Faefrost

Maybe they would. But Gamers often do exist in a bubble, and do not realize both the size or the limits of their hobby. Legend of Zelda has roughly 8-10 million truly rabid fans. But as soon as you cross outside of the base of Nintendo players the knowlege drop off is sharp. They know the name Zelda. They know links hat etc. But that's about it. Portal is actually a little more mass market and pop culture. I think that they gave serious consideration to making it. I am also sure that the short shelf life of video games and the fads of support and memes that surround them can scare the actual level headed production planing people. They took a risk in Minecraft and it paid off. But they are not quite there yet to jump on the video game bandwagon. Some numbers and some core rules will have to change before that will become an easy decision.

Bleah! I was thinking the opposite. I never liked the "Ultimates" style black and gray shield agent look of Falcon. I much prefer the classic Red and White take on him.

CuuSoo has always been new ideas for single issue sets. They have specifically said, repeatedly, that it is not meant to suggest whole themes. If a single project does well it may naturally evolve into something bordering on a theme, ie Minecraft. But projects will not be evaluated or planned as themes. And proposing a theme will cause issues in review. The mini shops probably failed because it was proposed and voted on as a more broad theme. A series of shops, rather than one refined set. If they had simply proposed a nice Starbucks set, with a single license to deal with, and no drastically reduced expectations, it might have passed review. The Female Minifig project might bump into this as well.

It was actually 10 sets from 3 review periods. I think one period had 2 and the others had 4 each. So two of the periods had no succesful reviews. Now next review is a single review period with 7 sets. (Betting money is on one of the Ghostbusters sets or the Wizzard of Oz one. But since they only approved one set in three quarters worth of reviews, they may actually have some extra banked production budget and capacity that might allow them to choose more than one this time. It's a hope.)

You are missing the point. There is no reason for Lego to pay anything to license Andy the Android. It has pretty much no elements of their primary business. It really isn't a toy at least not for their target age ranges. It is a model of another corporations corporate mascot. If Ford gets 10k people to vote for a CuuSoo set of a Ford logo, does that mean TLG then pays Ford for the privilege of making it? Hells no! TLG has a long history of making special custom sets for companies. TLG gets paid to do so. They probably have a department set up to handle such things. And it would need to be done through that channel and not CuuSoo. And yes, before anyone attempts to play Internet rules lawyer, these areas can get grey at times. TLG will pay for a logo or license when it is to their benefit. (Ferrari, Mercedes Benz, Landrover, etc) but that differs from simply making the other companies logo, without those benefits. A small company like Minecraft or Poptropica can use CuuSoo to help boost interest in themselves. But they are at least still targeting into TLG's core product ranges. There is a difference between making a set based on the other companies product, be it a game, movie or car, and making one based purely on their marketing materials and Logo's.

