Aanchir

Lovely design. The brick-built mask and complex torso are great. I only wish the legs and arms had the same level of detail... there's always something odd about a design that has lots of complex detail in the core of the model and then at the limbs begins relying on simpler designs.

I think it's just a discrepancy of the CGI. Often (for instance, on LDD), TLG uses a flat black for decorations in CGI, and a lighter, more bluish black for actual part renders, since the lighter color shows shading better. Here it seems to be the other way around. I wouldn't be surprised if the "decoration" here was altered with the expectation that the final render would use the more bluish black, but for some reason the final render ended up using a more realistic black and the legs decoration was not altered to match. Regardless, I don't think that there's going to be such a discrepancy in the physical parts. Printing discrepancies like that almost invariably involve lighter, not darker, colors, since it takes more coats of printing to get a lighter color to appear solid against a darker ground. Anyway, this is a great teaser. Not sure how much stuff here will make it to the actual theme and how much is just to set the mood, but the cow skull is quite clever, the minifigs have a lot of personality, and it's nice to see CMF parts like the tomahawk and loot sack being used so well in such a different context.

A topic? Of course they'll allow it, unless something's changed since I was last there. Their topic approval process is really about stopping spam and objectionable content, not about stopping members from posting ideas that TLG doesn't think are possible or effective. I can guarantee that plenty of members have posted their own "pipe dreams", and TLG doesn't try to censor those posts just because they're not effective. As for whether your idea could really work, that's entirely up in the air. You raise some good points about the roadblocks that stand in the way, though it should be mentioned that there has been a LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean game, which is based on an IP owned by Disney (themselves a competitor of Warner Bros). So there is still some uncertainty. Even if your idea couldn't work, that doesn't mean your topic isn't worth posting. It would at least be a good place for other members to share what sorts of things they would like to see in their dream LEGO Avengers video game. And even if for some reason such a post didn't get approved, you certainly won't face any consequences for posting an idea like this as long as your post adheres to the LEGO Message Boards' rules and guidelines.

It would be incredible if they could do that, but unfortunately, there's hardly precendet for that sort of thing in books of this kind. Essentially what this book is, as with the other character encyclopedias, is a fancified collectors' guide. DK publishes these for other companies too-- I've seen one of characters from Disney's Cars with a focus on the die-cast toy cars. Meanwhile, I don't know how many series this book will cover, but if it has through Series 9, then that's already 144 pages of content, not counting section divisions, a table of contents, or other supplementary pages. Since these books have had 144-208 pages in the past, a page count like that is already bumping up against that lower margin. And that's with the assumption it won't feature more than Series 1-9, which isn't certain (Series 10 is due for an April release, so it's not impossible that they'll plan this book to feature all the series that are out at the time of publication, just as was done with the LEGO Ninjago Character Encyclopedia). Overall, there might not be much room to have more than one page per minifigure.

No, it's just a poster promoting EB's Minifigures Series 9 review. Brickthing created it as a parody of the Game of Thrones poster.

Personally, I don't see how "Vermin Vaporizer" is any more mundane than "Galactic Peace Keeper". Even Friends has "3935 Stephanie’s Pet Patrol", which could easily have been given a more mundane name. Creator 2011 had the "Dune Hopper" and "Rescue Robot". Pharaoh's Quest had "Golden Staff Guardians" and Atlantis had "Seabed Strider" that same year. In 2009, Pirates had the beautiful "6240 Kraken Attackin'". It should also be noted that in some languages, LEGO set names have frequently been fairly mundane. For instance, let's consider the Blacktron Alienator (6876). Like most set names that have become immortalized by the AFOL community, this is a US-specific set name. In Italy, it was the "Black Star" Robot ("Black Star" was the Italian name for the Blacktron faction). In Germany, it was the Space Rider (Black Space), similarly using a region-specific title for the faction as a whole together with a mundane set name. In the Netherlands, it was the Walking Robot. France really got the short end of the stick: there, it was called simply "Robot". The UK generally had somewhat nice set names; the Alienator was called the "Blacktron Strider", which while very literal still sounds cool and makes a lot more sense than "Alienator". I have an Excel spreadsheet of Space set names from the beginning of the theme to the present in various languages over here if you want to give it a look. What I'm trying to show here is that TLG has always used different names to appeal to different audiences. And LEGO Space, perhaps more than any other theme, is one where the expectations of the audience are constantly changing. LEGO Space is heavily based on what kids' perceptions of the future are, and so it's no surprise that naming conventions have changed dramatically over the years.

