Aanchir

Hang on, yes Duplo is LEGO. It's LEGO's preschool brand and has been for decades. It's not System, but the bricks are still LEGO bricks in the same sense that Technic elements are. The only difference is that Duplo parts are rarely used in other themes whereas Technic bricks are.

It has been decades since the Back to the Future movies were new. If people hadn't lost interest by the time the Cuusoo proposal went up, why would they lose interest now? Certainly if a person wanted to buy the BttF time machine set just because they supported it on Cuusoo, they might lose interest, but I hardly think that applies to anyone. Rather, it's the other way around: people supported the Cuusoo project because they figured they'd buy a set of that kind, and that should still hold true in the future unless BttF hype somehow DECREASES as we get closer to the 30th anniversary. I can't think of any reason that would happen.

Well, it was The LEGO Group's most successful launch ever for a new product line, so I'd say it did pretty well.

I can pretty much assure you they're the same — the silver color has not changed, nor has the mold been retooled as far as I know.

The white sharks in the official pics use the new molds, so I think it's safe to say it IS being introduced with this wave. Just not for the dark stone grey sharks.

The main gray uniforms I know of in LEGO are those of Imperial officers in the Star Wars theme. However, they trade buttons of the fastening kind for buttons of the sci-fi kind. Example. This torso from the Indiana Jones theme could work, but the subtle feminine curves and the pockets are not quite accurate to a confederate uniform. This Rebel Technician torso from Star Wars has the same problem, and it'll be hard to acquire in any meaningful quantity. Why don't you check the Bricklink lists of Medium Stone Grey, Dark Stone Grey, classic Grey, and classic Dark Grey? That's what I would do for this kind of task. And keep in mind a dab of Brasso would be effective for removing any detail on a torso that you'd rather omit.

Oh, I assure you, there WILL be hearts. The setting is called HEARTlake City for crying out loud. Seriously, I know what you mean, but personally I'm always happy to see LEGO stepping outside the action–adventure genre.

The string holding the drawbridge is of the variety that has a 1x1 plate fused to each end, so no, it can't be replaced easily. However, the string is thick and not likely to snap — the plates at each end will probably give out first, if my experiences are any indication. The string holding the portcullis is more typical string and can be replaced with non-LEGO string without any loss in functionality. Also, yeah, I almost never listen to video reviews with the sound on. If I'm watching to see the set then I expect the reviewer to show it on the video rather than just describing it.

Oh, right, I forgot Scorpio. Still, it's nice to have a larger non-humanoid villain after a year of smaller ones.

Been trying to get into brony music ever since I first experienced it at Cloudsdale Congress this spring. Just listened to this song, and even though it's not the sort of music I typically listen to, I can't help but love it.

Hmm, perhaps it is only for the white shark. That's disappointing. I was quite hoping that aspect of the official pics was just preliminary. There's probably an understandable reason, such as that TLG may have had plenty of Dark Stone Grey copies of the old shark body left over from previous sets' production. But it's still a real disappointment.

Why so? I personally think it does a good job giving that sea monster/lake monster look the designers were going for. And it manages to strike a good balance between looking machine-tooled and looking organic. I actually prefer beast-like villains myself, at least from a building perspective. That's actually part of why I don't like the Brain Attack series villains as much as the Breakout series villains as a whole. Breakout had Jawblade, Toxic Reapa, and Thornraxx, none of whom had traditional humanoid builds, whereas all of the Brain Attack villains but Dragon Bolt have more or less run-of-the-mill humanoid builds. I do like some of the individual villain sets like Bruizer (lovely asymmetry and great function), Ogrum (nice, powerful-looking armor and well-organized color scheme), and Dragon Bolt (brilliantly creative build), but overall I just wish there were a little more diversity in their construction. It is worth noting that Dragon Bolt is the first non-humanoid large figure ($19.99 or higher), which is great, since all the most imaginative villains from Breakout were at the $8.99 price point. But I do think some of the Brain Attack villains could have benefitted greatly from non-humanoid designs, particularly Scarox, whose design I still can't bring myself to like.

