Faefrost

Here it is. There are some much more hi res versions of it out there where you can really zoom in. I just couldn't find one in a quick google search. Way in the back are 2 ships. One I believe is the BP. The other is one that I do not believe we have ever seen before. Not a PotC ship.

Didn't they have a Pirates vs Cannibal Islanders set out just last year in the PotC line? It will probably be fairly easy to bricklink the piece or just the fig. I'm guessing that there will probably be a bit of a surplus of "Vulture Droid" sets. I don't think this set will rapidly escalate in aftermarket price. My hope is while we may not see a full retail Pirate theme, there is still hope somewhere that we might see a nice D2C exclusive ship set. There is still that mystery ship that was seen in that much poured over picture of the Lego design office. Many of the other mysteries in that picture have eventually made it to shelves. Even Orthanc. So I haven't given up hope since they seemingly do have a completed design.

Best poster ever! (About the only thing close are the Frank Frazetta Battlestar Galactica posters). Although I am not sure that I need quite that much hairy 70's Luke chest in my minifigs. (and no idea how they would pull off Leia's skirt?)

70703 was a store exclusive for TRU. Such exclusives normally do not show up on the theme story portions of Lego.com (they will show up in the store, just not in the Lego marketing materials.) just like if you go to the Monster Fighters page, The Zombies set does not show up there. It was a Target exclusive. Town / City is the only one that is always around. Space, Castle, Pirates, Adventurers/Action etc are what they consider "Evergreen" themes. A given one will not appear every year, but typically one or two will appear each year. A safe bet is the Lego movie sets are sort of sitting in the Action/SciFi slots for Winter.

One of the other companies just landed the JP license a few weeks back. It's why all the JP projects vanished from CuuSoo. So I figure it won't be available again for at least 2-3 years. (Seems to be a normal minimal license term).

I've always assumed that what little cannon Lego has is best interpreted through the eyes of a child. Everything plays with everything else. It just is. Kind of like trying to make sense of Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. There is no deep answer or deeply structured continuity. It is a system and it all works together. The story itself may completely change tomorrow.

Technically Megabloks has that license as part of their deal with Blizzard. I think they released a few hard to find sets. I saw one of the human battle cruisers once.

I think an Asgard War Canoe thingy would have made for a great set. And could be done really well with the molds from Lego's Viking's line. A battle seen like Thor fighting the big rock guy at the begining would be cool. Just do a constraction type bot frame ala the Superman Lex Luthor robot, and use the stone face from Hero Factory.

weren't those sets from shortly before they overhauled the color pallet and simplified the offerings? Stripping out many of the more exotic colors? Part of it might have been using up stock of odd colored bricks?

Ummm? Haven't we been here before? Say 1990? While yes newer snappier writing and effects might spice it up a bit, they are still going to hit the same story limitations that the first attempt had. Flash is a dude that runs fast. It is either extremely limiting and stupid, or unbelievably overpowering, if the writers take the ability to its true thought out scifi extensions. There really is no middle ground with the character. This is what literally killed off the Flash book and the Barry Allen character back in the 80's. It's why Flash has always worked better as an ensemble player than as a stand alone. It's not like there is really any room for a dark gritty Flash reboot. What would you have him do? Drop criminals off buildings at mach 3?

Keep your eyes peeled for Mines of Moria. My TRU still had a good number, and had them fairly well discounted the last time I looked.

Color can drastically change the nature of the plastic. We tend to think of colors as simply dyes, but that really isn't the case,and never has been. Each different color is achieved via different chemistry. And each one may impact plastics in different subtle ways. Some colors or dyes may make a plastic a bit more brittle. Some may make it seem softer or waxier.

Not at all. There is already a ton of playability built into a Jedi Temple set. The problem is pretty much all of it would be built into a TCW based Jedi Temple set. Bounty Hunters, Secret Passages, Air shafts, Explosions, Snipers, Stealing hidden Holocrons, etc. Whereas the PT version of the Temple... well has some really really comfy couches... and then they kill all the children.

