Aanchir

Oh no, I was thinking of the suit I had seen in promotional images of the character which I believe somebody linked to earlier in this topic. Truth be told, the set is a pretty darn good likeness of the larger suit, considering the price point, target age range, and irregular shape of the subject. The mousers in that image also look a lot more like the one in the set than the ones in the blurry screenshots I had seen. Now that I've seen this, I have to say I am hardly disappointed at all with the TMNT lineup with regard to accuracy.

Also, here's a story brief from the same site:

This site has some set descriptions for the Chima lineup. Not much info on the story or info on the sets that we couldn't figure out from the images we've already seen, although if accurate it confirms a few minor details:Razar is the raven clan leader. Laval is the lion clan leader. Equila is an eagle clan soldier. The Chi Waterfall is apparently an actual relevant location, since it's mentioned in Equila's Ultra Striker's description rather than just the description of the Speedorz set it comes in. Wakz is a wolf clan soldier, and Winzar is his assistant. Crominus is the king of the crocodile clan, while Prince Cragger is his son. Cragger's Croc-Boat Headquarters has a prison in the bow hold. Crawley is an assistant to Cragger. One of the gimmicks being emphasized for most of these animal vehicles is that the mouths of them can fit minifigures. Perhaps the biggest revelation, if it's accurate and not just preliminary: this page says there are six clans, with the sixth being a gorilla clan on the "good" side.

It's very easily just an inaccurate translation... remember, I'm mostly just running the things through Google Translate and rearranging them to make logical and grammatical sense. Even if this were a universe with primarily human/animal characters, I very strongly doubt that TLG would be throwing around words like "bloodthirsty" in their advertising materials if they meant them literally. But that's just what Google Translate gave me. The original Russian word, кровожаднее, was probably not meant literally, but rather just in that Pyrox loves violence.

That may be true, but I guarantee that if TLG pulls out of China they're not moving those jobs to Denmark. Chances are they'd instead increase production from their facilities in the Czech Republic, which have recently undergone some major expansions if I'm not mistaken. China may be a company that a lot of businesses outsource to, but TLG pulling out of China doesn't have anything to do with whether they continue to outsource production to countries other than Denmark.

I recently started reading a new webcomic: JL8. It's quite possibly one of my favorite webcomics these days. The art style is appealing, the DC universe references are remarkably well-played, and of course it's full of lots of heartwarming moments. There are 87 pages so far; and I recommend anyone who's a fan of DC Comics superheroes in any capacity to read through them.

Interesting to receive this news... I had read here that ADVANCE is working on "A new take on one of the LEGO classics launching 2HY 2013"... sounds like this is it! ADVANCE, if you didn't know, is basically TLG's go-to ad agency, which is responsible for a lot of the creative work for TLG's play themes. They've been a creative force behind TLG's television and print ads for decades, and have been one of the main creative forces behind the storytelling side of many of TLG's themes like BIONICLE, Hero Factory, Power Miners, and Monster Fighters. And I agree with some people that the chances of it being a reissue of classic sets are very slim. Though I also doubt that these are all D2C/exclusive sets-- rather, they're probably just a new theme that BRICKshop.nl completely miscategorized. In any event, after the rather lackluster showing of non-licensed evergreen themes in 2012, it's good to two of them (Space and Castle) returning so soon!

Now, I'm skeptical that these are re-releases of old sets. The description that mentions reissues of old sets is clearly describing the classic LEGO Legends line, which is listed under the same category. Also, if we're going to see reissues of sets, why would they all be castles (especially when so many classic castle parts have been discontinued)? It seems quite likely to me that for whatever reason these sets may have just been listed under an existing theme name not related to the actual theme they are a part of. Let's not ignore that the Mini Modulars, Volkswagen Beetle, and Medieval Market Village are also listed under the LEGO Legends branding on brickshop.nl. None of these were reissues. On a side note, I think there may be discussion of these already going on in the historic themes subforum.

I even think the builds aren't as basic-looking as people are making them out to be. A lot of them make clever use of Technic and SNOT techniques to achieve the desired look, even if the end result feels somewhat childish due to deliberately ramshackle designs and bright colors. The only one that really baffles me is Baxter's robot suit, because while neat-looking, a bit of quick research reveals that it looks next to nothing like his suit in the show, unless he happens to have more than one. It's also perhaps the most basic-looking of the sets, though then again that's only comparing it to other LEGO mechs, which tend towards greater complexity than typical LEGO vehicles to begin with.

Yeah. It's the one I had previously thought was the Garmatron, which the Ninja hijacked to rescue Zane in "Island of Darkness". It's perhaps most noticeable in "The Last Hope" when the Stone Army is showing Garmadon all the new vehicles they've constructed. The designs of these vehicles make me wonder if they might be based on sketch models that never became sets, though at the same time it's always a possibility that they're outfitted with recognizable LEGO parts just so that they give that impression. Might be a good thing to ask Nabii once all is said and done.

