Aanchir

Sorry to bump this topic, but I was just checking the gallery on the Hero Factory website. It's really hard to get to, except through the Hero Pad. But anyway, I was really surprised to see that it has categories for HeroPad challenges up to Challenge 9. This is extremely disappointing, as there have been no new HeroPad challenges since Challenge 3 in March. What do you think is holding up the later Hero Pad challenges? We already know Challenge 4 would have been Hero Recon Team-related, since it's tied to the HRT video featuring Merrick Fortis and Zib. But it's really odd that there haven't been any new challenges for so long. Do you suppose the HeroPad has been unsuccessful? If so, it's a real shame, because I really enjoyed the concept.

Not sure. If anything, they seem to be "exceptions" to the rule-- particularly dmac, whom the designer of the set actually approached before deciding firmly on using his techniques. In the case of cavegod's model, I'm not sure if there's any story behind it, so it could just be a complete coincidence, with two builders (one an official designer, one a MOCist) recognizing certain part uses that would be ideal for building a ship with an original design that neither builder had a hand in. Anyway, neither case is the same as a fan directly suggesting that TLG should make a set of a certain thing and TLG then making the set based on that suggestion, which is more of what I was talking about in my post.

TLG had something similar on their website for the first wave of Atlantis sets. There was an icon in the instruction booklets for certain sets, which you could hold up to a webcam. So it is possible that this sort of technology could eventually make its way to people who don't have access to a LEGO store. There's a discussion on this already going on here.

TLG has almost never had more than one new Space theme at one time. The few instances I can think of are themes like Unitron and Roboforce which were rather small themes largely exclusive to North America. TLG has sometimes continued an existing Space theme with new sets and introduced a new Space theme in the same year, as with Futuron and Blacktron in 1987 and 1988, but in later years this mostly tended to happen only with impulse sets, region-exclusive promotional sets, and value packs. For instance, look at the 1991 lineup or the 1996 lineup. Besides region-exclusive sets, impulse sets, promotional sets, and value packs, these years largely only had one Space theme apiece. And even if Alien Conquest isn't as "traditional" as the Space themes of these years, it is still a Space-oriented sci-fi theme, and having two of those at one time could have led to the themes competing with one another for sales (not to mention taking up space on store shelves that could instead go towards more diverse themes like Ninjago, City, and the various licensed themes).

OK, but following up on this discussion, where do you see stickers on the helicopter that seem to be holding pieces together? The ones on its "landing legs" (don't know what else to call them) each seem to cover only one 2x4 tile apiece, if they're even stickers and not prints. And even if it were just one sticker covering three 2x4 tiles on each leg, they wouldn't be holding the pieces together-- the pieces would already stay together just fine because of the 3x12 wedge plates they're attached to. Other than that, there are three stickers visible-- the roof sticker, which goes on a 6x4 vehicle roof piece, the tail sticker, and a trapezoidal sticker that goes on a 5x7x2 Technic panel (we can probably assume there is another stickered panel and another tail sticker on the opposite side, even though we can't see them). None of these stickers seem to serve any structural purpose; they're just decoration.

Well, Mark Stafford (a major Classic Space fan and space set designer since Mars Mission) considered it a Space theme when talking about it prior to and after its launch. I think that shows where TLG stands on the issue. Why does having a Space theme with an Earth component bother you? Earth is in space, and in fact plays a key role in many space adventure stories. It's not a classic "deep space" theme, for sure, but neither were Life on Mars, Mars Mission, or-- based on some sources-- UFO. I think LEGO's spirit of imagination means that we should allow them the freedom to explore factions like the ADU who pay homage to human military forces in films like Starship Troopers, Avatar, or Aliens. The big question is that if this weren't a Space theme, what would it be? Action themes is an arbitrary concept we use here on Eurobricks for pretty much anything minifig-scale that doesn't fit in some other forum division (arguably some, like Aquazone, are decidedly sci-fi). If it weren't a Space theme, do you really think it would be more balanced to have a "normal" Space theme running concurrently with Alien Conquest? Considering the City space subtheme this year, I think that a third space-oriented theme would be major overkill, even if it were more "traditional". I'm not entirely sure what difference it would make to people if Alien Conquest were not considered a Space theme, because frankly it would be taking the place of a Space theme with its release no matter what it was classified as.