Agreed on this. Hopefully it will be very good and will become a template for similar franchises to follow as far as video game licensing is concerned. The screenshots look pretty good, though graphically they're not the most impressive and I have to wonder which platform they're from. I'm fairly certain the 3DS should be able to handle better graphics than this. At least it's not just pixelly 2D like the LEGO Battles games. While that was undoubtedly useful for allowing lots of characters and lots of action on a single screen without eating up processing power, it detracted from the games' overall presentation. I'm sure a number of reviews might deduct from its score if it turns out there's no building component, as with the other LEGO games. One tagline for LEGO Friends is "The Beauty of Building" and it'd be great if this game incorporated some building. However, I will understand if there isn't one, as LEGO video games have done well without a realistic building engine and those that have had one like LEGO Universe have sometimes been criticized for being unintuitive. It's simply much more difficult than some people imagine to incorporate realistic LEGO building into a video game.

I've seen a variety of techniques. One is of course to build the entire road using SNOT techniques rather than using prefab road plates. That way, you can use the same techniques to curve the horizontal road surface that you might use to curve a vertical castle wall. But this is probably not suitable for many layouts that aren't planned around the consistent use of this technique. This piece was created for a LEGO Town construction site set in the late 90s, and allows for a 14-stud road surface. However, the incline is fairly steep (as can be seen here), so it will not likely allow you to put storefronts or buildings on the incline. It is more suitable for overpasses, as in the original set. And anyway, it doesn't likely match the color of your layout's roads. It may be possible to make a more controlled curve by taking advantage of road plates' inherent flexibility, but you'd need a substantial scaffold to hold the road plates in place at the correct angle. Using 8x16 tiles with custom stickers might be a viable solution. 8x16 plates have been used for inclined pavement before, such as the absurd driveway on the 2006 Hospital set. For a road, you'd probably want to use them in their 16-wide orientation. But even this will make your curve/incline somewhat more angular than you might like. This piece traditionally used for train platforms creates a smooth 12-module-wide inclined surface, but it would not elevate your layout very significantly. This slope is 8 modules wide and can be doubled up to create a 16-module roadway, but it's an extremely gradual incline and you'd have to elevate it by half-plate increments to eliminate any bumps. Hope at least one of these techniques works! And remember, if you're not a purist, you have even more options. Print out or paint a road pattern on a heavy-ish stock of paper, cut it to the width you want your road to be, and you can curve it any way you please, than have it meet up with regular road plates at the beginning and end of the incline!

My dad received an e–mail with a similar reminder prior to Brickfair New England. I agree, it's a ludicrous restriction. There's no reason you should have to pay to tell people you have a website where they can see more of your stuff, or support the models they see on Cuusoo. My dad isn't an exhibitor, but he volunteers for Brickfair Virginia, so I'll see if he can talk with Todd about this.

I have kept my models color-coordinated for as long as I can remember. But with that said, some of my MOCs have had disorganized-looking color schemes, and it wasn't for lack of caring. It's easy for kids and even some adults to follow a sort of internal logic that other people might not understand when coloring their models. Just think about how many different colors of brown or gray a real object might have, and imagine designing something if you didn't understand what types of colors worked together in that way. It'd be easy to make a model with a dozen vibrant colors if those happen to be the colors you have and you want each color to represent a particular function or material. Here's a model two other builders and I created for a LEGO building competition at my school last semester, using multiple Creator buckets. Here's our model from the second round of the competition. There are a lot of colors going on in both, but they are distributed for the best visual appeal. A kid isn't necessarily going to understand that how the colors are distributed is just as important as what colors you use, how many you use, and what you use them for. It is common to see kids' BIONICLE and Hero Factory creations where they start by limiting themselves to a color scheme — "This model will be green" — but then just start applying parts from their selected color palette willy-nilly, creating a model that is too organized to suggest a mottled or camouflage pattern and too disorganized to have understandable color layering. Typically, as in most cases, the smaller the model is, the less likely it is to have a completely chaotic color scheme. Even a kid who has a particular color scheme in mind will give himself more and more leeway as it becomes harder to find parts in those exact colors that suit his purposes. Incidentally, even an adult who designs LEGO models for a profession can sometimes create a "rainbow warrior" with a logical system behind it that not everyone understands. For an example, take Voltix here. He was heavily criticized for having so many colors, but looking at him more closely you can understand his color scheme to a great extent. He's mainly red with titanium metallic armor. Thicker portions of his armor are Medium Lilac. With those three colors alone, you'd have a nice, three-color color scheme. However, that doesn't do his electrical motif justice. Thus, he needs a few blue and red wires and some yellow lightning weapons. A Transparent Fluorescent Green head is used for ideal contrast with the helmet and approximate consistency with his yellow lightning effects. Overall, I love his resulting color scheme. It has a sort of organized chaos to it, which suits a crazy electric villain like him. But others have disagreed, and it's rare to see a Voltix revamp that doesn't drop at least one of the colors entirely (the blue wires and yellow weapons are usually the first to go). Invariably, some of that original, quirky logic is lost as a result.