We have been looking at this for ages, and there really is nothing surprising today. A few that it would be interesting to know the exact reasoning for the decision, but most of it we could see pretty clearly if we just look and apply a true eye towards the review. 1. Thinking With Portals - I think TLG probably gave this one a lot of thought. Much deeper analysis than most. For Pro's it's an interesting and (somewhat) non violent game that is very popular. And the project seemed to be dancing around some rather interesting new play features. The Cons were the new molds, and the typical baggage of any video game project. Limited fan base. Limited lifespan of the tied in game IP, etc. in the end the numbers probably just could not add up. The big problem is most likely this. By the time this project could hit retail shelves, not only would the game itself have been long absent from said shelves, but every platform on which it was possible to play the game would have been replaced or obsoleted by new consoles, or radically new OS's. Great game. Great project. But the timing... 2. Space Troopers - this one is the one that I would be most curious to know the reasoning on. But the project did have a few potential issues. It had some risk of rubbing against Lego's Space Theme Galaxy Squad. Now this most likely would not be a veto. GS is an in house theme. ST could just as easily be viewed as complimentary. But then there is the gorilla in the room. Remember when the project was called "Space Marines"? They got a C&D notice from Games Workshop. Now the question is does the ST project dance too closely to Warhammers 4k and their notoriously rabid lawyers? They may have been caught between trying to guess if it was or wasn't a license. And I doubt that TLG would want to go toe to toe with GW over a single subject CuuSoo project. 3. Andy the Android - Lets be Frank, this thing isn't a toy or a model. It's marketing materials for a business other than TLG. There is no way that Lego would pay to license this. If anything they might expect Google to pay them to make it. So it ends up having a business and licensing case that probably cannot be well supported by CuuSoo. TLG like most businesses, is not in the habit of footing the bill for someone else's marketing and advertising, and that's what this would have been. 4. Mini Shops - to start go read #3. Same may apply. Further complicate this by bringing a too large project with too many licenses to 10k. Where the review team has to do the pruning to produce something far less than what the voters wanted. Even doing just an in house Lego store has issues. They already have the store opening sets. Plus they have produced a near identicle type set to the proposed project in set 7848, the TRU truck and small TRU store loaded with Lego sets. As Anachir points out, this really only worked as a theme,or a range Of sets. 5. Purdue Pete- see some of my other long winded dissertations on this one. But it comes down to too small too niche a market to make CuuSoo's and Lego's limited production time be used effectively to best possible roi. 6. Batman Tumbler - pre existing license. Pre existing product currently on store shelves. Honestly this one should have been archived long before review. If your project pitch is "what you are making now. Today! But mine's better!" Don't be surprised when you are not the top pick. Just sayin'. 7. Legend of Zelda - it failed once for clear reasons. Neither this project, nor the next one coming up behind it, in any way solve or address those reasons. TLG will not amortize unique new tooling for CuuSoo sets. And the most identifiable element common to Zelda requires new tooling to be recognizable. 8. League of legends - probably failed on brand fit. I'm betting we will see MOBA's added to the verboten list alongside FPS and TPS games. (MMO's too for some reason). The game was probably borderline for brand fit. The games community however was probably well past the lines. The Exo Suit isn't my first choice (I figured some of the build technics might have weighted against it). But it is clearly the project with the fewest problems in this review period(s). So congrats robot suit thingy.

Technically its out of 9. The Technic Landrover is still under evaluation. I think there might be some hope of eventually seeing that one in a somewhat smaller form. Possibly on scale with 41999

There are a few other issues specific to video game projects that the dedicated fan bases often fail to appreciate. And these probably figured heavily in the Portal project and all of the Zelda projects. 1. Video Games have a very limited shelf life and a very short window of consumer level popularity. With the exception of very very few true franchises, the games will be long gone from shelves by the time any licensed product could be manufactured and released. Just look at CuuSoo's typical time to market. By the time a Portal 2 set would hit the market, not only would the game be long faded from ready retail availability. But all three of the gaming platforms that the game ran on would have been replaced or obsoleted. This makes for a very strained business case for video game tie in products. The only real options for video game toys, are those planned well in advance to tie in with well established franchises next release (Halo, CoD, etc. often action figures designed more for the adult collector) or cheap fast turnaround stuff designed for a quick Buck. Mobile games actually have more of an advantage in this environment. Games like Grumpy Sparrows or Minecraft tend to have broader shelf life, once they achieve a certain critical mass. Portal while one of the best games ever made is well under this threshold of longevity to make for a tolerable level of product risk. The only thing that might have given it a real chance was the interesting play element of the set. But as a general rule any video game will have a high threshold. The scary reality is most video game toys end up in stores clearance bins for exactly this reason. 2. Video game fan bases are not always as large as we think they are. Yes there are some legitimate rock stars that sell tens of millions. But most are overjoyed if they hit 1 million sales. World of Warcraft is possibly the most profitable video game ever made with 12 million customers (maybe 18 million discreet users or fans over the games lifespan). Zelda? Somewhere between 7-10 million discreet fans in total, accross the entire franchise. Compare that with BttF, which has a measurable fan base somewhere around a billion worldwide. Star Wars? 2.5 billion+. The way the business case math works, the higher the number of measurable potential customers, the lower the business risk a project is saddled with. Fan enthusiasm has little to do with it. Look at Purdue Pete as an example. It cleared 10k in a matter of hours. But the entire reasonably measurable fan base or interested customers was probably somewhere around 40-50k. So it would need at a minimum 25% of fans to convert to paying customers. While highly possible, it is a high risk sales equation, which would typically not be the best use of a company like TLGs production resources. (Oh and to make the Zelda fans feel more miserable in this regard. Adventure Time, an animated TV show that is in some ways playing around in a similar sandbox to Zelda (or spoofing it) probably has about 10x the measurable fan base of the actual Zelda games.) 3. Even with the big franchises. It almost needs to achieve pop culture status. And it needs a complete consistency of tone and look. PAC Man is so recognizable that half it's fan base probably doesn't realize that it was a coin munching video game once. Mario has maintained an incredibly consistent design, look and feel over the years. Most others, not so much. Zelda gets a little sketchy with this. For a non Nintendo owner the game of "know your Links" can be quite confusing. Zelda gets doubly hammered for this on CuuSoo because the one true element of design consistency and recognizability throughout the franchise, Links hair, ears and soft green cap, would absolutely require a new unique Lego element to properly achieve. Not matter which variant of a project you look at. ( Zelda is actually kind of unusual for Nintendo in that regard. Look at how unchanged Mario or the Pokemon have been for 20 years.) Video games are getting more and more embedded in the pop culture psyche. And the producers have such have also more an more chased the dream of franchise, rather than unique. These will both increase the chances of seeing more video game based sets in the future. But for now it is still some rough math. Minecraft was lightning in a bottle.

