Faefrost

A few people have made random modular resin cast Death Star squares for a few years now. They are used a lot by plastic modelers. They make great bases and mountings for X Wing and Tie Fighter models, such as the wonderful 1/72 scale Fine Molds ones. I don't think the idea would work as well in Lego form. The resin casting of a handful of modules is meant to make things affordable via economies of scale. That's how the actual Death Star miniatures were made. But by building it out of greeblied Lego you lose those economies. You would probably end up at a high $ per square pretty quickly just from needed pieces.

Ok class it's time for another one of my long winded lectures on the business side of CuuSoo projects, and licences in particular, and how they can impact a CuuSoo project in unexpected ways. This is one of the rarer licensing pitfalls that we occasionally see crop up. But it can kill an otherwise superb project proposal instantly, and in most cases TLG would have virtually no say in it. What we speak of today is what I tend to think of as "IP fan fiction given Lego form". Creating a new story and new characters within an existing IP. Almost without exception this will fail. Here is an otherwise superb project proposal, from this week, that will surely bump into this issue. http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/52878 It is an expended Ghostbusters set. A female team of Ghostbusters. AnimE7022 did a superb job with this. The set is reasonably sized. The underlying story is actually quite intriguing as a GB expanded universe sort of thing. The designed Minifigs are adorable and desirable. He even made fantastic use of the new GS cocoon parts to make a great Ghost Trap. This project has everything we possibly want... Except... No license holder would ever ever allow it. It's assigning their brand and labeling to someone else's characters and creations. It gets into some messy rights and licensing issues between not simply the license holder and TLG, but the license holder and the project creator. This is especially true with new fan created characters. While there are some rare license contracts between IP holders and toy makers, that allow for the creation of new characters, these are rare, often much more complex, and pretty much never involve a third party. For many of the license holders there are very firm policies governing creators rights for things like new characters. Marvel and DC in particular have this well defined. As a result they will typically never allow the creation of such covered new characters except under a direct contractual relationship with themselves. They will not allow you to contract with TLG to create a new character for their IP, ever. The end result is it is pretty much impossible for a project using new fan characters in an IP to pass review. The license holder would instantly deny the license or turn down/veto the project. So a blanket ban on R rated sources then. Kind of a shame. That's one that most likely would not be considered R by today's standards. (Although granted the entire point of the movie is you are supposed to feel horrified or discomfited by the Replicant death scenes, so yeah probably not a good brand fit.)

For a one off custom gift I don't think they need a license. It's considered a sculpture and not for commercial purposes. It's weird that they would have deleted that project? Did they simply flag on the R rated movie subject? Or is it that somebody else, such as character builder, already holds that license? There are a few 80's SciFi licences currently held by obscure outfits like BestLock. I know they have Terminator and Stargate. Who knows maybe they have Blade Runner too?

Kre-O at least has a broad assortment of female figs in their licensed lines. Scarlett and Baroness figs in GI Joe. Several assorted Female figs in Star Trek. I think a Rhianna fig in Battleship as you say. So they have some in the boy targeted action stuff. Whereas Megabloks has none in the action lines. Not even in the World of Warcraft stuff where female figs would be expected for sure. TLG seems to be rapidly getting better. The cast of figs from the Lego Movie looks to have quite a few ladies of all types. Main kick megablocks heroine, helpful coworker, crazy cat lady, robot prostitute. Just a real variety of play potential. I figure future action themes will probably follow that pattern. Ninjago still seems like a bit of a sausage fest fig wise. The added Pixel, but dropped Nya, unless there is an exclusive with her? (I still think she got cut from the Mechdragon set). One interesting test of how far Lego is going with female figs in traditional boy themes will be the next wave of TMNT. One of the sets is described as Karai's Bike Chase. If they follow the episode from the show, this should be a set with Karai chasing April. Female protagonist and antagonist. Really no turtles. Maybe an extra foot soldier.

Am I missing something key about the legend Beasts? Or do they actually look like something crudely designed in 1982? I remember back in 1974 or so my Cub Scout Pack staged a circus. We made all the animals out of cut painted and folded cardboard boxes that we wore, two people to a suit. These Legend Beasts look suspiciously like escapees from that circus?