That finger cannon is an awesome concept. I can't say I've ever seen a BIONICLE or Hero Factory model do that before. I'm quite glad you kept Toxic Reapa's very top-heavy design, which I think is one of his definitive traits, but you were still able to re-imagine it into something incredibly unique. The only thing bothering me about the design is that there are no green elements on the arms.

This is very interesting. I wouldn't have thought buildable action figures went back that far. I wonder if LEGO was the first company to incorporate ball joints into a buildable action figure, or whether there are older examples that played with the concept.

It was confirmed on Twitter that the song in the trailer isn't anywhere in the movie itself, so it probably IS a generic pop song. Or maybe it's in the credits. I dunno. Personally, here's a theory that's been bouncing around in my brain. There are definitely some conspicuous magical effects at one point in the trailer, and additionally the clips in the trailer use mostly-human versions of the characters (well, multicolored humans) versus the ones with pony ears, cutie mark facial tattoos, long hair, and pegasus wings from the stock art. But that stock art doesn't seem like concept art to me — it looks like fully-realized promotional art. My guess is that the climax of the movie involves the girls somehow unlocking these forms — let's call them "magic forms" for simplicity's sake. Any ongoing series after the fact will let the characters switch between their "magic forms" and "human forms" at will, and the series will occupy a sort of a Sailor-Moon–type "magical girl" genre, or at least dabble in that genre, from that point forward. Not sure if "superheroes-by-night, high-schoolers-by-day" is any more bearable than "generic high school drama". It's certainly no less cliche, as high school subplots are common to cartoons with youth protagonists. But it would explain why there are two distinct sets of character designs, one which is used in the clips we've seen and one that will probably be used as promotional art for the toyline whenever that happens. Some of the creators have hinted on Twitter that the more pony-influenced character designs will have some significance, so it's certainly not a case of Hasbro simply veering radically off-model. That's just my theory, though. As for the villain... On a side note, anyone planning to customize some LEGO Friends mini-dolls into Equestria Girls characters?

I think it's more that BIONICLE had a different type of story presentation, at least in 2001, than Hero Factory has. BIONICLE's first major story medium, other than the comics, was the Mata Nui Online Game, and that's where the majority of Matoran characters originated. Hero Factory also had some non-hero characters originate in its online games — specifically, "Mission: Von Nebula", "Mission 2: Ordeal of Fire", and "Mission: Savage Planet". But none of these games had the same focus on world-building as BIONICLE had. Non-hero, non-villain characters in those games only ever appeared as portraits in cutscenes. In contrast, Greg Farshtey's Hero Factory Secret Mission chapter books have much more world-building, and consequently, more named civilian characters. As far as sets are concerned, I think perhaps TLG just doesn't see a market for non-hero, non-villain characters. Even in BIONICLE, the secondary characters like Matoran were always equipped for battle from 2004 onward, making them ostensibly no different than hero characters, albeit at a smaller price point. The Turaga, 2001 Matoran, and 2003 Matoran were the closest we ever got to true "civilians": everyone else was typically answering the call of duty in one way or another. And even those early sets were equipped with "tools" that they could use to do battle if the need arose: no set ever depicted a helpless bystander like Daniella Capricorn or even an unarmed supporting character like Nathaniel Zib. All in all, the only way I think we'll ever see supporting characters like Zib as sets is if they're given more action-oriented roles like field tacticians. And even then, the only reason a role of that kind would not just be given to a hero is if TLG really saw demand for sets at a lower price point.

Not sure which LEGO Atlantis decorations you're talking about. To be honest, LDD already has quite a sizable number of LEGO Atlantis decorations: most of the human minifigure faces as well as the sea creature faces from the first wave. Even the headgear decorations for the Squid Warrior, Manta Warrior, and Shark Warrior are included, but in that case the problem is that the pieces (87756, 87757, and 87758) don't have any decoration surfaces mapped to them. Likewise, all the decorations for the five treasure keys released in 2010 sets are on LDD, but again, no decoration surfaces are mapped for that part. So these are definitely ways that the parts could be improved.

