Aanchir

They do differentiate them. Thematically, they're both European medieval fantasy, and the IPs share some traits like dragons (though the LotR and Hobbit sets have yet to include any), but that's about as far as the similarities go. The Lord of the Rings has primarily non-human baddies as well as several other fantasy races, whereas the new Castle line has exclusively human soldiers in both factions (even if other fantasy elements are maintained). The Lord of the Rings has very distinctive fantasy architecture in earthy colors, whereas the new Castle theme has more archetypical castles with brightly-colored accents. The Lord of the Rings has a focus on distinctive, named characters, whereas the new Castle theme's characters are all nameless archetypes. A new Vikings theme or other historical theme might have stood out more from the Lord of the Rings, but from what we've seen Vikings lack the timeless appeal of more traditional Castle themes. And frankly, the Lord of the Rings and Castle themes already have plenty of features differentiating them.

It's because the "expert model" category is being rebranded across-the-board as "Creator Expert", since the advanced models and Creator sets share a lot of designers and are more or less based on the same design principles (making creative use of existing parts). Unless there is another change in branding at some point in the future, all future modular buildings will be branded as Creator Expert. The Sydney Opera House set is not a modular building. There's not really any way it COULD be, considering that the distinctive architecture of the Sydney Opera House would be wholly incompatible with a city block, and furthermore I can't think of any practical way the Sydney Opera House could be released as a set in minifigure scale. Chances are it will be something more along the lines of the Taj Mahal set: a large-scale sculpture of the real landmark.

This version of this song is on an remix album I just downloaded (Equestrian Revolution 2.0), and the is also quite good. Normally I don't indulge in stuff this shippy, but the lyrics are quite heartfelt.

Yes, and LEGO reuses names all the time (Hero Factory has an Alpha Team, Exo-Force was a drome racing team before it was a theme inspired by Japanese mecha, Slizer was used as the name of a Space Police III villain, etc). Plus, as for it sounding generic, that was also what people said about Garmatron. The LEGO Group loves generic robot names. Frankly I think these names sound fairly genuine, but of course we've had enough hints that a person could conceivably make up convincing new set names, so there are no guarantees.

Yes, they do. These are the new ones, which appear when you search for Toxic Reapa's parts on the LEGO Customer Service site. In fact, they've replaced the old feet in the Customer Service inventory for all Hero Factory sets. The old ones, which are listed in the instruction manual, have a different Element ID and a different Design ID, and they still show up in the Customer Service inventories for BIONICLE sets that used that part.

Regarding "Breakout", it might be because Cryoshell is trying to promote themselves more heavily as serious musicians now. Or perhaps the "Bye Bye Babylon" EP didn't bring in much money when it was released on iTunes as well as for free (in a slightly edited version) on the BIONICLE site. Perhaps it's similar to the reason the Ninjago episodes got taken off of YouTube: media distributors don't often like releasing media on disk if people are downloading it on the internet for free, and Cryoshell doesn't want to close the door on the possibility of a future physical release for Breakout. Or perhaps Cryoshell or their recording studio just wanted to be paid an additional fee for the rights to distribute the music on the LEGO site, and the LEGO Group didn't consider that a worthwhile investment. There are a number of possibilities, and they all inevitably boil down to money. We can't blame them — even if some musicians are fine with people downloading their music for free, many would probably be less fine with companies using their music for promotional reasons (which a free download on the Hero Factory site would definitely be) without some kind of payment in return. Hero Factory FM's episode 12 was allegedly the penultimate episode, but here Dave Carr (the writer and voice of Nathaniel Zib in that series) describes it as a "12-episode podcast", so it's possible a 13th episode was never written or recorded. Perhaps we are supposed to assume that Mak's antics in the 12th episode got him fired or moved to a different job.

One of my favorite video reviewers is ArtifexCreations. He uses stop-motion to show the entire build of a set from beginning to end, and also does a great job showing off all the features of the set and its minifigures from all angles. He also demonstrates the playability of the sets, and makes tasteful use of post-production effects (his reviews of the Ninjago spinners are quite a sight to behold).

What problem do you have with Cragger? He's not necessarily as well-armored as the others, but I think he's pretty cool just in terms of being one of the more unique builds.

One issue with this is that it reduces playability if you don't have both protagonists and antagonists. I much prefer the way things are being done nowadays, especially since it means each wave we get a nice mix of more traditional humanoid heroes and beastly villains.

Sweet custom helmet! It's always a real accomplishment to create a helmet that is this unique-looking, but which still feels cohesive. The rest of the model is also nice. I have particular praise for the muscular chest, which adds a lot to the model. The legs don't feel quite as cohesive as the rest of the model, but they still look OK.

