Aanchir

Copypasted from Flickr: My attempt at making a female Hero Factory villain. She doesn't look very villainous, however. I was going to have a Ben 10 tail but couldn't find a good way to attach it that didn't leave the butt a weird shape. Bulk's mask was the only one I could find that worked on a female figure but which didn't look too much like a hero. And it's not very feminine at all. But until a better alternative arises I'm gonna stick with it. Her torso is way too complex for a Hero Factory villain IMO... too much Technic. And altogether it doesn't end up a very solid shape. I'll come back to it someday. On a side note, I really like the Stars feet for the Hero Factory theme. They're a nice shape, a nice size, and they don't require using out-of-date hinge styles. Download the LXF here.

That error message comes up for me often also. Sometimes it even happens when an LDD window is not open, which generally means the LDD process is running in the background for some reason. It took some time getting used to closing LDD before downloading a new model file, since before version 4.1 I'd had the opposite problem (LDD would tend to crash if I opened an LXF or LXFML from outside the LDD window, except when LDD was already running).

I loved this set, too! It's probably still on a shelf in my bedroom! Now, personally, I'm not sure how I'd like Hero Factory playsets. Even at minifig scale, it would be difficult to match the design styles of the coolest Hero Factory locations and vehicles. One thing Hero Factory playsets would allow for, though, would be smaller Hero Factory sets (something that was rarely exploited in BIONICLE playsets besides a couple obscure promos and impulse sets). I kind of miss early BIONICLE, not because I have some nostalgia filter telling me those sets were the best ever but rather because in a time when there were lower expectations of sets in terms of posability and level of detail, there could be well-designed sets using just a few parts, as opposed to the hideous 2008 Brickmaster tie-in set (it was creative, but it took some real imagination to appreciate its design). 2009's Brickmaster set was a lot closer to the traditional BIONICLE mini-beast, but at the same time it was still a fairly cute critter made with some creative use of parts. Come to think of it, I wonder if the new Hero Factory building system could allow for a smaller "impulse"-sized set... *goes to LDD to brainstorm*

Well, since chroming is a surface treatment of the pieces, I imagine the process just covers up those holes and molding marks that make the gold bars and coins look so awkward in Warm Gold (Pearl Gold). That's part of the reason I prefer the chrome ones (the parts seem like they were designed specifically to be used in chrome colors, and so the lack of chrome is as much a genuine quality issue as it is a truth-in-advertising issue). Don't know what the deal is with a nub at the end of the gold bars, though. Care to share some photos?

Well, this set is a separate purchase from the subscription, and can be obtained from LEGO stores, so I imagine that more of these might end up showing up on Bricklink or eBay than the five later kits. You may be able to get it after all, but without the rest of the series to follow it up with it's not quite as impressive a package. Overall, I'm very impressed with this set and plan to get it as soon as possible. It has some great parts, what look to be great instructions, and the web tie-ins which I hope will be as good as I'm anticipating. And all this in a format that hopefully will help me to be more creative and less rigid in the way I think about MOCing. Other things included, like a brick separator and brick tray, are also attractive contents. AFOLs who are more interested in the pieces than any of the other contents or tie-ins may skip straight to the subscription for the next five kits. Instead of 178 pieces for $30 US ($.16 per piece, nothing all that impressive and probably skewed by the non-brick contents like the brick tray), the subscription gives you 947 pieces for $70 US (a mere $.07 cents per piece, much more compelling)! Overall, I haven't gotten this set yet mainly because I'm at college for one more week of this summer session and thus wouldn't be able to get to a LEGO store or have it shipped here soon enough to matter. But as soon as I get home I'm going to talk with my dad about getting both this and the full subscription (he's the one who does all the online LEGO shopping in the family).

This is a bit off-topic, but it's always a surprise to me when I find out that the people who I tend to think of as more mature and established in the LEGO fan community than me are in fact younger. I'm already 20, and turning 21 in March. Not a big difference, but it still comes as a bit of a surprise. If it does spin, then it's a pretty pointless feature considering that the outer ring and inner disk are firmly locked together. The only reason the "spinning" feature of the actual mothership set even interests me is because the outer ring spins separately from the central disk. If you wanted to spin the whole thing all at once you wouldn't need any turntables or hinges at all-- you could spin a solidly-built flying saucer just as easily as you might spin a non-saucer-shaped set like a truck, boat, building, or action figure (admittedly the shape of a flying saucer makes it a lot easier to spin than any of those things, but you get the idea). Also, in my opinion the claw on the mothership set does, in fact, help considerably. It adds a little bit of B-movie flair while at the same time letting it interact with other sets and figures, rather than just looming ominously while you imagine the lasers shooting at something else. And furthermore, the thing that people generally consider the biggest flaw of the mothership-- the fact that other ships can't dock at it and thus it is not much of a mothership-- was still present in the sketch model! This doesn't even take into account the sketch model's wonky, disjointed color scheme which suffers from way too many transparent colors. Yes, it would have changed in the final model, and it did-- giving us the very model people are calling inferior. Overall, besides looking cooler the sketch model has no advantages over the final set and a number of disadvantages. Of course, it would have been changed and improved upon no matter what, since it was never intended to represent the completed model, but that's no excuse for trying to suggest that the sketch model would in fact have made a better set than the one that was actually released. The "more refined version" of the sketch model that people are visualizing as a superior alternative to the real set exists only in people's imaginations, and shouldn't be confused with the mediocre, unfinished model the picture actually shows.

