Aanchir

Actually, Galidor was not a licensed theme as far as I'm aware. Information on it is hard to come by because it of course isn't a brand TLG likes to brag about, but as I understand it TLG created the franchise just as they have done with BIONICLE and Ninjago. It's possible that being their first foray into creating a full-length TV series, they gave up more creative freedom to the producers of the show than they have done with Ninjago, but TLG was still the driving force behind the brand's promotion from beginning to end.

Has anyone here looked at the text on the book pages in the Monster Fighters character videos? They're hilariously self-aware, especially Frank Rock's. Very witty. I hope there is more media still to come for this theme that maintains that sharp, tongue-in-cheek humor.

The Brickmaster books are hardcover books that consist of building instructions for several models within a theme and come packaged with 100-300 parts to build those models. They are unrelated to the LEGO Brickmaster magazine, which was a "premium" magazine subscription TLG offered until last year, which included bonus magazine content and a small polybag set with each issue. Just telling you so that if you hear the word "Brickmaster" you don't assume people are talking about the books (though in this case I was). A Hero Factory Brickmaster set could be awesome, and might be pretty feasible with the new building system, although chances are it wouldn't have as many parts as System ones since HF shells and torso beams tend to be somewhat large.

I don't think something is "not a MOC" just because it uses a custom part or another company's part. After all, if somebody built a LEGO model that used non-LEGO string (or something more absurd like a banana) it wouldn't disqualify it from being a MOC. Why should something designed as a building toy component be any different? Granted, if something were built where non-LEGO parts were the majority, then I might appreciate it less than a LEGO MOC. But that has nothing to do with the creativity of the builder, and the model would still be (Their) Own Creation.

I imagine the next Pirates sets will be based on the next PotC movie. The next time we'll see classic Pirates will probably happen when there is a long enough hiatus between PotC movies that the older PotC sets will lose their appeal and there will be enough demand to support a separate Pirates theme, or alternatively if demand for pirate-based sets starts to pick up enough that licensed and non-licensed sets can coexist (like happened with Space sets and Star Wars sets in 2007 after a long time without non-licensed Space sets). In general, it's hard to say if the demand is there for new pirates sets (licensed or non-licensed) every year. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the lack of a full Pirates theme in 2010 had to do with this. TLG decided that they'd make more money continuing to sell the previous year's Pirates sets than they would with a new wave. Then in 2011 PotC arrived to pick up the slack, followed by another hiatus in 2012. This could easily be the shape of things in the years to come-- new Pirates sets every other year rather than every year.

The description on LEGOLAND Billund's site mentions "the snake armies" or something to that effect in the section for the Forsaken Desert (Sea of Sand?). So I think the Serpentine will be included there, even if most of the things seem like they'll be 2011 locations.

Fandom definitely plays a role in which licensed themes get me excited, although to be perfectly honest I don't feel like I should respond to the poll since it's been years since I actually bought a licensed set.

Steampunk-licious! Level 3 didn't excite me too much, as I felt it lacked the variety of the Level 1 and 2 kits (needless to say, I'll probably get it anyway when I'm done with levels 1 and 2). But Level 4 is looking extremely appealing!

So this is happening this month. Seems interesting. It's definitely something that TLG never attempted with BIONICLE or, for that matter, any in-house IP. The best part is that LEGOLAND Deutschland's site makes it sound like the locations will correspond to locations we've actually seen in Ninjago media, like the Monastery of Spinjitzu and Forest of Tranquility. I'm sure these will be a significant building challenge for the Master Builders, but I'm also certain they won't disappoint! I wonder if it will use traditional Miniland "little people" figures... it will be interesting to see how they build the Serpentine snakemen at a larger scale!

Actually, they did use the turntable base by itself in mass quantities in the Taj Mahal set. All the more reason they should be listed separately.

