Aanchir

Personally, I think that the Fire Temple looks remarkably "finished" as a building, as did Garmadon's Dark Fortress. What Ninjago buildings are is small and (usually) pretty empty. The interior of the Fire Temple has some nice details on the first floor, but no second floor except the balcony-- and the balcony is too small to be used for much except for parkour-style fight scenes. Still, it's a beautiful setting that uses some rather advanced building techniques.

I still don't understand the logic behind the idea that TLG shouldn't produce things in limited quantities or distribute them through limited channels. Yes, they're rare. But if you can't obtain them, what difference does it make not to have them? Unless you're obsessed with having a "complete collection", then I see no reason to be upset about hard-to-obtain figs existing when the alternative is figs of those characters not existing. To be honest, who would have expected TLG to produce a figure of Shazam if it hadn't been as an exclusive? Certainly not me. Also, a petition of this sort seems somewhat selfish, since the people who received these figs in the first place were told they would be exclusive. You can petition against event-exclusive figures in the future, though I doubt that would ever make a difference because event-exclusive figures help TLG get attention at big events like this and never cause anybody any harm whatsoever. But to suggest that fans in general "deserve" to own figs that were probably designed to act as event exclusives in the first place seems quite selfish. Just my opinion, of course. Now, there would be something to be upset about if we knew for certain that there will never be other Shazam, Phoenix, black-suit Spider-Man, or Bizarro figs in mainstream sets and that there would have been if they hadn't been released as exclusives. But it is impossible to confirm the first of these conditions true; it can only be confirmed false if a figure of one of these figures does wind up in the sets, as in the case of the Superman figure from one of the Comic-Con events last year (released in the exact same form in mainstream sets) or the Nolan version of Batman (released in a different color in one of the 2013 sets). And the second of these tenets is incredibly unlikely in the cases of obscure characters like Shazam. Now, as a side note, I know this argument won't stop people from wanting these figures, and you're welcome to keep this petition up if you want to try to send a meaningful message. In that case, if you're really worried about exclusive figures being a Bad Thing, then you should add mention of the special-edition Captain America and Iron Man figures distributed at New York International Toy Fair this year, which I was fortunate enough to obtain. Also, the objective should be phrased slightly better-- "convey to us the figures" makes it sound like you want them given out for free, which TLG will never agree to, whereas if you phrased it more clearly as "distribute them more widely and through more accessible channels" they will be a bit more willing to negotiate. Also, as I stated above, if you want to make a real difference then there should be a condition that they will make future Comic-Con figs more accessible by default. I don't approve of the intent of this petition but I think all of these changes would help you to make the results more meaningful and convincing.

Huh. It does look discolored, but it definitely doesn't look like it uses bright yellowish green plastic, so I'm guessing it's just a matter of variance within the color. I wonder if that might be common with transparent bright green, and it's just not noticeable on parts made in polycarbonate plastic? But then I guess people would have observed the same effect with Meltdown's toxic waste canister thingies (I don't think those are polycarbonate)... Well, I guess time will tell whether this was a fluke or it's a common variation. I love XT4. I think his color scheme is organized marvelously, he's got some tasteful asymmetry, and overall he's a very unique-looking villain set. Great parts, too. The only fault I find with him is that unlike some theme villains, his "robot" design theme doesn't make him feel all that special in a universe of living robots... not like the other theme villains of 2010 and 2012 whose themes tended to have something to do with their weapons or powers. That, and I don't think his head piece seems especially useful. On a side note, if what I saw at Toy Fair is true of the final set, then his buzz saw is Silver Metallic rather than Medium Stone Grey. If that's the case, then this set is not only possibly the cheapest way to get one of those, it's the only way to get one in that color.