Hmmm? Not completely surprising given the slate of projects under review. It would be interesting to know what was the reason for rejection was on a few of them.

I think a large part of the issue is "white" while a quite common hair coloring in licensed IP's. Movies, comics, etc. where it will in part define specific characters. For the non licensed Minifigs, the defining characteristic normally associated with white hair, age, is typically better communicated with a shade of gray. Regardless, I soo want a modern female long hair piece in white. So many possibilities. The Black Cat. Clea, Dr Strange's typical love interest. Storm. Etc.

By "American Style" they probably mean that it is based on that distinctive Oshkosh air crash truck design that is probably the most widespread Airport Fire truck throughout the western world. It's big and long and boxy with very clean angles that work quite well in Lego. Although I am a bit confused as to why they consider a "red" air crash truck an American Style? I think the American FAA mandated that all airport fire rescue vehicles must be that horrid high visibility lime green years ago?

That blue grey batman looks more like the classic comics Batman up through the 80's. Heck! He wears that outfit through a good chunk of Frank Millers Dark Knight Returns ("why do you think I wear a target on my chest?") until it is damaged and he pulls out the older look. Besides, the black outfits didn't really show up until the Michael Keaton movies came out. So I am not sure they can honestly be defined as the proper look of the more "serious" a Batman?

Still makes one wonder why it has taken so long for them to show up in Canada, and let's not forget the UK and Australia, who should be able to tolerate American English printings, even if we do spell some things weird.

But the hair looks accurate to his look from the movie? And that is what Lego is bound by the license to use. While I am not crazy about the movie look of Beorn, I can understand why the movies producers wanted to give him a look that clearly distinguished him from other fantasy characters. Hagrid in particular.

"The goggles! They do nothing!"... for me... That visor print just seems odd. I like the shape and detailing of the helmet otherwise. Yeah it seems a little big, but all new lego helmets seem to be trending that way. Iron Man, Phase 2 clones, etc. I can live with a slight bobbleheadedness. But those eyes are making my head hurt for some reason.

I'm pretty sure that Beorn is greatly oversized in the movie. We have long seen pictures of the set of his house and it seems to be about 3x the scale of the dwarves. I do wish Lego had communicated that better via minifig. A Hagrid type big fig might not have worked well as Beorn seems less stocky and more lean and slender in man form. And I confess I can't picture the toy story legs as looking anything but absurd on him. But still a little more of a looming presence would have been nice.

