Digger of Bricks

My three picks have gone to @snaillad's Downtown, @kofi's CC House, and @lookl's Modern Library.

Ooooooh, Day 19's "Hans Christian Anderson" is simply perfect! Also, Day 23's Snow Maker and Day 24's Snow Maiden have to be this calendar's loveliest entries...

Perhaps, though as I cited as an example elsewhere, Universal inherited the distribution rights to Pacific Rim's 2018 sequel when the first film's production company moved over from Warner Bros to Universal; so, given that the producer who helmed all four of Warner's Lego Movie's will also be overseeing Universal's, perhaps he'll be taking The Billion Brick Race over to Universal with him in a similar manner? I'm pretty certain that's how they'll want to do it too. If so, that's why I could see Universal wanting to pick up The Billion Brick Race where Warner's left off if they inherit the rights to its production, as I could see them using it as a fast-tracked way to getting their own Lego Cinematic Universe off the ground sooner than later. Though we hadn't learned much about it, the film sounded like it would've encompassed the whole brand in the same way The LEGO Movie had done, just in a LEGO Racers kinda way.

Presumed at least, yes. If Universal would wish to carry on the continuity Warner Bros had started if given the license to do so, then at best I think Will Arnett's Batman might be granted no more than a cameo, because I just can't see WB extending them as much as a prominent supporting role for the character, let alone another movie.

What better way to end this Advent Calendar than with the real reason for Christmas... COMMERCIALIZATION!!! In all seriousness though, I love the upset baby you've paired with this one, and giving him the Expectant Mother's torso is a really clever touch! I second the Ugly Sweater Guy and Nutcracker! Merry Christmas Robert, and here's to next year's Calendar!

Great choice in recoloring Mayhem's hairpiece for this one! Actually, it's very much a "bedhead" kinda hairpiece the more I think about it, so it really worked quite fittingly for this design! Plus, it has a bit of a Dr. Seuss vibe about, making her somewhat evocative of The Grinch's Cindy Lou Who...

I believe the characters from these movies actually are technically owned jointly by LEGO and Warner. That doesn’t mean there’s absolutely no possibility of them continuing on in these new movies, but I suspect Universal will instead want to start with a fresh clean slate... although if any of the creative staff behind the extant LCU does carry over to the new movies, they may want to keep the established characters / continuity going. If Universal does want to start fresh with a clean slate, I've got a theory I've shared elsewhere on how they might do that (to which I've grown more convinced of)...

Brickset - Review: 60253 Ice-Cream Truck

Either we would've had many more of our CMF wishes fulfilled at this point... ...or... ...we just couldn't have been able to reach twenty Series without them.

You'll have to ask @Itaria No Shintaku...

Me too. What popular IPs does Universal even own? I have problems searching for a list and I doubt they have something that popular in mass media like Avengers, Star Wars, Batman, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. The Lego Movies were a wild mix of big properties everyone knows, old classics like Wizard of Oz and sweet little ones like Gremlins. There was something for everybody. I doubt it can be a success at mainstream consumers without some big ones. Remember that one in-development spinoff, The Billion Brick Race? Given that it lost two directors during preproduction and hasn't been given a third since the last one departed, you could say this new deal with Universal may be the final nail-in-the-coffin for the development. But, given that the producer who helmed the first four cinematic Lego Movies will continue to oversee further ones under Universal, I'm wondering if there's a chance he'll be taking The Billion Brick Race with him over from Warner Brothers, reformulating it into Universal's own reboot/take on The LEGO Movie as a fast-tracked way to kick-off their own LEGO Cinematic Universe.

That's a pretty fitting use for that torso! Plus, that Red & Green recolor of the Santa hat would be nice to see.

I still think it'd help to merge those earlier topics with their 2019 counterparts, especially in the case of the one 2020 Overwatch topic I prematurely kicked-off, given what now seems to be the case regarding the fate of theme.

So, I suppose many of you here probably have already heard about this recent development by now... Variety - Universal in Talks With Lego Group to Develop New Films Based on Toys (EXCLUSIVE) While I've come to presume this automatically spells out the writing-on-the-wall for The Billion Brick Race, a part of me wonders if there's a chance the project might carry over to Universal, especially considering that producer Dan Lin (who helmed all four of WB's Lego Movies) is reported to continue overseeing any further cinematic features they may develop. It's also worth noting that a similar such move happened for Pacific Rim's 2018 sequel when producer Legendary Pictures moved from Warner Brothers over to Universal, taking the still in-development sequel along with it. I don't know, perhaps I'm just grasping at straws?

Perhaps you've already made your mind up about both, but just in case... The Brothers Brick - Fill it up at the LEGO 60257 Filling Station [Review]

I highly doubt Universal's first Lego Movie will be IP-based like TLBM was.

Despite quite a few here citing the work of Joe Hisaishi for many of Studio Ghibli's films, I've only now decided to check them out for the first time, starting off with Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Between the two, I'm probably fondest of the latter and its score...

Quite likely so... I highly doubt that, as there've been plenty of direct-to-video movies based upon IPs not owned by WB (Star Wars & Marvel for instance); so, they shouldn't be related. Pfttt, why of course, cinematic partnerships shouldn't change a single thing with unrelated playsets/playthemes. That's exactly why I've always felt that any follow-up to TLBM should be a LEGO Justice League Movie, as TLBM had already perfectly encapsulated the Batman mythos. A LEGO Justice League Movie would've still been told through Batman as the main character, all the while exploring the rest of the DC Universe without necessarily needing to dive back into Batman's sphere of things back in Gotham.

I'm quite fond of that Gold-trimmed, Earth Green bibbed uniform of his...

I'd imagine a Time Travel theme's premise would initially stick to that well-worn "collect-them-all" trope, thereby having its protagonists scurrying throughout history on their quest without too much messing-up/entanglement of the timeline. Perhaps more serious repercussions within that vein could be the subject of follow-up waves; but for its debut, it should perhaps keep its premise simple and classic... I suppose, though it'd kinda be of some piece-of-mind if just a few of its debut sets offered some degree of representation for those yet-unrepresented historical periods. That way, if the line does indeed end-up being a one-wave flop, then at least some of those themes didn't miss the train for one of the few viable chances they may have at playset representation.

Come to think of it, what will this new partnership mean for further representation of any original characters from TLM & TLM2 (i.e. Emmet, Wyldstyle, Benny, UniKitty, Metalbeard, etc)? Are those characters property of WB, TLG, or conjointly so? Would WB be at liberty to produce any further spin-off TV series or media based upon them during TLG & Universal's deal? Um, pretty much? Thinking about this further throughout the day, would Universal just be able to stick to the stop-motion style that has come to define the cinematic LEGO feature, or would WB insist they find their own differing approach?

It'd be better than nothing; and besides, as I've already mentioned, it'd be an ample opportunity for themes, genres and settings that have never before had any playset/playtheme representation.

As would The Billion Brick Race, so presumably yes. I just wanna know how Universal gonna approach a reboot animation-wise as so to differ from WB's take on such. That's gotta be a tough act to follow.

Nicely done! Though most of his torso design is hidden under his beard, I still like what I can see in terms of the color choices.

Variety - Universal in Talks With Lego Group to Develop New Films Based on Toys (EXCLUSIVE)