Virginia_Bricks

Eevee was cube like because in the anime and game its head is naturally a cube-like shape. These sets are taking on a more cube like shape because they need to incorporate a 2 stud by 4 stud by 5 plate tall brick (Smark Brick) in the middle. That means especially for small Pokemon you don't have a lot of time to be able to shape the edges and keep the Smart Brick hidden. If you realize this you notice that the Smart Brick is the length of Charmander's torso and half the width. Hard to make it more accurate without inflating the piece count and the price. That and creating designs where you can easily take the Smart Brick in and out to charge or switch which Pokemon has it. This all assumes the Smart Bricks goes inside these models, which we can't know for certain yet. Yes, they could have ditched the Smart Brick idea but incorporating technology play sold well with Super Mario and Nintendo wants to keep that approach to Lego sets going it seems. We are getting plenty of 18+ accurate Pokemon statues which are more my style so maybe that is why I'm not too upset with the Smart Brick sets.

The only one that looks bad is Charmander, other than that it is just a stylistic choice. Fine if you don't like it, but it isn't bad.

My guess is they will do a smaller one down the road, but wanted to release in the first wave 3 different price points. Given how many buildable Dobbys, Grogus, etc.... we have, Pikachu seems destined for the same treatment.

Do you mean LOTR specific (not Lego) channel? Or a Lego LOTR channel? Since the theme was cancelled and just rebooted as part of Icons I don't think there is a definitive set of Lego LOTR reviewers. For pre-release reviews I prefer Solid Brix for sets like this. Austrian Brick Fan is good for speed builds.

I'm assuming the GWP is also revealing tomorrow? Since we already got a pretty comprehensive leak of Minas Tirith, Grond is more interesting to me. There was a leak that one of the orcs has a unique face print.

To keep attention on May the 4th promotions and the summer playset reveals. Lego staggers their reveals to ensure they get as much solo attention as possible. I do think things might come as early as next week with June 1 playset reveals happening today and tomorrow.

That is a pass for me. Just too much Lego out there I want to spend money on non-mini fig sets. Its cute, but not my thing.

Yeah, I would rather pay $800 for a beast of a Helm's Deep with current design and bricks than $800 for a new copy of the playset from 2012. The playset is solid, but even with Bag End price per piece ratio that would be a 6,000 piece set versus 1,400.

This is my hope and then Helm's Deep in 2028 and Orthanc in 2029. I could honestly retire for this theme then with all the major locations covered. Harry Potter finally got a new Borgin & Burkes as a GWP two years ago and now this year there is a full playset Knockturn Alley. It happens once in a while.

Did we get confirmation that Arcanine, Rayquaza and Munchlax are 18+ build-able Pokemon and not Smart Brick sets? If so, I missed it but I am excited. It might not be everyone's cup of tea but I think Eevee and the Trio are great. Pikachu is good, just not good enough with every other Lego set I want this year and next. Those three just seem like odd choices for the next 18+ sets with being less recognizable than the first set of 18+ Pokemon.

It comes down to the breakdown of flame retardants used in plastic. ABS plastic (what Lego uses) uses brominated plastric retardents so what you are seeing in the yellowing is the bromine. Clearly the lighter the color used, the more obvious the bromine becomes. But effectively the same reaction happens in black bricks as white bricks, you just can't see it in black because the dye is stronger. The reaction occurs most commonly from UV light and heat. Where you live in the world greatly impacts this because UV light is the strongest around the equator and weakens as you head north or south. Also depends on where windows are in the room Lego exists because UV light is strongest during the middle of the day.

If we are getting Eevee in the Pokeball set it feels safe to assume there will be at least a few in that set alone. Pikachu seems like a no brainier. If this is off the original anime, the eevee could be Gary's so each trainer will get their iconic Pokemon. Onyx for Brock seems easy enough and gives some size variety to the moulded Pokemon.

