Faefrost

I'm watching the TBS review of the Mechdragon, and I noticed one of the more interesting things about it. Those A shaped plates that are used for the gliders. Am I wrong in thinking those are new? Those look like they have some awesome MOC possibilities.

This kind of mirrors my thoughts. I view LDD as a tool for creating a MOC. Not really as one for presenting it. Kind of like an architect showing people the blueprints of a really great building he designed, rather than showing them a final rendering, or an actual building. I am always particularly appaled by the number of people that present CuuSoo projects with those god awful LDD backgrounds.

That hulking Venom is more a modern artistic interpretation of the character. He was originally slightly larger than Spider-Man (muscular body builder Edie Brock) but over the years artists keep drawing him bigger and bigger. I think the version of him they used in Thunderbolts a few years back seemed 12' tall and maybe 20' wide at the shoulders. It starts to get ridiculous.

They normally ask my phone number if I don't have my card.

Venom is technically a shapeshifter who can change and adjust his size. Whereas the Ultimate Universe and USM Green Goblin is more of a Hulked out Super Steroid type.

My take on that project was "badly shaped, badly structured badly budgeted and completely unreasonable as a production project in just about every way possible". I would love a Helicarrier. I do however accept that when we get one it will be a selectively compressed ship with a small playset buried inside. ala the 6211 Imperial Star Destroyer. Just looking at that heap of digitally stacked bricks makes me doubt if my coffee table could actually hold the real thing without collapsing under the weight.

Unfortunately the Elf Hat goes the wrong way for Link. And is a little too high and pointy. Part of the problem when dealing with licensed characters is that the designers have to match or adapt to very specific looks and artwork from the license holders style guides. They are essentially given a set of blueprints. There is a lot less wiggle room for making certain things work with existing parts then we would think. "TLG can use whatever parts the want so long as the end result looks exactly like a recognizable Link", sort of thing.

TRU tends to have set exclusives for almost every theme and most waves?They probably have a dozen on store shelves now. Palpatines Arrest, Jedi Defender, Chima Eagle Castle, etc

Like I said earlier. I think that our traditional numbered series has ended at 11. When they go back to more typical non licensed series in what we are thinking of now as "series 14", it will include a tie in function to the new Lego MMO that Funcom is making. Each fig will have some sort of code for in game add ons, ala Skylanders. In doing that they will almost 100% have to create a very clear separation between the new series, that works with the game, and the old that does not. Just calling the game tied series "series 12, 13, etc" creates a customer service nightmare, and disincentivizes newcomers. Better just to reset the numbering to 1 under a new heading.

My take on the next two episodes Follow the Leader - with the exception of them retreading the season one story about Leo doubting his leadership, I loved this episode. More Karai is always good, and Splinters revelation to Leo at the end was great. Seeing the foot coming closer to their more classic stylings and threat was also great. Not to mention the mystery of what Shredder is off doing. It's obvious that Karai is starting to go through some emotional turmoil. Watching her direct that through Leo towards Splinter was great. I just hope they don't leave this story arc set aside for too long. Mutagen Man Unleashed - we finally start to get some payoff to the April situation from The Mutation Situation. And Casey Jones enters the picture. It's an amusing take on the character. Not quite what I was expecting, but I don't hate the kid. The whole Pulverisor situation just gets darker and sadder. I really hope Lego figures out a way to give us a Mutagen Man fig of some sort. Maybe brick built? The story in this one was a bit predictable for the most part. But handled well. The opening 2 minutes with the spoof of classic anime and Voltron in particular was priceless. I hope we see more of it. The one downside to these two stories. It almost feels like they are starting to have too many balls in the air. They have too many open and unresolved story arcs for them to really start being able to do them all justice. April, Karai, Shredder, Krang, Timothy, etc. So much so that the Turtles themselves are starting to become more the MST3K style audience to their own show.

Any word on whether this will do an early VIP release this month?

Juniors has Batman and Spider-Man.

For LotR's a lot will be what are you looking for in terms of characters or build. Honestly as side from Helm's Deep it's pretty much all about the Minifigs. The builds are pretty meh. Weathertop is probably the most complete seeming display piece. It is an entire coherent build. Plus it has the Nazgul. On the downside it is very undersized from the movie. But it displays well. Mines of Moria has the best fig selection and the awesome cave troll. But the set itself is a wall, a door, a coffin and a well. In other words, immediately broken down for parts. Granted it's a nice door... If you want more Orc's then grab Orc Forge. The build is okay, the figs and accessories great. If you skipped the first wave if Hobbit sets also grab The Unexpected Gathering set. Bag End is on par with Helms Deep in how good it is. As far as Friends sets. Depending on her tastes you may want to wait to see if the Friend style Disney Princess sets come out on Dec 1? Cinderella's Castle and Rapunzel's Tower in particular look awesome.

