Aanchir

Because there's no reason they shouldn't? Unlike the previous one, new molds are far from the highlight of the project. And as of yet, licensing has not presented an issue (though since the last one likely didn't even make it to licensing talks, it may become an issue in the future). They even say in the blog post that the failure of a project in review has nothing to do with the fate of future projects, unless a licensing situation is found to be impossible (such as in the case of IPs owned by other toy companies, like the My Little Pony project, or IPs licensed to other companies in a way that prohibits TLG from producing the project, like the Star Wars Dark Bucket or Star Wars Ultrabuilds projects).

I think we can safely assume Ewald is a dude because Ewald is a male name in real life. Sure, it could be used for a female character, but that'd make about as much sense as if Lennox or Leonidas were female characters.

Welll, more specifically it's to create repeat customers. Suppose a SW battlepack is your very first LEGO set. Well, you're more likely to be satisfied with it if you can create an actual battle with it. Otherwise, it's a set you can hardly play with once it's built, because flying a speeder around gets old really fast without any type of conflict. Older battle packs-- and truly, a lot of older sets-- operated on the principle that not giving a kid the whole experience in just one set would foster a "collect-them-all" mentality-- as in, all right, you have half the scene, and you can complete it for the same low price! But somewhere along the line TLG wised up and realized that if a kid didn't get a complete play experience right off the bat, they'd consider the brand in general a poor investment. This applies in almost all of TLG's themes these days-- there are very few sets that can't promise a full play scenario as a first purchase.

I've never seen any compelling evidence that the series 3 alien was connected to SP3 either. It reused a single SP3 mold, but the head had a different aesthetic entirely than Squidman and Squidtron (solid black eyes with white highlights, like human minifigures, rather than colored eyes with black pupils, and ridges instead of spots/rings on top of the head). The torso also seemed like it came from a retro "raygun future" rather than having the more grounded design of SP3 clothing (which was typically based on modern clothing, especially that associated with criminal subcultures). I don't think we can expect anything of the sort, since it sounds like this theme will aim for a classic direction. Though personally I loved the jellybean knights, I think that Chima and Ninjago have it covered when it comes to fantasy themes in invented worlds. If this theme started bringing in too many non-traditional fantasy elements it'd risk stepping on Chima's toes, and TLG wouldn't do that with a brand-new theme they have high hopes for.

I think it's supposed to look kind of unkempt and ratty-looking. Ravens have a reputation for uncleanliness as scavengers, though it's probably not entirely deserved. They are also associated with death. So I imagine the grim, skeletal aesthetic is deliberate, whereas the eagle vehicles are intended to look more regal and majestic.

TLG calls it 191 Flame Yellowish Orange, Bricklink calls it Bright Light Orange. It's a very nice color IMO; I'm glad it's been appearing more often in System lately. It's been around for over seven years, and replaced the earlier color 105 Bright Yellowish Orange (Bricklink's Medium Orange).

Not knowing the Iron Man movies at all, I frankly think having seven unique suits in the set would be preposterous. That's essentially seven figs, of which only two or three will have been designed for other sets, and not including any enemy figs for acting out fight scenes. It just seems implausible. If it were a choice between seven actual figs and a sticker, I agree the seven figs would be better. But looking at this realistically it's more likely a choice between a sticker and not having the complete "hall of armor" at all.

I enjoyed that episode. It was more or less just a heartfelt slice-of-life episode, which I tend to enjoy, and it had a great song for Applejack, who's been needing one. While the song was very situational, it still expressed some of Applejack's core values, those being hard work and family. I definitely also understand the decision to push this episode ahead in the Season 3 schedule. It is, after all, very timely, as a lot of viewers will be spending time with family around this time of year.

Well, the Piraka/Inika ones aren't quite the same color (they're two different two-color blends, whereas the newer ones are just transparent bright green), but any green Zamors from the 2010-2012 Hero Factory sets are the correct color. I imagine any other 2013 sets featured in the show so far would be from the second half of this past season, specifically vehicles and settings from the Island of Darkness (plus, of course, the Overlord in his dragon form and perhaps even the "tower form" of the Garmatron if it could be scaled down to an appropriate price point without losing its appeal). Other vehicles and settings would be cool, but not thematically or aesthetically consistent with the 2013 sets so far.

