Aanchir

I think that once a kid is 17, then ideally they should know to judge a toy by how much they enjoy it rather than who it's being marketed towards. The issue isn't about offending teenagers as much as avoiding the possibility that they get a LEGO set they don't enjoy and it tarnishes their opinion of the LEGO brand as a whole. To be honest, I've been more or less ignoring the age caps, both upper and lower, since I was young. Nobody was going to tell me I was too young for LEGO Mindstorms, or too old for BIONICLE! But I understand others might have parents with stricter expectations. Unfortunately I don't think eliminating the age cap will do much about that, because a lot of people will then just look at the minimum age and assume that's who the set is aimed at, just like how a bunch of AFOLs tended to talk about Ninjago, BIONICLE, and Hero Factory (some of my favorite themes, by the way) as though they were something only six-year-olds and seven-year-olds can enjoy. In some cases I still see this kind of rhetoric about these themes, as well as Legends of Chima, another theme I imagine I'm going to end up collecting. There's no avoiding that kind of prejudice, whether it comes from an AFOL or a parent, regardless of whether or not there's an age cap. You may be pleased to know that Brickfair will be in Manchester, New Hampshire in May. I've never been to any Brickfair events besides the ones in Virginia, but from my experience Todd Webb (the organizer) knows how to put together a phenomenal convention, and I fully expect the New England convention will eventually expand into a major one. So all in all, I'm not sure the LEGO convention scene in the US really needs any endorsement from TLG other than what they already tend to offer. TLG does a lot for conventions already, at least from my experience. At Brickfair they provide sets for use as raffle prizes, send designers and other employees to lead seminars (last year we had Astrid Graabaek and Fenella Holden, two very nice ladies who have worked on Creator, Friends, and D2C), operate a booth where they have some of the latest sets on display for kids to play with and a stack of LEGO magazines and store calendars for anyone who walks by, and even offer steep discounts at nearby LEGO stores exclusive to registered attendees. While TLG could certainly have a stronger involvement at smaller conventions, it's a risk vs. reward thing-- the more fans they know they are reaching, the more they're going to invest in the convention. As for LUG support, TLG offers LUGbulk, an awesome program that I know many LUGs appreciate. I've never been a part of a LUG myself so I'm not sure what further endorsement they could give without establishing an official endorsement that could hurt LUGs and TLG alike depending on the circumstances. I'm sure there's more they could do; I'm just not sure where the overlap is between what is possible and what is needed.

Wow, I thought the ignorant posting in this topic had settled down... evidently not. Let's go through item-by-item. 1) Fans of REAL Western history, frankly, are not typically a part of the core LEGO audience, and are probably far outnumbered by people who know of Westerns exclusively through pop culture. It's like the dumb complaints there used to be about how Ninjago would have less appeal than a real Japanese historic theme... yeah, about that... 2) "Lone Ranger will only last a finite time..." that's a complete guess, not based on any facts. Sure, there are no guarantees about its longevity, but IDEALLY TLG will want it to become an ongoing franchise and keep the rights for future films. "Tabling it until after LR runs its course" would be a silly idea for a number of reasons. First of all, there's no reason to assume that something that appealed to buyers when the Cuusoo project was voted on would still appeal to them three or four years down the road. That's like saying that "Our market research in 2002 suggested that Galidor would be a big hit, let's release it again in 2013!" Second, as many people have already pointed out, there could very easily be terms in the Lone Ranger licensing agreement that prohibit TLG from releasing a non-licensed Western set right on the heels of their license. Third, you're basically suggesting that TLG should gamble on the failure of one of their own themes. 3) TLG not keeping their themes around for a longer term makes perfect sense from a competitive standpoint. A big part of making a theme successful is making sure it stands out on store shelves. Keep a theme around for too long and it's a signal to competitors that they can put out their own products within the same genre and piggyback on your line's success. Additionally, once a theme has been on shelves for a certain amount of time, a lot of the people who bought the theme will have had their fill and a lot of the people who didn't buy the theme never will. There are "evergreen" exceptions like City and Castle that have ALWAYS had competition on toy store shelves and have been pretty consistently successful anyway, but even those have to cycle through different incarnations to remain appealing to buyers and retailers. 4) "All their licenses are fast becoming Disney IP"... ummm, no. There are a handful of Disney IPs this year (only one of them currently known to be a System theme, unless you count Star Wars and Marvel Super Heroes). Saying TLG is selling out to Disney is like saying they sold out to Nickelodeon in 2006, when they had Avatar: The Last Airbender, Bob the Builder, and Spongebob Squarepants sets. In fact, even this year two of the major licensed themes (DC Universe Super Heroes and The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit) are owned by Warner Bros, which coincidentally also owns the distribution rights for Ninjago DVDs and is the parent company of TT Games, the company responsible for most LEGO video games. No building toys companies here are unnameable except by personal preference, so I'm tickled by the notion that you are planning to buy toys when you can't even bear to name their manufacturer.

