Aanchir

The Zelda set might have licensing issues but frankly I don't see any reason to assume that at this point in time. The LEGO Group and Nintendo have a lot in common with regard to their audience and values, and with LEGO City Undercover being published by Nintendo exclusively for Nintendo consoles, there are signs that they recognize the mutual benefit that could come from a partnership. A lot of people seem to think that because K'Nex has the Mario Kart license, they have the exclusive rights to produce building toys based on Nintendo properties, but there's really no reason to assume this is the case. As for the new molds thing, it's true, TLG can produce new molds for regular sets fairly easily. But that doesn't apply the same way for LEGO Cuusoo sets because they simply aren't produced in large enough quantities to offset the upfront cost. They are experimental by nature, so they're produced in small batches according to demand. As Nabii says here, "Cuusoo sets are produced in batches of 10/20,000 whereas retail LEGO sets are produced with a minimum of half a million sets each. Sales pay for the mold which is a very expensive item - until Cuusoo sets go on sale demand is considered hard to predict, so the rule of no new molds was introduced." Sure, Ninja Turtle heads might not be used in any other themes ever, but if that cost is spread across 3.5 million sets or more instead of a number that could be as low as 10,000, it makes a huge difference.

It's good that this part of the LEGO Group's history is no longer being overlooked. I've heard it said many times that LEGO Star Wars SAVED the company, almost as many times as I've heard that BIONICLE saved the company. But in truth there was no silver bullet. There were several factors that helped TLG get back on top, not least of which was the restructuring that took place under Jorgen Vig Knudstorp. I'm grateful for LEGO Star Wars, though, because it definitely was a major step towards story themes like BIONICLE, Exo-Force, and Ninjago. These sorts of themes carried me through my teenage years, when many AFOLs might have experienced a dark age. And while some of these were a part of the overextension the article mentions, that didn't make them any less enjoyable for me growing up. Certainly The LEGO Group was already on a path towards these kinds of themes in 90s, which had a number of themes with rudimentary stories (Adventurers having perhaps the most developed of these). But today, with the LEGO Group on steadier financial footing, some of that post-LSW experience (including missteps like Galidor) has been invaluable in helping them to create themes like Ninjago which really knock the ball out of the park from the very beginning.

Wow, I haven't posted my own stuff for a while, huh? I guess I haven't done much stuff all year... Silly Artist Training Ground sketch for Equestria Daily. It's more weird than funny, but when inspiration calls, sometimes you just have to follow it into a dark alley and pray you still have your valuables when you come out! Or something. I guess that was probably another case of "more weird than funny". Moving on... This one was gift art for Andrew Francis, who celebrated a birthday yesterday. In the brony community there's a strong tradition of creating gift art for birthdays of the cast and crew, and I figured I'd take part this time. Andrew Francis voiced Jaller in BIONICLE: Mask of Light (which is having its ten-year anniversary this year!) and Twilight Sparkle's brother Shining Armor in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Since they're both the Captain of the Guard (the Ta-Koro Guard and the Equestria Royal Guard, respectively) I thought the coincidence was too funny not to celebrate. On a side note, this is technically the first drawing I've done that made Equestria Daily's Drawfriend (although I don't think birthday art compilations face the same strict scrutiny as the typical daily drawfriends). Since that last one was my most successful attempt ever at coloring a drawing with colored pencil, I have two other drawings I hope to color in the next few weeks. One is birthday art for a friend, one is fanart of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, and both are ponies. Gosh, even if I'm not nearly as productive artistically as I was in my teenage years, I'm happy that My Little Pony has been such a reliable source of inspiration lately.

Not necessarily: LEGO Cuusoo DOES have rules in place for new part projects, hinting that they're not going to simply dismiss those projects. New part projects follow different rules than other projects, though: instead of being sold individually, new part designs will be incorporated into regular-issue sets (hence why they can have new molds and set proposals can't: regular-issue sets are produced in quantities that can help subsidize the cost of a new mold, while Cuusoo sets are produced in small batches). Additionally, new part project creators are paid a flat, one-time fee rather than being paid a 1% royalty for every copy of the resulting product produced and sold. Overall, it's not clear exactly what will happen during the review period for new part projects, since none have reached the review threshold yet. But it's a little premature to say Cuusoo isn't intended to showcase new mold ideas when it's had rules to cover those types of projects since near the very beginning.

