Aanchir

I thought they patched that issue?

Not sure what info they're "twisting" about Legends of Chima. They get the number of female characters wrong (there are four; they originally said one and later corrected that to two), but that sounds like obliviousness and poor research, not abject deceitfulness or denial. Overall, I think the "one year later" post is still getting the wrong idea about LEGO Friends in a lot of ways, but at the same time they bring up some very valid concerns about how LEGO Friends is marketed differently than some other themes. I myself was disappointed not to actually get to hear from the designers in the LEGO Friends designer videos. Ideally, every LEGO theme's website would have more direct updates from the designers, including things like detailed designer videos or a designer blog. It was kind of a disappointment that the LEGO Friends site didn't really go farther with this kind of thing, and it's worth asking why. There's probably a reason for it — perhaps the designers want to make things very simple and visually-oriented since LEGO Friends may be many girls' first LEGO theme, or perhaps they found non-English-speaking girls responded better to clear visual demonstrations than to subtitles, or perhaps they found that parents of girls were uneasy about toymakers speaking directly to their daughters. But it doesn't make me any happier with this decision. I find LEGO designers to be excellent role models, and girls need creative role models just as badly as boys do. Overall, it's good to have watchdogs, even if they're watching for the wrong reasons.

This is not necessarily confirmation that this character will play a role in the main story. The Secret Mission books are side-stories and have already had several characters who never appeared in the main story. This character seems a lot more likely to be in the main story than most of the others, just by virtue of being a villain with a vague physical description rather than a civilian or neutral party, but that's not the same as confirmation.

For the record, I and some others have had our opinions changed for reasons other than the minifigures, such as the knowledge of why it has the stepped hood in the first place (to allow for it to be converted into the Part II and Part III versions). That, for many people, is the kind of knowledge that moves it from "inexplicable design screw-up" to "necessary sacrifice".

AFOL-oriented playsets like the Kingdoms Joust will no doubt appeal to any girl or boy who has a passion for LEGO building. This is because AFOLs generally expect that a set be well-rounded. This lends itself to detailed models with a good balance of action play and more conventional role-play, and a good balance of interior and exterior detail. The modular buildings, for instance, are basically dollhouses when you really boil it down. So a girl interested in that type of role-play can surely enjoy them. Yet a boy can enjoy them just as easily, for similar reasons, without feeling ashamed of it. This isn't to say all AFOL-oriented sets will appeal to kids. Model sets like the Taj Mahal offer considerably less play potential of any kind once built. Other good sets for girls include any licensed set related to a brand that girl likes (I have no doubt that there are more girls involved in the focus group testing for themes like Harry Potter, since a lot of girls as well as boys tend to like those franchises and it is reflected in the set designs). And depending on the girl, she may like action-oriented themes like Ninjago or Hero Factory every bit as much as her male peers. If there were one "silver bullet" to make girls like a toy, it wouldn't have taken TLG nearly as long to win over that market.

Sometimes it does that for me if I click ANYTHING in the LDD window before the thumbnails of my recent models have all loaded. Does it make any difference if you wait for all the thumbnails to load before clicking anything?

I enjoyed the LEGO Hero Factory: Breakout app. Fun, simple gameplay, but with lots of challenges to pad it out and a bit of a learning curve. I haven't played the Brain Attack app yet. The LEGO Ninjago Final Battle app is also lots of good, simple fun.

The stepped hood bothered me when I first saw it, not because I felt it ruined the model but rather because I simply couldn't understand the reason for the change (I wondered if the 8x6 slope element had been discontinued sometime when I wasn't paying attention, and even then I couldn't see why a 6x6 tile and a hinge plate couldn't serve the same purpose). Now, knowing that this will include instructions for separate "modules" to modify it into the versions from Part II and Part III, I am really pleased with the model. Looking at the pics here, the figs look great, as do the unique printed elements on the interior. The working gull-wing doors are a great touch. I also love that it uses the 2x2 steering wheel rather than the undersized classic one. Overall, I'm very much looking forward to this set and expect it to sell very well.

