Oederland

Well, these battle packs consisted of the very same soldiers that you could have bought with sets of the previous wave / the regular sets. I have no experience with those two from 2014, but I had bought the two battle packs from 2010, despite them being rather expensive. TLC was even too lazy to go with five different face printings for the five soldiers within each of the battle packs. What I had in mind was sets with different additional fractions, or soldiers with "neutral" printings that could be associated with the good or the evil fraction. At minimum, sets that are unique in some aspects. There are various head versions around at the same time anyway, why not at least take some from City instead of the usual Castle ones present in the other sets? Is it that difficult / expensive to come up with a greater variety of torso printings within fractions? For SW fans, it might indeed be about collecting different types of e. g. "troopers", putting them into your shelf, trying to get as many variants as possible (ideally, every single SW character). For Castle, it should be more about getting an army, then playing with the minifigs, thus possibly together with equipment that can be used in a battle or siege (something better that the "catapult" in 850889). Think of a tjost. The more knights and horses and fractions the better. I remember reading Rosemary Suttcliff's Arthurian Trilogy as a kid; knights traveled on their horses, battled against other knights, and of course they had different coats of arms. This is what battle packs or additional sets should be about IMO. And this is what Legends of Chima and Ninjago and Nexo Knights were/are about, more individual characters. Again, I have to mention Playmobil (I'm from Germany, and every toy shop I'm aware of sells Lego and Playmobil). Nowadays their knights are heavily individualized, e. g. see their current "good" fraction. The two sets at the bottom are accessory sets (can be bought in Playmobil stores or ordered from their site). In any case, it illustrates how one can increase variety despite the figures still sharing some elements. This is how a Castle theme should be

One of those bootleg companies, in this case XINH, has just released a copy of several TLC Castle armoured horses. This is what I was dreaming of as a kid - lots of different fractions available at the same time. Now imagine TLC would do something like this, release a new fraction every half-year (in addition to the usual sets). It might be sufficient to throw in a set with one armoured horse plus a knight and a flag to keep the theme going, maybe another smaller one with two foot soldiers. The molds are already there, so one would just have to come up with a new design/charge. This shouldn't be that difficult. You could go with swan, pegasus, phoenix, tower, tree, ...

If there were more sets including smaller ones with soldiers of different kind/fractions/combinations thereof then there would be no more need to buy the ridiculously overpriced battle packs.

Good point. But I'm not sure whether this is a disadvantage per se or not. Considering City sets, I think it is a plus that they throw in a burglar plus some equipment, possibly a vehicle, or that the fire brigade sets come with a small building on fire, so that you already have something/someone to fight based on a single set (of course, one could always argue whether it would have been better to throw in a different type of vehicle). When it comes to City you can easily mix sets from different subthemes, and accordingly, there's always some cheap set that you can add to your collection. This is not the case for Castle. If you want to play with medieval stuff a police car won't do you any good, you have to rely on other Castle sets. Maybe TLC has speculated that you (or your parents) will be forced into buying the large sets in case only few cheap sets are offered. Now if there are only few sets to choose from in the beginning, and only one or two cheap ones, then you might not get going at all though, or you might stop with that theme as soon as it is discarded (and then be forced into another ;) ). When I was a kid I didn't have any larger TLC Castle sets, likely due to my Playmobil sets. But the principle was the same, it took longer till sets were discontinued (which is still the case when it comes to Playmobil nowadays), new sets (and fractions) were added frequently, there were various small and intermediate ones, which kept me playing with Playmobil Castle for several years. Thus, maybe the drawback of recent Castle themes is not the combination of different fractions in certain sets as such, but the small range of sets, and the restriction to just two fractions. It also depends on the content probably. During Fantasy Era, you could have created a large (clone) army by buying multiple versions of 7009 and 5615, you could buy a catapult set or a ballista set (or several of those or a combination). It might just make more sense to have several mounted knights than having several prison carriages, and it might make more sense if you can choose whether to get a siege weapon or not. So yeah, in my opinion TLC has not made the best out of the Castle theme at least for the last wave, and possibly already not the best for the second Kingdoms wave (it might have been wiser to split 7189 into two separate sets, as it was already expensive). But in the end we won't find out; we would have to know the sales figures for previous themes. Maybe Castle has been selling well all the time, but themes like Ninjago and Nexo Knights just do better.

No idea. If I had to rank those three sets "objectively" based on the structure included I'd probably go with 7093 > 7947 > 70403, as I could imagine a large amount of children being attracted by the sceleton-type structure (otherwise we also wouldn't see the repetitions of sceleton islands in Pirates theme, and similar structures by other companies like Playmobil, Fisher Price). Based on the pieces provided I would go with 7947 > 7093, 70403. I have been around at a friend's house once, playing with his son, trying to create a more realistic castle structure out of 7093 (it was his idea, not mine ;) ). There wasn't that much that we could do; we ended up in disassembling 7079 as well. I could imagine that with 7947, you can build different types of structures more easily. I mean, we all know that Lego can be combined in various ways, but children usually have a limited range of sets and pieces.