Personally, I love the look of the Pythor figure. It looks a bit worse in the product images than it does in the Toy Fair image, since it's covering up his chest icon, but I think it makes for a pretty menacing look, since it lunges forward and comes nearly eye-to-eye with a regular minifigure. I also like his expression. I would probably dislike the expression if I did Brickfilms or something and so wanted a less emotion-specific expression, but then again that could be said for a lot of minifigures, even those without specialized head molds. I don't think a hinged mouth would have suited him very well at all. I get the idea it would hang loosely open all the time (there's not much space there for a high-friction connection that wouldn't be too brittle), and the I'm not sure how I feel about the black arms. They look OK, add detail, and emphasize the "snakiness" of his body. But I did really like the look he sported at Toy Fair, and it certainly made it feel like his arms were more connected with the rest of his body. On a side note, if you click "Look Inside" here, one of the pages shows Pythor and some of the other generals, and Pythor does indeed have his black arms, implying that the choice to give him black arms was made quite a while back (the book was published in March at least, and the illustrations would have had to be made well before then).

So has anyone spotted the Hero Factory "readers" yet in bookstores? Meet the Heroes and Heroes in Action are both supposed to be out. I'm not entirely sure what to expect. The BIONICLE readers were pretty neat, what with their hand-drawn illustrations, but I don't know if we can expect the same from these. Given the descriptions I wouldn't be surprised if they're just "guide books" that use official LEGO images of the sets and/or screenshots from the TV episode. Either way, though, the cover art at least implies that they would include information and pictures of the summer set characters. The author, Shari Last, seems from a Google search to be primarily a writer of licensed guide books and sticker books, including several LEGO ones like the Ninjago and Harry Potter Ultimate Sticker Collections, the Ninjago "Brickmaster" book from last year, and the LEGO Star Wars Character Encyclopedia (with two additional authors). Even more reason not to expect original storytelling from these, but then again we shouldn't have any shortage of that given the two Hero Factory "Secret Mission" books we're expecting from Greg Farshtey by the end of the year.

No photos, but I can whip one up in LDD for you. A regular plate attached to studs underneath is the same height as a baseplate "resting" on those same studs. I've tested it in real life to be sure that it works, and it does. I've always thought that this would be a great way to create "roads" for the modular buildings without having to transplant them from their original baseplates-- just build some custom streets out of these with either larger baseplates or a framework of plates underneath, and you'll have roads you can modify in length with much more freedom than you could with road plates. To use road plates for this purpose, you'll need to transplant them from their original baseplates, and unless you use the extremely old ones with eight-stud curbs (610, 611, 612), then you have to insert irregularly-sized alleyways in between some of your buildings (since the size of the block from corner to corner will not be divisible by 16 studs, the size of the narrowest of the modular buildings). This is just one reason why I love plates compared to baseplates. Even if road plates have their charm, and are cheaper than many roads built from regular plates, they are constraining in terms of size. On a side note, I've long been wanting to put together a Cuusoo proposal for a modular road system based on this principle. I should have one up by the end of next week! I'll post it here in case anybody's interested.

I've always been kind of iffy about these torsos. Personally, I tend to prefer printed curves which to me just look... curvier than this. Part of that might be because of how the bottom of the minifigure torso bulges out slightly more than the top of the legs assembly, meaning that the curve can never be "consistent"-- there will always be that bulge. One advantage that it does have over printed curves in some cases is that it does follow the one most important "rule" of a human minifigure design: a LEGO skeleton torso could easily fit within the outer boundaries of this torso design, unlike some printed torsos (especially, but not limited to, customs) which make female minifigures look absurdly thin-- I'm thinking of ones like this lady's. As for the transparent torso, I'm not surprised it works; if it didn't then I'm sure Arealight wouldn't be selling them. However, that really tells us nothing about the potential for transparent minifigure parts in official LEGO sets. You state yourself that these feel like a different material than LEGO's ABS and polycarbonate formulations, so it's possible that they would fail to meet LEGO's quality standards in one or more respects (color fastness/child safety/structural stability/"clutch power"). Additionally, this test doesn't really even tell us anything about the hand, arm, and leg connections between transparent parts, which likely would be the most fragile parts of a transparent minifigure (the head-torso connection could be stiff in a LEGO product due to the PC/PC connection but it would not likely cause any visible exterior damage to the parts). The transparent torso does show something that might be part of the reason TLG doesn't make torsos with "curves"-- the outer wall of the minifigure torso is narrower in the curved portion than it is at the base of the torso. In TLG's preferred plastics this might make the torso brittle.

