Aanchir

Yeah, it probably means this cover art is still preliminary. However, the minifigure in the very least should be finalized. As for DraikNova's question about whether the book will be available in the Netherlands: From what I have been able to find, previous Dorling Kindersley LEGO reference guides like the LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia have not been published in Dutch (or, as far as I can tell, any language besides English and German), and I'm not sure if the English-language ones are available in bookshops in the Netherlands. However, there are a number of online stores with addresses ending in .nl which sell these books. Online may be your best bet, but if you want to be sure, check some local bookstores for previous DK reference guides or try to recall if you have seen them there in the past.

I think new rubber bands might help it significantly. The Fire Temple is a beautiful set, but unfortunately the way it is designed, the rubber bands that control the function are always in "stretched" position except when the temple is open. If you do end up replacing the rubber bands (especially if you replace them with other official TLG rubber bands), it might also be a good idea to pull them loose from the center axles when your kids are not playing with the temple. This disables the function and doesn't stretch the rubber bands out nearly as much. They can be stretched back around these center axles when your kids want to play with the temple's function. To illustrate, here is what the temple's rubber bands should look like from underneath when built according to the instructions: [> <] Here is what you want them to look like to prevent overstretching when the temple is not in use: [] [] I hope this helps!

Really, TLG has relaxed their anti-military policy a great deal over the past several decades. There was a time when they avoided putting basic bricks in gray or green into sets so that kids wouldn't use pieces in their collection to build military models of their own design! Contrast that with today, TLG having just this year introduced an Olive Green color. A couple years back TLG put their anti-war/military policy on the books for the first time. Previously, it had been an "unwritten rule". A summary of this policy can be read here. Suffice it to say, having this policy in writing will allow TLG to skirt the boundary they have set for themselves as close as possible without risking a "slippery slope" effect. As such, I highly doubt they will hesitate to do things like camouflage due to this policy. They're far more likely to avoid camouflage in sets due to the complexity of realizing it without complex printing or large stickers.

I think it's preposterous to think a license for something like this would be more expensive than a license for a super-desirable intellectual properties like Star Wars, Batman, or The Lord of the Rings. Supply and demand would at least imply that licenses like those, for which companies scramble to obtain exclusive rights, would be far more expensive than licenses for things like Portal which aren't nearly as well-known and don't have decades of proven success in the merchandising department. Anyway, looking forward to seeing how this fares in review! Certainly video game proposals have gotten a lot of attention on LEGO Cuusoo, and it makes me wonder whether we might start to see a shift in TLG's licensed themes away from exclusively movie-based or TV-based licenses and towards licenses based on other media.

Nope. This one's being published by Dorling Kindersley, which publishes in several countries. Not totally sure which countries or languages it will be available in, but it will definitely be available in at least the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Australia (the image I found is from an Australian site).

This is nothing new. Cheekbones have been common on many figures for years, including several of the Collectible Minifigures (example) Personally, I think they're a great detail, especially now that they're printed in Medium Nougat rather than the garish black used prior to that color's introduction. Certainly not a detail I'd want to see extended to all male figs, but a good detail nonetheless.

Well, it looks like we finally have an image of the exclusive minifigure in the Ninjago Character Encyclopedia. Apparently it's a special-edition Lloyd Garmadon figure. And what a figure it is! Notable differences from Lloyd ZX include his black or earth green (hard to tell which color it is) torso and legs, his gold shoulderpads, and the gold print on his headgear. Some things including the page where that image appears still describe the exclusive figure as "fully-armed" so it's possible he might come with equipment not pictured here, or that information might be preliminary. Either way I look forward to seeing whether this costume appears in other media or whether it's just a special minifigure design without any particular connection to the Ninjago story. The LEGO Ninjago Character Encyclopedia is due for release October 27, and will include pages regarding the Ninjago TV series in addition to the main character features. Really looking forward to it!

