RichardGoring

I wonder if they're teasing the CMF now, so that D&D players will see the game potential of the set, and do are more likely to buy it, and look out for the CMF in September. This will be covered in D&D media too. And then the September release gives them another media boost and awareness for those that missed it first time around.

Fabulous!

That makes me tempted to get a second set to build one of the extensions on Rebrickable. But the space required would be immense.

Every time I see it, I like it a little bit more. I'd like to see it in-person before going for it, but it's very tempting at the moment. The art style of BTAS is just so wonderful. Actually, the figures may be the worst part about this for me, given that they are dramatically different (as LEGO) from the style. Especially Batman. Nothing you can (or should) do about that, but for me it's all about the skyline, detail, layers, and style. I really like the sky itself, and the Bat signal is so dramatic.

I think the 4+ sets without stickers are good as it puts the focus on construction. My nearly four year old enjoys putting them together. My seven year old is the one that likes the stickers, and is capable of doing them well enough so as to happy with the experience. I'm generally fine with the stickers in this set, to be honest. There are so many of them, that they'd likely not print them anyway - insert perennial argument over LEGO not printing to ensure efficient logistics vs other cheaper manufacturers can do all prints - but I do find it irritating that they've not printed the character tiles, because if those peel/break, you kill a lot of the set. If the others go, it's not a massive loss, but still annoying. The blimps should be printed too, given they are curved and there are three of them.

Oh wow, what a difference a small colour change makes.

I do really like it. Just not sure if I want to spend that kind of money on it, and whether I'd want to put it on a wall taking up a lot of space. But I keep coming back to also really liking it. Hmmm...

The first photo there made me think the scaling differences weren't too bad with the Blacksmith, but the second photo of them together really highlights the discrepancy. For me, they don't work together, but I do love the detail of the blacksmith, so not going to complain. The castle and MTS look great together though.

It would be odd to reveal it now, with the Mario promotions going on leading up to Mar 10, so mid-March makes more sense. They got a lot of press outside standard LEGO news for the teaser it seemed like, so doing it well ahead of the full reveal was probably beneficial to them.

Yes, the stability in a few places is an issue, and so I'm wondering whether it needs to be avoided by the children - they play lots with all the other modulars - but if it breaks, it can always be put back together. Good suggestion on the stickers, thank you! I definitely want to do them, but have a few other BDP MOCs to build first, and then I will get stickers for all of them.

I would have a small connection with the base, so that the light brick can work. It probably wouldn't look terrible, and it would allow you to have very thin connections at the side, which would look a lot better than heavily reinforced connections. What the really need to do is come up with a more powerful light, and ideally one that can run off USB, so it can be on indefinitely!

I also hope that the eye is brick-built. It just feels like it should fit better if it is.

Yes, it was on sale on Black Friday. I was going to skip it, but the same felt like too good an opportunity to pass up, so I went for it. Still prefer the original red and white coaster though.

I very nearly finished the Glass Studio from the Bricklink MOC Pop-up Store by @MingBrick. The Bricklink cart system managed to not include the full inventory, so I'm missing a few pieces, but it's close enough. Really fabulous model. The build was superb, and I loved the detail both inside and out. Delightful to make and look at. I would encourage MingBrick to add the instructions to Rebrickable and share this more widely!

The video above by @kbalageis excellent, and really does show what the set should have been. The fatter rear tyres really do make me look past all the other compromises. I would certainly order any 3D printed wheels if anyone fancies making and selling them!

Great news on the cow price drop. I've refrained from buying any to this point, but will definitely get some now.

I personally think it's great, and looking forward to getting it. I was surprised at how good Snow White's cottage looked in the mix with them too. I expected it to look way too large, but it kind of works.

