Aanchir

You mean Dark Orange. Earth Orange can refer to either the color of Ron Weasley's hair from the 2001 Harry Potter sets (if you're using Bricklink's naming scheme; TLG calls that color Light Orange Brown) or classic brown (if you're using TLG's naming scheme). Both have been discontinued since 2004. I never really mind what naming scheme people use as long as they're following one that other people can look up for themselves! Anyway, it's pretty weird that they gave him the wrong hair color... not sure what the logic behind that is since he'll have the correct hair color in next year's sets and has had the correct hair color in all promotional videos previously.

Ah, OK. Those decorations were all in LDD before, but weren't in the decorations menu as far as I know. Glad to see that's getting a long-overdue update, though I wouldn't be surprised if some decorations would have been taken out of those menus to make space (though they should still be available within the software).

Do we know how it's supposed to be pronounced yet? Don't forget that it was quite a while before we knew how Ninjago was supposed to be pronounced.

It should be noted, though, that at least in the United States, post offices have been suffering. A lot of people blame e-mail and other improvements in communication technology for the decreasing relevance of post offices. Nowadays, even if post offices still exist, there are probably a lot of kids who wouldn't know one if they saw one. Kids don't change that much from generation to generation, but the context in which those kids grow up is changing more rapidly every decade. And LEGO City reflects that, whether in small ways like the re-branding of Octan as "Octan Energy" or in large ways like the current scarcity of post offices. As for "conflict in every box" play, that development has sprouted up in every theme for very good reason. A kid isn't likely to buy a second LEGO set if they don't get any real play value from their first on its own. Thus, TLG tries to make sure most sets have a strong, self-evident play scenario, which necessarily involves conflict, whether it's a "man vs. man" conflict like in most play themes or the Police subtheme or a subtler conflict like the firemen trying to put out fires, the medical helicopters and ambulances trying to get injured people to the hospital/clinic, or miners trying to find gold like in the mining subtheme. By doing this they have a greater chance of turning "buyers" into "collectors". You can think of action/conflict being a bad thing, or you can think of it as a necessary component for an engaging story. And while perhaps a return to less overtly dangerous conflicts (like civilians trying to get a letter mailed before the post office closes, or businessmen trying to improve their bottom line, or civilian families trying to make ends meet) might be in some people's interests, it's harder to make that kind of thing stand out on a shelf than action-based conflict which evokes a clear sense of what's happening.

I understand that its appeal is limited, but what makes it low-quality? As far as I can see the model itself is already the same level of quality as models by Master Builders and LCPs in its use of a reasonable quantity of basic elements to create a cute, recognizable, and (as far as I can tell) sturdy depiction of the mascot. It greatly reminds me of the Statue of Liberty set from the early 2000s in that regard.

Can you give examples, particularly of new prints? Or are you just referring to certain parts being able to be dual-colored? Also some of those bug fixes are very useful.

What seems new about it? As far as I can tell it's just this piece in Bright Blue. You can just barely see the stud sticking out of the back. The possibility of a more complex function for the Samurai Bike makes me wonder what the other sets might be hiding. Kai's Fire Mech is obviously too small for any functions to be hidden within it, and Cole's Power Driller almost certainly has a gear function to drive the drill. But the possibility of a hidden function to the Garmatron (rather than just the rather mundane Technic spring-loaded arrow) could raise the set's "cool factor" considerably. The Temple of Light's hinged walls have already been discovered, and those make it seem a lot more impressive (since rather than just a flat building facade, it's suddenly able to become more enclosed than even the Spinjitzu Dojo). Regarding the most recent episode,

