Aanchir

Great review. I love this set in that it continues the trend of LEGO Friends sets being well-rounded with lots of play opportunities. This would be a great set to buy multiples of, so you could have additional classrooms (you could separate the cafeteria and hallway, for instance, and the math/science and art/music rooms wouldn't have to do double-duty). The color scheme of this set is very stylish and harmonious, rather than tacky like many Belville color schemes or washed-out like Paradisa color schemes. There's a great balance between the pastels and the bolder dark blue roofs. The figures here are great and give you three different torso styles. Overall I greatly appreciate the addition of teenage boys to the range of figures in this theme. Now we have boys, girls, men, and women. The diversity will be great for mini-doll customizers, for girls who want to act out different scenarios, and for collectors who want a diverse population in their Heartlake City. Bright Light Yellow (officially, Cool Yellow) isn't exactly new. It's been used for minifigure hair pieces since at least 2007, and in Belville sets since at least 2005. But like a lot of colors from girl-oriented themes, it wasn't used for basic parts in substantial quantities until LEGO Friends. Large panels for big wall segments mean that the cost of the set can instead go to interior details and whatnot. I suppose the large panels could have been swapped with smaller bricks if you're dead-set on paying more money for more or less the same contents, but the majority of LEGO fans don't think that way (and that's just as true in City, Castle, Ninjago, or any other boy-oriented theme as it would be in Friends). Contrast the Fire Temple (it, of course, used panels by necessity for the rice-paper screens), most LEGO City buildings, or pretty much any non-AFOL-oriented LEGO Castle set released from 1984 onward (this one had fewer pieces than Heartlake High but seventeen wall panels, and this one had ten wall panels plus twelve corner panels).

Looking forward to it! Your reviews always provide a really good look at the sets, and are really well-written to boot. I'm not entirely sure when I'll get around to purchasing the summer sets. In past years I've gotten them during the Brickfair staggered discounts at LEGO stores, but I don't think they're doing that this year. I also need to find Mirror World. I've been to Barnes & Noble twice looking for it, but evidently they didn't have it at all either time and only thought they did due to a computer error.

What amazes me most is the wooden box you show in the upper right... it has the modern LEGO logo! I would have thought that emerged after TLG stopped using wooden boxes, but apparently not!

Personally, I like having diversity of facial expression, and I hardly see how that's a bad thing. Isn't learning to recognize different emotions from a person's facial expression and body language an important part of child development, and in that case, isn't having a range of expressions in fact educational? Also, sure, there are angry expressions now (that began in 1996 or 1997 with themes like Fright Knights and Western). But there are also lots of other expressions now. Sad. Scared. Excited (back when there were no angry faces, there were also no wide-open smiles like we see on some CMFs). Nervous. Determined. Confident. Overall, I think there's no way this kind of thing is bad for kids. Even if we want to sanitize play scenarios for kids, it's ludicrous to deny the existence of emotions other than generic happiness.

There's also the fact that if TLG offers sets online for less than you'd pay in a brick-and-mortar store, then brick-and-mortar stores will be less willing to carry their products. This is a Bad Thing. Certainly LEGO can make a lot of money through their online shop, but at brick-and-mortar stores they're more likely to get customers who weren't necessarily looking for LEGO in particular, which means a wider customer base on the whole.

No, it's this piece. Previously only 3x3, 2x2, and 5x5 varieties were available.

