Aanchir

I can see one advantage the pearl gold ones might have. They are very good if you have other pearl gold treasure in a MOC and you want all the gold pieces to match. Truth be told there are many excellent pearl gold pieces (the treasure chest, jumper plates, 1x1 plates with clips, etc) that simply don't exist in chrome gold. And it always bothers me when gold parts don't match in a model-- the Golden King in this year's City of Atlantis set is a particularly egregious example, with three different colors of gold (pearl gold body parts, the same lacquered gold as the Collectible Minifigures for his helmet, and black armor with a Metallic Gold-looking mottled surface treatment for his armor). Some people also think that the pearl gold coins are unrealistically shiny, which to an extent is true. Even when a coin is shiny and new, it's not necessarily shiny enough to see your reflection in it. And coins being that shiny and new isn't all that realistic itself, except perhaps if they're used in a bank vault of some kind. So it makes sense that some people would rather reserve "chrome" elements for things that are chromed or chrome-looking in real life. Now, this doesn't mean I'm defending the pearl gold coins that actually appeared in sets, because given the ugly injection points and other molding marks on them and the gold ingots, it seems clear to me that the mold was designed to be used in chrome colors and then for whatever reason (cost is a likely one), TLG decided to put pearl gold ones in the sets. I'm glad that ones containing the chrome gold ones pictured on the boxes finally surfaced in some places, because for me it shows that TLG recognized that decision was a mistake.

Nice drawing! I like the 2.0 design's geometry too, even though I find designs with simpler contours (like the Toa Mata design) a lot simpler to draw. I've been trying to draw a lot of Hero Factory characters lately to try and discover my own style. On a side note not strictly related to 2011, I was recently looking at some of the "side-characters" from Hero Factory and how they are built, so I could try to conceptualize more non-Hero, non-villain characters. But alas, Lucy and Makuro use distinctly out-of-proportion Rahkshi legs (Lucy's seem skewed a bit towards the top too, so they look like more realistic shins). Lucy has a lot of out-of-proportion parts on her legs, which is a shame since otherwise they're mostly actual Technic bricks and so could be used on a Hero Factory figure... even if, with the scale of most of the parts, it'd have to be a villain set. On one hand, I like that these side characters have several parts based on actual LEGO parts, as it makes them fit in better with the set-based characters stylistically. On the other hand, in many cases because of the skewed proportions, building the characters remains impossible... that's a bit bothersome. Big Joe looks the most buildable, since his actual parts tend to be in proportion, although getting the colors right wouldn't be possible with existing pieces (maybe some of the other HF support characters with the same build could be made, though).

Well, the part Kalhiki is referring to isn't that part, but rather the other piece used for Iron Man's gatling gun-- 92215. I wonder if the part on the very front-- the sort of suction-cup-shaped thing-- is a new, finalized part. It kind of reminds me of the lasers/sensors from Insectoids, only solid and straight. But it could be just a lightsaber blade and a radar dish-- which, if the lightsaber blade were in trans-yellow, wouldn't be a bad thing... Meanwhile, the part you're referring to seems trans-yellow to me, not trans-orange. But I could be wrong.

You have a good point. I understand that this is why a lot of people liked BIONICLE more than Hero Factory. It was an entirely different kind of story-- true, it had the same target audience, but it was trying to reach them in different ways, playing off of the expansive backstory and world-building of stories like Star Wars. BIONICLE existed to sell toys, but it was selling them in a different way than Hero Factory, by getting people deeply invested in the story, and thus, in the product. (Incidentally, including fan-created content and putting older characters in stories are both effective marketing techniques that help sell the sets, because they help establish a stronger relationship between the fans and the franchise). This is also a reason I really liked BIONICLE, but the fact that Hero Factory isn't as deep is ironically also a good thing for me. Hero Factory has given me some much-needed "relief". It doesn't require me to be as dedicated or thorough in understanding the story. It doesn't take as much effort on my part as a collector and fan. It's just a fun kids' toy with a simple story. One advantage of Hero Factory's simpler story, as I mentioned, is that it's easier to explain to others. Being an extremely dedicated fan of BIONICLE, I was under a lot of stress to explain to non-fans why I liked this kids' toy. And as soon as you start giving a lot of species names and such to a non fan you begin seeming like you're speaking in tongues. In contrast, someone might ask who a certain character is, and I can say, "That's Will Furno. He's a robot hero who fights crime." The theme is more accessible to outside audiences, and I imagine that also helps it from a sales perspective. So yes, BIONICLE was much, much different. But I think Hero Factory is just as good, for variety's sake if nothing else. Comparing their quality from a set design perspective is somewhat valid because they're both action figure themes (although I don't recommend it, because since Hero Factory is newer it's not at all a fair comparison). But from a story perspective you might as well be comparing Ninjago with Classic Space, or Lord of the Rings with The Giving Tree. Two different types of story, with two different types of quality.

