Aanchir

Since the building system was introduced, I've wanted them to maybe make a hovercar or something based on the building system. Obviously Technic is more practical for the more functional parts of a vehicle like wheels, but I still feel like a vehicle based on this building system would be a cool thing to see in the future. Stormer XL's chest plate could definitely be used as a panel for, say, the hood/bonnet of a Hero Factory vehicle.

Yeah, that's a good point. In fact, that's what they used to do for videos and mini-movies on the LEGO site: offer a "highband" and "lowband" version. But I think this is at least one of the motivations. Another motivation is of course that smaller filesizes would also make web hosting a lot cheaper and reduce the amount being downloaded from the LEGO site on a regular basis. A lot of large downloads could potentially slow down loading times for other users visiting the LEGO site. But I don't know all that much about the LEGO site architecture or how much it costs to host so much content (I've only taken one year of introductory web design and am nowhere near as knowledgable about it as my younger brother), so this is largely guesswork.

Actually, this helmet is from Sir Kentis. But they're both armored in green so confusion is understandable. I'm curious about the helmet, to be honest. Did you get this part used, or did you do something to it to make it that color? As I remember it, that helmet originally had a speckled, glittery surface treatment, but yours seems to have a smooth metallic finish. It could of course be a variant from a later production run. I like what you did to fill out the hips. It works very effectively, and the legs in general look quite nice. The physique is very thin and somewhat feminine in appearance, but it really works well for the model. The one part I'm unsure about is the way the shoulders are attached. As far as shape is concerned it looks great, but I feel like this design would limit articulation. Putting a 3M Hero Factory beam between the upper arm and the shoulder would improve articulation but might hurt the model's lean, limber appearance. Overall, yet another stunning MOC! You are truly gifted when it comes to creating creative large-scale figures like these.

The graphics quality actually varies depending on when the instruction booklet is from and when it was uploaded. If you look at the instructions of a handful of 90s sets on the LEGO server, they are phenomenal quality. All the pictorial directions are vectors so they can be blown up to quite a large size without losing quality. Other sets, on the other hand, use highly-compressed image files for the directions, making certain parts of the build practically illegible. Preventing unauthorized reprints may be one incentive for lower-quality digital instructions, but I think a bigger factor is probably to keep the filesize down so that loading times are not too long even with a weak internet connection. After all, TLG is a global company and there are many places around the world where access to high-speed internet is either non-existent or prohibitively expensive. I remember back when I was on a dial-up internet connection and loading times for even the most basic web pages could be ridiculous.

This model is very chaotic, but I love the six-legged design and the fact that unlike with Scorpio, the build of this model's legs remains almost entirely consistent. The yellow shell for the central pair of feet stands out but since that one spot of color is the only factor that differs between them this part of the build remains unified.

Well, one question that has to be asked is "how would it do this?" One of the advantages Hero Factory's building system has is that many of its shells are basic enough to be used again and again and again. Now, a BIONICLE theme could use these same shells, or it could use more intricate, high-detail shells akin to its original incarnation, but designed to function as part of the Hero Factory building system instead of being so strictly Technic-based. But if it goes for the latter option, it might require new shells to be introduced every year to keep details varied, and thus waste a good portion of its new parts budget on parts that are functionally no different than existing shells. Kind of like the Inika/Piraka/Metru thigh shells — aesthetically, they're very different, but functionally the differences are minute indeed. It's possible, though, that if/when the time is right for BIONICLE to come back, TLG decides that their old framework-like armor aesthetic is dated and they are willing to keep the smoother designs of Hero Factory around as a complete aesthetic overhaul for the franchise. This would make it easy enough to use the Hero Factory building system, and as a bonus, the theme already had sevaral instances of more solid plate armor like the Toa Nuva chest plate, and a number of fans preferred this kind of style to the framework style of the Toa Mata and Toa Metru torsos anyway. Overall I doubt that it would make any meaningful financial difference if TLG decided to overhaul the BIONICLE aesthetic to be better-suited to the Hero Factory building system. The only way BIONICLE could really be successful in the future is by courting a new audience just like it had done at its outset in 2001. So any griping and groaning from fans of "classic BIONICLE" would be a drop in the bucket compared to the number of kids who'd be attracted by the intuitive and versatile building style.