The staircase is alright; I actually like it. What I meant is that it was no new unique design element, but a rehash from previous sets, so the designers didn't have to spend much time on "inventing" it. I don't see anything else on the structure of that set for which one would (have) need(ed) a designer. Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so some might like it and some might not. Given that the theme lasted for one wave only the sales might have been rather disappointing though. Anyway. I wouldn't describe myself as a typical AFOL, as I don't invest much money in buying sets, nor do I try to create a large castle army or to get as many interesting elements for my own MOCs with minimum amount of money. I basically look at TLC sets once in a while as they remind me of my childhood (I don't have the sets any more unfortunately), and I can see huge progress in some themes compared to the sets I was playing with (e. g. vehicles from City in general), but I can also see regress in Castle in some aspects. 70403 might have some play features, but nonetheless the design looks very poor to me (and so does e. g. 7947). You get five minifigs and a dragon and a catapult (which I would have played with as a child myself, in contrast to the one in 70402), accepted, but I would not award the set for being the nicest ever in the world. And I don't think this has to do with the number of pieces. I don't like 7093, and I wouldn't have liked it as a kid, as I was never really into these sceleton-type buildings, but there is something about it, it could be considered "weird" but it feels consistent, and I can imagine that many children have enjoyed the set.

Considering the designs of the last sets of the Castle theme it would increase the price by 0.01 % at maximum. Really. I appreciate the work of the guys at TLC, but it happens to be the case that some of the designs were very, very poor, much worse compared to sets that were released some years ago. The carriage in 70401 is just ugly, the catapult in 70402 falls way behind previous ones, the stairways in 70403 is nice (basically a rehash of those in The Hobbit 79004 and LotR 9472), but the rest of the structure is pointless. In case the designer has worked more than 10 min to come up with something like this then TLC should consider to ask someone else the next time.

Yes, exactly. Thanks for pointing this out. Well, they have been doing so for years when it comes to City, at least for the usual Police and Fire Brigade subthemes. Every three years we get e. g. a new mobile police unit; the design does not necessarily improve. We get the usual helicopters and planes no matter whether it fits into the subthemes well or not. When it comes to knights, I think it would be much easier to repeat certain concepts. When I was a child the interesting part of TLC's (and also Playmobil's) knights theme was that there were many sets around all the time and that one got new ones frequently. I never thought of whether something was a "repetition" or not. You can have various mounted knights for instance, just give them different coats of arms (and it doesn't have to be lions or dragons all the time...) and prominent colours. Or you already have a brown horse but also urgently need the set with the white horse. At least this was what I was thinking back then. ;) In the 80ies and 90ies, TLC was still more creative IMO when it came to Castle: You can have various types of chariots - even when it comes to small carts there is plenty of variety, 1974, 6010, 6011, 6016, 6022, 6023. They had a proper siege tower that came with a wall section (6061). They had various small ships and also the intermediate Sea Serpent. So one should always be able to introduce a new element into the next wave or subtheme, e. g. one might come up with a medieval harbour and ships (similar to 7029 or the two Hobbit sets 79013 and 79016), one wave might focus on a town setting (inn, blacksmith), one might be about dragons. A wave doesn't have to be restricted to a certain "subtheme"/element, one could always go with the usual sets as a base. And then one fraction might be heavily fantasy-oriented and come with dragons and such, if you don't like those you can buy sets from the other fractions. But well. You might be able to increase profit with themes like Ninjago and Nexo Knights. Children might commit themselves to a certain brand or theme more easily and more strongly if it's more unique and can be consumed in additional ways, be it games, TV series, magazines.

Well, classic era was like this in some regards. New fractions would appear once in a while, and others would phase out. You could always find Castle sets in the shops, some older ones and more recent ones. I'm not sure why TLC gave up on this, but there must have been a reason. However, as soon as you stop promoting a theme continuously it might become difficult to attract people. I mean, if the "off" periods of a theme are long enough such a strategy leads to "lost generations" of children who might have played with knights if there had been sets around. Then again, these children might be attracted by other themes that can be promoted as the shelves are not covered by e. g. Castle sets. Anyway. Legends of Chima, Ninjago, Nexo Knights have something in common IMO, a "coolness" factor. Even the City theme has more "adventure" elements with the expedition subthemes. This might be necessary nowadays to compete successfully. Already infants might dress up as knights/cowboys/pirates, and accordingly, these themes might be considered "uncool" at some point.* Now throw in fantasy/sci-fi, no matter how ridiculous, and suddenly it's a success, e. g. look at all the computer/online games in medieval-fantasy settings. With Ninjago and Nexo Knights you might be able to reach a wider age-range and/or keep children playing with the theme for a longer time. As a toy company, you might then go with themes like these instead of the "classic" ones. It is also worth a note that TLC is more restricted when it comes to Space due to the Star Wars license. But not every child might be interested in Star Wars, and you might get in touch with those by offering themes with futuristic elements - as in Legends of Chima, Ninjago, Nexo Knights. But with "cross-over themes" there might just be no more place for classic themes. * I really think this is a very important aspect. When I was a child (in the late 80ies / early 90ies) "brandificated" toys were already present. Disney of course, Barbie, the Smurfs, the Peanuts. In the early 90ies Sailor Moon and Power Rangers were introduced. Nonetheless I have the impression that it was much less of an issue compared to nowadays, there might have been a larger gap between shows that you saw on TV and toys that you played with. For instance, there weren't really that many toys when it came to smurfs, I only remember these soft plastic (?) figures which are still around nowadays. We still played with toy trains of unknown "origin", not "Thomas and Friends Toy Trains". We still played with construction machines and not "Bob the Builder" construction machines. We had cars and planes, not "Cars" cars and "Planes" planes. Nowadays you might have to make it "big", with its own show. And it might make more sense to go the sci-fi route then / "modern" interpretation of classic themes instead of the classic themes themselves.

