Aanchir

They should. Page 64 of the instructions for 42000 Grand Prix Racer confirm it.

Nope. It's been used in some sets, including one of the Coast Guard sets coming out this year. In the original "Stressing the Elements" PDF by Jamie Berard about illegal connections, it was described as "Possibly legal, but not recommended" because it would take two plates out of system. But the catamaran sailboat in this set demonstrates that this is apparently not an issue if you're using this connection between two parts that are NOT both plates. The main box image even shows the mast attached ONLY by that point, although when the sailboat is in an operable condition the mast would also be attached with a clip. The fact that this very non-traditional connection has been used in a recent set AND programmed into LDD suggests to me that it has been confirmed as a legal connection. Illegal connections do slip into sets from time to time, but those two factors combined seem like it'd be unlikely to be a mistake or a sneaky bypass of regular LEGO design standards.

Because the official set includes additional modules to make it into the version from BTTF Part III. On the original Cuusoo model this would have been impossible because there were zero connection points on the hood — the Part III version on the Cuusoo page simply had the parts sitting there, which would not have been satisfactory in an official set. I've seen the term "Illegal connection" a few times to describe this, but I think we need to remind ourselves that an illegal connection tends to be specifically an instance where parts are under stress. The Cuusoo model did not have this issue — rather than parts being connected too firmly, the issue was that the parts on top of the hood were not connected at all.. I think the disappointment we've seen from some people regarding this set points out something about the Cuusoo platform — namely, it is easy for the proposal to be misleading even if no custom parts or illegal connections are used. Careful photography can make a model look beautiful even if it fails in terms of stability or basic functionality. This is why TLG re-designs proposals before they are released as sets. Certainly, the AFOL community makes some fantastic MOCs, but there's a difference between MOCing and set design. Anyway, glad such a beautiful set gets an equally-beautiful packaging design. I do see a few small rendering errors — for instance, these parts do not line up with the Technic beams on the chassis which they are supposed to be attached to. But these are not particularly misleading. The "Sheild" typo is sadly probably present in the final model (just as "powerfull" appeared on a printed tile in a Kingdoms set), but I don't think it will detract from the model's value too much. I hope we soon get more images showing off the modular add-ons and perhaps some interior shots. I also look forward to reading the final press release!

I believe the style of ball joint used in part 3184 has more friction if instead of using it with a proper socket like 3183, you use it with a double clip like 60470. However, depending on the size and weight of your model, it still may not be enough friction to support your model.

Rock Raiders was not the first theme to have light-up bricks or comics. It had a rudimentary story, primarily as a foundation for the video game, but not one quite as developed as later themes like BIONICLE, Knights' Kingdom, or Exo-Force would have. You ARE correct in that it was the first theme to have a video game of its very own, though (LEGO Racers was not based on any one theme, and in fact the theme of racing sets was not named "LEGO Racers" until AFTER that game). That was groundbreaking. Overall, the main things I think Rock Raiders had going for it were its tone and aesthetic. Instead of wearing uniforms, the Rock Raiders characters were (pardon the cliché) a ragtag bunch of misfits, with each having a particular skill set. This paved the way for later themes like Alpha Team, where although the characters would have uniforms, they would also have specialized skills and would be put in command of different vehicles according to those skills. Additionally, the theme had a remarkably gritty aesthetic. Browns and greys were the dominant colors in each set's color scheme, and they were balanced out with bright yellow and bright bluish green bricks to keep the sets from looking boring or dingy. The sets were pure science-fantasy, including the largest vehicle which used propellors rather than jet engines as were more common in sci-fi themes. Having seen some Rock Raiders prototypes and concept art in The Ultimate LEGO Book, I found that theme's creative development truly compelling and greatly enjoyed the theme. The issue with a Rock Raiders month is that typically, theme months on Eurobricks are focused on a current theme or a category that a current theme falls into. Perhaps if there's another underground series of sets like Power Miners, Rock Raiders, or the LEGO City mining subtheme, Eurobricks could do an "Underground Month", but currently there's not much news or hype to build excitement around Rock Raiders. Anyway, I'm beginning to think some people are taking these "theme months" a bit too seriously. Certainly I was hoping we'd have more reviews by now, but if there have been delays then there's really not much that can be done about that. Perhaps Hero Factory Month will be extended, or perhaps just the particular content that the moderators haven't gotten around to will be posted after the theme month has ended. In the meantime, there's been quite a bit of Hero Factory discussion, a handful of new reviews, and of course these contests, which will surely enter the voting phase before too long. So let's just be patient.