Well, I'm not sure why baseplates are normally half as thick as regular plates rather than totally as thick as regular plates. I imagine they're as thin as they can be without being too fragile, since there are very few thinner LEGO parts. Or, to put it differently, as thin as a regular plate would probably be without the stud cavities (anti-studs) on the bottom. It does create a few advantages, though. A normal baseplate sitting on top of some studs will be pretty much lined up with a normal plate or tile attached to those same studs. This is a great way to make a building or other scene modular, with separate removable "layers". I have some moderately ambitious ideas of a way to make simple roads for a layout of modular buildings based on this principle. As for which other baseplates are this thick, I don't know for sure, but I imagine any that do share this characteristic will probably be from Belville, just as this baseplate was originally.

All Flat Silver parts in post-2010 sets should be colored 315 Silver Metallic. This is a new pearl silver color introduced in summer 2010, which Bricklink usually identifies as Flat Silver. Why are the minifigure face decorations missing? The basic minifigure face decoration can be obtained just fine using the decoration tool. If you click the correct side of the minifigure face (the one with the most decorations listed), it should be the sixth decoration on the top row. The painter's face is decorated in your model; however, it has the wrong decoration. The pattern for the two 1x2 "letter" tiles (3069), the pattern for the 1x2 "dollar" tile (3069), the the front and rear patterns for the "hoodie" torso (76382), and the front and rear patterns for the "overalls" torso (76382) also all available as decorations, but other than the dollar pattern they cannot be applied using the decoration tool. They can, however, all be downloaded as part of my LDD Decorations file, and copied and pasted from there into the Pet Shop file. All non-transparent 1x2 bricks should use part 3004 rather than 3065. The Transparent Green 1x2 brick should use part 3065 rather than 3004. All 1x4 bricks should use part 3010 rather than 3066. All 1x1 plates with vertical clips should use part 61252 rather than 6019. All 1x1 plates with horizontal clips should use part 60897 rather than 4085. All non-transparent 1x2x3 panels should use part 87544 rather than 2362. All Transparent 1x2x2 panels should use part 4864 rather than 87552. All 1x4x3 panels should use part 87543 rather than 4215. All minifig ball caps should use part 86035 rather than 4485 The 2x4x2/3 curved slope should use part 88930 rather than 61068. The cabinet should use part 92410 rather than 4532. All 1x1 cones should use part 59900 rather than 4589. Not an error in your model, but you should probably mention in your post how the toilet cannot be assembled correctly because of the collision between 4070 and 48729. The woman's torso should be colored 21 Bright Red rather than 154 New Dark Red. Her arms, legs, and hips are all colored correctly, though. The four neutral-colored doors with windowpanes (60623) should all be colored 26 Black rather than 199 Dark Stone Grey. The transparent 1x1 cheese wedge (50746), 1x2 panel (4865), and 3x6 windscreens (58181) should all be colored 111 Transparent Brown rather than 40 Transparent. The silver grille tiles (2412) should all be colored 298 Cool Silver Drum Lacquered rather than 315 Silver Metallic. The little girl's legs should be colored 268 Medium Lilac rather than 324 Medium Lavender. The two green 2x4 curve bricks (6081) should be colored 141 Earth Green rather than 28 Dark Green. All blue 1x2 bricks (3004), blue 1x4 bricks (3010), blue 2x2 bricks (3003), and blue 2x2 corner bricks (2357) should be colored 140 Earth Blue rather than 23 Bright Blue. All orange 1x1 flower plates (33291) should be colored 191 Flame Yellowish Orange rather than 105 Bright Yellowish Orange. Your model is missing four Bright Yellow 1x1 round plates (6141), one Brick Yellow 1x4 plate (3710), one Black 1x2 plate (3023), one Black 1x1 round plate (6141), one Transparent Yellow 1x1 round plate (6141), one Medium Stone Grey 1x1 tile (3070), one Medium Stone Grey 1x2 tile (3069), one Medium Stone Grey 1x3 tile (63864), one Medium Stone Grey 1x4 tile (2431), one Medium Stone Grey 1x4 plate (3710), one Medium Stone Grey 2x4 plate (3020), three Dark Stone Grey 1x1 bricks with side studs (87087), one Dark Stone Grey 1x2 tile (3069), one Dark Stone Grey 2x4 tile (87079), and one Medium Lilac 1x1 round plate (6141). Your model uses one Bright Blue 1x6 brick (3009) where it should use one Earth Blue 1x4 brick (3010) and one Earth Blue 1x2 brick (3004). Your model uses two Bright Green flower plates (33291) where it should use two Dark Green 1x1 plates (6141). Your model uses one New Dark Red 1x8 plate (3460) where it should use two New Dark Red 1x4 plates (3710). Your model uses five more Bright Yellowish Green 1x1 round plates (6141) than it should. Your model uses one more Medium Blue 1x1 plate (3024) than it should. Your model uses two more Medium Stone Grey 2x2 plates (3022) than it should. Your model uses one more Dark Stone Grey 1x1 round plate (6141) than it should. Your model has four Dark Stone Grey 1x1 bricks, while the set doesn't have any. I'm sure some of your missing pieces are supposed to go in place of these. Overall, this model is loaded with errors that need to be addressed. It would save me a lot of time if you would compare your model's parts with those in the Bricklink inventory while you're building-- it's a lot easier to avoid errors in the first place than to identify them once a