Aanchir

I think Stormer Freeze Machine's color scheme works fine. He's had had orange in his color scheme before (Stormer 2.0), and he has a good amount of it in this mech as well. Evo Walker's color scheme doesn't bother me a whole lot either. While I agree it'd be great to have those cockpit elements in more colors, I don't think the colors that were chosen end up hurting any of the sets. MF in this case means Mini Figure, not Monster Fighters. Anyway, I'm extremely excited about Furno XL Machine's build. I built the basic torso skeleton yesterday, and it's remarkably elegant. I'm going to want to see about using some variation on that in a MOC one day. I agree somewhat with Vexorian that I'm terribly disappointed not to get that cockpit glass in a lot of exciting colors, but at least it DOES come in some new colors (Transparent and Transparent Brown are new colors for it — it's only ever appeared in Transparent Light Blue in LEGO City). As far as I can tell, the decorations on the cockpit glass are stickers, but I don't mind that, since there are plenty of straight edges to line them up with.

It's normal orange, yes.

I think at this point it's pretty clear that they do. I don't think it should be a problem. After all, it's more substantial than the skeletons they had as constraction sets (which were just a spine, hips, and shoulders)! I do somewhat wish that they used the Ninjago skeleton bodies, since the classic skeleton bodies are not the same size as a classic minifigure torso (they're slightly thinner). Wonder how they'll deal with that potential issue.

No... there's nothing resembling a shield in the prelim pics. He just has a single talon on each wrist (same piece as Flyer Beast's talons).

I haven't seen any episodes since "Beginnings, Part 2" and I've greatly enjoyed this season. The first several episodes delved very deep into the question of what it means to be a family, and in ways neither A:TLA nor LoK has ever had opportunities to do so.

It wouldn't be hard, but I think it'd be a bit wasteful. I think using a crowbar for his riddle cane is quite a clever solution, to be honest. Every theme only gets a certain budget for new molds, and I think that budget should be spent on things that actually NEED them, not just things that would be slightly more stylish as new molds.

The weapons are just bits of scenery that they tore out of city around them to clobber the Heroes with. One is a streetlamp and the other is a radio antenna from the top of a building. Not a whole lot of mystery there.

I think Front was kidding around with us from the beginning... posts like this and this seem to indicate as much. Hard to hold it against him, what with how excited we get over any kinds of hints that emerge!

Personally, the quality of the image and the quality of the MOC are what get my attention, not the format of the image. A high-quality render or high-quality photo of an awesome, creative MOC is always good. Conversely, a low-effort MOC will not impress me a lot, particularly if it's an LDD screenshot with the lowest graphics settings or a photo taken with an old-school cell phone camera. I think the best way to present MOCs is to have both digital AND photographic images if possible. Having a digital model available for download means that people can view it from all angles (and see how it's assembled), and screenshots of a digital model can show a level of detail that it's hard to capture in a photograph. But a photo presents a sort of authenticity that it can be hard to match with a render. The way the light hits the model, the surface finish of the actual bricks, and the tiny imperfections where bricks don't line up quite perfectly are hard to match with a render, even using advanced rendering tools like POVray.

Why would they be stickers when these are all parts that have frequently been printed in the past, and there are no stickers visible in the high-resolution images? I for one still doubt that any of Jaw Beast's bones are transparent. They didn't seem that way to me in the prelim pics. But perhaps that's just wishful thinking. After all, another size of Medium Azur beam will be much more useful than a single transparent light blue beam IMO. Still, it won't be so bad if I'm proven wrong.

I like seeing that the minifigs have so much potential for customization. Stormer and Evo both have arm-mounted datapads, and Breez has leg-mounted jets. That's a lot of connection points I can make use of as I try to build an Assembly Tower playset. Their helmets also DO have heads underneath, which hopefully means they'll work with either minifigs or microfigs. Furno Jet Machine is the set I like the best aesthetically. The others are very nice, though.

I've got several colors I want added to LDD: ??? Flamingo Pink 299 Warm Gold, Drum Lacq. 300 Copper, Drum Lacq. 304 Cool Silver, Diffuse 306 Copper, Diffuse 333 Fluorescent Green Ink ??? Copper Ink ??? Gold Ink 336 Silver Ink 337 Titanium Ink I know the reason that some of these (specifically 299 and 300) are not available is that they have the same RGB values as existing metallic colors. This is why I feel the next major version update ought to make it so that different metallic colors with the same RGB values can be rendered differently. Currently, "pearl" colors like 296 Cool Silver are rendered with the same level of reflectiveness as "metallic" colors like 298 Cool Silver, Drum Lacq. and "chrome" colors like 309 Metalized Silver. This should be corrected by giving different types of metallic colors different material definitions. And this will hopefully remove the last obstacle stopping the inclusion of these colors, so that builders are no longer forced to make as many substitutions. The two colors 304 Cool Silver, Diffuse and 306 Copper, Diffuse are what Bricklink calls "speckle" colors. These also will require LDD's color handling to be updated with new definitions for these types of materials.

