Faefrost

There are a few other equally bad blink and you miss them cameo's. Dash Rendar's Outrider zips over Mos Espa, Quinlan Vos is in the background drinking in a tavern, etc.

I think one of the more common complaints about the PT, particularly ep I was that the ships didn't feel particularly Star Wars like. They seemed a little too unfamiliar. It would not surprise me if they split the difference for the new movies. Lots of nice new stuff, with a few aging familiar designs to anchor them. I don't think we will see a new UCS Falcon unless there are some major redesigns such as a new color or paint scheme. Something to make a new version attractive to a broader audience. But I think a new retail minifig scale MF is a given. The X Wing, Tie Fighter and MF are the core ships of the SW line. And much like City's Fire and Police stations will never be unavailable in some new form for long.

They will not accept any such unsolicited suggestions. At least not to anyone that would be involved in the development process. No company will these days. They have to maintain a virtual wall around development to avoid legal issues. Any such suggestions that you were to send in would be at best read and answered politely by CS staff.

Chances are you can't. Outside of maybe some gathering such as a Forum at a Brickfair. If Lego acts like pretty much every other manufacturer then they will neither accept nor discuss unsolicited product or theme ideas outside of very specific channels such as CuuSoo. They also probably will not discuss anything regarding terms of existing or past licenses, beyond the occasional admission that a license has ended or expired. And they will never discuss anything regarding future under negotiation or potential licenses with a Non affiliated third party. As a general rule most businesses do not permit that sort of direct contact regarding internal business processes. If your questions were regarding designs or design process of past sets, then you may find some answers with the Lego Designers personal online presence. Tom Stafford and Jamie Berrard have been known to show how they make this stuff, and how they get to the final product online and show pics of sketch models etc. and both have some social media and fan media presence. but I would not expect a lot of discussion regarding license specific processes.

Thanks Cwetqo. That helps explain a lot. I can kind of see the logic. I mean look at the classic Airport Monorail http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/images/6399-1.jpg vs the newer 7938 Passenger train http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/images/7938-1.jpg And you can see that they are obviously targeted at the same basic role and play. Heck if they were to come up with a modern elevated track mechanism they would be extremely similar. Which would leave only the Classic Space subjects for a monorail. (Well maybe a Disney theme?)

So we will finally have an official Falcon where the inside matches the outside? Woot! Virtually unheard of in SciFi ships, but woot nonetheless.

Step 1, e-mail your Mum an article talking about the "Brony" hobby. And all the wonderful tales from there. Throw in some Brony fan fiction just to liven things up. Stap 2, anything you do after that with Lego will be perfectly fine. Just so long as you show no signs of being a "Brony".

I think one or two Marvel characters show up in the background as well. I suspect there will be Easter egg appearance from most Lego licenses. (The well known or popular ones at least. PoP, Avatar and Galidor maybe not so much)

They actually do give some room for that in the extended edition of TUJ. Armitage never portrays Thorin as greedy. Rather he protects and wants what he feels is rightfully his peoples, and resents those that failed to help. But the reason Elrond and the White Council do not want Thorin returning to the mountain is they fear he will fall victim to the same source of greed as his Grandfather. One of the 7 Dwarven Rings. So at that scene you saw he might not yet be under its influence. This may change before the end.

I think by definition Shrek IS a Fairy Tale Twist. But so is Disney's Once Upon a Time. (Now wouldn't that be an interesting spin?) We may also be reading way too much into that one sentence. Chances are that non compete clauses bundled into the Disney Princess stuff would preclude TLG from going to far down their own non Disney Fairy Tale path at the moment.

Am I the only one praying that TLG hasn't decided to license Shrek as a new Castle theme?

What's next? Well Lego ultimately follows Lucasfilms (now Disney's) marketing direction with what to emphasize. Chances are the 3d PT stuff was too deep into production to change quickly, particularly without anything obvious to replace it. So they let it roll. We should have reached the end of that with this next release, so anything from here on out is probably based on Disney's new directions. The likely pattern will look something like this. 1. Rebel's, expect at least one wave to focus heavily on the new Disney XD show. Just as we saw a TCW push awhile back. We will see some new ships and some concept art based OT type ships. 2. Classic OT subjects. As Disney heads towards the new movies expect them to make a push for people to remember and associate with the OT. Particularly the core stuff that is expected to make at least a cameo in the new films. I would think we will see not simply OT subjects, but some new interpretations of core OT subjects. Maybe a new MF, XWing and Tie. That sort of thing. Heavy focus on the original main cast. (A movie about Han and Leia's kids will probably want you to remember who Han and Leia are. Disney will care a lot less about reminding you about Clones or Jar Jar, etc) 3. Episode VII, Expect 2015 to be laser focused on Ep VII. Probably a teaser or two by summer and most of a wave come movie release. I think summer 2014 is really the last point where we may be seeing some surprises, or possibly still some PT focus for awhile. Even then I suspect that the chances of obscure PT subjects may be decreasing quickly. Isn't she in the Police Gunship set? I forget the price on that one?

