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One problem with stickers is that it is difficult to leave "empty space" in the center for the transparent color to show through, as is present on some (not all) of the Serpentine emblem parts. Likewise decals pose a similar challenge, since with a conventional printer it's not possible to print white on a transparent decal. The color white is present on all of the Serpentine emblems, as well as a small part of Pythor's chest pattern, although we'd likely want to simplify Pythor's chest emblem to a two- or three-color graphical pattern like the other emblems so it wouldn't likely stay exactly the same. A sticker or decal with an emblem pattern on a black background like the Constrictai or Fangpyre emblems is likely the simplest course of action.

I have attended BrickFair four times in the past, three of which were as a registered attendee. All of my visits were to the Virginia BrickFair, not the recently established BrickFair event in Alabama which share's the Virginia event's organizers. I will certainly be attending this year just as I have in the past. I am not sure what MOCs I will exhibit, but chances are I will be showing at least one of my Hero Factory models created in the past year, as well as perhaps some MOCs I have shown in previous years and still have assembled. There are sometimes space limitations for MOCs, and you have to register your MOCs ahead of time for them to be exhibited. The online registration form includes a field where you enter how much table space your MOC should take up, as well as what theme your MOC will be in (so that the organizers know in advance if any themes will overflow their designated tables). As long as you register the MOCs in advance, the space you say you need should be reserved for you. All in all I hope you will be able to attend!

I wouldn't say it's paying for just a minifigure. The spinners and crowns for the NRG figures have some of the best designs of all spinner sets IMO, and the same applies for the character cards. NRG Cole, like the other two NRG Ninja already released, also includes a pearl gold lightsaber hilt, a fairly rare piece (though to be fair, there's no guarantee that it will remain rare since golden weapons are essential contents of all spinner sets and we can surely expect more next year). It should also be considered that there is not especially strong demand for the non-minifigure contents of spinner sets in the aftermarket, and thus spinner-exclusive figures will have unreasonably-high prices. Likely even more so when the sets are no longer on store shelves. If you think you'll ever want the NRG Ninja, looking for a good sale on the sets themselves is likely a better course of action than picking and choosing the individual figures. For instance, On Memorial Day weekend here in the US, Target had a "buy one, get one 50% off" sale on Ninjago, Hero Factory, and Dino sets, and I used the opportunity to get 9591 Weapon Pack, which includes NRG Kai. I don't at all regret the decision (and I had avoided buying any dedicated spinner sets previously). Speaking of which, my review of 9591 is up on The Ninjago Wiki. I tried to make it as thorough as possible. Hope it provides some great insight into why I love this set!

My point wasn't that there's no hype. My point was that it's not spread out evenly enough for a worldwide release to really prove worthwhile. The hype as always is strongest in the host country, and TLG would be taking a huge gamble releasing their first event-specific product of this scale to a global market, when they know exactly where they can expect the most reliable sales. In any event, Great Britain is where the devotion to the British team will be strongest, and since this minifigure series is celebrating them as much as the games themselves, a British release makes much more sense than a worldwide release. Unfortunately we won't have any definitive answer of who's right unless TLG does release an olympic series worldwide and it either succeeds or fails. Since there are no known plans to do so, we know nothing about whether TLG has made the best decision financially. But I think we can agree they've made the safest decision.

They don't come in sets. Brickforge is a customizer which introduced a transparent 1x1 round tile long before TLG did the same in official sets. Their 1x1 round tiles are slightly different in shape, but until an official Anacondrai emblem piece shows up, their transparent purple 1x1 round tile could be a suitable substitute.

