Faefrost

With all the arguing about Orc helmets, I have to wonder, wasn't the whole point that the Orc armor looks cruder, and more cobbled together and unique per piece? Yeah some helmets were vaguely similar as if hammered out en mass. But there was no attempt at making a uniform army or armor. The key for getting a group of orcs to look good to the eye isn't a matter of using any specific type of helmet, but rather to be mixing stuff up a bit. The spicier and cruder the better? And yes I realize that there were still on film differences between Uruk Hai armor and Mordor armor, etc. but if anything it is the Uruk Hai that should look a bit more the same as we saw that being made en mass. The Mordor stuff was much more varied in look.

I found the polybag Z 95 and Mandalorian Gauntlet at TRU today. Cute little ships.

There may be some technical limitations in the abilities to do some printing. Especially that little bit on the nose. The overhang from the brow probably prevents any machine printing in the pocket formed below it. The new scout seems a reasonable compromise to me. UCS as a designation has not actually been used by Lego in years. Nor has "Modular" in the case of what we consider the Modular buildings. Lego simply considers these more recent sets large detailed exclusive sets. It's we, the fans, that apply the "UCS" designation to sets that we find impressive enough these days. Lego doesn't consider the sets that you list anything other than exclusives.

My favorite is 8633 Agents Speedboat Rescue I mean just look at that. I don't think Lego has ever put out a more exciting and dynamic box front. Everything in motion! The dynamic rescue slide! The sharks with laser beams! That stunning back drop in the chopy windswept north sea. Just gorgeous!

This means that the series is sold out at the factory, not that it is sold out from the shelves. It means the entire production run has been committed to distribution orders received. This is not that uncommon with some short run/short life Lego products, such as the Ninjago Spinners or Chima Speedorz. It is why some Chima Speedorz were retired very quickly. It is doubtful that they will go back and do another run of series 10 as series 11 should be deeply in the production chain by now and will hit the streets faster then they could repop a run of series 10.

I actually like the car set better than this. It's a car that is meant to be picked up by Supes or Zod in order to hit the other. It's a very iconic comic superhero cliche and a good play element. While simple it has a coherent story. It invokes this movie, it invokes the classic Christopher Reeve Superman 2 and it invokes classic Golden and Silver Age comics. Simple, easy and effective. This set I still don't know what I am looking at. It may be a great or soon to be iconic scene, but this set isn't selling it as a still life.

Was re watching the whole series this weekend, and something hit me. Is Korki Obi Wan's son? It just dawned on me, the whole raised by his "aunt", seemingly most direct heir to the throne, and yet the only sibling to Satine's we ever hear of is Bo Katan, who seems too young to be Korki's mother. His apparent age seems to correspond to Obi Wan and Satine's relationship. Was heir some sort of hidden mirror to the Anakin / Padme relationship built into the story. One where his mentor took the other path? The stoic path of the Jedi?

Probably some sort of alternate world / dimension hoping thing involving the Krang.

I love he new Yoda and Dooku's figs. The set itself I am less e armored of. It's to big for he story it is trying to tell. It reminds me of the Goblin King set from The Hobbit line. It's a great scene, but could have been done just as well or better in a smaller set. Most of the set is simply pointless scenery and walls, with no real play or display value. They could have reduced the sets size and price by 1/3 to 1/2 and no one would have noticed a difference.

It's not like they shy too far from that in other sets. I mean they gave us Haldir in Helms Deep. There was a Jedi Duel scene between Darth Maul and Qui Gon Jin. (And perish the thought that the little tykes figure out who's skeleton that is holding the book in the Mine of Moiria set).

I like the Town Square. I'm not crazy about the crane, I think it feels a little off in terms of size and color palette from the rest of be set. But it's a nice crane and will be well at home in any City. The buildings are nice, distinctive, and amazingly, we are finally getting city buildings again. I mean besides the Fire station and Police stations.

It's not just you. I'm fairly knowledgable in the DC universe, and I honestly have no idea of what is supposed to going on in this scene. I mean what's the deal with the two ladders laying flat? Some weird consoles and a door? Even the "escape pod" seems strange. As you noted the Avengers Shield truck had a coherent story to it, even if you had never seen the movie. A kid could easily insert his own. Loki escaping with the cube in the truck, Iron Man chasing. Or some variant therein. The Superman Smallville set has a good story to it. The bad guys arrive in a spaceship, the Army and Supes fight them. But this one sorta lacks that. It doesn't sing its own story without knowing the movie. All it is is here's the good guy, here's the bad guy, and here's some stuff.

Really!?!!!! I mean really? Lego as a company is "disrespecting" those countries that for reasons of economics, sane managed business growth, and outright sound fiscal sanity it has not yet expanded to include a direct business presence in, and it views or treats them as " banana republics". Wow! And they treated Canada as a Banana Republic? Uh huh. I'm sorry but the mixture of shear economic ignorance with childish narcissistic demand in those statements is just staggering. Lego is a business. They move where and how the international logistics and production chain make it viable to do, at the volumes and costs that they need. The Lego brand stores are a small subset of their business which they are expanding cautiously in high volume areas and markets. A business cannot be everywhere at once. They have to grow and expand to reach that over a very long time. That growth is slow, and often requires certain infrastructures both local and in international transport, be in place beforehand. And there has to be an anticipation of a sufficient viable local demand. Not just one kid screaming "iwantitiwantitiwantit! Do not disrespect meh!" Like Cartman from South Park. Lego will eventually expand to places such as were Alarcin lives. It is a matter of natural business growth, not just desire. The same rules, barriers and frustrations apply to all companies when they seek to expand as international consumer products. Coke and Pepsi had the same limitations as Lego. As does Nike and a host of other well known brands. The growth follows conservative rules of ecomonics limited by how much they can afford to grow at a time. Nothing more, nothing less. As far as Lego in Canada. I suggest you go read some of Lego Historians wonderful threads covering said history and Samsonite. If so you may discover that Canada was one of the first countries that Lego rushed to get themselves into. And in doing so boxed themselves into contracts that limited them for decades until they were able to buy them back. Canada was the poster child for what happens if you rush to grow.

