Alyska

Re Missy- We don't technically know that this regeneration came chronologically after John Simm's Master. She is a time traveller, after all. Expecting lasting character development from a recurring character like The Master probably isn't going to stick given the nature of the show, and the Master will always pop up again regardless of how they died last time, but you can use time travel to rationalise it if it makes you feel better.

Well, with franchises like Monster High already branching into buildable dolls, it's really quite astounding that Lego hasn't caught up yet. Mind you, those dolls tend to be really fragile and ridiculously skinny. Maybe something like Elves constraction requires a different sort of joint system altogether, though I suspect  any humanoid, waif-like figures would have very limited compatibility with other CCBS sets.

A Masquerade-style real world treasure hunt, or even something like that Google Earth one, is something LEGO should totally do at some point.

...How old would Zack be by now? In his 30s at least.. hmmm...

Attempting to stay on topic... I wanna see Olivia from Friends piloting a giant pink mecha suit!

I'm finding the distinction a bit arbitrary, to be honest- sure, some themes have more staying power than others, but I don't think you can lump them easily into two categories.

Staying power is going to be a mix of external and internal factors. External is the overall social trends and changes- most obviously, something like Jurassic World is going to sell well around the time of the release, and peter out over the following year, but less obviously, things like the rise of new technologies, changes in the global economy, and competition from other brands can all affect the success of a product.

With regard to internal factors, we're looking at the quality of the products, type of products, and the marketing, which includes story content. I see the perception of Bionicle as "niche" as being mostly due to Lego not investing in quality, high-profile story media, both in the later half of G1 and at the start of G2. Also, it's looking like traditional minifig lines are still benefiting from the signal boost of The Lego Movie, which the CCBS/constraction lines don't get.

Friends is looking close to the "evergreen" end of the spectrum, as it is generic enough to be adapted to suit a range of tastes, and isn't dependent on a story arc as such. There is an animated series, but I actually don't think it really needs it. Elves looks to be arc-based- my guess is that it may end up alternating with another girl-aimed fantasy line or two- I can't imagine it running non-stop for the next five years.

Are we counting all the Spinda forms in our completed Dex?

I don't know about "more" necessarily- remember that the main villains of Series 5-7 were a religious group, with certain unflattering parallels towards real-life religions. We've had a monster that preyed upon religious and superstitious people (lumping the two together is quite telling, no?), and an overarching theme of how  beliefs about death and mortality can be used to manipulate people ("don't cremate me!"). But at the same time, they've confirmed the in-universe existence of an afterlife, so they're not really on either side of the fence as far as I can see. There's always going to be social commentary in Doctor Who, and religion is part of the package.

Nor is it Moffat exclusive- RTD had an episode where the Doctor literally confronts Satan... or an alien that might just happen to resemble our idea of him. Religious themes in this show are not new.

 

The Cybermen can't convert all species. They'd be powerless against things like the Daleks if they didn't have some kind of weapon on them. A blaster of sorts also helps against physical objects in your way.

 

I actually think they won't give any explanation. They rarely have before with the Master.

Good point, but I meant that if Missy could be converted (and according to Nightmare in Silver, Time Lords can be), there would be no reason to vaporize her. But of course Moffat could just ignore that and hand-wave it away. I hope not, but he could.

 

A normal cyberman would probably try to convert her, yes. But the cyberman in question wasn't exactly ordinary...

The Cybermen can't convert all species. They'd be powerless against things like the Daleks if they didn't have some kind of weapon on them. A blaster of sorts also helps against physical objects in your way.

I actually think they won't give any explanation. They rarely have before with the Master.

If they try to give an explanation how she survived, it had better be more plausible than this one I thought up in ten seconds.

Ganger harness + TARDIS energy= Perfectly stable artificial body that can be controlled easily and destroyed convincingly without harming user. Done.

(Basically, Ganger/Flesh technology means any death can be retconned if need be.)

Also, am late to this discussion, but, a few things:

• "SJW"- "Social Justice Warrior" has become something of a derogatory word for feminist/person who is concerned with various types of equality/equity. Yes, there's a portion of those people, particularly those on Tumblr, who tend to classify all famous people as either "perfect and can do no wrong" or "piece of excrement" , but there is absolutely nothing wrong with asking to see more and better representation in your favourite shows. I'd personally prefer it if you didn't use that term to describe well-meaning people, though I do understand where that sentiment comes from. 
• Anybody who tries to tell you you're not a true fan/uses trivia to humiliate you is not worth your time. You don't have to have spent hundreds of hours of your life watching this show and consuming all the supplementary material to have formed a thoughtful and valid opinion that is worth discussing. A certain type of geek is particularly prone to slinging this type of ignorant bile at feminists and women- hence the whole "Fake Geek Girl" meme and the use of the term "SJW".
• CHTrilogy, I can tell that you genuinely are concerned with how certain groups are portrayed in your favourite shows, and I think that's great. I will confess I have found your hatred of Moffat a bit aggressive in the past, but there is certainly a lot of thoughtful critique of his work to be had without assuming everything he touches is automatically corrupt and terrible. I personally see him as brilliantly funny, ineffably smug, extremely clever, and generally fond of the "ideal" of the strong female character, while at the same time not wanting to be seen as someone easily swayed by fan opinion, and somewhat reluctant to admit to mistakes. It's totally okay to not necessarily feel one extreme or the other about him, if that's where you are.
• Please please don't let anyone make you feel bad for liking or disliking a show or a writer the way you do, and I hope you aren't feeling pressured to change your opinion in order to better associate or disassociate with certain fan-groups. Pushy fans like that can really ruin the fandom experience for other people. There's a big reason I mostly only lurk in the Sherlock fandom...

