Faefrost

The problem isn't "exclusive figures". As companies such as Diamond have shown over the years, most of the fans understand and thrive on that. The problem, which is an unbelievably huge problem in the comic superhero lines, that Lego has failed to recognize, is "exclusive characters". These are very different concepts. Fans may be a bit disappointed that the only way to get the movie WW2 version of Captain America was a con or high E-Bay pricing. But tell them the only way they can get any fig of a beloved character is something that will really really insult the fans. It doesn't matter if the character is moderately obscure. Character exclusivity to trade shows is quite simply insulting to the actual paying customers. As I said this is something that the comic fans, who's medium is focused specifically on the characters themselves, more than any other Lego license, take seriously. Comic fans would be happy to see things like an 80's silver sphinx armor Iron Man. Or a street clothes Wolverine. They could have handed out any number of Batman or Robin variants. Comics fans thrive on variants and hard to find recolors. But start handing out a limited amount of exclusive characters? Yeah! That's not going to go over well in the market you are actually trying to sell into. To put this in perspective. Imagine what the Star Wars fans would do, if the only way to get an X Wing or Tie Fighter was to be lucky enough to win one at an expensive and exclusive trade show, or pay the guy that did an obscene amount of money on E Bay? That's what they just did here to the comic fans.

The solution would be to use the same "exclusive" show figures for the exclusive Lego.com/Lego store purchase bonuses on special days. This way there is at least an opportunity for the Lego fans to reasonably acquire them. I don't think they have ever encountered anything quite like the blowback that is starting to build over the exclusive 1000 each figs from this years show. The Comic and Superhero properties are a very different fan animal then even the Star Wars fans. The Star Wars fans while they like neat figures, don't get resentful of things like special chrome stormtroopers or Darth Vader. They can even forgive a rare shirtless Darth Maul. But tell the Comic Book fan "No Jean Grey for you unless you are one of the lucky chosen few!" Yeah! That's gonna cause some really bad feelings. At that point the marketing is doing far more harm then good.

I think we can scratch Star Trek off the list for awhile. It looks like Kree-O has it, and boy does it look awful.

Why oh why couldn't they have used that red hairpiece on Black Widow? And Bizarro's face print is fantastic. It's a shame pretty much none of us will ever see these outside of those pics or an obscenely priced E-Bay listing :cry_sad:

Figure we will get some AotC love. Plus of the 20, a few redone sets. My predictions New version of Bounty Hunter Pursuit. About the same size and scale as the more recent pod racing set. Acclimation class set on about the same style and scale as the Venator and ISD. Lots o clones. New Sandcrawler. Jawas AotC Lars residence set. Small to mid set. Anakin, Padme, Tusken Raiders, part of house. Speederbike. Tie Interceptor. We're due Mando Shuttle. Hopefully a Satine minifig. CW underwater set. Mon Cal? Use pieces from Atlantis, etc. shark dudes. small set. Zilo Beast Clone Tank, send in the clones. Starfighters, new A wing, Red CW Y Wing, CW Z 95 (doubtful given production time frames), fan blade Starfighter. Hounds Tooth with Trandosians Just my hopes

I think the LotR sets target a little older demographic then Lego's normal 6-12. More on the upper end of that and above. But even with that, action sequences do not necessarily mean violent sequences. Don't forget the whole "gently gently with the plates" sequence. Depending on how that is filmed it may be a stand out set piece. Besides remember to think of the LotR and Hobbit sets as less a brand new line, and more as slipping into that whole left by Harry Potter demographic wise. And some of the more stand out sets there weren't "action" or "violence" based. Heck the Burrow is considered one of the best.

Have we ever seen Republic Officers except for the Clone Wars animated series? And is there any difference in their uniforming from the later Imperial Officers?

There is some "exciting announcement" regarding Ninjago set for Sunday at Comic con.

Kotaku is reporting 20 new Star Wars sets are planned for 2013 release and they will be showing off the Rancor Pit on Saturday I'm looking at the Agents 8970 Robo Attack set sitting on the shelf in my office, clutching a poor minifig in its gripper claw, and thinking that probably looks about the right size for a properly done Rancor. I think whatever they do, it has to be well poseable.

Well said and I agree. A recolor, and alternate costume, etc is fine. A full character unique to just the show exclusive is just wrong and infuriating. (and I can't see where it ever benefits Lego financially to do those exclusives?) It's even worse when it is a rare or unusual character like Shazam or Bizarro. We could be reasonably certain that with a DC license we would see Superman. There is a very good chance we will see a GL in a set. He's one of the big 7 DC characters. But Shazam? I just can't picture us ever seeing a set that would include Shazam as an element? Which is really maddening.

You mean give aways? Word is two DC Superhero's. Shazam and Bizarro. Nothing about any Star Wars exclusives.

If you just want to sort of add to the theme yourself, a Witches House is real easy to cobble together yourself, without even really going so far as to MOC one together. The most recent Harry Potter Hagrids Hut (4738) makes a real good witches hut with a little dressing up. It already has the cauldron and a nice light brick in the fireplace. (It always sort of reminds me of Granny Weatherwax's house from Terry Pratchetts Diskworld books). Just dress it up a bit with some creepy stuff. Spiders, skellies, etc. The CMF Witch minifig, and there ya go. Granted it's not Gingerbread... (although you could probably cobble that together from one or two holiday sets). I'm just not sure what kind souped up car would be used against a Witch? Maybe something launching buckets of water?