Really? That's a real surprise to me. Most instances of two different colors appearing as variants within a single set involve a color being discontinued in between production runs of a set, such as how various 2010 sets including Dunkan Bulk and Mark Surge could have their silver elements either in the classic BIONICLE silver (131 Silver) or the new silver that became standard in 2011 (315 Silver Metallic). Which isn't to say there aren't exceptions. In 2009, the initial variant of Fero & Skirmix had the quite common Transparent Fluorescent Green Bohrok eyes, but the variant released later in the year with different box art to promote the movie had the rarer Transparent Yellow Bohrok eyes. Personally, I like how the 2.0 wave switched Furno and Surge's accent colors slightly, so that Furno's head became a purer yellow and Surge's became a yellowish-green. Certainly this lessened the contrast with the primary colors slightly, but every time I've tried switching Surge's head with Furno's I've recognized how garish that would have been on both sets. Can't argue there. While I'm certainly not insistent that EVERY PART exist in EVERY COLOR, the MTIS is a quite nice piece for use as back armor, a weapon component, or any number of other things. So while I don't demand its existence in more colors, I certainly would be quite happy if it did start to show up in these colors. Hmmm, not sure how I'd feel about that. Not because I'd dislike a bright blue or earth blue main bad guy, but because story-wise, at least, Surge has actually taken down a major villain twice (Fire Lord in Ordeal of Fire and Core Hunter in The Doom Box). An organic brain-slug-like decoration piece could indeed be cool, though.

Light Stone Grey may not be listed as a color for any post-2010 parts on Bricklink, but several 2011 NXT sensors used that color, though since the individual components are preassembled electronic components they're not listed as those colors on Bricklink. On the other hand, this image of a 2013 palette doesn't seem to list it... a real surprise, and a real shame, since it gave the NXT sets such a nice appearance. I suppose it was too similar to white for most people to tell the difference, so I'm not too surprised if it's being discontinued. The reason for the reddish-brown element in Vezon and Fenrakk may be related to that some preliminary image of Fenrakk show him using Reddish Brown in place of Dark Red. It's possible that when it was decided to change him to Dark Red (probably due to either the cost of so many parts in new colors or focus groups or retailers wanting a brighter-colored set), the one brown piece on the staff was kept.

I was comparing the Stone Army vehicles to their depictions in last night's Ninjago episode when I noticed something. While the Samurai Bike doesn't have the giant cannon on the back that it has in the show, its flick-fire missiles do seem to be connected to a function of some kind. Pic for reference. Note that they use 3M Technic axles with studs rather than the typical flick-fire missile piece, they're mounted on a Technic beam with a studded half-pin at the end (probably as a stopper for the beam to descend into the body), and there's a Technic piece sticking off the back that doesn't seem to serve any visible function, but which is probably connected to this action feature. Now, I'm not getting my hopes up for something as incredible as this (the Samurai Bike is far too compact, unless TLG has a brilliant new way of incorporating such a function), but I definitely think we might be speaking too soon when we observe the scarcity of unique functions in next year's sets.

That's because Metru Brown/Dark Flesh/217 Brown was discontinued after 2006. Now, I wouldn't call it a bad color-- it was an OK minifigure skin tone-- but my oh my did it have some consistency issues in BIONICLE sets. Incidentally, any interested parties can file any requests for Sand Red, Sand Violet (Sand Purple), Earth Orange (classic brown/Mata Brown), Bright Violet (classic purple), Bright Bluish Green (Dark Turquoise/"Teal"), and any BIONICLE metallic colors but Warm Gold and Metallized Silver (chrome silver) in the same dropbox/wastebasket. But of course I think the fine folks at Eurobricks understand that, unlike far too many BIONICLE fans who seem to think any colors that were around in 2001 could be brought back as long as enough eager BIONICLE fans wanted them. Also, in case anyone was wondering, that's at least 16 colors from BIONICLE that will not be returning in Hero Factory, but on the plus side that means 37 colors that can still continue to appear! Of those 37, only eight that I know of have not appeared in Hero Factory in any capacity: Sand Green, Sand Blue, Earth Blue, Dark Orange, Light Stone Grey (Very Light Bluish Gray/Thok White), Metalized Silver, Transparent Brown (Trans-Black/Trans-Smoke) and Nature (Milky White).

Alright, it's getting too late in the month for me to make any substantial changes to my Ninjafied avatar, and it's not like I can think of any to make anyhow. Here's Aanchir: Ninja of Time! Original avatar: "Your umbrella is loud and heavy. A fit tool for a college student; useless for a Ninja." Ninjafied: "The material is really light and breathable!"

