Aanchir

That depends. Sure, a policeman/fireman as a general concept could be used in LEGO City or other themes, but there are certain styles of police/fire uniforms that might be impossible to include in City because they don't have the same iconic appeal to a global audience, or because they have a strict focus on realism versus meeting the archetypical expectations kids have of firefighters or police officers. One thing the CMFs are good for is creating minifigs that might not have sufficient demand to be the focus of a theme or even to be featured in a theme, and that includes certain more specific variants of broader archetypes.

Well, there weren't many instances where it only needed ONE, but there were still often far more weapons than there were characters to use them. For instance, Barraki Deepsea Patrol and Piraka Outpost only had four minifigures each, so even if you gave each minifigure a weapon in each hand, there would be four weapons left unused.

The best tip I can offer is that if you're going to use any pre-existing weapon pieces, let their shapes and textures inspire you. Just sticking a bunch of blades together rarely yields a refined-looking weapon, but choosing to use weapon pieces with similar textures, or ones with shapes that complement each other, can result in a weapon that feels almost as though the parts were designed for it.

Ah, OK. I thought you were referring specifically to DVD-exclusive features. Yeah, it would be nice if a Ninjago DVD set had some of this kind of stuff. I was quite disappointed that neither the original pilot DVD nor the "Season 1" DVD set had all the mini-movies from LEGO.com. In fact, the only bonus feature on any Ninjago DVD so far (as far as I know) is the LEGO Battles Ninjago blooper reel, which I think is on the pilot DVD.

Clutch Powers wasn't really all that special when it came to bonus features, IMO. As I recall, its only real "bonus feature" was the "Bad Hair Day" short, which while amusing, was just a brief diversion and offered no behind-the-scenes insight at all. What really impressed me as far as bonus features were concerned were the movies BIONICLE: Mask of Light and BIONICLE 2: Legends of Metru Nui. Mask of Light in particular had a behind-the-scenes "Making Of" featurette, an interactive "Mata Nui Explorer" which let you visit various locations from the film and hear the main character, Takua, describe the key characters, deleted scenes with optional commentary from the directors, a storyboard-to-film comparison, and a preview of what was planned for the 2004 BIONICLE story arc. The Legends of Metru Nui DVD had the interactive "Metru Nui Explorer" (not as cool or in-depth as the Mata Nui Explorer, but still somewhat interesting), a "Making Of" featurette, and a question-and-answer featurette with members of the BIONICLE story team. Overall I only wish more recent DVDs had this kind of bonus content. Sadly, though, most LEGO DVDs are lucky to include a 22-minute "bonus" feature (sometimes from another LEGO theme entirely) in addition to their 22 to 88 minutes of regular content, and the Ninjago DVDs in the United States usually don't even get that. The Ninjago soundtrack may very well have gotten delayed. I had a bit of a feeling "by the end of the year" sounded perhaps a bit too good to hope for. I haven't inquired about it lately; perhaps I should.

Based on the inventory listing (both in the instruction manual and online), I would assume that the two varieties of wheels come together in a prepack, since most sets use both varieties in a 2:1 ratio. There are plenty of other examples of parts that only ever come in a prepack, such as various LEGO Friends accessories, BIONICLE playset weapons, some of the old LEGO Batman weapons (the tommy gun and Batarang both later appeared as individual elements, but the other two never appeared separately), LEGO Star Wars clone trooper accessories, etc. The reason for this? It's a way of cutting down on the cost of parts. By having an assortment of parts that are likely to be used together come off the same mold and get packaged together automatically, you cut out several steps of the production process (no more needing to pick out a bunch of the parts individually for the set's inventory), cut down on the number of new molds that need to be produced, cut down on the number of really small parts that have to be included as "extra" to prevent missing pieces slipping past the weight check, and cut down on the floor space that molding each piece individually would require. It's similar to the principle of producing small tools and accessories on a sprue-- sure, some sets might not need every tool on that sprue, but often putting the parts together like that often saves money in the long run.

More likely this, its modern-day equivalent.

I believe half-thickness liftarms/beams should connect just fine, if I'm remembering correctly (I have used these parts before on certain occasions).

I'd love to see a firefighter with Sand Yellow (Dark Tan) clothing printed with Cool Yellow (Bright Light Yellow) stripes, which would resemble a lot of the firefighting gear I have seen in real life. His helmet could be Black (a color that hasn't been seen in sets in over a decade) or Bright Yellow (classic yellow). Overall the Collectible Minifigures have a lot of potential even when repeating concepts that have appeared in other themes or even previous minifigure series.

The closest color to Series 5's bags is Dark Azure.

