Ardelon

Then it would have to include the head as well, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to put the quiver+head and head on the torso. So far, artistic license seems the most plausible explanation to me (meaning, the parts wont look like that IRL). Meh. Glad for the non-fleshie torso, though! And the fig looks good to me, whether the eyes be higher or lower. Hoping for a Gimli poster next.

I just noticed the Roman has his belt half silvery, and half brown. Is this a misprint, or is it on every fig?

Remember, we don't know yet whether it's Eomer. And, as others have noted, you can simply treat him as a generic rider. On the Mumakil, a possible compromise between brick built and molded could be a molded head and a brick built body...

Funny, a lot of gender-correct-thinking people would say that many LEGO themes (and other entertainment franchises) suffer from the opposite tendency - the lack of female characters of any importance . (To paraphrase a certain actress, a female character's primary role is often just to prove that the male hero is heterosexual...). Just think of Friends as balancing the equation.

So far as we know, "Kingdoms will continue" refers to the Kingdoms Joust set only. Nowhere (to my knowledge) does TLG explicitly say there will be other sets. See the first post on page 34 of this thread by Artifex - Kingdoms Joust is to be the only Kingdoms set released in 2012.

I would imagine the phial of Galadriel to be in the form of the beaker from the collectable mad scientist. I think Glamdring has a rather smaller chance of being a new mold than Andúril. Otherwise I generally agree with you. Boromir's horn and a Rohan sword would be !

Sword: Hopefully not, a new sword isn't that hard to make, though it may be true the sword doesn't play that much of a role to warrant a new piece. Ring: Why would TLG do that? Apart from it being too big, there's no reason to stick it on a stud anyway.

That was exactly the way I saw the DM and Royal Knights as well!

I used to thing about the Islanders as Caribbean natives, until I read previous discussions on this very site that persuaded me that the Islanders were, in fact based mostly upon Polynesians, with a bit of Caribbean thrown in to make the Islanders more generic. Apart from tell-tale Polynesian signs like the catamarans (possibly used in the Caribbean, but made famous by Polynesian travellers) and Moai, I don't know whether there were any Caribbean islanders populated by natives left in the era LEGO Pirates are based on (17th-18th centuries). So, my answers to the original questions are based on Polynesia: - The islanders kept pigs. Though I don't know if they go the pigs from European sailors or whether they brought them originally from Asia. - Don't know about stone huts, but there was stone-working in Polynesia, the Moai are the best known example. - No horses, as far as I know. - There were Canniblistic tribes in Polynesia, but mostly in neighboring Melanesia (Fiji (called the "Cannibal Islands"), and Papua New Gunea). - Canoes. Of course they could have used captured rowboats, but canoes have their advantages, and if they were trained to use canoes from an earl age, why switch to rowboats?

Sorry, Kingdoms is gone (or so says the general consensus here). See the first post on page 34 of this thread, Artifex posted a confirmation of no new sets in 2012.

A new sword mold should be easy to make, and I think it would make sense to differentiate an important sword like Anduril from generic swords of the soldiers of Rohan or Gondor (here's to hoping for a Rohan sword!), so a new sword shold be more milkey than not. While the LEGO posters do refer to the actual movie posters, if similarity between the two was so important as to include an image of a sword TLG wouldn't produce, they could have also given Aragorn completely cgi-invented hair similar to the real poster, instead of giving him the that hairpiece. The ring is tricky, I actually agree with those saying that the new 1x1 round tile will be the way it goes. Otherwise, a real ring piece would be too small and fragile. But we still might be pleasantly surprised... Edit: link added

Hector Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean.

I think a Greek look-alike theme with Herakles/Hercules or even made-up heroes (with easy to pronounce names!) battling monsters could work. Think Disney's Hercules movie, or the Hercules series with Kevin Sorbo, though I have no idea whether these were popular with kids. I agree that a Roman theme would be controversial, though. I was disappointed when the Adventuteres were discontinued; I wanted them to go places like under then sea (in old-fashioned diving suits - though I would be satisfied by a collectable minifig of such a diver), the savanna (though the poacher idea of Macoco would work as well or better), the Arctic or Antarctica, or Transylvania (though Monster Fighters probably fill this niche). What I'm worried about is that every few years we will get a set of Adventurers stuck in Egypt, like PQ. But on the whole, I guess I'd like to see a return of the Western theme most.

I wonder whether TLG will make a set where the good guys deviously ambush the other guys and slaughter them with arrows from a safe distance?

Great! You will probably be the new hero of this thread!

Good to see more material from you, SirSven7! Dragon Masters were the faction that drew me in to LEGO Castle, so they have a special place in my heart. I had some Black Knights sets, but they didn’t spark my interest in LEGO much. As such, I couldn't even see the DM as bad guys, what they probably were supposed to be, according to the backstory. I don't know if I mentioned this somewhere already, but I explained away the similarity of DM and Black Knight shields as Majisto recruiting his force from the Black Knights, who simply repainted their old shields. It fitted with the DM appearing after the Black Knights as well as the Dragon Master in the Royal Knights drawbridge set having a Black Knight shield. And lol at the commercial: Maniac not Included!

Trader Steve is his name I believe. He's my favorite too, for the same reason - versatility. My 2nd choice is Ironhook.

I was wondering what face could be used for Velma, as I didn't know of any female faces with glasses. Good job!

The problem with this for me is that I'm a fan of continuity and epicness, and short themes can't deliver on this. I wouldn't mind so much If TLG kept cyclically adding to older themes instead of creating new ones - for example, if they made a new wave of Johnny Thunder Adventurers instead of PQ.

The thing is, this is a forum for die-hard Kingdoms fans, pissed off at LotR for axing Castle. For the opposite viewpoint, glorifying LotR, there is the LotR thread. And its better this way, rather than both camps clashing in the LotR forum. I would expect a solid run of 3 years, with anything more a big success.

This should do it: link to Monster Fighters 2012 thread I agree this thread should be locked.

I´m not too sold on the jumbled color scheme or the heavily armored blacksmith, but that can be modified, and civilian buildings are rare as it is. I would guess it was chosen based on piece count, difficulty of build, playability, and other practical considerations for TLG, which have little to do with what I as an end user see in the set. Does anyone know any details? Why was it chosen to be produced, anything about the contest or how was it chosen, any runners-up?

I see the new redcoats as being the same faction as the Imperial Armada, just set a century later, as both have red coats with blue trim (as well as the leader having a different color coat, whether green of dark blue). That way I get three factions - redcoats, bluecoats and armada. I manage to ignore the difference between both types of eyes, which is more than I can say about fleshies. His hat and torso are from Hector Barbossa, as seen in the 4192 Fountain of Youth set, while his head belongs to King Leo, from the Castle 2000 subtheme Knights Kingdom (1).

Agreed. Actually, the first wave indicates TLG will go on that direction. Now if they only made as many army builders and/or battlepacks...

Are you sure? It would be unprecedented, but there's a first time for eveything, even using CMFs in normal sets.