New Chima books: Origins: A Starter Handbook Chapter Book #1: Attack of the Crocodiles Chapter Book #2: Beware of the Wolves Lions vs. Crocodiles (image links to high-resolution version) Eagles vs. Wolves (image links to high-resolution version) Art direction for this theme is looking just as good as Ninjago's!

The fifth Hero Factory chapter book's cover has been revealed. The title is LEGO Hero Factory Secret Mission #5: Mirror World Here's the book on Amazon.co.uk (no blurb yet).

I'm from Fredericksburg, which isn't too far. I'm currently away at college, though (will be going home for the holidays this week).

Lovely set, continuing in the tradition of so many "remakes" this year and last. Personally, I have no problem with the stickers, as I think it's a waste to create printed parts for patterns like this that will only ever be used once. And I think everyone here can agree that in a licensed theme, patterns of some kind typically add to a model's accuracy. At the same time, Star Wars is not among the themes I currently collect, so my opinion on stickers in Star Wars sets in particular probably doesn't count for much. Hopefully we can expect to see many more classic vehicles remade with this level of quality!

Amazing blog entry. I've shared it on Facebook. It was pretty clear that CCFC was sensationalizing things a bit and not really being objective in their choice of LEGO Friends for a TOADY award, but you've gone ahead and done the research that they clearly either didn't do or completely ignored. I can only hope that this blog post circulates the internet and finds its way to the people who still are believing all the anti-Friends hype. Obviously Friends isn't flawless, but to imagine it's some kind of travesty ignores its context, both within LEGO themes as a whole and within girls' toys as a whole, almost entirely.

Strange as it may be, it's not entirely unsound. Don't forget that the reason brown skin was introduced for figs in the first place is that people were having difficulty identifying Lando Calrissian from the Star Wars theme without his darker skin tone. And this, as we all know, eventually led to the fleshies now ubiquitous in the licensed themes. As neat as a Zulu warrior might be, I have to say that at least in America, a lot of people aren't all that aware of sub-Saharan African cultures, or at least not historical ones. Thus it would be hard for them to recognize what the fig is supposed to depict from the costume alone. As a point of reference, how do we know the Jungle Boy isn't depicting a sub-Saharan African culture? Although he's clearly based on the same archetype as Tarzan (a fictional character of British stock) and Mowgli (a fictional character from India), really the figure on its own is fairly nondescript and could be from any race. Yet most people will almost automatically associate him with Tarzan. That's one of the issues at hand here-- without some really obvious cultural clues that people will be likely to pick up on (or racial caricatures like those in the Western theme and some of the Sports sets), a lot of people will automatically assume a minifigure's subject is white or otherwise light skinned. It would be nice for TLG to "push the envelope" by releasing a Zulu warrior or similar sub-Saharan African fig, made identifiable to audiences with traditional African clothing styles and patterns. But there would definitely be a certain risk inherent to such a decision.

Very neat to hear, but since this article really doesn't touch on the controversy surrounding the theme it might have been better to post in the Friends 2012 discussion topic. It is neat to see LEGO Friends on a "best toys of 2012" list, not just a "best toys for girls" list.

