Aanchir

Makuro and Zib are amazing characters, but if they were released as sets then they'd have to be in brand-new forms, since some of the actual recognizable LEGO parts used to build them are out-of-proportion with one another (for instance, Mr. Makuro uses Rahkshi legs and Av-Matoran feet in the TV show and yet has similar proportions to a 2010 Hero figure). Since these are not characters who see a lot of action I'm not sure how much of a decent justification could possibly be created for giving them new, different appearances. Zib is one of my favorite Hero Factory characters, though, so if TLG did decide on their own to make a set of him and treated his design with the same care as the new Hero Factory sets this year, then I'd be willing to look past inconsistencies in his design.

So I got the books Jay: Ninja of Lightning and Cole: Ninja of Earth yesterday. These technically only cover 2011 story, but since these books (the US editions, which have different cover art and content than the international versions) were released only this January so I figure this belongs in the 2012 topic. Anyway, I'll be writing a full review sometime soon I hope, but in the meantime they follow about the same template as the Kai and Zane books I reviewed here. In my personal opinion, neither is quite as entertaining as Zane: Ninja of Ice, but that may just be my bias since Zane is my favorite character. I was kind of disappointed that the Jay book included very little romance. Additionally, the story "The Real Hero" from the Cole book, which describes the retrieval of the Nunchucks of Lightning from the Floating Ruins, is a bit confusing in terms of continuity, as it depicts the scene almost entirely differently than its depiction in the TV series. I was expecting something more of just an expansion of the TV series' depiction, just like the story "Ice Ambush" in the Ninjago Official Guide (described in the review linked above).

Additionally, at many of the Target stores where I've found the 3#### sets, they are near the checkouts rather than in the Seasonal section. But you'll probably want to check both areas. Last year Toys 'R' Us's online store also carried one of the 3#### Ninjago sets (the Skeleton Chopper), so keep an eye out online.

Saying "TLG has never done this before if it is just simply a CGI manipulated image" is a bit inaccurate-- in fact, if you count certain themes, they have done this often. Even in the first BIONICLE sets in 2001, rigid leg pieces were shown with bending knee joints and waist joints, and while this was reduced as the posability of the sets increased, CGI BIONICLE images continued to show things like glowing eyes and "battle damage" (scratches and things most visible in the high-resolution posters you could download from the website). Minifigures being shown with more flexibility than in real life is common in various themes (although rarely on the front of the box in CGI-- the Ninjago and Super Heroes themes use non-CGI illustrations, and these are kept separate from the main product image). While I haven't gotten a good look at the preliminary images, I would be very happy for either a more posable horse mold or a rigid one in a less static-looking pose. It'd be great for minifigure chess sets!

Still love Hulk's design. It looks plenty "minifigure-ish" while still maintaining a strong resemblance to the character. Captain America, Wolverine, and Iron Man all look nice as well, although that pose makes the size of Iron Man's head even more obtrusive-looking. I reckon the hockey armor piece could have fixed that by making his shoulders look a little less scrawny in comparison. But it's not that Iron Man's design is bad-- he's still going to be an immensely popular figure, and a reasonably faithful rendition of the character.

I personally think it would have been cool to see the regular Club magazine become more gender-neutral in general, perhaps with a new female counterpart to Max so that the two could go on adventures together in magazine comics and on the LEGO Club Show. But I can see how that might work out even more poorly than making the LEGO themes in general more gender-neutral. My mania magazines never had Belville sets in them, after all, so I'm pretty sure there was a realization a long time ago that boys (the majority of LEGO magazine subscribers, I'm sure) wouldn't enjoy their magazines as much if they had to skip through stuff they consider "girly", and girls would prefer their magazine features to be geared toward them in more ways than just two-page features on the designated "girls' themes." The fact that the Cool Creations are being segregated is the most controversial decision I see in this. While it's nice to see more girls on a Cool Creations page, it would also be preferable for girls and boys alike to see the opposite gender's creativity at work, and I have a feeling it would have been nicer to try and segregate them based on content rather than the gender of the builder-- create a pool of "cool creations", present them to a panel of boys and girls, and see which ones the girls consider "coolest" and which ones the boys consider "coolest", regardless of the gender of the builders. There's still room for bias, but boys would still get to see and appreciate girls' creative accomplishments and vice-versa. There was a poll on the LEGO Club site specifically for girls a while back, so I was kind of expecting something like this to happen, and I feel there are still parts that need to be ironed out to make both magazines fully enjoyable for their target audiences. But I imagine it was based on what girls in the LEGO club said they wanted, so hopefully it's a step in the right direction.

