Haltiamieli

I'm not much of an army builder, so this is quite easy: 1. Elf (5) 2. Evil Knight (4) 3. Spartan (3) I kinda thought I might have bought three Minotaurs, Highland Warriors or Evil Dwarves, for example, but apparently I was content with two of each. And back in the day I certainly anticipated buying lots of Heroic Knights, but boy was I disappointed with the design. In the end two was more than enough.

"International teaser trailer" with some different takes:

That's what I thought too, at first. But then there's also Shakespeare and Lincoln appearing in this same teaser, and as you said Abe wouldn't really fit into CMF series (what would be his name? Slavery Abolisher? Civil War President?). And it would be really random to include them here if they won't ever be appearing anywhere, when everyone else is a real minifig (or possibly upcoming one), at least more or less (though mermaid for example has a different torso and hair colour than her CMF counterpart). It is understandable to do customs and "unique molds" with main characters, but less so with these random background extras. So... I've been thinking whether Lego might be planning to include minifigs into upcoming Architecture-style sets: Lincoln Memorial with Lincoln minifigure, The Globe with Shakespeare minifigure etc.? Though coming back to Michelangelo it seems quite impossible that Lego would do Sistine Chapel, or the statue of Dadid for that matter...

So, who's gonna bet on Abe Lincoln in CMF 12?

Wasn't that just a descriptive name assigned by fans for the character guess when the new pieces of S10 (and the S11 flasks) were uncovered? I think the character was called Librarian already in the first text list we got.

Thanks for all the comments Maybe, but on the other hand I wanted to keep the headquarters building rather imposing and built of stone, so there's not that many opportunities for colour. That does make it more boring as a single building, but I hope it will add some variety to the town when it's eventually placed in the scene along other buildings. That happens to be the detail I myself can't brag about much as I stole took the idea for the shelf design from a fellow Finn's recent MOC (worth a look!). Should've mentioned it already in the first post, admittedly, even if the basic design with vertically assigned two wide plates as books is of course rather common.

Then again, I really wish that Lego would up their print quality and not just lower the quality of their promo pics to match the reality. Thus the computer-generated imagery and/or photoshopping is only a secondary problem in those cases. Personally I haven't had much to complain with white-on-red, but skintones (yellow or flesh) printed on dark material are usually quite disappointing indeed. Sometimes this is depicted realistically even in official pics, sometimes not. Compare the green lady in these two pics (of the same set!):

It is a well known fact that at least half of the populace of usual Lego cities work in the police department. Things may not be as skewed in my medieval town, but even it needs a town guard to keep everything in order. And when you have a guard, you need a house where they can rest after searching for a runaway chicken and where they can keep a cell for all the thieves and outlaws before they are carted to a more secure prison. This is meant to standing between two other houses, so there's no details on the sides. Sorry for the lack of surrounding terrain. It's time will come... some day. The front of the building. The roof is dark red with a few random parts in reddish brown scattered around (because I didn't have enough dark red, but it also looks rather nice) Upper floor with a random statue, a weapon rack and a fireplace. In the corner there's the captain's writing desk and book shelf. Downstairs there's a cell and it's ever vigilant guard. If you got this far you deserve a bonus round with a random apartment house and an unfinished wizard's store!

Only if it is in fact a hairpiece and not a single head mold that attached straight to the torso, like Minotaur had. Unfortunately for your plans I think it looks quite definitely like a single mold (the face around the eyes is very flat and the part where it changes from bluish face to white fur is not shadowed or otherwise implicating different pieces)... but I'm not dead certain.

