Aanchir

Well, you could always post an original model inspired by his own models. Perhaps a fleet of mini versions of his designs?

Shortcut to Part One: Hero Factory Shortcut to Part Two: Ninjago Shortcut to Part Three: City Shortcut to Part Four: Monster Fighters and Dino Shortcut to Part Five: Super Heroes Shortcut to Part Six: Friends This year, I was able to go to the New York International Toy Fair for the first time as a representative of the BIONICLE wiki BIONICLEsector01 and its sister site HEROsector01. Together with fellow BS01/HS01 staff member Chols, who took most of the photos, I attended the LEGO Collectors Preview where representatives of LEGO fansites can view and photograph the new sets for an extended two-hour timeframe (our invitations unfortunately did not cover admission to the full three-day Toy Fair event, so externally-produced LEGO products like clocks and watches were not among the things we saw). Since our sites' normal coverage doesn't extend outside the constraction themes, we reached an agreement with Eurobricks to share with them our coverage of the LEGO Collectors Preview and all the sets and themes on display. Part seven of our coverage are the themes Creator, Racers, and Games, each of which continues to have a presence in the 2012 lineup. Creator Creator is a very traditional sort of theme. As per tradition, every Creator set has instructions for three different models, with additional alternate models sometimes presented in LEGO Club magazines. Seven Creator sets already released in January were on display: 6910 Mini Sports Car 70 pieces USD 5.99 CAD 7.99 Other currencies from Brickset Model B Model C There's not much to say about a mini-model like this, except that I like the A model best. The "super go-cart" and flatbed truck seem to struggle a bit more in making do with the sports car's parts. 6911 Mini Fire Rescue 69 pieces USD 5.99 CAD 7.99 Other currencies from Brickset Model A Model B Model C This set's models (a fire engine, fire chief's off-roader, and firefighting helicopter) all look impressive. If I had to choose between this year's two mini-models, I'd go for this one. 6912 Super Soarer 130 pieces USD 12.99 CAD 15.99 Other currencies from Brickset Model B Model C This jet is very attractive, although not as appealing as some of the larger supersonic jets in previous years. The functional landing gear is a plus. Its B and C models, a speedboat and a helicopter, are not nearly as streamlined, but they make good use of the A model's parts. 6913 Blue Roadster 152 pieces USD 12.99 CAD 15.99 Other currencies from Brickset Model A Model B Model C No matter how many street cars appear in the LEGO Creator theme, the designers always seem able to come up with new and imaginative B and C models, in this case an off-roader and a vintage race car. The opening doors and medium blue details are also great assets of this set. 6914 Prehistoric Hunters 191 pieces USD 17.99 CAD 17.99 Other currencies from Brickset Model B Model C The color layering of these dinosaurs (a T-Rex, a pterodactyl, and a brachiosaurus) is obviously more chaotic than the sleek, streamlined look of this year's vehicle-based sets, and the proportions of all three models leave something to be desired. The set's main assets are its dark red parts and many teeth/claws. 7291 Street Rebel 196 pieces USD 19.99 CAD 24.99 Other currencies from Brickset Model B Model C I'm quite impressed that three very unique-looking motorcycles (a street bike, a chopper, and a moped) could all be built with the same pieces. All three have working steering, but only the first offers working suspension. This is by far the most Technic-intensive Creator set for the year. 7292 Propellor Adventures 241 pieces USD 19.99 CAD 24.99 Other currencies from Brickset Model B Model C This set's three models put the aforementioned Super Soarer in its place. The sleek but bulky twin-prop plane is brilliant even ignoring the movable landing gear, but the fighter jet and hovercraft you can also build from these parts are also impressive in their own right. Additionally, three Creator sets slated for release in August were on display: 7345 Transport Chopper 383 pieces USD 34.99 CAD 44.99 This colorful and streamlined helicopter can be rebuilt into a somewhat less streamlined transport boat or seaplane. But as far as I can tell the colors are well-arranged on all three models, even if none has the awesome diagonal stripe created by the slope bricks on the side of the A model. 