Gryphon Ink

I'm sorry, I must have lost that fine point in between all the commentary about how strong women are unnatural, women are supposed to be baby machines (and should be happy about it), homosexuals and submissive men (not the same thing, BTW) are confused and a blight on society, feminists are plotting to take over the world by bashing men unmercifully, and TLG are female supremacists because one entry in the Minifig Encyclopedia made fun of a caveman. Tell you what - you win. I need to go plot the downfall of society now. I am so done with this.

So, to recap: Raffaello's parents were artists. Michaelangelo's parents were not. Donatello's parents were not. Leonardo's parents were not. Three out of the four grand masters you selected were not born into families that showed ANY artistic inclinations. And this proves your point how?

I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. I do agree that Jack shouldn't really be the movie's hero. OTOH I found Will and Elizabeth almost unbearable, and I could only swallow them when they were being Jack's straight men. Keira Knightley was simply awful when she was trying to be inspirational, and Orlando Bloom plays "naive young fool" a lot better than he does "man with a destiny". I didn't think OST was terrible (although it was certainly a terrible adaptation of Tim Powers' brilliant book). It just didn't have the light-heartedness of the earlier movies. I do think it was a good attempt to move the series on from the closed story of Will and Elizabeth. They definitely need to bring back some of the original characters, though. And Barbossa needs to get back to being a villain. He's totally wasted as a good guy.

Wow. Those are some amazing works. I am in love with the scene where the mechanics are pulling out the tank's engine. These MOCs could find a place in a military museum with all that detail.

I think this has more to do with the size of those sets than the theme. My 5YO can play with my Friends sets for hours on end, and Stephanie's convertible is racking up a lot of mileage. That said, she also loves to mix and match them with other stuff like the ambulance and the tractor I built her. Apparently she missed the memo about girls not liking to play with vehicles. If this new theme has minidolls and vehicles, she will be all over it. I wish I didn't believe that Disney Princesses is the most likely subject for a new girl's theme. A brand new IP like Ninjago would have been so much cooler. I've never been a big Disney fan, and am especially not crazy about the Princesses marketing. Even the most interesting heroes turn into simpering clones when they've been run through the Princesses makeover machine. Got a cool story about a feisty princess with unmanageable hair and expert archery and horseback riding skills? Great, let's first of all tame her wild hair and put her in the dress that she HATED in the movie. Then take away the bow and the horse. Now you've got a Disney Princess!

Of all the girl-oriented IPs that exist right now, the only one I can think of that is available for TLG and big enough to make a lot of money would be Disney Princesses or possibly Disney Fairies. The Princesses line already exists in Duplo, of course, but I think now that Friends has proven that older girls will buy construction toys the Princesses are ripe for a System invasion. This could be one of the biggest Lego themes ever. Like Superheroes, there are countless possibilities for sets. And unlike Superheroes, the IP rights all belong to one company, which already has a relationship with Lego. I'm not betting against an all new IP, though. TLG could certainly invent a new action theme for girls and keep all the money for themselves. Anyone who thinks "action for girls" is a joke needs to take a good look at the revenues from MLP, Winx Club and Disney Fairies. Those three properties are pulling in money hand over fist, and while they aren't exactly shoot-em-ups they are all about adventure. Plus sparkles and the power of friendship, of course. I think you could make an INCREDIBLE Lego theme using those cues.

Off-topic, but: it's too early in the morning to say horrible things like "Kristen Stewart Wonder Woman". Please, PLEASE tell me you're just being funny and this isn't a "real" rumor. Surely no studio executive would be stupid enough to think that movie-killing little waif can play Wonder Woman. WW needs to be a strong woman with extraordinary charisma and physical and emotional presence, who is able to project intelligence and take over a room just by looking around. If we were looking for someone to play Anti-Wonder Woman, Kristen Stewart would be my number one pick.

This is terrible. Really uncreative and very blah. Well, no, to be honest it's probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen made out of Lego, but the thread was getting very monotonous. You guys are bringing a whole new level of artistry to the game. The "painting" itself was already incredible, but adding the brushes and paints was a stroke of genius. I could look at this for hours, just like any great work of art.

Oh, man, that is too cute. Wonderful work, LJ.

The truck and car are definitely built from the same parts. You can see how they reused the parts, like the car's steering wheel doubling as the the "fifth wheel" on the truck and the slopes recombined to make those odd windows in the truck's cab.

Agree with Tolkien here. After the third wave all bets are off, but there's a gap that would logically be filled with a third LOTR wave, and they clearly planned on a third wave, since there are so many major scenes and characters missing right now.

