Aanchir

You mean the grey outlines around the contours of the bricks? That's an option on LDD (though I've never had the option of it since I've never had a computer with a powerful enough graphics driver). It's in the Preferences as "Outlines on Bricks".

IMO it's not overused until it exists in all the Classic Space colors. And the colors of the Classic Space microfigs for good measure.

Are you sure those elements are printed? I thought they were stickered... For the Maersk set, of course, the answer is probably "because they already planned to do a sticker sheet for the Maersk logos, and figured they could put that pattern on the same sticker sheet." Economy prevails. Though I wonder if the "use stickers for all logos on co-branded products" policy has been changing lately, since the Ferrari sets in the current Shell promotion use printed elements for a lot of parts. Of course, in that case they are meant as smaller toys, whereas with larger sets that are treated as a model kit TLG may think the users, being competent enough to apply stickers, won't mind them. And in some cases I'm sure they're correct-- stickers have been the bog standard in other advanced themes like Technic for years, and obviously it hasn't had a significant impact on profits or TLG would start printing Technic elements in a heartbeat (surely pad printing on things like Technic panels would not be difficult).

Not trying to get people's hopes up, but I can just imagine how overjoyed some people would be if it turned out to be the new Olive Green that appeared in the Dino, LotR, and Monster Fighters themes.

Not directly related to Hero Factory as a theme, but has anyone noticed that none of the Super Heroes 2013 set lists seem to include any Ultrabuilds? I'm kind of sad about it. I never bought any of the Ultrabuild sets, but it was very nice to see some differing applications for Hero Factory's building system, and the stylized look it offered heroes like Batman and Green Lantern.

A lot of people at Brickfair seemed to be fans of the grab bags, and I guess they were cheap enough that I can understand that, but personally they never appealed to me. Most of the time when I saw them they had such a random mishmash of parts that I'd be lucky to find immediate uses for half of them (On multiple occasions I saw ones that contained treasure chests but no lids or vice-versa). But then again, I'm not much of a MOCist, and I can understand how some people would embrace the challenge unconventional parts might provide. So yeah. I don't really care about whether these stay or go, because they were always hit-and-miss in my experience. But I'm sure a lot of people will feel differently.

He was asking about the Alien Conquest ADU helmets and the Series 1 Spaceman helmet, which are the same piece. I don't have any ADU helmets in front of me at the moment, but I'm a bit confused because I do have a Space Marine in front of me right now and his helmet does protrude a bit beneath the neck of the minifigure-- not much, and perhaps not as much as the ADU helmet, but enough that if you had a minifigure head sitting on a stud with a tiled surface in front (like this one) the chin strap of the Space Marine helmet would collide with the tiled portion before the helmet was fully attached to the head stud. With that in mind I don't find it hard to believe that the ADU helmet could attach reasonably well on the Space Marine body armor, even if it's not 100% pressed down on the head stud.

It could, although TLG would still have to introduce new molds since those key lights are third-party products made by a company called PlayVisions. Also, there would have to be care taken to ensure that the resulting molds were versatile and fully-compatible with other LEGO figures. I fully expect that if the four-armed Stone Warriors appear in sets, they will be regular minifigure-sized (though that discussion's probably more appropriate for the 2013 sets topic). I'm waiting for a high-quality version of the new episode to appear on YouTube before I watch it... normally I'd watch it on TV, but my room here at college doesn't get Cartoon Network.

If anyone's interested, I made a Ninjago wallpaper for my new computer using various official images: On a related note, it astonishes me that the official Ninjago site still doesn't have any downloads specific to the minifigures in the summer sets, nor has the characters page updated with characters like Lloyd ZX. In the latter case I suppose it's understandable that they might be withholding that deliberately, since official media has been woefully inconsistent about whether to try to keep the Green Ninja's identity a secret or not. But couldn't they create a section for the character and just call it "Green Ninja"? Of course, it's not like I'm particularly fond of this year's downloads to begin with. The posters are smaller than last year's (though they do have excellent color quality compared to last year's), and the wallpapers have underwhelming minifigure pics from the sets themselves rather than nice CGI pics like last year (though I know some people might prefer photographs to CGI).

