Aanchir

It's possible that they're not exactly identical, and that one is a newer and more refined mold. This has been done before; a very recent example is the Exo-Force robot arm piece which was re-designed with a new Design ID in 2011. I believe both versions are on LDD, and under close examination there are visible differences.

My twin brother has used it more than once as shoulder armor. It could also conceivably be worked into a torso, onto the toe of a larger figure, etc. But for use as a head for a HF figure, I'm not totally sure. Its connection points aren't well-suited for any HF head constructions used in sets. Since I don't have my own copy of that piece on hand to experiment with I'm afraid I can't help much.

I've always preferred the smaller sizes for Hero characters, although I've been able to make exceptions with some of this year's larger sets (reducing their height only by one module rather than to the same height as Stormer 2.0, which was my original intention). So I'm not too upset about the heroes all being at the same price point next year. Rocka's theme has never been totally clear, by the way, though his chest pattern in the Breakout wave seem to pay tribute to his origins in the Savage Planet wave.

Oh, OK. My mistake.

Ironically, it looks like the steak piece was never printed in the first place. Where did your overseas friend get them from? If he also got them second-hand, then they could maybe originate from rejects in a production facility. Printing problems do of course exist, but I have never seen an example like the legs on the left where the "crotch" print is present but the waist print isn't there at all. And while printing can be removed from things like that steak piece, the fact that it originates from the same bunch as those legs (and that they are both collectible minifigures parts) suggests the problems might have a common origin. To Bilbo's question, the legs are from the Collectible Minifigures Series 2 Spartan Warrior, while the steak is from the Collectible Minifigures Series 6 Butcher.

If they simply don't have the parts available for shipment then it's not like the particular complaint could be addressed better, but I definitely agree that the lack of availability for some made-in-China parts through Customer Service is probably the biggest risk when it comes to Chinese production. At least if you get a defective part that's made somewhere else you can get it replaced without any hassle. I've seen some pics of those shield problems, and ironically it seems like they were not even designed to match the older dragon shields. The color is still perfectly vibrant as far as I can tell, it just looks like it's a totally different color. So in that case the blame really should fall on the design/production end of things for not anticipating the problems it would cause collectors. Still, the customer service end of things should try to be more prepared for things like this happening. This is, after all, what they're there for-- addressing customer dissatisfaction and working to prevent similar problems in future products.

Getting colors is easy if you know what their Material IDs are. Just unzip an LXF, open the resulting LXFML in a text editor, and replace one of the bricks' Material IDs with the one for the color you want. Some colors aren't available on LDD, of course (like the speckly colors from 2006 Knights' Kingdom sets, or 299 Lacquered Gold, or some very old chrome colors from back before they assigned Material IDs to surface treatments like those), but in general you can get a lot of colors both old and new on LDD. My LDD complete color chart has all of the ones I've been able to find. They've been there, and I wouldn't take anything on LDD as prophetic except decidedly new pieces. Older pieces get added all the time. Even some decidedly new-looking pieces can sometimes just be inaccurate renders of already-known pieces, so really anything added to LDD should be taken with a grain of salt.

Well there are a couple new ones this time around (Toxic Reapa and Jawblade, for instance), but none of the ones from the summer wave. I'm hoping those get added sometime in the next update (probably next year).

Yes, but not surprising. That part is new this year and has been released in set 9448 Samurai Mech, as well as possibly others (the Samurai Mech is the first set it was seen in, but I know it's believed to be in the upcoming The Hobbit board game, and may appear in other sets in themes I haven't been following closely). Now here's something to get excited about! I thoroughly encourage all users to download this file, which contains 1x1 bricks in the two new colors 329 White Glow (introduced in this year's Monster Fighters theme) and 330 Olive Green (introduced in this year's Dino theme)! I know these colors have been much-awaited so I'm sure they will be welcomed. EDIT: The two colors are now on my complete LDD color chart!

