Aanchir

It's a printed piece from the 2011 Ninjago sets.

Well, not really. In the TV show some of the main wildlife, like the treehorns and starteeth, are not affiliated with any faction. And the "explore Ninjago" section of the site lists lots of zany wildlife, which while never featured in the show was referenced by some entries in the 2011 weapons dictionary. The books don't feature too much wildlife, but there is an occurrence of a creature not seen elsewhere in the short story 'Ice Ambush' from the Official Guide.

No, they haven't teased anything. It's just that there are still Super Heroes sets that we've neither seen nor heard anything about besides some names that aren't all set-in-stone. So the possibility for Ultrabuild sets is still there.

Thanks for the pics! My thoughts: 41000 Watercrafting Fun: The jetski and dock are very simple, as is expected in such a small set, but the fig has a new bikini. Note also that there's a new graphic of the five friends on the top banner of the box. 41001 Mia's Magic Tricks: The bunny hardly fits in that hat, but it's still a brilliant way to use the bunny mold in a new way. The cards tile is new, as is the tuxedo (fitted to a girl, of course). The stars are also new AFAIK. Fabulous purple curtains. 41002 Emma's Karate Class: Great new gi for the girls. The little bonsai is perhaps a bit too large but a nice touch. Great reuse of the printed rice-paper window from Ninjago. The kendo helmet also appears, this time without printing. The trophy case includes a classic goblet (if only it had the one from the Minifigures Series 8 American Football Player or the fig-shaped trophy from various sports figs), but also the ring element from LotR. 41003 Olivia's Newborn Foal: Olivia's a weird choice to put in this set IMO. But there's a nice outfit, a nice tree, and a nice water trough, all of which will be great additions to the Riding School or Stables. The foal is too small for a Friends fig to ride, but thankfully has a stud on top for attaching a bird, bunny, or whatever else you have in mind. 41007 Heartlake Pet Salon: Nice architecture (will fit great in Heartlake City layouts) and nice Bright Reddish Violet (Magenta) parts. Jeanna has a hip new hairpiece. Lots of shelves of products. The new poodle is amazing, and the inherent "poofiness" of a poodle means AFOLs might feel fewer reservations about using this with standard minifigs than they would have with many of the other Friends animals. Haven't seen that sign element in quite a while. 41008 Heartlake City Pool: I can't say I've ever seen a pool with speakers hanging over the water like that. Seems hazardous. With that said, the slide is nice and there's a nice new basketball hoop. I can't tell if the basketball is the same size as the classic one, though... looks more Zamor-Sphere-sized. I was honestly expecting the hoop to be brickbuilt with those new 4x4 round plates with 2x2 cutout from the Hobbit sets. Nice snack shack, nice to see the palm leaves return, and the showers/changing room are a great detail. More swimsuits. 41011 Stephanie's Soccer Practice: Great soccer uniform. Again I'm having trouble judging the size of the ball-- here, it seems like a Zamor Sphere would be bigger. The water cooler and healthy snack are nice (here in the US, at least where I live, orange slices are a more traditional soccer-practice snack). Overall there's some amazing variety in these sets and I can't see any way people could construe them as stereotypical this time around. Even the pet salon keeps the purple and pink somewhat low-key (as does Olivia's Newborn Foal, in which the water trough has a BROWN roof). I look forward to seeing more of the sets, but it seems apparent to me that Friends is going strong. And we can likely expect another substantial summer wave given the gaps in the numbering. Nice to see that the Friends design team isn't about to disappoint!

Samukai rules the underworld. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he has some knowledge of people who are about to die. I think the storyline's still going strong, though this particular episode was a bit weak. The previous two episodes were strong enough to make up for it IMO, and I think the return of Zane's father wasn't just a random story thread, but rather something that will lead into important happenings in the episodes to come.

True, but it should also be noted that this is in a new color entirely-- Transparent Light Blue rather than Transparent Fluorescent Blue (Trans-Medium Blue). Diversity is always nice.

