Lyichir

Sort of a tricky question this late in the year, once I've already gotten many of the things on my wishlist! For the sake of argument, I'll assume I'd be purchasing directly off shop.lego.com, just because shopping around for discounts or buying individual parts or figs off Bricklink is a bit more work than I'd like to put in for a hypothetical wishlist. Since I've already gotten most of the Ninjago and Elves sets from my wishlist, here's a list that'd take care of the main remaining Ninjago set as well as making a pretty sizeable dent in my Lego Batman Movie collection: 70620 Ninjago City ($299.99) 70907 Killer Croc Tail Gator ($69.99) 70917 The Ultimate Batmobile ($139.99) 70909 Batcave Break-In ($29.99) 70914 Bane Toxic Truck Attack ($49.99) 70915 Two-Face Double Demolition ($59.99) 70916 The Batwing ($89.99) Total: $799.93 Of course, if I were actually shopping I might put a bit more thought into it, maybe swap out some of the sets for Nexo Knights sets or Creator Expert. But I already made it pretty close with this list and don't feel like reworking it at this moment.

Really interesting perspectives. I know that when I was a kid, I only rarely felt that sort of "completionist" instinct where I felt I needed everything. Especially when I was younger, I'd get smaller sets here and there and put bigger sets on my wishlist for birthdays and Christmas, but I was never too focused getting everything from Adventurers or Aquazone or Pirates or Spyrius, and never too broken up if I missed out on some. I think the first time when I did feel any sort of drive to completionism was for the main canister sets in the Bionicle theme, and even then I was perfectly fine with passing on larger sets that interested me less, and split the canister sets between me and my two siblings in such a way that the large number of sets was less of a burden. For regular Lego, that sort of completionist instinct really only set in as a TFOL and AFOL—at the age of 15 or so, when I started making more of my own purchases and had to figure out how best to budget for the sets and figs I wanted. And even (then and today), if a set doesn't interest me, even if it's a set from a theme I collect, I won't hesitate to pass it up. So that's probably part of why I don't understand the concept of a person being paralyzed by choice with the number of products available. When I was younger I just put whatever sets that interested me on my wish list but never with any expectation of getting all of them, and as I grew up I became more capable of actually making choices between what to buy and what not to buy. I can't really think of any instance where wanting a huge number of sets led me to walk out of a store with nothing, unless it was with the intention of deferring the gratification of getting them for a better sale or offer.

Good review! The Lightning Jet is one of my favorites of the new ninja vehicles, with great figs, a great function, and an extremely unique form factor. When I first saw pictures of it I was worried that all those antennae might come off easily but in fact they're secured very well. The function works great (I love how it takes a few moments to get up to speed or back to a stop). I'm not sure how I feel about that old Technic spring shooter, since it's barely integrated into the body and a very old launcher type but I suppose that, like my gripes about the Ice Tank's function, is just a result of me being so used to these functional bricks when used in very typical configurations. The little crab mech is also very cute!

Well, that's sort of the same issue Bionicle ran into when it made the original six elements form Protodermis and then had to retcon that to any six when they introduced more. Wouldn't be the first retcon for Ninjago, either... That said, there's no reason to assume it'll necessarily ever even have to come up in the show (especially since Wu is currently out of the picture).

I mean, Creation was originally all four elements combined, soooooo...

Don't get me wrong, I have full respect for the people behind the Ldraw library. That said, the people chipping away at the Ldraw library have very different preferences than I do in terms of Lego, and that influences what new parts get modeled. LDD was quick to add CCBS parts to tie in with the Hero Recon Team program, and continued updating with new ones for several years. By contrast, Ldraw has yet to add even a single shell or bone piece.

I fail to see how keeping a successful theme going is "sabotaging its own success". Maybe Star Wars will become less successful someday! And if that happens, they can end it THEN—not when it's still making thousands of fans happy and making Lego boatloads of money. It's clear, though, that your argument isn't based on any real interest in Lego's success, but rather in pure self-interest and dissatisfaction with Lego's current offerings. So I'm probably not going to get anywhere by using facts and logic to try and convince you.

Not really? There's a much more universal basis for that argument, which is that Lego fans in general benefit from the Lego Group's success, and those sorts of themes are hugely successful for them. The last Star Wars set I bought was over five years ago, but I don't want them to end that theme because I gain nothing from Lego sabotaging its own success.

My analysis of that would consider two factors the most likely to blame: the downturn in the entire toy industry (which has been going on for a while but until now had not caught up to Lego), and to the fluctuation of currency exchanges (I saw a very good analysis by another member pointing out that the highest losses in the latest report were in the category of financial operations, not sales, and could very well be connected to the plummeting value of the British pound). As for the layoffs, those are dwarfed by the number of hires in the most recent years—clearly, Lego had been hiring based on projections of continued or even accelerating growth that didn't materialize. Conversely, there's hardly any evidence that strong IPs like Star Wars and Ninjago were to blame. Both brands are still exhibiting strong sales, which are pretty much certain to skyrocket in the second half of the year when both brands have major movie releases. The only basis for the argument that Lego should deprioritize those in favor of less historically successful themes like Castle or Space is wishful thinking on the part of people who prefer those more classic themes.

I don't see why the average number of pieces or the number of larger sets going up is that much of a bad thing anyway. After all, if the number of sets per year is on the rise, as you state, that means it's not necessarily a case of fewer small sets so much as the addition of larger sets to the overall product range. On top of that, your graphs start at the turn of the millennium—an era where Lego's business was struggling and set design was trending toward sets that relied on fewer, bigger, and more specialized parts (a trend that was so despised that to this day the main term for it is filtered to "<insert that tiresome argument>"). In that context, the tendency for today's sets to include larger part counts on average (even for sets at lower price points) probably ought to be considered a good thing, shouldn't it?

