Aanchir

Your links are broken. You have an extra http// in each one. I've fixed them in my quote.

I'm not seeing it myself-- the only armor piece I can make out on his upper body is another "paw" piece like the two on his shoulders, in the center of his back, and I can't even tell how it's attached. Darnit, LDD would really help with this...

Interesting! One observation I can make according to this pic is that yes, the tranquilizer guns are in Titanium Metallic (Bricklink's Pearl Dark Gray in post-2010 sets). I remember someone asking about that at one point; now we have a definite answer. There are some nice new faces, although at least some-- for instance, the one with the shiny sunglasses in 5885 and the one with the orange goggles in 5888-- are also used in City. I wonder whether this theme will have named characters? If so, will it just be the characters with new exclusive face prints, or others as well?

That's how I thought he was built in the original pics. But in the high-res pic, it seems to be two attached to opposite sides of a vertical Technic beam, one offset by 1M so it fits the Technic pin holes not occupied by the one opposite. I'd mock it up on LDD, if LDD only had Waspix's joint piece. But unfortunately, that's one extremely useful HF piece omitted in the last update... Not totally sure what size beam is being used, but I'm pretty sure there are no torso bones involved in his build. Not that I would be disappointed if there were...

Umm... even though the high-res pic of Thornraxx clearly shows two of that piece from Waspix?

Seeing as it uses stickers, rather than printed parts like almost all other Cars sets to date, he's probably not planned to appear in any sets in the near future. Granted, there's nothing stopping TLG from deciding to put him in a set later on, but I figure if they already had plans to do so they'd surely start printing his eyes and mouth at least before his "debut".

Well, seeing as LEGO Rock Band wasn't a tie-in with a theme it's possible that there won't be a Hobbit theme. But as far as I'm concerned, it's not remotely likely. I look forward to whatever sets and minifigures the new theme will offer.

In this picture you can see the same face, and the eyes don't seem too close together. I think the image you linked to is misleading and you can't even see the eyes of the figures very well-- just the bridge of the glasses, which is for whatever reason colored black. In the Police Station set, the distinction between the bridge of the glasses and the eyes is a lot clearer. Additionally, the pic you linked to oddly doesn't match the contents shown on the box. It has two figs with those glasses, as opposed to one male fig with those glasses and one female fig without them.

I don't know. Perhaps they have reason to suspect that multiple environments on the box art will sell more sets? After all, early 2009 wasn't BIONICLE's last wave, but it had very diverse environmental backgrounds. Same with 2001. Other years as well, but with them the environments tended to share an obvious common factor, like the Bohrok nests on Bohrok canisters, the eroded landscape on Bohrok-Kal canisters, etc. TLG hasn't been entirely consistent with when it makes its background art more diverse and when it does not-- I imagine both the setting of the story and how setting-specific the designs are factor into that decision. Personally, since the theme is Breakout, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole wave takes place in and around Makuhero City. We already have seen Black Phantom in the Assembly Tower or something like it. And Makuhero City's landscape (as seen here) has plenty of waterways. The jungle background for Toxic Reapa and Evo and the weird giant beehive for Thornraxx and Breez don't really resemble parts of the city we have seen, but I still think that it would be a cool setting.

The colors in these pictures are a bit wonky-- parts which I can only assume will be Warm Gold (BL's Pearl Gold) appear either Gold (BL's Pearl Light Gold) or Brick Yellow (BL's Tan), and the orange decoration on the christmas tree looks a weird pastel color that doesn't resemble anything on the current palette. Other colors look similarly washed-out. I also wonder if we'll ever get a more detailed Santa Claus figure. I would like to see one with the beard from the Minifigures Series 3 Fisherman, the sack from this year's Police sets (this detail did show up in the City Advent Calendar this year, much to my delight), and possibly more detailed leg and torso prints. I understand that, being a cultural icon rather than a character belonging to a particular author, Santa Claus's appearance is subjective and may vary a bit by culture. But I'd love to one day see a Santa Claus who matches the portrayal I'm familiar with, wearing black boots, a red coat trimmed with white fur, and a pointy and similarly fur-trimmed red hat. With that said, these are both charming vignettes. And I do appreciate that unlike many Santa Claus minifigures, this one has actual white eyebrows. He looks a bit angrier than I would like, but it's still a step in the right direction. Thanks so much for the info and high-res pics!