I give plenty of credit to the customizers for their ingenuity. But frankly, in this case, I don't think it's something TLG can't do, I think it's something they know better than to do since it would lend a figure a far less natural appearance, as demonstrated here. One of the wonderful things about customizers is that they often can create parts that look like something TLG could make but which they (for whatever reason) won't. Brickarms, with its high-detail minifigure weapons, is one example. TLG goes out of their way to avoid realistic detail in their minifigure firearms, leaving a niche for Brickforge to cater to builders who desire them. TLG's reasons for avoiding doing this themselves are not invalid, but likewise Brickarms isn't in the wrong for catering to that audience, because they run two very different operations. TLG could probably introduce a short (1 x 2 x 1) torso and medium-sized (1 x 2 x 1 1/3) legs, but they'd face the same roadblock as customizers: such a design would not be especially backwards-compatible with previously released dwarf/child minifigures. And since posable short legs would be a pre-assembled part rather than just a simple new part, it would probably not be a worthwhile investment to introduce posable legs that have next to no impact on a figure's height, and which hardly look like legs in most positions.

Gosh, there are a lot of parts I can think of, none of which I really need desperately but many of which would be useful. Beams and Joints: For starters, any beams (including limb and torso beams) in Black, Medium Stone Grey, Dark Stone Grey, or Bright Red could be useful, since those are currently some of the most plentiful beam colors. In particular, 90615 (7M "B" beam) needs to come in more colors, first and foremost black. 93575 (hands) are long overdue in Titanium Metallic and Warm Gold. Shells/Shell Detail: 92222 would be very useful in Bright Red, and 92233 and 92223 would be useful in Titanium Metallic. 92215 and 98569 would be quite cool to have in Silver Metallic. Head and Helmet: 11270 (the new head piece) would be very desirable in Transparent Fluorescent Reddish Orange and Transparent Fluorescent Blue. 98587 (XT4's head) would be good to have in some neutral colors like Black, Titanium Metallic, and Silver Metallic. Weapon: 98585 (the 3x3 weapon barrel) would be quite desirable in Black. It will be making its first non-transparent appearance in the new UCS X-Wing Starfighter set, so that's a step in the right direction. Miscellaneous: Any new Medium Lilac, Bright Orange, or Flame Yellowish Orange parts would be quite useful, since there are currently only a handful of parts in any of these colors.

OK, cool. I haven't watched any video reviews with sound, but I believe I had heard it as "Speeders" somewhere... might have been a designer video or something. Truly there hasn't been a theme since BIONICLE with such confusing pronunciations... but of course the TV show will definitely help with that.

Misspelling terms also makes them easier to trademark. That's a big part of why BIONICLE in its later years tended to avoid borrowing character names and other parts of its lexicon from real-world languages, instead often taking English words and corrupting them until they were sufficiently "foreign-sounding". Likewise, it's probably why so many Skulkin and Serpentine names in Ninjago follow this same naming trend to a lesser degree (examples: Kruncha, Nuckal, Spitta, Chokun, Lasha, Slithraa). The only thing that really frustrates me about Speedorz is that as far as I've been able to tell, it's just pronounced "Speeders", and the singular is Speedor ("Speeder"). So it makes the weird spelling seem somewhat pointless (compared to BIONICLE names, which usually would have felt unique whether written or spoken aloud).

It's probably a matter of using whichever stock art happened to be available when design and production began, not to mention using stock art that is considered iconic. The Green Ninja is heavily involved in both seasons of LEGO Ninjago, so stock art that features the Green Ninja front-and-center is preferred. DVD manufacturers don't necessarily follow the canon strictly. My My Little Pony Friendship is Magic Season One set is one I'd consider fairly high-quality (not as good as my Avatar: The Last Airbender box sets, but still better than a lot of DVD sets I see of kids' shows), using lots of high-quality vector art. But even that has a character printed on Disc 3 who was not in fact present in any of that season's episodes. Why? Probably because she's a fairly iconic character who kids would recognize from the TV show as well as the toy line.

There's no one right way to enjoy LEGO products. Exclusionary, arrogant generalizations like that only serve to divide what should be a healthy, diverse fan community. Some fans prefer to collect sets or minifigures for display/bragging rights, others prefer to play with them, others prefer to build their own models, and still others prefer heavier, more craft-oriented customization like creating their own parts and minifigures. Some LEGO fans don't buy LEGO products at all, instead becoming fans of LEGO story media like the BIONICLE books and movies, the Ninjago TV show and graphic novels, or the LEGO video games by TT Games. Some take this a step further by creating their own art, stories, and animations based on LEGO products and properties. Some may engage heavily with the AFOL community at large, while others prefer to express their interest through other venues. The only thing you have to do with LEGO products to qualify as a LEGO fan is enjoy them! What that means is entirely up to you!

Additionally, connecting it to full-thickness Technic beams would be an illegal connection, since it would not lock into place and the locking ridges would be in constant compression.

