Aanchir

I missed this article on Mixels when it was first published a week and a half ago. It's pretty insightful and tells us a lot of things about what this theme's going to be about and how it was planned. Among the surprises in it, there will apparently be 27 Mixels characters to collect! I'm surprised at this number... it's not an extraordinary number for a "big bang" or evergreen theme, but I was expecting something more along the lines of what I had gotten used to with constraction themes, X-Pods, and the like: certainly no more than twenty, if they were all going to be around the same price point! Perhaps there's some secret we're missing, though, such as the possibility that you might be able to build three different characters with a single set. That would suggest a much more reasonable total of nine unique sets. Nine would be consistent with the number of Mixels silhouettes on the SDCC display, and with a three-wave release beginning with the three we've seen in April.

Yeah, those mini-catalogs used to be quite common in sets. I imagine the reason they stopped was for two main reasons: the first is obviously cost-cutting, but the second is that nowadays such things are no longer as necessary with the Internet becoming more accessible worldwide. Why print a mini-catalog out when you can just include the URL of your website on the box?

Aw man, I got caught up with the latest episode of The Legend of Korra today and I am really loving it.

Two functions: in the regular model, it's a balconet. But suppose you want to add an additional story by duplicating the second floor. You remove the balconet from the new third floor and re-attach it at the base of the staircase between the third and fourth floors, so that it isn't a suicide magnet.

They mention the turkey separately when listing the food items, so I doubt that's where the confusion comes from. Maybe there was GOING to be a seagull and it got cut from the final set, but that part of the product description wasn't updated.

That doesn't happen with mine for certain! It worries me a bit because so far Silver Metallic and Titanium Metallic have been phenomenal in terms of their level of consistency. While it can be "cool" to own a variant part, I certainly hope that this is a small-scale occurrence and not something more widespread. Otherwise those colors may have to be either replaced or reformulated, and I'd rather keep as much stability in the color palette as possible.

Doubtful, since at the end of the last season of the TV show he was restored to his human form. You can see his human form on the cover and preview pages of the eighth graphic novel, which is set in between the last season and the upcoming story arc. Note though that the costume he wears in the season finale and the graphic novel is merely a palette swap of Sensei Wu's black robes from the 2011 sets, and not necessarily the costume he will be wearing in next year's sets or media. EDIT: Also, I was just checking Amazon for new LEGO books and found that we have a title and description for the tenth Ninjago graphic novel! The title is "The Phantom Ninja", which immediately made me curious about its plot. Sure enough, the character of "The Phantom Ninja" seems to be the same character who was introduced almost two years ago in Greg Farshtey's Cole chapter book! I'm very impressed that he is revisiting this character rather than just abandoning him entirely, and hopefully this story will mesh alright with the previous adventure he was featured in. In contrast, the description for the ninth graphic novel is amazingly vague. It could be a side-story featuring the foes from next year's sets or a story featuring an entirely new foe created with this book in mind.

Actually, it's 92099, 30042's newer and more versatile cousin. You've got it. As far as I know it's not something that the majority of buyers take advantage of, since it involves either buying duplicates of the set or buying duplicates of all the parts to the second floor, but it was one of the major selling points of the Café Corner when the line was first launched, and every subsequent modular building has included that feature in a similar capacity. In the case of the Town Hall, both the second and third floors are able to be duplicated in this fashion. An odd side effect of this feature is that for every building except this one and the Palace Cinema, the second floor can be removed entirely (after all, for the second floor to be duplicated, the entry for the second and third floors has to be at more or less the same point on the floor plan). In the case of the Palace Cinema, this doesn't work because the top of the staircase would collide with the door to the rooftop, not that it really matters since a cinema with no screens is not a cinema at all! In this set's case, it might be physically possible to do this, but it would leave the third floor inaccessible except by somebody equipped with climbing gear.

