Faefrost

In this case it is more like the Answertron 6000 automated robot telling you "we can still be friends", which is a whole different level of kink.

The "do not use a Lego Logo to in any way mock up or imply an official looking set" has been a hard rule since CuuSoo began. You used to be able to do a fake box so long as you kept the logo off of it. They more recently did away with fake boxes entirely. They don't want fan project proposals getting confused with actual sets. I'm kind of amazed that picture did not get deleted.

The problem is you can't exclude the U.S. Hub if you want to properly look or compare the two products or product lines. Yes they look to have some parity in Europe. But that is where the LoTR line is strongest, and also where Star Wars sales are weakest worldwide. Whereas over in the high volume high margin US Market Star Wars remains a license to print money and LotRs/The Hobbit is largely driven from toy shelves. So the actual overall numbers are probably very different than what just the Euro numbers imply in isolation.

Please don't go there. That massive overblown LDD Helicarrier project was put up a few months back. It takes 2 full years to bring a large licensed set such as the UCS Helicarrier to market. Both the Helicarrier and the Tumbler would have been in production long before the 10k Ideas projects were ever posted. Both are core subjects of the pre -existing licenses. This means they were already on the licensing groups "to do list". This is a large part of why they say that Pre-Existing Licenses will have additional complications that make them more likely to not pass at review.

A well earned congratulations to the Marble Maze. It has long stood out as an "outside the box" project that seemed to both be astonishingly obvious and simple. Yet at the same time a complex and fascinating build, with a ton of bundled in educational value. The Star Citizen ship I don't know what to make of? I suspect they just don't have all the licensing info back with which to make a final decision? While a nice space fighter, i can't see it having huge draw? It's a niche game with very limited market penetration. Is it even in formal release yet?

The clutch power has nothing to do with where the product was made. Nor is it a sign of diminishing QC or product Quality. Lego has talked about this many many times. The reduction in clutch power of newer pieces over older "classic" parts is by design. They are constantly adjusting and fine tuning clutch as they replace molds. One concern was the older parts had too strong of a clutch power, especially over time. This was making it extremely difficult for children in the 6-12 age group to take Lego pieces apart. Lego is designed as a " System". What that means is every piece must consistently connect to every other, and every piece must consistently seperate from any other using a specific amount of force. Change is not always a marker of Quality, good or bad. In this case it was deliberate engineering to make a better product for the core audience and consumer. As far as China. Lego is building or by now has built their own factory in China, in order to facilitate sales into the Asian market, particularly China. This is not a contracted supplier running bootlegs out the back door. This is Lego's own factory. Built and managed by Lego. Chinese production uses molds and tooling produced by Lego Denmark. The quality claims regarding the CMF legs being loose? It simply means that the Chinese factory is using a different set of leg tooling than the European factory. A mold set that was tuned to have slightly less tension on the legs and hips. About the only true quality concerns regarding China come from plastic and color quality. Because China requires that plastics and color dyes be locally sourced, neither the plastics nor the color dyes Lego uses in China will 100% match the formulations they receive from Europe. This does not mean that the Chinese plastic is immediately "cheap" or "garbage". It may and typically will have exactly the same specs and properties of the Euro sourced materials. It just is not 100% perfectly matched. And before the purists start screaming, Lego runs into the same issue with North American sourced plastics.

It's a store exclusive promotional item. Much like Rocket Racoon and the Brown Ninja.

Because they cannot factor dimensions into product planning for Ideas. Remember Dimensions likely carries its own licensing. New molds are purchased via business loans made against the projected use of the part. They cannot project it onto another license without a license contract clearly in hand. And if it is a pre existing contract it gets very complex. They will not create a part for Ideas even if they think they can use it elsewhere. The best ideas can hope for is that another line creates a part that they can use.

It was very clear why the original Portal set failed. It required new construction elements to form the portal gun and Turrets. This was before the no new parts rule. In fact it is likely the ultimate reason for the no new parts rule. TLG took extra time with the portals set examining the possibility of the new parts in what looked to be a quite detailed way. The conclusion, that they could never amortize new parts at the distribution numbers of Ideas projects. They clearly liked the Portal proposal. But it was economically impossible, and it gave them enough data to realize that any new parts in Ideas would not be possible. But Lego Dimensions has a very different business model than ideas. It looks to be closer to CMF's, which can easily absorb 30-40% of the price of the product on a new part, such high numbers are produced. So that allowed them to make the Portal gun and do the Lego Dimensions a Portal set. Ideas sets are produced in lots of 20,000 up to maybe 100,000 for the well selling items. CMF's and likely LD's are produced in lots of hundreds of thousands up through more than a million. Plus they are full retail products that likely have the highest margin return vs shelf space consumed. New parts are all about the math. Can we sell enough of this product at a high enough margin to absorb the costs of the new tooling.

