Hapori Tohu

With Iron Man 3 about to be released, it's only appropriate to suit up and check out another LEGO Super Heroes set: Iron Man: Extremis Sea Port Battle. How much danger is Iron Man in this time? Will Aldrich Killian get away? Can War Machine save the day? These are just some of the fun features of this set. This is the only set to feature Avenger and Tony Stark BFF Rhodey/War Machine, making it a notable set in my book. Minifigs might be a reason to buy a set, but what about the rest? There's a cool boat here after all! But are the 195 pieces worth the $20? Note: Stickers will not be applied in this review or on this set. They're just not for me. Presentation From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set. The front, back, and contents of the box. Not only does the Super Heroes logo up top make an impression, but the boat and heroes are sure to grab your attention. The back showcases some playability features. And of course there are the age “suggestion,” set number, set name and piece count on the front. Building Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it? The boat has a pretty standard studs-up build. However, it is very sturdily built and won't fall apart in play. As the play features come together, one sees the neat little tricks the set designers have integrated into the set, such as the flick-fire missile integration that blends them into the boat's design. Also notice how the windshield is sloped downward slightly, yet it looks natural. Just a little trick of some hinge pieces. When all is build and done, you have in your hands a sizable boat driven by the bad guy and the heroes in hot pursuit. For good measure, there's a bouie that also has some functionality to it, as seen later in the review. Set Design Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here. Disappointingly, the only new pieces in the set would be the figs (see below). There are some cool and interesting pieces which will be a nice addition to any builder's collection, but nothing too impressive on the surface to make this set stand out as far as pieces. Maybe next time LEGO will give Tony some new toys for us to play with. The boat itself is fancy and sleek, perfect for a getaway. The flick-fire mechanism blends into the back and there are skid plates on the bottom for playability as you slide it along your carpet. Best off all, the front of the boat pops out so Killian can surprise the Iron Men with a stick of dynamite, sure to make a mess with all that water around. Here it is, my favorite reason for buying this set: War Machine, and all the other figs too! Tony is decked out in his new Extremis armor, and Aldrich Killian's head glows in the dark! I love how their toes are detailed too. That's not something we see too often in figs. Playability The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with. The flick-fire missiles have the best design I've seen yet. I'm not a big fan in general, but with the way these little buggers deploy they can fly a respectable distance using the boat's method. The bouie is also cool in that is explodes when the mechanism is used, which is pretty cool for a little extra like itself. And finally let's not forget the playability when it comes to having the bad guy captured, thwarted once again I'm sure by these meddling rich boys in their suits. Final Thoughts Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it? Pros What's to like? The figs!Sturdy build.Actual functional flick-fire missiles!Some nice extra features. Cons What's not to like? No new, interesting pieces.All studs-up build. Avengers assemble! In the end, the Extremis Sea Port Battle is a nice addition to the LEGO Super Heroes family. It's got the figs, the playability, and is the first set to impress me with the flick-fire missiles. The price-to-piece ratio is even decent, and is especially decent considering it contains three awesome figs for a licensed theme. I'm sure this will be a nice addition for any LEGO Iron Man fan. View the full article

Well, for those of you who haven't had the chance to play the Wii U exclusive LEGO City Undercover, here's another option. LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, the portable version of the LEGO City game, is now available on the 3DS eShop and in stores. This game takes place prior to the Wii U game, when Chase McCain is a rookie cop and Chief Dunby is Deputy Dunby. The game is pretty similar to the Wii U game, but with different missions and a smaller scale fit for the 3DS as opposed to the Wii U. Any of you unwilling to bite on a Wii U console, or those that just want a fun LEGO game for your 3DS might want to check it out. It's priced at 29.99 USD.View the full article

Looks like Forbes has another article about our favorite toy company. This one looks at the manufacturing processes and a bit of the set design and how it all fits together to make a product on a shelf that you're compelled to purchase. There's some interesting insight from John Hansen, Senior Vice President for Engineering & Quality, on the many things that go into making each brick, and how LEGO has become so successful in recent years. Go give it a read!View the full article

"In the UK you're taught how to pass exams. In Scandinavia you're taught how to think." This seems to be the general idea behind the new LEGO school opening this August in Billund, Denmark. Centered around "inquiry-based learning," the school will teach kids how to think critically and to inspire them to seek out new questions to answer. Ages three to seven are encouraged to enroll, with sixteen-year-olds allowed to join in 2015 or so. This isn't the first time the Kirk Christiansen family has sought to improve their community, and the idea of allowing a child to learn from natural experience is intriguing. You can read more about it here.View the full article

