Faefrost

Little known secret. Kai's Fire Mech will also fold up and attach to the back of Cole's Earth Driller similarly. A little oversized from what you see on screen, but it does fit cleanly and let's you play out the scene.

I think that pins down part of why I don't care for the mini dolls. They have this "Fembot / Stepford Minifigs" thing going on with their facial expressions. They all look lobotomized. While modern Minifigs feel so alive from some of the amazing minimalist subtly that they have been given in their faces.

According to my wife, at this point because of the movies, Thor is more iconic without his shirt... I'm not quite sure how to take that...

Why would it be weird? It stands as the ultimate CuuSoo success story. The original set had to go back into production 5 or 6 times to meet demand. The spinoff sets have done very well. The concept publicly proved itself as a niche CuuSoo product and evolved into a full line. That is the one in a million chance at the heart of CuuSoo. If you don't understand why CuuSoo is limited to single set projects and not themes, then you do not really understand what CuuSoo is, how it works or what it's relationship to the rest of TLG is. And of course they will favor "certain licenced" over others. This is what is known as the "business case". It's not a popularity contest among who has the loudest fan base. Their choices are made based on best business use of limited resources. What projects best fit into their business and production models. And what types of sets can they best predict potential results from. CuuSoo is particularly designed as low cost crowd sourced experiments. Starting small is key to it. Minecraft was selected not just for 10k votes, but because the underlying business case was solid and fit well with TLG's production models. They felt due to the apparent synergy between brick builders and Minecraft virtual brick builders that they had very good predictive data. They also had a rare video game property that topped over 10 million paying users while still in Beta, and is still on a nice slow steady upward arc of the growth curve. Further it is an extremely rare video game property in that it is virtually un-gated by platform, appearing on PC, console and mobile devices. Really only Grumpy Sparrows and Plants vs Zombies share its sort of market penetration. ( and no, Zelda really doesn't come close when you look at the real user penetration levels.)

There have been a few CMF double sided faces I think? Didn't the female swimming champion have a double face? And the Galaxy Patrol fig? I forget if any others did?

We would not know of any LotR sets for next year at this time. It's a fairly safe assumption that they alternate between Hobbit and LotR, with LotR being the summer release off cycle from the movies. So we probably will not see hints of another LotR wave or notice its absence until around April. Regardless LotRs is really not a good CMF candidate. It targets an older audience. The figs while nicely detailed tend to be more earth tones in pallet, with complicated names and back stories. It would be great to have for the true fans, but won't bring in the kiddies. Besides hints are that the New Line middle earth license is if anything more restrictive than SW. I agree Star Wars while a good candidate, is probably better serving Lego in its current model. I would not expect that to change in any way until maybe the new movie comes out. Lucasfilms might want a CMF line as a tie in marketing thing. Much like the Lego Movie is doing. I suspect that series 12 may not simply be an "internal license" for TLG. It may also be an experiment to take back to certain license holders and say "see, we can do this too, and do this movie tie in for you". Series 14(?) looks to be a similar business model experiment where they are looking to tie a "Skylanders" type gameplay element into the line. Which could be huge if the game takes off.

In thinking on that development, I kind of understand why they put that policy in place. They have danced closely with unintentionally dragging a few license holders into this project a few times as it's gone along. The main examples being the MWT, The Sandcrawler, And this reviews Tumbler and in particular the Space Troopers. The one thing that TLG cannot do is make it seem that a third party (that they have a contract with) is the cause of a projects rejection. They are very limited in how they can talk about existing license deals. The license holders certainly don't want fan rage being turned back on them. The Sandcrawler was basically shot down as a result of the LucasArts Star Wars license. The IP holder would feel that the project was already covered under the terms of the existing contract with no third party participation. (same deal with Tumbler) The MWT was rejected because of a non compete clause in the LP contract. The deal with Disney just shut it down. And finally there is some chance that the Space Troopers was turned down at least in part because of c&d notices received from a non contracted third party, Games Workshop. Chances are TLG did not want to get involved in any licensing fight with GW. But they really can't say that publicly without facing a legal challenge. TLG's best, and really only, option to dealing with some of these complexities is to simply shut up. Just give out generic pass fail reports for the review projects. Don't go into detail about why it passed or failed. Their legal department probably forced this change. It sucks for us, who like to analyze every clue to what they look for. But you can see their concerns.