Interesting! I don't recognize part 14301 FLEX TUBE 12M. It looks like it'd be most appropriate for a constraction or sci-fi theme, but I tend to pay fairly close attention to those at Toy Fair and don't recognize this part at all. That seems to be the only "accidental" part inclusion. Very excited about some of these parts!

Bugs in new parts: Part 87800 should be able to be dual-colored, as in the case of Element 4578971 Part 87803 should be able to be dual-colored, as in the case of Element 4615736. Part 11101 should be able to be dual-colored, as in the case of Element 6037158.

Just "LDD Mode". The one with the blue header instead of a black one, and with a limited parts palette.

You can do that with many Element IDs in the default LDD mode. It'd be a really nice feature for LDD Extended Mode, though.

At least 20 new Hero Factory/BIONICLE/Constraction parts. New minifigure parts include CMF Series 10 parts, Lone Ranger parts, Lord of the Rings parts, Super Heroes parts, and Chima minifigure parts. Lots of other new parts, too, but I haven't counted up every category. I fully expect Superkalle to provide a full list of new parts in the next few days.

I learned via one of my Facebook groups that there are new Hero Factory and Chima parts there. I don't have access to my computer right now so I don't know the status on new colors or decorations. Hopefully Superkalle can fill us in on new parts, decorations, and colors before too long, and when that happens I will do my best to identify them. Overall, just the parts I've seen are enough to get me excited.

I had thought it was in the Project Guidelines and House Rules; however, I'm not finding it there now. So that may have been an unintentional inference on my part. Still, it seems logical as it would explain the reason creators of new part projects are paid a flat fee rather than a percentage of net sales.

The box and the LEGO Creator site describe the set's third build not as a garage but as a factory. Evidently what this factory makes is furniture, and the items on the shelf are perhaps items in their catalog or items that are awaiting delivery or refurbishing. Incidentally, this is also why there's a chair in the back of the truck in that model.

I didn't mind the Agents shark's face because frankly, all LEGO animals and minifigures are slightly cartoony. It would have been nice if a slightly less cartoony version were created for use in more down-to-earth themes like LEGO City, but I liked the fact that it had printed eyes. With that said, this new shark is excellent. It is detailed, but still slightly angular and geometric like we've come to expect of LEGO animals. Furthermore, its connection points are much more useful than those of the old shark. Observe: 2547 is on the left, 14518 on the right. I used the classic jaw 2548 on the left and the newer jaw 87587 on the right, though today either variety of shark would use 87587. It's good to know that the new shark is now actually appearing in sets!

Personally, I don't see how the mini-dolls present any more of a false image for girls than minifigures. The difference from what I can tell is mini-dolls present a much more realistic image than minifigures. Minifigures are blocky and geometric, mini-dolls are naturalistic. It's true that mini-dolls are generally thin rather than having a range of body types, but I am often astonished by some people's comments that they look anorexic or overly sexualized. In fact, I think they provide a healthier body image for girls than many toys or cartoon characters, including female minifigures, because instead of exaggerated hourglass figures and well-defined circular breasts they have subtler, more modest curves. Moreover, mini-dolls are not unrealistically thin, but rather, like classic minifigures, they have exaggeratedly-large heads. If you shrunk the head of a mini-doll down to more realistic human proportions then you'd have a pretty accurate picture of a 14-year-old girl of a healthy weight. More body types would again be nice (I am certainly not under the impression that any roundness to the body is unhealthy, and I was quite pleased to be able to give a somewhat round tummy to my Hero Factory MOC Kit Martello), but then you run into the issue of interchangeability. Truly this is a factor in the generic designs of many types of doll — you can't dress the figure up in different outfits if the outfits are sized according to particular characters rather than more generic body types. Currently, LEGO Friends has torsos for adolescent girls, adult women, adolescent boys, and adult men. The legs, incidentally, are interchangeable between all ages and genders — Olivia's dad Peter uses the same piece for his pants as any of the girls' riding pants or Mia's dress pants. One final note: I'm quite happy that even standard minifigure designs are less generic than they were back when a hairpiece was the only thing separating male and female minifigures. Back in the day, it was difficult if not impossible to give the impression of a long-haired man unless you gave him a beard, or to give the impression of a short-haired woman unless you gave her bright red lipstick. Nowadays, minifigures have been able to overcome this with features like chiseled cheekbones for men, subtle makeup and curvy female torso prints for women (much better than the overdone mascara and lipstick that was typical of female minifigures in the 90s). Really, we're well past the era where one's hairstyle was what defined them as male or female in real life, so I think it's a good thing that we've also moved past that with minifigures, even if sometimes the feminine curves on minifigures are overdone.