Don't get me wrong, I'd gladly choose modern-day minifigure faces over classic minifigure faces in a heartbeat. The little sparkle in their eyes and the more dynamic facial expressions (eyebrows on modern figs are pretty much standard, not a variant like they were back in the day) add a whole other level of liveliness to minifigure design. But at the same time, I like that the modular buildings use classic smiley faces. It creates a sense of unity among those sets (well, all but Market Street, anyway) and sets them apart from LEGO City. It also helps to reinforce the idea that the modular buildings are about the construction of the sets, rather than being character-driven like Star Wars or Ninjago. And finally, it lends them a remarkable sense of retro chic. Even if the buildings themselves are nothing like what we'd have seen in sets from the 80s, there's that prevailing sense that the sets hearken back to an earlier era.

In some cases, I personally feel like all the animals need is a different face print to be right at home with traditional LEGO minifigures. The horse, foal, and fawn would never fit too well in LEGO City, because they are just too smooth and streamlined compared to LEGO animals of similar size. But the bunny, poodle, squirrel, penguin, and hedgehog could fit in LEGO City if their wide-eyed expressions were swapped out for more traditional black bead eyes. I'd almost go so far as to say that the LEGO Friends kitten is a better fit for LEGO City than its current counterpart, the Belville kitten... after all, the LEGO Friends kitten has a lot in common with a minifigure in that its face isn't meticulously sculpted. Even the LEGO Friends dolphins are hardly any less suited to classic LEGO than the dolphin which preceded them, since those earlier dolphins were also heavily streamlined. It's just the eye printing that would need to change.

Normally, yes, you're correct. It's common for people to refer to one another by their last name, especially when a first name would express an awkward sense of familiarity. But it's downright silly for a person to refer to their own sibling or spouse by a last name that the two of them share. If Kai, Zane, Jay, or Cole referred to Garmadon by that name alone, it could very easily be argued that it's his last name. But the fact that Wu and Misako have both called him Garmadon makes it extremely unlikely that it's a last name that they share with him. I certainly would never refer to my siblings or parents by their last names alone. Not only would it seem impolite, it just wouldn't make sense — it'd be almost as if I were talking to myself.

Actually, see how there are two doors on the second floor, one of which only leads to an almost-not-even-there balcony? Just remove that tiny balcony and the door behind it will line up with the top of the stairs. Brilliant!

Thanks! The sides of the eyes were a bit problematic for me. I couldn't find any way to cover them up without the parts used to cover them sticking out somewhat awkwardly. The contest ended a couple days ago, and I ended up tying for fourth place. I don't get any special recognition or prizes for that, but I'm still proud of how well I did since Delwyn was up against a lot of amazing MOCs! I went ahead and finished my digital model of Delwyn! Here's a screenshot: You can download the LXF file here. The only difference between the LXF and the physical model is that the LXF uses part 93571 instead of part 32174 for the eye sockets. I only wish 93571 were available in white! It would have helped make the black spots on the sides of the eye sockets a lot less noticeable.

But Wu also calls his brother "Garmadon" from time to time. Would someone really refer to his own brother by his own last name, no matter how distant they had become? It would be like Venus Williams referring to her sister as "Williams". That's part of what makes me think that Garmadon is Lord Garmadon's given name, not his surname. Lloyd's last name is thus a Patronym, such as is used in many parts of Africa, India, and Pakistan. His name would basically mean "Lloyd, son of Garmadon". Of course, this is really all the LEGO Group's fault for naming the new antagonist for 2012 "Lloyd Garmadon". If they hadn't been bound and determined to use that pun and had given him just a first name like most other Ninjago characters, none of this confusion would have had to take place. And instead we'd be spending our time puzzling over something more important like the ambiguities of Lord Garmadon and Sensei Wu's age, or when exactly Lloyd was born.

No, but a project with new molds in the concept images is not doomed as long as the final product can do without them. Projects that depend on or are based around new molds are pretty much out of luck if they make it to review. As an example, MINGLES's Legend of Zelda project was pretty much all about minifigures decked out in unique accessories, so it didn't stand a chance. But the Back to the Future Time Machine project was able to succeed because the new mold concepts for Doc Brown and Marty's hair were swapped with existing parts. Recolors and new prints are fair game.

