B Rick

Nice to see a comparison like this! Thanks. Funny though to notice on this example that there is hardly any real difference between old and new. They are both packs with the intention to extend your town-sets. Just a side-dish ;-) The real difference we're discussing here would be very noticable when you compare the main sets, old and new.

True. But I'm guessing just a postcardsize sheet of different licenseplates is do-able... And affordable. Just go for what we think is very popular: a few tv-show plates and some regular. But not too realistic. I think plates in Lego-realism wit just a hint to real plates will do just fine, like the made-up octan fuel logo. With all the cars being build in townscale there could be a (non-profitable) market.

Ah, thanks for pointing that out. However, I'm on a very limited budget and I can get a big castle (with all the bricks I need (for now...)) for a very good price. I even think for an unbeatable price... Helms Deep really has some usable bricks but for now, it's just too big and expensive for my wallet.

Jorrith, we think much alike... I used to don't care about licensed products at all. I find LOTR movies utterly boring, and haven't seen or read The Hobbit... I'm sort of a Starwars-fan, but that's more or less out of nostalgic reasons. That said, I wasn't too fond of the Starwars license either when it started, cause I've been building Starwars stuff from regular bricks when I was a kid. But I've grown to like the licensed SW-products now... In the end: If a set is beautiful, it's just that: Beautiful. I don't understand fans of castlethemes not buying LOTR sets only because they don't particularly like the LOTR-theme... When bricks are not put together they are ...just thát: Bricks. Single elements to build stuff from your own imagination. You don't HAVE to use the minifig-characters from the movie you know... Heck, as I said, I dislike the LOTR-movies but I also have considdered many a time buying some sets because of the parts... I'm not a castlefan but I think I will buy a large castle-set because I need alot of grey bricks to extend my haunted house with a basement. It will probably be a regular castle-set rather than a LOTR-set. Not because of the fact that I don't like LOTR, but because of it being much cheaper, without having to pay any movie-license.

I don't care too much about Turtle-stuff but I think your moc is awesome!

HHAHAHAHAHA Now tháts funny!

Well, you could try to get people pre-order a stickersheet with lots of licenseplates, cut out by the customers themselves to keep the costs to a minimum. (maybe even let them suggest some. different states. countries. periods in time. particular movie-related plates... etc.) Vinyl sticker-printing isn't that expensive nowadays and I'm almost certain it will be a safe investment going with the town-scale.

To answer the question mentioned in the title: 'Does Lego's emphasis on minifigs change the way kids play?': YES it does... As I mentioned earlier, when I built for instance vehicles in the 80's I couldn't care less a minifig would fit in it or not. As a kid I went for building realistic proportions of the builds rather than playing a storyline with those builds. On the other hand, kids have always been different and it's only logical that there must have been kids that were playing to some sort of storyline. Made up from their own imagination or from another source like cartoons or movies... To say nothing has changed in the world of Minifigs is far from realistic. The emphasise on the Lego Minifigures today is FAR greater, then back in the days when Miniland started and all of them had the same face/expression. Today we have many different minifigs. And I mean MAAAAAAAAAANY. Just think of the impact Lego's marketing strategy is on kids nowadays with TV-series, online-series, games, movies, clubs, websites, collectible-series, etc. All are marketing the minifig right now and 24/7... A tv-show featuring minifigs is NOT a cartoon. It's a commercial. A very BIG one. Like the Transformers (G1) series. The transformer-toys came before the tv-show... Those tv-shows and any other marketingstrategy have great influence on how kids are playing with their toys. In the 80's we had NONE of that. Kids that played with Lego just weren't influenced by any of the marketingstrategies mentioned above. It was just that ONE single picture from the box-art. Even the box didn't mention in words how many minifigs it contained... Back then seeing those minifigs as collectibles like many of the minifigs are today is highly unthinkable. The role of the minifig has been evolved gradually. Cause even before Miniland there were faceless 'minifigs', without movable limbs. Another point for having a minifig play an important role is the adults being involved in Lego nowadays. With the ever increasing amount of afols using minifigs Lego isn't purely considdered just a toy anymore... The minifig now playing such an important role compared to the the minifigs in the 80's... Is that good or bad?I think it doesn't matter. Kids making up their own stories or kids disigning their own builds. As long Lego will keep on stimulating kids to creatively devellop themselves it will keep on being the best toy on the planet for decades to come...

Are there spoilers for summerwaves of any of the themes mentioned above? I think you're right about expecting a few new sets from The Hobbit in the near future. I believe these movieseries will keep on being popular for some time. I think discussing the fading away of Lego-themes, licensed or non-licensed can be discussed here as long as it's being told from a Lego-point of view in general. Like, why is it that Lego is dropping a particular theme. And by what theme will it be replaced. As long as this catalog is the starting point of discussion. I'd love for Lego to have a main western-themed line, like they have for castles or space. So I was very happy that they got the Lone Ranger license... (not that I have any of that line) It had some really nice sets that could have been easily expanded with some cheaper non-licensed western sets. I think we can conclude by Lego dropping the Lone Ranger that cowboys'n'indians just isn't a popular theme amongst the kids nowadays ...yet.