Thanks for that! I guess the "Samurai" spinner gives us absolute confirmation that yes, Nya is the same character as this samurai. After all, the new spinner print has her circular flame/phoenix emblem on it. By the way, I love the technique used for the jets of the Rattle Copter, using the turbine piece with knight helmets inside.

Has TLG ever done this? As far as I've seen this is something only AFOLs do (if they want to make something that would require glue or tape but want it to still be "purist"). AFOLs and cheap 3-D puzzle manufacturers, anyway. I hadn't counted on how teeny-tiny the Coelophysis was until I saw it in the HQ next to the raptor and T-Rex! It seems in the prelim art for its own set the various sections of the set (ATV, plants, dinosaur) are just shopped together without much care taken to maintain appropriate scale. Compare the studs on the plants to the stud on the dinosaur to see this. Anyway, love the HQ. Much better than Lavatraz. I'm kinda curious about the new gate piece, though. Wonder if it will be more versatile than the old portcullis that used to be used for similar purposes.

Well, keep in mind that if a brand-new team is added, the theme could end up with BIONICLE-itis, where you have to be familiar with characters who haven't been on store shelves for a year or more in order to follow the story. And I think that's part of what Hero Factory is aiming to avoid by keeping the cast of characters in one largely close-knit group. While Hero Factory doesn't have many ongoing mysteries or conflicts lasting more than one wave, what it does have is ongoing character development. Perhaps Furno could afford to be left out of the sets for a wave, like so many Heroes have been. But for a full year, or more? Then you run the risk of the character being forgotten and having to be "re-introduced" in story when he's re-introduced in sets. I'm not saying it couldn't be done, or that TLG won't do that. In fact, it seems to me like they might be heading in that direction, since this latest batch of Heroes have left all qualifiers behind save for their surnames. William Furno isn't "Furno 4.0" this time; he's just "Furno". So unless new qualifiers get added next wave (Furno Nuva lol) then there's not likely to be another Furno set. I wouldn't be surprised if the summer 2012 wave included sets like "STORMER", "BULK", "NEX", and "STRINGER", all similarly without qualifiers. Maybe even some new characters to fill out the group. If that were to happen, then we could truly have two full, alternating teams. However, I don't expect a BIONICLE-like scenario where characters will be reintroduced as sets after six years of entirely different characters.

Do your screenshots from LDD have a transparent background? If so, transparent parts are actually rendered as semitransparent, so it makes them look dull compared to solid-colored parts. And in that case, you can correct the dullness in Photoshop or any other image editing program that can work with layers-- just copy and paste the image on top of itself until the transparent colors become opaque. Anyway, beautiful Hero design, and I love how it uses only existing parts! The weapon and the axes on the armor are both great ideas!

To be fair, 2.0 and 3.0 canister sets were extremely similar in size (both in figure size and number of parts) to some of the Toa Mata. Even more so in piece count to the Vahki. And some of these sets, from the looks of things, will be slightly bigger in size and piece count than the 2.0 and 3.0 heroes were, so it's not really reasonable to call them "smaller sets" any more. Note that there are two sizes of hero and villain sets, so there are now smaller heroes and villains as well as larger heroes and villains (not including Black Phantom, who looks to be the largest set in the wave and the only one in a box). I don't see how Black Phantom is a step backward from Fire Lord, even if he's not very imaginative. His legs are almost exactly the same as in Fire Lord, and any additional spindliness may be a consequence of the image's awful posing and cropping (many of the holes on the individual components are bigger than they would be on the actual pieces). I'm also wondering what the summer wave might have in store... perhaps the Alpha Team heroes will return? It would have been wishful thinking in BIONICLE to make that sort of cognitive leap, but so far in Hero Factory there seems to be a conscious effort not to eliminate any characters entirely even if they have to be absent for a line of canister sets. Might still be a bit of a cognitive leap though considering Hero Factory hasn't been around quite long enough to tell what is an intentional, lasting trend and what are just casual design decisions.

