Ardelon

Shame it isnt four votes per person. Now I had to make some tough choices...

Hoping for a whole theme next year, as I dont think TLG would release one in 2016. That would be only a year away from PotC 5, and might take the wind out of the sales () of the PotC sets - if customers get their pirate fix from an in-house pirate theme in 2016, there might be less apetite for PotC sets. TLG wouldnt want that, so next year is our best hope for a whole theme.

Shame I couldn't check on the debate this past week - I wondered if the anchors+barrel+crown pattern didn't look too crowded or "busy". Not sure if it would work on the small "2x2" flag, if this flag would be used. I might have suggested removing the crown or the barrel, or at least making the barrel black. Though it looks like this wouldn't have much support, since no else mentioned it. Nvm, these are all nice designs, and my votes lie elsewhere.

Boromir is the one inaccurate fig in the lineup, IMO - he reminds me much more of Theoden. Maybe if he didn't have the cheekbones? And reddish-brown hair, of course. The others look fine. I would have given Arwen less prominent lips, now she looks like she's played by Angelina Jolie. And the sunken eyes treatment for Aragorn, maybe. For the Hobbit figs, I thought Wiley Fusebot's beard would have been great for Ori, if the part was available back then. Count me in with those wanting the representations to be as accurate as possible, meaning using the hairpiece with crown instead of the generic elf hair.

Are there any new molds in the set apart from Smaug? The black crucible/cauldron perhaps, or the sand green corner slopes at the base of the columns in the throne section?

These are all phenomenal builds. I especially like the Benny and Vader ones - lots of action packed into the 3D scenes. Looking forward to more!

It might be that the conveyor belt ends just avoe the black crucible thing, which just tips over into nothingess on the left, meaning there is no more to the set. Hopefully Im wrong...

Huh, I'll need to see the whole set to make an opinion. So far ok, nothing to get too excited about. So no Thorin? That's unexpected. I guess he'll be in the Bo5A set, but that means some other desirable fig may get bumped out. Edit: more or less ninja'd by Lego-Freak while I was composing my thoughts.

Heres a video of the report from a Czech commercial TV station (warning: theres a short commercial or two before the actual report). http://tn.nova.cz/clanek/zpravy/na-vasi-strane/seznam-lego-figurek-na-hrackach-muzete-zbohatnout-i-vy-nemate-je-doma.html Its in Czech, of course, but there are close-ups of a few figs. Some of them arent supposed to be available yet, so maybe some of you will identify them. At 0:22 sec., for example, there a fig in a reddish-brown fireman hat (which I dont know if it has been released yet in this color) and a torso which I dont recognize either.

Im not liking this pattern: ... looks too much like a towel, rather than a flag. If we want to invert the colors, I guess the saltire works best, otherwise I would be for the vertical stripes. And, of course, great designs, Capt Wolf!

Id like to see a theme based on China as well, in the mold of the traditional Castle themes - one landed faction, centered on a castle or palace, and a more rugged outlaw faction. Or, even better, make it two landed factions - one good, one evil (well, dark), and make the outlaws "chaotic neutral". Throw in a junk and/or sampan, and, of course, a Chinese-style dragon. Mongol-inspired raiders would be nice, but I dont know if that wouldnt be too similar to the real-world conflict between China and the steppe nomads. I think the theme should avoid stuff that would define the setting as actually being China, as opposed to a fictional world inspired by China - so for example, no Great Wall. It could fill a year when the designers decide that traditional Castle is getting too repetitive - even if European-style Castle themes sell better and have more recognizability, this should still be better than having two similar themes on the shelf, or having nothing at all in the Castle slot. Though I dont think we will see any far eastern Castle themes as long as Ninjago is around. Only for China up to unification in the 3rd century BC; after that, I recall that it replaced feudalism with a "centralized bureaucratic system". Feudalism fits better for Japan under the shoguns, dunno about Korea. (Sorry for being didactic, couldnt resist! ) Point is, we might as well use "medieval", we all know what we are talking about.

Are you sure this is such a big deal for kids? I know even as a kid I wished for more earth tones (not least for army MOCs) rather than have everything built with gaudy primary colors. Its not really overwhelming evidence, but still.

