Aanchir

No idea myself, but if you're a Facebook user you can probably learn by following LEGO Watches and Clocks.

Also, I've only had these sets for a short time, so I can't really judge about the arms (even my first battle droid arms took years to start snapping). Regarding the legs, however, they're very visibly reinforced compared to classic skeleton legs, with slightly thicker clips, so I have a lot of confidence in their stability. I'm a big fan of all the new skeleton parts... not so much the torso, but I'm gradually warming up to it, and its usefulness is obvious. The legs manage to maintain a classic minifigure-compatible look and very much resemble classic skeleton legs wearing "boots" made from the lower half of regular minifig legs. The arms are something I've hoped for ever since Fantasy-Era Castle started: skeleton arms that resemble regular minifigure arms in length and shape, with the same level of versatility in their connection points as the classic "wobbly" skeleton arms. As I said, the torso bugs me a bit because it's more complex in design than either previous torso, but at the same time its geometries are still fairly simple and it still looks as though it can fit inside a regular minifigure (even if the shoulders stick out a bit). The best aspect of the new skeleton parts, of course, is that they're completely intercompatible with Fantasy-Era skeleton parts, meaning I can mix-and-match to my heart's delight to find a skeleton design I'm most pleased with. Currently I'm a big fan of using Ninjago skellie limbs with a Fantasy-Era torso, even though I might readily use a Ninjago skeleton torso if I had one of the unprinted ones from PotC. Overall, I feel Ninjago did wonders for the LEGO skeleton, and I hope some of that leaks over into future skeleton appearances in themes like Castle and Pirates.

Well, I think smiles on dinosaurs would become a bit uncanny-valley for my liking. Also, I'd prefer neutral expressions since they'd be more compatible with other LEGO animals in that way. There could still be slight smiles like this head piece, but nothing too much more "cartoony" than that.

Now hold on. I thought Unplaceable Bricks Dump colored all parts involved in a collision red-- that means both the ones that were removed and the ones that were kept. So if a lightsaber blade were colliding with a jumper plate, only one of the two would be removed, but both would be colored red. If this is the case, then LDD Manager remains valuable to regular users, since it shows where the collision occured (but not why). If not, then I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out how I found it so useful back when I was encountering parts collisions more often. I haven't tried opening all of my LDD files, but those I have opened haven't tended to have removed bricks. So I'm wondering if people could isolate which parts started causing problems after the update-- whether, for instance, it's a certain type of hinge connection or what-have-you.

Yes. Almost all license plate stickers in the City theme include the designer's initials.

Never mind; I was looking in the wrong columns! What the color reference is missing, though, is the "color type" field for these two colors. They should both be listed as "solid".

I wouldn't mind a new dress piece, even though I'd prefer the dress to maintain a simple geometry, not like the ghost sheet. After all, minifigure pants and shirts stick to the same blocky shape as the minifigure has without clothing, and fabric clothing like skirts and capes usually have continuous curves and sharp corners, not wavy shapes like the ghost sheet has. Of course, personally I interpret the "extra height" of female minifigures in dresses like this.

Well, I'm certainly seeing some diverse choices! Personally, I don't like to hate on any of the collectible minifigures, as most are extremely unique ideas carried out phenomenally. But it's hard not to have preferences. Series 1: Ninja. Gold katanas are an extremely common accessory, and he's by far the plainest-looking ninja fig there's ever been. Now, with Ninja a flashy design isn't really necessary, but he still feels the least "special" of the bunch. Series 2: Ringmaster (can't believe nobody's mentioned this guy already). He's totally unique, but that face bothers me and he was one fig I put off getting until the whole series was over (my brother and I managed to pick one up at Brickfair this year, though). Series 3: Pilot. Neither his design nor any of his parts really fit into the themes I like, and Adventurers gave us a well-designed bush pilot years before. While this one obviously feels more modern and has some unique accessories, he's one of the most boring S3 figs... possibly because he feels so empty without a plane to fly! Series 4: Ice Skater. She's a good fig, and very unique, but I think her design is fairly tacky. I think a more stoic, determined expression could have helped her greatly. Series 5: Can't say. I haven't yet decided what order I'm going to seek these figs out in, and I love most of the designs. The Fitness Instructor's pretty low on my list, though, because of tackiness (even though she'd be extremely boring if she weren't so tacky) and somewhat boring accessories (hair that has been used before and a boom box in a somewhat garish and hard-to-use color).