Series 1 Ninjas and Ninjago figures also are different mold numbers, believe it or not. Ninjago figs have hoods with the Design ID 96034, while the Minifigures Series 1 Ninja has a hood with the Design ID 88430. Note that I'm only talking about the Ninjago figs in building sets-- for all I know, the ninjas in spinner sets, which are Chinese-made, might have hoods with the Design ID 88430 just like the one from the collectible minfigures. After all, this is the case with the swords in Ninjago-- spinner sets use the Minifigures Series 1 version of the sword, 88420, while regular sets use the version from Prince of Persia, 30173 (which incidentally is the same Design ID as the classic ninja sword, confusing matters quite a bit). I sort of expected the Brickmaster books to have info on where the parts were made, but didn't really expect that from the Star Wars books with bonus minifigures. Nice to see that TLG cares enough to provide that info. That makes it a real question why there is no info of that sort on the DVD case for "The Padawan Menace".

To be fair, the thick ring around the head stud is a characteristic of that mold, which originated as a Chinese-made piece. If TLG were to make it in another country, it would still have that same characteristic. TLG doesn't always state where "bonus" minifigures are from. For instance, I don't think the LEGO Star Wars Illustrated Encyclopedia lists where the figure is made. Sets and most extended line products will tell where they are made, though.

They care what the fans are interested in, but they don't outright listen to fan suggestions unless they solicit them. Otherwise, someone could claim, "hey, that was my idea!" and demand some type of compensation. Their own market research probably overrules any individual fan suggestions anyway, though mass suggestions obtained through AFOL surveys and similar research methods are probably fair game. LEGO Universe sets would indeed be cool, but I'm sure for some of the things that people would want, LEGO would have to be pretty dang confident in the theme's success rate to allot the requisite design budget. I'm sure minifigure parts and accessories are some of the things people would most want to see in LEGO Universe sets, and those would usually necessitate new molds. Also, unless LEGO Universe sets were designed as sets and then put in the game, the sets of in-game vehicles and minifigures would probably be watered down or otherwise changed. Some of the vehicles in LEGO Universe use incredibly complex building techniques that builders within the target age range might find daunting in real life. Other vehicles might not be sturdy enough for playability, or might fail tests like the heat test, as shown here. Minifigure parts might also fail to meet design requirements for actual plastic parts. For instance... ...Is there a material resilient enough for particularly thin sections of a piece? ...Does the piece look as appealing in real life as it does when animated? I'm thinking of Hael Storm's hair's odd surface finish here-- it has a "gritty" texture that works in animation but might not look so good in plastic ...Will a printed part use too many colors of ink to be affordable, or will a mold require too many "sliders" to create the correct shapes at a reasonable price? Needless to say, certain parts like the zombified torsos or robot arms of Stromlings might have a lot of complexity that would be impossible to reflect accurately in a real piece-- at least, a piece that meets all of TLG's quality standards. Significant changes from the source material might be required-- and fewer people might be willing to buy a product that didn't match the actual game content it was modeled after. It's much easier for the designers to create brand new products than to have to adapt potentially-unworkable product designs into something that can be produced at a cost that people are willing to pay.

My twin brother came up with a tree frog/poison dart frog as a possible "animal form" for Breez. It's compatible in color, dangerous, and able to make use of some of the parts already designed for the 3.0 wave (although she'd need a new helmet). Snakes meet all of these requirements but the third-- what snake-like weapons or other attributes could you give to a humanoid hero in 35 pieces or less? Anyway, I think the point of this MOC was more to explore the creative use of new Hero Factory pieces for a feminine character than to make a slightly-more-feminine design for a basic Hero.

The complaints that I heard most often about the Inika were about the rubber masks, personally. Later sets with Inika builds got endlessly critiqued for the ape arms, of course, but many of them deserved it even more than the Inika did (Kiina with her petite torso and huge arms and legs is a good example), and I'm glad we've gotten to a better place with Hero Factory designs. Other critiques of Inika builds that bothered me were complaints about wide shoulders (same as the Toa Metru, for the most part) and thin chests (better than the Toa Metru in this case). But again, I'm glad we're in a better place with Hero Factory. As an artist it means I don't have to skew proportions as much to make human poses look realistic. I haven't followed BIONICLE serials in months. I keep telling myself I need to catch up, but I never work up the motivation and the criticisms of the serials (ironically, the criticisms I used to happily debate) keep me from working up the courage to see what's happened since I've been away. Meanwhile, as for going back to the "old joints", don't criticize that-- criticize that we never left them behind. After all, Waspix and Fangz both used Shadow Matoran feet, and before that the Fire Villains were using Glatorian heads. And in non-Hero Factory sets, 89650 has not been redesigned for the old joints, and as of this year has still used them in three of the four Ninjago dragons. I'm hoping that the Glatorian heads get a redesign, if not during the first wave next year then soon after.