The early days of Chinese production (mainly for figs from magnet packs and the first couple collectible minifigure series) were rife with photographic evidence of inconsistency. Look up any discussions from that period to find strong evidence. There are still bigger and more frequent quality discrepancies between Chinese and non-Chinese parts than between parts from different non-Chinese manufacturers, but they're not as egregious as they once were. I do seriously hope that TLG improves quality control at the Chinese plant, though if they do decide to move out, then that works too as long as they move all their more complex part production to their other factories. Which is almost a sure thing, because once TLG has tested those sorts of production processes and found out how popular those advanced printing/assembly techniques are, there's no way they'd abandon them completely rather than moving them to another production facility. I was referring to hue, not opacity. You're right that yellow (among other colors) does have frequent opacity problems, though I've never noticed them as being across-the-board problems (which is probably because my 90s and earlier yellow parts are so dingy that any side-by-side comparison would be null and void).

This site has some interesting 2013 news... Let's see what Google Translate and some educated guesses have to say. So, mostly this is stuff that we already knew or coud assume (more game points, more combination models, the brain slugs have mind control), but the news of a "Brainstorm" app is neat. Chances are it will be a game similar to the Breakout game, though I'm curious if TLG might integrate some of the augmented reality ideas that were suggested during the ADVANCE Hero Factory designer workshop. Some more specific descriptions:

Nothing Lyi said was inaccurate. The plastic is still the same material, from the same supplier. There may be slight formulation changes, but nothing major. The difference in color is not strictly related to the type of plastic. Back before the mid-2000s LEGO bought all of their plastic granulate pre-colored. Sometime in the mid-2000s (I forget the exact year) they began buying colorless granulate (about the same color as the parts Bricklink calls Milky White, if I'm not mistaken) and buying dye separately. They mix the dye and the granulate during the production process. Their plastic is all sourced from the same supplier, besides the plastic used in the Chinese facility which has to mostly come from domestic sources due to Chinese manufacturing laws. But as Lyi said, there are very few minifigures manufactured in China-- besides the collectible minifigures and some promotional minifigures, the only minifigure parts manufactured in China are those for which there are no equivalent parts manufactured elsewhere. This is mostly limited to specialized elements with complex printing like the Toy Story head molds or Ninjago Serpentine minifigure head molds. TLG does, however, get their dye from multiple sources. Their reason for doing this is so that if one of their dye suppliers is compromised by a fire or natural disaster, LEGO production will not have to be interrupted. A side-effect is that some yellow parts today have a slight greenish tint and some have a slight orangish tint, but TLG has been working to amend this issue and the "average" yellow color is pretty close to what it has traditionally been. Since you didn't buy sets in the mid-2000s, you may not realize that color quality has improved significantly since then in most colors. I won't lie, I have gotten a set with simply AWFUL color quality: specifically, this one here. I don't recall any of the part colors in that set that couldn't be split into two distinct groups based on quality. "Fake Yellow"? Do you mean 297 Warm Gold, the gold plastic color that TLG has been using since 2006, long before they began manufacturing parts in China? Anyway, the Build-A-Mini stations in LEGO stores do mostly use Chinese-made parts, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Very few of TLG's regular product lines use any Chinese parts except for particularly specialized parts, which can usually be identified in that they are bagged separately from other parts in somewhat stretchy plastic bags. ¡Ay caramba! And here's where it begins to show that you have done the bare minimum of research on this topic. Mexico is TLG's second-newest country of manufacture, after China. The Czech plant is YEARS older, though it has been expanded a lot in the past several years. As I said, most of the problems you're describing sound like they have to do with the switch from colored to uncolored granulate which happened sometime between 2004 and 2006 (I forget when exactly). Chinese manufacture in regular sets didn't begin until around 2008-2009, and the first theme to have the majority of its parts manufactured in China was the Collectible Minifigures in 2010. You can't claim to have disappeared from the fandom for around six years and then claim to know exactly when quality issues began to emerge during that time. Today's color palette still has a certain amount of balance and harmony. There are only around 60 colors on the current palette. That might sound like a lot, but in fact, it's MUCH better than it was during the period when you stopped buying sets, at which point there were hundreds of different colors on the palette, some of which only appeared in one or two sets. In fact, there may be fewer colors now than when you stopped buying sets (there were at least 72 colors by 2002 if I'm not mistaken, and over a hundred by 2003). You do tend to find a lot of colors in any given set today, but there's a reason for that. The more colors there are in a set, the easier it is for kids to build it according to the instructions. Attach a bunch of black parts together and the building instructions begin to become difficult to read. I'd like to see some examples of sets you feel lack color harmonies. For the most part, I like the color schemes of today's sets, which feel a lot more harmonious than even many 90s sets (I'd take most Olivia's House from LEGO Friends over the washed-out-looking pastel theme that was Paradisa in the 90s).

