Aanchir

The badges on the new police figs (and on vehicles that bear their logo) are the same style as the 2012 Forest Police and 2013 Elite Police. I gotta admit, I still kind of miss the badges from the 2004-2011 sets, which had an eight-pointed star with four studs in the middle instead of a five-pointed star with no studs. But at least the badges have remained consistent these past few years.

I don't know. While it'd be nice to have one every two years, the number of figs in 2013/2014 is much, much smaller than the number of figs in 2011/2012. (24 total figs so far rather than 55). Same goes for the number of total sets. So I think if there's going to be another character encyclopedia, we're going to have to wait a bit longer. I wouldn't mind another one, though. The first one was a great reference source, and the exclusive fig was an excellent design.

Datapads! I've been trying to figure out what that Transparent Light Blue cheese slope in Evo Walker is and where it's attached. Now it makes sense — it's attached to Evo's arm by a 1x1 plate with clip, and it acts as a datapad! Clever, and good to have confirmation that things can clip to the arms! Also, random observation I made about the "Invasion from Below" sets we've seen: Counting minifigure parts, they have just as many new molds (18) as the early 2013 sets. 5 mini helmets 2 mini bug parts Mini arm Mini leg Mini torso Mini armor Large foot (Flyer Beast) Small foot (Jaw Beast) Beast upper jaw Beast lower jaw Beast talon Machine cockpit Machine storage cylinder I suppose it's not a huge surprise — after all, the same number of new sets probably means a similar budget for new molds. But it's still nice to know that the theme's operating budget hasn't changed considerably. Something I've been wondering about lately — do you think the Hero masks/helmets are single-piece printed parts, like the Galaxy Squad robot sidekick heads, or a separate mask and head? I had initially assumed the former, but looking at some of the sets again, it might be the latter. Specifically, Evo's neck in 44015 Evo Walker seems to be the same color as his eyes, hinting at an actual head piece underneath the helmet. I wouldn't mind if the "actual head piece" in question were just a 1x1 round brick. After all, if that's the case, it's possible the hero helmets would also fit on microfigs from the LEGO Games, which would be either awesome or hilarious! Maybe even both!

Medium Blue and Sand Blue actually are the official names and the Bricklink names for those colors. Personally, I think the outside of her dress is Sand Blue and the center might be Light Royal Blue (the color Bricklink calls "Bright Light Blue", which has a nice ring to it).

I wasn't mentioning recolors. If we want to include recolors and prints, we're also getting Titanium Metallic Stormer XL feet and Savage Planet paws, both of which are most welcome. Not to mention at least a couple new colors for the LEGO City helicopter windscreen, a new printed silver 5M shell in Stormer Freeze Machine, Medium Lilac spikes in Jaw Beast vs. Stormer, and possibly a new color for the Ninjago element sword in Furno & Evo vs. Splitter Beast.

Do we even have the name "Castle Cavalry" from any official, English-language sources? Brickset lists that and several of the other set names in brackets, which is their policy for preliminary, unconfirmed, or translated set names. The URL for the teaser image on the LEGO Movie website calls it a "flying fortress", though of course those URLs are not 100% consistent with the final product names. The original set name that we got the name "Castle Cavalry" was "Kasteelcavalerie" on a Dutch website. Google Translate doesn't give me any alternate translations besides "Castle Cavalry", but maybe there's some kind of wordplay I'm not picking up on? Or maybe its Dutch name is just terribly non-indicative. Who knows? Note that other set names from that same site, such as "Fool Palace" for 70803, are not the correct English set names (that set ended up being the slightly more poetic "Cloud Cuckoo Palace").

The cockpit with ballsnap, the two pieces for the jumping bugs (unless you were counting those as minifigures), the transparent cylinder things from the back of some of the machines, the single talon piece that appears in 44016, 44020, and 44021 (also in some Ninjago and Chima sets), the small foot piece from 44016, the large foot piece from 44020... I believe that's all we can currently see from the prelims. Of course, there might also be other structural parts buried inside the models somewhere we can't see them.

At this point, probably. I imagine both of her old costumes have been taken out of production by now, since it's been over a year since either one appeared in sets. So the designers would have to be introducing new decorated elements into production either way — they don't have much to gain by making them identical to ones from previous years.

I hope so. She sat out 2013, and I'd hate for her to sit out another year of sets. Plus, it'd give the 2014 Ninjago sets the best gender ratios of any year if it had a second unique female minifigure. Hopefully the fact that she's remaining a central character (and is even mentioned several times in the product description for 70725) bodes well for her inclusion in a future wave.