You mean Golden Age Sandman, or Neil Gaiman's Sandman? Both would be most excellent, but Golden Age Sandman is an extremely obscure character these days, and Neil Gaiman's is probably way too mature for kids. Not mature just in subject matter, but also from a philosophical standpoint. The dude is complex, and not even as lighthearted as some of the less mainstream DC and Marvel characters we're due to be getting (like Deadpool). There's supposedly a Sandman TV series in the works based on the comic series (if I'm remembering correctly). But it would probably swing towards an adult demographic rather than a family demographic. In the very least, I would expect something more on par with Smallville or other live-action superhero ventures than something at the same level as the various DC cartoon series. Our best chance of seeing Dream of the Endless as an official minifigure is probably as a bonus character in a LEGO Super Heroes video game, not as a physical minifigure. Which is a shame, but perhaps the Super Heroes theme will inspire customizers to give characters unlikely to appear in sets the LEGO treatment (I've seen a couple good Dream minifigures, including at least one purist one, and am sure that customizers could really do wonders with that series). Now, if you're talking the Marvel Sandman, as in the Spider-Man villain, the above wall of text is null and void, and the content of my post should be treated as follows: Yeah, that'd be pretty cool.

New Ninjago mini-movie on LEGO.com. This one isn't too hilarious, besides Nya of course. I still think the first mini-movie where she kicks Skeleton butt at the Blacksmith Shop was the funniest and most entertaining, along with "An Underworldly Takeover". When I viewed the new one this morning it had the same pixellation problem that the last one (An Underworldly Takeover) still has. I hope that gets fixed eventually. I hope this gets fixed eventually. It's not as frequent in this one, but still distracting and obscures pretty much the entire credits sequence. Supposedly six of these shorts should be airing on Cartoon Network sometime this fall, at least in the US, though I haven't heard anything about a date or time. Regardless, this tells us there will be at least (and probably only) one more mini movie, which I'm sure we can expect next Monday.

Well, in the TV special they used a special Spinjitzu technique to turn various skeleton vehicles into a ferris wheel to trap an advancing Skeleton army. So maybe that same Spinjitzu technique, or something related to it, is responsible for creating the vehicles. It would be a silly magical explanation, but it would still fit with the LEGO value of building to solve problems, which is explored in various LEGO media. Alternatively, the Ninjas themselves could build the things on their own-- we know that this is a post-industrial world where this technology exists, and Jay in particular is known to have creative ingenuity. To say the Ninjas could construct working vehicles in a world made of LEGO wouldn't be much of a stretch. Of course, this seems less likely to me because the LEGO nature of the Ninjago TV show's universe is somewhat downplayed. As I've said, I'll be happy as long as there's a more complex explanation than Sensei Wu giving them access to some secret garage beneath the dojo that he's never mentioned before. Then again, even that could be OK if it's treated humorously enough.