Agreed, and yeah the Forrest Maiden would work well. Although to give credit, she has the worst hair, but possibly the best dress compared to her actual character.

One of these days I'm going to take a bunch of these, get some Forrestmen, and put together a kick megablocks Mongo MOC. We got Lion people, We got bird people, we got lizard people and wolf people. pretty much everything that might be needed.

This! WB has the Harry Potter license. Whereas WB outright owns DC Comics lock stock and barrel. To use Harry Potter they still need Rowlings permission. But they can use Batman at will since they own him completely.

Oh was I ever thinking it. I hear the song whenever I look at the fig.

Each license is unique and specific. And what constitutes a construction set or play set is defined for each one. The Star Wars license does not allow for separate Minifigs as others have the action figure license. But Star Wars does allow for what we call Battle Packs. Whereas LotR / Hobbit seems to have a higher requirement of pieces per minifig, which is why we see sets like Uruk Hai Army, Orc Forge and Dol Goldur Ambush instead of the Star Wars sized and priced Battlepacks. While there are rumors that the Superhero lines might not have these restrictions and were considered for CMF's. The rumor is that the SDCC exclusive figs were originally designed for a CMF line. Some of the Disney lines also may not have the restrictions. Lego released a PotC figure only Battle Pack. (Hmmm? How would a straight up "Disney" line of CMF's be? Cinderella? Jack Sparrow? Tron? Peter Pan? Etc. kind of like a Kingdom Hearts game in minifig form.)

Which is kind of strange and iffy, seeing as they are direct models of the Dagger of Time from PoP? Granted I can forgive re using a mold for Tauriel like that. It's the lack of anything appropriate for Orcrist that still honks me off.

I like that the "Uni Kitty" in the evil lair is very different from the one in the Cuckoo Cloud set. Are the glasses and different markings what they mean by "Biznes Kitty"?

For those that missed it. ITunes has the Extended version of TUJ available. Overall it's mostly a vast improvement. Fans of Lore and the Thranduil lovers will be thrilled. It really fleshes out a few scenes. Such as that initial flashback with Thror and Thranduil. A much deeper White Council. And a much improved and more classic Goblin town (complete with cheesy musical number.) some nice expanded Rivendell stuff, and a naked dwarf scene that I could have lived without. Sadly I hate to admit it. But it's probably a must have for the Tolkien fans. It's a shame they didn't trim down the stupid stone giant scene or the 45 minutes of pointless New Zealand travelogue of Dwarves running over landscape.

