Faefrost

Sea Captain - could be cool depending on what era we are talking. A Pirates era non Pirate captain would be great. A modern guy looking like the fisherman, less so. Sad Clown - more Joker goons are always good. Librarian - sadly not a Jocasta Nu fig. Grandpa - kinda like the Santa fig. Sweet, but you never need more than 1. Bumblebee Girl - I assume another customer fig? Could be cute. Probably a good use of fairy wings. Roman Commander - woot! Warrior Woman - double d woot! Hoping fore something Xena ish. Decorator - probably a painter like in the pet shop. A decent little city fig. Tomahawk Warrior - Native American with a Mohawk? Trendsetter - I think we have found this series turd. Baseball Fielder - blah! Recolor of previous player, with a glove this time. Revolution Soldier - now this sounds great. Hopefully generic enough to be a good army builder Motorcycle Mechanic - how will this be different from he previous mechanic? Maybe more tattoos? Medusa - we've asked for it for so long. Skydiver - we should get some interesting new parts from it. At least a new backpack. Paintball Player - weird. But probably their way to sneak in a soldier or hunter. I'm betting the printing will make it almost un MOC'able sadly.

Wow! Some of those look great, just from looking at them from the rear. And more varied Army builders then we normally get. Galaxy Patrol Alien. Anything in that armor is great. I'll take 2 dozen please. Chicken Suit Guy. Just looks fun. I am having images of a Invader Zim Chickenfoot MOC. Or the most demented Army builder fig we have ever been given. Cop. Bleach! Double Bleach. I don't even need to see the front. Cyclops. Ooh! He looks like a nice little fantasy or alien army builder. Might mix well with assorted trolls, orcs, goblins and Space Police villains. Multiples of him will not hurt. Battle Robot. I'll take a dozen with the extended warranty plan please, Tyvm. Army builder for sure. Fortune Teller. Could go either way. Looks like a nice fig, but not something desire able in vast quantities. I figure 2 or 3 will be useful. Judge. Looks like a cool looking piece with a great new hair mold. Lots of period uses. Not an army builder, but a few will be fun. Heroic Knight. ,!!!!! YES!!! True army builder. As many as I can get. Can anyone tell, does that look like the helm with the moving visor? Mermaid. Can always use a couple of those for Pirate and Fantasy and even MF stuff. Nothing bad there. Plus easy to pick out by feel so won't get too many. Dr. Splitz . Pretty much what we expected. A nice subtly little MF or Victorian fig. Plays well with the previous monsters and the detective. Probably don't need or want more than 1 or 2. Plumber. Kinda boring. But a few regular types never hurt. Skater. Yuck. Unless there is some phenomenal printing. This will probably the one I get unwanted dozens of. Caesar. From the back really really disappointing. Neat hairpiece, but otherwise Peter Pantsless. Hope he has some real good printing. Hollywood Starlet. Worth it for the new female hair. Otherwise meh. Waiter. Dull but useful. 2 or 3 could be good. Maid Marion. OMG at long last a female army builder. Overall looks like a great series. 5 full blown army builders. A few more where multiples would be appreciated and only three that look at first glance to be overly dull and useless. Of course all of this might change with front printing and accessories.

This may just be me being paranoid, but that whole arrangement just reeks of a really high potential for a drop ship scam.

Crazy question? I'm just curious how well known is the show or characters outside of the US and Canada? Did it have a deep penetration and following?

It was pretty much Hasbro that literally made GL's fortune. (He had given back all of his profits from the actual movies. All he kept for himself was the merchandising. Hasbro made more than SW itself.) It was those first 3 1/2" action figs that sparked the imaginations of millions of kids worldwide and has gotten them to pour out money hand over fist to get them. As long as Hasbro is still doing their usual superb job with the action figures lines, I can't see Disney doing a thing to mess with it.