Well, on one hand, I agree. That was also something I loved about A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (when BZPower gets back, you might come across my embarrassingly-shallow ASOUE-themed blog, The Sugar Bowl). Today, I get the same sort of enjoyment from the Golden Sun video games (I don't play them, but my twin brother does) and Avatar: The Last Airbender, both incredibly deep and rich pieces of storytelling. But on the other hand, while the clues were there from the beginning, dragging the mysteries out like BIONICLE did took a lot of patience even for people who were fans from the beginning, and I'm sure it was outright exhaustive for new fans. They would have to first get situated with the current story, which with BIONICLE's huge lexicon and complex science-fantasy universe would be hard enough, and then dig around for the story materials from years past. Someone who could not afford to buy the entire BIONICLE Adventures series would have a lot of difficulty understanding all that happened in those books, I'd wager. And incidentally, I think the reason BIONICLE couldn't do as well as franchises like A:TLA, ASOUE, or Star Wars is the fact that it was, at its roots, a toy line. TLG couldn't afford to promote story materials from years and years ago; BIONICLEstory.com was the closest they ever came to making that sort of knowledge available to everyone. With franchises that are by nature based on story media like books, movies, and TV shows, it's a lot easier to promote the older story, because it's still one of the main things making the company money. In contrast, BIONICLE's books, comics, and movies never became more than a side-venture for TLG (many AFOLs would consider this a good thing, feeling non-building-toy products stray from TLG's "core values"). Protip: the body is the same part as Thornraxx's head, so if Black Phantom is a big disappointment you could easily make your own "beetle-blaster" from the parts of smaller sets. Sorry for continuing to build the Great Wall of Text with this post. I promise there is no slave labor going towards its construction! This is a fair point, but it should be considered that some of Hero Factory's changes in the 2.0 sets are largely continuing the same trends BIONICLE started as it became less of a Technic theme and more of an independent building system. One criticism HF 1.0 got a lot was that it was "just BIONICLE with a different name", and while there were some obvious aesthetic differences between the two themes, the core building experience didn't change too significantly. From there it would have been just a hop, a skip, and a jump for BIONICLE to follow the same path towards a ball joint-based build. It might be a mercy for me that BIONICLE didn't continue in this way, because it's a lot easier to ignore whining about Hero Factory replacing BIONICLE than to ignore loud, outspoken complaints about BIONICLE, heaven forbid, changing in any way. The Inika obviously didn't do as much for action figure themes as HF 2.0, but they and every wave of sets that followed would be criticized for being "too different" from classic BIONICLE or "not different enough" from the sets that came immediately before them.

I've seen these at a Books-A-Million one time. They're a pretty cool idea for a product, and I remember reading a news article about how these were dreamed up by a young kid, whose family became entrepreneurs for this idea. That's the kind of initiative I wish I had when I was still a KFOL! The face with sunglasses and a mustache is cool, although it's not what I need for an Axe Cop minifigure (I'd need one with a thick black mustache). I wonder whether the stickers fit well on parts like minifigure heads. Seeing as they have curved surfaces it can be more difficult to measure out the size a flat sticker needs to be on those parts. I'd love to see a review of these sorts of products here on Eurobricks, but I'm not inclined towards getting them and I have a hard time imagining too many AFOLs who are. I would assume most AFOLs interested in customizing their models' decorations beyond "purist" TLG-made stickers would probably prefer to make their own decals or stickers, as opposed to buying a pack of heavily-stylized and imprecise-looking stickers from another company (unless it's a trusted third-party customizer). Looking at some of the stickers like the guitar and oil can, I can only picture them being used on large bricks with flat sides, to be hanging on a wall or something like that. And I think that would be too "duplo-ish" for many AFOLs' tastes. Don't get me wrong; the designs are nice and better than many amateur designs you see on Brickshelf (I've never uploaded any of my own awful decoration designs from way back when, which is probably for the best). But I think anyone interested in customizing their bricks that heavily would rather have more control over the custom designs, even though that likely doesn't allow for the glossy, removable material that these seemed to when I saw them in a store.

Yeah, Classic Space was what I was talking about in that particular case. Classic Castle, too, but I guess you have a point about the frequent changing of factions. Pirates is another theme that lasted for several years, and it had plentiful named characters, but still not as deep a story as BIONICLE. My main point, though, was that a toy line doesn't necessarily need an epic story with multi-year mysteries to keep selling strongly. Hero Factory may be heavily character-driven like BIONICLE, but that doesn't mean that BIONICLE represents the only way for a character-driven story to be successful. Note that unlike BIONICLE, which had 2001 as a very obvious "starting point" for the story (and many subsequent "jumping-on" points like in 2006 and 2009), Hero Factory's first story arc in 2010 doesn't start with some prophetic change in the status quo like the arrival of the Toa. Rather, the main characters are either full-fledged and well-established Heroes or moderately experienced rookies. So really, 2010 is a "starting point" for the story, but any other wave can be just as valid a starting point for new fans-- unlike BIONICLE's attempts at rebooting the story in 2006 and 2009, which tended to begin with fresh characters but quickly wind up making references to older story that would be completely lost on newer fans. BIONICLE attempted to alleviate this in 2008 with BIONICLEstory.com's updated design, which included character blurbs on all past sets, location information, and story year summaries. But, having not met anyone who first became a BIONICLE fan in 2008 onward, I can't say for certain whether this was enough for new fans to follow the story with the same dedication as long-time fans. But I have a feeling Hero Factory's less backstory-dependent storyline might have more of a chance of getting new fans involved each wave than BIONICLE's. The newest wave of Hero Factory may eliminate the "version numbers" of the Heroes for this very reason. A glaring "2.0" will automatically get people asking what came before. But these newer set names don't even suggest that these are new versions of the characters.

