Alexandrina

I'm in love! Proper peasant cowl for medieval women, and plenty of great looking torsos. And is that a grey goat? Day One buy for me. Cannot wait.

Can't help you with those specific ones, but one I vividly remember watching in around 2010 (but it was a few years old at that point; probably on YouTube from around 2008) was set in a school. Kids kept being called out of the class and never coming back, and when the protagonist investigated he found they were being turned into some sort of crab-creatures in a lab under the base. That seems to have disappeared from the Internet. Others that are no longer easily available on YouTube - such as the Worst Case Scenario trilogy, or Faithless (one of the best brickfilms ever, imo) - are still around in an archive somewhere. There's a brickfilms wiki that's doing a good job of archiving some of these vanishing classics.

I don't know what "full Doug" means, but honestly this feels like it would be somehow worse by some margin than either other possibility. Yellow heads are not only synonymous with the minifigure, but serve the purpose of not representing any real ethnicities by all being exactly the same colour. You'd end up with an ugly hodge-podge of bright colours that doesn't appeal to anybody who wants to keep the yellow minifigures, while still having room for perceived poor representation (some colours are darker than others, just as a physical property of the colour; the parallels are going to be drawn, even if only by malicious actors, regardless). But while not satisfying anyone who wants the yellow heads, you're also not satisfying anyone who wants the minifigures to actually represent real ethnicities, because you're using bright colours rather than any sort of representation of the real skin tone.

The link doesn't appear to work? (Or rather, it does, but I need permission to view the article?)

I don't remember if it was BrickEconomy or Rebrickable (or maybe even Brickset?) but when I was cataloguing my collection a few years ago I was getting some comically incorrect prices for a few parts in my collection. Most egregiously I was told that this minifigure head from 1999 (which currently sells on Bricklink for about 45p used, and a little more new - so not the cheapest but firmly low-mid range in terms of value) was worth £4000 and thus by far my most valuable piece. Since that I just don't trust the pricing guides on any website other than Bricklink, and I try not to use other sites for anything at all. I'm definitely in this demographic. I don't even particularly care for Rock Raiders as a theme (it's perfectly average imo) but I want every yellow head ever produced and Chief is one that I'm not sure how/when I'm going to get. I guess just kind of hoping for a lucky joblot at some point. I don't even want the rest of the figure, either - literally just the head. Not worth three figures.

I don't think I've ever been as glad for the front page as today, when I logged on and was treated to this wonderful MOC. I somehow missed this when you originally posted it, and I'm kicking myself for it because incredible doesn't even begin to describe it. Love the details, love the geography you've constructed, particularly fond of the waterfall/pond and the swimmers.

I absolutely hope you're right! Honestly if the only new mould we get is a baby goat I'll be disappointed. Now that goats are back in Lego form, it's inevitable that they'll show up in City sets sooner or later, and we can get the kid mould then. I'd much prefer that Lego prioritise Medieval-specific moulds with the MMV budget - stuff that we're unlikely to get in other sets any time soon. A hennin or something similar would be a far greater gain in the long run than something we'll probably have by 2025 anyway.

True, though it was also included in the Maiden's Cart, so it could have been that since it was an active medieval mould they decided to include it rather than making a new mould for a cap (especially since the hennin was never frequently used even though it was the only medieval women's headwear mould during the golden age of Castle; two moulds wouldn't have been worth it). Nowadays it's not an active mould, and they do have the cap already so there's less need to make a new part. I suspect they could have found a use for a hennin in the LKC if they wanted to, possibly even as an accessory/alternate headwear option for the Queen.

I actually think the opportunity for a new hennin was in 10305 - they're associated with nobility rather than peasantry, so if they didn't plump for one in the big budget Castle set (where it would make sense), they're not likely to bring one into a more civilian-focused set.

Yes, completely agree - it's the bit I was most excited for when 10305 was revealed. Lego's options for headgear for medieval women of all classes have been limited, especially since the loss of the hennin. Long may this one endure!

Honestly that's a nice looking minifigure, and more than adequate for when Miss Reed is between adventures. I had no interest in the Orient Express set but I definitely need to get my grubby paws on that minifigure!

I wouldn't be surprised if the hairpiece turns up again too, tbf. Hopefully not on the same minifigure as the torso though.

Ooh, another piece I'm going to have to buy in far too large quantities!

I dearly wish I'd been able to afford that set at the time, but alas! I guess I've not really looked closely at the figures lately.

I honestly don't even recognise the first two, didn't know they existed. The first one is perfect, though the second imo doesn't quite fit (it feels more Piratey, I guess it could work but it's not what I envisaged) The third fig is one I desperately want but it feels more generic peasant/farmer's wife to me. (Now to look up the price of the first one and regret everything )

Well there we go! At least twenty sales of the Galaxy Explorer confirmed, plus an item for your bucket list

A discounted sale is still a sale! And really, if it was at Walmart then it was a sale on Lego's end already. I doubt Lego care how much profit the stores make so long as they shift the inventory from their own factory.