For at least the next week, Toys 'R' Us is having a sale on most LEGO sets. The ad states: "Buy 1 Get 1 40% Off ALL LEGO construction sets*." Of course that asterisk means Lone Ranger, Super Heroes, Technic, and Hard to Find items are excluded. Still though, it's a sale that might be worth checking out if there's some sets you're looking to add to your collection.View the full article

Better late than never. Nine days ago, the Mini Shop Series project on LEGO CUUSOO, which includes simple versions of a Starbucks, Apple Store, McDonald's, 7-Eleven, Dunkin Donuts and LEGO Store, finally reached 10,000 supporters. We wish it the best of luck through the review stage.View the full article

As anyone who has ever stepped on one knows from experience, the "automatic binding bricks" at the foundation of Lego-based construction can handle a lot of force. But just how many times can one brick be attached to another before it breaks? 37,112 times, according to original research by Phillipe Cantin. His blog of the experiment includes videos of the testing as well as the construction of the testing apparatus.View the full article

Another two fortnights have (roughly) come and gone, and once again we are pleased to spotlight the winners of the Bionicle and OTC Fortnightly Flash Fiction Contests. Winner of the Bionicle category this time around is "Rebirth", by Replicant, for the theme "A Canister Ashore". Likewise, the winner of the OTC category is "Home Videos", by Dreadheart, for the theme "Rebirth", coincidentally enough. Be sure to check out both stories and maybe leave a comment or two! Also be sure to check out (and enter!) this week's Bionicle FFFC: "The Village."View the full article

I was recently invited onto Beyond the Brick, a LEGO podcast that's been chugging along for a bit over a year. I got to talk at length about Bionicle, BZPower, and our awesome community. So go check it out . Big thanks to Josh and Matt for the opportunity to come on and I wish them the best of luck with the future of their show.View the full article

Being the biggest toy company in the world can get you some attention in the business world, particularly when just before the turn of the millennium you were staring down bankruptcy like a... anything cornered by kinloka. In this particular instance, Adweek examines how LEGO's licensing deals and fierce defense of their brand has made them statistically what we always knew was true: that LEGO is the best toy company in the world. You can read the article here.View the full article

As a tangible sign of Lego's continuing success, the company is adding more than 200 employees to its headquarters in America. They're also planning on redesigning much of the building, and I for one am hoping for something similar to their recent redesign of their base in Billund. Check out the full article for the details, and let's all try and not be too jealous of the new employees.View the full article

Our friends over at LEGO have sent along some cool news. Iron Man 3 comes out in less than a month, as I'm sure many of you are aware. It seems like TLG has made LEGO-ized versions of a couple of the posters for Tony Stark's return to the big screen, which you can see here and here. Maybe there's still hope for that Iron Patriot minifig!View the full article

England and Denmark both have one apiece, but the hotel that opened in the Legoland resort in California last week marks a first for the US. Over three million bricks were used to create the 3,400 sculptures used to decorate the 250-room resort. That's about 12,000 bricks per room if we ignore the fact that even the wall behind the check-in desk is made from LEGO minifigures. That's more than most of us can boast in our entire collection.View the full article

Ever feel like you wanted another sequel to the classic MNOLG? Well member Nuparu77 did and came through with a solution. He's begun MNOLG: The Bohrok Swarms and wants you to play! Chapter one is already out and contains the same level of detail to art and story that is to be expected of the MNOLG. For a nostalgic trip back to Mata Nui, be sure to check out MNOLG: The Bohrok Swarms, and give Nuparu77 any recommendations you have for the next part of this adventure.View the full article

I spotted an interesting article over on Forbes that combines LEGO and big data. The author seems to think that the different ways of combining bricks and building new creations from sets can inspire new ways of dealing with large data sets and creating analytics to interpret them. It's an interesting idea, and one I'd like to see fleshed out some more. Go give it a read!View the full article

The Powercast will soon be upon us once more, and with that is a call for interview questions for a lucky staff member. Who might that be this month? Me, ChocolateFrogs, who, among many exuberant things, is a reporter here on this lovely site! If you dare to take a jump into my garbled mind, send messages to me as a PM, and I just might answer some of the zany (What's my favorite toothpaste?), the geeky (Who's my favorite Doctor?) and the serious (What's my life goal?). Have at me!View the full article

