Aanchir

I love those as well! Not to mention the inverse of that which I don’t see so often (old-school versions of modern sets)!

I’ve heard it’s mostly a US thing, yeah.

Unless I missed it, no mention of the new life jackets? Granted they’ll probably be everywhere soon, but after seeing so many complaints about the current ones I’d’ve thought that would be the most exciting thing in the people pack for a lot of us.

This is a beautiful model! Though as I mentioned on Facebook, it would have been nice if you could have included more interior details now that the larger size allows for it. The stable is a phenomenal addition (would love for more LEGO castles to have stables!), but those towers are crying out for more contents! Maybe the lower level of one of them could be converted into a dungeon?

Neck piece is https://brickset.com/parts/design-31561, bottom part of the head is a new 1x3 inverted tile with a 3.2mm hole through the center.

Looking at that image, that's another thing that surprised me… getting a second casual outfit for Cole! I had seen this outfit as concept art in the art book, but didn't expect it to become an actual minifigure. Between this and the Young Wu minifigure for Season 9 that clearly echoes Young Wu concept art for the movie, I wonder if we'll see any other movie concept art lead to finished minifigures?

I love the Jens and Nick minifigures! The TDN module is also very authentic looking despite being a lot blockier. I do think that it would've been nice if you could have used a neck bracket and some additional pieces to give Jens his second set of arms.

I think that's 30924 which originated in last year's Heartlake Hospital. Good spotting though! I hadn't noticed that! Also, I don't particularly mind Dareth using the black Wu-Cru gi, for one main reason: that outfit isn't used for any other LEGO Ninjago Movie figures! Heck, for all we know, it might've been designed for this set and only wound up in other sets first because it was quicker to get those lower-priced sets onto store shelves than a high-priced set like this one. Likewise with Lil' Nelson, I think the white training gi is a natural fit. We already saw in the Ninjago City set that these gis are not specifically associated with Sensei Wu and his team, despite having his face on them. So if Nelson is in Dareth's martial arts classes I think it's appropriate training attire. Nope, it's always been this way as far as I know. That's how it was spelled on the sticker sheet of Samurai X Cave Chaos, at any rate. One weird thing about the set that I don't know if anyone's mentioned — what's up with the three characters whose names are the same except for the fourth letter (Runde, Runje, and Runme)? I guess we'll find out when the set is officially released, at least if its instruction manual has character bios like Ninjago City's did.

Probably the same reason Mother Doomsday, Patty Keys, Fred Finley, Ed, and Edna made their set debut in movie sets. The movie sets in general tend to require more civilians than the far-flung locales and colossal battles the TV-based sets focus on, and so the designers figure they might as well make those civilians people that fans of the TV show will recognize, and who might not otherwise have as good a chance to appear as minifigures. There may also be a budget factor — the Narwhal Soldier would require a new mold, so you can't just substitute them for a civilian made from existing parts and expect the cost to remain the same. I don't know what country you're from but in Denmark the price is apparently only 2000kr.

As much as I liked the Crystal King, I can't agree with you there. Crystal King is downright rudimentary compared to the Oni Titan. Oni Titan is much less scrawny, much more posable, has tastefully integrated shooters, cool swords, and extra details to give him a samurai vibe. The only real things Crystal King has that the Oni Titan doesn't are big spikes, more comical proportions, a molded head, and of course, crystals — and I wouldn't say any of those four things elevates one over the other conceptually. I will say that the number of blade pieces the Oni Titan has makes me suspect that those new blade pieces will be a prepack like the Friends kitchen accessories, City tool packs, and the new Super Heroes energy blasts. Which is a smart way of handling things, if you ask me, since you get 5 or more new molds at the cost of one! I think this is the first time Ninjago has had one of those sorts of packs developed for it specifically. Personally I think I'll have to wait until I've seen Season 8 before deciding whether or not to get the Oni Titan. I like to save money where I can, and so a set like this that doesn't have any unique minifigs is the sort I might strike off my wish list — but it is still SUCH a cool-looking set. I do think I'll probably be skipping the Destiny's Wing, which doesn't have a whole lot of unique features as far as I can tell, has no unique minifigures, and simply isn't as cool to me as the dragons or the ninja vehicles from Sons of Garmadon. The main thing that might make me get that is if it can be rebuilt into booster jets for the Destiny's Bounty, but I kind of doubt it would be designed with that in mind — that's just something I think would be cool. I'm also debating whether it's worth it for me to get the Dieselnaut. It's an EPIC set, but young wu is the only unique fig it contains as far as I can tell, and again, I'm more drawn to the sets containing dragons.