model this size is built. On the plus side, you did a good job completing this massive set in spite of some inescapable errors (like the one you mentioned with the "PETS" sign). Good luck fixing those errors I mentioned. Upon opening the file, I was informed that "1 brick could not be placed and has been removed from the model". The fish (64648) and boat propellor (6041) should be colored 315 Silver Metallic (BL's Flat Silver in post-2010 sets) rather than 194 Medium Stone Grey (BL's Light Bluish Gray). The 4M axle with end stop (87083) should be colored 199 Dark Stone Grey rather than 194 Medium Stone Grey. The windowpanes (30046 and 60607) should be colored 297 Warm Gold rather than 106 Bright Orange. The 1x1 plates (6141) on the grill should be colored 47 Transparent Fluorescent Reddish Orange rather than 41 Transparent Red. All green 1x1 plates (6141) should be colored 119 Bright Yellowish Green (BL's Lime) rather than 37 Bright Green. All other green parts should be colored 28 Dark Green (BL's Green) rather than 37 Bright Green. All 1x1 cones should use part 59900 rather than 4589. All 1x1 plates with vertical clips should use part 61252 rather than 6019. Your model is missing one Black 1x2 plate (3023). There should be four around the "light" of the lighthouse, while your model only has three. Your model is missing one Transparent Yellow 1x1 plate (3024). There should be one on each of the lighthouse's four sides, whereas your model is missing one. I imagine this may be the part that was removed when I opened model, because it is attached to the rest of the lighthouse by a Technic axle and a Technic brick and is thus "out of system". The easiest way to work around this is delete the Technic axle and brick, then use the "multiple selection" tool to select these two parts and the Transparent Yellow 1x1 plate from the opposite side and copy all three (you may need to hide a few parts in order to select the axle). When you paste these three parts on the side that is missing the 1x1 plate, there should presumably be no collision since there wasn't a collision on the side you copied them from. Overall, just a few errors that can probably be avoided in the future by keeping the Bricklink inventory for the set open while you build. Great work on this model! Do you plan to build the two alternate models of this set as well? All the lightsaber blades (30374) should be colored 311 Transparent Bright Green rather than 49 Transparent Fluorescent Green. This is a change from previous Star Wars sets, where 49 Transparent Fluorescent Green was the correct color for green lightsabers. All the parts in your model currently colored 315 Silver Metallic (BL's Flat Silver in post-2010 sets) should be colored 298 Cool Silver Drum Lacquered (BL's Metallic Silver). I think Eeth Koth's skintone should be 38 Dark Orange rather than 312 Medium Nougat. All I know for sure is that he and Quinlan Vos have different skin colors, and his skin tone seems to be darker than Quinlan Vos's skin tone. All the Bright Red 1x1 plates with clips should be brick 60897 rather than 4085. The Technic T-beams (60484) should be colored 199 Dark Stone Grey rather than 26 Black. Your model is missing one Dark Stone Grey 1x1 round plate (6141). I can't find where it belongs right now because my Firefox is being really, really slow and stupid right now, especially with PDFs. Your model is missing two Medium Stone Grey 1x2 plates with click hinge female (44302), one Medium Stone Grey 1x2 plate with clip (92280), and one Medium Stone Grey 1x3 plate (3623). Your model uses a 8M axle (3707) where it should use a 10M axle (3737). A lot of click-hinge pieces seem to be hinged inaccurately. However, I can't quite tell how all of them should be hinged since it seems that some cannot be hinged legally (i.e. at increments of 22.5 degrees), although this may just be because they are colliding with other incorrectly-hinged pieces. It's a puzzle you could probably solve a lot better than I can-- the trapezoidal "front-plates" of the side areas are what strike me as the most obvious inaccuracy, as they are not hinged at all. Why aren't the bricks off to the side of the model attached? If there's a collision, that should probably be noted in your post. Ugh... it's sometimes very, very frustrating to spot-check something that's not inventoried on Bricklink (or reviewed here on Eurobricks). Still, great work on this set! The antenna piece (3957) should be colored 26 Black rather than 199 Dark Stone Grey. The 4x8 plate (3035) should be colored 199 Dark Stone Grey rather than 26 Black. The minifigure has the incorrect face print. The correct one is the fifth face on the second row when using the decoration tool. All parts colored 326 Spring Yellowish Green should actually be colored 24 Bright Yellow. Spring Yellowish Green hasn't even shown up in any sets yet. All parts colored 37 Bright Green should actually be colored 28 Dark Green. The 1x1 plate (6141) on the doorbell should be colored 297 Warm Gold rather than 106 Bright Orange. Your model is missing two Reddish Brown 1x1 bricks (3005) from the base of the columns holding up the car port. Your model has one more Transparent Fluorescent Reddish Orange 1x1 round plate (6141) than it should. Your model has one Bright Blue 2x2 plate, while the set doesn't include any. All non-transparent 1x2 bricks should use part 3004 rather than 3065. All 1x1 plates with vertical clips should use part 61252 rather than 6019. The 1x4 hinge plate should use part 95120 rather than 44822. Aside from the various errors, great work on this one! Again, I have to ask whether you plan to make the other two models of this set.