True, though this might be the first piece of official media to say it outright. I agree the lack of an updated Lloyd bio (or even just a separate "Green Ninja" bio like the one for Samurai X) is disappointing, as is the lack of Stone Army bios. Unfortunately the lack of links to the Characters page anywhere on the site makes me think such updates would be of an extremely low priority. Hopefully when the theme comes back full-force in 2014 there will be more substantial updates to the content (not just the interface).

Holy Ninjago site update, Batman! It loads very slowly on my computer so I'm not sure if it might be a bit buggy, and I'm incredibly disappointed that it no longer has a detailed characters page (at least, not linked from anywhere, though surprisingly it finally has a Pythor page) or really anywhere to get awesome downloads like posters and wallpapers. But hopefully additional content is still in the pipeline. EDIT: Pythor's CGI animation wouldn't load on my computer on the site itself, but here's a direct link to the flash file. And here's a direct link to his character portrait. Shame there's no poster-sized version of his awesome character art.

Well, personally, I prefer things as they are. One of the most appealing parts of the LEGO Castle theme for me has always been its architecture, and a problem that often afflicts the action themes I love is a terrible lack of architectural features. The 2012 Ninjago lineup was a good example: besides small edifices like shrines and a bizarre open-air blacksmith shop that came with Lasha's Bite Cycle, the only major structure that year was a two-tier prison tower. It was still nice but hardly as spectacular as some of the exciting settings explored in the television series and certainly not as exciting as the previous year's Fire Temple. Now, I think the Dragon Mountain is pretty feeble as a headquarters for the dragon knights, but nevertheless I appreciate that the King's Castle and the Gatehouse Raid aren't the only architectural landmarks in the theme, and I appreciate there being at least one set to define the visual language of the dragon knights' homeland. Some larger siege engines would be great for a future wave, and I agree it would be nice if not every siege engine this year was a catapult or ballista, but I think sacrificing the actual castles that define the theme for larger siege engines would do more harm than good.

The layout frustrates me a bit, to be honest. Part of what I liked about Flickr was how clean the interface was, and now it doesn't have that advantage to nearly the same extent. With that said, I'm sure I'll get used to it, and the other upgrades (like the ability for non-pro accounts to upload full-resolution pictures) will probably help to make up for any temporary inconvenience.

Off the top of my head, this set uses Duplo for a tail. Outside of sets, many builders use Duplo pieces as structural elements inside extremely large models. There is a Viking village that is on display at Brickfair Virginia every year that is essentially an island with sheer cliffs on every side, and underneath the surface are a number of multicolored Duplo columns holding everything up. I agree, demand for Duplo in LDD is probably minimal, and it's certainly not remotely urgent, but it would be a neat feature for eventual inclusion. I think part of the reason it may be a long time coming is that Duplo elements connect very differently to System elements than System elements connect to each other. A System brick can only connect to a Duplo brick if the tubes are lined up with the Duplo studs, and since I imagine the tubes of System bricks are probably simply programmed as anti-studs like any other connection point on the underside of a brick, it might be quite labor-intensive to program realistic connectivity between those parts.

Yes, they have, and that's part of the reason why the LEGO Cuusoo staff created a rule against proposals to simply re-release an existing set or theme. LEGO Cuusoo is intended for original ideas (hence why successful projects will include 1% royalties for the project creator), and is ill-suited for determining whether an existing set is worth re-releasing. As Jamie Berard said here, "In the end, more fans spoke of wanting re-releases than those who actually purchased them."