I watched the Just2Good designer interview video. My goodness the camera work in that is terrible! Please, a $10 tripod and fixed angle would have made it so much better. Just2Good is great on LEGO knowledge, but needs to recognize that YouTube is a video platform, so you do need to see what the content is occasionally. It's not some hidden camera show! /rant Anyway, good interview and I thought some pretty decent questions and answers back. I wonder if one of the reasons they had a brown kitten instead of a white one, and printed shields instead of plain ones was as a leak tracing device? If descriptions or photos of the set with either of those things came out, they'd have a better idea of where they came from? Or is that the tinfoil hat talking?

Agreed that it would be great to get a related GWP, but I hope that it's not a figure that remains exclusive to that GWP, which is a huge pain for anyone after the day or two that it lasts, and also that they have sufficient stock so that it does last for more than a day or two! Where do you get the data that LOTR is the sixth best selling theme? Also, they have given it four sets, albeit that three of them are Brickheadz. I don't like them either, but plenty of others do, and LEGO has clearly seen LOTR as an adult-focused, collectors theme, and so gone down the route of large Icons set and Brickheadz to cater to that. They have data from several waves to go on. Yes, that's ten years old, but it's still real data. And the LOTR world had supporting movies out at the time. I would personally prefer a slow and steady release of one or two great sets every year or so, than attempt a wave that fails and kills it off, which may have been the case for Indiana Jones. Lots of excitement initially for the playsets, but then lots of discounting shortly afterwards. Probably not helped by only having two playsets available, another one cancelled at the last minute, and four or five that were speculated about, but may never have existed. So I'm hoping for slowly building up to success, rather than going bust first time around.

The original was great, but I can understand why they've made changes to the color scheme and dragon build. It looks pretty good, but more detailed photos are definitely required. Pleased at the additions they've made, which is a nice touch to round it out more.

I really like the set. It looks great, and has some lovely variety. I think it gives us the new elements you need from LEGO, specifically torso prints, to make up more castle stuff, and, assuming they will all be on PAB at some point, it's great that there aren't duplicates in the set. I like the range of buildings. They look good from the outside, and nicely done when they're together. Not entirely convinced by different rooms connecting inside when they're closed up, but it's a minor niggle that is the compromise needed to make the set what it is. I'm really pleased that they've specifically scaled it with the castle, rather than trying to make it larger and more detailed.

That station! To be honest, all of series 2 looks very good to me. Of course, we don't know prices yet, but I suspect a complete set will cost about $1100, so I'll need to carefully consider in the run up to June. I'm hoping that the three hours it took the Mountain Fortress to sell out is an indication that there will be at least a few hours for all future sets, and it won't be a 20 minutes thing like the Forestmen's castle in the 2021 series.

This is great, thanks. I like that they are investing in the PAB service, as there's always a risk they could just shut it down. There are a few parts I'm waiting to come back in stock, having been out of stock since my last order in November. Hopefully mid-March is when that happens.

I keep looking at the General Store and not quite getting there. But I hope it sells out too, as it's very neatly done, and the details are excellent.

They previously talked about booking time/space in the LEGO production cycle is what limited the runs of them. And I think they said it was Bricklink staff doing the packing, so they had limited resources on that too. Things may have changed so those points aren't as valid anymore, but the idea of producing more comes back to the same point that LEGO has about reproducing old sets. Mostly, the market for a repeat product is far smaller than the market for a new product. They have two more round finalized (and they look amazing!), plus one going through voting, and another three planned after that. They clearly do have finite production capacities and there is a finite market potential, so they're trying to maximize what they can get. Also, not all of these may sell out, and trying to anticipate demand and so predict peak production numbers/capacity is also hard. Turning around and immediately listing the Fortress for $1000 on eBay is pretty despicable though. It's why I got so cross watching the Solid Brix Studio review of the castle, as he spent a good amount of time being misleading about the relationship between these sets, Bricklink, and LEGO, and hyping up the investment potential. Whereas I think all other reviews focused on the builds themselves and encouraged people to actually build them and not to speculate on them (if it was even mentioned at all). We don't need more hype on these sets that encourage more scalpers.