I normally just read out the letters for AFOL: "Ay Eff Oh Ell". Same goes for KFOL, TFOL, or any other acronym similarly derived. For MOC, I use "Em Oh Cee" and "Mock" interchangeably, sometimes depending on context. I used to exclusively use "Em Oh Cee", but in that case you run into the issue when typing of whether to type an MOC (an em-oh-cee) or a MOC (a mock). Since back on BZPower people tended to prefer "mock" as the pronunciation (and thus "a MOC" as the written form), I've sort of shifted towards using that pronunciation sometimes myself, particularly when among other AFOLs. For the brand name LEGO it's always been "leh-go" to me. I've gotten more used to hearing "lay-go" due to many recent videos online featuring actual LEGO designers, many of whom pronounce it more like "lay-go" (at least to an American ear). Back in the day it bothered me as much as when people would call the Nintendo character Mario "may-ree-oh" rather than "mah-ree-oh", but nowadays I'm more open to alternate pronunciations. In the case of Ninjago, I use "Ninja Go" and "nin-JAH-go" interchangeably, because both seem to be official in some respects. "Ninja Go" is actually exclaimed during Spinjitzu gameplay (at least if you follow the rulebooks, which I don't) and in the TV series, so it's hard to get out of the habit of calling the theme that. On the other hand, "nin-JAH-go" seems to be more official as the name for both the theme and the land in which it takes place, so although I started out calling it just "Ninja Go", I now occasionally try to pronounce it more correctly. (Incidentally, the two pronunciations sort of highlight the two meanings of the theme name-- it can either mean "Ninja Go" as a battle cry, or it can be a portmanteau of Ninja and LEGO.) And of course, BIONICLE is full of names with weird pronunciations. Most that have been in the movies I pronounce according to how they were spoken in dialogue. So for instance, I pronounce Lewa "Lee-wah" rather than "Lay-wah", the latter of which is probably more official, and I pronounce Jaller as "Jah-luh", which in this case is the official pronuncation. Others I just tend to pronounce intuitively. Names with double letters, I tend to mentally separate, so Kiina to me is "Kee-EE-nuh". But ironically I tend to pronounce my own name-- which originates from one of my twin brother's attempts at a fan-story in 2005-- "Ahn-keer" rather than "Uh-ahn-keer", just because I would tend to stumble over the double letter when asked in person how the name was pronounced, greatly embarrassing myself.

They actually had a horror-based subtheme of LEGO Studios in the early 2000s. See here (there are also some Spider-Man sets there; the sets I'm talking about are 1380-1383). There was also Fright Knights, which played with a lot of horror concepts in a medieval setting. I think a Halloween-oriented theme would be very hard to sell, though. For one thing, Christmas is celebrated by people both secular and religious, and the generic "Christmas cheer" of the Winter Village subtheme can appeal to both-- it's up to people's imaginations whether the carolers in the Winter Toy Shop are singing Jingle Bells or O Come All Ye Faithful. Halloween is more of a mixed bag-- almost nobody celebrates it in the religious sense, at least here in the US, and many superstitious folks even consider it a Satanic or pagan holiday from start to finish. Others both secular and religious see it as a gimmicky holiday promoted just to sell things, similar to how some view Valentine's Day. There's also the difference in the ways the two holidays are celebrated. Christmas and many other winter holidays involve gift-giving, making larger sets easier to sell. With Halloween, at least in the states, the traditional celebration is "Trick-Or-Treating", and for that smaller impulse sets like the bat, ghost, and pumpkin available last year. This year's Halloween sets are larger, so perhaps that's indicating a market for such things, but in general it might be a while before we see something as big as the Winter Village series for other holidays (or with the same sort of design budget). Could a full-scale horror-based theme be successful if it weren't holiday-themed? Hard to say. It wouldn't be very cohesive compared to a lot of today's themes, which could cost it some sales... after all, there's not necessarily any reason a person would buy a mummy set to go with their vampire set. But it could still be very interesting.

