Aanchir

I feel this is a bit unfair. Certainly, the packaging has lost its story role, but it's not as though the new packaging has no advantages. Instead, there's a trade-off. The story-based nature of the canisters was given up, but in exchange they became much more practical from a storage perspective, in that they kept their ability to be used as storage for the parts while no longer taking up a massive amount of space when empty. I think this is definitely a worthwhile sacrifice, especially considering I hardly ever used the canisters for their story-based functionality to begin with. Overall, considering the massive number of BIONICLE canisters piled up in boxes next to the very bed I'm sitting on, I wouldn't mind if LEGO action figure sets had used resealable foil bags from the very beginning. For that matter, I wouldn't have minded if the larger boxed sets had used this type of packaging as well. At a certain size it becomes impractical for in-store display, but nevertheless it would have been a much better way of transporting sets and parts from place to place.

Very neat design. The color scheme is a little bit chaotic, but overall the colors end up working together nicely.

Your revised version of this model makes some great improvements on the original, which wasn't too shabby to begin with. My main disappointment is that he lacks his trademark shield, but the blaster still looks great on this model.

Neat model. As others have said, the posture is a bit awkward. But I love the addition of an air tank, which works great with her SCUBA-inspired mask. My main criticism is that there are too many colors competing for my attention. Swapping the upper limbs for black or Medium Azur ones would help, but I understand you were likely working with a limited parts palette.

Very neat work. I definitely think you did a good job keeping faithful to the character. I think Titanium Metallic (gunmetal/dark silver) claws would be better than the Flame Yellowish Orange and Transparent Fluorescent Orange ones, but I understand you were probably working with a somewhat limited parts palette. I put together some similar BIONICLE-inspired Hero Factory models on LDD once for a potential Cuusoo project, but sadly I realized that the concept would be incredibly divisive and would not likely stand a chance of success. You can see my concept here. It's nothing special — just an attempt at re-creating the Toa Mata as accurately as possible with more modern parts.

Haha, this is brilliant! There aren't nearly enough Hero Factory civilian MOCs out there. That shield works wonderfully as a serving tray, and the use of Pyrox's faceplate as a steak is very darkly humorous. The build is not especially complex, but the resulting character is still unquestionably unique. Great work!

I'm looking forward to Equestria Girls. To be honest I find the amount of criticism it's gotten quite sad... but then again, having been an AFOL, a brony, and an A:TLA fan, I'm kind of used to fans being unpleasable. I posted a journal of my reactions to the drama over here. In general, I'm optimistic. I love the character designs (they kind of remind me of Lauren Faust's Galaxy Girls, plus a bit of anime influence), it's got some amazing creative talent behind it, and of course I'm not so detached from reality that I think selling toys and telling good stories are mutually exclusive. Plus, with the kind of budget it's likely to have as a movie, I'm expecting some really stellar music and animation. Overall, part of me wants to be skeptical. Part of me knows this is a grand, experimental undertaking that could go horribly wrong with a given combination of factors. But frankly, after seeing fans obsess over all kinds of supposed "disasters" that ended up meeting or exceeding the quality of the work they were supposed to be ruining, and after seeing heavy hints that this will be the same old song and dance once more, I am reminded that when you put stellar creative minds in charge of something, betting on the armchair storytelling experts who insist they can't succeed is a losing game. And yes, those stellar creative minds include the toy designers and marketers at the nebulous "Hasbro" the brony community has always been so quick to condemn.

I think a bigger factor was "fewer new molds/elements". Let's not ignore that this year, every one of the villains has a unique face mold, compared to previous waves where there was always at least one mask shared between villains. But that takes a toll on the new parts budget. Like Speeda Demon in 2012, Jet Rocka has no unique molds whatsoever. Regardless, even if Nex or Stringer had been a set, he'd likely be replacing Rocka at the $9.99 price point, not in the jetpack. Between his importance in the story and the shelf appeal of his shiny gold armor, I think there are plenty of incentives for the set designers to give Rocka greater prominence in the product line.