I can see some uses for the Gandalf polybag. This way you can easily add him to a few scenes, such as Mines of Moria, without stripping him from another display piece. Plus have a few cheap lets you experiment a bit. Play mix and match to find a good choice for a "White Wizard". For these reasons it does seem a lot better than the Frodo bag. Which has a much harder time to use or even part out fig. At least there some of the detail pieces can be used to add detail to Bag end or flesh out a Shire moc. About the only good thing that can be said about the Frodo pre quest fig is that the triangle of skin at the top of his shirt is so oddly out of color that you could easily use the torso with the yellowheads. So a nice torso for Pirates, or Castle civilian, etc. Whereas the Elves and the Uruk Hai are just pure perfect army builders. Yeah they have some detail pieces. Mushrooms, Barrels etc. Who cares? Just gimme lots o the same figs to line up.

Theoden would definitely be in a Pelennor Fields set. (Theoden, Eowyn, Merry vs the Witch King on his Fel Beast). Haldir could possibly appear in a Lothlorien set (like the one in the easter egg of the LotR game). He may also appear in a future Hobbit set. We know that scenes in it feature Gandalf and Galadriel. So the forces of Lothlorien may come into play against the Necromancer. If you are concerned about age appropriateness for the Helms Deep or a LotR set for a younger child, try this out. Test the kid out by showing him the old old Rankin Bass animated version of the Hobbit. http://www.amazon.com/The-Hobbit-Original-Unedited-Animated/dp/B008ETVXQY/ref=sr_1_32?ie=UTF8&qid=1353915973&sr=8-32&keywords=The+Hobbit That should get him into the setting, while recognizing the Orcs and Goblins as more cartoony bad monsters. It may reduce the scary factor of the source materials somewhat. As far as Castles, we have actually had an incredible year for Castle fans. Helms Deep is one of the best castle sets Lego has ever put out. Just an amazing fun build. Almost entirely pure brick build and imaginative techniques. Some great, if subdued colors. Even if you are looking to use the more traditional Castle figs and factions, Helms Deep would make a superb Castle for the Green Dragon Knights, who I believe never did have a main base of their own. The Kingdoms Joust isn't a true Castle, but it is still a stunning and huge castle type scene. Plus incredible play value. The Vampires Castle is a bit on the Gothic Side. But is a gorgeous base to create a different sort of castle. Something a little creepy or scary. The default Vampire Castle is once again one of the best and most distinctive sets Lego has ever made. While not technically a Castle per se, the Medieval Market Village is in solid competition as the all time best Castle themed set, ever! Not to mention it comes up on list of all time best Lego sets ever. It's the town and people and animals for your knights to interact with. The Mill Village Raid also makes a nice add on for it. These sets would also be particularly appealing to a 4 year old as they come with a good amount of animals. Cows, Chickens, Goats, etc.

I think he plans to make it in the time margins. Lego almost never releases at the exact same schedule internationally. If we are seeing the Hobbit and Galaxy Squad here in the US, then it may be a few weeks before other areas of the world see them. Just as parts of Europe had the last SW wave months before the US. Bricklink and EBay are international. He is probably betting he can flip those overseas for twice what he paid to impatient Lego types. Personally I always think that sort of thing tends to be a fools errand. To swing back to the main topic, I lined up my score of elf archers alongside Haldir and Helms Deep. While by no means a perfect representation of the scene, the effect with the hooded bow wielding elves marching in is there. Not perfect (colors wrong, torsos/armor wrong, no helms), but still kinda gives you the general look. They may do as a stand in until something better comes along.

Found a bunch at TRU this afternoon. It's also worth noting that the polybags apparently count for the buy 1 get one 1/2 off sale going on today. So if you can get an even number they price drops to $3.75 each. Well worth it for bulking out an elf army.

That is awesome. Especially all of the hidden moving hatches and pop outs. The shower and fridge, the bed sliding out and the weapons bin by the door. Just perfect.

Hmmm? Perhaps the simplest way to convert it to a more traditional free standing castle would be to simply get 2 sets and attach them back to back, so you have a curved square outer wall with a center circular keep. Use the left side extension and possibly a few of the uruk Hai Army sets to create the side walls and a rear wall without the gate. Then just put a roof/top floor at the top of the center tower. Also looking at the colors already present in the set and the banners I can't help but think it would make a decent castle home for the Dragon Knights. They never did get a real castle.

