Aanchir

That's odd. Which half? All the links are formatted the same and are working just fine for me.

Not all chrome parts are treated the same way, I'd wager, particularly ones like this that are (presumably) made in China. Similarly, metallic lacquered parts in Chinese-made sets are often different than in other sets, in that metallic lacquered helmets and accessories usually leave the underside untreated. The Spartan Warrior's helmet, the Karate Master's trophy, and the Sumo Wrestler's trophy are all Brick Yellow (tan) on the underside, while the S1 Robot's helmet and the S4 Soccer Player's trophy are Medium Stone Grey (light bley) on the underside. My guess is that in their case, the metallic color is sprayed or brushed on, unlike the similarly-colored parts in non-Chinese parts which may be submerged in a solution or (more likely, given the color names) tumbled in a rotating drum containing the color treatment much like how the colorful sugar coating is applied to jelly beans. Incidentally, some older metallic-colored parts also seemed to have the color sprayed or brushed onto a part, and not applied to the entirety of the part, such as the metallic gold Throwbot disks from 1999. The process of applying a metallic color to the entire part presumably came later, even though chrome-finish parts had been metallized all over well before that point.

I don't know if we can assume the mouth guard on Lord Garmadon is meant to represent the Overlord. After all, it could be that the mouth guard was intended by the set designers to just be a part of the helmet of darkness, and it was just omitted in the show because it would make Lord Garmadon less expressive. Certainly it's not unknown for the show's character and prop designers to deviate from the minifigure designs for similar storytelling reasons, such as Samurai X having a mask over her eyes instead of just over her mouth to better conceal her identity, the Ninja frequently appearing without their masks, etc. The movie "BIONICLE: The Legend Reborn" and many of the Hero Factory TV specials similarly modified the sets' masks to be more expressive: when in battle, the masks are rigid, just as they are in the sets, but outside of battle, the part covering the mouth and chin would often flip up or recede, or else hinges in the masks' designs would simply unlock. Showing characters' faces is important when you want viewers to identify with the characters on an emotional level, and this definitely applies to Garmadon during the Overlord story arc, where his conflicted emotions about having to confront his son are central to his narrative.

Well, to be honest, that's part of the reason I think the idea of a "like" button could work for some LEGO forums. A "like" button provides a less cluttered alternative for inane and repetitive "Awesome!" and "I agree" posts. Now, is this needed for Eurobricks? Hard to say, becasue I don't see too many of these kinds of posts here compared to some other sites. But at the same time, if people aren't posting these kinds of things, it could also mean that they're simply not bothering to express their opinions at all because they think making posts for such simple sentiments would just be repetitive clutter. A "like" button can also discourage off-topic posting. Suppose someone makes a witty response to another post that makes you laugh. You don't want to derail the original topic of discussion by posting just to say "Great joke" or "LOL". A "like" button allows you to express approval of posts without the meta-conversation detracting from the main conversation. I don't think there's ever a concern of a "like" button discouraging thoughtful posts. People who have something meaningful to say that can't be expressed with a simple "like" will still be just as likely to say it, because we would not be on a discussion forum if we did not want to be involved in discussions. On some other forums, there's the added incentive of keeping topics you like from dying, since topic revival after a certain point is outright prohibited. And of course, people who don't have anything to say beyond "I like this" or "I agree" might otherwise (quite reasonably) opt not to share their feelings at all! Overall, the only posts that a "like" button would really discourage are ones that would not really promote thoughtful conversation any more than a "like" button to begin with. And while I don't think Eurobricks needs a "like" button, I feel like such an addition would be almost entirely harmless and certainly not as bad as some people are making it out to be.

I'd consider it at least a part that needs to be improved, if not an outright bug, since that part is supposed to bend much more than a "small bit". The minifigure is supposed to be able to point the nozzle forward while the hose is plugged into the stud on the back of his helmet.

Could be a matter of how the chrome treatment is applied. If it requires dipping the part into a solution, there may be some mechanism holding it by that stud so that it's not just floating freely. Apparently there are two of these guys on eBay currently, from the same seller in Germany. I hope that's not a sign that distribution of these is seriously imbalanced. Two of this super-rare fig obtained by the same person so soon after release doesn't exactly bode well.

I don't know. I admire the effort that goes into making media where a lot of things are physically made out of LEGO (like the LEGO video games), but at the same time one thing I like about the Ninjago TV series is that since everything (even the official sets) is stylized, there isn't any one right way to build the vehicles and settings that don't appear in sets. Which I think is part of the point-- it gives kids inspiration to build things of their own, which provides a further incentive to buy and play with the toys. If everything were depicted as if made of bricks, then a kid might not even try if they saw a brick that would be difficult or impossible to obtain.