Thank you for this post. I knew there were a number of factors other than currency conversion involved, but for the most part I've always had to speculate about why Australian prices are what they are (the population density thing was one thing I apparently guessed correctly). It's good to see a post that goes through some of the major factors in a clear, easy-to-understand fashion.

Right here. I just posted there earlier today. There's also this topic for wanted decorations.

I'm not sure what you mean... I'd say Furno XL's main weapon is definitely his sword, which he holds in his left hand. Anyway, in Hero Factory, the hand that holds the main weapon has always been variable. I marked characters as "ambidextrous" who have weapons of similar prominence in both hands, such as Mark Surge, Breez 2.0, or Toxic Reapa. Classic heroes: three right-handed, one left-handed, three ambidextrous Classic villains: two right-handed, three left-handed, two ambidextrous 2.0 heroes: three right-handed, two left-handed, one ambidextrous Fire villains: two right-handed, one left-handed, one ambidextrous 3.0 heroes: three right-handed, two left-handed, one ambidextrous (plus Rocka XL, who is left-handed) Witch Doctor: right-handed Breakout heroes: two right-handed, seven left-handed (this is disputable in Stringer's case since his weapon is designed to resemble a guitar: the hand he holds it with is his right, but he "plays" it with his left) Breakout villains: Three right-handed, one left-handed, five ambidextrous One reason why a lot of characters tend to wield their main melee weapon in their left hand is simply that it adds to playability for a figure to carry a functional weapon (more often than not, a projectile weapon) in the buyer's dominant hand. Since there are far more right-handed people than left-handed people in the world, that means a lot of sets with projectile weapons have them in the character's right hand. Note that since so few characters this year wield projectile weapons in their hands (only Bulk sort of counts), the majority of the characters wield their main melee weapon in their right hand. Exceptions include Furno XL, Ogrum, Evo, and a few ambidextrous villains.

Oh my gosh... I'm probably way late to the party, but the LEGO Friends product page is amazing! I was just visiting the site and discovered this. What a brilliant way to do a product page! Not the most user-friendly for someone actively seeking out info on a certain set, but the sense of adventure created by the "map screen" is fantastic! Some of the summer sets can be seen on the map screen, though they don't yet have the pink markers that indicate a product. I wonder whether any other future products are hiding out on this page. One thing's for sure: I'll bet you could find loads of inspiration for Friends MOCs on this page!

LEGO Friends figure parts would be great to have... All the Design IDs listed are accurate for all instances of that part, with the exception of heads which have different Design IDs depending on their decoration. I do not know the Design IDs of those heads without decorations (or even whether they have any, since LEGO Friends heads are preassembled parts like legs and torsos, and they've never appeared in sets without decorations). TORSO, GIRL W/ARM 1, megablocks. (92456) TORSO, BOY W/ARM 1, megablocks. (11408) TORSO, WOMAN W/ARM 1, megablocks. (92816) TORSO, MAN W/ARM 1, megablocks. (92815) FEMALE HIP W/ SKIRT 1 (92818) FEMALE, HIP WITH SKIRT 2, megablocks. (92820) FEMALE, HIP W/SKIRT 3 (92817) FEMALE HIP WITH SKIRT 4, megablocks. (11407) FEMALE, HIP W/SHORTS NO.1 (92819) FEMALE HIP WITH SHORT 2, megablocks. (11403) HIP W/PANTS 1, megablocks. (92821) HEAD, FEMALE 1 (95514) HEAD, BOY 1 (14014) HEAD, MALE 1 (11818) Hairpieces too: WIG, STRAIGHT 1 (92255) WIG, WAVY 1 (92256) WIG, PONYTAIL 1 (92257) WIG, TIED BACK 1 (92258) WIG, PLAIT NO. 1 (11605) EDIT: Every instance of "Megablocks" in this post, as my brother points out SHOULD be "assembled" shortened to three letters... and would be, if not for Eurobricks's word filter.

Generally I can ignore the shrieking since I have a policy of watching video reviews without the sound whenever possible. But it is annoying to me when a person just looks at the camera and talks, or holds up a part or model and talks without using the time efficiently by turning it around and showing more detail. In many cases of course I can't blame the reviewer if they're just holding up a part/model and talking since for all I know they might be saying things that would be hard to show on camera, like describing the model's weight or texture.

Perhaps it's not a set number, but a date (7/1/90)? Though not sure what date it'd be... Henrik Andersen is certainly older than 23, given how long he's been designing sets, so it can't be his date of birth. Alternatively, perhaps he designed the original Millennium Falcon set, and this is a sort of a "throwback".