Yesterday my girlfriend came back from China, where she had bought a few small castle or castle-related Enlighten sets for me (two versions each of the brown horse from Enlighten 1501A, the light brown / sand horse from Enlighten 1501B, and the crusader from Enlighten 1502B) and some castle minifigs and items from SY (SY165), POGO (some of the "knights' equipment" pieces), LOJO (one knight minifig, equipment), so I could provide some information. I also own Enlighten 1012, 1015, 1016, 1018. Not sure whether this is the correct place to talk about these though. As it might be of interest to others, maybe someone can recommend the appropriate section? Thank you. A comment on clone brands, as it is a difficult topic: Just searched a little, the new Sluban theme is called "Legend Warriors", but it is less "fantasy" than the name might imply, see the trailer on Youtube (from 1:10 onward the sets are shown). Why do I post this; I think the concept of the sets comes pretty close to what people have asked for in the past (civilian buildings and so on).

Maybe it helps to provide information on the other brands: Ausini has some "Farmland" sets which would work well as civilian buildings for a medieval diorama (some of these sets are heavily inspired by TLC's Medieval Market set), plus a "Knights" theme. I think the sets have existed for quite some years by now. BanBao has some unique sets, which have been around some time though. Enlighten's Knights theme (sets 1001-1023) phases out at the moment, and is replaced by a new theme "The War of Glory" (sets 2301-2317). It is fantasy oriented, but also comes with sci-fi elements like Nexo Knights, with knights on the one side and elves on the other. There are also some dwarfs, dragons and other flying creatures. One set (a mine) is heavily inspired by LotR sets, there are two sets with ents (although these creatures are unique design, at least no TLC copy), another looks very similar to TLC's Elves theme. Lele released some bootleg minifig sets of the Lion Knights / Dragon Knights from 2014, and another wave of minifigs with unique design (at least not a Lego copy, no idea whether it was inspired by any existing toys), which is more "Chinese oriented" though, considering the type of printing. Look for Lele 78038 in case you are interested in. There were some more sets consisting of one minifig each combined with e. g. a catapult, but as far as I remember it was the same minifigs as in 78038. Since then, nothing else has appeared. Lojo has released various bootleg minifigs, among others also some copies of the "classic" green-red Dragon Knights and blue-red Dragon Knights, Royal Knights of 1996, Fright Knights of 1997. Pogo has started to release armours, helmets, shields, weapons. These seem to be bootlegs of Brickwarriors items. One sword seems to be a bootleg of Brickarms' claymore. Sluban presented a new knights theme on a toy fair some while ago (might have been this year), which appears to consist of a range of civilian buildings (e. g. a set with a wind mill, another with a water mill, a smithy, two sets with a frame house each) and only one large castle-like structure (looks more like a large gate lodge with some additional wall sections than a "complete" castle). No idea whether it will be released, and if so, when. SY released some bootleg minifig sets of the Lion Knights / Dragon Knights from 2014 and the (red) Lion Knights from 2010 plus one series focusing on historic minifigs from CMF series (plus two minifigs from the 2010 Lion Knights fraction). They had presented unique sets with buildings at a toy fair, one fraction were knights (they might have been bootleg minifigs of the blue Lion Knights from 2014 or unique design with similar colour scheme), who came with buildings and walls made of stone, the other fraction were a sort of native Indians living in wooden barracks. However, these were never produced. I think it was cancelled when TLC presented Nexo Knights. Since then, SY has copied Nexo Knights sets, but there have been no efforts for "classic" sets, be it new ones or bootlegs. Then there are sets by Oxford and Wange, but these should have been around for some time except maybe one by Oxford "Knights of the Round Table". Finally, I remember a photo from a Chinese toy fair, showing some rather simple or "classic" castle-like sets. I don't remember the brand though. Funnily, the horses looked like Enlighten's old horses (with eyelash printing), but this doesn't have to mean anything, as some Chinese brands copy sets of other Chinese brands. Summary: At the moment, Pogo seems to produce Castle items, and these seem to be copies of e. g. Brickwarriors items. Lojo is producing items and minifigs, which seem to be copies of TLC items/minifigs. Several other brands have copied minifigs of TLC's Castle theme, CMF series and/or LotR minifigs, I'm not sure whether any new sets have been added recently. I have no idea what their main aim is, whether they earn their money by selling copies to Asian people who have seen TLC sets but can't afford or don't want to buy TLC sets, or whether they target "Western" people (when looking at shopping sites like Taobao targeting Asian people you will notice that the sets are often much cheaper than on e. g. AliExpress, so it might be the middlemen who make the most profit), but in any case, they sell copies. Only few brands/companies have released unique sets recently. Sluban might replace its old theme by a new one in the nearer future with "classic" knights, and Enlighten is replacing its old theme by a new one, but the new one is fantasy oriented. So considering the many brands and companies it doesn't look as if there were major efforts to release castle-like sets - it might be easier to just sell Nexo Knights copies or Nexo Knights inspired sets. One final comment: My personal experience is limited to Enlighten sets of the 2014 theme. For the others, I relied on photos from toy fairs and offers from AliExpress and other shopping sites. Accordingly, I'm not always sure whether some set is a blatant copy / bootleg, a heavily inspired set (e. g. same or similar structure but different colours) or a unique creation.