I've seen a lot of criticism of the vehicles being a little too "make-believe", and I have to admit a number of them look pretty fantastical! But I've been able to track down some of the possible real-world inspiration for some of them: The main vehicle in the Mobile Exploration Base seems to be based on a LeTourneau overland train — possibly a cross between the VC-22 Sno-Freighter and the later TC-497 Overland Train Mark II. Both were utilized in arctic settings. The mobile base itself could be inspired by the Halley VI Antarctic Research Station Rock saw fittings for excavators resembling the one in the Mobile Exploration Base are pretty easy to find pictures of. Less easy to find is any evidence of massive saws like these being used in the arctic. Excavators are used in the arctic and antarctic, but the examples I've found tend to have shovel or ice breaker fittings. Can't find a vehicle quite like the Arctic Supply Aircraft but in a lot of ways it feels like an AN-74 (fuselage, wings, and engines) except with a twin-tail configuration like an AN-38.

Some better pics of summer sets with elements that might have historic applications: 41196 The Elvenstar Tree Bat Attack (Dragon wing and jaw recolor, canine head recolor, elemental diamond pieces without printing, leaf pieces in Warm Gold, new stickered shield, new book cover, and of course lots of nice tree building elements) 41195 Emily & Noctura's Showdown (Filigree piece in Transparent Fluorescent Green, Cinderella carriage wheels in Titanium Metallic, more of the big Bright Bluish Green mushrooms, canine head in White) 70653 Firstbourne (dragonbone sword, dragon sword hilt, a reasonably Western-style dragon) 70655 Dragon Pit (this one's been mentioned in the thread already; this is just a better picture) 10762 (Castle-patterned book in a cheaper set than the Disney Castle, 4x2x4 conical roof in Dark Red)

Depends in part on what sort of scale you're going for. But here are some general tips: SNOT brackets are good for locking parts together from the sides to make them sturdier than you could get from stacking alone. these together with a ball joint with through hole make fantastic knees (though for PAIGE a single ball joint and friction cup is barely enough so for larger figures, as in Bionicle, I'd really recommend using multiple ball joints or a more rugged joint like the ones used for AT-ATs). Once you have an idea what scale you want to build at, it can be helpful to create a very basic skeleton so you know how far apart you want the joints to be. Vehicle parts (like from the Cars and Speed Champions sets) are a good source for System parts with smoother or more enclosed surfaces. Windscreens too, though there aren't all that many that come in non-transparent colors. Don't be afraid to sacrifice a few points of articulation if it helps you achieve the proportions you want. Seriously. Bionicle makes it easy to make a figure with 13 or more points of articulation even with fairly slender proportions. With System you can be a lot more limited. But if you think about what sorts of poses are MOST important for you to achieve, nobody will care if a spider person you build doesn't have each leg segment bend individually as long as it looks cool in all the poses you CAN pull off. The CCBS high-friction ball cups are still your friends for bigger MOCs! Ninjago and Elves dragons and creatures can be great reference for how to get a lifelike look with System. Ninjago dragons tend to be edgier, Elves dragons and creatures tend to be curvier.