UV glass is expensive, but it does the job and what museums use on artwork. I don't think any of the acrylic cases would help the same way unless they have built in UV protection.

Absolutely. I don't own many solid white sets for this reason. Yet, my 2007 Imperial Landing Craft is relatively untouched. Sure its yellowed, but not to the point you would quickly notice without close inspection. I just bought Gringotts and have the Ghost from a few years back so we will see how they fare. Is it going to stop me from buying Minas Tirith? Not likely, but I went down the rabbit hole earlier this year about Lego changing their white to see if anything they did was to solve yellowing. The new white is a whole lot less opaque so it won't let light through as much, but that makes it almost feel like it will absorb more itself. There is a redditor who has been sun exposing a piece of the new white so we might soon have an answer.

I hope they keep the upscaled carts going for a while. There is a lot to do and I think they look great.

But they follow patterns because when people can leak information is not totally random. D2C sets is harder, but a lot of the retail sets leak because the information was shared with retailers who have less care about keeping those things secret. They get that information on a regular basis from Lego in advance of set releases. Sure the Minas Tirith leak happened early because of a mistake, so something could happen with the GWP, but most GWPs leak about a month before release. Another example besides Smeagol and Deagol was HP's GWP 40770 which leaked on August 7th before a September 1st release. Yet the SW May the 4th GWP leaked a few months ago.

Smeagol and Deagol leaked March 7th, 2025 which was released on April 2nd. So a month in advance. Therefore May is the best bet since Minas Tirith doesn't release till June.

So the exact same mini-figure. Great for those who want him and not buy a now retired, but not sure anyone is really itching for more bell and fossil prints given you always get a spare in each set with them.

Not to continue almost a page of discussion on just GWP practices, but I wonder what having a new distribution facility and production facility in North America allows Lego to do. Its only the second distribution center in the US so adding 2,000,000 sqft of space is significant. Don't think it would be used to store more GWPs, rather growing existing product lines and maybe new product lines (Smart Brick).

Any chance we get another Insiders Reward Mario Kart item? So many options: Red or Green Shell, Banana Peel, Mushroom, etc... Lego has to be seeing the crazy prices that is getting on the secondary market and thinking another one might do well.

There has to be a production run limit. Like they can only run 2,000 copies per production run. So increasing the # of copies would require it be stepped (10,000 to 12,000 to 14,000). Also these decisions have to be done before the set is "released" so they aren't always sure on reception. Last year the Shire GWP lasted forever because the set had a mixed reception. This accidental leak might give them a chance to prepare better because they can tell general sentiment on the set. Also fair to note, that the Fell Beast GWP was the first true LOTR GWP so they were still figuring out how many copies to produce. It ran out fast, but they prepared better for the Shire. I think the only GWP in the US that sold out on Day 1 was the Star Trek Shuttlepod. So a theme debuting and therefore difficult to predict demand.

That wouldn't accomplish their goal: Incentivize day 1 full retail sales. If I knew I could get the GWP later, I would just wait for a good sale or at least 2 VIP. If they made the GWPs more substantial for these large sets it might still work. You would need roughly a $35 GWP to make up for not getting 2x points and honestly probably $50-60 because during Insiders Weekend you can get 2x points and a GWP or two. Personally I think all the large LOTR releases since Rivendell have been on the same par as far as design goes. A lot of people judge the Shire because of its price, but is a really well designed set for its budget limitations. You can't clearly add more interior without increasing the price substantially or evening fixing the trees would cost a decent bit of budget.

Really rough estimate is: Width: 64 studs, Height 60 bricks/72 studs, Depth 32 studs. Used the gate which is about 8 by 12 studs to do the width and height.

Since the consensus is these are still preliminary mini-figs, what are the odds Arwen ends up with skirt printing? Just feels odd to have arm printing and cheap out on skirt printing.

Can they do Erebor under the current license? Sure you could do Khazad-dum, but during the timeline of the LOTR it really isn't the home of the dwarves.