More generally speaking, Playmobil seems to have a different strategy when it comes to themes. E. g. there has been a new line of knights every few years, with only a few sets released after that / in between, often only small ones consisting of minifigs, or rehash special editions of previous sets (with different emblems and such; in the past these rehashed sets seem to have been US exclusive). However, the other sets remain on the shelves, which is not the case (or to a much lesser extent) when it comes to Lego. Anyway. I don't think we will see any traditional castle sets as long as Nexo Knights is around. The theme obviously refers to knights and castles in some ways, as Ninjago refered and refers to Asian ninja / samurai / dragons / temples. Thinking of it this way it was in fact quite consequential to mix the "European medieval" theme with futuristic elements after the successful "Asian historical" mash-up. It looks as if the Nexo Knights theme sells well, and one could easily think of various extensions similar to the fantasy era, e. g. one subtheme including dragons (more "European" style ones), sceleton armies, orcs/trolls - and then there are still plenty options for "crazy" stuff like the snake people in Ninjago. With regard to the traditional Castle theme, I'm not sure whether children are not interested in that any more. It might also be the case that the last few subthemes were just not attractive. When looking at the City theme there has been a huge evolution over time, with (much) more realistic vehicles (there's still some issue with the superlarge mudguards on street cars, but not sure whether this is problematic for children). I liked the 80ies Town style, which was what I was playing with, but looking at the sets nowadays I can only compliment the designers (which doesn't mean that I like every single set). In contrast, the Castle theme feels as if it were stuck somewhere in the past with e. g. their clumsy catapults. I don't think this has to do with sets targeting younger children. It's basically outdated design. The 2013 Castle theme looks like a disaster. Red and black just doesn't work well together for the bad fraction, at least not this way, with red elements on the vehicles and structures, leaving aside e. g. the cartoonish variants of the already rather cartoonish catapults. IMO two of the sets of the Kingdoms subtheme were also designed poorly (7949 Prison Carriage Rescue - really no way to make the cart look more like a cart and not a random mess of pieces, 7947 Prison Tower Rescue - what's that? A wall/hill of bricks? Even clone brands are able to come up with better and fresh designs). Then there's 7188, I'm not sure whether the carriage is what boys are looking for (I can't help but knights is a typical "boys" theme, isn't it). Give it different colours and it would be a perfect carriage for the Disney theme (similar to Cinderella's Dream Carriage 41053). Finally there's 7189 Mill Village Raid - no idea, isn't it odd that the barn is much larger than the windmill? The set might also have been too large (and therefore too expensive) and too "civilian" at the same point. For AFOLs it might have been great, but would a child want to spend lots of money on a knights set which is mainly about medieval farming? After all, the City farm subtheme also lasted for one season only (plus the 7684 Pig Farm & Tractor exclusive in 2010), so maybe children into farms prefer different types of toys, and children into knights don't care much about medieval farms. In contrast, 6918 Blacksmith Attack is a nice, little set with a civilian component which is nonetheless strongly related to warfare. One could think of similar sets, e. g. a small inn where soldiers can come together, a set with a tent, a farmer's carriage in which soldiers can hide (like the Playmobil 6005 set), a small cottage with a farmer and a few animals including one horse that could be "recruited" by the soldiers (the one in 7189 is rather a nag than a warhorse). A merchant with a carriage including weapons and a barrel, some vegetables. I also think it is important to have variety. Nexo Knights has lots of character minifigs, not the usual rather generic soldiers from Castle. I have never understood why TLC doesn't try to bring more variety to the Castle theme by increasing the number of different torsos (even Chinese brands like Enlighten can do better). As a child I was happy to enjoy the differences, even if the difference was a black helemt with blue plume vs. one with a yellow one. After all, this is more or less what knights is about for children, brave knights in shiny armour with lots of different coats of arms meeting for a tjost or in a battle. In summary, I think the problem with the last Castle themes has been 1) bad design 2) too few sets (some of those possibly not being attractive for children, but rather for AFOLs, this might have been the case for the LOTR theme as well) 3) not enough variety with regard to fractions and too generic warriors - in contrast, the Playmobil soldiers seem to be highly individual (I think you would have no "doubles" at all with regard to torsos and such even when buying all sets).

Definitely the Yeti. I was very happy about the Ninja back then though, finally an "Asian" minifig again (Ninjago had not yet started).

Let's make sure what I was trying to demonstrate: Collecting is a relevant aspect for children when it comes to toys, and collecting CMFs might be a relevant factor for children. There are various sorts of toys that build upon collecting, combined with blind bags. Children might not be able to get a complete series (due to lack of money), but it can be an impulsion to get more of those sets to try to get as much diversity as possible. In the end, for TLC it doesn't matter whether children collect because they want to complete the series or whether they "collect" as a by-product, trying to get certain minifigs from those blind bags. And I wanted to highlight that you can make use of the collection aspect as a company in several ways, which is why I was talking about all Castle and Nexo Knights and Aquanauts. The placement of minifigs is not random. If it were only about selling "better" minifigs more expensively, they could go with e. g. a small set and a "standard" minifig for 4 € and a small set with a "better" minifig for 6 €. I don't see why this shouldn't work. For a child and/or for the adult that buys the toys it makes sense to have several soldiers, but it makes less sense to have several kings, so one will accept it to cost more. However, if you can get the "better" minifigs or interesting parts in cheaper sets (more expensive than a set of a similar size with similar amount of pieces or minifigs, but still very cheap relative to the large sets), there is less motivation to get the large and expensive sets. Less motivation insofar as a large set is already attractive due to the structure included (the main component of e. g. the castle sets is really the castle), but it can be more attractive when adding some rare items. If these items can be obtained elsewhere then they are less rare and the inclusion in a large set is a weaker argument to justify the price. So well, maybe people accept it if the rarer items are included in the large and expensive sets, but I wouldn't agree with you that they expect it - at least adults. After all, a king with printing on the front and the back remains a minifig with dual-side printing. Certainly. But at the same time, I would assume that the equipment, techniques to produce bricks have become more efficient over time (compared to e. g. the 80ies), so one might be able to produce more complicated/detailed parts without having to increase the budget. However, what I was aiming at was