The face on the man in the green sweater is from this year's LEGO City Mining sets. The cheapest set it is available in currently is the Mining 4x4, which isn't a badly-designed set in its own right. The hair on the woman in blue is Luke Skywalker's new hair piece introduced last year. What makes you think there are any illegal techniques here? I don't think cheese slope cubes on their own are illegal. They certainly aren't used when the parts just have to be sitting there (these ones seem to be attached to some interior structure by clips), but a small number of cubes like this should not exceed the parts' tolerances. Cheese slope mosaics or large quantities of cheese slope cubes within a single surface might easily be illegal since the more you put together, the more compression the parts tend to be under. In cheese slope mosaics this is almost a necessity since usually the compression of the parts is all that holds them in place. But it probably wouldn't be allowed in official sets.

If the "Expert" banner from the new LEGO Creator train 10233 Horizon Express is connected with this, then it will not be replacing the age range, since that set has both an age range and a banner. No problem for me. I've never had anything against the posted age ranges, and in fact I appreciate them for giving some meaningful insights into what is considered the average building capacity of different ages without taking building experience into account. Also, if these do have Creator branding instead of Bricks & More, then I'll appreciate that as well. The themes are very similar, and since the Horizon Express seems to indicate that 3-in-1 is no longer a constant in the Creator theme, the separation between them is even less.

So new parts that stand out to me are the transparent green bottle piece (very useful), some of these in Dark Stone Grey to connect the pantograph, and a brand-new 4x6 train slope piece above the cab (like the old 6x6 train roof slope which made its most recent appearance in the Ninjago set 9450 Epic Dragon Battle, but truncated). Also I can't tell if the windscreen is printed or stickered, but it looks printed to me. which is very nice.

Quite interesting to see a LEGO train as a Creator product, evidently part of a new "Expert" line. As always, the Creator line shows what can be done with a more basic brick selection than most themes, but having this as an AFOL-oriented D2C product allows that on an even more impressive level than usual. Those arrow shapes with the cheese slopes are simple enough, but I believe this is the first time we've seen cheese slopes used end-to-end like that in an official product. Obviously I'm sure they have some sort of structure underneath to hold them in place so they meet the demands of official products. Likewise the SNOTted windows on the passenger cars are very nice. And the interior, while simple and brightly-colored as a consequence of the vivid orange exterior, makes good use of its limited space to create a very comfy-looking space for passengers. It diverges from typical Creator sets in that I see no signs of a B and C model, but at the same time the only good ones I could think of would be alternate building instructions for additional train cars, and it looks like instead they are doing like they did in the Kingdoms Joust and encouraging buyers to get just two sets for a full-length train. My favorite detail on the interior is the cafe car, where the train conductor is serving... mineral water, of course, which doesn't at all resemble an alcoholic beverage, no-sirree! My favorite detail in the description, however, is where it says "Discover sideways building techniques!" This sort of thing would make perfect sense in a product like LEGO MBA that aims to educate builders, but it seems a bit silly on an "Expert" product aimed at ages 14+. Some of these techniques may be a bit unusual in official products, but is that really your sales pitch? All in all, it's hard to say whether this is what LEGO train fans have been waiting for, but it'll surely add some nice diversity to the train layouts we see at LEGO events in the future!