Pick-A-Brick doesn't work with either mode. Back in the day, instead of standard mode, there was a mode called Design byME mode that had the same brick selection as the online Pick-A-Brick, though there was no direct way of creating a Pick-A-Brick order through the LDD software-- you could order bricks through Design byME itself, which was a separate service, but that cost at least $25 percent more in parts alone plus a $10 additional surcharge for a custom box and instruction manual (you could opt out of the custom box and manual, I believe, but the surcharge was not dropped). Nowadays, standard mode has about the same interface as Design byME mode, but with no function for ordering parts. Generally the difference between standard mode and Extended Mode is that the former is limited to part and color combinations that exist in real life (though there are numerous examples that have never been released for use outside LEGO Headquarters, and so aren't available to the average builder), and the latter allows for any part in any color (at least, out of those programmed into the LDD software). LDD Extended Mode also gets quicker updates than standard mode, since when a part is added to the LDD software it usually appears in Extended Mode immediately but part-color combinations have to be entered individually into standard mode's palette by the LDD team. There is one additional change in the latest version that makes standard LDD Mode a lot more useful: the ability to generate custom brick palettes. Read how in this post.

I believe the contest these masks originated from was more of a sweepstakes and less of a creative competition, so I don't know if an "entry" exists. Even if it was in part a creative competition, my experience with similar LEGO contests back in the day suggests that it would only involve writing a short essay, and they'd be judged according to the target audience's expected writing ability so kids didn't get left out.

I think this project might have an interesting impact on the future of Cuusoo, depending on how TLG wants to respond to it. While there was clearly a concerted effort to organize the solicitation of votes from students at Purdue, part of the project's ability to mobilize supporters owes itself to the target audience already being a semi-organized group (people with ties to Purdue or interest in their athletic teams). So this success the project is seeing could probably be repeated without much difficulty by various other groups. Now, one thing that really differentiates this from other successful projects is that it's not a particularly "nerdy" subject. And that might have interesting effects on the sorts of projects we see in the future. Many of the past projects to reach success have based that success on their ability to reach members of a fandom with a strong online presence, but in this case the solicitation of votes included a well-planned offline component (promoting the project at kiosks on the Purdue campus). This is also one reason why compared to a lot of successful projects, interest in this project was fairly localized, rather than based on establishing global, media-driven appeal. This could present major roadblocks should TLG attempt to market a product based on this proposal. But on the other hand, there's no hard and fast rule that Cuusoo products have to be global-- in fact, since the Cuusoo platform was Japan-only for the first two successful Cuusoo proposals, there's more precedent for localized Cuusoo products than for global ones. Overall, if TLG accepts this proposal, they will have to do some serious rethinking of how Cuusoo is treated. And I'm certain we'll also see changes in what kind of proposals begin to show up prominently on Cuusoo. Now that people see how easy it is to mobilize supporters if you present something they hold dear to their hearts for reasons other than its pop-culture appeal, there might be a shift back towards more localized Cuusoo projects. A Mount Rushmore proposal could easily motivate patriotic-minded Americans. A lot of architectural or historical projects could easily gain support from those in the surrounding area faster than they might by aiming at a global audience. Of course, whether a trend like this really takes off depends on whether this Purdue Pete project sees actual success, and furthermore we might see changes to Cuusoo's regulations if it starts to seem too easy to assemble 10,000 supporters behind a project of fairly limited interest. As always, I will be keeping an eye on how the Cuusoo platform continues to develop. Every time it starts to seem like the success of Cuusoo projects is becoming formulaic and people are losing interest in the platform, we see something of this sort that fails to conform to the expectations previous successful projects have given us.

Well, I wouldn't be so sure the other two vehicles will feature in the show. To a certain extent they only exist to make the two sides in the Stone Army vehicle sets feel more evenly balanced. Zane's I could expect to possibly see, but Jay's jet pack reminds me a lot of the one in the Rattlecopter, which never appeared in the show.

Not necessarily; they could have a hero transfer over from another team or something. Wouldn't be impossible.

The other day I received part three of Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise from my parents, and I have to say that while the transitions between fight scenes and character interactions sometimes felt a bit awkward, it was a perfect capstone to that story. Some of the themes of the previous two volumes finally came together into one narrative here, and we saw most of the main characters facing difficult personal decisions at one point or another-- which just emphasizes one of the main lessons of the story, that in a world that is quickly changing, risks and challenges are something that we aren't able to escape. Certainly a powerful message that helps reinforce that the "resolution" of the TV series doesn't have to be the end to Avatar Aang's adventures or his accomplishments.