Sorry. I ignored the fact that you were certain, for whatever reason I read your comments as if they were assumptions (although they are really pretty unambiguous). Anyway, that's too bad then, as it means no Castle minifigs, no Aquazone rehash, ... Which type of party? Why not a series of drunken minifigs, stoned minifigs, naked minifigs with explicit printing, ... one could think of various nice equipment

Maybe I should have stated that I played with Lego in the late 80ies and early 90ies. Back then the distribution of minifigs/parts was a different one (at least in my opinion). Black Monarch's Castle e. g. featured 12 minifigs and three horses, two of those armoured, Black Knight's Castle included 12 minifigs (one of them a ghost) and four horses. The ghost was featured in a small inexpensive set as well, not just a large one. When the green dragon was introduced in 1993 there were three sets of different size right from the beginning to obtain that dragon. The wizard was available in those three sets and another small one. 1995's king with shiny helmet was included in both the largest castle set (with cape, plume, and shiny sword on armoured horse), one featuring a carriage (no cape, but plume and shiny sword) and a small set (neither cape nor plume, but at least shiny sword). So I think it was easier to obtain certain "attractive" items to some extent. Well, I don't think that children or parents really determine the price-per-piece or price-per-minifig ratio. E. g. the castle is a large structure with many bricks, so people accept it to cost more money. The main motivation behind the large sets is still to sell a certain structure, be it a castle, a police station, a volcano, a crashed plane, or a combination of certain vehicles. This as such might or might not be attractive enough, and by adding some rare attractive items (the king, the armoured knight, the leopard) you can (try to) reach more people. In my childhood these items were still easier to obtain, at least to some extent. I don't claim it to be a universal law, it wouldn't work anyway as the rareness/attractiveness depends on the theme, and I don't want to claim that e. g. a castle without a king wouldn't sell, but in some instances, where it makes sense, TLC seems to follow that rule. I'm not sure how representative my childhood is, but when I wanted to get a larger set it often took some time and I had to highlight the advantages of the set to convince my parents, and I wasn't successful all the time. To give an example, I had begged for 1822 Sea Claw 7 after seeing it in a brochure of a supermarket, and (somewhat surprisingly), my mother just bought it, I guess because it was sold cheaply considering the size of the set. For some more submarine action I got 6115 Shark Scout at a later point. Then I asked for 6155 Deep Sea Predator or 6190-1 Shark's Crystal Cave (not sure any more which of those two I was looking for), but I ended up with 6135 Spy Shark. My mother was like 1) you get another diver of that fraction 2) you get a plant (for whatever reason I liked those bushes and still do ;) ) 3) you get a submarine with that orange-transparent window 4) you have a magnet on 1822. Well, she was right, wasn't she . If there had been some "rare" items I might have won. This might also explain why the sets available in some themes has been reduced. Back then there really was some interference or redundance between sets, like the mentioned three submarine sets with that front window, or the three Castle sets with the green dragon. In contrast, looking at Nexo Kinghts: In the first wave the smallest of the regular sets consisted of a soldier and monsters available also in the larger sets, so none of the main characters. Five intermediate sets with one of the heroes each or the king, no redundancy. Two more intermediate sets with the queen and Aaron in one case and Ava and Lance in another. Finally the large set with Jestro and his mobile (plus Lance) and the largest set with three of the heroes (no Lance, no Macy). Thus, for Jestro you need 70316, for Axl and the Merlok hologram piece you need 70317, for the queen 70325, for the king 70327, for Ava 70324, for Macy 70314, for Moltor 70313 - in other words, many sets to "collect them all". There are also the cheap Ultimate sets, but the heros have different appearance with their transparent parts, which might be a reason to buy them in addition and not as a replacement (and still no Axl). In the second wave there's a cheaper set to get Macy and two new sets with Axl, but they are both expensive. Jestro remains available in expensive sets only. You get some new Ultimate sets, but the heros again have a different apperance compared to the regular sets. In the third wave TLC introduces new monsters and new items for the heros (the orange-transparent ones). It's only now with the "Battle Suits" sets that the heros become available cheaply in their "default" apperance. So there is definitively a strategy how the minifigs are distributed across sets, ensuring that you have to spend quite some money - which is absolutely legitimate, as TLC is not a non-profit organisation.

I might not be up-to-date, as I have bought just a few minifigs and no more regular sets for quite a while - basically since the debacle with 70500 Kai's Fire Mech, with printing on the front going off on one of the minifigs, which has never happened to me before (not even in the late 80ies and 90ies, when I was playing actively and not just changing the pose once in a while). And I wasn't that happy with the quality of the minifigs in the spinner sets (loose legs), same holds for e. g. the Samurai CMF. I can't complain on Frightening Knight and Rogue so far, but the issue with the loose legs only appeared after a while on the other minifigs, not right from the beginning. I have the impression that they have already become somewhat looser on the Classic King. You shouldn't underestimate the factor, as children love to collect stuff in general, which does not necessarily imply that they are aware of that. Collecting is what themes like Nexo Knights and Ninjago are about as well, individualised minifigs that you can only receive by buying different sets. Add factor unpredictability to sell more products, leaving aside whether the children try to collect the whole series or to get those minifigs that they find attractive. Alternatively, put attractive items into large sets, but release smaller ones as decoys. As a consequence, children might get into a theme by receiving a small gift, then asking for large ones. This is nothing specific to Lego. For Lego, it is obvious to different extent in different themes, but quite interestingly, within the Castle domain it was possible to obtain the king via the largest set (of the first wave) only for the last two subthemes, the leader of the bad fraction and the princess were in another (also a large set), armoured horses have been available in larger sets only and so on. I don't think this is by chance, but rather product strategy. If you want to get a king and can obtain it from a small set, some children might just take this one (either because they are really already happy or because the parents tell them that they ought to be so ;) ). If you want to get a mounted knight and can obtain it from a small set, why buy the larger one.