7346 Seaside House 415 pieces USD 49.99 CAD 59.99 The Creator houses are fairly popular with AFOLs, largely due to being minifigure-scale. This Seaside House has a unique color scheme, although I know some people are frustrated with bright red roofs. Like last year's Creator houses, this set uses basic plates rather than specialized baseplates, which here allows for a gradual shoreline that is rearranged in the B and C models, a beach townhouse and beach cottage. 7347 Highway Pickup 805 pieces USD 79.99 CAD 99.99 This set contains two light bricks to activate the lights on top, with a convenient and inconspicuous button that activates both at once. It's a very well-designed function. The stripe pattern on the hood/bonnet reminds me of the old Model Team sets. The set can be rebuilt into a convertible or a crane truck, both of which are just as snazzy-looking as the A model. Racers Racers sets this year put traditional race car and street car racing on the back burner, instead focusing on monster truck rallies. The smaller selection of sets than usual and lack of Tiny Turbos this year is probably to avoid competition between these sets and the Cars licensed theme. All four Racers sets on display were released in January: 9092 Crazy Demon 86 pieces USD 9.99 CAD 12.99 Other currencies from Brickset This year's Racers sets all have a "crash" function-- pressing the front bumper makes the minifigure driver pop out. In this way, they are reminiscent of the first Racers sets, although these sacrifice the strange slammer-containers of those sets, instead offering traditional minifigures and actual building complexity. A Devon Daredevil minifigure is included. 9093 Bone Cruncher 87 pieces USD 9.99 CAD 12.99 Other currencies from Brickset As you can see, the structure of these Racers sets is somewhat repetitive, although of course the nature of their function means you would want them to be evenly-matched. Each driver has unique helmet and torso prints, although the faces are from various earlier sets. This set's driver is named Motor Mike. 9094 Star Striker 88 pieces USD 9.99 CAD 12.99 Other currencies from Brickset The box pic here shows off the crash function. The reason for the inflated price-per-piece of these sets is probably their oversized wheels and tires. This set includes the driver minifigure Captain Stunt. The exciting, graphic-covered race uniforms remind me of some Race sets from the 90s as well as the 2002 Drome Racers sets. 9095 Nitro Predator 87 pieces USD 9.99 CAD 12.99 Other currencies from Brickset Naturally, these Racers sets aren't extremely realistic monster trucks—after all, what monster truck would fling its driver into danger upon crashing? But Racers has never had a track record for realism, except perhaps in its licensed sets. This set's bright yellowish-green parts and even stickers might be desirable for Ninjago builders. Includes the driver minifigure Nitro Nick. Games Of the LEGO Games on display, three of them (3862 Harry Potter Hogwarts, 3860 Castle Fortaan, and 3856 Ninjago) were not new, and were probably only at the event because they had proven successful and the LEGO Group wanted to continue marketing them to retailers. Three other games were new for 2012, with various release dates: 3865 CITY Alarm 247 pieces USD 19.99 CAD 24.99 This game had a March release date, and I have in fact seen it in stores since a few weeks after attending Toy Fair. This "Cops and Robbers" game pits two players (or, in its four-player version, two teams) against each other in an amusing microscale version of LEGO City. 3874 HEROICA Ilrion 240 pieces USD 19.99 CAD 24.99 This game, the latest installment of the Heroica theme, is due for release in August. Microfigs include three zombies, the Vampire Lord, and the imprisoned King along with three heroes. Four bats and a fearsome giant bat also are involved in gameplay. The Hobbit Piece count, prices, and release date unknown This set was a real mystery-- it was not mentioned in the press kit we received as attendees, and as you can see the name card gives no information besides its name, year of release (2012), and recommended age (6+). Not even a set number! Chances are that it will be released in Fall 2012 (Spring 2012 for those of you in the southern hemisphere), the release date mentioned various places for upcoming sets based on the film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. That wraps it up for part seven! In part eight, we'll be covering the much-loved LEGO Star Wars theme. Stay tuned!