I will be so thrilled if here is an old brass hat diver I think the trader will either be an old school fur trader/ Daniel Boone type frontiersman or a more middle eastern market seller, similar to some of the PoP figs.

The stuntman will have both a helmet and a hairpiece in the bag. Sometimes you can feel that.

Found one of these still on the shelf at a more rural TRU last week and treated myself. While I never had much interest in the World Racers line I really am a sucker for the huge overblown super trucks like the EDF HQ and the Agents Mobile HQ. This is a nice set with some impressive features (well except for the wildly out of place Bionacle/Technics cannon marble shooter thingy on the Blasters truck. But that's easily removed). The green buggy is awesome, and the red truck is a sweet little 4x4 excepting the gun. What really blew my mind, and something I hadn't seen mentioned yet. The helmets on the green team drivers aren't normal race helmets. They are the newer "Space" style helmets from the CMF Spaceman, Galaxy Girl and the Alien Conquest ADU figs. But these are in grey with the really cool custom printing on them.

One of the more common, easier to spot, types of pieces that is frequently made in china are some of the specialty minifig accessory pieces. Most often the head/hair pieces. This is especially true if it is an unusual piece with printing on it. Stuff like the elf or Orc hairpieces with the built in and printed ears. The Chinese factory they contract with is setup to work with those softer types of plastics that they use for the special minifig parts. These type parts don't require the insane level of precision that normal bricks do. So things like custom hair, shields, dinosaurs, etc. stuff that is not bricks connecting to other bricks. The one absolute giveaway is if any of the parts are in their own little bag. That's one of these.

I don't think there is any, or at least not very much, negativity around here concerning the model itself. It is a wonderful model. Yeah there are a few things that some might have wished were different. Mainly the canopy and maybe a minifig or two. (Yes, we're like crack addicts over the minifigs. Just accept it.) Really any negativity over this set seems to fall squarely on the price. This is a conversation we have been having over a lot of sets lately. But the Star Wars ones seem to be getting particularly bad for this. Big high priced sets normally come out with a very very reasonable price per piece. Often at or below 10c/piece. The forthcoming Huanted House is well over 2000 pieces for that same price as this. And is if anything a more detailed and fascinating model for it. The questions we have aren't if it is a good or worthy model. It's gorgeous. They did some amazing things with Lego to get those shapes just right. The question is the price vs the value. The designers did a superb job in making it. The Marketung and Accounting people, not so much.

This! No really This! Ultimately we, the dedicated Lego fans are almost worse for CuuSoo than the rabid fanboys. I said it somewhere above. The problem is dilution. The key thing in all of the projects that made it to the end (possibly excepting the "Dark Bucket" which I still can't comprehend the support base), is that they were marvelously polished and completed projects. They weren't just an idea plopped out on LDD and never worked through again. They were and are complete, fully documented projects. Good quality stuff that have a business case built into them. The fans of all types know and support quality, regardless of license or theme. Now the Rabid Fandoms have an advantage on CuuSoo. Concentration. There may only be 1 or a handful of projects that spark their interest. So they all go there. Whereas for the Lego fan... well CuuSoo is 210 pages at 18 projects per page. All of them projects targeted towards Lego fans. What then escalates this and further dilutes it is far too many of we Lego fans treat CuuSoo as some sort of "Show off my MOC" site, and not the serious business proposal site that it is meant to be. People will stick any old thing up there to get feedback or in the slightly lower than winning the lottery chance that it might get made. And while it is not readily apparent, using CuuSoo in that manner does harm everyone else. It's what pads out those 210 pages of projects to the point where most never get seen by human eyes. And being seen is the entire point of what it takes to get a really great project made.

I have my Bunny Suit Guy selling Ice Cream to children outside the Grand Emporium. It somehow makes for a much creepier scene then you would think?

They said the reviews take at a minimum 6-8 weeks, and that's without factoring in licensed properties. So we have awhile yet. I'm betting we will probably hear on the western town first as that is the only review project that isn't licensed, so doesn't have that extra whole complication. The good news is we haven't heard anything yet. While it takes 6-8+ weeks to fully review a project, the project can be rejected much faster than that in the initial business case review. (See Dark Bucket, Serenity, etc). So if we haven't heard anything yet, it means it hasn't been shot down outright.

Pretty much Surprise it's here. At best you might have a vague indication of "sometime in the month of..." As an example, the US knew they would get the new Star Wars sets somewhere between May and August. They just showed up today.

Amazon just released the Lego Batman Visual Guide with the Electro Suit Batman fig, for pre-order as of today. $20.

The Earth Defense HQ has been discontinued, so if you see one at a good price, snatch it up. It was one of last years absolute best sets. Far and away the best of the Alien Conquest line, and the best single "space" set in years. It's huge and loaded with features. Shelob Attacks is a brand new set, and will be around for at least a year. It's a much smaller set. It's a great huge spider nd 3 really good minifigs. Not bad, and a nice set for the price, but I think there is tons more fun, value and overall wow factor in the EDFHQ if you can get it at a good price.

Well yeah! For the gargantuan MF and ISD. The fighters vary wildly. And will often only cost a few hundred.

It's a nice looking ship. But at $200 USD? I think I am going to save that for a Haunted House instead. Looks like way better alue per $, and looks more fun.