Faefrost

Wow! Just looking at those pictures is a learning experience. Well done sir or madam. well done!

He-Man? Fisto? Ram Man? Dear lord just look at Mekaneck (or however you spell it) through an adults eyes. Look at his head and what the action feature is. By the time the She-Ra show rolled around the creators had largely given up any pretense and were just seeing how many wink and nod jokes and references they could get away with. I remain astonished that the 80's and 90's era Conservative Christians never flagged on the literal animated pride parade that was He-Man. (I suspect for much the same reasons that they rocked along with the Village People in the 70's without ever seemingly figuring that out either... Y M C A!!!)

The problem is all of the pop culture things things that would and could drive Castle interest are almost exclusively very very adult properties. There is no sign of this stuff in kid friendly media. It's just hardcore adult focused modern tele drama, grimdark with wall to wall boobies and bits getting chopped off. How to Train Your Dragon is about the only kid friendly bright spot on the horizon. But I can't see Game of Thrones, Vikings or that Knights Templar show driving much kid level Lego interest. The last kid friendly property to really push that envelope was Lord of the Rings (we will not speak of The Hobbit movies. Nope nope nope! I'm not listening LALALALA! Remember we are driving kids to like and want the subject matter.)

Exactly. Another good example of where they slipped in some nice Steampunk into the kids frame of reference was Metalbeards Sea Cow. Similarly Benny's spaceship. Spaceship, SPACESHIP was a great re-interpretation of those classic Space theme designs updated into a form the kids could relate to. Our best hope is maybe some Castle love from the next Lego Movie. But even that is kind of iffy. It's not like we got much in the way of Western Themed sets from the last movie in spite of the prominence in the movie. Lego is remarkably good at introducing some old concepts and design stylings into their properties to introduce them to kids so long as there is a solid point of reference. Ideally a media tie in. Fantasy Era had one of the more intriguing runs of Castle. It evolved lots of interesting stuff via the changing villains. In many ways a precursor to the modern story themes.

Pretty much. Retail sets and THEMES are not now nor have the ever been targeted at AFOL's. At best we get a couple of D2C sets / year assuming they can find a predictable market for them. The Modular Building fans, the Train fans, the Star Wars fans, the Winter Village fans and the Technic fans are extremely predictable. Lego can predict who will buy what down to each buyers street address (aren't VIP cards wonderful). They know exactly who that market is, how much they spend/year and how to exploit it in a niche manner. Castle fans are about as predictable as cats I hate to say it. There is no common theme or unified collection to build upon annually. The weird annecdotal thing is any child that gets near my Lego room invariably gravitates toward the Castle stuff. The Girls especially love the knights and horses and such. But they don't buy it. They don't ask their parents for it. It's not what drives purchasing decisions. Hence we get Elves. Part wise I think the Classic Space builders got way more out of Nexo Knights than the CAstle guys did.

We will see Castles and Pirate ships going forward. But it will be a rare and nostalgic day when we will see them in a form anything like the glory days of Classic Castle and Pirates. The days of generic nameless red and green knights doing battle are sadly waning. Unless we see a return to more kid driven imaginative open play it will be more and more storified things with named characters and cartoonish plots and villains. We will see some knights and castles. But it will be awhile before we see a straight up Castle style retail theme in the classic format. How badly do you think Walmart or Target are clamoring for a new classic Castle theme after 2013? As a reminder the "Castle" TLM set was one of the biggest shelf warmers of that otherwise dynamite line for the retailers. All of this makes me sad, but facts are facts. Lego does not have 100% choice over what they make. The retailers have to want to sell it. Our best hope for a new Castle remains a D2C set as Lego never really gives up on their history. The other issue that Castle faces is it's one modern hook is it is a good entry point for Fantasy type stuff. ie Fantasy Era. But currently Lego has at least 2 lines on shelves that are tapping into that. Ninjago and Elves, with the third Nexo Knights just ending. While not exactly what anyone wanted they, all three are still sitting in that sweet spot that a Fantasy Era line would occupy. Unless Lego figures out a way to take a Castle based in theme in a completely new direction, we're not likely to see it as a theme. It's just the sad state of the economics.

