Aanchir

Nah, nothing new as far as images are concerned. Oddly, all of the pictures of the characters from the winter Brain Attack sets are photographs rather than CGI. That's the only wave that has that problem. Every other image tends to be CGI set images that we already have in higher quality online (except, of course, the images of Makuro and Zib, but those are also images we've already seen. Some of the images even have text in front of them. And in the "Face Off" section at the end, I've spotted at least one image error: a page that's clearly referring to Natalie Breez's original form includes a picture of her Breakout form. Not that it matters a whole lot since the "Face Off" section at the end is quite silly. I think that tag is for being one of the "honorable mention" entries in the Chima contest/raffle (i.e. one of the entries that received bonus points). I could be wrong.

I've got it, and it's all right. Not a huge amount of new info, but it does have some rudimentary info on Nex, Breez, and Bulk's solo missions during the Breakout, a little bit of detail on Nex and Evo's origins, and some info on Makuro (he's apparently the oldest known robot in the universe). There are a lot of other tidbits on things like the Drop Ship and Furno Bike, and a statement about Breez and Surge that is easy to interpret/misinterpret as ship tease. I'll wiki some of it... eventually.

The 2010 site design was OK, but it was far from perfect. Things were not always where you would expect them to be. As an example, you couldn't get to the Media Center page from the top navbar. There were two separate "downloads" pages: one in the media center, and one that was independent. And the "testimonials" page? Good luck finding that after the teaser site was no longer live! Similarly, the "Letter from our Founder" page was only accessible from the "About the Hero Factory" page. There was a lot of interlinking, but you sometimes had to stumble around a bit to find what you wanted. The current site has a lot of glitches, and has nowhere near as much content as the old site, but it's fairly easy to navigate. You want images, you click the "images" tab. You want product info, you click the "products" tab. The only content that I'd say is particularly difficult to find is building instructions, which as far as I can tell are only accessible from the character/product highlights, not from the timeline view.

I've never had to discourage anyone from taking up LEGO as a hobby, because usually the cost of LEGO is discouragement enough for people who aren't already deeply invested in the brand. I've never encountered a person who has this habit of impulsively jumping on bandwagons to establish a social connection with friends/colleagues, and if I did I doubt I'd discourage them from getting into LEGO unless they clearly need financial guidance. If it was clear that he wasn't getting any actual enjoyment from LEGO except as a social gateway, then I would perhaps try and avoid him so he doesn't feel like that kind of impulsive spending gets rewarded, but I don't think explicitly telling him not to invest in LEGO would be the right solution.

Hmmm, again, could be just that the sets are too new. The instruction booklets are usually not uploaded right away. But then again, I just tried with one of the Level 3 building instructions and it didn't work. Maybe it's just Level One that they made available in that way. My suggestion? E-mail Customer Service. They might have a digital copy they can e-mail you. Worth a shot.

Interesting design. Love the fingers and toes. Cool color scheme too. The main thing I don't particularly like is the very narrow waist and lack of volume in the "ribcage" area, but that's just personal preference — I typically prefer Matoran to have a somewhat stout, V-shaped design like the 2001, 2004, and 2007 Matoran designs. I also think the lower legs could stand to be a module longer, since even by Matoran standards they seem very out-of-proportion with the larger-than-usual body.

Colors all look about right from the thumbnail, but I can't help but notice you used the wrong tail for the crocodile (that one you used, 30456, lacks spines and belongs to the Adventurers/Studios Tyrannosaurus Rex). The correct tail is part 6028.

If you have the set, it should be easy. On the back of the instruction booklet there should be a seven-digit number. Go to any instruction booklet on the LEGO Customer Service website and replace the seven-digit number in the URL with the one from the back of your booklet, and it should take you to an online version of the manual. It might not work for just-released sets, but it does work for instruction manuals not normally listed at service.LEGO.com, such as MBA manuals or certain extended-line sets.

Yeah, it's new-ish (the winter sets had animations from the very beginning, but when the summer update came it looked like they didn't have the animations ready right away, so this is my first time seeing them). Don't forget to click on anything with a pop-up caption to see it animated, and wait for a while to see the brain leap off the villains or try to attack the heroes! I'm a bit frustrated I can't read all the captions completely. The first part of some of them keeps getting eaten up by the left side of the page.

Makes sense. Sets with thick, wordy booklets naturally would take longer to translate/localize, which is probably also part of the reason why LEGO Master Builder Academy has been so slow to make the leap to other countries. It makes me wonder how many different "international" variants there are of the old LEGO Studios and Mindstorms manuals.

