RichardGoring

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.

No? Really?! That's such a crappy move to pull. I was pleased to get a Moutain Fortress and then decided on the snack shack too. I wasn't sure about it, but then took the opposite view of whether I would regret not getting it, and with the harbourmaster set coming up, I decided it would all go nicely with the Old Fishing Store and Fishing Boat from last time. Glad that they didn't go within minutes, and that there was a decent window with a functioning website to get it. And it was much clearer than last time where it felt there were more hoops to jump through to buy it.

It's working for me now too. All are funded, which is great.

I've been going back and forth on this too much. Decided that the castle is the only one that I'd buy if it was an official set, as it goes so well with the LKC and MTS and it's a great base for the Black Falcons. I like the others, but don't have room or complimentary things to go with them. Round 2 however, I think I want all of them! So really hard decisions there.

OMG, it worked, thank you! Mountain Fortress is 910029 - https://www.lego.com/en-us/cart?product=910029 Snack Shack is 910030 - https://www.lego.com/en-us/cart?product=910030 Parsian Street is 910032 - https://www.lego.com/en-us/cart?product=910032 Old Train Engine Shed 910033 - https://www.lego.com/en-us/cart?product=910033 I changed the nl-nl to en-us for the USA. What's the betting that orders placed through LEGO directly and not via Bricklink will be cancelled?

Oh really? I tried a search and they didn't come up. Do you have the set numbers?

Actually, the main site works, but the Designer Program site doesn't, and it's gone from the home page. Double sigh.

Well, that's a shame, although not entirely unexpected, that the Bricklink site has crashed three minutes before launch of series 1. It was working fine beforehand. Sigh.

I really like it. Yes, it's a shame there aren't more animals, and that it doesn't have another knights faction, and the shield painter has only one finished/in-progress shield with a lot of blank ones. But the variety of figures is good, the build goes nicely with the LKC, there is a good amount of interior detail, they have play scenarios done nicely with a mechanism for the lift too. And, unlike Snow White's cottage, the exterior/roof hasn't been overdone. I'd like to see how the tavern and shield painter's shop look when back to back as a 'single' building, as it feels like they will jar with each other. Personally I would have preferred a set that was $50 more and gave us a bunch more stuff, but how often have we said that things are overpriced, so I appreciate them doing the compromise for 'only' $230!

We weren't expecting new moulds or anything, but at least one more animal of a larger size. I don't understand why you would have a kitten and not a cat. The story doesn't really work. If you have a ghost, your probably have a cow in that scene? Surely a town square needs a horse? I'm not saying all three of these, but at least one is fair and sensible. Fortunately you can get all of these on Pick a Brick easily. And I'm pleased to get another colour of goat to add variety. It's a tinge of disappointment for me, rather than a deal breaker.

Blue bird, red bird, white kitten, dark orange squirrel, and a grey goat. Somewhat disappointed in those, but the rest of the set looks really good to me. Seemingly lots of new torsos. I like the balance and range of buildings. Looking forward to more photos soon.

And at least the Queen and Mirror were in a relatively recent CMF (still on shelves in a few places), and not locked behind a really expensive set. To me the issue with the clamshell is not so much which movie version it was based on, but that the object itself is not related to the films. It's trying something new, to come up with a way to string various scenes and characters together, but the end result requires so many pieces to go into the gimmick, that it feels like you lose the characters and scenes that it was supposed to showcase. And it feels like the play possibilities are somewhat surpressed in this compared to many other sets, which puts people off buying it even more. I might get it if it were at 50% off, but even then, I'm not sure I'd want it, which is a shame. I'm hoping that it's the style of photo and that it will look better in real life. It also feels overdone to me too. I'd very interested to see what it looks like from the front when hinged back. You're revealing the internal wall at that point, and it looks like it's all just space, so will look very strange indeed. I wonder why they didn't go for the style of the Winter Village Santa's Visit, that achieves a lovely front with great access to all the internal stuff.

Oh wow, that's a big step. Might hold off buying until the next production run in that case.

It could be a teaser reveal tomorrow, just to stretch it out even further...