In the case of the D.C. sets, I believe Batman merchandise tends to outsell merchandise based on other DC properties for the most part (he's more iconic than most other DC characters other than possibly Superman), and furthermore Batman makes for good LEGO sets because Batman is a superhero known for using fancy vehicles, various costumes, and nifty gear. Vehicle-based and location-based LEGO sets are the easiest ones to incorporate building potential into, and while the Green Lantern cartoon might give Green Lantern characters a bit more recognition among young builders, it's not enough to make it worthwhile for TLG to reduce the size of the Batman wave. MOCists may be limited only by their imaginations, but TLG has other limitations in what is practical for them to produce. They must stick to what is most familiar to potential buyers, which depends partly on what is currently most relevant in pop culture. With an in-house theme they can afford to branch out and take risks, but with a licensed theme if they don't stick with what has proven successful, then they might have weaker sales, which could lead to a risk of the license not being renewed.

I think basically that if Stormer hadn't saved the day (which, in VN's opinion, was less an instance of real heroism and more being a glory hog, as evidenced by his assumption in Episode 4 that Stormer would never let anyone else have the glory of a victorious mission), then Von Ness could have returned to the Hero Factory with his reputation intact and the mission written off as a lost cause. Don't forget that they weren't originally on mission to respond to the drone, and as such had no way to be prepared to fight it. Since Stormer did manage to defeat the drone, Von Ness was exposed as a coward who would rather abandon his teammates than risk endangering himself. Rather than accepting his own mistake he chose to blame Stormer for humiliating him. Von Nebula's motives were not made entirely clear in the episode, partly because the aftermath of this incident was never shown. Personally, I don't believe Von Ness would have ever returned to the Hero Factory due to shame and anger, and there's no telling what other difficulties might have faced him trying to make a life for himself as an outcast. If I were any good at writing I think this would be an ideal time period to base a fan fiction around. But in any event it's made clear that in reality, Von Nebula has very little to blame Stormer for, and his hatred of Stormer is just his way of redirecting his own shame and humiliation. Overall this is one reason I consider the fourth episode one of the weakest ones, although in truth it could have covered more material if Von Ness's backstory had been made clearer in the previous episodes rather than just replaying the same slow-motion footage of Thresher running from the drone's fire. So it's as much the fault of the other three 2010 episodes, which on their own tended to be more enjoyable, as it is the fault of Episode 4 in particular.

Well, according to the LEGO Group's twitter, the main Ninjago news was this new sneak-peek video of the upcoming season of the show. Whether there was anything revealed regarding sets remains to be seen. But I suppose even with Ninjago having such a strong presence this year, we might not be able to expect any huge news like we got for the licensed themes. EDIT: Though in other news, The Fold has revealed a which is now available from iTunes. An image on NinjaSongs.com leads me to believe there will probably be five songs total from them, with album art in red, blue, white, black, and green.

Just registered my MOCs for Brickfair. I'm bringing Sophia Blaze, (slightly modified from the image here), Rise of the Dread Colossus, and everypony's favorite Toa of Fire, Tahu. My twin brother Lyichir is also bringing an Axe Cop cubedude we worked on together. And my younger brother is bringing several MOCs of his own.

Yep. Bryan Konietzko clarifies here that these additional 26 episodes will make up books 3 and 4 of The Legend of Korra. Since we're talking about Korra, two Korra posters were distributed at Comic-Con. The first one is just the character designs we've seen, while the second holds a few more surprises. New Friends Old Friends Additionally, there were some Korra character designs revealed at the Korra panel at Comic-Con. Images are floating around the internet, and I'm having difficulty finding them all compiled in one place, but a lot can be seen on this tumblr. Overall I'm very excited for the next book of Korra! In the meantime, I've been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender with my mom. We just started book two yesterday, and I'm hoping to get through the whole book by the time I have to go back up to college.

That is true. That's definitely another thing I've considered... if there are new sets in 2013, what color boxes might they use? Blue would be a color they haven't used before, but one of the major considerations in TLG's box designs is making them stand out from other LEGO themes, and blue borders are already used on boxes in the City theme and the Star Wars theme. Maybe purple, since it will be in a separate aisle from LEGO Friends at most retailers, and since Lord Garmadon will likely still be a central character, but who knows?