I must be weird. I kind of like most of these. William Shakespeare - great looking minifig. A nice compliment to the actor. Probably don't need a lot. But the torso will be great for some Castle and period stuff Gail the Construction Worker - a decent enough city type fig with some emotion and personality. Female city worker torso has some uses. Probably fairly useful to part out overall. Panda Guy - too cool. Don't need a lot of them. But must have one. Abraham Lincoln - great fig. Key question will be if the beard and hat are separate. If so fantastic parts. If not then really one is enough. Taco Tuesday Guy - kinda neat. And he makes me think of a great little MOC for my city street. Yet somehow feels wrong. Larry the Barista - the face and the coffee cup sell him. A great little fig. President Business - great suit, great mug. Face and hair will be weird to reuse. Calamity Drone - possibly the low point of the series. But honestly not that bad. A neat little fig. Just not a ton of flexibility unless you are building an army of robotic hookers in your city or Star Wars Cantina... Hmmm now that I write it, maybe it has a few more uses than I thought. Evil uses mind you... Marsha Queen of the Mermaids - the hair is interesting. But unless you are looking to MOC Katy Perry ummm? I want one. Just don't see a lot of uses. I mostly used the prior mermaid for hair. This will be the same. Wild West Wyldstyle - I love this fig. A great character in a kind of goth dress. Not a lot of widespread uses, but still neat. Scribbe-Face Bad Cop - really need to see more on him. I love the helmet (have we had a real motorcycle cop type helmet before?) at least he is useful in city as a cop. Velma Staplebot - the hair and body are real useful. The head and hands less so. Hard Hat Emmet - we gotta get a main character variant. He seems generically useful enough as such. Love the hat with hair. Swap a few heads around and you have a great construction crew. “Where are my Pants?” Guy - the head and hair make him a passable stand in for Dareth the Brown Ninja. The torso is fantastic. The overall fig as presented is meh. Mrs. Scratchen-Post - more varied old people are always welcome. Like the hair in grey. Torso is kind of garish. But interestingly so. Wiley Fusebot.- I am not quite sure what to make of this guy. It must however be said that the parts are way better than the whole. New beard. New hat (is that a babushka?) can't see much use for the rest except as a zombie. Overall I really like this series. It has much the same quirkiness of previous series. It has a few good historical figs. A couple of evil robots. Lots of useful city civilian types. No real aliens or monsters this time, although one of the better guy in costume figs. Most of these would have been unchanged without the movie tie in.

technically the character is "Classic Space Guy with Broken Helmet", which is sorta the problem. I don't think Lego would create a deliberately broken piece. Can you imagine the confusing customer service calls? "No really it's supposed to be that way. No we promise. We modeled it after what always used to happen to the old ones. So ummm, yes. We're pre breaking the classic space helmets now to ummm save time?"...

I would assume that specific exclusive sets can still go on sale or clearance, such as they typically do for the May the 4th events. But TLG now fully controls which sets and when they go on sale. No more random coupons for them.

Toy licences are typically split up into several pieces. things like figures, construction or building, games, video games, etc. remember the purpose of the IP is to bring the best benefits to the license holder. So a typically smart license holder will segregate the pieces and put each with a licensee that has a history of maximizing the piece of it. if Jazzwares has a history of figures, but no history of putting construction sets on the shelf in major stores, than chances are they just have a figure and playset license. yes, absolutely. Generally when talking about CuuSoo or Lego we are talking exclusively about the "construction toy license" and whether or not that is in active use elsewhere.

I think Marvel and DC Superheroes would work well as their own separate multi series lines of CMF's. They have a depth of characters and a rabid enough built in fan base that could support such. You could easily get 100 discreet figures out of each source that are familiar to fans, and still have hundreds more to draw on. The Simpsons feels a bit more shallow. Yeah I know they have built up a large cast of characters. But it just doesn't feel the same. Star Wars would be great for a CMF line if the license could allow it. Star Trek as well if they had that license. I'm not sure that LotR would work as well. While beloved the various characters just don't have as much visual distinctiveness. Medieval guy, medieval guy, elf, medieval guy, dwarf, etc etc. accessories, sword, bow, axe.

One other thing to keep in mind. We have very very rarely seen a Disney theme released in conjunction with a first movie. At least not at time of the movies release. The only exceptions to that rule seem to be two of the Bruckheimer works. PoP and LR. Both of which underperformed. Toy Story, Cars, PotC, etc all allowed for the movie to develop more into a franchise before picking it up. We never saw sets from some single movies that by nature would be extremely Lego friendly. Stuff like The Incredibles. I'm betting if there is an Incredibles or Wreck It Ralph 2 we will see corresponding sets from both movies.

