Faefrost

I think the slots are there to provide the space for the end of the pin to fully expand. They found that pins left under compression would weaken or not hold properly any more. The slots are to prevent part damage.

As I said above, the chances are that all of this began via automation. I'd further bet that any C&D'd or takedown requests probably originated with a third party firm contracted by TLG to assist in policing copyright matters on the Internet. Such a firm would have no idea of who Paul is within the Lego community, nor would they likely be doing a costs benefits analysis of what he does. And any ambassadors would likewise have limited if any access to such an outside firm. It's not a new trend from Lego, it's a new trend on the Internet. Copyright and trademark enforcement services are big business now. Just look at the disaster going on over on YouTube surrounding their mysterious and Draconian "Content ID" system since December.

I think if this set had had the 2in 1 style builds that some of the others featured, and actually made the kabob stand and saloon it might have been the best set of the wave. Instead it's a parts pack for a western MOC.

Friends is the one theme that pretty effectively is not taking shelf space from other themes. Rather it is very effectively growing shelf space of its own over in the land of pink. As far as Friends retiring? Not anytime soon. Right now Friends is looking like TLG's breakout product line. Something unseen since they first got the Star Wars license. Star Wars and Ninjago bring Lego lots of happy customers and lots of sales to those happy customers. Friends however is bringing Lego an utterly mind blowing number of customers who have not bought Lego before. They are new business growth. Somewhere in excess of 80% of friends sets sold are to new Lego customers. And they can't keep the stuff on the shelves.

That is probably the most understandable breakdown of how the TLG packaging system most likely works, that we will ever hope to read. Thank you so much. It also gives us a great deal of insight into some of the often not thought of or misunderstood aspects of set design. I know there are some people that believe that MOC'ers design better stuff than the actual Lego designers. ShaydGrai's wonderful breakdown helps to clearly highlight some of the truly complex differences between making a model (MOC) and designing a set for production.

The Police Dropship kinda reminds me an awful lot of a Space Police'd version of the forthcoming Star Wars Corruscant Police Gunship. They have similar lines and styling, although the movie one is more rounded while the SW one has a more angular look.

It's interesting to note that what look to be the two largest sets on that table have not been seen or announced as products. The Pirate ship (kinda strange looking?) and that spectacular huge classic space cruiser.

As various points in several economies change Lego, like any merchant will adjust pricing policies to compensate. The small changes we have seen in discounts or sales are most likely a mechanism to try and hold regular pricing constant without seeing any major increases. As far as the no more discounts on the D2C stuff, this makes good business sense, and it's a wonder they did not implement it sooner. I'm sure their data showed that more and more the bulk of those type sets were being sold below the planned price point due to unpredictable discounts, and as such may not have been making profit targets. It's one thing to offer a couple of day discounts on sets like Ninjago where each set has been produced at around a million pieces. If you sell a few thousand at 20% off that doesn't hurt the overall product. But if you sell a few thousand of a modular, that only has a production run of 50,000 or so at deep discount. You have hurt the bottom line of the product needlessly. (And this is why other merchants like TRU always exclude Technics sets from their BOGO deals.) At the end of the day TLG must make a profit. The types of sets we each like must make a profit. Otherwise they won't and honestly can't make more of the types of sets that we like. We, the fans, want TLG to make a profit. Yeah we want to pay less for Lego, but everyone ask themselves what is better, not getting the 20% discounts on D2C stuff? Or never seeing those types of sets again as they aren't worth the expense to produce.

It looks like mold release residue. While we do not often see it on pieces Lego makes in house, I would not be surprised to see some on an outsourced Chinese made maxi fig. It should clean up with warm water and dish detergent using a soft toothbrush, or with alcohol. It is extremely common in plastic parts, and is why you always clean model parts thoroughly before painting or assembling a plastic model.

He looks great. If you can do stickers at home chances are you can just as easily make water slide decals using decal paper.

As in all things with Lego context is everything. I would not be surprised if they were to do a set of a more modern aircraft along the lines of the Sopwith Cammel or Fokker Tri plane. But it would at best be something more of a model. Just as while Lego does not do anything overtly religious as part of a theme, I would not be surprised to see a particular Cathedral, Temple or Mosque show up as an Architectural subject. You can only ignore stuff like Notre Dame for so long. My guess would be if they were to do a modern fighter jet, it would be done in the colors and markings of an exibition team, and not a combat aircraft. Thunderbirds, Blue Angels, Red Devils etc.

BLEAH! Not my favorite episode, and possibly my least favorite regeneration. Just too convoluted. Somebody failed to wrestle the script away from Moffet and subject it to some reasonable editing. To confusing. Even many Dr Who fans would have trouble keeping up with who was who and what was what without a crib sheet. Which is annoying in a regular episode, but almost unforgivable in a Christmas Special, which tend to attract more casual viewers, who may not have seen every other Matt Smith episode. Plus the story had no weight.

Sadly we will probably never see this. Two of their worst most disappointing sales themes ever were Speed Racer and World Racers. Which were both basically SciFi / Fantasy racing themes. Although I can't escape the feeling that a ton of the new Lego Movie sets have kind of a "Whacky Racers" cartoon feel to them.

