10196, 10198, 10199 & more

[Alywin]

Sad to see the lack of control of release events.

Quote from a Danish satire program:

"Can't we just try and do a little bit better?"

I sort of agree with this statement.

Reading some of the comments in this thread, I am afraid some fellows here might have misunderstood. I think I have to make it clear for myself. The source of my information is from publicly available, targeted to normal retail consumer and officially released information, just that it has not been released in this part of the world. It is not like those confidiential seller catalogues or preliminary box designs, which I understand are of confidential nature. So I believe that this incident is some sort of lack of control of release events.

I have been trying to be cooperative to help TLC keep the surprise in this part of the world, but it does not mean what I posted previously is not legitimate.

By the way, I would say some "findings" by fans here about the Merry-go-round are NOT correct, and so you might actually have not found the real one.

[Algernon]

I can give you several examples of good financial health of the company having a detrimental effect of what I personally want to see from them. The flick fire missiles you brought up are one example, although I don't mind them much. Obviously, TLG is including those in so many sets because those sets are selling well, and as long as they keep making good profits with their current formulas, there won't be much change.

But this is kind of beside the point. TLG is a multi-billion dollar company, and posting some images on a private forum (legally) is not exactly going to put them out of business or force them to dramatically change anything. Unlike some companies I can think of, TLG actually makes great products and doesn't need to rely on marketing for sales.

And I did explicitly state that these pics aren't going to have an adverse effect on the company, but my point was that money will always affect what a company will or won't do, which affects the customer. You said that LEGO's financial health is of no concern to you. That may be true, but it would be incorrect to say that LEGO's financial health won't affect what you can buy from them, so you might not want to toss away their finances as completely irrelevant to your interests.

Likening TLG to an individual person or a nonprofit organization here is a flawed premise. It doesn't "like" to do anything except make profits. That's what companies exist to do. It's not even run directly by the Christiansen family anymore.

As a company perhaps not, but the set designers are certainly more eager to design something aesthetically pleasing than marketable. But they have to add "action features", which can severely damage the aesthetics. In my opinion the inclusion of FFs and action features have completely ruined sets.

As do I. I really don't see whay so many people dis like them so much.

Because they fall out a lot, don't go very far, and often severely detract from the aesthetics. I hate them with a passion.

[Hinckley]

This is a private forum and they certainly have no legal authority to tell us what we can or cannot talk about here, so this is obviously a decision by the EB administration...

Let's be perfectly clear: You're talking about it. We're not trying to stop you from doing that and we wouldn't. We removed the pictures, we did not lock the topic. And yes, we could leave the pictures up and we choose not to, and yes this is a private site. And yes, as a private site, we can post whatever pictures we like, but as a staff we make decisions the best way we see fit.

And as a private site, we don't have to guarantee anyone continued membership on this site, especially those who resort to childish name-calling. We have no problem with debate or people expressing their opinion, but I personally don't appreciate people coming out with namecalling as opposed to voicing an opinion with mutual respect. This is not directed at you CP5760, but at others-like the Brick Green Giant-who decide to take things too far.

I sort of agree with this statement.

Reading some of the comments in this thread, I am afraid some fellows here might have misunderstood. I think I have to make it clear for myself. The source of my information is from publicly available, targeted to normal retail consumer and officially released information, just that it has not been released in this part of the world. It is not like those confidiential seller catalogues or preliminary box designs, which I understand are of confidential nature. So I believe that this incident is some sort of lack of control of release events.

I have been trying to be cooperative to help TLC keep the surprise in this part of the world, but it does not mean what I posted previously is not legitimate.

By the way, I would say some "findings" by fans here about the Merry-go-round are NOT correct, and so you might actually have not found the real one.

By the way, Alywin, you have been awesome through all of this. Thank you very much for your patience and understanding and your willingness to work along with us and our guidelines. I agree with all the views you've posted (to our staff via PM and in this thread) and you seem to me like a trustworthy, amicable, stand-up guy. Thanks.

[Rick]

By the way, I would say some "findings" by fans here about the Merry-go-round are NOT correct, and so you might actually have not found the real one.

It's this one right?

[CP5670]

And I did explicitly state that these pics aren't going to have an adverse effect on the company, but my point was that money will always affect what a company will or won't do, which affects the customer. You said that LEGO's financial health is of no concern to you. That may be true, but it would be incorrect to say that LEGO's financial health won't affect what you can buy from them, so you might not want to toss away their finances as completely irrelevant to your interests.

