Aanchir

We'll see how that goes, but once pics of the constraction sets become available it may become clearer whether discussion can easily continue there or not. Just judging by experience, constraction sets tend to be somewhat divisive among System fans-- just look at the Knights' Kingdom II figures or the Super Heroes Ultrabuild figures. Really the forum divisions here on Eurobricks are a way of dividing interest groups more than anything else. And people with interest and experience in constraction themes will probably have a lot more to discuss about the Chima constraction sets than the typical action themes fans. Well, it should be a sufficient replacement for most of the ones in the Hero Factory theme, since those tend to conceal the face so a difference in appearance shouldn't be a pressing issue. But some BIONICLE helmets that expose the face (including the one used in the Drop Ship set) might end up looking a lot different on the new head element. I doubt they'd eliminate Stormer from the lineup when he's such a core character. While it's a bit of a shame that we haven't gotten a new character since 2011, it shouldn't be ignored that there hasn't yet been a year when all the characters were featured. And I get the feeling that even with Hero Factory's loose storyline, they'd want to wrap things up the year before for any classic character who they wanted to write out of the story for a full year.

Oooh, yes, I can see how Hero Factory parts could be difficult to use for historical MOCs. If your MOCs tended more towards fantasy-type models, then I can imagine the parts would be great for building dragons and other giant beasts, especially since Chima could very easily introduce organic-looking detail elements that could give the figures a more animalistic and less machine-tooled look. In general the streamlined look of Hero Factory shells probably works better for sci-fi MOCs than historic ones in most cases. Then again, the same could probably be true of many Knights' Kingdom style elements, and infinitely more so with the high-detail BIONICLE parts that were nevertheless a staple of the Vikings theme. Kai's Fire Robot obviously doesn't have a huge number of Hero Factory elements, but it can probably serve as a great introduction to the system with its very basic shell and beam elements. And as I've mentioned, I am very strongly hoping that Hero Factory parts continue to overlap with System sets. We haven't seen much of that in Chima, but the existence of both constraction and System-based sets could be a good sign.

Quite nice. It's rare that I see "themed" GBC modules. At first I was worried that too few of the moving parts would be visible for the modules to have the maximum visual impact, but the video did a good job showing that the windows allow a decent view of the moving parts. The one thing I would complain about is that the movements of the airplane feel a little chaotic... I wish there was a way to slow down its movement, but I imagine you've packed this thing too tight to fit many more large gears. And anyway, I'm sure nobody seeing the machine in motion will really mind-- they'll be too impressed!

Sadly, I agree with this. Ignorant people were complaining about Chinese production of LEGO bricks years before LEGO actually began producing bricks in China, so I wouldn't be surprised if customer perception is something TLG would want to deal with in one way or another. In general, though, I don't think it's something that they would pull out of China for in and of itself, since K'nex is one of their only quality competitors I know of that can claim not to produce parts in Asia (and even they have their electronic components manufactured in China, or did at one point). If they can afford to pull out of China, that's great, though, as I'm sure the other countries housing LEGO plants could increase efficiency if they have one less step of global coordination to maintain.

I'd definitely agree that HF-style constraction makes more sense than KK-style constraction. To be honest, it's sad how long it took for constraction to become its own building system as cohesive as the earlier Technic or System styles of building. There is of course room for overlap between the building systems as always, but it's nice to have constraction sets that don't sacrifice interchangeability of parts just so they can piggyback off of an existing building style. Besides the HF building system being more systemic in general, it also tends toward much greater posability than KK-style "click hinges" did. Previous sets primarily have used these click hinges for models that are too heavy for a ball joint to support their weight, but with the Hero Factory friction joint introduced with the Super Heroes sets this year, that has essentially become a non-issue. And the more Hero Factory and System builds gain crossover appeal, the sooner we will likely see new useful adapter pieces between the two systems like the already common ball/ball cup connector bricks. A System plate with a ball cup coming out of the bottom would be an excellent part, as would one with a ball cup coming out of the top. I don't fully expect to see these kind of parts in Chima, which seems to be strictly formula when it comes to staying within one system or the other, but they'll be quite welcome whenever and if ever they do begin to appear.

Hard to say. It would be somewhat logical to expect them to show up soon, since as far as I know they're due for a January release like most sets that start appearing early. They should certainly start appearing by Christmas.