I'm perfectly OK with regular plates replacing baseplates. Admittedly it could be carried out better than it is in the Helicopter Rescue set. But in general regular plates are more versatile, more sturdy, and don't leave gaps where the corners meet. It's also surprisingly easy to incorporate regular plates with baseplates. A road plate sitting on top of a regular baseplate's studs will have the same "ground height" as a regular plate attached to the same regular baseplate's studs.

I'm not really fond of this proposal, even though it's more thought-out than most Bring Back BIONICLE proposals. Frankly, a lot of the character designs are extremely awkward and inconsistent. And the classic characters have almost no meaningful resemblance to their previous depictions. Since an all-around negative opinion of the project as a whole doesn't really help you to improve it, though, let me give some more specific insights on the individual MOCs: Perlan: Perhaps the best design, but the color scheme is mind-numbingly boring. A non-neutral secondary color for his limbs might help. Xeran: Again, decent, but nothing to really make me want a set of him. Dezalk: The sheer number of Matoran and Agori here makes them boring. This model offers nothing besides parts that wasn't already in most Matoran and Agori sets. Additionally, his armor styles look inconsistent (the very organic chest armor doesn't match any other part of his design). Nireta: Decent. One question I have though is why anyone would want sets of largely-irrelevant characters like Nireta and Dezalk. Sure, they could potentially be given more significant story roles, but as it is there's nothing all that special about either one, and since they don't have a classic look there's no real nostalgic value for them either. At least re-imagined Toa Mata might have that to their advantage. Metus: Doesn't look that much like Metus, and the design is boring compared to his previous appearance. Keep in mind that creative, stylish weapons play a large role in giving models personality. Ziraklix: I can't even tell what this model is supposed to be. Some kind of Rahi? Its physique doesn't look like a really imposing beast, and its posture is too awkward for even a bestial humanoid. Marendar: Hoo boy. This one's a doozy. At least Hero Factory titan sets like Fire Lord had imposing-looking physiques. This guy has an inexplicable torso structure (narrow at the top, then bulging out to the sides and front somewhere between the chest and the waist) leg suspension that doesn't look like it would actually work, huge gaps, inconsistent limb designs (lower limbs are chunky and streamlined due to the Hero Factory shells used, while the upper limbs look blocky and boring), and an extremely ill-advised two-color color scheme with few accents. Orde: Fairly boring and generic. The color scheme is decent and somewhat exciting, but the generic physique and armor styles spoil that. Shenra: The coolest so far, with a body design that reminds me somewhat of Bitil. Kabrua: A decent design, but it feels more like a retread of Vorox than like a model with its own unique personality. Jasok: Like Marendar, he suffers from his torso that is scarcely even torso-shaped. And like Perlan he has a boring color scheme. Kopaka: One of the best models. His tool is neat, his armor styles are somewhat consistent with one another, he has an appealing three-color color scheme, and he actually feels like Kopaka in terms of personality. Malum: Doesn't really feel much like Malum, though I'm glad you put in the effort by giving him claw-based weapons and a decent amount of bulk. Yes, Glatorian can wear any style of armor, but there has to be some way of knowing that the character is in fact the same. Overall, I can't see too much value in this other than as a parts pack, and even then it suffers due to using several somewhat dated part designs. I understand that LDD imposes certain limitations, but still some of these MOCs show you have the potential for much better than the sketchier-looking designs on display here. One thing I'd recommend, if you want Cuusoo support, is to narrow the project. Trying to get a full wave of BIONICLE sets made through Cuusoo is just silly-- even when BIONICLE was around, people who would buy the entire wave of sets were few and far between. And these models feel somewhat rushed, whereas small group of medium-sized models with more attention to detail could more easily show a lot more creativity and design talent. Optimus Convoy's Toa Mata are more along the lines of Hero Factory/BIONICLE models I'd like to see on Cuusoo: lots of nostalgic appeal, but still with unique builds and loads of personality. Just my opinion, of course. I'm probably not the kind of BIONICLE fan you're targeting-- I'm pretty much indifferent regarding whether BIONICLE comes back, whereas this sort of project might appeal to those people who are desperate to have it back in full force with lots of new content no matter what form that takes. Which I don't mean as any insult to those fans, as I recognize that BIONICLE's immense scale was one of the things that makes it so memorable.

