Aanchir

I don't at all know what you mean about nullifying the events of Zuko's hallucinations in season two. Regardless, I encourage you to read the graphic novels. I feel like they do an excellent job keeping consistent with the characterization and narrative voice of the series, and they maintain cultural and political depth the series offered while still offering entirely new adventures that further develop the characters we know and love.

Which is of course absolute poppycock. Film companies have plenty of more effective means of making money than infiltrating toy companies they already have healthy partnerships with, and TLG has better reasons to enter into licensing agreements than because insidious voices from the inside urge them to do so. Really, what would Lucasfilm/Disney have to gain by eliminating non-licensed Castle and Space themes? Star Wars and other licenses are already making TLG boatloads of money, and there's no indication that TLG would make significantly MORE money off of them by dropping their non-licensed themes. If that were the case, then we wouldn't be seeing any non-licensed themes in the same genres at all, but the fact is that LEGO Space themes have been going strong for nearly six years now in perfect harmony with LEGO Star Wars. Currently, the Galaxy Squad theme has some simply stellar designs, and I see no reason why it wouldn't continue the marathon of success that TLG's Space themes have experienced as a whole since they came back from their five-year hiatus. And from what I've seen LEGO is planning to devote just as much effort as ever towards their new Castle offerings — which, in my honest opinion, are no worse than any other castle offerings in the past ten years. Certainly AFOLs will find dozens of reasons to nitpick this latest castle iteration, just as they have pretty much every other time a new theme comes out, but chances are kids will eat it up just like they did with the Knights' Kingdom II theme which this latest castle theme is inexplicably compared to so often, or the "Fantasy Era" Castle theme which originally saw plenty of hatred itself before fans warmed up to the idea. So overall we have a conspiracy theory based on evidence of a non-existent decline in set designs and the assumption of irrational motivations within the LEGO Group chain of command. No matter how you arrange the numbers, it simply doesn't add up.

There are definitely plenty of people who collect just particular sub-themes of sets. For instance, I know several people buy the LEGO Creator houses for use in their tabletowns or simply for display, but have no interest in the larger-scale vehicle models or creature models. Likewise there are plenty of people who collect only minifig-scale Star Wars sets, mini Star Wars vehicles, or Ultimate Collectors' Series Star Wars sets. Moving outside of strictly-defined subthemes, my two siblings and I divided all BIONICLE canister sets and impulse sets according to color: I'd get red and white sets, my younger brother would get blue and black sets, and my twin brother would get green and brown/yellow/orange/whatever-the-sixth-color-for-that-year-was. And some Ninjago fans only buy sets with temples, dragons, and other fantasy elements, avoiding the theme's sci-fi vehicles. I don't know of many people who collect just one "genre" of LEGO City (other than trains, of course), but there's definitely no reason not to unless you're really drawn to collect things outside that subtheme. One advantage of collecting within a particular subtheme is that sometimes, like collecting only particular themes, it will help ensure your MOCing parts are compatible with each other in terms of color scheme. Another advantage is of course that it reduces your overall spending. And remember, there's no penalty for breaking rules you arbitrarily set for yourself. I stopped collecting LEGO Star Wars sets around 2005, but my family has gotten some UCS sets since then, and last Christmas my twin brother got the podracer set from two years ago. Occasionally there is a stellar set design that's just tempting enough for you to make an exception to your self-imposed rule. That doesn't by any means indicate that the rule is no longer any good. Of course, if you find yourself making exceptions left and right, that might mean the rule is in need of revision. But again, there's no penalty for deciding your interests have changed and a rule you once stuck to religiously no longer applies to your collection.