You're right about the Tolkien themes and Nexo Knights, but Fantasy Era and Kingdoms were aimed at close to the same age range as other Castle themes and a decidedly lower age range than Ninjago. Like, look at this year's first wave of Ninjago sets: five $10 spinners for ages 6–14 a $30 set for ages 7–14 a $20 set and a $70 set for ages 8–14 two $40 sets and a $50 set for ages 9–14 By contrast, Kingdoms (excluding <$10 impulse sets and D2C sets) had: two $10 sets and a $20 set for ages 5–12 a $20 set, a $40 set, and a $50 set for ages 6–12 a $70 set and a $100 set for ages 7–14 And Fantasy Era? The age range for many sets tends to be a bit higher than similarly-priced Kingdoms sets, but the overall spread of target ages isn't at Ninjago or Tolkien level: two $10 sets and two $20 sets for ages 6–12 a $50 set and a $100 set for ages 7–12 a $20 set, a $30 set, two $40 sets, a $60 set, a $70 set, an $80 set and a $100 set for ages 7–14 I think on some level the fact that you grouped Fantasy Era and Kingdoms with the Tolkien themes in terms of having higher age ranges pretty succinctly illustrates that getting a color scheme or aesthetic AFOLs like doesn't particularly hinge on what the target age range is. The target age range tends to dictate some stuff AFOLs care about, like whether the sets get advanced building techniques or heavy greebling, but not so much color schemes. For the most part, the colors of the troll faction from Fantasy Era were about as muted as those of the dragon keeper faction from this summer's Ninjago sets. And the Kingdoms baddies and civilians, too, used fairly subdued colors — there were Earth Green and Warm Gold, but those weren't that much brighter than the Olive Green and Bright Orange used on the Dieselnaut. I don't think anybody's trying to make an argument that duller sorts of color schemes like these would no longer be viable in a newer Castle series. And even among the "good guy" factions, Castle already tends to have a dingier palette than Ninjago. You almost never see Castle sets where bright colors cover most of their surfaces the way they do on many Ninjago buildings and vehicles. If anything, colors like Bright Red and Bright Blue only stand out as much as they do in Castle because most of the sets' surfaces tend to be black or grey!

Generally, had I had friends who I could have played video games with (I was not a very sociable kid), I would have said "Do you want to play video games?" or "Do you want to play *insert name of game here?*" I understand the descriptivist standpoint and in many ways agree with it, but at the same time, I think you're creating a false dichotomy when there are many ways to ask the same question that don't sound as forced as the one you describe. Why would you even say "Nintendo Entertainment System console" when even official Nintendo materials routinely abbreviate it to NES? I also don't think the "kid argument" is necessarily the strongest one you could be making for what's correct or natural. Just because "pasketi" is common kid vernacular for "spaghetti" doesn't mean it's any less weird or silly to hear it from an adult. On that note, I have no problem with "I enjoy playing with LEGO". The word "bricks" or "sets" can be understood from context and does not necessarily need to be stated, same as how you can say "I can't stand listening to country" and people will understand you're talking about country songs or country albums or country music. So it's a little ludicrous to me when people act as people who don't prefer "Legos" are expecting people to babble some ridiculous mouthful like "LEGO brand brick-based building sets". Though sticking with that analogy a bit, I'd absolutely do a double take if somebody started referring to country songs as "countries"! I will agree that the "LEGO" vs. "Legos" argument wears on me a lot. If people don't know that "Legos" is disrespectful to the brand, it makes sense to inform them maybe once, but not everyone cares about being correct or respectful to the brand, and you can't force them to care. I mean, I have no problem jokingly referring to Bionicle characters as "Bonkles" with my Bionicle-loving friends. I also don't care much about correctly referring to trademarks for brands I'm wholly indifferent to, like "Ferrari" vs. "Ferraris". If I were writing something professional or semi-professional like a news story where correctness actually makes a difference, I would say "Bionicle characters" or "Bionicle sets" or whatever's most appropriate in context, and I'd expect as much from another person doing the same. But when chatting in an informal setting it's silly and frankly alienating to get hung up on something so trivial.

