Aanchir

The history of silver elements is a complicated one. Basically, a rule of thumb is that Cool Silver was hardly used in any years other than 2006. It was introduced in 2006 to replace 131 Silver, but apparently it had even more consistency problems than the previous color did, and 131 Silver became the standard again in 2007. The LEGO customer service database, from which Brickset derives its data, often lists parts from later production runs rather than the initial production runs, hence why so many 2006 sets have Silver parts listed in their inventories where the earlier production runs would have used Cool Silver. Similarly, there are a number of 2005 set inventories that list 297 Warm Gold in their inventories where the original production runs of those sets used 147 Metallic Sand Yellow or 189 Reddish Gold. Obviously there is no foolproof way of getting the colors of sets right. Most of the time the most reliable method depends on knowing what the colors look like in real life and owning the sets in question. And even this can be unreliable in the cases of transparent colors, the more obscure of which can be difficult to differentiate from their more common counterparts, and metallic colors, which have historically had a great deal of inconsistency. In the particular case of Cool Silver vs. Silver, Cool Silver parts tend to be lighter in color, but of course since it was inconsistencies in Silver that caused Cool Silver to be introduced in the first place, this is not always a hard and fast rule. Then again, because of its short lifespan, Cool Silver is probably one of the least important colors to get right 100% of the time. 2006 sets can conceivably be built with either Cool Silver or regular Silver and still be considered "accurate". As long as you're not using Cool Silver or Silver Metallic in, say, 2002 sets, you shouldn't have too many problems.

Kind of one-upped by Shakar's post above, but thanks regardless for going out of your usual element to provide these pics for us. And Shakar, thanks for posting those pics before I had time to get to them. Looking at Furno XL, it's interesting to see how much Technic his torso build is using. His torso beam's shoulder joints are used for his armor, whereas his actual shoulder joints are Glatorian neck elements. Makes me curious what other Technic stuff is hiding under his cape-- probably nothing as glorious as back armor, but still perhaps something interesting. Starting to get a better grasp on how Bruizer's arm function works-- the right arm beam/liftarm is definitely connected via axle somewhere behind his back, where I imagine there must be a lever or something. I remain deeply baffled by the amount of Technic in this upcoming wave. I wonder if perhaps this will be a way of differentiating the Chima constraction line, which doesn't seem to use much Technic from what we've seen. So perhaps that line will become more action-figure-ish, while Hero Factory returns to the sort of constraction/Technic blend that BIONICLE was known for (albeit with the constraction elements based on the new building system).

More high-resolution Chima pics from cache.LEGO.com (first batch here): 70101 Target Practice Box Gameplay 70102 Chi Waterfall Box Leonidas Speedor Landscaping 70103 Boulder Bowling Box Crominus Speedor Boulders collapsing Weapons and accessories 70115 Ultimate Speedor Tournament Box Lion gate Laval Speedor Cragger Speedor ...That's all that's up so far. 70104, 70105, and 70106 are not up yet, since they're from a later spring wave (March or April if I'm not mistaken). Did anyone but me notice the GOLD CHI CRYSTAL in the Eagle's Castle set?

I just was calling them mechanical to differentiate them from the very organic-looking wing elements on the Chima minifigures. They definitely look more "machine-tooled" than actual bird wings.

Cache.LEGO.com has high-res pics of the sets: 70000 Razcal's Glider Box Top view Side view 70001 Crawley's Claw Ripper Box Biting Leonidas Back view with claws angled upwards 70002 Lennox's Lion Attack Box Front view Side View 70003 Eris's Eagle Interceptor Box Body with head detached Head with body detached Razar stealing a Chi crystal from inside 70004 Wakz's Pack Tracker Box Wakz vs. Equila 70005 Laval's Royal Fighter Box Laval vs. Crawley 70006 Cragger's Command Ship Box Detachable flier, side view Detachable flier, front view Lennox vs. Cragger Lion Tribe speedboats 70011 Eagle's Castle Box Lennox Speedor Worriz Speedor The castle Speedorz colliding 70012 Razar's Chi Raider Box Cockpit opened Landscaping 70013 Equila's Ultra Striker Box Front View Lower module, back view Upper module, back view Full vehicle 70100 Ring of Fire Box Combined with 70102 and 70103 Razar Speedor Ring of Fire Will make a new post with the rest of the Speedorz sets later-- this one has reached its link limit apparently.

