GoldenNinja3000

If it's an Arkham Asylum I'll never say anything bad about LEGO ever again. I love the 2013 set and a huge D2C version of it would make me cry with joy.

Wait, this is it. The D2C is totally a giant buildable Hulk. It fits with the trend of buildable characters and baffling D2Cs! The Marvels piece count sucks. For that price I expect brand new Carol, Monica, and Kamala minifigures with leg and arm printing, exclusive faces for all, and spare hair molds in translucent blue/orange for Carol and Monica's flight abilities. I also expect Nick Fury, Zawe Ashton's villain, and a mini Skrull army. But I'm willing to bet it's a tiny build with a maximum of 3 minifigures instead.

Sounds awesome, but I don't want to get my hopes up again...

It's a $600 buildable Ant-Man that fits the $30 one inside. Guaranteed. And that'll be the set with our Quantumania minifigures!

I like buying a full box for series I really love (both Harry Potters, the MCU one, and Series 24). I like to open two of the figures I like best (one for a static, framed display and one for my LEGO city display) and keep a third copy sealed. But with something like Series 24, where I adore half the series but don't need duplicates of the rest, I feel through the bags and sell my extras. To me it's easier than going to the store multiple times or ordering a bunch of packets online. I'll definitely be buying a full box of the second Marvel series but yeah, boxes are going to make duplicates much more common. I'm just hoping they're all sealed in plastic packaging inside the cardboard box so they're still brand-new for resale. But if that's the case it means the cardboard switch is still contributing to plastic waste regardless. It would be much less plastic but still not a great look. Honestly, LEGO's 6-pack boxes were a great idea and are probably the best option if they continue doing that for boxed series. Because you're guaranteed 6 unique figures and there are only a few repeated patterns, you'd just have to wait for LEGO fan sites to find the pattern and then you'd know what pattern you've got after a figure or two have been opened. There would still be more repeats than the old method but it's probably the best solution.

It will be akin to the BTS set. It's just a fancy backdrop for great new minifigures

Uh, that was definitely a movie. I'm still disappointed we didn't get a real Quantumania set, but after seeing it I think I'll live. Minifigures of the main characters would've been nice but I didn't like any of their designs that much so it's not a big loss.

I actually loved the movie-specific box art, so I'm a bit sad to see them go more generic. The Black Widow and Captain Marvel boxes were excellent, IMO. It's nice to have consistency across the line but it's also nice to have solo movie sets stand out more.

Very true A Bag End D2C is an incredible idea, actually! I would love that. The original set is so perfect, I'd love to see a D2C version with LEGO's modern, hyper-detailed approach. I think they'd be able to do one pretty successfully at a $150-200 price point with plenty of figures.

She's still a main character and the trailers show she becomes a Guardian again, so it doesn't really make any sense to me. She's walking with them and wearing the same outfit as them. It's so strange to me that LEGO made a minifigure of her for the CMF where she was completely unnecessary but skipped her for her final movie.

Yeah, that's what I'll do. It could be worse I guess! It's just crazy to me that LEGO wouldn't include her.

We still got her, though. And we're missing a lot of characters in regular suits from Endgame so it's not really a good comparison IMO. I would've gladly taken a Gamora in one of these Guardians uniforms over no Gamora at all.

If the High Evolutionary is missing from all of the wave 1 merchandise then I think his exclusion makes sense. I'm surprised to hear there's no Funko of him since they'll make anyone! To me the biggest problem is Gamora. Her exclusion is absolutely ridiculous. It's like if LEGO skipped Black Widow for the Endgame sets.

LEGO doesn't make sets based on critical reception, though. If that was the case we'd never see a Star Wars prequel set...

The Marvels set just needs to have good Carol, Monica, and Kamala minifigures to be a success in that department IMO. Nick Fury and the main villain would be nice too. But then again, I expected us to get Scott, Hope, and Cassie minifigs for Quantumania and look how that turned out... Maybe The Marvels set is going to be a giant buildable Kamala figure to represent her embiggening abilities? And it'll cost $90 because LEGO throws in a side build and 5 minifigures.