Isn't the new TMNT movie a summer release? That's probably why. They have a hard date to coincide with the marketing window for the movie. Which will be a huge boost for Lego, regardless of how the movie turns out.

If I remember it correctly I seem to recall reading that City is by far their steadiest seller. Star Wars normally sits at number two, except in years that a movie is in the theaters, where it pops up to number one. So figure SW will be topping the sales charts in 2015. (Unless lego puts out some really awesome Avengers sets.)

That Laser reminds me of my beloved Kenner Death Star. (sadly long consigned to the scrap heap of history :_( )

Wait? You mean my planned display of Canibalistic Uruk Hai laying siege to Cinderella's Castle is not considered "Romantically Happy"? Bah! You people don't know good romance when it eats you... Mulan may be a tough one to do. Chinese style architecture does not do well in Pink, Purle and Pale Blue :D

Even with that, a few of my all time favorite SW ships come from RotS. Heck I'm working on lighting and super detailing a Revell Venator model. Just one of the all time great designs. The a Arc 170 is great. Even the ETa 2 Interceptors are kind of neat and Palpatines Shuttle. So instead of any of that we get the smallest and worst version of the Interceptor. Just the same old yellow one. Not even any extra Minifigs. The last green one at least had character with the distinct selection of Minifigs, the dark side Anakin etc. and the play stuff. This one has nothing. And yet it's among the best of this wave. It's really kind of sad when the BP's have some of the most interesting builds.

Toy's R Us normally does have a slight lead time built into their contracts with TLG. I'm guessing it might be around 2 weeks. This probably does vary with Licensed sets however, which are often governed by hard street dates. And my local Lego store manager confirmed the Lego stores will have Ninjago, The Hobbit and new City sets out on Dec 1. So we may start seeing them at TRU any day now. New music has kind of a Daft Punk Tron type feel to it. Not bad.

Part of the problem with Polybags is how erratic they are at making it onto the actual retail store shelves. The bags are often exclusive to a store chain. They are a high loss, hard to manage and stock item as one small box takes store clerks a bit more time to display and manage and they are instantly reduced to rubble as soon as customers hit them. In short while a highly desired product and a high margin item, they are a nuisance product for those actually working the store floors. So they will often get ignored, lost in the back stock room, placed in odd locations, etc. When they do get put out a store will often just pop one box of one type and not stock a full assortment. Resulting in an oversaturation of one and none of the other. Finally after seasonal inventory these often get sent back to the warehouse or sent to clearance etc. Even stores that prominantly display them, like Target, never ever rotate the stock. So they will not put out a new Polybag until all of those old unwanted ugly Tie Fighters sell. TRU actually seems to do the best job of putting them out in a timely manner. Which is not saying much. It gets a little better at Target around holidays that support small "stocking stuffer" type gifts or surprises. So Easter, Halloween and Christmas you will see some decent ones in the Seasonal Holiday bins.

Not saying to sue anyone. Attorney's do actually have a much broader range of tricks. and many of them are only a few $$$. Your Lawyer can simply send a formal legal request for response and clarification. Just a basic letter. Sort of similar to and the opposite of the C&D letters. They send it certified and TLG's staff lawyers MUST respond to it within a reasonable time frame. (normally under 10 days). If you do sell a reasonable volume of plans or t shirts it might be worth throwing a few $$$ at a lawyer to get the clarification. If nothing else it forces one of TLG's actual in house lawyers to look at the case and make a real determination.