That's not much different than Ninjago's debut wave (14 sets, not counting polybags, promotional items, and store exclusives), and it was a huge hit. TLG doesn't just leap blindly into new themes-- a big initial wave means they have reason to think this theme will be successful. Really, what surprises me about Chima is how (compared to most other LEGO story themes) it has a HUGE cast of characters. Knights' Kingdom II, Ninjago, Exo-Force, and even licensed themes like TMNT have typically stuck with a smaller pool of characters and give them alternate expressions or costumes. Chima has 22 characters in its first wave of sets, more characters than even BIONICLE (which had a MASSIVE cast of characters) would typically have in a single wave of sets. I'm curious how this will work out since having less emphasis on a small, close-knit cast of characters means it might become difficult for kids to get an emotional attachment to those characters, especially since in the show some will almost certainly be relegated to background character status. As far as TMNT is concerned, I'm not sure whether TLG will use a lot of Chima parts in it. After all, Chima has a very specific visual direction, and I have a hard time imagining parts like the "animal helmets" that are used to define the characters' appearance will be used often in unrelated licensed themes. But that doesn't stop AFOLs from using them if they come out with appropriate prints (or even if they don't, since some people will surely want to use Chima parts as a basis for heavier customization).

Ummm... nobody ever doubted that this was a modular. Furthermore, the Creator theme is actually one of the more advanced LEGO themes, since it emphasizes innovative use of existing parts over use of specialized molds. I don't collect Creator sets myself, but they're brilliantly designed, they cover a range of building levels, and I've enjoyed many hours putting Creator sets together on LEGO Digital Designer. Furthermore, the designers for the modular buildings were already from the LEGO Creator design team (Jamie Berard and Astrid Graabaek), so in this case there's not much of a change whatsoever. In fact, I'd argue that branding these sets with LEGO Creator is a good thing, as it'll help dispel the myth that LEGO Creator is "just for kids" and will help it restore its reputation as the quintessential LEGO theme. Well, there's also a barred window for prisons and a closed wooden shutter from the Pirates of the Caribbean sets. But neither of those could be used as glass. That'd be cool, but I doubt it would happen. The most important part of a LEGO set is typically the front, since that is what will be appearing on the front of the box and in catalogs, and unless an "inverted corner modular" had a larger footprint than the average modular, its front would be small and unimposing compared to all other modulars, not to mention framed by the plain, unadorned walls that will be mostly hidden when the street is assembled.

I'm pretty sure he was just saying the BOLE-brand knock-offs have better plastic quality than the Decool-brand knock-offs in the first post, not that either brand of knock-offs had better plastic quality than official LEGO.

Personally, Lennox's Lion Attack is the Chima set I most look forward to getting, and one of my favorite sets of the first wave. The lion head motif is brilliantly sculpted, it's got a neat launching function that stands out from most of the ones I've seen, and I like the model's proportions. Seems like a fun design all around. Anyway, loving the depth of story detail on the Chima site. It makes me really excited for the show and TV series.

Wow, the summer sets do indeed look awesome. Something I can't ignore is that Jet Rocka seems to use a System windscreen, which is an interesting design decision. Also very Technic intensive, which is nice for variety's sake, though I do truly wish we could get a vehicle set that was heavily based on HF's character and creature building system. I'm certain it could be done! Dragon Bolt is a nice non-humanoid set, somewhat skeletal in design but overall a lot more elaborate in appearance than I would have expected (I was expecting a dragon-shaped humanoid, and certainly not with such imposing wings and such a long tail). No guarantees that the design wasn't embellished a bit for the show but overall it's great to have a design that stands out so well from everything else we've seen in the theme. Surge and Evo look nice and unique, even if they're still a bit plain as is typical of Hero sets. Hard to get a good read on Aquagon, but he'll be our first humanoid aquatic villain so that's going to be interesting. Overall I'm very excited about what's to come.