I'm guessing it's some character's preliminary name. No real way to know which one.

I have no idea... again, I didn't have time to sit and read the stories. It would certainly explain the presence of the interview if he has a connection to the main characters. I might have to go back to a bookstore some time and take some time to read the stories, which may have more insight to that effect. There are also some LEGO Friends chapter books that might have information on that. I haven't read those either. I believe one is an adaptation of the 22-minute TV special, while the second is an original story by Cathy Hapka. As a BIONICLE fan, I find it kind of funny every time I learn about a connection between BIONICLE and LEGO Friends. Cathy Hapka is a novelist who wrote four BIONICLE chapter books released in 2003 (she's also written chapter books for other properties like Lost). I also just learned today that the franchise manager for LEGO Friends is Lena Dixen, who was BIONICLE's franchise manager. They're not eerie coincidences or anything, but I just find it a bit funny since they are two very different themes. The only thing they have in common is that they are very character-driven, with a fair amount of story media.

See, this is always the issue with applying for jobs at LEGO. Sure, there's no academic requirement. But at the same time, I simply don't have the skills I need to really compete with so many other qualified applicants. I have no job experience in any design-related field, and much of what I could put in a portfolio is mediocre at best. I definitely wouldn't qualify for a graphic design job, since I have minimal experience working with vector graphics, but this issue is probably going to confront me in any design-related job opening. I tried going to college to study Industrial Design and hopefully gain some design-related skills. It was not a happy experience. It's entirely possible I just don't have what it takes to succeed in a creative field.

OK, thanks. I was having a bit of trouble finding that information (though I didn't spend a whole lot of time looking for it). I am still pretty confident we won't see Marvel characters or Star Wars characters appearing as prominently as DC Comics characters, but if they were willing to use Michelangelo for a split-second gag then they could easily do the same with a familiar character like Darth Vader or Spider-Man.

Another cool feature is that this castle's modular design is compatible with the modular design of 7946. So with some simple changes to colors and heraldry you could easily mix-and-match sections from the two castles. Architectural differences between the two castles might bother some people, but if the sections were arranged a particular way they could lend themselves to some nice variety. I hope TLG releases more castles and castle segments based on this modular design, and I'd love to see castle MOCists design new and unique castle segments (I might even try my hand at it on LDD, even though it's been many years since I last built a castle).

The bricks that come with the cat are to build a checkered mat (presumably for sleeping) and a water bowl. It's a nice feature. Activity books that include minifigures are nothing new, but I think it's really cool that instead of a mini-doll this book includes an actual buildable model. I've flipped through this book, and it's quite nice. Haven't had time to actually read the stories, but the illustrations are great and would be excellent reference material for anyone wanting to get the hang of drawing in the LEGO Friends visual style. It's obviously geared towards kids (it is, after all, an activity book), but it's not cheap or low-effort by any stretch of the imagination. Definitely better than if it had relied on stock art and product photos. One of the features that my brother and I thought was neat was an interview with the mayor of Heartlake City. It's even got a picture of him (yes, it's a him... kind of odd that they neglected the opportunity to establish the mayor as an older female role model for girls who like the series). I definitely appreciate world-building of this sort.

Viacom has the TV rights, but do they have the film rights? I know the TMNT sets are based on the TV show, but the figs are basic enough that if WB has the film rights they could probably get away with using them as generic versions of the characters. And that's what I imagine they're counting on.

I'd say the Drop Ship in Hero Factory is pretty good in terms of set design. The issue with designing a larger and more well-covered one is that you want it to be something you can properly swoosh around. These days, hero sets are even larger than they were in 2010, so making a vehicle to contain several heroes would be quite an ordeal. Best case scenario, you fit three in the main cockpit like in some episodes of the TV series. But even that would be starting to get awkwardly large to fly around. Overall, I'm not a competent enough Technic builder to really do something of this sort, but I'm sure the first step to making a larger drop ship would be to get lots and lots of Technic panels (of the newer variety that's been appearing in sets since around 2008). That'd give you a nice, sturdy, and mostly solid outer shell to work with. Beyond that, you're on your own.

