hikouki

One thing that immediately came to mind is that there are other 'holidays' or seasonal traditions that Lego celebrates such as Easter. I have to admit, it is harder to come up with a long list of buildings that could be populated by minifigs for that line, but they could always get creative. At any rate, I'm hoping that with the "Christmas/ Winter" and "Halloween" themes, that there will be more! They could possibly even look towards other Halloween traditions like Dia de los Muertos for inspiration for some of these vignettes and buildings.

Looks like Minas Tirith temporarily sold out. Did it go on backorder since release? Comparing the previous sets, I think Rivendell went on "backorder" and "sold out" several times. I think Barad-dur may have gone on "backorder" but I don't remember it selling out.

Those are just amazing especially with the lighting!

Agree. Self-fulfilling prophecy from the Lego Disney team.

This! This! This!!! The irony! They could possibly have rotated castles/ locations one after another. The anniversary castle had a good selection of minifigs but not great. I remember when it came out, rumors were "at least" 8 figs but it was released with "ONLY" 8 minifigs! And then the early retirement, being replaced by the smaller set that they feared would steal the limelight. Also, didn't the cinderella cottage go on backorder several times? And yet it retired (maybe because the movie it was trying to tie in with was quite controversial. ). At any rate, it seems Lego is 'lost' with its Disney castle/ minifig strategy. Good for them the buildables are selling well, supposedly but not for me.

Are these buildables populating Disney stores in place of a flagship castle? Currently, it is just that stunted BATB castle, together with Main Street (which is obviously a non-castle), as the big 'flagship' sets.

I think they could probably release a small-ish set with many figs engaged in a battle. Oh, that would sell well! Wonder if the tan feather making an appearance might mean something for LOTR? Or they just badly needed that part in that color for the technic line?

The vignettes on that Pokeball look really good and I want them and the minifigs, but not really that massive build!

Bummer that Lego didn't give us more orcs to go with those GWP siege towers, and the orcs from Barad-dur are now quite pricey to army-build!

Lego has a long 'policy' of not making modular buildings other than for the actual modular line (except maybe for some Marvel or Ninjago D2C's). But they seem to realize that if they release a "dollhouse" (i.e., open-back) buildings, fans will be alright with it since someone will modularize it into a MOC.

That would be one way to salvage the series. Although I imagine it would just be drivers with different heads and torso/ helmet prints, maybe even legs. (But who in the minifig world needs legs if you have a fast car? ). All 'figs' with same design. Boring. Monotonous. Except for if you are a true F1 aficionado. But if the aforementioned variation is true, then this series way better than the F1 minifig series that did not contain any actual minifigs.

More X-Men minifigs coming in a rumored set: Nightcrawler, Mystique, Magneto, among others.

Some people were complaining on Reddit about the Pikachu and Eevee minifigs but on BrickClickers videos, they actually look good. I am looking forward to that set!

Hopefully, Lego 'compensates' us next year by making some interesting BAM items. One can only hope. Yes! Exactly! These types of releases gives the consumers a feeling of 'unpredictability' for the theme.

If AFOLs are put off by this series, will there be enough sales from kids ???

I feel like the decision to offer more minifigs with Rivendell was more a marketing thing... here we are now expecting/ wanting more! That was the least that they could do.

Is there a secret sheikh or king who is a fan of this and commissioned Lego to make them, and the general sales are icing on the cake? That or someone in their product planning department is just not doing their job? That hurts. Longer wait time for the next meaningful series for us fans.

Chicken and egg. They ought to make the minifig sets good enough for fans to buy. So many missed opportunities with the choices Lego has made for the castles and D2Cs. Ditto.

I wonder... did the minifig collectors convert to buildable collectors? Or there are just so few people wanting more minifigs???

When the Black Falcons were reissued, Lego came up with a chain mail version: plain on the front with a logo on the back on a red background, simulating a cape. I always thought they could have kept it generic/ without the logo and could have been the chain mail version for a couple of factions, just with varying accessories. Seems Lego is changing strategies. But I really prefer they give us at least two variations of bespoke prints/ torsos for each faction. The Horse Knights have two versions of torsos and legs. Amazing! Everything else has so far only gotten one.

I think the recent LOTR releases are best to display as a location set rather than a diorama set. They are great standalone displays with a backdrop. IMHO.

Which year can we again expect to get two non-licensed series in that same calendar year?

They are so averse to ethnic groups! They used to have a line of Japanese themed figs and now all we get is Ninjago, even in the CMF line! The only other group featured is ancient/ traditional Chinese with the CNY/ LNY sets. I would really love for them to continue featuring ethnic groups in the CMF line! Native Americans, Japanese, etc.

I usually populate my official and MOC modulars with CMF and BAM characters. LOL

X-Men '97 season 2 is premiering next month ~ I wonder if we might get some nod to this next year? A small set, a D2C, or just a minifig included in another set???