Ninjago behaves more like an external IP License. It has an extensive media tie in. The purchasers are purchasing for the known named characters, not simply for the set. It's Like Batman or Star Wars just without having to pay somebody else for the IP. It's best described as an Internal License. The only other property Lego really achieved that with is Bionacle back in the day. Fabuland in some ways, but kids really weren't chasing character or story. It never really entered the pop culture zeitgeist needed to fuel such. And once they cross that pop culture threshold where the kids are chasing the IP it does orders of magnitude more sales. Which is why they try and recapture that success with Chima and Nexo Knights. One good test is whether a major third party would pay Lego for the use of the license. Bionacle and Ninjago crossed the threshold and function not unlike any other IP suppoprt TV shows, comics, t shirts etc fairly independent of the toy line itself. Yes other properties stem from the toy designs, but the same may be said of Transformers. (or Star Wars if you want to be cynical... of course look what we get when they don't think about toys when making the movies...).

If they do a Hotel it will almost certainly be a European style architecture. Similarly I think if we get a post office it will likely be of a British or Euro design. Very classical styling. A Police station I would bet would be that classic TV 30's/40's American style precinct house. Largely known from NYC with the steps out front and the globes on either side. There is one old Historic NYPD house that would be perfect as it has some striking colors. An orange brick with what are basically "Lego PD Blue" windows. A small school would be interesting and doable. But probably would come off as small due to the real need to include the obligatory bus.

That's gorgeous. I love the sign. Is it permanently lit or did you just poke in lights for pictures?

SOG Headquarters, Temple of Resurrection, everything else is 1 per I think.

Neither. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but both the 2013 Castle Line and the 2014 Pirates line did pretty poorly relative to the real estate they took up. We here savaged them because they were largely retreads of older themes and sets, whereas the kids just didn’t flock to them the way they do the Licensed stuff. (Ninjago is a Licensed line. Just one that Lego wholly owns. But it behaves as Licensed lines do.) The only way Castle returns as a theme is as they tried with Nexo Knights, as a fully marketable and cross platform story based media theme. Named color coded characters. Whacky villains and adventures. Unusual creatures and unrealistic contraptions. In short Fantasy Era but with equivalents to the Ninjago Ninja. And we just came off that exact thing with Nexo Knights. Let’s be honest herethose declaring “well Nexo Knights Failed! So they must go back to basics and do a more traditional Castle Line!” Are in all likelihood eating paint. TLG is not going to go, “Well Nexo Knights didn’t quite meet expectations so we ended it a wave early. So let’s retry the thing that really hit rock bottom 5 years ago!” Castle in it’s classic form is likely done as a regular Theme. We will still get some nice Castles and cool ideas, but they will be through some sort of Hybrid Story based theme. Remember Lord Vampyr’s Castle? That! The only way we will see our classic type Castle stuff in the near to mid future will probably be as a single D2C set. If that sells well then maybe a second, etc. (I honestly don’t know why they haven’t done this for Pirates, one ship a year seems a no brainer.) Of course what works against that is historical sales data. For all our praise Neither Medievel Market Village nor Kingdoms Joust flew off the shelves as D2C. It’s harsh. But it’s not just whether folks will buy Castle, but whether they will buy more Castle than whatever the other option for that shelf space is? Lego’s two finite components are factory time and square footage of retail shelf space. They have to maximize return on those.

It’s like when you look back at your old He-Man toys and cartoons, and suddenly realize what was REALLY going on there.

I think the Ninjago CMF series actually did a really good job of giving us some Batman'ish wackiness in the more classic yellow figures. Plus a ton of unique and interesting civilians. I'm loving the Batman runs just for the oddball stuff like the Wonder Twins, but they really don't fit my display well. And I'm someone that isn't as rabid about Lego racewars. (Lemonheads vs the Fleshies... TO THE DEATH!)

It's like a Furry convention in little plastic Lego form... Although that Cake piece looks fantastic. Just need to put a stripper leaping out of it for a near perfect "completely inappropriate" Lego display.

Really? It felt like almost twice that number of writers... in different rooms... who only communicated via post it notes. None of whom ever watched an episode of the TV series.

Lets be honest, the winner is Coco. Everybody has known for ages the winner will be Coco. So everything else listed is just padding based entirely on who shelled out enough money to get their piece of crap animated movie on the list for bragging and marketing rights. "OSCAR NOMINATED!!!" Warner or Lego probably didn't see the point of the spend.