If they want to celebrate the anniversary in some way that attracts a wide audience then it would absolutely make sense to come up with a corresponding CMF series. They could come up with re-releases as well, but this would be directed to AFOLs. They could come up with "updated" versions, but these might not be distinctive enough from regular sets with represent more or less close updates of previous subthemes. A CMF series should allow to refer to the anniversary in some way, but keep it interesting enough / as interesting as the CMF series so far. If they decided to come up with a set of minifigs with the simpler designs and the old face expression (in the sense of the Vintage Minifigure Collection sets) or "proper" sets including vehicles, structures, equipment in the sense of Exclusive 5004419 Classic Knights Minifigure), then children might not be interested. So I'd say at best we get a mixture, e. g. a "classic knight", "classic policeman", ... and counterparts with the modern design. This might actually work well for a CMF series, as an additional aspect could be to get both an old and a new knight (for those who collect everything this aspect doesn't matter of course). Alternatively, it could really be just refering to old logos and such like we've already seen before, but this time as a complete series. In that case they might cover the last 40 years and not just the 70ies/80ies.

TLC knows about AFOLs and how sets and minifigs out of production are sold, and that those prices can be extreme. So well, I think they meant it to go that way, or at least they wanted to give a try as an experiment, knowing that it might end up that way. They can make a lot of money with the CMFs, and they can make even more money if some of the attractive minifigs are rarer, and if one is extremely rare (similar to the figures in Kinder Surprise). Maybe they were surprised that it ended up that extreme. In any case, CMFs already cost 3,99 € in Germany by now - 4 € for a minifig of poorer-than-normal quality (and the quality is certainly not poorer because it's made in China, it's ridiculous to believe that it is impossible to come up with ABS of the same quality within China). I wouldn't be surprised if prices increase for future series - as long as they sell reasonably well.

Re-reading my initial comment (by the way, sorry for the long text...) it sounds indeed a bit too much one brand vs. the other. Think of this as a German snap-shot of a "let's buy some toys related to knights" scenario, what can you see when entering a German shop. However, when looking at the time courses of their knights themes we see some analogies, and we see differences. One analogy is that there seem to be less sets a theme, one analogy is the "individualization" of the minifigs. This is much more advanced for Playmobil though. The analogies are interesting, as they might well reflect a change in interests and preferences in children in general (and not just a company's decision to come up with a different interpretation of a traditional theme). Well, not superseded, but bricking seems to be less important in some themes and it is only one of several "play options" (think of the spinners, flyers from Ninjago; or something completely unrelated, different variants of the "flick-fire missile" feature). This also relates to the more specific bricks, the more complex and unique they are the more difficult it is to come up with a "basic" structure - although you can still come up with your very own and unique creations of course. In any case, give the minifigs an "identity" = a name, a storyline, then it's more attractive for children to "collect them all". Children like to collect things after all. And when looking at toys in general, there's clearly a "brandification". It's not work-vehicles, it's Bob the Builder's work-vehicles, it's not *some* space ships, it's Star Wars space ships, it's not *some* cars, it's Cars' cars, so not some random item or character, but a specific one embedded into a context with other specific items or characters. Let's put it differently. Till 1992 the knights theme was pretty traditional = half-way realistic toy versions of knights, horses, carts, castles, and sets were released more or less continuously. In 1993 they started with magical elements, the dragon, the wizard. In 1997 we also got some "flying machines". Knights from fantasy era were, well, about fantasy to a large extent. The Kingdoms theme from 2010 was pretty "traditional" again, but in my opinion it's evident that they target at children of a younger age, with somewhat less "realistic" structures like the chunk of bricks termed "Prison Tower Rescue". While this direction might still be rather vague it's quite obvious for the sets from 2013. In any case, what we can definitely state is that we do not get "traditional knights" (in the sense of the 80ies and early 90ies and possibly 2010/11) as frequently as we used to get. And when contrasting Playmobil sets of the 90ies and Playmobil sets of today, there's one especially interesting common aspect, less diversity with regard to fractions - we end up with the "good" fraction (Crowned lions) vs. the "evil" (Falcons) like in the "current" 2014/15 theme. We had similar fractions in the 2010 theme (Lions vs. Falcons). Now consider Lego, what have people been complaining about? That we end up with crownies/lion knights vs. dragon knights. I fear this won't change for future themes, it might be inevitable nowadays. So well, "traditional knights" have become less important in some ways - in contrast to e.g. police (still waiting for the desert police, the underwater police, the underworld police though) or helicopters (we still need a helicopter that transports helicopters).