I think it will be slim to none, and anyone leaking them will be hunted down and skinned. There are hard street dates and there are HARD STREET DATES. TFA is the later. Disney/Lucasfilms will brook no early spoils from license partners.

Amazingly Lego Dimensions has created an opening for some not yet done characters. Based on the revealed pictures we get an idea of what the ideas sets will look like. Say a mixture of CMF's and SW Microfighters. But here's the key thing. We have seen some new character parts in the pics, such as the Portal Gun. add to this that LotR's is pretty much a sausage fest, so to broaden the fan base they may seek to include some female characters in the game from all major franchises, and I would think we have a good shot at Eowyn showing up there. The Witch King too. Faramir sadly not so much as he is a bit obscure for the gaming fans.

The only helmeted Cap I want is the Toy Story Army Men mold in blue, with an A for a WW2 Cap.

Wow toughest list to predict yet. While I don't discount the possibility of nothing passing, there are a few that may make the cut if iDeas is willing to stretch towards their upper end of size. 1. Daft Punk - unlikely.a little too niche without good brand crossover. 2, Small Yellow - I'm mixed on this one. I really don't think a ton of people want one. But Lego's political relationship with famed legit Lego artist Nathan Sawata may make this a no brainer from a marketing and pr standpoint. I'll go with a likely yes. 3. Disk world - in a less crowded field a strong possibility, especially given Sir Terry's recent death. In this pack, it gets shoved somewhere in the middle and doesn't make the cut. 4. Science Adventures - been there, done that 5. Medieval Market Street - it's a MOC not a set. A gorgeous MOC, but too much in every way to see retail production. 6. Frozen - immediately rejected. Lego has already released a similar product under license. It does not matter which is "better". 7. Douglas DC3 - as much as I want this, I think it loses the impact without chrome. And costs of chrome or silver parts will blow it out of budget. Rejected after lots of analysis. 8. Brick TRex - immediate fail, license conflict with Jurassic World. This one is all about Universal. Lego will have no choice. 9. International Space Station - Lego has released several ISS models. They generally don't approve new versions of old sets underrated Ideas. I think this one fails review. 10. The Golden Girls - complete and utter wild card. I don't see why Lego would make this? But there seems to be a lot of organic broad support. 11. The Kegend of Zelda - sigh! Just put it over in the corner on the pile with the others. In a slow cycle it would have nearly no chance. In a pack this crowded? It gets rejected faster than Frozen. The previous 3 or is it 4? Zelda projects failed in the initial business case review. The reasons for those failures have not changed. 12. RMS Titanic - fail. Doomed ship with catastrophic loss of life is not what one normally thinks of as a brand fit for Lego. They won't do this for the same reasons they don't do Navy ships. 13. 1969 Corvette - probably the best all around project on the list. The one that hits the best broadest notes. Only downside is size. This is the one most likely to surprise us and come out on top.

LotR is a WB property. Much the same as Batman. LegoDimensions is being developed in partnership with WB as a vehicle for their characters to go up against Skylanders and Disney Unlimited. So Gandalf Gollum etc is in Lego Dimensions because WB wishes it so. Much the same as how it worked with The Lego Movie. if anything the use of LotR characters in Lego Dmensions may reduce the chances of us seeing any nice large LotR sets.

I don't know? Clone Wars was pretty brutal. And Disney has been pushing for DisneyXD to be a little more edgy if you will. More teen targeted. Heck they just picked up the earlier Dr. Who seasons.

I am pretty sure that all they are looking for at 1k and 5k is that there are no known external license conflicts. They do not evaluate internal conflicts until review. Ultimately this will all depend on the license and the licensor. It's likely Lego will not actually have that much final say. If the licensor wants original film JP merchandise on shelves alongside JW stuff then they will go for it. If they don't then they won't. And that will all depend on a lot of back room things that we are not privy to. Just for example it is very likely that those that profit from merchandising from JW are not necessarily the same as those that do so from JP. In such a case it might be that the JW license owners will deny JP as a conflicting license. Notice how much JW seems setup to be independently merchandised from JP. Differing colors and iconography. The JW name itself etc. yeah it may just be for story, but license and rights reasons also seem very possible. Movie related licenses have very strict street dates about when the licensee can talk or advertise or risk spoiling things. Chances are Lego is bound to a very rigid schedule for reveals and listings, and it is completely out of their control.