Not sure what you're asking about specifically... opinions on the set from people who own it? I have the Toa Terrain Crawler. It's definitely a neat playset. I've always wanted to see someone to convert it to run on a LEGO train layout. The minifigures look nice, but do not resemble the characters as closely as those in the 2005 and 2006 playsets due to some characters sharing head molds. There are some great parts in the set including assorted silver blades (I know any BIONICLE fan is probably swimming in silver blades, but somehow you sometimes still don't have as many of certain kinds as you'd like), some neat recolored Barraki elements on the sea creature mounts (as well as nice blendy giant bat wings), and several other neat parts. As far as play value is concerned, it's... cool, I guess? The various opening hatches are neat, as is the crane. There are several "solidified air spheres" (yellow-orange Zamor spheres) inside that don't like to stay in place all the time and serve little function in the set except as something for the crane to pick up (there is no launcher for them). Overall there are definitely better LEGO mobile headquarters sets, such as the Agents Mobile Command Center (8635). But if you want a BIONICLE playset, then yeah, I can definitely recommend this one.

Well, the specifics of Hero Factory's lifespan, as expressed in an interview about the theme from 2011, were that it was planned for a three-year initial run, and then TLG would see how much momentum it had to keep going. I'd say the fact that there are sets planned for 2014 suggests that sales from its first three years (2010-2012) were pretty good. At the same time, unlike with BIONICLE, no long-term plans for the theme have really been disclosed. Part of the reason BIONICLE's cancellation came as such a shock was that there were indeed supposed to be new movies from Tinseltown Toons in 2010 and 2011 (that contract was instead amended for Tinseltown Toons to create the Hero Factory TV episodes). This was revealed as early as 2007. So the fact that the theme was cut short by a year and a half caught many people off-guard. The fact that we haven't heard anything about Hero Factory's long-term plans doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't any, but it's understandable that people would be a little uncertain about how much life it has in it. But of course, some people take that a bit too far and point to anything and everything as a sign that this is Hero Factory's last year. And they've been doing that for almost as long as the theme's been around. I kind of like the fact that Hero Factory is exploring different types of stories. In previous years one of the major criticisms of Hero Factory was that it was more or less a repetitive superhero story where the goal was always just to lock up the villains. This year, the story gets a major shift not only in its type of storytelling but also in its tone, taking on a bit more of a B-movie horror vibe. And this has been very enjoyable for me because the story can work with a whole different set of tropes. With most of Brain Attack I get less of a zombie vibe and more of an alien invasion vibe, myself. And really all things considered it's sort of a mix of the two. It's got the shambling hordes, definitely, but the threat definitely is otherworldly. That set name sounds somehow very dirty... thank goodness you didn't condense it any further. I've found Brain Attack quite nice, though the brains aren't really the primary reason I've liked the sets. Rather I just find many of the designs pretty neat, and they offer good parts to boot. I do wish the Brain Attack wave had more non-humanoid villain sets. Scarox, for instance, strikes me as extremely underwhelming, and I think more of a spider-like design would have made him much more impressive. It'd be nice to explore some other themes. But at least the themes aren't just bland elemental themes like the whole "Rampant Oceans" and "Empire of Frost" hoaxes tried to convince people future waves would be. I liked the first wave as well, but I felt that Breakout did a great job both matching and perhaps surpassing the level of variety the 1.0 wave gave us. Non-humanoid villains are always nice. I think this is more or less a coincidence, since BIONICLE and Hero Factory villains alike just tend to use well-established character design rules for villains and robots. Hakann and the Piraka are both hunched over and spiky, sure, but that's because these are both tried-and-tested ways of making a character look fearsome. And the rest of your comparisons are a real stretch.

Do you think there are any simple mods that could be made to Cragger to improve his gappiness? It'd be neat to see.

The only green ones are Tr. Bright Green and Tr. Green, both of which would be visibly different from the Tr. Fluorescent Green the model uses. I think Zero made the right choice going with a yellow brain.