I personally really like Bright Green and am glad it has been introduced to Hero Factory parts. While Mata Green (Dark Green) is a classic color and probably more useful to many MOCists, I feel Bright Green is a very attractive color that shouldn't always be made secondary to its darker counterpart just on account of tradition. The fact that TLG has been using it more broadly in themes like Heroica, Super Heroes, and City recently makes me optimistic that someday the number of parts in this color will be able to measure up to other "non-standard" shades of classic colors like Medium Blue. BP's dark red is still assigned the same Element ID as classic Dark Red, but it was reformulated a while back and still suffers from occasional inconsistencies. Interestingly, sometime recently TLG switched from calling it "Dark Red" to calling it "New Dark Red" even though the Material ID did not change. I personally wonder if this is because of a recent reformulation or for some other more obscure reason. I doubt Earth Blue will be unavailable any time soon, as it is still used a lot this year, such as for the police flight suits in 4439 Heavy Duty Helicopter, the recycling containers in 4206 Recycling Truck, and various Batman sets from the LEGO Super Heroes theme (not least of which is the Batcave itself). Meanwhile, there's no reason at all to think that Mata green is unavailable, as it has traditionally been the most widely-used green color and remains widely-used in 2012 sets even with Bright Green and Bright Yellowish Green becoming more common. If the color of Stringer's torso isn't Earth Blue or Bright Blue, I don't know what it could be from the current palette. Perhaps Front's point is not that it will be some blue color other than those two but rather that we're making a mistake by judging based on TV show clips and preliminary pics in the first place. After all, it's entirely possible that it could wind up being a purple color or even something radically different than its TV show appearance in the final set.

Since they phrase it as parts "no longer in production" rather than parts "difficult to produce", I don't think cost is as great a factor as simply having the molds still in use. Of course, while their disclaimer is appreciated, I don't think they brought enough attention to it at the time for people to recognize the implications. And they certainly did people a disservice by including some of the most desirable Series 1 and 2 figs in the poll at all if they could have predicted the parts of those figs might not be in production. I'm a bit curious whether this poll would have been conducted by the LEGO VIP team or by the minifigures design team. If it was conducted by the VIP team, then I can see how there could easily have been a failure of communication involved-- a person on the minifigures team could have given their word that many Series 1 and 2 parts would still be in production for use in this special set, but they could have been referring to ones like the surfboard, ponytail, and cape, not ones like the turkey leg or Spartan helmet. And a person on the VIP team would take this word as justification for including Series 1 and 2 on the poll, even though the figs that stood out as most desirable to AFOLs in Series 1 and 2 turned out to be the ones that could not be produced. A lot of people seem willing to accept either that TLG never had any intention of releasing the most popular figs from the poll in this set, or that they decided sometime between the poll and the announcement of the set that they didn't care about the results and would just try to foist their surplus figs on AFOLs. But I think that it's more likely that this was a genuine mistake-- albeit one that could possibly have been prevented with greater foresight and communication.