Part of the reason sets have an "age cap" is because it makes it easier for gift-givers to pick out a gift that will actually challenge and engage the recipient. This makes the recipient more likely to become a repeat customer. You don't want a kid to get a set that feels like it was designed for younger kids, because that will likely give them the impression that LEGO is a "kids' toy" and that they're "too old" for it. TLG does hold official LEGO shows of a sort. In Denmark and the Netherlands they have the annual "LEGO World" event, where new and upcoming sets indeed occasionally get showcased and LEGO designers are often present. In the United States the closest thing is "LEGO KidsFest", which is as the name suggests aimed more at kids than at adults. The reason TLG doesn't have their own adult-oriented events in the US is probably in part because they don't want to step on the toes of all the already-established AFOL conventions here. I'm assuming this is what you mean by "shows"-- if you're referring to television programs or seminar-type stage productions, though, those might have a significant risk, as it'd be hard to provide the same level of entertainment for fans and non-fans. If it's simplified too much for new fans or people who are not yet fans, there might not be room to reveal anything new or groundbreaking, and if it's too esoteric then non-fans might feel too lost and confused to find any enjoyment in it. TLG has been targeting more advertising at adults in recent years, for instance, for some of the large Technic models. Remember the LEGO for men campaign? Part of the problem with targeting ads at adults, though, is that many of the sets that adults are likely to get the most enjoyment out of (such as the Modular Buildings) tend to be fairly exclusive as well as quite expensive. Major marketing channels like TV and magazine adverts are more likely to be effective if a) they're advertising something fairly easy for someone to go to a store and get and b) they're advertising something that a person will consider a good investment. And believe it or not, it's hard to get a person who isn't already a LEGO fan to shill out over a hundred dollars on something they likely have little firsthand experience with and won't necessarily understand the merit of. Your idea for the LEGO website is brilliant but ambitious. As I understand it TLG already invests heavily in parts of their website that appeal strongly to kids, like online games, comics, and videos. Doing something this extensive would require either taking away the budget from those tried-and-true marketing methods or making a much larger investment in the web component of the LEGO site (as well as LDD development, since the LDD team already has a tough time filling out the parts palette, and this would require their work to be that much more comprehensive). Themed Technic sets would be cool, though I think part of the reason we don't see that so much today is that the Technic lineup is smaller and there's an interest in making sure that each set feels unique. It can't be forgotten that whereas there are lots of System themes, there's only one Technic line, and as such it has to appeal to a much wider range of interests than the average LEGO theme, which has a narrower focus. Finally, I was quite disappointed in this topic. I came in expecting an AFOL-themed parody of Dr. Seuss's classics If I Ran the Zoo and If I Ran the Circus.

Hero Factory has always had a sort of a superhero vibe to it, what with its themed heroes and villains. With that in mind, most superhero stories have occasionally brought in elements that tilt a little more towards fantasy, and I'm perfectly OK with that in Hero Factory. The brain slugs may have some slight resemblance to Kraata, but really they're a decades-old sci-fi trope that is actually played pretty straight with Hero Factory, unlike the Kraata which were treated as mysterious spreaders of shadow and parts of the main villain's "essence". Unless you're suggesting that BIONICLE somehow has exclusive rights to creepy transformation sequences, robot animals, or Not sure what you're getting at with the "elemental powers" comment either since that's been a part of Hero Factory since day one. in b4 "HERO FACTORY IS TURNING INTO ALIEN CONQUEST" hysteria.

Doesn't really bother me. The same was true of the Serpentine from Ninjago-- all ranks had tails in the show, whereas only the generals had tails in the sets. The tails aren't necessary to recognize that the characters are crocodiles, and would be a serious inconvenience when trying to get them to sit down in vehicles. What bothers me more is that the animated/illustrated versions of the Eagles and Ravens can have wings even when not wearing armor, whereas the armor piece is necessary to attach the wings in the sets. I really wish TLG would create a simple two-studded neck bracket, since adding a 1x2 plate to a one-studded neck bracket creates unnecessary thickness and a loose connection.

