Aanchir

I interpreted it as Medium Stone Grey (light bluish gray). A sand green haunted house would be good for parts, but I think it would lose a lot of the iconic haunted house look by being so colorful, so I'm hoping I'm correct.

There are no sets currently known that have the NRG Ninja in them other than the spinners. If any of them appears again, it will be either in a store exclusive set for this year or a set for next year. With that said, the spinners for the NRG Ninja are gorgeous. They no longer feature the characters' emblems, which is a bit of a shame, but on the plus side this makes them appear more convincingly like a vortex of elemental energy, which is what Spinjitzu is officially supposed to look like anyway. Plus, the card art for the NRG ninja is amazing, and the cards will not be likely to appear anywhere except these spinner sets. Since they're a match set and extremely context-specific (they don't even really resemble the "true potential" forms from the show), I'd say getting the NRG Ninja minifigures is optional for anyone who's not a completionist. But if you're willing to pay for spinner sets at any point, I'd say these would be the ones to get.

There's a difference between a store-exclusive sets and "exclusive" (as in direct-to-consumer) sets. I think Alywin was talking about the latter as opposed to the former. Then again, keep in mind that the Imperial Flagship was released after a single wave of Pirates sets, and no other non-licensed Pirates sets followed it. Sure, that's a slightly different situation because Pirates is (supposedly) an evergreen theme, but I think it really shows that it doesn't matter whether the brand attached to a Direct-to-Consumer set is supposed to be continued within the immediate future. In the case of this haunted house, just like with the Imperial Flagship, the design quality seems to make it stand out by its own merits no matter what theme it's "officially" attached to. So sticking the Monster Fighters branding on it surely wouldn't do it any harm as far as I can tell.

The KMart site has a lot of images of the September spinner sets and booster packs: 9556 Bytar: Package Contents 9557 Lizaru: Package Contents 9573 Slithraa: Front Side Contents Versus 9574 Lloyd ZX 9590 NRG Zane: Front Side Contents In action Versus 9569 Spitta All of these sets are listed as "sold out", though I think that what they really are is "not in stock". The only September set not listed is 9574 Lloyd ZX. I did find a (smaller) image of it here, but the page it had been on seems to have been deleted, which makes me think TLG is being more secretive about this one than the others. Lloyd ZX's crown and spinner are both pretty amazing-looking. Each corner of the spinner has a pattern resembling that on one of the NRG Ninja spinners, and the crown has a similar four-element motif.

Hmmm, I'm having the same problem (begins "initializing" and then doesn't progress from there) And it was less than an hour ago that I was using LDD without any hassle. Very strange. Since quite a few people seem to have this problem, I get the idea it probably has something to do with the update server and not with any one user's computer.

This is a cool idea, but I get the idea it would be prohibitively expensive to buy enough of these display frames to display a significant number of minifigures. Plus, unlike the non-buildable display cases, these are probably more difficult to travel with, won't keep your figs from getting dusty, and may not have space for certain accessories. These display frames can't be hung on a wall, meaning that they'll invariably take up valuable desk/shelf space. They also don't seem to have an attachment points side-to-side, meaning that once your displays get to a certain height they're very liable to tumble-- and unlike the non-buildable display cases, might not survive a great fall in one piece. You could arrange the display frames like a wall made out of 2x2 bricks, of course, but I don't think that has the same advantage display-wise as a gridlike layout. Overall, this is a nice idea I'm sure some people would like, but for me it just seems like it would be an inefficient alternative to a real display case. I haven't had any huge desire to display my minifigure collection anyway, but if I did want to do so I don't think I'd be likely to settle for this.

Something that everybody should consider is that based on this product being solely series 3 minifigures, it's very possible that TLG couldn't release Series 1 and 2 figures as they had intended, and so had to choose between using just Series 3 figures or not releasing the product at all. In fact, the recolored parts are probably an indication that even some of the Series 3 parts were unavailable to them, and that they were forced to make substitutions. This post suggests that this is exactly what happened. For an ordinary set release, it would be understandable that they could bring parts back into production that had been removed from production, but the way this has taken place makes me think the issue was more a matter of logistical/bureaucratic complications and not a matter of the designers having a lot of choice in the matter. Perhaps the higher-ups couldn't afford a limited-release set like this the type of budget needed to bring a lot of parts back into production that had been removed. Perhaps the people writing the poll were under the impression that Series 1 through Series 3 figs would all be available, but then when it came time to design the product it turned out that wasn't the case. In any event it is unfortunate that TLG couldn't meet the expectations they themselves set when they created a poll to re-release five fan-favorite minifigures. But I believe that if the option to release the five most popular figs were in fact out there, then TLG would have put forth a greater effort to do so. Thus I think their "mistake" was in setting unreasonably-high expectations in the first place, and failing to meet those expectations was just a sad and unavoidable consequence.

