BrickBob Studpants

The FBTB crew are currently uploading their pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fbtbnet Enjoy

@Plissken & deskp: You're right, my bad I haven't noticed that Sting had already been mentioned on that list The alternate facial expressions look good as well, I especially dig Sam's and Pippin's (though Frodo's creeps me out, look at those dead eyes )

@deskp: It's a new sword, as can be seen on this pic: http://www-images.theonering.org/torwp/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/IMG_3769.jpg And here's the gladiator sword for comparison:

The missing minifig in Jabba's palace seems to be Ree-Yees (as can be seen on pics of the preliminary box in the background)... I wonder why they decided to ditch him Maybe they'll release him in another set, like they did with the Tactical Droid two years ago

Spieletest.at brings us a new video showing some sets and minifigs (go to 01:00):

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I think they confused Harry Potter with Lord of the Rings (because LOTR is called "Herr der Ringe" in German, so someone who doesn't know either that well could confuse the two ). Another clue is the fact that they didn't mention LOTR or Monster Fighters once in the whole text...

Spieletest.at brings us this picture: Source: http://www.spieletest.at/bericht.php?ID=982 OMG, it's Bella Swan Flee, everybody, fleeee!!!!!

Spieletest.at brings us a new picture from the Toy Fair in Nuremberg: Source: http://www.spieletest.at/bericht.php?ID=982

I don't get it, why don't they allow pictures? I mean, there are no sets in this wave that are based on the upcoming Hobbit movie and it's a licensed theme, so they don't have to worry about their designs being stolen by competitors I hope they're going to be shown in two weeks or else I get really mad

Impressive, most impressive I hope we'll see a version of Gollum's "Sméagol" personality as well (even though a happy facial expression would look even more scary I guess ). I do wonder though what we are supposed to put on that stud on his back... A basket full of fish? And I agree, Gimli's beard should be dk/earth orange, not reddish brown/dk brown

Well, here's how Huw from brickset has described it:

So it's time to say farewell to HP On the one hand I'm sad to see the theme end (and probably for good this time) but on the other hand we had a great HP year in 2011, didn't we We got a great final film to conclude the franchise (I know there's Pottermore, but still), an awesome videogame, 3 cool regular sets with long-awaited redesigns and a couple of new minifigs and to top it all off, one of the best D2C sets ever released, Diagon Alley I know that we're still missing a few important characters and we didn't get any Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff torsos (yet again ), but I'm still happy with what we've got.

Achris was referring to the "Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" sets, not the LOTR sets The film hits theaters in December, so it makes sense for TLG to release them in 2013 (I guess they're going to be scheduled for release in January but hit stores a month earlier, like this years's Superheroes sets ) The only thing I'm being taken aback by is the current lack of a Saruman minifig, he would have fit perfectly in the Orc Forge set Edit: deskp, Fives, CallMePieOrDie and STIG beat me to it

The Aragorn picture was featured on the website, although only for a short period of time it appears (I checked the website yesterday and it was definitely there ) Too bad I can't prove it, the Internet Archive Wayback Machine doesn't recognize the site

And the ears on that part are reddish brown, so it doesn't fit as an elf hairpiece (unless it's used for an elf with darker skin tone, in that case it would work well I think ). I really hope we're going to get either a Gimli or Gandalf poster next week, I can't wait to see what the other minifigs look like

And that's exactly the problem Minifig collectors (or other minifig obsessed people ) wouldn't buy huge sets just to get the minifigs they desire if those were available as collectible minifigs. Of course it would kind of make sense to release certain characters in CM form as they're hard to put in regular sets (e.g. Galadriel or Sauron), but that hasn't stopped TLG from doing that sort of move anyway (just look at Star Wars, they constantly throw figs in sets that don't belong there by any means).

Last year, I spent about 3880 CHF (~ 4100$) on Lego sets But bear in mind that even though the Swiss Franc and the Dollar are almost equal in value right now, sets are more expensive around here so comparisons are a little tricky Now I wonder whether I'm going to spend as much this year as I did last year (but with LOTR slowly approaching the shelves, I'm afraid I'm going to )

I'm actually surprised they've managed to keep these sets under wraps, TLG usually has a hard time doing so As far as I remember, prelims of every theme belonging to an upcoming film have been leaked a couple of months ahead of the release (examples: ROTS, Indy 4, Toy Story 3, PoP, HP7.2 and POTC), so this is definitely a first. I think the sets may show up at the Toy Fair as the release date for the film is set only two months later, so there's not much of a gap (Toy Story 3 on the other hand got released 4 months after the Toy Fair)

Now that my biggest wishes have been granted (POTC, LOTR and Marvel) I can't think of many licenses TLG still "needs" to do The only movie licenses that come to mind are James Bond and James Cameron's Avatar TLG has already made sets for 10 out of the 20 highest-grossing film franchises of all time and adding two more wouldn't be bad thing I guess (well as long as they don't tackle a certain vampire film franchise whose name shall not be mentioned and which is sadly part of those 20)

Sad news indeed... I don't get it though, what about that Flying Dutchman set picture a few people claimed to have seen? Did TLG spontaneously decide to scrap that idea?

That's interesting... I thought the introduction of the LOTR theme would automatically lead to the discontinuation of HP, but apparently it doesn't If this turns out to be true, 2012 will be the absolute licensed theme overkill with sets based on SW, HP, POTC (there are rumors about at least one new set), both DC and Marvel superheroes, Cars and LOTR I just hope the store managers didn't mix something up and confused HP with LOTR Edit: And there's SpongeBob Squarepants as well... Why do I get the feeling my wallet's gonna murder me in my sleep

Seeing that we still haven't got any news on 2012 sets, I assume that the FD is going to be the only one (which is most likely going to be a D2C set anyway, so it makes sense it hasn't been confirmed yet, TLG usually manages to keep those under wraps). As long as we get the minifigs we want and the ship looks as awesome as its movie counterpart (or that ingenious videogame version), I'm okay with that

I agree, we definitely need Pintel, Ragetti and Tia Dalma Other missing characters are Marty, Cotton, Cutler Beckett, Mr Mercer and Sao Feng... All of them (except Feng) would make sense in a FD set since they all are aboard it at least once in the movies or are at least related to it in some way

Here's a picture of the SpongeBob set: I guess you're right concerning the release date cause I just realized that the FD would be only the second licensed non-SW D2C set ever released (the first one being 10217 Diagon Alley), so there's no real pattern yet. Though the set's name might be confusing to some customers, there's still the set number that would set them apart so that problem could be solved too Hmm, I think I'm starting to buy into the rumor, though something tells me I should stay sceptical in order to prevent a possible disappointment

I don't want to discredit your source, but there are at least three strikes against the rumor: First off, D2C sets usually get released in January (except for the SW ones and the modular buildings) and next January's D2C set is 10223 Kingdoms Joust. Secondly, we've already gotten Davy Jones and the two most important crewmembers of his, and I don't think TLG would've thrown them in the Black Pearl if they had a Flying Dutchman set up their sleeves. A set of this size would need a couple of exclusive minifigs, and I couldn't think of many relevant ones (of course they could include four or five new crewmembers, but there are more important characters begging to be released as minifigs ). And finally, there's already going to be a 2012 set called "The Flying Dutchman", namely the SpongeBob Squarepants one. TLG would never release two completely different sets that share the same name in the exact same year. Again, if they were planning to release a POTC FD, they would have changed the other set's name, cause that would've been a lot easier to change than this one But despite the points I made, I'd still be pleasantly surprised if the rumor turned out to be true