I don't understand why there's so much hate for the newer shark. Personally, I love it in most respects. The only possible "improvement" I could think of would be to remove the angry expression and give it more of a blank stare the way fish tend to have. This would presumably not be any major expense, at least no more than any other alternate print of an already-printed piece. In general the new shark embodies some of the things I love best about newer LEGO animals. He keeps a certain level of angularity, but has far more connection points than his predecessor, can now swallow a variety of things, and features printed eyes to make him more compatible with classic LEGO minifigures. In fact, since minifigures are so inherently cartoony on their own, I'm even perfectly willing to forgive the angry eyes. Animals I'd like to see most are: 1. Lion or other big cat 2. Deer (great for Christmas models, even if real reindeer don't actually look like deer from temperate climates) 3. Falcon/Hawk (like the one in the Ninjago TV series, aesthetically based on the newest version of the LEGO owl) 4. Sheep 5. Rabbit (could probably be managed with a new, less animesque face print on the one from the Friends theme-- as seen here the scale is not too bad)

There are some images of 9574 Lloyd ZX here. Unfortunately, they aren't very good-- they're somewhat small and look like they were hastily converted from transparent PNGs into JPGs. Incidentally, the pic of him with booster pack contents is just to show that the set's compatible with booster packs. The snakes and spikes are from the Lizaru booster pack and are not actually included in the Lloyd ZX set.

Something to keep in mind is that while the games haven't been 100% consistent with this, it used to be in the original LEGO Star Wars games that a lot of details were not made of LEGO specifically so you could tell that you couldn't break or interact with them. In that tradition, it looks like in this game things are only made of LEGO if it is possible for players to break or otherwise interact with them, so the non-LEGO buildings are perfectly justified IMO.

Never attempted before? Perhaps, but that's no reason it's unlikely. The only thing that makes a theoretical Rancor Pit set more advanced than the modularity of the older Harry Potter sets is that Jabba's Palace would include an action feature that would directly connect to a Rancor pit (having the trapdoor open into the Rancor pit set). While this is unprecedented as far as I know, it's preposterous to suggest that this reason makes a Rancor pit unlikely, because that logic would imply that a Jabba's Palace without a trapdoor would be more likely to connect to a Rancor pit. There would be more precedent at any rate. Counterpoint-- why would it need any walls at all? The most it would need would be a single wall to allow for the gate that crushes the Rancor. But all it would need to support Jabba's Palace above it would be four columns, and there are countless ways four sturdy columns could be built using existing Technic and System elements at a reasonable (by Star Wars standards) price point. It would be simple to create sturdy columns of an appropriate size as mentioned above through clever use of Technic and System. The minarets of the Taj Mahal set are very tall and mostly hollow, supported internally with Technic axles. Something similar could be done here, perhaps even more economically by using the existing 2x2x11 column piece for the upper part of the supports. To keep the columns from falling over and dropping the upper part of the palace, it would be fairly easy and cheap to incorporate Technic into the base to keep the columns perpendicular to the "floor" I think "looking good from the outside" is irrelevant to the whole conversation. After all, being a subterranean location, its exterior is not at all distinctive and thus there is no real need to replicate it. Perhaps some Star Wars fans might not like this, given that the beautiful exterior is a great asset of Jabba's Palace, but the set on its own could still be effective at depicting the scene in a way fans can appreciate without needing a detailed exterior on all sides-- perhaps the only exterior it would really need would be the single wall that includes the important gate. The reasons listed above convince me that the price would not be remotely as high as you're suggesting. But regarding the marketing aspect, why would they advertise a set they haven't even released in marketing materials for Jabba's Palace? It's not like they advertised the 2011 Hogwarts set in the marketing materials for the 2010 Hogwarts set, even though they were designed to be compatible. Once the 2011 Hogwarts set was out, though, they didn't hesitate to mention compatibility with the 2010 Hogwarts set in its marketing materials. Also, like the two Hogwarts sets, Jabba's Palace and the Rancor Pit would both be designed to be desirable as stand-alone sets. The Rancor Pit, after all, would depict a major action scene in a way that includes a convenient action feature (the opening/closing gate) and a Rancor figure that would be a must-have for both kids and collectors. Still, there would be a definite advantage in owning both sets, just as with the previous two Hogwarts depictions. Well, it will certainly be anything but quiet once a Rancor Pit set is finally revealed. I guarantee you they'll then start pushing both sets a great deal. But there's an advantage to not revealing or releasing both at the same time. Being at such high price points, it will be unlikely for kids to be able to obtain both sets at once. And yet by spacing them just a year apart, they will both be on store shelves at the same time, so kids who first buy the Palace can later buy the Rancor Pit and vice-versa. Keep in mind that being high-dollar items, they will surely stay on store shelves longer than smaller sets that make better "impulse buys". In general, it's clear that during the design, the designers considered the possibility of a Rancor Pit to connect to Jabba's Palace. Even you acknowledge that the Rancor Pit would be somewhat costly, so I think the idea that the two were ever expected to comprise a single set is preposterous. On the other hand, if a Rancor Pit is still in the works then I don't think we'll be waiting long for it to be revealed. If there are plans for a Rancor Pit, I would expect it by next summer at the latest. The design of Jabba's Palace creates an opportunity for such a set, and it's hard to imagine anything that could possibly happen in the future to create a more auspicious opportunity than this one.