It should be noted that the clips 6019 and 61252 are aesthetically identical in LDD not in real life. This is 61252, this is 6019. The same is true of 3139 and 59895. Also, 4623 and 88072 are not functionally identical They have different dimensions. If you place a brick on top of the studs of 4623, you can fit a sideways tile between the brick and the vertical shaft. This is not possible with 88072. However, 88072 is not by any means inferior--the easiest way to see how the newer version can be useful is to attach the brick 95820 or 30237 to it. 88072's dimensions are more ideal for lots and lots of applications, since the center of the vertical shaft is 1/2 a module away from the side of the plate. 2376 and 74698 are visually similar but actually slightly different in function. One of them has a loop that is the same width as a Technic half-pin, the other has one that is the same width as a plate. This makes very little difference when using a Technic element through the loop (or just using it to connect to a string or hook), but the older 2376 can be used more widely in System building as an irregularly-shaped SNOT element. As Superkalle has pointed out in the past, 3063 and 85080 are different in that one has supports underneath and one does not. On LDD this makes very little difference, but in real life this means that 3063 can more easily be built into a sturdy 4x4 column by rotating each layer of bricks 45 degrees. 3455 and 92950 are also functionally different. Elements like 61068, 88930, 93273, and 93604 fit perfectly underneath the newer version, 3455. Not so with 92950. However, I believe some builders are partial to 3455. I can't remember the real-life advantages it offers. 58827 and 95347 are functionally different because they have their horizontal supports in different places (58827 has one halfway up the column, while 95347 has two at smaller increments up the column). Since you can attach Technic elements to a central Technic axle through the open side of either column, this makes a big difference-- the newer version has a sizeable space between the two horizontal supports, between which no Technic elements can be attached. Those are the most major oversights in this file. There are other subtle functional differences, like the amount of friction certain hinge pieces offer, but in LDD these could never be made to amount to functional differences unless a physics engine of some kind were installed, and even then it's doubtful many builders would make use of such differences.

That's OK; there were BIONICLE fans who went years and years before realizing that the island of Mata Nui looked like a face in profile! I don't think the ad agency ADVANCE is involved in Ninjago at all, so it's unlikely that the same artist (Christian Faber) is responsible for Ninjago's map, but I guess LEGO has no shortage of demand for subtly symbolic map designs.

The part number (Design ID) is 11090, as visible on LDD, so I'm not sure why you're asking. If you want a Bricklink number, one doesn't exist because it's a new piece for 2013. The main reason there hasn't been too much discussion of it here is because we already knew about it before it appeared in LDD, since it's going to be next year's Rancor Pit set that was revealed at San Diego Comic-Con. So unlike the mysterious axe piece and 3x3 plate that have since been removed, this one didn't come as a surprise. (Then again, for some reason the 2x2 inverse tile DID come as a surprise even though we've known about it for months...)

I see pieces just fine. These sets may look like terrible quality, and with less building than traditional Mega Bloks sets (which themselves have many large, overspecialized pieces), but really couldn't the same thing have been said about Belville or Scala? It's clear that with this brand, Mega Bloks is trying to create something that's unrepentantly a "dollhouse theme", with large prefabricated wall sections and doll-sized figures. So a bit of a different strategy than LEGO Friends, which despite some dollhouse-like characteristics really has the same amount of building put into each set as the typical boy-oriented LEGO product. I can't say for sure whether Mega's strategy will be successful. After all, as I have often said about the LEGO Super Heroes Ultrabuild sets (albeit with regard to action figures rather than dollhouses), a buildable doll/dollhouse/action figure offers inherently more creative play potential than a traditional doll/dollhouse/action figure with no building whatsoever. Certainly though the Mega Bloks approach isn't as groundbreaking or as respectful to girls' creative inclinations than LEGO Friends is.

Interesting to see the full shape of the Ninjago landmass, and glad to see that it still resembles a dragon (though the part we had seen before was just its head, and yes, there does appear to be some Yin/Yang imagery). It kinda bugs me that here it seems stylized differently than in past images, almost seeming more crocodilian than dragon-like, but it's still nice that they aren't abandoning that motif. FYI here's the map of Ninjago we had seen previously. It's been used in the show on occasion as well, such as when Nya is showing the locations of the Fang Blades. Hard to tell what's become of the Frozen Wasteland in the new screenshot.

Not from the episode, but some people who have seen the retailer's catalog have described the main brick-built portion of the Garmatron set as resembling a tank.

That's always possible, but at the same time one wonders if they would do that. In Furno and Rocka's case, they haven't been used for a wave, so it's possible, but in Bulk's (and arguably, Breez's) case, there's the risk that such a decision could confuse buyers. I'm conflicted about whether I'd want 2.0 style helmets anyway. I love the 2.0 head piece-- it's got such lovely contours, and in some ways seems to match the Hero Factory facial style from the show more than the Glatorian head-- but at the same time, I'd really like TLG to choose a helmet style and stick with it, at least for the Heroes. Since the classic-looking helmets of this year are all based on the Glatorian head style, that's the one I would hope TLG sticks with. Also, I definitely want to see the Glatorian head remolded with a sturdier socket, not that I've had any trouble with the Glatorian head sockets from my Breakout sets so far.