I'm betting Lucasfilm (Disney) encourages a strong ANH push just before the new movie, to help get everyone amped and thinking about classic OT era Star Wars and characters, and less about PT and TCW. We will probably see some true classic Ep IV sets then. My bet will be a new MF, Darth Vader Tie Fighter and Sandcrawler on the high end.

I think we might see one more retailer exclusive set. Maybe something in the low to mid price range like Barrel Escape and Orc Forge were. Sadly I don't think it will be a Rhosgobel set, just because that would really want a few animal molds, and I suspect that the Friends Hedgehogs might look just a bit too cute and Friendly for Middle Earth.

I like all of these. The only mildly annoying thing is Beorn in the Dul Guldur Ambush set. I love Beorn, and I am really looking forward to a fig of him. But since the Dul Guldur Ambush can be an expansion set for the Battle of Dul Guldur set, I will probably get a few of them. At least with Helm's Deep and the Uruk Hai Army set, you could easily play gear mix and match to flip any extra Eomer's into just generic Rohirim. But what are we going to do with 3-5 Beorn's? (Well okay pair them up with my small army of Gandalf's, Lone Rangers and Jack Sparrows)

I think the most common way of describing them is the Pilot movie and mini movies involving the skeletons are Season 1. The Snake / Green Ninja series and the sort of filler episodes up to the destruction of the golden weapons are season 2 (but they are split between Season 2 part 1 and Season 2 part 2). The Stone Army series up to Garmadon turning good are season 3. The Season numbers actually seem to correspond more to the Cartoon Network production orders than anything else.

It could be something as simple as the project got flagged during a blanket automated scan for offending titles. It may have involved minimal human interaction. Changing it to something like "Custom Porche Buildings intructions for use with Lego Technic bricks" rather than "Custom Lego Building Instructions" might avoid the conflict.

While a wonderful list I am more than a little skepticle. As others have said, the list seems just a little too good to be true. It is almost exactly subject by subject what people around here have been asking for. Down to set and minifig suggestions. All rolled into one list. Sorry but it will take a bit more than a never before heard from poster to make me buy into something that seems so perfectly targeted at us. Besides which, pricing? This early? In USD $? We would expect to see set numbers long before we hear any talk of pricing, let alone "overseas" pricing in the US market. As I said color me suspicious.

Speculation on my part, but chances are a "maxi fig" in a Spiderman set will probably end up as either the Rhino, or the Ultimate style Green Goblin. (I could be wrong on this, but these would make the most sense, and I think both appear in the game as such)

Hmmm? Some good potential there. - We can guarantee a Karai fig. WooHoo! - Mutation Chamber probably means we will either get a human Pulveriser or him in his mutated form in some way. (Round trans clear cylinder with stickers of floating organs?). Maybe both? - T-Rawket probably means we might see "Wing Nut"/Aprils Dad? While not 100% perfect to the scene he is from that episode, and TLG probably has some shiny new bat wing molds to amortize between Chima bat people and Batman Man-Bat. So I would consider him as a likely candidate for inclusion. - The Turtle Sub I am guessing is just Tirtles and Krang? I can't see them giving us a big "Roseane Krang Supreme" or whatever it is called, at that price point? And really there aren't any other good mutant candidates for that set (at least that we have seen so far) Granted as we saw with the Shellraiser and Stealth shell, they don't follow show scenes exactly for minifigs.

It still looks like the mold seams run ventral front to back on the ARC helmet. The Mandolorian helmet too. The loss of the holes was most likely a trade off in the production process for the new one. The holes are probably a "nice to have" detail. But it looks like the new helmet might use a three part mold or more, so they may not have been practical from an engineering perspective. When they make a change like that or reduce a feature, it is almost always driven by the requirements and limitations of the production engineering. We fans tend to be very concerned about whether they got the shape of a part accurate to what we see on screen. We don't always think through how amazingly complicated the process is to make this stuff. And what restrictions that puts on things. The parts must cleanly release from the molds, every time.