I think the chief difference between AFOLs and KFOLs (that's the term I hear more often than CFOL) is that AFOLs tend to want sets to be well-rounded (and are willing to pay the large sums of money it costs to make them such), whereas KFOLs have fewer and more particular demands. For a kid, particularly a boy, the key components of a big castle are walls with castle windows, a throne room, a drawbridge, a catapult, knights, horses, a king, and if possible a dragon. These are traits that most flagship castle sets of the last decade have had. An AFOL would more likely seek out a castle that is livable as well as well-armed. A proper keep where the king can reside would be a big deal, and a dining hall would up the ante considerably. Incidentally, I don't think any LEGO castle set has properly achieved this, though surprisingly I had a remarkably well-rounded Mega Bloks castle as a kid. It had a griffon instead of a dragon, and I can't for the life of me find pictures of it online — I'll have to dig it out sometime and photograph it! It had plenty of drawbacks of course, but on the whole it had a lot of things I've found LEGO castles have often lacked. Incidentally, the LEGO Friends theme has a lot more of this emphasis on "livability" than the typical boy-oriented sets aimed at the same age range. I think this is just a matter of different priorities, though, not a matter of girls being more "grown-up" than their peers. After all, boys also tend to like a lot of larger-than-life action, which is largely absent from the LEGO Friends theme. I think a lot of adult LEGO Castle fans would abhor a flagship LEGO castle that emphasized livability only without any soldiers and weapons for medieval battles. Now, moving on to what I personally like in sets... well, I suppose a lot of traditionalist AFOLs would disagree, but I really like sets with a lot of story behind them. Action figure themes have been a passion of mine since the days of Throwbots/Slizer, and even in traditional themes I've tended to prefer themes taking place in "invented worlds", from the recent stuff like Hero Factory or Ninjago to themes from my childhood like Ice Planet or Aquazone. Being able to immerse myself in a theme like that is a great motivator. I like sets with good pieces, but the aesthetics and functionality of the finished model tend to be what decides how high a priority a set is for me. After all, I can't properly explore what to do with the pieces until I have them in front of me to fiddle around with! Digital building is a great asset for me, and one I use with reckless abandon, but it's not a substitute for being able to compare the sizes and shapes of parts in my hand and turn them around in every direction until I'm seized by inspiration. The only times I'll buy sets just for the pieces are if I have a MOC underway that I know needs particular parts, and I know what sets I have to buy to obtain those parts. I collect minifigures, but rarely with a completionist's mindset. Typically when I decide to collect a theme, I plan out the sets and figures I want the most and give those highest priority. Then there's a lower tier of priority for sets that would get me figures I don't have. The lowest tier of priority is sets that don't excite me and which have figures I'm likely to get in other sets.

I don't think in magazines this kind of thing should be a problem. Frankly, they could cut and glue the parts together or warp them into the positions they want in magazine pictures and it wouldn't make a difference to me. Generally magazine features like this are meant to show the product in fantasy situations. If it came down to it as a matter of honesty, I'd be fine if TLG continued using digitally-altered renders for some promotional images and simply included a disclaimer that the physical minifigures could not do that same thing. But I don't believe there's any legal need for TLG to do this, and as far as I'm concerned there's no ethical need either.

"More cartoon episodes" is not necessarily at their discretion, though. To broadcast the episodes on major cable networks as they did with Ninjago, TLG probably has to operate according to when those networks choose to air them. TLG could release the episodes for free on their own sites, but that would not get them as much exposure among people who are not already dedicated LEGO fans, and would likely make it difficult to sign contracts for cable broadcasts and home video (DVD/Blu-Ray) releases.

Wow, that's a lot of dedication, paying prices like that! But I'm glad you're satisfied with your purchases!

Yeah, the new head is great. I can't wait to see what the rest of the MOC will look like once it undergoes similar changes!

Well, sort of. But Breez and Rocka have the same color visor whereas Scarox's and Ogrum's brains have two different shades of green. Likewise, Evo and Stormer have the same color visor while the brains in Aquagon and Frost Beast are different shades of blue. Overall, though, you're correct, and I think it's an extension of how all the heroes and villains have corresponding color schemes.

Very neat. The whole design has a wonderful sculptural quality, like the majority of your MOCs. The head is clever and has a lot of personality. The orange accents for the feet and claws are also quite nice. From the side view, there's a gap between the neck and torso that bothers me a bit, but I imagine it would not be conspicuous from most angles.

Oh yeah, that's one other thing: a foot piece with an ankle one module lower than the ankle of the current 2.0 foot piece. This would be great for three reasons. First, it'd be fairly well-proportioned on smaller figures, or at least no less well-proportioned than foot pieces with the ankle in its typical position. Second, it'd work well with a friction joint for larger figures, as opposed to current foot pieces like those used for Stormer XL and Furno XL which lead to ridiculously high ankle placement. And third, it would be a lot more versatile for sculptural applications since the ball cup wouldn't stick off of it the same way as on the current foot piece. In other words, you could use it as an armor piece similarly to how the Toa Metru foot is used on sets like Brutaka.