The latest version is good, but some parts' categories need to be revised. First place I noticed this is part 2587, which is still marked as being in the Question Mark category despite that no longer existing. The color reference also needs to be updated, specifically to add the Bricklink colors Dark Azure and Light Aqua (which correspond to 321 Dark Azur and 323 Aqua, respectively).

Sorry for the double-post, but there's some cool new online content today! First of all, the downloads section now has 3.0 wallpapers. Unfortunately, I don't find these ones as stylish as the 2.0 ones, even if the lime green color is nice. Still no new posters or screensavers, unfortunately. Additionally, the HeroFactory.LEGO.com homepage has a new video, where some of the designers build creative models using parts from the latest villain sets. The model which appears at the end of the video, of course, has an advantage over the others in that it also uses older BIONICLE parts like transparent fluorescent green Bohrok eyes. Lastly, today's "From the Call Center" includes an amusing call: "I need help! The evil BlinkMaster is attacking with his Beezerp henchbots!" Any BZPower veteran should be able to see the joke here-- "Beezerp" refers to BZPower, while "BlinkMaster" is a pun on Binkmeister, the BZPower username of Kelly McKiernan, the current webmaster of the Hero Factory site. I can never tell whether these "joke calls" are made by actual users of the website or by Kelly himself, but it's always amusing to see shout-outs to the fans like that.

The part number is 90622. It's not on Pick-A-Brick. They can be bought on Bricklink for less than a dollar apiece, though.

What makes you think the X-Pods weren't successful? They lasted three years, which is an impressive feat. TLG doesn't keep sets around for three years if they're losing money by producing them, which is what I think constitutes a failure. Anyway, the concept of the planet sets reminds me of an Episode I toy I got from some fast-food restaurant in 1999. It was a little model of Coruscant with a front that flipped open, and inside was a display of the Senate chamber with a moving senate pod thingy. It re-wound itself when the front was closed again. Now, I expect that these "planets" sets will not have action features, and obviously they'll be LEGO rather than a single-piece fast-food toy. But I'm thinking the "planets" themselves will serve as both display pieces and "storage" for their contents. I don't know whether the planets will have any functionality as building elements (i.e. whether they'll have any studs), but still unique packaging is a tried-and-true method of selling products, and I'm not at all surprised to see TLG bringing it to the Star Wars theme (if that is what they're doing). I certainly hope there are new helmets. Frankly, I prefer printed helmets to the weird open kind that has so often been used for non-CW helmets. Open helmets require black heads to be used on characters who realistically should have faces. And since there have been new helmets for Phase 1 clones and Mandalorians, I hope to see other "open" helmets get replaced at some point in the near future.

I'm sure it has something to do with both. Frankly, it depends on whether merchandise for a franchise can sell. In the case of Star Wars, it's been moving merchandise for years even when there weren't any new movies out. Themes like Indiana Jones, on the other hand, were largely dependent on new movies and so forth to keep them in the spotlight, and thus to keep kids interested in the brand. So I think whether the LEGO Harry Potter theme has staying power depends on whether Harry Potter toys and merchandise in general have staying power. So far, I haven't heard much about the Harry Potter franchise's future now that all the movies are out, but it's been pretty clear in recent years that Harry Potter is not the multimedia phenomenon it once was... it's really uncertain whether toys and action figures tied to the franchise will be able to stick around successfully. It's possible that in the future, there may be a resurgence in its popularity, if for instance the movies are digitally remastered and released in some special edition version. But it's hard to say for sure if this would be enough to move new HP merchandise and bring back the LEGO theme.

Glad to see that suspicions are correct, and Cars will be a lasting theme. A merchandise-mover like it would have been a shame to lose, especially when there's so many characters yet to be represented. I am disappointed that there don't seem to be any new sets based on the original Cars. My brother and I would both love to see a Tractor Tipping set. Of course, it's possible that there will be sets based on the original Cars, and they just haven't yet been reported. But I have obvious doubts. I guess a wave focused on Cars 2 makes sense, since the DVD and Blu-Ray release of that film will be a large part of what keeps the franchise in the spotlight in the near future. If the theme lasts longer, then we may get back to seeing more content from the original movie.