So? If the user wasn't able to build a better concept themselves, and didn't see any concepts they liked more than the one they put together themselves, then there's no reason to think they wouldn't want this "box" as a set. The user's only mistake would be in not realizing that their model is too poor to appeal to other people the same way. And in truth that could be said of a lot of LDD-based proposals, since the poor rendering quality of LDD doesn't make for the most attractive proposals no matter what you build. The recently-released LDD2PovRay should allow for much better-looking digital proposals, but this model was posted three days ago, probably before the builder ever knew about this software. Besides, something to note is that this looks to be a LEGO store in the style that appears in indoor shopping malls (the form most LEGO stores in the United States take). So why is it just a "box" with no exterior details besides the front? Because in real life the front is the only part of the "exterior" that the user would have seen, and every other wall would be adjacent to a different store. Look at the building techniques used. Most of the walls are two studs thick. This could be a sign of someone building with limited pieces, but in this case, they're not just made with basic 2x4 bricks-- they've got shelves and Pick-A-Brick containers attached by headlight bricks. So what it is is a sign that the builder went to some actual effort to make sure it did have smooth, clean sides, rather than the headlight bricks used to attach the shelves and Pick-A-Brick wall having their uneven reverse sides exposed. Clearly they did think things through and realize that if the store was going to be "just a box" (as most stores inside shopping malls are), then they at least wanted it to look like a presentable box when not built into a larger display. Look at the LEGO Store employee in their traditional black-and-yellow uniform. Look at the clear windows and the LEGO logo that sticks off the front. These are signs of a builder who did, in fact, think things through and make this like a real LEGO store in every way they knew how. Are they an expert MOCist? Of course not. The model as a whole is quite boring, and in some respects sloppy-looking. But I see amateur-looking MOCs all the time in LEGO building contests and even some AFOL conventions. Yet the builders are typically quite proud of what they've made, and they have good reason to be: they built the models according to their vision in every way they knew how. Now, some users are just going to be lazy and put forth proposals without checking at all whether similar proposals already exist. There's no way to know the builder of this set didn't do that, but at the same time there's no reason to think they did. A search on Cuusoo for "LEGO Store" brings up just one proposal I would consider as realistic as the "box" this person built, and it suffers from the LEGO sign outside being flat and (presumably) a sticker across multiple pieces. The other LEGO store which you linked has a slightly realistic interior, but the exterior is no more realistic-- in fact, far less realistic-- than the "box", and I can't really picture a building with such zany architecture fitting into my own LEGO city. So even if they had searched for other LEGO store proposals, there's no reason to think they would have or should have considered those proposals any better than their own.

So the premiere of the new Ninjago season last week apparently did very well. The show has done nicely with its target age range in the past and makes me wonder how it might change the way TLG approaches TV programming in the future. Today the second episode of the season will air in the U.S. Can't wait to see it! I've been mostly ignoring spoilers so far since I prefer to see the episodes when they actually air. But I know from the preview that this episode will have pirates, which is cool.

Great modifications. Not sure how necessary I'd consider all of them, but they provide a nice look at how the sets might have been changed. My favorites are the orange Stringer (I love the blue color scheme, don't get me wrong, but it's an awesome variant), Voltix, and Stormer. Lengthening Voltix's arms and attaching the tubes to his forearms instead of his hands makes the tubing arc very nicely and makes his hands more versatile. I think red hands might have looked better than black ones, though. Meanwhile, shortening Stormer's legs does improve his overall appearance by shrinking the gaps between his upper and lower leg shells. It also helps his overall proportions. Relative to his body, Stormer's legs are actually fairly proportionate to begin with (moreso than medium-sized heroes like Furno, anyway, since his torso is sized up as well as his legs). But I like the look of the shorter legs. I was already planning to reduce the height of medium-sized heroes like Breez when I get some, but now I know that I can do so with Stormer XL as well without him looking squat or unnatural. Together with the narrower torso beam for his back, which does indeed make his shoulders more proportionate, the overall set starts to look a little less preposterous overall. Most of the other changes don't really improve the sets quite as much IMO, and I'd rather leave a lot of stuff as-is. But these particular changes in proportion really do go a long way. So I guess I'll be making some Pick-A-Brick orders once I have the summer sets!

