Lyichir

I observe a number of things from your post. First of all, you are one of the many AFOLs who still clings to the idea that the lower quality of early Chinese figs was anything but a temporary fluke. Secondly, you are so stubborn that, rather than having a fig of a character who has never been produced, perhaps with a slight difference in quality, you would give up any chance of that figure ever being produced. Thirdly, you obviously don't care about the very impressive supplemental guides put out by DK except for the single minifig they are packaged with. The book may be just a rumor, but it seems clear the Harry Potter line is on its way out. Why disparage what could be LEGO's attempt at a respectful send-off?

It's the same 1 x 1 round tile that's showing up all over in next year's sets. But printed as Two Face's coin? Niiiiiiiice.

I like this bear. The polar bear (which was from Arctic, not Ice Planet) was okay, but I like this one's printed eyes (I have a bias toward printed eyes, as I feel other animals should mimic the style of Lego minifigs and horses, which have always been printed) and its posability (its ability to rear up on its hind legs makes it much more intimidating than the nigh-unposable polar bear). And I loved the big, bulky elephant, although if they did another I would prefer printed eyes on that, too.

I voted Jake Raines. I loved Johnny Thunder back in the day, but I thought Adventurers came to a stunning conclusion with Orient Expedition. I'm glad that rather than bring back a cohesive theme, and risk befouling it, they tried something new. I always saw Adventurers as sort of a knockoff Indiana Jones, and after having actual Indiana Jones sets, I felt Adventurers would feel far less unique. But instead LEGO took a different route, making an desert adventure theme based more on "The Mummy", giving fresh life to the concept. It's similar to how rather than redoing Life on Mars, they reimagined it as an "Alien"-style space horror theme with Mars Mission.

Totally! I remember for one of my birthdays (probably my eighth or ninth), I had a LEGO-themed party. My dad bought up a bunch of Throwbots/Slizers sets as party favors, and one of the games at the party was a disk-throwing competition. Oh, the memories. I love small sets with a lot of detail, and not just in Technic. Whenever I see a dispute with a kid and their parents in the LEGO aisle of a store, I try to recommend a set that's more within the kid's price point.

Since when is Ninjago <insert that tiresome argument>? Clearly you haven't paid much attention to amazing sets like the Fire Temple or Skeleton Bowling. And next year's sets look like they'll be even more amazing, what with the awesome transforming vehicles. Anyway, based on the name that's floating around, it sounds almost like a Pokémon-style theme. Not quite sure how LEGO could pull something like that off, but I'll be watching with interest.

Hard to add much to this discussion, since we don't know anything about what said theme will be other than "another action theme". And seeing as "action theme" is one of the most vague descriptors used on Eurobricks, I really have no idea what to expect. My best guess would be a semi-historical action theme like Pharaoh's Quest or a non-story-dependent theme like World Racers. I can't see them adding another story-heavy action theme with Ninjago occupying so much of their attention in the coming year, so the latter seems somewhat more likely. But even then, that hardly narrows it down.

Sounds like you're describing "Torque", a Cars-themed promotional model. Unfortunately, I'm not sure where you should go for instructions.

I definitely disagree. I have dabbled in Technic, but am often too invested in other themes to buy the bigger Technic sets (although the Unimog is tempting...). But smaller sets are easier for me to impulse-buy, and I'm sure the same applies to other people as well. In fact, one of my most fondly remembered Technic set from the '90s was the Hydro Racer, a tiny set with a simple function, but plenty of opportunities to build and rebuild into other models.

I totally agree. My dad got me into the classic show, and I got a cross-section book while I was in the U.K. this summer. There's a lot of things there that would work great as sets. Pity it's too outdated to be made as a theme (maybe they could've done a theme if they hadn't botched the movie).

A couple years ago, when I was still in my teens and into BIONICLE, I had a minor crisis with our dog chewing up some of our masks. I don't know why she did it; all I know is that I no longer left them out where she could get at them, and it never happened again. It helps that our basement is our primary LEGO room, and she never goes down there except when everyone else is there.

I doubt the more detailed prints are driving up the cost of sets. Technology is constantly improving so that machines which once cost double the amount of their lower-grade counterparts can be bought for close to the same price as the more basic technology once cost. And the only way some of these contribute to the cost of sets is by LEGO needing to reimburse the cost of newer, more detailed printing equipment; and for things like back-printing, they've long since paid off the cost of the equipment. They probably have less capacity for printing minifig torsos with arm printing, but this probably contributes less to the cost of these figs than to the relative scarcity of minifigs with this sort of printing. So one can argue that minifigs have been losing their signature style (I personally don't think they have), but cost is most likely not a factor for more detailed figs.