I'm afraid it would not feel like real modulars to most of the fans. Modulars are the big, impressively detailed buildings that shape everything around them in a city layout. They are centerpieces. That's what people expect from the theme. Make them smaller and you've got, well, nicely detailed little buildings, but not Modulars. It also doesn't really make a lot of sense architecturally. Fancy townhouse-style buildings, which is what the Modulars are, are usually three stories or more. They tend to be found in large cities where land is expensive, so you build vertically.

Penguins and tigers and lambs, oh my! I know where my money is going in 2014. If by some chance I don't want these, my girls definitely will. Curious about "Sunshine Ranch". The word "ranch" as opposed to "farm" implies to me that this won't be what I was imagining. Instead of a nice tractor, apple trees and plots of vegetables, we'll probably have more of those horse-things for the girls to ride, and probably a calf or two. Well, it could still be nice. I guess I need to start MOCing my own Friends farm.

Definitely Elrond. Great design, great minifigs, great parts pack, great price. I like all the sets, but CoE is the only one I've pulled the trigger on, and I'm actually thinking about getting another one.

I agree with Deathleech here. We already got the Witch King. He just wasn't wearing the fancy helmet yet. Given that he is the Nazgul who actually stabs Frodo on Weathertop, it's extremely likely that one of the two Nazgul minifigs in the AoW set is him. Of course I'd like him in his signature armor just as much as the next LOTR geek. But even if that minifig never shows up, we've still got a Witch-King. Sauron, on the other hand, has no physical presence in the time frame of LOTR itself and is totally unnecessary for playing out the story or MOCing. The movies themselves would be complete without ever showing him. The book certainly gets away with it. Smaug, on the other hand, IS the story. No matter how many new villains and battle scenes PJ throws into his trilogy, can you imagine the outrage if he decided to just skip the scenes with the dragon? It can't be done. No Smaug, no story. The same thing goes for the Lego version. If they don't make Smaug, they might as well never have paid fir the license. This isn't like not producing the Flying Dutchman, it's like if LSW never had a Death Star or Darth Vader. The only question in my mind is whether we see Lego Smaug in 2013 or 2014. I reckon they could go either way with that.

No offense, but we're talking about "LOTR & The Hobbit 2013", as in, what we guess and hope the coming (Winter 2013) wave of the Hobbit will bring. Why is this not the appropriate place for it?

I must be getting old. I have no idea what this is!

I think it's very likely that Radagast will be showing up. Even if he isn't too important to the plot, he's clearly a fan favorite, and I think he's got a lot of kid appeal, which is important to TLG. And new hair/hat molds are pretty common these days. If there really are two Dol Guldur sets, I would bet he's in one of them.

Well, I for one am excited to hear about the $13 Penguin set, especially if it's based on Batman Returns and has a Michael Keaton Batman. That's probably my favorite Batfilm and a Batsuit that I don't have yet, plus a classic villain that is so far only available in a set that I just can't afford. This is similar to TLG's strategy with Saruman from LOTR - you put the iconic villain in a massive $200 set, AND in a really cheap set for the other guys. Doesn't really count as a repeat IMO. The Flash/Riddler set also looks very nice to me. Flash looks great, Riddler is another classic villain, and a variant Batsuit that doesn't look half bad. And even the Riddler's ride is ridiculous and will immediately be parted out, I actually really dig that Batmobile. It's different. It pops. The other two sets sound like passes to me, saving my money for LOTR!

It's good to hear that extravagant price was actually paid for a significant reason. It's still not something I would have done, but way more understandable as a fiancee's gift.

To be honest, I'd love to see a John Deere green tractor since I'm a big Deere fan, but I don't know if TLG are even allowed to use that color for tractors right now. There are licensed JD construction toys now, and it might be some kind of trademark infringement if TLG did tractors in the same green. I don't recall seeing any dark green Lego tractors for years now. The latest Technic tractor was lime green, and the Farm tractors a few years ago were lime green and bright orange if I remember right. I have seen tractors in the real world that were pale blue, not too different from the azure blue, so that would be suitably Friends-y and realistic.hopefully that's what we'll get.

No, actually. The deprivation of women's rights and rigid traditional gender stereotyping are rampant problems in many developing countries, so the question of how women's roles are portrayed in toys are definitely not a first-world problem, but a whole-world problem.

I don't know, I liked the stable set except for the horses themselves. And the vet set was nice except for the Heartlake City Special color scheme (and, again, the horse). Hopefully this will be at least a mid-sized set, with a tractor and a couple of new animals. And hats for the girls!

A farm is definitely something I can get excited for. Yay for Friends doing cool stuff! Except we'll probably get a lilac tractor... ;-)

It's hard to say if there will be any Lego based on X-Men: DOFP, since it's not a Marvel or WB movie. The same could go for ASM2. As for actual comic-based sets, who knows? I think they will try to put out at least one set in each wave that comes from comics, but the majority will come from the more visible movie franchises. There's just more money in the films.