You're correct in that it's not on LDD. However, for the benefit of the LDD team when this part is suggested to them, the actual design ID used for the one included in the Flying Dutchman (which is presumably a more current design) is 6076, according to this page.

Discovered some more concept art for the TV show here. It's amazing seeing how much work went into designing the various locations in this show. One of the most interesting, to me, is the concept art of Darkley's Boarding School for Bad Boys. I might not be remembering correctly, but I don't believe we ever saw it in that sort of grim lighting.

It's technically pronounced nin-JAH-go, and most official media pronounce it that way, but the spinner instructions command you to shout "ninja GO!" at the beginning of a spinner match, and the phrase "ninja GO!" appears frequently in both the show and its theme song "The Weekend Whip". Overall, since the double meaning (ninja GO! versus ninja+LEGO) is so deliberate you could probably get away with pronouncing it either way (I kind of switch back and forth, depending on what I'm talking about and who I'm talking to), but some videos and blog posts have made it clear that nin-JAH-go is the official pronunciation.

In some respects this is a creative use of parts, but there's one thing that bothers me about its appearance. On a real insect, the legs all tend to be attached around the central body segment,and are thus very close together. On this model, the legs are spread out across the entire body, with two coming right out from under the head. The way you have them attached currently, it would be impossible to get them much closer together. But I think it would look a lot more lifelike if you found a new way to attach them.

In this case, it's just a separate number for the individual part. TLG doesn't just tack letters onto the end of "sub-parts" or "assemblies" the way Bricklink does. They have to have separate numerical part IDs for these items. It's the same way the minifig torso-arms-hands assembly on LDD is 76382. I can assure you that this isn't a matter of there being a new remold for that part, so there's no need to worry about that. It's just that TLG only uses the number 6246 for the complete sprue of parts, not the individual part. Not sure whether sets exist that use it as an individual part (not on a sprue) and have a unique mold for it, but if so then I doubt it's a recent phenomenon.

Another thing to consider concerning LEGO prices in Australia, including shipping & handling, is that TLG might not have the same shipping infrastructure in Australia that they have in America. For instance, they might have fewer distribution centers, or the highway network in Australia might simply prove less convenient (just looking at Australia and the United States on Google Maps at the same zoom level shows that Australia seems to have fewer major highways, while the United States has an absurd spiderweb of highways east of the Mississippi River and a substantial network further west). This means that even once the sets are in the country, it might be less efficient (and thus, more expensive) to ship them to the various parts of the country. Rather than charging substantially higher shipping costs for LEGO buyers in low-population or remote areas, the higher costs of shipping to these areas are spread across all LEGO customers in the country. This isn't necessarily a case of favoritism on TLG's part, it could just be a matter of TLG having seen more growth in the United States than in Australia. If so, then as TLG's presence in Australia grows prices might begin to fall. But other factors like the many AndyC mentioned could very well continue to pose a problem unless radical shifts in all of those factors take place.

The latest Cuusoo blog post is cool. It definitely gives some insight that will be useful if I consider making Cuusoo projects of my own-- for instance, the part about sticking to new ideas and new categories means I probably shouldn't bother trying to release sets that fit into some of my favorite currently-running themes like Ninjago, unless they have something making them very unique compared to the existing products for the theme (like, for instance, a Ninjago chess set, which wouldn't likely cannibalize sales from regular model and spinner sets).

I kind of disagree, because I bought the Brick Calendar primarily for the calendar itself, not the figs. The figs were a nice bonus, but a bunch of uniquely-printed calendar bricks were too good to pass up. In contrast, this set is very nicely-designed and great for people who missed out on these minifigures, but I don't fall into that category. Incidentally, does the instruction booklet have a parts list in the back, and can you take a picture of it? I've been collecting service.LEGO.com part images from the Collectible Minifigures since I discovered that the Brick Calendar's instruction booklet included element IDs.