Well, you're close. But I'd say it's more like if a 30-year-old model designer were developing a high-quality model based on a 5-year-old's concept. In other words, think Axe Cop, but as a LEGO theme instead of a webcomic! Yep, that seems to be the genral idea. And yeah, that molded lion piece is one of those pieces I want to hate but can't. It's so specialized, but at the same time it's such a gorgeous detail for so many models!

Agreed, although to be fair, Time Twisters DID have a unifying theme for all its content: everything was tied together by spooky imagery like bats, ghosts, and skeletons, along with lots of Technic action features. Time Cruisers was a little less unified: it replaced "spooky" with the much less unified "zany", and it didn't adhere to such a rigid color scheme. And yeah, now we can understand what some of the press releases meant when they mentioned building multiple models from the same set of parts. I think this will do a great deal to improve the sets' appeal with more traditionally-minded AFOLS: after all, at least ONE of the models will generally be fairly traditional in its subject matter.

The car hauler is good, but not necessarily as much like the car haulers I'm familiar with as I'd like. While it HAS been far too long since we've had one of any kind in a set, I'd probably like to try my hand at MOCing one, and since I don't really collect LEGO City sets anyway I don't feel compelled to get the set. It's a lovely design of course. I've got no complaints there. I kind of wish it had the other style of wheels for the cars just because they're less plentiful and it'd be a great way to accumulate them, but I don't think the chunkier wheels and tires are too much of a liability.

Note that a lot of the toy fairs do not allow photography of any kind, and others allow it but place heavy restrictions on it. New York Toy Fair is the exception, not the rule.

The rules about what is "legal" or "illegal" are not at all limited to the ones on that slideshow... that was just a "crash course" in illegal connections. I think you'd be hard-pressed to convince any LEGO design team to approve a set with a construction like that which is physically impossible to build. LDD is not perfect software by any means, and issues like this are hardly "legal" just because the software doesn't recognize the problem. It's not human, and typically only recognizes illegal builds when there are actual collisions between brick volumes — any other exceptions have to be programmed in more or less individually. Regarding your last question, keep in mind Design byME (and LEGO Factory before it) always had a VERY limited parts palette, and I don't believe that ever included those Technic frames in any size. Perhaps that was a deliberate precaution, since the designers knew a kid might inadvertently stumble across an impossible build like that.

Lovely build, and educational, too! The map on the back is excellent. And the timeline has lots of detail, both in the minifigures and the micro-architecture in the background. My only complaint is that other than Ancient Egypt at the very beginning, it feels rather Eurocentric. But then again, so many cultures emerged independently that it would be awfully hard to present each one's development on a timeline. It would be nice, both from a social perspective and an architectural one, to see some Native American or Asian cultures acknowledged in some way.

A Witch Doctor minifigure would be an interesting challenge, considering how he towers over a typical Hero. Honestly, I can't wait until we can get a good size reference on the HF minifigures so I can start making minifig-scale HF MOCs. I already have a Hero Pod in progress, as well as an Assembly Tower playset.

I don't know how I feel about the rock pieces. On one hand, I'd love if everything were built from basic bricks whenever possible. On the other hand... a model like this is already pricy enough, and if all three models can find unique ways of using the mountain anyhow, then I'd appreciate this part as a way to keep the cost of the set in check. In the very least, it's one of the medium-sized 3x8x7 mountain bricks: not the larger and more cumbersome 4x10x6 ones, nor one of the smaller and less versatile 2x4x6 ones. And who knows? Perhaps one of the models will make use of the hollow cavity, in which case a basic brick solution really couldn't have replaced it anyhow.

My brother pointed out that while the midsection IS hollow, that part of the body is normally covered up. If you look at some of the alternate pics, there is a Nindroid hang glider that clips to either side. Also, I think one function of the hollow midsection is to turn the dragon's spine into a sort of a handle so it's more swooshable. Awesome concept art and wallpapers! One of the wallpapers is buggy, though — there's supposed to be one of Zane's Techno-Blade, and instead the first two wallpapers both link to identical wallpapers of Cole's Techno-Blade. I couldn't do well enough on the game to unlock the two movies. Maybe with a bit of practice...

There is no "trans azure" or anything of that sort. On the current color palette, the closest transparent color to Medium Azure is Transparent Light Blue, which is ironically closer to the Azure colors than to any of LEGO's standard shades of blue. Emma's Splash Pool used Medium Azure and Transparent Light Blue together to great effect.