That would seem to be the ideal way to approach the final conclusion in a family-friendly way if TLG does in fact intend to bring the Ninjago storyline to a complete close based on the Green Ninja prophecy. Samukai's and Pythor's deaths were a quite different case as they essentially brought about their own deaths, whereas if the Green Ninja prophecy has any truth to it then the "Dark Lord" (Lord Garmadon) will have to be defeated in confrontation with Lloyd, one of the "good guys". I think that Ninjago could effectively be dragged out longer if that were TLG's intent-- it took BIONICLE eight years for the Great Spirit Mata Nui to be awakened and revealed as a giant robot which housed the Matoran Universe, an event which was foreshadowed from the beginning in 2001. Ninjago, like BIONICLE, features a pretty versatile universe, so I don't think running out of "bad guys" for the Ninja to face or new costumes/vehicles/etc. for them to use would present too great a challenge. With that said, I also don't think this sort of story would be in the theme's best interest. It would just add extra time for fans to lose interest in the theme as it dragged on, or to become disillusioned with the changes that would be necessary to keep it from becoming stale (already some fans lost interest after the Ninja got their own vehicles, and more years of story would demand more changes to the status quo). I'm glad TLG seems to have an end in sight. Today's the Ninjago day at LEGO's booth at San Diego Comic-Con, so we'll see what sorts of things might be revealed. We know to expect a sneak peek at the upcoming season of Ninjago (which will begin airing in the U.S. this Wednesday!) as part of the Ninjago panel, but what other revelations might be in store remain to be seen.

Probably at least in part to cut down on costs. Keep in mind this will probably be a fairly expensive set relative to its piece count, given the size of the Rancor, and they don't want it to be prohibitively expensive. Cutting down on the volume of plastic in the set probably will help make it a more affordable set relative to its overall size.

Yep. See here. According to Amazon.com, it will be released October 29.

That's the element ID for that part in Dark Stone Grey (Bricklink's Dark Bluish Gray). The Design ID (a.k.a. part number or mold number) is the same as it's listed on LDD (99780). It is indeed new to this year's summer sets.

You're definitely right in that the bar has been raised very high recently. I'll confess, I haven't bought a LEGO Star Wars set since 2005. But for the past few years there's always been at least one set that I find extremely tempting. One of the main reasons I've been able to hold off on buying them is that with all the stylistic changes in both sets and minifigures, I might be tempted to rebuild my whole LEGO Star Wars collection from the ground up, and that would be extremely expensive! That doesn't stop me from looking for sets like last year's gorgeous podracers on sale, though. Overall, perhaps one reason I'm so forgiving with LEGO Star Wars sets is that I haven't bought one in so long. Pretty much any of today's sets would be way better than anything I currently have in my collection. Certainly I can't afford not to have discriminating tastes if I do start buying LEGO Star Wars sets again, and I'll admit the Rancor Pit isn't a set I'd want to buy unless I'd already bought Jabba's Palace. Still, it should have plenty of appeal with kids, perhaps more so than Jabba's Palace since it depicts a dedicated action scene rather than a series of more mundane scenes. Today is the day they're devoting their booth to LEGO Star Wars, so if anything else does get revealed then chances are it will happen today. Keep your eyes peeled!

Actually, I think the 1x1 round tile on that figure's gun is Transparent Medium Reddish Violet (Bricklink's Trans-Dark Pink). It doesn't look dark or bluish enough to be Transparent Bright Bluish Violet (Trans-Purple). Note also how closely it matches the Fairy's wand, which is decidedly not Trans-Purple. I laughed at this comment. It's a fair point! Personally, I always like a series that I can pick and choose between, even if I often end up amassing a near-complete collection through repeated shopping trips. Certainly none of the figures are so bad that I would consider them a waste of money if I picked one up by accident. It's LEGO after all, so it shouldn't be too hard to find a use for any of these, even a "retread" of a previous idea.

It depends on the image. On the packaging image it kind of looks like a plate, whereas on the other images it looks more like a tile. It wouldn't be the first time set images have shown slight inconsistency. To be fair, the tile also seems closer to transparent medium reddish violet (Bricklink's trans-dark pink) than to transparent bright bluish violet (Bricklink's trans-purple), but that's OK with me considering that this is what Pythor's staff jewel closer resembles in many scenes of the show (closer to his eye color than to his skin color). Anyone have any guesses what the exclusive minifigure in the Ninjago Minifigure Encyclopedia will be? Blurbs for the book say it comes with a fully-armed minifigure, so it likely won't be a civilian character like Ed or Edna. I'm waiting for the official US release of the new season to watch it (no leaks for me), but there might easily be some characters in it who are suited to an exclusive figure like this.

