Haltiamieli

I have to admit I haven't met any of them personally, but I've met them in history books, literature, folklore etc. I recognise all of them more or less instantly in minifigure form, they are timeless and rather globally accepted archetypes/stereotypes - I don't think there has been a single CMF yet that would have really left me wondering what is it about when I first saw it.

Lego Store employee would be problematic at least because a considerably large chunk of global customer base have never been to a Lego Store (or know of their existence), as there are such only in a few select countries. But if the fig could pass as a random store clerk in elsewhere it could be feasible, maybe? Then again, that might be rather dull.

Most probably do so, I don't deny that. But with Lego it's good to remember that while actual AFOLs are not that great in numbers, the amount of people who have latent admiration towards the brand is huge. Certainly for some of those people (only Lego knows how large portion they are, but rest assured that they do indeed know), when they encounter Cuusoo through a mention of The Winchester or The Legend of Zelda or whatever, enough interest is sparked that they may look at and support other entries too, before they go on in their lifes. I'm quite certain this is how I would have acted a few years back (before my interest in Lego was reawoken) if there had been a Lego LotR project advertised on TheOneRing.net, for example. I would have followed the link and if I had been interested and impressed enough to register and support said project, I would have looked around for other interesting projects - after all I had already bothered to register, so why not. Remember that Lego doubtlessly gathers information on the voting habits of the Cuusoo users so they can profile which sort of people have voted for any given project. If someone has voted only for one model and never revisited the site they probably put less weight on their opinion on pricing etc in the review stage.

Yep.

Dunno, most Lego chess sets haven't had any better bases (read: no base at all except the baseplate), obviously excepting the Castle Giant Chess Set. I'm not sure if adding a lame prefabricated base makes it much worse. I'm not that much into army-building and very skint at the moment, so I won't probably buy this. But it's nice that Kingdoms still lives on, in some way. And congrats if there's somewhere a guy who has always dreamt of building an army of jesters - those guys will soon be dirt cheap in BL!

The grandfather clock is slightly awkward with the clock face rising so far from the structure, but it's still good nevertheless. And the ghost with the chains and ball... wow! I only wonder what is on the other side next to the chain's end? A 1x1 plate would cling pretty easily into the base the ghost is attached, I think. The bag won't probably be available in Finland, but maybe it will at least push the prices of the ghosts down in Bricklink.

Except the wheels are in the end of it. Nevertheless, it is still a very well done video and I finally understood how the cart is designed. Quite clever.

Yep. Though it did take me quite some time to notice the connection, as many times as I have seen The Holy Grail. It's slightly unfortunate that they didn't print it on the torso too. That would've been epic. This version with the shield is just awesome.

The Youtube video of the rollercoaster ride The Yellow Brick linked on page 2. There is three penguins on the right side of the track right before the end (1:33 and 3:06). I wouldn't draw much conclusions about the theme from this ride, though. Especially when it comes to any new animal molds that might be made, as there's quite an amount of different animals cluttered along the rollercoaster track.

So... is it possible to have the horse stand on the rear legs with a barding on, and how bad does it look if it's possible?

"Next year" could mean "this Christmas" in the States, where most of the novelties of the January wave seem to be available already around Christmas. That's the earliest there could be new pirate sets; but if the rumour of Polar theme holds water, there might not be much room for pirates in the January schedule. And whether there is or not, it has been decided long ago. It does take quite a time to design and produce a Lego theme.

Great news! "In Review" is a new category, until very recently all the projects that had achieved 10 000 supporters were titled "LEGO CUUSOO product", regardless of their actual status. Lego must have understood that this was quite misleading and changed the thing, but someone somewhere forgot to turn some switch and when the MWT achieved the needed amount of supporters it still went into the old category instead of the new. Nevertheless, congrats to the MWT and mb_bricks! This is the first project I've actually voted that has achieved to reach the review stage.