Actually, there were two green ninja in the old Ninja theme, both exclusive to this minifigure pack. One was male and one was female. And anyway, I don't think the past Ninja theme can be counted on for hints about future minifigures, since Ninjago is a heavily story-based theme and the previous Ninja theme was far less story-based. One thing that surprises me is that Zane doesn't have any sets with his name in them. However, set names can be unreliable for telling you the set's actual contents-- if you were to look at the set names for this year's Ninjago sets without knowing their contents, you might think there was no set with a fire dragon, and no spinner set for Jay or Frakjaw. It could be that Zane will have a vehicle in some set facing off against the snake people in a set that has their name and not his-- or, alternatively, he may not have any vehicles until the second wave, since I doubt a theme so successful would not have a summer wave planned. I'm kind of curious what the ninja minifigures will be like in this theme. Will they wear their normal outfits or DX outfits from this year? Will they start out in already-existing outfits, and then get new outfits later, just as the ninjas this year started in the normal outfits and moved on to the DX outfits? Or will they start out with brand-new outfits to keep the character designs fresh?

Erm... yeah. Been around since 2008 Belville sets. Nice to have it here, but it's nothing new. I'm more intrigued by transparent yellow 1x1 plates with "teeth", which I'm sure microspace builders will love.

With Superkalle's help, I created these decorated parts, new to this latest update: LXF File Included are previously missing minifigure torsos and heads from set 7961 Sith Infiltrator, decorated Hero Factory shells from sets 2231 Waspix and 2233 Fangz (All three have an error in that it has a white background rather than a transparent one), and dog and minifigure torsos from set 10218 Pet Shop. The cat decoration from set 10218 Pet Shop and 4842 Hogwarts Castle was also included in the update, but unfortunately the kitten piece 6251 currently lacks any decoration surfaces for this decoration to be applied to. I'm sure many people will appreciate these new decorations. While they don't change the actual building potential of LDD quite like new building elements do, they can help you add extra realism to MOCs and sets which you intend to use these decorated parts on. Soon I will update my LDD Decorations file in the LDD Reference topic with all these new decorated parts, so keep your eyes peeled.

To be fair, the Stormtrooper helmet shouldn't be able to be colored multiple colors with the paint bucket tool because it is neither a blended part nor a part with multiple pre-assembled components. There are single-piece, non-blended parts that can be dual-colored-- a good example is the 2x2 dome. However, this is actually a glitch in the programming, not a deliberate feature, and is caused by certain decoration surfaces being erroneously interpreted as surfaces for the paint bucket tool. So the real solution to this problem isn't to include multiple coloring surfaces, but rather to add decoration surfaces and to add the decoration for that part to the program.

Personally, I thought of Lloyd Alexander first, so it's no wonder the name was so jarring for me. I readily associate the name Lloyd with European fantasy, so seeing it in an Asian fantasy setting is a bit awkward for me. Cogs would be cool. After all, they were used without being too jarring in the Spinjitzu Dojo. I don't want the vehicles to look too archaic, though. I prefer a fantasy aesthetic where you don't care where the vehicles come from to a steampunk aesthetic that feels a shade grittier and more realistic. This is Ninjago! It's been crazy from the start, and so a "saturday morning cartoon" version of Asian traditions (much like the TV show Xiaolin Showdown) feels more appropriate to me than the reasoned application of historical details like in Avatar: The Last Airbender (which, to be fair, was also a cartoon).