A big part of being a writer (or any type of creative professional) is knowing your audience. So girl-oriented TV shows focus heavily on female characters who the audience will most likely be able to relate to, and boy-oriented shows focus heavily on male characters who the audience will most likely be able to relate to. Adult-oriented programming is a lot less heavily "gendered", in part because the audience has developed enough to identify with characters of the opposite sex at at least some level. And occasionally there are excellent shows like A:TLA and TLoK that can appeal to a wide enough audience that they don't have to constrain themselves to the biases of one audience. But in general, it's bad practice to write a show that will alienate its audience, because it will likely end up unsuccessful (i.e. bad from a business perspective) and unappreciated (bad from an artistic perspective). For this reason writing and design typically have to follow the prevailing culture, not fight against it-- it's only occasionally that you encounter people who have both the willingness to take such risks and the skill and expertise to make them work. I somewhat disagree; I think that the whole LEGO Ninjago series was fairly consistent in balancing "doing it for the art" and "doing it for the money". I do agree that there might have been somewhat more "doing it for the art" in the first half of the final season, since it seemed to be the writers' chance to freely explore ideas rather than focus on advertising sets. At the same time, I wouldn't say that this part of the series was necessarily better as a result. It wasn't a huge disappointment to me, but until "The Stone Army", Lloyd's training was the only thing giving these episodes a clear sense of direction. Afterwards, however, the prospect of the final battle turned from a vague sense of inevitability into a genuine source of suspense, as you could clearly witness the Ninja and Garmadon alike advancing steadily toward that ultimate confrontation. Also, let's not forget the episode "The Last Voyage". Despite appearing after the Stone Army was introduced, it did hardly a thing to promote any of the sets (the Destiny's Bounty was the only vehicle featured in any substantial capacity). And yet I can't say being disconnected from the sets made it a particularly stronger episode than the ones before and after it. I can't say the second half of the final season was any less artistic than the previous season. After all, even in the Serpentine arc, the plot moved forward very deliberately-- first the awakening of the five Serpentine tribes, then the search for the four fang blades and the quest to unlock the Ninja's true potential, and finally the awakening of the Great Devourer. Some episodes that did not focus strictly on existing sets still focused heavily on things that had been imagined as potential sets during the writing process-- for instance, Lloyd's Treehouse Fortress. And even the brilliant character-driven episodes in which the Ninja unlocked their true potential were essentially promoting the Ninja's NRG spinner sets by framing them as part of an epic narrative rather than just presenting them as yet another costume.

This happens to me all the time. Generally I end up resisting temptation, but it's always frustrating because at least if I just bought the set I'd get a more-or-less equal value for what I spent. Whereas if I end up debating with myself for a long time whether or not to actually get something, and decide against it, then I'll have spent a great deal of valuable time without getting anything in return.

Thanks for the link! Some of the questions were kind of confusing (for instance, for "how many years have you been a part of the LEGO fan community, I put six, because while I've been a fan for over a decade longer, it wasn't until 2006 that I really engaged with other members of the community). Also, I'm surprised how much I've spent on LEGO in the past three months (upwards of $80), though I suppose a lot of that was on a gift card.

I've never known that to be possible on LDD with any size tile. I'm surprised it's a bug that hasn't been addressed yet.

Yep, and it animates the transformation. It's frankly a little terrifying. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone with a weak stomach.

I mostly have managed to keep my LEGO purchases constrained to what I planned to get once the summer sets were revealed. And I bought many of the sets on a discount during Brickfair. With that in mind, I think I've met my own expectations on that front. Other LEGO plans didn't work out so well. My Toy Fair coverage, as fun as it was to put together, took far too long for me to complete. By the time I finished covering all themes, Toy Fair news was no longer nearly as relevant to many people as it had been in February. Additionally, I have had a hard time making all the edits I should on The Ninjago Wiki and HEROsector01, and sadly there haven't been nearly enough people helping to keep these sites up-to-date. I only entered two Ninja Month contests here on Eurobricks-- my 8x8 Ultimate Battle entry was never finished and posted, though I doubt it could have matched the quality of some of the other brilliant entries in that contest. I also have a lot of work to do making sure I have my LDD reference files here on Eurobricks up to date. And some things have exceeded my expectations. I was able to enter a LEGO building contest at my college, and while I didn't win, my team put together a quite good model IMO. I won the 16x16 category of the Ninja Month Ultimate Battle contest here on Eurobricks, which was a pleasant surprise considering how many talented entries I was up against. I have had opportunities to speak with Jay Vincent, one of the composers for LEGO Ninjago, and have joined Brickset, where I was pleased to be welcomed with open arms. I have done my part to report LEGO news I discover around the internet, and I strongly hope that bolstering my credentials within the LEGO fan community might do me well when I finally get finished with my Industrial Design education and apply for a product design job at The LEGO Group. Overall, I will continue planning the same way in 2013: making my LEGO purchasing plans for the year as soon as sets are revealed at Toy Fair and trying to hold off on many of those purchases until Brickfair arrives and I can get great LEGO store discounts, as well as not making any major commitments that I can't get out of if schoolwork becomes a burden once more.

There's a new LEGO Hero Factory app for iPad and iPhone called "Brainify". I can't find much info on it online, but iTunes users can search for it and find a description and screenshots. It's just a gimmicky "modify a photo you take of yourself" app, but it is itneresting to see TLG promoting the new wave in this way so soon.