As I mentioned before, that's the star for the top of the tree. It was probably given to the astronaut for humorous reasons (the astronaut, after all, is used to working from great heights, and stars are associated with outer space). Perhaps the new star element from LEGO Friends would be better, but it would require the build of the tree to be more complex since it'd have to be attached using a SNOT element, and it would not have the same visual impact from all angles. I think it makes plenty of sense for the thief to be used. The advent calendar, after all, is themed as LEGO City, and the thief is one of many minifigures designed specifically with that theme in mind. He also creates a role-play opportunity with the police officer.

Hmmm, it's a bit of a puzzle. It all really depends on whether Hero Factory's core ball-joint-based construction qualifies as Technic, which in turn depends on whether the ball joint itself qualifies as Technic. Since the ball joint debuted in Throwbots, which WAS considered a Technic theme, then there's definitely room to argue that Hero Factory is inherently Technic-based. BIONICLE stopped being officially considered a Technic sub-theme in 2004, but it could definitely be argued that the sets were still Technic sets since the building style did not change considerably at that time. I'd argue that the Hero Factory building system, if not an independent building system in its own right, has the potential to become one. Certainly the use of traditional pin/axle connections in many Hero Factory figures is no more prevalent than in certain System sets. But at the same time, so far, every Hero Factory set at a $35 or higher price point has been extremely Technic-intensive, which is a point against its ability to be considered its own entity. Smaller sets stepped away from Technic when the building system debuted, but this year Technic has started returning to even the smaller builds in the form of action features and more complex weapon designs. So while I wouldn't call it a Technic sub-theme, Hero Factory is definitely far from independent of the Technic building system.

I think his point was that because previous characters could be made using Hero Factory parts, chances are new characters could be designed similarly. With that said, I still feel like it'd be harder to translate Ninjago into this building system than Chima or even Super Heroes.

Wow, I actually find that pretty awesome. Granted, the narration at the beginning was grammatically somewhat broken, and the voice alteration felt awkward beyond belief.The dance was a bit weird but it did a decent job telling a story, and the characters were well-choreographed. Not much extremely fancy footwork but still a neat performance. What really blew me away, though, were the costumes and props. Those costumes were incredibly faithful to the character designs, and the use of blue candles as a CHI crystal was pretty innovative.

I wouldn't call the parts of the plane "un-LEGOy". There are a number of large parts — which is necessary on a plane this size for structural reasons — but really the model is no less complex than the 4-stud-fuselage planes of the 90s. Incidentally, it also introduces some new curve elements: specifically, 2x8x2 curved arch pieces, which have a curve consistent with the already-released 8x8x2 variety. And no, I don't believe the undercarriage can be raised. It'd almost certainly need a complex Technic mechanism for that to work effectively without being too fragile. Just consider the complexity of the folding wheels in the Shuttle Adventure and Shuttle Expedition sets.

What I don't understand is why everyone is saying this is an "overreaction". What did the guy do exactly? He posted an entry on his personal blog talking about the problem and contacted TLG about the issue. He later posted two other follow-up blog entries with TLG's initial response and apology. It's not like he went on some over-the-top crusade to call LEGO out on this. Plenty of well-respected AFOLs have complained at greater length about far more trivial issues than this (for instance, about modern themes being too character-driven or too story-driven and not leaving enough to kids' imaginations). If internet news outlets blew the issue out of proportion, that's hardly this guy's fault. And furthermore, it's not like TLG is "caving" by giving him an apology. It's not like they issued a press release or anything — they just responded to his complaint. Granted, the apology came from a bit higher up the chain of command than a typical customer service complaint, but it's still not like they put forth a disproportionate effort to appease this guy. They just listened to what he had to say and responded to the best of their ability.