It's all a matter of degree. I might be concerned about their finances if TLG was a small startup for which a single mistake might put the company out of business, but this is far from the case.

And like I said, it could equally go either way. If they are doing something I don't like, I would be happier if they stop doing it, which is only going to happen if they aren't making enough money from it.

As a company perhaps not, but the set designers are certainly more eager to design something aesthetically pleasing than marketable. But they have to add "action features", which can severely damage the aesthetics. In my opinion the inclusion of FFs and action features have completely ruined sets.

I don't see why those are even that bad. It's trivial to remove them if you don't like them. Some of the other recent "action features" have been pretty cool, like the Technic-like functions on the Power Miners vehicles.

Let's be perfectly clear: You're talking about it. We're not trying to stop you from doing that and we wouldn't. We removed the pictures, we did not lock the topic. And yes, we could leave the pictures up and we choose not to, and yes this is a private site. And yes, as a private site, we can post whatever pictures we like, but as a staff we make decisions the best way we see fit.

And I appreciate that, but I will note that although it may seem like you're giving a lot of freedom in comparison to other Lego forums, such rules are still pretty restrictive compared to most other forums on the internet at large.

I'm not necessarily asking you to change your policy, but rather expressing why I think it's a bad idea. I still like EB for all its other qualities, and as I said, I have yet to see another Lego forum that is any better in this respect anyway.

And as a private site, we don't have to guarantee anyone continued membership on this site, especially those who resort to childish name-calling. We have no problem with debate or people expressing their opinion, but I personally don't appreciate people coming out with namecalling as opposed to voicing an opinion with mutual respect. This is not directed at you CP5760, but at others-like the Brick Green Giant-who decide to take things too far.

Okay, fair enough, his wording was probably over the top. But the issue he brought up does merit discussion, and he was the first to do so.

Edited May 8, 2009 by CP5670

[Peppermint_M]

Well, I missed a lot of discussion...

I miss the surprise,

For years my only idea of what was out there was what I saw in the shops, and when I was little the supermarkets didn't sell lego until christmas and Woolworths was a special treat to go to, Toys 'r' Us was legendary (a place I never set foot into until the age of 15). I would buy a handful of impulse sets with my holiday money and pour over the adverts on the back of the instruction sheet, or if I was really lucky, a full double sided sheet with images of that years sets. It was wonderful, now I get to anticipate the sets from prelims and boxart which is good, but the pure joy of finding a new lego theme in that little newsagents in Dartmouth when on holiday has gone.

Thank you Eurobricks for trying to maintain the surprise without resorting to full on censorship.

(and I like flick fire missiles, but not for their intended use, more as greebles. a few simple alterations and any set with them looks like it never did).

[Klaus-Dieter]

No, there were no picture of that set, and not of the Creator Christmas set either.

Thank you very much for that information, Etzel!

Btw: I looked again at this catalogue site where the merry-go-round appears and notice that I told something wrong: The three new regular Castle sets are there. But I can't see the MVV. So I'd say that nevertheless there is hope for another Castle Exclusive in fall.

Klaus-Dieter

[WhiteHexagon]

Well I guess I'm the only one to be disappointed with the image removal. One of the nice things about sites like this, is the chance to get sneak previews on upcoming sets. It seems anyway that the pictures are available elsewhere, and there is even a youtube video of the MGR set.

[gylman]

The fact that every LEGO site doens't have any guts anymore and are just LEGO's whores bothers me.

Though stated undiplomatically and certainly not the words I would have chosen, I agree with the essential sentiment of this statement.

LEGO fan sites certainly have the right to make a choice about what they display, but I know of no other fan group that so universally kowtows to the corporation that produces their product. This puzzles and disappoints me.

And the excuses for this policy here at Eurobricks, which used to be the place where you could go to see news like this first and enjoy the excitement of a "leak", but more recently has been more restrictive than other major sites, have gone from "let's protect their intellectual property so that competitors don't get a chance to make a clone product" to "let's not spoil their PR extravaganza that is coming up in 2 days." How lame is that?

Those who have not seen the evolution of Eurobricks from its early days will not know what a change in the essential character of EB as a "rebel" LEGO site this was.

Meanwhile pics of the carousel are readily available at least on Brickhorizon and Bricklink. I am sure other fan sites have it too, but I haven't checked them all out. So what's the point of this policy here?

[Raphy]

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3688196

This can't be real. Look, it says "MOC" on the box art.

