Faefrost

I'm thinking if Lego went down that road they would not even bother with a movie or TV license. The source material, the Arthur Conan Doyle books are now public domain, are they not?

Fantastic Fallout MOC! Although I do have some bad news for you about Toronto. Ummm? How do I say this? You see there was this flying saucer thingy! And they sorta kinda beamed me aboard. And errrr? Well see in the natural course of slaughtering pretty much everything aboard the Mothership and stealing heir stuff, I ummm might have pushed a button or two... Just to see if they spit out more stuff you understand. It's not like I was planning on creating a new Great Lake!?!? But just think of the value of your new (only mildly radioactive) vacation property on the shores of Lake Toronto? (Yeah yeah like you all wouldn't have pushed the button.)

Normally we upload the pics to someplace like Flickr and then just link or embed them here. (There is a recently updated set of instructions on how to do this with the new Flickr somewhere around here, but I'll be darned if I can find it now that I look for it?)

I love the Kashyyyk clones. The "you'll shoot your eye out!" Hair dryers of doom I am much less sold on. If these are the new standard field arms for the SW universe I am going to have to start investing in third party weaponry.

There was some discussion about it in one of these threads. That one sits in some very very strange places. It is a good project, and the idea of Lego pushing more female roles in regular system type sets is desperately needed. (I have a young friend, a 6 yo black girl who adores Lego, but cannot abide by Friends sets because they aren't "real" Lego. She favors Castle and Lone Ranger). But with that said, (and I know GlenBricker probably disagrees with me on this one.) I see a slight potential problem with this projects core support base when it hits review. This one surged up virtually overnight because it became a sort of protest project amongst a large number of feminist sites and groups. It was pushed to 10k not so much because the voters wanted to purchase this set, or really even cared about the bricks. It was carried upwards in order to at least in large part, send a message to TLG about their toys and gender roles. Honestly best possible outcome from this one? It fails review (thereby having TLG not directly succumbing to mob influence on their policies) but it does prompt them to re evaluate some if their set design goals going forward to be more inclusive of female roles.

Harry Potter is probably the best and most optimistic comparison we can hope for with LotR/ Hobbit sets. The fact is Star Wars is a merchandising juggernaut and has been for 30+ years. Lord if the Rings, while having a broad loyal fan base, simply is not anywhere near that scale.

Sigh! Ok let's go through it one more time. 1. They will NEVER make a new mold for something that will be uniquely used for a CuuSoo set. If it cannot be used in regular retail sets they will not even consider it. 2. If the new part or mold is something that is a core or critical element of the set, such as the distinct appearance of a licensed character, they will first see if the needed look can be achieved with the available pool of parts. If not is the element critical for the set. If yes than the set will not be made. In the case of Zelda the problem is Link's hair piece with green hat. You can't make a Zelda set without Link, and as even the creator of the current Zelda project under review, you really can't make an acceptable Link with current molds. Links look has to match Nintendo's design guidelines as part of any licensing deal. And therein lies the problem Contrast that with the BttF train project. Yes the project shows some new custom hair pieces. But they are at best a luxury item. The set can easily be acceptably made using pieces found in the Lone Ranger theme. They won't look quite as good, but they will do the job and all characters will still have their needed look. The Tin Man in the Oz set falls between these two. Yes the movie version has a fairly well known look that they want to come close to. But the actual characters and such are open source now, so they don't have to hit any specific design guides or standards. That gives them a bit more latitude in achieving the character look. They can get the general look and feel from something such as the Sad Clown at or some micro build with a 1x1 cone or something mixed with some clever printing.

The treehouse would be a good choice for a late summer release as it could easily be done as the "Treehouse of Terror" for Halloween.

The headpiece is some sort of custom. It's not "illegal". You can submit projects with new or custom pieces. It just increases the chances that it will be turned down if the piece is necessary for the project and they can't find a replacement.

I don't think the issue is so much the funky prints or part colors. I think they have a limited CuuSoo team and 1 per Q is about the best they can do for core production needs such as packaging, instructions, artwork etc. As long as they are not printing on curved or unusual surfaces, the part printing setup is probably not that bad anymore.

It will probably be the same molds from the CW sets, but a new PT type face printing. The face will probably be less cartoony.

So they overloaded us with $100+ sets this release, and gave us all low cost stuff next time??? Seems kinda counterintuitive? If nothing else I love those battle packs. Just everything we could want. lotR design team, please take note. The Chibi fighters are better than the planets. But that is not exactly high praise. The rest are a mixed bag of meh. The big sets are an ATAP vs a Droid Gunship. Total screen time for both... Combined... 1.47 seconds. The Milenium Falcon these most certainly are not.