There have not been any for several months, though I'm certain it won't be too long a wait... generally there is at least one major brick palette update in the first few months of the year, and I see no reason for that to change. Your ability to change part colors is still unlimited, though, as long as you are in the correct mode. The basic LDD mode, much like Design byME mode before it, has a limited parts palette, largely limited to parts that have been officially produced in currently-available colors (though many of these parts have never been released in sets). The mode you need to use for unlimited part/color combinations is called LDD Extended Mode. Just click View>New Themes>LDD Extended on the navigation bar at the top of your LDD window. Or, when booting up LDD or creating a new file, click the black "LEGO Digital Designer Extended" button before clicking the "Free Build" button. In the future, questions like this can go in the LDD and Other Digital Tools subforum. There are many experienced LDD users there who can either guide you firsthand or link you to relevant guides, FAQs, and tutorials.

I think these short legs do a good job demonstrating exactly why official short legs don't exist. Take a look at this pic. Neither the standing nor the sitting legs even look very much like legs-- they look like a pair of feet fused with the figure's hips. They're close to the same height whether sitting or standing, It's a lot less natural-looking than the official short minifig legs, which have the hips somewhat recessed into the torso to lend more realistic childlike/dwarflike proportions. Don't get me wrong, they're well-designed with a lot of attention to matching official LEGO part design quality, but they seem ineffective when it comes to actually looking like articulated legs. You'd be about as well-off just using a pair of headlight bricks or 3937+3938-- both solutions would seem about as leg-like as these. The real question regarding this issue is if you're in the business of customizing, why not make your "short legs" one plate taller and the torso one plate shorter? That would raise the hips of the figure and lend it an overall more realistic appearance. The obvious answer, though, is that while "official" short minifig legs can be replaced with a custom solution with almost no real loss, the same is not true for torsos, which often have specialized prints that would be difficult and time-consuming to replicate. Since licensed themes tend to use short legs quite plentifully, for characters whose designs are too distinctive to be acceptable without detailed torso patterns, it doesn't seem anyone's attempted this ideal solution.

Since this is just a newer variant of the classic jumper plate, TLG probably doesn't differentiate between them. I've had the same thing happen with clips in the past. You could try ordering replacements from Customer Service, but there's no telling whether you'd get the correct kind. My advice is just to wait until you have another new set with tan jumper plates and hope that the quantity will eventually balance out (or at least be significant enough that you can do without the remainder).

Yes, that's the date, and it's the full 13-episode season. It's also going to be on Blu-Ray that same day, for those who have Blu-Ray players/compatible devices and prefer to watch in HD.

I don't think the amount of Technic in this year's sets is too alarming. Most of the Technic parts used this year are used for functions, much the same way Technic is often used for functions in System sets. Now, if a character's skeleton started to rely heavily on Technic parts, I would be a lot more disappointed, just as I was with Witch Doctor. But overall I have no problem with Technic being used for functions or even for certain structural details as long as it doesn't get to the point where Technic connections form the foundation of a character's design. Dragon Bolt is an example of an excellent set this year that uses Technic sparingly. Certainly, the wings are almost entirely Technic-based for structural reasons (you wouldn't want them to crumple while the function is operated, and HF-based wings would be heavier and more flexible). But his skeleton is otherwise almost entirely based on the Hero Factory building system. The HF building system is great, and it's great to no longer have a building system that's completely Technic-dependent, but there's no problem with supplementing sets with Technic or system in places where the ball-joint-based building system would be ineffective, any more than there's a problem with supplementing System sets with occasional Technic functions and ball joints.

Incidentally, a week or so ago I came up with a decent way of building and armoring shoulders for a build with a Stormer XL-style torso. I'll have to share that sometime if I ever come up with a decent way of armoring the back and sides, though I'm quite proud to say one advantage of this design is that it raises the shoulders without significantly reducing the number of connection points (in truth, that was my main intent-- I wanted to design a torso taller than the generic 9x11 torso frame, but was having difficulty coming up with a design that left substantial connection points for armoring the shoulders).

You can see here the shoulders are built somewhat similarly to Furno XL's (at least inasmuch as the shoulder joints themselves are Glatorian neck joints). The only thing I really worry about is whether the back and sides are well-armored. That can be the trickiest part of building a broad-chested MOC like this-- it leaves a lot of space to cover on the back and sides, and often a lot of the best connection points will be used to armor the front of the model. Still, black is not a rare color, so I'm sure people will be able to come up with good mods for his torso even if the back and sides are armored insufficiently.

That same comparison was made when we were first getting pics of the new sets... personally, I think that Oxford set looks a lot closer to the Kingdoms castle than the new one... it has many of the stylistic hallmarks and building techniques of the Kingdoms castle, including the narrower gatehouse, the crossed weapons above the gate, the pyramid-shaped tower roof, the slope bricks under the windows, etc. Color scheme is perhaps the only aspect in which it's closer to the new castle.