Heh, I guess you're right. Being the silly person I am I completely forgot to include the robot battle machines when I counted the sets in my head! So Exo-Force's final wave was in fact bigger (unless an exclusive set shows up, which is almost certainly not happening). The thing is, I disliked Cole's Tread Assault early on as well. I thought it was the weakest of the 2012 Ninja vehicles (well, except Zane's snowmobile), and it was the only one I put off getting until the Brickfair sale in the summer. With that said, I built it shortly after I got to college, and not only is the function amazing (and unprecedented), but the set design has lots of personality. It certainly feels like it's worth its price. BTW, I'm speaking of the fold-out blades function, not the camouflage function. The camouflage function is not especially interesting. Cole's Power Driller has a color scheme that IMO just doesn't work as well as the Tread Assault's. The Sand Green is not at all spread out enough along the build-- it feels like the designers tried to mash up every part of the Tread Assault and Earth Dragon's color schemes, besides the camouflage elements on the Tread Assault, into one build. The shape is extremely boxy, without any unusual angles or curves breaking up the design. The back wheels are set back from the rest of the vehicle, which makes the chassis seem a bit flimsy in the pics we've seen so far. Furthermore, as far as I can tell the functionality of the Power Driller is nothing groundbreaking-- just a retread of what we saw in the Power Miners theme, where it fit in a lot more smoothly. Granted, the Power Miners theme was a couple years ago and the function will still likely be new to many fans if the drill is in fact gear-driven (and I see no reason it would not be). But overall there's just nothing making me like the Power Driller. My favorite Ninja vehicle next year is definitely Kai's Fire Robot, which makes brilliant use of Hero Factory parts in a System set, something I've been waiting on for years (some Hero Factory beams were used in 2012 mechs, but nothing where the Hero Factory elements actually played a role in establishing a System set's aesthetic). It's got a unique shape that stands out from previous mechs, but still looks plenty sturdy. And it's got a great color scheme. The only fault I see in it is that the oversized hilt used to attach the elemental Fire Blade to it just ends up looking awkward. And IMO, the weapon is secondary to the structure of the mech itself. I've definitely been warming up to the Power Driller and am beginning to be able to look past some of its faults, but it still seems to pale in comparison to the 2012 ninja vehicles, since it is not nearly as imaginative as those in either structure or function. But it's possible that like the Tread Assault, it's something that has to be held to be fully appreciated.

The first five images are all BIONICLE and Roboriders pieces: specifically, 44135, 44247, 32305, 44136, and 44135 again. The one on the far right I was less familiar with, but it turns out it's part 32207 from the short-lived Znap theme (a theme that was designed to compete with American building toy K'nex).

It should be noted though that the Bricklink color list is imperfect. One example I typically point to is how they list at least three distinctly different colors (i.e. colors you wouldn't confuse with one another in any side-by-side comparison) as Copper. If you want to know the exact color of a part, check the set it came in on LEGO Customer Service Replacement Parts. Not all parts are listed for every set (only if they have an image), but if the part is listed it will tell you the exact color according to TLG's naming scheme. And in most cases you can cross-reference this with other AFOL naming schemes on Peeron's color chart, though of course since there does not exist a perfect AFOL naming scheme, be wary that two color names listed as equivalents might not correspond 100%. Your brick looks like it could be a very discolored Dark Stone Grey (Bricklink's Dark Bluish Gray) or a correctly-colored Sand Blue. Here is a chart comparing various LEGO blue colors.

There is a somewhat active BIONICLE community. I don't know how many new purchases that community makes, especially of large lots of sets, but the Buy/Sell/Trade forum on BZPower (a BIONICLE fansite that has more recently expanded to cover other LEGO themes) has a tremendous amount of activity both from people looking for particular BIONICLE products and people selling their old collections. Hope you find a buyer, whichever method you settle on.

The hood/bonnet? It's an element from the Cars theme and some of this year's Ferrari promo polybags. Here are some examples. The robbers' van in the Museum Heist set has the front built the same way. Quite nice IMO.

We don't know that the Ultrabuild line is ending... as someone pointed out a few pages back, many of the Ultrabuilds have been movie tie-ins, and we still haven't seen any of the Man of Steel or Iron Man 3 sets (nobody has even claimed to have seen them in a retailer's catalog, we just have a list of six non-finalized set names).