Sadly there is so little "new" franchises to offer the needed inspiration Pacific Rim - Possibly one of the best potential "fits" for Lego in recent years, that they have not already jumped on. Good if cardboard characters, distinctive enough for minifigs without really seeming modern Army. And a good line to do a split minifig scale scenes and Constraction style Robots and Kaiju. They are messing with this a little bit with the next Hero Factory line. But the real thing Hellboy - Sadly the main characters name and underlying iconography probably veto's it. But it would be a great Monster Fighter type licensed theme. Classic Horror. Secret Garbage truck command center. Maybe license it as BPRD? Wizard of Oz - After the recent Disney prequel I kinda hope they go back and revisit the full book series as movies. They would make for a decent and classical replacement for Lego's LoTR licnse when that ends and allow TLG to continue their successful literary lines. (HP, LotR)

Wow! For the first time in years there is not one single vehicle or build in this release that I have any interest in. Maybe the classic Death Star cannon from the DS BP? Nothing swoosh able, nothing really great to display. Just a third V Wing (which is 2 more than we need for a ship with 2 seconds of screen time that does nothing) The what 4th yellow Anakin Fighter? And the ATAP which is un identifiable in the movie unless you freeze frame. (Sorry but I pretty much loathe Droid vehicles in any form) I think I am going to be BL'ing a lot of figs this year. TRU normally get the sets about 2-3 weeks early. So new Ninjago, City and Hobbit sets are starting to appear now and are confirmed for Dec 1 Lego store and general release in the US. No sign or word regarding Star Wars. SW normally releases in Europe first.

If you look "Biznis Kitty" in the .lair set also has a different face than Unikitty from the Fools Palace set.

It's one thing if he used your paterns to cobble together his own "custom" and is just showing it off on Flickr. It's rude to do. But damage is minimal. Just keep an eye out to make sure these aren't showing up anywhere on E-Bay. That's where it gets bad. Someone using your designs to sell them as their own.

It looks like a still from the end of the opening credits? I don't see anything wrong with it. Anything weird looking is probably because it us a still shot from video rather than an exported animation frame. That looks like the kind of pose they would be in right at the end of the main title animation.

Gorgeous! How is it supported? Does it require some internal armature to bear the weight of the floating castle?

What still amazes me from the last review period is the complete lack of commentary or outrage concerning the "other" video game project that got turned down? League of Legends. I'm guessing most recognized that it was a good project, but a bad brand fit? ( heck there probably is not a ton of AFOL and LOL crossover. If there was the language around here would probably be more colorful.)

Honestly, if you know any lawyers or have one in the family, A simple letter from them demanding an answer of TLG would get far more response then all the e-mails you could send. If I am correct, and most of your issues stem from automated tools, then the volume of such activity is such that pretty much any request for clarification, appeal or whatever, that does not come in on a lawyers letterhead will either be ignored, or simply take weeks to get to the top of the pile for you to get even a form response.

Oh I agree. And yes digital presentations of designs can be great. I just don't react well to raw LDD screen shots or exports. They are great for displaying a technique. But if you want to show me the MOC, either build it for real, or run the design through LDD2POV. Heck my sig picture is actually a rendering of oneof my MOC's. I actually have the thing built in the brick sitting over my desk. But the rendering looks cleaner and better than any of my attempts to photograph it. The key point is not so much how the design came to be, or if it is plastic or digital, but rather is the presentation of it polished and eye catching.

I doubt they will repackage existing sets already warehoused. But if they did a new run of them they probably updated the packaging. At a minimum to not have those last minute "Special Preview Set" labels or whatever they were that they slapped on when the scenes got cut from AUJ. Oh and on an unrelated note; Is it just me, or has the Lego Middle Earth team snuck in another cross theme set on us again without us noticing? Last time they gave us the Pirate Ship, which while an obscure scene from the movie, also appealed to Lego Pirate fans. This time I just realized that the Laketown Chase set blends in rather surprisingly well with the Winter Village sets of all things. Take away the swords, Dwarves and Hobbitses and it makes a rather nice Winter Fishing Village.

HOLY MEGABLOCKS! That is amazing. I could sit here staring at that for hours just absorbing the details. My only question. How big is it, and how on earth does it fit in the house? Does it require its own room? Simply Astonishing.

My biggest, and probably only complaint with the Minidolls is their height. I wish they were closer in size height wise to traditional minifigs. That would avoid the issue where friends sets just feel slightly off scale to system or city sets. Granted this is an AFOL concern. The kiddies seem to have no issues with it.