Just wanted to interject about Dino Attack/Dino 2010 that given the (IMO) greater complexity of Dino Attack set designs, with lots of functions and so forth, I really think that it was designed first and Dino 2010 was a "watered-down" version sold in places where the more violent themes of Dino Attack weren't appreciated. This is just how I perceived it of course, and it could be my violent American bias speaking, but the lack of complex action features in Dino 2010 made it feel more to me like features had been removed from the Dino Attack sets for many foreign markets, rather than guns and weapons being carelessly pasted onto more peaceful set designs. Now, I was no huge fan of Dino Attack's story. I liked the set designs with their oversized, militaristic vehicles, and I liked both themes' gritty military-like minifigures. But liking the set designs and liking the story are two different things, and if anything it felt like the dinosaurs themselves were an afterthought; an "acceptable target" chosen so that TLG would have an excuse to have a military theme without the damning implications of human-versus-human conflict. The design of the dinosaurs was OK, but they were overly detailed IMO, and they looked too alien to really be used as real dinosaurs without the mutations and whatnot the theme used as an excuse for their weird appearances. In terms of specialization, they reminded me uncomfortably of Mega Bloks. I hope the theme also resembles the 2001 theme in some ways. The 2001 Dinosaur sets were kind of awkward in terms of posability, and there really wasn't that much play potential for me since I couldn't identify with the dinosaurs, and there were no "human" characters to interact with the dinosaurs, let alone a reason for them to do so when humans and dinosaurs never coexisted in real life. At the same time, I loved some design attributes of the 2001 Dinosaurs. Although sculpted with unusual angles and specialized body parts, the angular, carved style of the dinosaurs really felt appropriate alongside other LEGO animal sculpts, and so I much appreciated these molds being used in so many later sets (most outstandingly, for the elephants in the Orient Expedition theme). I don't want to see these particular molds (at least, not all of them) back in the new theme because of their limited posability, and also because I prefer printed eyes to sculpted ones in pretty much all situations. Limbs that use the same Knights' Kingdom-style joints as Dino Attack dinosaurs would be much better in my opinion, although preferably simpler in design, with anti-studs on the bottom to connect to baseplates and scenery. These are just my hopes. Without a list of sets or any pictures, it's too early to develop more than hopes-- certainly, I don't have any concrete expectations, and it could very well be that this theme is just a Dino Attack redux. But dinosaurs are an idea worth revisiting, so I hope TLG manages to improve on all their past dinosaur themes this time around.

I imagine 9446 Destiny's Bounty is the name of the flying boat set. Now, I'm going to disagree with some people and say that flying boats are totally awesome. The Nintendo DS game LEGO Battles (this is the original Castle-, Pirates-, and Space-themed LEGO Battles, not the Ninjago-themed sequel) had a flying boat as a vehicle for the Ninjas, who appeared in some of the Pirates levels (as allies to the Imperials, opposite the Islanders who allied with the Pirates). I thought the idea was awesome then, and I think it's perfect for the more fantasy-oriented Ninjago theme. I'm not totally sure how I feel about the ninjas having so many vehicles, since I really liked the traditional-versus-modern, nature-versus-technology theme presented in the first year, with rugged vehicles for the skeletons and dragons for the ninjas. At the same time, I have been very impressed with Ninjago set designs so far, so I'm hoping the brilliance of the designers has helped maintain a unique look for the Ninja vehicles that does not conflict too heavily with their architecture's traditional Japanese vibe. If Nya goes on to become the green ninja, then that would be very cool, in part because it means that a female character is getting some proper attention as a main cast member. It would also be a real shame if a different ninja got a green color that conflicts with their former elemental theme, unless of course Kai becomes the green ninja and Nya takes his place as Ninja of Fire... Not sure what to think about the snakemen. It's a cool idea, even though the presence of new baddies means that many of the skeleton molds from this year probably will never get used again. I guess they would have gotten boring anyway, though, and just introducing new skeletons wouldn't keep the theme feeling fresh. I hope the snakemen look really cool, and have a style that fits with traditional human minifigures, only with an alien twist! And while most of my impressions have been good, let me agree with the crowd in saying that Lloyd Garmadon is a pretty stupid name. When I first heard it, it sounded like such a cheap pun that I doubted its veracity! But sure enough, it's confirmed in the LEGO press release about the upcoming TV series. Maybe I might be able to forgive the punniness of the name because of how awesome the name Lloyd is by itself, even if it's completely at odds with the Asian-inspired names of all the other human characters.

