RichardGoring

What is the difference between a moving van and a removals van? Aren't they the same thing? Anyway, it's nice that we finally get a GWP for the townhouse renovation with the petshop...

Agreed, but, as you point out, it's to its benefit to be smaller, as anything larger would be massively more expensive and likely a more tedious build experience. It's the problem that doing minigure scale versions of real places suffer from, as they do have to reflect the real-world place. The Home Alone or Simpson's houses are a much larger scale than the modulars, so to my eyes don't fit alongside them. The Daily Bugle and Sanctum Santorum are much smaller in scale, so while they fit, the Sanctum is supposed to be four floors (from the outside), but it's the same height as a three storey modular, and, I think, a bit too small to be truly minifigure scale (with all of the inherent arguments about what scale you measure to for minifigs vs people). For me, the modulars nail the balance between looks, scale, detail, playability, cost, and all the other things you'd want from a mass market set. Despite the compromises that have to be made as a result. It also shows you just how good Friends is, for including a bathroom in EVERYTHING! (small children LOVE this, and they clearly know their target market!)

Oh sorry. Yes, agreed!

I don't think a copyright strike confirms that they're real. Even if a concept. it's LEGO's IP that they can protect, especially from clone companies. Also, it helps to set a precedent that LEGO will come after you if you share confidential images, regardless of what they show.

Yes, but my point was that the images we've seen leaked were probably in the survey, but also likely in something else - along with Rivendell (which wasn't in the survey). So while the survey may have had some images, the person who leaked the images may well have got them all from a different place. So it could all be one source for the leak. Tolkien's writing room would be a cool GWP. Please, please, please no Brickheadz!

Images from retailer preview catalogues typically have this watermark too, and often show pre-production sets, so it's either from one of those, or, given that this is more likely concepts, it's just the way that LEGO format any kind of pre-production, pre-release images. Hence looking the same, even if they're from different places. Alternatively, they could all be from the same source, and some of those were also in the survey that was taken, but not actually leaked from the survey.

Yes, you could, but it over the top to do so. I got 60 rubber ducks on my fall version of it, so half seemed sensible.

It's from a market research survey of sets, or maybe these are from a catalogue, or both. But some of them are very clearly still concepts, so they could well be releasing next year and are still being finalized. Or indeed not releasing at all. But they look good, and I hope we do get them. The village will definitely add a lot to the castle.

It's worth noting that the 'goat' is possibly a 3D printed part in grey, and not necessarily a moulded part. And it's a concept and could well change. Or not released at all. Honestly, even if they don't release the goat, it would be awesome to get a decent set with such a large collection of animals. Goat would make it even better. What seems really odd is that they've had several sets over the last few years that would have been PERFECT for a goat to return, and the designers have even talked about wanting to do it, but not having the budget for new moulds, as they're D2C or 18+ sets, which don't get to do new moulds as much. And then they release a 4+ mass market city set of a farm with loads of animals, but no goat. And so it comes down to this, which is another more adult focused set, and we suddenly get one. I don't quite understand. Anyway, hopefully it releases, then comes to PAB, and I can add one to the JP T-Rex set, and about 30 to the bonsai tree to finally make the goat tree we've talked about before!

Maybe it's Indiana breaking into Hangar 51 and releasing all of the photos that have been stored in there...

If you buy two, they will reach up to the roof when combined. Copyright 2023 just means that the image is copyrighted now. Doesn't mean that the set won't release in a future year (or at all). Loving both of these. The fire at the base at top of Barad-Dur, along with the colour patches throughout help to give it a bit of texture and depth that Orthanc can sometimes lack. Rivendell is awesome, and it would be amazing to get a second to MOC and extension, but oh my, with so much potentially to get in the next year or so, it might not be a good idea (money or space).

Agreed. And for that reason, I would be surprised if they released this year. A few might, but all would be a (very pleasant) surprise. Indeed, some of them may not release at all, but very cool to see them.

Very nice!

Even if the sets don't release, as I suspect it's a pipeline survey of ideas for the future, the ideas themselves are great to consider and really interesting. The leaked images of the concepts (maybe final sets, who knows), are awesome to see. Thank you @JeanGreyForever

Oh wow, that looks terrific! Even the trees look decently filled out, which is great.