I love Pirate ships. And yet I have not been able to work up the enthusiasm to get this one yet. I have BBB on my shelf alongside the PotC ships, the Viking and Troll ships, the LotR ship and even the Ninjago ship. They each stand out and look distinct. This doesn't. It's going to get my wife asking "why do you have 2 of the same?" Which is never a comfortable line of inquiry as it leads to "why do you need two of the same?" So for the first time in forever I might ship a ship...

In this case he would lose instantly. Lego is a registered trademark and they have a clearly established legal history and a publicly stated policy of aggressively protecting it including not allowing their trademark to be used in domain names. You will note that the name of this site is "Eurobricks" not "EuroLego" or similar. Most fan sites are named "brick" because "Lego" is not permitted. The bigger question is not so much the legality of what he did so much as the unethical nature of it as a working journalist. Polygon is kind of notorious for ethical violations and unprofessional behavior these days. At least in their core video gaming market. They are second only to Kotaku for bad behavior. Why they did not register it? These days many companies will not as the act of registering it is a spoiler or product announcement since registration is public. There was no risk for TLG in waiting as the name was part of a registered trademark, which a third party is not supposed to be able to register. It's not the lawless days of the early 90's anymore. While yes you can Cybersquat if you discover the name of a new movie or game. You can only do it if it doesn't incorporate someone's already in effect trademark or registered international business name. The more unique and better known the trademark the more enforceable it is. (Yes most registrars will let you do the registration, but challenging it often takes less than a day these days.)

It's not so much an issue of health codes etc. remember American Girl Doll stores operate with an attached cafe. Often in the same ?Malls as Lego stores. I think the issue is more one of business model and target audience. AG can pull it off because they can roll it into the experience of buying the extra special "looks just like me" American Girl doll, where the child gets to do a tea party type thing with their new doll. Whereas there isn't really much crossover between eating and Lego's. In fact TLG would likely prefer that we don't teach kids to associate food with their product. And what sort of cafe would you attach to a Lego store? The typical target audience of Lego is the Micky Dees and Chuck E Cheese crowd. Ie the sort of eatery that has parents wanting to kill themselves the moment they set foot in it.

That is fantastic! Does it turn into a giant Leonard Nimoy robot that wants to destroy us all?

Timing. He will have a big role in Infinity Wars or whatever they are calling Avengers 3 and 4. They got him back too late in production to do much more than some brief stuff in Civil War. I still would not rule him out for the AOU or Ant Man end credits scene. They never really talk about those. Kevin Feige when he announced Spider-man in the MCU. I think he said the earliest they could expect to work him in might be Civil War, but he would be fully in Avengers 3

This is a known issue. The President of Marvel and the President of the Fox Movie division LOATHE each other. They got into it over something regarding the merchandising and some changes to the FF contract. (Rumor is in order to extend Fox's Daredevil license Marvel wanted back a few of the FF's cosmic villains in order to do the Annihilation story with GotG. Fox's reply was shall we say undiplomatic.) At this point Marvel has taken the stand to not permit any merchandising on any Fox controlled properties that are not X-Men. For X-Men they veto any merchandising that even hints at being close to the movies. At least while any such merchandising would support any Fox movie. They cancelled the FF books. Killed off Wolverine and are killing off Deadpool next. Lego has no say in this feud. The license holder has absolute veto over the licensed merchandise. Marvel has informed all partners that they are exercising this Veto with regard to the FF. they are really not happy with this FF movie.

It's not a spoiler when they put it out there on the marketing materials, right? I mean unless the season poster is the tease from hell... oh heck just to be safe

It's a fair compromise, and one that we speculated last year should have been bundled in from the start. Projects gaining solid traction gain more time while those going nowhere fall away. Good job to them for keeping it clean and simple.

In North America the Confederate Battle Flag is viewed in some quarters as a symbol of racism and racial hatred against the black population. While the truth of the feeling is debatable from a historical perspective. (Many Americans did fight and die under that banner) the nature of what some take as its meaning these days tends to make it unwelcome in polite company and businesses will pretty much avoid it. It wasn't so much the history of the flag as a battle standard of the Confederacy during the US Civil War that branded it as horrifically un pc. It was actually much later during the US Civil Rights Era, when most States in the then "Jim Crow" South added it to their State Flags as a protest against Federal Civil Rights laws. The Flag became something of a rallying banner for groups such as the Ku Klux Clan as well. So in at least the US it has taken on some of the same sort of baggage and meaning as the Swastika. (and we should probably remind ourselves before the Nazi's used it the Swastika was simply a Hindu symbol referencing the ever cyclical nature of the seasons and life. Not exactly anything hateful or abominable.)