I see you've already decided, but I'll chime in to support the majority opinion. It's a lot easier to fit elements of LotR (or any Castle theme, or even themes like Prince of Persia) into Fantasy Castle than vice versa. Anyway, good luck with your project, and don't burn out too soon!

Wow, this is stunning, thanks for sharing!

+1. This has been an unusually cheap year for me when it comes to LEGO spending for this very reason.

I appreciate differentiated faces, as they make the gender of the figure plain if it has a unisex torso or headgear – in fact this would be my preferred method of minifig gender differentiation, with the torsos being as unisex as possible (yes, by reading this discussion I guess that means male by default). I dont necessarily see female lip/eyelash printing as make-up, but as naturally fuller lips (like others noted above) and longer eyelashes – just like facial hair for males. (Funny thing is, not every guy has facial hair, and yet we (or I, at least) dont hear people complaining like they do about female heads and makeup.) Its easier if the lips are (medium) nougat, as Aachir mentioned, but not necessary for me – I never thought of the classic islander woman as wearing lipstick. At the time, I would have preferred a plain torso for her, which could also be used for male warriors, with the head defining her as female. And that is one torso that cant be used for males, not even for those with manboobs. Today, Im fine with boob or muscle or fat-belly printing, but the negative space still bugs me. Especially on sweaters and overcoats. Its much more likely for females to wear loose and even frumpy clothes than males to wear form-hugging clothes (that show him having an hourglass figure, at that). And if the faces are differentiated, negative-space torso printing isnt even necessary in these cases of overcoats and sweaters. But I admit its good for those wanting females in form-fitting clothing, for whatever reason – I myself cant understand why minifigs cant simply be blocky. Its not like real-life male torsos are (all)trapezoidal with the bottom base being longer – why not print negative space for athletic males with broader shoulders than waist? (to TLG: this is not a dare. Please dont do that.) But its true someone might call me out on face differentiation for the very same reasons Im not fond of torso differentiation. I guess there will never be an agreement on this, as everyone has a different vision _. Some want minifigs as generic as possible for MOCing or TLGs inclusiveness message or tradition, others want them as detailed as possible for the sake of realism or diversity. Many, like me, want something in between. In this way, its like the yellow vs fleshie debate.

Not cool, deskp. This should not be about naming and shaming.

Yes, but with LotR, TLG can rely on pop-culture awareness of the source material. And from these forums it seems every license theme brings in some new AFOLs. Of course, it might not be enough to make a difference, and its entirely possible the kids (and the adults who buy them LEGO) dont care that much about the subject matter, so long as the set has (in our case) knights, castles and dragons...

Bard is a great figure, but shame about the fleshie triangle (someone had to say it). Not that I'd get it if it really is exclusive instead of a preview fig. We'll know this for sure if TLG presents all the sets at SDCC.

Seconded for steam punk. More gold and copper parts! But the success would probably hinge on an interesting storyline, I doubt kids would enjoy the steam punk aesthetic on its own merits - in fact, Im not sure steam punk is a "thing" in "child pop culture" at all...

I also think an theme featuring a mix of humans and aliens as good guys and bad guy would be great (or at least good guys, just to show they can be). I wonder why such a theme didnt appear already, it seems like such a no-brainer. Does TLG think kids will be confused about the factions not being separated by race/species? This. Nope, no human crooks... I bet any aliens watching us and wondering whether to make contact arent too happy with TLG...

Or make him a mascot for the CMS Butcher's shop... With all these suggestions, there should be some kind of contest for the pig-suit-guy after the series comes out!

What I want now is a follow-up video of the two astronauts. The first one ended on quite a cliffhanger! Its an Ent from the Orthanc set of Lord of the Rings line. http://brickset.com/sets/10237-1/Tower-of-Orthanc

A good review of an impressive set. So, is Classic Space an official term? Or is this the first time „Classic Space“ was used on official material? Yes, I also thought the mech doesnt fit with the aesthetic of the classic space men (& women). But hey, its a cool mech, and 2 cool spacemen with it, even if they dont really fit together.

@ TheLegoDr: They could also do an "Evil Viking", since they often do female or evil complements to previous figs, and sometimes both. (I'm still waiting for an evil grandparent or evil tennis player...)