The reason for this is that the LDD search function allows a difference of one letter between search terms and search results. This is an invaluable asset IMO, as some parts include typos in their official names, and others use a Danish term in place of a more familiar English term. This helps to correct for that. As an example, one Lord of the Rings part that comes up if you search "shield" is titled MINI SHILD NO.1. There are problems this cannot correct for, though, such as if the "i" and the "e" in "shield" are transposed. Searching "sheild" brings up one shield element from the Hero Factory theme as well as MINI SHILD NO.1, but not any of the other shield elements.

That's the Silent Strike, the mech that came in the Exo-Force set 7709 Sentai Fortress. It is indeed an amazing mech. It uses a similar build to 7712 Supernova, the corresponding "deluxe" mech from 2006, but as I recall the Silent Strike is much sturdier.

I think it is largely a reason of stability, and I don't think balancing it with the tail would have really worked better. Part of the point of this dragon design, besides being really large, is having a decent amount of articulation. It's difficult to take advantage of that if there are only a small number of poses where it's designed to balance properly. There's probably also some stylistic decision-making involved... big feet give the impression of a creature that can shake a mountain or tower whenever it lands. That's what I'm hoping for. And if its architecture has the same ruthless elegance the Dragon Mountain set has, it should definitely be a design that stands out. Even if there's not a big evil castle set, it'd be cool if there were at least some more evil landmarks like gatehouses or towers that could interlock using the same modular system as the King's Castle. That'd be a perfect starting point for building a larger evil castle of your own design. I dislike the Viking dragons in hindsight. They made some cool use of BIONICLE pieces, but as a result of that and other aspects of their designs they felt more like statues or robots than living creatures like the minifigures they were fighting. They also felt inconsistent, with the heavily-textured BIONICLE leg pieces feeling out-of-place among the more geometric body and tail elements. What I like about the Fantasy-Era dragons (as well as the brick-built Ninjago dragons) is that they pretty consistently have a geometric design with smooth textures, crisp beveled corners, and a mix of cylindrical and angular shapes, much like LEGO minifigures and other LEGO animals. They also have printed eyes just like LEGO minifigures and horses, though I wish the Castle theme's dragons had monochromatic eyes with white sparkles like the first year of Ninjago dragons or like most LEGO horses and minifigures.

I mean, Galaxy Squad has one unified human faction with a variety of minifigures color-coded according to their role within the organization. This is something it has in common with Classic Space and to a lesser extent with Futuron. I'm not saying it's BASED on classic space, or even that there was any direct inspiration from Classic Space, but there are still valid comparisons to be made with Classic Space in that regard, just like how comparisons can be made between the enemy faction and the Insectoids (which likewise lacked any conflict, had a completely different color scheme, had traditional minifigures rather than ones with specialized heads, and had vastly different-looking and differently-constructed vehicles). Especially since Galaxy Squad is the first Space theme in over a decade to have so many colors of uniform within one faction.

Those parts actually debuted in the 2006 BIONICLE sets as "Zamor Spheres" and have been in several themes since then, including Galaxy Squad, World Racers, Ninjago, and others. In many sets they are actually blended from two colors of plastic, though Bricklink doesn't recognize this. You can see an assortment of colors and color combinations for them here. It is not exactly the same size as the GBC standard soccer balls and basketballs. The GBC uses balls slightly smaller than 16 millimeters in diameter, these balls are 16.5 millimeters in diameter. In other words, a GBC ball will fit through the hole in this piece or this piece, while a Zamor sphere will not. Both, however, will fit through the hole in a Ninjago spinner crown. GBC builders may be in luck, though. A retooled version of the classic soccer ball mold recently began reappearing in LEGO Friends sets in bright orange (classic orange) and in white with a reddish-violet pattern. There are no sets that offer such a huge quantity as the classic LEGO Sports sets did, but in the very least the part is no longer out-of-production.