My local TRU had them today, so I grabbed 10 packs randomly (no feeling or searching). Not a bad pull. 8 unique figs out of 10. The only extras I got were an extra Western Wildstyle and an extra Robo Hooker. I'm really impressed with these. In hand they are much better than the pictures. I love the robo hookers hair and hat. and for MOC'ers her dress isn't that bad and could easily be converted to a fleshier tone by swapping the arms. The silver swath at the top of the dress looks more like the dress than like skin. Emett is great. I had not realized he had a double sided head. The second face is a huge anime type smile with closed eyes. Very expressive. Very useful. I also had not realized that the barista has a new hair piece. Once again extremely useful and I hope we see more in different colors. (Is it one from the Friends line?). I'm going to need to get another cat lady. The one I got has already been confiscated to send to the wifes Aunt who it resembles in all too many ways. Probably the dullest of what I got were the No Pants dude (useful hair and face for Ninjago and cool shirt, but other wise strange fig) and the Taco Tuesday dude who really is just a retread.

If they have a new part in production for a regular retail theme, it may make its first appearance in an exclusive set. But they will not make a mold just for an exclusive. So the elf sword was made for the Middle Earth themes, Elrond just got it first. But they would not make a unique head mold for him. We can kind of narrow our suspicions regarding the Hobbit game figure. Since it's a video game giveaway or bonus, you can rule out Galadriel and Tauriel. Just the nature of video game marketing. The DK books may choose from a broader range of characters, but for games it's either going to be a clear hero, or a bad guy. No obscure characters. A variant Bilbo, Thorin or a prominent Dwarf, a new Legolas variant. Or a nasty Orc.

I think a little bit of it is tangentially related to padding not so much piece count as it is padding build experience. For sets, particularly the D2C more adult targeted sets, they are trying to create a better or more involved "build experience". At heart this often means more parts simply to create the same thing, and only using large parts when needed structurally.

The softer plastic typically is injected at a lower temperature and pressure. As a result it does not require the highest levels of hardened steel tooling. So the molds for it are cheaper to make. The downside is those molds do not last as long and will deteriorate much more rapidly. So the softer plastic pieces tend to be smaller total lots. While they may use softer plastic for cost control, they also do it if the part has thin, unsupported or sharp protrusions. Things like Kit Fisto's tentacles or the broad Goblin ears. I think most of the Dwarves pieces are harder plastic. Excepting a few such as Oin' hair with the extending braid, and Bofur's hat? I would guess that the chances of seeing a second Rohan helm to be roughly zero. There is really no calculatable benefit to TLG in doing one. Not when they could do a Gondor or Elvhish helm instead and broaden the potential scenes and scenarios depicted vs simply making something to make settings we already have parts for more accurate.

And understandably so. New molds cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Whereas new figure art, while carrying some expense, and procedural hassle, is no where near tooling costs. Yeah it's more expensive than using an existing design. But ultimately new fig art is mostly about man hours needed to create the item, and some factory logistics. Which is a far cry from the capital expenses of new tooling.

I have it. It's probably my favorite Lego related book right now. The pictures and the MOCs they portray are amazing. And the factionalized history of Classic Space is really really well done. It left me craving more. Especially as the review says, more about the authors and how they made all of this. For those that don't realize it. One of the authors Peter Reid, is also the creator of the "Exo Suit" set that is scheduled to be the sixth CuuSoo set to be produced. The Exo Suit is featured within the book.

I thought we have seen some teaser and production art? Based on that the breakdown is Dul Guldur Orc's/forces, iron Hills Dwarves, Mirkwood Elves, Laketown Men and the Eagles.

It's probably best to think of the Lego Movie as a weird case where it is a licensed IP, but Lego is the primary License owner. It is a Lego owned media property. So normal rules probably do not apply.

Galaxy Squad was a 2 wave theme, which is pretty much the max for any modern non licensed or non media tie in theme. I think it did well, but we will probably be without a "space" specific theme until the Lego Movie runs its course.

My take on the Prequel era Jedi was quite simply, what we saw on screen was all there were. Jedi were exceedingly rare. Probably less than 100 total, counting Padawans and Younglings. They were huge military force multipliers (as Timothy Zahn described in the Thrawn trilogy) hence every one of Knight rank and above being considered a General. But there just overall weren't that many of them. And what there were lived a very cloistered monastic existence, with very little direct visible contact with the 100's of Republic worlds. Even before the rise of the Emperor, Jedi would have been more legend than reality for most citizens. On par with Santa Maul and the Easter JarJar.

Palpatine or a Clone would look too much like Santa Maul and Santa Jango I would think. They would want something more visually distinctive. Maybe a Santa Mace Windu? JarJar Claus? And heck, a red classic Stormtrooper would be to die for.

It looks like your store has an impressive pick a brick wall. That's really the only thing that tends to vary between the official Lego stores. As retail space differs so some stores will have larger walls. The parts in the wall will carry wildly over time. Most stores try and keep a mix of basic elements and unusual stuff out at any given time. I'm real shocked and impressed by that Turkey. Was that in the PAB wall? Or in some sort of seasonal bundle? As far as what you can find at Lego stores and pricing. The stores will have all currently available sets, including D2C and Store Exclusive sets (depending on local stock. They do sell out and restock stuff). They will not typically have older or retired stuff. They will never have the retailer store exclusive Polybags, but will have their own Lego store only polybag sets, such as the seasonal sets. Prices will generally be MSRP. They do occasionally have sales, but they are uncommon. Prices are typically lower than TRU, and the same as Walmart or similar merchants. Although one bonus is buying at a Lego store earns VIP points, the same as S@H. Some Lego stores will sometimes offer damaged box sets at a discount. Typically 10-20%