Well that's at least sixteen! (Unless you were in the Cardiff Lego store this April ). We're on our way to crowdsourcing the sales figures.

For what it's worth, it seemed to be moving decently well compared to other similarly sized sets every time I was in a Lego store this year, there were almost always two or three in the hands of queuing customers. So anecdotal evidence for sure but I saw at least ten people buying them - guaranteed at least double figures!

Honestly unless everyone has a higher source they're looking at that I don't know about, it's hard to tell. I can't even make out half the figures you've listed while looking specifically at where you're saying to look. If there is an inn then presumably there's an innkeeper, and hopefully a barmaid - a medieval barmaid is something I don't believe we've ever had in Lego form. I wouldn't presume the leak is necessarily accurate though, I think it's a prelim so the figures we can see in it may well not be the figures we actually get.

To borrow some American sports nomenclature: Such a GWP would be the GOAT GWP. (Sidenote: how come there's no emoticon with sunglasses?)

I mean, at least for me when I use digital tools it's not because I don't like physical bricks but because either: I don't currently have access to my bricks (such as when I'm working away from home for a few months) It's a build I'm likely to need to assemble and reassemble exactly the same way multiple times (such as when I'm designing film sets; I need to be able to recreate them exactly if the need for a reshoot arises) The purpose of the build requires parts that don't really exist None of these things would dissuade me from wanting a physical prize! In any case, could there not be a provision for people to decline the prize if they're not interested - for instance, someone who only uses digital tools and has no interest in physical bricks, but who wanted to enter anyway to show off their work - and the prize then go to the next-placing entrant? Depending on the duration of the contest, I don't see that this would be an issue. Financial reasons excluded, most if not all minifigure parts would be easy enough to acquire on Bricklink over a period of a couple of months (and even in the case of hard to come by parts, such as Chief from Rock Raiders or Quikky the Bunny - in case someone really wanted the Nesquik Bunny aboard their pirate ship - just because they're hard to find now doesn't mean people don't already have those parts)

Ah, so just around the time I was less active on the forums! Must have missed it In that case I think you covered all the bases admirably.

I don't think this is common? I've never personally seen any CMF stuff more than a year old (though maybe I've just been unlucky). But for instance the gladiator helmet hasn't been produced in twelve years, and Lego have even done another gladiator CMF since - if they still had the mould in rotation, I'm sure they'd have used it by now. It's telling IMO that the Chariot GWP the other year just used a regular Castle helmet. I'm hopeful too, I just think it's more likely to get these older periods in regular sets than GWPs, and I think they'd do a better job in regular sets too.

I think the specific nature of a contest plays a role too - and some contests are more likely to lend themselves to digital entries, whereas for others it might be practicable to not allow digital entries. For instance, one of the subcategories of this last one was to design a classic style set (including, as I clarified at the time, designs that could conceivably have been sets in eras where there was no Lego Pirates) - for a contest like that it seems to me that you definitely want digital entries to be allowed. My entry for instance made use of certain parts in colours that never really existed, but which could realistically have existed in a world where Lego Pirates sets were available in the early 2000s (specifically, I used a slope panel in white which was very common in larger builds during the 'interregnum' years between 1998 and 2008 where there wasn't a Pirates theme). The problem with limiting digital designs in this sort of contest is that Lego have had periods where they've used certain pieces extensively before completely retiring them from the catalogue - and when those parts weren't in use during the Pirates theme, often they don't really exist in appropriate colours. On the other hand a future contest might be geared towards prioritising stability or implementing a certain function rather than emulating the Lego set design style of the past. In such a contest it might be more prudent to curtail digital entries because the contest is interested in how the build holds up physically. Without knowing what the future contests will be, it seems premature to rule out digital entries. (And for what it's worth, I think digital entries have a value equal to the actual bricks. You could even make a rule within a contest that digital entries must be physically possible, or some other limitation. Others have mentioned cost being a limiting factor for some people, but you could also have situations where people have the bricks but can't access them. For instance, I spent a chunk of this year working in London, 150 odd miles away from my bricks, and living in a single bedroom. I knew exactly what bricks I owned but they weren't accessible to me. It would have been totally possible for me during that period to build a digital design knowing that I'd be able to build it physically as soon as I was able to go home and access my bricks again.) Anyway, in regards to the thread as a whole (I completely missed this; life happened in September so I didn't have much time for forums, and I guess it had been buried by the time I came back) I thought the contest was handled quite well. Much respect to @Mister Phes for the organisation of it. I think future contests could be very effective if done exactly the same way, just with more personnel behind the scenes. (The only minor suggestion, and I don't know if it was implemented towards the end as I was inactive by the end of the contest, would be to possibly collate a list of entries so it's easy for people to find them all - apologies if this was actually done and I'm just saying stuff that you'd already thought of!)