Aanchir

I don't know any myself, but I recommend you check the Shops index in the Minifig Customization Workshop. That links to far more customizers than I could even name from memory.

I'm not really sure which sets have the most resale value, or where you could find that out. I would guess that as with any LEGO set, larger sets, promotional/limited release sets, and sets with rare parts would have the most lasting value. Older sets tend to have more nostalgia value, but I'm not sure whether that makes as much of a difference with a relatively recent theme like BIONICLE as it does with classic LEGO sets and themes.

The reason for this probably just has to do with TLG streamlining their production in the early 2000s. I've read that before that, parts and decorations were never taken out of production entirely. Part of the streamlining meant that parts that weren't being used in sets for a long time and weren't expected to be used again were discontinued. And I would assume that the same applies for decorations. I'm definitely a fan of the newer, higher-detail minifigure decorations, especially now that TLG seems to have found some general rules that they can follow when it comes to minifigure faces. Some of the earliest minifigure faces to break from the "basic smile with details added over top" pattern, in the Western theme, were horrible-looking. One of the bandits and all of the Indians had sclerae and noses. Nowadays, minifigures tend to follow the rule of two dot eyes with eye sparkles and no nose. There's still a lot of variability but nowhere near as much as when TLG first started to branch out in that regard. Torsos still have highly variable detail, but generally I don't mind, as usually IMO an older torso only becomes truly obsolete when it starts looking bad compared to newer ones, and at that point there's no reason I'd want TLG to go back to the older, worse-looking style. Incidentally, the Ninjago characters in the TV series have about as much detail as a fig could possibly have without falling into the uncanny valley. While faces and torsos are still moderately simple, using just a few colors for any decoration, there is printing on pretty much every surface of the torsos including the top and sides. But the great thing is that this type of design still looks like LEGO. So as I see it, TLG can continue adding detail as much as they want and it won't cause problems until the figs start looking outright -bad-. One final note is that there is a theoretical limit to how detailed figs can get, just based on budget. After all, printing on figs, no matter how detailed in terms of shape, is usually limited to five colors at the very most. The same applies for faces. In fact, pretty much any printed part or sticker sheet will have a limited color palette. I believe this is done for economic reasons and I don't see any reason that it will go away. After all, working with a limited color palette often makes the characters look better in the long run too, just like how some video game characters have limited color palettes to make the sprites less complex.

Peeron actually has one of the best color reference charts on the web. It compares Peeron's color names with Bricklink's (listed under "BLName") and TLG's (listed under "LEGOName"). Peeron's "DkStone" is the same as Bricklink's "Dark Bluish Gray" and TLG's "Dark Stone Grey". It is the dark grey color that replaced classic dark grey between 2003 and 2004 and has been used ever since. Peeron's "MdStone" is the same as Bricklink's "Light Bluish Gray" and TLG's "Medium Stone Grey". It is the grey color that replaced classic grey between 2003 and 2004 and has been used ever since. The color guide on Bricklink's reference catalog doesn't cross-reference as many names, but it does have some usually-trustworthy timelines for each color that can help you identify which ones were in which sets. Additionally, if you click the number next to any color in the "Parts" column it will link you to a list of all the parts that came in that color. Bricklink's reference catalog is a lot more well-kept than Peeron's parts database in many cases, even though it still occasionally has errors. In general, I prefer the bluish/stone greys, partially for looks and partially because, since it's still in production, useful parts in those colors are more readily available to me. Of course, some people prefer the classic greys, either for looks or because certain older hinge parts like this and this only come in the older greys (those parts were discontinued before the switch to the new greys took place). And there are even people who like to mix the two greys to create mottled-looking castle walls. Each color has its limitations, and which you use depends on how you plan to work with those limitations.

Just was doing a Google search for images of the Destiny's Bounty and found a couple high-res images we hadn't seen before on Amazon.de: The Destiny's Bounty from side view Sensei Wu in his new robes-- still hard to make out any detail The Destiny's Bounty is an amazing set and the one I most look forward to in the upcoming wave. Also, Amazon.co.uk suggests that we will be getting another Ninjago Brickmaster book. EDIT: Also, four BIONICLE books found on Amazon.de: 1 2 3 4 The cover illustrations show us lots of Serpentine we haven't seen before, both including generals and "normal" snakemen. There are at least three types of green snakeman minfigures and four types of black snakeman minifigures that haven't appeared in sets. I find it interesting how the release pattern of the Serpentine has mostly given us characters from either the Hypnobrai or Fangpyre tribes so far. I would assume this is because the tribes will be awakened one by one in the TV series, and that these two are among the first. Speaking of the tribes, we obviously know that the special power of the Hypnobrai is hypnosis-- if it weren't obvious from the name, the first two episodes of the TV show make this clear. But this MOC by Nabii reveals the special power of the Fangpyre tribe. Now we know where the snake vehicles come from, and why none appeared in the TV series for the first couple episodes.