As far as stories and settings are concerned, the sky's the limit. A few years ago I doubt anyone would have predicted an alien invasion arc or a mass breakout of the Hero Factory's prisoners. So I have no doubts about the LEGO Group's ability to continue to surprise us. As far as builds are concerned, I don't think reverting to a building style like BIONICLE is necessary or desirable. In general, a lot of Hero Factory sets today are just as complex and versatile as BIONICLE sets at a comparable price point, if not more so. Let's not forget that the lower leg beam of a BIONICLE canister set was invariably a specialized, high-detail design, as opposed to Hero Factory where all the limbs are constructed from basic beams with shells added for detail and volume. Additionally, the main way to change the appearance of a medium-sized BIONICLE figure was to use different shells. In Hero Factory, the position of a shell can be changed much more freely, and the designs of the shells are typically less specialized: stylistically, they are more or less interchangeable. The one advantage that many BIONICLE builds had over Hero Factory models was the use of separate torso elements for the upper and lower body. Eventually I'd like to see that in Hero Factory, preferably with a joint in the middle to allow for waist articulation. Waist articulation was pretty much absent for all BIONICLE sets besides Maxilos and Pridak in 2007, but it would be a great asset to the Hero Factory building system. Additionally, you could conceivably use any size of Hero Factory beam to "extend" a torso built this way, much the same way later BIONICLE titan/warrior sets used basic Technic beams to increase the distance between the upper and lower torso elements. Even if this change is a long time coming, another change I'd like to see is separate armor pieces for the upper and lower body, which would solve a lot of current design challenges. For instance, if an armor shell were designed to attach via ball snap to the "crotch" of a Hero Factory torso beam, then it would be able to armor both the front and back of the lower torso, it would eliminate problems like with Furno XL and Jet Rocka where the lower torso of a larger figure is left without armor, and it would make it much easier to use custom torso armor constructions for a figure of any size without leaving any areas conspicuously bare. Such an armor piece, if designed right, could also be used as a basic shell on limbs or anywhere else on a build. Additionally, I'd love to see a new foot piece with the ankle placed one module lower. This would be a great development because it could be used for small models without the feet feeling undersized, or could be used with a friction joint for larger models. Currently, adding a friction joint to any foot design requires raising the ankle up in a way that looks unnatural in several poses. Anyone who owns Furno XL probably knows exactly what I'm talking about. But overall, I don't want to see any fundamental changes to the Hero Factory building system. The current system of keeping skeleton pieces and armor pieces completely separate is wonderful, and the ball-joint-based connection method continues to prove versatile. I get lots of enjoyment from building Hero Factory models of any size, which as an overall process is much more intuitive than building BIONICLE models ever was for me.

The purple you used is what Bricklink calls Magenta — the same color as the roof in this set. The yellow you used is what Bricklink calls Bright Light Orange (and what BIONICLE fans call Keetorange). In sets, Evo traditionally uses classic yellow (24 Bright Yellow) and dark purple (268 Medium Lilac). And yeah, I understand that the legs are kind of central to this design. I'm not asking you to change them; I'm just wondering how much of a purpose the knee joint would really serve on a physical model.

Actually, 179 Silver Flip-Flop doesn't (in any cases I know of) map to Flat Silver. The only parts I know of in Silver Flip/Flop (and this is after quite a bit of study) are the silver BIONICLE Kanohi masks from the 2002 sets 8559 and 8569. The "Flip/Flop" in the name seems to refer to the fact that the material appears opaque and metallic under normal circumstances but translucent when backlit. Parts in this color have a streaky and somewhat sparkly appearance that sets them apart from other, smoother silver parts from 2002 sets. 178 Yellow Flip/Flop was likewise the color of gold masks from these same two sets, and they also share all of these characteristics. 176 Red Flip/Flop is the rarest of these colors: it did not appear in ANY regular-issue sets and only appeared as the color of copper Kanohi masks in propmotional offers like this one. Again, this is the only example I've ever found of a copper part that used this color. In actuality, most pre-2010 Flat Silver parts on Bricklink are actually 131 Silver, the same color as most Pearl Light Gray parts, and the difference in appearance is due to other molding factors like the material and surface finish of the part, not to mention the perennial inconsistency that led 131 Silver to be replaced twice with new colors (first 296 Cool Silver in 2006, which was phased out promptly due to even worse inconsistency, and then by 315 Silver Metallic between 2010 and 2011). In other words, sometimes Bricklink's inconsistent color naming occurs for a reason. Still doesn't explain why they have at least four different colors labeled as "Copper", of course. Overall, if you want to know what color a part is, often the most reliable way to find out is through LEGO Customer Service's replacement parts database. It's not infallible — some sets, for instance, have parts and colors listed from their latest production runs rather than their initial production runs, so for instance several Knights' Kingdom II sets from 2005 that used 147 Sand Yellow Metallic or 189 Reddish Gold have those same parts listed in 297 Warm Gold, which replaced both colors. And the only parts it lists in a set's inventory are those for which images have been uploaded to the server. Nevertheless, it's one of the most reliable systems for finding the exact LEGO color for a part. The Brickset parts browser is derived from the Customer Service database, but is cross-referenced with their LEGO set database, so going to the Brickset page for a set will let you view the set's inventory (along with a convenient number telling how complete the inventory is). Also, if you are looking for info on parts from a set released in 2006 or later, just open the set's instruction booklet (physically or digitally) and turn to the parts inventory in the back. See those six– or seven-digit numbers by each part? Those are Element IDs, and by replacing the seven digit number in this URL with an Element ID from the back of an instruction booklet, you can easily find the Design ID and color of the original part. Yes, it's a lot more of a process than you'd need to generate a part list in LDD Manager, but usually you don't have to check each part individually. Bricklink (and consequently, LDD Manager) is very reliable with the majority of parts. Parts it helps to double-check include obscure Bricklink colors like Salmon and Earth Orange, metallic and pearl colors like Flat Silver or Copper, and transparent colors like Trans-Bright Green and Trans-Neon Orange. All of these frequently map to multiple LEGO colors. P.S: The reason Flip/Flop colors do not appear in Brickset's database is that it is sourced from the part inventories on the LEGO Customer Service site, and that only includes parts that have pictures uploaded to TLG's server. Ones without images are still included in the customer service parts database, but are not added to set inventories. Here is just one example of a BIONICLE mask in one of these colors. It's difficult to find examples of parts in these colors because, since they were discontinued prior to 2006, when set inventories began to appear in instruction manuals, the only way to find these parts' pages without the assistance of a LEGO employee who can access the database and find you the Element ID is to check the pages for different Element IDs one-by-one. And the only "clues" you typically get are that Element IDs tend to be roughly chronological in order of parts' appearance (with some exceptions) and that new parts from certain sets or themes are sometimes clustered together, so if you know a few Element IDs of parts from a set or theme it can be a bit easier to find others. Needless to say, it's tedious work. Occasionally you find certain gems, though, like parts that never appeared in sets or extremely obscure colors that were never used for basic bricks: for example, 144 Army Green, 156 Tr. Deep Blue, and 168 Gun Metallic were only ever used for LEGO watches as far as I have been able to tell.