They've been recycling city vehicles in Superheroes for years now. Mainly in Batman. Two face originally drove one. Spider-Man had an Ambulance etc. Classic Gamora is a fairly easy MOC in the event they don't make her. Take the Oola fig from Jabba's palace. Replace the head tentacles with black hair and give her the PoP dagger. The only things missing are the eye makeup and a small skull on her belt. The truly heartbreaking thing with major Marvel female characters is they have given us Spider Woman and Pheonix... As damned SDCC exclusives!

Whoa! I just grabbed the last one on the shelf at TRget when I saw it on sale. Now I am real glad I did.

The Zombies set was an exclusive limited edition set. I think for Target in the US. So a safe assumption is any of the Limited Edition Store exclusives are probably planned for a single production run. The Ninjago Dragon sets were similar in the one run and gone planned limited editions.The decision whether to do additional production runs on other sets seem to vary, probably based on business data. How quickly did it sell out? Is there still a perceived market for it? Is there an appropriate replacement in the pipeline? What production resources would be needed to make more? is there parts inventory in the warehouse or would they need additional factory time? Is there a crazy group claiming the set offends them and stirring controversy? etc. Fire Brigade and The Death Star have gone back for more production runs than anyone ever expected. Largely because they were so iconic. (I think if you were to do a poll you would find that the FB was probably the entry point modular for the vast majority of modular collectors. The first one they bought and built. The intersection between parents and kids.) Whereas we know Lego promised not to do another run of Jabba's Palace because... crazy people being artificially offended, so they will let it sell out naturally and allow the Sail Barge to replace it.

I'm just overjoyed that we are getting a more traditional (well current take on it) Red Costume Falcon. Woohoo, no black Commando gear. And MODOK is adorable.

It could be argued that some of the Lego media properties, particularly Ninjago and Chima, pretty well constitute Licences unto themselves. Just media licences that Lego happens to own rather than simply rent for a period of time. But the fact that the primary lore and stories from them do come from the more publicly available cartoon series would probably justify their inclusion here. There really is pretty much no difference between an undone Ninjago character or an undone TMNT one. City Undercover or a simple non specific video game, such as alpha Team probably not as much.

OT fans don't forget we also just got the Ewok village. So right now the smallest and largest sets are OT.

I think the thing that woks best towards there being one more LotR wave is the simple fact that they don't seem to have anything looming to readily replace it. We can safely assume that LR, Galaxy Squad and Castle are done. With the last remnants of MF also disappearing. The next PoTC movie got pushed back. So there seem to be a few holes in the shelves, without a lot of stuff looming that look to be good possible replacements. Simpsons is only 1 set. The Lego Movie while filling some space will probably be taking more from the GS and Castle spots, and some of Chima (which I think will begin winding down after this wave). I'm not seeing any big looming movie or media properties that they don't already have and aren't already filling shelf spaces. TMNTs, DC and Marvel SuperHeroes, Star Wars. There isn't a lot of new stuff that correlates to their target market and business case? So I think hopefully the easiest and best option for them is to probably keep those Middle Earth shelves occupied until after TABA. Do we have any idea how well specific or individual sets from LotR and the Hobbit have sold? I think a safe guess is Unexpected Gathering (Bag End) has probably been the top seller, nailing that perfect point of classic scene, structure, price point, etc. But what else has done well, and what hasn't? I suspect that Lake Town will do very well? and Moria was probably one of the better ones? But how have some of the others fared?

That was probably a mock up of Beorn. Just a placeholder fig using something like Gloin's hairpiece. As far as the Bo5A sets? The MEA set might have started out intended as part of that? If we do get a set It will probably look something a bit like Dol Gulder Battle. Isn't the rumor that Bo5A's basically takes place ina nd around the ruins of Dale?