Actually that color (officially called 299 Warm Gold, Drum Lacquered) is indeed a surface treatment, much like Chrome Gold (310 Metalized Gold). It is still in use in sets today (for instance, 4204 The Mine, 4437 Police Pursuit, and 4440 Forest Police Station in the City theme), but chances are one of the reasons it's used so sparsely is that like Chrome Gold, it is more expensive than colors like Pearl Gold (297 Warm Gold) that only require ABS and metallic-colored dye to produce.

Doesn't seem likely because many of the sets on those shelves are sets from before TLG even began doing production in Mexico, and furthermore some (like the BIONICLE set copies) include parts that are to my knowledge only produced in Denmark. Overall, I think the most likely scenario is that they are lower-quality knock-offs, even if the pictures on the boxes look like actual LEGO parts. Examples of knock-offs like this are plentiful in the BIONICLE theme. See here (bonus points for mangled English), here (a particularly peculiar example where the sets are duplicated but not the individual parts, which are fused into pre-assembled sections), and here (this folder includes a mix of direct knock-offs and more original sets that use non-LEGO components).

In some respects, these are pretty neat, but in others I prefer the actual sets. For instance, XPlode's torso feels lumpy and not very cohesive. It doesn't help that his waist in your revamp is practically the widest part of his body. Also, his back feels hollow and not very substantial. So in most respects I prefer Cirkit's revamp to this one. Corroder is probably the nicest-looking of the bunch. While I really liked the original set's design, this design comes really close in proportions and aesthetics. Meltdown is also nice, but his hands/tools could use improvement. Specifically, it feels weird with his tools standing so far off his wrists. I think he would be better if his "claws" were attached directly to the "shield" pieces on his arms, as was the case in the original set. Thunder's an interesting case, because while he doesn't look entirely cohesive, the same could be said of the original set to some extent. You did an absolutely magnificent job with his tools, IMO. But the tubing pieces on his torso feel somewhat out-of-place, as does the bulky shoulder armor he has. Although it might limit posability, I would think a 2.0 torso shell in Silver Metallic, attached like the shoulder armor of Jetbug, Stormer 3.0, etc, would better emulate the shoulder armor he has in the set. Your shoulder armor design is nice (I can see you borrowed it from the new Bulk), but I don't think it works here because it makes the armor on that side look too narrow. It's all up close to the head and so doesn't stick off the shoulder itself as much as the blade on the other side, so he looks imbalanced. Overall though there are some creative techniques in play here, and while some of these models could use further improvement they definitely work towards the goal they set out to achieve, that being a re-imagining of these characters using the new building style.