I dunno. To be honest, I've never really thought about why TLG chooses particular vehicle sets for particular years. In 2008 and 2009 BIONICLE, it was tied to the setting, but Hero Factory doesn't exactly have that excuse, so it'd be neat to get some insight. For all we know it's just a matter of designers pursuing whatever the new parts for a wave inspire them for. But it could be that they find their inspiration elsewhere. I wish the Hero Factory set designers were a little more public about their work. Even if they don't engage directly with fans, it'd be cool to see more set designer videos and interviews like we see for some other themes.

Female robot? That's cool. A number of the other figs are ones I've seen suggested before, like a scarecrow or a gingerbread man. Looking forward to further info on this series.

In historical and fantasy themes, this may be the case, though this may also be because in licenses there is expected to be a certain accuracy to the character's costume. In non-historical themes, there are dozens of yellow-skinned figures with yellow showing on the torso. This is especially the case with female figures, but there are even several male torso designs common in themes like City that have a triangle of yellow under the chin. I don't know if it's a matter of licensed figs being "more realistic", though. A large number of LEGO Castle figs are always in full armor, or at least full mail. Less so in a lot of the franchises LEGO has acquired licenses for.

Green might work, yes, and that would probably be one of the more attractive color schemes. There are probably also colors of blue that could work. I certainly wouldn't mind a green vehicle... Rockoh T3 remains one of my favorite BIONICLE sets, and the color is definitely one significant factor among many.

I think a major reason buses don't tend to appear as smaller, independent sets is because the main play value in a bus comes from it carrying passengers, and generally only the largest sets have a large number of minifigures to act as passengers. A bus set with just a driver and one or two passengers would seem kind of silly.

Ideally, when designing the Crusher, it'd be a color OTHER than silver. I always dislike it when a model builder decides the vehicle and pilot ought to be the same color. Not only does it make very little sense, but it makes it hard to differentiate the pilot from the model, which can lend the impression of a vehicle with arms and a head sprouting out of it rather than a figure seated in a vehicle.

Even during the 90s and 2000s a lot of set numbers followed a pretty consistent logic. For instance, most regularly-distributed constraction sets (Throwbots, Roboriders, BIONICLE, Ben 10, Knights' Kingdom II, etc.) were clustered in the 8500-9000 range, which is understandable since this section had previously been mostly occupied by Technic sets, and the themes of the constraction category started out as mere Technic spin-offs. One thing that I think changed that caused the numbering system to be a little less strict in its rules is that at some point, more of an emphasis was placed on having the set numbers for a particular year's sets be consecutive whenever possible. In the 80s, from what I've seen, set numbers within a certain theme's block were largely distributed based on price point, not year of release, so big Ninja sets would be consecutive with big Royal Knights and Dragon Masters sets. Eventually this meant that if a big enough block of consecutive set numbers was not available, certain sets would be numbered differently than their predecessors, and might even have to be squeezed into a block that was otherwise reserved for a different theme category. In the past five or so years, there seems to have been less attention put towards making the set numbers follow logical rules and more attention put towards filling in the gaps. This would be a part of why there are more and more exceptions to the numbering rules as the years go on. There are probably even earlier examples of places where the rules were broken because they were obsolete-- for instance, having a certain block of numbers devoted to Fabuland sets makes little sense once Fabuland is discontinued. And this year, set numbering has been radically revamped, so hopefully numbering rules will be followed more consistently now.

Yep. Just leave the note about its tail not being flexible and its eyes not being able to be colored separately and you should be all set.

I personally like the crane. It's got the level of realism and detail of the XXL Mobile Crane from 2005 in a size that's much more reasonable for a City layout. Whether it's necessary for the set is another story, but it certainly adds a lot of play value to the set in terms of giving kids another way to interact with the set (instead of just constructing each building and then having them as static settings, the crane can lift the Bike Shop sign onto the roof or the statue onto its pedestal). On a side note, maybe that answers our question of how the bike gets down from the second floor of the bike shop-- the crane removes the roof and airlifts it out!

That indicates what type of cards they can use. The battle cards (with the names and pictures of speedorz, power-upz, weapons, etc.) will usually have two to four different tribe logos on it, and your character has to have at least one of those logos for them to use that card. This is a nice solution to a problem I had been wondering about, which would be how Skinnet and Furty could use cards when none of the cards used tribe emblems specific to them. This gives them some degree of versatility instead of requiring them to use only newer cards featuring their tribes' logos.