Survey is clearly legitimate, although I'm still skeptical as to whether LEGO will actually release everything, and/or that it will be at a much later date for this kind of survey. But great to hear about the concepts. Thanks @JeanGreyForever

Both look great. Somewhat surprised that if this is a real set, they turned down the Ideas option from @Hanwasyellowfirst to do it. Their first version was darker, like this new image, and then it was made brighter and more colourful, which LEGO often does to Ideas sets. They've kept it as quite muted colours. I slightly prefer Hanwasyellowfirst's version, but they're all excellent. If true. These kinds of images are often concepts, so I wonder how much it will change before release - if it releases at all, of course.

white_bricks_afol87 on Instagram has it.

If you look at one of JeanGreyForever's posts on the Disney theme thread - It says they took a survey and saw photos of sets, price ranges, and descriptions. I've also never heard of surveys like this, but that doesn't mean they don't happen. It's just unlikely that a survey will go out to an AFOL who frequents a forum, so we don't get to hear about it much. Most people won't care enough to share the information. But thinking about it as a survey, and knowing that LEGO produce concept and test models all the time, I can easily see them doing this kind of market research to gauge interest in a concept and try out different price points. For both retailers and consumers. The only thing that I'd really take issue with is that JeanGreyForever appears to think that the sets are definitely going to be released, and at some point this year. But that doesn't tally with the broad price ranges, which would have been set by now if the sets were production ready and scheduled for release. But who knows, with LEGO's pricing changes recently, maybe they're also testing that too.

The way it's been described, as a product survey, suggests that it's for pipeline stuff, not sets planned for release. For planned sets, they know the pricing and release schedule already. Whereas, they'd probably do surveys for ideas in the pipeline about how people respond to different themes, sets, and price points, which is what is supposed to have gone on here.

That's a good point, and likely decent money to be made by doing it.

I also think LEGO would more likely focus on D2C sets for LOTR. It's not aimed at younger children at all (at least all the media stuff), so they're going to be drawn more towards the TFOLs, AFOLs, and, perhaps critically, the 18+ adults who will see something cool and impressive, and they've seen LOTR or RoP, and are happy to get a large, expensive set to build. As with many releases in the last year or so, LEGO could be treating this as a gateway product, to get people into LEGO that haven't been before (or not since childhood). Two at the same time seems unlikely, but you could easily see it being one a year, or maybe a second after six months. And if they're doing that, they are likely designing them together, and thinking about a release cycle if they want to make it a semi-regular thing. Some of that may be drawing too much on my own experience - I have the Jurassic Park D2Cs, but only one or two of the playsets. Same for Marvel (a D2C, no playsets), Disney (two D2Cs, one playset), and Star Wars (two D2Cs, no playsets). Although I have all the Nintendo D2Cs and a load of playsets too, but mostly because my children are the right age. If they're releasing the LOTR D2Cs as an Icons set, it suggests no playsets (for now) and also the possibility of more D2Cs being released very possible. None of which is to say that it will happen, but you can easily see the route, rationale, and past behaviour to suggest that it might.

Briefly, when the castle launched. But really briefly. It was gone within a day though, second time around. Many were a bit peeved about it not lasting long.

Curiouser and curiouser. As someone said above, if you can't speculate on rumors or wishlists, what is this forum for? And there's a relatively fine line between a rumor and a wishlist. Fun to imagine either way. The thing that surprises me most is that LEGO do online surveys like this. I assumed it was all done in-house, in physical locations, so it's easier to control things leaking.

If we're doing that, then I heard that the next Disney D2C will be a full park setup (I don't know the parks, so I couldn't tell which one it was, but the picture had a tall castle in the middle and a shopping street), with a roller coaster, haunted mansion, open air theatre, and parade with fireworks. It contains minifigure costumed characters representing all movies, as well as guests, plus minidoll versions of them all, allowing people to choose their preference. Oh, and while we're at it, a monorail too. Back to the real world, I'll also try to modify the eyes on Eve so that they're not quite so close to the edge. Two 1x2 jumpers should be fine to just bring them in a little bit. I like the make up on Cruella (and Maleficent). Very neat. And Cruella's coat too. Really nicely done.