That one's pretty cool, although I'll warn you that I'm pretty sure it's thicker than a regular baseplate (same thickness as an actual plate), so if you intend for your fort to be part of a larger display it might not fit in perfectly with other baseplates. Still, it might suit your needs sufficiently.

I hadn't even thought about how that would be up now! My favorite part of the Bios so far is the ADU Rookie's "Vehicle" information.

Well, the reaoson for this is because Bricklink's Light Bluish Gray (the color I assume you're talking about) is actually not 208 Light Stone Grey but rather 194 Medium Stone Grey. 208 Light Stone Grey is equivalent to Bricklink's Very Light Bluish Gray, a more obscure color used primarily in Knights' Kingdom II, Mindstorms, and a couple BIONICLE sets. When you say "not available", are you talking about availability for purchase through DesignByMe mode? In that case, even if a part exists in real life, it might not be available for purchase. DesignByMe mode has a very limited parts palette, which is the same as that of the online Pick-A-Brick. If every part that was available in real life, the packing of DesignByMe purchases (which is done by hand) would be even more inefficient and probably terribly expensive. In other modes, like LEGO Universe mode or LDD Extended mode, there are no limitations on which colors you can use for parts, although naturally some color-and-part combinations will not exist in real life and thus you cannot make purchases through these modes. Forum Moderator Superkalle has developed a tool called LDD Manager which can convert an LXF file into a Bricklink wanted list (and tell you whether or not a part you used in one of these modes exists in the appropriate color in real life). I recommend downloading LDD Manager not just for this feature (which I never use personally) but also for its Color Reference, a chart that cross-references Bricklink names for the various colors with the official LEGO names used on LDD, which can prevent a lot of confusion regarding color names like Light Stone Grey and Medium Stone Grey. And just a word of advice: generally, any MOC you make in DesignByMe mode is cheaper to buy through the online Pick-A-Brick than through DesignByMe, since DesignByMe costs an additional $10 US for any one purchase and up to 25% more for each individual piece. These premiums help pay for the custom-printed box and building instructions, things which AFOLs rarely care about (since you can just as easily generate the same building instructions through LDD, and the box is merely a novelty once you've built the model).