Well, Ninjago made it abundantly clear who its lead characters are since they were so distinctive and color-coded, but I have no doubt Chima will have main characters of some fashion. It just might not be immediately apparent in terms of the set designs. Ninjago had 14 sets its first wave (and its first 2012 wave), as did Friends. Plus, this is presumably the first theme that will tie into a full TV series shortly after its initial release, so it's understandable that they'd anticipate a lot of demand. Of course, I'm not sure how the generally higher price points of several of these sets might affect things. I believe the Speedorz may be priced higher than Ninjago spinners or booster packs. Let's also consider that unless I'm mistaken, we don't know for sure that all of these are sets from the January wave. Almost certainly all from the first half of the year, but that could mean first-quarter (January) or second-quarter (April) releases. EDIT: Yep, at least four of the Speedorz sets (70104, 70105, 70106, and 70115) are listed as March releases. With that in mind, if we don't count store exclusives, there are actually FEWER sets in the January wave than in the January 2011 wave of Ninjago or the January 2012 waves of Ninjago and Friends. Thanks so much for the pics! The sets all still look phenomenal. Although I'm a bit disappointed that only the Speedorz sets have any non-vehicle-based structures, and those are limited to some arches, nests, and shrine-type pedestal things. It reminds me of Exo-Force as well, but not in a bad way. I do hope that the treads stay in place better than on the Mobile Defense Tank, though. This one is another great set IMO. No, it's not tremendously intimidating, but I like the structure (dinghies on the claws? Yes please!) and I'm sure it will look much better when floating. I'm surprised not to see more of the Speedorz parts in the model sets. But I don't mind those sets' designs. Four different animal head shells with a decent number of attachment points, and the vehicle bodies don't seem too obtrusive or limited in their use (though I'm mostly just guessing from what little I can see of them). I don't think they impress me as much as the Ninjago spinners, which had a certain simplicity to their design that I greatly appreciated, but I'm beginning to understand why kids are expected to be interested in them.

So let me give some observations of the sets: Lion faction: Great color scheme: Flame Yellowish-Orange and Reddish Brown, from the looks of it. New spike detail element used for manes and claws. Eagle faction: Another good color scheme: White, Earth Blue, and Bright Yellow. New mechanical-looking wing detail element in addition to the one from the minifigures. Hard to tell, but the name and pic suggest Eris might be a female character. Hope she's not the only one. Crocodile faction: Lots of Bright Red, Olive Green, and White. Military builders should love these guys. Also has the claw detail element in black. Raven faction: Darkest-looking faction. Color scheme is Black, Dark Red, and Medium Lilac. Also uses the same wing detail element from the Eagle faction and claw detail element from the Lion Faction. All of these detail elements will be great for Hero Factory builders IMO. Wolf faction: Color scheme of Dark Red, Dark Stone Grey, and Black seems a bit mundane, but there are some great new wheel elements. Overall seeing a lot of MOCing potential and story potential here. Can't wait to learn more details. I wonder if a teaser site will show up in the coming months? Chima.LEGO.com already redirects to the LEGO.com homepage, so I guess we'd better keep our eyes on that address in the near future!

As far as I can tell, the "Legends of" text on the boxes is just extremely small, as it has always been. As for why the retailer calls it just LEGO Chima, it's kind of like how the "LEGO Ninjago" logo always said "LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu", but was generally just referred to as "LEGO Ninjago" by retailers. Besides brevity, one advantage of using the shorter name is it doesn't have to be translated, though chances are "Legends of Chima" will still be the TV series title and will be translated accordingly in each language it's broadcast in.