I collected a lot of Wild West sets from the first wave, but my family only got one or two sets from the later Indian sub-theme. The grotesque racial caricatures for the Indian minifigures might have been part of the reason I lost interest; even as a child I considered them terribly out of place with their odd eyes and noses. But I think a bigger factor was that I mostly liked Wild West for the old-fashioned architecture, and thus the more landscape-based locales for the Indians just didn't appeal to me as much. I had a bit of fun with Wild West later when LEGO Studios came out, creating a cute little adventure with my Wild West sets, but after that mostly stopped building or playing within that theme. Later, I collected Knights' Kingdom II sets, and while I really enjoyed the theme I stopped buying the non action-figure-based ones after the first wave. It's a real shame because in retrospect there wasn't anything especially appealing about the first wave's playsets, and later waves had much more sophisticated playset designs. And most prominently, there are Star Wars sets. I bought a lot of the sets in 1999, a decent amount in 2000, and then slightly less each year. The introduction of BIONICLE is probably one cause of this-- even with my parents buying most of my sets at that age, I could only get a certain number of sets each year, and BIONICLE felt more worthwhile to collect. Overall, though, my tendency as an adult is to build within themes that I'm currently collecting sets from, and not from older themes. As a kid, this was probably a consequence of a short attention span, since I always found my newest sets most fascinating. As an adult, it's more a result of being at college and not having my whole collection at my disposal: while I happily bring certain themes to and from college regularly, I tend to limit my sets to three or four themes: generally two action or sci-fi themes, an action figure theme, and the collectible minifigures. This semester, it's Atlantis, Ninjago, Hero Factory, and the Collectible Minifigures; before that I had Space Police instead of Ninjago, and for my first couple semesters I had Power Miners instead of Atlantis and BIONICLE instead of Hero Factory. Sadly, most of the sets I've collected while at college but that I don't have with me currently are boxed up at home, partly for space reasons and partly because it keeps my little brother from scavenging pieces from them, so even when I go home I don't do much building within those themes.

Some of the faces on those Talonjay knights are horrendous. And in general, I can't say that these minifigures look any better than the actual Knights' Kingdom II figs. With such generic helmets and colors they lose a lot of the personality the actual figs had, but since they don't get rid of the vibrant colors from the actual theme they probably wouldn't satisfy people who disliked the "jellybean knights" either. As it is, KK2 was a fantasy theme that didn't really strive for realism in any of its designs. By trying to make a "halfway-point" between realism and fantasy with these figs, all you accomplish is making both the colorful fantasy armor and the more realistic greyscales look out-of-place. The end result just looks like real-world knights wearing colorful screen-printed T-shirts, as opposed to the colorful armor from the actual sets which could be more easily be imagined as "just the way armor looks in this universe". I think these figs might be improved if you gave them silver helmets with the actual Knights' Kingdom visors on them. That way, there would be more of the colorful primary colors, making the armor feel less out-of-place and the figs feel less generic. Naturally, you might be opposed to this, since most of the designs of the helmets in Knights' Kingdom were clearly fantasy-oriented and usually not based on real-world medieval helmets. But I think it could help unify these fig designs a lot more. At the same time, I'm glad to see that even among those who disliked the "jellybean knights" there were people who liked the universe and sets of KK2, and if these figs suit your personal vision of the Kingdom of Morcia, then that's your creative freedom!

I'm surprised I'm seeing people asking for less cartoonish orcs/trolls/goblins. Personally, I would really dislike any theme with goblins and orcs where they weren't cartoonish. Minifigures in general have a stylized, cutesy aesthetic, and I feel anything that really seriously defies that (such as some of the 1997 UFO theme's grotesque alien designs) is out-of-place in the LEGO universe. Even in licensed themes like PotC and Star Wars, enemy minifigures have a bit of cute "cartoonishness"-- the zombies in PotC are a good example. As for Kingdoms, I hope it sticks around simply because I feel the theme has a lot of future potential. But a new Castle theme would also have lots of creative potential, and since I don't buy Kingdoms sets anyway I probably wouldn't cry for it going away-- it had a good range of sets, and anything left undone can be left to the MOCists.

