Black Falcon

They can´t name that dwarf, because it wasn´t named in the Lord of the Rings - not because they have no License for other films. Even with the license for the Hobbit they wouldn´t be able to name him because it is said nowhere that this dwarf is indeed Gimlis father Gloin. And you are still failing to understand, that I nowhere, and never said the Hunt for Gollum or any of the new movies would be part of an years old licensing agreement. Again, they can have agreed on making sets yesterday, last week, last month - or not at all - we just don´t know, even if you claim otherwise. On a side note, even before the film was officially announced we knew they were working on new films and it doesn´t seem that unlikely that they made that agreement before the official name of the film was announced. We shouldn´t forget that Lego doesn´t need to be the one that reaches out to them for making sets, but Warner can also offer them, as again, free advertising + money from licensing would be something Warner would be interested in too. Well, that is something we can agree on, Hunt for Gollum indeed seems like a strange choice, since I don´t see them doing any big battles there, really - though you never know. Still it can get a good movie, but there would certainly things I would be more interested in (War in the north - or even storys that play after the LotR-movies. And yeah, I would have loved sets for War of the Rohirrim too, but guess since at this point we don´t have any clue about them, it seems very unlikely. Where I do disagree, though is that Sets for the new movies are more unlikely because there were none for RoP. First of all there is no merchandising for RoP at all, so I would actually doubt that Amazon is able to make licenses based on their series. Additional to that the new Film will be from the same partner like the others, so it is more likely the films get sets than RoP

The point is, we have no idea what they have or not. You claim they only have the rights for LOTR trilogy right now, then tell me, where you got the info from? Even if they would need a whole new licensing contract for the new films, there is no indication to tell whether they have them or not unless you have some insider infos.

The figure they used calls back to said figure though. Yeah, it doesn´t use earrings anymore, but considered the hair is a mould and not printed anymore it might look a bit weird anyways. Back then they used it as a detail to show it is a women but nowadays the design overll evolved IMO that is just isn´t needed anymore. Anyways I am happy they decided to not print them anymore.

Who knows how long they will be avaiable still. They increased in price quite some and I guess for many it might not be worth buying them anymore. Less magazins sold might end up in higher prices though. So not all magazines might survive.

I am really wondering how good the set will do when it is released. I don´t think it would particulary sell bad, but on the same time, for some people the old burrow might be enough and I just do think that many might buy the Ship instead of the burrow for the GWP

I bet there were plenty that said stuff like Bionicle isn´t Lego and wouldn´t sell well. And there were lots of peope that said the same about Hidden Side, Video (they were right there obviously - though I think the main problem was that the price was just to much because it included the app) but also Mario and Dreamzzz. Honestly I wouldn´t have thought Mario would be running for that many years either but it is still there. That beeing said, people sometimes act like yeah, it was obvious that theme wouldn´t go well but in the end you will have to try to see how good it really goes.

Well we had that conversation twice already, but anyways. First of all when I wrote I don´t think that the licensing would be a problem, I didn´t say that they can do whatever they want, but it does seem unlikely to me that Warner would refuse if they wanted to make sets. First of all Warner is making money with licensing merchandise and not to forget when those sets are in the shops alongside the films it is also free advertising for them. Second, what makes you think they would need the rights from Tolkien Estate? WB/New Line have the license from Tolkien Estate but Lego only from WB/New Line, hence why Lego can only show what was in the films. At least that is how I understood it works and also what seems to be common sense when I look back to the conversation about licensing we had in this thread a while back. Now of course, noone really saw the licensing deals here and we are all no experts, but there is like no indication that Lego would have a licensing deal with Tolkien Estate. Third, again we have no idea what they agreed on in the licensing deal between Warner/New Line and Lego. But I don´t think every single set will be writen down there. Licensing deals often go over several years and they likely won´t know what Sets they will do towards the end of the deal when they sign it. So I would guess, that the licensing deal is just a deal that is about a theme (or might even be a deal that has several IPs in it) which won´t include which set can be done and which cant but rather includes the details of how the process of the licensing goes, what each side has to do, how much % Warner gets from sold sets etc. For instance, lets say Lego wants to do a Helms Keep set, so of course they will have to ask Warner if they can do it. Now they will build it and will work together with Warner in the design process, for instance Warner might send them material that will help them to design the set and Lego will have to make changes on their build if Warner asks them to. And in the end Warner will have to approve to the final build before Lego is allowed to sell it. So, yeah, that beeing said, not every set has to need an own agreement or be part of one, as long as the licensing contract has certains rules set. Yeah, I would wait for double points and a nice GWP. Black Friday usually has good offers, including at least two GWPs.

The real data will be how Barad Dûr will sell without the GWP though. Many waited for better offers with Rivendell because they were not that much into the Brickheads. We have no idea what the license they have includes, but I don´t think the license would be the problem if Lego chooses they want to make sets.

There are also ads for the current themes though - even in the tv. Though I couldn´t find it online yet.

Yeah, there is like no way they aren´t working on the next set already. If Barad-Dûr would sell bad, they would just cancel the set they are working on but they won´t wait to see how the sales are going before starting to work on it. Anyways for me the best chance for playsets is still the new films. It isn´t that unlikely that they would make sets for them and if they are doing well I can see them starting with LotR playsets again in the years between the new movies.

Would need big discounts to make it worth it to me. Don´t really have any use for the heads or the stream.

To me, it is a lot better. I think Lego would have huge issues selling their products if they would still have the same design language as they did have back then. I think this might also be one of the reasons why they make a second asian factory in Vietnam, so if they would have to close their chinese Factory down, they can still produce for the asian marked from there. And actually the European and American market would probably even profit from it, as most of the other bricks are produced in China and and likely they won´t be allowed to be imported anymore then.