That had exactly twelve chrome pieces. Most of the Naboo royal vessels are ENTIRELY chrome, and as such only a Mini set could likely be produced at the same cost. And who knows if demand for mini versions would actually be able to subsidize the cost of chroming so many parts? As for TIE fighters and other models having so many inaccuracies, it can't be forgotten that the most distinctive aspects of TIE fighters (and truly, most starfighters) is their shape. The most distinctive aspect of the Naboo royal vessels is their chromed surface. Even if Lucasfilms gave the OK to a grey one, who's to say there would be a lot of demand for a ship like that which had such a glaring inaccuracy? You can't treat all inaccuracies as equal because neither Lucasfilms nor the consumer thinks of them as equal. A Droideka that can't actually roll into a wheel can still be made recognizable as a Droideka, whereas an X-Wing that can't fold its S-foils open is laughable.

Oz sets would indeed be awesome, but if you'll forgive me I'd rather see them based (somehow) on the Marvel Comics Oz series than on the new movie by Sam Raimi. I'm a bit of a purist and not too optimistic about the ways in which Sam Raimi's new film seems to be re-imagining the Oz mythos. The Marvel Comics version seems in contrast to be extremely faithful to L. Frank Baum's original books, though with an expressive aesthetic which would be hard or even impossible to mimic with LEGO minifigures.

He's referring to the Brickmaster books by Dorling Kindersley (basically a big book of instructions with several parts to build all the models with packaged in the cover). Other than the title, this series has no connection with the discontinued Brickmaster edition of LEGO Magazine/LEGO Club Magazine. A LEGO Super Heroes Brickmaster book would be cool indeed. Ideally, it'd probably focus on Batman, since he's a superhero who's well known for his vehicles, and as such it'd be easy to include a selection of parts for building a real assortment of similarly-colored models.

True, but that only solves the fingerprint issue for stickers that are in fact printed completely. The places where it's most frustrating for me are stickers that have a lot of transparent space and are going on transparent parts. Often with a bit of redesigning a non-transparent sticker could be used, unless the pattern is something that actually needs to be see-through like crosshairs on a windscreen.

I use Flickr, Brickshelf, and deviantART for different reasons. Flickr allows images to be automatically resized to various sizes, meaning I don't have to upload multiple differently-sized copies of an image if it turns out that the sites where I want to post the image have different rules about image size. It also allows people to post notes and comments. It has a system through which people can add images to their favorites. And it allows me to post descriptions of pictures so people browsing later can understand the image's purpose-- for instance, if a MOC is for a contest, I can provide a link to the contest in question. Brickshelf allows me to post non-image files like spreadsheets and LXFs, and allows for nested folders. It also allows more-or-less unlimited uploads, so it's great for posting images that I'm not planning to use int he long term, or images that I don't want to get too much attention except from the people I share them with (like WIP images). deviantART is something I mainly use for drawings and occasional MOCs. It offers most of the same functions Flickr does, except it doesn't make it as easy to view the images at a variety of sizes, and doesn't allow notes to be added directly to parts of the image. deviantART has a slightly greater social component IMO, allowing me to create a journal where I can post what I'm currently working on or interested in (I make limited use of this) and post comments to other users' profiles. Favorites on dA can be categorized, another nice feature that lets me separate my My Little Pony favorites from my LEGO favorites from my Homestar Runner favorites, if I'm so inclined. And of course being aimed at artists, the community on dA is different than that on Flickr-- but of course, any site that has any social component will have certain unique qualities to its community that you might not find elsewhere. I've never used MOCpages. Its downtimes are obnoxious (of course, the same thing is occasionally true of Brickshelf) and I have a hard time navigating it. But I do occasionally check there to see interesting things other people have posted there-- I just never browse unless I know exactly what I'm looking for and how to find it.

That's the reason Cuusoo is in beta. It's still an experiment in crowdsourcing, not a promise to produce whatever gets submitted and meets all the currently-in-place requirements (which are themselves fairly nebulous). Thus projects like Purdue Pete will test the currently-in-place requirements and determine what changes have to be made. And in the meantime, it's simply unreasonable to assume that TLG should put projects into production that can't stand on their own two legs as a business case just because their service's terms weren't totally clear. It's not as though TLG hasn't covered their bases. They have made no promises or guarantees that projects that reach 10,000 and meet the requirements made known to the public will become sets. They have just offered this as a platform through which certain ideas CAN become sets, if it turns out that they are a feasible business case that doesn't conflict with TLG's brand image.