I don't really see how that would work, especially considering that not all Ideas winners would even necessarily WANT to work as a designer (which would necessitate quitting their current job and moving to Denmark, among other major life changes). I think recurrent winners might be a bit disappointing but I don't see the point of creating a rule against them. They're rare enough as is, and when a builder does get multiple projects approved, it merely means they've created multiple models with the kind of quality and appeal it takes. And it's not like those models are necessarily being chosen over other, better models.

We need some sort of drinking game for when people suggest ENDING Lego's most successful themes would make the company MORE profitable. There's a reason themes like Star Wars and Ninjago get so many sets, and such large sets, and that's because they are some of Lego's most popular. So it's hard to tell where you're getting the idea that the interest for Ninjago "will soon die", or that a perennially successful theme like Star Wars has been kept for "way too long". From the perspective of a fan who dislikes those themes, maybe—but from a business perspective you couldn't be more off the mark. The thing about Lego is they don't keep themes around until they become unsuccessful—if interest in a theme looks like it's beyond the point of no return, they won't hesitate to put it on the chopping block (as a Bionicle fan, I'm more aware of that than ever). They also have much better data on the sales and interest in those themes than mere fans do. So when a theme not only continues for so many years but continues to expand, that's a pretty safe indication that interest in the theme is growing, not shrinking. That's not to say that they can't over- or underestimate a theme's potential. But the expansion of themes is a measured risk and one that can be quickly reversed if it proves to have been a bad call.

Echoing what the others have said, LDD may have a lot of unresolved bugs and be falling further and further out of date, but it's the most user-friendly building software I've found for Mac. I have both Stud.io and Bricksmith downloaded, but tend to use them somewhat grudgingly, since they're much harder to work with. There's also the matter that, as far as I've been able to tell, the LDraw library (and by extension, all the programs that rely on it) is still pretty useless when it comes to CCBS parts, which is one area where LDD still has it beat (even if it's starting to fall out of date in that respect as well).

This is a longstanding issue with LDD whereby the undersides of most parts are not actually programmed as "hollow". You can get around it slightly by making sure that the piece with the 3.2mm bar extends only slightly into the 1x1 round brick, so that it doesn't actually extend into the "stud" that is meant to connect to another part (the easiest way to check this is to turn the 1x1 round brick transparent so that you can be sure of how far it connects). Of course, this workaround only works in situations where space isn't at a premium...

Which Xbox do you mean? This game is coming out for the current Xbox One console, but isn't being developed for the Xbox 360 (or the PS3, or the Wii or Wii U) since those consoles have effectively been supplanted by newer, more powerful consoles.

Gotta say I disagree. Two unique civilian figs is comparable with sets like the Fire Mech and Lightning Jet and a cut above a set like the Ice Tank that just recombines the more generic civilian parts from other sets. Mind you, the selection isn't great or exceptional, but terrible? I wouldn't go that far.

Sometimes there seems to be as many people with uncles who work at Lego as there are people with uncles who work at Nintendo.

Nope, in the Netflix series it definitely had its front claws attached to its wings as it does in the set. Mind you, since it spent most of the series imprisoned, a lot of its appearances still had it on "all fours" sort of like a crawling bat.

A dragon in every larger set? Neither of this year's biggest sets (the goblin village and fortress) included a dragon, and last year's biggest only included a baby dragon. I think given dragons' apparent popularity it wouldn't make sense to abandon them completely, though there are still ways they could make them interesting and varied. The Goblin King's Dragon was the first two-legged, wyvern-style dragon—what if a mermaid-focused wave included a legless sea serpent?

A lot of people have been talking about this as if the Duplo will play a huge role in the plot—I wouldn't necessarily be so sure. Remember, this isn't about the actual Duplo invasion, but the aftermath years later, by which point all of the humans (Finn's sister included) will be older. We might certainly get some Duplo but based on the plot description I would expect Finn's sister to have also moved on to Friends (which would itself be quite a milestone, if a set included both minifigures and mini-dolls).

The blind-bag sales method also allows for more variety than visible characters would, as strange as that might sound. By selling figures as part of a blind-packaged assortment, more niche or unusual subjects can be sold alongside more universally popular subjects without the lopsided demand making half of them into shelfwarmers.

Counterpoint—not only were those classic sets generally blocky and brick-built as well (perhaps moreso than modern Creator sets given the greater variety of basic bricks available today), but a theme like Creator could presumably sustain a greater quantity of those sorts of sets per year (as opposed to Creator Expert, which generally only features one set per year in any given "series".

Were we? The idea that the theme was extended last-minute still seems at odds with all the actual authoritative comments I've seen from designers... I've seen the rumor discussed a lot among AFOLs, but little more than that to give it any credibility. Not that it's by any means a sure thing that it will end after next year, but I'm hardly convinced that it got some sort of "second wind" that radically reshaped Lego's existing plans for the theme.

TBH I wouldn't mind a set like that including a main knight or two, especially if it included them with their hair or even better, completely out of their regular armor. Alternatively, a set like 7189 Mill Village Raid with a peaceful village under attack by a couple of monsters would also be cool. Maybe even a set of Knightonia Colosseum akin to 10223 Kingdoms Joust (or any of the numerous other joust sets Lego has released)! Of course, if 2018 is Nexo Knights' last year then I doubt we'd get all of those, even if we got one or two...

Yup, that's what it was introduced for.