The press release about HRT's cancellation confirmed that the new Hero Creator will not be able to create purchasable heroes. The thing is, unless they could somehow get lots more people to buy things through the service, it wouldn't be profitable. And since they pretty much already simplified the process as much as possible while still allowing some freedom, I figure they've rejected that option. In the meantime, while the days of custom instruction booklets are over, the online Pick-A-Brick service still offers loads of great Hero Factory parts on-demand, and at lower prices than Design byME or Hero Recon Team offered. The only time I ever really considered a HRT purchase was back at the very beginning when the unique co-injected chest plate was available. After that stopped being available the service really had nothing to boast other than being a more constrained LDD with lower prices than Design byME (which I almost -never- considered actually using since Pick-A-Brick had better prices than either service).

I definitely think that yes, there is a bit of a double-standard, but it's not TLG's. TLG is simply analyzing "acceptable/unacceptable" as they expect it to be perceived by their customers. They have a few strict rules of their own that don't involve their customers' POV, but for the most part the customers' perspective is what matters. So it's understandable that things considered "classics", franchises that the parents of their target audience grew up with, might get a free pass where newer franchises those parents might never have heard of will be treated with more even-handed scrutiny. The newer and less familiar something is, the more likely parents are to feel offended and/or threatened by it. It's the difference between looking back at something with rose-colored glasses and reading its Wikipedia article looking specifically for objectionable content. It should also be considered that even with their in-house licenses TLG likes to play it safe. They didn't do any sets for the sixth Harry Potter film when that was first released. They also didn't do any sets for Temple of Doom when the Indiana Jones theme was first released. They first "tested the waters" with less objectionable installments before taking larger risks with the more controversial ones later on. With a Cuusoo proposal they don't necessarily have that liberty. The set is the theme, and so even if it sticks to "tame" content, for many people it will carry the weight of the whole franchise and all its content regardless of appropriateness. It's not pretty; it's not fair; but it's a risk TLG has good reason to want to avoid, especially since they don't want the fledgling Cuusoo project to get a reputation for creating projects that (from some customers' perspectives) compromise their brand values.

It's definitely related to the reasons Design byME was shut down: specifically, most of the users weren't actually buying the products. I was also surprised that it ended seeing as it tended to rank higher than Design byME in sales, but in both cases it seemed the issue was just parents and kids failing to understand the process or benefits of designing and ordering custom models. Nabii's comment here (search for "Nabii" on the page to get to it quickly) goes into a bit more detail about Design byME's closing. HRT was simpler than Design byME in a lot of ways, but apparently not enough to make a considerable impact on sales, much less make it profitable. Note that even if it could sell as well as a lot of "standard" sets, it takes stronger sales to make a custom-ordering service profitable because fewer stages of production can be done in identical mass quantities. Packing 10,000 identical Rocka 3.0 sets is a lot more efficient than packing 10,000 Hero sets that are all different, especially when each needs a custom-printed instruction booklet. The fact that both of these services have ended makes me worry about the future of TLG's last custom-ordering process, the online Pick-A-Brick. Hopefully that proves successful enough to stay around-- certainly, unlike those other two services, it simplifies the custom-ordering process to the bare minimum of complexity. You pay for the pieces you want and you get them. No more struggling to understand why the pieces cost so much, because you only buy the ones which you consider reasonable in price. No more trying to figure out whether it would be cheaper to use your own pieces, because you only use it to supplement the pieces you already have. The main thing that makes the Pick-a-Brick service potentially risky is that its appeal lies with AFOLs, or with KFOLs who happen to take their building very seriously and thus know what parts they want/need. But in the very least it does a better job meeting the demands of that audience than the other two custom-ordering services did.