Great improvements! The new skirt is very elegant and feels a lot more cohesive than the old one, which failed to match the symmetry of the rest of the design. The new boots are also brilliant. The redesigned neck is also a real improvement. I didn't find the old neck design too distracting but comparing the two it's obvious which is better. The new hat is also nice. The only change I can't say I like is the new design for the upper legs. The Rahkshi heads are stylistically consistent with the Rahkshi backs, but the curve of the thigh no longer feels as graceful as it did with the Toa Metru feet. I sympathize with the structural issues you encountered! I know what it's like to have a model that looks great but has finicky connections that come apart with the slightest tumble. Generally I prefer to avoid those in my models, but sometimes a solution is elegant enough visually that I don't expect to match it with a sturdier connection. Three of the models I have constructed right now have parts held in by friction.

This is a nice revamp conceptually, though I think it has some disadvantages. The two ammo belts would look neat on their own, but covered with Hero Cores they clutter the build somewhat and conceal the muscular torso design which is one of Core Hunter's most distinctive features. Perhaps if they were not wrapped around the body so tightly they would not pose such a problem. I'm not especially fond of the upper leg armor. It leaves a lot of the beam exposed from front view and makes Core Hunter appear somewhat gangly (perhaps if his legs were bent more, as if he were carrying a lot of weight, or if he had shorter upper leg beams, it'd work more effectively). I feel like you went a bit overboard with the spikes as well (it's the feet in particular where I feel they are a bit distracting and superfluous). The armor on the back of the legs is nice, and flows well with Core Hunter's design. The shield on his right arm is also very nicely designed, though I think it's also a bit excessive and adds to the cluttered feeling of the design. It would be a great design to reuse on another MOC in the future. The changes you made to thee claw are excellent, and I don't think you need to change that any further. It's rare that a BIONICLE or Hero Factory model incorporates such an engaging play feature. The reverse side of the claw feels a bit cluttered with Technic elements and rubber bands, but this is more or less irrelevant since his arm helps to conceal these attributes. Overall there are a lot of great ideas in this MOC. I just feel like having all those ideas in a single MOC leads to those features competing for my attention, which distracts from what would otherwise have been a very elegant model. Perhaps if you wanted to use all of these ideas on your Core Hunter revamp, you could have designed him to have a bunch of modular tools and accessories that he could switch out for one another, instead of trying to cram all these features onto the MOC at the same time.

I'd like to see a symmetrical armor piece that attaches to the crotch joint of the Hero Factory torso beam, perhaps something somewhat resembling the codpiece used on Toa from the first three BIONICLE movies, or the lower section of the 2.0 torso shell. It could be around 3x3x3, much like the basic 3M shell. My reason for this is that the numerous connection points on the upper body of Hero Factory torso shells makes it very easy to create custom armor solutions for figures of this size. However, in many cases, such as Toxic Reapa, Furno XL, and Jet Rocka, this leaves the lower torso conspicuously exposed, which is not helped by the fact there is such a difference in width between the hips and waist of the torso beam. A piece like this could make custom armor solutions a lot easier, and furthermore with a generic ball snap in its design it could easily be used as an alternate style of armor on limbs. It would additionally be a good first step towards designing models with waist articulation. It would mean that the crotch of a figure would no longer be directly level with the hip joints, which improves proportions for many models. And it would allow the torso to be armored just as well from the front and back, something which is currently very difficult. Sets that include back armor, such as the medium-sized Hero sets from 2012 and 2013, rarely have back armor substantial enough to cover the upper and lower torso, though armoring the lower torso isn't necessarily as important as covering the hollow chest cavity. This is the only armor piece I think is conspicuously absent from Hero Factory. Other areas that often go without armor, such as the back, are generally easy enough to arrive at a custom solution for using existing pieces (a dedicated back armor piece would be nice, of course, but with the current torso shell's connection points I find it hard to envision one that would not be especially limiting). A feminine chest plate for torso shells, much like the more masculine one introduced in the Super Heroes theme, would be nice in some contexts, especially if it can still support a Hero Core or similar details, but this would make more of a difference in set designs than in MOCs — feminine MOCs can be achieved in many ways with existing pieces, even if the end result is more complex than would be acceptable in a set at the same scale.