I agree to an extent. But at the same time, remember that the LEGO Batman license included some characters that are relatively unfamiliar to the average moviegoer, like Nightwing (although Nightwing is not a completely obscure character, having appeared in a number of Batman cartoons, he is still not too well-known outside of the comics community). If TLG were to balance out moderately obscure characters with more well-known characters, they could work the obscure characters into an occasional set as "exclusive" minifigures, while still maintaining the level of brand familiarity needed to sell the sets. Of course, LEGO Batman had some advantages that an Avengers license would not have. Batman, as a brand, is traditional, iconic, and built upon familiar archetypes. Batman is a superhero with a dark past who uses technology to fight crime. The Avengers are not as old a brand, nor as familiar a brand in all social circles. While some of the individual characters are fairly well-known (such as Captain America and Iron Man), the group itself is not too familiar to everyone and doesn't have the same common attributes as the Batman franchise. Looking at Wikipedia, the fact that there was a recent cartoon series involving the Avengers makes a more expansive, less movie-specific line seem more feasible. And at the same time, it's possible a movie-specific line will be sufficient depending on whether it has enough potential for sets and whether it is successful enough to become a lasting franchise. But I definitely agree about comics not being successful enough on their own to make non-movie characters and elements worth including. Even though comics are very big in certain communities, those communities don't usually overlap with the age range of the average LEGO buyer these days.

Specifically, anything that fits those criteria will be in this category. Good luck with your fort!

The lightsaber handles (64567) should be colored 298 Cool Silver Drum Lacquered (BL's Metallic Silver) rather than 315 Silver Metallic (BL's Flat Silver in post-2010 sets). Your model is missing two Dark Stone Grey cheese wedges (50746) that go on either side of the middle speeder section's nose, and one Dark Stone Grey 4M axle with stop (87083) that goes inside the flick fire mechanism of the far-left speeder section. Your model is missing two 1x1 round bricks in 24 Bright Yellow. Click hinges like 30364 and 44302 can legally only be hinged at intervals of 22.5 degrees. They can't quite make it quite that high on LDD, only getting to 22.45 degrees up before the engines collide with the fuselage, but it seems like it works legally IRL (there seem to be minor boundary errors with 61252, 4081, 2569, and another piece I cannot identify preventing this on LDD). In any event this isn't too much of an error on your part, but you'll want them hinged as high up as they can actually go for the purposes of this model (they are currently hinged only 17.96 degrees, not at all realistic for these hinge pieces when not being held at that angle illegally). No other errors I could find! Generally, a newer part has a newer ID number. For a couple years they might appear interchangeably, but soon enough the newer one tends to become "standard". If you know enough part numbers, you can actually estimate when a part debuted based on its number (for instance, all parts numbered 9#### made their debut this year or last). This isn't completely reliable, since a part can be designed and assigned an ID number long before it begins to show up in sets, in which time other parts with higher numbers can begin to appear, but in general if you're not confident about which part was current when a set came out you can check the part in the actual set yourself (or others that came out at the same time). In the case of the cones, there's an actual physical difference, which is even visible on LDD. 59900 is equivalent to Bricklink's Cone 1 x 1 with Top Groove, and this can be seen on LDD if you zoom in. 59900 became standard for solid-colored cones in 2008 and for transparent-colored cones in 2010. Of course, judging by appearance isn't always reliable, because sometimes a new mold for a part will not be assigned a new part number. Bricklink's 4085b is the one most often associated with the part number 60897 on LDD, since it was the first to bear that part number and visually resembles the LDD render. However, the part number for the more recent 4085d is also a version of 60897, despite having a different appearance (check the bottom of one of these pieces with a magnifying glass to see for yourself). Unfortunately, since LDD is programmed to have each part number mapped to a single part design, people often get confused and use 4085 when they mean to use 60897, since 4085 closer resembles the modern version of 60897 visually. An even worse problem occurs when two functionally different parts have the same ID number in real life. 4868a and 4868b both have the part number 4868 engraved on them, meaning that LDD can probably never be updated to include the older version unless there's an extreme overhaul in the data structure allowing for more than one part to have the same ID number (and none of us want that since it would probably make it so none of our older MOCs and sets would be able to run on the newer version of LDD). Generally when doing an error-check, I make heavy use of the "Color and Shape Selection Tool" to see how many copies of each element are present. I make a note if the quantity of any given part in the model doesn't match up with the quantity of that same part in a reliable inventory (either the Bricklink inventory or the inventory in the back of the instruction booklet). Once I've checked a part I delete every instance of that part in the model, so by the time I've gotten through the inventory I've deleted the whole model (unless there are additional parts which don't belong).