I've never had any such problems myself. I'd encourage you to check Service.LEGO.com about getting a new one.

Just wanted to share that the online preview version of the latest US LEGO Club Magazine has some Hero Factory goodies. Previous online preview versions of LEGO Club magazines were interactive, but this only amounted to some of the pictures being animated. The latest issue, however, has playable games taking the place of most non-interactive games and puzzles from the hard copy version of the magazine. If you complete the Hero Factory puzzle on the page linked above (which isn't hard), you get to download an awesome wallpaper based on the CGI illustration from those two pages! For those who don't want the thrill of clicking and dragging pictures into place (or who have trouble running flash-based websites), the wallpaper can be found here.

Grogall linked this in the Collectible Minifigures Series 6 topic. There's a couple Ninjago-related things to observe here. First, evidently to celebrate the new wave, the January Mini Model Build is a cobra. Additionally, from December 26-January 31, if you spend 50£ or more, you get an exclusive Kendo Jay booster pack. There are some decent weapon pieces in that as well as that lovely lightning-printed "crown" for your spinners (which I'm not sure comes in any other sets seen so far).

I'm pretty sure it's the spinner add-on blade piece, plus this piece, plus this piece. In that case, only the blade is new in Warm Gold. Anyway, both these sets are very nice. I think the mech looks a bit goofy, but it's got some lovely parts. And the arena with the lunging dragon and snake heads is brilliant-- far more exciting IMO than most of the other arenas we've seen. These are probably both store exclusives, which explains why we haven't seen them before. Neither is a must-get for me, but once the full 2012 line is available I might find that these would be economical options for either parts or minifigs.

Well, the descriptions for Batman and Green Lantern mention an "all new powered-up suit" for each, which is sort of how I was expecting the variations from the typical depictions of the characters to be explained. "Power armor" is a timeless gimmick for action figures, whether it makes sense for the character or not. It's only natural that it'd be used here to explain the quirks of the HF-based build, like Green Lantern's lovely bulky shoulderpads.

I'm sure if you painted them with the right type of paint and enough care they'd look just fine, but I don't know if anyone would have the patience for that. These are a lot bigger than the LEGO parts that customizers tend to deal with painting!

Actually, even though it's covered with logos, I think that Garbage Truck set really is a garbage truck, considering that none of the "garbage" included is recyclable. I think it's silly to plaster it with recycling logos, but then again it's nothing new for TLG and probably just so that their "waste management" sets have a unified logo (and one that encourages environmentally friendly practices). And then again, since anything LEGO is made of plastic, perhaps they really do intend to recycle those fish, bananas, and suspicious brown piles.

Something else to note about the Green Ninja is that he ties his belt similarly to Lloyd-- higher on his waist than the other Ninja. Not sure if that's relevant. The exact wording of the scroll (at least, as exact as I can remember it) was that one ninja would rise above the others and become the Green Ninja. But at the same time, I believe this was read by Zane, who was himself uncertain about how the scroll should be translated (it was in an ancient language). So having it so that he misinterpreted the scroll would be the sort of subversion of expectations that is wonderful for this type of storyline.

One reason for so much Batman might be that LEGO Batman has a pretty good track record. The video game was fairly successful, as were the sets. In fact, it could be that the Batman franchise in general has such a good track record. It's had its flops, but many Batman movies are still well-loved today, and those in theaters recently have been very successful. It's a franchise with lasting appeal. Another reason is that frankly, although many people hate vehicle vs. vehicle combat, its appeal with kids is pretty reliable. And Batman is perhaps the superhero most well-known for his vehicles and gear. Frankly, I'm not a big comic book fan. I know about many comic franchises either from Wikipedia or from cameos in the comics I have read, like Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. So I'm sure someone could come up with good concepts for sets based on other DC franchises. But just from TV and popular culture Batman and his vehicles have a firmer presence in my mind than many of these other series (although I may be a bit biased, being a LEGO fan, since Batman is the only DC superhero previously given his own theme).

Well, whoops, looks like I completely missed the point of your post. My bad. Incidentally, where do you get the idea that Zane's obviously in love with her? Is that more from the fourth episode? Anyway, only two episodes have aired here in the United States; the rest aren't airing until January according to the commercials. If anyone knows where I can watch high-quality versions of the later episodes, I'd appreciate a link. I couldn't find them on the Teletoon site, even though there is this kickin' new image of the green ninja. Still not sure who that could be... the first episode says in no uncertain terms that one of the other ninja will become the green ninja, but at the same time those eyebrows don't really resemble any of the Ninja we know.