Agreed. What is the largest big mold big fig they have done? The T Rex or the Rancor? Neither really get close to the size you would want? I'm a fan of selective compression to enable play. But there are limits you can take it before the illusion starts breaking down. I think a molded Smaug would quickly hit those limits. Maybe a molded head on a brick built body?

Lucas / Disney doesn't have a movie release pending in the near term. Whereas licensees will be much more careful of maintaining confidentiality and hard street dates for Hobbit stuff as any reveals could cause big trouble with the licensor.

I've heard a rumor that the Falcon costume will change and evolve in the movie, and he may be in the more traditional red by the end. Which is fine by me. We could get a black suit Ultimate style Falcon and a red traditional one.

Ok that is just stunning. I can't believe the level of thought and design that must have gone into that.

Didn't the Modular line start out with the design stipulation that they be made entirely not simply from existing parts (no new molds) but that they e made from existing inventory? I thought that they did not actually start allowing non inventory elements until the line took off. Either the GE or FB? Hmmm? Isn't there some rule these days that for a new color something has to be retired? Or something strange like that? As far as the new molds and elements, they seem to be taking a bit more care with the new ones nowadays. What they design now seems to be mainly very broad use building elements. Where they ran into trouble in the past was an over abundance of more specialized things. Strange large custom or limited use pieces and similar.

It looks like Poptropica only has about 120 votes to go, so they will probably hit 10k by Friday. This will be an interesting review group. Update: The Poptropica Bunny Bot set has hit 10k. Congrats to all involved.

In theory such a set could include rogue Jedi Asokha, bounty hunter Ventriss, dark side Barris Offee with Ventrises curved red light sabers, and 1 or 2 Coruscant Police duty clones. That could be a really rocking little set.

Please don't assume that I like your proposed rating system for any logical or beneficial reason. I am for the most part an evil hearted bastard, and would approve of any system that lets me lob virtual fruit at the small children or completely clueless fanboys. It's petty and evil, but heck, what else is the interwebx for? Honestly the others are probably correct and it would serve little real function beyond allowing mean people like me to throw rocks. (A noble goal in its own right, but probably counterproductive in this circumstance.)

But nor is their anything iconic in it hat would really work for a Lego build? The main thing with Teen Wolf is the character. Not really a place, scene vehicle or something otherwise build able? It would make for a great action figure. But I am not sure how good a match it would be for Lego?

Part of the problem may be merchant side. I get the impression that a lot if the stores (not the companies, the individual retail stores and more specifically the local staff) hate the Polybag product, or at a minimum typically can't be bothered to put it out, maintain it, or place it anywhere that customers can find it. TRU is about the only one that regularly will. The others just fail to acknowledge one product from another, never rotate stock, hide it, or otherwise ignore it.

Yet it's not as true as it once was. As you said Star Wars changed everything. The licensee's started to understand how it could be more profitable to go after movie licenses than TV. A typical movie release will garner 10x more fans than a typical TV show, in a much shorter time span. Making successful merchandising more likely. A good movie ay have 100 million + fans. A good TV show 10-20 million. And the movies will immediately cross international borders these days. TV shows will not.

I vote we put up a LEGO ET The Video Game project, and then sit back and watch the Internet melt down in hellfire. (Maybe a model of a shipping container filled with concrete?)

I think the X Wing is one that they try and keep always on the shelf in one form or another. If this is a system scale set than it is probably a new version of the Dagobah set. I can't really see it as being a new Planet set for a min scale? They just had one. Maybe a Polybag? Much of the rest of the sets on this list just do nothing for me. I'd get a new Grievous Wheelbike Chase set. Especially if it had a new Boga. The rest? Doesn't even rise to the level of meh. These are a resounding BLEAH! I mean really? Another V Wing? Show of hands, who around here grew up with fantasies and daydreams of piloting a V-Wing? Enough to justify 3 different versions for a "blink and you missed it" flyby ship? And the rest? Yech! If this list is true, I now understand why they showed off the criminally unsexy AT-AP at SDCC. It appears to be the only set on the list tat is a large cohesive recognizable SW vehicle. Everything else looks to be minifig packs with blobs of stuff (or really not overly popular Droid stuff? Vulture Droid? Droid Gunship? The original releases of these are some of the few Lego Star Wars sets that have actually lost value over time.)