I'm surprised I haven't seen many complaints about the promotional Hulk figure lacking side-printing on his legs. For me that would be a deal-breaker, especially on a promotional figure like this one. I'm fond of the regular Hulk figure. He looks minifigure-like with his cylindrical head and flat-front feet, but also features an increase in detail to go with his increased size and of course more "hulk-like" proportions. I don't think a regular minifigure or even a "sized-up" minifigure would do him justice. Something like Toth's Giant body could have potentially worked as well, but I'm not sure that the relatively straight posture of that design would be quite right for Hulk. And if it were going to have specialized posture anyway I can definitely see the benefit of just going with a specialized body piece for him (one new mold versus specialized left leg, right leg, and torso molds that TLG would likely have difficulty using again). With that said, I do like that TLG seems to be thinking about versatility to a certain extent with the Hulk's design. I believe he uses the same arms as the LotR cave troll, although the Cave Troll uses unique two-fingered hands rather than Hulk's four-fingered hands.

I doubt they'd release Pythor as a regular polybag, let alone Pythor with his staff and emblem (since the Ninjago polybags don't tend to have unique parts). But these days it seems like unique printed parts in promotional sets are becoming more common. Just this year, the Kendo Jay promotional booster pack had a uniquely-printed spinner crown. So there's definitely the possibility of Pythor's emblem appearing in a promotional set of some kind. By the way, my twin brother and I recently built the Fangpyre Wrecking Ball and Fangpyre Truck Ambush, and took pictures for reviewing purposes. I think he'll be writing the reviews though since I've still got Toy Fair coverage to get through.

Gold ones will be included in 9570 NRG Jay, 9572 NRG Cole, and 9591 Tool Pack (NRG Kai vs. Chokun, which has two of them), so if you're really itching for gold lightsaber handles and don't mind buying spinner sets, you won't have to wait more than a month or two!

I'm thinking Stringer's size might be partially to ensure that his guitar is an adequate size next to him. Not sure how much of a difference it makes, but when I built the guitar on LDD it looked better (to me, anyway) next to a 21-module hero than next to a 24-module hero. By the way, I also did some graph paper doodles (yes, I am a nerd) and realized that Stormer XL's proportions are actually pretty good, at least as much as the 24-module heroes. Like the 24-module heroes, he could potentially be a couple modules shorter, and his arms could potentially be a module or so longer, but overall his physique looks pretty decent. His proportions are certainly better than the extremely long legs and comparably short torso of Fire Lord style sets. By the way, he's about 30 modules tall by my reckoning, so about two heads taller than a 24-module Hero (10 heads high). Not too shabby IMO. I still think I might end up modding my 24-module heroes a module or two shorter so that the legs are more in proportion to the body, but since I'm so impressed overall with Stormer XL I might decide against it. I wouldn't want him to tower over all his teammates by such a huge margin. Speaking of Stormer XL, one irony I observed recently-- looking back, wouldn't Lucas Valor technically have been the first XL hero we saw?

Great design! I love how you've converted him to the new building system while keeping the most distinctive parts of his design. I kind of preferred the glowing red eye to the green one since it has more contrast with the green parts on him, but obviously that's personal preference. I think the top view pic shows the main flaw of this design-- his "butt" sort of bulges out from his back. But on the whole this design is brilliant.

LEGO City is already more gender-neutral in its marketing than some themes, but obviously it's going to be marketed largely towards boys because boys are a more reliable consumer base for TLG than girls have been historically. Examples of ways in which LEGO City is marketed toward boys include the gender ratios (which are thankfully becoming more balanced this year), the number of vehicle-oriented sets and subthemes, and the emphasis on action in advertising the theme. So overall, I don't see how this pitch tells us anything about LEGO City's target audience that we didn't already know.

Awesome! I recognize some of these names and faces from LEGO.com videos and interviews. Amazing to see so much of the creative force behind the Hero Factory theme concentrated in one photograph!

I think his point was that the female torso design means it can only be used for female surgeons, not male ones. So populating the surgical wing of a hospital could be difficult without a huge gender imbalance.

I was pretty disappointed, yeah.

