Aanchir

That is a decent idea, and might work surprisingly well. Although I can't build Reapa's upper body on LDD due to my lack of Waspix, I can see what the lower body would look like using this idea. If done right it would be surprisingly cohesive and could in fact make the transition between his upper and lower body more gradual.

I don't know... many minifig animals are still stylized, they are just stylized differently than these "cutesy" animal designs. The minifig cat actually originated as a kitten from Belville. While the face prints would definitely not fit my image of an ideal minifig animal (I think minifig animals should have similar sparkly dot-eyes to the minifigs themselves), I think with a different face print a few of these like the bunny rabbit could easily be incorporated into System. At least many of the animals are to a reasonable scale, unlike many Belville critters.

Ummm... what? Toxic Reapa never had lower leg armor, even in the preliminary pics we had seen. I agree that his legs seem terribly, terribly under-armored (along with the rest of his lower body), but keep in mind that he's built wrong in these pics. He shouldn't have a Hero Core, and his upper-leg armor should be facing forward rather than to the sides. The official pics may be just showing him off from his best angle, but that's not the only reason they look better than these out-of-box pics. TLG really needs to design an armor piece that covers the crotch area on figures with non-standard upper torso armor designs. After all, if the center ball on the torso is used to connect armor for the upper body, it's difficult to cover the lower torso unobtrusively. It's a problem I had to cope with on Sophia Blaze, and I'm not even entirely happy with the solution I arrived at.

Sorry, I forgot the http:// in my URL tags. It's fixed now. Unfortunately, now the pics have been taken down, and I didn't save any of them.

You make a good point. It does seem like that policy has changed somewhat.

I think Omi's point is that Harley as a character originates from a cartoon. The Clone Wars just re-imagines characters from the live-action prequel trilogy in a cartoon style. There are plenty of characters original to the series, like many of the "named" clones, but for the most part the figs people complain about most are the "stylized" versions of Prequel Trilogy characters.

The thing that bothers me about the new C-3PO is the fact that his detail printing is extremely subtle. It could just be the photo, though, and he'll look better in real life. The only problem with the new one in terms of consistency is that he'll make all the other protocol droid figs, which are based on the old Threepio, look inconsistent. Thankfully all the versions of C-3PO to date have been his OT self. If there had been an Episode I version based on the old design, then you'd have to either keep using your old golden C-3PO or wait for TLG to grant us a new version of the Episode I design. With that said, the (apparently) printed eyes of this one seem to make an Episode I C-3PO seem that much more possible. I won't be waiting with bated breath, but I still hope TLG also recognizes that potential.

On that note, it's still uncertain how it will be portrayed in the TV episodes. They'll probably give him a hand, which I don't mind too much, but I'm afraid that means they'll downplay the Hero torso shell used on his lower arm the same way they did with the shoulders of Stringer and Stormer 3.0. While I can understand the logistical reasons behind making such a decision (armor that bulky would probably make certain scenes more difficult to animate), I wasn't a big fan of that decision as IMO it lessened the characters' uniqueness, and I would be even less of a fan in Evo's case if it turns out to make his arm-cannon feel less cohesive.

This site has a couple new alternate images of the Spongebob Squarepants sets for next year. In the Flying Dutchman set, we see that the "secret compartment" in the rock hides a treasure chest. No pic of what's inside, though. We also see the inside of Squidward's house, featuring his art studio full of self-portraits and a stand with sheet music for his clarinet (also included).

This site has several alternate images we haven't seen for certain sets (specifically, 3932, 3933, 3934, 3935, 3936, and 3942). We get some better views of some of the figs and animals. No really game-changing revelations, though, and the images are fairly small.

I think the reason people are confused is that there was a functional reason not to use a hand joint in the 2.0 sets (so that the weapon could be flipped around, although that wasn't all too relevant in Evo's case). In this case, a hand joint could have been used without any physical limitations. However, I don't think cost is the primary factor. I think there may have been a genuine intent for Evo's weapon to seem like he had a cannon for a hand rather than just in his hand. For that, the lower arm shell, the lower arm, the hand, and the cannon have to seem like a cohesive unit. A glaring yellow hand would have disrupted that. Arguably they could have just used a black hand joint, but in that case it probably comes down to cost (or perhaps just that Y-joints are more versatile pieces, which might have been a factor given the presence of combi-models).

I'm thinking it's just meant as a symbol to represent that there is a "zipping" function, even if it's just a Ziploc-type thing and not an actual zipper pull with teeth and so forth. It's a handy means of visualizing the resealable nature of the packaging.

Actually, those are Lloyd and Fangtom riding the platform under the Rattle Copter. You see them a fraction of a second earlier in the video. The video is here, if you're interested.

To clarify: The vehicles Jouster is asking about are in the foreground and have no large wheels. In the background the large-wheeled and longer-tailed Fangpyre Trucks can be seen. This screenshot is from 00:36 in the trailer.

Not yet. The ones we've seen so far have been from LEGO's cache (well, from Brickset, but I'm pretty sure they came from LEGO's cache ultimately). And unfortunately, there are no pics at all of the other sets on LEGO's cache. Same situation with Ninjago-- Brickset and cache.LEGO.com both have lovely alternate images of like the first three or four new sets numerically, but none of the others. And LDD's not tanking. According to Nabii, it'll still be getting regular updates in 2012. But there will definitely be changes of some sort since DesignByMe and LEGO Universe will soon be a thing of the past. EDIT: Don't want to bump the topic for this, but was just looking for Jawblade pics and came across an image here that may interest some people. Combi-models! Not excellent ones, but far from the worst I've seen and quite imaginative. This one's Surge and Splitface.

