't be correctly dual-colored anyway (the flames you were thinking of are a blend of 41 Tr. Red and 44 Tr. Yellow).

There's a new blog update that codifies some of the condition projects and members should adhere to. I'm sure some people will be upset at some of these new conditions (the "brick-based construction toys only" condition is somewhat disappointing since it strikes down some of the projects I love like the tape measure and LDD for mobile devices), but I appreciate them for being a clarification of what can and can't work through LEGO Cuusoo and saving us the trouble of finding out through trial and error.

See, this is the kind of thing I'm glad Hero Factory doesn't do. An explanation of something that makes it unnecessarily complicated is hardly an explanation at all. You could just say there are intelligent robots, and if people are bound and determined to take issue with that then that just means they have a shoddy imagination. Granted, saying "yes, they're robots, but there's a bit more to it than that" would be just as acceptable as saying "yes, they're robots, full stop", and would still be much better than saying "no, they're not robots at all, and everything you know is a lie". The "there's more to it than that" explanation pops up in comics and other media all the time and is an extremely convenient type of "soft retcon" — it adds depth to the story without making that new knowledge fundamental to having a correct understanding of the story. You can put any number of lengthy explanations behind Superman's heat vision or the Flash's super speed, but they are fundamentally still heat vision and super speed, which are easy concepts for any audience to grasp with or without knowing the "science" behind it.