wesker

I really don't think MCU status really plays much of a deciding factor for Lego. WandaVision, Loki, FATWS, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Ms Marvel and She-Hulk are all MCU and together have a combined total of ZERO sets. More likely "What If?" being animated simply made it a more marketable product for young kids along with "Spidey & His Amazing Friends". As far as X-Men as a brand goes I can't imagine it doing any worse for Lego than the way Wonder Woman 84, The Eternals, Captain Marvel and Shang-Chi each warmed the shelves and clogged the clearance bins. Even Wakanda Forever isn't doing that great in stores at the moment, especially the large set that nobody's touching even on discount.

The X-Mansion is just wishful thinking on my part. MCU X-Men is still several years away and I'll take anything we can get before then. The bright side is that Lego isn't shy about releasing multiple sets based upon animated series such as Spidey & His Amazing Friends, DC Superhero Girls and What If so at least X-Men 97 has a chance. I do hope the new Quinjet becomes the new standard for Marvel vehicles going forward. That and the 2021 Benatar have really set the bar and I'm curious to see if the new $100 GOTG Vol 3 ship will be done in a similar manner complete with display stand. The Blackbird will certainly need the same amount of interior space to be able to seat the entire team. The X-Mansion wouldn't even work as a modular building. Its supposed to be a secluded manor in the countryside, not part of a large city block located in the heart of NYC like the other Marvel buildings are. Hypothetically if Lego were to ever release it as a set I'd expect it would be done in the form of a dollhouse facade like Arkham Asylum and Newbury High School were. Given how similar the exteriors are between the three it can easily be pulled off at that $150-200 price range.

Please let two of these higher priced sets be an X-Men 97 Blackbird and the X-Mansion.

I don't see why that would be an issue. The design of Avengers/Stark Tower is still drastically different enough from the Daily Bugle that the two can co-exist together and having it based around the Avengers films only helps set it apart further. To write them both off is like saying we can't have the Boutique Hotel and Sanctum Sanctorum the same year because the colors are too similar despite the builds being very different. A big draw for the modular buildings is also the ability to combine them together to build a larger city which is why its better to release the tower while the Bugle and Sanctum are still available due to their compatibility with one another. A stand alone location like Tony's Mansion can be done as a D2C but it doesn't really fit under the modular building format.

Distributing the characters across multiple smaller sets would be my ideal scenario. For me the draw of getting any No Way Home sets is ultimately all about the characters rather than the builds. It would be great to get them in the most cost effective way possible. The Statue of Liberty would make a fantastic display piece but I would rather see it done as an Icons set based on the real thing like the Eiffel Tower. Its not something I would want to pay big money for in the Marvel line, especially over locations that are more exclusively tied to the world of superheroes like Avengers Tower or the X-Mansion.

I don't think it needs to be a D2C personally. Save that spot for the next modular building. Just release the NWH finale as a large retail set like the Spider-Man Bridge Battle. 8 minifigures is enough to cover the 3 different Spider-Men and each villain.

Hopefully we get something for Daredevil whether its directly based on the MCU or loosely tied in based on the comics. Normally I'm fine with most of the Disney+ Marvel content getting skipped over but I'd gladly make an exception in this case. I think there's room for NWH and Infinity Saga sets, especially with the second half of 2023 being a completely blank slate for new MCU movies. It would be a good time to catch up on anything that's been missed from the older films while they have some room to breath. I do really hope we get some X-Men 97 sets. Lego really raised the bar with the semi-UCS Benatar and Quinjet sets and I'd love to see something similar for the Blackbird. The X-Mansion and a stand alone Sentinel set would be awesome too.

I've said it before but 18+ Diorama sets would really be the ideal direction to go. It fills the need for affordable LOTR sets with minifigures while still keeping the theme primarily targeted at an adult audience. Releases are generally limited between 1-3 dioramas per year so there's a lot less risk of oversaturating the brand compared to a traditional wave of retail wide playsets aimed at kids.

A combination of these two MOCs into a single set would be ideal. Its a good scale for display, perfectly captures the look of Rivendell and is enough to cover all the required scenes. Together the two builds come to a total of 6141 parts which is just short of the official model's 6167 pieces. https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-84562/Taladril/rivendell-council-of-elrond/#details https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-54957/LegoMocLoc/ucs-rivendell-frodo-awakens/#details

To be fair 20 figures never seemed realistic to me even at minifigure scale. With the amount of molds and new prints required for a single set coming off a 10 year hiatus for the theme it was just never going to happen. The only reason other themes can get away with that many is because most of the characters are already in production in other sets or the new ones recycle a lot of existing common parts.

What modern designs? Every TIE variant that's been released in the last decade has used the plate-on-plate method for the wings with the sole exception of the standard TIE Fighter.

This is why diorama sets would be great for LOTR. Its a good middle ground between having affordable sets available while still keeping the theme primarily targeted at an older audience and not oversaturating the market. The Balrog and Witch-King duels would be perfect for the quote format ("You shall not pass!"/"I am no man!") and there's plenty of other iconic moments they can cover such as the Mirror of Galadriel, Balin's Tomb, Aragorn's Coronation and Mount Doom. Even Osgiliath could be done this way. Assuming this line is here for the long haul, I'd be happy with just getting one large D2C, two dioramas and a handful of Brickheadz each year.