Not the very first — you're forgetting the Hero Recon Team chestplate. Anyway, LEGO customer service has instruction manuals and inventories of the new Hero Factory sets up (not 100% complete yet, but still cool since we get to see pics of many of the new parts). I have to say, I'm quite fond of the summer masks and helmets. Stormer's is the only one I'm not totally certain I like, since his eyeslit isn't as wide as on the classic version which looks kind of odd. But Evo's looks possibly even cooler than the Breakout version, even if it's looking less and less like his original 2.0 helmet. Also, I'm less and less sure about the color of Dragon Bolt's brain. The picture from LEGO Customer Service makes it look like it may in fact be a three-color blend, but what three colors I can't say. Of course, since it's a render the colors could be misleading anyway. Based on the render and LEGOJANG's video review, I'm going to go ahead and say Transparent Light Blue, White Glow, and Bright Yellow, which means two of the three colors would match the lightning pieces he, Speeda Demon, and Voltix use. But I could be wrong about that third color — could be Transparent Yellow, and I'd have to see the part for myself to have a better idea. EDIT: Actually, the part image and the instructions make it seem like there may be a fourth color — Transparent Bright Green — in there. Is it even remotely possible that this is a four-color part? Or is this just a visual shortcut since the renders used in the instruction manuals and inventories can't really show a smooth blend? Perhaps Front could shed some light on the subject. You can see the inventories on Brickset: Surge, Dragon Bolt, Stormer, Frost Beast, Evo, Aquagon, and Jet Rocka.

New heroes every year could be kind of cool, but the main reason I'm not keen on the idea is we get so little character development each year. And if we only get to see the characters develop in small ways with each new wave, I want to spend as much time with them as possible. If Hero Factory had its own full TV series, then it would probably be a lot easier for the characters to get consistent character development, and thus easier to switch out the roster each year, though of course then we might have the opposite problem: people would become attached to them very quickly and become disgruntled if the team they were following abruptly disappeared into the background.

Thanks so much! I was worried we'd never see more official pics of the King's Castle. It sure is a beautiful set.

"SLIZER" was used as a password in one cutscene from the "Mission: Savage Planet" online game. That's the most direct shout-out there's been to my knowledge. Slizer was also the name of a character in Space Police III, though that may be just another instance of using a name that's already cleared legal (just like the use of "Alpha Team" in Hero Factory, or the theme name "Exo-Force" which was previously one of the racing teams in the Drome series of LEGO Racers).

The books aren't all that dark... Legion of Darkness had about the same tone as the episodes, except fewer corny jokes. The Doom Box had a lot higher stakes than any other Hero Factory stories, and books three and four have a lot of horror tropes, but it's not an across-the-board tonal shift. I haven't picked up Mirror World yet. Neither of the bookstores I've checked since getting home from college has had it.

Seems more like an indication that they were going to call her the queen but test audiences and focus groups preferred to think of her as a princess. It wouldn't surprise me. In My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, we see something similar: the ruling monarchs of Equestria are "princesses" because thanks to Disney, girls tend to think of princesses as heroines and queens as haughty oppressors.

I didn't realize we still hadn't seen pics of these sets on cache.LEGO.com. Here are some pics I saw on Flickr around a week ago. Not fond of the fawn... the chubby cheeks and wide forehead on an animal that should have a very thin face just make it look deformed, more like a dog than a deer. But perhaps others will disagree.

No, I wouldn't say that's true at all. In Hero Factory, what makes the characters different from one another is the design of the models, not the design of the parts. Evo from the Breakout series looks radically different from Surge from the Breakout series because although they are the same size and use the same torso shell, Evo's central design motifs are his armored boots and Tank Arm, which gives him an asymmetrical design. In contrast, Surge has a different boot design and two muscular-looking shoulders with upward-facing spikes on them. His design, other than his weapons, is symmetrical. Then throw in the villain sets from that wave which shared the same price point (Jawblade, Toxic Reapa, and Thornraxx) and you have a very diverse range of character designs, not unlike the Glatorian wave of BIONICLE. Even the 2.0 heroes, the most uniform series of heroes since the theme's first wave, showed how non-specific parts could be used to make a number of unique character designs. Every figure's legs were armored differently, but unlike in BIONICLE this didn't mean using different specialized part designs for the legs of each figure: it was all done with just three different beams and three different shells. Contrast this with every BIONICLE canister set design from 2003-2006, where the colors, story roles, masks, and weapons were the only things making the members of each group substantially different from one another. Even the Glatorian are no more unique than the heroes and villains of the Breakout series.