My t6ake on them (and copy pasting AyliffeMakit's list to avoid retyping and missing any ) Calamaty Drone: I must be weird, because I really really like this fig. RoboHooker! I can find so many uses for her in my weird twisted scifi MOC's. Both as she is, and parted out. I love her hair! I can just see the possibilities. Star Wars Hutt MOC. Fallout New Vegas, etc. But I am a bot strange I will admit. Taco Tuesday guy: Nice fig, although not overly exciting to me. I like the Maraca guy I have. This one will find a home as well. maybe I'll MOC up a mariachi band? President Business: The hair is strange but interesting, although I don't see a lot of use. However his suit is enough to make me want him in multiples. Just a good generic general purpose torso and legs. 100's of uses. Hard Hat Emmet:I like him. I love the hat. I'm liking the character. Not a ton of usefulness. But desirable Wild west Wildstyle: I love this fig. Cool hair. Cool face. Really cool goth dress. I could live with 2 or 3 to use for MOC'ing and one to keep intact. Abraham Lincoln: I love the figure, although its use is limited. 1 or 2 for weird Abe Lincoln MOC's. (I'm thinking chainsaw weilding zombie hunter?) Mrs Scratchen-Post: A somewhat unexciting yet extremely useful fig. Good hair, good face. Good cat hair covered torso. Will be useful for adding character to modern or city scenes. She looks like a good candidate for being eaten by zombies. Scribble face Bad Cop: Possibly my favorite fig of the line. That scribbled face. It is terrifying. The scariest Lego fig ever made. William Shakespeare: A great fig with lot's of useful parts. Will go well with the actor. Gail the construction worker:I like her. She adds a ton of character to any city scene. I love the hard hat with the female hair. One of the more useful pieces of the series. (I figure Friends builders will adore than.) Larry the Barista: I love Larry! he adds character to a town. Great face, hair, that cup. Velma Staplbot: Kinda meh. Possibly the weakest fig for me. I only need so many beehive hairs. Where are my pants guy: The face and hair just screams Dareth the Brown Ninja. The Hawaian shirt torso is great. But the whole pants thing? Bleah. I like him, but a little goes a long way. Wiley Fusebot: So many useful parts. Davy Crockett! Robo Davy Crockett! A great wild west or colonial era fig. Panda suit guy: I must haz "Sexual Harassment Panda!" (yeah I'm weird and twisted. I thought we covered that already?) The only downside is any MOC you include him in just gets that much more unintentionally creepy. Marsha, Queen of the mermaids: I have so many Mermaids and virtually nothing to do with them. My Queen Anne's Revenge has found greater profit as a floating cannery. (Sing it with me CHICKEN OF THE SEA!). Seriously I can probably find a use for 1 or 2 of the odd colored hair pieces in a Fantasy or SciFi or weird hipster MOC. No use whatsoever for the tail. Kind of sad that there are no Army Builders at all in this line. Even a few robo swat cops would have been nice.

I think "retiring soon" is a reflection of a planned end of shelf life date. But a sets last production run will occur long before that end of shelf life date. And it is possible for the set to sell out before it gets close to the planned retirement, thus retiring it early. As an example they knew when the Harry Potter sets had to be retired. The day the contract ended they all had to leave the store. Whereas the shorter run Monster Fighters Zombies set was sold out very quickly with no plans for either retirement or an additional production run.

Thor 2 was good fun. The action was great. Loki was great. You got your money's worth. This is not to say it was without flaws. The Romance scenes win the award for being almost but not quite as horribly awkward as the virtually identicle scenes from Attack of the Clones. I swore at one point that Thor was going to start talking about sand. And it is all on Natalie Portman, who once again seems wildly out of place in this movie. What makes it worse is the obvious chemistry between Chris Hemsworths Thor and Jaime Alexander's Sif. That was a romance I would want to watch. Natalie Portman in her normal cold fish stare? Not so much. The dark elves and particularly Ecclesten's Malekith are painfully under developed. They are the Chitauri mumbling through Bane's mask. They took a great actor who plays wonderful villains and made him unrecognizable, incomprehensible and then gave him nothing to do. Granted Loki makes up for a lot of it.

Sooo... impressions after seeing pictures; 1. Lot's and lots of really cool and seemingly useful new parts. These look to be a greebliers dream come true. 2. Just wacky enough to find an audience in kids at that price. 3. Recreational Pharmaceuticals are by all appearances legal in Denmark. Or TLG's corporate drug testing policy is geared to insure that adequate levels of all types are found in the design staff.

Those are old MB sets from the first ASM movie. Megabloks has publicly said quite clearly very recently that they do not currently hold ANY super hero based licenses.