Yes. The build-a-mini stations let you include one headgear piece (hat/hair/helmet), one head, one torso, one pair of legs, and one hand-held accessory. In the case of helmets that have visors, the helmet and visor together are treated as a single headgear piece. Now, as far as hand accessories are concerned, most of the stores I've been to don't have too great a selection. Typically there are binoculars, rubies, push-brooms, pickaxes, cutlasses, and other common accessories in common colors. Some of these can still be useful, though, if they don't often appear in themes you collect. You can get some good hats, headgear, heads, torsos, and legs, since many of those are ones from the collectible minifigures. And since you get to see the item before you purchase it, it can be a good investment for people who don't like the blind-packaged collectible minifigures or who want to be sure of the quality of the parts they are buying before they leave the store.

Meet Delwyn. He's my entry in BZPower's System-Based Creations Contest #2: Build Free or Die Hard! Delwyn's a nice fellow, once you get to know him. Sometimes he gets a bit upset or angry, but he always means well. All images link to Flickr! A bit of backstory to this MOC: I've been trying to build a nice, streamlined human face on LDD for quite some time (I came up with the concept for the mouth, nose, and chin well over a year ago, though I changed the nose design slightly after the debut of the 1x2 bow element this year). I recently made some meaningful progress with this on LDD, which I posted to Flickr. Shortly thereafter I learned that BZPower was having a System-Based Creations contest, so I decided this fellow would become my entry. I ordered the parts I needed to build the head from Bricklink, so that I could experiment a bit more with the build in real life. After I experimented with coloring the hairline black, he started to resemble a ventriloquist's dummy, so that look inspired my design for the chest and shoulders. I was going to call him "Il Fantoccio" ("the puppet"), but decided that was not the best name since it was just a bust and not a complete or functional puppet. I ended up settling on a much sillier name that suited his comical appearance. Thanks for reading! I look forward to hearing people's thoughts on this MOC!

Well, you could arguably say the same thing about a lot of the Mindstorms and Power Functions elements on LDD. But even if you can't "test" such functions on LDD, it adds to its versatility as design software to be able to plan or create building guides for functional models.

Well, there have been asymmetrical versions of the "ratchet joint" in Technic (specifically, 2002-2003 Star Wars and BIONICLE sets). You can see this version here on Bricklink. Unfortunately, it had several disadvantages. It was more complex, and as a result was not as sturdy as the Knights' Kingdom variety (you would have to use additional axles and beams to hold the "male" side of the joint together). It was also somewhat difficult to incorporate into System. The Knights' Kingdom II variety simplified the design a lot and made it sturdier and more versatile, even if it meant that a model using that style of joint might be asymmetrical. The ratchet joints in Galidor were also symmetrical, though they were hardly versatile since they were attached to very specialized leg and arm segments.

The new combi model from the club magazine is decent, but it has the same problem that afflicts a lot of this year's combi models: rather than a unique construction, it's basically just one of the models "reskinned" with parts of the other. It's not that models like this are bad — in truth, they probably come naturally to a lot of builders. But I feel the purpose of a combi model should be to demonstrate the variety of things that can be built by combining the parts of two or more sets, and this year's combi models don't really do a lot of that. Today I built a couple of last year's combi models on LEGO Digital Designer, and I really appreciate their uniqueness. Once you look past the jarring color schemes and the fact that they don't form any kind of recognizable characters, they are quite imaginative designs that implement some very different building techniques from the sets used to make them.

"Outer Cable" parts are NOT pneumatic tubing, they're Technic flex cable. That's the reason why they don't connect to the connectors you listed: they are NOT elastic enough to stretch around a 3.2mm shaft in real life. The Brickset parts database is usually a pretty reliable way of knowing if a part on LDD is actually what you think it is. Here are pneumatic tubes; here are outer cables. There are no pneumatic tubes on LDD, probably for the specific reason you mentioned: there is no mechanism in the current version of the software to allow them to stretch around pins. It's possible they could be included if the LDD team rendered them with the ends already stretched to allow a shaft one module in length and 3.2mm in diameter to be inserted.

One of the MBA kits goes into a little bit of detail about why different joints are used. The main reason for the Knights' Kingdom ratchet joints is that they can support a lot of weight, no matter what the angle. I discovered how essential this is myself when I built the Dread Colossus... there's no way that back then I could have used ball joints to support the tremendous weight of its body, and even the ratchet joints can barely manage it in some poses. Now last year, Hero Factory introduced a new friction joint that could help replace those Knight's Kingdom joints in some applications. It is molded with a rubber insert that allows a ball joint to support a lot more weight. But it has yet to appear in any System sets.