If that's a problem at all, it would likely be a problem for the new head in either configuration, since the new head's forehead projects forward from the top axle hole just as much as it projects upward from the front axle hole. That is indeed the factor I'm most concerned about as far as the new head is concerned. Truly, the new head piece is wonderful in terms of being consistent with its geometry. It has no awkward half-module spacing-- everything can be gridded pretty well. But on the other hand, this means its proportions strike me as a lot less realistic than the Glatorian head-- which, for example, had the face stick forward one and a half modules from the neck joint instead of just one.

I quite like the aesthetic of the Breakout and 2.0 torso plates myself. The new torso plate is nice, but there aren't many other armor pieces that have much stylistic consistency with it, whereas the 2.0 torso plate is consistent with pretty much any other basic shell, and the Breakout torso plate has similar mechanical texture to many shell detail elements like Splitface/Breez's spherical shell detail pieces. This isn't to say the new torso element is bad, but it's not quite as consistent with the rest of the character designs as some past torso shells have been.

Personally, I greatly liked Kiina. Sure, her legs and arms were far too long (a common problem at the time, but made even worse by her smaller torso) and needed some more bulk, but frankly she was quite groundbreaking in that she was the first female canister set to really attempt a more feminine torso structure than her male counterparts at the time (not counting Gali, since despite some apparent sexual dimorphism all the Toa Mata but Pohatu used the same basic torso construction with only slight variations). And she did that in a quite innovative way that didn't in fact call for any brand-new elements. What if you use the "top" of the head as the front when using BIONICLE masks? I imagine if you were to do that, it shouldn't be much more obtrusive than the "chin" of the Toa Metru or Av-Matoran heads. Of course, I imagine it would definitely work better with some masks than others.

Other sites' news stories about the games confirm that LEGO Legends of Chima Online is an MMO. As for why the G is dropped, it's just a way of abbreviating it further, since it's already been established we're talking about games. You can call it MMOG if you like; I think both abbreviations are accepted.

Yep, there's a topic here in the Culture & Multimedia subforum. Certainly nice to see that with all the excitement about Chima, TLG isn't ignoring video games as a major component of their media offerings.

It'd be neat, but for one thing, illegal connections are mostly a factor in set design. I don't think TLG is too concerned with what fans do with their own parts, and I imagine the illegal connection controls in LDD are probably in part a throwback to when Design byME was still a service connected to LDD and TLG was essentially releasing things you built with the software as actual sets. Which isn't to say I want those controls to be removed (encouraging legal connections is always good), but it's not necessarily something TLG would go to great lengths to prevent if they hadn't started by offering an actual product/service related to the software. The other reason I don't think a book on illegal connections would be likely is that TLG has more incentive to release things like Master Builder Academy that tell builders what they can do with their parts than publish a rulebook that might stifle creativity. There is a useful PDF on legal/illegal connections here. It was put together by Jamie Berard for a presentation at Brickfest in 2006.

You say that as though TLG had a lot of choices. While I agree LU's fate was unfortunate, it was the company's first foray into MMOs, and the fumbling approach in the early months of its release (and truly, in aspects of its development) likely killed any chances for damage control at anything but an exorbitant price. If TLG hadn't done enough to save it, I could understand your attitude, but frankly there comes a point where it's too little, too late. TLG spent a lot of money on LEGO Universe, including hiring a lot of its development team after they were fired by their parent company. It would have likely been even more expensive to save LEGO Universe, and I can't blame TLG for wanting to start from scratch and try things again with a more economically-driven approach. On a side note, there will be an MMO in 2013, but it's Legends of Chima themed and apparently not related to the Funcom project. It will be free-to-play, but I'm not expecting anything too ambitious. There's a topic on that here.

I'm going to assume that when you say "No actual titans this year", you're referring only to the summer sets. Because Furno XL is a titan set by any definition. Though to be honest, we don't know that Jet Rocka won't be titan-sized. He does seem to come in a box, which would be overkill if he were just a standard-sized Hero and a moderate-sized jetpack. Also, as DarkSurgeXL points out, Dragon Bolt/Aquagon (whichever that one on the right is) also seems to come in bigger packaging than the medium-sized sets, so is probably at Furno XL's price point or similar.

Well, no. The connection between the two themes is superficial and was only created as a way of placing a teaser for Galaxy Squad in the LEGO Club Magazine. No different than the connection between Dino, Pharaoh's Quest, Atlantis, and Alien Conquest the year before. Outside of that comic, the themes have no connection and I strongly doubt there was any connection imagined while the 2013 lineup was being planned and designed.