That's quite common in flat window pieces. A circular foggy area.

I figure we will see armored versions of Thorin, Fili, Kili and maybe Bilbo at some point. But remember Dwarves wear Mithril. So they will be printed on chain mail, not Breastplate accessories. Although those do seem to be the three dwarves using a hairpiece designed yo take something on the torso.

Close your eyes, and picture the sound of Selena Gomez's voice as Jaina. You know it's gonna happen.

Last year they started to show in parts of Europe in may, and the US in early June. It looks like they are on a similar schedule this year.

By all accounts it isn't so much Lucasfilm's that had an issue with the SW magnets. It was Hasbro, who holds the SW action figure license. And why would it be surprising that Warner Brothers has the most restrictive license? Just from looking at the various sets we can kind of surmise that Disney of all things has the least restrictive, with Lucasfilms and Nickelodeon falling somewhere in the middle. I don't think the blister pack Battle Packs sold particularly well? Or at a minimum the results were mixed. They blew out an awful lot of the AQ and PotC ones. And I think the Fantasy Era ones seemed to be mixed depending on what it was. Knights did well, Skellies etc poorly. Granted the recent Ninjago one seemed to sell out in days. But I think they have been getting better more predictable results with the Star Wars style, 4 figs, vehicle or build, impulse buy type sets.

ummm?!? I got some bad news for you kid... http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/screenplay_it_again_sam_u7YrxK2pRZ9DKmTCbEphWM

Does "Peter Jackson" count?

Not to try and bring reality into the discussion... Disney did not necessarily "cancel" TCW. TCW found itself in a tricky place when the sale of Lucasfilms to Disney occurred. TCW was then airing on a network of their new owners largest direct competitor. Common sense says that neither WB and CN nor Disney were thrilled with this arrangement. Worse is all this came about at a point where TCW's contract and orders were up for renewal at CN. Technically CN cancelled the show weeks ago, when it did not appear on their list of next seasons shows. Now what has everyone upset is they were expecting the show to be moved to Disney XD. But honestly we do not know the business decisions involved. We have jumped to the conclusion that it fell prey to some wholesale slah and burn on the part of Disney management, but this is not necessarily the case. Look at it from the perspective of Disney XD and the business case. It is likely that Disney XD has some degree of independent control over their own scheduling and budgeting. They as a business unit have a goal of bringing in a profit. Now how attractive would TCW look to them? On the Pro side, it was a popular and strongly rated show, based on Star Wars, that has a strong embedded viewer base. Cons however may tell us more. The show was in it's fifth season, and was based on a fairly tight block of time. The legitimate question of how much story was left was there. There are costs involved in taking over another networks show and relaunching it on your network. It takes a substantial marketing campaign. Is the show worth that when it may realistically only have one or two more seasons, and when while popular it may be past its prime ratings wise? Would not that money be better spent launching a new series that may have its own five year run? Especially when the shows in question would be the most expensive per episode shows on the network? (TCW while much cheaper than a live action SW show, was still $2 million an episode. Typical Disney channel fare does not come close to that. That's why they make those horrid tween sitcoms, they're cheap). That they kept TCW in production past CN's cancelation is a good indicator that they did strongly consider moving the show. But chances are Disney XD asked for the new show instead. Disney currently has Dave Filoni working on something Star Wars.

Diagon Alley ended HP, but I am not sure that all of these were planned so much as "end the theme" events as "wow we really like these huge sets lets do something special".

Are those pictures of the actual to be released set? Or are they of some bodies CuuSoo project? I thought there was supposed to be a Jedi Defender released this summer? Completely unrelated to the CuuSoo project. One they just had on the schedule? Set 75025, possibly one of the exclusives alongside set 75024 the HH-87 Starhopper?

To be fair, the last J J Abrams Star Trek movie (minus the lens flair) really was a better Star Wars movie than it was Star Trek. It lacked Treks cerebral vision and had a bit more of SWs swashbuckling adventure. And yes Star Wars is a swashbuckling type popcorn adventure movie. It draws its inspiration from old school classic serials, Erol Flynn type films, and more than a touch of westerns and samurai movies. They are actually fairly low end SciFi movies, but they are the best adventures ever put on film. Mixed with George Lucas's amazing ability to build and populate amazing living breathing worlds. His true gift that he does better than any before or since. SW at its best doesn't ask big questions (like a good Trek story does), it just runs with it... (And maybe worries a little bit about whether its ok to kiss your sister... Or sleep with the teenaged boy you used to babysit. Ok ok what few questions SW asks are kinda creepy).

Great job. The shaping in it is fantastic.