Honestly, those minifigures without studs on top are creeping me out. It just looks so ugly to me, I don´t think I could watch a full movie of that, really.

I do belive Lego is doing what is working well for them, and as MAB said, the inhouse themes might be less in number of themes but the overall number os Sets isn´t that small actually. In the end I can only buy so many sets anyways so even if more inhouse themes, could possibly result in more Sets attracting me, what would buy would still be limited by space and money. That beeing said, I do like some IPs Lego is (or was) producing (like Indiana Jones, Jurassic Parc, Star wars, Lord of the Rings etc) but even there I don´t buy Sets from every Theme I like. Exactly and we shouldn´t forget that without Licensed Sets Lego likely wouldn´t be as big as it is now, so less or no licenses wouldn´t mean they would do more unlicensed stuff but likely less Sets in general. In the end there are surely some themes I don´t care about (from both inhouse and licensed) but it is still good that they are there. And sure I would love if they would bring classic themes like Adventures, Castle, Pirates and Space back as whole series - but in the end they can´t produce everything to please everyone - maybe one day we will get them back and till then I will hope for nice Sets like the Lion Knights Castle or the Galaxy Explorer and nice GWPs. Well, that argument about Space beeing put into City because of that reason was a claim with no evidence and if they would have wanted to produce them as standalone Theme they would have just done so - however there are surely several reasons why they didn´t.

Won´t be long and the first Set (Brick-Cross-Station) will be sold out - with the Mushroom House following soon after. Just ordered the Mushroom House before it is gone.

They will all be avaiable everywhere where you usually buy Lego in August.

Well it is obviously not an inhouse Set but using an IP - also it isn´t like Lego decided they would want to make an Pharell Williams Film but they were asked - so Lego has a part in the Production of the Movie but isn´t producing it - you could say they are the Licensing Partner for the Video and Pharell and/or the Movie Company the Licensing Partner for the Sets.

Well it is licensed and surely that also increases the price. But the ship itself is making maybe 20% of the Sets Price IMO, the majority goes for the (admittedly well built) stream, the minifigures and the "phriends". Whyever someone would behead his friends and display their heads is beyond my imagination though. The ship itself is pretty basic IMO, not a bad build but nothing compared to the Lightyear-ship either.

Yeah, though I kinda doubt they would include all those scenes/places. I would take the Watcher, Chamber of Mazarbul and the Bridge as granted though. No way they would make the set without those and especially the Bridge and the Balrog. I would disagree here. Maybe it wouldn´t be the first choice, but I would say it is iconic enough - and especially could serve to have a less expensive set (compared to Rivendell and Barad-Dûr) for Sale. Also the Great Hall of Edoras has an quite unique style compared to other buildings in the films (granted, bag end, and others do have that to) I don´t think that is an issue, since one is an IP based Set and the other isn´t. And anyways I wouldn´t call them similar aside from the colour sheme maybe. Sure the Viking Village is nearer with its architectural style than other sets are, but the size difference alone doesn´t really make them comparable to me. And actually I would rather say that Edoras would benefit from the Viking village beeing avaiable because it could use parts that are in productions now, like the printed 1x4 tile. I think that hugely depends on how well it is done and I don´t have much doubt that they could make that fit nicely together.

It is kinda like a much smaller version of May the fourth with Harry Potter. Less GWPs, less discounts and no double Insider Points. Though I would hope they would celebrate it a bit bigger this year than they did last year, so who knows. Last year all we got aside from the GWPs were some Sets with 20% discount. Yeah, well Errol doesn´t count as a minifig though. No idea how reliable I would take a source that doesn´t even know that - and all the listed characters above are the ones we are almost taking as granted anyways. Bill and especially Charly are the uncertain characters here. Still have my doubts about the no stickers comment but if it turns out to be true, I will surely be happy about it.

I don´t see them doing two big Sets in one year, way more likely we will see a return of playsets than having two big sets without any normalsets. I also wouldn´t to much into those things, sure it can be hints on what to come or could just be what the designer would love to come, his favourits LotR locations etc. Though they are among the more likely locations anyways, but there are a lot locations I could see them doing, like Edoras, Moria (though that might be harder to display than other locations) I would actually like to get a Lonely Mountain Set aswell, though I guess it is very unlikely they would do Sets based on the Hobbit.

They already do more or less kids aimed sets with a higher price range though. Great Hall from the new Hogwarts module, JPs Visitor Center just to name two. The thing is more that there will be maximum one set above 100€ I think and there would be various scenes they could choose for it. The question is though, is that mobile command center iconic enough to get a big set and probably it is not. Nowhere near the Visitor Center for sure (and I would still wish to get a D2C Set for that one)

Yeah hard to imagine the interior won´t have stickers with all the rooms displayed.

There is like no way that Harry won´t be included in the Burrow (not that I would miss him if he weren´t included but it is seeems so unlikely to me) The GWP will be avaiable for a short time only and won´t be a reason to not include him in the set. So if really all Weaslys would be included, we would have the minifigures then - but that remains to be seen.

Polyback thresholds were 40€ if I remember correctly, though doesn´t matter that much since we would be buying enough to get the main GWP anyways. I hope we stay in the price range of last years GWPs. As for the question when the GWP will be avaiable, they started celebrating Hogwards day last year and mentioned to do the same again next (this) year so it should be at the same dates (with maybe a few days difference) every year now together with the big D2C Set.