TheLegoDr

Marvelfan120 - I don't know when sets are officially discontinued, but I do know that set was on clearance around me last fall, so I always prefer to play things on the safe side.

A good start to a story. I wonder where it will go from here. My only qualm is the heads used for the soldiers. I personally wouldn't say one looks peaceful whereas the other looks more stern since they both have the classic yellow smiley. You used a good head for the mysterious wizard though. I'd suggest maybe using a different head for the "stern" soldier and you'll be all set. Otherwise, a neat little build for the story. I will look forward to more.

I think I'm in the category that loves army building, but it doesn't bother me to have everyone in the army identical. I look at them as soldiers first, I guess,instead of unique entities. But variation is always nice. I actually am glad they gave us two unique undead prints for the soldiers because we will probably never see them again. I'm so much in the camp of having similar army members that I'd want every orc to have the ear/hair combo instead of being bald. The ear/hair combo goes for a lot on bricklink. But same goes for the mirkwood elf polybag. The green hood is nice, but I can put a hood on anyone and they can become an elf. The elf to me is signified by the ear/hair combo which is left out. As far as yet another Gimli, they do need to create the scenes so giving the main characters makes sense. And not everyone will have certain characters, so that's why they include them in certain sets. I guess that is probably why there is a Gandalf or Lone Ranger or Tonto polybags. Some people just want a certain character without buying the sets. But I actually really like the Gimli torso. Same with Eomer's. I have multiple Eomers and Gimlis, but they look really nice as generic soldiers. That dark red and dark bley look great together.

True, they are coming out with essentially a battle pack for Lone Ranger and that will be the first wave of that theme (and it will only continue if they make more movies for it to continue), so it is odd that LOTR still doesn't have any.

Distribution seems odd with this series. They arrived at my TRU a while ago, but still no sightings anywhere else. I would have purchased the whole line-up at TRU if I didn't have Target giftcards to use. I'd rather not spend money I didn't have to spend. But I know this time last year (about the first two weeks of February) they were at the Targets everywhere because my wife and I flipped through that series on her birthday date night. Just odd that they still aren't around elsewhere. I'm going to go look again tonight, but I've looked almost daily for the last few weeks and getting disappointed everytime makes me not as interested in this series. I was ready to buy multiples of a lot of the figures when they first arrived, but now I may get one and call it good until the next series. My interest is dwindling..

I would assume (all speculation) that there could be more TMNT next winter wave, only because from my understanding is the show is quite successful. I haven't watched it, nor have I seen ratings or anything, but I think it seems to be doing well with the target audience, and if that is the case TLG will make stuff to sell. But we'll wait and see later this year. Since I haven't watched the show, I don't know who else they can come out with. And since I already have the figures I would want (from my childhood memories) I don't know how likely I'd buy any more sets next year.

I agree with the above statement. I've been wowed by a lot of sets by building it when I originally wasn't interested in the set at all. And then there are other times when they look great, but the build was lackluster. With these sets, I think the overall sets aren't very good, but the figures are the selling point and that is the reason I'll buy them. I can either spend x dollars to get just the figures or I can spend x dollars to get the figures plus a pile of bricks. Every auction/bricklink listing I see, if you add up the figures you end up spending about the same as just getting the full set. So I'll take the bricks to MOC with at a later date. But the hero figures are beautiful. The villains leave some to be desired, but I'll wait and see what I think when I have them in front of me. And I think seeing the movie will make me appreciate it more. I didn't get the Avengers sets until after I saw the movie (some 6 months later), so I think when they are based around a movie, you should probably see the source material it is based on before passing judgment. Same goes for the Hobbit sets. I had all of the sets before I ever saw the movie, but they made a lot more sense after watching it.

I just built this over the weekend so my daughter has a house to put her people in. The overall build was actually pretty boring, but the end result is a great display piece/playset. My main qualm with it was the repetitive nature of all of the windows and that I was actually missing a handful of pieces and had to go into my own supply to finish the build. I'll have to send a note to customer service and see if they will replace it even though they always question everything and ask for proof of purchase, which is quite difficult when it is a gift from someone else at Christmas. Either way, the end looks great and I think it would make a good display piece. I originally bought it to build the Green Grocer instead, but ultimately decided to let my munchkin play with it so she could avoid my other Modulars.

Looking good so far. I wonder how this battle will end. I'm surprised to see humans staying to fight, but a minotaur or a cyclops running away. But interesting story nonetheless. Good use of coloring and rock work.

That looks like a very promising start. I don't know much about building my own hull, but this looks awesome. I can't wait to see the finished project.

Thanks for letting us know. Odd that we have information already, but I'll take it! The winter village theme is one of my favorites behind the Modulars, although I think the WV sets may be moving up ahead of them. The WV are the only guaranteed purchases every year when they come out. I'm sure we'll have to wait a while before we get pictures and further descriptions, but it will be nice to think about it in the meantime.

Hopefully they will be released sooner than later then. Although, it does seem silly to spend that much money on two figures that will be readily available soon enough, and in cheaper sets no less.

Some people like to army build. I love seeing large quantities of certain figures that should be in larger quantities, unlike the army of Harry Potters or Jack Sparrows.. But a lot of foot soldiers is very appealing.