Some parts of the model seem really stylishly replicated, others not so much. The sails themselves look excellent for this size, but the places where they meet are a bit gappy-looking. There is definitely a lot to be said for the techniques that were presumably used to get the different sections of the building at the correct angles from one another-- having such a large portion of the model not parallel to the edges of the base is unusual for any LEGO set, even a LEGO Architecture set. I'm curious if this relies on the Pythagorean method of angling bricks or on some type of hinge plate like the 2x2 turntable. While I agree a larger-scale model could have been much more precise, one thing I kind of like about some Architecture sets (like the Space Needle, which I consider the best set from the first wave) is how they go for the overall impression of their subjects rather than necessarily for more exact, sculpture-like renditions. The same can sort of be seen in the four "horsemen" atop the Brandenburg Gate. In general for the Architecture line this is a very nice set, and I'm sure if TLG ever wanted to go back and make a larger model like the Taj Mahal set, there'd be nothing stopping them.

You seem to neglect the fact that while the "standard" wheels on those vehicles aren't this size, at least in the United States, people (especially those in rural areas) like to modify their vehicles. Jacking a pick-up truck up on ridiculously large wheels is pretty much the "redneck" equivalent of the more urban "low-rider".

Well, it doesn't look like the standard purple (Medium Lilac), even though that seems to be what Voltix has (so there could be not only a torso in that color, but an unprinted one). So I'm not sure what to expect that would be such a pleasant surprise. It's possible there will be a brand new blue or purple color. If so, what I'd hope for is a brighter purple, a "dark blue" color (in between Bright and Earth Blue), or some type of metallic color (could that even be possible?) It's also possible that it's a transparent color and just colored inaccurately in the show, but that could be outright bizarre. Always appreciate your subtle teasing, Front! It certainly keeps the conversation alive when people seem to be confidently settled on a few possibilities. In other news, I read Part 2 of the Breakout comic today. It was pretty great. No worse than Savage Planet in my book, anyway. I'm surprised I heard so much objection to Rocka's lines; they seem to line up perfectly with how I understood the character after watching Savage Planet. But others seem to disagree, so I guess it's just a matter of interpretation.

There's a switch button in the upper left corner of the Characters page, just as there was for the Skeleton Army on the old site. The new one has a picture of Fang Suei on it which blends in more with the background than the old button with a picture of Lord Garmadon did, so you're not at fault for not noticing it.

The Ninjago site has finally been updated! I can't possibly describe all the cool new stuff there, so check it out yourself! One note is that while Pythor is mentioned in at least one of the character bios, he does not yet have a bio himself. I'm curious why, and when he will be given one. I hope it will be before he appears in a set, since he's not due in one until the summer. On a side note, did anyone record the Weapons Dictionary pages from the old site? Those no longer seem to be accessible, and neither the Wayback Machine or a Google cache is being any help to me... this is very frustrating when trying to work on a fledgling site, The Ninjago Wiki, with some friends and relatives. In other news, the Ninjago Wiki could use help from any Ninjago fans here on Eurobricks!

Although this is much taller than most of the modular buildings, I wonder how it would look next to the Green Grocer... after all, that set also tended to tower above its neighbors.

Great review! I really like both the ATV and the pickup truck! They feel very unique and cohesive in design. The figs are also excellent, although it sort of bothers me that they've changed the police badge LEGO City cops have been using so consistently for so many years...

The silver legs on Furno seem kind of odd to me, particularly because of the fact that the corrugated hose pieces (which are actually silver in the set) almost seem less so in the TV episodes. Of course, the Hero Cores were also all made silver, so I guess they just figured they'd make Furno more consistent on the whole with this change. In the set, though, I prefer the white. At the same time, while Stormer XL in the TV episodes might not entirely match up with the Stormer XL we've seen from retailer's catalogs, keep in mind that the catalog images are preliminary and the TV episode clips are not. Not that there are many clear differences between the two depictions, besides the printing on some of his parts in the TV episodes and the fact that his number of "wing" pieces on his arms seems to vary between scenes.