I imagine that kind of thing would confuse kids more than it would educate them. And a confused kid might not be likely to buy more products from that line. Generally kids expect their bad guys to look scary, so a crying face would make them very unsure whether the character is supposed to be good or bad. As for splitting both factions into good and evil, again it makes the sets harder for kids to understand. After all, kids looking at the package to each set aren't necessarily going to be analyzing the faces of the figures in-depth. In a two-faction theme they will expect both factions to be fairly uniform in whether they are good or evil, and so they'll make their own assumptions. Meanwhile, often LEGO product descriptions don't say much at all about which characters are good and which are evil. For instance, consider this description of the Mine Mech: Of course, it should be noted that there was a deliberate marketing decision in the Power Miners theme to make the Rock Monsters mischievous/territorial, not evil. But generally, it is indeed left up to the kids to understand for themselves whether the humans are heroes or aggressors. That doesn't mean TLG shouldn't design the sets with the intent of giving a clear impression who the kids are meant to identify with, though-- that much has been clear ever since TLG decided to give the Pirates figs beards and other defining characteristics because with simple smiley faces they looked too nice! If you make both factions equally friendly-looking, then kids might not understand that the sets are supposed to be conflict-based. And while there's a place for themes that aren't based on conflict, you want it to be perfectly clear whether a set is or isn't conflict-based, because otherwise kids who want sets with conflict might see the sets as conflict-free or vice-versa. Create sets that kids have to identify for themselves, and you risk the kids identifying the sets as something they don't want. That's a big risk to take. Also, regarding claims that evil aliens somehow promote racism: that's not the case if kids don't understand that the aliens are supposed to be people. As far as a lot of young kids are concerned, aliens are just a type of monster, and I doubt (for example) that in a zombie apocolypse theme people would take offense to the zombies being portrayed as "bad guys." Will there be moral ambiguity if we actually make contact with alien life? Yes, and there isn't a toy line in the world that can prevent that, because the human brain is hard-wired to identify with humans more than with other organisms, and specifically with humans who remind us of people we trust. What is unfamiliar to us is frightening, and even if TLG puts friendly aliens into their themes we're still going to be scared and confused if the aliens show themselves to be giant toothy flying eels with tentacles coming out of their ears. So why not stop worrying about making kids question their instincts and worry more about making toys kids will understand and enjoy?

Or maybe they don't want to get people's hopes up for one Zelda project when the Zelda project already in review is still completely up in the air. I see no reason to jump to conclusions about whether or not they have or can get the license.

Being a combo model (THANK YOU for not calling it a combiner), I'm pretty sure the story info was just thrown together and the figure will never be relevant to the story. Kinda makes me miss Lucas Valor, who was at least already established by other media (the website) before he appeared as a combination model.

I guess that shows the people who thought it was unusual not to have any pics yet... in the meantime, we have yet to see pics of a SINGLE 2013 LEGO Friends or Creator set (other than the Horizon Express), so the idea that it's a matter of TLG trying to keep some themes especially secret is starting to seem very silly. Anyway, hard for me to judge the Batboat. I was kind of hoping that we'd get something more boatlike than the previous one. Also what are those things it seems to be firing? The Spider-Cycle looks very cool (ain't nothing wrong with a good hovercar every now and then), though I know very little about how accurate that set is to the source material.

A lot of the AFOL Ninjago fans have seemed just uncertain until now, so they could easily come to like Chima. Certainly the character art on the bike/card set packages makes the theme feel more engaging for me, as do the brilliant brick-built animal vehicles. Of course, I imagine there will be no shortage of TFOL/KFOL Ninjago fans who will react with more hostility, but hopefully they'll get over it eventually. That's always a common reaction to a new theme that takes the place of an old theme (or even simply continues to exist when another theme is cancelled). The Hero Factory hatedom has just lasted a particularly long time, partly because BIONICLE was not your typical LEGO theme and lasted an extraordinarily long time only to be cut short rather abruptly. The croc boat is particularly stunning, and shows just how much potential for awesomeness this theme's sets have. I certainly hope the story can meet the same potential. And on the subject of the Speedorz, my brother pointed something out to me a while back... they're little bikes that, like the spinners, incorporate some kind of card game. You heard right! Card games! On motorcycles!