All the instructions online at the Customer Service website now are the same ones that have been there since TLG first began hosting PDF instructions at the customer service website. And furthermore, instructions occasionally get added for long-discontinued sets (for instance, the instructions for 6236 King Kahuka were added only a year or so ago), so I don't think the age of the sets is an issue at all. Naturally, any number of unforeseeable things could happen involving the LEGO website, and I don't have any personal insight into how the LEGO Customer Service website is operated, but I don't think the site's PDF building instructions are going away any time in the foreseeable future. Instructions elsewhere on LEGO.com (for instance, alternate model instructions on the LEGO Club website or the sites for individual LEGO themes) do get taken down after a certain amount of time passes (usually after the sets involved have been discontinued for quite a while), so those would be worth saving backups of. Although if there are instructions you want to see that have been removed from the site they were on, many can still be found using the Archive.org Wayback Machine.

Really vigilant about the "she", huh? Anyway, I can't wait until these show up in the US, though I'll probably buy the ones I want in a store rather than online. I'm probably most excited about Bulk and Stringer 3.0, but Raw-Jaw is also among the sets I'm keen on getting early on.

Well, the weird thing is that it did fit in LDD 4.0, but didn't after 4.1. When I went to upgrade my old sets, it was a very unpleasant surprise. Hopefully it gets fixed just like the Castle armor piece, which similarly stopped working between LDD 3 and 4 but was fixed for 4.1.

This is true to an extent, but it should be noted that the "spirit" in the design of the final one matches the rest of the theme a lot better than the original sketch model. And as I mentioned, the final version has a unique function that seems to be completely absent from the sketch model-- so while visually the prototype may have been "made of win", in terms of playability it is an inferior design to the sketch model of the Abduction set (or to the final version of that set, which fully retained the sketch model's functionality). I largely agree with this-- the sketch model of the Jetcopter has a wonderful balance of colors just like the final version of the HQ, whereas the final set seems a bit too heavy on the blue and yellow. Another factor I like better about the sketch model is the smaller, two-bladed propeller rather than the larger four-bladed one. While the propellor itself feels less powerful with only two blades, it makes the vehicle sleeker, better balancing its dual nature as a jet and a helicopter. At the same time, though, I worry that having that much grey the human faction's color scheme wouldn't have had enough contrast with the alien faction's. And there are some changes in the color scheme between the sketch models and final versions that I think were wonderful, namely the addition of Transparent Fluorescent Reddish Orange (Trans-Neon Orange) to the ADU weapons and Transparent Fluorescent Green (Trans-Neon Green) to the alien weapons.

Well, according to Bricklink, the "Temple of the Crystal Skull" set did occasionally come with a chrome version rather than a non-chrome version. I wonder what causes the abrupt changes in set production seen there or here. It could very easily be a matter of which part is more economical to produce-- note that the non-chrome ones come on a sprue, so there could be an economic advantage to the mold itself rather than just to the chroming process. That doesn't explain why no chrome gold parts appeared in the first production run of these brand-new coin molds, though... Perhaps TLG's various factories keep a smaller supply of the chemicals needed for producing chrome parts more often than they run out of regular dye, and so they are not always prepared to mass-produce a set that was intended to contain chrome parts unless they replace them with non-chromed alternatives. Has Brickjournal or any other resource ever had an article about the more specialized production processes like chroming or lacquering that TLG uses?

I largely agree with this, except the part about the mid-90s having an ideal balance of stickers and prints. Perhaps I'm a teensy bit obsessive about this, but personally even many of the prints from that era, without any logos or branding necessarily, still felt very theme-specific. I avoided using the Spyrius control console pieces for themes other than Spyrius, for example. Likewise, many of the Castle decorations were faction-specific and thus theme-specific, even though because decorations in general were simpler then you could easily keep some of the parts from standing out to somebody oblivious to the themes they came from (a Dark Forest shield could possibly fit in even in a modern bar or tavern MOC). Pirates decorations have always been somewhat generic, but at the same time the more recent Pirates theme had far fewer sails with enormous, garish logos on them, although this could just be because there were fewer factions and sets and thus less of a need to distinguish them from each other. Also consider the Aquazone theme, for which pretty much every print was extremely theme-specific (with a few key exceptions like the orange and silver "target" pattern on a 2x2 tile in the Hydronauts and Stingrays subthemes). Ironically, one of the themes with the least theme-specific decorations at that time was Time Cruisers, possibly because the unifying motifs of the theme couldn't be allowed to clash with the already diverse theme-specific styles that were mashed together to create the theme's distinctive design juxtapositions and anachronisms. In general, I don't think any time period stands out as the epitome of printed parts and stickers being used in appropriate places. Every theme I can recall has had a mix of versatile prints and extremely specific ones (even Star Wars, from which many decorations were extremely versatile, had other decorated parts with obvious Rebel Alliance or Galactic Empire emblems in its first year). Today, printed parts vary by theme-- Toy Story had almost no stickers, while Space Police III was practically swimming in them. And while many of today's and yesterday's stickers are fairly theme-specific, others are not-- consider the ornate, logo-free Japanese text on this sticker sheet from this year, or these stickers from a 1994 Technic set (all of which went on pieces that could have been printed at the time). Clearly, there are other factors in whether stickers are used or parts are printed instead. Rather than just being a matter of cost effectiveness or how versatile the decoration will be in the future, factors that are considered include things such as expectations of the target audience (fans of Technic have long been expected to be skilled enough to apply stickers without difficulty), the surface the decoration will be applied to (the sides of slope bricks have almost never been printed, for whatever reason), and the type of theme-specificity involved in the decoration (note that many of the Toy Story decorations were only stylistically specific to the theme-- on the other hand, other companies' logos like on the Maersk train are never printed). Another possible factor is how much of a gamble the theme is considered to be-- Ninjago and Toy Story, for instance, may have had extremely positive market research before their release, just as with this year's first wave of Hero Factory sets. On the other hand, the first wave of Hero Factory last year used lots of stickers and no printed parts. In general, I'm pretty pro-sticker in most situations. This doesn't mean I don't approve of printed parts in many of those same situations, but something I've observed is that I use even the most specialized stickered parts these days with fewer misgivings than I would have had for theme-specific printed parts in my childhood.