Well, I think radio silence was to be expected while they design the final set behind the curtains. I don't think there's any reason to doubt it's eventual release (late summer or autumn, maybe?). But there's no denying that these long waiting times at every turn seriously undermine the prospects of Cuusoo. People (AFOLs and others alike) get pessimistic and lose interest, and it might be hard to kindle that again. Maybe that's one reason why they might be waiting with the official announcement and pics of the final model until the release date is imminent. Afaik latest Cuusoo set, Minecraft Micro World, has been quite a success selling much more than was expected. It is even rumoured that it would be getting a follow-up or more. Personally I didn't have much interest in any of the three candidates this round. Sandcrawler is one of the most interesting SW vehicles just because it is not much of a looker, so a humongous UCS version of it seems quite counter-intuitive to me, and I've never played Portal. Mars Rover isn't that bad educational model, but it is quite niche. And I'm not in that niche. I hope the official Lego version will have a bit more interesting(ly built) terrain even if they don't want to invest many pieces to such a secondary display feature.

I can't deny that the Yeti is an adorably cute critter, but personally I was hoping for a bit more serious design style, based on myths/cryptozoology instead of obscure (outside North America, that is?) Christmas specials. Nice to see also the first Blacktron theme getting some recognition in CMF series.

While Treebeard and Balrog both seem like nobrainer set possibilities, I wonder whether it wouldn't be redundant to release both in the same wave? They would be in principle rather similar builds in more or less the same price bracket. If Lego is planning to release more than one wave, they could just leave one for the 2015 wave. But if summer 2014 is the last we'll ever see of Lego LotR... I think either one might have to make room for other, different sets.

That's why I very much doubt they will release Minas Tirith as an exclusive set. That practically excludes like 90 % of their usual customers out of the reach of the set. It's just too important a location (not even going into my argument that MT is too huge for an exclusive) to be reserved for one exclusive mega set. See how they released Saruman in a retail set even with Tower of Orthanc exclusive coming out at the same time. My rather unoriginal prediction is that some sort of Minas Tirith play set (I am nowadays leaning towards the opinion (even if I don't like it personally) that it will be "the whole city" in a very compressed scale and style, similar to but somewhat smaller still than Nuju Metru's design) will be the flagship set of the next retail wave, with some smaller sets also centering on the Gondor matter, possibly also serving as add-ons to the flagship. Gondor theme will require its fair share of new molds and such, so they will probably want to make the most of it. If they decide to release another exclusive set sometime in the future, I'm betting on Meduseld (which wouldn't offer much as a retail set anymore, but could be astounding build in exclusive style, and form a nice contrasting (thematically and architecturally) pair with Orthanc).

I don't think I've seen particularly much complaining about the weakness of Series 10 compared to earlier series. At least since Series 3 there has always been some who think that Lego jumped the shark with this very series, which is weak, boring and horrible – because it isn't to their taste –, and at the same time people that hail it as the return to shape after previous weak series – because that wasn't to their taste. Personally I think Series 10 is rather good series with some nice complimentary figures to earlier figures (Roman Commander, Sea Captain etc.), some well-executed "normal life" City-figures (Librarian, Painter etc.) and some long-awaited fan favourites (Medusa, Revolutionary Soldier...). All in all probably a step up from Series 9, which while nice too nevertheless included some figures that could have been so much more, like the dull Knight and the recoloured Galaxy Patrol as an alien. It's all in the eye of the beholder. To me Series 11 doesn't sound very promising (more fitting for City and Scifi-builders than Castle people like me, it appears), but I trust that when the pictures emerge I too will find a lot of things to like and appreciate. Well, they did employ him and it's seems clear that quite many CMFs (in addition to the whole cast of Monster Fighters) have since been designed by him or at least have been greatly influenced by his portfolio, like Little Red Riding Hood aka. Grandma Visitor and the genie. I'm sure we'll see more in the future.

That at least is one school of thought, though it's worth mentioning that Tolkien decided these two Glorfindels were the same character only retroactively long after the publication of LotR, and as Tolkien didn't incorporate any mention of that unique case of resurrection into any actual stories, it's "canonity" is arguable. Close, but no cigar. In The Hobbit Glamdring is told to have once belonged to "the king of Gondolin" (i.e. Turgon), not Glorfindel.