Not so much of a historic builder personally (I dabble in Castle MOCs but finish few of them). Most of my MOCs are either independent of any sort of theme/world or designed to fit some sort of existing universe. For example, sometimes I design Blacktron MOCs, or Elves MOCs, or Bionicle MOCs, or Ninjago MOCs, or Atlantis MOCs, or The Legend of Zelda MOCs, all intended to fit into those fictional universes in one way or another. Other times I will create MOCs that don't belong strictly to any universe, real or fictional. I may try to create additional MOCs that are intended to belong to the same fiction as these, but rarely am I successful enough at it to really cement them as fully realized worlds. I'm not really all that into developing original minifigure or mini-doll characters for my System creations, at least not to the extent of giving them backstories or personalities. For instance, This mech belongs to no universe in particular, and its pilot is nobody in particular — both are just intended to look cool and unique enough that you can imagine they COULD have a story. They are blank slates in the same sense that most official LEGO City and LEGO Castle characters are blank slates, without fixed identities beyond the role they fill in a particular play scenario. By comparison, a lot of my constraction and large scale figure creations do wind up being original characters with personalities, names, and backstories, because in that case the figure IS the creation, not just an accessory to it. Usually, I decide who the character is as I'm building them or even after the fact — the design informs their personality and what kind of story they belong to. PAIGE is the latest original character I successfully completed, and I have tried planning other robot characters belonging to her world, but they're all still works in progress.

Why? No reason all dragons have to be the same size. Considering the story is going to the realm that dragons originally come from, maybe this one is meant to be a baby dragon! I certainly think it looks a lot better than some past dragon polybags like Dragon Fight and Kai's Mini Dragon. It seems reasonably well proportioned and really captures the edgy design language of Ninjago dragons. Plus has a similar feline vibe to the Titanium Dragon.

Awesomesauce! Thanks so much for sharing this. Not nearly enough AFOLs really delve into other types of LEGO-related creative expression besides MOCing. You really did a phenomenal job capturing the spirit of early Bionicle music that set out to blend "the mystical and the mechanical". I can absolutely visualize a Mata Nui Online Game style animation set to this music. I had never heard about this collaborative album but I will need to give the other songs a listen! Great work!

Sometimes they have graphics and illustrations that are fun to look at. The Big Holiday Catalog back in 2016 had some gorgeous LEGO Friends, Elves, City, and Nexo Knights art, for instance, some of which I hadn't previously seen in that quality or at all. There's also the fact that some parents and grandparents are more old-fashioned than their kids and will have an easier time deciding what sets to get their kids from flipping through a catalog than from browsing a website. And of course, it's also just another point of contact. The more time customers spend looking at your products the more customers you're likely to reach, so consolidating all your advertising through one marketing channel is not necessarily desirable, even if it is one of the most effective and economical marketing channels at your fingertips.

I think even this is highly debatable though — and in many cases boils down to AFOLs disregarding aspects of the set that don't appeal to them but probably do appeal to kids. LEGO isn't going to waste design effort creating vehicles and backdrops and things if they don't expect anybody buying the set to care about them. If it were just a matter of including cheaper bricks to offset the cost of the figs or to justify bumping up the price point, they could just as easily sell the figs with a pile of loose bricks. But let's take an example of a set that I've seen dismissed as "all about the minifigs": Thor vs. Hulk: Arena Clash. Who in their right mind would argue that nobody buying the set cares about the arena? Sure, the figs are nice. But the arena is what turns them into an actual scene. And not just any scene, but one of the most iconic scenes in the movie and movie trailer! It also adds a tremendous amount of play value. You've got the sliding doors that Thor enters from, a panel in the wall that opens to reveal a weapon rack, the Grandmaster's box seat, a containment chamber for Thor, and of course plenty of stuff for Hulk to smash… because what good is a set with Hulk and nothing for him to smash? To dismiss this as an ugly and generic waste of bricks is to assume that nobody buying the set actually intends to play with it. Which for a kids' toy is kind of nuts! Or let's look at another set that's been leveled with this charge: Hulk vs. Red Hulk (man, the Hulk's sets seem to be accused of this quite a lot). This one is a bit different than the one previously mentioned in that it's not, as far as I can tell, based on pre-existing subject matter. But what stands out about the brick content of the set is that there's an overwhelming emphasis on play value. With their loads of shooters and highly exaggerated proportions, the quad and trike just scream "designed for kids". So why act as though our adult dissatisfaction with that set is a universal experience? If LEGO wanted to design the set to offer more that AFOLs would care about, there's no reason they wouldn't have done so. Frankly, it might've been a lot less expensive that way, given that ridiculous Hulk-sized vehicles require ridiculous Hulk-sized parts that don't really offset the cost of the bigfigs very well, particularly when some of those parts are new recolors for that set only. Remember, LEGO has nothing to gain by adding content to sets that doesn't add value for a meaningful segment of their audience. Sure, it lets them bump up the sticker price of the set. It also bumps up the actual production and development costs of the set while shrinking the audience that can potentially afford it. Why make those sacrifices if they don't give people any more reason to want the set or any more satisfaction with it once they've bought it?