Well, let's be a bit fair here. A lot of the films the Disney Princess franchise draws inspiration from are pretty good and inspiring stories, particularly those from the last few decades (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Tangled, and Brave). Even if they have shades of generic fairytale romance, they also present some fairly positive and progressive messages. Part of this really makes me wonder how this theme will be designed. Will it be authentic to the source material, like the previous Disney licensed themes, or will it be stylized and sanitized like a lot of Disney Princess merchandise, including the Duplo line? I'd love if it were authentic... can you imagine a set inspired by the royal palace in Agrabah? The rumored set names DO make it sound like the sets will be inspired by actual movie scenes (including Merida's Highland Games, which also assures us not all the sets will be designed around themes of luxury, beauty, and romance), so hopefully that's a good sign.

Just went through and found a lot of parts that should be able to be multicolored but aren't: 2546 is multicolored in nine sets. The multicolored version is element 4540070, which appears in set 10218. 6082 is multicolored in three sets. The multicolored version is element 4507132, which appears in set 7623. 6083 is multicolored in two sets. One example is element 4514345, which appears in set 7666. 6086 is multicolored in one set. The multicolored version is element 4535279 in set 8636. 11101 is multicolored in two sets. One example is element 6037154 in set 70111. 11302 is multicolored in four sets. One example is element 6029331 in set 44008. 11439 is multicolored in five sets. One example is element 6022109 from set 70504. 30293 is multicolored in seven sets. The multicolored version is element 4285879, which appears in set 7036. 30294 is multicolored in eight sets. The multicolored version is element 4288141, which appears in set 7036. 32558 is multicolored in five sets. One example is element 4492787 in set 7884. 41671 is multicolored in eight sets. One example is element 4586823 in set 7158. 47847 is multicolored in thirteen sets. One example is element 4508430 in set 7199. 51342 is multicolored in nine sets. One example is element 4519519 in set 7048. 51874 is multicolored in five sets. One example is element 6035592 in set 70403. 53562 is multicolored in sixteen sets. One example is element 4617652 in set 2233. 53983 is multicolored in six sets. One example is element 4289157 in set 8942. (image does not show multicolor correctly; the outer ring should be Black). 53988 is multicolored in eleven sets. One example is element 4297302 in set 8108. (image does not show multicolor correctly; the top should be Warm Gold). 54821 is multicolored in forty sets. One example is element 6024162 in set 70115. 57557 is multicolored in one set. The multicolored version is element 4498070 in set 8918. 57558 is multicolored in two sets. The multicolored version is element 4499704, which appears in set 8917. 59233 is multicolored in 21 sets. One example is element 4514700 in set 75017. 60934 is multicolored in one set. The multicolored version is element 4584806 in set 7145. 61804 is multicolored in one set. The multicolored version is element 4525715 in set 8695. 62575 is multicolored in both sets it appears in. The multicolored version is element 4542121 whcih appears in set 7626. 64272 is multicolored in one set. The multicolored version is element 4537511 in set 8983. 64297 is multicolored in one set. The multicolored version is element 4567575 in set 7116. 64776 is multicolored in around 40 sets. The most recent example is element 4539464 in set 50006. 85582 is multicolored in 22 sets. The multicolored version is element 4546585, which appears in set 2520. 88288 is multicolored in five sets. One example is element 4568950 in set 20017. 95350 is multicolored in two sets. The multicolored version (actually, the ONLY version) is element 4620396. 98088 is multicolored in two sets. One example is element 4645344 in set 5883. 98089 is multicolored in two sets. One example is element 4645345 in set 5883. I may not be correct on how many sets each part is multicolored in, since I'm going by what I can see on Brickset or recall from memory. But the Design IDs, Element IDs, and set numbers should all be correct unless I made a mistake copying and pasting somewhere.

I would say there are probably a lot more constraction builders than Clikits builders, since that line didn't last an especially long time and nothing in the same "genre" moved in to replace it. With that said, if there were a broad audience enthusiastically asking for Clikits parts on LDD, I wouldn't complain. Perhaps Clikits is well-suited to their preferred building style. Though to be honest, I'm not even sure how many uses of Clikits I've seen in MOCs that use strictly legal connections. On a more serious note, I did request a lot of Friends mini-doll parts a few pages back here. I didn't see those on the spreadsheet of part requests...

These pictures are a bit washed-out looking... I'm not sure if it's the lighting or the camera itself that's to blame. Currently, my impression is that the red is a bit overwhelming without any secondary color or accent color to tone it down. I really like the sword though. The upper arm design is also pretty neat.