What I'd love to see would be somebody taking the movie posters created for the LEGO Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings themes, converting those into flat colors like LEGO prints and stickers tend to use, and printing them as stickers for use as alternate Palace Cinema movie posters.

Well, I'm not an expert at building with odd angles, but some of the Modular Buildings that have 45-degree segments built onto the corners use some different techniques than just hinge plates. The Café Corner, for instance, uses turntables. This could possibly be more reliable than hinge plates because your main walls could be built with regular spacing, with the 45-degree segments attached in such a way that the corners of the main walls hold them in place. If you want a connection with more friction than just a turntable, consider having 45-degree segments attached to the floor by a single stud. The Taj Mahal uses this technique. The only issue with this is that unlike with a turntable, which will give you a very sturdy connection, a single-stud attachment (whether using just a 1x1 plate with tiles around it or a 2x2 jumper plate) might require additional connections ABOVE your 45-degree sections to "lock" them into place. The Palace Cinema's marquee is attached using clip-and-handle hinges, which is another technique that shouldn't be ignored. As with a turntable, it's easiest if your 45-degree segment only has to be attached to the main walls or floor via one point rather than two. This might be a part to consider using. Stack multiple clips of this sort and your connection can be very sturdy indeed! Overall, hinge plates are not the most reliable way of angling walls unless you are working with Pythagorean triples, which don't yield perfect 45-degree angles. I recommend watching this video, which discusses the use of turntables a little bit, and this one, which various angled wall techniques including the use of hinge plates, though it doesn't deal with 45-degree angles.

It's quite possible the cost of manufacturing HAS increased. I believe the LEGO Group used to outsource road plate production (and baseplate production in general) to another company, Greiner Packaging. This press release seems to suggest that at any rate. One possible reason that they might have been outsourced is that baseplates traditionally have been produced not through injection molding like the majority of LEGO parts but rather through vacuum forming. I do not know if baseplates are still produced via vacuum forming. I do know some more recent baseplates have what look like molding marks on the back, which could suggest that they are now made through injection molding. And in that case, that might lead to increased costs. So might producing them in-house, if that's what TLG does these days.

Neat design. You did well to keep the body parts of the two designs analogous, so the drill arm becomes a drill arm, the claw becomes a claw, etc. The one thing that bothers me is that other than the "after" version being bigger, it doesn't feel that much more fearsome than the "before" version. Its drill arm becomes smaller, its claw becomes more rounded, and even its feet lose their pointed toes. It definitely feels mutated and deformed, but only its head, right shoulder, and back really end up feeling considerably more aggressive than the original. I would have expected the claws and drill arm to become larger, the toes to become even more claw-like, etc. Still, this is a very nice MOC that manages to adhere well to the contest theme, even without using a whole lot of Hero Factory parts. Good luck in the contest!

Both of these models are incredible, and I love that you used many of the same parts and motifs between the two models. However, because the "before" and "after" versions are so very different in an anatomical sense, I had to look very, very closely to recognize the features that identified them as two forms of the same being. After all, they share a lot of parts, but you don't know where on the body of one form to expect to see the parts of the previous form, and I feel that's a bit of a weakness. As an example, I'd expect the feet of the original to become the fins of the mutated version, but instead those parts disappear entirely, and the fins use spike elements that do not appear in the "before" version. The face of the "after" form makes brilliant use of existing helmet pieces to create a wholly unique creature face. I feel the "after" form could have been slightly improved by using a brain that had more contrast with the other colors of the model — perhaps an orange one, to sort of match its orange eyes. Overall, you put forth a remarkable effort to maintain visual continuity between the two forms. I just feel like the vast difference between the body structures of the mutated and pre-mutated versions is working against you here.

Awesome design! I love seeing a unique design like this, especially knowing it was working with a much more limited parts palette than what is available today! With the twisting hoses, this balances an organic, alien look with a more robotic look. Great work!