Does it really match your lime green parts perfectly? What does it look like when backlit? I ask because the type of plastic that part is made from won't necessarily have the "glassy" look which is typical of transparent parts, but rather looks just slightly translucent. Compare the flames on Malum's flame claws, which are actually Transparent Bright Orange, the lightning on Surge's electricity shooter, which is Transparent Blue, or the blades of Stormer XL's sword, which I believe are Transparent Fluorescent Blue, though I could be wrong about that one. It's possible that the Black Phantom set can contain a variant that uses Bright Yellowish Green (Lime), but I don't think you would have gotten that in a Pick-A-Brick order, when the part advertised on Pick-A-Brick has the Element ID of the Transparent Bright Green version.

The problem with the inverted tiles as portraits would be that they would be harder to affix to a wall, since they would have four studs, and there aren't many SNOT bricks that could allow for those on a relatively thin wall (best examples I can think of are this and this, both of which would require a wall at least 2 modules thick). Stickers would alleviate this problem, but honestly I expect these inverted tiles to be printed event though it would be the first time we've seen that part with printing. The LEGO Games already have more setup required than a lot of board games, and stickers would put yet another step between opening the box for the first time and playing the game. This is likely why the LEGO Games so far have used more printed elements than a lot of sets, even when it means creating a specialized print that will not likely be used again. This game may be a simple, somewhat juvenile-seeming memory game, but I'm curious if there are any twists to its gameplay. In the meantime it could be a great parts palette with all those 1x4 curved slope/arch pieces.

Oooh yes! I'd love to see a Winter Olympics series of these with all the winter sports parts the Collectible Minifigures have introduced! A figure sskater, a skier, a snowboarder, an ice hockey player... and if they were willing to introduce new parts or creatively use parts other than traditional minifigure accessories, we might even see sports like bobsleigh, luge, and curling! Hopefully this series is successful enough that TLG will continue or even expand this type of promotion for future Games.

Now, I'm not saying that "box" is a good model (it's rather sloppy), but I do think you're looking at this rather narrow-mindedly. The first difference I saw between the two models, besides the obvious difference in design quality, is this: the "box" is modeled on a real LEGO store, while the modular LEGO store has scarcely any resemblance to one. Have you considered that the builder of the "box" might not have wanted a LEGO store set that didn't resemble the ones he had been to in real life? In that case, I think he's perfectly justified in building, to the best of his ability, a proposal that better fit his "vision" of what a LEGO store should look like. The fact that he is not an especially experienced builder is secondary to the intent of the model: if he had the building experience to create a more refined proposal, he likely would have done so whether or not other LEGO store proposals existed. This is part of why I think complaints about "duplicate proposals" are not especially valid. Consider if someone's basing a model on a non-licensed subject, like an ambulance. Ambulances vary greatly depending on what part of the world they are from, and some builders might have very different "visions" for what the most essential parts of the model are. Even in licensed proposals this is the case-- consider the Echo Base set last year. I loved it for incorporating some of the most memorable scenes (for me) from Echo Base, while many AFOLs hated it for its framework-like design and lackluster play features. Similarly, one person's concept of a UCS Venator might be very different from another person's. Sometimes it's not just a matter of someone wanting the "glory" for their version of a concept being made into a set-- it goes without saying that a person who creates a model according to their own personal "vision" will likely favor that interpretation to one based on someone else's "vision". Meanwhile, LEGO Cuusoo may not have the most brilliant interface, but one asset it does have is that the sidebar on every proposal links people to similar concepts, so that people can freely choose which of the proposals to give their support-- and if they are just interested in a UCS Venator in general, no matter what concept it's based on, then there's nothing stopping them from giving their support to all of them.