I agree the late 90s were probably the weakest point in design for LEGO Town, and for that matter, a lot of themes. It's funny, looking back, how themes loved for their unique design aesthetics and color schemes were also subject to lots of large, overspecialized parts. Examples that jump to mind are Rock Raiders, Insectoids, and for that matter even many sets from Adventurers. I think what 1974 was talking about, though, was the diversity of content of sets, which was also apparent both within the City theme (there were lots of different buildings, even if they all had the same bizarre architecture, and lots of different vehicles, even if they all had the same hideous hood/headlight/grille slopes) and outside it (while the themes I mentioned above had some lackluster sets, people generally agree that the concepts they represented were fresh, imaginative, and generally unprecedented). The early 2000s perhaps saw some continuation of this trend (Alpha Team, Knights' Kingdom II, and other themes were creative, but certainly used more than their fair share of large shaping elements), but in general most themes gradually worked their way back towards greater complexity throughout that period while keeping their creativity. I think part of the reason the early 2000s aren't appreciated by today's Town/City buffs is that even with steadily-increasing complexity, it took until the end of World City and the beginning of LEGO City for realism to begin returning (I'll always remember City Center as the theme that had a "police ATV" that was unmistakeably some type of sci-fi tank and a cop who was unmistakeably the Terminator). And in fact, the 2005-2007 period started to see a return to glory in many themes-- to this day I think it was a mistake that I stopped collecting the Knights' Kingdom II model sets right in 2005 when they actually started to show some attractive designs. Today I agree that there's a lot of diversity in vehicles, but less diversity in buildings. And I hope that changes in time, though sets like 2011's bank, this year's clinic, and next year's museum move things in a great direction, even if many of them have an action-packed "emergency response" theme tying them together.

That latest episode was absolutely epic. Lots of dramatic moments, even with the occasional silliness like Lord Garmadon eating popcorn. Everyone acted accurately according to character. And of course the musical score was brilliant, but that was already expected.

According to this news article, the Region 1 DVD of the first seven episodes of this season "is timed to release as the series comes to a close on Cartoon Network." The release date for that DVD is November 27, so I figure the series will wrap up by then. I think the more likely reason there isn't a new episode next week is that that is Halloween and so they have Halloween specials for other shows occupying Ninjago's usual time slot. We know it's not a normal hiatus because Cartoon Network's schedule lists no episode at 7:30pm (the usual time slot) on Halloween, but lists one at the correct evening time slot the very next Wednesday after that.

I think the reason the eyes are oval rather than round was specifically so they would be less huge. The eyes are using what is currently the smallest LEGO "bubble cockpit" to include a hinge-- the round options include 6x6 and 8x8 variants. Now, TLG could perhaps have used their 4x4 dome element, featured prominently in Power Miners and Atlantis, but I know from experience that that piece's limited connection points (basically attaches the same way as an Insectoid insect eye dome) make it tremendously difficult to use as a cockpit for minifigures. Even more so with the prolonged snouts of Chima's croc-people. What I think would have improved it vastly is if somehow it would have been possible to have compact eyelids covering part of the cockpit bubble elements. But alas, printing does not exist on that piece, and its rounded surface makes stickers pretty much impossible. Building an arch over the cockpit is out-of-the question unless you want the eye sockets to appear larger and blockier. In general, it'd have been nice if a better solution had been arrived at for that croc-boat's eyes, but I don't see many options that would have been especially feasible.

Well, that depends. TLG can only have a certain number of parts in production at any one time, since they simply don't have the machines or floor space to produce a lot of parts that aren't currently appearing in sets. So unless they deliberately over-produce parts in new colors, then in the future it will cost about the same to release those parts in those colors whether or not they've been produced in the past (minus the cost of a few test runs perhaps). It's obviously cheaper to keep producing parts in colors they're already being produced in, because it doesn't require interrupting production to switch the machines over to different molds or dye. But as I understand it the "switching" of what's being produced is where the real cost of producing parts in new colors tends to come from, and that would still have to happen unless TLG started producing a bunch more shell and bone colors and then continued releasing those same ones consistently from that point forward.