[Klaus-Dieter]

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=3688196

This can't be real. Look, it says "MOC" on the box art.

This actually is a MOC, Raphy. But nevertheless 10198 is a real existing set number - namely the Rebel Blockade Runner.

Klaus-Dieter

[Sandy]

I miss the surprise,

Everyone who says this should remember that nobody forces you to read these topics or even visit these fansites. It's still your choice whether you want to be surprised or spoiled, and in my opinion EB has been very courteous in making sure that its members still have that choice.

LEGO fan sites certainly have the right to make a choice about what they display, but I know of no other fan group that so universally kowtows to the corporation that produces their product. This puzzles and disappoints me.

And the excuses for this policy here at Eurobricks, which used to be the place where you could go to see news like this first and enjoy the excitement of a "leak", but more recently has been more restrictive than other major sites, have gone from "let's protect their intellectual property so that competitors don't get a chance to make a clone product" to "let's not spoil their PR extravaganza that is coming up in 2 days." How lame is that?

But there are many benefits from being in good terms with TLG. EuroBricks is noted as a venerable fansite in the eyes of the company nowadays, we're getting included in all their questionnaires and we even have our own ambassador. Our voice is heard! To me, that tops getting early sneakpeaks of the upcoming sets any day (though I admit that with a little digging you can find those leaks elsewhere).

[astra]

Wow! What a discussion about some new sets.

I can understand the reaction of the EB board, maybe they know something we don't know about these sets, some sort of promo perhaps for EB members? I can't remember that EB was so strong on deleting images; so let's wait and see. And if you do want to see the image, it took me less than 5 minutes to find them on the web...

For now, I'll be patient on things to come, while saving my money. This one's a definite must have...

[Klaus-Dieter]

Everyone who says this should remember that nobody forces you to read these topics or even visit these fansites. It's still your choice whether you want to be surprised or spoiled, and in my opinion EB has been very courteous in making sure that its members still have that choice.

I totally agree with you, Sandy!

Who doesn't want to see pics and get information about new sets is not forced to visit EB and to read through the mentioned topics. If someone firstly wants to be promised by new sets when he or she sees the customer's catalogue or the sets in the stores or on S@H nobody keeps him or her from that.

I at least am glad that pics and information leaked! That's always better for planning for what sets you want to buy or not. And if you firstly see new sets in the official catalogue or in shops and you really like them but didn't know of them before and therefore bought some other sets before and now have no money for the new sets you are very disappointed - and I think TLG wants to have its customers not disappointed but happy.

Btw: I think we should stop this discussion since it's boring and useless. Let's better discuss about the sets themselves.

Klaus-Dieter

[Bonaparte]

@Gylman, The Green Brick Giant, CP5670, and some others:

It's really simple! Some pictures where posted on EB which TLC will be revealing at an event this Saturday (tomorrow). TLC asked us to remove them till Saturday not to spoil the surprise for their event. Now we could say 2 things: Yes or No. We said yes and will post the pics back tomorrow. Is that such a big deal? You'll see them 2 days later. That doesn't mean we're sucking up TLC, not at all. It means we are reasonable people who answered in a nice way to a polite question. We can debate on and on about this, but there's nothing more to it than what I just said.

[Klaus-Dieter]

@Gylman, The Green Brick Giant, CP5670, and some others:

It's really simple! Some pictures where posted on EB which TLC will be revealing at an event this Saturday (tomorrow). TLC asked us to remove them till Saturday not to spoil the surprise for their event. Now we could say 2 things: Yes or No. We said yes and will post the pics back tomorrow. Is that such a big deal? You'll see them 2 days later. That doesn't mean we're sucking up TLC, not at all. It means we are reasonable people who answered in a nice way to a polite question. We can debate on and on about this, but there's nothing more to it than what I just said.

Great work, Bonaparte!

So we'll see some good pics already tomorrow!

I would have thought that we'll minimum have to wait til Brickfair - but now I don't have got to - great!

Klaus-Dieter

Edited May 8, 2009 by Klaus-Dieter

[brickfreak99]

^Great news! Can someone get some coverage of the event?

[Bricks]

Does this mean TLC will present the ''Tantive IV'', too?