I just happened to stroll to a downtown bookstore during my lunch break yesterday, and found the newest Artemis Fowl book (Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian). I was quite surprised as I hadn't realized it was out yet, but apparently it came out last week. Having read it, I think it was a phenomenal capstone to the series, and am glad Eoin Colfer didn't take the "final book in the series" thing lightly. Rest assured that its ending isn't the kind that implies the adventures have completely come to an end, though, and I would be perfectly happy if Eoin Colfer ever decided to write more Artemis Fowl stories, perhaps not as proper installments in the series but rather as "side-stories" like those in The Artemis Fowl Files. Spoiler time for those who have read the book:

I'm surprised so many people commenting here didn't know about TLG's struggles in the 90s. Those struggles are the very reason there were so many big changes in the late 90s and early naughts: the company's expansion into video games, expansions into other audience demographics (think Belville, Paradisa, Scala, "Town Jr.", and Jack Stone), the introduction of licensed themes in the form of LEGO Star Wars, and the introduction of full-scale, in-house intellectual properties in the form of BIONICLE. The real changes that put LEGO back in the black were mostly around the time Jorgen Vig Knudstorp took the helm. The article describes these in brief, but I have seen other articles which go into more detail about changes like streamlining the color and part palettes, speeding up the design and production cycles for new products, marketing LEGO as a "premium brand", and refocusing the company's mission of producing quality building toys (entrusting things like the LEGOLAND parks, LEGO-brand media like video games, and other side projects to external companies). Needless to say many of these changes were controversial at the time. I was not a big part of any LEGO communities during these changes so did not witness them personally, but there are some like the replacing of the old greys which remain a sore spot for some AFOLs.

The bite cycle actually appears in multiple episodes. It's most significant in The Rise of the Great Devourer, where it is present in the main chase scene, but there are several Bite Cycles in Snakebit as the Serpentine are fleeing the junkyard. Back when Snakebit hadn't yet aired and the Bite Cycle hadn't been revealed at all, people (including myself) were speculating about the vehicles in one of the trailers which looked like Fangpyre Trucks but didn't have the distinctive four wheels.

I think larger minifigure molds like the Hulk or Cave Troll, or even the Giant Troll from LEGO Castle or Giant Rock Monster from LEGO Power Miners, tend to be really nice designs that stay true to the spirit of the minifigure. They keep some aspects mostly minifigure-like, but with their greater size also comes greater detail, just as it should be. While Toth's designs for a "maxifigure" are quite impressive, and I'd love to see large-scale figures become more standardized in that fashion, I don't think those designs would work at all for characters like Hulk or the Cave Troll. The greater detail that comes with the larger size doesn't do any good if those details run counter to the character's iconic design. With both Hulk and the Cave Troll, a part of that is their hunched posture, which Toth's design can't replicate. So while I think characters like Hulk could still be handled a bit better than they are in the sets, regular minifigures or "scaled-up" minifigures simply would not do.

Just was looking at Legend of Korra merchandise on nickshop.com and I saw this AMAZING LEGO Spongebob video in a sidebar ad. I can't find it anywhere else (tried both Youtube and Google Video Search), nor can I find any very convenient address (it won't open directly in my browser, though that might be a matter of me not having the right plugins). Anyway the URL is here: http://gcdn.2mdn.net/StudioFiles/videos/227034/456977/1337360233797_video.flv It's obviously fairly recent (it uses some of this year's sets), but it certainly caught me completely by surprise. Very professionally-made and entertaining to watch!

I never get all of the sets for myself, because I have two siblings who also like Hero Factory and it does us little good to have duplicates. That's one of the reasons I'm grateful the sets this year are divisible by three! In the past of course I haven't worried about us having all the sets even as a family. We still don't have Nitroblast, for instance, and my younger brother is the only one of us to have any of the 2010 sets (he has Bulk & Vapour, Furno Bike, and Von Nebula). This year the set I'm most looking forward to getting is still Breez. The other summer sets are all great, mind you, but I've had my heart set on getting Breez since the winter sets were revealed, and she has lots of great pieces.