Apologies. I thought I should comment there because the story themes vs. traditional themes conflict is the first legitimate reason he's brought up for a person to dislike Ninjago, rather than meaningless criticisms like that "it's stupid" or "it's garbage" that don't address any specific problems with the theme. Hopefully if he does reply again his response will be at least somewhat thoughtful and civil. And if not, then we'll know for sure that he's just a troll and we needn't waste our time trying to reason with him.

Not a VIP set, I don't think. So far the only one of those that's been particularly well-received was the Mini Modulars. If you mean D2C, maybe, but I can't see TLG putting too many exclusive prints in one of those, especially if the figures aren't essential to whatever the set should choose to depict. I'd love to see custom decal-makers try their hands at some of those designs, though.

I should mention how I'm surprised to see so many collectible minifigure molds appearing in this set! There is the Zookeeper's hair, the Flamenco Dancer's hair, and the Fisherman's beard. Ginny Weasley's hair also makes an appearance, which is nice. I guess since people didn't seem turned off by China being on the "places of manufacture" list in the Pet Shop, they shouldn't object if it appears here (unless it turns out that these hairpieces have lower quality than ones produced elsewhere, which I don't see any reason to expect). Can't wait to see bigger pics! I'm sure Grogall will have them on his Brickshelf as soon as he gets them!

Believe me, I agree. The LEGO toy is not inherently gendered, whether or not product designs are made to appeal to one gender or the other, and some of my female friends in real life regret that they didn't grow up with LEGO because it was steretyped as a "boys' toy". I'm just mentioning the reason why this "controversy" has been mentioned outside the LEGO fan community more than other controversial decisions by TLG. This controversy is part of a larger discussion that has been going on for years. To be fair, so is Chinese manufacture, but by now consumers have generally accepted Chinese manufacture of toys as the norm, unless they are very strongly patriotic in which case they prefer toys to be manufactured in their home countries. In contrast, there is still an ongoing discussion about how "gendered" toy design influences boys and girls, and it's a discussion where people share very strong opinions one way or the other regardless of national origin.

I wouldn't be surprised if they're just replaying the first episode. Not sure why, exactly. But airing two episodes and then playing the third over a month later with very little publicizing them doesn't seem too logical to me. I would also prefer if they played the third, but if this is the first being replayed, that's OK too because my younger brother didn't see them on December 2.

I kind of wish the coloring of the new printed torsos was consistently the primary color as well, but I don't think Nex's will necessarily look bad. Then again, I didn't think Surge's color scheme looked bad (it was organized very well IMO), nor Breez's and Furno's, and a lot of people found any colors in those color schemes that weren't the primary color to be overused on those sets. A couple side notes related to torsos: First, in that gallery we can see clearly that Voltix's apparently Medium Lilac torso does not have printing, unlike the torsos of Splitface and the various Heroes. If that turns out to be finalized rather than preliminary, I know a lot of people will be happy, as so far the only color we were expecting to get a blank new-style torso in was red (in the upcoming Iron Man set). Plus, there are so few purple parts that people will naturally want them to be as versatile as possible. Also, I'm kinda unsure how I like Stormer using the old-style torso with the Hulk chest piece rather than the new-style torso with it. It makes him feel very inconsistent in design to me. But perhaps the new-style torso wouldn't have looked good on him. I guess if Nex's torso turns out to be white, then it will be easy to experiment with it and Stormer's massive chest piece to see if it could have worked. It's still difficult to tell if Stringer's secondary color is Earth Blue or Bright Blue from the lineup. I'm not sure what to think myself. Normally I prefer when Hero Factory uses more vibrant colors, so Bright Blue would be my preference in many cases. But since Stringer's main color has always been black, which doesn't tend to be vibrant anyway, I'm not sure whether Earth Blue might look nicer. One thing I'm definitely grateful about regarding the TV episodes in particular is that they've finally got the characters so that they have five fingers on each hand. For previous episodes they had been consistently using the four-fingered hands.