You should be able to color the pins the correct color. 5 Brick Yellow is in the LDD Extended Mode color palette on the second row, right between 138 Sand Yellow and 38 Dark Orange. It is a bit hard to spot it sometimes because on LDD it doesn't look nearly as light as it is in most official LEGO images or even the physical piece. You did get the brain slug's color correct. It can be hard to tell sometimes with co-injected (blended) parts, but in this case your intuition was spot-on.

Nope. I guess we'll have to wait a bit longer for those.

Kind of funny you should say that... I imagine a lot of classic space fans would disagree. Originally the red and white classic space minifigures were meant to be separate groups (with the white ones representing American astronauts and the red ones representing Russian cosmonauts), but as the theme went on and more colors were introduced this premise was abandoned and the uniform colors were used for different roles, sort of like in Star Trek. According to Jens Nygaard Knudsen, a veteran LEGO Space designer, "The original two colors were explorers, yellow were scientists, blues were technicians or mechanics, and I guess the black were warriors, but we were not allowed to make a big deal out of this. We were not allowed to make war." Galaxy Squad somewhat returns to this concept, albeit in a much more military context with the teams divided according to their strategies and tactics. Additionally, I can see why you might feel that it's a bit odd to have the ships, rather than just the uniforms, color-coded by team.

I think part of the reason for the pizza joint is that pizza is a really well-liked food item pretty much worldwide. Burgers, perhaps to a certain extent, but I don't think they appeal to everyone's cultural sensibilities. When I visited Costa Rica a little over a year ago, I seem to recall pizza being a much more common menu item than burgers, though that may be selective memory. No idea about the bike shop, except that perhaps kids like it since it rolls the appeal of buildings and vehicles into one cohesive whole. Lime green isn't a totally common color for pizza parlors, but I think it suits the building, and it's a nice way to provide variety in a city layout. I don't know where you get the idea that these designs aren't fun and appealing. What design sensibilities are you talking about that you don't see present here? Naturally it's not going to look like a set from the 80s or 90s, because we're past that, and TLG has recognized that you can work intricate, realistic detail into sets without eliminating their versatility as parts packs. Overall, I can't think of any set from a previous decade that I'd really prefer over its more modern equivalent. Well, except maybe Pizza-to-Go (what a set that was!), but mainly just because it has such a unique look and great play features like an oven and a delivery truck.

Given that the previous use of the mold on Rocka has the same weird not-transparence going on, I dunno what you were really expecting. Transparent colors in that type of softer plastic (polypropylene, if I'm not mistaken) never look fully transparent: they tend to be translucent at best. Other examples of parts where this effect can be seen include Stormer XL's blades (multicombination with silver metallic and transparent blue), Malum's mask and flame claws (multicombination with dark red and transparent bright orange), or for those long-time BIONICLE fans, the various Vahki eye pieces. As a general rule, LEGO parts don't look truly transparent unless they're molded in polycarbonate (the hard plastic used for transparent basic bricks). There are probably a few exceptions but typically that glassy look can't be achieved with other plastics-- even transparent parts molded in traditional ABS will have a milky look, since uncolored ABS granulate is a milky white color. I'm kind of surprised at the lack of enthusiasm for Razar. Certainly, he has very few new recolors, a mostly identical build to Eris, and not a particularly exciting color scheme (very dark and drab even with the splashes of medium lilac). But his color scheme is very well-organized IMO and I'd go so far as to say he's one of the best-looking figures. The only part of these sets that really bothers me a great deal as far as build is concerned is Eris's lower legs. Seven modules for the lower legs is far longer than I feel is necessary for a figure this size, and moreover simply doesn't work with the 3M lower leg shells. It's quite peculiar as well because this year, 4M lower leg shells were introduced in Warm Gold, and 5M lower leg shells have been around in Warm Gold since the color first appeared in Hero Factory. My guess is that her longer leg beams and larger weapon than Razar's are the reason she couldn't have larger leg shells, but the obvious solution IMO would be to make the leg beams shorter so the 3M (or 4M, if that allows room in the budget) leg shells provide more coverage. Overall, these models have a lot of uniqueness and a lot of attention to detail even compared to the average Hero Factory model. "Paws" invariably have both fingers AND weapons, rather than just one or the other; every beam has cladding except Cragger's lower limbs which are left unclad for stylistic reasons and which are colored appropriately for the rest of the build, and back armor is present on at least half of the figures. Naturally, these features come at a bit of a premium, but in general there's a lot to love about these sets.

Cool, I totally forgot to check Chima constraction sets when checking other themes! They're all looking pretty awesome. Shame there aren't any alternate images besides the packaging.

No, unfortunately.

High-res PNG image template if anyone's interested: 76009 There are also a lot of new alternate pics of 76002, but unless I'm mistaken they don't show us anything really new about the contents of the set.