If only we could get another exclusive set like Orthanc before the end (of all things), I think Meduseld/Edoras would have a very, very good chance (and Prancing Pony wouldn't be completely out of the competition either, though it would certainly be a dark horse). But Orthanc would probably have to outsell hotcakes and more before Lego would greenlight another exclusive for any other theme than SW.

Err... okay. I didn't know that resurrection had bleaching as a side-effect. I thought Gandalf turned to White for a bit more unique reasons. And you do know that even Glorfindel's name means "golden hair"?

Well, I don't think the recouping will be hard for that part - it can be used for years to come in a multitude of themes. TLC doesn't necessarily have any need to hurry. Maybe they just thought that the gothic arches don't fit to the visual style, maybe the part wasn't yet available when this theme was in the decisive design stages, who knows. But AFOLs might appreciate this line quite a bit more with some bley or dark bley gothic arches scattered around, that's for sure.

Yes and no. I built this specific layout mainly for a coming exhibition, where it will be a tiny part of our LUG's humongous modular city - I just have to change the populace to modern and make some other small accommodations towards modern age (like a rubbish bin on the corner of the butcher shop etc.). In addition to what's seen above there will also be a thin (16 studs) strip of unbuilt land behind the butcher shop and the church, acting as a border between me and my neighbour. I already sketched part of it, but it is still just taking shape: In the long run I suspect most of this layout will change when I build and expand my village. The open area in front of the church will be larger and there will be a bit more urban houses around it. Rural things like the chicken coop will not stay forever in the immediate vicinity of the church. :) And when the city watch get their headquarters building, there will be a bit more soldiers on the streets... but they will not surpass the civilian population.

I managed to build some surroundings for the church, so I thought I could present some pictures here. No graveyard yet, though. In addition to the church the scene includes two buildings I've already presented before on EB: "a slightly larger Mitgardian homestead" and a medieval butcher shop. The chicken coop is an older building too, but previously unseen on EB. So the market stalls and the terrain are actually the only really new things here. An overview. The market place: vegetables, bakery products and hokey magical stuff from Madame Magica. The butcher's chicken coop. Another viewpoint. The church turned out to be standing a rocky knoll. Yet another viewpoint. Yet another... okay, maybe I just shut up. Pictures in Flickr (with one bonus picture! Wohou!)

Sorry, accidental double posting. This post can be deleted. My mouse is getting old and sometimes likes to do unwarranted doubleclicks...

I suspect I'm in the minority, but I kinda think I like the preceding version a bit more. Boxy and ungainly are not necessarily negative things, per se. But I don't have a strong opinion – both do look good, after all. The new design is more elegant, the old more homely. The new one with its more streamlined curves sort of makes the wagon look too long compared to its height, or am I imagining? Would be easier to judge if there were side-by-side comparisons from identical angles? One thing I would like even if others might strongly oppose (I'm a bit obsessed with practicality, maybe) would be including tops for the crates on the roof and reducing the amount of props so that everything can fit inside them and the treasure chest. I presume the review stage will eventually cut down most of the props anyway (I'd like to get as many as possible, but they are just the icing on the cake, secondary to the wagon itself).

I'm a Castle fan, so it would be interesting to me to see what Friends would do with that if Lego would broaden the theme's scope from the Heartlake City environment to fantasy landscapes. But if that's ever going to happen it's probably still years in the future. But even in Heartlake City they could introduce some elements of other themes, like with a costume party Eliza suggested above. It could include Friends girls dressed as a princess, a pirate and an astronaut, for example.

Considering that the fall of Númenor is told very briefly in the appendices and much more fully in The Silmarillion (which they have no rights for), trying to film it would be a legal nightmare, impossible really.

Gandalf's importance in the grand scheme of things was greatly expanded, of course, when Tolkien deviced the history of the Third Age and wrote The Lord of the Rings, but Gandalf of The Hobbit is far from useless character - his disappearances are because he's literally too useful. He is deus ex machina, solving all the problems for Bilbo and the dwarves, and it wouldn't make that exciting book if Gandalf sticked around for the whole story.