I really like XT4, personally. The color scheme is well-organized, the build is well-balanced (with one spike and one larger weapon on each side, with an otherwise symmetrical design), and the overall design is very unique compared to the typical humanoid villain. Most amateur MOCs I see tend to be ridiculously tall, disproportionate humanoids with armor and other details in an array of colors thrown on wherever possible. They're like most of the pre-2012 Hero Factory combiner models except larger and without the excuse of having limited parts to work with. XT4, in contrast, uses shells and other details quite sparingly, lending him a gangly alien-like anatomy. The only criticism I'd make of his build is that the hose connected to his buzz-saw seems to form a useless loop from one side of that "hand" to the other rather than connecting elsewhere on his body. The main way I think his color scheme could be improved would be to make his claw silver metallic rather than titanium metallic and make his laser transparent red rather than transparent fluorescent reddish-orange. Other than those two things, no obvious flaws stand out to me.

At first glance I read this as "flatulist". Big difference! I definitely agree, more musical instruments would be great to have for minifigures. Concert musicians are one way to get this, but I think a mariachi using the Maraca Man's hat in brick yellow (tan), a tuxedo, and a new acoustic guitar piece would be another nice possibility (not formatting it according to the topic because I believe I or someone else has proposed it already). Likewise, a tuba player could be put in a marching band uniform rather than a tuxedo for greater diversity of figs.

Weight checks are one of the most trusted means of checking mass-produced items to ensure they have the right quantity of contents. This applies to everything from LEGO sets to boxes of cereal. TLG probably also uses other means of quality control, like checking one set per batch to see if there are any omissions. But with mass-production at TLG's scale, it would be impossible to manually check each package individually for completion. Thus the weight check is invaluable: it's the best means they have of ensuring quality control for all sets produced, not just a few sample sets from a batch. Errors get by the weight check occasionally (in a particularly egregious example, my younger brother once got a BIONICLE set with a red 2x4 brick in place of the intended silver shoulder armor piece), but far more would get by if TLG didn't have the option of checking every box in some way or another. As for the uselessness of extra parts, that's a matter of opinion. Sometimes the smallest parts are the ones it's most useful to have multiples of, like 1x1 tiles for SNOT brick lettering and mosaics. Remember the outcry there was after the Collectible Minifigures stopped including extra parts? It wasn't huge, but there were some people who felt very strongly about getting extra minifigure accessories.

Well, there was Turaga Onewa's hammer, but that isn't all that impressive in terms of size.

So who else saw Legend of Korra last weekend on KorraNation.com? It's no longer up unfortunately, but they premiered the first two episodes there early as a reward for getting above a certain threshold in Facebook likes/shares. The series will be making its official television premiere on April 15, and I'm very excited from the episodes I've seen so far. The series has so much potential and I can't wait to see what kind of fun is in store.

Yeah, it was largely because of the introduction of darker skin tones. They decided that if they were going to do realistic skin tones, they might as well go all the way rather than labeling all their earlier yellow-skinned minifigures (including the Islanders from the Pirates theme and the Indians from the Western theme) as "white". It's clear to me based on those themes (as compared to the Red Indians) that TLG decided early on that the yellow-skinned minifigure would be racially neutral, and I don't think licensed themes should have been enough to go back on that decision. Granted, they didn't come to the decision to use fleshies for all races immediately. Originally, the Cloud City set did treat yellow skin as "white" and gave Lando Calrissian brown skin. To be perfectly honest, I don't like the implications of that one bit. I think fleshies are a small sacrifice on the whole compared to that kind of inconsistency. If your black-skinned licensed minifigures are going to be inconsistent with the rest of your collection, why shouldn't your white-skinned licensed figs be just as inconsistent (other than the tragic disparity in the representation of different races in licensed themes)? As for today's non-licensed themes, I think TLG does a good job representing various races without separate skin colors. The Tribal Hunter and Tribal Chief from the Collectible Minifigures both look sufficiently Native American without needing darker skin or the horrendous racial-caricature appearances of the Indians from the classic Western theme (with their completely unnecessary sclerae and noses). The same is true of the Pharaoh, the Maraca Man, etc.-- characters whom you might associate with darker-skinned races but who look quite natural as classic yellow-skinned minifigures.