Actually, Lyi was saying that he thought the Battle Mech would be a Gundam-like robot figure before we even saw pictures of it, and I agree with him that I wouldn't ever have connected it with Galaxy Squad. Its reuse of the robot armor from Galaxy Squad shouldn't be taken as any kind of strong evidence, because TLG reuses parts outside their intended themes all the time. Just look at the Alien from Minifigures Series 3. No connection at all to Space Police III other than the reused head piece. Likewise, the S7 Ocean King has no connection to Ninjago or Pirates of the Caribbean despite reusing Sensei Wu's beard or the PotC mermaids' tails. Also, the Battle Mech's head is designed very differently than the Galaxy Squad robot heads-- it's a helmet over a minifigure head rather than a solid head piece. And its colors and prints don't resemble Galaxy Squad figures any more closely than the parts of the Spaceman and Intergalactic Girl. People are free to use it for whatever they want, but that doesn't mean the fig inherently suggests that connection to everyone.

Very nice conversion, though I have to say that it looks very out-of-place next to those other two modular buildings-- not because of the colors as much as because the clean, smooth design of this house's walls seem at odds with the heavily-textured designs of the townhouse and Cafe Corner. Perhaps it will look nicer next to other modular buildings, but overall its simple design works against it. The back and interior don't have nearly the same problems. They look like they'd fit in perfectly with other modular buildings when it comes to their level of detail. Only the kitchen/dining area on the ground floor ends up feeling a bit plain. Some more diverse colors might help it-- the amount of white and lime green feels a bit overwhelming. Some more furniture might also help, as it ends up feeling almost too spacious with all the space between the sink and the staircase left completely open. Or perhaps some floor mats could solve the problem just as nicely by breaking up the vast expanse of white studs.

Not replying to happymark's post in particular, but I want to call people's attention to something: what he's describing doesn't sound like it's describing re-releases as in "new set with the same parts and build" but rather re-releases as in "new production run of the same set with the same number. And THAT happens all the time. The first run of a set is far from its only run; otherwise you wouldn't have sets like the Pirates of the Caribbean sets last year being released with the chrome parts after they were unable to include those in the first production run, or sets like the 2010 LEGO Hero Factory set Furno Bike released with the new-style Y-joints that were not introduced until 2011. A particularly noteworthy example of a set that had significant changes in a later production run is Fero & Skirmix, a BIONICLE set from 2009. It was originally produced for release as a Walmart-exclusive "special edition" set for early 2009. That summer, however, a new version of the set started showing up. It had the same set number (8990), but the box was almost entirely redesigned. Here is the original box art, while Here is the later version of the box, which was designed to promote the new movie BIONICLE: The Legend Reborn as well as tie in with the packaging design of that summer's Glatorian Legends sets. The only change to the set's contents was that Skirmix's eyes were changed from Transparent Fluorescent Green (Trans-Neon Green) to Transparent Yellow (Trans-Yellow). I have no idea how long to expect the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit sets to remain on store shelves, but generally the shelf life of such sets is at least a year after their initial release. The reason sets have a limited shelf life is not because of collectors, but rather because of retailers. Retailers know very well that new sets sell better than older sets and want to keep circulating their stock so they always have shelf space for the newest items. And what this means is that they will eventually have to stop restocking older sets. So TLG only produces new batches of the same sets for as long as they expect retailers to keep buying them. The Indiana Jones sets are from several years ago, so it's no surprise that few places stock them anymore. This isn't because they want to compel people to buy them when they're brand new, but rather that there's just not much of an incentive to keep producing and stocking sets from that long ago when there are newer sets that will appeal to a larger number of buyers.

So I haven't seen any comments about the site being up. Maybe I just haven't been paying close enough attention... Hard to tell if the structure in the background here is a CGI-only base designed for the packaging and online games or a possible future set. It seems like it would be quite odd structurally if it were a set, though.

Well, that is an interesting observation, but unfortunately many of our other images of the set show a different, decidedly new windscreen. See here for an example from 60008, or here to see the same piece in 60004. That layout above is probably just preliminary. I like the new helicopter windscreen, but it makes me sad that even though the new one is nice and geometric it still isn't a shape that allows the sides to be sealed up without difficulty.