What I like most about Bulk in the TV episode, perhaps, is that his shield is patterned with a gear which makes it feel a lot less plain. I think the lack of printing on this part is a bit of a missed opportunity, since Captain America showed us it could be printed and Bulk's weapons feel so boring on their own.

Next year someone should retell this story with Chima characters. Of course, there aren't any hippo, bunny, mouse, or bulldog characters so far, but I'm sure people could improvise. Cute Christmas story; thanks once again for sharing! Merry Christmas!

Part of the reason Korra was able to acquire Energybending do easily is that she was literally handed it... by Aang, who quite rightly didn't want her to have to hunt down a lion-turtle (assuming there are even any still alive). And from a storytelling perspective, the writers don't want to end up telling the same stories they told in A:TLA. As for the love triangle, I felt it was well-handled. It was a new kind of storytelling for the franchise overall, since love triangles in A:TLA were often either unbalanced (let's face it, no right-minded person wanted Hahn and Yue to end up together) or more or less imagined. In this story, it was explored with brutal honesty how even if you "follow your heart", there's a lot of uncertainty in romance and people can end up hurt by your actions. Romance isn't always neat and tidy, and it's nice to see that handled in a way that none of the parties involved are treated as bad or undeserving, but their pratfalls and mistakes are still given serious consequences for them and the people around them. I hope the relationships of the characters continue to be explored in book two so that nobody thinks book one's finale gave Korra and Mako a happy ending with no strings attached. Like any real-life relationships, two people agreeing that they want to be together is just the first part of making a relationship work.

That, and so that kids will maintain an interest in Ninjago rather than thinking they no longer have to keep up with Ninjago discussion and product releases. I'm sure that's a big part of why it was revealed on the LEGO message boards-- it gives users there something to speculate about, and that keeps them engaged with both the site and the brand. Also, how do we know there are no ninjas in Chima? Maybe they're just so good we can't see them. .

My impression of the series was not nearly as simple as that. The series typically presents the Equalists themselves without sympathy becaubut their cause is treated as legitimate in that peaceful protestors of bender oppression (not connected to the radical Equalists movement) are shown as legitimately innocent victims of mistreatment by the bending establishment. And later (I can't reveal the exact context without revealing a major finale plot twist), it is shown that some of the Equalists do indeed have some degree of honor, in that they believe in their cause as a necessary and virtuous path for society rather than just a tool for grabbing power. While that's a neat plot direction for book two, I personally like that book one wrapped up the plot thread of Korra connecting with past Avatars, and I also feel it would have left a lot of other loose ends if not only Korra, but also all the other victims of the Equalists, were left without their bending. Additionally, we don't have many details on how the actual book two plot will go. Perhaps the creators didn't want to devote a great deal of extra time to wrapping up book one's loose ends because they have bigger plans for book two. I personally had no problem with the A:TLA finale either. While energybending hadn't been hinted much before, there is some narrative value in the idea that Aang can't only look to the past Avatars for answers (explored further in The Promise, in which he learns that continuing to look to the past might actually be holding him back from serving the world's changing needs).

To be fair, making parts double-sided can take some doing, since it means it has to be very flat in most places. Solid chunks of plastic don't work very well when it comes to injection-molding. I do believe it could have been better-handled (Brutaka's sword and Furno's 1.0 weapon, while not 100% symmetrical, handle their asymmetry nicely), but as for it not being totally symmetrical I'm not too bothered by it. Well, they're the remolded kind with thicker supports, but since they're a new color for that piece and thus not required to match ones already in people's collections I doubt it makes a difference to anyone. Great review. I really like Furno's new helmet (the forehead looks weird, but the face is very nice IMO). Furno as a whole cuts an imposing figure, and has some great weapons to boot-- certainly more refined-looking than Stormer XL's sword, which while creative didn't really perform its function as well as it probably should have. It kind of frustrated me that the review kept calling the transparent shells trans-red, since typically that's the term used to refer to the trailing end of his flame pieces, not that shell color (which is called either Trans-Neon Orange in Bricklink taxonomy or Transparent Fluorescent Reddish-Orange in TLG's terms). I agree the way his shoulders are built over top of the cape is weird, but I'm assuming it's an easy fix if you've got some Technic half-module bushings.