An image from a retailer's catalog has revealed that there are at least four Racers sets due to be released next year: 9092, 9093, 9094, and 9095. They are four different monster trucks that seem to eject their drivers when the sets' bumpers collide, similar to some of the earliest Racers sets. Unlike those, though, these sets use regular minifigures, and are brick-built with no sign of <insert that tiresome argument> parts (although the actual structure for all of them seems identical, the vehicles themselves seem unrealistic, and frankly the line doesn't interest me aside from some of the pieces). Can't find any copies of the pictures online, but any sites that are still hosting 2012 images might have the pictures (the page opposite is a full-page Ninjago promotional graphic)

Something to keep in mind, though, is that just as in BIONICLE the Hero Factory story is designed to explain the toys, not the other way around. Would you have preferred a situation like in BIONICLE, where accidental and unexpected transformations are occurring all the time (so as to stretch willing suspension of disbelief)? This is one of the things many people criticize about BIONICLE. Or would you have preferred a brand-new set of Hero characters each wave, instead of having the old ones get upgraded at all? Do that and you run the very-real risk of people not being able to keep up with the rapidly-expanding cast of characters, another thing the BIONICLE storyline has been criticized for. The fact is that the sales pattern which is working for TLG currently is two new sets of hero and villain sets per year. "Upgrades" are perhaps the easiest way to explain this, considering the alternatives. Note also that the new Heroes probably haven't changed as significantly as it might seem. Their legs are longer, I think, but I'm pretty sure their torsos are the same size, and only look bigger because the new Hero Cores are smaller. It's a more significant change than the 2.0 to 3.0 one, of course. Something else of note is that the reason so many upgrades have been possible in the Hero Factory story is the same reason that so many have been possible in the sets: the new Hero build is more versatile and more easily modified to fit new missions and settings. And the changes between numbered versions have all been more significant than Bulk's jetpack or Furno's acid-resistant armor. Rather than just replacing a part with an identical part with a different material (like in Furno's refitting) or giving the Heroes new equipment separate from their armor (the jetpacks), the new building system allows the armor to be almost entirely swapped out for newer and more specialized armor and gear. Since this is all happening in a factory even more advanced than the one TLG uses to produce the real-life plastic components, I think rolling out new versions at the same rate is plenty realistic. So why weren't there any numbered upgrades for the first hundred or so years of the factory's existence? There probably wasn't a need for them. Heroes' armor could be refitted quite efficiently, and perhaps it wasn't necessary or affordable to completely replace their armor with more specialized suits-- it might have been cheaper or (as mentioned in the episodes) safer to just send in a more specialized team of Heroes. There are dozens of possible explanations for why full upgrades weren't considered as a possibility sooner in the factory's history. I'm beginning to wonder if BIONICLE hasn't made us spoiled by training us to expect every tiny, unimportant aspect of the story to be explained in exhaustive detail. Hero Factory isn't like BIONICLE. It's a slightly-campy adventure story of good versus evil, not en epic fantasy with an overarching plot, in which minor plot details from the first wave will be shrouded in mystery until they become extremely relevant seven to nine years later. And media like Hero Factory FM and the TV episodes (especially the joke-heavy Savage Planet special) make it clear that if we're treating this just like BIONICLE then we're taking it far too seriously. Just compare the Hero article on HS01 to the Toa article on BS01 and the difference becomes immediately obvious. The BIONICLE story is hard to condense into one main idea, and would be difficult to teach even in a full semester of college-level classes. The Hero Factory story boils down to "good guy robots fighting bad guy robots", which is ironically what many people think BIONICLE is about before they've been exposed to any actual story material, and the nitty-gritty details like Quaza cores and upgrades could probably be explained to someone after dinner one evening. Any explanations the story leaves out probably aren't important to the story to begin with.