A lot of LEGO parts are made in China actually, and have been since Chinese production began in (I believe) 2008. One example is the Collectible Minifigures, which are exclusively produced in China. Many specialized parts in various LEGO themes are also produced in China, such as the Rock Monsters from LEGO Power Miners or the specialized head molds in LEGO Toy Story. And as you suspect, pens, magnet packs, and other "extended line" products are often made in China (although in the case of the pens, they are made by a company other than TLG anyway so differences in quality are a given). The plastic in Chinese-made parts seems to have slightly different qualities than the plastic used at TLG's other production facilities, and TLG seems to have acknowledged needing to use a different plastic supplier for the parts they use in China, due to Chinese manufacturing laws requiring a certain amount of raw materials to be from domestic suppliers. However, it seems as though TLG has put forth a conscious effort to use the closest available plastic formulation to what they use in other factories worldwide. The main plastic used in Chinese parts is still ABS, but it may be slightly different in formulation (although TLG's use of high-quality ABS plastic has for a long time been an advantage they have over their competitors, it is not as though ABS is their exclusive property, and there exist many formulations used by many companies). The main difference observed in Chinese-made parts is a slight translucency to certain parts like minifigure legs. Differences in texture have also been observed, although in many cases the Chinese production facility uses different mold designs from those used for near-identical parts in other facilities, so things like texture could easily be a result of mold differences rather than material differences. There are also other incidental differences to parts made in China-- minifigure torsos made in China lack neck printing, minifigure arms made in china have embossing on the surface that's normally against the torso, and a lot of the Chinese parts have different design numbers than the ones used in other production facilities. Overall, if you can't see any differences between Chinese-made and non-Chinese-made parts then they shouldn't be a problem for you (unless, of course, you have some conscientious objection to buying Chinese-made products, which I can't fault you for). But remember that all LEGO sets will say somewhere on the packaging where the components were produced. TLG's current countries of production (at least, those which I know of) are Denmark, Hungary, Mexico, China, and the Czech Republic. Most production facilities are to my knowledge owned by TLG, besides the Chinese and Hungarian ones which are leased to them by external companies (TLG recently announced they are building their own production facility in Hungary to replace the one they are leasing from Flextronics).

But when you think of it, BIONICLE is the only theme to have lasted longer than three years based on a more complex story than those themes. The other long-running LEGO themes-- City, Castle, etc.-- had even less complex stories than Hero Factory, lacking even named characters. And meanwhile, the Hero Factory story is a bit more complex than you seem to give it credit for. True, they need new Hero upgrades and new villains every year; that's a given giving the release pattern the sets follow. But in the meantime, the theme does seem to have some character development, as seen in the television episodes. The problem was that the sets were no longer selling as well as they once had, as Caboose said. And if the story was a factor in the change in sales, it was probably more a matter of the story becoming too large and complex for new fans to jump in easily than a matter of it becoming too dark. If the problem were something as simple as the story becoming too dark, then the next year of story could simply have been written with a lighter tone.

It's worked for franchises like Power Rangers for years. In fact, many merchandise-driven stories work successfully based on that same model, even though ones that have a full TV show or something similar at their disposal have more time to put towards less linear plot threads. Kids who are likely to get tired of the story would probably grow out of the toys and story alike by the time they get bored anyway. It seemed like there were a lot of BIONICLE fans who were in it for the long haul, but frankly most BIONICLE fans (or rather, former BIONICLE fans) I've met in real life (other than at LEGO-related events) liked it as a toy, in rare cases followed the story for a little while, and moved on to other things. And I can see how the expansive story might have alienated new fans as easily as it kept older fans dedicated (this is not to say I didn't like the story-- I am one of those fans who followed the story closely from beginning to end).