I don't really think that's a bad thing. For one thing, it means you can leave the sticker off if you just want a gold chest piece for MOCing. It's also an easy piece to apply a sticker to (broad, flat surface with well-defined edges). Though lately that chest piece has been bothering me for other reasons. Simply put, the two "fins" coming off the sides (which I suppose are intended to represent muscles connecting the chest to the shoulders) severely hamper posability on a model with a torso build like Gorzan's, or really any model with the shoulder joints closer together than 13 modules. If these had been left off the part's design it would have been much easier to use for models, but as-is, it is hardly sufficient even for a figure with an exaggerated physique. Still want to someday try making a car or truck in the HF building system using that chest piece as a hood, though.

Finder can look inside hidden or protected folders, yes. But it's not inside the program folder as far as I can tell. That does include things like assets.lif, preferences.ini, and the help assets, but there's no sign of the userpalettes folder or the .lxf file I had saved there. Just to confirm that the program folder is not where the custom palettes are saved, I deleted LDD from my computer and reinstalled it. Sure enough, when I reinstalled it, my custom palette was still there. So I'm extremely puzzled. The computer does have a "Shared" user account with its own "Application Data" folder, but the only subfolder there is "Adobe", so that can't be it. Creating the folder again is hard because I'd have to create all the folders it's supposed to be nested in (so to create the "userpalettes" folder where it was originally supposed to be placed, I'd have to first create a "LEGO Company" folder and a "LEGO Digital Designer" folder). If those folders don't already exist, then I highly doubt that LDD would even know to reference them, especially since the custom palette I saved before is somehow still on my computer somewhere and LDD is referencing it there. EDIT: Turns out the folders were in fact hidden, and somehow getting them to display was not as intuitive a process as I had remembered. I've found them now. If anyone in the future has difficulty with this, a Google search for "How to view hidden folders on Mac OS X" should bring up the solution.

I doubt it myself. First of all, it's generally a bit harder to manage human constraction figures than more animal-like or alien figures, because the "uncanny valley" effect starts to rear its head. The Super Heroes constraction sets attempted this in some cases, but many of the attempts were not well-received. Additionally, ninja garb of any kind seems like it'd be a real challenge to pull off with this type of build. Constraction designs are well-suited to armor or to a stylized musculature, less so to less form-fitting attire.

Yes, I searched for it. It doesn't seem to exist; if it does, it must be hidden somewhere where Finder can't find it. I also searched for LEGO Company and for the name of the file that became my custom palette. No dice.

It's a LEGO sticker, and people hold LEGO to an exceptionally high standard. The amount of complaining we see even within the AFOL community should be more than sufficient evidence of this.

I think the Bohrok's origin as transformed Matoran was planned from early on (there were numerous hints, including set-design-related hints), and the revelation in 2008 that they were specifically transformed Av-Matoran was an attempt to work that origin into the story before it left the Matoran Universe more than a spontaneous decision to give an origin to the Bohrok. It does end up feeling a bit shoehorned-in, but it doesn't at all strike me as a spontaneous, unplanned detail. Overall, I've read some interviews from early in BIONICLE's lifespan that expressed that the idea of not getting the whole story from any one medium was a core part of its marketing strategy from the beginning. Basically, it was attempting to tap into things like the Star Wars expanded universe or The Lord of the Rings which were riddled with side-stories that explained unanswered questions. It's worth noting that in 2001, there were no BIONICLE books at all, and the BIONICLE comics, which would become the most accessible story medium in later years, told just brief snippets of story (not even covering the year's climax). It wasn't until 2002 that the comics began following the adventures of the Toa more rigorously, and it wasn't until 2003 that those adventures were compiled into book form. Naturally, trying to create this kind of universe from the ground up, purely as a marketing platform for a toyline, was incredibly ambitious. But it's understandable where the appeal came from. Is it really that different from the viral marketing campaigns some movies and video games get prior to their release, other than that it was carried out for the long term? As far as building hype was concerned, this strategy of dividing the story between media definitely had some advantages. And truly, with such an ambitious mission, I think BIONICLE fared admirably. Was it the best strategy from a long-term business perspective? Probably not, but it crafted one heck of a story, and those with the patience and dedication to follow it were fortunate to be able to tag along for the ride.