But the fact remains that if reloading isn't shown or mentioned, then most people besides dedicated gun nuts won't be worried about the ammo supply at all. Did you ever, when watching the Star Wars movies, worry that the characters would be running out of shots on their laser pistols? I sure didn't. Even today, there exist nuclear batteries developed for spacecraft, and sci-fi authors don't hesitate to include weapons with micro-sized nuclear batteries that never run out of power unless the plot deems it necessary (an example is Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series, where all of the LEP weapons run on this kind of power source-- it's a plot point in the second book that the LEP's enemies in that book use human-made batteries with a more limited charge that only supplies around six shots apiece). Meanwhile, how do you know the heroes' weapons don't have some way of "recharging automatically?" The only difference in Hero Factory is that it would have to be fueled by technobabble rather than nature magic.

Transparent minifigures have been confirmed at this year's Brickfair to be impossible. Transparent parts are made of polycarbonate, a material that has a lot of friction against itself. Thus, attaching, for instance, a transparent cone to a transparent lightsaber blade is considered an "illegal connection" that will potentially damage both pieces. On a minifigure, part damage is an unavoidable consequence, since minifigures have many high-friction hinges on tiny parts that could easily snap from the pressure. Some of your ideas are very good. However, others, like transparent minifigures, battle packs with "variable" minifigures, transparent horses, LED wands, and so forth are simply absurd. With many of these things, we have no reason to even think they are possible even for a company like TLG, and those which are possible could potentially be vetoed for safety reasons or cost reasons. Anticipating so many revolutionary concepts that have never been used for similar themes in the past is just hopelessly ambitious.

Or Bright Green, a not-too-new color but one that's been used prominently in some recent sets (like the Heroica set Waldurk Forest, or the collectible Lizard Suit Guy minifigure). I think Bright Green is a much closer match to the Flying Dutchman in the episodes where he appears, so here's hoping they end up going with something like that. If the set does include his ship, then it might have glow-in-the-dark details of some sort. TLG has done glow-in-the-dark detail pieces quite recently in the Diagon Alley set, and while this would have to use the color a lot more prominently there's probably no reason they'd outright avoid including the color in a set when it's a gimmick that never gets old.

The name TLG uses for chrome gold is 310 Metalized Gold. So if you specify that this is the color you expected them to be in, they may have a better idea what you're looking for. Based on this post, the element ID for the new gold coins and ingots-- that being the seven-digit number that specifies part, mold, and decoration all at once, is 4631481. If you specify that, you should definitely get the correct coins. If anything, it will at least prevent them sending the wrong parts as they have done for other people, as there is no room for confusion unless they read the number wrong.

I don't think the heads look weird-- IMO, it's just a tasteful stylization to make it so the Hero Factory parts don't look unusually blocky compared to the heads. There are a lot of TV shows where characters are just as heavily stylized. As for the unusual armor, it's normal for action figures to depict characters in armor they never wore or would never have any reason to wear, just to make the end product more unique compared to other toys on the market. I think giving Batman mechanical-looking "bat wings" or Hulk some type of "power armor" on his shoulders is much less egregious than some other toys on the market.

Also, some people feel energy weapons feel less violent. While this isn't realistic, it makes sense in the context of a cartoon or television show-- it's much easier to show someone "shrugging off" an energy blast that impacted them, whereas people expect physical ammunition to do physical damage. This is discussed here by an artist who worked on the comics and concept design LEGO Knights' Kingdom II. The BIONICLE movies actually went surprisingly far in how much physical combat they showed, especially Tahu's combat with Lerahk in which he received a physical scratch... but then, as many people pointed out in "violence in BIONICLE" topics on BZPower, Kopaka inflicted a physical scratch on a Muaka with his sword in the MNOLG, an even bigger surprise seeing as it was a hero character doing the damage. I don't think it would be a good idea to use the elemental standards of BIONICLE. In fact, I was happy when Hero Factory straight-up averted them, throwing sonic, metal, and lightning heroes in the first team. Evo's concrete-looking chest print does indeed make sense for a stone-themed hero, as does his slow-but-powerful fighting style. For Nex, I'd prefer a theme not otherwise explored by existing heroes. He's so far been "the tech guy", so something that ties in with that would be cool, but I can't think of any "cyber powers" that don't seem cheesy. Light would work for Rocka, given the chest pattern he's pictured with currently (note that the pictures on the "Breakout" image seem to show earlier prototypes, with the texture on some of Rocka's parts looking unfinished, and with the "Breakout" image using photographs rather than renders as the Hero Factory theme tends to prefer in its more finalized images). I think the best powers for Heroes are the ones that make the coolest, most unique-looking projectile or energy attacks, and the best powers for Villains are the most dangerous- or destructive-seeming ones imaginable. I loved how the first wave's villains were all based on different sorts of hazards. This upcoming wave seems to go a similar route, avoiding the villainous trend of the last two waves where the villains share a unifying theme.