Great review, Hinckley! It was a very fun read with all the in-depth tangents and running gags, but also provided a very thorough look at the set. It was great that you used both the official and Bricklink names of the colors (gotta edumacate the peoples) and went through the build in great detail. Only one color error jumps out at me: in the parts section, you refer to the color of the quarter-domes as "124 Bright Reddish Yellow (Magenta)". The box having only the set number and recommended age range is normal for European boxes (and to my knowledge, all boxes for sets released in regions outside North America). The map in the instructions looks nice. I should point out that while it might hint at what future sets might be, it doesn't likely hint at what they'll look like. The 2012 version of the map had a pool, for instance, but it was rather generic and didn't at all resemble the pool that came out this year. 2013 marketing materials (including the interactive one on the LEGO Friends site's products page) swapped out many of these more generic landmarks for their more distinctive set-based counterparts. Regarding the pretzels, this is the way I've always seen them oriented, so maybe it's a regional thing. As an example, this is how they're oriented in the logo of Auntie Anne's, a chain that is a staple of indoor shopping malls, at least here on the east coast of the United States where I've spent most of my life. As far as the body type of the LEGO Friends figures is concerned, I feel obligated to point out that one reason they might seem rail-thin is that their heads are out-of-proportion with their bodies. Like classic minifigures, they are about four heads tall, whereas girls in the 11-14 age range that the main characters of LEGO Friends are supposed to fall into would normally be depicted at around six heads tall. In any event, they have far more meat on their bones than a number of fashion dolls, which might have similarly-thin waists at an exaggerated seven or eight heads tall. Don't get me wrong; the LEGO Friends figures definitely have thin, idealized physiques. But not unrealistically so. I also find it somewhat ironic that you say the classic minifigures tend to look overweight with Friends hair. I don't really think it makes them look any heavier than normal, though Stephanie's hair results in ridiculously long bangs. Besides, I think minifigures' chunky, block-like proportions are part of what gives them their unique charm. Thanks so much for the review!

He was used in the BIONICLE story already. Specifically, Gaardus appeared in the story serial The Powers that Be on BIONICLEstory.com. He will not be used in Hero Factory.

Yes, definitely. And that's by design. LEGO is by nature a toy, and kids are consistently the most reliable market for toys. So there would be very little money in designing a line as big as the Lord of the Rings theme that didn't appeal to kids at all. At the same time, when you design something to cater to diverse audiences, its design won't be as focused towards any of them nearly as much as if you're targeting one audience in particular. So it's not that no kids are buying the Lord of the Rings sets — it's just that there are enough who aren't that the market can support another medieval fantasy theme geared towards that particular demographic.

Well, I think on the whole there are many parts of today's pop-cultural landscape that don't tend to favor complex storytelling and world-building the way the late 90s and early 2000s did. Obviously there's some room for complex storytelling, but kids' pop culture today doesn't seem to revolve as much around franchises like Pokémon which encourage kids to memorize hundreds of factoids. Instead, look at one of the video games that has a huge, kid-oriented marketing profile today: Grumpy Sparrows. A lot of its success comes from the fact that it's something people of all ages can more or less "jump into" enjoying without any background knowledge. At the same time, that's not to say kids aren't open to these kinds of dense stories. It's just not the sort of thing that you can invariably rely on as a mechanism for selling toys. Even when BIONICLE was new, that kind of thing was a real gamble — it was just a gamble that happened to pay off for a few years. And in the long run the ever-shifting, ever-expanding story managed to alienate lots and lots of people. EDIT: That's a peculiar word filter. Y'all know what I meant.

The PotC issue had nothing to do with Photoshop, though. The products were photographed with the Metallized Gold elements, but the first production run of sets ended up shipping with Warm Gold coins and ingots instead because TLG discovered after-the-fact that they did not have enough of the chrome material to satisfy initial demand. Anyway, I personally have no problem with the decision to use photo editing software or digital rendering techniques for box art. Frankly, I think kids are generally intelligent enough to tell the difference. The issue of some Creator cars having their wheels turned when the actual set does not allow this is something I agree is misleading, but frankly this is the first I've heard of it and from what some other people have said it seems like a practice that has been discontinued. Renders are something I tend to like in a lot of contexts because they result in extremely attractive images. Issues with metallic materials not looking correct in rendered images are rarely deliberate attempts to mislead the consumer... it's just extremely difficult to render some metallic elements, particularly "pearl" elements, realistically. As far as the Palace Cinema is concerned, I have the set and see no discrepancy between the official pictures and the actual model. As far as I can tell none of the official pics are renders, just photos taken with well-controlled lighting. As for things like the bent legs and arms on some minifigure images, I think kids know the LEGO minifigure well enough to recognize when it is being presented in a modified pose that a physical minifigure could not replicate. BIONICLE sets used to do the same thing, back when a lot of the models used one-piece limbs that lacked knee and elbow articulation, but like the collectible minifigures, the official images of these sets are meant to showcase the character rather than the toy alone. Regarding the Minecraft set, it looks like the people building it for the official photos simply took care to conceal parts with molding marks inside the model and keep all the exterior studs as clean as possible. Even the photograph you show has a couple studs that lack any obvious molding marks (such as one Medium Stone Grey plate on the left side, one Dark Stone Grey plate towards the center, and one green tile on the bottom edge); TLG simply had the time and parts at their disposal to ensure that every exposed part matched that quality. No photoshop necessary.