Nonsense. What you call "ridiculous" about Ninjago, I call "imaginative". I think it's wonderful that TLG isn't limiting their themes these days to real-world history and sci-fi or fantasy concepts that have already been tread by other writers thousands of times, but that instead they're telling original stories in a unique universe with complex characters. You are welcome to prefer traditional LEGO themes to "story themes" like Ninjago, but that doesn't mean that fans of story themes are automatically less imaginative. After all, playing with Ninjago sets isn't limited to just re-enacting what you see on the TV show. Rather, fans are welcome to make up their own stories, and they do so. At the same time they make their own models to include in those stories. BIONICLE was the most heavily story-driven theme ever at the time it was introduced, but today there's an abundance of BIONICLE fan art, MOCs, and fan fiction on the internet depicting characters, species, settings, and situations never imagined in the "official" story. If anything, a story theme is a source of inspiration that makes imaginative play more accessible to certain kids. And I think it's an insult to treat these kids who want inspiration outside what the encounter in real life as the "lowest common denominator". Just as it's rude in general to tell people, adults and kids alike, that there's only one right way to play with LEGO--after all, isn't it limiting their imagination to tell them that they shouldn't base their stories on those other people have written? I say this as a BIONICLE fan who for several years had just as much fun dreaming up creatures, characters, and situations for the BIONICLE universe as I ever had building giant castles and spacecraft or acting out stories about Aquanaut mermaids. It's not like the presence of story themes has caused non-story themes to go away. Kingdoms was a good example of a very traditional Castle theme, even though it appeared in place of several much more heavily story-driven predecessors like Fright Knights, Knights' Kingdom I and II, and Fantasy-Era Castle. LEGO City has mini-movies showing adventures with the crooks and cops, but there's nothing telling kids they can't make up their own (and in fact I doubt I'd ever see a kid trying to perfectly re-enact these mini-movies even if they find them entertaining). Even LEGO Dino, as contrived as it is, currently has no named characters, no definite location (from all we can tell it's just "near the City"), and plenty of imaginative play opportunities. So I don't see why you're so decidedly opposed to LEGO Ninjago. Themes have had named characters for years (see this post), and have been telling stories to inspire kids through TV commercials, books, and comics for just as long (I happen to own a Jim Spaceborn comic book from 1986). What makes a television show so much different?

The reason Friends has had any wider "controversy" than the issues you mention is that the issues you mention mostly apply to the LEGO fan community in particular, whereas the "controversy" over the Friends theme is presented as a part of a larger debate over the social implications of gender-specific toy design. Of course, just as in the case of Chinese manufacturing, TLG isn't the first toy company to make toys that have this sort of controversy attached to them. LEGO ditching ABS plastic for rubber in some parts, of course, would never have any reason to be controversial outside some extremely traditionalist corners of the AFOL community, since rubber LEGO parts are almost always made in that material for structural or functional reasons. TLG has had rubber hose pieces for years and years, so the presence of rubber in LEGO sets is nothing all that new-- it's just that TLG has discovered new uses for more rubbery materials, such as creating parts with thin or pointy sections that would be far too brittle if cast in ABS. As for why the Friends hairpieces are rubber, I'm not entirely sure, since I haven't ever felt them myself. Perhaps the use of rubber for them is just because softer and more flexible materials for hair look and feel more "natural" to girls, tying in with the overall changes in fig design for the theme aiming for greater realism. The matte finish of the hairpieces definitely makes some of them look more natural on Friends figs than traditional ABS hairpieces, at least from the photos I've seen.

It's originally from Mac McCloud, the mechanic from the Pharaoh's Quest theme. Great review! The chainsaw is interestingly brick-built. It's not nearly as simple in appearance as many minifigure accessories. The firefighter minifigure looks excellent with that Flame Yellowish Orange uniform and Dark Red hat. The ATV itself is somewhat plain, but still ends up looking pretty nice. However, I can't help but think I would be more likely to buy it if it were a component of a larger set with more built-in play value (I'm not a City buyer for the most part anyway, but I have very fond memories of the various boats, planes, and ATVs in the Agents Mobile Command Center).