Who says they WANT it to resemble the original show? I think this is attempting to fill the "silly superhero cartoon" niche that Batman: The Brave and the Bold left behind a couple years ago, and doing so with a franchise that already skewed towards silliness is a good strategy in my opinion. Really, I haven't seen the series yet (looking forward to it), but I can't help but find it ironic that a lot of the criticisms Teen Titans fans have of Teen Titans Go! are the same ones fans of the Teen Titans from their comic book days had of the original cartoon. A silly, unfamiliar, heavily-stylized visual design? Check. Loads of childish humor without the grim seriousness or continuity of the characters' previous portrayal? Check. Overall, I'm perhaps a bit more open to the new series' lighter tone because some of my favorite episodes of the original cartoon were sillier ones involving zany characters like Mumbo, Mad Mod, and Larry. But also, I'm generally open to new interpretations of characters, which are a staple of adaptations in general and superhero media in particular. There's nothing wrong with giving a new creator with a fresh batch of ideas a turn to play with characters someone else created.

I look forward to further installments in this series, which I have enjoyed just as much as "The Promise". I think that the graphic novels have done a good job matching the narrative tone of the show, and it's almost a shame that these stories may never be available with the voice acting and music that added a whole other level of life to the original animated series. I'm kind of curious how long these graphic novels might continue. It'd be great if they continue long enough for us to watch Aang and his friends grow to adulthood, though of course at the current pace that would be quite a wait!

None that has been revealed, no. Aquagon, Surge, and Eris all use 3M shells, and Surge, Evo, and Stormer use 3M and 4M shells in Tr. Light Blue. Maybe if we're lucky we might see some of those rarer parts added to Pick-A-Brick, but I wouldn't count on that happening anytime soon.

Yep. Front (An engineer with The LEGO Group) confirmed it in this post, though he also mentioned the possibility of the parts bending during packing. So there are a number of stages where this could have happened; the main idea though is that the parts come out of the mold straight and only later become deformed. Front was referring to a different weapon piece but the same principle applies.

As I said, it only looks flat against his back due to the optical illusion created by the angle of his torso. The part between his torso and his back doesn't show up because it is one module lower than Stormer's shield. If you look at the LXF file I did my best to get it into almost the exact same pose as the out-of-package picture, and unless you rotate the view it is impossible to tell there is another piece in between the torso beam and the shield piece. You can also tell that the shield piece cannot possibly be connected directly to the back in that pic because if it were you'd see the tops of the pin holes on the shield piece. Instead, they are hidden behind the torso beam, because they are lower and further back than the shield piece would appear. A torso built like in my LXF file is to the left; a torso built with the back armor plugged directly into the back of the torso beam is to the right. The one on the left closer resembles this image in terms of how much of the shield is showing.

Just getting back to this discussion, I've come to the conclusion that the two pics of Surge are in fact built the same, and the implication that they are different is a result of an optical illusion brought about by the angle of the body in the first pic. I have built an LDD model of Surge here and posed it so that it appears similar to the out-of-package photo (naturally, it is not quite the same due to the need for replacement parts-- Bulk's helmet and Surge's old helmet both have the jaw come down much farther than the new helmet appears to). From this angle it gives the same impression of the shield piece being connected directly to the pin holes in the back-- however, it is in fact separated by one module in height and one module in depth. And it comes to exactly 66 pieces. I am quite confident that this is at least a very close approximation of how Surge is built in both cache.LEGO.com pictures as well as the photos BZPower took at Toy Fair.

No, it wouldn't be considered damaged to straighten one back out. They're not bent when they come out of the molds, but once they're out they fall into large bins where they pile up on top of each other, which can cause some to become bent. It happens to many similar weapon parts. If the parts straighten themselves out or you are able to straighten them out by repeatedly bending them the opposite direction, more power to you.

Things LEGO needs: To keep embracing the strategies and values that have brought them such tremendous success in the past decade. Things that are destroying LEGO: whiny fans with a poor grasp on reality. Ah, who am I kidding. The first is what TLG is already doing with their set designs in general, and the latter isn't going to destroy LEGO no matter how important or enlightened such fans think they are. Still, it is always good for a laugh when fans start to confuse their personal likes and dislikes with sound business knowledge. Even more hilarious when it leads them to imagine absurd, improbable "conspiracies". I came into this topic expecting tiresome melodrama, not laugh-out-loud comedy. So thanks for bringing a smile to my face. Now back to reading more serious, thoughtful, and productive topics.

I'd say it's more than just a few bricks old — the four-brick high variant, 6259, has been around since my childhood! The Wind Turbine Transport had the newer five-brick-high variant, 85941, which has a larger cutout in the center.