Well, Lyi's point was actually that some of the colors we've seen in the 2013 HF sets probably exist because of Chima, not the other way around. So the idea that they will be "limiting themselves" to certain colors in Chima would then be moot-- if anything, Chima would allow them to free themselves of the limitations they have previously imposed on Hero Factory. Don't think we need spoiler tags on set info here on EB. Forgive me for deleting them; it greatly simplifies this reply. Probably a non-issue. The most important crocodile characters-- Crominus and Cragger-- both have Dark Green as their skin colors by default. They do have olive green clothing, but who's to say that they won't be dressed differently in the constraction versions? Again, might be a non-issue, since the clothes could be changed and I anticipate the Chima constraction figures will have heads much like the Ultrabuild Super Heroes figures (molded and printed rather than multiple pieces for different-colored sections). In that case, the face could easily just be tan printing on brown parts-- in fact, that's probably most effective, since the mane would take up the majority of a lion head mold. This makes a decent amount of sense, but at the same time there's a recent MOC by Nabii that uses what might be Medium Stone Grey shells (though they might just be painted parts, or silver parts under extremely well-controlled lighting conditions). If they are medium stone grey, then the parts exist and will probably be appearing in Chima. Agreed. Many of the Medium Lilac parts (I know this is one of the LEGO color names that makes no sense, but forgive my use of it) seen on the designers' parts shelves in one of our recent pics of the LEGO Design Headquarters might very well be making an appearance in Chima, but even if they don't, Joker and Voltix offer plenty of variety. I think the minifigures use Light Royal Blue (a shade lighter than Medium Blue), but it could be Medium Blue, and either way it could either be used for Hero Factory parts or simply rendered in another color like you mention. The Earth Blue and White are the really integral colors to match since they act as the figures' skin (or rather, feather) colors. Very good point! That'll be awesome if true, as large figure capes rarely have much variety in colors. All the more to look forward to if so!

Great review. I loved the humorous tangent about the bubble wrap at the beginning-- that's the kind of thing that always alerts you to the fact that the reviewer knows what they're doing and wants to make this as fun for the readers as possible! Anyway, I agree that this is an incredible set filled with new ideas. You went over all the assets and faults of this train in great detail. One slight error I should note is that the nose slope is not new in orange-- I know because I happen to own the set it originally came in in that color. However, it is still exceedingly rare and I have no doubt it has been out of production for quite a long time.

I'm doubtful, simply because there is appearing to be a very deliberate effort to wrap things up. Already the spinner sets are being discontinued to make room for Chima's "Speedorz" on shelves, and while we have news of some Ninjago graphic novels for 2013 there is no similar news of Ninjago chapter books or other publications. Additionally, with the TV series about to conclude for good, there won't be any new Ninjago story arcs, and despite the amount of things in the recent TV episodes that are not announced as sets, I don't think it's likely that any of these are planned for an actual release-- not with the majority of the most impressive character designs and distinctive settings already due for release in the first half of the year.

Right, that's true. Silly me. I was remembering the lack of store exclusive sets in the summer wave and mistakenly thinking that applied to the whole year. In that case, I wouldn't be at all surprised if a store exclusive set showed up, though I have a feeling that stores will more likely opt for exclusive sets from newer themes like Chima, whose importance TLG is surely emphasizing in their talks with retailers.

OK, I get it now. Faefrost's post above had me confused. A store exclusive is a much more likely possibility, though I'm not really counting on it since there weren't any for 2012.

While I'm not completely ruling out your theory, keep in mind that the glowy visual effect there might just be to make the figure look more mystical and energetic, and not representative of the colors for the actual figures. After all, a model that was fully or mostly monochrome like that wouldn't have a whole lot of shelf appeal. I personally expect the colors of the constraction sets to be mostly similar to the colors of the minifigures.

Not really. The use of the new number scheme is across-the-board, so it's no indicator of it being a licensed theme, and furthermore there's no reason Hobbit sets wouldn't be marketed to retailers as such. Also, if they were Hobbit sets, then they'd probably be numbered close to the other sets in that theme, whereas instead they're numbered between the Chima and Ninjago sets. As for them being fake, that's always possible, but I can't imagine BRICKshop.nl listing set numbers that simply didn't exist, since despite some of their categorization problems they've usually been trustworthy in the past. Also, since we know ADVANCE is working on "a new take on one of the LEGO classics launching 2HY 2013", this seems like it would fit better than any other guesses I've heard or come up with myself.

From what I've seen LEGO just calls it the "Character and Creature Building System", which is quite a mouthful. They've been calling their action figure sets that since around 2004, if I'm not mistaken. Personally, while its meaning isn't immediately obvious, I don't think it's a bad term at all. Certainly nice not to have to say "buildable/constructable action figure" every time. Anyway, that lion figure is pretty cool, and I'm curious what new colors of parts we might see in constraction sets, but Ninjago and Hero Factory are still the must-get sets for me this year. I might be more likely to get the Chima constraction sets than I was the Super Heroes Ultrabuild sets though considering they won't have a license-based markup. It's a bit surprising how many platforms there will be for the Chima brand. Model sets, "game sets", and constraction sets. Even BIONICLE, back when it had minifigure-scale playsets, didn't spread out to more than two platforms. It's hard to say whether the Chima constraction sets will be as successful as the model sets or Speedorz, and I think a big determining factor will be how they are integrated with the model sets-- what incentive will there be for a collector of the minifigure-scale sets to get the constraction sets, other than happening to like the characters they represent? The picture with both a minifigure and a constraction figure suggests that the two might have some story-based connection, but of course that could just be promotional art without any concrete meaning.

If you're judging only by who appears in the most episodes, then the Postman would be a shoo-in for a minifigure version. With that said, I agree that Dareth is pretty much a joke character and not a likely candidate to appear in a set. With that said, I think the chances of a D2C set are fairly slim. Those aren't exactly normal for LEGO's play themes, and from what I've heard it was quite unexpected that the Monster Fighters theme ended up getting a D2C set (the Haunted House was not originally designed to function as one as I understand it, but it was so well-liked that Adam Grabowski was encouraged to refine it into a set for a D2C release).