I apologize; I did completely miss post #26, perhaps in part because I was more focused on post #28 where you replied to the exact same post to make a different point. The thing is, yes, it would be nice if TLG could distribute all minifigures in a more inclusive way, no matter how obscure. But frankly, some of these figs like Shazam or the white Boba Fett are so obscure that TLG might not have much incentive to produce them at all except as part of an intentionally-limited run. It's kind of the same way that the Collectible Minifigures have given TLG the opportunity to produce figs that either wouldn't fit in most of their existing themes or wouldn't have enough demand to justify full-scale production except as part of a larger collection. If TLG does decide that there's enough mainstream demand for the characters for reasons other than their exclusivity, then they can easily produce different versions of those figures, just as they have produced different versions of various collectible minifigure "archetypes" over the years. Moreover, as I mentioned, there's a huge incentive for TLG to produce exclusive figures-- it brings attention to their brand at events like these. Comic-Con is a very big event with a lot of companies present, and so TLG has to give attendees in general-- not just dedicated LEGO fans who want nothing more than a sneak peek of the next year's products-- an incentive to keep coming back to their booth. Not to mention giving some non-attendees an incentive to sign up for the event as a whole, and to put the LEGO booth near the top of their must-see list of exhibitors. Thus they raffle off exclusive items like these, just as other toy companies have been doing for years. Yes, it leads to competition in the aftermarket, but frankly TLG doesn't do it because they care about what happens in a market that doesn't bring them any profits. They do it to increase their visibility at the event itself, and at future events once they have established a reputation for special offers like this. I'm not trying to attack you in particular with my comment about this "if I can't have it, nobody can" attitude. Not everyone who wants a wider distribution for these exclusive figs has this attitude, certainly your comments don't express this attitude. But there are some who have commented here who do express that attitude (whether or not they sincerely hold it), and who feel that for some reason TLG owes the fans a wider release of figs which are designed with exclusivity in mind. As it is, if TLG were to release these exact minifigures on a wider scale than was intended, it would defeat their purpose in producing these figs in the first place. In fact, if you look at times when TLG has made a supposedly "exclusive" item more widely available, as in the case of some collectible minifigure re-releases, some fans who were able to obtain the figs through the more exclusive channels start to feel betrayed and misled. And that's exactly the opposite of the impression TLG wants to leave these people with. They want people who put time and money into the company's events and promotions to feel like they have been given something of lasting value in return. Bringing these exclusive figs to more comic conventions might be an acceptable option for TLG if they decide they want a stronger presence at these conventions. They might even have exclusive figs at other conventions that can't be gotten in San Diego. But frankly, it's expensive to make exclusive items like this in the first place, even more so to do it at a wider scale. Keep in mind that these are being given out for free, unlike many promotional items which at least require some purchase of a LEGO product as a prerequisite. And TLG might not be interested in a stronger presence at every comic convention. Through a mix of dumb luck and circumstance, San Diego Comic-Con has become one of the chief pop-culture conventions for companies of all sorts, whether or not their business has any direct connections to comics or even to the comic-loving demographic in particular. And it's not always in TLG's interest to level an uneven playing field they had no part in creating.