You can see several of them in this set. (Did anyone else realize cache.LEGO.com pics were up? I sure didn't.)

They are probably combination story books/guide books like the various hardcover Ninjago books published by Ladybird (in the UK), Nelson (in Germany), and AMEET (in Poland). See here, for example. I listed those as well as three American Chima books published by Scholastic in this post. From the look of things, these will also be published in some form by Ladybird (link), though like their Ninjago books this seems to be a compilation of both the German books. I have never owned any versions of these books so have not been able to verify if the Ninjago books by Ladybird end up removing content by condensing the continental European editions into "two in one" editions.

"Roughly the same"? I'm going to have to stop you there. The Barbie figs seem to lack leg articulation entirely (except, of course, for Ken and one blue-jeans variant of the Barbie figurine who needs it to fit in her convertible). This blog post by fallentomato has a good comparison of the figs.

Sadly, I think Laval does in fact use Warm Gold, not Flame Yellowish Orange or Bright Orange. But he introduces some new elements in that color (the 6M "shoulder shell" used on his thighs, for instance, as well as what seems to be a 2.0 torso shell), so I suppose it's just as well. I like that these figures seem to be incorporating back armor in unique ways. Cragger's got it attached somehow via his shoulder joints, so that it fills in the gap that attaching the armor directly to his back would leave behind his neck. Of course, this likely means the back itself might be less armored, but it's still nice to see some real thought going into this part of the design. On the subject of the Chima figures we haven't seen, I'm quite confident Eris and Razar's wings will use the same mechanical wing element as so many of their vehicles use in the System sets. That part just screams "constraction" to me. Hopefully it will be useful for building nice articulated wings, since up until now the options are usually either skeletal-looking wings or one-piece wing elements.

Chrome Gold is actually 310 Metallized Gold. Bricklink's inventory of the Rogue Knight Battleship is not all that reliable... it says Metallic Silver is used for the wings, when in fact parts blended with metallic silver do not and can not exist (Metallic Silver, a.k.a. 298 Cool Silver Drum Lacquered, is a surface treatment, not a plastic color). The wings are actually Flame Yellowish Orange blended with 296 Cool Silver. All the Pearl Light Gray parts in the set should probably be 296 Cool Silver, actually, since that was the silver color at the time-- unless the set is from a later production run in which case they should all be 131 Silver. The 3x3 disk is actually on LDD-- it uses the alternate part number 2723 and is in the Gears category. Something that might be helpful to builders in this topic is that Brickset now has parts inventories sourced from service.LEGO.com-- just check the "Parts" tab on any set's page. They're not 100% complete, but they can be a good place to check if you're unsure about the exact color of a piece-- though even they aren't flawless, particularly in years where colors were in transition, like 2005 and 2006. A plus to Brickset's inventories is that they use official LEGO color names.

Never. The only thing meant to come of this, according to the Tongal overview, is a web series.

Pretty neat to see how his feet are attached. They apparently use this piece, which doesn't allow the same posability as the ball-joint-based ankles of most previous dragons but fits very nicely regardless.

That's what I figured too (the proper word for that type of leg is "digitigrade"), but it still seems to be handled somewhat poorly. Digitigrade legs work like they do because the long part we think of as the "lower leg" is actually the back of the foot, with what we think of as the foot being merely the toe. And the design of Laval's feet doesn't really lend that impression. What makes two non-licensed constraction themes at one time so far-fetched? After all, they did that for Knights' Kingdom II's entire three-year lifespan. And I don't see what would make licensed and non-licensed sets follow different rules in this kind of instance. After all, a licensed theme has just as much likelihood of cannibalizing HF's sales than any non-licensed theme would-- perhaps more. Not to mention that the new Hero Factory headpiece seems like it's being designed for longevity. If Hero Factory were ending so soon, I think we'd be much more likely to see a simple remold of the Glatorian head or even just the continued use of the Glatorian head. Personally, I love these Chima constraction sets. They have flaws, like any sets, but they also have nice cohesive aesthetics (using parts in such a way that the models don't end up looking too mechanical), pretty good color schemes, and lots of excellent parts. Not sure how well this will do, since I don't know how much "crossover appeal" a HF-based constraction theme will have with a System theme, but I certainly hope for the best. Can't wait to see what the other four sets have to offer.