I suppose Rivendell could work for such a set. Another good possibility. Note that neither the Hoth and Endor sets were D2C sets like Diagon Alley, rather, I believe they were retailer exclusives. Honestly? I wouldn't, at least not as a set like that. Bilbo's house is the only memorable location in Hobbiton, and just a set of that alone could be bought in multiples and modified to add other hobbit holes to the mix. I doubt a MMV-style Shire set would be nearly as successful as the MMV itself was, seeing as the Shire is a great deal more specialized as a fantasy community and thus might not draw the attention of Historic Theme builders as much.

Wait, where are you located? I've gotten the Kai and Zane books, but so far Cole's hasn't come out in the U.S. Maybe next year?

To be fair, part of the reason few have discussed the superheroes sets is because good pictures of them have been so elusive. I imagine Diagon Alley sold well, but to release a set like that the theme will have had to have proven that it can move product. Harry Potter had had a full year behind it (post-revival) before LEGO chose to release Diagon Alley. And to be honest, I can't think of an equivalent to Diagon Alley in Lord of the Rings; note that while the Diagon Alley set does not feature many key dramatic scenes, it has a great deal of personality. Something like Helm's Deep would be too popular a scene to be released as a D2C set (seeing as those scenes would probably make it fly off store shelves), whereas something like the Shire might be too dull (honestly, how many hobbit holes does one need in a set?).

Like I said before, I think Creator-style sets would be a poor choice for a Lord of the Rings theme. Kids won't care about a Helm's Deep model if they can't role-play with it. That makes something minifig-scale a necessity. Heck, even look at some of the AFOLs here: some of what they're most excited about are minifigs of LotR characters. I do think the best chance LEGO has of making sets to be bought multiple times is through battle packs; I can see a battle pack of Orcs, with one Uruk-hai included, selling like hotcakes.

Did you say "cannon"-ization? (Sorry, I had to make that joke) And technically, he didn't have a right hand in the 2.0 sets either.

I agree with much of what has been said here, but as a side note, why isn't this in the Dream LEGO Licenses topic? If we had a separate topic for everything that would make a good theme, the forums would be swamped. I don't think things like this should get their own threads unless there's been some evidence that such a theme may be in the works. Of course, if the topic diversified to discuss MOCs as well, instead of just an official theme, it'd be more palatable. That said, has anyone seen any good BSG MOCS?

I don't know what you're talking about in terms of the Atlantis theme being a "disappointment". It wasn't one for me (myself being one of the AFOLs who appreciated it for what it was rather than being butthurt about it not being very Greco-Roman). And it certainly wasn't one for LEGO (it exceeded expectations in its first year, and came to a strong finish in the second). The kids the theme was aimed at ate up those "weird vehicles", which is why vehicles (or siege engines, Oliphaunts, what have you) may be important for this theme's success. Even in lines like LEGO Star Wars, AFOLs are a periphery demographic, with kids accounting for more than 50% of the sales.

3839 Race 3000 doesn't have much to offer, but what it DOES have are telephone pieces in a variety of colors.

Mark Stafford, a LEGO employee, has confirmed that LDD will remain available and continue to update regularly. So no worries there.

If most of the joints are the new style, I wouldn't care as much about storage. Part of my past desire to store built sets was due to the fact that I feared disassembling or reassembling sets for fear of part breakage. With the newer, more durable joints I wouldn't have that issue.

It's probably not so much about the cost of the plastic so much as the size of the parts. Despite people often arbitrarily judging sets by price-per-piece, different parts cost different amounts to produce. In the case of the Mothership, it uses eight of the curved minecart rail parts, which are fairly large parts. Larger parts require more plastic to produce, and thus they cost more. Another contributing factor to an individual part's cost is its intricacy. For example, Minifigure torsos cost a fair amount to produce relative to their size because they consist of multiple sections machine-fitted together, and are usually printed, sometimes on multiple surfaces. In general, in sets with a large quantity of parts like these, the price-per-piece can be less reliable as a method for judging a set's value.

I wonder what this'll mean for how LDD continues to be updated. On the one hand, the LDD team might face budget cuts seeing as Design-by-me was really the only part of LDD that brought in revenue. On the other hand, seeing as a limited-parts mode like Design-by-Me will be less necessary now that models can't be ordered, perhaps more of the LDD budget can go toward adding new part designs, rather than just those which can be ordered. We'll really have to wait and see.

There's definitely a more complex function there--having partially built the set on LDD, I can tell that there's some function triggered by pushing on the rear section; note the technic construction attached to the rear wheelbase. Perhaps all that does is invert the cockpit section? I agree that the underside is less impressive now, but I suppose it's probably sturdier. I wonder if the snake-y transformation has to do with the hypno-staff that appears in that set? Anyway, I'm very excited for the Ninja vehicles for next year. I was skeptical when we first heard about them, but the elemental patterning combined with the amazing functions have made them into must-gets for me.