Well, it kind of makes sense. Even in 2001 Makuta's influence was treated as an "infection". And you're right; when you consider the parallels between Mata Nui and a living being, an evil influence like Makuta could definitely be thought of as a virus.

Web of Shadows was probably my absolute least favorite of the BIONICLE movies, so I can't say you're helping your case with that. True, Hero Factory lacks the epic world-building that made BIONICLE so great. But it instead has a simpler style of storytelling that I still find satisfying, though not in the same way. In the meantime, my need for epic, overarching storylines, expansive world-building, and complex character interactions is satisfied by the Ninjago theme. Anyway, this video is brilliant. Additionally, I like the instrumental version of Bye Bye Babylon that plays in the background. I had been feeling somewhat dejected lately after realizing that, with all the music in the BIONICLE theme, there was no track that I felt could truly represent the theme as a whole. Now I'm thinking I may have judged prematurely on that front. The part about the first book of BIONICLE being complete is certainly interesting, although I'm certain this video was probably made in early- to mid-2009 when BIONICLE was still thought to have more life in it than it turned out to have. The Bring Back BIONICLE folks might start speculating to absurd degrees about that, and while I doubt it will amount to anything we can all hope that at the next convention TLG will be able to nip that speculation in the bud by either reiterating that BIONICLE isn't coming back or, in a million-to-one chance, going back on their word and suggesting that BIONICLE may still have a future. Either way we have enough arguments over BIONICLE's future going on now, and I don't want to see people exaggerating the chances of BIONICLE coming back unless we get solid evidence that it is a foreseeable possibility and not a distant pipe-dream. Truth be told I was doodling BIONICLE stuff for the first time in a long time earlier today, and realized that if BIONICLE were to come back, the Hero Factory building system would now be able to accommodate it reasonably well with the introduction of XT4's new "Matoran-size" torso. But of course I've moved on from BIONICLE. I wouldn't hesitate to go back to it if it returned, but I feel no compelling need for it to return when there is plenty of media, LEGO and non-LEGO, that provides me with that same excitement (although now, thankfully, tempered by an adult sense of what I can and cannot afford). Anyway, back to discussion of the video itself. Some of the early concept art of the Mata Nui robot is brilliant and once again confirms without a shadow of a doubt that Mata Nui's nature was even before the theme's release in 2001. One map showing the island of Mata Nui and the robot's submerged body underneath uses the units "kB" to describe its length. Not sure what this could mean since it doesn't line up with real-world length measurements or the established Matoran measurement system. In this same artwork is an island on one of Mata Nui's knees that seemingly never became relevant. There are also lots of preliminary names like "Bara Nui" for Bara Magna, "Floating Island" for Voya Nui, "Ancor City" for Mahri Nui, "Giant Vortex" for the waterfall leading down into Karda Nui, and "Giant Power Plant" for Karda Nui. All but Bara Nui appear on a map that I would guess comes from the 2004 revision of the BIONICLE story bible, although I could be wrong. Glad Advance is still finding wonderful new BIONICLE-related concepts to show us! I look forward to what else they might be able to reveal in the years to come!

Well, according to Bricklink, there are some that accept visors and some that don't. However, the only visors designed to cover these helmets securely are the old Castle face shields. Modern visors will not sit flush with the front of the helmet, nor close so that they cover the entire face.

There are a couple reasons some people dislike fleshies. Incompatibility is of course a big factor, but another factor is tradition. Additionally, while some people do like the presence of multiple skin tones among fleshies, the lack of diversity of faces in skin tones other than the typical Light Nougat (Bricklink's Light Flesh) poses a real problem for some builders-- especially since even some darker-skinned actors and characters tend toward lighter skin as minifigures (just compare the swarthy, suntanned look of some of the PotC characters with their pasty-faced minifigures). So all in all, there are quite a few factors that lead people to prefer yellow-skinned minifigures. That doesn't mean there aren't factors that cause others to prefer fleshies, though.