The licences for the individual properties are independent. But the degree of pre existing relationship does tend to give TLG at a minimum the right of first refusal for most new projects. Of those mentioned above, the SW license was renewed for 10 years in 2011, so barring some sort of disagreement and buyout Lego will be releasing SW sets from the new movies, Rebels, etc. Given the extremely profitable benefit to both parties that the SW Lego lines have brought, it is unlikely those will be messed with. Probably the only potential interference would be some sort of power play by Hasbro (or Disney buying out Hasbro). The Marvel license will most likely still be in effect for 2015. If it is facing renewal, it will probably be right around now. (They often seem to do a short 2 year license to test a themes viability followed by a longer extension. However given how broad the Marvel license seems it may have been longer at the outset. Maybe 5 years?) One thing we need to keep in mind. In spite of the recent surge in licensed IP themes, TLG still remains extremely extremely cautious in what they license. PoP and LR will probably make them if anything more skittish of single movie themes. We should not expect a licensed Theme simply because it is Disney. I suspect that TLG will probably skip Tron, unless it is bundled in with some other more desirable Disney property. (Which we suspect is why they did PoP, it came with PotC.) Tron has kinda had some bad history on toy shelves, and still heavily populates $ stores and Poundland to this day. No A list toy players are going to jump headfirst back into that one. if they do do another Indiana Jones movie Lego may grab that as they have good predictive data and it fits well with their Adventure lines. I think you are correct in using the phrase 'suitability for a Lego product". There are a lot of very good Disney Franchises or properties that might nor work as well for Lego. The new Simpsons theme will be a good measure of how far they can get away with deviating from their standard minifig/System setting. I have long suspected that the odder sizes of the Toy Story figs may have cost them a little bit in overall sales. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that TLG looked into doing sets for Monsters University and opted against it, on the basis of too many new unique character molds and not enough distinctive settings or vehicles to work well in Lego. Figure Finding Nemo is similar in that regard. (whereas if they ever do an Incredibles sequel that would easily be a sure thing for TLG. Heck I always suspected that the Dr. Inferno / Mad Scientist hair might have been a test design for Syndrome?)

Really impressive work. I love it. The only thing I am not crazy about is the brown in the rigging. I know it is what the original used, and I know the more modern black pieces from the BP and QAR are only in the straight ladder types, not the tapered.

I was thinking more it had to do with the "saw" blades on them?

So the season title is "Rebooted"? seems appropriate. You can definitely sense a Tron type vibe coming off this one.

Nah, there are some interesting parts and colors mixed in with those if you look at them less as sets and more as parts packs.Not so much actual wall stuff as there seems to be a lot of panels and quarter cylanders (granted in tan which is useful as something other than grey). But things like the gold gates in the Ariel set. The carriage wheels. Just some of the other accent pieces like those Beville type arches (I think thats what they are?) and all the gold railings. I also like the purple'ish blue roof on Rapunzel's tower. It's a nice accent color that could be used for a nice twisted classical wizards tower. Granted if you are making 15,000 piece super detailed Castle MOC's you might not find much here. But if you are looking to MOC something a little differnet along the lines of classic Castle or simply interior stuff these look like they can be a treasure trove.

I think we have a few years before PT subjects will fly off the shelves at a $400 price point. At least anything that doesn't involve a small to mid sized army of Clones?

I suspect that both Erland and LH are correct regarding historical and current Lego "Quality or QC" issues. Things do change over time.both good and bad. However we are incredibly fortunate that TLG generally manages to keep any quality changes within a very very narrow band. Let's be honest for most of our complaints the term "forensic" would legitimately need to be used to describe how they were discovered. - color changes. Modern colors not being "as good". I think we all can agree that this one is more or less true. As LH points out when they were using Bayer precolored plastic pellets the colors seemed brighter and had a greater consistency from batch to batch. Newer production mechanisms such as the color injection systems that allow bulk neutral colored pellets to be colored as needed contribute largely to this. It is probably also severely impacted by changes in plastic dyes to make them more environmentally friendly and safer. The new mechanisms mean that it is easier and cheaper to have more parts in more colors. More colors in a given set, and overall for the plastics manufacture to be more environmentally friendly. A reasonable production trade off. - part "quality" or rather plastic and molding quality. Honestly I think modern bricks are far more durable than old ones. They are as strong or stronger using less plastic. The newer ones I have seem far more wear and play resistant than old. They do not lose their sheen as easily. They don't seem to discolor as readily. Modern part breakage (outside of certain "cracking" issues on high stress 1xX cheese slopes) seems very rare, and requires much more force to achieve. - non production damage. Bricks that sustained damage post production during the process of storage, packaging and shipping. I tend to suspect that there are increasing numbers of these sorts of things, while a decreasing % given the shear volumes of bricks shipped. Overall product handling has gotten more mechanical and automated at all stages. We all know the reasons and benefits to this. The downside is less of the process is being done by hand, and automated processes increase the risk of physical damage. Packaging methods have also changed over the years. The old school boxes with trays probably had less brick to brick contact than modern bags. Once again I hope we all understand that a faster more automated handling and packaging process is what allows us to see such an escalating array of variety in sets each year? Once again trade offs that ultimately benefit us. The key measure of quality will come from not just forensically examining the parts for flaws, real or perceived, but the companies response to individual problems.

KEELHAUL THE SCURVY DOG!!!! Even if it is a fairly good question? I understand that there does tend to be a clear separation between Pirate / Ship builders and Castle builders. But some more generalized Historical cross posting might be interesting.

Surprisingly small boxes on them.

This might make you real happy about your color choices [

It probably is large enough to breath through, especially since it would really only impact a small child. But I'm not sure that that is the actual reason for it to be hollow?

Huge Gerry Anderson fan. Especially any of his shows centered around Derek Meddings wonderful ship designs.