I’d argue that depends a bit on the set! It’s true we haven’t seen the castle wall panels specifically in Creator Expert (as far as I remember), but we have seen the even larger 1x6x5 panels used as windows in sets like the Grand Emporium and Downtown Diner, not to mention as walls in the Disney Castle. I think an expert-level set could get away with using the castle wall panels if it had enough other complex details to keep the build from having a monotonous look or building experience.

With respect to sets that prioritize minifigures over builds, I don't think those are anything new or even anything that can be blamed on licensing specifically. Figure packs with minifigures and little to no building are nearly as old as minifigures themselves — if anything, I'd consider sets like the Pirates of the Caribbean, Prince of Persia, and The Lone Ranger sets shown above an upgrade from those, rather than a downgrade from more building-intensive sets. The scenery may not be much on its own, but it transforms what would otherwise be just a supplement to the larger sets into a more complete and self-contained play experience. Perhaps you can call these "excuses to sell minifigures". My counter-argument is, why would LEGO need an excuse? Aside from licenses that have restrictive terms, they're not obligated to include a build with the figures at all. But in most cases I feel that the builds are less an excuse or justification and more a way of making the building and play experience more rewarding than it would be if the figures were sold on their own. If these figures were sold on their own, sure they would still be collectible, and sure they'd probably be slightly cheaper, but they'd also be downright boring to play with unless you already have a separate set to pair them with. And if a low-priced set like one of these is a kid's initial entry point into the world of LEGO, you want it to be an experience that feels rewarding for them even before they start expanding their collections.

My biggest worry about castle and wall sets trying to eschew BURPs and castle wall panels is that I remember as a kid how instrumental those sorts of parts were in helping me to MOC my own castles. Actually planning out your MOCs before you build them is beyond the skill level of many KFOLs, and if you build the perimeter of your castle only to discover that you don't quite like the shape or the size it's incredibly liberating to be able to just snap away a few wall segments and snap them back on in a different orientation, instead of having to undo layer after layer of individual bricks. That's not to say you can't have great, versatile sets without wall panels. I loved how the Soldier's Outpost and Soldier's Fort from the 2015 Pirates lineup used Dark Red masonry bricks in place of the printed or stickered wall panels of past Pirates sets, and even as recently as 2013, The Gatehouse Raid was largely panel-free. But for bigger builds, castle wall panels are a tremendous boon.

Yeah, in general Galidor reveals the falsehood of the idea that more marketing = better marketing. It was not just a failure, but a hugely expensive failure, in part because so much money was sunk into promoting a theme that had not adequately proven its merits. Generally, I don’t agree with the notion that constraction themes NEED a massive media presence like Bionicle G1 or Ninjago in a way that System themes don’t. Granted, some media presence is almost essential, given that constraction is pretty much invariably character-driven, but themes like Elves and Knights’ Kingdom II have done alright for themselves with around the same amount of media or less than Bionicle G2 got. I don’t see why that sort of lower-risk approach is fundamentally incompatible with constraction.

Take this with a grain of salt, but it might be worth looking into whether any new minifigure designs show up at the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel. LEGOLAND doesn’t always use real minifigure designs, but a lot of the Ninjago-themed attractions at LEGOLAND parks and hotels (including brick sculptures, promotional graphics, etc) showed off the ninja’s summer 2016 costumes months before they were released physically.