You don't often hear about BIONICLE anymore, but when a TED Talk mentioned the use of them in an experiment, BZPower member reckoner was listening. The talk by Dan Ariely titled "What makes us feel good about our work?" details how he sought to see for how little money people would build "BIONICLEs". It was nice to hear our favorite toy-line was being put to use, despite the fact that whoever assembled the sets for photography didn't understand the instructions. I just hope he didn't have LEGO fans in his test group, 'cus we PAY money to build "BIONICLEs".View the full article

BrickFair New England is less than a month away, but there's still time to send in MOCs. Check out this blog entry for info on how and where and when to send them in. We want to make this first-time event really pop with Bionicle presence, and any support is most certainly appreciated. And if you're going to be there in person, I look forward to hanging out with you!View the full article

We reported the announcement of the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes video game back in January. This month, we get to report that an extensive first-look trailer/designer interview has been released. The trailer features a significant amount of gameplay footage, alongside an interview with TT Games Producer Phil Ring, who discusses elements of the game's backstory, characters, and overall design. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is due to be released in Fall 2013. Click here for more information, and try to contain your excitement!View the full article

In commemoration of the one year anniversary of the Faber Files, Cristian Faber has released five posters that many of you may have forgotten. There are also some interesting little blurbs explaining the posters, and of course, they're pretty to look at as well. Go ahead and check them out and comment in the talkback.View the full article

Today we take a look at another Hero Factory set - 44000 Furno XL. BZPower Forum Leader Makaru has picked up this larger set from 2013 and has decided to share his thoughts with you all. Should you add this extra-large hero to your squad, or is he better left warming a peg in the store? Read on to find out! Presentation From the design of the box to the instruction manual, these are the first things you see before building the set. It was a night unlike any other. We find our factory district covered in a dense green fog - almost of pea soup. It is most eerie to the common man. Suddenly, in the shadows, a large shape skitters by! The fog chokes out anything definitive. What is this mysterious creature? Will our streets be safe again? And what of this tall, brash looking fellow! Furno is this year's lottery pick for the XL Hero treatment. Instead of a large box, however, Bill is packaged in the bags we've come to know of our small and medium Hero Factory builds. The creepy, b-movie-esque BRAIN ATTACK logo adorns the upper margin on the front of the package, the Hero Factory banner on the left, and the usual Lego Legal on the bottom left. Bill is prominently featured front and center in all his BURNING JUSTICE. When we flip that package turn-wise, we get a sight not seen in many a year! Instead of just being a page hidden in the instruction manual, we see Bill and his combiner buddy Pyrox. I missed the combo builds, so this is a welcome sight for me. And better yet, from the looks of the sets this year, each combo build has been colour-coordinated. I think it's a nice touch, and makes the result just a tad bit more palpable. We also see a little picture center left that shows Bill's flip visor in action. And of course we get the reminder that those Hero Cores contain more than just the sum power and mind of our heroes, but also a code to use online. Bill's core is worth a whopping 1000 points. We are also given a little logo reminding us of Lego's Brain Attack app available from Apple. Check it out if you wanna see yourself get Brainificated. The instruction manual for the most part is the same as always, but with one little gem I had not seen before since the days of Fabuland; there is a blurb about sorting your pieces for easy building, as shown by one of the happiest LEGO men I have ever seen. Look at that guy! He's having the time of his life putting Bill Furno together, even if he's doing it entirely wrong with only half the pieces. Go get 'em, little guy! Building Half the fun is had building the set. How fun is it to build and how easy or challenging is it? When I first saw the image of Bill online, I was underwhelmed. For being a Hero XL, he looked... simple. Unfinished. Basically, just a taller version of the garden variety hero. Putting him together, he's... ...well, the torso is actually quite a bit more detailed than I had guessed. It's actually fairly well shaped. There's quite a bit of cool piece interaction that gives him substantial torso bulk. His arms did not connect in any way I would have anticipated, instead mounting behind the normal ball joints. These joints are used for his nifty chest armour. The problem is he falls rather flat on the legs. While they do boast a whopping three ball socket extenders per leg, the legs are built exactly like every hero leg since 2.0. There's no innovation. There's no style or flair. There's just the same legs we've been getting for years now. I can't help but consider Bill XL to be a subtle nod to our favourite firespitter, Tahu. Carrying not one, but two of his iconic weapons. The fire shield is comprised of two halves with some decent flame deco adorning the sides. The fire sword is more of the same. Both bring a great deal of style and colour to the set. Set Design Now that the set is complete, we can critique how it looks from every angle. New or interesting pieces can also be examined here. Bill features an interesting assortment of new set pieces. As we've seen in previous reviews, the "skull" is an entirely new mold, reminiscent of the featureless Inika heads, straying away from a "face under the mask" approach. The helmet/mask is also a new mold, which quite clearly harkens from Bill's previous designs. The visor is a printed piece, and fits perfectly over the mask as you would imagine. The shield and sword pieces are also new for this year. The shield pieces are identical to each other. Unfortunately, both Furnos I purchased suffer from the unfortunate "curved" blade defect that we had with the Ninjago line of swords. It's not too pronounced, but it is there. Bill also comes with three of these amazing new "BLAZING" fire pieces. These are pretty much the best fire pieces we have gotten of this size since Tahu's original fire sword. Bill also comes with this SWEET CAPE. Unlike capes of the past, this cape uses two peg holes instead of one "neck" hole. I can see this being used quite well in the MOCs of the future. One side of the cape is very soft, and the other side is quite a bit shinier, almost as if it is laminated. Like I mentioned above, Bill's design pretty much peaks in the torso. There are a lot of cool shapes and designs that make him look strong and intimidating. The weapons are also decently thought out, and give Bill a sort of regal knighted look. The arms and legs, I think, do a disservice to the rest of the build by being vanilla. I want to take a bit of time to say I appreciate the effort that went into the Masks this year. Seeing a remade character is nothing new to to fans of Bionicle, who have seen many iterations of some their favourite characters. But outside of Takanuva, I can't quite recall any redesigns that harken as much back to their predecessors as the Hero Factory sets this year do. Some of them may not be the best designs, but I think the thought really does count. One last thing; the colour scheme. This is some of the best balancing in colours I've seen Lego do for a Hero Factory set of this size. The silver core, the red armour and the iron accents; it all looks evenly distributed and it's very pleasing to the eye. Playability The other half of the fun is in playing with the set. How well does the set function and is it enjoyable to play with? While the simplicity of the legs take away from the overall look of the set, they come back in full for poseability. The limb extenders are notoriously stiff, but in a set as big as Furno, it makes him sturdy and reliable. You can put him in all matters of poses. But aside from the flippy visor and the wide range of motion, Bill doesn't really have much going for him. Yeah, I'm glad we've gone a year without the ball shooters. But is nothing really the only option we have? Give me a disc shooter. Gimme a brain remover. Gimme something INTERESTING to do. Final Thoughts Once it's all said and done, how does the set stack up? Should I get it? Pros What's to like?BURNING JUSTICEColour scheme is very balanced.Great for posingWealth of new and interesting pieces Cons What's not to like?Vanilla Hero build from the waist downAside from posing, not much to do with him This is one of my favourite sets from the Hero Factory line, despite his flaws. Bill looks good. He's filled with BURNING JUSTICE. Hahli Husky told me to use a bunch of Japanese words to describe him, but I forgot them all. Kawaii? Is that a thing he is? Of course she's offline while I'm writing this. Yeah, let's go with that. Bill Furno is super happy fire robot kawaii. *Thumbs!* And there you have it - everything you ever wanted to know about Furno XL but were afraid to ask. I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to thank Makaru in the Talkback as well as ask any questions you may have. Don't forget to keep checking BZPower for more LEGO reviews and news! View the full article