Whoops, sorry I'm late. Let's see here. Rraarrr constraction is totally legitimate and can't be replicated with any other existing parts etcetera etcetera ad infinitum. Nah, seriously, I don't think the question of what is/isn't "real LEGO" should even be a part of the discussion. Fans of BIONICLE and Hero Factory are still LEGO fans and, as such, potential LDD users. I'd say at least 50% of the building I do, whether on LDD or in real life, is constraction-based. For building custom action figures that can hold up to actual play, it's irreplaceable, and the current Hero Factory character and creature building system is the most versatile expression of that type of building to date. Now with that said, that doesn't mean that all BIONICLE parts should be high-priority, especially "legacy" parts. A lot of early BIONICLE stuff is rather specialized, like the old "gearbox"-style torsos or the million billion old masks and weapons. While a part of me would LOVE to be able to build with these parts on LDD simply for nostalgia's sake, I avoid many of them in most of my current MOCs as a matter of choice, for about the same reason I avoid a lot of obsolete hinge elements. I think the most important BIONICLE parts for LDD that aren't already there are probably joint elements. A good clue: a part's usefulness has to do not only with how often it was used but also with how long it remained in use. 32173 (already in LDD, thankfully ) might seem awfully specialized in its geometry, but it remained in use for over ten years. In contrast, some BIONICLE masks from 2001, despite appearing in a whole slew of different colors and having iconic status among fans, were hardly in sets for two years. I looked over the list and one item for removal kind of bothered me: 90194. While it performs the same function as 48183, its underside is visibly different, and the NEWER version, 90194, is the one that is still appearing in sets. Additionally, one item for addition seemed a bit unusual: 98613. The reason is that it already appears in LDD as part 74261. The digital version and the real version have a slight difference, in that the real version has a transparent rubber insert which cannot be colored separately from the rest of the piece on LDD. But according to the LEGO Group's parts database, 74261 is the part's real Design ID. Chances are the 98613 is just the Design ID for the hard plastic component of the part, and the full pre-assembled part (with both rubber and hard plastic sections), has a different number, just like how minifigure torso and legs assemblies or Technic shock absorbers have different Design IDs than their component parts. This is why Bricklink would use 98613 as the part number: it's the one that would be visibly molded into the part, and the part cannot be disassembled by the end user without mutilating it. In short, part 98613 should be marked as "Added to LDD", but possibly should be separately listed as "Add Multicolor", depending on how nitpicky you want to get about the current digital version.

I've got a bug: If you attach any part with studs to either side of the lattice section of part 30036, the studs disappear. They should still be visible through the top of the lattice. Another bug: the ball snap in part 98587 has no connectivity to a ball with guides (for instance, the center ball joint of 90622 or 90626. It is never used this way in sets, but since it is designed with the same geometries as any other ball snap it should still function. Additionally, parts 98588 and 11164 currently only support two colors each (in other words, there are two surfaces that can be colored differently from each other). They should support three colors each. The first, in all its appearances, is colored Titanium Metallic, Transparent Light Blue, and Bright Yellow (element 6012440). The second appeared in Transparent Light Blue, Bright Yellow, and White Glow in element 6039291. Technically, this is listed in the LEGO Group's database as Design ID 14412 instead of 11164, but the part number stamped into it still reads 11164. It appears in set 44009 Dragon Bolt this way. Other problems with part 11164, which may be a result of part 11164 being rubber and flexible in real life but rigid in LDD: When constructing the head of set 44001, part 11287 cannot be attached fully into the head piece 11270 due to collision with 11164. Likewise, 87846 cannot be attached to the head piece 11270 due to collision with 11164. When constructing the head of set 44003, part 11286 cannot be attached fully into the head piece 11270 due to collision with 11164. When constructing the head of set 44005, part 11296 cannot be attached fully into the head piece 11270 due to collision with 11164. When constructing the head of set 44009, part 11288 cannot be attached fully into piece 6553, ultimately due to collision with 11164. When constructing the head of set 44011, part 11298 cannot be attached fully into the head piece 11270 due to collision with 11164. When constructing the head of set 44013, part 11294 cannot be attached fully into the head piece 11270 due to collision with 11164. Notice a pattern? Clearly, some work needs to be done on 11164's collision volumes. Additionally, the tail of 11164 should have flex, but this would not solve the problem of the front of collisions between these masks and the front/body of the part. On a related note, the visor element 11269 cannot close fully on the helmets 11280, 11276, 11281, 11275, 11278, and 11277. In the first three instances, the visor is within three degrees of being fully closed before it encounters a collision. In the last three instances, the visor is between three and nine degrees off from being fully closed in the ideal situation. I am not sure if the issue is a result of improper collision volumes for the helmets, improper collision volumes or hinge placement for the visor 11269, or improper collision volumes or hinge placement for the head element 11270. But in every instance there is a visible gap between the visor and the part of the helmet it should be colliding with on the physical piece when it is fully closed. That should cover every issue I have encountered so far. If you would like pictures of any of them, I can do my best, but many are difficult to illustrate without knowing how the elements are SUPPOSED to look. For now, the more confusing issues (the Hero Factory collision bugs) can be seen in this LXF, where I have hinged the hero visors as close to the closed position (90 degrees) as I can get them and there is still a visible gap, and where I have attached the brains and villain faceplates as securely to the heads as I can and they are still not all fully attached as they should be.

