Faefrost

I wouldn't be quite so sure. Chris Tolkien is somewhere around 89 now, and neither he nor his family has ever shown an appreciation for money and the lifestyle that the old mans works bring. Their primary complaint with PJ's stuff is they don't feel that got a big enough up front piece of it. ("We were only paid $40,000 per book!!!! (oh yeah plus that percentage of the gross from some of the worlds most successful movies) BUT IT WAS ONLY A PITTANCE TO START!!!") I would not rule out the family coming to the conclusion that they really like a guaranteed revenue source.

Weird? I understand using an animated show to highlight some new characters and properties. But I just don't see why do it in this case? WB owns this stuff outright. There are no dueling licenses. As Bruce Timm proved in the 90's, you can have it both ways. Build the show on the foundation everyone expects, and still give some new characters room to shine. (Harley Quinn anyone). From a Lego perspective this saddens me because its probably the only chance we have of seeing a Rhas Al Gul minifig. And that just ain't right.

I love it. It perfectly captures the look and feel of a classic American school bus. That roof is just perfect. You can almost hear the children screaming and torturing a nerd.

I can understand why TLG would reject these. But they certainly weren't very clear as to their reasoning. Best guess goes something like this, and why it does revolve around sex, but not in a wink wink nudge nudge naughty sort of way. You see Matel can get away with breasts on Barbie, because Barbie has always had breasts. Lego Minifigs however have not. The day little junior pops open a new set and finds that all of his Minifigs have suddenly hit puberty! Well some questions are gonna be asked. And let's just say that that would not be the sort of educational experience parents were hoping for from Lego toys. The fact that all the figs shown in the demo seem to be standing around in lingerie really doesn't help. And let's be frank, as soon as Lego stumbled across the project idea of "Minifigs! But with BOOBS" their brains kind of shut down at that point. It might have been a brilliant idea. But it has already been carefully placed in the nut job filing cabinet, and a brief phone call made to the local FBI equivalents department of deviant weirdo's. as soon as the subject of putting "more realistic female breasts on minifigures" is brought up, it's all over.

Star Wars is and was an industry unto itself. LoTR's will be a much more finite license. Keep in mind that Lego does not have a license with the Tolkien Estate. They have it with WB/New Line. They can never expand beyond the precise things presented in those 6 movies. LotR will follow a similar product arc as Harry Potter. We probably have at most 5 to 7 years at the best case, and 3 to 5 years at the worst.

WooHoo! Progress!! OK OK I'm just excited because I finally got to do some major construction. (Sorry the pictures aren't great, just a quick shot from my work table) Not anywhere near finished yet, but taking shape enough to get a good feel for how my insane decisions look in real life. I really like how the red windows look on the dark flesh. But please if I ever get the idiotic idea to just randomly pick and match colors from LDD before actually figuring out just how unusual the pieces needed are, just shoot me. Getting the red and blue windows was an expensive chore. I'm actually hoping for a little feedback and advice tonight. I like how the have colors turned out. But I think I need to figure out a way to add a little more texture, particularly in a few areas of the second story. It just feels a bit flat in places. Also a suggestion for the minifig for the alcove. I used the Statue of Liberty originally because my working name for the store has been "Liberty Comics", but I am not sure if that's how I want to keep it? Finally I made it all this way and just realized I forgot to work out a street level scene to go with it? Since I haven't figured out how to do crime scene tape and a chalk outline in Lego yet, does anyone have any friendly suggestions or challenges?

Can't really compare since no one has their hands on the Theater yet. But yes the Pet Shop is quite good. It's a little smaller than most of the surrounding buildings (in size not scale). And it is essentially 6 smaller builds rather than the typical 3 larger ones. It has a lot of nice architecture and distinctive builds and tricks. And we can't forget the only toilet to be found in the Lego universe. (Expect a line). Overall I like it more than Town Hall, but not quite as much as GE. I love that it splits to two separate 16x32 buildings so it can be used to bulk out your city in lots of interesting ways.