The new head piece could be used somewhat similarly to that, even though it's not quite as compact and can't attach to ball joints in the center of a beam. I agree a part with connection points like that could be cool to have, though to be honest many of its applications can also use existing parts like the new head or even just a traditional ball joint (considering most sets to use that friction joint needed additional Technic beams as bracing anyway, it's not like it would add too much additional bulk).

It is, though you can see a red-eyed robot we've never seen before reflected in his left eye, which suggests there may be evil robots/nindroids as well. Or at least some bad guy with a robot eye.

With previous torso shells I would feel the same way, but with this one the chest has a strong circular motif that is lined up with the circular portion of the shield piece.

Hmmm, curious question. It definitely is attached lower on the BZPower pic and package pic, but I can't tell how since it seems to use up most of its connection points. Sadly I fear the out-of-package pic from cache.LEGO.com is most likely the correct construction. It looks great with the new torso shell, perhaps better than it would if it were attached lower, but it does not cover the back nearly as much. Nothing compared to BIONICLE's fourth year? You do this year's Hero Factory sets an injustice. Naturally the Toa Metru were quite nice designs, even if they were cloned in every attribute but masks, weapons, colors, and height. Their proportions were generally very good and they had the best articulation of any canister sets to date. But 2004 was also the year of the Vahki, which were identical except for their colors and huge, overspecialized weapons. It was the year of the Metru Nui Matoran, which had baffling posture and proportions (the way their arms stuck out to their sides was extremely awkward). And it was a year of mind-numbingly repetitive color schemes. Sure, it did introduce some nice titan sets and was the first year to implement the friction joint, a great improvement over the click hinges of the 2002 and 2003 titan sets. But overall I think this year's Hero Factory sets manage to outshine 2004 BIONICLE in a lot of respects just in terms of not being clone sets and not having many huge and extremely specialized weapon elements.

Cache.LEGO.com has high-res pics of the new sets! 44008 Surge Package 44009 Dragon Bolt Package 44010 Stormer Package 44011 Frost Beast Package 44012 Evo Package 44013 Aquagon Package 44014 Jet Rocka Package Sad that there aren't any other pictures of the sets, but I was not really expecting any. In the very least when the Hero Factory site gets updated with the new sets there will likely be high-quality 1000x1000 pictures of the characters with the CGI backgrounds and poses that appear on their packaging.

Definitely an error, yeah. Kind of a shock that a LEGO Club publication would make such a major error.

I really liked the Ninjago game, myself. I felt the "spinning top" component was brilliantly integrated into the board game, with a brick-built spinner taking the place of the die. The Chima game doesn't have the same integration, but in general I feel Chima's gameplay components are lsss integrated with the toys — the "card game" component of Speedorz competition has next to no integration with the actual toy-based component, unlike Ninjago where your cards affected the spinner competition which was always central to gameplay.

Frost Beast's brain seems to be Transparent Fluorescent Blue, not Transparent Light Blue. Not really noteworthy, but it caught me by surprise since Transparent Light Blue is a more significant part of his color scheme. Then again, I could also be wrong... it can be hard to tell from photos. Stormer and Surge look nice, but with a few more pieces I bet you could make that back armor fit on a bit more snugly. Frost Beast's armor style still kind of confuses me, since it doesn't provide a whole lot of coverage to the back and shoulders given the number of parts required. No complaints about Dragon Bolt. Jet Rocka bugs me a bit. I'll have to see a review before passing judgment on the jetpack itself, but as for the figure, I feel his legs are too long for the armor they use, and a smaller (non-XL) torso would also have been preferable to the gappy look his torso armor currently offers. Sometimes I feel like TLG just likes to bump up the heroes according to price point just to make them feel like they offer more value — regardless of whether they already have plenty of value in how well-equipped or well-armored they are, and regardless of whether additional height improves their look. I felt kind of the same way about the medium-sized Hero sets last year... the lower leg beams could all have been one module shorter. But at least they were generally well-armored. Funnily enough, Evo and Aquagon aren't listed. Thankfully we've already gotten decent pictures of those from the K-Mart website.