I'm fairly certain it's the latter. TLG has no reason not to have high hopes for Chima, since they've put a lot of work into it and I can't imagine them giving it such a huge initial release if they expected it to perform poorly. With that said, the decision to continue Ninjago was almost certainly made before there was a chance for backlash against the series ending to emerge. It may have even been planned to continue even before Kevin Hinkle revealed that it was ending, and he simply wasn't "in the loop" at the time. So I feel that if a decision to continue Ninjago was made on account of the fans, it would have been based on sales and viewership numbers, not based on outspoken fan demand. Now, the decision to reveal future plans for Ninjago this far in advance is a different story. That just screams "damage control", given TLG's normally secretive nature. And I certainly appreciate the break from tradition.

Oh, OK, I'm seeing that now. The pose was throwing me off. I suppose it's really my fault for not looking hard enough, since if I had paid attention I probably would have noticed where the limbs were connecting. The idea of giving him more tool arms is pretty neat, though it'd be a challenge to pull off without making him look cluttered. It might require a larger torso beam so the arms could be spread out more. I agree the "living swiss army knife" idea is a big part of what makes XT4 so interesting-- certainly XT4's crazy weapons excited me much more than Waspix's extra limbs, which just ended in fairly uniform claws and barbs. I personally like the lack of armor on XT4's limbs because coupled with the light gray color which allows for a strong range of light and dark values, it makes his texture look very mechanical. It's a very novel way of making a figure in a world of robots look even more robotic and industrial-looking than the norm. But of course opinions differ; I can see how some people would rather not call attention to more bare-bones (literally!) parts of a model.

Not all of those candidates could really end up being a part of it... I think speculating about the future Hero Factory chapter books is probably a wasted effort. Since they're not tied strictly to the main story for each year/wave, this means that they can be incredibly unpredictable, especially when we don't have blurbs for them yet. Even with the blurbs for The Doom Box and Legion of Darkness, I doubt I would have ever imagined some of those books' more surprising plot developments.

The head color still looks ambiguous to me, and more like Transparent Fluorescent Green than Transparent Yellow. Personally, I can't say I'd be especially happy if it were just plain Transparent Yellow. Now if TLG were to introduce a new, less greenish fluorescent color like the classic Transparent Fluorescent Yellow used for Gali, then that'd be great. But I always prefer the glowiness of the transparent fluorescent colors to the glassy look of regular transparent colors as far as eye colors are concerned, and since these new heads are really more or less only useful as eye colors (rather than being the color of the face as a whole), that's going to be the most important factor in my book.

Personally, I much prefer the gangly proportions and asymmetry of the original XT4. Giving him more humanoid proportions and symmetry just takes away a lot of his personality IMO. With that said, I do appreciate that he maintains the unity of XT4's color scheme. And twisting the head 90 degrees is a very novel idea. IMO not nearly enough MOCists have done creative things with that head piece.