Thanks for this review! This is definitely a nice set. The speedboat isn't quite as stylish as last year's 4641 from the City theme which used many of the same pieces. The colors are nice, though, and the addition of a lovely beach towel and sand castle make this set very unique. In LEGO it's often the little details that count, and the Friends theme seems to focus a lot more heavily on making lots of little details than the City theme which tends towards more sparsely-furnished settings.

Whoa, really? Have you seen the new feet? We knew that those had been redesigned, but I'm very impressed if they're already showing up in sets. I wasn't expecting them to show up until a later wave of sets that reused that foot piece.

Well, the most recent Hogwarts set (4867) is designed to connect to the previous year's Hogwarts Castle (4842). But despite connecting together in this way, they don't form one interconnected scene the way Jabba's Palace would with a Rancor Pit expansion. Similarly to the Hogwarts sets mentioned, all Harry Potter sets that depicted scenes set at Hogwarts Castle in 2001-2002 were able to be interconnected (with the exception of the pastel-colored "dollhouse"-style sets of 2001). See here (poster from 2001 sets) and here (poster from 2002 sets). But again, although the sets were intended to be connected physically, they were not designed to connect functionally-- every set with a staircase or trapdoor tended to have it connect somewhere within that set, rather than to a different set. The early Star Wars theme had certain sets that were meant to be visually compatible even if they didn't connect physically. The most obvious examples are 7200 and 7201 (Final Duel I and II) and 7203 and 7204 (Jedi Defense I and II). But in fact the original Jabba's Palace was released as three visually-compatible sets: 4475 Jabba's Message, 4476 Jabba's Prize, and 4480 Jabba's Palace. Interestingly, one feature of these "visually-compatible" sets is that by getting all of the sets in a series, you would get a wide cast of characters from the relevant scenes with zero duplicates. This becomes meaningful when you notice that the Jabba's Palace set released this year lacks some key characters from the scenes at Jabba's Palace in Return of the Jedi: specifically, Luke, who would be the central character in a Rancor Pit set, is absent, and R2-D2 and C-3P0, who would likely appear in a "droid dungeon" expansion, are nowhere to be found. With that in mind it's very believable that those two scenes be included in the inevitable Jabba's Palace expansion.

Thanks for this review! I really like it. I agree though that the drum sticks would have been better if they were smaller-- even the 3M bar pieces from the Collectible Minifigures would have been preferable to full-length 4M lightsaber blades. A smaller LEGO book piece would definitely be nice, but unfortunately I don't think they could make it too much smaller before it becomes infeasible to have it open and close. The briefcase and laptop molds show that TLG could make at least a slight improvement, though, even if it means sacrificing the ability to stash things inside the book as can be done with this mold. In general, working at such a small scale, and with the inherently unrealistic proportions of any type of LEGO minifigure, means that sacrifices always have to be made when basing something on reality. "Minifigure scale" always has to be somewhat flexible, as I've learned when trying to build things from real life. But at the same time, it's nice that TLG continues to challenge themselves to furnish buildings for minifigures of any style. Overall, though, this is a set which along with the rest of the LEGO Friends line shows the amount of variety that can be found even in a theme based on everyday life. I certainly hope that someday we see TLG introduce girl-oriented themes that stretch further into science fiction, history, or fantasy, but I think TLG did a good job keeping this introductory product range simple in scope without cutting down on quality or variety.

This is a very nice set. Detailed exterior, well-furnished interior... I can see why so many people like it. However, I wish the interior felt a little more "haunted". If not for the spooky minifigures and sticker sheet, the interior would largely feel just like a generic abandoned house. More play features, like maybe a trapdoor, a painting with light-up eyes, green or blue flames on top of the stove, or other uncanny functions could definitely help it feel like the home's inhabitants have spooky decorating sensibilities, in the spirit of classic spooky sitcom families such as the Munsters or the Addams Family. Granted, I'm sure lots of people love the set's decorative use of pieces and scarcity of dedicated "play features". It does have some spooky decor, like the heart and bone in bell jars, along with many of the exterior details. But in general a lot of the rooms feel fairly normal compared to the eerie inhabitants.