Ummm... Space Police ended after 2010. Kingdoms, we're not sure about. We know there will be a D2C joust set, so that won't show up on B&N's website. Other than that, there may be more sets in summer, or the theme may be ending, but from the looks of things there will be no new Kingdoms sets in most stores for the first half of 2012.

Not I. I guess I did "miss" them, in the sense that they occurred far before my lifetime. I guess Exploriens was an exploration-based theme, but it doesn't hold a very special place in my heart. If the definition of space themes has to involve open space, with no strict planet-based setting, then Insectoids doesn't count as a space theme. It does take place on a largely uncolonized planet, but according to the story in many catalogs such as those in Turkey and New Zealand) the story focuses on a group of space explorers from another planet who have settled on a planet inhabited by giant insects. See here. Ice Planet, although again on a planet untouched by civilization, was also distinctly planet-based. All the vehicles seen operating outside the planet's atmosphere were rockets used to launch satellites-- no interstellar travel was ever visible, so it might as well have been Mars Mission in more of a fantasy setting. Really, it's silly to treat exploration-based sci-fi stories as superior to non-exploration-based ones, or even to say that they're more valid as "space" themes. Now, personally, I do separate space themes into two categories: "near-earth", for themes like Mars Mission, Life On Mars, and (arguably) Space Port, and "deep space" for any others. But I don't treat some as superior to the other, even if I prefer deep space for its greater creative freedoms. And I don't treat Space Police III as near-earth-- Earth is never referenced outside some possible appearances on box art, and it clearly depicts a "space society" autonomous of our own planet's society. When you look at Space Police, none of the iterations have had a focus on exploration. It's always been about justice and crime-fighting. No matter where the box art happens to show that taking place, the set designs stayed mostly the same aside from stylistic developments over the years. And this is how I like it: having grown up in the 90s, I am nostalgic for the societal aspect of Space themes, not the exploration aspect. The interactions between many different Space factions has always been a big part of my LEGO Space experience. And so Space Police III, not including more than two factions but referencing countless ones from classic themes, was a godsend for me. And for that matter, any multi-faction Space theme as we have seen since LEGO Star Wars began has at least some societal components, even if it's just the "clash of cultures" visible in the differences between the spaceships of the two competing factions. Really, Classic Space was a cool theme, but I feel that a lot of people remember it as the pinnacle of LEGO Space themes, not realizing that it depicts a vision of the future that is no longer novel. Back then, the very idea of people in space had some novelty-- it was seen as cutting-edge and futuristic. And you can see this in some of the realistic moon rovers and rockets of Classic Space. This was the future: dart-shaped shuttles, exploration, and research. But today, people being in space is routine, and some people even go so far as to say that true "space exploration" is no longer necessary (you hear this a lot in the US, anyway, because some people looking for unproblematic federal budget cuts see NASA as a waste of money that doesn't affect us back on Earth). So what's important to a Space theme today becomes how being in space changes us as a society, and what the human race and any "new neighbors" we discover get up to once we're there.