I think having a separate mode for these would be kind of ineffective. Why not just continue adding BIONICLE and Hero Factory parts to LDD Extended mode like they've been doing? And naturally, the goal is eventually to have every part, including BIONICLE and Hero Factory parts. With that said, the LDD team isn't superhuman, and parts can only be added so often. I'm very grateful that BIONICLE and Hero Factory parts are even included in updates as frequently as they are, considering that they are somewhat "niche" LEGO themes and often somewhat underappreciated by the wider LEGO fan community.

That King's Castle is even more beautiful than I imagined. I figured both of the corner towers would be more or less empty except maybe a few weapons. Instead, there's a brilliantly-designed dungeon in the rear corner tower. I was personally wondering if this one would have a dungeon, since that was the main feature from the Kingdoms version this seemed to lack. However, I figured a dungeon built into the walls would be awfully cramped. Building it into one of the towers solves that problem quite neatly. The castle looks very imposing, as was to be expected on account of that magnificent gatehouse. I am a bit disappointed that the interior of the gatehouse is simply empty space for the portcullis, rather than including a keep like I was hoping. But I guess that may have been a bit too much to hope for given the lack of a proper keep in any previous LEGO castles in my lifetime. The minifigure designs are great, with a lot of personality but still a certain genericness that keeps them from having to represent particular characters. I'm impressed that all the torsos seem to have back printing. The lion knight's suit of armor makes great use of the lion heraldry, which brings back fond memories of the sculpted armor pieces of the 2005 KK2 action figures. The siege engine looks great, and the slide-rail function for launching the catapult is very cool even though it probably makes the dragon head on the front less effective as a battering ram. At first when I saw the slide rails I thought it was just to allow the battering ram to move separately from the cart so you wouldn't have to ram the whole cart into the castle wall. The catapult function is still cool but it kind of nerfs that potential to have the battering ram and catapult integrated. The drawbridge is cool, but if I were to get this set I'd make certain to get those strings straight before operating it. The wrinkly look they have in the video review has got to go. I'm also a bit disappointed that the drawbridge doesn't seem to close completely (or at least if it does, they don't show it in the video). The pop-out wall on the castle's right side is a nice function but frankly I'm a bit disappointed that it leaves a gap above that wall segment. The LEGO Agents Mobile Command Center had a more effective pop-out wall simply by using cheese wedges instead of a flat tile on the upper edge. But of course, that style can only be pushed in from one side, whereas I suppose that TLG might have wanted this wall segment to pop in as easily as it pops out. I see now that the catapult on the castle uses not a Technic axle, but a piece of Technic flex hose. It seems to serve its purpose quite effectively, even though it takes up a lot of space inside that corner tower. A bit odd that the ammo for the catapult is a level below the catapult itself, but there is no ladder connecting the two levels. Granted, attaching a ladder diagonally like that wouldn't be easy, but it'd be a worthwhile modification IMO. The rear tower is a nice design but it's a bit of a shame that the space to either side of it is more or less unused. The throne room and treasure room are nice, and as I've stated before, I'm glad that all the walls of the towers are around the outside perimeter of the castle, rather than having some towards the inside perimeter as on the Kingdoms version. The modular wall system is definitely nice. It adds both customizability and compatibility with the previous King's Castle and this year's Gatehouse Raid. Overall, I'm very impressed with this set. It's definitely just as good as the last King's Castle, if not better. I can only hope that we continue to see castles of this caliber in future waves, such as perhaps a more impressive villainous castle.

Cool design. I feel like the transparent fluorescent orange and flame yellowish orange parts don't suit the model too well, but I understand you probably didn't have many regular bright orange parts to work with — it's one of the rarer colors for Hero Factory shells, after all. The blaster and sword look very neat.

This design is very innovative and does a good job replicating Pohatu's unusual proportions without him feeling too awkwardly bowlegged. You did a very nice job with his arms and hands. However, one thing greatly bothers me about this design, that being that it's so much taller than your other Toa designs, while Pohatu himself was among the shortest of the Toa in every series he appeared in.