Hmmm? An interesting thought on this one. Given that CuuSoo seems more prone to pass and produce single sets than a theme. And given the tile based nature of the game where each structure sits on a similar footprint and uses a similar color and design pallet. Would it be possible to design a single set that could be used to create any one of those buildings? A 3 in 1 type set, similar to creator? Enough bricks to build each and instructions for all three. This way you would have an easier time in review, and would encourage multiple purchases for the fans.

I know they say that each is reviewed independently and on it's own merits. But there are also a few statements that may imply some degree of direct comparison, and an ideal goal of 1 per quarter. Granted these way be subject to evolving internal processes at Lego that we know nothing about. As an example, this from the Review Results for the Eve Grifter project." The supporters we received for the EVE Online Ships – Rifter project allowed us to examine the feasibility of another niche gaming-related product. However the Rifter presented a more challenging business case when considered alongside other potential products in this Review period. Therefore, the LEGO Review Board has decided that this project does not meet the requirements for the business case." Also of interest from the CuuSoo post on the review process. "We queue for production models that pass the LEGO Review At the end of the review, projects will either be approved or not approved based on how they fit our review criteria. When we announce the review results, we’ll also reveal the final production models for each approved project. We can then potentially pick one project per quarter to put into immediate production as the next LEGO CUUSOO set. This potential set is chosen based on strategic fit and the business case from the review. The remaining projects that pass Review will be placed in a queue where they will await an open production slot and may be chosen for production at a later date. The order in which they are produced is also dependent on strategy and the business case for each. As the LEGO Group alone takes on the cost of production and associated risk, we will choose LEGO CUUSOO sets for production at our discretion." Which while indicating that queuing projects is possible, does seem to imply a 1 per quarter limit.

It would face a tougher review. But it is far from doomed. Yes he proposed a theme. But what he proposed is a bit more scalable than the Miniships. In the case of the Miniships each voter could have wildly different interests or wants. Loyal Starbucks customer? McDonalds fan? Just city building type. Etc. there was no way to differentiate or distinguish. Whereas with something like this there is a high degree in common in all the voters. They want Roman's! The only real debate becomes size. That makes Lego's job of pruning it into a single set a little less unpleasant. Still not ideal but doable. The Gladiator scene is probably a non issue. Lego made the Gladiator figs. Besides the scene has them fighting a beast. It may just skirt the edges of blood sport enough to be ignored or allowed. Worst case the scene is not made. But it probably isn't an instant turndown. I think the chariot set would be the more likely one to be made anyway. All of this is academic. It looks like the creator walked away from the project as some sort of protest of the MWT. So this likely isn't happening. The question isn't so much "is the project proposing custom parts", as "does the project require custom parts, and are those parts exclusive to the project or project theme?" Most of these projects have been up there for a long time. Most from before the abilities for new parts became clearer. At the end of the day the question in review is does it need the new parts, or can similar effect be gained without them? And honestly, as we have seen a few times, this is a question best asked at the point of review. Largely because in the intervening time some new mold might have been created for another line, such as CMF's, that would be an acceptable substitution. In a nutshell. A project will fail for needing new molds. But it should not be auto archived, as an alternative may be produced while it is gathering votes.

That is a great and very concise list ShayDeGrai. Here are two possible updates for it based on newer data. * CuuSoo does not have the ability to entertain making unique new molds exclusive to a project or set.Things like unique character heads or hairpieces. Projects that require such things to achieve their desired results will probably not pass review. (See Legend of Zelda) And this one " Proposals for IPs currently _licensed by_ other companies are acceptable but IP _originated by_ rival toy companies are not (i.e. My Little Pony, Cabbage Patch Kids, Masters of the Universe, etc.)" Should be updated to modify the first statement. IP currently licensed and in active use by other companies is also not acceptable. And such projects will get archived at a certain level of support (1000 votes?). This applies to Dr. Who, Star Trek, Jurassic Park, Halo, etc. And finally * projects that directly compete with an existing in production licenced theme, while not disallowed, have a strong chance of failure at review. (Ie A Classic Pirates project while the PotC licence is in effect, etc.)