Oh my goodness, are we still complaining about this? Toa of Stone that we had seen were brown, but some Po-Matoran had no brown in their color schemes at all. Hewkii, in particular, had brick yellow (tan) and dark orange (Pohatu's was very close, with the primary color one shade darker: earth orange a.k.a. old brown). Hafu didn't even have any brown or orange, sticking to Brick Yellow and Black. Hewkii's vibrant yellow-orange was a pretty big change, but considering most Po-Matoran in the BIONICLE movies were yellow and orange or yellow and black anyway, I didn't see it as an unprecedented one. Or an unwelcome one, since brown was a pretty dull color to begin with. I'm almost certain Evo is still yellow; I see no reason to believe he's keetorange. If he is Keetorange, I'll be bothered a bit, just because otherwise all heroes' primary colors have remained exactly the same since the very first year, so it would be an even more radical change than changing the Hero Core colors. But look at his parts: of his yellow parts in this catalog, many are 4M shells, which have previously existed in yellow and not in Keetorange. Same for his fist. So it seems most likely that he's still the same color as he's always been. I like the patterns on the heroes' chests now, one reason being that they're one of the places where most of the older Hero Core colors are maintained. Evo disrupts this, which doesn't look bad but still bothers me a bit as a matter of continuity. Surge also disrupts this, but since his original Hero Core color was just Transparent Yellow it's still OK by me. Not sure how I'd feel if this new torso printing came at the expense of name badges. On one hand, name badges are extremely limited in use, since they can't be used on heroes with different names unless you deliberately ignore the names on them. But on the other hand I thought they were a cute idea, and again it'll be a shame to lose that continuity. Guess it's probably in part a consequence of non-numbered upgrades. And I'm sure I'll get used to the much-more-versatile torso printing, which has a bonus of bringing elemental powers back to the forefront. Speaking of elemental powers, so far the effects for the weapons in the TV episodes have been very consistent with those of the elementally-themed 1.0 weapons from Rise of the Rookies. I wonder if that will be done with the launchers in the upcoming series-- and if so, what sort of effect will be given to Rocka's. Could just be a generic energy blast, of course.

Well, that was what I meant when I said "headgear"-- the part that connects directly to the head. I was assuming that was what Tanma meant by "headgear" as well.

I haven't experienced that problem at all; however, with the 3.0 heroes I've experienced the opposite, in which the helmets are difficult to remove. Perhaps if they do loosen up like your 2.0 helmets have then they'll be just tight enough to attach securely, while loose enough to be removed more easily. Out of curiosity, is the the heads that are being weakened or the headgear? Since the headgear is softer plastic than the heads I can more easily see it deforming slightly and thus becoming too loose for the heads. It's hard to imagine such problems in the heads themselves, which are the same sort of hard ABS plastic used for so many other LEGO parts.

I didn't mean for my post to sound like a rant against licenses. As mentioned, I really enjoyed LEGO Batman and LEGO Harry Potter. I might just as easily enjoy the upcoming Super Heroes theme. But I was mainly trying to demonstrate that there are reasons some people might be opposed to a LotR theme other than the use of fleshies. I also agree a LotR theme could potentially be very successful-- depending on how well it appeals to kids from a merchandising standpoint. Personally, I have enough LotR merch at my house from when those movies were current to guess that teens and preteens, in the very least, will be drawn in easily. And since The Hobbit was a more lighthearted adventure story, it should be able to appeal to younger audiences-- even if it turns out being darker or edgier than the book, it still has a more linear progression with an emphasis on Bilbo's adventures, potentially making it easier for younger audiences to understand.

Now, let's not be too hasty jumping to the age-old "They're robot characters so they don't have to look like humans" defense. While this is valid to an extent, it ignores the fact that the Hero Factory line is intended for a human audience. Making the characters resemble humans, at least in some ways, makes it easier for the audience to identify with them. Consider voice acting as an example-- even though Breez is not modeled off a human, you would still want her to have a female voice actor so the audience understands she is female. A male voice actor might not be unrealistic for a female from some fantasy race, but it would confuse and distract the audience. This doesn't necessarily extend to giving female characters extremely feminine armor designs. A real-life woman doesn't stop looking female (or human, for that matter) because she has modest clothing and moderate proportions. A male character can have boxy or irregularly-shaped armor that doesn't accentuate particular muscle groups, and so it shouldn't be obligatory for a female character to be "showing off" their figure so obviously either.

New mini-movie on the Ninjago website! This one tells how Garmadon came to command Samukai's skeleton army! We get to see Garmadon before he got banished to the underworld, as well as a younger Sensei Wu (in black robes, which he never actually wears in the Masters of Spinjitzu special). Interestingly, before his fall, Garmadon had Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker hair in black, just like Clutch Powers. After being banished to the underworld, he had Dr. Inferno's mad scientist hair in black (without highlights). Unless he's lost his hair in the meantime (which, being an undead demon-thing, I'm not sure if he can do that), then that's still what his hair looks like under that gosh-darn helmet. Also note that when I watched the video it was really buggy, with colors inverting and stuff becoming pixellated occasionally. Let's hope TLG fixes that soon.