Though I have my doubts about this Movie, I think the artdirection is really great, as seen in these screenshots... Beautiful Lego-realism. Or should I say Lego-surrealism... Thanks for the effort putting them up. Funny, but I didn't think of analysing the footage for buildingtechniques. You've made some good points and you're right about all the cool things they've 'build' for the movie. I think those small schrubberies(?) are called pompoms, when in the hands of cheerleaders... As for the monorail... The designers weren't lazy. I think the movie relies highly on recognizabillity. I think they deliberatly wanted the viewers to think: 'hey, I have that tram, or any other vehicle/build we recognise'. I think that this is a very important part of the movie. The recognisabillity reminds me of the Toys in Pixars' Toystory. That said... Have you recognised other 'modern' Legosets?

Hmm Simpsons houses? Minifigs? That would be fun. Would there be a big enough market? I doubt it, when there isn't a new Simpson-movie coming out real soon... But still, I think I'd buy it instantly. One page for just three Turtles sets. Are they fading away already? The Lone Ranger is gone. So, no westernthemed Lego anymore? And... Anyone noticed the ELEVEN(!) pages dedicated to Starwars..?

Super nice! Great pic. You've really captured a campfire under the moonlight.

Love it! Ever thought of putting this moc REALLY under water? I think that would be too funny. With real bubbles and all...

As a kid in the 70's/80's, I never thought of the minifig as an important part of Lego. Just A part. For me it was the building of cars, spaceships, and houses that was the most important thing about 'playing' with Lego. The original sets would be build once, maybe twice. I've always wanted to build my own creations rather than the original sets. Even when I played with my creations I played with my vehicle rather than the minifigs, which I always thought of being very childish. When I first heard the term 'minifig' I really had not a clue what the fuzz was all about. Why kids wanted them more and more and why the even became 'collectible to adults... I even thought the 'new', more expressive figures where ugly and an 'insult' to classic miniland figures. Up until I saw really cool afol builds. After my darkages I'm really starting to like em more and more, and now I'm even searching for particular ones. I've bought (small) sets just for the include minifigs... Who would've thought... I certainly didn't a year ago... I also think it's a good thing Lego emphasizes a lot on minifigs for kids nowadays. Although Kids will always be different, I think minifigs will give them more impulses to a creative playstyle. Just try to encourage them to keep on building and creating. But for now I'm still not shure about the Friends-figurines... IMHO they don't have a good (read: lasting) design. I really wonder how sales would have gone if Lego had decided to use regular minifigs for the Friends-line. I still hope they end up doing that in the near future. I think the standard Lego-minifig is already very suitable and similar appealing to boys AND girls.

Hahah, thanks. Oh, please don't appologise for my lack of knowledge...

Fun topic! And very cool info. I think this movie and the sets of this movie depend heavilly on recognizabillity. I remember noticing the 'art direction' of the movie (and merchandise) having a VERY familiar touch to it by using familliar Lego-pieces...

errr... 'CMF', 'S Series'..? I'm not into Lego-terminology (yet). Could you explain?

Quite a few nice surprises, me thinks... (but also a few disappointments though...) Some Chima sets that I actually like! The gorilla-robot/suit for instance. Chima is not my thing (except for some excusive or hard to find parts ofcourse) so I haven't looked into those new sets lately. I like some of the LEGO-Movie sets. And some of the new Animal-Creator sets. A big disappointment I think is the dropping of the MonsterFighters-line. Maybe Lego is predicting the downfall of the zombie-genre in general. I'm not really into zombies, but thought it was nice to see them in Lego.

Click here for the 2014 LEGO Catalog! (via Lowlug - in Dutch) If this topic already exists please delete

WOW! How could I have missed this one?! One of the better 1966 batmobiles build... Love the 'lights'. That works actually pretty good. The tubes used on the fins for red accent lines is just genious. But you've done great on all the details. Not completely sure about the windscreens though, but overall... It'll be very hard to beat this build in minifigscale. Well done!

Nice mods! Great chop'n'channel-job you've done here.

thanks guys! Love to see that one!

Beautiful design, and great photography and editing skills. Orange and white is a great combo. Definately sci-fi-ish. Hope to see you're mecha soon!

Great idea!

I found the official Monsterfighters Hearse (and my modified version of it) way to big for minifig scale so I wanted to build a slightly smaller version of it. 7 studs wide would probably be small enough and still have most of the detailing of the original. ^ 7 stud version of the Hotrod Hearse. I finally got the time to build a smaller version of my modified Vampyre Hearse, and I think these proportions look way better next to my Haunted House. ^ old 8 stud vs new 7 stud For more details on The Incredible Schrunken Hearse click here!