Admittedly that is quite a coincidence if he was just guessing. Not that stranger things don't happen, but... Especially as both AC ja MF are quite novel themes for Lego, not simple rehashes.

What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger. But whoa, seriously, I don't think I dare to take in what you are implying just yet. Any continuation of Kingdoms would be simply too awesome at this point.

I'm sure a part of this is also that it's part of the human psychology that we like to be on the "winning side". Closer the project gets to the 10.000 votes, easier it is to get votes from the doubting Thomases, who might not have bothered before. "Look how cool project, it needs 10.000 votes and it gets made! We can make it!" is definitely not as inspiring as "Look how cool project, it has already gotten 9.500 votes and only needs 500 votes more! Support while you still can!" This applies also to the people who run fansites etc. As the project gets closer to achieving the votes, it's more and more probable that it starts to get support and visibility from people both in and on the outside of the Lego fandom.

I've heard that happen. Some people just don't think about the connotations... But I doubt there's a molded inscription in the Ring, considering how small it is to start with. Of course it would be nonsensical in the context of the story too (inscription appears only under intense heat), but that probably wouldn't bother toymakers much.

Certainly there are people who wonder what's this about, but less than with Eve Online ship or The Winchester, probably less than even with Minecraft. Zelda is one of the best known video game series in the world, after all. Well, I'd say most people don't like zombies and modular buildings are seriously expensive (maybe not on price per brick ratio, but they just cost a lot) and as my personal opinion it wasn't visually the most appealing modular building either. I'm quite fond of Shaun of the Dead (and zombies in general), but nevertheless it is rather unlikely that I would have bought the set if it were chose to be produced. I'm not able to afford $150 parts packs often... Then again I've never played Legend of Zelda, but Castle is my favourite Lego theme and I like fantasy so I will probably buy the Zelda set if the proposal passes the review and the licence is successfully acquired (as unlikely as that might be). Castle is the favourite theme of quite many other Lego fans too, so I think this set would probably have quite wide appeal even outside of the actual Zelda fans.

It doesn't seem to have been mentioned in EB that they recently changed the guidelines to allow or better handle collaborative projects between two or more cuusooers. Could be useful for this idea if it ever comes to fruitation, for example.

When it rains it really pours! Remains to be seen how many other quicker projects can pass Modular Western Town before it's time inevitably comes. Firefly spaceship has only few hundred voices less and has been rising much faster, so that's a done deal - it's only a matter of days when it finishes. Even the stormtrooper bucket is getting new supporters on a bit faster pace than Modular Western Town. But can things like Motorized Tachikoma still reach and pass MWT? Tachikoma seems to be somewhat quicker, but also has a few thousand votes less to begin with. Someone with more time could count "estimated arrival times" for all the top projects based on their support flow announced on the Discover page?

Well, anything these days could be photoshopped. But that pic seems genuine, and there's nothing so strange or spectacular in there that I would bother to doubt it much. As far as I remember there was a white hand in a helmet already in some leaked prelim picture, even if there was none later in the toy fair models. So a comeback is not that unwarranted.

I do like this big tree design by Paultox a lot. It has shamefully few votes in Cuusoo. There's also in Youtube.

Did you buy it form S@H or elsewhere? When I contacted the customer service about my CMS Highlander who had the legs of a Minotaur they just answered that I should contact the shop from where I had bought the faulty product.

Isn't that quite a save bet anyway? After LotR there will certainly be new medieval themes, even if Castle may possibly turn to a theme that isn't present every year. Dunno, Rohirrim do not usually have big bardings in the movies. For example I don't think the horse Théoden uses in the Battle of Hornburg has such. If there will be bardings in the Lego LotR line, I bet it's either with Aragorn at the Black Gates or with Théoden in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, both of which are rather possible sets to come.

The horse is dead, long live the horse! To my understanding the hind legs are connected to each other and do not move separately. Which is probably for the best, as the horse is thus easier to position on baseplates etc.

Here: (bigger pic)