Great to see so many amazing figs. Observations: Venom-- excellent, and I love the creative part use for his tendrils. Should put to rest many people's fears that characters depicted by the Comic-Con promotional figs will never appear as sets-- yes, the Comic-Con exclusive "Venom" is really closer to black-suit Spider-Man, but it can't be ignored that the two figs seem to share the exact same torso. Not to mention how many people felt let down that the "Venom" fig was not actually depicting Venom. Spider-Man-- seen him, but it's a nice fig design nonetheless. Nova-- Nice fig design; somewhat lacking in detail compared to movie-based figs. But I suppose I shouldn't complain, since at least the cartoon-based characters aren't wholly incompatible with other fleshies the way most cartoon-based licenses have been in the past. Note that his face print demands a dual-sided face, one side with a white "blindfold". Nick Fury-- Amazing face print, again with a torso print somewhat lacking in detail. His face print will go perfectly with figs based on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. J. Jonah Jameson-- Nice to have such a useful hair piece in Dark Stone Grey. He seems like a generally nice fig. Dr. Doom-- A great likeness of the character. It seems like he might use a different cape than the traditional "jedi cape" which usually flares out slightly, but I can't tell for sure. Beetle-- First character I am almost entirely unfamiliar with, but I'm aware he will be making an appearance in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. His wings look like they feature the same amazing lenticular effect as 98566, but hopefully it works just as well on this piece as on that one (a previous part to use this effect, 61798, had it a lot subtler due to a different material and a thinner part in general). Scarecrow-- Very nice, definitely a lot more apparent that he's supposed to be a man in a mask than it was with the last version. Colors are nice and earthy-looking. Robin-- No new parts here but a very nice likeness of his hooded design. The Penguin-- short legs in Medium Lavender are new and potentially useful. A very different depiction than his previous one, but still very nice. Mr. Freeze-- He looks nice, and like some people I kind of hope his red goggles are on the reverse side of his head. Does anyone know if this is based on any particular depiction of Mr. Freeze, or just an archetypical portrayal of his refrigerated suit? Joker-- Nice orange jumpsuit, and Joker's bleached-white skin color makes it usable for other inmates in any theme if you just imagine the white neck as an undershirt. Poison Ivy-- Not new, but still nice. Harley Quinn-- It would be neat if her costume weren't showing underneath her uniform so you could use this either as Dr. Harleen Quinzel before she took up a life of crime or as Harley Quinn in civilian disguise, which is probably the intent of this depiction. But the outfit will make her more recognizable to younger viewers. Policeman/Guard-- Not new, nothing to see here. Commissioner Gordon-- Very nice design. Again, so happy they made the Super Heroes figs from all media intercompatible. Black-Suit Batman-- The wing pack is new in black, and probably very versatile in that color. Probably appears with Joker, Harley, the policeman/guard, and possibly Poison Ivy, Robin, and/or Scarecrow in an Arkham Asylum set. TDKR Batman-- Decent fig. Not as perfect a likeness as the Comic-Con figure from last year, but still sufficiently awesome. TDKR Bane-- Very nice fig, a lot more distinctive than an alternate Batman costume. His source is instantly identifiable. Nice use of Olive Green. Probably appears with TDKR Batman and Commissioner Gordon in a TDKR set. Aquaman-- A very good likeness. His hair color looks regular Bright Yellow (BL's Yellow), a color TLG doesn't use often for minifig hair. Usually they prefer Brick Yellow (BL's Tan) or Cool Yellow (BL's Bright Light Yellow). Bright Yellow won't be as useful for non-fleshies, but it suits Aquaman. White-Suit Batman-- Very stylish. Almost certainly appears with Mr. Freeze and possibly with Aquaman and/or the Penguin.