I've read about one potential issue with this. Back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, LEGO designers were discouraged from taking individual credit for sets because it was felt that this eroded the cooperative attitude of the company, so there might not be any record of which designers worked on early LEGO Space sets. LEGO Designers only really started to get individual credit for their models in the mid-2000s, if I remember correctly. But I agree that if this were possible, it would be a fantastic feature. I think the human side of the LEGO brand — the people whose ideas and accomplishments make our favorite themes what they are — is perhaps one of the most fascinating things about the company. I know one of the major designers for Space themes from the very beginning of LEGO Space through the design of M-Tron and "Sea-Tron", an unreleased theme which was eventually developed into Aquazone. Beyond LEGO Space, one of his most noteworthy achievements was the invention of the LEGO minifigure. Current set designer and AFOL Mark Stafford (Nabii) conducted a really enlightening interview with Jens Nygaard Knudsen for the Summer 2009 issue of BrickJournal.

Back when Greg Farshtey was still on BZPower, he was asked if there could ever be a Hero Factory/BIONICLE crossover and he confirmed that there would not, as the two themes do not take place in the same multiverse. It's sort of like how there would never be a canon crossover between BIONICLE and the real world. Anyway, I don't think The LEGO Group is worried about Hero Factory becoming too popular. I think it's more a matter of gauging interest and determining what does or doesn't work. For instance, even in BIONICLE the larger sets tended not to sell as well as smaller ones that could be bought more or less on impulse. I also don't think Drop Ship sold all that well compared to the smaller sets. Thus, instead of sticking with a tradition that doesn't work for them, TLG kept all subsequent sets at a $35 price point or lower. Similarly, Hero Factory started out with a four-part miniseries, both to gauge interest and follow up on the contract that had been signed with Tinseltown Toons for the BIONICLE movies. But later waves reduced the amount of content for new episodes, probably because it was determined that there wasn't enough interest to justify that kind of investment each year. On the other hand, Hero Factory started out without any books, but in 2012 Scholastic began releasing chapter books and "young readers" guide books. Chances are this was because with the dwindling sales of the BIONICLE books in the theme's later years, books were initially deemed a risky investment, but the incredible success of the Ninjago books in 2011 showed that there was still an audience that would appreciate reading stories based on LEGO themes. It's all a matter of gauging demand for additional media platforms. Even new themes like Ninjago and Legends of Chima have to start out with a somewhat cautious marketing strategy. Legends of Chima is getting a full TV series, but that didn't stop Cartoon Network from airing the first two or three episodes far before the rest of the series, probably to gauge viewership rankings and determine what the ideal time slot would be for regular weekly airings. And the only reason it got such an expansive media profile its first year is because with Ninjago, The LEGO Group already proved their ability to command an audience for a diverse range of media. Ninjago had to prove itself with a 44-minute TV special before it got approved for a full series.

Well, TLG does give a lot of their themes a big multimedia push in their early years, particularly if they are expected to do well as "big bang" themes. Ninjago is a good example: its first year, it had chapter books, graphic novels, a 44-minute TV special, six two-minute mini-movies, and a number of web games. This is arguably even more than BIONICLE started out with: in its first year, BIONICLE didn't have any books, movies, or TV specials, instead focusing on a comic series and a web game, with a bit of additional supplementary material like a three-track music CD. Part of what determines what multimedia components will be incorporated into a new theme is just the knowledge of what works and what doesn't. It was a while before Hero Factory got any chapter books, which may have been because with the poor sales of the later BIONICLE chapter books, The LEGO Group and Scholastic thought a book series for such a similar theme might be a bit risky. The success of the Ninjago chapter books could very well be what inspired them to give Hero Factory books a shot.