Lego Harry Potter was one of the best selling Lego lines ever. It was one of the only 3 Lego lines that turned a profit in the dark days of 2003. But it still quickly disappeared when the movies ended. These type lines almost always only make great profits in years where a corresponding movies are released. Just look at the difference in sales between LotR and Hobbit sets. Notice how quickly Unexpected Gathering sells out? The same even held true for Star Wars. That at least has been buffered by the success of The Clone Wars TV show.

I'm putting my money on the life size Watto head that we see in that developer studio picture. I mean how could we ask for anything more?

This wins for best Freudian autocorrect

One thing I would do is to follow up on the idea sort of inadvertently created with 10228 the Haunted House and 10937 Arkham Assylum. More AFOL oriented tie ins to existing younger targeted product lines. Something that can be viewed as a big family build, that still ties back to the kids favorite subjects. Many more of the major lines should have a big upper end exclusive type tie in set. Something to bridge the old and young, and maybe reduce the period of Dark Ages.

I think the only change I would consider would be to add one more joint at the shoulders to allow the fig to spread or raise its arms to the side. That would accommodate most posing needs without compromising the look or style.

I don't know if this applies to Life of George, but I have heard rumors from a few software Dev friends, that. Lot of developers are really "slow walking" Windows 8 versions of existing apps and games because of some real dissatisfaction with Microsoft over back end issues and policies regarding the Windows App Store (or whatever they call it.) you know there is an issue when they describe Apple as an order of magnitude more friendly to work with. A lot of it stems from the draconian certification process and policies, and all of the harsh fees involved. The Dev's grudgingly tolerated it for XBL because of the Xbox's 10's of millions of users. But those same policies and harsh fees when the installed user base is only a few hundred thousand? Yeah they're not rushing to be first in line for that. ( one friend quoted me that some of those fees can be $40,000, when the max potential customers was maybe 250,000 assuming every Windows Tablet user bought it. Not good math at all.)

Actually that is sort of the problem with the Palace Theater. The outside is great for the most part. What few flaws there are would have been easily fixed by making it a straight front building instead of a corner. But they are obviously going after the look and feel of an American movie theater from Hollywoods golden age. There were quite a few details found in those back then that are not found in modern ones. The big one being a balcony with seating. Also the interior of the heater portion should be a tad more ornate. Draperies and hangings, maybe a few of those lion head castle bricks. House lighting along the walls. The single projector in the viewing room went away during the days of Edison, along with the guy who turned the handle. This thing is called the PALACE Theatr. They took that kind of statement seriously when decorating. Most of this is easily self fixable, it is Lego after all. Looking at the model I am left with the following impressions. The designer decided to make it an American or more specifically California type Golden Age Theater. The designer had probably never seen one in person so was working mostly off pictures. Somewhere along the research line they failed to make the distinction between "pictures of old style theaters" and "pictures of theaters in the actual old days". A good tip off to this is the box office style and location. That type of box office was put in place in most of these buildings in the 1970's, to handle the larger crowds and lines from the new Summer Blockbusters like Jaws and Star Wars. Prior to that the box office was a smaller booth, either the classic free standing one in the entrance or just to one side in the foyer. Overall it leaves a very disjointed feel, that I think is part of what is putting some people off. We have a 30's - 40's era building and frontage, with a 70's era side and box office, and a 1910-20's era viewing hall. (With a 50-60's era limo out front.) if you have ever messed around with Model Railroading, avoiding this subtle dissonance is one of he first real good tricks you can learn. The eye sees details, the brain however sees time. Avoiding the Doctor Who time dilation effect is what makes the difference between a model and a toy. Now granted Lego is in fact a toy. But we have been spoiled because each of the previous Modulars, whether by accident or intent of design, was each individually very well founded in a specific feel of time. Is this making any sense?

Maybe the New CMF judge as a base figure with the robes. The traditional staff should be easy to make. A pearl gold 4bar ad lightsaber hilt from Ninjago, and the gold CMF pirate hand hook stuck in the top to make a shepards crook. The hat will be the tricky part.