Awesome MOC! I love the asymmetry... the Dark Red and Titanium Metallic armor and Dark Stone Grey bones on the pure side, and the Tr. Fluore. Green armor and Bright Red bones on the "corrupted" side. The beastlike toes and red spikes on the corrupted side truly complete it. It's possible that the large pincer on the corrupted side would fit that side of the body better in Bright Red, as it appeared in the Fire Lord set; then again, perhaps not. It works fine in Titanium Metallic anyway. It seems like you built a custom skeleton for his torso, which seems to work remarkably well. The BIONICLE helmet is definitely one that works just as well in Hero Factory (it was used in the Drop Ship set for a good reason). The one thing that bothers me is that it's hard to recognize the "brain" when looking at this hero in the main picture. At first glance I thought that Tr. Fluore. Green protrusion from the back was a custom brain, and if it were I'd have been disappointed, since it doesn't really resemble a brain. If the brain could be shifted more towards the center of the back I feel like it could have been more effective. This might also help conceal the custom skeleton more effectively, which would be good since this figure lacks back armor. Still, a great MOC overall, with an elegant sort of simplicity to its design that feels like it'd fit in quite well with Hero Factory sets! Good luck in the contest!

It's quite possible that instead of a direct translation or a word that specifically means something related to storms, this alternate name for Stormer is simply meant as a pun... kind of like the English-language names of the gym leaders in the Pokémon games. They might not MEAN anything directly related to their gym's preferred element, but the important thing is that they SOUND like a word related to that element. For example, the name "Brock" is from a surname derived from an Old English word for "badger", but the important thing is that it has the word "rock" in it, since he uses Rock-type Pokémon. I agree that Stormer's sword would probably be more exciting if it were in a more energetic color. I'd love to see what it would look like if you swapped it out for one of Laval's, though I don't know how well it would work since it'd add yet another color of transparent blue to his color scheme. Perhaps it'd work all right since it'd be translucent rather than the glassy transparency of Stormer's Tr. Light Blue parts.

While I understand what you're trying to say, I think saying male and female brains are totally different is an exaggeration, and in truth, this is the sort of idea LEGO Friends is trying to combat. LEGO Friends sets are different from traditional LEGO sets in some ways, such as more emphasis on details that make a scene "complete" or "livable" than on action features, but the theme is founded on the idea that girls can enjoy the activity of construction as easily as boys can, and don't need a building toy to be "dumbed down" for them to enjoy it. Besides, the ways in which LEGO Friends is targeted toward girls take nurture into account as much as nature. For instance, the pastel colors of LEGO Friends, while they have a sense of visual harmony that girls seem to identify with on an aesthetic level, are not inherently feminine, and some of these colors have been culturally identified as masculine in certain times and places. To the LEGO Group, it doesn't entirely matter if a girl's preferences are ones she is naturally inclined towards or ones that she has picked up from her peers and elders. As a toy company the only way they are going to reach girls is to create a toy that appeals to them as they are, not as any one group feels they ought to be. Truthfully, some of the articles before the release of LEGO Friends, as the LEGO Group was conducting their research, suggested that peer influence is a big factor in why many girls stopped playing with LEGO once they were out of the Duplo age range. As they start to attend school, there is pressure (both internal and external) to fit in with other girls, and this often means playing the kinds of games or playing with the kinds of toys that are popular among those girls. Influence from parents is also a factor, of course — I have known girls whose only exposure to LEGO is through male siblings, because their parents and relatives wouldn't buy them LEGO sets of their own — but even a parent's guidance isn't always as influential as the interests of a child's peers. Regardless, it is good to hear that you've gotten to see how LEGO Friends has influenced the market for building toys firsthand. Incidentally, have girls been buying more LEGO from other themes since LEGO Friends came out, as well? I know it is demeaning to think of LEGO Friends as nothing more than a gateway to "real LEGO", and this is a mistake many AFOLs made in the early days after LEGO Friends was announced, but it'd be interesting to hear whether LEGO Friends fans have started buying sets from other themes to expand their collections. Certainly when I was primarily a BIONICLE fan, my love of BIONICLE influenced many of my other purchases, and a big factor in what sets I was interested in was whether they had any useful or exclusive BIONICLE parts.

Including new or custom parts isn't against any rules. It just means they will have to be replaced with existing parts or parts designed for other upcoming themes in the final model. Additionally, there is no rule against new parts projects, and in fact there are rules dictating how they would work. They would be incorporated into ordinary sets rather than released as sets of their own, bypassing the issue of Cuusoo sets' limited production numbers, and the proposer gets a one-time flat fee rather than a percentage of the sales.