People can choose to compete over things whether they're extremely limited release or not-- just look at the collectible minifigures which some people raid to resell "army builders" at exorbitant prices, or in fact at any licensed figures and the aftermarket prices they gain once the sets containing them are no longer in production. But there's a difference between a good-spirited competition where people try their best to "win" the desired figs, and go home having lost nothing if they don't get what they want, and a mean-spirited competition where people are as interested in keeping other people from having certain figs as in getting those figs for themselves. This "if I can't have them, nobody should be able to" attitude is inherently selfish. Something to consider is that TLG has just as much of a right to produce "novelty" figures as any customizer in the fan community. Consider these figures which were not mass-produced at all, and which only a few lucky fans have been able to obtain. Also consider promotional figs like the white Boba Fett, which are mass-produced but released through limited channels. TLG isn't doing this in the interest of being unfair to the majority of fans, but rather because they are interested in doing something they wouldn't have as much of a chance to do in regular sets. At Comic-Con, the companies exhibiting have to compete for people's attention. Many of them, not just TLG, do this by releasing exclusive products in limited quantities. These are meant as souvenirs, not as a way to create animosity between attendees and other fans. And TLG has to play this same game if they want to maintain their relevance compared to their competitors like Hasbro and Mattel. The only disadvantage there could possibly be to creating "exclusive" figs is if those figs would otherwise have been non-exclusive. And do you honestly think TLG would decide "no, we're never putting Venom/Green Lantern/Phoenix/Bizarro into a mainstream set" without at least a bit of forethought? I guarantee you that if TLG decides later on they want to put Venom in a Marvel set or Green Lantern figure in a DC set, they will not hesitate just because they happened to have designed them as exclusives. If they are intent on keeping those figures exclusive, then they'll just design new ones for mainstream release. The same is true of all these other figs; what makes some of them like Bizarro or Shazam different is that they are not that well-known outside the fan communities for their respective franchises, and as such would have been less likely to appear at all if they hadn't been designed as promotional items of some kind. Overall, people are free to have "completionist" attitudes, but that doesn't make it TLG's responsibility to make that a realistic lifestyle. If exclusive promotional figures didn't exist, would that stop complaining about "unfairness"? No. People would still call TLG "unfair" for putting desirable figs in expensive sets they don't want to buy, or for not re-releasing certain figures that had become extremely desirable in the aftermarket, and so-on and so-forth. It's not TLG's responsibility to make every figure available to every fan, and if they attempted to do so they would be relinquishing any incentive for fans to go to any extra expense, whether that be buying a certain amount of sets during a shop.LEGO.com promotion, going to a special event where LEGO has a presence, or even buying sets that happen to cost more than the average Joe's pocket money. EDIT: Sure enough, next year we're getting a non-exclusive Venom figure. As I said, no reason to think we're missing out on anything just because a certain "edition" of a character happens to be exclusive.

All these figures look excellent. The alien queen is a great addition to the Alien Conquest theme. The DJ looks very cool as well, even if his headphones are molded onto his hair. The cowgirl has a nice new hat that might be able to be reused effectively in LEGO Friends if the horseback-riding subtheme isn't over after this year. The diver is something many of us have desired for years (note his boosted-up feet!), as is the Santa Claus, though I can't say that I prefer the sack he comes with to the one from the City theme. In general, all these figures are very unique. The only ones which are especially similar to previous figs are the alien queen, pirate captain, and cheerleader, and even so they all have their own merits. TLG doesn't seem even close to running out of unique fig designs for this theme!

My memory of the scene in question may be a bit foggy, but I had thought it was a skull that Luke threw at the switch-- and a skull is present in the set. As for a gap in the rocks where Luke can hide, it may not be the most accurate representation, but do you see how one of the rock columns is slightly thicker than the other? It looks like that might hinge or break open to create a hiding place. Building dark indoor scenes can be difficult for a lot of reasons. Not only do you want open space for a person's hands when they're playing with the set, but you want there to be openings to let the person playing with the toy see inside, as well as to let in a decent amount of light (even in a scene that should be very dark, you're reducing play value if a person can't see what they're playing with). Thus a cave that is open on only one or two sides (and not even the top, when Jabba's Palace is connected) would reduce play value greatly. It should also be considered that having the Rancor Pit seem to continue further than what's shown offers additional play value since the Rancor is a very bulky design that wouldn't have too much space to move around if the Rancor Pit were walled in on three sides. I don't see any white bricks at all in this picture of the Rancor Pit. If you're talking about the slopes, those look light gray to me. Compare them to the skeleton parts, which are white. Likewise, I don't see any tan parts-- they all appear to be dark tan, like a lot of the parts from Jabba's Palace. That's understandable, believe me. Don't think that my perspective on the set is that it's flawless. There are some things that people would want in a Rancor Pit that TLG's designers consciously failed to provide. I simply mean to express that I understand a lot of the design choices that went into this set, and that personally I believe they paid off. There's no reason to think of this as a set that's only worth getting for the figs. Like Jabba's Palace before it, even if you think the structure as a whole is underwhelming, it's an amazing parts pack to get you started on building your own version if you should so choose. I recognize that I tend to be pretty forgiving of sets in general, including Star Wars sets-- I was quite pleased with last year's Echo Base model, which managed to work in all of the scenes I remembered best. So don't think just because I happen to like this set that I feel everybody else should feel the same way. Different people look for different things in set design. Sometimes this leads them to like the same things for very different reasons, while other times it makes their tastes totally different.