Hmmm, various thoughts: I'm very interested in the custom skeleton. I'm a bit worried the leg armor might look unnatural with the legs in different poses, though. You've done a great job with proportions. I'm a bit puzzled with the colors you used for Evo, though. Why Flame Yellowish Orange, Bright Reddish Violet, and Tr. Medium Reddish Violet? I can see you changed a few colors on the others, but on Evo there's hardly a color you left alone. My instinct would have been to use Bright Yellow, Medium Lilac, and Tr. Bright Bluish Violet. Also, I have a suggestion. Instead of the 3M Technic beams used on the feet of Evo and Surge, which feel very blocky and break up the streamlining of the feet, why not use a part that tapers towards the center like 47973 or 47994? Both of these exist in black, though of course you haven't constrained yourself to using only actual parts that exist in real life so you could color them to match the feet if you really wanted to. It might hinder posability ever so slightly, but I don't think it'd make a tremendous impact.

Well, yes, it's true that if you modify a set enough it essentially stops being the original set. But my point was that you can still LIKE the original set even if you prefer to scrap it for parts and completely re-imagine it. Sometimes it's a matter of loving the concept (in Dragon Bolt's case, "giant lightning dragon") but not being perfectly happy with the execution. Other times there are certain parts of the design that you think are brilliant and you want to redefine the design as a whole with a focus on those parts (this is what I did in a number of my BIONICLE drawings: I found a handful of recurring or otherwise distinctive motifs and I emphasized them, even if it meant re-imagining certain parts to fit those motifs). And then there are times when you just have a creative itch that won't let you leave well enough alone: you have to put your own spin on a set, regardless of whether you're satisfied with the original design. Think of it in terms of the various "re-imaginings" of superhero franchises like Batman. Now, there's no doubt that a lot of people who have put their own spin on Batman have loved the character in at least one of his prior incarnations. But what they loved most about the character will vary from person to person. How they interpret the character they love so much becomes central to how they want the character to be portrayed. Whether it's a desire to put emphasis on the ideas and motifs central to their interpretation or just a desire to avoid retelling the same stories others have told before, a new writer will find a way to put their own creative fingerprint on the property. But that doesn't mean they didn't love the character's previous portrayal.

Nabii (Mark Stafford) confirmed here that it was a matter of improving clutch power and making the part easier for kids to place. Overall, I don't see a huge reduction in usability. It's true, you can no longer build tubes with just macaroni bricks, but all in all I can't think of too many practical applications for that besides Great Ball Contraption modules or any place you want a "spiral" motif on a column. The new one, in contrast, adds at least a bit of versatility in that it no longer needs to be connected at two points to be secure. So there's a sort of a trade-off in the long run. Whether it's a worthwhile trade-off depends on your personal building style.