While Ninjago was loosely based on "East Asian history/mythology" (loosely because while there are ninjas and Eastern-style dragons, the rest about sceleton armys, snakes and such is not particularly linked to that "culture"), or at least how these are anticipated in Western countries, mixed with some sci-fi elements, NK is the same for medieval history. Even if the association is loose you can't deny that it works with elements from Middle Ages, which can be recognized easily by children. Accordingly, I don't think we will see any classic knights in the nearer future. I also doubt we will see any other historic theme like Romans and Greeks simply because they are rather specific and can be considered a niche. Playmobil has done so for the Romans/Egypts, and given they currently repeat the Roman theme it must have been successful enough, however it is an additional theme and not a replacement for knights. This also has to do with different sales policies, Playmobil themes like knights seem to stay in the shelves till it is replaced by the next knights' theme and they have more on-going themes at the same time. Anyway. Maybe you have to put the question differently, why does TLG decide to come up with a theme like NK at all, instead of a "classic" medieval theme with knights. And here it becomes interesting in my opinion. In my childhood in the early 90ies (I'm from Germany) I had Lego sets (especially City, a variety of smaller Space sets, Knights sets, and a few from the Pirates theme) and Playmobil sets (mainly knights) - this might sound like a lot, but many of those were from my older brother ;-) . Looking back I would say I was playing with Lego knights as I liked Lego in general, and I was playing with Playmobil knights as I liked Playmobil knights. The fun about Lego was you could build your own structures, the fun about Playmobil was to have plenty of details. Just to give an impression of Playmobil sets from that era (these are no official names) for those who are not familiar: Big castle, small castle, knights' tournament, knights' training, knight's tent, king's throne, prisoner's transport, dragon knights, catapult, arbalester. During that period (all those sets were released in 1993) you got a wide variety of fractions, which is one part of why people seem to be fascinated by knights, heraldy and such. After all it's nice to have different fractions for a battle or a tournament. TLC still used to have different (human) fractions in the 90ies as well. Now, when looking at the development since then, we can assert that Playmobil has turned to (almost) "individual" knights. Back then they already differed with regard to hair, but nowadays every knight seems to have individual armour, clothes, ... In contrast, even when buying a complete Lego theme you end up with several repetitions of the same three or four knights/soldiers. Accordingly, Lego might not be too attractive any more for children of a certain age. Not because there hasn't been any progress, there are much more details compared to sets of the 90ies, but because there has been more progress for other brands. However, I wouldn't want to brake it down to one brand vs. another. This is why I mentioned Playmobil, as you can see some changes as well in their knights themes. 1) They don't have as much variety with regard to knights sets as they used to have. 2) They went the route "good fraction" vs. "bad fraction", clearly expressed by darker colours for the bad fraction, angry faces, ... - which we also know pretty well from TLC. This might point to the following: 1) Children don't play with knights as long as they used to play in the past, and/or they play with more themes / other toys during a certain period of time. Accordingly, there is also no need to release that many different sets. 2) Children are able to imagine "story lines" to a lesser extent, either because the new media have fried their brains, and/or because they play with certain toys at a younger age. With the last sets TLC clearly produced sets aiming at younger children, considering the style of the catapult and such, which would go in line with this assumption. Finally, considering Ninjago and NK, TLC releases sets with additional play features, it's less about "bricking". They have also added the aspect of "collecting". When I was young I was not worrying about missing out a particular set too much except if it were very special. Nowadays it seems to be more about "these particular x heros work together to fight those y bad heros". Interestingly, for themes like Ninjago and NK there is a wide range of different sets and special equipment. Thus I'd say, the period of time during which children play with certain types of toys, the more "traditional ones", might have shortened, and/or these themes might have to compete against others. At some point a company has to decide on how to go on then. For TLC the conclusion seems to be that there is no use in releasing traditional knights sets every year, and that they come up with some more action-oriented, cross-over themes, which are also unique compared to what other brands offer (at least at the beginning, Playmobil came up with an Eastern dragon knights theme as well; I would be very surprised if it hadn't been inspired by Ninjago), and with which they seem to aim at older children. There are also magazines, merchandising products, with which children can be tied to the theme and your particular brand more closely. After all, if children like ninjas or knights in general, you can't benefit that much, as they might just buy a schoolbag with *some* knight or ninja instead of the TLC character. But once you stop releasing sets regularly, and/or once they become too simplified, and/or it's just too few sets the whole theme might not be attractive enough for children and their parents to start with. Then it's also less attractive for the brand to invest money on this theme. Based on my experience from Germany, where you can buy Lego and Playmobil in (almost) every toy shop and also in large supermarkets, I have the impression that TLC somewhat gave up on traditional knights (not completely, but the themes and sets are a little half-hearted IMO), while Playmobil goes on with the theme more extensively still, although to a lesser extent when compared to the 90ies. Maybe there's not sufficient demand for two different brands releasing knights sets. In any case, if I had a child, and if he/she were interested in Medieval knights, I would go to the next shop and probably end up with Playmobil as this is what I get in the shop. In contrast, if it were into a sci-fi cross-over knight thingy theme, we would buy Lego. Maybe this is actually what the two companies are aiming for, having different products. When TLC's knights turned towards fantasy Playmobil had traditional knights. Nowadays TLC offers sci-fi knights, while Playmobil provides knights with fantasy elements.

The babysitter and the baby look cute, so does the penguin guy. And the Mariachi Player will go well with the other two "Mexican" minifigs. Anyway, I'm looking forward to that bowman