There are a few custom shops on the Internet that will print you a few sheets of your own custom decals at reasonable prices. They typically use Alps printers. They are mainly targeted at the plastic modeler and model railroading crowd, and usually do water slide decals. You may be able to get them to do stickers. If not chances are water slide decals would work better for what you are seeking to do, if you are comfortable using them. The big problem with inkjet printers is the ink is translucent. It is expected to be printed onto a white background. They cannot print white, as white for an inkjet is simply "no ink". Alps type printers are the only common ones that print opaque, and can do white, metallics, etc. the problem is while great specialty printers, they tried to sell and market them as standard business / home use ones and failed. Right now here is a large market for legacy Alps printers among hobbyists and garage shop type specialty vendors. They have also started making new ones but they are targeted at specialty uses and are several thousand dollars.

I think she is better viewed as a Fantasy type piece rather than a Historical. She falls into that same general category as the expected Conan type Barbarian fig possibly in series 11?

It looks good. Just keep an eye on the neck when you seek to build it in actual brick. The one great pitfall off LDD is it does not calculate for strength, weight or gravity. Much like the classic AMT plastic models, the Lego neck will have issues supporting the saucer unless you use some re in forcement.

Oooo! That's fun to think on. Marvel has a few settings that would make for nice big exclusive sets. 1. The Helicarrier, probably the most likely. Think a cross between the SSD and the Death Star. 2. Avengers Mansion, something along the lines of the Haunted Mansion, but with a Jarvis fig! 3. Baxter Building, a long shot given licensing, sadly. 4. Dr. Stranges Greenwich Village House. Now that would be a cool building to sit amongst the Modulars and Haunted House.

A Zelda theme would probably do reasonably well. (Although not completely guaranteed. What is the actual sell through of Zelda games? Considering there is no other related media such as a TV show also driving the property? A look at MegaBloks Halo sales numbers would be interesting in this regard.) a single Zelda CuuSoo project probably less so. CuuSoo is not a mass market retail shelf line. If they are not putting it on the shelves at WalMart and Toys R Us, chances are it will not be getting new unique tooling. And this seems to hold across the line, even among some top selling D2C releases. Have any of the Direct Lego exclusives had new tooling made specifically for them? I know one of the goals of the Modular buildings is the use of existing parts and molds. Joust didn't use anything new. Winter Village is all existing molds. Imperial Flagship was all existing parts just in new colors. Etc. while I think there was a new structural part in the B Wing, it was obviously something that they plan to use elsewhere, so was amortized across multiple sets and themes. The root problem with any CuuSoo Zelda project is a lowball estimate of the tooling costs is probably between $400,000 to $500,000 USD. Compare that to Minecraft, or the Curiousity Rover, which have $0 in new tooling costs.

I am just fearful that they have certain minimal standards for stability and play, that they will insist on for any product bearing Lego. Much like their standards regarding age appropriate content and source material.

Wow! There are so many neat little builds and unbelievably cool and oddball parts usage there. I love it. Too many to list. The Moose! The Bagpipers kilt as a tablecloth. R2D2 as a potbellied stove! Just too cool.

I don't know that "bridge theme" or "Pirates or Castle Jr" is the correct term yet. But the new Castle theme is definitely targeted younger than at least some of the previous Kingdoms line was. You do not see anything along the lines of Kingdoms Joust, MMV or Mill Village Raid. One of the Lego store managers basically indicated that yes they are figuring that LotR's is more geared for the older kids and AFOL's, they want something to catch the newer fans as they leave Duplo and bring them up into System. Pirates may be in an even weirder place for this. Did I read somewhere that Lego will be producing "Jake and the Pirates" Duplo sets under the Disney license? If so the question becomes do they then want a bridge theme to feed off of that, or would they prefer not to have any in house Pirates competing with the Duplo theme for the younger kids?

That is wonderful. I love the effect that you got with the stained glass window and the cross. And so many amazing details.

Probably non existent. By all accounts those are CS's replacement parts stock in order to make good on damaged or defective parts to the purchasers of those sets. They will not wish to be depleting those on the open market or allowing parts poaching to buy from them in order to flip hem on the aftermarket. If you are polite they will probably be willing to sell or send out a small number of them for a special project (probably low single digits), but there is no way any CS manager with any brains would permit bulk orders out of his replacement stock.