It's not a new color-- it's 316 Titanium Metallic, the same color that is (to my knowledge) used most armor and weapon pieces used by the dragon faction in Kingdoms. Bricklink calls it Pearl Dark Gray, although it is slightly different than the Pearl Dark Gray color used prior to the debut of Kingdoms (147 Dark Grey Metallic). If yours looks different than other Titanium Metallic parts from Kingdoms sets, then it's possible that you simply received a part with color inconsistencies. I hope this is not the case, as 316 replaced 147 largely for the purpose of reducing the inconsistencies in earlier Pearl Dark Gray parts, and so far I haven't heard any horror stories about Titanium Metallic parts being inconsistent with one another. If there truly are inconsistencies, I hope TLG can resolve them without having to discontinue Titanium Metallic, which is in my opinion a lovely color. The weapons aren't actually minifigure weapons in the strictest sense. They were designed for the Heroica subtheme of LEGO Games, and some of the factors of their design owe themselves to that theme (for instance, they are all designed so they can be mounted inside a hollow stud, and they are in general slightly smaller than weapons designed specifically for minifigures). I do not expect these weapons to become widespread in typical System themes, and they were probably included in this set because they offer a wide variety of designs that are small enough that they don't drive the price up too greatly. They also probably cost less to produce than other LEGO weapons because their molds are more recent and thus possibly more economically-designed. It should be noted that every set containing these weapons contains this exact same assortment, similar to the BIONICLE minifigure weapons from 2006-2007 playsets. The designs on those, of course, were much more specialized, and they'd hardly fit into any theme but a sci-fi oriented one. Compared to those, these are downright generic, and not at all like the IMO overspecialized weapons often seen in Mega Bloks sets or Brickarms weapon packs.

I wouldn't say that, necessarily. We've only seen one other intellectual property switch from Mega Bloks to LEGO for licensed building toys, and since both that and Marvel are owned by Disney we can't be sure if it's a matter of companies in general turning to LEGO over Mega Bloks or simply Disney deciding that since LEGO products of their IPs have been successful so far, they want to move over their Marvel properties as well. And note that many other properties have made the switch in the opposite direction in the past decade. Several licensed Duplo themes have been discontinued, only for the owners of those IPs to offer the license to Mega Bloks instead. Examples include Dora the Explorer and Thomas the Tank Engine. This could be because the quality advantages of LEGO products aren't as relevant to the Duplo age range. Product safety and cost are some of the key factors in the success of toddler toys, while complex builds and the general brand appeal are hardly even relevant (after all, Duplo figures have never been as iconic as the LEGO minifigure, and it's hard to design successful video games and other marketing methods that appeal to the Duplo age range). Whatever the case, though, TLG has demonstrated that they are definitely the best building toy company at producing high-quality licensed products and having them fly off the shelves. I don't expect Halo or Hello Kitty to be switching over to TLG anytime soon, since Mega Bloks seems to be doing an OK job with those properties, but we'll see whether these instances of companies switching to LEGO in their licensing are isolated instances or part of a larger trend favoring LEGO's superior quality over Mega Bloks's lower prices.

