Karalora

Bingo. You know what you've done here? You've made a breakthrough in the discussion. There is undoubtedly a much greater diversity--of genre, target demographics, medium of origin, etc.--in the licensed themes than the unlicensed. Now, unlicensed themes can't provide diversity in the area of medium of origin, since the medium of origin is LEGO, but there's a lot they could do to diversify in the other areas. When it comes to what you might call storytelling themes, with characters (named or not, but recognizable from set to set) portrayed in a number of scenarios, there should be more options than just "relatably flustered (but also aspirationally hip) Kids Just Like You (TM) Build Things (TM) to Defeat the Forces of Evil (TM)" and "relatably diverse Kids Just Like You And Your Friends have everyday lives, but with more cute pets" (this may be an unfair view of the Friends line, but it's what it always looks like to me when I peruse the shelves).

The design of the Harpy makes me wonder if she was devised for something specific that fell through, and hastily repurposed as a CMF. That's certainly not what a mythological harpy looked like!

I haven't seen anyone deny that licensed themes far outnumber unlicensed ones. What I have seen is a position that the theme count matters less than the set count, which is closer to parity.

Oh, definitely. And in addition to de-emphasizing the creativity aspect, the focus on visual fidelity to source material is probably partly to blame for the recent explosion in new part shapes, which certainly has its upsides but also increases the price of sets overall (in order to amortize the cost of new molds) and makes it difficult to maintain a decent stock of general-use parts. Because if the thing has to be shaped perfectly, then there's a good chance you'll have to invent new shapes for it.

Just FYI, we now have a thread for the LoZ theme!

I share your loathing of the plastic-animal-skeleton-with-ears genre of Halloween decor. I have come to accept the invertebrates, despite objectively being more ridiculous, as projects from a necromancer who had a bunch of little bones left over and said "You know what would be funny?"

Fair point. Maybe the manufacturing process was just finicky enough that they could justify it for a limited-release CMF series but not long-term production? That could apply to the mouse as well. And on the subject of fragility, that long skinny flamingo leg probably wouldn't hold up well in a BAM bin, getting jostled around and bent and stressed in all sorts of ways that make it unappealing for purchase, even if it didn't break. Maybe this is naive of me, but I tend to assume that if TLG is withholding a popular animal from wide availability, it's for reasons relating to cost-effectiveness rather than, say, spite.

I wouldn't go quite that far. They can still be allowed in as long as they wear child-sized boxing gloves for the duration so they can't pick anything up.

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I fully understand the sentiment, but I suspect the flamingo is too big and the mouse too fragile for BAM (it only takes one toddler to rip the tails off every mouse they can grab).

You calling my villagers dumb, willie?

Dangit, I just want white cherries to be mistletoe berries in my Winter Village!

There is no upper limit to how right someone can be on the internet. Or how wrong they can be. The internet multiplies all to infinity.

No, you're 400% right about this. How are we supposed to depict the moment that the fantasy heroine makes psychic contact with the wild horse that will become her bonded companion if it's already wearing a bridle? TLG needs to think about these things!

Are there even enough characters in KPDH for a CMF line? Even if there aren't any character minifigs included with the sets and they all go to the CMF, that's: The three girls in HUNTR/X Bobby The five Saja Boys The mentor woman from the previous demon hunter group (whose name escapes me at the moment) I guess the doctor they visit early on? That's just 11 specific characters. I guess the 12th could be a K-pop fan or a generic demon, but that doesn't seem very satisfying.