I doubt they will. I wouldn't rule it out completely, but given how little significance the larger versions of the characters have had in the story so far (that is to say, little more than a momentary visual effect), there's not much room for adding yet another layer of "powering up" in-story. Chances are the combined versions of the characters are meant to represent little more than the base character in another, more powerful suit of armor, just like the Super Heroes and Hero Factory combi models.

Overall, while the basic premise of each year of BIONICLE was very simple, for a story-driven theme like BIONICLE people aren't going to get committed unless they can understand who the characters are and what their motivation is. In Hero Factory, the villains are usually creating fairly generic chaos and mayhem, while the heroes are law enforcement. In BIONICLE, it was not nearly so simple. And that showed up even in the names. It wasn't just "heroes" and "villains". Kids had to understand what all these foreign-sounding words and names meant to even know just what kind of character they were buying. Just what is a Rahkshi, or a Piraka? What makes a Toa Metru different from a Toa Mahri? Why is this character a Toa when they were a shorter Turaga three years ago? These not only made things harder for kids to understand without following the deeper layers of story; they made them harder for their parents to understand. I speak from experience. Also, BIONICLE's story had some really heavy continuity. A lot of the suspense in the story was driven by mysteries from previous years being answered very slowly as new mysteries took their place. To a kid jumping in partway through, they wouldn't see any benefit from these mysteries being answered unless they were exposed to previous years' story media to understand their importance. BIONICLE thrived on this mystery-driven formula, which helped it — buy also eventually hurt it. In contrast, Hero Factory's story has a very basic premise each year: the heroes have to capture or stop the villains. Any more specific details can usually be summed up in a sentence: Villains have formed a gang to take down the Hero Factory! Fiery villains are trying to steal more energy! A villain on a jungle planet has corrupted the native creatures! The villains have escaped from containment and fled to the corners of the galaxy! Evil brains from outer space have turned innocent creatures into rampaging villains! It's all very simple stuff, and you can jump into any given year without any need to understand what happened previously. Characters have simple, intuitive names, there are not many overarching "universe rules" like the confusing Matoran life cycle, and there's no need to remember what each character is up to at the end of each year — almost inevitably, at the end of each year, every villain is taken care of so they don't cause any additional problems, and the Heroes return to headquarters safe, sound, and ready to be upgraded for the next mission. Does that clear anything up?

I'm disappointed in the Dragon Mountain set. It's a wonderfully-designed set for what it is — an evil tower built on the ruins of an older castle. But I feel like the Dragon Knights are in real need of a more substantial base of operations. The Dragon Mountain works great as an evil wizard's lair or prison tower; less so as a site for raising an army against the powerful lion kingdom. Even the prison tower in Kingdoms at least felt like a fairly formidable stronghold in its own right, even if it wasn't substantially larger than this one. Now, Gold Getaway and The Gatehouse Raid still look very nice, and I have to say The Gatehouse Raid looks a lot better to me in these high-res pics now that I can see it has real dimension to it and can be attached to other wall segments, presumably from the King's Castle. The King's Castle doesn't look too shabby, either, though I wish we had more pics showing the interior details. Its gatehouse is still a beautiful design IMO, and I think it easily measures up to the one from Kingdoms. The theme also has some very nice siege engines. Overall, I wonder if this iteration of LEGO Castle is likely to last more than one wave. If so, though, they might very easily be non-consecutive like Kingdoms was, meaning that it may be a while before we see whether the Dragon Knights get a more substantial base.

The LEGO Club has a lovely interview with some of the creators of the TV show: Tommy Andreasen (misspelled as "Anderson") and John Derevlany, the script writer. There's some neat concept art as well as development info (the working title for the original Chima pitch was "Animal Kingdom"). Also mention of "BIG plans for Eris"; not sure what exactly that entails since she's had a fairly minor role in the show so far. Part two of the interview is forthcoming.

Yep, Reidak is one of the Piraka. His claws are identical to the mold CHI Eris uses, but with gold toes. The Bricklink asking price is around $1 apiece (around €1.30).