I've been pretty productive artistically in recent weeks: First, an image of Holly Short from Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series which I've been working on coloring for some time. Next, an image of the Endless from Neil Gaiman's The Sandman in the style of the show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I am far from the first to do this. Third, an image of Kai and his family from LEGO Ninjago. They don't really look to be the right ages relative to one another, but I still thought it was a cute image. I'm very pleased with how clean I kept the lineart on this one. May color it eventually. Finally, a picture of Jaller, Captain of the Ta-Koro Guard from BIONICLE. This was done for a contest on BZPower. It's in the same style as my Macku drawing from a couple years ago, which I've always been quite happy with.

I think we as a community can agree that no matter how problematic Mega Bloks quality is, they perform a valuable function as one of TLG's main competitors in the building toy industry. Think about it: They serve as an affordable alternative to LEGO bricks, so the LEGO Group has to maintain superior quality if they want to continue charging higher prices. Additionally, Mega Bloks tends to play "follow-the-leader" with TLG's market strategies, like blind-packaged figures. This means that TLG can't just sit comfortably with the market strategies they already have-- they have to continue to create new innovations to maintain a competitive edge. For us fans, they also serve another purpose. Any time Mega Bloks imitates something TLG is done, that's usually a good sign that TLG's actions have been successful. For instance, recently they announced they will be introducing Barbie licensed products. This is not their first girl-oriented theme (they've had Hello Kitty products before), but still it's pretty clear this was done in response to the LEGO Friends theme and the success it has encountered. If Mega Bloks didn't exist, then other companies would surely grow to fill the void, and those companies might be a bit more unscrupulous than Mega Bloks. Mega Bloks at least tends to stick with its own unique molds for non-basic elements, unlike some clone brands I've seen on store shelves. Now, I wouldn't likely buy any Mega Bloks sets given my experience with them in the past, but I won't fault other people for buying them when LEGO might be above their means, or when they're specifically interested in a license LEGO doesn't carry.

It should also be considered that it's a lot easier to render a bunch smoother, more natural surfaces than to to render entire landscapes made from fully-shaded LEGO bricks. If the game environment were entirely made of LEGO bricks, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was tremendously laggy and occasionally glitchy where part boundaries were ill-defined. Also, it should be considered that having everything made of LEGO could be a bit of an information overload for many players. Even as an AFOL, that layout pictured above has loads and loads of distracting visual details. It would be hard for me to play a game with those kinds of visuals (which could be related to the reason I've never been interested in "building games" like Roblox and Minecraft). And of course, rendering every environment with LEGO bricks could add years to the time it takes to develop a single LEGO video game. IMO the LEGO games would be much worse in general if everything were made of LEGO, for all the reasons stated.

The small green legs on the Small Clown are actually Bright Green, though, which wouldn't match the rest of the Green Ninja robes. Lloyd could fit on the spinner with short legs I'm sure, but it would be a challenge to fit his huge golden weapon from the set, I imagine. Especially if you were using a spinner crown.

If these weapon designs do end up appearing in the show but not in sets, it will be an interesting reversal. In previous waves, a lot of brick-built weapon designs have typically been stylized to look much less like their set incarnations in the show-- examples include the golden weapons, snake staffs, and Fang Blades. These, on the other hand, look a lot more like LEGO weapons than any of those did in the show, which makes me hopeful that we might see that lovely blade mold, even if these new costumes don't end up appearing in sets. Story-wise I have no doubt that the weapons hold some real significance, but from a practical standpoint they replace the Ninja's golden weapons which they lost to Lord Garmadon. If they do appear in sets, I hope that they will have another practical advantage by being compatible with the double sword-holsters on the back of the ZX shoulder armor, a function that was lost for many weapons when transitioning away from the classic Ninja headwrap with its more traditional clip on the back. Overall it's still unclear what we can expect in the future of Ninjago sets. Some of the really new things we have seen like the new Destiny's Bounty and these new Ninja costumes are palette swaps of things that have already been announced for release, and given how much TLG has avoided palette swaps in previous waves I am not too confident about seeing these things as sets. But as the series goes on we may see things that are more likely candidates for appearances in a future wave.

