News has been spreading of an iOS game for Bionicle that will be releasing soon. You can check out a gameplay video on YouTube or the listing on the New Zealand app store for more info. I look forward to getting my hands on it when it releases everywhere!

Recently a new project over at LEGO Ideas was able to achieve its goal of ten thousand votes of support. Created by Hidaka, the piano is one of the simplest projects I've seen reach 10k, but that doesn't mean it's lacking in quality or style. Go check it out for yourself and join me in wishing Hidaka and everyone else the best of luck during the next review phase!

BZPower member ~SUMMONER~ made a cool find on the LEGO Club website. If you're a member and logged in, you can check out the building instructions for Tahu, composed of parts from both the Master and Protector of Fire. Unlike the Power-up models, this is more of a true combiner, using pieces from both sets to make one model as opposed to taking weapons from one set and adding them to another. Hopefully we'll see combiners for the other five elements at some point too!

Amazon has listings for two new Ninjago books to be released next year. LEGO NINJAGO: The Path of the Ninja will come out on June 16th and looks to be a reference guide to everything Ninja-related in the Ninjago universe, plus it comes with an exclusive minifig! LEGO NINJAGO: Build Your Own Adventure is due to be released on August 4th - it seems like it'll contain stories and building ideas from the world of Ninjago, as well as LEGO pieces to build an exclusive model. It's clear to see that LEGO is still betting big on Ninjago!

The latest LEGO Club Magazine is making its way to American inboxes and inside you will find a good portion of BIONICLE content. The magazine itself contains an interview with Senior Design Manager Cerim Manovi that you can read online (pages 10-11) and some cool concept art. That's not all, though, as the magazine also contains a small booklet dedicated entirely to BIONICLE! We already reported on a mysterious mask shown on the back yesterday but now scans of the entire booklet have appeared. There is even a mention of the Mask of Time! Check it out and keep your eye on your mailbox!

It looks like we might have our first glimpse at the Mask of Ultimate Power teased in the first 2015 Bionicle video. Vorik on Google+ posted an image of him holding the latest LEGO Magazine, which has a Bionicle teaser in it. The mask shown has not been seen elsewhere yet, in any sets or animations, so assuming it is the Mask of Ultimate Power seems pretty logical. We'll have to wait and see before we know for sure though - but whatever it is I can't wait to hear more!

Creating a LEGO thing out of something other than LEGO is sure to attract attention for its creativity. This time, wood turner Simon Begg has carved a large-scale LEGO minifig out of wood, specifically Huon pine, Australian red cedar and American walnut. Pictures and a video can be found on Instructables, where he goes into detail about crafting such an iconic object. The various types of wood do well to show off different parts of the figure, allowing for a good contrast when admiring the artwork. What a great idea for a project.

Contagious Magazine has an interesting case study on LEGO and how they've introduced collaboration and co-creation into their products and processes. They interviewed Peter Espersen, Head of Global Community Co-creation at LEGO, about ReBrick, Ideas, and other projects inside and outside of the company. It's an interesting read even if there's not a ton of new information for the seasoned fan. Give it a look!

It looks like word about the Battle for the Gold Mask contest is spreading. Yesterday, an article was posted over on Gizmodo showcasing the finalists. There's just a couple weeks until the winner will be revealed, and it's great to see the hype building around the community! I'm sure you each have your favorite, but do you think it'll be good enough to win the gold Skull Spider mask?

Last week we shared news of Christian Faber's departure from Advance. It looks like he's not planning on disappearing quietly though. He recently posted two more blog entries: Goodbye to Turaga beach and Turaga beach giveaway teaser. The first appears to be a retrospective of Faber's time working on Bionicle and includes a great piece of artwork. The second takes a more grounded approach as Faber is apparently planning on offloading some of the Bionicle 'junk' he's collected over the years on us fans. Check them out!

A new LEGO magazine by AFOLs for AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO) has recently been published in Europe and is making appearances in the United States too. Called Blocks, it showcases many features by knowledgeable fans on all aspects of the hobby, from LEGO news to fan interviews and building tips, and looks comprehensive enough to be an adequate companion to BrickJournal. I found a copy at a Barnes and Noble, but issues and subscriptions can be found on their website (including European vendor locations), and at newsstand retailers. The cost is 6 GBP in England and $17 in the States. It will be interesting to see this become a hit among fans.