Anyway, Brickset has reviewed the Ninjago Character Encyclopedia! Some highlights: The minifigure chart. All 20 unique minifigures from 2011 and all 35 unique minifigures from 2012. Sadly, Snike, the Serpentine Generals, and the 2012 Lord Garmadon don't get front view pics, but that's just an understandable consequence of tose minifigures not appearing in spinner sets. "Green Ninja ZX" minifigure. Yes, they seem to actually call him that, despite the Green Ninja's identity being more or less common knowledge at this point-- moreover, they quite egregiously call the regular one just "Green Ninja", even though it's described everywhere else as Lloyd ZX. I see no reason they couldn't have used the same name for both figs, just as they did for the 2011 and 2012 Lord Garmadon and Sensei Wu figs. "Green Ninja ZX" back printing. Yes, Lloyd gets a new emblem. On one hand, I like that it's now a front view of a stylized face like the other Ninja emblems. On the other hand, I dislike that it's not as stylized as either the other Ninja emblems or Lloyd's original emblem. The others were so stylized it was hard to tell if they were meant to be lions, dragons, or something else entirely, where as this is obviously a snake depicted in a considerable level of detail. Looking forward to getting this book-- it's coming out in the U.S. towards the end of this month!

The reason a lot of stuff seems to be "missing" is that LEGO Customer Service's site only lists the parts that they happen to have uploaded images of. It's not a matter of parts being removed from the inventory or otherwise being left out deliberately. And it's not just older sets that have incomplete inventories. It can take months for new parts to be added to those inventories. Some Hero Factory and Ninjago parts from the past two years still don't have images uploaded. That doesn't mean you can't get replacement parts for those-- you just have to manually enter the Element ID. Replacement parts do get updated on the Customer Service site when direct replacements are created (for instance, if midway through a set's production run they switch to a new variant of a part). However, I'm surprised they do this for sets so old. I guess since people ordering replacements could need parts replaced from sets released at any time, they just do a batch replace for all sets that include the element ID they're creating a replacement for.

What makes you think the LEGO Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit brands aren't going to be as big as LEGO Star Wars? Sure, it's missing a bunch of important characters. So was LEGO Star Wars in its first year-- in fact, the Original Trilogy version of the actual logo featured four characters who wouldn't appear in sets for another year (Leia, Han, Boba Fett, and a Stormtrooper), and the Episode I version of the logo featured one who would arguable make his first appearance the next year (Darth Sidious, who would appear as Emperor Palpatine in a minifigure pack in 2000) and one who would take eleven years to make an appearance (Queen Amidala in her red gown). And those are the bare minimum of the major characters who were left out of the initial year of sets. As for sets based on the books, not only would those be weaker in terms of their marketing potential in that there wouldn't be a major marketing push behind the stories themselves, and certainly not much targeted towards children, but furthermore it might be difficult to acquire the rights to produce sets based on those franchises since they aren't owned by the same company as the movies. UCS sets and Architecture-like microscale sets would be incredible, but it makes perfect sense for TLG to test the waters with traditional playsets before trying to diversify their offerings so much. To be honest I'm surprised that so many other licensed themes get UCS-style sets their first year. Also, Meiko, it's silly to think LotR/The Hobbit won't be continuing after this year since there are going to be more movies in the franchise. Unless the sets sell tremendously poorly, TLG will fight to keep that license, because otherwise another building toy company will snatch it up in a heartbeat.

I'm personally intrigued that the Ninjago story test board features both the Green Ninja and the Golden Dragon, suggesting that the designers were not limiting themselves to the ideas in the brief listed above... Anyway, I'll start thinking about this. If I could come up with a theme idea that they decided was good, it'll look great when I actually get my degree and apply to work for the company.

That's partly because it's simply not good design to make sets that kids can't understand without an in-depth explanation. And kids are more likely to assume that human characters are good guys than bad guys because they identify better with the humans than with aliens. Even themes like Ninjago and BIONICLE which have extremely in-depth stories try to make the sets clear enough that a kid can take them at face value-- generally in BIONICLE, villains were bestial-looking while heroes were more humanoid, and in Ninjago the villainous factions of the sets are never ordinary humans. Concepts where humans are villains and aliens are heroes work totally fine in movies, books, and other story media, but much less so in toy design. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) is a very valid design principle for any type of consumer goods, toys included.