Perhaps. I originally viewed it as that his son was making an extremely risky situation allying with the snakemen and he wants to help put down that threat to the world. But now that Lloyd is seen to be such a little kid, it could also be a situation where it is Lloyd himself who is in danger by allying with the snakemen, and Garmadon wants his kid returned to him safely. Certainly he's power-hungry enough that I have no doubt he'll eventually (when the opportune moment arrives) betray the ninjas. But I also think that he would not ally with the ninjas unless there truly were some situation as dire for him as it is for the rest of the world. In any event, what we probably can be certain of is that Lord Garmadon and the snakemen aren't on the best of terms with each other. So if/when Garmadon does betray the ninjas, he will probably be acting independently of any allegiances or acting in allegiance with his son.

I pronounce them "Coo-soh" and "Work In Progress". Sometimes I just sound out the letters (double-you, eye, pea), but most of the time I just read the acronym WIP as the words it stands for.

Is it new? Are you sure it isn't the same one used for the Jawas in the Star Wars theme?

Sorry to disappoint, but that's not scabbard; it's just a satchel like Indiana Jones wears. Still nice, but maybe not as interesting to pirate builders. That's also why there seems to be something in his hand. It's interesting to see the contrast in the designs in this set. The "island" is perhaps more detailed and less <insert that tiresome argument> than any that appeared in the 2009 Pirates theme. The secret compartment in the rock is excellent, and the dock's off-kilter boards seem like something from an AFOL's MOC, not a Spongebob set. On the other hand, the ship itself is somewhat disappointing. I love many of the building techniques for things like the sail and the windows, but the poor organization of colors sort of ruins that for me. I think if all the Dark Brown were swapped for Dark Green (BL's Green) or Earth Green (BL's Dark Green) it would look much better-- also, if the "palisade bricks" were swapped for regular 1x2 bricks, since their texture fails to match any other parts of the ship.

My main problem with the pteranodon is just that its wings are flexible and its legs aren't. Pteranodons mostly glided, right? Or am I remembering my dinosaur facts wrong? Anyway, what I'm saying is that they don't need to flap their wings to glide nearly as much as they need to move their legs to land. The Dino Attack pteranodon was ironically more flexible in many ways-- although the wings couldn't flap and the legs couldn't actually hold onto anything, it could somewhat be made to look as though it's either perched or soaring through the air due to the flexible legs. Still, this is scores better than the Adventurers Dino Island pteranodon or the ugly brickbuilt ones from some of the Studios sets. I also hope for other species of dinosaurs, because they'd be an option for TLG to reuse some of the dinosaur leg pieces, etc. in new applications.

I imagine he might be more of a sympathetic villain. For instance, he might tell the snakemen where they can find the staffs, but then instead of following him the snakemen would go seek out the snake staffs on their own and he'd be forced to tag along more as a hostage than as an ally. He might eventually end up joining the Ninjas. He might double-cross the ninjas at some point, but if so I think it would more likely be because he is young and easily manipulated than that he is himself a master manipulator. From my perspective, the reason Lloyd was introduced at all was so that the Ninjas would have an enemy who was more or less at their level of strength and intelligence (or possibly below it). Garmadon was himself pretty excellent at scheming and making plans, but for a continuous TV series it helps to have an antagonist who serves as a more direct foil to the heroes. Basically, he would serve a similar role to Jack Spicer from the cartoon Xiaolin Showdown, to Prince Zuko from the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender, or to Bowser Jr. from the Mario series. He no doubt wants to be a serious and threatening villain, but really he's no stronger than the ninjas he's up against. Something interesting about his design is that he does not, in fact, use Garmadon's torso. Instead, he has the same purple belt but the "ribcage" is merely painted on his robes. It's actually kind of cute, seeing him trying to look like daddy.

The Kiddicraft issue could probably be considered plagiarism. However, TLG was then able to purchase Kiddicraft's brick patent from its owners, so one might argue that made up for the initial breach of ethics, at least in part. Since then the brick has undergone such a decisive transformation from its original design (adopting the stud-and-tube system, for instance, as opposed to just studs and hollow-bottomed bricks) that the copying of Kiddicraft's design is now more or less irrelevant, even though it's a stain on TLG's history of innovation that can never entirely be removed. Your video is interesting, but I don't think it could be argued that LEGO Technic plagiarized this other brand. There are plenty of building toys based on similar beam systems to Technic, not least of which is Erector/Meccano, which varies from LEGO Technic mainly in that it tends to be made of metal rather than plastic and uses screws rather than pins to join beams together. This toy itself varies greatly from Technic in that it seems to lack Technic's distinctive style of snap-together pins, instead relying solely on pins that stay in based on friction alone. LEGO Technic also was, to my knowledge, the first brand to incorporate this style of beam-based building with a brick building toy. I personally feel that the idea of brands "copying" other brands is a bit overrated, especially in the LEGO community. LEGO has somewhat perpetuated this idea with lawsuits against companies that copy their products. However, as has been demonstrated in the courts, being a "clone brand" like Mega Bloks isn't the same as more blatantly imitating LEGO products. Companies like Enlighten plagiarize LEGO products, and have been found guilty of violating intellectual property laws in various courts. In contrast, Mega Bloks and similar clone brands only imitate the proportions of LEGO bricks for the sake of inter-compatibility, one of their greatest selling points (and something that regrettably it seems building toy companies can no longer do without). Their products are brick-based, but their designs are significantly different from LEGO set designs, and even the individual parts (besides basic bricks) tend to be designed differently than LEGO parts that perform similar functions. Regrettably, it seems some companies are beginning to push their limits, such as BanBao with their LEGO-like minifigure design and Super Blox, a company which has completely duplicated certain specialized LEGO parts like curved slopes. So TLG does have to remain vigilant against theft of intellectual property. And I think they are justified in doing so-- companies that copy or imitate LEGO products are certainly making an ethical misstep, although it's up to the courts to determine when this qualifies as a legal misstep as well.