I think part of it is that its architecture is very distinct from past castles: instead of just being elaborate stonework, it has brown shingled roofs which add a lot of character. Additionally, like the King's Castle, it can be used to expand the previous King's Castle just by switching out the flags and cheese slopes. And also, it has a horse, two knights in full armor, and two additional knights. This, plus being the smallest set to include a building of any real substance, makes it a great first purchase for those who aren't keen on saving up for the King's Castle or can better justify a smaller purchase.

No, "Borg" is short for "Cyborg" (which refers to a robotic or half-robotic organism, essentially) which is where both Ninjago and Star Trek got the term. Not everything to use "borg" as a suffix is ripping off Star Trek; they're just creating a portmanteau with the word cyborg. Just like how the word "Nindroid" isn't a rip-off of Star Wars; it's just a portmanteau of Ninja and android, the term from which the Star Wars term "droid" is derived.

No, Furno's bike was bright orange, whereas the version of Furno that appeared in that set had no orange whatsoever in his color scheme (his arms and legs were bright red instead of flame yellowish orange like the stand-alone version). The books describe new rocket packs which Rocka invented, which presumably refers to the type in the Jet Rocka set. Also, it shouldn't be forgotten that sets are typically designed first and the story behind them comes later. It's possible that in the actual story the jetpack WOULDN'T have had Rocka's name on it as soon as he found it, and that was simply kept to make the animated version more accurate to the toy, and to prevent the need for designing entirely new decorations.

New parts to make it unique to Nex would be fine if there were a justification other than trying to match the pilot's armor color, which does more harm than good. More unique doesn't have to equal worse. Orange on the jetpack would work better if the orange parts being added were as streamlined as the ones they were replacing. This is not the case. Suddenly the blades which were previously a clear part of the wing itself feel like arbitrary add-ons, and the air intakes are far less smooth and enclosed.

Random facts: The official names of the fourth and third colors are 304 "Cool Silver, Diffuse" and 306 "Copper, Diffuse". The first color is also identified as Cool Silver, Diffuse in many instances but probably has a different base color. Speckle Black-Gold doesn't have its own color name and number. TLG's database simply identifies it as black, and the surface treatment is basically treated like a painted or printed pattern. This is much like how chrome colors used to be treated before the names 309 Metallized Silver and 310 Metallized Gold were introduced to identify the two chrome colors still in use. Sorry I couldn't answer any of your particular questions, but these are just what I happen to know about these colors.

Not fond of the amount of orange added to the jetpack. Not only does it make it less streamlined (and its lack of streamlining is one of the original model's weaknesses IMO), but I never see the point of a vehicle matching the color of the person who pilots it. It just makes it that much harder to tell where the vehicle ends and the pilot begins, whereas a contrasting color scheme (like Drop Ship, Rockoh T3, Axalara T9, etc.) is much more effective. Swapping out the transparent bright green parts for orange parts makes little sense anyway, as Nex already has Transparent Bright Green in his color scheme and the vehicle itself still has a Transparent Bright Green windscreen.

Yeah, I found that a bit peculiar as well. But then again it's a bit silly to think they'd be using the waterslide while the ship is moving. They're more responsible than that, right? :unsure:

Keep in mind that though LEGO Friends figs and minifigures are similar in size, LEGO Friends scale tends to be quite a lot larger than the typical modern-day LEGO City scale just on account of the amount of extra detail. LEGO Friends sets are closer to the modular buildings in this respect. A cabin cruiser like this in LEGO City would be much smaller (probably like this one or this classic from my childhood) since the kids buying it (mostly boys) might not be interested in spending so much money on details like kitchens, beds, and bathrooms. Instead, they'd likely expect to see more vehicles and more minifigures if they're paying this kind of price. Thus, the footprint of a typical LEGO Friends building is easily twice the size it might be in LEGO City, and the same applies to the Dolphin Cruiser. Thanks; this made my day!

I wouldn't be so sure, considering LEGO Technic figures had about the same points of articulation years before LEGO had even created any "action figure themes". So there's not necessarily any reason to think they were inspired by a competing product. It was just a natural extension of the build they had been using for their own products.

Sounds reasonably legit, though I remain at least a little bit wary because it's so unusual for set lists to be leaked this far in advance.