I'm not sure if this is store specific, but my local Lego store (Discover Mills outside Atlanta) has a few deep in store discounts this weekend. The best is they have the 10223 Kingdoms Joust set with a 20% discount. (30% if your total purchase is over $150). Well worth the price.

As near as I can tell the code on Elronds bag just unlocks a Lego Desiner video about the making of the fig. I don't see anywhere to plug it into the game itself?

Would these even be a product sporting a unique identifier such as a serial number? And what would getting the batch numbers on the seals from someone else actually accomplish? The best law enforcement could do would be to work backwards from the batch numbers on the sets they recovered and see if they were distributed anywhere in your path of purchase. You going there with a claim of a match from some else who bought from Amazon is nothing.

I view the small contingent of Crownies I have as something akin to the City Watch. Not so much a faction themselves, but those tasked with preventing the open warfare in the town and city streets.

Freudian slip?

I like it! I hope this breaks 10k this week.

The minifig pics we have seen have been almost exclusively from boxed sets. TMNT, GS, Chima, etc. the Minifigs from the boxed sets are produced in the European factory's. Mainly Hungary and the Czech Republic. That seems to be where the leak is coming from. Whereas the CMF's are made in China. That factory does not seem to have leaked yet. (Note we also have not seen e-bay pics of some of the more specialized box set molds, such as the TMNT Krang brain thing and the Crash Bandicoot type villain. Which would also be coming from China.)

Aren't Orcrist and Glamdring pretty closely twins? I still think he easiest way to do those two swords, and a distinctive Sting is to simply use existing molds and cast them in the new Monster Fighters glow in the dark plastic. Now Anduril (and Narscil (sp?) deserves its own special mold.

In the US it's a Target store exclusive.

I thinking he Eagle Castle set may not be too much of a Nest. If just to keep it more differentiated from the forthcoming Hobbit Eagles Nest set.

Did Lego over produce white bricks? Don't get me wrong, I love the Hoth scenes. But I'm just saying that I think by this point we can each field more Snowspeeders than the Rebel forces were able to put in the air at Hoth.

It depends a lot on what you are looking to do with them. 2 MMV's are not that unusual. They have a pair of very nice buildings, that can easily be modified to make them just different enough to flesh out the town a little bigger. Plus it would double the size of your herds. 2+ Castles quite simply lets you make a bigger castle. Expand the walls. Fill in open walled spaces, etc. Helm's Deep is a great castle for this. I think I have 3 or 4 of the Alien Conquest EDF HQ sets. 1 built stock. The rest reworked and recombined to make a fleet of special purpose vehicles in the same basic design aesthetic. The Kingdoms Joust was pretty much made to be able to combine 2 into one larger set. Almost all of this assumes you have a permanent play or display space, not unlike the type used by a model railroader.

Someone seems to have a line on the new Minifigs coming straight out of the factory. We have seen a ton of Ones from upcoming releases like the Chima figs and some of the new SW ones showing up on e-bay lately. All down to a small number of sellers. I figure it is only a matter of time until TLG plugs that particular leak. Oh and just a thought for those considering buying the not yet released figs on e-bay? Think it through. If Lego has not released them yet, then chances are Lego did not in fact sell the figures. Unless they were specifically some sort of gifted demo figures (unlikely), the chances are greatest that they made their way out the back door of the factory. Which technically makes them stolen goods. Not something I would personally care to have linked back to me via PayPal or cc transactions.

Some of the DK books do it that way. The recent Ninjago book with the Green Kimono Ninja was a build it yourself type. The fig came disassembled in a round compartment. I think they do it that way when the included fig has accessories or unusual parts such as the pauldrons on the ninja. I think it also helps keep the secret. By making it a build it yourself fig they don't have to worry as much about the shape of it cut into the cover.