Immediately upon opening the model I got a warning that "4 bricks were not placed correctly and have been removed from the model". They include two Medium Stone Grey 4x4 hinge plates (44570) and two Medium Stone Grey 3x6 wedge plates (2419) from the wings. I do not know for certain why these parts were removed, although it seems to be the fault of a boundary error involving the hinge plate. Your model has one two many probe droids. The set only contains two. The two 1x1 round bricks (3062) and the two 1x1 plates with horizontal clip (6019) should all be 5 Brick Yellow rather than 24 Bright Yellow. The 1x1 plates with horizontal clip should also be brick 61252 rather than 6019. The Bright Red 1x1 plate with vertical clip should actually be brick 60897 rather than 4085. All the parts you have colored 44 Transparent Yellow should actually be colored 5 Brick Yellow. All the parts you have colored 5 Brick Yellow (BL's Tan), besides Qui-Gon's torso and arms, should actually be colored 138 Sand Yellow (BL's Dark Tan). The two 1x1 bricks with four side-studs (4733), the 2x2 45 degree peak slope (3043), the 2x2 45 degree slope with computer monitor pattern (3039), the 1x6x2 arch (6183), the 1x8 plate in the craft's nose (3460), the four 1x2/2x2 brackets in the body of the vehicle (44728), the five 1x2 plates with handles (48336), the 2x2 round tile (4150), and the two control levers in the cockpit (73587) should be colored 26 Black rather than 199 Dark Stone Grey. Additionally, the correct decoration for 3039 is available, so there's no need to use a placeholder decoration. You can obtain the part with the correct decoration in my LDD Decorations file. You should make note of the fact that Darth Maul's head-spikes are unavailable on LDD in your post, and possibly include a replacement part in the actual LXF. Captain Panaka's arms and legs should be colored 135 Sand Blue rather than 102 Medium Blue. Captain Panaka's head should be colored 312 Medium Nougat (BL's Medium Dark Flesh) rather than 18 Nougat (BL's Flesh). The Transparent Red 1x1 cones should be brick 59900 rather than 4589. The decoration for the radar dish that acts as the "roof" of the vehicle is available, and can be obtained from the LDD Decorations file that I linked to previously. The two lightsaber handles (23306) should be colored 298 Cool Silver Drum Lacquered rather than 194 Medium Stone Grey. The speeder bike's handlebars (30031) and 1x1 plate with clip (2555) should be colored 199 Dark Stone Grey rather than 194 Medium Stone Grey. Your model is missing one Dark Stone Grey 4x4 quarter-circle plate (30565) on the vehicle's left wing. The two lightsaber handles (23306) should be colored 298 Cool Silver Drum Lacquered (BL's Metallic Silver) rather than 315 Silver Metallic (BL's Flat Silver in post-2010 sets) The spear (4497) and axe blade (53454) being held by Savage Opress should be colored 316 Titanium Metallic (BL's Pearl Dark Gray in post-2010 sets) rather than 27 Dark Grey (BL's Dark Gray). There are very, very few colors that do not appear at all in LDD, and there should never be any pearl colors that are completely missing from LDD, even if they don't appear on the default LDD Extended color palette. The Dark Stone Grey 1x1 cones should be brick 59900 rather than 4589. Savage Opress's head should be colored 26 Black rather than 199 Dark Stone Grey. Nice to get a good look at how some of these Star Wars sets are built, since I no longer collect them myself. Some of the Episode I sets this year, particularly the podracers, are bringing me dangerously close to putting some of these sets on my personal wish list. But the prices haven't stopped being a hindrance in that regard...

Place a 2x2 turntable on one end of a 2x6 plate, and then cover the rest of the 2x6 plate's studs with a 2x4 tile. This will be the construction for each individual stair. That should give it a similar enough shape and size, although it would not be a perfect replacement in all situations (some builds involve 1x2 jumper plates underneath the bottom stair in positions that might not be possible with stairs that aren't hollow underneath).

I think that there's a difference between "dumbing down" and "streamlining". A lot of sketch models, like many of the SPIII ones, were way too complex for their own good, and frankly looking good isn't the only component of a quality design. A certain amount of simplicity makes a design more refined-looking, as well as often sturdier and more "swooshable" (something even AFOLs tend to value). In the case of that UFO Abduction sketch model, it is indeed a nice and fairly streamlined design, but at the same time, as pointed out by Arigomi, it has a number of flaws that probably influenced the changes that took place between it and the final model. Meanwhile, the final set also has aesthetic improvements-- the saucer is flatter and more saucer-shaped, there are fewer unused studs on the top of the model, and-- most importantly-- there's actually space for a passenger in the final version. While I wouldn't have minded some of the features of the sketch model-- for instance, the bulgy Slave 1 parts could have taken the place of the new quarter-circle slopes and the 4x4 macaronis in fewer pieces and with a more unified feeling-- overall I think the final version is more appropriate for store shelves than the sketch model.