LEGO is the ideal toy for many engineering students and has been used in some incredibly unique projects, but this one just might top the list: As part if his final project at Cambridge University, David Knowles volunteered to help conservators at Fitzwilliam Museum. So when a mummy was brought in with a collapsed chest and smashed face, he quickly devised some clever adjustable technic platforms to keep the display structurally sound during the restoration process. The innovation of LEGO fans truly knows no bounds. You can read the full story here.View the full article

From now until April 13th, Toys 'R' Us has a decent deal if you're looking to pick up a bunch of LEGO sets. If you spend $100 or more, you'll get $25 off - not too bad, considering. Marvel Super Heroes and Lone Ranger sets are excluded though, but everything else is fair game. Go stock up!View the full article

Many have had doubts about LEGO Batman: The Movie, but IGN has recently reviewed it, and they seem to think it's pretty great. They describe it as a comedy story full of great gags and jokes, including the clashing personalities of Batman and Superman. IGN also claims that anyone who likes the videogame will enjoy, so click on over and read more of the review, and learn a bit about the premise of the story, at IGN's full review.View the full article

There have been various ways to play the classic Mata Nui Online Game since it was removed from the Bionicle website so many years ago, but none have been very official. That has changed recently - Templar Studios, the company who made the game, has posted it on their website for all to enjoy. It's great to have a nice and easy way to go re-experience an old favorite, and maybe this means we'll see more of their Bionicle work making it online soon!View the full article