Nothing's wrong with it. That part is only in Extended Mode. Extended Mode updates every time there's an update in the brick palette, but regular LDD mode does not, in part because it demands more information than just the render. In LDD Mode, an Element ID is saved for each brick, and these can be seen when you click File>Export BOM. Because of this, LDD Mode can basically only use parts that actually have Element IDs: namely, ones that have existed physically either in sets or as test molds. In LDD Extended Mode, only the Design IDs are used to identify each brick. This means that as soon as the render and connectivity for a brick are programmed, it can be added to LDD Extended Mode. Since most builders are not particular about how their bricks are made available, adding new bricks to this mode seems to take priority over adding the information that is needed to include those bricks in LDD Mode.

I don't know if any of the sets carry explicit Beware the Batman branding, but the Riddler Chase set, as you mention, draws heavy inspiration for it with both the gold-colored windscreen of that Batmobile and the entire design of Batman's costume in that set. That could imply that there will be other sets that draw inspiration from the cartoon. But you have a good point that the Flash in that set is separate from the cartoon and follows the regular minifigure design standards, which makes me happy. Of course, that set uses a Tr. Bright Orange windscreen to achieve that gold look, which definitely throws my theory on the windscreens into question, unless of course that was just a preliminary design feature specific to the one displayed at Comic-Con. Guess we'll find out next year. I'll be honest: I had almost completely forgotten about that set in my attempt to avoid having to follow too many speculation topics. Looking at photos now, I like that the Riddler gets a gold-colored crowbar as his riddle cane. It's much better than the red-colored crowbar in his last appearance which merely resembled... a crowbar. Even if the Riddler hasn't appeared in Beware the Batman yet (I'll be honest, I haven't followed any superhero cartoons in a long time, but he's not showing up in a Google image search), I wouldn't discount the minifigure being based on a future Beware the Batman appearance, since I don't recognize that racing suit from any of his other appearances. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong and point me towards an image I can use for comparison!

Yeah, you've arrived at a similar theory to what I had. It's true that they didn't need to be holding the Golden Weapons to use their NRG forms, but they were still technically in possession of them. It's not uncommon in fantasy for magical artifacts to choose and bond with an owner (it's actually a critical plot point in the last Harry Potter book). Lord Garmadon using the Golden Weapons himself and then running off with them could possibly have broken that bond the weapons had with the Ninja. Well, there are a couple moments people have pointed out where it would have really helped them to be able to levitate, which seems to be one of the things that the NRG forms allow. One example is when they were trying to return the helmet of shadows to its pedestal. Of course, from a visual and storytelling perspective, it makes sense not to make that kind of thing too easy, because that eliminates a golden opportunity to have the Ninja perform some awesome ninja flips and other acrobatics. But their failure to use the NRG forms at that or any subsequent time suggests that even with their elemental powers restored, the NRG forms were still not available to them. I'm not too upset about the disappearance of the NRG forms during that season for a couple reasons. First of all, as in the case I just mentioned, the show has more action when the Ninja's powers are more limited, and second, the NRG forms didn't really look quite as cool in the show as they did in the sets, in my opinion.

Yeah, you're not far off. I count six: 32474, 32475, 32476, 32558, 40340, and 40339.

Garmadon might BE his first name. Not all cultures historically have had father and son share the same last name, and it's common in a lot of cultures for a surname to be identical or derived from the given name of one of the parents. Awesome illustration! I love all the illustrations of the Ninjago theme and am glad those are still a big part of the theme's marketing. I hope there will be a version of this illustration or a similar key visual that is framed a little differently so I can use it for album artwork on my iTunes, as I've done with the 2011 and 2012 key visuals. The many different Techno-Blades look somewhat unusual, and I'm a bit surprised that the yellow one is Jay's (I would have thought it was Cole's, but apparently Cole gets a green one). At the same time, I guess having some variety in how they're built makes them more exciting. It's really just the chainsaw-handle on Jay's that I don't like. Not sure what to think of the Ninjacopter (if that IS what that vehicle is) since we can't see it in a whole lot of detail. But the mech-dragon looks awesome. It's a shame we can't see any new characters on this poster. I hope that there are other characters in the sets besides those we've seen... another non-generic Nindroid character would be cool, and I'm still wondering if Sensei Wu, Nya, or Garmadon might appear in new costumes. Of course, these are just the first wave of 2014 Ninjago sets, so it's still possible that there might be a second wave with more of those secondary characters. The architecture of New Ninjago City still looks awesome! Neat to see that some of the smaller buildings still have a more traditional sort of architecture. Again, I hope some of that varied architecture ends up making it into the sets. I like that. It helps it look more robotic, rather than looking quite so naturalistic. I get the feeling it will still be similar to the other dragons in terms of scale.