Some facts about the 'Merry-Go-Round', because I have already a picture, too:

-about 10 minifigures

-main colours are: white/red/blue

-the merry-go-round is based on a standart green plate

-the box have the 'Factory'-style

Regards 'Bricks'

[CP5670]

But there are many benefits from being in good terms with TLG. EuroBricks is noted as a venerable fansite in the eyes of the company nowadays, we're getting included in all their questionnaires and we even have our own ambassador. Our voice is heard! To me, that tops getting early sneakpeaks of the upcoming sets any day (though I admit that with a little digging you can find those leaks elsewhere).

The real issue here is not just about leaked pictures, but whether TLG should have any control over what gets discussed on EB. I don't think any of the things you mentioned are worth that tradeoff, especially when almost every other Lego site operates the same way. If you have a question for TLG, you can always go to one of the numerous other Lego forums for that.

Besides, I don't think they have ever actually done anything in response to feedback on EB. I never got any responses to any of the questions I brought up in the "questions and concerns" thread, and eventually found the answers from other sources (and I'm certainly not saying it's Copmike's fault; I think he simply wasn't getting any real answers from the company).

@Gylman, The Green Brick Giant, CP5670, and some others:

It's really simple! Some pictures where posted on EB which TLC will be revealing at an event this Saturday (tomorrow). TLC asked us to remove them till Saturday not to spoil the surprise for their event. Now we could say 2 things: Yes or No. We said yes and will post the pics back tomorrow. Is that such a big deal? You'll see them 2 days later. That doesn't mean we're sucking up TLC, not at all. It means we are reasonable people who answered in a nice way to a polite question. We can debate on and on about this, but there's nothing more to it than what I just said.

As I said before, this particular incident is not really a problem by itself, but this is only one of numerous instances I've seen of pictures being removed here.

Those who have not seen the evolution of Eurobricks from its early days will not know what a change in the essential character of EB as a "rebel" LEGO site this was.

I remember having the same impression a few years ago (I used to post mainly on Lugnet back then), and that is actually one reason why I eventually chose EB over some other forums.

[Rick]

But there are many benefits from being in good terms with TLG. EuroBricks is noted as a venerable fansite in the eyes of the company nowadays, we're getting included in all their questionnaires and we even have our own ambassador. Our voice is heard! To me, that tops getting early sneakpeaks of the upcoming sets any day (though I admit that with a little digging you can find those leaks elsewhere).

I remember coming - non-registered - to eurobricks for spoilers/leaks/etc. Eurobricks has grown tremendously over the past years and has obtained the 'status' you describe in your post. From this perspective the decisions being made are perfectly understandable. And even if they're not understandable to each eurobricks-member: just accept that eurobricks is no longer the place to come for these kind of pics. We're all not married to eurobricks. And even if you consider yourself married to eurobricks, you can cheat on eurobricks and visit some other sites that do show these pictures without eurobricks ever finding out (or caring, unlike your wife/husband )...

[Klaus-Dieter]

Does this mean TLC will present the ''Tantive IV'', too?

I don't know.

I thought that TLG will supposably wait til BrickFair. But if we trust the rumours it's highly supposable that there'll be a Castle jubilee set and a CC styled building as Exclusives appearing still this year, too. So if TLG shows the merry-go-round and RBR tomorrow TLG would nevertheless have something to reveal on BrickFair.

But actually I think not since rumours said that the RBR will be sold in September - and that is (at least at TLG's point of view) still a long while until then. Otherwise the RBR might perhaps even be for preorder in the beginning of June - then it would be possible that they reveal it tomorrow. But like already said: I don't think.

In any case we'll know tomorrow whether we get pics or not.

Klaus-Dieter

[Bonaparte]

EB is an evolving website. Noticed the huge amounts of professional set reviews we are producing? Like the reviews of the upcoming Indy sets or the Emerald Night for example. A year ago EB only produced 10% the amount of set reviews we have today, so that's a big evolution. News was and always will be an important aspect of this website, but occasionally something like this can happen when we get a request from TLC. Anyway, let's discuss the sets or wait one day and discuss them tomorrow when the pics are restored.

[CDC]

Well, i just saw this Merry-Go-Round and it really isnt something. I think this is actually cool since i have so many other sets to buy.

[legomilk]

Is there now or not pictures places ?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/donneyboy/351...pool-mostphotos

Edited May 8, 2009 by legomilk

[Front]

As I said before, this particular incident is not really a problem by itself, but this is only one of numerous instances I've seen of pictures being removed here.

I'm not aware of which pictures was removed in the incident that just happened, but are you aware that it is illegal to host pictures of products or properties marked Confidential ? I think 99.9 % of the instances you described are EB removing pictures that are illegal to host.