Well, not all early 2012 Hero Factory parts are there. The updates, when it comes to Hero Factory, are pretty inclusive but not comprehensive. For instance, the summer 2011 update included most of the summer 2011 Hero Factory parts, but was missing a few of the villain sets' prints and helmets. The January 2012 update added most of the early 2012 parts, but lacked that chest piece you mention, as well as some of the villains' helmets and the much-desired friction joint 98613. I'm grateful for the Hero Factory parts they do give us, at any rate. For a theme that introduces so many parts, TLG is remarkably prompt about making those parts available digitally. I certainly hope that there will be an update in the next few months where we get some of the summer Hero Factory parts as well as some of the early 2012 parts that were skipped in the latest update.

I see no reason they wouldn't return Pirates after PotC. The only complication is that we don't know when "after PotC" will be. It's quite possible that the next Pirates wave we see will correspond to the next PotC film, and if that's the case then it would probably be another year-long hiatus before the possibility of classic Pirates comes up again. I think it's easy to understand why TLG doesn't want to release classic Pirates and PotC at the same time. As it is, notice that there haven't been two consecutive years with full waves of Pirates sets whether licensed or non-licensed in the past decade. It's similar to how TLG seems to only release a really big castle every other year. I get the idea that they only want one really big castle and one really big pirate ship on regular retail shelves every two years, probably because larger sets don't tend to sell at nearly the same rate as smaller sets and so they want to give buyers a lot of time to invest in the big sets. It's just that in the Pirates theme, they seemingly don't see much point in releasing a wave of smaller sets in between big pirate ships-- and I can't say I blame them for that either. I don't think a petition would do much good, because I think TLG already knows what kind of demand there is for classic Pirates sets in the AFOL community. The problem is that there are probably other market forces involved in such a decision-- they probably don't want to release classic Pirates sets that will still be on store shelves when the next PotC film is released because they're worried about the two themes cannibalizing each other's sales.

I am another "90s kid" (born in 1991), and yes, I have a lot of parts and minifigures older than me, most of them bought either from yard sales or online. I've never put forth too much of an effort to keep minifigures and sets older than me together, though.

They did something similar with Atlantis. My guess is that they don't want to remove one of the biggest set's key play features by not including all of the moonstones. In Atlantis it was a somewhat different case of course because the "Portal of Atlantis" set was in the theme's second wave, and as such you may have already had a collection of treasure keys by the time you got the Portal. Look at it this way, though-- if you get this set alone, you miss out on the monsters that correspond to the individual moonstones, and for an AFOL those are the real treasure.

I bought the Ninjago Weapon Pack yesterday at Target. I've already taken photos for a review which I plan to post on The Ninjago Wiki eventually. In the meantime, we should have a different set review up sometime this afternoon. To sum up my thoughts, I'm pleasantly surprised by the design of Chokun's new snake spinner crown. NRG Kai is also an amazing fig, as expected. And this set is definitely what I'd recommend to someone interested in the new spinners but turned away by the price of regular spinner sets. After all, it's essentially the contents of two spinner sets plus the "bonus contents" of two booster packs for the price of the two spinner sets alone.

I think the pink, lime, and white go together quite nicely on the RV, actually. It's nice to have a vibrant accent color to offset all those pastels. It's the build of the RV that really fails to impress me. Its asymmetry, awkwardly-designed trailer, and somewhat boring interior don't really seem to match up in terms of quality with this year's Car & Caravan from the City theme.

Awesome MOC! I love the dome and Power Functions elevators. Do you plan on building an interior, though? One of the things that makes a museum such a great idea for a modular building is the potential for cool exhibits! I'd love to see some type of brick-built dinosaur skeleton, which would be well-suited to a natural history museum.

Your photos are awfully large and blurry. I'm no expert on photography so can't tell at a glance what the reason for this is, but I recommend reading some of the photography tips here. Anyway, I'm not entirely impressed with this MOC. It feels quite plain. The robotic arm has some neat styling, but I think the upper arm and robotic upper leg should be made bulkier somehow so they're more visually consistent with his lower arm and giant claw.

I don't understand why people complain about Surge having a high-pitched voice. It seems just as stupid to me as when people complain about Applejack from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic because of how they "hate Southern accents". People exist with high-pitched voices. It makes sense to give a high-pitched voice to a hero with a more youthful, naive personality than his teammates. And frankly, his voice isn't terribly squeaky anyway. I've had friends with voices not too unlike that.

Ummmmm... Padme was played by Natalie Portman, actually. But yeah, female heads do get reused a lot in the Star Wars theme these days.