Thanks for posting that video. As it stands I will have a hard time purchasing the MoS sets, even though I originally planned on getting them. The figures are the only selling point for the Super Heroes sets and they seem to be lacking even there with this wave. I am disappointed in what TLG has done with the Super Hero theme so far. Hopefully it will pick up and hopefully these sets will look better when they are released. Now I'll just focus on Lone Ranger I guess.

Number 9 is actually by me TheLegoDr and not DantheBrick. He is on there already. Just to let you know. I only counted one vote for that so far, so that may want to be switched. I'll add my votes soon.

I hadn't considered using a PB jar for sorting, but I suppose it would work and it is clear. What pieces do you put in them?

Those sound like some great deals! I never seem to find anything LEGO related in antique/thrift stores around here. Granted I don't go looking very often either.

I'd love to say a balance between the two, but ultimately I buy LEGO sets for the figures. If a great set comes around to build I will certainly build it and display proudly, but that is few and far between, outside of the Creator Expert sets. I only have a handful of sets put together out of the many hundreds I own. However, I love building with LEGO and I try to make my own creations as I find time. I still have a stack from Christmas that are just sitting there. But I immediately took out all of the SW, Monster Fighter, LOTR figures from the sets I received last year at Christmas.

I was going to say I've never seen Frodo's cooking corner around here (I'm in Nebraska). So while yes it is available in a polybag form and you can get Gandalf elsewhere, I'm glad I picked up the Gandalf Arrives set because I otherwise would not have that version of Frodo. It is very spot-on compared to the source material. As far as ordering a $5 polybag from TRU plus shipping, doesn't make a lot of sense. And it actually can't be shipped according to that page, only pick up in store (which was never carried around me).

Weathertop is small compared to source material, but there is no conceivable way to make it the right size, not unless it is an AFOL's MOC, never in a set. But I actually think the overall shape of that set was spot-on. I think Mines of Moria was spot-on too, but the stickers and price weren't ideal. I'm glad I got both of them on a good sale last summer. I have purchased all of the Middle Earth sets so far, but the only one built is Unexpected Gathering because it is beautiful and I plan on building Helm's Deep eventually, but I may need to use the pieces for a GoH build first. Oh, and I guess I built Shelob because she is beautiful .

Just saw the pictures on fbtb and it looks good. Although I'm not a huge SW nut, so I guess I don't know how different it is than the system scale set that was released last year. I know, it is more detailed with more pieces and is larger, but overall aesthetic, I don't know how different it is sitting on my shelf. I really like 2012's version of the x-wing though. It was one of my first SW sets. I can find a lot of other sets to spend $200 on, but it looks good.

It's interesting to see how different everyone is. I guess that is how LEGO continues to sell well with the majority of their themes because what appeals to one won't to another and vice versa. As far as the 2012 Marvel sets, I think they did a great job overall incorporating a playset with really good figures. It was linked to the movie, so basically whatever the license stipulated would be needed and since I had all of the sets when they first came out in April?May? I didn't know what was going on. I didn't see the movie until about October of last year, so the sets finally made sense after that time. But I bought the sets for the figures since I was a huge comic book fan growing up in the early 90s. I use the pieces for MOCs and the figures for display, so it's a win-win ultimately (other than the price sometimes). As far as sets go, I'd say for the most part they were there just for the figures since they are a hot seller right now. I can honestly say I didn't build any of the sets I purchased from 2012 Marvel. I never bought the Quinjet because I didn't want to spend that amount of money on it, but I may try to pick it up on Amazon since it went down in price a little. The downside is only 2 exclusive figures. Granted, I think I may be one of the few people that actually like the Loki figure and I love that headpiece. I am actually using it for my GoH builds at the moment. I think it looks like a great fantasy helmet. I'm actually going to pick up a few more on bricklink I think. I think Hawk-eye looks good compared to his movie version, but I'd always prefer the costumed purple Hawk-eye in LEGO form. As for Spider-man, I don't really care about him, but I picked up the sets anyway because I like the figures. The Doc Ock set was meh for sure and since I don't watch the show, I didn't know much about it. I should have waited to get Spider-man sets this year only and pass on last year's. But the Nick Fury car is a neat transforming machine. I hope they do something similar to the Back to the Future set, otherwise I will probably pass on that and make my own Delorean with my newfound knowledge.

That'd be all the better if it was a sizable army of Foot Soldiers! What will you do with all of those turtle clones Lawrence?

I think that becomes the problem with minifigures. Some are designed to look like the movie versions and others are meant to look exactly like the actor/actress portraying them. There is a subtle difference. I don't know where they draw the line. Bruce Wayne doesn't look like any of the actors that have played him necessarly, but it still looks like Bruce Wayne. I wouldn't say Hawkeye looks like Jeremy Renner either, but no one is mad about that figure. I think it all has to do with the cheekbones, as others have stated. Those didn't help the minifigure at all. I never bought the Quinjet because I didn't want to spend $70 on it and the few exclusive figures go for way more than I want to spend on a figure, but the more I look at Black Widow, the more I do want that figure. If she gets released in another sequel, then hopefully they will re-release her, similar to Poison Ivy that I didn't get the first time around either.

I just went to Barnes/Noble and they didn't have any here. I've actually never seen them there in the past either since we do go there quite a bit to peruse the books. Basically all ours has is the architecture sets.