No, the ones that are already out in most of the world. Vexorian is from South America, and the retailers in his country apparently have an infuriating habit of not stocking sets immediately upon release, and then not stocking the full range of LEGO sets anyway. Easy and immediate access to LEGO products is just one more thing that LEGO fans in the United States and Europe (myself included) often take for granted.

I think it's more an issue of the non-HF constraction lines so far being highly experimental and tied to brand-new themes. Whether they continue almost certainly depends on how well they end up selling. Furthermore, it's entirely possible that there might be more Chima constraction sets next year, but not until the summer. In that case there would be new ones every year instead of every six months. If the Chima constraction sets have in fact sold well, then that's the release pattern I would anticipate for them.

Lovely song from a brony rock band in St. Petersburg. Some of the songs they've done live also sound amazing, so I hope they do studio recordings of those sometime in the near future.

Yeesh, already over 50 pages? I'm not going to bother to catch up right now. Just wanted to share some transparent yellow windscreens from next year's sets. My best guess is that they're from sets based on Beware the Batman since there are no other themes I know of that would have vehicles with transparent yellow windscreens (except maybe next year's Chima sets since there's a new faction whose vehicles we haven't seen). Found these while trawling LEGO's customer service database (checking one part at a time starting with the decorated pig face from the Minecraft sets so I had a good shot at finding new stuff). No matter what theme they end up being in, I'll bet spacers will love them. 6065598 (same windscreen from the new UCS X-Wing, but in Transparent Yellow) 6065600 (old-school space windscreen that has never been in this color) 6065601 (this came in Tr. Yellow in the Space Police III Lunar Limo, but this is a new Element ID for it, hinting that it's appearing again) I also found a white Jedi hood. I had no idea what theme it might be from, but when I did a google image search for Beware the Batman screenshots to verify that I remembered the color of the Bat-vehicles' windscreens correctly, I saw that Anarky is a villain who has appeared in that show. Perfect candidate for a white Jedi hood right there. We haven't seen any leaked/escaped "Beware the Batman" characters with their proper heads as far as I recall, but I hope it follows the precedent established by Spectacular Spider-Man and translates the cartoon characters into LEGO according to the usual minifigure standards, rather than the precedent established by the Avatar: The Last Airbender and Star Wars: The Clone Wars sets, which created new minifigure design standards to better fit the stylized look of the cartoon. It's not that I dislike alternate minifigure design standards (I love the figure designs in LEGO Friends and LEGO Exo-Force), but Super Heroes has done a good job keeping its figures interchangeable no matter what brand or medium they're based on. Sure, a Superman from Man of Steel and a Superman from the comics will have slightly different costumes, but they'll all have that same beady-eyed minifigure face.

Perhaps he means pieces that were original to the first wave of BIONICLE sets, not ones that came from earlier Technic sets or later BIONICLE sets. By that measure, it's true, remarkably few "original BIONICLE" parts on LDD come to mind. (Chiefly parts with Voodoo or HTO in the name). I also wouldn't mind a lot more classic 2001 BIONICLE parts for nostalgic reasons, although in a practical sense some were very specialized. Some parts like 32482, 32506, and 32551 would be especially useful, because they were used very frequently in other themes and are fairly versatile in their own right. And I know that LEGO used to have renders of these parts because all the instructions for the the Toa Mata and Turaga sets from 2001 had CGI renderings for the building steps rather than photos or vector-based 2D drawings.