Personally, I like Market Street a fair amount. It frustrates me that it does not entirely fit the modular building template (it has minifigures with faces other than the classic smile, though this is an easy enough fix). But at the same time, I for one really like the open-air market area. Since none of the modular buildings (besides arguably Green Grocer) have built-in alleyways, it's nice to have a set designed without the expectation that every building on the block sit perfectly edge-to-edge. Additionally, there's nothing wrong with getting half a building if you paid the original price, which was less than half the price of any subsequent modular building. The only thing that frustrates me about Market Street is that the way the building's floorplan is designed makes the interior extremely difficult to furnish. Café Corner presents its own challenges (a reasonably-sized hotel is difficult to fit into the upstairs space at the building's default three-story size), but it's nowhere near as challenging as having the top of each staircase in the center of a room. Market Street is the one modular building my family has been unable to acquire. I'm going to have to look into what the price is to Bricklink the parts. But there's definitely plenty of justification for not re-issuing that one. It's far from the most popular and design standards for the modular buildings have come a long way since then.

Really, I appreciate that kind of notion. It means a person is willing to accept reasonable sacrifices in set design even if they're also willing to commit the resources to "optimize" the sets. I don't mod my sets extensively, but there are some that I do make slight modifications to based on personal preference (for instance, I made somewhat substantial modifications to the proportions of last year's Breez set, even though she was one of my favorite Hero sets from that year in terms of overall aesthetic). There are far too many people, in my opinion, who get hung up on flaws that are perfectly understandable when factors like price point are taken into account, and even some who go so far as to think that they know better than the set's designers because they recognize these flaws. Personally, I admire the designers' ability to regularly churn out well-realized sets. But that doesn't mean that with the resources at my disposal I should just accept a set is perfect for me as-is. Overall, I dislike a lot of revamps that completely re-imagine the set, because often they eliminate what I consider meaningful design considerations from the original work. Even minor Voltix mods that eliminate the blue tubes bother me in this regard, because for me they are a key part of the electrical motif that is central to his design. But at the same time, if we're only willing to love and celebrate a set if we consider it flawless, that's placing unrealistically high expectations on the designers: not just to design awesome, creative sets, but to design sets that perfectly anticipate our personal opinions.

Ah, well. Maybe the new one will show up in a later production run like the remolded BIONICLE Shadow Matoran foot which only showed up in later production runs of 6201 Toxic Reapa. And hopefully unlike that part, it will continue to appear in other, later sets rather than disappearing completely for the next year and a half. A big disappointment that we can't count on seeing it in the Coast Guard sets, but I sure hope it is getting released eventually — it's so much better than the current shark body in so many ways.

There are probably several reasons. Cost may be one of them, but there are also others that affect builders: a transparent sticker will show fingerprints or dust underneath, which is something that tends to frustrate people. Personally, it's one of my pet peeves when a sticker doesn't cover a surface roughly edge-to-edge. It makes it that much more difficult to align the sticker correctly (there's no easy way of knowing how far it should be from the edge of the piece). Stickers like the tail of the LEGO City space shuttle frustrate me the most because you're applying a round sticker (that is to say, a sticker with no edges to line up whatsoever) on a much larger, non-round surface. I'm normally a supporter of stickers in places where a print might be impractical for whatever reason, and have typically considered stickers just another part of the building experience, but I have a few very specific uses of stickers that I prefer that TLG avoid. I'm glad they avoided it here, even though their color matching leaves a lot to be desired.

The new UCS X-Wing isn't a re-release at all. It's a complete redesign. That's like saying that every single LEGO City fire engine is a re-release because TLG has released fire engines in sets before. Anyway, pinioncorp summed up most of the reasons TLG doesn't do this very nicely. Jamie Berard, the designer of the Café Corner, made many of the same points here.

Nah, I think a lot of people like Dragon Bolt. I certainly do. But I think some people were hoping for something larger. I think he's a pretty substantial size myself, but if people want to use his parts for a larger revamp, more power to them.

Doesn't the Brickjournal site sell digital copies? That's what I'd recommend for someone living outside the United States. I just checked and both subscriptions and back issues are available digitally, and I believe they are in PDF format so you don't even need any kind of e–reader to view or store them. A simple flash drive and a free PDF reader application will do.