Transparent flame yellowish orange? I think you mean Transparent Bright Orange. Transparent Flame Yellowish Orange exists, but it's an obscure color mainly used in Clikits. I think Bricklink treats the two as the same color, but Transparent Bright Orange is what's current.

I'm not sure if those episode titles are legit, but I certainly wouldn't put any faith in those episodes' descriptions. Since the title "Ninjaball Run" is an obvious reference to the film The Cannonball Run, a name having nothing to do with any type of sport other than racing, I wouldn't be at all surprised if these episode descriptions were just made up based on a cursory glance at the list of titles. There's a chance that they're real-- they do seem to tell a fairly cohesive story, after all-- but we have absolutely no reason to trust them when they're "leaked" this early. With that said, a re-imagining of the Destiny's Bounty could be cool. I just don't think that episode list is any reason to assume we're getting one.

Personally, I prefer option #2. Option #1's sleekness seems at odds with the rest of the model, and the lack of a grille on #3 puts me off. With that said, I wonder if option #2 might look better if the grille bracket were raised up one plate? I'm no expert on cars so I'm just thinking based on what I think looks nice, not what would be realistic. And you know better than I do what the designs look like from different angles.

So the winners have been declared in that video contest on Tongal. Here are the winners and the awards they received. The winning videos can all be viewed at LEGO Club TV's YouTube channel. Needless to say, they're all really silly, and some of them are downright bad (IMO, of course), but the top-prize-winning videos are pretty enjoyable.

Those Exo-Force faces work quite well with those custom Samurai helmets and masks, especially the red and green ones. I had seen the minifig.cat site before, but this is perhaps my first time getting a good look at what the parts look like on minifigures. They're very different in style than official LEGO parts, especially the "helmet badge" on the red one which is very thin and pointy, but they look good in a MOC like this one. On that note, I also like the display base you built here. There's a nice contrast between the heavily-armed samurai and the serene shoreline thick with colorful vegetation.

Incidentally (LEGO City Undercover-related, but also sets-related), this page says there are codes included in LEGO City Police boxes. Does anyone have any of these? There's no mention of them in any of the reviews from the Reviews Index, which makes me think they might be on the inside of the boxes and not someplace obvious like the instruction booklets. If, that is, they're in this year's LEGO City sets at all-- since the game is (I believe) due for a holiday release, it's possible that they are going to appear in next year's sets, or (hopefully not, but possible) only in later production runs of this year's police sets. I don't have any of this year's LEGO City Police sets. My dad bought the Forest Police Station at a LEGO store, but our family hasn't opened it and probably won't anytime soon since we've been trying to tidy up our house for a party we're hosting this month.

I had not noticed these differences before you pointed them out, and I still don't see any jagged-looking diagonal lines in my instruction booklet for 9445 Fangpyre Truck Ambush. I do, however, notice the lack of the gaps between the holes of studless Technic beams. I wonder if the intent of this particular change might not be to "cheapen" the instructions but rather to make them more legible (counting the holes to determine where a pin goes is easier without the frequent gaps). I'll admit that it's been years since I've built a Mega Bloks set, but as far as I can tell, LEGO instruction manuals are still not close to that level of quality. They are still extremely legible (even more so now that TLG has started putting white borders around black parts, just as they did decades ago when instructions had much simpler shading of parts), the colors look very authentic (except, I now notice, in the case of the blended flames from Fangpyre Truck Ambush, which look like a medium lilac pattern on a transparent bright bluish-violet flame rather than a transparent bright bluish-violet flame that blends to medium lilac near the base), and I rarely find myself having to second-guess anything when building from printed instructions.

Ummm... they do that, with the exception that they have "Most commented" in place of "editors'/critics' picks). The main site just has the most supported projects, but most of the time when checking the site I navigate from the "Discover" page, and I'm sure a lot of other users do as well.