Tru dat! Anyway, it was surprisingly accurate, since some official things actually have shown Stormer to have a bit of an ego problem. I think his personality isn't totally set-in-stone, and so how he acts kind of depends whether he's supposed to sound dramatic (the Hero Factory TV episodes and comics) or humorous (many Hero Factory FM podcasts). That's one thing I like about the Hero Factory story. Unlike BIONICLE which had a set-in-stone chronology (at least in the later story years), Hero Factory is an assortment of mostly unconnected adventures, meaning that it's much easier to imagine your own adventures taking place in between! There's a lot more room for imagination than BIONICLE had in that regard. And this allows humorous stories and serious dramatic adventures to coexist.

I suppose it's now all but confirmed that yes, the roboball scene with Furno, Stringer, and Bulk 2.0 is in fact from the Savage Planet episodes, rather than a deleted scene from the Ordeal of Fire episode. Kind of intrigued by the possibility of a Hero Recon update... I wonder what it means by "Combined Elements"? The example image obviously shows a complex build that wouldn't currently be possible with Hero Recon Team given its limited building experience (and obviously the fact that it uses 3.0 parts). But the word "combined" bothers me-- does this mean, for instance, that new 3.0 options will only be available as pre-assembled weapons? It's possible that I'm misinterpreting this completely, and that we really have nothing to worry about, and I certainly hope this is the case. It could be that treating the new weapon pieces and building opportunities as something so new and different is just a way of building anticipation for a parts expansion. Or it could be that upcoming HRT updates will allow more freedom, so you can make more creative weapons than the current interface allows. But I can't completely get these worries off my mind. Still no downloads for the 3.0 wave on the Hero Factory website... I have to say I'm quite disappointed those haven't shown up yet, nearly halfway through August. By the way, something I ought to mention about this latest wave of sets... I had been really disappointed with the design of the "name badge" graphics for the 3.0 wave. But after I got Bulk 3.0 and my brother got Rocka 3.0, I have to say I'm much more impressed! The reflective silver and gold of the name badges (they all have silver, and to my knowledge only Rocka has gold) is incredible-looking in real life, something that can't really be seen in photographs or renders. Amazingly, the printed colors are a close match to the current pearl silver (315 Silver Metallic) and pearl gold (297 Warm Gold), something I really love. Bulk's name badge had been one of my least favorite since we first saw it, but I have a newfound respect for it now that I can hold it in my hand. Still haven't seen any really believable rumors regarding 2012 sets, but I ought to mention that someone asked at Brickfair, and the Super Heroes sets will not be replacing Hero Factory sets, and there is no end to the Hero Factory theme being forecast currently. So we definitely can expect some Hero Factory sets in 2012.

Hi, everyone. I'm posting this here because I can't think of any better place to post it. Anyway, last weekend I went to Brickfair, and Jim Foulds was on hand for a Q&A session representing the LEGO Group. I took the opportunity to ask something that I've never before been able to confirm, that being whether a transparent minifigure was possible, given the difference in material between transparent bricks (PC) and opaque ones (ABS). Sure enough, transparent minifigures are impossible. The extra friction of polycarbonate parts would cause the arm and leg joints to snap if used for a minifigure. So a lot of people's hopes for a ghost or "invisible man" minifigure have been dashed. Note that after a later question, he did verify that minifigure heads can be made in transparent colors, as has been done in the past, but the rest of the minifigure with its many hinge points behaves differently. Now, one might argue that with a drastic redesign of the classic minifigure, a transparent one might be feasible. And I didn't ask whether this was possible (although Jim mentioned that designers had tried in the past to find ways for it to work, without success). However, I do not think we can expect transparent minifigures anytime in the near future.

The way people on this site use the term "deeplink" always confuses me. On other sites I've been a part of, "deeplink" just means linking straight to the picture like this, as opposed to linking to a page containing the picture like this. Whereas here, I've seen people use "deeplink" to mean what I usually hear called "embedding"-- that is, including the image in your post like this: I've kind of gotten the hang of looking at context to tell whether people mean linking or embedding when they say "deeplink", but it still causes me some confusion, and I'm wondering whether either naming convention is more universally accepted than the other. Wikipedia seems to support the definition of deeplink I've heard elsewhere, so at least I know I'm not crazy and there is a naming discrepancy.