OK, if any staff can help Gatanui with his registration problems, his Flickr account is here. I'm pretty sure a lot of the staff here have Flickr, and that way you can contact him directly and I don't have to act as a go-between.

The Epic Dragon Battle is by far the one I'm most anticipating, because it includes great minifigures and a great dragon design. However, I find the Great Devourer in the set a bit underwhelming. The Ultra Sonic Raider is perhaps the coolest model from the wave all-around, but my younger brother intends to get that, which is probably just as well since by that time I'm sure I'll have most of the minifigures from that set (besides Pythor, of course). I'm not all that impressed by the Samurai Mech or Lasha's Bite Cycle, which kind of surprises me since those are both designed by Mark Stafford and I usually love his set designs. The Samurai Mech is brilliant in a lot of ways, but doesn't appeal to me as much as the other Ninja vehicles this year. Lasha's Bite Cycle is nicely-designed but seems lacking in play features compared to many of the other vehicle sets this year.

I think if people creating fake accounts to support Cuusoo projects were a problem then we wouldn't be seeing obvious reasons for surges in support for particular projects. As it is, many of the projects to gain support at an unusual rate do so right after a celebrity plugs the project either on TV or online, or when a major fansite for the franchise links to a project. It's possible that there are people creating fake accounts on Cuusoo to gain more support, but I'd expect these to be more noobish users who don't end up actually making a difference rather than dedicated hackers who fully intend to rig the system. Moreover, I expect that the Cuusoo staff pay attention to whether projects are getting an unusual amount of support from a certain IP, especially when projects start to gain supporters rapidly. This could at some point pose a problem but as far as I can see it hasn't done so yet.

The problem with that is that I believe the 2011 episodes are rerun occasionally as ordinary episodes. Plus, Wil Film treats those episodes (and the mini-movies) as season 1 on their Vimeo. Same with production designer Bjarne Hansen on his blog. So yeah, the 2011 stuff was never meant to be a full season and I'm sure they were fully prepared to leave it as just a special if it didn't have a lot of viewership. But that still doesn't clear up the issue entirely. For now on TNW we're still calling the 2011 stuff season 1 and the 2012 stuff Season 2 just because those are the terms most of the fans seem to be using online and we don't want to cause confusion until we absolutely have to.

Heroica Ilrion available on Toys 'R' Us website Odd that we see it as available somewhere before we've seen high-resolution official images.

The trouble with creating rules to limit these sorts of creations is that they risk discouraging creativity. There are a lot of licensed proposals that could be very successful, like the DeLorean you mention which has tremendous pop culture appeal. The Legend of Zelda proposal could also have great appeal for video game fans. I think the easiest way to encourage original proposals would be to keep licensed proposals around and keep letting them reach 10,000 supporters. Already two licensed proposals have gotten to the review phase through the international site: one was accepted, the other was rejected. Some of the licensed proposals like the Stormtrooper bucket are almost certain to be rejected due to difficulties in securing a licensing agreement (attempts to sell Star Wars minifigures that aren't part of a building set have been snuffed out quickly by Hasbro in the past). Once people realize that licensed projects inherently carry a greater risk of rejection than original proposals, we may see more original proposals being created and gaining support. After all, the Shaun of the Dead proposal failed primarily due to the license it was tied to. An original zombie proposal with the same level of artistry could potentially get through the review phase more successfully. And if TLG saw anything objectionable in the model itself, they have more freedom to change things about the model in an original proposal than in a licensed proposal where they would have to negotiate changes with the owner of the intellectual property to ensure the product remains "authentic".