The reason for the metallic shells on Hulk, as with his lack of back armor, is obviously a matter of cutting costs. In the case of the lack of back armor, that's probably because they had to cut corners to keep him at the same price point as the others (similar number of pieces to some of the others, but those pieces tend to be quite large), whereas the use of titanium metallic instead of lime shells on Hulk's shoulders is probably because they exhausted their budget on new parts and parts in new colors in other sets. Of course, they could have given him 5M lime shells on his shoulders since those are used elsewhere in the model, but I guess they decided that if they were going to have the "power armor" be a conspicuously different color they might as well try and spread it out some. I agree, Captain America is looking much better now than he did in official images. Hulk's new chest piece and Captain America's kneepads look very cool as well. I'll definitely want to see what Hulk's chest piece looks like over a Breakout-style Hero torso... it kind of bugs me that Stormer XL is inconsistent with his teammates in that regard.

Personally, I think that it was quite good that he was willing to team up with the good guys to save his son, as it demonstrates that no, the Great Devourer didn't make him into a no-holds-barred evil maniac and override his human values entirely. All it did was taint him with hatred and dark ambition. It's not as though it controlled his thoughts in any way, but it definitely twisted his thoughts enough that nobody could turn him back onto the path of good. In other words, I feel about the opposite of how you feel about Garmadon's treatment this season. In my opinion it makes him a more complex villain to know that he is fully able to resist the call of evil when he needs to to protect the things he values most, but that villainy has become a part of who he is, and he chooses a path of evil when the cards are down. Never in the show does Lord Garmadon try to claim that he was not in control of his own decisions from the time the Devourer bit him onward. He justifies all of his actions internally rather than relying on external excuses. What the Devourer's bite really effectively does, though, is gives Sensei Wu a reason to respect his brother in spite of the path he has taken. After all, Lord Garmadon feels all the blame for what has become of him is Sensei Wu's fault... and in this case, he's not entirely wrong. That's my interpretation, anyway. Perhaps the best portrait of Lord Garmadon's sinister thought processes can be seen in the story "The Choice" from the book Zane: Ninja of Ice, when Garmadon explains himself to Zane. In his mind, his attempt to use the Golden Weapons of Spinjitzu was righteous compared to Sensei Wu's desire that they remain locked up so nobody could use them. He reframes all his experiences up to and including the Ninjago creation story in a way that makes sense to him-- his father created Ninjago not as an act of benevolence, but because as Garmadon understands it his two sons did not satisfy his need for worship and adoration. I definitely recommend that book, which remains my favorite of the Ninjago books I've read so far.

So I just built the combi model for Surge/Splitface. It's pretty cool. It leaves a lot of extra pieces, but I think it helps the overall color scheme that it doesn't use any of Surge's blue. Earlier in the week my brother Lyichir built the combi model for Evo/Toxic Reapa, which was also impressive and used most of the pieces of both sets. It had the added benefit that it didn't require any of the 2008-style joints from either set to be separated, so there were no worries about joints breaking.

Great review! This series seems very exciting! Nice to see that the Galaxy Patrol fig has two expressions, one with visor and one without. Two things I feel I ought to mention, both regarding the "Grandma Visitor". First of all, her short cape does appear elsewhere-- specifically, it comes in black on the Lloyd Garmadon figure from LEGO Ninjago and in earth blue (Bricklink's Dark Blue) on the CW version of the Barris Offee minifigure from Star Wars. It's still brand-new in bright red. Her bag is indeed new, but this is not the only place it appears. It's included in a few Friends sets. It appears in bright purple (Bricklink's Dark Pink) in 3183 Stephanie's Cool Convertible, in flame yellowish orange (Bricklink's Bright Light Orange) and 3939 Mia's Bedroom (a summer set), and in bright yellow in 3184 Adventure Camper (another summer set). I might be mistaken on the colors in the summer sets (they could both be the same color), but in any event there's a lot of variety of colors for that handbag (though this one is more subdued than any of the others). Thanks again for this review!