As cool as that idea sounds, it would probably be both ugly and impractical. After all, the more holes you put in a surface as attachment points, the less the surface can be stylized to resemble a head. It might seem easy to stick one attachment point on the front and three on the top, but you'd also need at least four holes on the sides(two for masks like the Garai and two for characters like Splitface. Plus, once you have this many connection points you may have a head with dimensions that won't fit all masks (the aforementioned connection points for the Garai require a broad forehead that won't likely fit most Glatorian helmets). I myself will be more than impressed if the new head is in fact compatible with both 2.0 and 1.0 helmets. Though perhaps Front only meant that the new head will be used universally moving forward, and will not be backwards-compatible with all masks. After all, even 2.0 and 1.0 compatibility won't allow certain masks/heads like Witch Doctor's to connect.

Oh jeez. That's brilliant. I can't wait!

I would not be surprised if TLG might be able to move some of the advanced molding and printing previously done in the Chinese plant to other countries what with the recent expansions to some of their other production facilities like the one in Kladno. After all, one of the main reasons they began producing parts in China was a matter of production capacity. With that said, I will be taking this with a grain of salt. I certainly haven't seen Chinese production quality decrease each year-- on the contrary, I haven't encountered any major quality issues with the LEGO Collectible Minifigures since Series 2, and I haven't heard any major criticisms of Chinese LEGO production outside the AFOL community. It's entirely possible that TLG has reasons to diminish the amount of parts produced in their Chinese plant (for instance, the logistical complexity of having a production facility so far away from their other plants was part of the reason that Chinese production of the Ninjago spinner sets was eliminated for all but a select few parts), but it seems odd that quality concerns would be the primary motivation.

Ummm... that's already there. Design ID is 90397. Plug that into the search box in LDD Extended mode and the part should come up.

Keep in mind that several of the vehicles in the show that do appear as sets are based on prototype versions of the sets. A good example is the Tread Assault. And yeah, as DraikNova says, there's always the possibility that when vehicles and other structures are written into the show they are considered as possible content for sets-- let's not forget the sketch model of Lloyd's treehouse fortress that was shown during the Ninjago panel at San Diego Comic-Con. I wouldn't be surprised if many of the other Stone Army vehicles were similarly rejected sketch models.

Neat to hear! I have never had a good opportunity to check for myself and I've seen photos that called that into question. Wonder if TLG will ever introduce any more new transparent colors... but we're currently on a schedule of just a few new colors a year, and I can work with that if it means no cancerous palette growth like we saw in the early 2000s (with some colors only ever appearing in one or two sets).

Those are nice, but they get bigger: 79100 alt1 79101 alt1 79102 alt1 79103 alt1 79104 alt1 79105 alt1

There was a 2013 color palette shown at some LEGO event a while back, and there were no new colors on it. So I doubt we'll see any truly new transparent colors. It's possible we'll see some that haven't been used as eye colors before, like Trans. Bright Bluish-Violet (Trans-Purple) or Trans. Medium Reddish-Violet (Trans-Dark Pink), but I don't anticipate it. The current eye colors preferred by TLG-- Trans. Fluor. Green (Trans-Neon Green), Trans. Fluor. Blue (Trans-Medium Blue) and Trans. Fluor. Reddish-Orange (Trans-Neon Orange) are currently the only fluorescent colors, and TLG has shown time and time again that they like the glowiness that fluorescent colors provide as eye colors (even for a few years using some in BIONICLE that were not seen in any other themes as far as I know). Of course, villain sets have used other eye colors like Trans. Red in the past, the Breakout sets had Trans. Bright Green heads (which I don't believe fluoresce), and the 2.0 sets didn't have glowing eyes at all, so who knows? It's possible that anything within TLG's budget is fair game.

If you're talking about the divider trays, yes, they do, and some stores even carry the divider trays separately.

I see no reason they'd prefer releasing Star Wars building toys under Hasbro's Kre-O brand, which has no real appeal in and of itself (all its fans really come from the licenses carried by the brand) than keep their relations with LEGO, a brand that's practically become a household name with a reputation for quality. Especially when so many people associate LEGO Star Wars not only with quality toys, but also with strong, humor-driven media like the video games and TV specials.

Often they either work in a factory or know of a source who does, and the minifigures "escape" the factory with the help of that source. Also, I hope flick-fire missiles don't go away any time soon. They're definitely preferable to most other types of projectiles in most applications. The amount of space wasted in sticking a spring-loaded missile in a set (which usually will also drive up the price point, like any pre-assembled element) is heartbreaking. Flick-fire missiles, on the other hand, tend to have a negligible impact on a set's structure and appearance, and are usually able to be removed from the model without any significant customization effort. Plus, flick-fires are just more useful pieces in general, in that they can be used for things other than projectiles. This isn't to say that I hate spring-loaded missiles (they pack more of a punch than a flick-fire, that's for sure), but unless a set needs the missile to have a lot of force (i.e. if it's required to hit some kind of target), why pay extra for extra "oomph"?

It's possible that if the sets use a new head design rather than just the 2.0 head design, the new head design will be compatible with the 1.0 Hero Factory helmets. But that's pure speculation.