Core Hunter's a bit different than a lot of villains connected with the Hero Factory in that he doesn't seem to have any desire for revenge. He hunts heroes as a way of building a reputation as a villain, and his primary motivation seems to be to become legendary, rather than anything as petty and spiteful as revenge. I strongly doubt that this book's contents will become an episode. There are just a lot of aspects of them that don't seem like episode material, particularly the huge cast of characters, frequent callbacks, and failure to advertise many of the most recent sets. All in all, it's a great story, and could potentially be adapted into animated form quite well, but it simply doesn't mesh with the style or purpose (advertising toys) of the other episodes. There's also the small issue of this story conflicting with Breakout in small ways. Multiple times villains still on the loose are named, and the list always includes all the villains from the summer sets-- including Speeda Demon and Volt. Speeda Demon still being on the loose is actually a bit of a plot point, even though he doesn't actually appear in the story. While these aspects could easily be changed for an episode, something tells me that if the story were written with the intent of broadcasting it as an episode, these errors would not have snuck by. I was actually hoping we might at least see the heroes and villains not featured in Breakout in some type of mini-movies on LEGO.com, much like the two-minute Ninjago mini-movies from last year, but alas, it was never all that likely. Probably after Von Ness. I don't remember the story ever specifying. Von Ness is certainly an older Hero, having been around since the infancy of Alpha 1 Team. However, it should be noted that the recent Omega Recon update says that "after a while sitting on the fence, well, he’s obviously picked a side!" So this suggests that Core Hunter may have given up his career as a Hero before he dedicated his life to villainy. I still imagine he deserted the Hero Factory after Von Ness, but I still think it's a point worth noting. The funny thing is that both The Doom Box and the Omega Recon #6 update just describe Core Hunter's history in brief (though it gets mentioned several times in The Doom Box), as if we're supposed to know it already. But I have never seen it mentioned outside these story materials.

To those who are suspecting that the four-armed figure in the trailer for the next Ninjago episode: you might not be so far off after all. I was just googling for 2013 Ninjago information and found this post on the Brickset forums from September 12: http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/comment/111350/#Comment_111350 The user who posted this made some other seemingly-accurate predictions and claims to be an ex-LEGO employee. And it seems to match the description of the giant four-armed figure depicted in the Episode 20 trailer that aired on Wednesday. Now, I struggle to imagine how the figure could actually be that big without loads of new parts (unless he's not as flexible as a regular minifigure), and it's definitely possible that he has just seen snippets of the show (or concept art for it) ahead of time rather than actually describing the physical figure in that post. But if he's correct, then we at least know that the character will be the one identified by the name Garmatron.

So many Omega Recon updates... it kind of annoys me because we've only gotten two entries to Lloyd Garmadon's Blog. Now, I recognize that Hero Factory needs story supplements way more than Ninjago does, since Ninjago already has a full TV series, not to mention successful books and graphic novels, but at the same time I'd prefer character-driven writing to these awkward snippets of story in any theme.

No. Never. Not even close. You may be thinking of the Barbie-like fashion dolls of the Scala theme, but I can't think of any time in history when LEGO and Mattel (the makers of Barbie) have been on friendly terms.

Probably not as much, since LEGO has a stronger reputation in general than Mega Brands, so it won't be such a shock to people. There'll be backlash, but it won't be as widespread or well-publicized. Also, Mega Bloks had Hello Kitty sets not long ago, so it hasn't been as long for them since they had a girl-oriented brand. I am quite grateful that it seems LEGO Friends has gone beyond proving its own success and done what I had hoped for it to do, which is prove to the world that building toys aren't just a boys' thing. The people raising cain over the Friends theme of course already understood this, but the majority of parents and manufacturers alike did not. How long until Hasbro tries to capitalize on little girls (and of course bronies) with My Little Pony Kre-O?