I think the only Licensed theme that might have caused an issue with Ninjago was if they had some sort of no compete with the Nikolodeon TMNT line? I am actually still kind of amazed that TLG was able to get the TMNT license without bumping into some issues over Ninjago, as it's not just a competing toy line, but a directly competing television show? But then again, who am I to complain. They are both great shows (says the 47 year old teenage boy...) and I am giving Lego money hand over fist for both of them. I am still disappointed that they once again don't seem to have fleshed out the supporting cast in minifig form at all. Instead preferring to simply give us the new variant of the primary ninjas and their latest bad guys. Maybe if they ever do do a Ninjago theatrical movie we can get a CMF series with some of the odder characters. Like Dareth, Misako, Blacksmith Kai, Dr. Julian, the Mailman, the Tea Lady, Jay's Parents, Coles Dad, Lloyd's Classmates, etc and some odder Ninja and foe variants, like Zane as the Pink Ninja? I figure there will be at least one Toys R Us exclusive set. I get the impression that pressure from mass merchants in particular TRU was one of the key underlying driving forces behind the return of the theme. There is no way TRU would not push for an exclusive this go round.

Netflix also has it.

I don't think these actions were related to CuuSoo or his CuuSoo projects. If they had been Paul would have most likely been contacted directly. He would have been the one receiving a C&D. CuuSoo most certainly has his contact info.

It's probably not so much that nothing is done, as it is that those knock off vendors, because they know they are blatantly violating the IP, have learned to be much better at avoiding the automated copyright violation bots in how they word and present things. Whereas you in your innocence and hobbiest nature would never have given some of the subtle flags a moments thought. I still think you are being tripped up by some sort of mostly autonomous C&D bot. If it was someone actively after you for whatever reason they would have gone after your far better known Vampire GT. And I don't think that even the most litigious or overly aggressive human enforcer would have sent a C&D over that first listed T shirt. A random e-bay sweep probably hit on the title of the Porche. Which might have triggered Crowkiller being added to the database, and thus it found the others. And it hit on something non obvious buried in headers someplace. Just my theory. Most of this sort of thing these days is caused by automation, beuracracy, and shear incomprehensible volume, rather than deliberate intent.

It's not just whether it could sell a whole wave. Zelda would easily sell out a CuuSoo run and go back for more a few times. But so far as we know a normal CuuSoo run is under 50,000 pieces per run. That's a perfect size run for a niche property like a video game. But they can't amortize new molds over a run that size. They need a full retail production run, which is anywhere from 500,000 pieces up to a million. And Zelda, while having a dedicated fan following, probably does not have enough depth of fan base to support even a single set of those numbers yet.

It wasn't the products themselves, that he was flagged on LT. It was something in the search tags or product descriptions that referenced Lego or a TLG trademark. (Maybe Technic?)

But look at the massive success that is Minecraft on tablets. Every young Lego age kid I know is madly grinding away at MC on his iPad or Kindle. And what we old farts call gaming is irrelevant when tablets and mobile are quickly becoming a key industry growth and profit point.

I have long suspected that the TLG marketing department responsible for coming up with set names, has a tendency to walk around the office giggling a lot, and has long been exempted from corporate drug testing.

Weird and slightly diversionary question. Do Lego's competitors get asked questions about female figs? I only ask because I happened to be wandering around TRU yesterday, and it dawned on me that Megabloks does not appear to actually have ANY female figs in their sets? ( excepting as near as I can tell, a very tiny Cortana in a large Halo set). I noticed it because I went looking for a World of Warcraft fig for my wife's character, and came to realize that they somehow skipped out on the whole XX chromosome thing. And not just in the licensed lines. I mean there was nothing even remotely feminine in ANY MB set.

Were any of these in any way linked or referenced from your e-bay store? This still feels like an almost automated mechanism that keyed on the unclear or poor wording of your e-bay auction, and may have followed a trail from there. Probably with the minimal over site of a junior grade clerk in TLG's legal IP office. Corporations don't generally police the web for their IP anymore. It's all bot driven, with automated form notices. And often automated responses to them from third parties such as E-bay. It looks like the claimed violation was the search tags and not so much the product images themselves. And yeah, if you had Lego, CuuSoo or Technic as search tags that probably is something they would legitimately flag on. And it makes it astonishingly easy for them to find. You hung a sign on your products and auctions screaming LEGO to search engines. If the actual product being sold is not actual Lego products they will take issue with this.

I don't know about "big bad villains"? But I can see the possibility of an oversized exaggerated male torso for the friends line that could have a good range of use. In Disney alone a similarly proportioned torso could be used for Merida's father, the Hun leader from Mulan, Mr. Incredible, Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, Kronk from Emperors New Groove, Hercules, etc etc the list just goes on and on.

OMG! Today's Marvel announcement is kinda huge. They announced a deal for 5 new original series for Netflix. 4 thirteen episode TV series. Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, that will then culminate and combine into a 5th Defenders mini series. Welcome to Hells Kitchen folks! http://www.aintitcool.com/node/65010