Great review. I really love this set design, though you do bring up some peculiar flaws like the transparent walls of the bathroom. Other than that and the lack of doors, though, the entirety of the model feels very "livable", which I find is one of the greatest strengths of the LEGO Friends line. "Everyday" details like bathrooms and sleeping quarters tend to get omitted from the more action-driven, boy-oriented sets in the LEGO lineup, but here they are every bit as important as the more action-oriented play features like the jetski. I like the color scheme of this model. It doesn't feel too unrealistic for a cabin cruiser. White with blue and pink accents feels summery rather than strictly girly, and as such feels a lot more natural than, say, last year's pink RV. The "boy" torso mold is a great addition to the theme, and I believe it's the fourth torso design to date (last year there was the "grown man" torso for Peter, the "grown woman" torso for Anna, and the "girl" torso for everyone else). LEGO Friends still lacks torso, leg, and arm pieces to depict younger children, but still, the addition of boys the same age as the main characters makes it feels a lot more well-rounded than before. The dolphins don't particularly bother me as far as inclusion in LEGO City is concerned. In the very least the "boy dolphin" has a fairly simple eye pattern compared to a lot of Friends critters. I do have one criticism of the review: you forgot the all-important photo of one of the dolphins on the waterskis!

May I just say that I'm terribly disappointed how few official pics are on shop.LEGO.com for even the largest set? I'm used to only having a couple pics in themes like Hero Factory where the model is relatively easy to decipher at a glance, without a whole lot of action features or interior details. Even this year when there stopped being official pics to demonstrate Technic functions or launcher functions I tolerated it. But this is getting ridiculous. The King's Castle has a lot of impressive features that I think would really increase its appeal if they were shown visually.

These names seem terribly implausible, and the numbers seem like they came from someone who realized "hey, the switch to 5-digit numbers frees up a lot of potential numbers for fake sets!" but didn't realize that all the new numbers this year tend to follow very specific rules within their particular themes. Overall, it's the same deal as "Rampant Oceans" and "Empire of Frost"... someone tried and failed to identify a pattern that would let them make convincing "predictions".

I've never come upon anything particularly graphic on Flickr either, helped of course by the fact that I mainly use it for LEGO-related content and that I keep "SafeSearch" on. Overall, there's almost no chance of coming across that kind of thing by accident if you're viewing LEGO content in particular, at least no more than there would be on Wikipedia or Google Image Search. As far as conscientious objection to using sites that host offensive photos is concerned, I think that's an overreaction. It'd be like deciding you wouldn't go to the library anymore because some of their romance novels might include sex scenes, or deciding you wouldn't go to an art museum because there are nudes in some of their paintings and sculpture. If that kind of thing really offends you so much, just learn to avert your eyes, or in this case, use the site's built-in tools to protect yourself from offensive content. And if you DO end up coming across something illicit completely by accident even after having taken reasonable precautions, THEN you're perfectly justified in curtailing your use of the site.

That's a somewhat unusual request... normally, particularly with licensed themes, people complain if there are any important or familiar characters in a battle pack because it means you'll end up with unnecessary duplicates if you buy multiples. Personally, I think it's nice that this battle pack includes more "generic" characters.

Additionally, it seems like it might not be an entirely official description, since it's described as "Green Ninja ZX" and the Lloyd ZX minifigure is just called "Green Ninja". Perhaps they didn't know quite what to call it. The DK books are not always the most official in their terminology... I've seen some that create quite a bit of confusion by using color names that are neither official nor intuitive, like "sand" for Tan (officially, Brick Yellow, not to be confused with dark tan, which is officially Sand Yellow).

Part of it is probably just that small, seasonal sets of this kind probably don't get the budget to put a lot of new parts into production, and this torso was still in production on account of being used in this recent set. Additionally, it is not out-of-the-ordinary for people to go to the beach for reasons other than to swim... beachcombing, partying, or just relaxing. Additionally, a tropical-patterned shirt like this in real life might have short sleeves or at least have the sleeves rolled up. TLG has not demonstrated that they can print all the way around a minifigure arm with their current machines, though, so the options for minifigure outfits are usually "long-sleeved" and "sleeveless". Likewise, he'd likely be wearing shorts, but the Chinese-made minifigure legs with shorts are usually from the Collectible Minifigures and thus not kept in production for long stretches of time. Thus, all that the budget for a set like this would likely allow would be "long pants" or "briefs". Overall, with these factors in mind I don't think his outfit is too outlandish.

