Faefrost

I would not rule out seeing an Invisible Man minifig in one of the future CMF series. Much like we saw the Dr. Splitz figure and the other MF type monsters.

I love it. I would love to be able to flesh out AA to look full in my modular layout. But egads! 4 Arkham sets is sadly way outside my budget.

Don't confuse the Sub Theme of "Galaxy Squad" with the overall theme of Space. GS may only be 2 waves, but Space goes on and carried forward with it much of what was likable in GS. Heck much of the GS human designs actually sprang from the concept work for that second wave of Alien Conquest. And so it will go with whatever comes next. Personally I have liked GS's designs, although I am still not crazy about the color pallets. I think they would have been better going with a more linked color scheme for the squad. They broke up he color cohesion, and then didn't really go far enough and take the story into a more classic Sentai team ala Ninjago or Voltron, etc. they actually seem to have made the same mistake with Chima. Too many factions without enough focus on the core. Ninjago worked because it was a small team Sentai story. But you can't really mix that with an epic army or war setting.

The Mad Scientist set looks good kind of mixed in and displayed with the Vampires Castle. As if it is just more of the ruins. I also do the same thing as you and pretty much ignore the "heroes" and their vehicles. The Train is kinda either way. It's a nice little 4-4-0 Engine with a really neat motif. The cars however are kind of meh. The Ghosts would be fantastic, if they didn't also come in 3 other sets. How many do you need? On the positive side the plane is by far the best of the Monster Fighters vehicles. I wish you luck finding the Zombie set. It is one of the best of them. The Zombie Bride and Groom are must haves. Perhaps the best figs of the series. The little crypt is a great build. (The steam tractor McHammer truck however is once again pointless.)

It's just the normal patern for a non media tie in Space or Adventure sub theme. They usually block these as either a 1 and done, more commonly a 2 release sub theme, or extremely rarely a 3 wave sub theme. This has all of the feel of a 2 waver. Atlantis got an extra wave, but it was an early attempt at a meda tie in type theme. Mars Mission got a small 3rd, but I don't think it did great with the third. As that was the start of modern Space they seem to have learned. I think everything after MM in Space was 2 waves? (AC was meant to have 2 waves. It was cancelled at the last minute because they ran out of retail room when they got TMNT or a similar license). Normally the last wave culminates with a nice top end set. Like City of Atlantis or SO3's Space Police Central. The Galactic Titan looks to be the large finale over here.

KHAAAAAAAANNNNNN!!!! Sorry sorry. Couldn't resist. Just a little too easy.

Have we ever seen a situation where the high and low price point sets are the exclusives? Those are almost always middle of the pack. Also don't forget that the recent Super Heros sets have all avoided the typical $99+ upper price. Smallville, Malibu Mansion, Daily Bugle, etc. I agree that there might be an un announced Smaug set out there, but honestly it doesn't make a lot of sense. There is nothing in any deals with New Line that would likely preclude them from "saying" they have a dragon based set in the works. It's sorta kinda expected that they and every other to licensee probably will be making one. The restriction would be that they can't "show" us what it looks like. A set name or number could be revealed, just no photos, even in merchant catalogs. So if that list is correct (still very questionable) than it either means that there likely is no large Smaug set this release, or if there is such a thing it is a large Lego only exclusive, ala Orthanc or Ewok Village, that is on a differing release schedule (and does not get advertised to retailers.)

It's probably real. As you said they commonly use red for test shots. An individual having six pieces does not sound that strange. Especially if he is local to the factory and would have a way to purchase or acquire these sorts of oddities. I would imagine that test batches probably produce a few hundred pieces?

Part of the problem is exactly how deep does anyone think the greater and engaged AFOL community is? As an example look at the total of registered users here at Eurobricks. Just eyeballing it puts it some where in the neighborhood of 25,000 or so? And this is one of the larger and more active Lego based comunities. To pass a project on CuuSoo just using the most Internet engaged adult Lego fans would require at a minimum 30-40% of this community. And that's some rough math. Further compounded by the fact that as a community Lego fans tend to be about as cooperative as a bag of cats, and often leave the outside viewer with the sneaking suspicion that we work with Lego because of court orders barring us from sharp objects.

And yet it is the single critical scene that ties the Hobbit to the LotR, and probably the fan favorite scene in the movie. If they had ignored it we would have screamed bloody murder. And it's not like they left anything out of the scene or could have in any way changed it, or tucked it into a different set. it's Bilbo (really the same outfit to, not much option there. Maybe they could have dirtied it up a bit?) Golum (and what are they going to do with his fig beyond give him a mildly different facial expression? New color designer loincloth?) Golums little boat and his little rock cave thing. Maybe they could have included the Goblin that Golum kills in front of Bilbo?

Right now I think the "Spring" seasonal set with the cherry tree and little fountain is my absolute favorite polybag, outside of a few exclusive figure bags.