This is definitely a new low for LEGO Marvel. How could Gamora be skipped?? I'm mad about no High Evolutionary as well but at least LEGO has an established pattern of skipping MCU villains. But Gamora is a huge character here, we know she rejoins the Guardians and wears that same suit based on the trailers, and her face print and hair piece were just in production for the CMF series. What a joke. The builds look pretty good overall. The Bowie is an awesome design but yeah, doesn't look like there's room for all the minifigures. It's nice to see it comes with a stand, though - a ship like this definitely needs one. That's an awesome feature that LEGO introduced for the Marvel line, I just wish they could get their act together with the minifigs. The $10 set is pretty perfect, I would've liked long legs for Groot but he seems to be relatively human-sized in the trailers so I'm not too bothered by it. He could've done with a new head mold but we know how LEGO is. Rocket's ship looks fine, just would've been more interesting with the High Evolutionary and Lylla as well.

Thanks, totally forgot about HotD airing on HBO too! I just think it would be great to get one Rings of Power set, no matter how small. But any kind of LEGO LOTR in this day and age is a gift

Personal opinions aside, Rings of Power has stronger viewership than House of the Dragon even if it gets less social media attention. It was #15 on Nielsen's 2022 most-watched streaming originals list and House of the Dragon didn't make it onto any. That's why I'd expect something like a small Lothlorien or Battle of Eregion set when the show eventually gets there. And I think a Season 5 Sauron final battle set would be more likely than one based on the prologue from the Fellowship of the Ring movie. But that would be several years away and I really need a Sauron minifigure sooner! Basically I think we could at least see a "Rings of Power"-branded set based on something that's also popular from the films. That way it still appeals to people who have never seen the show. But yeah, the Amazon license is another beast altogether - I'm not sure how LEGO would go about obtaining it, or even if they would want to. I'd be most interested in Numenor builds and the minifigures, but even though I love it, it's not a great loss if LEGO never does sets based on the series.

I think eventually we could see sets from the show. It's pretty popular (in viewership if not fan reception) and if it remains that way I'm guessing sets could be made around the third season. I do think it's the reason we're seeing a revival now, just like the Fantastic Beasts movies revived interest in Harry Potter even though they couldn't sustain many sets on their own. Honestly, I don't think anything from Season 1 would make a great set except for the forging of the Rings scene. But in later seasons when we get massive battles and more iconic locations I could see LEGO making a small/medium-sized set to test the waters.

A lot of D2C sets lately have actually gotten exclusive molds. A bunch of the cars have exclusive windshields (1989 Batmobile, Ecto-1, DeLorean) and the Disney Castle had an exclusive hair mold for Tinker Bell. But because Rivendell has so many new molds I'm hoping it's a sign of heavy investment in the LOTR theme with regular playsets to come.

That's a really sad outlook on the Marvel theme. We definitely get some massive clunkers like the D2C Hulkbuster, but we get a lot of good sets as well. Personal preference is obviously subjective, but many of the sets you listed are objectively good designs. The buildable figures are awesome other than the weird heads. The Morbius car looks like a great build from what I've seen. Shuri's Sunbird and the Goat Boat are both unique, well-built vehicles for kids to play with and they display well for us adult collectors. I do feel like Marvel minifigures are lazier and lower effort than licensed themes like Star Wars and Harry Potter, but the builds themselves (usually) aren't a mess, even if they're not perfect either.

Thanks for the heads-up, guys! I got all the new sets early

Same here. I'll try to find a better match. But honestly, it's so refreshing to see a huge D2C where a single reused face is my biggest issue!

I absolutely need a Supergirl minifigure. Sasha Calle looks incredible and we haven't gotten a LEGO Supergirl in years!

I love Rivendell. I think it's one of the best sets LEGO has ever made. My only complaint is Arwen's reused head. I haven't felt this excited for a big LEGO set in a while, but I'm definitely going to be waiting outside the store on March 5th! I hope we do get playsets this year, but I feel like we'd have heard rumors by now if they were coming. Maybe we'll see some next year? LEGO wouldn't invest so much money in new molds if they weren't going to use them a lot.