Yep, the source for that info is here: http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Ninjago-Masters-Spinjitzu-Rise-of-the-Green-Ninja/17529 Needless to say, I'm very impressed, even though I have bought the pilot and first season on DVD already. I will probably end up getting the Complete Second Season on DVD, since my family doesn't have a Blu-Ray player and can play DVDs on my laptop. Then if I end up wanting the Blu-Ray edition of the complete series, I can get that and will have DVD copies of the series that I can lend out to friends or family members, or take up to college with me where Blu-Ray probably still won't be an option. Sadly we don't have any specifics on release date or cost for the complete series Blu-Ray, or whether it will be available in regions outside the US (the press release only applies to Region 1 DVDs as far as I know).

I liked the helmets and the transparent heads as well, but the decorations on the minifigures really ruined my ability to really enjoy them, main reason being that I felt the decorations were overloaded with detail. Most of the lines were very fine, and some of the figs were so covered in technical gadgetry as to make the torsos feel cluttered. I particularly disliked this guy right here. The one fig I really did like for years to come was Alpha Draconis (the commander), whose decorations were a lot more like what I'd expect of a LEGO figure even if that stippled gradient on his torso didn't really mesh well with the rest of his design. Of course, the late 90s was a period in which TLG was just beginning to branch out in terms of fig designs, and the UFO theme was far from their first example of over-stretching their boundaries. One only has to look at the Western theme, where one of the bandits and all of the Indians had whites in their eyes and noses. I'm quite glad that in recent years TLG has come to understand the ways their minifigure designs can be made diverse and detailed without losing sight of the simplicity that gives them their iconic appeal.

Additionally, I believe the preorder bonus fig has a zippered pouch printed on his torso where the 2013 variant has a walkie-talkie.

That's already on LDD (part number 95829). Anyway, here are some Hero Factory parts I'd like to see: 87802 87818 98587 98588 98589 98592 98593 98594 98596 98597 98604 There are more missing, of course, but these are the ones I want the most (most of them being extremely important parts from the summer 2012 sets).

Do you have any specific examples? I've rarely found the Bricklink database to be missing any parts I've looked for. Meanwhile, I can pretty much guarantee those aren't LEGO, simply because for as long as I can remember every Technic set to have headlights like that has used stickered 2x2 round tiles. Additionally, I may even recall having some alien-themed Mega Bloks set that had these parts in a different color, though I'm having a hard time finding pics for confirmation.

Since most other people seem to be running with the assumption that it's three points per category, I suppose that's what I should do as well. 8x8: Praiter Yed - 2 points Penkid11 - 1 point 16x16: Penkid11 - 2 points Streifen - 1 point

I hope that doesn't disrupt the look of the faces. I prefer both the Glatorian head and the 2.0 Hero head over most BIONICLE heads with a frontal attachment point. They just feel more face-shaped, and I can identify with the characters who use these heads a lot better with or without a helmet.

Kristel: 1 point Oky: 1 point Artanis: 1 point I'd have loved to give more points to Kristel (her entry is not only creative and recognizable, but also very well-photographed), but that would have meant leaving out either Oky or Artanis, and I think they both did a very good job that deserves to be acknowledged.

I liked UFO at the time it was released for some bizarre reason. I eventually grew to regret it. It's huge printed elements were always near-useless to me, its minifigures were pretty awful-looking (and not in a good, creepy-alien way, but rather a bad, lines-are-way-too-thin, not-aesthetically-compatible-with-other-LEGO-themes way), and after a few years I realized how boring many of the sets were in terms of construction. It didn't help that the Alien Avenger was on my Christmas wish list for two years, and turned out to be a considerable disappointment once I had it (in retrospect I should have gone for the Interstellar Starfighter, which was more impressive in design and had fiber-optic elements).

Extended-line products like that are not made by LEGO, they are licensed out to different companies to manufacture. This product is apparently made by Blip Toys. Likewise, there are LEGO minifigure-shaped pens made by MZB Imagination and LEGO key lights, flashlights/torches, and head lamps made by Play Visions. Now, this topic is of course referring not to bricks made in facilities TLG owns, but rather to bricks that are contracted out to Chinese manufacturers. I forget the name of the Chinese manufacturer that produces the parts for the Collectible Minifigures and magnet packs among other high-detail/high-production-volume parts. Front, could you enlighten us any further about the situation with Chinese production? You're probably more qualified to comment on this than I am. Incidentally, the Chinese manufacture was not the first instance of LEGO parts being manufactured by other companies. Starting in 2005 with BIONICLE canisters and Duplo parts, and expanding in 2006, many LEGO parts were outsourced to a company called Flextronics. In March 2008, LEGO went through a period of "insourcing" in which they took over the production at the Kladno campus. Later that year, they did the same with the plants in Hungary and Mexico. I have long been hoping they will do that with their Chinese production, since I think that'd be a speedy way to get quality control for those parts up to the same level as in their other facilities.