This was not "clearly a vote for any nice model with a western theme", don't be silly. People who voted this clearly wanted a Western town or town-style building. A simple house would not have been true to the project at all. "Changing the model as we see fit" essentially means "making sure it uses stable building techniques and is within the price point and building level the supporters expect", not "creating a totally different model vaguely related to the concept". If TLG were to make a totally different type of western building, then how would the creator of the project even deserve his 1% royalties? His project was not the idea of "LEGO set in a western setting", it was the idea of a "modular western town", later revised to just "modular western building" in accordance with LEGO Cuusoo standards. Anything else completely ceases to be the project creator's idea. For the record, the Minecraft set has been in extremely high demand and there has been a shortage of sets in many places as far as I have read. And I'm almost certain a great number of the people buying those sets were Minecraft fans, considering that LEGO Minecraft is an idea that had been floating around the Minecraft community since early in the game's existence, and many of the Minecraft sets The idea that LEGO fans are more deserving of Cuusoo sets and are more likely to buy the sets than non-LEGO fans who see them as novelties is pure hokum. There are a lot of LEGO sets aimed outside the existing LEGO fanbase, such as the Architecture series (with which LEGO Cuusoo projects released so far have had a lot in common). To these people, LEGO sets like this are more or less expensive souvenirs, and thus they have more or less the same chance of success as any other expensive souvenirs that these people are likely to buy. That's just an assumption. Who's to say that LEGO didn't spend months analyzing their options for, say, the EVE Online project or the Zelda project? Moreover, there's no reason to think the process is so streamlined that the concepts are shown to one group of TLG's employees and they give it a straight "yes" or "no". Projects have to be analyzed for brand fit, building complexity, cost of new parts, cost and terms of a new license, terms of existing licenses, and probably other factors we don't even know about. This will require consulting more than just one group of designers that knows all the ins and outs of the company. It's likely a huge bureaucratic process. And while obviously that should change (these long wait times are a burden and they stifle interest in Cuusoo), there's no reason to think TLG was merely dawdling for months on end. Sadly, you're probably right, though the Thinking with Portals project does have to its advantage that several of its new molds are versatile outside that particular license. Others, though, are not, which may be a deal-breaker. It'll be interesting to watch; I'm not placing any bets on either outcome.

Are we talking about the same set concept? Because I see several new molds in it: Link's hat/hair mold, Ganondorf's new hair mold (though come to think of it, some of the LotR orc ears look quite similar... why haven't I seen any customizers repaint/trim them for that purpose yet?), the crystal element, the Master Sword, the Hylian Shield, and the head mold with pointed ears (most visible on Zelda, though I'm assuming Link and Ganondorf also use it). Ideally these new molds could be reduced; the question as always remains how much can you change the project until it's no longer the project people supported. I imagine the field where Cuusoo asks you to fill in why you like a particular project is a big part of this decision-- after all, if a lot of people filled in "I like the large number of authentic new molds", then that makes it a bit tricky reducing the cost of the final set while staying true to what earned the project many people's support. Personally, I'm quite grateful that the project was not rejected for licensing reasons. It was not, in my opinion, the best Legend of Zelda project out there, and it is good to know that some of the other Legend of Zelda proposals already posted (or even future proposals-- I'm quite fond of this one which if it were to be proposed would only need two new molds) might still have a chance. For that matter, MINGLES could potentially propose a newer model and be on a better footing than with the previous one, since it's now a lot clearer what it takes to make a successful Cuusoo project (and there are a lot of new molds already available in LEGO that might be applicable where he had previously used his own, more distinctive designs).

Well, here there are still rules against embedding pics that are clearly watermarked as preliminary (doesn't really apply here), and mods can take pics down or prohibit linking of pics if they get a specific request from The LEGO Group (doesn't seem to apply here, though that can change). Also, it's not like BZPower has no reasons for their rules... as I understand it, being a US site, oversight is handled by the North American community team, which might for some reason be stricter than the European community team. According to the BZPower staff, they've been threatened with having the site shut down if they post leaked content. Eurobricks seems to just get requests to take down offending content.

Probably not, since we don't know their source. They may be leaked.

In fact, just to cover my bases, let's list all the ridiculous conspiracy theories that HAVEN'T been suggested yet: 1) The Walt Disney Corporation stole the idea of the Modular Western Town for their film The Lone Ranger. Because nothing is more telling of the tastes of filmgoers than the opinions of a bunch of LEGO fans on the Internet. 2) The LEGO Group stole the idea of the Modular Western Town for their Galaxy Squad series. 3) The LEGO Group has secretly put ALL of the Cuusoo projects from the latest review into production and distributed them discreetly to Cuusoo System employees in exchange for hefty bribes. 4) The LEGO Group stole the idea of the Modular Western Town, then stole the idea of the Back to the Future time machine, used it to go back in time, and created their modular buildings series based on the Modular Western Town idea. Any memories we have of the modular buildings come from the altered timeline. 5) The LEGO Group stole the idea of the Legend of Zelda project for their obvious copycat line Legends of Chima. Probably don't have all the bases covered; feel free to suggest more!