The axe georgebjones mentioned actually is a much different piece that DOES seem to be unreleased. I saw it earlier when going through some of the categories to look at new parts. However, I can't find it now. There was a 0.0MB update to LDD a few minutes ago; perhaps it was not intended for inclusion and was removed/hidden? Or maybe I'm just not looking hard enough, but I guarantee there was a brand-new axe blade piece (much larger than the one you linked, with blades on both sides) earlier today. EDIT: I disabled the internet on my other computer and went on LDD in offline mode. Sure enough, the part was there and was removed. The part number is 11096, and I still can't recognize it as any existing piece. Legends of Chima, perhaps, or The Hobbit?

I'm quite happy about the new dalmatian. I had actually thought they wouldn't do something like that, since Wikipedia implies that the use of dalmatians as fire station dogs is mostly a U.S. phenomenon. As for the criticisms of more police and fire, while some of the sets are guaranteed to be repetitive (like generic fire engines), I found that last year's waves were incredibly imaginative, and attractive to boot. This year's seem to be similar in that regard. Lots of unique concepts, and if they have police and firemen tying them together it should be no detriment to the quality of these ideas.

Wow, I greatly appreciate this feature! It's always annoyed me how I have to make sure I have the right color with the paint tool before I group select objects to color. Now I can select them and worry about the color after-the-fact. It is not possible with the actual piece as far as I know. I'm pretty sure there is only one anti-stud on the underside. But I will have to check-- if it is possible, it's a really pleasant surprise. So don't send a bug report just yet.

As I understand it, they can't replace Chinese parts if they are from sets that are manufactured 100% in China. In other words, things like the collectible minifigures which are manufactured, packaged, and distributed from the Chinese production facility cannot be replaced, simply because the LEGO Customer Service hub does not have any spare copies of these parts on hand. Based on this explanation, Chinese-made parts that appear in sets with non-Chinese parts should be able to be replaced. Examples would include the specialized snake head molds and tail molds from the LEGO Ninjago theme. But I'm not 100% certain that this explanation is correct; it's just what I remember hearing. Where did you get the Dragon shields from, though? Normally my experience with Chinese-made parts' print quality is very good, to the extent that the snake heads and tails from my 9450 Epic Dragon Battle are vastly superior in print quality to the torso pieces that go with them. Of course, it's possible that parts like this that go into mainstream sets get a more extensive quality-control than ones that go into extended-line products.

Personally, I'd consider that a lot new. Perhaps not as much as some updates (we didn't get many of the summer 2012 parts besides structural parts like XT4's torso), but still enough to substantially increase our options. You did miss one part I did find in the new version: the Throwbot leg (32173). Also, one fix: there are now decorations for the Breakout torso shell. I'm not sure if the summer 2012 decorations are available for it, but now the early 2012 decorations (which were all available in the last version, but not usable on the correct piece) can be generated, though not with the decoration tool or LDD basic mode. Here is a file including all the "new" decorations that I know right now can be generated in the new version of LDD. HF parts in that list include the torsos from the five early 2012 Hero sets and Splitface. Theoretically, by editing an LXFML file with these parts, you could put other decorations on these surfaces at all, but these are the only "official" variants I currently know how to generate.

Same here. Generally whenever I mod a set I try to keep the spirit of the design intact as much as possible while making minor structural improvements (like improving the skeleton proportions). For instance, I shortened my Breez's lower legs and lower arms, narrowed her shoulders, and reduced the size of her upper arm shells. But I kept the overall design mostly the same. It helps of course that my impression of sets is generally favorable as long as I understand the intent behind the design, so there is rarely a set that I consider fundamentally bad.

Well, although I haven't been able to get new decorations, I do have a file of decorated parts which did not work in the last version due to missing decoration surfaces although the decorations themselves were available. Most of them are Hero Factory torsos, and there's also a 3x3 radar dish with hamburger bun print and a Star Wars windscreen (which admittedly I can't remember whether it's new or not).