Weapons are a lot easier to build to get an early start. That gives a good five days to work on a character or vehicle submission, which typically takes longer to design. I'm sure in later weeks we'll see more complex entries.

I don't know if you'll read this post since a while back you said you were blocking me for my tendency to disagree with you, but at any rate, I disagree. I think the model uses some great building techniques to replicate the source material, and I'm shocked that you'd take such an insulting attitude towards the builder. I also think every Cuusoo set so far has been quite decent. The Shinkai 6500 was great right out of the gate, with some lovely building techniques used to create a very accurate portrayal of the original submarine, and a nice display area as well that really created that undersea atmosphere. The Hayabusa probe was less impressive — its boxy look doesn't lend it as much of a sense of movement — but it's a great display piece that really resembles a real space probe. The Minecraft set was pure creative genius, and its sales have reflected how well it appealed to Minecraft fans. If you're expecting traditional LEGO set ideas from LEGO Cuusoo, then you're bound to be disappointed. It's geared toward producing the types of models that TLG doesn't already provide, and TLG is generally good at providing things that their audience demands, so of course it's going to trend towards obscure niche interests versus more mainstream stuff. Still, it's good at what it does.

That's very cool. I don't use Netflix myself, but I can see a lot of kids and perhaps even adults becoming exposed to LEGO movies and specials through Netflix a lot more easily than they might if they had to find and buy actual disks. I can thoroughly recommend the Ninjago TV show and the first BIONICLE movie (BIONICLE: Mask of Light) to anyone. The next three BIONICLE movies probably don't have the same appeal to people who aren't already BIONICLE fans, since the first is a very iconic adventure/coming-of-age story and the later ones may require a bit more investment in the characters and the universe to really appreciate. I have not seen the LEGO Friends TV special, and I really ought to, but the CGI is putting me off a bit. Other LEGO works have very cartoony non-human CGI characters, whereas LEGO Friends uses more lifelike characters who are at least teetering on the edge of the uncanny valley. I much prefer the the characters in a 2D illustrated style as seen in some of the LEGO Friends activity books and promotional material. The Adventures of Clutch Powers is a fun romp with a lot of LEGO-related humor. The characters are humorous and engaging, and there are definitely some AFOL easter eggs to enjoy. It's bit of a shame that didn't become an ongoing franchise, especially when the ending left things open for further adventures. The LEGO Atlantis TV special is OK and has some neat characters, but I didn't find it nearly as interesting as a lot of other LEGO works. The LEGO Star Wars TV specials are HILARIOUS for me even as a casual Star Wars fan, and probably even moreso for a dedicated fan who can pick up on more of the easter eggs. But I can't find any evidence that those are on Netflix.

This is a very cool project in terms of concept, but I can see it not performing well as a set. Previous science-inspired models were probes/vehicles which have a little more play potential due to being mobile by design. You can roll around the Curiosity Rover or "swoosh" the Hayabusa and Shinkai 6500. This model doesn't have that level of play potential. It also isn't quite as glamorous as a display piece. The Shinkai 6500 and Curiosity Rover can both be displayed in a simulation of their environment. A sterile laboratory setting doesn't have that same exotic appeal. Additionally, I feel like the LHC is a lot more poorly-understood than these previous endeavors that have been memorialized as Cuusoo projects, and also somewhat controversial on account of various misconceptions. Space and ocean exploration are things that have been going on quite publicly for decades, whereas the LHC is performing a lot of unprecedented experiments that a lot of people don't truly understand. These factors could cut into this kind of project's profitability. With that said, it's a nice looking model, and I imagine TLG could make it look even nicer while simultaneously making it a bit smaller and cheaper. So I suppose it's up to them to decide if there's an audience and if they can bring the price point down enough to make it affordable for that audience.

Haha, the topic title caught my attention! Girl Genius fan, I take it? Pretty neat overall, but perhaps not quite as cool as some other over-the-top LEGO clothing and accessories I've seen.