BZPower's own Blog Assistant Nukaya is featured in the current issue of BrickJournal! Between her Wyldstyle cosplay and Benny painting at BrickFair's charity auction, she has garnered plenty of attention. She discusses her System sculptures, LEGO paintings, childhood interests, and more. Read about her, and plenty of other AFOL and LEGO hobby news, in Issue 32 marked January 2015, out now. BrickJournal can be found in various newsstand retailers (and comic shops), and online for subscriptions and digital issues. Great job, Nukaya!

Yesterday we announced the top MOCs from BZPower for the Battle for the Gold Mask competition. While there were a lot of great entries on BZP, the other five sites had some impressive creations as well! We've compiled a list of the announcements on all the other sites for you to check out:

• ReBrick
• Eurobricks
• Rusbionicle
• Bionifigs
• Pockyland

Be sure to take a look at all the awesome creations and let us know in the Talkback who you think will win the gold mask!

The first CGI trailer for BIONICLE has been spotted on TV, featuring lots of Skull Spiders, Kopaka doing cartoon physics, Tahu surfing on lava and of course the Mask of Creation. The Three Virtues was able to record it and have uploaded it on their YouTube channel. Read on to watch it!  

Christian Faber recently posted a blog entry announcing that he is leaving Advance and striking out on his own. He is going freelance and starting his own company called 'Rocket.' Rest-assured, he will still be working with Advance and LEGO from time to time, but he's looking to dedicate the majority of his efforts on 'Rebel Nature,' a project he has teased several times in his blog. Faber has been working for Advance on LEGO projects for over twenty-eight years, longer than a lot of us have been alive, so I can see why he might feel a change is needed. Join me in wishing him the best of luck on his future projects!

LEGO has published a teaser website for the new LEGO Elves theme. LEGO Elves is the second theme after LEGO Friends and LEGO Disney Princesses to use the so-called mini-dolls instead of the classic minifigures. It seems like it will be primarily targeted at girls but there is no reason per se why boys shouldn't be able to enjoy it as well. The teaser website features little more than a teaser video that hints that there may actually be a story with animated episodes to accompany the theme. The story seems to be about a young girl who enters a fantasy world inhabited by four (apparently elementally themed) elves in the search of four keys but unfortunately the video tells little more than that. The full site will launch March 2015 so that's plenty of time to speculate!

Resourceful LEGO fans made a cool discovery earlier this week. A digital catalog was found on the LEGO.com servers, showcasing a majority of the sets for the first half of 2015. Surprisingly, Bionicle doesn't get a lot of space, but there's some great pictures of the upcoming Ninjago, Legends of Chima, Elves, Marvel Age of Ultron, and Star Wars sets, plus plenty of other themes. It's definitely worth a look!

Yesterday, Adweek ran an article about the top toy brands on social media this holiday season, and guess who came out on top. That's right, according to Brand Chorus' StoryScore grading system, LEGO edged out Monster High to be the number one toy on the Facebooks, Twitters, and Intagrams of the world. Apparently their how-to videos on YouTube helped give them a leg up on the competition (and I didn't even know they existed). I look forward to seeing what list LEGO tops next!

The BIONICLE channel on the LEGO.com Videos section has been released and along with it not only the videos we already knew and the episodes released today, but also six promotional 30-second videos for each of the Toa. The animation is fantastic and I love the music but I'm honestly not all that fond of the voice acting - I suppose you could explain Gali sounding male with the fact that these are probably supposed to represent tales as told by the Protectors but I still think they could sound a bit more natural and distinctive in some cases. I did like the voice acting performance on the episodes so far, so maybe I just need to get used to it - it sounded better upon watching them a second time. See it for yourself and share your opinions in the forums!

UPDATE: The videos are also available on BIONICLE.com in the Characters section.

The first three BIONICLE 2015 episodes have been released on the Story section of BIONICLE.com. Each has a length of exactly 90 seconds and they feature epic music, humor and a cute villager kid (don't worry, he doesn't do any nonsense). The legend is only beginning and no BIONICLE fan will want to miss this. Of course, the new style may not be your thing but I suggest you still give it a chance. Personally, I hope we will get less narration and more action and spotlight of Toa besides Tahu in future episodes, but the last of these already hints that some battles are coming soon. Head over to BIONICLE.com and check it out when you can!