Surge is a pretty OK set, but I can name a lot more flaws for it than with most of the other Brain Attack sets. His spinning lightning weapon doesn't work quite as well as the one in Pyrox (the back end that you spin with your fingers is shorter and harder to reach) and doesn't really match the melee weapons of the other Heroes this year, but it looks very cool. He DOES maintain the pattern of each Hero set having a shield on their left, though — he uses Stormer XL's scout drone piece for the task, which is consistent with his aircraft motifs. His helmet and visor both look nice but they don't fit together as well as some others (the eyes of his helmet extend far past the edges of his visor, and the print looks slightly out-of-alignment in the front). His armor is great-looking but you might be disappointed by how few bright blue pieces he has (just his helmet, two shells on his legs, his hands, and the locking clamps, though the locking clamp elements are new in that color). The wings are sturdy, well-constructed, and quite stylish, though some people might be bothered by the fact that the top surface of one wing is the bottom surface of the other, so they're not quite symmetrical and would not be aerodynamic in real life. As a result of the wing pack, he DOES have back armor. It would be a lot closer to his body if it used this piece instead of this one, though, and it's an easy fix since a lot of people own either the first piece or the older version. Like Stormer, he has good proportions, and is a lot less gangly-looking than some of the 2012 heroes at the $12.99 price point. Overall, I think Stormer is probably a better buy than Surge at that price point, but I personally chose to pick up both. Now Bruizer is a totally different story. Bruizer is AMAZING. His rock-armor pieces, his brain, and his face are very specialized, unlike the smoother textures and mechanical motifs you get in the hero sets. But he's still a very good parts pack (lots of useful parts in useful colors like Titanium Metallic and Tr. Fluore. Reddish-Orange), and an excellent model when constructed. His asymmetrical design has a lot of charm and looks remarkably cohesive. The printed shell in this set is also quite nice. His swinging arm function seems to divide a lot of people because it means his right arm has no articulation in its elbow and very little in its shoulder. But I think it's a very fair trade. If the arm were articulated, you'd have to reset it to its default position every time you used it to bash another figure on the head. The fact that it stays rigid means you can keep pounding and pounding and pounding without it bending out of shape. Other than Dragon Bolt's flapping wings, it's probably my favorite action feature in this year's Hero Factory sets, and certainly the most fun action feature in any figure that size. Bruizer's one big flaw, other than some of his parts being pretty specialized, is that he lacks back armor. But again, I feel like the mechanism makes up for it, and the brain's spine adds detail to the back to keep it from looking too plain. Bruizer, Ogrum, and Dragon Bolt are definitely the villain sets this year I'd most recommend.

So I saw Equestria Girls on Sunday. Granted, I saw the syndicated version which means some scenes were left out. I still need to get around to watching it again on DVD so I can experience the film in its entirety. But here are my thoughts: Visually, the film was amazing. To be fair, this is what we've come to expect of the series as a whole, so it's not like it's setting a new standard for My Little Pony animation and cinematography. But the Equestria Girls character designs, the set designs at Canterlot High and the Crystal Empire, and all of the visual effects were very refined and simply fun to take in. The one place where we DID see some radically different animation was the opening credits, which were pretty impressive: I have a screenshot from those as my desktop wallpaper currently. The music was excellent, even if it had a decidedly different flavor than that in the series proper. The songs were quite catchy and helped move the story forward. I do feel like the choreography for the dance sequences went above and beyond what I was expecting. Perhaps the use of lanky human models made it easier for the animators to make the movements fluid and dynamic, almost like watching a gymnastic act. Then again, I'm always impressed with good dance choreography. I've already started experimenting digitally with the idea of making custom Equestria Girls mini-dolls, but I've got a long way to go. It doesn't help that there don't exist any templates for custom mini-doll decorations, so I'd probably have to make any custom decorations from scratch. But at least it won't require any brushing of plastic manes.