Not true. DC Comics movies might not have the same impact as the Harry Potter movies, at least on an individual basis... I don't know the figures for that. But Batman and Superman are and will probably ALWAYS be much more important characters in the grand scheme of popular culture than Harry Potter is. And a lot of that is just by virtue of how long they've been around. Superman and Batman have had over seventy years to become entrenched in the public consciousness, and without characters like that who emerged in the 1930s, it's not clear if the superhero genre would even exist in the same form we know today. Before Batman and Superman, the most popular comics were detective stories, adventure stories, war stories, etc. But they quickly pushed superhero stories to become the dominant genre across that entire industry, and the effects on pop culture as a whole did nothing but increase after that. I'm not trying to disparage Harry Potter. It was a great series that went a long way in showing that lengthy books aimed at kids and young adults could be appreciated by everyone, not just stereotypical "nerds" and "bookworms". The movies did a lot to advance what was possible with computer-generated special effects, and expanded the audience of the franchise even further. And the franchise developed into a global multimedia phenomenon much more quickly than Batman and Superman did. But the idea that they were more influential than Batman and Superman is ridiculous. They haven't even been around long enough to influence popular culture on that same level or achieve the same level of global recognition.

Whoops, fixed. It's not a great price per piece, but it's better than the price-per-piece for Epic Dragon Battle. And it could be a lot worse, judging by how many sets price $80 or higher have had a worse price per piece. Even ignoring Duplo or sets with giant boat hulls or electronic components, there's a LOT of stuff with a worse price per piece, many of which are still remarkably well-remembered (like 6277).

The final box art of 70127 Wolf Legend Beast, found on store shelves in the Middle East by a Brickset member, is a lot more flattering than the preliminary box art. Hopefully that's a good sign with regard to some of the other Legend Beasts like the Gorilla and Lion. I haven't made any real effort to collect Legends of Chima sets since the theme came out — I felt like it'd take a lot to convince me to buy in, since I was already committed to collecting Ninjago and Hero Factory and wanted to keep my LEGO budget in check. The TV show utterly failed to excite me the way I had hoped it would. I did buy 70204 CHI Razar and 70205 CHI Worriz at a 50% off discount at Brickfair (used in one of The Brick Show's reviews, but still in their original packages with instructions intact), mainly because I knew the parts would be useful and the sets didn't look half-bad themselves. Worriz in particular is amazing. But I haven't been interested enough in the other Chima constraction sets to buy them at full price. These Legend Beasts are probably going to be the tipping point for me. Five of the theme's main characters, plus some fairly impressive models built from a wealth of useful pieces, including tiny ball joints and lots of useful curved slopes. I doubt I'll collect this theme as passionately as I do with Ninjago (I certainly won't be trying to get every minifigure in the theme, which would take a huge commitment), but who knows? Maybe it'll be a more slippery slope than I currently anticipate.

There are no pics. It's quite rare for pics to show up on the Customer Service site before the sets are released.

Interesting... Pixal's hair is actually Silver Metallic. And those alternate pics of the Nindroid MechDragon are awesome! I'm still puzzled by Nya's emblem appearing on the buggy the Garmadons are using. The hollow midsection of the MechDragon might feel a bit lackluster, but I like that they're presenting it as a place to deploy Nindroid troops from. EDIT: All the pics are from cache.LEGO.com. Let me fish up some links to the high-resolution pics: 70720 - Main 70720 - Box 70720 - Minifigures 70720 - Vehicle Front 70720 - Vehicle Back 70721 - Main 70721 - Box 70721 - Minifigures 70721 - Cockpit 70721 - Wings swung back 70722 - Main 70722 - Box 70722 - Minifigures 70722 - Cyrus's vehicle 70722 - Lloyd's bike 70723 - Main 70723 - Box 70723 - Minifigures 70723 - Vehicles connected 70723 - Cole's mech 70724 - Main 70724 - Box 70724 - Minifigures 70724 - Landing mode 70724 - Nindroid plane with glider wings attached 70724 - Side cannons 70724 - Prison cell 70725 - Main 70725 - Box 70725 - Minifigures 70725 - Dragon at rest 70725 - Garmadon's buggy 70725 - Dragon rearing up 70725 - Nindroid passenger area 70725 - Cockpit/saddle EDIT 2: And apparently all of the sets are on shop.LEGO.com, with the tag, "Coming soon on 1 Dec 2013". Just a month away! By the way, one of the mysteries from earlier in this post was resolved by the new product description: the buggy in 70725 does, in fact, belong to Nya. It's referred to as "Nya's car" throughout the product description, and the product details even identify the emblem on the flag with Samurai X.

Interesting find... Titanium Metallic Stormer XL feet and Savage Planet paws. Also, the bugs do, in fact, hop, and Jaw Beast and Splitter Beast use the same lower jaw in Medium Lilac and Medium Azur, respectively. All things we could have predicted from the pictures but that it's good to confirm. EDIT: Also, here's the cockpit piece (the cockpit itself, not the windscreen) in Bright Yellowish Green and Bright Orange. Not sure which set would have it in Bright Yellowish Green, though? Evo XL Machine maybe?