Awesome! Even though I expected this soon, it still caught me by surprise when I opened Eurobricks and saw the news. Can't wait until someone compiles a file containing a full spread of the new parts so that I can effectively brainstorm things to use them for. In the meantime, I already see many that might be useful in the pictures in this topic. I suppose I'm also going to have to help with some decoration mapping for LDD Manager, although that should be a lot easier if like the last version all the decorated parts appear in the correct colors (with minor errors) on the basic LDD mode. EDIT: Nope, it looks like the basic LDD mode didn't change except for the long-overdue re-categorization of parts, so I have no idea which decorations are new. In time I should be able to find them.

This would be the explanation that leaves the fewest plot holes. However, it seems unlikely because...

Well, I was hoping someone else would post here so I didn't have to double-post, but it's been over a month and a half, so here's some of the stuff I've made in the intervening time: This was my second entry for BZPower's Flash Fire character design contest (mentioned in the last post). Neither of my entries won in that contest, but they were displayed in a booklet at Brickfair along with all the other entries of that contest. I had the lineart on display at another table in the BIONICLE section. Since I arrived at college, I got a copy of Adobe Illustrator CS6 for one of my classes, and so traced my Battlescapes contest entry. I posted the original here a few months ago-- in the intervening time, it won third prize in the Battlescapes contest on BZPower, and was on display at the BIONICLE table at Brickfair! This image trace is a lot closer to how I wanted the colors of my entry to look... I am not very good with colored pencils. I also practiced coloring some of my better lineart on Adobe Illustrator. You'll recognize the lineart from the previous post. I don't know enough of the tools yet to add shading or clean up scratchy areas, but whether inside my computer graphics class or during my free time I'm sure I'll learn more of my options eventually.

There have been adult-oriented comics for many decades, including of course sleazy pornographic comics, but as for ones with high-quality writing, I'm not totally sure. The media at least tends to credit comics like Alan Moore's Watchmen and Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns in the mid-80s for moving comics that were mature in terms of complexity (rather than just kid-inappropriate content) into the mainstream. If you want some recommendations of adult-oriented comic books, I thoroughly encourage you to check out Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. It's a heavily mythic story that draws from existing DC comics characters both familiar and obscure, classical mythologies and religious traditions, diverse eras of human history, and of course Gaiman's own brilliant imagination. The individual comics vary greatly in tone but together tell an overarching narrative around the main character, Dream of the Endless, and his strange family. One advantage of the series is that you don't need to have any specific background knowledge to enjoy it, and yet the diverse references in it will provide a lot of new insights if you should choose to re-read any of the stories with annotations (this site is a good one for that). Watchmen which I mentioned above is also a good story, and likewise doesn't need any background knowledge to be explored. It's also a lot easier to read in full than The Sandman since it's collected in only one volume rather than ten. But personally I got a lot more out of The Sandman than out of Watchmen.

Interesting... normally this wouldn't tell us anything, but actually LDD does in fact have a part matching the description you have for the ball that comes in the swimming pool. It's Design ID 72824. A quick check on a LEGO Sports set inventory in the instruction manual gives me the Element ID 4119224 for the classic soccer ball, and cross-referencing that with the service.LEGO.com parts database confirms that the Design ID for that part IS in fact 72824. In other words, the LDD render is just an inaccurate one, and if the preliminary image for that set does in fact use the same part render then that just about confirms that the ball in that image is meant to be the LEGO soccer ball. Might be a bit early for Great Ball Contraption builders to rejoice, since things could change from the preliminary image, but right now it's looking pretty bright for them. If only the people at Brickfair had known how soon their wish might be a reality!

Oh right! In that case, you're almost certainly correct in that the Island of Darkness was their destination before they went off course and crashed. I had almost forgotten about that. Nice to see that the pirate episode really does tie into the remainder of the season even if the pirates themselves are out of the picture.