You're ignoring the fact that she does really like him, if her bio on the Ninjago site is to be trusted. Anyway, just watched the first two episodes on Cartoon Network (today was the debut for the series in the US). They're a lot better than I was expecting. Particularly the second episode, which goes into Zane's delicious backstory a bit and has a heart-wrenching conclusion. Zane is definitely best pony ninja.

I can see the "ultrabuild" sets possibly being successful. After all, they are buildable action figures, and action figures are among the most popular superhero merchandise. Naturally I don't expect them to be a big hit with AFOLs who aren't into Hero Factory, of course. But with kids they might have a decent chance of success.

Nope. That'd be like a company having trademarks on depictions of the Eiffel Tower, really. Plus, LEGO already released a Statue of Liberty set many years ago without any sort of trademark negotiations. As for characters like the monster and detective, I believe the characters they are based on have long been in the public domain. So there's no trademark issue there LEGO is trying to skirt.

It's using "overgrown tadpole" as a demeaning insult, the same way a person in an action movie might call a T-Rex an "overgrown chicken". It's not meant to imply that he's an actual tadpole, but just how the hypothetical narrator isn't afraid of Jawblade just because he's a big, scary shark. Jawblade is at least 20 centimeters long not counting his arms or weapons, so if those are bent forward at all then 30 centimeters doesn't sound at all unrealistic to me. Surge's description suggests that the launchers are just "plasma guns". Not too fond of this, chiefly because a) it seems terribly unimaginative and b) it reminds me of the even more unimaginative "plasma gun" that Stringer was equipped with in Savage Planet. With previous weapon names like "Radioactive Sludge Shooter", "Lava Sphere Shooter", and "Meteor Blaster", I was hoping for something a little less generic. The other weapons are kind of imaginative, even though Jawblade's "magma blades" seem a little bit weird on a water planet. In that case plasma weapons might have made more sense. All in all, though, I'm excited for what next year has to bring.

Actually, it varies by theme. Many of this year's Ninjago sets just use photos. If you look at them in high-res there are imperfections that I've never seen TLG be able to replicate in a render before. In contrast, the small and medium-sized BIONICLE and Hero Factory sets have used renders since those themes began, and most of the larger sets have also used renders since at least 2008. The award for "worst use of renders for box art" probably goes to the Aqua Raiders theme of 2007 IMO. Those renders were neither made to be realistic nor designed to take advantage of their "fake" look in a tasteful way. At least BIONICLE's box art, since the beginning, has hinged the figures into appealing poses and sometimes added "battle damage" to make it clear that these were genuine artistic depictions of the characters, rather than just a crappy substitute for a real photo.

Just wanted to share that some of the new Ninjago sets are now on shop.LEGO.com in the US: 9440 Venomari Shrine 9441 Kai's Blade Cycle 9442 Jay's Storm Fighter 9443 Rattlecopter 9444 Cole's Tread Assault

Off topic, but if you need UCS sticker sheets, have you tried asking LEGO Customer Service for them? If you give them the seven-digit number at the bottom of each sticker sheet they should be able to tell you whether or not they have any in stock. Unfortunately I can say I'm "part of the problem". So far no idea has garnered my votes, and most of my comments have been explaining why I don't feel "bring back X" is a good idea.

I got into MLP:FiM myself just a couple weeks ago. Now I'm hooked. That's really the only cartoon I've been watching, since I don't watch much TV while I'm up at college. I plan to check out the Ninjago TV show when it makes its US debut this Friday.

Well, that's an argument I've seen a lot. And it's true, shop.LEGO.com has tried to market some City sets to girls, presumably because they seem "unisex" in focus. But with that said, girls are still a very small minority among LEGO buyers, and I expect this holds true for the City theme as much as any other. As mentioned in an interview posted here, girls and boys play with LEGO in about the same frequency within the Duplo age range, but as girls begin attending school and face increased peer pressure to fit predefined gender roles, they tend to stop playing with building toys. And unfortunately those influences are far outside any one toy company's control. Additionally something I read at one point regarding MLP in specific is that while consumers might not care whether a toy is pink or not, retailers do. This is why the toy of the character Princess Celestia is pink despite that character being white in the show. Retailers expect more stereotypically "girly" toys to sell better to girls, and in many cases they're unfortunately correct.

Well, to be fair BIONICLE Toa in 2001 were only around $7, at least according to Brickset. But at least the price-per-piece of the latest sets is beginning to become more equitable. Not because the prices were totally unfair in earlier waves, but because it gets tiresome hearing about how the older sets were better because they cost less. Incidentally, do we have piece counts for all the sets? I only can find the ones for those we've seen on cache.LEGO.com. Evo has 36 pieces, Toxic Reapa has 42, and Rocka has 55.