Keep in mind that DVDs are distributed differently by region and even by country: none of the US DVDs have had any bonus features other than (inexplicably) the bloopers reel from LEGO Battles: Ninjago on the DVD of the pilot. Various European countries have done better in this regard, but those DVDs don't work in Region 1 DVD players. I definitely hope that the complete series DVD and Blu-Ray collections will have more to offer than just the episodes... though to be fair, having the episodes in HD without any Cartoon Network branding lurking in the corner would be a treat in and of itself.

To be fair, there's definitely some value in keeping sets preserved, untouched, for archival/historical reasons. TLG has a vault of their own where they have a number of vintage sets shrink-wrapped for preservation. With that said, plastic encapsulation of this kind seems like overkill when a layer of shrink wrap and some tender loving care should really be enough. And the "grading", as you mention, is worthless as an actual measure of the product's value when there is so much more to a LEGO set's value than merely its condition.

The Dark Bucket was a totally different situation, in that the licensing agreements that made it impossible to create were already in place without TLG having to enter into any licensing talks, and the project was already issued a warning on that subject as part of the 5000+ votes congratulations post. The 5000+ votes post made it clear changes would have to be made for it to become a product, and either the changes that were made were not substantial enough to overcome the impossibility of licensing the product or they were made too late for the votes the project accumulated beforehand to be valid. Not to mention even if it had gone further into actual licensing talks, it wouldn't have required entering talks with companies TLG had not worked with on this level in the past.

All that really bothers me is that Cragger doesn't look too beefy (but then, crocodiles often lose that bulky look when anthropomorphized). Otherwise, not looking too bad, and I anticipate better pics once these get closer to release (currently, Laval's fingers and hands don't match, when I think they're both supposed to be Warm Gold). Lots of nice new elements, and effective use of existing elements.

Not true. City, Creator, and Technic have all been spotted in stores, as well as Star Wars and possibly other themes.

Haha, it must be awkward to have everything you say interpreted as a prophecy of things to come! I appreciate that you stick around even when we as a community are overanalyzing everything you say! I'm also a bit surprised not to see any on-shelf pics or reviews at this stage of the game. Surely it can't be long, though.

There will allegedly be a Complete Season Two DVD next year, if you prefer to wait.

You seem to be quite mistaken... This clown is very different from the previous clown figs. There was the Series 2 mime, who had a sad face as one of his three whiteface expressions, but who is obviously a very different comedic archetype. Personally, I always appreciate more civilian outfits. Also, there are startlingly few female mini figure heads with glasses, so this fills a much-needed niche. We don't know what he might have as accessories. We can't automatically assume that all the parts we saw in the series were all there would be. Meanwhile, his helmet is identical to the S6 one as far as I can tell, unless you're talking about the new plume piece which goes on top and could have many potential uses. Again, these figs are not complete. He'll almost certainly have a hat and maybe even a ball. You've never heard of paintball? Basically it's an imitation battle where players carry special guns that shoot little balls of paint instead of bullets and try to "tag" opposing players with paint. Kind of like laser tag in a way, but without a need for lots of electronics.

The song Breakout by Cryoshell is now available on iTunes!

I'd like to see a lot of new decorations for part 98569: Nex's chest pattern from Element 6002208 in set 6221 (Bricklink page) Bulk's chest pattern from Element 6002139 in Set 6223 (Bricklink page) Stringer's chest pattern from Element 6002202 in set 6282 (Bricklink Page)

I can see in the thumbnail that you used the wrong helmet for Lord Garmadon. While this helmet (98128 in Titanium Metallic) would be correct in the 2012 sets, in the 2011 sets Lord Garmadon used part 30175 in Silver Metallic. Additionally, don't forget that the flames in the back of the truck can be dual-colored-- the base should be Transparent Red while the tips should be Transparent Bright Orange. Finally, the two spheres in Lightning Dragon Battle should be colored Transparent Blue, not the azure color you used. To be fair, the actual color they use is labeled "multicombination", which means it's a blend of two colors-- in this case, probably Transparent Blue and Bright Blue, or possibly two different transparent blue colors, but on LDD this is not possible, and it might be better to just use Transparent Blue since that's the color I know for certain.

Additionally, I imagine some of the Paintball Player's parts could be excellent for sci-fi MOCs. They have a very edgy, futuristic aesthetic, and it'd be easy to treat the bright yellowish green paint splotches as freaky alien blood instead of paint.