This is false. The decision to continue Ninjago was made and announced before the year 2012 even ended. It had nothing to do with sales of 2013 sets, whether from Legends of Chima or any other theme. The reason was probably because sales of the 2012 sets were stronger than the LEGO Group's initial projections, and because viewership of the show's most recent season remained high.

Yeah, I would not like to see mini-dolls work their ways into themes that currently use minifigures. I would not be at all opposed to new themes, aimed either at girls or at both genders, using mini-dolls instead of minifigs when the time is right. I can't help but feel mini-dolls would be right at home in a manga-inspired theme like Exo-Force — after all, that theme already had minifig face designs that were incompatible with other LEGO themes, so why not go all the way with a more naturalistic-looking figure? The issue with using mini-dolls in themes that are aimed at boys, currently, is that they have a reputation as dolls or "girls' toys", and there's a stigma against boys playing with dolls. I remember reading that this was a secondary motivation for creating the mini-doll — there was somewhat of a concern that if a minifigure-based theme aimed at girls became truly successful, boys would start thinking of the minifigure as a type of doll itself. But it's a stigma that can be averted — after all, the term "action figure" originated as a means of selling boys a toy that was ostensibly a sort of doll. And as the world begins to become more progressive with regard to how we define gender, this concern will probably begin to diminish as the years go on.

No, not new. The rail is just these.

Hero Factory in particular tends to release in February/March in some countries and December/January in others, whereas themes like City are almost invariably December/January releases worldwide. So it's not entirely surprising that Hero Factory pics are slow to appear. I'm as anxious to see them as anyone, though!

Cool color scheme, though I honestly think a black skeleton or a black-and-grey skeleton would suit him better than an all-grey skeleton. The dark stone grey just doesn't contrast as much with the shells as black would have. Similarly, I think a blue head and hero core to match the blue ammo would make the design feel more energetic. In terms of armor shapes and equipment, this hero doesn't have a whole lot to brag about. It's pretty standard-issue stuff, and works better as a proof-of-concept for the skeleton build than as a unique character design. Did you have a particular theme in mind when you designed this guy and chose his color scheme, or were you just working with colors that you decided looked good together? Overall, a quality model, but his design doesn't have a whole lot of individual personality.

Nah, there are plenty of ideas (and TLG delves into one or two of them every summer), but none of them are ever as reliable in terms of sales as good ol' Fire and Police. I'm quite happy with the Police sets. The vehicles look nice and fresh, the station has a remarkably unique metropolitan look to it, and we even get a female crook. The crooks' hideout is quite cool-looking, although it's a shame it seems to use Medium Nougat bricks rather than a new color like Dark Orange, Bright Red, or Dark Red. I don't exactly see the purpose of the ball-and-chain piece, to be honest. I think a BIONICLE ball joint on a 6M chain from the Ninjago sets works just fine for that purpose. But I guess it's a nice detail for the sets, new piece or not. The Great Vehicles sets continue to live up to their name. The Race Car is very stylish and gives us those ever-useful new wheels in a new color (I wish more of the sets used those, to be honest). The Logging Truck is a novel concept for LEGO, and executed brilliantly. The Car Hauler is something LEGO City has lacked for a long time, and while its execution leaves a bit to be desired, it's still recognizable for what it is meant to be. The Camper and SUV, while not new subject matter for LEGO City, are still really nice. I just love the running boards on the SUV! Its wheels are a bit oversized though.

It's not really in the shape of a treasure chest at all, though. The two giant half-cylinder pieces combine into a full cylinder. And yeah, I imagine bug storage will be their function.