Players of LEGO Minifigures Online can enjoy a number of holiday goodies this month. In the Winterland Village, you can help Santa find the Holiday Spirit and you can even unlock an exclusive Santa minifigure. Additionally, the game now features daily rewards - every day you login, diamonds, stars or even Minifigures will be waiting for you. Last but not least, you can join the Holiday Competition to win in-game prizes. Check out the December newsletter here.

Hero Factory has never been one of LEGO's most succesful themes but still enough to have this year's episode, Invasion from Below, be this year's most watched video on LEGO.com, as is said on the LEGO.com frontpage on the 'Recommendations' category. The episode had some issues (the ending bothers me particularly) but overall it was probably pretty decent. Let's see if we see a BIONICLE video there next year...

LEGO has released two more teasers for Ninjago 2015 on the LEGO Message Boards over the past days: It seems the ninja have been invited to a tournament where only one can remain (warning: very large pictures). Why is there a drawing of Zane on the invitation? Why do the ninja all wear different suits? And why is that apparently angry man wearing a snake staff? The excitement is building up and I can't wait to learn more!

The nominees for the 57th annual Grammy Awards have been announced, and guess who made it on the list? That's right, Everything Is Awesome, from The LEGO Movie has been nominated for Best Song Written For Visual Media, along with I See Fire by Ed Sheeran (The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug), I'm Not Gonna Miss You by Glen Campbell (Glen Campbell, I'll Be Me), Let It Go by Idina Menzel (Frozen), and The Moon Song by Scarlett Johansson & Joaquin Phoenix (Her). The awards ceremony will be on February 8th, 2015, so we'll have to wait until then to see how it fares against the competition. Still, this will hopefully be the first of many nominations The LEGO Movie receives!

As part of their Ninja Day celebrations, LEGO, Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, and TT Fusion have announced LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin, a new game for the Nintendo 3DS and Playstation Vita. As Comicbook.com reports, the game, "tells a previously untold story from the LEGO Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu TV show," and will be released in the spring of 2015. There will be familiar locations and characters along with some new ones as well, helping to expand the Ninjago universe. I look forward to hearing and sharing more info about this game!

Over on LEGO Ideas, a new project has reached ten thousand votes and will be reviewed for consideration as a LEGO set. Jurassic Park by senteosan features the gate to the park, the trademark Ford Explorer, Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, Ian Malcolm, and of course, a Tyrannosaurus Rex! This is an awesome-looking model with a lot of detail, and as a child of the 90s, it's definitely one that I'd pick up! Best of luck to it during the next review!

The LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham DLC packs keep coming, and we knew there was one more left. We also knew that TT Games was adding a kid-friendly version of the Suicide Squad to the game. And now we have our first look at "The Squad" DLC, bringing together some of the DC Universe's favorite miscreants as they take on the tasks too dangerous for the honest, do-good heroes to challenge. The team includes Deadshot, Deathstroke, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang and more, led by Amanda Waller, as seen in the release on ComicVine, and can be seen wearing their signature bomb-collars. As exciting as this is, why they are not just called "Task Force X" is beyond me.

LEGO has opened a website devoted to celebrating International Ninja Day, which takes place tomorrow (December 5th), with Ninjago - and giving us a few sneak peeks at next year in the process, as the website features the new logo and a picture of Kai, Jay, Cole and Lloyd in their new suits. There is also a small game with a short clip from next year, another short clip showing Lloyd fighting some Nindroids in what seems like a jungle setting and also a remix of the original Ninjago song 'The Weekend Whip' titled 'Tournament Whip'. Last but not least there is a 'Spot a Ninja' wallpaper. If you've been looking for something to celebrate Ninja Day, look no more.

There have been a lot of fan-made T-Shirts based on LEGO this year, likely thanks to the popularity of the movie. TeeFury currently has two more up for sale. The first is an emblem for a Masterbuilder's Union, where your 'Building an "Awesome" Future, One Brick at a Time...' The second is a Star Wars X-Wing flying past the Death Star in the image of the classic LEGO Space logo. Both shirts are $11, and come in a couple different colors, but they'll only be available for a day, so if you want one better get it now!

The Fold, who have (for instance) composed the promotional songs for Ninjago, have uploaded a sneak peak of what's coming to Ninjago next year on their channel. The 1-minute teaser raises more questions than it does answer, though - who is that man who can turn into metal and why is he fighting Kai? Why is Kai wearing his old suit and why are Jay, Cole and Lloyd only watching? And who is the person with the orange hood in the beginning? However, the action scenes have greatly improved and I feel the entire animation looks better. Not too long until we get answers!