Well, like stated a while ago, I didn't expect that much of the volcano sets although it sounds very interesting at first, as basically, there's nothing much iconic about volcano research except the volcanoes themselves, which would require many bricks for a proper appearance, plus the silver heat-protective suits (which seems to be boring grey in the set, but well). However, the sets turn out to be much worse. I mean, it's a mixture of fireworkers/construction workers in olive-green clothes thrown together with rather random vehicles - only the off-road vehicle/pick-up in 60121 and the drone in 60124 make some sense when considering rough or rocky, volcanic terrain. Which leaves us with the transparent-orange rock pieces then. And this is the laughable part. Okay, it's lava. Red-hot lava. Which already makes me wonder why they didn't go with a mixed pattern similar to that seen on the rock monsters in Power Miners, thus not just transparent-orange. This is still rather a cosmetic issue. But why for heaven's sake should one try to drill into red-hot lava? Why use a pickaxe? Why should one try to transport red-hot lava with a helicopter? How would you even attach it to the suspension? With heat-resistant superglue? Magic powers? Why not wait till it's cooled down and has a solid form? And yeah, of course there have to be large crystals within that red-hot lava. Well-known fact. Now it's a toy of course, but it's classified as a City theme, and City tries to be rather realistic (for a police state with hardly any buildings left except police and fire stations and a few ruins ). This research theme is anything but realistic, it's nonsense, and the volcano (which should really be THE part of the whole subtheme) is just disappointing. If TLC had wanted to reuse previous concepts from demolition and mining sets, they could have come up with a ressources-oriented overground exploration theme, searching for minerals in the wilderness, then the boring/drilling equipment would make sense - for volcano research it does not. Or they could have come up with similar vehicles for pile driving within the usual constructions subtheme. If TLC had wanted to reuse the tracked vehicle concept, they could have gone with a snow groomer. But the way it turns out to be it's a rather absurd combination. However, the vehicles as such look nice , so children might like them, and can easily use them in different settings (although it's a little stupid that there are no rocks in other colours, just the trans-orange ones). So overall, it's not that bad at all , it's just missing the point. Now when looking at the other City sets (plus the Creator buildings): 31051 Cape Lighthouse: No new idea, but it looks nicer than the Lighthouse Island from 2011 and the orca is a really nice feature. The alternatives are a meh though, no idea what the second model is meant to reflect, the third model is conceptionally the hut of the main model. Overall nonetheless 31052 Vacation Getaways: Now this is a large vehicle Not sure whether it will work well with other vehicles around, but it's a great set with many options, and the alternative models are also great. I mean, one set and you can build a motorhome, a house, or a cruising catamaran, and they all look good. 31053 Tree House Adventures: I didn't really like the previous tree house set, but this is even worse, it doesn't even attempt to look as if there had been a concept. 60101, 60102, 60104 Airport sets: Nothing really special, reused concepts, but good to see airport is back. It will be interesting to see how much the largest set 60104 costs relative to 3182 from 2011, as the building part (terminal and tower) is a very reduced version. The limousine set comes with a plane this time, not with a helicopter like in 3222, which is a far better choice as we get helicopters all the time anyway. 60101 is not unsimilar to 60021 turned into a "proper" plane. So all in all, we have a set with a large passenger plane, a set with a smaller passenger plane, a set with a cargoplane. So there's something for everyone. 60100 Airport Starter Set: Now while I doubt small helicopters are used for airmail, the set offers a lot of play features. Nice. 60103 Airshow: The last similarly sized set dates back into 1993: 6345 - I did own this set as a kid No idea, 60103 is a little less fascinating IMO, maybe due to the rather simple colour scheme on the two jets. Maybe they should have gone with two different colours for the two. Concerning the hangar, it certainly takes away quite some pieces & increases the prize & doesn't really offer that many options (as a kid, if you want to have a hangar you can easily build your own with boxes and such, you don't really need Lego bricks). Thus but without the hangar it would have been cheaper, likely increasing the chance for children to receive the set. 60132 Gas Station: Well, like the title states, a gas station. Looks really nice with all the details. There are some mehs, but just the usual ones = the mudguard issue on the car. It doesn't become better with the new rims. Next to the car the wrecking car appears to be too small. It would really be necessary to design a less massive mudguard piece for cars. Also, when placed side by side, vehicles with old rims don't work together well with vehicles equipped with new ones, the difference in size is too much. But overall 60134 Fun at the Park: If you're looking for more minifigs for your City layout, this is a Must. Works as a set as its own as well though. New molds are also welcomed.

Well, yes. But the criminals are certainly not the most friendly ones either, are they, given their face expressions and clothings, and the focus is clearly on thieves. E.g. why not a police set focusing on a dispute between neighbours, it could be fantastic, consider something like one guy with a barbecue, another guy with a garden hose, a little fence, plus a policeman Or something around parking violation, we have plenty of vehicles, if we had street signs for "no parking" the Lego Police could distribute tons of traffic tickets (and thereby, rise some money for the next, inevitable generation of police helicopters, police planes, police quads/ATVs). A while ago I came across this set from a clone brand, and in fact, I really like the idea even if it's not "policital correct". It's clearly enspired by 70808 Super Cycle Chase, but a more realistic version (inappropriate for children) Maybe we get a Volcano Police Station in 2016 then Does anyone have additional informaton on those volcano sets? Maybe it's not meant to be a realistic expedition, but rather, something semi-fictional, like researchers stumbling across dinosaurs/creatures. If you think about volcano research there's not that much you can associate actually, except guys in metallic protective clothing. For a "proper", "closed" volcano you would need many and/or huge bricks. Playmobil has done so already, see this and this, and I would imagine TLC to come up with an overall smaller structure opening by hinges like in 8637 Volcano Base (obviously without the gate), looking rather lame when closed, but making it more impressive when opened. In that case the research base might just be a small hut with some beams, antennas for a "scientific" style. The other sets rather sound like generic vehicles released in a certain colour to indicate they are part of the volcano research team. I mean, I can think of different types of crawler vehicles, but I'm not aware of a volcano-specific version (or anything closely related to volcanos). Same for helicopters and trucks. So possibly just a bunch of vehicles combined with a few rocks and flames.

Well, we have already seen printing "errors" in the past as well, e.g. the two minifigs in Ice Cream Machine, the doctor in 4429 Helicopter Rescue, the lifeguard from Series 2 with her yellowish cleavage, the fisherman from Series 3 with his orange overall, the Classic King from Series 13 for whom the red-yellow of the body didn't really match the colours of the legs. I wouldn't have cared that much if they had gone with corresponding official images, but no, they had to edit the pictures to make them look alright. Which is exactly what clone brands do.