I imagine that the LEGO Group had a little more bargaining power in that particular case because Ninjago existed before their TMNT license. After all, they would certainly have had the option to say "no" to any licensing agreement that would interfere with the sales of their existing themes. Yeah, I agree that'd be a great thing. You could easily have a series with new versions of the five Ninja, Nya, Wu, and Garmadon and still have room for eight new supporting character figs. I was actually sketching up a concept for that kind of thing on LDD yesterday. I don't think that there's a whole lot of room in the theme's current operating budget for a lot of supporting characters. If there are only twelve new figs in the winter 2014 lineup, then I think we have to assume that's all the designers had a budget for. And frankly, most of those secondary characters would be less impressive to kids who didn't follow the show than obvious heroes and villains like the Ninja and Nindroids. Most of Dareth's appeal comes from his humorous personality, which would not be anywhere near as visible in a set as it is in the show. Similarly, the Mailman is primarily a comic-relief character. And the Ninja's parents draw most of their appeal from their involvement in the Ninja's emotional journey — without that context, they wouldn't seem nearly as impressive as heroic Ninja or spooky villains. You could be onto something. The rumored 70726, if it exists, is almost certainly some kind of store exclusive. There were rumors a couple months ago about a D2C Ninjago castle of some sort, but I have no idea whether those had any basis in reality. If they did, and the product in question is actually based on the show, I'll bet it's based on the new monastery featured in one of the concept art PDFs from the Ninjago site (which I'm guessing is the same as Sensei Wu's Youth Academy from the recent LEGO Club Inside Scoop story). To be honest, I don't think Borg Tower would necessarily NEED to be as bulky as the Tower of Orthanc. You COULD make it that big and detailed if you wanted it to have the same level of sculptural quality, but I think it might actually benefit more as a playset if it were a little bit more "open" and framework-like in its design, kind of like Sentai Fortress, Flying Ninja Fortress, or Fight for the Golden Tower. And this would probably cut its price down enough to make it a normal sort of flagship set rather than a D2C set. I can see benefits to both sorts of designs, really. EDIT: Regarding the mysterious 70726, one Russian site that lists both Russian and English names for the sets separated by a hyphen calls it "Автомобиль для самурая - Destructoid", which translates to "Vehicle for the Samurai — Destructoid". Might be a false lead, but it certainly SOUNDS like this will be the set to contain Nya! Another Russian site gives a price of 4550 Russian rubles, or around 140 U.S. dollars. But considering that their prices for the other Ninjago sets next year are about twice the prices we know them to be in the United States, I'd say its actual retail price will be between 60 and 70 U.S. dollars.

Well, some portrayals of Link have his hat point forward (Minish Cap jumps to mind, but I know there are others where his hat is less stylized). But you're right, license holders can be very strict about how licensing partners portray their characters, especially when the LEGO Group has shown time and time again how much accuracy they're capable of.

Also note that the cube robots have the same blocky, rectilinear shape language as President Business's hair. It certainly ties in with President Business's desire to enforce a rigid sort of order on the LEGO world.

The Freeze Machine's pic shows it very clearly I think. Each storage cylinder is made from two copies of one new half-cylinder piece, joined together with one of these on each side. Each half-cylinder is at least 5x3x7 in size.

That rule only ever applies on a case-by-case basis, depending on whether there's a clause in the contract for a specific license that prohibits it and whether the LEGO Group thinks it's risky to have two similar themes running concurrently. Plus, neither Ninjago nor Chima is or has ever been licensed. They're both in-house themes.

I wonder when and if we will end up getting numbered series again. It's possible that with the numbers getting so high, they will instead start naming the series, kind of like how Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh trading card series all have unique names. This would give the LEGO Group the option of sticking in a "themed" series every now and then without the sense that they're breaking the sequence. If we get any future themed series, I would love a Ninjago series, maybe to tie in with the movie they're working on. There are a number of important recurring Ninjago characters who have never gotten figs (Misako, Dr. Julien, Captain Soto, Dareth, the mailman), not to mention plenty of times that the Ninja wear alternate costumes that have not been released in sets. A LEGO Hero Factory series would also be amazing, now that the theme is using minifigures, though that's a whole lot less likely because the CMFs have always relied on the traditional minifigure build, and because the figures would all be from a common genre. Every character in the theme is a science-fantasy robot of some variety, unlike Ninjago or the LEGO Movie where there are lots of diverse character designs. Still, a Hero Factory minifigures series would be a great opportunity to get major characters like Akiyama Makuro, the factory's owner, or Nathaniel Zib, the chief mission manager, who have never appeared in sets before. But anyway, back on topic. I'm somewhat glad the LEGO Movie figs are not numbered as Series 12, not because I want to skip them (or care about having a complete collection) but rather because it means there is now a clear distinction between "themed" and non-themed minifigure series.