The purple used on Two-Face is, to my knowledge, the darkest purple LEGO has ever had (268 Medium Lilac/Bricklink's Dark Purple). And it's certainly the darkest on the current palette. I think it looks fine. The lighting of that pic makes it seem way brighter than it is in real life. I think Riddler is pretty cool as well, but of course he does seem awfully muscular for a character who almost exclusively relies on his wits. Incidentally, his hands also seem to be Medium Lilac, which would make his set the first to have minifigure hands in that color.

Actually, that pic I linked to is Series 6. We've been getting a little off-topic. I apologize for the part I played in that.

Well, we know from the news article that PAB/HRT will still be around and keep updating. I'm just wondering if anything might change if the ties to LDD end up being less significant.

Actually, I think we can be pretty sure that series 6 will be white, if we're only going by precedent. The Series 5 image linked was a leaked preliminary image. Grogall's images, even if the sites they come from weren't necessarily supposed to disclose them so soon, are all finalized and lack watermarks. Observe.

Catwoman and Joker look excellent. The only complaint I would make is that a black whip would probably be better for Catwoman, and would be a great accessory to have in general. But as mentioned regarding Riddler, there's no guarantee that they'll have the right accessories. One of the first pics we saw of Series 6 minifigures that "escaped" from the Chinese production facility had the alien figure with the wrong torso.

Additionally, from what we've seen, this won't be a situation where like in the first and second waves hand pieces in certain colors will appear for the first time in sets that only contain one. The characters who have actual hand pieces either have two (i.e. Jawblade) or have hands in colors that have already appeared in previous waves. And for that matter, all hand colors seen so far appear on the online Pick-A-Brick, so you're not even forced to buy a set you didn't want in the first place just to get pieces you feel are "missing" from these upcoming designs. I wonder what we can expect from the online Pick-A-Brick in upcoming waves, given that Design byME (which shares its palette) is going away in January. Naturally, Hero Factory parts are almost certainly here to stay since Hero Recon Team has been extremely successful and will be continued. We will likely even get new Hero Factory parts to tie in with future Hero Recon Team updates. However, since Pick-A-Brick may or may not still be limited by LDD functionality, I can easily imagine us getting things like sphere launchers on Pick-A-Brick if TLG has any intention of doing so.

Those tiles are in all sorts of sets next year. The Forest Police Station has them in Transparent Red, as you mentioned, but they also exist in sets in Transparent Yellow, Transparent Blue, Transparent Green, Medium Stone Grey (Bricklink's Light Bluish Gray), and Warm Gold (Bricklink's Pearl Gold). They're also printed in several Cars and Ninjago sets. I think printing will be where their potential will really begin to shine, (I can picture tan ones printed to resemble chocolate chip cookies, for instance), but they also have functional applications-- this holiday promo set uses one underneath the grille of the fireplace, a function that couldn't be performed by two 1x1 round plates.

That's for standard torso/arm/hand assemblies. Interestingly, while this Design ID seems to apply no matter what color the arms and hands are, legs assemblies have a wide range of design IDs according to service.LEGO.com, even if they are entirely the same color as one another but with different printing. I will someday investigate whether there's any internal logic to this-- for instance, if it has something to do with whether different surfaces of the legs are printed-- or whether every legs assembly in the Collectible Minifigures receives a different Design ID. Unfortunately, service.LEGO.com probably won't be able to tell us what the design IDs are for the individual parts (arms, hands, etc). Those would be different than the design IDs for the assembled elements. And those are the ones which are probably particular to Chinese production (the torso assembly design IDs are also unique compared to non-Chinese-made torsos, but they don't tell us too much).

I think his arms, legs, and body are Dark Orange. There does, however, seem to be a new olive green color for some of the other dinos and minifigures in this theme.

Hey, Blondie-Wan! Great news! LEGO Customer Service at some point upgraded their site so that there are pages for each part that describe the color, DesignID, and ElementID of the parts. This means that we can now find Design IDs for Collectible Minifigure parts much more easily. You might be surprised that this helps with collectible minifigure parts, but since I obtained set 853195 Brick Calendar I was able to discover that service.LEGO.com does, in fact, have pages for these collectible minifigure parts even if replacement parts aren't offered for the sets themselves. Observe. So here are all the new Design IDs I have been able to find: 88414* Bow and Arrow (Forestman) 88416* Diving Goggles (Deep Sea Diver) 88419* Revolver (Cowboy) 88585* Torso Assembly 93549 Flask (Crazy Scientist) 93559 Hockey Stick (Hockey Player) 95057 Helmet (Viking) 95319 Sleuth Hat (Detective) 95322 Lizard Helmet (Lizard Suit Guy) 95323 Lizard Tail (Lizard Suit Guy) 95326 Cave Woman Hair (Cave Woman) 95327 Chimpanzee (Zookeeper) 95328 Egyptian Hair (Egyptian Queen) 95330 Axe (Lumberjack) 95342 Royal Guard Hat (Royal Guard) 95673 Gladius (Gladiator) 95674 Bowler (Small Clown) 95676 Gladiator Helmet (Gladiator) 95678 Fur Hood (Ice Fisherman) 96204 Boxing Helmet (Boxer) 96207 Violin Case (Gangster) 30174 Samurai Armor (Samurai) 30175 Samurai Helmet (Samurai) 50231 Cape (Spartan Warrior, Elf) 62699 Crazy Hair (Crazy Scientist) 88704 Whip (Ringmaster) Mind adding these to the list? Thanks in advance.