The TIE Bomber looks amazing! Glad they've kept it the same scale as the previous version. I really like the new cockpit design as well. I'm curious to see if this design is just for the Bomber or if it will become the norm for all TIE variants and we see it on the upcoming Interceptor as well. The 501st Battle Pack looks fine but its really all about the minifigures over the build there. I'd prefer a new Venator over another Gunship personally. Its been a lot longer since the last one came out and with Gideon's Light Cruiser retiring we're due another set to fill in that Star Destroyer niche. Although I wouldn't complain if we do end up getting the Fondor or Mantis.

I don't mind getting her other costumes down the line but an official Eowyn minifigure really needs to come first - especially in her battle armor from ROTK. I'm still dirty she got shafted big time during the theme's original run.

I assume they will at least bring back Legolas's old hairpiece. The mold was still active in 2015 when they did Dimensions and was used pretty extensively across both the LOTR and Hobbit sets. Same goes with Gimli's helmet and beard. I can't really see them bringing back Arwen or Elrond's old molds given how minimally they were used, but honestly I'd be okay with that. The Second Age Elrond figure still looked good using the same standard hairpiece as Legolas and they can always print his crown on the head like DCEU Wonder Woman. In Arwen's case I actually think the Legolas hairpiece is a better match for her FOTR rider appearance than her original hairpiece was.

I'd prefer another D2C for Minas Tirith. Its the only way to truly do it justice with its scale and the amount of detail. Faramir in the ranger outfit is my preferred version as well. I feel like a Mumakil would be the best set to include him in as it hits all the right notes. The beast itself is a highly recognizable part of the films due to its role in the Battle of Pellennor, Faramir covers a highly desired character who was missing from the previous line, Frodo and Sam fill the required Fellowship quota and you have an instant way of reintroducing Gollum to newcomers. Throw in a Haradrim or two and you've got yourself the perfect set. The set itself is fine. The problem lied in the ship not being something people wanted that early into the line when there were still many more iconic options still to cover. And that was really a problem with the second wave as a whole. The line had barely scratched the surface of the trilogy yet everything felt too niche in comparison to the first wave, or in the case of the Wizard Battle redundant when we were already getting the Tower of Orthanc that very year.

The Frodo/Gollum set is the weakest of the three but they did a pretty good job at capturing the looks of the other characters. Not really a collector of these but might make an exception in this case. Hopefully they do well enough to warrant more LOTR sets.

The ideal balance for LOTR would be one large D2C set alongside four smaller retail sets per year. It doesn't need to go as big as Marvel and Harry Potter but it shouldn't restrict itself to a single Icons set either. Looking at the upcoming January 2023 sets showcases what a missed opportunity it would be not to do regular sets. I've already mentioned the potential of a Balrog using the parts from from 71782: Cole's Earth Dragon EVO and now I'm wondering why can't we get a brick built Mumakil after seeing Monkey Kid's 80042: Yellow Tusk Elephant. These are the type of sets that are best suited for a retail LOTR line - affordable, iconic subject matter and highly playable.

Hopefully 2023 will be the year for a modular Stark/Avengers Tower.

The new Quinjet looks incredible! I love how sleek and smooth the build looks and it appears to have a sizable interior. The inclusion of the display stand and option to swap between the Avengers and SHIELD logos is a nice touch. The minifigures look well detailed too, especially the printed arms on Black Widow and the alternate face for Loki when he's captive at the end of the movie. The Hulkbuster is oversized at first glance but the detail compared to the previous releases is simply unmatched. The small addition of shoulder armor really goes a long way to improving Okoye's figure over the Wakanda Forever set. The Miles Morales/Morbius also looks like a solid impulse buy. Not a fan of the mechs but its an interesting direction they took with Ghost Rider by including his bike. Surprised they didn't reveal the other two mech sets.

I haven't forgotten about Gondor. Knowing now that Lego is releasing a $500 set for LOTR does make me more optimistic about the chances of getting Minas Tirith one day should Rivendell prove to be successful. But while it would be nice to get Gondor Soldiers, they aren't as high a priority to me compared to getting the rest of the primary characters and iconic creatures.

The new Cap figure looks good although its a shame they're going back to printing the face on a dark blue head again. The skin tone turned out horrible when they did that last time on the Quantum Suit figure.

Same here. With Avatar and Indiana Jones both getting a small wave of four sets based on their original films, it would be nice if LOTR also gets the same. I just hope if they do release a summer wave they don't skip out on the Balrog or Eowyn/Witch-King this time, especially with Rivendell already likely to be covering the whole Fellowship.

A new hat/hair combo is already rumored for the new Indiana Jones sets. I think we'll definitely see it used for the Jurassic Park anniversary sets as well.

Unfortunately reusing existing parts is the reason why those sets are able to include as many figures as they do. Often it also comes at the expense of detail such as leg printing and dual molding. The only way I can see Rivendell coming with anywhere close to 20 figures is if additional LOTR sets are going to cover the budget for half the characters in the way 2021's Spider-Man sets did for the Daily Bugle.