Oh, Doctor, I don't deserve to be a fan of you anymore... can't say I have deserved it, really, when I think about it.

Why do you say that?

There's a lot of potential for sets here, actually. If they don't include at least one with a rotating bookcase and a hallway with too many doors, I will be disappointed.

I'm really liking the subtlety of expression carried through the movements in these. Really says a lot about the poseability of the figures.

So, is it only ORAS-caught Rayquaza that can go Mega?

See, that would be cool. I sort of feel like that should have been established before it was made clear that it's ok for our heroes to punch and shoot them to their hearts' content.

So, uh... What do Skull Spiders actually do? Apart from get beaten up by Tahu and the protectors, I mean?

We don't actually know why the villagers are afraid of them other than that they're, well, spiders. Do they eat villagers? Mind-control them like the Krana? Crash all their parties and dance really badly?

I know they want the story to be succinct, but I feel like we're missing out on some vital information here. 

Hehe, cute... Was actually slightly disappointed that it's not stop-mo, but still very well done. Hammond and May were probably squeeing over the chance to do this.

Okay- why are we not talking about the Christmas special?

Unikitty is as close as we will ever get to Batman meeting Pinkie Pie...

Okay, reading through the topic, I was expecting her to sound like a male voice actor putting on a deep-but-feminine voice. Was not expecting Arnold Schwartzanegger.

... He just didn't even try... 

I think expecting one guy to do all the narration and a dozen different voices was a bit too ambitious- I mean, he's okay, but he's not exactly Stephen Fry-level. Actually, all the Toa sound a bit too similar in those vids, aside from Onua and Pohatu (The latter seems to have been going for Australian but landed on Cockney).

A trans character would be great, but I think it's more than we can expect from LEGO- still, looking forward to the headcanons on this one.

This actually looks quite cool- I'm getting a Faraway Tree sorta vibe from it. It'd be nice if the characters looked a bit more racially diverse, but I suppose there's more opportunities for that later. Nice creative uses of the elemental powers, too, rather than just blasting stuff.

I'll try and keep this short-

No individual artist is obligated to draw human characters of any particular race- just as no TV show or story is technically obligated to include people of colour,  queer people, people with an uncommon gender identity, people with disabilities, etc. It's great when these types of characters are included, particularly when shown in a positive way- seeing them in a story's canon is awesome, having people include them in their oc's or headcanons of existing characters is also nice- but it is important that you don't end up pressuring individual creators to include them- particularly when, as we've seen here, the inclusion of people of colour or other minorities in certain contexts can get perceived as offensive.

Let's face it, a TV show with, say, one transgender character is much more likely to be criticised as transphobic or ignorant than a TV show with no trans characters- it's easy to see why people shy away from representing minorities (In a similar vein, I've seen the Trans!Tamaru headcanon criticised for gender stereotyping, and the same principle can be applied to racial interpretations).

Example from another fandom- when the new My Little Pony series first came out, human interpretations of the characters were quite popular. The main character, Twilight Sparkle, is a bit of a bookworm and she's obsessive about her studies. The character is sometimes depicted in human form with Asian features-  the original Twilight's almond-shaped eyes and dark mane might have been what inspired this choice, but is it playing into stereotypes of Asians being obsessed with education? When the characters received canon human forms, they neatly sidestepped the problem by giving the characters fantasy skin tones, but it still doesn't answer the question of whether we should be concerned about the connotations of race and personality when assigning a race to a raceless character.

I guess the only solution is to draw the things you want to draw, and if people are offended- have a conversation. Find out what it is that offended them. Explain your choices.Take criticism on board if it's reasonable. Make changes if you think you should. Grow as a person and an artist because of it. But don't let other people pressure you simply because your interpretation is different to theirs.

(Wow that was not short. Oops. Oh well.)

So, is Deoxys needed to get the Shiny Charm now?

 

What I don't get is why explicitly father to son? Why make a society who are meant to be good guys have a political system that is rigidly patriarchal? Why could the masks not be passed down "from generation to generation"?

 

I don't see your point. Patriarchy isn't inherently evil. Plus, I'm sure if a father Protector deemed his son unworthy, he could just as easily select somebody from the tribe who stands out as worthy to him. I doubt it's as rigid as you're making it out to be. And even if it is, that doesn't necessarily make it evil. 

 

"Evil"? Well, no, not exactly, but let's just say that it could come across as problematic if the tribes explicitly never allow female leaders...