I wonder if they have been added for the additional play that it brings, with a lot more you can do for world-building around the set and the different scenarios you can play. I hope so, as it suggests that even with these 18+ sets, LEGO does always think about play and not just a cynical investor-led approach.

True. But look at how much Snow White's cottage seems to have changed from the prelim leaked image to the final set. It really does feel quite different in terms of style, but also with additional elements added in. Others have released that are really very similar, like the Harry Potter sorting hat. So it could be there is a surprise (or two) waiting for us.

It looks good, but part of me thinks that the second iteration of Hanwasyellowfirst's Ideas set was better? Might be the lighting, but the roof looks too shiny almost? Love the trees though, and rather pleased that the witch and Prince are included. I think that will expand the appeal somewhat and was a sensible move.

I wouldn't want it to be modular either. The Winter Village sets are great to build and play with as a family. The open back style really encourages play. And it means you can see the delightful details on a cozy interior of it's on display anywhere other than backed up against a wall. Not to mention that a modular style would probably double the cost.

It's a fair point. I wonder why the mouse and flamingo haven't appeared in sets after the CMF. There would be a lot more of them out there if they had been produced for a retail set.

@kbalage does an excellent review of the Old Train Engine Shed as always. Talks realistically about the program, which I appreciate, and gives what I think feels a fair review of the set. I still can't believe how wound up I am about the Solid Brix Studio review nonsense about the BDP LEGO link and the investment potential! Seeing the set with the Orient Express confirms just how large it is, which clearly justifies the price. But I don't know whether I would ever have enough of a train setup to include this in. It looks great though. Decisions, decisions over the next few days. It's very helpful of Bricklink to have sent some review copies out. I hope they do it before the other rounds too.

Orange would be the classic McLaren colour, but I'd prefer the more yellow flame yellow orange as something vibrant. Purple would be good too, and another fairly common McLaren colour. +1 for the request of more variety on the build internals compared to previous models.

Meanwhile Tiago Catarino has, what I think is, a much better video review of the Parisian Street set. It looks great, but it didn't really tempt me beforehand, and the video confirms that, which is nice!

Solid Brix Studio has a review video up of the LEGO Mountain Fortress. It looks great on a video. I appreciate the content he does, but the start of the video winds me up so much with essentially hype that you can't justify and trying to hype things even more. Trying to establish that LEGO = Bricklink. No, LEGO owns Bricklink, but it's a marketplace, so don't try to confuse people that it's all direct from LEGO. And the BDP program sets are from LEGO and considered LEGO sets, which I take issue with, as yes, they have the LEGO logo on, but they're fan designers. Very good fan designers, but don't go through the same QC as a full LEGO set, so stop trying to make out that they do. And then he says that the building instructions are a pre-production version and were full of mistakes, but that they will improve as LEGO makes great building instructions, but again, it's not going through the LEGO instructions team, is it? Not to say they won't make improvements, but the confidence he said it with doesn't strike me as right. And then perhaps worst of all, was bringing in a sealed copy of the LEGO Modular Store and hyping up the value of it and how it sold out in minutes and how he thinks the same will happen here. Nonsense. I really dislike people trying to hype up a LEGO set for the sake of 'investment value'. The first five minutes really felt like made-up marketing for LEGO and really left a sour taste. I've heard comments about him being too nice to LEGO before, and I can see that point of view from other videos I've watched, but I've always thought of him as a LEGO Star Wars fan first, and then YouTuber second, but this video crosses the line for me. What a shame. However, end of rant, if you start the video at 5:11, it gets onto the actual set, and normal service is resumed. The set looks great. It's nice to see a lot of the detail in the video and also a comparison with LKC, which it compares very favourably with on the outside. I agree with David that the interior is sparse, and that you could see that as being a cold and barren castle, but I suspect in real life it would be full of stuff to keep you warm, so I'd definitely want to add a load of detail in there to bring it to life more. Despite being annoyed by the first five minutes of nonsense, and a bit more 'investor hype' at the end, it's a good video, and helped me to decide that I will be buying one. It looks so good on the outside.