Specifically, the upper part is based on the headgear from Breez 2.0's headgear (92219) and the lower part is the microphone from Surge 2.0's headgear (92211). No idea about your enamel questions. I have not done much part customization in my life, particularly trying to imitate metallic colors. So I wouldn't know which type would be best. Stringer and Bulk 2.0 in the Savage Planet movie don't actually have any pieces visible between their helmets and heads. The cheapest option for connecting the helmets to the heads securely is probably a cut lightsaber blade piece. But if you don't care about the appearance being perfectly accurate you could just use whatever headgear you think looks coolest on the finished models. Also, in Savage Planet, Rocka, Stringer, and Bulk are all built the same in their 2.0 forms as they are in their 3.0 forms, besides that their hands/weapons are swapped out for less animal-like ones (Bulk and Stringer were never shown with weapons). If you want to look at them in the Savage Planet movie and don't have it recorded or on DVD, here it is on YouTube. But of course, the 3.0 sets were designed quite differently than the 2.0 sets in many other ways, so if you want to just be creative with the builds that's OK too! I think you're the first one to go through with making these versions of the characters in physical form, and it's definitely an honorable cause (as a gift for your son). Good luck with your customization!

Oh! Guess the version of his gallery I had cached on my computer was out-of-date. It only had the smaller versions. Nice to have them all in one gallery in any event.

There's probably at least a loose backstory, given the unique minifigure designs for this theme. Most themes that have all their figs designed from the ground up at least have names for the characters. Also, it's a more complex situation than City and Kingdoms, so it would be foolish for TLG not to at least give a tenuous explanation for why the good guys are supposed to hunt the dinos.

Nobody's linked any (I think Grogall uploads hi-res images at his own discretion, as he's never posted Hero Factory set pics), but there are some at the website Bricker.ru. Evo Toxic Reapa Rocka Black Phantom Jawblade Surge Splitface Breez Thornraxx Furno

I doubt side-printing on legs costs TLG much more than printing any other surface. However, they did start printing the sides of legs only recently, and as such, I'd wager that they have fewer machines capable of doing so than capable of printing the front surfaces of legs only. When was BIONICLE mentioned? Or are you talking about the "Ultrabuild" action figure sets that use Hero Factory parts?

Yeah, it's been observed. It's used many times in the Ninjago theme, often printed as well. It also makes an appearance in the Cars theme. In some cases, like many of these uses as headlights, it's not explicitly necessary, but on the other hand it makes for much smoother details than a 1x1 round plate by itself could.

Keep in mind that LEGO, as a toy, is about imagination. So what's more important isn't how things are but rather how kids imagine things. Just look at all of the bright red firehouses in LEGO City. They're that color because kids associate the color red with firefighters. It's kind of like something I mentioned in a discussion of fantasy elements in Castle themes. A lot of how people visualize history comes from its depiction in fiction. King Arthur and his knights are perhaps more centric to how we visualize medieval history than the actual history that inspired those stories. While it would be somewhat cool for TLG to try and keep a lot of their sets historically accurate, frankly they also have to temper that with the way kids will visualize things. I don't think they're under any obligation to keep things scientific. And really, it's not like it will change the shape of the future if kids grow up not knowing what dinosaurs really looked like. At the same time, I also disagree with the people who say that feathered dinosaurs would inherently look stupid. And with the people who say Jurassic Park is to blame for people thinking dinosaurs didn't have feathers (toy dinosaurs existed for a long time before that movie made dinosaurs "cool" again). These are just roadblocks to some people of our generation visualizing dinosaurs as they actually were.

I love that the City Alarm box has the crook and cop from the LEGO City mini-movies on it! I wonder when good pics of the Star Wars Battle of Hoth game will show up?