Well, I've been preparing to write a review of this particular set for The Ninjago Wiki, but I've got a few other reviews to get through first. But here are some of my thoughts about the set. Simply put, the idea of a four-headed fusion of the previous four dragons was a brilliant idea. It was something I had imagined being cool even before I knew it would end up being in a set. The Ultra Dragon itself certainly exceeded my expectations. Despite having a lot of colors and a much less repetitive wing design than last year's dragons, it feels very cohesive. Its body is very solid, despite being hinged in the middle to control the wing function, and its wings look stunning from all angles, whether spread out or folded back. The handle on the back is unobtrusive though not entirely inconspicuous. And the head patterns are amazing, much more so than I could appreciate in pictures In terms of functions it's also outstanding. The wing function works smoothly, and the tail function (although it has no convenient knob like that of the Earth Dragon) allows for quite dynamic play and posing. Just swaying the body back and forth while holding it by its handle gives it quite a lot of movement. The legs aren't all that posable compared to last year's dragons, but they are solid enough to keep it standing which is really what's most important. They don't look awkward while flying, either. The Great Devourer is a bit more of a mixed bag. Its rigid body pose is admittedly necessary for it to effectively carry the MASSIVE weight of its head. Even so it's hard to keep it standing upright on a soft surface like a bed, though it stands just fine in any pose on a flatter, more solid surface. Its color scheme is mostly very well-organized-- even the dark stone grey lower jaw so many people complained about fades wonderfully into its body patterns. And its eyes look downright sinister, more so than those of the Fangpyre vehicles. Now, in terms of functions the Devourer is a bit weaker. A basic minifigure can fit in its mouth just fine, but large headgear like Sensei Wu's hat has to be removed, and you're out of luck if you want it to swallow a fig as large as the Serpentine generals. Additionally, though its mouth looks just as good opened or closed, there is no feasible way to keep it open except by leaning the entire front section of its body back so its jaw is opened towards the sky. Since its upper jaw connected to the body by non-friction Technic pins, any other pose (excepting the use of tape or sticky tack) will have its jaw snap shut as soon as it is released by the Hand of God. The little prison cell is very stylish and has a great number of excellent parts. The venom fountain at the top is amazing-looking, as are the twin snake heads. The sticker sheet definitely serves the tower portion well. The venom trap function inside the prison is simple but effective. And the dark red rocks provide excellent atmosphere. Minifigures in this set are, for a dedicated Ninjago collector, must-haves. Sensei Wu, Lord Garmadon, Chokun, Lloyd ZX, and Jay ZX all come in other sets (barring that Sensei Wu's hat is Warm Gold rather than Brick Yellow (tan), unlike in the Destiny's Bounty), but Skalidor and Acidicus are exclusive to this set, and their designs are phenomenal. This is also (IMO) a better way to get Lloyd ZX than the spinner set. Also included are all four Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu, so if you didn't get them in other sets (or just want more tasty gold), then this is a great way to acquire them. In general I'd consider this the must-have Ninjago set of this year. Great parts, great minifigures, a great build, and great models once completed. I wouldn't recommend paying more than MSRP for it if possible, but I would not be surprised if it ends up in short supply at some retailers.

I agree that waist articulation would be a huge benefit to the building system. Alas, though, I've tried doodling concepts on graph paper, and it's hard to come up with a good design that 1) keeps heroes at around the same size they are currently and 2) doesn't reduce usable connection points. At least one of the torso components would also probably require a mold with sliders, raising the cost compared to the current torso beams which just require two-section molds as far as I can tell. In general, though, I'm sure the brilliant minds at TLG could come up with a workable solution more easily than I can, and I hope they do eventually. The HF building system is great but there's always more ways in which it could continue to develop.

Agreed. I REALLY wish they had held off the big hiatus for another episode so that we could get a better feel for the aftermath of that time travel arc. If Lord Garmadon still has the Golden Weapons, then that would probably make it simplest to understand how things in the new timeline played out, but if not, then all bets are off. I'm hoping for the former because I highly doubt we'll get a lot of flashbacks explaining what has transpired in this new timeline that differs from the original.