Luke Cage is one of Marvel's oldest and best liked black super heroes. He's also known as Power Man. He is best known partnered with Iron Fist as Heroes for Hire. He primary power is un breakable skin. He is functionally invulnerable with some heightened strength. Style wise he is kind of Marvel's "Blacksploitation" era character from the early 70's taking a bit of styling and such from sources such as Richard Roundtree's classic Shaft. Marvel had a deep love of B movie inspired themes in the 70's with this, Kung Fu stuff, Horror and Occult, etc. that managed to create some of their stranger yet most visually striking characters. (See: Ghost Rider). And that visual distinct styling is what has everyone assuming that this guy is Luke Cage. Cage's outfits traditionally include a certain color pallet centered around a certain unusual shade of yellow. (Normally his puffy open chested disco shirt). Now look at the scene where hoodie boy is jumping out of a window. Look at his pants. His color pallet is screaming Luke Cage. Assuming he is in fact someone from Marvel's existing stable of characters, the other likely candidate would be Elijah Bradley, The Patriot. A member of the Young Avengers. His powers are basically the same as Captain America's. Strength Speed Stamina increased overall toughness. The dude in the trailer is the right age for Eli. I would just think that given Eli's comics backstory they might prefer to hold him for a Captain America story. He would also work well with a tie to Nick Fury should they go that route. Although the verbal interplay about needing a Shield would be a huge clue that this might be Patriot. He uses one.

It's all in the presentation and not so much the tiny build details. Honestly I think BrentWallers is a little better photographed and draws the eye better. But really both sets describe or talk about pretty much the same thing. Both discuss he fire station HQ's as a possibility, although Brent's does show it. The two have been pretty much in a dead heat until this week. I would attribute the sudden surge in Brent's more to a better effort to directly link the project on non Lego forums in the past 2 weeks combined with those links keeping it at or near the top of the "recent activity" page on CuuSoo. And the fact that the lead picture for that project is so nicely striking leads to frequent additional hits from the activity page. Honestly the bulk of the casual visitors to CuuSoo probably do not realize that there are two unrelated bu similar GB projects this close to the top. They go to vote for Ghostbusters, and simply vote for the first they find.

Tolkien himself outright sold the movie rights to the Hobbit and LotR's back around 1968 or so. He washed his hands of it all back then for a lump sum payout when he was alive. His family is mad because he studios don't have to soften them up or pay them exorbitant amounts for any further rights. As far as this list? I'll keep a healthy dose of skepticism until we get some confirmation. The names don't seem right to me. Lego is normally keenly aware to keep each product in a release wave distinct. "Dol Guldur Ambush" and "Dol Guldar Battle" are just way to similar to be actual Lego set names. They are good at avoiding confusion in sku's. a similar issue pops up with "Mirkwood Elf Army". Remember when you see this on most retail shelves that title gets shortened to Mirkwood and a price. But if the Mirkwood Spiders set is still in the channel? These might be right, or they might be weird mistranslations of the actual titles, but they don't quite feel right for actual Lego set names. If that makes any sense?

It looks like the Cargo stuff is starting to show up at my local Target. The TRU and Lego stores near me also all have them.

This. Considering we have yet to see a real LotR staff piece or Sensei Wu's bamboo staff as actual parts, I don't have high hopes for a specialized piece for this staff either.

A shame. Although we can probably fairly safely guess a few strong contenders. The safe bet is the black kid in the hoodie seen in the first trailer is Luke Cage. If so we can hope that Danny Rand / Iron Fist is lurking around. Also would not rule out Misty Knight and Colleen Wing (Daughters of the Dragon) or Shiang Chi. The big point being these are all very easy and inexpensive heroes to do for episodic television. You don't need to spend a gazillion $$$ on FX or elaborate costuming to get a good result. They are very street level. Given SHIELD maybe Jessica Drew/ Spider Woman? She Hulk?, Doc Samson (continuing his story from the Hulk), maybe Matt Murdock as someone's Lawyer? Given what glimpses we have seen of the overall story I can't help but think that the Runaways would be a good fit. (They've been talking about wanting to do a Runaways movie, but not knowing how to make it work or fit in. And a TV story arc might be a compromise.)

Soooo? In a line that already is like 60-70% Dwarf's... you want ANOTHER short fat hairy minifig?

They would have elements of the clone saga, and most of the things that appear at least in the main comics. The main exception is Jessica Drew Spider Woman. As I said somewhere earlier, that character was created specifically to be a separate license and to prevent a media licensee from getting a piece of it. (The same thing with She Hulk). With Spider Woman Marvel was always very very careful to not involve the character with the Spiderman books. if anything she is more tied to SHIELD traditionally or the Avengers in the modern era. So Sony could not use that character without a separate agreement with Marvel. Now the Ultimate Comics Spider Girl is another matter. They could probably use the "female clone of Peter Parker" story, but they would not be able to name her Jessica Drew.

Wouldn't a goodly amount of olive green look great on a building? A nice subdued color that would mix well with some grey or tan?

My friends daughter is the same way. She has no interest in Friends, because she feels they aren't "real" Lego. She likes Castle and Lone Ranger, and gets very upset when there aren't any girl Minifigs. (Oh and Pss't Lego, this is a 6 year old black girl. She would LOVE to finally see an actual minifig that looks like her. You know a "fleshy" brown skinned female... That isn't an alien.)

There is only one thing that works against a Monorail set. Detroit. Few realize it, but the Simpsons Monorail episode was an astonishingly prophetic criticism of the City of Detroit (who attempted to revitalize themselves with a shady Monorail decades ago, instead of actually enacting sound fiscal policies.) A Lego set based on the downfall of Detroit, while incredibly cool (more Zombies please!) might be viewed as a tad tasteless or a bit too political.

They said a small wave. So probably something like Spongebob gets. 2 or 3 sets at first. Not an all in massive theme. That could work. I can see a market fr smaller wave nostalgia properties ala BttF.

I think if anything it will fill the role of series 13. We will get 12 and the next regular series will jump to 14. But this will not carry a label for 13.