A new full tv based Ninjago TV series would be great. My picks for a few highlights. Pink Suit Zane Dressed up Jay turning into snake Jay’s Mom/Lightning Master Young Garmadon And Wu Kai in Blacksmith Armor the students from Lloyd’s school for bad boys. Gayle Gossip the Tea Lady (I forget her name) Human Cyrus Borg w wheelchair civilian form Hands of Time Elemental Masters that we didn’t get yet, such as Cami. Scales Jr. Starfarer/Jays actor father Lloyd Green Ninja as a child (note this was an easy mod to make using the first green ninja spinner set and the CMF Leprecaun. But an official one would be nice.) Mailman with hat.

I’m mixed to ambivalent regarding NK passing on. The line had so many great parts, especially for a Classic Space fan or builder. But the story lore and characters never really grabbed me. And, as much as I hate to put it this way, the vehicles, especially the Knights vehicles, while seeming like nice well designed sets physically, felt like things an adult would think are clever and fun for a kid... without actually being clever and fun from the kids POV. Like the vehicles shaped like medieval weapons. Ninjago succeeded by finding that weird candy color coordinate point of maximum intersection in a kids mind. Hot rods and tanks and dragons and motorcycles and robots. Nexo Knights felt like it didn’t quite nail it. Not bad, but not surprised at a 3 year run. There were a few individual sets that I really liked. But whole swaths that I just skipped. Like the meh grey and purple bad guy stuff...

The Town Hall will be one of the harder, or more expensive Modulars to Bricklink, because it uses a huge amount of parts that were unique to that set in that Dark Orange color. Those dark orange profile bricks that go up the entire front facing really only came in that set. I don’t think there are many other good sources of the rest of the dark orange. Now if you change the color palett of the Town Hall it would greatly reduce its Bricklink cost.

Just from eyeballing it I think Ninjago actually outsells Batman? It’s actually fascinating watching the kids blow past Batman, Spider-Man and Star Wars to go straight for Ninjago. It’s like Sendai flavored heroin for the kiddies. Plus Lego own Ninjago outright. No licensing fees or third party approval needed. The buildings look about the same as Ninjago City. I think they are those same mini modular wedding cake style stacks. The left and right ones look to be about the same width as the Comic store portion of the tower. Maybe a bit bigger. The base plate is the same size as Assembly Square, so there’s some decent real estate there. The middle Right Hand Building looks to be Dareth’s Mojo Dojo. I think the center one might possibly be a Noodle House? Maybe Chen’s? Looking at it I am also drive by the urge to tile over the baseplate I have under the Temple of Airjitsu with those nice Trans medium blue and use it to extend the water scene.

It wouldn’t be shown at the Toy Fair. Toy Fair’s are to show and advertise product for retail buyers and partners. Ninjago City Docks is a D2C set. There is no reason Lego would ever need to show such off as there are no or few external purchasers to view it. Lego holds the D2C’s much closer to their chest. We will only see them days before release. Why give Lepin a head start on something that they only sell directly? Edit: hmmm? We actually have a picture. Looks... different.

Every “Modular”is Dwarfed by Town Hall except Ninjago City. (Yeah yeah where you put that one as a Modular consideration will vary. But it does have the pin connector points!)

The problem was those both would have been immediately disallowed at Review. The Saturn V Launch Tower was an add on for another set. Not really a stand alone product on its own. That’s an insta fail at review. The Shuttle was basically taking a set or subject they have already done multiple times and making it bigger or smaller. Not really much of an “Idea” there. And not something they would contemplate at Review.

meowthra was a symptom. The problem was Ninjago is a well established property that takes itself seriously and fully commits to its world and its characters, at least within the context and framework of the show and world. The Lego Ninjago movie goes full Deadpool fourth wall breaking and mocking the world it exists in. It's rather jarring and off putting. Yeah it kind of worked fro Lego Batman as that was a parody of the longstanding globally known character and IP. Ninjago needed to be played differently. These weren't rebooted or reimagined Ninjago characters. They were caricatures of the established characters and property. Parody only works when you know and are well familiar with what is being parodied. Otherwise it just looks like an Adam Sandler movie. It was just the wrong tone for the property and the movie suffered badly for it.

There is also an upcoming set 31084 Pirates Roller Coaster. Safe bet is that has some interesting parts. It seems to be the next Creator Amusement Park ride. 40307 Castle INterior Kit is a Disney Princess set that has a lot of pearl gold interior pieces that would be good to detail cabins. 70643 Ninjago Temple of Resurrection is a nice foreign and remote islans type set with a lot of exotic decorative parts Possibly some useful buildings in the new Harry Potter/ Fantastic Beasts line.