Nothing definite regarding sets. However, in terms of 2013 info in general, my brother Meiko found some info on a new graphic novel due for release in February 2013. Interestingly, the Ninja on the cover have costume designs similar to the new Lloyd Garmadon figure from the Character Encyclopedia linked on the previous page, so it's hard to say for sure whether they foreshadow new sets-- after all, TLG seems to have moved away from such heavily-standardized Ninja character designs this year. It'll be a shame if we see the Ninja change into these gorgeous costumes in the show and don't get physical versions, of course, though since they're mostly palette swaps maybe some talented individual in the Minifig Customization Workshop could design some decals for us. Since we're expecting an episode titled "The Stone Army" in this upcoming season of the show, it certainly would make sense that the graphic novel will fit at that same point in the storyline rather than foreshadowing future, unannounced Ninjago story threads. Keep in mind that so far the graphic novels have lagged slightly behind the pace of the TV show, since not even all of the Serpentine ones have been released. I just hope that if Ninjago is working its way to a close, however soon that might be, we won't see media like this get cancelled the way the tenth BIONICLE graphic novel was. In other news, someone on Flickr posted some pictures from the LEGO Ninjago panel at Comic-Con. Skeleton General prototypes Rough sketch-- Great Devourer? Unreleased tower prototype Samurai Mech sketch There are more in that same photoset on Flickr. Most are Samurai Mech prototypes we've already seen, though.

Nice work! Charger is definitely my favorite of these designs. He has a very unique posture and physique. I love his leg design.

So through another haphazard Google search, I just learned that the short stories "In His Footsteps", "Getting the Joke", "The Dragon's Roar", and "The Real Hero" are much better in the German Kai, Zane, Jay, and Cole guide books than in the American Kai: Ninja of Fire, Zane: Ninja of Ice, Jay: Ninja of Lightning, and Cole: Ninja of Earth chapter books. The stories are the same in each, but where we Americans only get text that occasionally jumps out at us with special bold typeface and odd alignment, the German books include full-color illustrations with these stories. Observe: "In His Footsteps" 1 2 "Getting the Joke" 1 2 "The Dragon's Roar" 1 "The Real Hero" 1 2 3 Now, I recognize that the American books aren't completely inferior to the German ones. As far as I know, the chapter stories "The Vanished Villagers", "The Choice", "The Truth Seeker", and "The Phantom Ninja" appear exclusively in the American chapter books published by Scholastic. These black-and-white paperback chapter books are also probably cheaper than these full-color hardcover mini-guides. But against my better judgment, I still find myself envying Ninjago fans overseas who get these lovely illustrated books. Incidentally, does anyone know if the Kai/Zane and Cole/Jay two-in one Ninja Handbooks from British publisher Ladybird have these stories with full illustrations? If they do I could easily see myself saving up to order these books from overseas (since they'll be in English and I could thus appreciate them for more than just the illustrations). EDIT: And it just dawned on me that the pictures Horizon posted here are from the story "In His Footsteps" but in the Dutch version of the same book. I wonder if the others have similar gems to those not-seen-elsewhere pics of Kai and Nya's parents. Probably not since the other short stories don't have flashbacks like that one, but the possibilities make me even more anxious to know if I can find these illustrations in any English-language books.

This software looks incredible. I doubt I will install it on the computer I'm using currently, but once I get a new computer for the college I am going to I will see if it will run well on that. This will be a great way for people who enjoy using LDD to propose their LDD models on Cuusoo without the proposals simply blending in with more amateur proposals. Currently, with LDD's fairly basic shading, LDD projects on Cuusoo look somewhat sloppy no matter how complex they are, and sometimes there's a poor sense of scale. With this, however, those distractions of poor presentation will go away and people will be able to judge proposals based on the complexity of the models as they would appear in real life. The bugs might be a bit of a hindrance, but overall this gives LDD builders far more options in how they want their models to appear. I will definitely need a lot of practice if I want to learn to render things in PovRay like the pros do it, but I look forward to the opportunity and the challenge.