Pretty neat. The model doesn't seem especially feminine to me, but then again any gender clues in official sets were always extremely subtle if they were there at all, and as you said this didn't start out as a female character and wasn't an attempt to make an especially human-like model. Personally, I prefer female characters to look feminine, not just because I really appreciate the effort it takes to make a model with realistic human proportions, but also because the average person's inclination when they see a robotic-looking figure is to treat it as male or genderless, so I think additional clues come in handy. Regardless of gender, I feel like the lower body and waist could use a bit more bulk. The very bulky upper body and legs make the rail-thin lower body stand out, and not in a good way. The model also has other proportional issues that just bother me a bit, such as the upper arms being so very long and the lower arms being so very short. Design choices I really like include the generator turbines on her back and the back of her legs, which make the model seem very unique and serve as a unified design motif. The transparent light blue accents work remarkably well with the silver, black, and flame yellowish orange color scheme, and the kneepads work great both in terms of shaping and providing a splash of color for the legs. Additionally, the fact that a model this size can hold its own weight in such a wide variety of poses is in itself an accomplishment. Overall, the body proportions are my main pet peeve with this model. Everything else works very nicely.

I haven't forgotten them. Since I got back from college I haven't been able to get out to bookstores often, and the first time I did (last week) they didn't have a single copy of Mirror World. The readers last year didn't offer a whole lot of info you can't get elsewhere (the most we really got from one last year was an explanation of just what was going on with Voltix in the beginning of the Breakout special), but perhaps now with the content reduction of the website they might have a little more redeeming value. I do kind of miss how BIONICLE's readers would have hand-drawn illustrations and brand-new stories instead of just screenshots, product images, and stock art, though.

Well, Hero Factory has had non-combatant citizens and animals since its first wave as well — just not as sets. In 2010 there were a handful of non-combatant citizens in the Mission: Von Nebula game including Raven Su, a professor from Makuhero University Research Facility, Daniela Capricorn, an on-the-scene reporter for Hero News Network, and of course the Hero Factory support staff Nathaniel Zib, Quadal, Big Joe, and Lucy. There were even more non-combatant characters in Hero Factory FM, probably in part because as a podcast/radio show there was no need to create visible character designs. But overall, I think one reason we don't see sets of non-combatant characters in Hero Factory is because Hero Factory's non-hero, non-villain characters tend to be genuine civilians. In BIONICLE, even "civilian" characters were presented as having to fight to defend themselves on occasion, and were armed with "tools" like disks or Kolhii sticks that could double as weapons. In 2006 the writers gave up any pretense of these tools being anything other than weapons, and after that point every small set had at least one dedicated weapon. In Hero Factory, the side characters are almost never seen armed, except in the case of Chief Drax from the Mekron City police department. Even those who work in the Hero Factory mostly have desk jobs. Another reason is of course that civilian figures might not perform any useful function as far as sales are concerned. Generally the characters in BIONICLE designed to be most desirable were heroes and villains. Civilians were invariably smaller models designed as impulse buys or as "accessories" to a larger item like the Power Pack or a vehicle set. It's possible that TLG no longer sees any money in an "impulse" price point in the Hero Factory theme. Then again, it's possible that market might emerge again sometime and that's part of why I'd like to see TLG innovate more with smaller figures. Animal or robot assistants like those in the Exo-Force theme's final year would be ideal since they could either go into battle with heroes and villains or simply act as supporting characters.

Well, one thing to keep in mind with certain models is that the inherent flexibility of the building system can present a challenge, particularly with any model that is meant to enclose a figure. Without internal bracing that reduces the space for a figure, it would be easy for a model with an open interior to collapse in on itself if held the wrong way. I'm not a big fan of Jet Rocka but I understand that some amount of Technic is a necessity for its functionality. I just wish some more Hero Factory shells and Technic panels had been used to decorate it instead of so many exposed beams... but then again, I felt the same way about Speeda Demon's bike and later grew to love it, so perhaps I'll also find Jet Rocka is more appealing "in the brick" than in pictures and videos. That wouldn't really help with its other flaws like the pointlessly oversized Rocka figure, but it might help redeem the construction of the jetpack itself. In any case, Jet Rocka is not a set I intend to buy myself. Getting back on topic, one thing I've always thought might be neat is some more smaller Hero Factory figures. I've done some doodling on LDD and have come up with designs for a dog, falcon, and monkey (the dog is the only one I've built in real life, and he looks great). Even if they weren't sets of their own, wouldn't it be cool to have a team of Heroes who each have a small robot buddy, kind of like Toa Mahri Jaller and his Hahnah Crab? Or perhaps a set like the BIONICLE Master Builder Set from 2002 that allows you to build an assortment of small animal models? I plan to see about designing more smaller models of this sort, and who knows? I might even be able to come up with something I'm happy enough with to make into a LEGO Cuusoo proposal.